Rob Zombie has been a vegetarian since he was 18 years old, but one day nine years ago he was looking at his plate of eggs and couldn't eat it, and he decided to go vegan. He opened up about his choices in a new profile for GQ.
“Most people are, like, ‘I don’t wanna think about it,’” Zombie says. “But I can’t live my life not wanting to think about something. You gotta stop and think about things. Because you’re alive.”
Zombie explained why he was never particualrly fond of meat "The vegetarian thing started when I was in high school. I never really liked eating meat. Whenever I was served pork chops or something it would just taste awful to me. We're all brainwashed from the moment we're born that all the cows are happy and the pigs are happy and everybody's so happy and it's all 'Old McDonald Had a Farm.'” And then I saw a movie that was the first time I really saw how brutal and disgusting factory farming was. That's when I was, like, 'I'm done.'"
He continued "Over the years I would eat cheese or put some creamer in my coffee or something. It was about nine years ago that I was eating eggs for breakfast. And I was just, like, "This is disgusting and I'm done." And that was it. I've been 100% vegan since that moment."
He also goes onto explain how being vegan is in fact punk rock/metal: "So much of punk rock was about fighting the establishment, fighting the norms, fighting the path that's been laid out for you by corporate America telling you how you're supposed to think and how you're supposed to be. Veganism is exactly the opposite of that. It is anti-establishment. It's becoming more of an established thing—every day some new chain like McDonald's or Burger King starts working a sandwich into their repertoire, because they can see the meat industry has an unsustainable future.
"Once you make these decisions, you can't help but learn more about it. And every day you uncover what an evil industry everything is. Dairy is the leading cause of breast cancer, yet Dannon is a big sponsor of the pink ribbon walks. It's like Marlboro sponsoring the lung society or something. And you just realize, oh, this is one giant brainwashed lie we're fed from the moment we're born. You have to uncover each layer of the sham. Most people are, like, "I don't wanna think about it!" I know you don't wanna think about it. It's horrible. But I can't live my life not wanting to think about something. You gotta stop and think about things. Because you're alive."
View the whole interview here.
