Rob Zombie [ tickets ] has a lot to celebrate these days. His horror film "The Devil's Rejects," the follow-up to his 2003 effort "House of 1,000 Corpses," grossed $15.4 million in its first three weeks. Meanwhile, he's headlining the second stage at Ozzfest [ tickets ].

The Ozzfest gigs prompted Zombie to assemble a new band: guitarist John 5 (ex-Marilyn Manson), drummer Tommy Clufetos (Ted Nugent) and longtime bassist Rob "Blasko" Nicholson.

"Our show's a lot more stripped down, but it's a lot more fun than it's ever been before," Zombie said. "The main stage is a very controlled atmosphere, and it can sometimes be borderline boring. Whereas the second stage, it's great. It's always chaotic. They asked me to do the main stage, but I didn't want to. It's kind of a drag. The second stage is where it's at."

Prior to the tour, Zombie began work on the follow-up to his 2001 album, "The Sinister Urge."

liveDaily: Why did you decide to hire a new band for the Ozzfest tour?

Rob Zombie: Just sometimes it's time to change it up. Personalities don't fit anymore. Things seem stale, so you have to get new people.

How is your new album coming along?

I'm going to finish it up when I get home. Scott Humphrey is producing it, who produced the last two albums. None of the new guys in the new band are on it because I hadn't actually worked with them yet. But we're not completely done. We probably will [have some of the new band members on the album]. Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit played guitar. Tommy Lee played drums. Josh Freese from A Perfect Circle played the drums.

What did Wes Borland and Tommy Lee bring to the record?

Just a different take. Everyone's different. Tommy Lee has a very distinctive style of drumming. Tommy's played on the last two records anyway. Wes has a unique away of playing. It's hard to really describe why it's different. He plays completely different than John 5, who brings another something to the table.

How did you meet Wes Borland?

Through Danny Lohner, who used to be in Nine Inch Nails. They were doing music to that movie "Underworld." He was like, "I'm working with Wes. I think he'd be great. He wants to work on the record." It's usually something as simple as that.

Tell me about your songwriting process. Do you write primarily on the road or in the studio?

Always in the studio. I don't think I've ever written anything on the road. There's never really any time. It's the only way I've ever done it. For me, it's probably the easiest way. There's always a lot of pressure. But I've been working with Scott Humphrey for a long time now and we basically write all the songs together, so it's pretty easy.

You've played multiple Ozzfests. Is there still something to learn from them?

The years go by, this time what's kind of cool is, by not having a theatrical show, it forces you to find other ways to entertain the crowd. It's good. Having new guys in the band, it's always different. So you're always learning something.

You just released your second movie, "The Devil's Rejects" …

I love it. I love the movie. It's a very hard movie to describe. It's not really a horror movie. It's a very violent crime movie, really, much in the tradition of the ‘70s-style crime movies. It's cool.

Why did you decide to get into movies?

Same thing that made me want to do music. You just love something, and you want to do it. It's as simple as that. Music and movies were the two things I've always loved. I always wanted to work on movies. I've been trying to do it for a long, long time. It takes a long time before you can crack through.