For Halloween, Nashville indie rock musician Eric Slick released a five song, orchestral suite, covering Rob Zombie’s very un-orchestral hit, “Dragula.” The project started as a joke. But Slick took the piece so seriously that it transcended to a work of art.
Eric Slick’s parents didn’t let him watch cable TV as a kid. “They were afraid it would give me brain rot, which it eventually did” Slick said. But in 1998, they allowed it. To their horror, Slick turned on MTV and saw Rob Zombie’s goth metal hit “Dragula.”
“It’s sort of like Tom Waits singing over an industrial beat about the Munsters.”
It’s true. Dragula is the name of a car driven by Sam Dracula of The Addams Family. Zombie wasn’t as seriously scary as other nu metal acts, like Maryln Manson. It was more camp and spoke to Slick, who appreciates a bit of levity in art and who is a funny person.
Slick went on to be the drummer in indie rock band Dr. Dog. On the bands farewell tour, Slick’s wife, a fellow musician, suggested he make a playlist for the guys to listen to before the show. “Because I’m an idiot, it was Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me,” “Mambo No. 5” and “Dragula” made its way onto the playlist.” The band loved it and started jamming to it in soundchecks before the show.
At the same time, Nelson Drum Shop here in Nashville asked him to do a jazz show. Dr. Dog band member Scott McMicken said, “Why don’t you do Dragula?” And the idea for “Dragula: A Suite in Five Parts” was born. “Once he gave me that idea, the thing wrote itself,” Slick said.
Natalie Prass Eric Slick’s “Dragula: A Suite in Five Parts” photo shoot
Being in Nashville and having access to some of the greatest session musicians in the world, Slick seriously committed to the bit, enlisting a murders row of musicians.
The list includes David Linaburg, who plays with J Cole; Lynn Ligammari, who plays with Bright Eyes; and Jen Wasner, who is indie favorite Flock of Dimes and tours with Bon Iver. “They added a deep amount of legitimacy,” Slick said.
Slick’s version of “Dragula” is transformed from a funny idea that he was doing for the bit into a serious work of art due to the large arrangements and instrumental heft. It’s a triumph.
Slick said that the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. “People have been writing to me and saying ‘I love Dragula.’ It’s a testament to the less I care about something, the more people are drawn to it.”
Maybe because it’s something more than just a cover of a familiar song, the effort paid off.
”I think that audacity in the year of our lord 2025 should be rewarded, because music and art are kind of what we have left,” Slick said.
In a political moment when a lot of people feel scared to stand out, he says it feels good to be doing something weird. Something he’s not sure AI could do, and that probably won’t make him rich. Something in loving homage to Rob Zombie’s MTV classic.
Slick says, “It’s not parody. It’s reverence, reverence for what he made.”
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM