Zombie promises some new tricks on current tour

Rob Zombie is famous for his over-the-top live shows that include massive sets, pyrotechnics, B-movie-inspired dancing girls and robots.

This year things will be little different, although Zombie did tell reporters in a conference call earlier this week that it will still be a Rob Zombie show.

"We have a lot of new things this time. We didn't want to go out and do the same old show. We dug deep and tried to really mix it up," Zombie said.

"There are always the obvious songs that we have to play, but we're actually going back to play songs that I've never played live. Since we're doing smaller places, I assume the people coming out are familiar with the material, so we can mix it up a little bit.

"As far as the stage shows, there have been incredible advances in digital technology. So it's a pretty high-tech show."

"I have the stage set from the first 'Hellbelly Deluxe' tour in storage," he said. "I toyed with the idea of touring with it, but something about it felt tired and contrived. It seemed fake."

The new set brings the concept of the original set into the present, he said.

"It's like the modernized update. The stage feels fresh. If feels modern and high-tech, and definitely has the spirit of the first show."

"Unfortunately the days of shooting off massive displays of fire is long gone. It's almost impossible to get the OK to do that. But everything else is pretty nuts."

Zombie will be featuring songs from the upcoming album "Hellbelly Deluxe 2," which he said earned the right to be considered the companion piece for the original 1998 "Hellbelly Deluxe" album.

"It kind of happened that way," he said. "I've had the idea for many, many years, but I didn't want it to seem like we just slapped the title on it. But when were were done it felt like a perfect companion piece."

Zombie confirmed that "Hellbelly Deluxe 2" has been delayed until the first of next year.

"We actually just bumped back it a couple of weeks," he said. "I try to line up my projects with a long-range plan, and sometimes all it takes is for one thing to shift a couple of days or weeks."

Zombie said the record was done, but he felt everyone was cutting corners and rushing to get it out to the public.