Article Database
1996 - 1999
Hangin' With Mr. Cooper
(Phoenix New Times, 1996-00-00)
TV characters who became American institutions in the '70s had a nasty habit of growing stale as they "grew up." Hot Lips Houlihan morphed into the Susan B. Anthony of the Korean DMZ, while everyone's favorite bigot Archie Bunker devolved into a politically correct bartender so bland the show's writers had to kill off his dingbat wife, Edith, in desperation....
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1996-02-17)
On a lighter note, frontman Rob Zombie has teamed up with rock legend Alice Cooper to record a song for the forthcoming soundtrack album to the cult sci-fi series, 'The X-files'. Zombie and Cooper recorded the track - which has a working title of 'Whore Of Fire' - in a Florida studio on the same day as the recent US Superbowl. 'Whore Of Fire' was written by Rob Zombie and produced by Terry Date, who helmed White Zombie's million-selling new album, 'Astro Creep 2000...'. ...
Alice Cooper
(Metal Edge, 1996-04-00)
"Where has the time gone?," marveled Alice Cooper, reflecting on the passing decade. But for pioneer of shock rock, it's not just nostalgia. Alice is going strong in the '90s, working on an album for new label Hollywood Records that's based on a story...
Looking After Number One
(Melody Maker, 1996-04-27)
"A dramatic, exciting production, destined to be a Number One hit and one of the great rock classics. Much as I dislike them, it has to be said, the record is effective. If there has to be Alice Cooper as decreed by the record industry...
"If you don't like it you can lock me up"
(Freedom News Service, 1996-06-00)
In the era of Nine Inch Nails, gangstar rap and navel piercings, the panic of the early '70s seem almost quaint.But at the time, it was anything but funny. Alice Cooper looked like the biggest threat to America's youth since the H-bomb. Parents were outraged and forbade their children to listen or go to the shows. Preachers warned against Cooper from the pulpit. He was banned from performing in some cities....
I heard you were a high school track star and that you broke your nose during a marathon. "When I was seventeen, I broke the Arizona twenty-four mile record in 105 degree heat. Afterwards, I was on the toilet at home, and I blanked out. I woke up on the floor with blood everywhere. I passed out and broke my nose in the fall. I still have the record, though. In fact, I was the only one who even finished the race that day....
Letter From Los Angeles
(Metal Hammer, 1996-06-00)
Alice Cooper has just been confirmed as opening act for the Scorpions' US tour, marking the first time Alice has accepted an opening slot for many years. It also signifies how insecure the Scorpions are feeling, when they have to take on a support...
Cooper Steals The Show
(Dallas Morning News, 1996-06-12)
The Scorpions headlined the rusty-metal bill at Coca-Cola Starplex Tuesday night, but it's safe to say that a majority of the audience of about 10,000 was there to witness the silly-glorious spectacle of opening act Alice Cooper. Scorpions fans might disagree; heck, the rock 'n' roll pride of Germany even has a new disk out, "Your Instincts", and the band's computer-controlled light show must've cost a million bucks....
Alice Cooper still rockin' at 48
(Arizona Republic, 1996-06-23)
Mom, Dad, three kids and Grandma pack into a van and head for Tucson. Dad looks a bit road-weary when he pulls up to the hotel at midafternoon on Tuesday. He registers in the lobby, and the rest of the clan slowly gather their belongings...
Ghoul's Out as Alice Lets the Songs Speak
(Los Angeles Times, 1996-06-24)
IRVINE-For years now, Alice Cooper has lurked on the fringes of musical insignificance. True, he had a cameo appearance in the "Wayne's World" movie, but he hasn't had a hit song since "Poison" in 1989; still has no new record to plug and, until now, hadn't toured the states in five years....
Alice Cooper happy with the irony of having become 'family'
entertainment
(Phoenix New Times, 1996-06-28)
In the era of Nine Inch Nails, gangsta rap and navel-piercings, the panic of the early '70s seems almost quaint. But at the time, it was anything but funny. Alice Cooper looked like the biggest threat to America's youth since the H-bomb. Parents were outraged and forbade their children to listen or go to the shows. Preachers warned against Cooper from the pulpit. He was banned from performing in some cities. ...
Slash Joins 'Killer' Alice
(Kerrang!, 1996-07-13)
Oldies package tours seem to be in vogue at the moment over here at the moment. We've got Cheap Trick and Boston currently out together, and REO and Speedwagon and Foreigner also on the road. And then there's Alice Cooper and the Scorpions, who've just hit LA on their co-headling trek....
Alice Cooper, Man Of the People
(Post Dispatch, 1996-07-19)
WHEN horror-show hard-rocker Alice Cooper started clicking on the music scene in the early '70s, he struck a crazy pose for head-bangers, budding punks and the odd freak everywhere. That pose and his later music eventually fell into irrelevancy, but the guy deserves credit for giving the dazed and confused generation a colorful icon....
Alice Cooper undiminished
(Toronto Star, 1996-07-31)
Ol' snake eyes was back last night at the Molson Amphitheatre. So was that gang of heavy metal stingers. United as co-headliners on one decibel-damaging bill, Alice Cooper and The Scorpions took turns trying to deafen an audience of 7,500 in what had...
Scorpions, Cooper hit hard
(Toronto Sun, 1996-07-31)
Alice Cooper, rock's own Prince Of Darkness, hardly needs competition from the sunshine. The veteran schlock rocker's sense of humor was intact as he introduced the 1975 tune Welcome To My Nightmare just before dusk at the Molson Amphitheatre last night. "Does it ever get dark here?" Cooper asked. Fair question.After all, the guy did take his stage name directly from a 17th century witch - via a 1960s Ouija board. Cooper's early start made room for Scorpions, who topped the bill last night with a show that, despite being inferior to Cooper's, seemed to dazzle the crowd of 7,500 all the same....
Flash in the Band
(Discovery Channel Monthly, 1996-08-00)
Alice Cooper mixed horror films, chorus lines, and guitars. With dripping eyeliner, clad in skin-tight leather or white tie and tails, he pranced among electric chairs, guillotines, and a gallows....
Alice Cooper On The Line
(Metal Edge, 1996-08-00)
Late on a Friday night in April, Alice Cooper called after returning from a charity event also attended by his favorite basketball team and good buddies, the Phoenix Suns. "Charles Barkley is the closest thing to a rock star," he said, noting...
Alice Cooper new live album and tour..
(Rock Brigade, 1996-08-00)
In Alice Cooper's career, his crazyness on stage was so unpredictable as the band lineup changes. But, seems the horror master finally found good musicians, and they are ready to face another concept albun, following the 94 reborn, The Last Temptation. Together with Reb Beach and Ryan Roxie on guitar, Paul Taylor on keyboards, drummer Jimmy Degrasso and bass guitar Todd Jensen, Alice Cooper releases a new live album on October 22, containing all his hits, and starts to prepare the new studio album. On his recent tour with Scorpions, we took him for a talk about present happenings and future plans. ...
Welcome To His Nightmare
(Metro Weekend, 1996-08-01)
When Alice Cooper first exploded onto the music scene back in the early 70s, he forever changed the face of music, fashion and the way we view authority. Parents were horrified as his songs touched a nerve and served as anthems for teen-agers of all ages worldwide....
Hits don't miss for Cooper, Scorpions
(Boston Globe, 1996-08-05)
The shaggy-haired, clad-in-black Cooper included a political song, the timeless "Elected," which overflowed with his sarcastic humor. Three men in Presidential masks (of Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan & Richard Nixon) threw fake money into the crowd ...
Mixed Bag
(Buffalo News, 1996-08-09)
It's that time of year when the weather warms up, summer hits its stride, and the Erie County Fair opens in Hamburg. This August, as usual, the fair has a powerful musical lineup to fit all tastes, including superstars Mary Chapin Carpenter, Brooks...
Over the weekend
(Buffalo News, 1996-08-19)
Alice Cooper brought his aging shock rock act to the Erie County Fair in a late Friday show. The Indigo Girls played folk sounds in a late Friday performance at Artpark. Don Menxa was featured in a afternoon in The Buffalo News Jazz Series....
Alice Cooper
(Burrn!, 1996-09-00)
His first live album since '77! "The man who plays Alice" talks about the last 20 years. I had made arrangements to meet Alice Cooper in his hotel penthouse. I knocked on the door for room No. 1973, and when Alice opened the door, I said to him...
News Report
(Metal Edge, 1996-09-00)
Alice Cooper kicked off his current co-headlining tour with the Scorpions with a concert in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he was joined by such special guests as Slash, Sammy Hagar, Rob Zombie, Joey Ramone, and Steve Vai. This show was taped for...
Alice Cooper Rocks Cabo
(Metal Edge, 1996-10-00)
Before heading out on a summer U.S. tour with the Scorpions, Alice Cooper headed south of the border to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for a performance with a double purpose: a live warmup for his brand-new band lineup (guitarists Reb Beach...
Alice Cooper Teams With Pat Boone For Sony Ad
(Allstar, 1996-11-29)
Pat Boone and one of the original shock rockers, Alice Cooper, have teamed once again — this time for a Sony ad. In an ad campaign for Sony's D-WAVE wireless telecommunications products dubbed "Now You're Talking," opposites are...
Long Hair To No Hair - Kids Hear Quite A Tale
(Arizona Republic, 1996-12-19)
"Alice Cooper was scheduled to read to 200 kids Wednesday at Encanto School. Instead the kids were treated to Joe Garagiola. Cooper came down with the flu, so Gargiola was the pinch hitter. 'You were expecting a long-haired rock star,' Garagiola said...
Toledo Stop Is No Longer A Nightmare For Legenday Theatrical Rocker
Alice Cooper
(Toledo Blade, 1996-12-22)
Alice Cooper will never forget the night of Dec 13, 1973 when his band performed at the Toledo Sports Arena. As he later put it in a song: Welcome to my Nightmare. The show got off to a bad...
Where are they now?
(Q Magazine, 1997-01-00)
Their mission, shock-rocking, frock-wearing beer-swillers Alice Cooper loved to claim, was "to drive a stake through the heart of the love generation." ...
Mr Right Down The Line
(Arizona Republic, 1997-01-10)
AZ Golf writer Bill Huffman recently played a round with Alice Cooper at the Phoenician. The rock star from Phoenix had the following observations on the game: BH: How long have you been playing golf? AC: I've been at it since the early 1970's...
Alice Cooper Signs Away $106 Billion For Laundry (Including Diapers)
(Autograph Collector, 1997-02-00)
Two extremely well-proportioned young ladies, scantily clad in mere swatches of black leather, dropped rose petals in there wake. Behind them, crushing the petals with his black boots, came the master of macabre...rock star Alice Cooper. ...
Book Review
(Record Collector, 1997-02-00)
Unlike many of his British contemporaries, Alice Cooper always insisted that his idea of rock theatre had no hidden agendas — it was simply rock music given an extravagant, and sometimes shocking, twist with the addition of a few props. Offstage, far...
Hangin' With Alice Cooper
(Arizona Republic, 1997-02-10)
In a recent article by James Carville in 'Salon', an electronic magazine, the president's pal explained how he was going to skip the inauguration - it wasn't worth all the trouble. I hate things like that. Sure, Carville could have had great seats...
Stars of Rock and Roll and Rough
(Arizona Republic, 1997-02-23)
Many of the celebrities who came out for the Alice Cooper Celebrity Golf Tournament confessed their love for the Coop and for golf, but not necessarily any particular gift for the game. 'I stink,' said Valley resident and Megadeth member Dave...
Celebs Raise Golf Green For Teens
(Arizona Republic, 1997-02-25)
Alice Cooper is building a center where teens can go when 'school's out for summer' or just for the day. Last weekend's celebrity golf tournament will help pay for it. 'No one got hit by a golf ball and no one got sued, so we're happy,' Cooper...
Alice in Coleslaw-land
(Times Herald, 1997-03-06)
Cabbage has replaced dead chickens as the thing to toss at Alice Cooper The 70's rocker is starring in and helped write a variety show at his childrean's Phoeniz, Ariz., school. It's a vaudevillian theme that has Cooper playing somebody named Snavely...
