Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American singer, songwriter and actor whose career spans over five decades. With his distinctive raspy voice and a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, deadly snakes, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by music journalists and peers alike to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock people...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRock Singer
Date of Birth4 February 1948
CityDetroit, MI
CountryUnited States of America
We identified with Frank. We were of course influenced - when everybody hears Zappa, they're influenced by him, just like The Beatles.
And you'd be right to do that. But the funny thing is I haven't watered down Alice. Alice the character on stage is just as dastardly as ever. If you sit in the first 20 rows of my show, you're covered in fake blood. The attitude behind it is totally for fun. The audience in the '70s was so easy to shock. Now I can't be as shocking as CNN.
I've already played with Tiger! He mentioned me in a golf magazine as one of the best celebrity golfers.
What you have to do is attack them on a level where they can't take their eyes off of you, ... Maybe they came but are kind of indifferent. They want to hear a couple of songs, and then they're going to leave. What you have to do is make sure they're glued to you so they can't leave because they don't want to miss anything.
On the last day of school, it's the national anthem. On that day, it's the most popular song on the planet. (Laughs.) I become Francis Scott Key for one day.
There is so much great rock from the '60s, '70s, a little thinner in the '80s. I can't believe that there are only 40 songs that get played. There is such a variety of music from that era. There are just so many bands that never get played.
This whole album takes you in a lot of different directions, yet it still really sounds like an Alice album. There are no fillers. Pick any song you think might be a single and I'm happy with that song representing the album. That to me is quality.
We don't mind that, that's making them accept more, making fun that we accept that. The thing is this is the way we are. We think it's a gas.
Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's rebellion.
Welcome to my nightmare. I think you're going to like it. There'll be some more when you come down.
They pick all of us out, and then they decide, they computerize, decide if they like it or don't like it, and then they go home, and then they come back again because they're not sure what they saw.
Well, we were all in high school and we got together, and in college - we were in art college together.
We started combining the use of light and the use of theatrics and the use of as many art forms as possible, and it's still growing - that's the whole idea of it.
It's not an anti-sex trip. Like, we're taking sex, which is probably another half of American entertainment, sex and violence, and we're projecting it, and we're saying this is the way everything is right now.