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On Tour With Alice Cooper: The Book That Has It All

How about a peek behind the scenes in the rock and roll world? A look at life on the road with one of the hottest rock and roll bands, through the backstage corridors, the endless series of hotels, the planes, the groupies, the squabbles, the planning, the evaluating, the conflicts, the problems?

Then try "Billion Dollar Baby," a new book wherein Bob Greene, a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, leaves his job for a month, joins Alice's group as a superluminary (he plays a walk-on Santa Claus who gets beat up) and then commits it all to paper. Telling you everything, but everything, you'd ever want to know about touring and performing with a rock and roll band.

"Billion Dollar Baby" is the first book of its kind. To be sure, there have been writers before who have gone on tour with bands and then wrote articles, even books about it. But so far, every last one has been found wanting.

In cases with all the others, some writers let the hype which surrounds such a tour creep into the book. Others let personal feelings for band members get in the way of accurate reporting. Still others wrote so poorly and so overstuffed the work with pictures that it's more like an endurance test than enjoyable reading.

There are on the market detailed accounts of the Dylan tour. The Stones tour. Of Beatles tours. Of several other tours by name bands. But none of them worth the time it takes to read them.

"Billion Dollar Baby" is entirely different. Greene obviously feels very warmly towards group members. But he doesn't let his feelings color his reporting. And he's obviously impressed by the hype and the lush opulence of it all. But he doesn't let his awe get in the way of telling the facts of tour life. And, perhaps, above all, Greene is a good writer. Direct, to the point, using his words not to deceive or beat around the bush, but to get right to the heart of the matter, say it and then move on to something else.

The book succeeds on so many levels that it's difficult to say exactly what it is that makes it so spectacular. Just that is is, indeed, spectacular.

It succeeds, first of all, on a fantasy level. Used to be young people dreamed of being movie stars, being 40 foot tall on the silver screen. Now they can dream of being a rock and roll star, framed in the spotlight and standing in front of 18,000 or so screaming fans. Greene made the fantasy come to life for himself and shares it fully with the reader.

And it succeeds on a much more serious level. Like what are Alice Cooper and his band members — Neal Smith, Mike Bruce, Glen Buxton and Dennis Dunaway — really like? Are they, as the image makers would have us believe, spaced out sadomasochistic bent on whipping teenyboppers up to a mindless frenzy? Or are they more sedate, professionals doing a job that just happens to pay a lot of money and have a few kinky sides to it?

The latter, as Greene makes abundantly clear. Real, living people with a job to do, albeit a strange job, and determined to do it well. Greene shatters the Alice image pretty well, bit in so doing he paints perhaps the most accurate picture of Alice Cooper which has ever appeared in print.

And it succeeds on still another level. LIke what's it like on the road? And what goes on all the time when a band isn't performing? And how do they really get along? And what does it feel like just before a show? And just after it? And how do performers react to all that screaming adulation>? And what sort of wheeling and dealing's going on behind the scenes? And is the life of a rock and roll star all it's cracked up to be?

Most people don't know. And will never find out. Unless, of course, they either join a band and go on tour or read Greene's book. Since joining a band is unlikely, "Billion Dollar Baby" is the next best thing: The most complete, most entertaining, most accurate and informative trip into a world where most people will never go.

Price of the book is high ($10), but it's worth it. Guaranteed. Once you read one page, you'll not be able to stop. No matter what your musical tastes.