The American Music Awards
(National Enquirer, 1997-03-07)
"It's all Alice Cooper's fault!" Super-square Pat Boone told the Enquirer that Cooper, the bad boy of hard rock, is responsible for touching off the religious firestorm that got Pat booted off the conservative Trinity Broadcasting Network. The 62-year-old grandfather of 15 sparked a controversy recently when he released a heavy metal album titled "In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy." But that was nothing compared to what followed his appearance at the American Music Awards on January 27....
Alice Cooper at Canadian Music Week
(Outreach Connection, 1997-03-19)
A week of bar hopping that put rising Canadian musicians in the spotlight ended with hundreds of people packing the Metro Convention Center to listen to the legendary Alice Cooper. Even though he's from Detroit, Cooper might have been the best person to close Canadian Music Week because of the history he has with Toronto....
Theater of the Macabre
(Pulse!, 1997-04-00)
For the past few years, audiences have watched rockers like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Smashing Pumpkins step onstage and perform arena concerts without lasers, explosions, video and other special effects historically associated with major loud-music events. Maybe it was partially a reaction to the bombast of '80s metal fixtures like Motley Crue, Poison and Iron Maiden, but as the metal era ended and the alternative revolution took over, bands decided to downplay showmanship in favor of cool ambivalence. ...
Sandsharks
(Arizona Republic, 1997-04-02)
Rock musician Alice Cooper, former Suns player Tom Van Arsdale and 15 other Valley businessmen have become members of the ownership group for the Arizona Sandsharks of the Continental Indoor Soccer League. Cooper pledged...
Mike Bruce Interview
(Golden Treasures Catalog, 1997-05-00)
Who are the Billion Dollar Babies? Actually, it's just changed. The four of us included my brother Paul, but he got attacked by a dog, a rottweiler, who bit him on the rear end and the wrist, so he's not playing with us on the fourth (Bruce refers to a concert that has already come to pass). So Billy (drummer Billy James) Lan (bassist Lan Nichols) and I are going to play, and maybe special requests will be played that Thursday night. You've been working on a recording project on your own for a while......
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1997-05-03)
Finally, you'll be able to see shock rock legend Alice Cooper and US metal crew Megadeth in July. Alice plays Wolverhampton Civic Hall 3, Glasgow Barrowlands 4, Newcastle City Hall 5, Manchester Apollo 6, London Astoria 8 and 9. And the 'Deth are at London LA2 on July 7 and Nottingham Rock City the next night....
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1997-05-17)
Alice Cooper will be playing the following UK shows: Wolverhampton Civic Hall July 3, Glasgow Barrowlands 4, Newcastle Hall 5, Manchester Apollo 6, London Astoria 8 and 9...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1997-05-24)
Alice Cooper releases a live album called 'A Fistful Of Alice' through EMI on June 16. The album has contributions from Rob Zombie, Slash and Sammy Hagar....
Alice Cooper plays top festival
(Kerrang!, 1997-05-31)
Alice Cooper will be appearing at the Graspop Festival in Dessel, Belgium on June 29. Also on the bill will be Megadeth, Cradle of Filth, Biohazard and Obituary....
News Report
(Record Collector, 1997-06-00)
Alice Cooper promises the "last ever performance of 'Killer'" at his Wembley Empire Pool show. During the tour, he previews his next single, "School's Out"....
News Report
(Concert Connections, 1997-06-06)
May 27, 1997: As the battle between Alice Cooper and up-and-comer Marilyn Manson heats up, it appears that the Coop has become philosophical in his old age. "Let him have it, I don't care," The Founding Father of Shock Rock told Circus...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1997-06-07)
Alice Cooper will make a guest appearance at London's Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus on June 16. He'll be signing autographs for an hour from 5:30pm....
Ghoul's Out For Summer
(Sun, 1997-06-13)
Rock wildman Alice Wants to beat Sean at Muirfield before he tackles Scots gig. Lock up your daughters! Rock wildman Alice Cooper is planning an Independence Day ballroom blitz on Scotland - followed by a relaxing 18 holes. Mad, bad Alice will blow the roof off Glasgow's legendary Barrowlands dance hall with a rare one-off gig on July 4. ...
News Report
(Kerrang!, 1997-06-14)
Alice Cooper has added another date to his upcoming 'School's Out '97' tour. It's at Southampton Guildhall on July 10....
Alice Cooper Still Likes to Rock, Shock
(Ann Arbor News, 1997-06-20)
At 48, four years after his last tour, Alice Cooper has been called away from his regular golf outings near his home in Phoenix, Ariz., and back to active duty. It seems a hard-rocking German band, the Scorpions, have launched a U.S. tour...
John Walsh meets Alice Cooper
(Independent, 1997-06-21)
"Take the electric chair," said Alice Cooper's genial, owlish manager Toby, indicating a floral monstrosity in the corner of the sixth-floor suite at the Conrad Hotel. It was not, in fact, wired up, or plugged into the mains, but I could see his point: the armchair was at right angles to, and as close as possible to the sofa where a 49-year-old apparition lay, watching CNN. Alice Cooper at first sight is merely disconcerting. At second and third sights he is downright worrying. His hair is long andblack like a bedraggled raven's....
Mister Superstar
(Kerrang!, 1997-06-21)
Alice Cooper - the original shock rocker - firmly refuses to endorse the talents of his '90s successor Marilyn Manson. When asked by Kerrang! what he thought of the man regarded as the world's most controversial rock star, Alice enigmatically brushed aside the question: "Marilyn Manson and I have this agreement, I don't talk about him, and he doesn't talk about me!" ...
Oldest Swinger in town
(Mirror, 1997-06-26)
What on earth has happened to Alice Cooper? Heavy metal's most outrageous star has ditched his days of hard living in favour of swinging a golf club. The veteran rocker, who shot to fame in 1972 with hit's such as School's Out and Elected, now prefers perfecting his putting to swinging spirits. "In the States, golf is much more of a rock'n'roll sport," says Alice, desperately trying to explain his new-found respectability. "Every heavy metal band I know plays golf."...
Around with Alice
(Guardian, 1997-06-28)
Alice Cooper has inspired everyone from The Sex Pistols and Slayer through to Kiss and Ice T. One of his songs, Only Women Bleed, has even been covered by Andrew Lloyd Webber protegee Julie Covington. ...
A Fistful Of Alice
(Metal Hammer, 1997-07-00)
Rock legend Alice Cooper has announced his first UK tour since 1991 to promote a recently released, new, live, greatest hits record called 'A Fistful Of Alice', which features appearances from Rob Zombie (singing on 'Elected' and 'Feed My...
Ten Quesions for Alice Cooper
(Mojo, 1997-07-00)
Theatrics have always played a major part in your shows, yet you've abandoned them for your forthcoming tour; won't you feel vulnerable without all the paraphernalia? Well, when you play Alice there's no such thing as a straight show. Alice is so theatrical on his own and I can't think of too many songs that are just go-ahead, straight numbers without some prop involved. Sometimes you can do as much with a crutch as with an entire background; a handful of dollar bills and a sword can be much more dramatic than an entire backdrop. And we do Gutter Cats Versus The Jets into Dwight Fry with the straitjacket, so there are some theatrics still there. ...
How to get a perfect swing - Alice Cooper
(Independent, 1997-07-05)
You know how you feel when you are so furious you want to throw the club away forever? Well, that's your perfect swing. Take your right arm right back, and then let it swing through the apex, aiming at one o'clock. Just don't let go. Before hitting, I blank out everything except the ball. I'm not distracted at all - you could put a marching band through there and I'd still hit the ball. A golf swing is about balance and timing. Get back on your right side and swing through onto your left side. If you finish the swing and you're falling forward or back, then your balance is wrong. It won't go anywhere if you hit it hard - you've got to hit it with rhythm. Johnny Miller says that if you chant 'Cin-dy Crawford, Cin-dy Crawford', that's the perfect rhythm. I chant 'She-ryl Cooper, She-ryl Cooper' because otherwise my wife will hit me. ...
Limo Wreck
(Kerrang!, 1997-07-05)
The original Marilyn Manson is running a bony hand over the soft leather back seat of a phallic stretch limo. "Just about everything you could think of has happened to Alice Cooper in the back of a limo at one time or another," grins Alice Cooper. "Fortunately, I can't remember most of them. The nice thing about drinking a lot is that you black out. I did wake up a few times in the back of a limo. I used to live in these things."...
Concert Review
(Time Out, 1997-07-06)
Not being the biggest Alice fan, I rather feared that knowing little more than 'School's Out' wouldn't exactly make me the best qualified person to write this preview. Until I noticed that the tour is called 'School's Out '97', which suggests if that particular...
School Was Out Years Ago
(Observer, 1997-07-07)
Alice Cooper has always had a thing about props. In the past, he has used an electric chair and, most famously, and eight foot long python. One of my colleagues interviewed Cooper back in 1970 in his room at Blakes hotel in London's south Kensington. The python slept with him. It dined on fresh mice bought from Harrods. And, during Cooper's stay, it dissapeared into the hotel's plumbing, never to be found. These days, the American shock-rocker's props are rather more modest. In line with fashion, Cooper's new show is 'stripped down', which means we get nothing more spectacular than a leather whip (thrown into the audience), a sabre, and a metal crutch - on which he first pretends to limp, and then plays air guitar....
Concert Review
(Independent, 1997-07-11)
Alice Cooper's songs only appeal to minority groups, For example, "School's Out" will have no meaning for people who've never attended an educational institution. In the same way "Only Women Bleed" merely addresses the problems of half the earth's population. Despite these limitations, all his early compositions seem to have survived very well since 1972, when Alice Cooper's name first began to appear scrawled on classroom desks. In that historic year the British school leaving age was raised from 15 to 16. Such are the ramifications of pop music....
The Last Word
(Kerrang!, 1997-07-12)
Last time you had a nightmare? "Just two nights ago. It's the nightmare every musician gets just before a touur. I'm about to go onstage and I find that the band is a totally different band and they tell me that they're doing all new songs. And there's 20,000 people ouut there, and I walk out and I don't know any of the songs. I've had many versions of that dream." Last Great Alice Cooper rumour? "There's a character in the States called Captain Kangaroo, and the guy who plays him has been on TV for 40 years....
Alice thrusts again Rock
(Telegraph, 1997-07-13)
"I SAW Baz last night," shouts Mert over the rumble of the support band. "Yeah. He's had his hair cut and he's wearing normal clothes." Mert, on the other hand, is wearing Alice Cooper-type PVC trousers, a gigantic Alice Cooper...
Concert Review
(Kerrang!, 1997-07-19)
Tampasm singer Charllotte Honey drawls languidly on a ciggie and smirks at seats in front of her, "I bet this is the best school assembly you've ever been to." The new disciples of Manson have stayed away in their droves tonight. This is an old-school Alice Cooper show, with a crowd to match. You might expect south-coast riot girls Tampasm to struggle with an audience of receding mullets, but they acquit themselves well enough, sounding tighter and feister than their ramshackle early recordings would have you believe....
Concert Review
(New Musical Express, 1997-07-19)
"'SCHOOL'S OUT'... er...that one with the snake in the video or something... er... 'All You Young Dudes'... no, that's wrong... er..." Such is the usual response when you, The Kids, are asked the question 'What Alice Cooper songs do you know?'...
Alice Cooper's Shock Just Turns to Shtick
(New York Newsday, 1997-07-20)
Maybe You remember Alice Cooper only as the guy who (allegedly) killed chickens and wrote songs about dead babies. One of the main functions of his second live album is to remind us that his work -- which was shocking when it was originally released -- is really funny. Cooper sings on 1973's "Teenage Lament'74": "I can't get a girl 'cause I ain't got a car. I can't get a car 'cause I ain't got a job. I can't get a job cuz I ain't got a car. So I'm looking for a girl with a job and a car." As winking, lunkheaded rock and roll goes, this under-recognized Cooper classic is up there with the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated."...
Pop Quiz
(San Francisco Chronicle, 1997-07-23)
The Lilith Fair forgot somebody - Alice Cooper. OK, maybe he doesn't fit in that all-women package. He's a he, after all. And he probably isn't too careful about how politically correct his cosmetics manufacturers are. You know what you're getting with Cooper, a.k.a. Vincent Furnier: a rock 'n' roll showman who was doing Ozzy, Motley and Marilyn Manson before - and better than - those acts. Cooper has chilled his theatrics the past couple of years, but you can still count on seeing him play with the boa constrictor and writhe around in a straitjacket during "The Ballad of Dwight Fry" - the kinds of things any father of two does during a typical day on the job. ...
