In 1996, Zombie collaborated with Alice Cooper on the song "Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn)" for the X-Files tie-in CD Songs in the Key of X. It was Zombie's first work outside of his band White Zombie. The song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance the same year.

In 1997, Zombie contributed a song entitled "The Great American Nightmare" for the Howard Stern movie, Private Parts. Since January 6, 1999, it has been the opening theme for Stern's radio show.

Hellbilly Deluxe

Zombie formed his own solo band in 1998. John Tempesta (drums) came directly from White Zombie, and was joined by Mike Riggs on guitar and Blasko (Rob Nicholson) on bass. They recorded and released Zombie's debut solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe, in 1998, produced by Scott Humphrey. The album was a success, selling three million copies domestically. This album contained the hit singles "Dragula", "Living Dead Girl" and "Superbeast". The Dragula title was inspired by the '60s TV series The Munsters; the DRAG-U-LA was a dragster built from a coffin driven by Grandpa.

White Zombie dissolved after the release of Hellbilly Deluxe. Zombie toured extensively to promote the album, then released American Made Music to Strip By in 1999, an album of remixes from Hellbilly Deluxe.

The Sinister Urge

Zombie next released The Sinister Urge in 2001 (the title taken from a 1961 film by Edward D. Wood), again produced by Scott Humphrey. This release contained the singles "Never Gonna Stop (The Red Red Kroovy)", "Feel So Numb" and "Demon Speeding". While the album still featured Zombie's signature heavy metal sound, it was also more experimental than Hellbilly Deluxe, such as including brass instruments on "Go To California." The album has been certified platinum.

Zombie released his first greatest-hits album Past, Present & Future, in 2003, containing hit songs both from his solo band and White Zombie. It also featured covers (The Commodores' "Brick House" and The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop") and unreleased songs ("Two-Lane Blacktop" and "Girl on Fire").

After a 2002-2003 world tour, Mike Riggs and John Tempesta left Zombie to form a similar band, Scum of the Earth. This put plans for another tour or new album on hold. Instead, between 2003 and 2005, Zombie directed and released two horror films, House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects.

Educated Horses

In 2005, Zombie returned to the music world by recruiting former Marilyn Manson guitarist, John 5, and former Alice Cooper drummer, Tommy Clufetos. Blasko and Humphrey remained, and the five began recording Educated Horses. Released in 2006, Educated Horses is a break from Zombie's usual style. In contrast to the heavy metal sound of his first 2 albums, this one has a more alternative metal sound to it. The single "Foxy Foxy" can be described as his most "party-going" song. The other 2 singles, "Let It All Bleed Out" and "American Witch", featured his signature heavy metal sound. Also, for the first time, Zombie steered away from including horror references in the artwork and songs. Even his physical appearance is less of a persona (Zombie is dressed in regular clothes on the album cover, and his dreadlocks are gone). However, the songs "Seventeen Year Locust" and "The Scorpion Sleeps" do concern themselves with creepy-crawlies. Following the release of the album, Zombie toured the U.S. with Lacuna Coil.

20th Century Masters: Millennium Collection: The Best of Rob Zombie was also released in 2006 by his label, Geffen Records. It contains songs similar to his 1st greatest-hits album, but there are also songs on this release from Educated Horses.

On May 31, 2006, Zombie was joined by guitarist Slash (Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver), Gilby Clarke (formerly of Guns N' Roses) on rhythm guitar, Scott Ian of Anthrax on bass, Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe on drums and special guest Ace Frehley of Kiss also on lead guitar. The occasion was a one-time supergroup tribute to Kiss for the first annual VH1 Rock Honors Award Show. They played one song, "God of Thunder," before handing it off to the honoree. Zombie then went on tour with Ozzy Osbourne.

Blasko, Zombie's bass player, left the band shortly before the American Witch Tour (the second leg of the tour to promote Educated Horses), to play bass with Ozzy Osbourne. To fill in, Zombie hired Piggy D. of Amen and Wednesday 13 fame as a permanent replacement.

In 2007 Zombie released Zombie Live, which was supposed to be accompanied by a live DVD & picture booklet. So far, only the CD has surfaced.

Hellbilly Deluxe 2

Zombie's follow-up to Educated Horses was still unnamed as of May, 2008. Zombie posted an update on his website stating: "Well, we have for the first time ever written more songs than we need for an album. Everything isn't 100% finished, but everything is moving along great. No release date yet." In August 2008, a new (instrumental) song entitled "Tyrannosaurus Rex" , featuring John 5 on guitar, was uploaded onto Zombie's MySpace music page. In an interview published in December 2008, Zombie spoke about his new band lineup ( John 5, Piggy D, and Tommy C), and how happy he was with his new band members, saying, "I've never had a band that I could call my good friends until now."

Meanwhile, also in December of 2008, Zombie's new single "War Zone" was featured in the soundtrack to Punisher: War Zone.

According to reports, the latest album was done, just waiting on release. Piggy D. stated on a Metal Messiah Radio interview with DJ Lovely Laura that the band had been working on material since February 2008 and the album had been finished since late December 2008 with no release date yet. John 5 gave an interview to http://www.artisannews.com/ on May 28, 2009 about the new album saying, "It's finished. We do not have a title but it is finished and mixed. Not mastered but it is unbelievable. He says and people say it's his best work. So, I love it." He also stated that it should be out sometime later in the year. Rumored song titles (from MTV.com) were "Jesus Frankenstein" and "Sick Bubblegum".

Rob Zombie appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" on August 18, 2009, saying the new album is complete, although he has not yet set a title, and scheduled for release on November 10. That release date would later change to November 17, according to his MySpace blog. Eventually, the release date would be pushed back to Spring of 2010.

On October 3, Zombie posted a link to preview the track, "Sick Bubble-Gum" on his Twitter page.

The first new single "What?" was released on October 13.

Zombie released the next new song, "Burn" for Rock Band, as well as two old tracks, "Dragula" and "Superbeast" on October 27. They are available via Xbox Live and PlayStation Network as well as the Rock Band Store.

On October 29th, 2009, Zombie began the "Hellbilly Deluxe 2 Tour" in support of the (as yet unreleased) "Hellbilly Deluxe 2: Noble Jackals, Penny Dreadfuls and the Systematic Dehumanization of Cool".

Zombie has commented that Hellbilly Deluxe 2 may be his last physical record release due to the growing popularity of Itunes and other methods of music downloading, but stated he will continue to make music. Hellbilly Deluxe 2 was set to be his last album released through by Geffen Records, but in late October, Zombie announced that he had signed on to Roadrunner Records and will be instead releasing Hellbilly Deluxe 2 under that label in early 2010

Rob has since announced, in an interview with DJ "Duece" on WRZX, Indianapolis, that his new album will be released February 2, 2010. The full-quality version of the album leaked to the internet on January 16, 2010.

On January 20, 2010 Rob Zombie has been announced as playing the main stage at Mayhem Festival 2010 alongside Korn and Lamb of God.

On January 22, he announced that he would be touring with Alice Cooper for the "Gruesome Twosome" tour.

Other upcoming projects

Zombie is featured as a backing vocalist on the upcoming Lynyrd Skynyrd album God & Guns for the song "Floyd".