Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948)
is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and
stage illusion Stage illusions are large-scale magic tricks. As the name implies, stage illusions are distinct from all other types of magic in that they are performed a considerable distance away from the audience, usually on a stage, in order to maintain the ill ...
s, including pyrotechnics, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, reptiles, baby dolls, and dueling swords, Cooper is considered by many music journalists and peers to be "The Godfather of
Shock Rock
Shock rock is the combination of rock music or heavy metal music with highly theatrical live performances emphasizing shock value. Performances may include violent or provocative behavior from the artists, the use of attention-grabbing imagery ...
". He has drawn equally from horror films,
vaudeville
Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...
, and
garage rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences.
Originating in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
, in 1964, "Alice Cooper" was
originally a band with roots extending back to a band called the Earwigs, consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica,
Glen Buxton
Glen Edward Buxton (November 10, 1947 – October 19, 1997) was an American musician, best known as the lead guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper. In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him number 90 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guita ...
on lead guitar, and
Dennis Dunaway
Dennis Dunaway (born December 9, 1946, in Cottage Grove, Oregon) is an American musician, best known as the original bass guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper (1962–1975, 1999, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021).
He co-wrote some of the b ...
on bass guitar and backing vocals. By 1966,
Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar joined the three and
Neal Smith was added on drums in 1967. The five named the band "Alice Cooper", and Furnier eventually adopted it as his stage pseudonym. They released their 1969
debut studio album with limited chart success. Breaking out with the 1970 single "
I'm Eighteen
"I'm Eighteen" is a song by rock band Alice Cooper, first released as a single in November 1970 backed with "Is It My Body". It was the band's first top-forty success—peaking at number 21—and convinced Warner Bros. that Alice Cooper had the c ...
" and the third studio album ''
Love It to Death
''Love It to Death'' is the third studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on March 9, 1971. It was the band's first commercially successful album and the first album that consolidated the band's aggressive hard-rocking sound, ...
'', the band reached their commercial peak in 1973 with their sixth studio album, ''
Billion Dollar Babies
''Billion Dollar Babies'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on February 25, 1973, by Warner Bros. Records. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on th ...
''. After the band broke up, Furnier legally changed his name to Alice Cooper and began a solo career in 1975 with the concept album ''
Welcome to My Nightmare''. Over his career, Cooper has sold well over 50 million records.
Cooper has experimented with a number of musical styles, mainly
hard rock
Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
,
glam rock,
heavy metal, and
glam metal, but also
new wave (1980–1983),
art rock
Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...
(on ''
DaDa''), and
industrial rock
Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Cromagnon, Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten a ...
(on ''
Brutal Planet
''Brutal Planet'' is the fourteenth solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in 2000. Musically, this finds Alice tackling a much darker and heavier approach than on previous albums, with many songs approaching a somew ...
'' and ''
Dragontown
''Dragontown'' is the fifteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper. It was released in 2001 on Spitfire Records. Like ''Brutal Planet'', the album displays a heavier metal style than many of his previous releases. It peaked on Billb ...
''). He helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and has been described as the artist who "first introduced horror imagery to rock'n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre".
He is also known for his wit offstage, with ''
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...
'' calling him the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer". Away from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur, and, since 2004, a radio DJ with his classic rock show ''
Nights with Alice Cooper''.
Early life
Vincent Damon Furnier was born on February 4, 1948, in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
, the son of Ether Moroni Furnier (1924–1987) and his wife Ella Mae (''née'' McCart; born 1925). He was named after his uncle, Vincent Collier Furnier, and the writer
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer.
He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To ...
. His father was an evangelist in
The Church of Jesus Christ, informally known as "Bickertonites", and his paternal grandfather, Thurman Sylvester Furnier, was an
apostle (from 1917) in and president (1963–1965) of that church.
Cooper was active in his church at ages 11 to 12. Following a series of childhood illnesses, he moved with his family to
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
, where he attended
Cortez High School
Cortez High School is located in Phoenix, Arizona at 8828 N 31st Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85051. It is part of the Glendale Union High School District. The mascot is the Colt and the school colors are primarily black and white with red used as an alter ...
. In his high school yearbook, his ambition was to be "A million record seller".
Career
1960s
The Spiders and Nazz
In 1964, 16-year-old Furnier was eager to participate in Cortez High School's annual
Letterman's talent show, so he gathered four fellow
cross country teammates to form a group for the show:
Glen Buxton
Glen Edward Buxton (November 10, 1947 – October 19, 1997) was an American musician, best known as the lead guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper. In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him number 90 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guita ...
,
Dennis Dunaway
Dennis Dunaway (born December 9, 1946, in Cottage Grove, Oregon) is an American musician, best known as the original bass guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper (1962–1975, 1999, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021).
He co-wrote some of the b ...
, John Tatum, and John Speer.
[Cooper describes in detail in his first autobiography, ''Me, Alice'', how he was tasked with organizing an act for the show.] They named themselves the Earwigs.
[''Super Duper Alice Cooper.'' Dir. Reginald Harkima, Scott McFayden, and Sam Dunn. Banger Films in association with Eagle Rock Entertainment, the Movie Network, and Movie Central. 2014 – documentary] They dressed up in costumes and wigs to resemble
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, and performed several parodies of Beatles songs, with the lyrics modified to refer to the track team: in their rendition of "
Please Please Me
''Please Please Me'' is the debut studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Produced by George Martin, it was released on EMI's Parlophone label on 22 March 1963 in the United Kingdom, following the success of the band's first two sin ...
", for example, the line "Last night I said these words to my girl" was replaced with "Last night I ran four laps for my coach". Of the group, only Buxton knew how to play an instrument—the guitar—so Buxton played guitar while the rest mimed on their instruments.
The group got an overwhelming response from the audience and won the talent show. As a result of their positive experience, the group decided to try to turn into a real band. They acquired musical instruments from a local
pawn shop
A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...
, and proceeded to learn how to play them, with Buxton doing most of the teaching, as well as much of the early songwriting.
They soon renamed themselves
the Spiders, featuring Furnier on vocals, Buxton on lead guitar, Tatum on rhythm guitar, Dunaway on bass guitar, and Speer on drums.
In 1966, the Spiders graduated from Cortez High School, and after
North High School North High School may refer to:
* North High School (Phoenix, Arizona)
* North Pulaski High School, Jacksonville, Arkansas
* North High School (Bakersfield, California)
* John W. North High School, Riverside, California
* North High School (Torranc ...
football player
Michael Bruce replaced John Tatum on rhythm guitar, the band released their second single, "Don't Blow Your Mind", an original composition which became a local hit, backed by "No Price Tag".
By 1967, the band had begun to make regular road trips to Los Angeles to play shows.
They soon renamed themselves Nazz and released the single "Wonder Who's Lovin' Her Now", backed with future Alice Cooper track "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye". Around this time, drummer John Speer was replaced by
Neal Smith. By the end of the year, the band had relocated to Los Angeles.
Name change to "Alice Cooper"
In 1968, the band learned that
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, multimedia artist, sound engineer and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the band Ut ...
also had a band called
Nazz
The Nazz was an American rock band formed in Philadelphia in 1967. The group was founded by guitarist and principal songwriter Todd Rundgren and bassist Carson Van Osten. Drummer Thom Mooney and vocalist/keyboardist Robert "Stewkey" Antoni joine ...
, and found themselves in need of another stage name. Furnier also believed that the group needed a gimmick to succeed, and that other bands were not exploiting the showmanship potential of the stage.
They chose the name "Alice Cooper" largely because it sounded innocuous and wholesome, in humorous contrast to the band's image and music. In his 2007 book ''Alice Cooper, Golf Monster'', Cooper stated that his look was inspired in part by films. One of the band's all-time favorite movies was ''
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'' (1962) starring
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis (; April 5, 1908 – October 6, 1989) was an American actress with a career spanning more than 50 years and 100 acting credits. She was noted for playing unsympathetic, sardonic characters, and was famous for her pe ...
: "In the movie, Bette wears disgusting caked makeup smeared on her face and underneath her eyes, with deep, dark, black eyeliner." Another movie the band watched over and over was ''
Barbarella'' (1968): "When I saw
Anita Pallenberg playing the Great Tyrant in that movie in 1968, wearing
long black leather gloves with switchblades coming out of them, I thought, 'That's what Alice should look like.' That, and a little bit of
Emma Peel from ''
The Avengers
Avenger, Avengers, The Avenger, or The Avengers may refer to:
Arts and entertainment In the Marvel Comics universe
* Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes
** Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a central team of protagonist superheroes o ...
''."
The classic Alice Cooper group line-up consisted of Furnier, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith.
With the exception of Smith, who graduated from Camelback High School (which is referred to in the song "Alma Mater" on the album ''
School's Out''), all of the band members were on the Cortez High School cross-country team.
Cooper, Buxton, and Dunaway were also art students, and their admiration for the works of
surrealist artists such as
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
would further inspire their future stage antics.
One night after an unsuccessful gig at the Cheetah club in
Venice, Los Angeles, where the band emptied the entire room of patrons after playing just ten minutes, they were approached and enlisted by music manager
Shep Gordon
Shep E. Gordon (born October 18, 1945) is an American talent manager, Hollywood film agent, and producer. Gordon is featured in a 2013 documentary, '' Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon'', which was directed by Mike Myers.
Life and educati ...
, who saw the band's negative impact that night as a force that could be turned in a more productive direction.
Shep then arranged an audition for the band with composer and renowned record producer
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
, who was looking to sign bizarre music acts to his new record label,
Straight Records
Straight Records, self-identified simply as Straight, was a record label formed in 1969 to distribute productions and discoveries of Frank Zappa and his business partner/manager Herb Cohen. Straight was formed at the same time as a companion l ...
.
For the audition Zappa told them to come to his house "at 7 o'clock." The band mistakenly assumed he meant 7 o'clock in the morning. Being woken up by a band willing to play that particular brand of psychedelic rock at seven in the morning impressed Zappa enough for him to sign them to a three-album deal. Another Zappa-signed act, the all-female
GTOs, who liked to "dress the Cooper boys up like full size
Barbie dolls," played a major role in developing the band's early onstage look.
