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Mar. 10, 2021
We’re not worthy of Alice Cooper answering our 11 Questions
via: AVClub
You have to be some sort of superhero or vampire to survive in the world of rock ’n’ roll for 50 years, and living legend Alice Cooper is one of the few who fits that particular bill. The horror-rock icon—likely the only person who’s in both the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and The Friars Club—has just released his 21st solo record, Detroit Stories, on which he pays homage to his hometown. Cooper reunites with old friends like producer Bob Ezrin and fellow Detroit music legends MC5’s Wayne Kramer, The Detroit Wheels’ Johnny “Bee” Badanjek, and the Motor City Horns on inspired covers like Lou Reed’s “Rock ’N’ Roll” and new bangers like “Social Debris” that prove that his vocals are as scathing as ever.
It’s been a long road, to say the least, for Cooper (née Vincent Damon Furnier), who drafted his cross-country teammates back in high school to create the ensemble that would eventually become the Alice Cooper Band (as we found out, it was his first and last job). The band hit it big in 1971 with the teen angst anthem “I’m Eighteen,” but soon, Cooper spun off into a solo career, keeping the band’s name for himself to create the 1975 concept album Welcome To My Nightmare, which helped establish his iconic demonic musical persona. The rest is shock rock history. Alice Cooper has not only toured almost incessantly since, but has appeared everywhere from The Hollywood Squares to Wayne’s World to a recent turn as Herod in the 2018 live production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
With a new record out, Cooper would usually be on the road in one of his gruesome stage shows, heavy on the blood-curdling theatrics. But like the rest of us, he’s stuck inside, at his home in Arizona. “Every band that I know of, we’re like racehorses at the starting gate. We’re not used to having a year off. It’s just weird that coming back and getting into the rhythm of being at home for a year was very different.”
This is also a big month for Cooper because The Muppet Show finally dropped on Disney+, and many (including The A.V. Club) have pointed to Cooper’s episode as one of the Muppet Show’s best ever. To this day, he calls it “the most fun thing I ever did in my life. When I was offered The Muppet Show, it was the number one show in the world. And at the time, I kind of established myself as being rock’s villain.” Parts of Cooper’s episode were so disturbing that they reportedly weren’t aired in some countries: “Well, you know, they wrote the show. I didn’t write the show. It was really funny, this kind of Faust thing. I tried to get Kermit to sell his soul to be a rock star. It was a perfect thing to do in the Halloween show, you know?”
We were excited to have Alice Cooper answer our 11 Questions, in which we learned that he was among the first people ever to taste Fritos, he’s taken up tap-dancing during the pandemic, and he has an amazing collection of celebrity stories that the rest of us mere mortals can only dream about. To say we’re not worthy is a massive understatement.
1. What is the best trip or outing you remember as a kid and what made it great?
Alice Cooper: Well, I went to Disneyland when I was 10 years old. All we ever heard when we lived in Detroit was Disneyland was like heaven. And this is 1958 now, and you never, ever thought you’d ever actually get to Disneyland. My sister and I were just kind of going, “Oh, maybe when we’re older, when we’re 20, we might be able to get there.” So then we moved from Detroit to California and got to go to Disneyland. And it was one of the things as a 10-year-old is the greatest thing in the world, only because you’d watch [Walt Disney’s Wonderful World Of Color] every Sunday. All the characters were there.
And it was the very first day that they were introducing Fritos. It was the first time anybody ever tasted Fritos and being from Detroit, we never ate Mexican food ever, you know. So I tried Fritos for the first time, and it was the greatest taste I’ve tasted in my life.
I do remember trying to go on every ride, and you just couldn’t possibly go on every ride. But we were there from the moment it opened till the last second when it closed, and it was the greatest time.
2. What’s something that’s considered a basic part of your current career that you struggled to learn?
AC: Well, I’ll tell you, there was a lot of time when I was drinking that I didn’t spend a lot of time really singing. I didn’t concentrate on the singing because I was doing so much theatrics up there that the singing was sort of secondary to me.
When I got sober, like 38 years ago, all of a sudden I started concentrating more on the vocals, on the singing. And it really, really was a whole different thing. I would rather hit the notes, and then do the theatrics. So I learned how to sing, and then when I wasn’t singing, do the theatrics. That was the thing that I really had to learn. And then the singing got better and better and better to the point where I was very confident about my singing.
AVC: And you still sound incredible.
AC: Well, I never smoked, and I quit drinking 38 years ago, and it’s just one of those things where I think you get rewarded for that. Most of the guys my age that are still touring can do maybe two shows a week. I’m doing, like, five. But I think that’s just because of the fact that I haven’t diminished that lung capacity. When I get in the studio, I seem to sound the same way as I did in 1972. So I’m happy with that.