Alice Cooper Offers A Fistful Of New Projects
(Reuters, 1997-07-24)
DETROIT (Reuter) - Alice Cooper doesn't feel too offended by not being invited to be part of the Lilith Fair tour. He is a guy, after all. But Cooper figures they're missing something. "Yeah," he says, "I can do my special 90-minute version of 'Only Women Bleed."' Not very P.C., but political correctedness has never been Cooper's bailiwick. Before Marilyn Manson was riling up the religious right, before Kiss was spitting blood and before Ozzy Osbourne was biting the heads off doves, Cooper was shocking PTAs and even love-bead-wearing hippies by smearing on mascara, hacking up baby dolls, playing with snakes, simulating executions onstage and singing about "Sick Things," "Dead Babies" and other unsavory topics. ...
An American Original
(San Diege Union Tribune, 1997-07-24)
Long before Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper was simultaneously thrilling and horrifying audiences with his brand of shock rock. So what is Alice up to today? As the pre-eminent pioneer of shock-rock in the late 1960s and the early 70s, Alice Cooper knew a thing or two about creating controversy. The androgynous singer and the gender-bending band that bore his name dressed in drag on the cover of "Pretties for You", their 1969 debut album. Cooper (real name: Vincent Furnier) French kissed live snakes during his concerts, performed songs about sexual confusion and dead babies, and utilized such props as razor-sharp sabers, straitjackets, mock electric chairs and guillotines. ...
The Trashcan Sinatra tees off
(Times, The, 1997-07-27)
Rest assured, Alice Cooper, rock's favourite cartoon monster, is still a guy who likes to play a round. When a man's drinking buddies have included Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendix, Elvis Presley, Keith Moon and Harry Nilsson, it is only polite...
Snaky Alice
(Beat, 1997-07-30)
Alice Cooper will perform in Melbourne minus a six foot boa constrictor: who was sadly knocked back by customs. The snake, who refused to spend four months in quarantine, is currently touring the US and Europe with his boss...
News Report
(Express & Echo, 1997-07-30)
Veteran rocker Alice Cooper has had to cut back on his golf while rehearsing for his Firstful Of Alice concert tour which begins in America this week. ...
Through The Looking Glass
(Guitarist, 1997-08-00)
Alice Cooper, showman and pop-rock classicist, is back with a new live album. 'A Fistful Of Alice' includes a handful of top guitarists. Alice tells Neville Marten why they mean so much to him... Think of Vincent Furnier, alias Alice Cooper, and the abiding image is of a black-eyed demon with a 12-foot boa constrictor wrapped around his neck. ...
Cooper Finds New Way To Shock Fans
(Las Vegas Sun, 1997-08-00)
Alice Cooper - that top dog of shock rock, the guy with the onstage guillotine and electric chair - is an active Christian now. No, he's not a "Christian rock artist," and he's quick to make that distinction, to separate himself from Petra or DC Talk or others who have made spiritual music with a rock beat. But the 49-year-old Detroit native will tell you, unabashedly, he is now a rock artist who's Christian." The article goes on to talk about 'A Fistful of Alice' and 'The Last Temptation'. Here are some quotes by Alice - "I'm not up onstage preaching. I still do 'School's Out' and 'Eighteen'. I don't see why a Christain can't be a rock 'n' roller and have a really high-energy show."..."I don't think I'm doing anything ofensive to Christians. I don't find anything offensive about these songs. The theatrics that go on with our shows have always been RKO horror movies.." ...
Maybe he's no nice guy, but Cooper still puts on show
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1997-08-00)
How does rock become cliche? Go ask Alice. Actually, Alice Cooper's performance on Friday night was memorable because the packed crowd could watch the shockÂrock icon from the intimate confines of the Rave....
A Fistful of Alice Album Review
(Q Magazine, 1997-08-00)
Recorded at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina club in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, A Fistful of Alice is a live Greatest Hits evenly split between the original Alice Cooper group hits (lean, mean, dirty-assed) and solo Alice (cartoon-pompy in comparison). The songs are essentially in their original guise: School's Out, Under My Wheels and Eighteen thus make a thrilling, swaggery intro, and dishing out the long-lost Desperado and Teenage Lament (the latter never before played live) is proof that Cooper's canon is melodic as well as garage-raunchy. Cooper's current back-up - fronted by guitarist Ryan Roxie and Reb Beach - recalls the streamlined flash of the Steve Hunter/Dick Wagner line-up that he borrowed off Lou Reed, with guest slots from Hagar, Rob Zombie (White Zombie) and, on three tracks, "My favourite guitarist" Slash....
Alice Cooper, Dokken, Warrant and Slaughter at the World Music Theatre
(Chicago Sun-Times, 1997-08-04)
Ah, the George Romero-esque horror of it all. Alice Cooper's show, before an appreciative crowd Saturday night at the World Music Theatre, combined feelings of a musical "Night of the Living Dead" with a bizarre time warp back to the early '80s....
From shock rocker to Christian, Alice Cooper returns to the flock
(Ottawa Citizen, 1997-08-07)
Alice Cooper — that top dog of shock rock, the guy with the onstage guillotine and electric chair — is an active Christian now. No, he's not a "Christian rock artist," and he's quick to make that distinction, to separate himself from Petra or DC Talk or others who have made spiritual music with a rock beat. ...
A Fistful of Alice Album Review
(Entertainment Weekly, 1997-08-08)
Just what you've been waiting for: a live Alice Cooper album baited with one new studio track. Well, he hasn't lost his voice, and chestnuts like "I'm Eighteen" still resonate. But unless you consider the presence of guests like Slash, Rob Zombie, and Sammy Hagar an inducement, you'd do just as well to pick up a copy of Coop's Greatest Hits. Rating: C+...
Shocker: Alice Cooper finds Christianity
(Denver Post, 1997-08-09)
Alice Cooper--that top dog of shock rock, the guy with the onstage guillotine and electric chair - is an active Christian now. No, he's not a "Christian rock artist" and he's quick to make that distinction, to separate himself from Petra or DC Talk or others who have made spiritual music with a rock beat. But the 49-year-old Detroit native will tell you, unabashedly, that he is now a rock artist who's Christian. Cooper is on tour, supporting the new "AFOA" (Guardian). The album features live cuts from last summer's tour, including songs from 1994's "The Last Temptation of Alice Cooper"--an album that subtly revealed the stirrings of Cooper's conversion....
Two words: Alice Cooper
(Pittsburgh Newsweekly, 1997-08-13)
I have two words for all those people getting upset by Marilyn Manson recently: Alice Cooper. It's true that Manson might have upped the ante somewhat, but Alice has been exposing the nightmarish underbelly of the American dream for three decades. Over the years his lyrics about topics such as dead babies and necrophilia, coupled with his stage persona and antics (including fake hangings and decapitations), have continued to raise the hackles of many self-appointed guardians of public morality....
Alice Cooper's Live Album Rocks
(Western Wheel, 1997-08-13)
This week I got to go a little way back in time to my youth. When I saw that a lot of my Alice fav's were on this album--School's Out, Elected, Welcome to My Nightmare and Million Dollar Babies--I wondered why he was doing another greatest hits, but hang on here this is different...
A Fistful Of Alice
(Sydney Daily Telegraph, 1997-08-14)
Heartburn? Indigestion?There's no doubt sir, that repetition ,gastric or artistic ,is a problem common to old age , but whats wrong with that? Here , dear Old Alice Cooper (you kknow the polite guy in the Rennies advertisement)hits the boards to crank out live versions of a few old hits , and , suprisingly they sound absolutely great!! Schools Out , Under My Wheels , I Never Cry , Lost In America , Only women Bleed... the track list is hot and so are the performances....
Alice Cooper's Pantyhose Have Endured 26-Year Run
(Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1997-08-15)
At a concert in North Ridgeville 26 years ago, the lead singer with heavy mascara and long hair suddenly zipped off his silver latex suit. And there he was... on stage in black pantyhose. And all hell broke loose. "Alice Cooper is shock rock," said...
Society has caught up with Cooper
(Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 1997-08-18)
Since he first started faking his beheading by guillotine on stages across the world more than 20 years ago, Alice Cooper has become a part of civilized society. ...
Warrant, Dokken and Slaughter: Hair to stay
(Get Out, 1997-08-21)
Lately, there have been enough "hair band" sightings to get executives at Aqua Net worked into a tizzy. Five years have passed since the flannel invasion, and now pop-metal is staging a surprisingly fierce comeback. ...
School's Out
(Phoenix New Times, 1997-08-21)
In 1982, Pete Townshend sat down for one of his many lengthy interviews with Rolling Stone magazine. The primary topic of conversation was Townshend's prolonged battle with the bottle, which had recently sent him to a clinic for treatment. ...
Mr. Cooper Has A New Nightmare For Hometown
(Arizona Republic, 1997-08-25)
The edict comes straight from the mouth of Alice Cooper's publicist: Whatever you do, please don't ask him about Phoenix. Seems his handlers believe that here in the Valley, everyone knows everything about its favorite musical son. His golf...
Cleveland Nautica August 16th 1997
(Scene, 1997-08-25)
On the one hand you had a successful hard rock icon which the majority of the audience came to see. On the other hand you had three good examples of why the fluffy, porous 80's music scene has faded away. Granted, each of the three bands sets were cut short due to the rain delay, but what they did have to offer didn't compare in any category to what Mr. Cooper delivered. But what was interesting was the number of people singing along to the title track from his 1978 release FROM THE INSIDE. These were the die-hard fans who, in essence, keep Cooper's career alive. And judging from his stage show, he knows this all too well....
Alice Cooper: A New Nightmare
(Beat, 1997-08-27)
When Alice Cooper visited Sydney's Hard Rock Cafe during a promotional tour for his last album, The Last Temptation seating wasn't a problem. He was the star of the night after all. But eerily he eased himself into a position directly...
Big, bad Cooper returns
(Out of Hours, 1997-08-29)
He's back-the maestro of mayhem, the master of rock shock. Ol' snake eyes himself, the one and only Alice Cooper, is set to assault the senses and morality of Brisbane audiences. Age has not wearied him in fact at 49, Alice is as wicked and as controversial as ever. Talking to the man who took his name from an 17th century witch, is almost as awesome as seeing one of his shows."Wait 'til you see the show," said Alice from Wisconsin. "It's like a large carnival of excesses, anything goes." It has been about three years since his last visit. ...
Carnival Prize
(Dallas Morning News, 1997-08-30)
At 49 years old, Alice Cooper - who headlined a magnific metal-rock show at the Dallas Music Complex Friday night - fits into a special place where judging by usual standards seems pointless. Better that you simply appreciate the fact that this over-the-top showman is still rockin', or that for a guy his age, he sure does move around purty good. If you insist on measuring the show, do it by tallying the props. On this tour they included a casket; a pulpit covered with occult emblems; an upright sarcophagus with a Tutlike gold-and-black striped Egyptian head on the front, done in relief; one of those carnival "Test of Strength" games in which you hit the base with a mallet to ring a bell; a skewer of vivid green oversize dollar bills; and a live boa constrictor....
Alice Cooper fait sa rentrée en été
(Hardrock, 1997-09-00)
Finies les frasques d’aujourd’hui Marilyn Manson jours la provoq’ à tout va, que Kiss propose un show catalysmique, celui à qui ces groupes doivent tout, Alice Cooper, fait une rentrée discréte, sans feux de paille ni éclats, au Bataclan. Oú il donne à son public une bonne leç de rock sans artifices. Quasiment aucune promo pour ces deux concerts de Vincent Furnier à Paris, les 30 juin et 1er juillet derniers. Petite affluence, donc, dans la salle parisienne pour assister au Fistful Of Alice Tour, supposeé promouvoir le dernier album live du même nom. Dommage, car nous avons assisté à un excellent concert : attaquant bille en tête par un "Under My Wheels" des familles, entouré de vieux briscards d’exception (Jimmy De Grasso en tête), le revenant n’a pas fait dans la dentelle, assé un à un tous ses classiques. ...