[ Barry Miles's biography of Frank Zappa includes a vivid description of how the GTO's influenced Cooper to wear makeup and dress in drag onstage.]
Cooper's debut studio album, ''
Pretties for You
''Pretties for You'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on June 25, 1969, by Straight Records. At this time, the name "Alice Cooper" referred to the band and not its lead singer Vincent Furnier. The album has a ...
'' (1969), was eclectic and featured an experimental presentation of their songs in a psychedelic context.
Alice Cooper's "shock rock" reputation apparently developed almost by accident at first. An unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper, a feather pillow, and a live chicken garnered attention from the press; the band decided to capitalize on the tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre,
shock rock
Shock rock is the combination of rock music or heavy metal music with highly theatrical live performances emphasizing shock value. Performances may include violent or provocative behavior from the artists, the use of attention-grabbing imagery ...
.
Cooper claims that the infamous "Chicken Incident" at the
Toronto Rock and Roll Revival
The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival was a one-day, twelve-hour music festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on September 13, 1969. It featured a number of popular musical acts from the 1950s and 1960s. The festival is particularly notable as fea ...
concert in September 1969 was an accident.
A chicken somehow made its way onto the stage into the feathers of a feather pillow they would open during Cooper's performance, and not having any experience with farm animals, Cooper presumed that, because the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly.
He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away. The chicken instead plummeted into the first few rows occupied by wheelchair users, who reportedly proceeded to tear the bird to pieces.
[Cooper confirms this version of events in an interview in ''Alice Cooper: Prime Cuts''.] The next day the incident made the front page of national newspapers, and Zappa phoned Cooper and asked if the story, which reported that he had bitten off the chicken's head and drunk its blood on stage, was true. Cooper denied the rumor, whereupon Zappa told him, "Well, whatever you do, don't tell anyone you didn't do it."
[Five years later, the Chicken Incident would be parodied in the second verse of the Ray Stevens song "The Moonlight Special", with Cooper referred to as ''Agnes Stoopa''.]
The band later claimed that this period was highly influenced by
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
, and especially their debut studio album ''
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'' (1967). Glen Buxton said he could listen to
Syd Barrett
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his ...
's guitar for hours at a time.
1970s
![Alice Cooper](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Alice_Cooper.jpg)
Despite the publicity from the chicken incident, the band's second studio album, ''
Easy Action
''Easy Action'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Alice Cooper, released by Straight Records in March 1970. The title comes from a line from one of the band's favorite films, the musical ''West Side Story''. As with ''Pretties ...
'', produced by
David Briggs and released in June 1970, fared even worse than its predecessor, entirely failing to dent the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Top 200. Around this time, fed up with Californians' indifference to their act, they relocated to
Pontiac, Michigan
Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 61,606. A northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Pontiac is about northwest of Detroit.
Founde ...
, where their bizarre stage act was much better received by
Midwestern
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...
crowds accustomed to the
proto-punk
Proto-punk (or protopunk) is rock music played mostly by garage bands from the 1960s to mid-1970s that foreshadowed the punk rock movement. The phrase is a retrospective label; the musicians involved were generally not originally associated wit ...
styles of local bands such as
the Stooges
The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, also known as Iggy and the Stooges, was an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave ...
and
the MC5. Despite this, Cooper still managed to receive a cream
pie in the face when performing at the
Cincinnati Pop Festival. Michigan would remain their steady home base until 1972. "L.A. just didn't get it," Cooper stated. "They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else."
Alice Cooper appeared at the
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...
-esque
Strawberry Fields Festival near
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, Ontario, in August 1970. The band's mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out in stark contrast to the bearded, denim-clad hippie bands of the time. As Cooper himself stated: "We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love. We wanted to see what was next. It turned out we were next, and we drove a stake through the heart of the Love Generation".
In autumn 1970, the Alice Cooper group teamed with producer
Bob Ezrin for the recording of their third studio album, ''
Love It to Death
''Love It to Death'' is the third studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on March 9, 1971. It was the band's first commercially successful album and the first album that consolidated the band's aggressive hard-rocking sound, ...
''. This was the final album in their Straight Records contract and the band's last chance to create a hit. That first success came with the single "
I'm Eighteen
"I'm Eighteen" is a song by rock band Alice Cooper, first released as a single in November 1970 backed with "Is It My Body". It was the band's first top-forty success—peaking at number 21—and convinced Warner Bros. that Alice Cooper had the c ...
", released in November 1970, which reached number 21 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 in early 1971. Not long after the album's release in January 1971,
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
purchased Alice Cooper's contract from Straight and re-issued the album, giving the group a higher level of promotion.
''Love It to Death'' proved to be their breakthrough studio album, reaching number 35 on the U.S.
''Billboard'' 200 album charts. It would be the first of 11
[ See the Alice Cooper entry under ''List of albums produced by Ezrin'' at Ezrin's Wikipedia page] Alice Cooper group and solo albums produced by Ezrin, who is widely seen as being pivotal in helping to create and develop the band's definitive sound.
The group's 1971 tour featured a stage show involving mock fights and gothic torture modes being imposed on Cooper, climaxing in a staged execution by
electric chair, with the band sporting tight, sequined, color-contrasting
glam rock-style costumes made by prominent rock-fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (sister of band member Neal Smith, and wife of band member Dennis Dunaway). Cooper's androgynous stage role had developed to present a
villain
A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...
ous side, portraying a potential threat to modern society. The success of the band's single and album, and their tour of 1971, which included their first tour of Europe (audience members reportedly included
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
and a pre-
Ziggy David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
), provided enough encouragement for Warner Bros. to offer the band a new multi-album contract.
Their follow-up studio album ''
Killer
A killer is someone or something that kills, such as a murderer or a serial killer.
Killer may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Killer (''Home and Away''), a character from ''Home and Away''
* Killer Kane, ...
'', released in late 1971, continued the commercial success of ''Love It to Death'' and included further single success with "
Under My Wheels
“Under My Wheels” is a rock song by Alice Cooper. It was originally released on the group's ''Killer'' album in 1971, and was also that album's first single release. The song was written by Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Bob Ezrin. The so ...
", "Be My Lover" in early 1972, and "
Halo of Flies
Halo of Flies was an American noise rock band from Minneapolis. Named after an Alice Cooper song, Halo of Flies was formed in 1986 by Tom Hazelmyer, John Anglim and Tim Mac. Over the next five years they released a series of seven inch singles ...
", which became a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands in 1973. Thematically, ''Killer'' expanded on the villainous side of Cooper's androgynous stage role, with its music becoming the soundtrack to the group's morality-based stage show, which by then featured a
boa constrictor hugging Cooper on-stage, the murderous axe chopping of bloodied baby dolls, and execution by hanging at the
gallows. In January 1972, Cooper was again asked about his peculiar name, and told talk-show hostess
Dinah Shore that he took the name from a "
Mayberry RFD
''Mayberry R.F.D.'' (abbreviation for Rural Free Delivery) is an American television series produced as a spin-off continuation of ''The Andy Griffith Show''. When star Andy Griffith decided to leave his series, most of the supporting characters ...
" character.
The summer of 1972 saw the release of the single "
School's Out". It went Top 10 in the U.S. and to number 1 in the UK, and remains a staple on
classic rock
Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...
radio to this day. The studio album ''
School's Out'' reached No. 2 on the US charts and sold over a million copies. The band relocated to their new mansion in
Greenwich, Connecticut
Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...
. With Cooper's on-stage androgynous persona completely replaced with
brattiness and
machismo, the band solidified their success with subsequent tours in the United States and Europe, and won over devoted fans in droves while at the same time horrifying parents and outraging the social establishment. In the United Kingdom,
Mary Whitehouse
Constance Mary Whitehouse (; 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British teacher and conservative activist. She campaigned against social liberalism and the mainstream British media, both of which she accused of encouraging a more permiss ...
, a Christian morality campaigner, persuaded the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
to ban the video for "School's Out", although Whitehouse's campaign did not prevent the single also reaching number one in the UK. Cooper sent her a bunch of flowers in gratitude for the publicity. Meanwhile,
British Labour Member of Parliament
Leo Abse
Leopold Abse (22 April 1917 – 19 August 2008) was a Welsh lawyer and politician. He was a Welsh Labour MP for nearly 30 years, noted for promoting private member's bills to decriminalise male homosexual relations and liberalise the divorce la ...
petitioned Home Secretary
Reginald Maudling to have the group banned altogether from performing in the country.
![Alice Cooper group 1973](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Alice_Cooper_group_1973.JPG)
In February 1973, ''
Billion Dollar Babies
''Billion Dollar Babies'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on February 25, 1973, by Warner Bros. Records. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on th ...
'' was released worldwide and became the band's most commercially successful album, reaching No. 1 in both the US and UK. "
Elected", a late-1972 Top 10 UK hit from the album, which inspired one of the first
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
-style story-line promo videos ever made for a song (three years before
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
's promotional video for "
Bohemian Rhapsody"), was followed by two more UK Top 10 singles, "
Hello Hooray
"Hello Hooray" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Rolf Kempf, and first recorded by Judy Collins on her 1968 album ''Who Knows Where the Time Goes (Judy Collins album), Who Knows Where the Time Goes''. Its most famous rendition was by ...
" and "
No More Mr. Nice Guy", the latter of which was the last UK single from the album; it reached No. 25 in the US. The title track, featuring guest vocals by
Donovan
Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...
, was also a US hit single. Around this time Glen Buxton left Alice Cooper briefly because of waning health.
With a string of successful
concept album
A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...
s and several hit singles, the band continued their grueling schedule and toured the United States again. Continued attempts by politicians and pressure groups to ban their shocking act only served to fuel the myth of Alice Cooper further and generate even greater public interest. Their 1973 US tour broke box-office records previously set by
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
and raised rock theatrics to new heights; the multi-level stage show by then featured numerous special effects, including Billion Dollar Bills, decapitated baby dolls and mannequins, a dental psychosis scene complete with dancing teeth, and the ultimate execution prop and highlight of the show: the
guillotine. The guillotine and other stage effects were designed for the band by magician
James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...
