News Item : Q&A: Alice Cooper on Rob Zombie, My Chemical Romance, and "crotch rock"

Alice Cooper is co-headlining Merriweather Post Pavilion Sunday with Rob Zombie in what’s being billed as a Halloween Hootenanny with “the Gruesome Twosome.” The rock legend talked about what a night out with Zombie and Cooper looks like, what he’s listening to, and “crotch rock.”

Q: You've been on stage for 40 years, is there an impetus to stay relevant? Do you listen to rock today?

A: If you look at the bands that are still here from the '60s - Bowie, Elton John, Alice Cooper - we’re all still working, we're all still touring. I think I'm doing some of the best shows I've ever done. I don’t think what we do is disposable. My generation seems to have a different work ethic. I always thought, "Do 25 albums? I'm a lifer." A lot of bands today get together, play, make an album, break up and form another band. There's no bands staying together.

Q:They do sound less frivolous than in your time. A: A lot of rock I listen to is a yawn. I know what's coming.

A lot of hard rock today sounds joyless. Bands forget to have fun. Rock should be played from the crotch not the brain.

Q: What's wrong with them?

A: The songwriting has gone out the window. The music on the charts is too high-tech, not married to the lyrics. When I learned how to write lyrics, I was listening to Burt Bacharach, Paul Simon, Brian Wilson, Gershwin. We were competing with Zeppelin, the Beatles. We really had to write great songs to get on the radio. If you write a ballad, you better break a girl’s heart. We spent 90 percent on the music and 10 percent on the theatrics. The theatrics come easily.

Q: What are you listening to instead?

A: Panic at the Disco is a very original band. And the White Stripes are very original. Everyone else I can think of is an off-shoot of somebody else. First time I heard Jane’s Addiction, I thought "what was that?" "Teenagers" by My Chemical romance - that’s a great record right there.

Q: How did you and Zombie hook up for this double bill?

A: We’ve been old friends for a long time. I kinda look at him like my little brother. We have the same ideas about things. Few things scare us.

Q: So what does a night off with Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper look like? Because to me it sounds pretty mind-blowing.

A: Well, we're not going to see the new Jennifer Aniston movie. On nights off, we usually watch "Nightmare on Elm Street," horror movies. Tonight, we’re going to go see "Let Me In."

Q: Where did you meet?

A: When I first heard of "White Zombie," I thought this sounds like off-shoot of an Alice Cooper thing. I went back stage, and it looked like they'd just been dug up. They had stage dust on them, and when I patted them on the back the dust came off. Then I watched them on stage, and it was a modern version of what I do.

Q: If you guys don't share a musical style, it seems you do share a sensibility?

A: My show is entirely different. It centers around Alice the character, and Rob's show is a media blitz on the audience. It's almost generational. I'm classic hard rock, and Rob is more industrial, the next stage. There's more technology in his show. I always stayed away from pyro and lasers and store-bought props. But Rob, being a director, can use all that to his favor. I'm a little more vaudevillian. But it’s a very thin line between horror and comedy. Both acts show that. Some parts of the show could be considered shocking but if you look at it, it's based in a dark sense of humor.

by Erik Maza
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