Concert Review: Glasgow Barrowlands
(Metal Hammer, 1997-09-00)
So Alice returns... again. With this, the latest in a long line of stunning resurections, rock's greatest golfer and Vincent Price obsessive is back in business for the umpteenth time, but now with a decidedly notable twist in the tail, as the godhead...
Interview
(Popular, 1997-09-00)
Interviewer: " The song Tourniquet by Marilyn Manson is totally Alice Cooper-styled." "We could say there is an influence on it (smiles). What I liked was their version of Sweet Dreams, they`ve done it very well":"I recommend to you their show. They are very theatrical. Mr. Manson says that what he doesn`t like about you is the fact that you separate your two personalities. He says he's Manson 24 hours a day"....
A Man Called Alice
(Time Off, 1997-09-00)
When Alice Cooper visited Sydney's Hard Rock Cafe during a promotional tour for his last album, The Last Temptation, seating wasn't a problem. He was the star of the night, after all. But eerily, he eased himself into a position directly underneath...
News Report
(Beat, 1997-09-03)
And don't forget Alice Cooper at the Sports and Entertainment Centre next Monday (September 8) Mr Cooper has always assemble high calibre musos such as the likes of Al Pitrelll, Tommy T-Bone Caradonna, Stef Burns, Ken Mary...
Shock Tactics
(Age, The, 1997-09-07)
Alice Cooper has 25 televisions back home in America and, he says, they're always on. Right now he is staring at yet another, watching Test cricket. "I just wanted to see if it was as boring as everyone says," he says in exactly the kind of laconic drawl...
Alice Cooper: Entertainment Center
(Beat, 1997-09-17)
This show opened with three clowns roaming around the dim-lit stage before the band strolled out and opened with a portion of 'Hello Hooray'. Then the audience erupted as Alice burst from a stage proper and hunted the clowns behind...
What's Up With Alice
(Anchorage Daily News, 1997-09-20)
Alice Cooper, who launched his "Fistful of Alice" album tour in August, says he's gone for a carny theme for his live concerts. Snakes are involved, and "there'll be a couple of new illusions. We always do something to poor Alice at the end...
Alice Cooper
(Metal Edge, 1997-10-00)
Inside the sold-out auditorium, the frenzied crowd of teenagers dressed in black leather and strange eye-makeup frantically fight one another to get as close to the stage as possible. They cheer wildly for the deranged rock star with a woman's name...
Talk Talk: Alice Cooper
(Goldmine, 1997-10-10)
Appearing recently on the Tonight Show, a typically bedraggled-looking Alice Cooper performed a blistering version of the angst-anthem, "I'm Eighteen," then took a seat next to Jay Leno. Smiling broadly, the talk show host quipped that it looked as if it had been a tough 18 years. "Well," replied Cooper, "if you say 'I'm 49 and I like it,' then it becomes a whole different thing." ...
Glen Buxton
(Des Moines Register, 1997-10-21)
Glen Buxton, a 'shocking and irreverent' rocker, had retired to a quieter life on a northern Iowa farm. Clarion, Ia. (AP) -- Glen Buxton, the guitarist for shock-rock band Alice Cooper who retired to a quieter life on a northern Iowa farm, died...
Spooky World's scare tactics
(Boston Globe, 1997-10-23)
Alice Cooper, this week's autograph-signing celebrity has completed his first shift and is relaxing in the farmhouse that serves as a backstage, feet up on the table, explaining the joy of horror. He should know. As a rocker, he's well into his third...
Glen Buxton, lead guitar for Alice Cooper dies here.
(Wright County Examiner, 1997-10-23)
Glen E. Buxton, 49, of Clarion, died Sunday, October 19, 1997 at North Iowa Mercy Medical Center in Mason City. Buxton was well known in rock music circles as lead guitar for Alice Cooper. Buxton was born November 10, 1947 at Akron, Ohio, the son of Thomas J. and Geraldine E. Carlson Buxton. At the age of 14, the family moved to Phoenix, Arizona where he graduated from high school and attended college....
Cooper Sadness
(Boston Globe, 1997-10-24)
Glen Buxton, guitarist for the original Alice Cooper band, died Oct. 19 at age 49 of complications from emphysema and pneumonia, says Cooper's manager, Toby Mamis. Buxton played on classic Cooper albums from the early 1970's such as ...
Alice Cooper guitarist buried in Clarion
(Iowa Messanger, 1997-10-25)
CLARION-Glen E. Buxton, the former lead guitarist for the band Alice Cooper, was remembered as a talented musician as well as a good friend and neighbor during funeral services Friday in Clarion. About 175 people crammed into Willim Funeral Home on Main Street in Clarion to pay their last respects to Buxton, who was the guitar front man for Alice Cooper from the late 1960s to 1974 as the group turned out a host of hits such as "School's Out." Former Alice Cooper band members Neal Smith, Michael Bruce and Dennis Dunaway were among the mourners....
Making Up Is Hard To Do
(New York Post, 1997-10-26)
For shock rockers, it isn't easy when every night is Halloween. In the 70's Alice Cooper slapped on ghoulish makeup and adorned himself with snakes. twenty five years later Marilyn Manson's corsets, mascara, and carefully thought out theatrics have catapulted him into the role of rock's new high priest, of androgyny. BOY GEORGE: "People like glamour. Becayse I was a pop star It was okay to dress up. It's about being acceptable, a clown in a supermarket is not acceptable but a clown in the circus is."...
Alice Cooper Guitarist Dies
(Kerrang!, 1997-10-29)
'Glen Buxton, original guitarist with Alice Cooper and co-writer of such classics as 'School' Out' and 'Elected', has died of complications from a bout of pneumonia. He was 49. Kerrang! sends condolences to Buxton's family and friends.'...
Unsung Guitar Hero
(Phoenix New Times, 1997-10-30)
Glen Buxton played a crucial role in rock history but how many people knew about it? It was a Friday night and Glen Buxton was jumping up and down with excitement as watched boxing on TV. The only indication that anything was wrong was a pain in his side, which he mentioned to his younger sister Janice Davison over the phone that night He thought he'd strained his back, carrying luggage on a recent trip to Houston "He said, 'I'm going to have to see the bone crusher tomorrow; my back's hurting me,'" Davison recalls....
A Fistful of Alice
(Grid, 1997-11-00)
Before there was Marilyn Manson, before G 'n' R, before The Cramps, before Ozzie, before KISS, there was Alice Cooper. Before there was "Beth" there was "Only Women Bleed," before there was "Welcome to the Jungle" there was "Lost in America" ("...I need a girlfriend with a gun and a job..."), and before there was "Beautiful People" there was "Elected." Before there was any other skinny long-haired guy in makeup and tight pants singing about teenage testosterone, raising hell, Ouija boards, cutting class, and the darker, creepier, morose side of life, there was Alice Cooper. And now, once again, he proves what it is all about....
News Report
(Melody Maker, 1997-11-01)
Alice Cooper's original guitarist, Glen Buxton, dies of complications from pneumonia on Saturday, October 18 in Clarion, Iowa. He was 49. Buxton, co-writer of classics such as "School's Out" and "I'm Eighteen", played lead guitar...
Glen Buxton
(Houston Music News, 1997-11-02)
".....A sad note last month was the passing of Glen Buxton, original guitarist from Alice Cooper, due to pneumonis. Only a few days earlier this Boneman had the privilege of experiencing (as lightman & fan) "Benjamin's Last Gig" with former Cooper comrads, drummer Neal Smith and guitarist Michael Bruce, who teamed with bassist Richie Scarlet (of Ace Frehley's Comet) and keyboardist John Glen (of Evans Music City) @ Area 51. This Cooper reunion (without Mr. Nightmare) blazed through all the hits that made Alice Cooper kick rock butt in it's birth, and it's surerstardom of the 70's and 80's. It was the real McCoy, and sounding surprisingly tight....
He's Live: Who Cares?
(Huntsville Times, 1997-11-02)
In 1977, Warner Brothers released what it described in advertisements as the holy grail of hard-rock live albums, the first disc to attempt to capture the Alice Cooper concert experience. But "The Alice Cooper Show" was a dull, tedious exercise that was only a stopgap to put Cooper product on the shelves while the performer was in rehab for substance abuse. Cooper never endorsed the disc, a recording by his late-70s Vegas backup band....
Obituary: Glen Buxton
(Independent, 1997-11-03)
Glen Buxton, guitarist: born Akron, Ohio 17 June 1947; died Clarion, Iowa 18 October 1997. Striking, outrageous frontmen often obscure the contribution other musicians make to a particular band. Indeed, before its singer branched out as a solo artist, the American act Alice Cooper was very much a group creation. Glen Buxton was one of the original guitarists with the Seventies shock-rockers and contributed to some of their most enduring and influential hits like the immortal teenage rebel anthem "School's Out", a British No 1 in 1972. ...
Obituary: Glen Buxton
(Telegraph, 1997-11-06)
Obituary of Glen Buxton Guitarist who contributed a riff or two to Alice Cooper's rock horror show, which featured straitjackets and headless chickens. GLEN BUXTON, who has died aged 50, was the lead guitarist with the American rock group Alice Cooper...
Alice Cooper finalizes deal for sports bar
(Phoenix Business Journal, 1997-11-17)
It all started one day during Little League practice. Valley entrepreneur Brian Weymouth approached fellow coach and rock star Alice Cooper -- and a high-level executive meeting occurred right there on the field. Weymouth: "We ought to be doing a restaurant around the ballpark." Cooper: "That sounds great. What would we call it?" Weymouth: "Cooper'stown, Alice Cooper'stown." Cooper: "I'm in." This week, a partnership led by Weymouth, Cooper and other deep-pocket investors signed a 39-year lease to occupy the old Western Wholesale Drug Co. warehouse building at the southeast corner of First and Jackson streets in downtown Phoenix. ...
Alice Cooper & Warrant
(Metal Edge, 1997-12-00)
It was an unlikely place for a concert: an outdoor stage set up behind a gambling casino on an Indian reservation 15 miles east of San Diego, but 2500 fans found their way to the Sycuan Casino in El Cajon, CA on July 30 to see Alice Cooper play...
Glen Buxton
(Mojo, 1997-12-00)
Glen Buxton, the Alice Cooper hroup's original guitarist and co-writer of School's Out, has died aged 50 in Clarion, Iowa, from complications arising from pneumonia. Buxton, who had survived drink and drug problems and a suicide attempt, made a living selling Alice Cooper memorabilia and working for Goodyear Aerospace, and although he knew his health wasn't what it should be he remained in good spirits. Shortly before he died he maintained: "What's really killing me is the price of the pills. But I'm pretty optimistic because people want to hear more music from me - I'm relearning the guitar."...
Glen Buxton 1947-1997
(Record Collector, 1997-12-00)
The riff you'll know, but the name, Glen Buxton, the original Alice Cooper guitarist who died in November from complications arising from pneumonia, has long been overshadowed by that of the band's front-man. Glam Rock was a golden era for those...
News Report
(Uncut, 1997-12-00)
Alice Cooper has been named as the first recipient of the Eyegore Award, an honour bestowed upon him by the cast and crew of the American TV series, Halloween Horror Nights, for his contribution to fantasy and horror. Alice was singled out because of his stage props, including a guillotine, an electric chair and the occasional snake, plus songs such as "Welcome To My Nightmare" and "I Love The Dead"...
Alice Cooper Guitarist Glen Buxton: 1947-1997
(Goldmine, 1997-12-05)
Glen Buxton, the talented but troubled lead guitarist for the original Alice Cooper group died Oct. 19 from complications from pneumonia. He was 49. Buxton's triple-pickup white Gibson SG and psychotic six-stringing were as much a part of the original group as was Alice's mascara, or the snakes, guillotines and gallows that inhabited the band's stage as it conquered city after city during its 1971 -to- 1973 heyday. His powerful lead-guitar tone powered the band's early '70s hit singles, including "I'm Eighteen," "Under My Wheels," "Be My Lover," "Elected" and the perennial crowd-pleaser, "School's Out," for which he composed the song's main riff, one of the all-time classic hard-rock guitar statements....
Alice Opens A Pub
(Kerrang!, 1997-12-06)
Alice Cooper is going into the sports bar business. The legendary shock rocker is planning to open a sports bar in Arizona, called 'Alice Cooper'stown'. which the man himself claims will be the "Taj Mahal of sports bars". The bar should open shortly in Cooper's home toen of Phoenix. And in typical Alice fashion, the bar are planning to start up their own special hall of fame to celebrate "weird, wonderful and wacky" sports stars of the past! ...