, who appeared on stage during some of the shows as
executioner. In 2012 at
Dragon Con
Dragon Con (previously Dragon*Con and sometimes DragonCon) is a North American multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. , the convention draws attendance of over 80,000, f ...
, Randi and Cooper discussed their working relationship during this period. The Alice Cooper group had now reached its peak and it was among the most visible and successful acts in the industry. Beneath the surface, however, the repetitive schedule of recording and touring had begun to take its toll on the band.
''
Muscle of Love
''Muscle of Love'' is the seventh and final studio album by rock band Alice Cooper. It was released in late 1973, the band played its last concert a few months later.
Background
Cooper stated in an interview at the time of recording that the albu ...
'', released at the end of 1973, was to be the last studio album from the classic line-up, and marked Alice Cooper's last UK Top 20 single of the 1970s with "
Teenage Lament '74
"Teenage Lament '74" is a song by Alice Cooper. It was released on the album ''Muscle of Love'', and was written by Cooper and Neal Smith.
The song reached #12 on the UK Singles Chart in 1974. The song also reached #16 on the Ireland chart, ". An unsolicited theme song was recorded for the
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
movie ''
The Man with the Golden Gun'' (1974), but a different song of the same name by
Lulu was chosen instead. By 1974, the ''Muscle of Love'' album still had not matched the top-charting success of its predecessor, and the band began to have constant disagreements. For various reasons, the members agreed to take what was expected to be a temporary hiatus. "Everyone decided they needed a rest from one another", said manager Shep Gordon at the time. "A lot of pressure had built up, but it's nothing that can't be dealt with. Everybody still gets together and talks." Journalist Bob Greene spent several weeks on the road with the band during the ''Muscle of Love Christmas Tour'' in 1973. His book ''Billion Dollar Baby'', released in November 1974, painted a less-than-flattering picture of the band, showing a group in total disharmony.
Cooper later wrote an autobiography with
Steven Gaines
Steven Gaines (born 1946) is an American author, journalist, and radio show host. His 13 books include ''Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion and Property in the Hamptons''; ''The Sky’s the Limit: Passion and Property in Manhattan''; '' The Love ...
called ''Me, Alice'' (1976) which gave Cooper's version of that era of his career, among other things.
![Lair Of The Hollywood Vampires](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Lair_Of_The_Hollywood_Vampires.png)
During this time, Cooper relocated back to Los Angeles and started appearing regularly on television shows such as ''
The Hollywood Squares
''Hollywood Squares'' (originally ''The Hollywood Squares'') is an American game show in which two contestants compete in a game of tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The show piloted on NBC in 1965 and the regular series debuted in 1966 on the ...
'', and Warner Bros. released the ''
Greatest Hits'' compilation album. It featured classic-style artwork and reached the US Top 10, performing better than ''Muscle of Love''. However, the band's 1974 feature film ''
Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper'' (consisting mainly of 1973 concert footage with 'comedic' sketches woven throughout to a faint storyline), released on a minor
cinematic
Cinematic describes anything related to ''cinema''. It may refer to: any movie updates, cinema nights, cinematic review
Film-related
* Cinematic cutscene, a sequence in a video game that is not interactive
* Cinematic music, original music writte ...
run mostly to drive-in theaters, saw little box-office success. On March 5, 1974, Cooper appeared on episode 3 of ''
The Snoop Sisters
''The Snoop Sisters'' is an American comedy-mystery television show that aired on NBC during the 1973–1974 season, airing on a monthly rotation (referred to as a "wheel") as part of the '' NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie'', sharing the timeslot with ...
'' playing a Satanic cult singer. The final shows by Alice Cooper as a group were in Brazil in March and April 1974, including the record indoor attendance estimated as high as 158,000 fans in São Paulo on March 30, at the Anhembi Exposition Hall at the start of the first ever South American rock tour.
In 1975, Alice Cooper returned as a solo artist with the release of ''
Welcome to My Nightmare''. To avoid legal complications over ownership of the group name, "Alice Cooper" had by then become the singer's new legal name. Speaking on the subject of Alice Cooper continuing as a solo project as opposed to the band it once was, Cooper stated in 1975, "It got very basically down to the fact that we had drawn as much as we could out of each other. After ten years, we got pretty dry together." Manager Gordon added, "What had started in a sense as a pipe-dream became an overwhelming burden."
The success of ''
Welcome to My Nightmare'' marked the final break-up of the original members of the band, with Cooper collaborating with their producer Bob Ezrin, who recruited
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...
's backing band, including guitarists
Dick Wagner and
Steve Hunter
Stephen John Hunter (born June 14, 1948) is an American guitarist, primarily a session player. He has worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, acquiring the moniker "The Deacon". Hunter first played with Mitch Ryder's Detroit, beginning a long as ...
, to play on the album. Spearheaded by the US Top 20 hit ballad "
Only Women Bleed
"Only Women Bleed" is a song by Alice Cooper, released on his debut solo album '' Welcome to My Nightmare'' in 1975. It was written by Cooper and Dick Wagner, and was the second single from the album to be released.
Background
It is a ballad abo ...
", the album was released by
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
in March of that year and became a Top 10 hit for Cooper. It was a concept album that was based on the nightmare of a child named Steven, featuring narration by classic horror movie film star
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...
, and serving as the soundtrack to Cooper's new stage show, which now showcased more theatrics than ever, including an furry
Cyclops
In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; el, Κύκλωπες, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguish ...
which Cooper decapitated and killed.
Accompanying the album and stage show was the television special ''The Nightmare'', starring Cooper and
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...
, which aired on US prime-time TV in April 1975. ''The Nightmare'' (which was later released on home video in 1983 and gained a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
nomination for
Best Long Form Music Video
The Grammy Award for Best Music Film is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally named the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality videos or musical programs. ...
) was regarded as another groundbreaking moment in rock history. Adding to it all, a concert film, ''
Welcome to My Nightmare'', produced, directed, and choreographed by ''
West Side Story
''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...
'' cast member
David Winters and filmed live at London's
Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena (originally the Empire Pool, now known as OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, London, England, used for music, comedy, family entertainment and sport. The 12,500-sea ...
in September 1975, was released to theaters in 1976. The film was released in a special edition DVD in 2017.
Such was the immense success of Cooper's solo project that he decided to continue as a solo artist, and the original band became officially defunct. Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith would go on to form the short-lived band Billion Dollar Babies, producing one studio album—''Battle Axe''—in 1977. While occasionally performing with one another and
Glen Buxton
Glen Edward Buxton (November 10, 1947 – October 19, 1997) was an American musician, best known as the lead guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper. In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him number 90 on its list of the "100 Greatest Guita ...
, they would not reunite with Alice until October 23, 1999, at the second Glen Buxton Memorial Weekend for a show at CoopersTown in Phoenix. They reunited for another show, with
Steve Hunter
Stephen John Hunter (born June 14, 1948) is an American guitarist, primarily a session player. He has worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, acquiring the moniker "The Deacon". Hunter first played with Mitch Ryder's Detroit, beginning a long as ...
on guitar, on December 16, 2010, at the
Dodge Theatre in Phoenix. This line-up would perform together again (televised) on March 14, 2011, at the induction of the original Alice Cooper group into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
, as well as on May 11, 2011, at London's
Battersea Power Station at the
Jägermeister Ice Cold 4D event (webcast). In 2011, Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith appeared on three tracks they co-wrote on Alice's solo studio album ''
Welcome 2 My Nightmare
''Welcome 2 My Nightmare'' (also known as ''Welcome to My Nightmare 2'') is the nineteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in September 2011. Peaking at No. 22 in the ''Billboard'' 200 it is Cooper's highest-charting al ...
''. In 2017, they appeared on two tracks they co-wrote on Alice's solo studio album ''
Paranormal'', released in July, and in November they joined his current live band for five tour dates in the United Kingdom.
Following the 1976 US No. 12 ballad hit "
I Never Cry
"I Never Cry" is a song by American rock singer Alice Cooper. It was originally released on his ''Alice Cooper Goes to Hell'' album in 1976. The song was written by Cooper and Dick Wagner.
Background
On an episode of his radio show broadcast on N ...
";
two studio albums, ''
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell
''Alice Cooper Goes to Hell'' is the second solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in 1976. A continuation of '' Welcome to My Nightmare'' as it continues the story of Steven, the concept album was written by Cooper with guit ...
'' and ''
Lace and Whiskey
''Lace and Whiskey'' is the third solo and tenth overall studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released on April 29, 1977 by Warner Bros. Records.
Background
After many years of portraying a dark and sinister persona Alice Cooper d ...
''; and the 1977 US No. 9 ballad hit "
You and Me", it became clear during his 1977 US tour that Cooper was in dire need of help with his alcoholism (at his alcoholic peak it was rumored that he was consuming up to two cases of the beer
Budweiser and a bottle of the whiskey
Seagram's Seven Crown a day). Following the tour, Cooper had himself hospitalized in a sanitarium for treatment, during which time the live album ''
The Alice Cooper Show
''The Alice Cooper Show'' is a live album by Alice Cooper, released by Warner Bros. in December 1977.
It was recorded live in Las Vegas at the Aladdin Hotel on August 19 and 20, 1977, during Cooper's "King of the Silver Screen" United States ...
'' was released.
![Alice Cooper 1977](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Alice_Cooper_1977.JPG)
In 1978, a
sobered Cooper used his experience in the sanitarium as the inspiration for his semi-autobiographical studio album ''
From the Inside'', which he co-wrote with
Bernie Taupin
Bernard John Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English songwriter, singer and visual artist. He is best known for his long-term collaboration with musician Elton John, a songwriting partnership that is one of the most successful in history. Tau ...
; it spawned yet another US Top 20 hit ballad, "
How You Gonna See Me Now
"How You Gonna See Me Now" is a song written by Alice Cooper, Bernie Taupin, and Dick Wagner, performed by Cooper and produced by David Foster. It was released on Cooper’s album, '' From the Inside''.
The song reached number nine in Australia ...
". The subsequent tour's stage show was based inside an asylum, and was filmed for Cooper's first home-video release, ''
The Strange Case of Alice Cooper
''The Strange Case of Alice Cooper'' is a live concert video released in September 1979, of Alice Cooper performing with his backing band '' The Ultra Latex Band''. The concert was filmed on April 9, 1979 during Cooper's 'Madhouse Rock' Tour in S ...
