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Alice Cooper, Million Dollar Rock Star

Snakes, dancing teeth, giant spiders, chickens with machine guns — could that mean anything but Alice Cooper? It's all part of his new American tour, and to say that he's been working hard to get the show ready would easily qualify as understatement. As Alice told Albuquerque Magazine in an exclusive interview, "We've been going at 1,000 miles an hour, rehearsing from 4 in the afternoon until 2 a.m." But he was able to slow down enough to talk to us — about the show he'll be bringing here to Tingley Coliseum on July 9, and about Alice Cooper himself.

But, to begin at the beginning... The person we've all known since 1964 as Alice was born in Detroit in 1948 as, simply enough, Vince Furnier. At age 11, he moved to Phoenix, and later at Cortez High School (memorialized in song) became known as a track star, class clown, and journalist. It was in a skit performed in a school cafeteria when Vince appeared in a Beatie wig with guitar that Alice Cooper became a gleam in his eye, "It began in high school when I formed a band," Alice recalled, "It was what everyone was doing."

While in college in Phoenix, he and his band began making trips to Los Angeles, with the result that Vince (hereinafter Alice) took up residence in that city. He lived there for two years, gaining a rather distinct reputation by sleeping in a coffin, anywhere from motels to mansions, being seen dressed in women's clothes and make­up — and all of this at a time when today's glitter rock stars were going to high school proms in tuxedos.

Five years later, he moved back to Detroit, where he met Bob Ezrin, who became his producer. They brought out "Eighteen," his first smash single, and Alice Cooper, if not born, was really made.

And it's all been the product of one man's imagination. Asked where he came up with the concept for his act, he told us, "I just never grew out of Saturday afternoon horror movies — I just put them to music." And the question: how did he arrive at the choice of a name? "I was thinking of names for my band, just going through everything — Baby Jane, no — when Alice Cooper just came to me," he said.

A flash of inspiration, and since then Alice has sold 14 million albums, had three Platinum Awards (each Platinum Award equals one million albums sold), and his "School's Out" was one of the biggest selling singles in the history of Warner Bros.' records. His "Billion Dollar Baby" tour two and a half years ago was a tremendous success, but at a price; it left him exhausted. Just recently he commented on that, "I started on the road when I was twenty, and I felt like I was fifty a couple of years ago. For five years we had hardly a month off." So since then he's been taking care of himself, and diversifying his talents somewhat. He has a part in a Mae West film, Sextette, that's currently being filmed; there's his new autobiography, Me, Alice; there have been some TV appearances (such as Hollywood Squares); and there's his latest album, Lace and Whiskey (on the Warner Bros. label).

And, of course, now there's his new American tour, about which he's really excited. "I think this is going to be the most extravagant rock and roll tour of all times," Alice described it to us. "It could be a Broadway production. We've got a snake, the four dancing teeth, giant spiders, chickens with machine guns, a nine-foot Cyclops, and a Magic Screen, where you step onstage right out of the film. It's all choreographed, with dancers and the whole band. We have forty three people working this show — ten onstage — and the special effects cost $400,000."

In addition, Alice revealed to Albuquerque Magazine that on this tour audiences will be seeing a new onstage character for the first time: "Inspector Maurice Escargot. He's a 1940's-type detective who thinks he's Sam Spade but really is an idiot."

This tour will cover thirty-four cities, but according to Alice, it won't be as hard as the last, where they did sixty-five cities in seventy-five days. This time around, they'll only be working weekends, but nonetheless, the show is expected to gross over $4 million. For those involved, however, it's not all money, glitter and glamor.

"It takes two to three months of constant work to put together a show, to come up with the concept and work out all the technical details. It's really complicated. We work eight hours a day up until rehearsals, when we'll work twelve or fourteen hours a day," Alice said. And the show itself is work, too: "Being on tour really makes you think; it's all based on concentration. You have to really concentrate on where you are and what you're supposed to be doing."

Not easy on anyone, including Alice's long-time stage manager Joe Gannon. He has to worry about mounting — and moving — a Broadway Type production anywhere from auditoriums to ballparks, within what must seem no time at all. But it's probably Alice who works the hardest; he has to start it all going. "Everything for the show comes from my poor little brain," he sighed.

When he's not doing any or all of the above, offstage and out of costume, Alice Cooper is, as he described himself to us, "just an All-American kid." He and his wife of one year, Sheryl (a dancer, she does a ballet to "Only Women Bleed" in this tour) live a casual (extremely casual, according to one friend) life in Beverly Hills. When he's not working, he's just hanging out, blue jeans-style, watching TV or playing golf ("I'm a pretty good golf player") and rooting for the Dodgers in season. To keep them company, he and Sheryl have (what else?) a boa constrictor as a pet.

And if the stereo is on, you might be very surprised at the music you'd be hearing. "I don't listen to rock and roll," Alice said, very emphatically. "That's my work," he went on, commenting that if you drive a bus for a living, you don't relax by taking a bus ride. Instead, he prefers mellow sounds, particularly Burt Bacharach, Broadway shows and movie themes, for his own private listening.

Another thing he stays away from is politics, unlike a lot of his fellow show business people. "I care, but I don't get involved in it," he remarked, not believing that the role of an entertainer is to get votes for a politician.

We also asked Alice which, out of all the many places he's been, are his favorites. "New Orleans and Los Angeles — I just like those cities for themselves. You get great audiences there, but you get great audiences everywhere." And in coming to Albuquerque, he's sure he won't be disappointed in the audience here.

One thing he's sure to find in any city, however, are groupies. On that subject, he said, "It's a compliment, and anyone who says otherwise is lying. But I'm happily married, and since I've gotten married, I'm far away from all of that now."