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
Every single night, it seemed to be the same seven or eight guys: Harry Nilsson, myself, Mickey Dolenz, Bernie Taupin, Keith Moon when he was in town. It was actually sort of a social club, drinking club, for rock stars that drank - seriously drank.
I always tell people, 'Everything you’ve heard about Alice Cooper , you can believe maybe 40 percent of it. Everything you’ve ever heard about Keith Moon is true - and you’ve only heard 10 percent of it.'
We would walk over the names of Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, never, ever thinking that our names would ever be on the Walk of Fame, ... That is really quite a privilege to be here.
Look at the bands from 1968 who are still around. What we have in common is a lot of hit records that still get played, and a different work ethic. You used to make an album, do a world tour, and then do it again. Sometimes you made two albums a year. To me, that still goes. I'm always thinking about the next album. That's old school, but that's me. That's show business.
I've got a crew that has been with me for quite a while, ... They know how to break down the disappearing coffin trick. They know how to break down the guillotine.
The age of the audience has dropped 10-15 years, maybe more. All of the audiences through Spain, Italy through Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia are like 15-16 through 25. It's like 1972 again.
They coincide with each other but they don't at the same time. So what it is, is when people come to see us the first time, they see this.
The new songs fit right in. They are so close to that style. That is what you want. I wanted them to sound like that era.
That's the fun audience, ... Everybody is there to have fun.
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.
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 identified with Frank. We were of course influenced - when everybody hears Zappa, they're influenced by him, just like The Beatles.
This community cannot afford to go backwards we need to be moving ahead and moving together regardless of the color of skin one has,