'', in 1979. Around this time, Cooper performed "Welcome to My Nightmare", "You and Me", and "School's Out" on ''
The Muppet Show
''The Muppet Show'' is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and featuring the Muppets. The series originated as two pilot episodes produced by Henson for ABC in 1974 and 1975. While neither episode was moved forward as a ser ...
'' (episode #307) on March 28, 1978 (he played one of the
devil
A devil is the personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conceptions of t ...
's henchmen trying to dupe
Kermit,
Gonzo
Gonzo may refer to:
People
* Gonzo (nickname), a list of people with the nickname
* Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (born 1964), Croatian music video director Radislav Jovanov, also known as Gonzo
* Matthias Röhr (born 1962), German musician whose stage ...
and Miss Piggy into selling their souls). He also appeared in an against-typecasting role as a piano-playing disco waiter in
Mae West's final film, ''
Sextette
''Sextette'' is a 1978 American musical comedy film directed by Ken Hughes and released by Crown International Pictures. It stars Mae West, alongside an ensemble cast including Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Ge ...
'', and as a villain in the film ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' is the eighth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Released on 26May 1967, ''Sgt. Pepper'' is regarded by musicologists as an early concept album that advanced the roles of sound composi ...
''. Cooper also led celebrities in raising money to remodel the famous
Hollywood Sign
The Hollywood Sign is an American landmark and cultural icon overlooking Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Originally the Hollywoodland Sign, it is situated on Mount Lee, in the Beachwood Canyon area of the Santa Monica Mountains. Spelling ...
in Los Angeles, California. Cooper himself contributed over $27,000 to the project, buying an O in the sign in memory of close friend and comedian
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
. In 1979, Alice also guest starred on good friend
Soupy Sales' show, ''
Lunch with Soupy Sales'' and was hit in the face with a pie, as part of the show. When asked about the experience, Alice had this to say about his pal: "Being from Detroit, I came home every day and watched Soupy at lunch (Lunch with Soupy Sales). One of the greatest moments of my life was getting pie-faced by Soupy. He was one of my all time heroes."
1980s
Cooper's studio albums from the beginning of the 1980s have been referred to by Cooper as his "blackout albums" because he cannot remember recording them, owing to the influence of illicit substances. ''
Flush the Fashion
''Flush the Fashion'' is the fifth solo studio album by American singer Alice Cooper, released on April 28, 1980 by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles with producer Roy Thomas Baker, known for his work with Qu ...
'' (1980), ''
Special Forces
Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
'' (1981), ''
Zipper Catches Skin
''Zipper Catches Skin'' is the seventh solo studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released on August 25, 1982 by Warner Bros. Records.
Album background
The album was co-produced by bassist Erik Scott alongside Cooper. Cooper blended ...
'' (1982) and ''
DaDa'' (1983) saw a gradual commercial decline, with the last two not denting the ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' Top 200. ''Flush the Fashion'', produced by
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
producer
Roy Thomas Baker, had a thick, edgy
new wave musical sound that baffled even longtime fans, though it still yielded the US Top 40 hit "
Clones (We're All)
"Clones (We're All)" is a 1980 single by American rock singer Alice Cooper taken from his fifth solo studio album ''Flush the Fashion'' (1980).
Background
The song is about forced conformity. Cooper reports that he wanted to do the song because h ...
". The track also surprisingly charted on the US dance chart. ''Special Forces'' featured a more aggressive but consistent new wave style, and included a new version of "Generation Landslide". His tour for ''Special Forces'' marked Cooper's last time on the road for nearly five years; it was not until 1986, for ''
Constrictor'', that he toured again. 1982's ''Zipper Catches Skin'' was a more
pop punk
Pop punk (or punk pop) is a rock music genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop. It is defined for its emphasis on classic pop songcraft, as well as adolescent and anti-suburbia themes, and is distinguished from other pu ...
-oriented recording, containing many quirky high-energy guitar-driven songs along with his most unusual collection of subject matters for lyrics. 1983 marked the return collaboration of producer
Bob Ezrin and guitarist
Dick Wagner for the haunting epic ''DaDa'', the final studio album in his Warner Bros. contract.
In mid-1983, after the recording of ''DaDa'', Cooper was hospitalized for alcoholism again, and
cirrhosis
Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease, is the impaired liver function caused by the formation of scar tissue known as fibrosis due to damage caused by liver disease. Damage causes tissue repai ...
of the liver. Cooper was finally stable and sober (and has remained sober since that time) by the time ''DaDa'' and ''The Nightmare'' home video (of his 1975 TV Special) were released in the fall of that year; however, both releases performed below expectations. Even with ''The Nightmare'' scoring a nomination for 1984's
Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video
The Grammy Award for Best Music Film is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally named the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality videos or musical programs. ...
(he lost to
Duran Duran
Duran Duran () are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1978 by singer and bassist Stephen Duffy, keyboardist Nick Rhodes and guitarist/bassist John Taylor (bass guitarist), John Taylor. With the addition of drummer Roger ...
), it was not enough for Warner Bros. to keep Cooper on their books. By February 1984, Cooper became a "free agent" for the first time in his career.
Cooper spent a lengthy period away from the music business dealing with personal issues. His divorce from Sheryl Cooper was heard at Maricopa County Superior Court, Arizona, on January 30, 1984, but a decision was made by the couple not to move forward with the divorce. The following month he guested at the
26th Annual Grammy Awards
The 26th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 28, 1984, at Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, and were broadcast live on American television. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1983. Michael Jackson, who had been recove ...
alongside co-presenter
Grace Jones
Grace Beverly Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a model, singer and actress. Born in Jamaica, she and her family moved to Syracuse, New York, when she was a teenager. Jones began her modelling career in New York state, then in Paris, working for ...
. Behind the scenes Cooper kept busy musically, working on new material in collaboration with
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whi ...
guitarist
Joe Perry. The spring of 1984 was taken up with filming, Cooper acting in the
B-grade
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
horror movie ''
Monster Dog'', filmed in
Torrelodones
Torrelodones is a municipality in the northwest of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Spain. It is situated 29 kilometers northwest from the city of Madrid. Because of its location between the Sierra de Guadarrama and the metropolitan area of the ...
, Spain. Shortly thereafter he reconciled with Sheryl; the couple relocated to Chicago. The year closed with more writing sessions, this time in New York during November with ''
Hanoi Rocks'' guitarist
Andy McCoy. In 1985, he met and began writing songs with guitarist
Kane Roberts. Cooper was subsequently signed to
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group.
Pre-history
MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...
, and appeared as guest vocalist on
Twisted Sister
Twisted Sister was an American heavy metal band originally from Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey, and later based on Long Island, New York. Their best-known songs include " We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock", both of which were associated with m ...
's song "Be Chrool to Your Scuel". A video was made for the song, featuring actor
Luke Perry and Cooper donning his black snake-eyes makeup for the first time since 1979, but neither the song nor the video drew public interest.
In 1986, Alice Cooper officially returned to the music industry with the studio album ''
Constrictor''. The album spawned the hits "
He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)
"He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" is a song by American shock rock musician Alice Cooper. It was released as the lead single from his 1986 album '' Constrictor.''
The song features the famous "ki-ki-ki ma-ma-ma" (in its popular misheard ver ...
" (the theme song for the movie ''
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives''; in the video for the song Cooper was given a cameo role as a deranged psychiatrist) and the fan favorite "Teenage Frankenstein". The ''Constrictor'' album was a catalyst for Cooper to make a triumphant return to the road for the first time since the 1981 ''Special Forces'' project, on a tour titled ''The Nightmare Returns''. The Detroit leg of this tour, which took place at the end of October 1986 during
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
, was captured on film as ''
The Nightmare Returns
''The Nightmare Returns'' is a live concert video of Alice Cooper.
The concert was filmed live in Detroit, Michigan, USA on Halloween 1986 at the start of his "The Nightmare Returns" World Tour, in support of his album '' Constrictor''.
This vid ...
'', and is viewed by some as being the definitive Alice Cooper concert film. It was released on DVD in 2006. The concert, which received rave reviews in the rock music press,
[For example, see the November 13, 1986, issue of ''Kerrang!'' music magazine, whose front cover bears the headline 'The Night He Came Home ... Alice Knocks 'Em Dead in Detroit'.] was also described by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as bringing "Cooper's violent, twisted onstage fantasies to a new generation". The ''Constrictor'' album was followed by ''
Raise Your Fist and Yell'' in 1987, which had an even rougher sound than its predecessor, as well as the Cooper classic "
Freedom
Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...
". The subsequent tour of ''Raise Your Fist and Yell'', which was heavily inspired by the slasher horror movies of the time such as the ''
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday, which happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. ...
'' series and ''
A Nightmare on Elm Street'', served up a shocking spectacle similar to its predecessor, and courted the kind of controversy, especially in Europe, that recalled the public outrage caused by Cooper's public performances in America in the early 1970s.
In Britain, Labour MP
David Blunkett called for the show to be banned, saying "I'm horrified by his behaviour – it goes beyond the bounds of entertainment." The controversy spilled over into the German segment of the tour, with the German government actually succeeding in having some of the gorier segments of the performance removed. It was also during the London leg of the tour that Cooper met with a near fatal accident during rehearsal of the hanging execution sequence that occurs at the end of the show.
''Constrictor'' (1986) and ''Raise Your Fist and Yell'' (1987) were recorded with lead guitarist
Kane Roberts and bassist
Kip Winger, both of whom would leave the band by the end of 1988 (although Kane Roberts played guitar on "
Bed of Nails
A bed of nails is an oblong piece of wood, the size of a bed, with nails pointing upwards out of it. It appears to the spectator that anyone lying on this "bed" would be injured by the nails, but this is not so. Assuming the nails are numerous ...
" on Cooper's 1989 studio album ''
Trash'').
In 1987, Cooper made a brief appearance as a vagrant in the horror movie ''
Prince of Darkness'', directed by
John Carpenter. His role had no lines and consisted of generally menacing the protagonists before eventually impaling one of them with a bicycle frame.
