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Meet Alice and His Friendly Snake!

Alice Cooper must be the most revolutionary pop star to emerge in years. What with his killing baby dolls on stage, hanging himself and twirling around with a boa constrictor, it's hard to fathom what sort of a background he must have come from. In fact, Alice is, would you believe, the son of a wealthy American Minister! "My folks think my act's really great -- the black leather trouser I wear on stage were made by my mother!"

Alice started his first group about the time that Beatlemania hit America. "I never had what you might call a regular job, just music. I got together a band called The Earwigs and we used to have Beatle-type hair and look fairly neat and we'd play Rolling Stones' music all the time.

"Then I had a band called The Spiders, then one called Nazz. We'd play our own material and it was really 'way ahead of it's time and, 'though the music was good, the people didn't really like the back 'cause it was dull - there was no appeal. So, I started jazzing myself up a bit, putting glitter on my eyes, little touches like that."

Gradually, the group Alice Cooper emerged, but had little success.

"In fact, they all but ran us out of L.A., they thought we were too far out. But then came Detroit and things started to change. We really went down well there and our albums started to sell, and well, everything just seemed to snowball.

"I really enjoy doing the act, there's no real pain, it's just all very exciting. I think people will react most to the snake. The first snake I had was called Kachina. It unfortunately got lost in the air ventilator of a hotel we were staying at and was presumed dead. For the rest of the tour, I hired this enormous boa. But it didn't work out, as it took five men to get it in and out of the basket -- it was so big! The one you saw me with in London is my newey. I haven't named it yet."

Doesn't he ever get worried about playing around with such fearsome creatures, I wondered.

"No, as long as you show them you're not scared of them, you're alright -- they can sense it if you're nervy. They don't like bright lights, so you might notice that at our shows I put his head at the back of me, out of the glare. Every now and then they like to show you who's boss, so they curl the tip of their tail round your wrist and squeeze, just to show you that they could hurt you if they wanted to. But if you treat them well--they're OK.

"I can't use the snake at every show, I have to wait for a couple of days while he digests his food or it would be cruel. I feed him on mice -- sounds horrid, but that's what they like. People think snakes store the mice, still alive, inside them. This isn't so. The snake flicks back his head, so breaking the mouse's back and it's dead in seconds...

"The only thing that does bother me about my new pet boa, is that Kachina use to smile at me -- this one doesn't!