If anyone in rock is brutally honest, it’s Buzz Osborne of the Melvins. In a new Rolling Stone feature, the sludge, grunge, and alt-metal pioneer had some unflattering things to say about fellow rocker Rob Zombie.
Osborne was asked by Rolling Stone to list his favorite grunge albums, and he included LPs by Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and others. But his most eye-catching thoughts came with his pick of the Babes in Toyland album Spanking Machine.
“We played a lot of shows with [Babes in Toyland] back then, and they were always fun,” recollected Osborne. “We did a tour with them and White Zombie, and we both got treated like f*cking dogshit on that tour by the powers that be. It was a massively unnecessary situation of pointless rock-star behavior. I don’t know what was going through [Rob Zombie’s] head, but if making enemies is what you set out to do, well, mission accomplished.”
He continued, “I’ve been around people you would consider a rock star, like the guys in KISS, and they never behaved like that. It just makes you hate lower-level f*ckheads like Rob Zombie even more. If I got treated like that by the f*cking mailman, I’d hate his guts. So it was fun to have Babes in Toyland along.”
We’re guessing we won’t see a Melvins / Rob Zombie double bill anytime soon, but Zombie was able to make amends with one-time foe Marilyn Manson to tour again. In fact, Zombie and Manson will embark on the “Twins of Evil: Hell Never Dies Tour” this summer. See the dates here, and pick up tickets here.
The Melvins, meanwhile, will play a few North American shows in May, followed by tours of Japan and Europe. A full list of dates can be found here.