Also in 1987, Cooper appeared at ''
WrestleMania III'', escorting wrestler
Jake "The Snake" Roberts to the ring for his match against
The Honky Tonk Man
Roy Wayne Farris (born January 25, 1953), better known by the ring name The Honky Tonk Man, is an American retired professional wrestler. He previously wrestled for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) ...
. After the match, which Roberts lost, ended, Cooper got involved and threw Jake's snake Damien at Honky's manager
Jimmy Hart
James Ray Hart (born January 1, 1944) is an American professional wrestling manager, executive, composer, and musician currently signed with WWE in a Legends deal. He is best known for his work in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and World ...
. Roberts considered the involvement of Cooper to be an honor, as he had idolized Cooper in his youth and was still a huge fan. ''WrestleMania III'', which attracted a
WWF record 93,173 fans, was held in the
Pontiac Silverdome near Cooper's home town of Detroit.
Cooper recorded a music video for the "Poison" B-side "
I Got a Line on You
"I Got a Line on You" is a rock song by American rock band Spirit, originally recorded during the sessions for their second album, '' The Family That Plays Together'', between March 11 and September 18, 1968. Widely considered to be a rock classic ...
" after the song was featured on the soundtrack to ''
Iron Eagle II
''Iron Eagle II'' (also titled ''Iron Eagle II: The Battle Beyond the Flag'') is a 1988 action film directed by Sidney J. Furie and written by Furie and Kevin Alyn Elders. It is the first sequel to the 1986 film '' Iron Eagle'', with Louis Gosse ...
'' (1988).
On April 7, 1988, Cooper nearly died of asphyxiation after a safety rope broke during a rehearsal concert wherein he pretended to hang himself, a stunt he would often perform during live concerts.
In 1988, Cooper's contract with MCA Records expired and he signed with
Epic Records
Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America
Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...
. Then in 1989 his career finally experienced a legitimate revival with the
Desmond Child
John Charles Barrett (born October 28, 1953), known professionally as Desmond Child, is an American songwriter and producer. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.
His hits as a songwriter include Kiss's "I Was Made for Lovi ...
produced and
Grammy
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
-nominated studio album ''
Trash'', which spawned a hit single "
Poison
Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...
", which reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 7 in the US, and a worldwide
arena tour.
1990s
In 1991, Cooper released his nineteenth studio album ''
Hey Stoopid
''Hey Stoopid'' is the twelfth solo studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released on July 2, 1991, by Epic Records. After his smash 1989 hit album ''Trash'', Cooper attempted to continue his success with his follow-up album, which ...
'' featuring several notable rock musicians guesting on the record. Released as
glam metal's popularity was on the wane, and just before the explosion of
grunge
Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...
, it failed to have the same commercial impact as its predecessor. The same year also saw the release of the video ''Alice Cooper: Prime Cuts'' which chronicled his entire career using in depth interviews with Cooper himself, Bob Ezrin, and Shep Gordon. One critic has noted that ''Prime Cuts'' demonstrates how Cooper had used (in contrast to similar artists who succeeded him) themes of satire and moralization to such good effect throughout his career. It was in the ''Prime Cuts'' video that Bob Ezrin delivered his own summation of the Alice Cooper persona: "He is the psycho killer in all of us. He's the axe murderer, he's the spoiled child, he's the abuser, he's the abused; he's the perpetrator, he's the victim, he's the gun slinger, and he's the guy lying dead in the middle of the street".
During the early 1990s, Cooper guested on records by the most successful bands of the time, such as the
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...
third studio album ''
Use Your Illusion I'', on which he shared vocal duties with
Axl Rose on the track "
The Garden". He also had a brief appearance as the abusive stepfather of
Freddy Krueger in the ''
A Nightmare on Elm Street'' film ''
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' (1991).
Cooper made a cameo appearance in the 1992 comedy film ''
Wayne's World
"Wayne's World" was originally a recurring sketch from the NBC television series ''Saturday Night Live''. It evolved from a segment titled "Wayne's Power Minute" (1987) on the CBC Television series '' It's Only Rock & Roll'', as the main characte ...
''. Cooper and his band first appear on stage performing "
Feed My Frankenstein
"Feed My Frankenstein" is a song originally written and originally by British hard rock band Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction for their album '' Hoodlum Thunder''. American singer Alice Cooper covered it on his 19th solo studio album, ''H ...
" from their studio album ''Hey Stoopid''. Afterwards at a backstage party, the movie's main characters Wayne Cambell and Garth Algar discover that when offstage, Cooper is a calm, articulate intellectual as he and his band discuss the history of
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
in depth. Wayne and Garth respond to an invitation to hang out with Cooper by kneeling and bowing reverently before him while chanting "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"
In 1994, Cooper released ''
The Last Temptation'', his first concept album since ''DaDa'' (1983). The album deals with issues of faith, temptation, alienation and the frustrations of modern life, and has been described as "a young man's struggle to see the truth through the distractions of the 'Sideshow' of the modern world". Concurrent with the release of ''The Last Temptation'' was a three-part comic book series written by
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...
, fleshing out the album's story. This was to be Cooper's last album with Epic Records since according to Brian 'Renfield' Nelson, Cooper's personal assistant, "Alice was interested in going to Hollywood Records even before 'The Last Temptation' was released because Bob Pfeifer, who originally signed Alice to Epic, was now the President of Hollywood Records. After 'The Last Temptation' was finished, Alice requested that
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
/Epic let him go so that he could make the switch to Hollywood. He just wanted to go where his friends are." and was his last studio release for six years, though during this period the live album ''
A Fistful of Alice
''A Fistful of Alice'' is a live album by American hard rock singer Alice Cooper. It was released on July 29, 1997, and was recorded the previous year at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo club in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Slash plays guitar for part of the ...
'' (1997) was released, and in 1997 he lent his voice to the intro track of
Insane Clown Posse
Insane Clown Posse, often abbreviated as ICP, is an American hip hop duo. Formed in Detroit in 1989 as a gangsta rap group, ICP's best known lineup consists of rappers Violent J (Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (originally 2 Dope; Joseph Utsler ...
's ''
The Great Milenko
''The Great Milenko'' is the fourth studio album by American hip hop group Insane Clown Posse, released on June 24, 1997 by Hollywood Records in association with Psychopathic Records. As the fourth Joker's Card in the group's Dark Carnival m ...
''.
During his absence from the recording studio, Cooper toured extensively every year throughout the latter part of the 1990s, including, in 1996, South America, which he had not visited since 1974. Also in 1996, Cooper sang the role of
Herod on the London cast recording of the musical ''
Jesus Christ Superstar
''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is a sung-through rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice. Loosely based on the Gospels' accounts of the Passion, the work interprets the psychology of Jesus and other characters, with ...
''.
In 1999, the four-disc box set ''
The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper
''The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper'' (1999) is a 4-CD box set by Alice Cooper. It includes select tracks from every studio album released until then, plus many B-sides, unreleased songs, and other rarities. It also includes Alice Cooper's auth ...
'' appeared, which contained the authorized biography of Cooper, ''Alcohol and Razor Blades, Poison and Needles: The Glorious Wretched Excess of Alice Cooper, All-American'', written by ''
Creem'' magazine editor
Jeffrey Morgan.
2000s
![Cooper, Alice (Flickr)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Cooper%2C_Alice_%28Flickr%29.jpg)
The first decade of the 21st century saw a sustained period of activity from Alice Cooper, the decade in which he would turn sixty. He toured extensively releasing a steady stream of studio albums to favorable critical acclaim. Beginning in 2000 with ''
Brutal Planet
''Brutal Planet'' is the fourteenth solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in 2000. Musically, this finds Alice tackling a much darker and heavier approach than on previous albums, with many songs approaching a somew ...
'', a return to horror-filled heavy metal,
industrial rock
Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Cromagnon, Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten a ...
, set in a
dystopia
A dystopia (from Ancient Greek δυσ- "bad, hard" and τόπος "place"; alternatively cacotopiaCacotopia (from κακός ''kakos'' "bad") was the term used by Jeremy Bentham in his 1818 Plan of Parliamentary Reform (Works, vol. 3, p. 493). ...
n post-apocalyptic future, inspired by our brutal modern world, and a number of current news stories appearing on
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...
.
The album was produced by
Bob Marlette, with longtime Cooper production collaborator
Bob Ezrin returning as executive producer. The accompanying world tour, which included Cooper's first concert in Russia, also resulted in ''
Brutally Live'', a DVD of a concert, recorded in London, England, on July 19, 2000.
Cooper made a guest appearance on a 2001, 3rd-season episode of ''
That '70s Show
''That '70s Show'' is an American television Period piece, period teen sitcom that aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from August 23, 1998, to May 18, 2006. The series focuses on the lives of a group of six teenage friends living in the ficti ...
'', "Radio Daze" in which he partakes in a game of ''
Dungeons & Dragons''.
''Brutal Planet'' was succeeded by the sonically similar and acclaimed sequel ''
Dragontown
''Dragontown'' is the fifteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper. It was released in 2001 on Spitfire Records. Like ''Brutal Planet'', the album displays a heavier metal style than many of his previous releases. It peaked on Billb ...
'', which saw
Bob Ezrin back as producer. The album has been described as leading the listener down "a nightmarish path into the mind of rock's original conceptual storyteller" and by Cooper himself as being "the worst town on Brutal Planet". Like ''The Last Temptation'', both ''Brutal Planet'' and ''Dragontown'' are albums which explore Cooper's born again Christianity. It is often cited in the music media that ''Dragontown'' forms the third chapter in a trilogy begun with ''The Last Temptation''; however, Cooper has indicated that this in fact is not the case.
Cooper again adopted a leaner, cleaner sound for his critically acclaimed 2003 release ''The Eyes of Alice Cooper''. Recognizing that many contemporary bands were having great success with his former sounds and styles, Cooper worked with a somewhat younger group of road and studio musicians who were familiar with his oeuvre of old. The resulting ''Bare Bones'' tour adopted a less-orchestrated performance style that had fewer theatrical flourishes and a greater emphasis on musicality.