Welcome to his Nightmare
(Detroit News, 1997-12-23)
Things will be considerably more adult-oriented — well, maybe more adolescent-oriented — at Alice Cooper's New Year's Eve Nightmare at the State Theater at 8 p.m. Tickets are $45. Call (313) 961-5450. The Coop's shlock-rock antics are slightly less shocking than in his halcyon days. "Alice doesn't wear quite as much make-up as he used to, and his show is a bit less theatrical than in the old days," says publicist Randy Haecker. ...
Alice Cooper's Rock Legacy Slithers On
(Chicago Sun-Times, 1997-12-24)
Alice Cooper was on the minds of a lot of rock critics in 1997, but not necessarily because of his own antics. The controversy over Marilyn Manson's shock-rock stage show raised the question of where aggressive theatrical rock originated. And no matter...
The Story Behind The Song
(Hit Parader, 1998-01-00)
It's only the second time in the legendary Alice Coopers career that he's unleasehed a live album documenting his incredible stage show. His previous 1977 effort 'The Alice Cooper Show' isn't nearly as entertaining or noteworthy as the aptly...
Getting to know Sheryl Cooper
(Arcadia News, 1998-02-00)
When I asked Pam Eisenberg to describe her friend, Sheryl Cooper, she used words like gifted, dedicated, and completely unselfish. Another long-term friend, Krista Joseph, describes her as creative, patient, possessing a wonderful sense of humor...
News Report
(Uncut, 1998-02-00)
Alice Cooper's LA mansion would have urned to the ground back in 1976, had near neighbor Ringo Starr not seen the smoke from his bedroom window and called the fire brigade. When Cooper returned to the property after a night on the town, he discovered that the firemen, having drained his swimming pool to doue the flames, had stolen his giant inflatable shark,a prop from Jaws given to the rocker by director Steven Spielberg....
Interview
(Vintage Guitar, 1998-02-00)
Even the world's greatest rock and roll showmen can't monopolize the affections of the world's youth without some help. Sorry, Alice Cooper. Sorry, Lou Reed. Yeah, they had help. Big time! Especially from Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter! Both Cooper and Reed enlisted hired-gun guitarists Wagner and Hunter to help sustain their creative zenith during the 1970s. Indeed, Wagner and Hunter were the session community's dynamic duo during the era of cocaine and casual wear. When your recording session needed some monster guitar solos, you called Wagner and Hunter first. Period. Just ask Kiss. Or better yet, ask Aerosmith. After the post-Van Halen explosion, however, the need for high-octane blues players like Wagner and Hunter diminished significantly. ...
Alice Cooper's sports bar to open in April
(Arcadia News, 1998-03-00)
A new sports bar/restaurant, called, "Cooper'stown," is scheduled to open in downtown Phoenix in April. The project is a $2.7 million complete redesign of the old Western Wholesale Drug Co. warehouse building at the southeast corner of First...
ALICE DOESN'T RUN ANYMORE: During the impeachment proceedings of Arizona's Gov. Evan Mecham, raccoon-eyed rocker Alice Cooper announced at a concert that he was running as a write-in candidate to fill the possibly soon-to-be vacant seat. "I'm a registered voter and grew up in the state," he said. "I'm here to represent the Wild Party. I even have a slogan: Alice Cooper-A troubled man for troubled times." His backup slogan was "A snake in every pool." Later, Alice pulled out, declaring, "As a write-in candidate I was doomed from the start because my fans can't read. Besides," he added, "we never found out what the job pays." ...
"Cooperstown"
(Arizona Republic, 1998-03-25)
'In a vacant lot on Jackson Street, the music from Alice Cooper's "Feed My Frankenstein" filled the afternoon air. Smoke seeped from around the steel door on the side of a building as two ghouls stepped out, followed by Cooper. It was the...
Arizona Theme Has Strong Presence In Ceremonies
(Scottsdale Tribune, 1998-04-01)
When it came to opening night, the Arizona Diamondbacks tried their best to maintain an Arizona theme. For starters they had 10 Arizona musicians sing the national anthem, including rock star Alice Cooper of Paradise Valley; Dave Mustaine, Phoenix resident and lead singer of Megadeth; Robin Wilson, Tempe resident and vocalist of the now-defunct Gin Blossoms; soul legend Sam Moore, Scottsdale resident and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; locals Margo Reed and Alice Tatum; Nils Lofgren, Scottsdale resident and guitarist for Bruce Springsteen; Rob Halford of Paradise Valley; Andy West, Phoenix resident and member of the Dixie Dregs; and Scottsdale resident Joni Sledge. According to the fans, they were a hit. "I like all the different artists being out there," said Peoria resident Paul McBride. "I've listened to most of them." ...
Alice Cooper Will Rock In America
(Bradenton Herald, 1998-05-01)
Your parents might not have let you go to an Alice Cooper concert back in the '70s. But they can't stop you now! Cooper, one of the pioneers of shock rock, has been confirmed as the Saturday night headliner for Classic Rock Weekend '98, slated...
Alice Cooper
(Kerrang!, 1998-06-03)
YAWN. THIS whole Backyard Babies thing really is becoming a bore. The seismic Swedes storm on, rip the place apart with a chain reaction of feedback linked nitro-fuelled sleazed-out rock 'n' roll and leave the stage triumphant. Again. From the Backyard variety to the billion dollar one. Yeah, start spreading the news; ol' blue eyes is dead and ol' black eyes is back. Alice Cooper. With no new ·product' to push, the anti-hero Cooperstar appears to be invading Europe with his 'Rock 'n' Roll Carnival' for nothing other than the best reason of all - the sheer hell of it....
Live In London
(Star Times, 1998-06-21)
WELCOME, once again, to the nightmare. Alice Cooper is back, and he's come for your sanity. And your sides. It's a physical impossibility to leave an Alice Cooper gig with anything less than a six-foot grin. The three decades-long godfather of glam rock is a survivor from the days way back when, before the LA poodle-rockers ruined everything with their makeup and their girls' haircuts. The Cooper horror-comedy stage shows were as theatrical as live rock has ever got (with none of the pretension of Pink Floyd et al), marrying dwarf-torture, executions and wriggling boa constrictors to the most cartoonish of the devil's tunes....
Concert Review
(Metal Hammer, 1998-07-00)
Roll up! Roll up! Witness the circus macabre - marvel at the slick showmanship, gasp at the cod theatrics and thrill at the unmitigated spectacle of one of rock's great drama queens playing demon ringmaster in a real rock and roll extravaganza...
Let the rock roll on Classic Rock
(Western Wheel, 1998-07-08)
The show must go on - and it will. The Classic Rock Weekend, scheduled for the long weekend in August, is a go and Alice Cooper and his entourage will invade the Foothills. "In my estimation, there is not a show in North America that is close to the calibre of classic rock acts that we have," said Frank Scott of Player Productions. "This is the show of the year in North America." Scott is not blowing smoke either....
Brutal Planet
(What's Up, 1998-07-08)
When it comes to shock rock that spurs real controversy, I was born at the wrong time to really take advantage. I was just a tiny child when my teenage uncle scandalized the family by going to the Memorial Coliseum to see Alice Cooper pretend to kill babies on stage. A few decades later, when I went to the same arena to see Marilyn Manson do outrageous stuff on stage, I was already too old to understand what all the fuss was about. Kids in my age group had to settle for Ozzy Osborne, and after one little incident with a bat, the Ozzman went mainstream on us. ...
Greatest Summer Songs Of All Time
(Rolling Stone, 1998-07-09)
"Between May and June, 'School's out' is the national anthem," Alice Cooper says proudly of his enduring hard-rock classic, which hit Number Seven on the Billboard charts in the summer of 1972 and still racks up serious seasonal airplay. Back when Marilyn Manson was toddling, the pioneering shock-rock god was making outrageously theatrical, gender-bending music - and looking for a hit. "When we wrote the song, I said, 'What is the one moment that's the happiest, most exhilarating moment of the year?' " Cooper recalls. " 'It's when the clock is one minute to three on the last day of school, and then it finally goes click. That's what I wanted to capture for three minutes on this record. I want this to be like an anthem.' There wasn't Anybody who didn't love that last minute of school - it was like the anticipation and then, at the end, like the orgasm that school is out." ...
Freedom For Frankenstein Album Review
(Kerrang!, 1998-07-18)
Alice Cooper has just released a compilation album titled 'Freedom For Frankenstein (Hits & Pieces 1984-91)' on Raven Records. ...
School's out; Cooper's still in
(Chicago Tribune, 1998-07-24)
Most old rockers either die, fade away or flog their hits like so many dead horses. But a few, like Alice Cooper, have managed to keep going while somehow avoiding the ignominy of self-parody. On Wednesday night Alice Cooper's Rock 'n' Roll...
For Cooper, the shock is gone but not the rock
(St. Petersburg Times, 1998-08-10)
CLEARWATER - Twenty-five years ago, Alice Cooper was every parent's worst rock 'n' roll nightmare. With his face, smeared in ghoulish eye shadow, he leered demonically from his album jackets. His concerts were fabled for Cooper's fascination with psycho stage theatrics, which he manifested with guillotines, hangman's nooses, and boa constrictors. But that was then. The passing years unleashed a host of rock weirdos from the anarchist bellowing of Marilyn Manson, making Cooper's stunts of long ago seem like dog and pony acts. The 52-year-old (I sent them an email correcting this) Cooper brought his Rock 'N' Roll Carnival tour Sunday night to Ruth Eckerd Hall for a sold-out show. ...
It's Just Shocking
(Detroit News, 1998-08-28)
If rock 'n' roll is a carnival, says Alice Cooper, he is the sideshow. The tongue-in-cheek master of shock rock is back on the road. People who, since 1969, missed the point about what Cooper was trying to do with his music have missed the fun, he suggests....
A Guide to Stops on the Internet: Alice Cooper
(Metal Edge, 1998-09-00)
Alice Cooper Ephemera Archive - http://207.49.108.200/stagedive/ldavey/ - This is a VERY cool site! TONS of info resides here housed in an easy-to-use design. Exceptional discographies from many countries...
Alice Cooper Works All the Angles
(Wall of Sound, 1998-09-00)
It's been four years since Alice Cooper's last studio album, The Last Temptation, but the original shock-rocker is planning for a busy 1999. First off, there will be an album of new material, written by Cooper and his band, with, he says, no outside contributions. "We've got tons of stuff written; I told the band to go out and bring me tapes, and I heard about 12 or 13 different songs that were really good," he says, adding that the album likely won't be the next installment of the planned Last Temptation trilogy. "I've got at least three concepts that are basically written right now, but the next album won't be one of them. It will be a straight-ahead rock and roll album." ...
Alice Cooper, Kidd Wicked, Nautica Stage
(Scene, 1998-09-09)
Welcome back, my friends, to the nightmare that never ends. That was the theme last week at Nautica, as Alice Cooper brought his world-famous rock and roll sideshow to Cleveland, treating a near-capacity crowd to an evening of musical entertainment like nothing you've ever seen under the big top. These days, Marilyn Manson is the one grabbing all of the headlines. But while Alice Cooper was once the Rodney Dangerfield of rock and roll, he's finally getting the credit (and the respect) that he so richly deserves. It isn't hard to see why, judging by this show....
Cooper Gets Boxed
(Kerrang!, 1998-09-12)
Alice Cooper will have a box set released next February by Rhino Records. It will span his entire career. Titled "The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper", it will feature four CD's that will include material that dates back as far as 1967. There will be songs drawn from Cooper's early work with obscure bands The Spiders and The Nazz, as well as rehearsal tapes from the 70's, B-sides of singles, unreleased material and, apparently, a few surprises....
Alice's Faithful Fans Delighted
(News Messanger, 1998-09-26)
Take away his long hair and his custom leather jacket and Alice Cooper could be mistaken for anyone but a rock star. His voice is soft, his eyes friendly. Hardly the image he portrays on stage with wild makeup and snakes. Cooper, makeup and reptile free, sat at a table in front of the stone fireplace at the Rendezvous Lodge on the Thornwood Golf Course grounds, primed to meet his fans. He gave a few minutes to talk to a small group of reporters. ...
