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Alice Cooper: The man behind the mask

It's February 12, 1987. I'm watching Alice Cooper at U.I.C. Pavilion, sitting among a surprising number of teenagers. One girl takes out a cassette of Constrictor that she has conveniently brought with her, commenting that the song Cooper is currently performing is not on the album. I lean forward and tell her that the song is from an earlier Cooper work. "You mean... he has other albums?"

This points out the unique situation that Alice Cooper is afforded. He has managed to create an entire second generation of Cooper fans, some totally unaware that his career spans many years and many albums, and that he has influenced a legion of groups now influences in their own rights.

Groups like Motley Crue and Kiss copied Alice Cooper and were open enough to celebrate the fact. Cooper is philosophical about it. "I've read my name more in reference to other, younger bands than for my own stuff. They've gone on and developed their own styles. I don't equate Motley Crue with Alice Cooper anymore." What does bother Cooper is bands that copy his style and try to pretend it's their own. "W.A.S.P. did that. They took videotapes of our old shows and studied them and did it exactly like we were doing it. That gets embarrassing."

Alice Cooper's latest release is Hey Stoopid, and the band most recently toured with the Operation Rock 'n' Roll tour. Cooper also made an appearance recently in Chicago at Debevic's, where the Tribune touted the parking lot appearance as Alice's traffic nightmare. On the European leg of the tour, Alice Cooper will be appearing with the Almighty. Cooper says that the live show is what the band does best. "The stage itself is interesting. We have two or three things nobody has ever seen. But don't worry. We promise there will be a couple of pints of blood — maybe."

Shock rock. It's what Alice Cooper does indeed do best. From the necrophilia of Cold Ethyl to the political observations from Billion Dollar Babies, Cooper has hit upon a variety of shocking subjects to thrill old and new fans alike. His stage show has included guillotines, beheaded baby dolls, sadistic nurse figures, and live snakes. It's this shock motif that has made Alice Cooper a prime candidate for censorship groups.

The cover art for Hey Stoopid was censored. The original art was a collage that included some drug related items — something some groups found a little too strong for the average buying public. The collage was changed to reflect the idea of the greed inherent in the rock 'n' roll system. Cooper's reaction to the censorship was that it was... well... stupid.

"I think it's dangerous that we would allow somebody to censor records," he says, but he is not against having records labeled — a rather unpopular stance in the music community. "They put a rating system on movies, so why not records? One time they told me I had to print the lyrics on the outside cover, and I said, 'Great!'. I want everybody to read them. It's fine with me if they want to read my lyrics, so I don't have a problem with that. I'd have a problem with that if I wrote lousy lyrics. Then I'd really be mad!"

With the high visibility horror image, it seems only natural that Cooper be cast in various horror films. He has appeared in such classics as Prince of Darkness and Roadie (not really a horror film, but it was a pretty bad movie). Now he's playing Freddy Krueger's dad in the final installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street Series. Not to mention his being responsible for the theme song for Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

But all of this is just an image. Alice Cooper the man and Alice Cooper the celebrity are two different things. Cooper often refers to Alice in the third person. "You will never see Alice offstage. He's a character and I write for him. When I become him, it's fun, but I don't try to be Alice offstage. It would be ridiculous. Maybe if eight guys jumped me or something, then I could turn into Alice. That would scare them pretty badly!"

Alice Cooper's real life is not that of your typical rock star. At 43, he's been married fifteen years and has two kids (Calico Zane and Dashiell Vincent). He and the family live in a Navaho house in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Cooper says that his image is constantly changing. He's gone through some rough times, including alcoholism. "I'm in better shape than I was when I was 25. I was a walking bottle of V.O. But I stopped drinking eight years ago. Alcoholism is a fun subject for me because I went through it and beat it. And anytime you do that, it becomes a fun thing to talk about. I could talk about strange bouts with throwing up blood all morning. It's like bare wires at first."

Leaving alcohol behind may have been the turning point for Cooper's career. After a series of less than successful albums like Flush the Fashion, Special Forces, and Dada, Cooper took a break to regroup and get his life together. His return was Constrictor, and each album since then has seen the old Alice Cooper popularity return.

Cooper's return has been surrounded by a long list of famous friends. After a three year silence, he first resurfaced in a guest appearance on Twisted Sister's Come Out And Play. Then Cooper teamed up with the then ultra-­pumped Kane Roberts, who shared Cooper's vision and helped create the successful Constrictor.

Trash saw Cooper reunited with a former bass player Kip Winger, as well as Joe Perry, Steven Tyler, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and others. The album was a world-wide success.

The new album, Hey Stoopid, is continuing this trend with guest appearances. The title cut features Satriani and Slash on guitars and Ozzy Osbourne on back up vocals. Elsewhere on the album you'll find Satriani and Vai playing together for the first time, as well as Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx.

To help him write the new songs, Cooper turned to Nikki Sixx, Zodiac Mindwarp, Desmond Child, and Danger Danger's Steve West.

Although Cooper says referring to him as "matured" is grounds for a fight, it seems like the legend has gotten a handle on himself, his life and his music. He looks and sounds better than he has at any time during his career, and it looks as though Alice Cooper will be around for a long time, offering each new generation a show to remember.

(Originally published in CAMM magazine, Volume 2, No. 7; October 1991)