Cooper's radio show ''
Nights with Alice Cooper'' began airing on January 26, 2004, in several US cities. The program showcases classic rock, Cooper's personal stories about his life as a rock icon and interviews with prominent rock artists. The show is broadcast on nearly 100 stations in the US and Canada, and has been broadcast internationally.
A continuation of the songwriting approach adopted on ''The Eyes of Alice Cooper'' was again adopted by Cooper for his twenty-fourth studio album ''Dirty Diamonds'', released in 2005. ''Dirty Diamonds'' became Cooper's highest-charting album since 1994's ''The Last Temptation'' at the time. The Dirty Diamonds tour launched in America in August 2005 after several European concerts, including a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on July 12. Cooper and his band, including Kiss (band), Kiss drummer Eric Singer, were filmed for a DVD released as ''Live at Montreux (Alice Cooper album), Alice Cooper: Live at Montreux 2005''. One critic, in a review of the Montreux release, commented that Cooper was to be applauded for "still mining pretty much the same territory of teenage angst and rebellion" as he had done more than 30 years previously.
In December 2006, the original Alice Cooper band reunited to perform six classic Alice Cooper songs at Cooper's annual charity event in Phoenix, entitled "Christmas Pudding".
[Damon Johnson, a guitarist in Cooper's then band, filled in for the deceased Glen Buxton.]
On July 1, 2007, Cooper performed a duet with Marilyn Manson at the B'Estival event in Bucharest, Romania. The performance represented a reconciliation between the two artists; Cooper had previously taken issue with Manson over his overtly anti-Christian on-stage antics and had sarcastically made reference to the originality of Manson's choosing a female name and dressing in women's clothing.
Cooper and Manson have been the subject of an academic paper on the significance of adolescent antiheroes.
In January 2008, Cooper was one of the guest singers on Avantasia's third studio album ''The Scarecrow (album), The Scarecrow'', singing the seventh track "The Toy Master". In July 2008, after lengthy delays, Cooper released ''Along Came a Spider (album), Along Came a Spider'', his twenty-fifth studio album. It was Cooper's highest-charting album since 1991's ''Hey Stoopid'', reaching No. 53 in the US and No. 31 in the UK. The album, visiting similar territory explored in 1987's ''Raise Your Fist and Yell'', deals with the nefarious antics of a deranged serial killer named "Spider" who is on a quest to use the limbs of his victims to create a human spider. The album generally received positive reviews from music critics, though ''Rolling Stone'' magazine opined that the music on the record sorely missed Bob Ezrin's production values. The resulting ''Theatre of Death'' tour of the album (during which Cooper is executed on four separate occasions) was described in a long November 2009 article about Cooper in ''The Times'' as "epic" and featuring "enough fake blood to remake ''Saving Private Ryan''".
During this period Cooper was also recognized and awarded in various ways: given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003; in May 2004 he received an honorary doctoral degree from Grand Canyon University. In June 2005, he was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.
In May 2006 he was given the key to the city of Alice, North Dakota. He won the living legend award at the 2006 Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards event; and he won the 2007 ''Mojo (magazine), Mojo'' music magazine Hero Award. He received a Rock Immortal award at the 2007 Scream Awards.
2010s and 2020s
![Alice Cooper, olympiastadion, Helsinki, 8](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Alice_Cooper%2C_olympiastadion%2C_Helsinki%2C_8.7.2011_%2812%29.JPG)
In January 2010, it was announced that Cooper would be touring with Rob Zombie on The Gruesome Twosome Tour. In May 2010, Cooper made an appearance during the beginning of the season finale of the reality-show ''American Idol'', in which he sang "
School's Out".
![Alice Cooper Live in London 2012-10-28](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Alice_Cooper_Live_in_London_2012-10-28.jpg)
With his daughter, and former band member
Dick Wagner, Cooper scored the music for the indie horror flick ''Silas Gore''.
During 2010, Cooper began working on a new studio album, dubbed ''
Welcome 2 My Nightmare
''Welcome 2 My Nightmare'' (also known as ''Welcome to My Nightmare 2'') is the nineteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in September 2011. Peaking at No. 22 in the ''Billboard'' 200 it is Cooper's highest-charting al ...
'', a sequel to the original ''Welcome to My Nightmare''.
In a Radio Metal interview, he said that "We'll put some of the original people on it and add some new people ... I'm very happy with working with Bob (Ezrin) again."
On December 15, 2010, it was announced Cooper and his former band would be inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
. The induction ceremony took place March 14, 2011, where Cooper was inducted by fellow horror-rocker Rob Zombie. Original members Bruce, Cooper, Dunaway, and Smith all made brief acceptance speeches and performed "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out" live together, with Steve Hunter filling in for the late Glen Buxton. Cooper showed up for the event wearing a (presumably fake) blood-splattered shirt and had a live albino Burmese python wrapped around his neck.
Cooper told ''Rolling Stone'' magazine that he was "elated" by the news and that the nomination had been made for the original band, as "We all did go to the same high school together, and we were all on the track team, and it was pretty cool that guys that knew each other before the band ended up going that far".
On March 10, 2011, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Cooper, Jennifer Warnes, and others performed at a benefit concert in Tucson, Arizona, benefiting The Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding, a foundation that raises awareness about and provides medical prevention and treatment services to people with mental disorders. In June 2011 Cooper took his place in the Reasonably Priced Car at the BBC auto show ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), Top Gear''.
On June 9, 2011, Cooper was awarded the Kerrang! Awards, ''Kerrang! Icon Award'' at ''Kerrang!'' magazine's annual awards show. Cooper used the opportunity to hit out at the "anaemic" rock music that dominates the charts, and said he has no intention of retiring from the industry.
Cooper supported Iron Maiden on their Maiden England World Tour from June to July 21, 2012, and then headlined Bloodstock Open Air on Sunday August 12. On September 16, 2012, Cooper appeared at the The College of Medicine, Sunflower Jam charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, performing alongside Brian May lead guitarist of
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
, bassist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, drummer Ian Paice of Deep Purple, and Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
Cooper cameos as himself in the 2012 Tim Burton Dark Shadows (film), adaptation of ''Dark Shadows'' that starred Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter. In the film, Depp's character Barnabas Collins, assumes his name to be that of a woman, describes Alice as the ugliest woman he has ever seen.
In 2013, Cooper announced that he had finished recording a covers album, based on songs by his rock star drinking buddies in the 1970s who had since died from excess, and that it was scheduled for a spring 2014 release. Later he announced that the album would likely be released in 2015.
On January 28, 2014, it was officially revealed that Alice Cooper would be the opening act for Mötley Crüe's final tour, which would span throughout 2014 and 2015. Cooper was featured on the song "Savages (Theory of a Deadman album), Savages" on Theory of a Deadman's fifth studio album.
Cooper was the subject of ''Super Duper Alice Cooper'', a biographical documentary film by Canadian directors Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen and Reginald Harkema. The film won a Canadian Screen Awards, Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015. In October, Cooper released the live album and video ''Raise the Dead: Live from Wacken'', which was recorded at Germany's Wacken Open Air, Wacken heavy metal festival the previous year.
In 2015, Cooper premiered Hollywood Vampires (band), Hollywood Vampires, a supergroup (music), supergroup featuring Johnny Depp and
Joe Perry with a new studio album of rock covers, featuring many guest artists including Paul McCartney, and live dates at L.A.'s Roxy Theatre (West Hollywood), Roxy Theatre and at Brazil's Rock in Rio festival in September. In 2016, Cooper made headlines again as he resumed his running gag of campaigning for the US presidency.
Cooper featured as a co-headliner with Deep Purple and Edgar Winter for several tour dates from August to early September 2017.
Cooper released the studio album ''
Paranormal'' in July 2017. It featured contributions from drummer Larry Mullen Jr. of U2, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top on guitar and Roger Glover from Deep Purple on bass guitar. Guitarists Tommy Denander and Tommy Henriksen contributed most of the guitars.
![Alice Cooper performing at Caesars Windsor, 2022-09-11 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Alice_Cooper_performing_at_Caesars_Windsor%2C_2022-09-11_01.jpg)
On Easter Sunday, 2018, Cooper performed as
Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert, NBC's live performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Andrew Lloyd Weber's ''Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert''. Reviews were positive, with ''The New York Times'' critic Noel Murray praising "Alice Cooper's magnificently scenery-chewing performance" as a "startling moment of clarity," and Lorraine Ali of the ''Los Angeles Times'' describing his performance as, "Weird? Yes, but also perfect in a campy, dramatic and evil 'Billion Dollar Babies' kind of way. Cooper's part was small but indelible." Cooper had previously recorded the song (though not performed it live) in 2000, with the 1996 London revival cast.
Cooper released his twenty-first solo studio album, ''Detroit Stories'', on February 26, 2021. In May, he announced a fall tour to promote the album, supported by Ace Frehley, set to begin in September 2021.
Cooper wrote the afterword to
Jeffrey Morgan's autobiography ''Rock Critic Confidential'' which was published by New Haven on June 28, 2021.
Cooper participated as a judge on the competition TV show ''Hit Parader's No Cover, No Cover'' season 1 that started to be aired in the Sumerian Records YouTube Channel in April 2022.
On July 11, 2022, touring guitarist Nita Strauss announced she had departed the band. A few days later, it was announced
Kane Roberts had rejoined the band, replacing Strauss.
Style and influences
During an interview for the program ''Entertainment USA'' in 1986, Cooper told interviewer Jonathan King that the Yardbirds were his favorite band of all time. Cooper had as far back as 1969 said that it was music from the mid-sixties, and particularly from British bands
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, the Who, and
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
, as well as the Yardbirds, that had the greatest influence on him.
Cooper would later pay homage to the Who by singing "I'm a Boy" for ''A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who'' in 1994 at Carnegie Hall in New York, and performing a cover of "My Generation" on the ''Brutal Planet'' tour of 2000. During an interview with Ozzy Osbourne from radio program ''Nights with Alice Cooper'' on May 22, 2007, Cooper again affirmed his debt of gratitude to these bands, and to the Beatles in particular. During their discussion, Cooper and Osbourne bemoaned the often inferior quality of songwriting coming from contemporary rock artists. Cooper stated that in his opinion the cause of the problem was that certain modern bands "had forgotten to listen to the Beatles".
