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Hey Stupid!

Alice Cooper is currently puzzling over which tracks to include on his forthcoming album, Hey Stoopid. So far 15 have been recorded at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock and The Complex in Los Angeles, but only 11 will make it on to the finished record. Amongst the new tracks that Alice is considering for inclusion are It Rained All Night, I Might As Well Be On Mars, I'm Dangerous Tonight, Feed My Frankenstein, Little By Little and Hurricane Years. Relaxing in the lounge of The Complex, Alice explains that the title track, Hey Stoopid, is an anti-suicide song. "I get letters all the time that say, 'I'm fourteen and I'm going to kill myself', and I'm trying to figure out what's so bad that's causing that. Rock and Roll is a celebration, it's a party, it's not so heavy - and if it is, get help, because you shouldn't be thinking of snuffing it at the age of fourteen! There was a double-edged sword there too, because I know that a lot of rock and rollers are falsely accused of promoting suicide, and so I want to get Halford on this for some background vocals - and Axl, Ozzy, Sebastian - and have a whole outlaw choir on there, only because I think it makes a point. The last thing we want to see is those kids out there dying."

Slash from Guns n' Roses has contributed some guitar work to the song; other guest musicians include Axl Rose and Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars. Sixx has also co-written with Alice, whose other collaborators include Jack Ponti, Jim Vallance, Desmond Child, Dick Wagener and Zodiac Mindwarp. Hey Stoopid has been produced by Peter Collins, best known for his work with Queensryche, and will be released in the UK on June 17. (A British tour will follow in August/September.) The finished album should please those Alice Cooper fans who found the Desmond Child co-produced and co-written Trash too soft for their tastes.

"Desmond gave it a certain softness, a real melody, which was great," Alice comments. "We've got the same melody on this, but we're handling it with more toughness and I think it's a little more satisfying. I think the Alice fans will listen to it and go, 'Yeah, that's more like Alice'."