May. 21, 2020

The story behind Alice Cooper’s pandemic-inspired song written between golf and tap dancing

via AZ Central

Alice Cooper is not known for breaking character.

But after the coronavirus pandemic halted his tour, he settled into his Paradise Valley home and found himself taking a different approach to writing his new single, “Don’t Give Up.”

“We wanted to make sure that Alice for once is not trying to scare you,” Cooper says. “Alice is trying to encourage you.”

In the song and accompanying video, Cooper addresses the global health crisis head-on.

In the opening monologue, he says, “It’s like a new world that we don’t even know / It’s hard to sleep … even harder to dream / But look, you’ve got 7 billion brothers and sisters all in the same boat / So don’t panic.”

The spoken word bits were to underscore the sense that this is Cooper giving everyone a pep talk.

“You know, Alice is a bit of an elder statesman in rock,” he says. “And the fact that it’s talked, it almost sounds like he’s the coach before the game. I said, ‘Let’s make it really encouraging, not doom and gloom.'”

For the video, Cooper invited fans to send in photos of themselves holding signs with one word from the lyrics.

“We did not expect 20,000 people to send something in,” Cooper says. “I expected maybe a couple thousand. We got so many it was ridiculous.”

The basic tracks for “Don’t Give Up” were started in Detroit with longtime producer Bob Ezrin.

The song was completed with members of his touring band — guitarists Ryan Roxie, Nita Strauss and Tommy Henricksen, bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel — participating from remote locations once the song had taken shape and the pandemic lyrics had been written.

“We did not expect 20,000 people to send something in,” Cooper says. “I expected maybe a couple thousand. We got so many it was ridiculous.”

The basic tracks for “Don’t Give Up” were started in Detroit with longtime producer Bob Ezrin.

The song was completed with members of his touring band — guitarists Ryan Roxie, Nita Strauss and Tommy Henricksen, bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel — participating from remote locations once the song had taken shape and the pandemic lyrics had been written.

“We did not expect 20,000 people to send something in,” Cooper says. “I expected maybe a couple thousand. We got so many it was ridiculous.”

The basic tracks for “Don’t Give Up” were started in Detroit with longtime producer Bob Ezrin.

The song was completed with members of his touring band — guitarists Ryan Roxie, Nita Strauss and Tommy Henricksen, bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel — participating from remote locations once the song had taken shape and the pandemic lyrics had been written.

“We did not expect 20,000 people to send something in,” Cooper says. “I expected maybe a couple thousand. We got so many it was ridiculous.”

The basic tracks for “Don’t Give Up” were started in Detroit with longtime producer Bob Ezrin.

The song was completed with members of his touring band — guitarists Ryan Roxie, Nita Strauss and Tommy Henricksen, bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel — participating from remote locations once the song had taken shape and the pandemic lyrics had been written.

Among the shows he’s watching are “Upload” (“kind of interesting”) and the new “Penny Dreadful.”

“I haven’t caught up with the new ‘Star Trek: Discovery,'” he says. “So I’m looking forward to that.”

They’ve also had their share of family movie nights.

“We’ll sit around going ‘What do you mean, you haven’t seen “Return of the Pink Panther?”‘ So we put it on with the popcorn. It’s just like being at the movie theater. You find all these movies that nobody’s seen that are classics, and you go ‘Oh, this is gonna be great.'”

It’s all been very family oriented, which has been a thrill for Cooper.

“I think God just finally said, ‘Why don’t we just take the year off? Everybody go home and get acquainted with your family.'”

He’s also been putting the finishing touches on “Detroit Stories,” his upcoming album.

“The album is done,” he says. “I mean, totally done.”

That hasn’t stopped Ezrin from having him go back upstairs with Diego on occasion to take another pass at something.

At some point, he says, with a laugh, “I’m gonna have to just say, ‘Bob, the album’s done.'”

The title definitely shaped the sound of “Detroit Stories,” which features contributions by such Michigan talent as the MC5’s Wayne Kramer, Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner and Johnny “Bee” Badanjek of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. They also used the Detroit Horns and Detroit background singers.

“Every Detroit player, I don’t care how hard rock they are, how punk they are, there’s a little bit of R&B in it, because it’s Detroit,” Cooper says. “It’s in the DNA.”

Detroit is in his DNA as well.

He was born in Detroit as Vincent Furnier and moved to Phoenix as a child.

It was in Phoenix, where he graduated high school, that he met the other members of the original Alice Cooper group – guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith. They were living on a farm near Detroit when they cut their breakthrough single, “I’m Eighteen.”

There’s no release date yet for “Detroit Stories.” He’s not in a rush, though.

“There’s nobody saying ‘Oh, you have to have it done by blah blah blah. The whole world is on hold right now.”

Here’s what we know about Christmas Pudding 2020
He doesn’t even have a concert planned until Oct. 30. But he’s optimistic that the concerts he’s booked toward the end of the year will actually take place.

“I think you’re gonna find that 30% of the audience will be afraid to go to concerts,” he says, “but 70% can’t wait to go.”

He’s “almost sure” Christmas Pudding, his annual all-star charity event, is a go. The concert benefits Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center, which offers free after-school programs in music, art and dance for 12- to 20-year-olds.

“The easy thing for me,” he says, “is going to be getting on the phone and going, ‘You guys wanna play the Pudding?’ ‘Yes!! We want to play anywhere!’ So I don’t think it’s gonna be a hard sell this year.”

He already canceled his other big teen center fundraiser in April at Las Sendas Golf Club. But that didn’t stop the charity from raising money.

“The people that come to the tournament who normally buy a lot of the stuff at the auction are sending us checks,” he says. “It’s really nice. They’re going, ‘Yeah, we’re still behind you.'”

Here’s what we know about Christmas Pudding 2020
He doesn’t even have a concert planned until Oct. 30. But he’s optimistic that the concerts he’s booked toward the end of the year will actually take place.

“I think you’re gonna find that 30% of the audience will be afraid to go to concerts,” he says, “but 70% can’t wait to go.”

He’s “almost sure” Christmas Pudding, his annual all-star charity event, is a go. The concert benefits Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center, which offers free after-school programs in music, art and dance for 12- to 20-year-olds.

“The easy thing for me,” he says, “is going to be getting on the phone and going, ‘You guys wanna play the Pudding?’ ‘Yes!! We want to play anywhere!’ So I don’t think it’s gonna be a hard sell this year.”

He already canceled his other big teen center fundraiser in April at Las Sendas Golf Club. But that didn’t stop the charity from raising money.

“The people that come to the tournament who normally buy a lot of the stuff at the auction are sending us checks,” he says. “It’s really nice. They’re going, ‘Yeah, we’re still behind you.'”