For Rob Zombie [ tickets ]'s new album, "The Sinister Urge," the horror-happy rocker teamed with an eclectic bunch of guests, including Kerry King of Slayer, Tommy Lee, Ozzy Osbourne, Mixmaster Mike, DJ Lethal of Limp Bizkit and a 30-piece orchestra.

Zombie's musical career started in 1985 with the formation of the horror-obsessed hard rock band White Zombie. Besides being that group's frontman and principal songwriter, he also created the band's visual image, designing its album art, T-shirts, stage shows and music videos. The band's major label debut, "La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1," was released in 1991, and went on to sell two million copies.

White Zombie disbanded after the release of Zombie's first solo album, 1998's "Hellbilly Deluxe."

In April 2000, production wrapped on "House of 1000 Corpses," a film Zombie wrote and directed for Universal Studios. The finished product was deemed "too dark and disturbing" for release by Universal, but another distributor is being sought.

LiveDaily caught up with Rob Zombie--who is currently touring with Ozzy Osbourne--to talk about the new album, the movie and his idea of what makes a great record.

LiveDaily: I noticed you worked with a lot of guests on the album--everything from Kerry King guitar parts to a 30-piece orchestra--and I got the sense you were trying to challenge your own idea of what a Rob Zombie song should sound like.

Rob Zombie: Yeah. I mean, with every record, you try to challenge yourself so you just don’t make the same record over and over. A lot of these people are just my friends. I met Kerry King when we toured together on the Ozzfest, and we were always like, "Oh, we should do something." And I [also] worked with Tommy Lee and just different people I was friends with. It’s always fun to have your friends play.

With the horn section and string sections, it was a matter of wanting to make a bigger and better record than ever before. On the other records, there’s voices and strings, but it’s all sampled and computerized and put together. I really wanted to do it live and for real.

How did you work with the guest artists? Do you give them carte blanche?

It was different person for person. For Kerry King, the song already had a guitar track on it. He came in and just played the same part. It wasn’t until he did the solo that you could hear obviously that it was him. I gave him full freedom [on the solo], because what would be the point of telling him what to do? I wanted it to sound like it was him.

Same thing with everybody--the part is basically there, you just want them to play it in their style. That’s the whole point of it. With something more complicated--like the horn section or the string section--the horn part [was mocked up] with synthesized horns, and we had them recreate it, and basically the same thing with the strings. We got a string arranger to just go crazy.

I thought it was interesting that you and Ozzy trade verses on the song "Iron Head." Was that something you wrote together or was that song written with Ozzy in mind?

Basically I sang the whole song, he sang the whole song, and then I cut it together. He’s hilarious. He’s just a funny guy, funny sense of humor. If you’ve ever seen him an interview, that’s how he is. No character. Ozzy is Ozzy.

A lot of the songs, like "Sinners Inc" and "Demon Speeding," have short interludes or introductions. Where do you get the ideas for those?

A lot of times, those pieces are other songs that we never finish, and we just kind of turn them into weird intros. I think those things help the album have a real mood. It doesn’t just seem like they’re slamming from one song to the next, to the next, to the next.

Yeah, I felt like a lot of times they were effective segues. I was impressed because they were so short, but they kind of shove you into the next song.

Yeah, my big thing on this record [was that] I was trying to make an album. Because I used to love albums. I’d listen to them from start to finish. Now I think a lot of records are not made as albums, because people throw remixes on there and all kinds of stuff and it doesn’t really function as a start-to-finish listening experience. Also, records are so long. It’s really hard to sit down and say, "OK, I’m going to listen to this record for 75 minutes." You just don’t. Everybody I know says the same thing.

I really wanted [the album to be an] experience where you can put it on and listen all the way through to the end. And every once in a while, I felt like we need a little interlude here to let the mood of the last song finish before the next one kicks in. I just wanted it from where it starts to where it ends, to have gone some place. A lot of records seem like there’s one thing it does and it’s going to do that for the next hour. You’re not going to go anywhere. The records I like are more of a journey. [Alice Cooper's] "Welcome to My Nightmare," when it jumps from "The Black Widow" and then two songs later, "Only Women Bleed." You never expect what’s coming.

I’m curious about the song ‘House of 1000 Corpses.’ How does it relate to the movie you made of the same name?

It would be the theme song for the movie, probably in the credit sequence. It’s sort of related, it relates to things that take place within the film.

Was making movies and music always part of your overall vision?

Yeah, I always wanted to do both. The two things I love. Making movies is far more difficult and a thousand times more work. When you’re making music, you’re making music. Music is one tiny element of a movie.

There’s no comparison. It’s a similar process, the creative process, but making a movie, is way harder. A movie takes hundreds of people to pull together, whereas a record you can do with one or two people. You don’t need a crew of hundreds of people to make a record.

How does it feel in comparison to a movie? Do you feel you’re able to bring a vision forward as effectively?

With a movie you have a script, a shooting schedule, you have everything exactly how it has to be, and you have to attack it like a real plan. Whereas a record can be looser. [With my music], I like to let it flow. I don’t like to have a really strong pre-conceived idea of what I’m trying to do. Because sometimes you box yourself into a corner. Something better might happen, but you have this idea of what something has to be, and you hurt the creative process doing that.

In terms of this record, did you have a set schedule when you were recording?

I try to have a set schedule somewhat, but it’s really hard because [if I] think I’ll be done by June, I’ll be done by July. It’s hard to tell how long it’s going to take. How long is it going to take you to write a song, you know? You try to have some kind of time frame, but it’s hard to stick to it. I usually like to work from [11 a.m. to 7 p.m.] or something like that. I find after a certain amount of hours, about eight hours I just get burnt out. A lot of people like to work all night, work endlessly, but I find I get tired, I get punchy and I start making bad decisions. I’d rather come in the next day energized than just beat myself up all day long.

Were you surprised Universal waited so long to pull the plug on the movie?

It’s kind of surprising, because it seems as if they could have figured out all these things earlier. I’m glad they waited that long. The movie is now done. That’s part of the mystery. I didn’t really vary from the script. They saw the dailies. They saw the rough cuts.

Do you own the rights?

No. Universal owns it. I don’t own anything.

From what I’ve read of it, it doesn’t sound particularly more gory than ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’ or some of these other films. Is it a particularly gory film?

I don’t think so. That certainly wasn’t my intention. My intention was to make what I thought was a very ‘70s-style exploitation film. I don’t think it’s overly gory or violent. I mean, it’s a horror movie, so of course it is, but it’s in the realm of what it is. I don’t know. Who the hell knows?

It’s not the kind of thing you could make a few quick cuts and have everyone be happy and still maintain the integrity of the film?

According to Universal, they said it was the overall nihilistic tone of the whole film. I don’t know how you edit that out.

It was kind of a similar problem years ago with that film ‘Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.’ They didn’t know what to cut. It kept getting slammed for it’s overall tone. I don’t know. Things are different now in movies. I don’t think "Jaws" would be rated PG anymore. It would be PG-13 or R. Things are just harsher now.

Yeah, it seems like Sen. Joe Lieberman really turned the heat up last summer.

I remember he was on the cover of the Hollywood Reporter every day. I would see it as I was walking to the editing bay. And eventually it ate us. Also too, Universal is a weird company, because they’re not just a film studio. They’re a theme park. They’re so big, it’s like Disney, where they are big family entertainment. And they just didn’t want to deal with it on any level.