<em>News Item :</em> ALICE COOPER'S A-Z OF ROCK

A is for Alice
Alice has always been my favourite rock star. That’s what I created him to be.

B is for boa constrictors
I haven’t used snakes for 15 years. They get sick easily. They used to stay in my hotel rooms. Harmless as kittens, unless they’re hungry.

C is for Chicken
Toronto, 1969. The audience killed the chicken, not me. Someone threw the chicken on stage, I threw it back. They tore it to pieces.

D is for Detroit
The capital of rock SSLqn’ roll. You say you’re from Detroit, like me, you’re a brother. It’s like being in the Hell’s Angels.

E is for Elected
People talk about rock ‘n’ roll and satanism but look at politics. What do
rock ‘n’ rollers want? They want hot chicks, drugs and music. What do politicians want? Power. That’s satanic.

F is for Freddy Krueger
I played his abusive father. Horror movies take you for a scary ride and bring you back safe, like my shows. The hard thing about making the film was not laughing.

G is for golf
I play off a two handicap. If I’d taken time off and trained, I could have turned professional. I beat a PGA pro at the Phoenix Open in the Nineties. I won’t say his name because he’d never speak to me again.

H is for Hallowe’en
Our life is Hallowe’en. If it were Christmas Eve tonight, we’d do a Hallowe’en show.

I is for influences, current
I love The White Stripes, also from Detroit. I like Jet, from Australia; just sloppy rock ‘n’ roll. And I like Buckcherry, also sloppy rock.

J is for Jesus
My grandfather was an evangelist. My dad was a pastor. I was the prodigal son. I left the church, did everything I could to get into trouble and came back.

K is for Kiss
We broke the door down. Before we had hits people just said we were a novelty act, that real musicians wouldn’t need the theatrics. I really like seeing where Alice’s influence
goes in creating a band such as Kiss.

L is for Los Angeles
The craziest time of our lives, and the greatest time of our lives. We were starving but hanging out with The Doors and Janis Joplin. We proved that you can live for five years on beer.

M is for Marx Brothers
Groucho said we were the last hope for vaudeville. He was in his 80s but as sharp as a tack. Exactly the same off stage as on. We’d have dinner and he’d say: “Excuse me, I have to go and insult the Maitre D.”

N is for The Nazz
We had to give up that name. Todd Rundgren beat us to it. So I said, let’s go with a name that’ll be the opposite of who we are. Let’s be some little old lady baking cookies: Alice Cooper.

O is for Overdoing it
When you wake up vomiting blood you’re at a crossroads. Stop this, or join Jimi and Janis.

P is for Phoenix
I moved there when I was a kid because I had asthma. It’s like living in a resort, which I like. I’m not a cold-weather guy.

Q is for Queen
We heard Bohemian Rhapsody and just thought it was so good it was funny. Brian May has played with us many times.

R is for Republican
People just say that because I’m not necessarily a Liberal. I’m very non-political.

S is for School’s Out
It’ll live for ever because every kid cannot wait for that last three minutes of the last day of school to end. Three minutes until you’ve got three months off. If you can capture that three minutes on record, the anxiety, the release; that’s a hit.

T is for teetotal
Thirty years. It’s like I never had a drink in my life. I was just healed of it. I believe God took it away from me. He said: “That’s it, enough.”

U is for Unlikely fans
Sinatra recorded a couple of my songs. Richard Nixon sent me his memoirs. Him, Salvador Dali and Groucho were probably the strangest. Bob Hope was the straightest, most right-wing guy there was.

V is for Vincent Furnier
Ninety per cent of the time I’m not Alice but everybody calls me the Coop or Alice. It’s more convenient. My mother calls me Vincent.

W is for wife
Thirty-five years. I’ve never cheated and neither has she. I was going out with Racquel Welch when I met Sheryl. She was 18. Her dad was a Baptist pastor. He said: “There’s no reason I should like him and for some reason I do.”

X is for X-Rated
Mary Whitehouse thought we were the Anti-Christ. When she got our video banned by the BBC it was the greatest thing. The record went to Number One. We sold out Wembley. We sent her flowers.

Y is for Yardbirds
The band we wanted to be. We opened for them when we were 16 and called The Spiders. We played all their songs and they loved it.

Z is for Zappa, Frank
He signed us to our first contract because everyone else turned us down. it was Frank who always said: “Don’t ever tell anyone you didn’t kill the chicken.”

By Andrew Mueller
Sunday Express