![The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (15559408036)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/The_Crazy_World_of_Arthur_Brown_%2815559408036%29.jpg)
On seeing shock rock pioneer Arthur Brown (musician), Arthur Brown performing his US number two hit "Fire (Arthur Brown song), Fire" in 1968, Cooper states, "Can you imagine the young Alice Cooper watching that with all his make-up and hellish performance? It was like all my Halloweens came at once!" A 2014 article on Alice Cooper in ''The Guardian'' mentioned Arthur Brown and his flaming helmet, "British rock always was more theatrical than its US counterpart. Often this involved destruction or macabre gimmickry", with Cooper responding, "That's why most people thought we were British at first."
Evidence of Cooper's eclectic tastes in classic and contemporary rock music can be seen in the track listings of his radio show; in addition, when he appeared on the BBC Radio 2 program ''Tracks of My Years'' in September 2007, he listed his favorite tracks of all time as being: "19th Nervous Breakdown" (1966) by the Rolling Stones; "Turning Japanese" (1980) by the Vapors; "My Sharona" (1979) by the Knack; "Beds Are Burning" (1987) by Midnight Oil; "My Generation" (1965) by the Who; "Welcome to the Jungle" (1987) by Guns N' Roses; "Rebel Rebel" (1974) by David Bowie; "Over Under Sideways Down" (1966) by the Yardbirds; "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" (2003) by Jet (band), Jet; and "A Hard Day's Night (song), A Hard Day's Night" (1964) by the Beatles, and when he appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2010 he chose the songs "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" by the Yardbirds; "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys; "I'm a Boy" by the Who; "Timer" by Laura Nyro; "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson; "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction; "Work Song" by Paul Butterfield, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; and "Ballad of a Thin Man" by Bob Dylan.
Rob Zombie, former front man of White Zombie (band), White Zombie, claims his first "metal moment" was seeing Alice Cooper on ''Don Kirshner's Rock Concert''. Zombie has also claimed to have been heavily influenced by Cooper's costumes.
In a 1978 interview with ''Rolling Stone'', Bob Dylan stated, "I think Alice Cooper is an overlooked songwriter."
In the foreword to Alice Cooper's CD retrospective box set ''
The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper
''The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper'' (1999) is a 4-CD box set by Alice Cooper. It includes select tracks from every studio album released until then, plus many B-sides, unreleased songs, and other rarities. It also includes Alice Cooper's auth ...
'', John Lydon of the Sex Pistols pronounced ''
Killer
A killer is someone or something that kills, such as a murderer or a serial killer.
Killer may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Killer (''Home and Away''), a character from ''Home and Away''
* Killer Kane, ...
'' (1971) as the greatest rock album of all time, and in 2002 Lydon presented his own tribute program to Cooper on BBC radio. Lydon told the BBC that "I know the words to every Alice Cooper song. The fact is, if you can call what I have a musical career, it all started with me miming to 'I'm Eighteen' on a jukebox."
The Flaming Lips are longtime Alice Cooper fans and used the bass line from "Levity Ball" (an early song from the 1969 release ''Pretties for You'') for their song "The Ceiling Is Bending". They also covered "Sun Arise" for an Alice Cooper tribute album. (Cooper's version, which closes the album ''Love It to Death'', was itself a cover of a Rolf Harris song.)
In 1999, Cleopatra Records released ''Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper'' featuring a number of contributions from rock and metal all-star collaborations, including Dave Mustaine, Roger Daltrey, Ronnie James Dio, Slash (musician), Slash, Bruce Dickinson and Steve Jones (musician), Steve Jones. Sonic.net described it as "intriguing combinations of artists and material" while AllMusic noted "the novel approach will definitely hold interested listeners' attention".
A song by alternative rock group They Might Be Giants from their fifth studio album ''John Henry (album), John Henry'' (1994) titled "Why Must I Be Sad?" mentions 13 Cooper songs, and has been described as being "from the perspective of a kid who hears all of his unspoken sadness given voice in the music of Alice Cooper; Alice says everything the kid has been wishing he could say about his alienated, frustrated, teenage world."
Unlikely non-musician fans of Cooper have included
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...
and
Mae West, who both reportedly saw the early shows as a form of vaudeville revue,
and artist
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
, who on attending a show in 1973 described it as being surreal, and made a Holography, hologram, ''First Cylindric Chromo-Hologram Portrait of Alice Cooper's Brain''.
[A replica of the hologram can be seen at the Salvador Dalí Museum, Saint Petersburg, Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Cooper and original band members Dennis Dunaway and Glen Buxton studied Dalí as art students at Cortez High School in ]Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
, and the cover art of Cooper's eighth solo studio album '' DaDa'' (1983) features a slightly altered version of Dalí's painting ''Slave Market with the Disappearing Bust of Voltaire''.
Personal life
In the early 1970s, a story was widely reported that ''Leave It to Beaver'' star Ken Osmond had become "rock star Alice Cooper". According to Cooper, the rumor began when a college newspaper editor asked him what kind of child he was, to which Cooper replied, "I was obnoxious, disgusting, a real Eddie Haskell," referring to the fictional character Osmond portrayed. However, the editor ended up reporting that Cooper was the real Haskell. Cooper later told the ''New Times (magazine), New Times'': "It was the biggest rumor that ever came out about me. Finally, I got a T-shirt that said, 'No, I am not Eddie Haskell.' But people still believed it."
On June 20, 2005, ahead of his June–July 2005 tour, Cooper had a wide-ranging interview with interviewer of celebrities Andrew Denton for the Australian ABC TV (Australian TV channel), ABC TV's ''Enough Rope''. Cooper discussed various issues during the talk, including the horrors of acute alcoholism and his subsequent cure, being a Christian, and his social and work relationship with his family.
During the interview, Cooper remarked "I look at Mick Jagger and he's on an 18-month tour and he's six years older than me, so I figure, when he retires, I have six more years. I will not let him beat me when it comes to longevity."
Cooper frequently Illeism, refers to himself in the third person as "Alice" as a way to distance himself from his stage persona.
Marriage and relationships
In the period when the Alice Cooper group was signed to
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...
's Straight Records, Straight label, Miss Christine of the GTOs became Cooper's girlfriend. Miss Christine (real name Christine Frka), who had recommended Zappa to the group, died on November 5, 1972, of an overdose.
[Cooper describes how he fell for Miss Christine in his 1976 autobiography ''Me, Alice''.] Another long-time girlfriend of Cooper's was Cindy Lang, with whom he lived for several years.
After his separation from Lang, Cooper was briefly linked with actress Raquel Welch, although according to Dick Wagner, Cooper rejected Welch's advances.
Cooper ended up marrying ballerina instructor and choreographer Sheryl Goddard, who performed in the Alice Cooper show from 1975 to 1982. They married on March 20, 1976. In November 1983, at the height of Cooper's alcoholism, Goddard filed for divorce, but by mid-1984, she and Cooper had reconciled; they have three children: daughters Sonora and Calico, and son Dashiell.
In a 2002 television interview, Cooper stated that he had never cheated on his wife the entire time they had been together. In the same interview, he also said that the secret to a lasting and successful relationship is to continue going out on dates with one's partner.
In a 2019 interview, Cooper said that he and his wife Sheryl have a death pact, wherein they will die at the same time, sparking a flurry of headlines. But Cooper clarified his comments, telling ''USA Today'', "What I was meaning was that because we're almost always together, at home and on the road, that if something did happen to either of us, we'd most likely be together at the time. But neither of us has a suicide pact. We have a life pact."
Drugs and alcohol use
In 1986, thrash metal band Megadeth opened for Cooper on their US ''Constrictor'' tour. After noticing the drug abuse, abuse of alcohol and other drugs by Megadeth band members, Cooper personally approached the band to try to help them control their abuse. He has stayed close to lead vocalist Dave Mustaine, who considers Cooper to be his "godfather". Since overcoming his own addiction to alcohol in the mid-1980s, Cooper has continued to help and counsel other rock musicians with addiction problems. "I've made myself very available to friends of mine – they're people who would call me late at night and say, 'Between you and me, I've got a problem.'" In recognition of the work he has done in helping other addicts in the recovery process, Cooper received in 2008 the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at the fourth annual MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert in Los Angeles.
Religion
During an interview with Johnnie Walker (DJ), Johnnie Walker on BBC Radio 2 in September 2007, Cooper said that he was not a Christian when he gave up drinking, but stated that he thanks God for "taking it away", saying, "I mean if He [God] can part the Red Sea and create the universe, He can certainly take alcoholism away from somebody." Although he originally did not speak publicly about his religious beliefs, Cooper was later vocal about his faith as a Born again, born-again Christian.
Politics
Throughout his career, Cooper's philosophy regarding politics is that politics should not be mixed with rock music. Cooper has usually kept his political views to himself, and in 2010 said, "I am extremely non-political. I go out of my way to be non-political. I'm probably the biggest moderate you know. When John Lennon and Harry Nilsson used to argue politics, I was sitting right in the middle of them, and I was the guy who was going 'I don't care.' When my parents would start talking politics, I would go in my room and put on
the Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...
or the Who as long as I could avoid politics. And I still feel that way."
On occasion, Cooper has spoken out against musicians who promote or opine on politics; for example, in the build-up to the 2004 United States presidential election, 2004 presidential election, he told The Canadian Press that the rock stars campaigning for and touring on behalf of Democratic Party (United States), Democratic candidate John Kerry were committing "treason against rock n' roll". He added, upon seeing a list of musicians who supported Kerry, "If I wasn't already a George W. Bush, Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush."
[On Zimbio's list o]
"Famous Republicans"
(accessed May 8, 2012), Cooper is a Republican Party (United States), Republican. In December 2018, Cooper predicted that the next U.S. president would be "worse" than then-president Donald Trump, while arguing that musicians talking politics to their fans was an "abuse of power".
Every four years since releasing his single "Elected" in 1972, Cooper has satirically run for president.