News Report
(Entertainment Weekly, 1998-11-13)
Go Ask Alice: Sharp-eared metalheads aren't alone in hearing echoes of Alice Cooper's '71 hit "Eighteen" in "Dreamin'," a song from Kiss' current Psycho Circus album. Six Palms Music Corp., copublisher of "Eighteen," filed a complait for copyright infringement against "Dreamin'" authors Bruce Kulick and Kiss member Paul Stanley, as well as Polygram Publishing and Mercury Records, Oct. 21, in the U.S. district court in L.A. The complaint alleges that "Dreamin'" is "substantially similar" to the earlier tune, which was collectively written by members of Alice Cooper. Evan Choen, an attorney for Six Palms Music, says he hopes the matter can be settled out of court: "It's just a question of whether the Kiss people will agree that these songs [sound] just too much alike. I don't see what Paul Stanley could possibly say; he's certainly not going to say he's never heard 'Eighteen.' " A Kiss spokesperson declined to comment on the suit. ...
Top 100 most influential artists
(Kerrang!, 1998-11-25)
The Original Marilyn manson. A Guy with a girl`s name and long black hair playing shock rock. Simple, really. Back in the 70s, Cooper was Americas public enemy number one, horrifying parents with his outrageous stage-shows (monsters, guillotine executions, baby dolls on spikes) and teen rebellion anthems like `School`s Out`. It was all just harmless fun, of course. And the music was a brilliant mix of deafening rock`n`roll nastiness and biting social satire. ...
Kiss the Culprit
(Phoenix New Times, 1998-11-26)
When the Rolling Stones staged the first genuine rock 'n' roll circus in 1968, they distributed gold-embossed metallic tickets to their fan-club members and lucky NME readers, fed them, gave them 20 hours of music, clowns and amusements and then arranged for buses to take everybody home. All free o' charge! In stark contrast, anyone attending Kiss' overpriced raveling carnival would've been soaked nonstop for his last remaining dollars. Just look at the shameless merchandise huckstering packed inside the band's new Psycho-Circus CD: "Limited Edition Commemorative Psycho-Circus Silver Proof Coins" - $279.00!! "Psycho-Circus Throw Blanket" - $70.00!! ...
All Revved Up, Surrounded by Suits
(Phoenix New Times, 1998-12-24)
Friday night downtown, between the decades-old warehouses and America West Arena, where old trolley tracks remain visible under streets paved over years ago, the dust and car exhaust blended with pithy scents of perfume and floated on a warm December breeze. Like carnival barkers, the lanky parking-space hawkers with chutzpah in their pitch waved flashlights, directing the Lexi and Mercedi to empty spots in the throngs of shining cars lotted for the night's only events: the Amy Grant concert and the invite-only party for downtown's newest splash: Cooper'stown restaurant and bar. ...
Flying The Coop
(Anchorage Daily News, 1998-12-25)
Shock-rocker Alice Cooper opened his own restauraunt last weekend in Phoenix. Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine is a partner in the sport 'n' rock eatery named Alice Cooper'stown Restauraunt. Cooper used the occasion to set straight...
The Alice Cooper Band
(Psychotronic Video, 1999-00-00)
The three surviving members of The Alice Cooper Band were interviewed at a Chiller Convention (where Neal Smith and Michael Bruce played). The interview was videotaped by Akira Fitton and parts of it were broadcast on Grant's MEDIA FUNHOUSE show in Manhattan....
Alice Cooper
(Vancouver Westender, 1999-00-00)
Alice Cooper's Rock N Roll Carnival is coming to Vancouver. It doesn't matter much that his best contribution to the annuls of rock had to be back in 1972 with the release of the absolutely matchless "School's Out" -- it remains, quite simply, one of the best rock anthems ever recorded. It doesn't matter that his last #1 record, Billion Dollar Babies, was released in 1973 when I was but a mere babe myself. Why? Because it was his dark world of Rock alot of us were born into. And it doesn't even matter that he, like all dressed-up, resurrect-a- rock bands of the 70's, must now measure the stage make-up in pounds per square inch -- it must be said: Rock don't wrinkle, and theatre and concept get better with age. This is Alice Cooper....
Alice Cooper Rocks L.A.
(Metal Edge, 1999-01-00)
No time like summer for a carnival, and Alice Cooper put a typically demented twist on the sideshow theme for his latest concert program, performing amidst clowns and brandishing an array of props as he entertained a packed House of Blues...
Alice's Restaurant
(Scottsdale Tribune, 1999-03-04)
Downtown Phoenix's newest eatery is named after the historic baseball hall of fame and legendary rock star Alice Cooper. If you've not guessed, the theme eatery teams up sports and music. If you and your team go for slow-smoked eats, better known as barbecue, take them to Cooper'stown. The barbecue is major-league. The menu: Alice's has American food, highlighting slow-cooked barbecue. Look for smoked ribs, pork, brisket, corned beef, chicken even meat loaf. Labeled Mega Death Meatloaf, it's a slab that's spent time in the smoker and served with garlic mashed spuds. The menu is an interesting read, featuring such dishes as Welcome to my Nightmare chili, The Big Unit hot dog and Ryne Sandburgers....
Outta the Park
(Phoenix New Times, 1999-03-11)
It's spring, and our senses are awakening after a long winter's hibernation. Watch the blooming wildflowers swaying in the breeze. Sniff the fragrant orange blossoms perfuming the mild desert air. And listen closely for the sharp thwack of horsehide meeting leather, as major-leaguers begin limbering up for a new season. Wildflowers, orange blossoms and baseball players aren't the only things springing into action right now. So are the restaurants and watering holes near Bank One Ballpark and America West Arena, which rely on sports fans streaming into downtown for most of their trade. For them, it's been an exceptionally long winter -- no basketball until February, no baseball since the end of September. ...
No headbangers allowed?
(Cleveland Plain Dealer, 1999-03-15)
Many cite the influence of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Alice Cooper on today's music, but they remain outside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Black Sabbath will not be attending the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's induction ceremony tonight...
The Scoop on Cooper'stown
(Arizona Republic, 1999-03-25)
Alice Cooper - he may be a hometown celebrity, but saddling up to the bar and ordering a Bloody Mary from this ex-glam rocker might scare some people off. Don't worry, we found Alice Cooper'stown to be a friendly place, even though the...
The Wall Of Sound
(Guitar World, 1999-04-00)
When Alice Cooper needed a guiding hand, when Kiss was hellbent on delivering a knockout punch or when Pink Floyd decided to come up with an epic worthy of Cecil B. DeMille, Bob Ezrin was the man they called. While you may not know him by name, you've certainly heard Ezrin's brilliant productions on classic rock radio. "School's Out", "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2", and " Detroit Rock City" are just a few of the landmark rockers that this unique producer helped fashion with a combination of studio expertise, arranging skills, and serious chutzpah....
The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper
(Minneapolis Newhouse News Service, 1999-04-00)
Curse him, laugh at him, love him or loathe him, but don't you dare put Alice Cooper in the same category as Marilyn Manson. When it comes to the music, Manson couldn't hold a candle to hard-hearted Alice. If you need proof, there's plenty of it on this new overstuffed four-CD boxed set. The long-overdue 88-track set covers Cooper's musical career from low-fi garage-band singles in 1965 and 1966, right up to "Hands of Death", a 1999 remix of an earlier collaboration between Cooper and Rob Zombie. ...
Rhino Commemorates Alice Cooper's 'Life And Crimes'
(Billboard, 1999-04-10)
Welcome to his nightmare: Talk about a perfect way to head into the millennium. On April 20, Rhino releases "The Life And Crimes Of Alice Cooper," a four CD set devoted to the original musical shockmeister. The 84-song collection, which features...
Alice Cooper - Life and Crimes
(New Haven Register, 1999-04-16)
Forgot to tell you about one of the impending signs of the Apocalypse back in January. Absentmindedly turned on the idiot box one Sunday, and one of the celebrity golf pro-ams was on, and there, playing in a threesome with a big name pro (a Mark O'Meara-caliber guy, but l can't remember which one) , were Alice Cooper and Michael Bolton.Anyway, just remembered it because the Rhino folks( who are plunging deep into the Warner Bros. archives now that Warner has bought the mighty little archival label) just dropped off the four cd box " The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper." ...
Hanging With Mr. Cooper
(Detroit Free Press, 1999-04-18)
A few years before punk, a good decade before mascara metal, nearly 30 years before Eminem, there was Alice Cooper. Indeed, in this age of Eminem - the shock-minded Detroit rapper no lodged near the top of the charts — it's a fine time to check...
The Rock 'n' Roll Villain
(Get Out, 1999-04-22)
A restaurateur sits in the office under his downtown Phoenix eatery and thinks back on the momentous decision that shapes his life. Alice Cooper's late-'60s decision had nothing to do with food....
News Report
(Milwaukee Journal, 1999-04-22)
(Regarding the Columbine shootings where two students opened fire on classmates and teachers) "[Eric] Harris, 18, rarely thought small. His online ramblings demonstrate a grand view of life and self. "Man has ruled this world as a stumbling, demented child king long enough," Harris wrote in his "personal quote" on his America Online member profile. "As his empire crumbles, my precious black widow shall rise as his most fitting successor." Online, he called himself Darkness." ...
Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Album Review
(Entertainment Weekly, 1999-04-23)
Unlike some latter-day shock-rockers, the Coop understood the value of a good song, and this four-CD retrospective is packed with 'em, from garagey, pre-AC gems like "Don't Blow Your Mind" to classic teenage wasteland anthems like "School's Out." The first two discs are especially revelatory, tracing the band's metamorphosis from naïve Yardbirds copyists to sicko psychedelicists to the definitively tough, tuneful hard-rock unit they became in the '70s. Hey, kids: Skip those Marilyn Manson tickets and invest in this instead. ...
Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Album Review
(Miami Herald, 1999-04-27)
Hey, Marilyn Manson fans, check this out. A four-CD boxed set from the original shock rocker, Alice Cooper. A shock rocker who understood that gross-outs were fine, but you needed the songs at the end of the day to truly matter. Cooper had plenty. The first two CDs capture Cooper's '70s heyday: "School's Out," the ultimate kiss-off to principals you couldn't stand; "I'm Eighteen," teen-age wasteland's theme song; "Cold Ethyl," a song about necrophilia that once spawned an Ann Landers diatribe. The latter CDs follow Cooper's move toward pop crooner ("You and Me"), New Wave dilettante ("Clones (We're All)") and Bon Jovi impersonator ("Poison"). And you gotta love the cover: a three-dimensional shot of Cooper in jail. Feast on that, Manson. ...
School's Back In, Rockers!
(Arizona Republic, 1999-04-29)
'If you're going to do a box set, you really couldn't do it any better than the guys at Rhino did for Alice Cooper. This baby, which reached stores last week, has everything a fan looks for in these things: There are 84 tracks, licensed from 12 sources...
Go Ask Alice
(Phoenix New Times, 1999-04-29)
Look through the north window of Alice Cooper'stown and the message is clear. You're greeted by a life-size cardboard cutout of the king of shock rock in black leather, welcoming you to his nightmare, In front of the cutout, the window sports an orange neon Alice Cooper signature, and directly beneath it, in purple neon, is a single word: PROPRIETOR....
Shocker! Alice Cooper Meets Fans
(Addicted to Noise, 1999-05-00)
Shock-rock icon turns out to be Mr. Nice Guy as he pushes box set with autograph-signing tour. CHICAGO — Veteran rocker Alice Cooper is touring the U.S. and Europe. But in seven stops on two continents, he'll play only one song. That's because...
30 years of shock-rock
(Premier, 1999-05-00)
Alice is certainly one of rock's "grand old men" by now. The fact that he nowadays is a golfing family man isn't that illogical, knowing that he's 52 years old.Alice Cooper was born Vincent Furnier in 1947. His father vas a minister and as youth does, Vince revolted against his parents. The question remanis: has anyone revolted as long......
Up Close and Personal
(Request, 1999-05-00)
If good fortune sometimes comes from being in the right place at the right time, then for Brian Nelson it came from being there over and over again. Between 1977, when he managed to persuade an Alice Cooper roadie to give him a backstage pass, and 1980, when he surreptitiously snagged the singer's phone number, Nelson was a constant lurking among the Coop's post-show entourage. Little did he know that his zealousness would lead to a job as Cooper's personal assistant, a postion he's held for almost two decades....