Sports
Cooper is a fan of both the National Hockey League, NHL's Detroit Red Wings and Arizona Coyotes. On February 18, 2012, the Coyotes gave away his bobblehead in a promotion for the first 10,000 fans for a game with the Dallas Stars. Cooper is a longtime baseball fan, supporting the Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers. As a child, he dreamed of playing left field in the Tigers outfield alongside Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline. He has coached Little League baseball teams since his son played in the early 1990s. Cooper is also a fan of National Basketball Association, NBA basketball, supporting both the Detroit Pistons and the Phoenix Suns.
Cooper is an avid golfer and says that the sport helped him play a major role in overcoming his addiction to alcohol,
and has even gone so far as to say that when he took up golf, it was a case of replacing one addiction with another.
[
] The importance that the game has had in his life is also reflected in the title to his 2007 autobiography, ''Alice Cooper, Golf Monster''.
Cooper, who has participated in a number of pro–am competitions,
[Details of the pro-am events Cooper has participated in can be found in ''Alice Cooper, Golf Monster''.] plays the game six days a week, off a Handicap (golf), handicap of four.
Cooper has also appeared in commercials for Callaway Golf Company, Callaway Golf equipment and was a guest of veteran British player and broadcaster Peter Alliss on ''A Golfer's Travels''. He wrote the foreword to the Gary McCord book ''Ryder Cup'' and participated in the second ''All-Star Cup'' in Newport, Wales, Newport, Wales.
In popular culture
Cooper, a fan of ''The Simpsons'', was asked to contribute a storyline for the September 2004 edition of Bongo Comics's ''Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror'', a special ''Monsters of Rock'' issue that also included stories plotted by Gene Simmons, Rob Zombie and Pat Boone.
In October 1979, Alice Cooper was featured in the Marvel Comics, Marvel comic book ''Marvel Premiere'', Volume 1, Number 50 loosely adapting his ''
From the Inside'' studio album.
Cooper is also the subject of the "We're not worthy" meme, which was popularized during his cameo in ''Wayne's World'' with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in 1992.
Cooper contributed his likeness and over 700 voice lines to Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, a pinball machine released in 2018 by Spooky Pinball that also features ten songs performed by Cooper. Only 500 machines were made.
On October 7, 2021, Play'n GO released ''Alice Cooper and the Tome of Madness,''
a web-based game. This branded game features voice lines especially recorded by Cooper, in addition to this it boasts an animated version of Cooper as well as the song "Welcome to My Nightmare (song), Welcome to My Nightmare".
Solo band members
![Alice Cooper band Live in London 2012-10-28 (close-up)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Alice_Cooper_band_Live_in_London_2012-10-28_%28close-up%29.jpg)
Current members
* Alice Cooper – lead vocals, harmonica, guitar, percussion, synthesizer
(1974–present)
*
Kane Roberts – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
(1985–1988, 2022–present)
* Ryan Roxie – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
(1996–2006, 2012–present)
* Chuck Garric – bass guitar, backing vocals
(2002–present)
* Tommy Henriksen – rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals
(2011–present)
* Glen Sobel – drums, percussion
(2011–present)
Former members
*
Dick Wagner – guitar, bass
(1975–1979, 1982, 1983)
*
Steve Hunter
Stephen John Hunter (born June 14, 1948) is an American guitarist, primarily a session player. He has worked with Lou Reed and Alice Cooper, acquiring the moniker "The Deacon". Hunter first played with Mitch Ryder's Detroit, beginning a long as ...
– guitar,
(1975–1979, 2011)
* Erik Scott – bass
(1980–1982)
* David Rosenberg – drums
(1985–1986)
*
Kip Winger – bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
(1985–1987)
* Paul Taylor (keyboardist), Paul Taylor – keyboards
(1986–1987)
* Ken Mary – drums
(1986–1988)
* John McCurry – lead and rhythm guitar
(1988–1989)
* Al Pitrelli – lead guitar & music director
(1989–1991)
* Hugh McDonald (American musician), Hugh Mcdonald – bass
(1988–1991)
* Orianthi – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
(2011–2014)
* Nita Strauss – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals
(2014–2022; guest 2022)
Discography
Band studio albums
* ''
Pretties for You
''Pretties for You'' is the debut studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on June 25, 1969, by Straight Records. At this time, the name "Alice Cooper" referred to the band and not its lead singer Vincent Furnier. The album has a ...
'' (1969)
* ''
Easy Action
''Easy Action'' is the second studio album by the American rock band Alice Cooper, released by Straight Records in March 1970. The title comes from a line from one of the band's favorite films, the musical ''West Side Story''. As with ''Pretties ...
'' (1970)
* ''
Love It to Death
''Love It to Death'' is the third studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on March 9, 1971. It was the band's first commercially successful album and the first album that consolidated the band's aggressive hard-rocking sound, ...
'' (1971)
* ''
Killer
A killer is someone or something that kills, such as a murderer or a serial killer.
Killer may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Killer (''Home and Away''), a character from ''Home and Away''
* Killer Kane, ...
'' (1971)
* ''
School's Out'' (1972)
* ''
Billion Dollar Babies
''Billion Dollar Babies'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Alice Cooper, released on February 25, 1973, by Warner Bros. Records. The album became the best selling Alice Cooper record at the time of its release, hit number one on th ...
'' (1973)
* ''
Muscle of Love
''Muscle of Love'' is the seventh and final studio album by rock band Alice Cooper. It was released in late 1973, the band played its last concert a few months later.
Background
Cooper stated in an interview at the time of recording that the albu ...
'' (1973)
Solo studio albums
* ''
Welcome to My Nightmare'' (1975)
* ''
Alice Cooper Goes to Hell
''Alice Cooper Goes to Hell'' is the second solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in 1976. A continuation of '' Welcome to My Nightmare'' as it continues the story of Steven, the concept album was written by Cooper with guit ...
'' (1976)
* ''
Lace and Whiskey
''Lace and Whiskey'' is the third solo and tenth overall studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released on April 29, 1977 by Warner Bros. Records.
Background
After many years of portraying a dark and sinister persona Alice Cooper d ...
'' (1977)
* ''
From the Inside'' (1978)
* ''
Flush the Fashion
''Flush the Fashion'' is the fifth solo studio album by American singer Alice Cooper, released on April 28, 1980 by Warner Bros. Records. It was recorded at Cherokee Studios in Los Angeles with producer Roy Thomas Baker, known for his work with Qu ...
'' (1980)
* ''
Special Forces
Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...
'' (1981)
* ''
Zipper Catches Skin
''Zipper Catches Skin'' is the seventh solo studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released on August 25, 1982 by Warner Bros. Records.
Album background
The album was co-produced by bassist Erik Scott alongside Cooper. Cooper blended ...
'' (1982)
* ''
DaDa'' (1983)
* ''
Constrictor'' (1986)
* ''
Raise Your Fist and Yell'' (1987)
* ''
Trash'' (1989)
* ''
Hey Stoopid
''Hey Stoopid'' is the twelfth solo studio album by American rock singer Alice Cooper, released on July 2, 1991, by Epic Records. After his smash 1989 hit album ''Trash'', Cooper attempted to continue his success with his follow-up album, which ...
'' (1991)
* ''
The Last Temptation'' (1994)
* ''
Brutal Planet
''Brutal Planet'' is the fourteenth solo studio album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in 2000. Musically, this finds Alice tackling a much darker and heavier approach than on previous albums, with many songs approaching a somew ...
'' (2000)
* ''
Dragontown
''Dragontown'' is the fifteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper. It was released in 2001 on Spitfire Records. Like ''Brutal Planet'', the album displays a heavier metal style than many of his previous releases. It peaked on Billb ...
'' (2001)
* ''The Eyes of Alice Cooper'' (2003)
* ''Dirty Diamonds'' (2005)
* ''Along Came a Spider (album), Along Came a Spider'' (2008)
* ''
Welcome 2 My Nightmare
''Welcome 2 My Nightmare'' (also known as ''Welcome to My Nightmare 2'') is the nineteenth solo album by American rock musician Alice Cooper, released in September 2011. Peaking at No. 22 in the ''Billboard'' 200 it is Cooper's highest-charting al ...
'' (2011)
* ''
Paranormal'' (2017)
* ''Detroit Stories'' (2021)
Tours
* Pretties for You Tour (1968–1970)
* Easy Action Tour (1970–1971)
* Love It to Death Tour (1971)
* Killer Tour (1971–1972)
* School's Out for Summer '72 Tour (1972)
* Billion Dollar Babies Tour (1973–1974)
* Welcome to My Nightmare Tour (1975–1977)
* King of the Silver Screen Tour (1977)
* School's Out for Summer '78 Tour (1978–1979)
* Madhouse Rocks Tour (1979)
* Flush the Fashion Tour (1980)
* Special Forces Tour (1981–1982)
* The Nightmare Returns Tour (1986–1987)
* Live in the Flesh Tour (1987–1988)
* Trash Tour (1989–1990)
* Operation Rock N' Roll Tour (1991)
* Nightmare on Your Street Tour (1991)
* Hey Stoopid Tour (1991)
* South America '95 Tour (1995)
* Summer's Out for Summer '96 Tour (1996)
* School's Out for Summer '97 Tour (1997)
* Rock N' Roll Carnival Tour (1997–1998)
* New Year's Rotten Eve Tour '98 (1998)
* Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Tour (1999)
* Brutal Planet Tour (2000–2001)
* British Rock Symphony Tour (2000)
* Descent into Dragontown Tour (2001–2002)
* Bare Bones Tour (2003)
* The Eyes of Alice Cooper Tour (2003–2004)
* Dirty Diamonds Tour (2005–2006)
* Psychodrama Tour (2007–2009)
* Theatre of Death Tour (2009–2010)
* No More Mr. Nice Guy Tour (2011–2012)
* Raise the Dead Tour (2012–2015)
* Spend the Night with Alice Cooper Tour (2016–2017)
* A Paranormal Evening with Alice Cooper Live Tour (2018)
* Ol' Black Eyes Is Back (2019–2020)
* Detroit Muscle Tour (2021–2022)
Filmography
Accolades
Awards and nominations
Others
See also
* List of Alice Cooper personnel
* List of glam metal bands and artists
Explanatory footnotes
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Official ''Nights with Alice Cooper'' websiteNights with Alice Cooper on Planet RockHigh-quality photos of Alice Cooper*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Alice
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