Interview
(Wall of Sound, 1999-05-00)
School may be almost out for summer, but it's definitely in for those wishing to learn a little more about Alice Cooper, the original shock-rocker and forebear to the likes of KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, Rob Zombie, and Marilyn Manson. With a new episode of VH1's Behind the Music airing footage of his assorted beheadings, electrocutions, hangings, and baby doll demolitions, The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper has entered stores, a four-CD, 91-song treasure crypt of hits, misses, and rarities that makes a case that the ghoul once known as Vincent Furnier - the son of a Detroit minister - can do more than just put on black mascara and cavort with boa constrictors....
Q & A With Alice Cooper
(San Francisco Chronicle, 1999-05-03)
Alice Cooper may not be the most happening man in rock, but his influence is everywhere. Sex Pistols front man John Lydon is one unlikely fan. He provides unexpectedly reverent liner notes for "The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper," a new four-disc Rhino Records retrospective. Other eclectic artists who pay tribute to the self-proclaimed originator of "shock rock" include Burt Bacharach, Bono and various members of Motley Crue. The latest and most obvious offspring, however, has to be Marilyn Manson, who is enjoying massive success by recycling Cooper's heavy eye makeup and flashy anthems. We caught up with Cooper, 50, at his Arizona home, where he fills his time raising kids, playing golf and overseeing his theme restaurant. ...
Cooper Collection shows depth
(Springfield Newsleader, 1999-05-03)
Alice Cooper is a lot more then the cartoon character he now seems to be. Apparently more interested in golf than music, he's little more than a rock cliche. But in his day Cooper was a master showman, turning rock n roll into a circus of outrageous fun and frivolity and hard-driving music. This four disc collection --84 tracks from 21 albums done between 1969 and '97--- reveals more depth to this guy than you might think. All the big hits are here, including "Elected", "Schools Out", "I'm Eighteen", "Under My Wheels" and other teen-age angst anthems. There are also obscure pieces from his early days in the Spiders and Nazz and cuts from various movie soundtracks. ...
Alice Cooper box set keeps the horror alive
(Boston Globe, 1999-05-07)
Capital punishment may be a divisive issue in America, but it has been very good to Alice Cooper. It's uncertain whether Alice is a fan or foe, but it's an undeniable fact that capital punishment has been a big part of his professional life: The singer has ...
Stars give public a voice for Kosovo
(USA Today, 1999-05-07)
Alice Cooper, Wyclef Jean, Daniel Baldwin, Duncan Sheik, Sam Moore and Keanu Reeves' Dogstar band are among early volunteers slated to record Message to the World, a benefit song for Kosovo refugees co-written by former teen idol David Cassidy. But this is no elite all-star charity project. The public is invited to lend voices to the chorus by visiting the mobile studio in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest bus, a separate educational program joining the Message effort. (Stopping in cities between the East Coast and Las Vegas, the bus stops at New York's Central Park May 14.) ...
Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Album Review
(Kerrang!, 1999-05-08)
NEVER DID Alice Cooper snarl a more prophetic line than in the 1972 single 'Elected', when he declared 'We're all gonna rock to the rules that I make'. Back list the bad guys, from Manson to Guns N' Roses to the Sex Pistols, and you're guaranteed one prime evil influence. No, not Donny Osmond but our boy Alice - heavy rock's premiere anti-hero. One of the coolest things about this four-CD Cooper box set can be found in the info-stuffed booklet with the two pages lovingly penned by former Pistols John (Johnny Rotten) Lydon. If anybody ever asks you what the hell you see in Alice Cooper, just give the buggers this to read. Never has the music, the concept and perhaps even more importantly, the fun of Alice Cooper been better understood. ...
Magic that can set you free: rock 'n' roll's enduring power
(Boston Globe, 1999-05-09)
A teenager is ticked off, as will happen, as has happened for eons. He storms into his room, slams the door, and turns the stereo up full blast. The music is hard and heavy. Harsh and violent words seep through into the other room...
This is your parents' Marilyn Manson
(Boston Herald, 1999-05-09)
He's every parent's nightmare: A man with a woman's name, a garish makeup job and an outfit that most transvestites would think was tacky. His live shows are a mess of sexual decadence, simulated violence and overdone guitar solos. And, scariest ...
The Idea Behind Rock N Roll is Joy
(Onion, 1999-05-12)
Alice Cooper has received equal measures of credit and blame for influencing numerous shocking, over-the-top rock acts, from The Sex Pistols to White Zombie to Marilyn Manson. But what many of the 51-year-old's most popular contemporary descendents forget to emulate is Cooper's rebellious sense of fun, heard in such timeless rock 'n' roll moments as "School's Out," "I'm Eighteen," "Welcome To My Nightmare," and more. Perhaps the first to build truly over-the-top theatrics into his live shows--his raucous sets feature blood and countless props, and generally end with a simulation of his own violent death--Cooper has always built his act around catchy rock songs and a rare knack for showmanship. ...
Go Ask Alice
(Winnipeg Sun, 1999-05-21)
Shock rocker? Guess again -- these days, Alice Cooper is more of a jock rocker."I just want you to know we're taking care of the Jets down here," says the 51-year-old rock legend from his home in Phoenix, Ariz. "I have friends from Winnipeg. They come down here in the winter and they feel right at home because the Coyotes are playing. I'm even one of their honourary captains."...
.....but Wasp don't impress Alice Cooper
(Expressen Standard, 1999-05-22)
Around 20 young girls were standing outside Grand Hotel in Stockholm yesterday and said that they waited for Alice Cooper. "I have all kinds of fans", shockrocker told Expressen. It turned out that they were there to meet the boygroup Five! Both me and Alice went on a sting yesterday evening. The teenage girls outside Grand Hotel said they wanted to catch a glimpse of Alice Cooper. One of them asked me to take his autograph and a satisfied Cooper looked down towards the fans from his window. "I lived on the same hotel as Backstreet Boys in New York and occasionally you would hear screams through the walls," Alice says....
Some Folks Love To See Red
(Zia Zine, 1999-05-24)
Probably one of my earliest rock and roll memories involves receiving two records for Christmas when I was about 11 years old. Bless their hearts -- my brother and sister, both a bit older than me, had taken the occasion brought about by the giving season to dose me with two classic Alice Cooper albums: Cooper's recent Alice Cooper Goes To Hell, and the mid-'70s masterpiece Welcome To My Nightmare. I eagerly listened to both discs, and although I probably didn't quite fully understand them (the black humor of "Cold Ethyl" was lost on this youth), I was hopelessly hooked on Alice. ...
Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Album Review
(Metal Hammer, 1999-06-00)
Ageing rock stars used to contend themselves with staring bleary-eyed into the remains of last night's bourbon, perennially reminding the barflies that they once meant something somewhere. But times have changed. Old rock stars now make...
Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Album Review
(Mojo, 1999-06-00)
All the hits plus rareties - 12 previously unreleased - including pre-Alice singles, outtakes and demos, on four CD`s in a nifty jail-cell box, 80-page colour book features intro by Johnny Rotten. When John Lydon was a nipper he joined Alice's fan club. They sent him a box of feathers. "Oh no, these are feathers off of one of the chickens that Alice must have killed! How sick and delicious..." he recalls in his two page tribute. "The Sex Pistols were the real thing and Alice wasn't? WRONG!" ...
The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper
(Record Collector, 1999-06-00)
1972 was a vintage year for summer anthems: Mott The Hoople's "All The Young Dudes"", Derek and the Dominos' "Layla", Hawkwind's "Silver Machine", even Gary Glitter's "Rock 'n' Roll Part 2". Each confirmed that rumours of pop's demise after the...
Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Album Review
(Sound and Vision, 1999-06-00)
"Now that Rhino has acquired the rights to most of the Warner Bros. back catalog, get ready for a windfall of reissues. Among the first to drop are these four-CD boxed sets of two of the hardest rockers from the 70s. Serious metallurgists may wonder how the lowdown Alice Cooper can beat out the relatively highbrow Deep Purple by a full star. ...
Alice's Restaurant
(Sports Illustrated, 1999-06-00)
Seminal shock-rocker Alice Cooper has changed his tune. Cooper, who long ago heeded the call of The Byrds in "So You Want to Be a Rock'n'Roll Star" is now guided by an inner muse playing "So You Want to Be a Restaurateur". Last December, in his hometown of Phoenix, Cooper, 51, launched Alice Cooper'stown, thus becoming the latest celebrity to throw his hat into the onion ring....
Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper Album Review
(Spin, 1999-06-00)
Alice Cooper Long before he was a budding restaurateur (Phoenix's Alice Cooperstown sports bar), PGA tour wannabe, and Pat Boone - schmoozing shill for Sony cell phones, Vincent Furnier's claim to infamy was as rock's original Antichrist Superstar, the guy who authored the marketing plan Marilyn Manson sampled Puffy-style to become a billion-dollar baby. Rechristening himself Alice Cooper (allegedly the name of a 17th-century witch) in the late '60s, this son of a preacher man moved his L.A.-based band to his Detroit birthplace to cash in on the proto-punk street cred of native sons the Stooges and MC5 (he's likely the only performer ever to move to the Motor City to make it big). Making blasphemy his schtick and trade, Cooper brought his shock theatrics of pro wrestling to rock, his corny concert spectacles putting the "fraud" into schadenfreude. ...
Alice Malice
(Herald Sun, 1999-06-20)
With the release of an in-depth career retrospective, Alice Cooper remains the unrepentant king of over-the-top rock. And he tells Paul Stewart, '90s rockers such as Marilyn Manson are nothing but show ponies...
Well Hung
(Guitar World, 1999-07-00)
The oily psyche of Alice Cooper isn't an easy thing to grasp, not even if you happen to be Alice Cooper. The first king of shock rock has been reshaping his persona since 1969, when he traded his life as Vincent Furnier, a preacher's son from Detroit, for that of the androgynous, doll-chopping, snake-charming leader of one of popular music's most original acts. It was potent stuff for it's time, a rock and roll horror show designed to shock a populace numbed by the hippies an flower-power movement. ...
Rock back in time
(Herald Sun, 1999-07-28)
The millennium may be looming, but one rock tour promises to take music fans back in time....
Thirty Years of Rock Horror Music
(Aardschok America, 1999-08-00)
On February 4th, 1948, Vincent Furnier is born. Now, 51 years later, there's a magnificent overview of 25 Alice Cooper albums. His first "real" Cooper album is "Love It To Death" from 1971, according to many still one of his best albums. His latest...
Alice in Monsterland
(Famous Monsters, 1999-08-00)
Hollywood is fond of summarizing an act in a few short words. If we applied that formula to Alice Cooper we could do it in just two words: class act. After years of battling conventional thinking, Cooper managed to craft a unique style that personified the growing angst of youth culture in the late 60s and 70s. He plucked the petal from the flower children and screamed out the frustration of the counter culture. When the very nature of rock-and-roll music was taking it rebellious roots to extremes - when bands like The Who, The Animals, Frank Zappa and even The Beatles were vocalizing the outcast aura of a generation - Cooper cast aside all the social stigma and became the poster boy for the primal scream....
Alice Cooper
(Metal Edge, 1999-08-00)
Imagine trying to put 30 years on your life into one box. Now, try that again when you're Alice Cooper. That cozy little box would have to have seating for everyone from Chris Cornell and Rob Zombie to liza Minelli and Vincent Price. Not to mention...
Humanary Stew Album Review
(Metal Hammer, 1999-08-00)
DO people actually buy tribute albums? Or are they all far too happy listening to the real thing? It's one question I've never been able to figure out, but given the abundance of the things that have appeared of late, I guess there must be something to it...
Satan Made Me Do It
(Beat, 1999-08-04)
Sex Pistol, John "Rotten" Lydon is even handed and consistent; he hates almost everyone with the same passion. Everyone it seems except for Alice Cooper. His furry, green toothed howling along to da Coop's classic, I'm Eighteen got him...
Welcome To My Mightmare
(Classic Rock, 1999-09-00)
It's hard to believe that Alice Cooper's story has now spanned an incredible three decades — as Alice himself is only too keen to agree. The schizophrenic singer has gone through peaks and drink-addled troughs, but although the music sometimes...
Glitter-Punk Revolution NOW!
(Hit List, 1999-09-00)
Somewhere in the American Deep South, 1957: A young man sits in front of a mirror backstage at a seedy nightclub. His pompadour is stratospheric and his eyes are ringed with black liner. He's wearing a pink silk suit jacket and pegged black slacks with red piping down each leg. ...
Sex, Death and Money
(Georgia Straight, 1999-09-09)
Last month, a feature-length movie about four rabid Kiss fans, Detroit Rock City, was released across America. It was basically a Gene Simmons-bankrolled homage to his own band, which took glam metal to the extreme in the '70s and won over legions of die-hard fans in the process....
Shock Rock Purist
(Vancouver Sun, 1999-09-09)
There is a very good reason you will never see Alice Cooper brandish tattoos or incorporate a coffin into his theatrical performance. They scare him. "I have a couple of phobias," he admits. "I'm pretty claustrophobic...
Days of Twine And Guillotines
(Calgary Sun, 1999-09-18)
Alice Cooper admits he's not the kind of ghoul who usually falls under the spell of nostalgia. Yet this spring's release of The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper, a lavishly packaged four-CD box set recapping his eventful career, gave The Man Formerly Known...
Classic Alice
(Calgary Sun, 1999-09-19)
Alice Cooper was originally designed to be a despicable rock 'n' roll villain; a ghoul you hope to see hang or beheaded before his concerts are through. Strange, then, that at this point in Cooper's career, you feel nothing but affection...
Shock Rock's Greatest Madman Ushers Us Into His Attic
(View, 1999-09-23)
The bulk of Alice Cooper's career has been spent walking the fine line between legend and self-parody. Those who remember the initial rush of legitimate classics like "Eighteen", "Under My Wheels" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy" have generally chosen to freeze Cooper in that time period, still holding him in high regard despite more than two decades or erratic and largely forgettable music. ...
The Two Faces of Alice Cooper
(Montreal Gazette, 1999-09-25)
25 albums later, rock's Nightmare performer still knows how to separate the man from the act. You haven't lived until you've heard Alice Cooper say "the f-word"; not the actual f--k, but the phrase "the f-word." And this in a phone call, not on the air or in a public place where impressionable children might hear him and develop a complex. Cooper was drawing the paternal guidelines for what he would and would not allow the youngest of his three children a daughter, 6- to see or hear. Marilyn Manson is permitted, of which more later, as is Rob Zombie. ...
Cooper cuts the guillotine, keeps the showmanship
(Montreal Gazette, 1999-09-30)
It's a tribute to Vincent Furnier's irony-free immersion in his three-decade old alter ego that last night's performance by Alice Cooper at a comfortably full Metropolis avoided the trappings of a blind nostalgia trip. Many a less theatrical performer would have inadvertently accentuated such a downsizing in venue capacity. Cooper's entrance was hardly restrained as he broke free from his jack-in-the-box shelter, putting a quick end to the happy carnival music that ushered in his set and chasing the clowns who pulled double-duty as roadies off the stage with his riding crop....
News Report
(Fangoria, 1999-10-00)
For MSG's upcoming fourth season, Harris says he'll try even harder to give fright fans what they want, including two Universal-Licensed haunts based on the Mummy; a 3-D living comic book "ghosted" by the voice of spookhouse regular Alice Cooper, who will star in the attraction's short film Freekshow as mascot Pirate Jack. "For 1999, we want Scare Garden to be multisensory" Harris says of his park, which opens Oct 8th (call 212-465-MSG1 for details). "We'll continue to push the envelope."...
Alice Cooper
(Wales On Sunday, 1999-10-03)
Rock star ALICE COOPER has finally found a new way to gross out his fans. Alice's constant companion, boa constrictor Lady Macbeth, obeyed a call of nature on stage in front of a packed house in LA, and the band slipped through the enormous and revolting mess. It took three roadies to do an emergency cleanup and some were so grossed out by the smell that they started being sick. That started the audience puking - and well, you get the picture....
Alice tees off the tour
(Woman's Day, 1999-10-04)
Is rocker Alice Cooper mellowing with age? The one-time boy of rock wil ltour Australia next year for the Ultimate Rock Symphony and has made just one demand - entry to the best golf courses around the country. The rock legend will be joined on stage by contemporaries such as Peter Frampton, Roger Daltrey from The Who and our very own Billy Thorpe...
For Alice Cooper, School's Still Out
(Washington Post, 1999-10-07)
Alice Cooper and his trend-setting brand of rock-and-roll theater--Grand Guignol with a big beat--haven't gotten smaller since the '70s; only the stage itself has. At the 9:30 club on Tuesday, Cooper seemed gleefully impervious to the club's narrower confines, and though he left some of his fans' favorite props at home--no guillotine, no gallows and just a cameo by the electric chair--he brought along an amusement-park fun house set (clowns included) and a few discreet costume changes, along with a tight band and a playlist featuring most of his best songs. From the opening "Hello Hooray" to a gleeful encore of "Under My Wheels," Cooper served as ringmaster, preacher, snake oil salesman and unrepentant rock provocateur. It's not his fault that things that were entertainly shocking 25 years ago are now merely entertaining....
Alice Cooper would never impose his persona on golf, or golf on his persona
(Kansas City Star, 1999-10-13)
He's 51 and he can do what he wants, which means Alice Cooper plays lots of golf and lots of loud rock music. "Financially I don't have to do this," he said. "I choose to do it. When I'm off tour, by the time eight or nine months go by, I want to be back on stage." Cooper is finishing up the latest leg of what he called his "Rock 'n' Roll Carnival Tour." ...
Hangin' With Alice
(New York Post, 1999-10-15)
ALICE Cooper - Vincent Furnier to his preacher dad - is a complex showman who discovered early in his career that outrageousness is one key to success. For Cooper, who was born in Detroit and now lives in Phoenix, the other keys were luck and a songwriting ability that produced such classic teen-angst hits as "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out." Marilyn Manson may have "borrowed most of his act" from Cooper, but Cooper, now 49, is still the king of theatrical, horror rock....
Alice Cooper's Restaurant Eyes Anaheim
(Orange County Business Journal, 1999-10-25)
These days, shock rocker Alice Cooper is more likely to be singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" than his 1970s hit "No More Mr. Nice Guy." The Arizona Diamond backs fan, who a year ago launched his first Cooper's town restaurant in his hometown of Phoenix, could be singing along with Anaheim Angels fans as his company expands its chain. Cooper and his partners are negotiating with the owners of Gotcha Glacier to build a $3 million sports-rock-BBQ restaurant in the extreme sports park planned for a site near Edison International Field in Anaheim. ...
Alice Cooper
(Details, 1999-11-00)
"I'm glad that I have advisers. Everybody thinks I'm a great businessman, but I'm just the guy that shakes my head yeah or no. There are people who know what to do. Don't be an armcahir Rockefeller sitting at your computer, because you'll lose money....
Alice Cooper
(Vicious Kitten, 1999-11-04)
I promised myself, as I walked out of Kiss' Hallenstadion concert in Zurich last December, that I had endured my final 'big stage' experience. No more would I enter into the arena zone and suffer from it's nauseating effects-the lack of intimacy, over-priced merchandise, cigarette lighters and the endless array of rock cliches. But this is the Coop for fuck sake. The master of horror rock who in his prime would've made hollow clones like Marilyn Manson shit their strides. "Face it" quotes a recent bio, "Alice Cooper brought show business and rock & roll together in ways never seen before, and rarely seen since-and the shock waves he created are still shaking the foundations of both"....
The Buzz
(Palm Beach Post, 1999-11-05)
Alice Cooper says the whole Marilyn Manson/Rob Zombie scene is a backlash against those boring flannel-shirted grunge rockers. "Why be boring? Have some fun. Rock shows should be like movies: I don't go to a movie hoping it'll change ...
'X-Files' sparks musical visions
(USA Today, 1999-11-05)
Connection to the conspiracy: The 51-year-old shock rocker recorded the duet Hands of Death (Burn Baby Burn) with fellow horror-meister Rob Zombie for Songs in the Key of X. In 1997, the track was Grammy-nominated for best heavy metal performance. Do you believe: "We would be pretty conceited to think we're the only intelligent life around," Cooper says. "If they were bad, they would have killed us by now. If there really were aliens on Earth, it was probably The Beatles, Groucho Marx and Salvador Dali. Those would be my suspects." ...
Book Review
(Kerrang!, 1999-11-06)
Comprehensive guide to all things Alice Cooper-related. WHILE LIFE is generally considered to be far too short, it would appear that for Dale Sherman there are simply way too many hours in the day. Witness this excruciatingly detailed tome dealing with every single scrap of AC-related flotsam to have ever been belched onto the cultural foreshore. ...
There's always been a multiple personality crisis within Alice Cooper. There's Good Alice, Bad Alice and the off stage Alice who sips 7 UP and is completely removed from either of the other realms....
News Report
(Varity, 1999-11-09)
Rocker Alice Cooper has joined the cast of Tse Tse Fly Prods. indie feature "The Attic Expeditions." Pic also stars Seth Green, Jeffrey Combs and Ted Raimi. Jeremy Kasten is set to helm the psychological thriller scripted by Rogan Marshall and produced by Melissa Balin, Daniel Gold and Dan Griffiths. Shooting has commenced in Los Angeles. ...
Life In Rock's Fast Lane Din in Buxton, Family And Friends Say
(Arizona Republic, 1999-11-10)
Glen Buxton was a wisecracking loner thrust into the no-holds-barred world of rock'n'roll, where his fate was sealed. Originally from Akron and a founding member of the Alice Cooper group, Buxton was cursed with a double whammy: a penchant for...
Michael Bruce
(Etch, 1999-12-00)
For those who don't remember the early days of Detroit rock, it was 1968 when a five man electrical band came to town. The ALICE COOPER band emerged from the smog filled air of L.A. looking for a place to shape their perculiar sound. The band's strange looks, aggressive music and wild stage antics were loved, not hated by the club's crowds. The ALICE COOPER band had finally found their home for their style of playing....
Package Deals: The Best Offerings In A Box Set
(Chicago Tribune, 1999-12-03)
Becoming the "most hated band in Los Angeles" in the late '60s wasn't enough for Alice Cooper. So he returned to his hometown of Detroit and transformed his art-rock combo into middlebrow America's worst nightmare with a string of terrific albums...
Best of the best (so far)
(Deseret News, 1999-12-03)
Rock fans owe a lot to Cooper. Everyone from Rob Zombie, the New York Dolls and Ozzy Osbourne has been inspired by his theatrics. Yes, even Marilyn Manson should give credit where it's due. To celebrate Cooper's long, active, twisted career, Rhino has raided the Warner Bros. vaults: "School's Out," "Dead Babies," "I'm Eighteen," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "You and Me," "Lost In America" and more are found on this four-CD set....
Neal Smith: Rockin' Realtor
(Rismedia, 1999-12-06)
Rock -'n'-roll and Real Estate might seem like an unlikely combination, but since the early 1970s Neal Smith drummed up a big-time career in music - and now real estate. The former drummer for the Alice Cooper band, Smith has been selling Real Estate for 15 years. He's been a consistent Multi-Million Dollar Realtor, representing both buyers and sellers in Westport, Connecticut. He's handled properties from starter homes to grand estates....
'ALICE COOPER: THE LIFE AND CRIMES OF'
(New York Times, 1999-12-12)
EACH year recording companies dig more deeply into their archives. They are eager to retrieve the obscure recordings that justify expanding greatest-hits collections into the boxed sets that have becomefixtures of the holiday market. Theme anthologies are devised; concert tapes and studio outtakes are gleaned; old recordings are remixed. And if there's nothing left in the vaults, then new material is created: electronically assisted posthumous collaborations (as with the latest set by the Doors) or recent live recordings (as with Phish)....
Two Aging Rockers Welcomed By Sellout At Sports Arena
(Toledo Blade, 1999-12-28)
Rock 'n Roll may never die but some of its practitioners do grow old. That's not stopping Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent. The two lelgendary rockers are 48. They sold out the Sports Arena last night as they probably would have done 20 years ago ...