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Horrorshow with Alice Cooper

He’s got a lot on his plate — this man with the eyes of a whore and the spirit of a world ruler. Blackie Lawless and Dee Snider may try to destroy each other's ego while battling for the position of “spokesman for everything that's bad in metal these days”, but without Alice Cooper, there probably never would have been a Dee Snider or Blackie Lawless. Like I said, this man has a lot on his plate. And Alice just chuckles, the laugh of a man who knows deep down that without him Nikki Sixx would probably be quietly hatching eggs in some nest in L.A. instead of losing his head.

Alice himself probably wouldn't have caused outrage and indignation if he hadn't been the first to wear a dress on stage — back when such a thing warranted lynching, at a time when Cinderella were still embryos. Long before Iggy Pop, Alice was crawling around on his belly, taking snakes on stage, before there was ZZ Top's Animal Roadshow; Alice was the first to use makeup, the first to slaughter chickens on stage, the first to be condemned as Satan and damned to hell by the Moral Majority before there even was one!

And he was the first to sell out. From Alice Cooper, the nightmare, to media star, to TV personality, to ballad crooner, to golfer with bankers and senators. He could shed his nasty outer skin like one of his tamed snakes, and underneath emerged the person Vincent Damon Furnier: born '48 in Detroit, class clown, athletic, gentle and kind. He even gave up drinking. When he sold out, he did it in a big way, just like he did everything else. The only thing that got smaller was sales.

And then the news leaked out. Alice finally came to his senses and got rid of that Vince, the nice boy, the good husband and father who was not going anywhere. And Alice was to return with the stunning album WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE PART II, the evolution of the classic 1975 album. "The Alice Cooper persona is reawakening after ten years," as Alice explained at the time, "after there's been all this punk and new wave stuff, all these weird-looking people, and this is his reaction to what they've produced." And — hey, a ghoul is allowed to change his mind! — the resulting album was CONSTRICTOR, Alice's heaviest album in years. "What ended up happening was just that the show ended up being NIGHTMARE PART II; it kept changing a lot. I think the show was much more exciting — and the funny thing is that it was almost the most successful tour we've ever done." Alice smiles, little animals running off to seek shelter "It could rival the first Nightmare tour and the BILLION DOLLAR BABIES tour in terms of attendance and so on. And I really enjoyed it because it went non-stop and it was the first time I'd been on tour sober, which was totally different."

And I could imagine that it was not very pleasant. Didn't you get nervous and feel strange standing there after all this time without having had a drink?

Alice: "You know what? I found it much more satisfying! I realized that I had twice as much energy and much more control. At the first two concerts I was in total shock because there was absolutely no buffer between me and the audience, nothing that could calm me down. But I realized that this was exactly the right thing for me, because the natural adrenaline was like a gun pointed directly at the audience. I went through with the concert and couldn't remember anything afterwards!"

So like taking a drink!

"Yes, exactly! Adrenaline is the most amazing drug in the world. Fear is a really good catalyst to get on stage. It produces natural morphine in the brain."

I'm surprised to hear that this was your first alcohol-free tour; I thought you had given up drinking years before. Most rock 'n' rollers can only go a few minutes without alcohol.

"That's how I used to feel! I wouldn't have been able to walk around the room without a glass of whiskey in my hand."

So what made you give it up?

"It was a matter of either quitting or dying, because I really took it to the extreme. The doctor said, 'When you cease to exist.' That was a pretty good way of putting it. And I figured that I was probably much more effective alive than dead - although I'd rather not put that to a vote! (Alice laughs; when Alice laughs, big animals cover their ears and howl).

I am an extreme person. I couldn't stop halfway and just have a few beers. That would be like screwing with myself. So I have to pick my vices really carefully because I have to push everything I do to the point of excess."

And how is your wife?

"She's exhausted all the time!" (Alice roars with laughter.)

Ozzy Osbourne tried to give up drinking for years and — I know you don't think he has much imagination anyway — he told me it was impossible to release his imagination to write without having had a few drinks; did you have the same problem?

"Not at all. The alcohol releases a certain inhibition, but I balanced that with determination. Also, I enjoyed not being sick anymore - physically sick; mentally I'm probably sicker than ever! After listening to my last album - well really, there's definitely something wrong with me. And some of the stuff on the new album - I can't rationalize it anymore. I used to be able to say I wrote this because of this or that, but now I just have to say I wrote this because I'm sick!"

You're just finishing up your new album RAISE YOUR FIST AND YELL, which is due out in October.

"There's a ballad on there, but it's totally deranged. The whole side two is like a heavy psychodrama," he steals Blackie Lawless' words to make up for what Blackie has already stolen from him.

"I'm really very pleased with the new album. In contrast, CONSTRICTOR sounds, in my opinion, flaccid. The new one is exactly what I want to do right now. It's hard rock to a degree that I can't go beyond. You'll totally dig it; the PMRC will hate it. There's a song on there about them called 'Freedom.'"

You didn't care much when all the rock censorship stories got off the ground in the States.

"The reason was that we hadn't put out an album for about three years. As soon as CONSTRICTOR was released, we found out that we were at the top of their 'hit list'. So I said, great, let's let them know we're there!

These are conservative times. But you know what the good thing is? I've noticed that as soon as the atmosphere becomes conservative, we flourish!

Especially on the last tour, when we went to the South, our concerts were banned in all the cities and there were protests all over the country that made headlines: 'Mothers against Alice and pastors against Alice!' It was very good for ticket sales! It's great that we're upsetting all these people. They're burning more of my records than ever before," he laughs.

It's hard to imagine the wives of U.S. senators getting upset with you while their husbands - after hours, of course - go golfing with you.

"Yeah, really! Although I don't play that much golf anymore."

Because it's dumb?

"No! (gets mad) I found out that the guys from Mötley Crüe play golf. And the guys from Iron Maiden. And Judas Priest. Almost every heavy metal band plays golf! There's something violent, very brutal about golf. When you hit the ball, you can vent a lot of anger."

But back to censorship. Do you let your kids listen to songs like W.A.S.P.'s "Fuck Like A Beast"?

"I think they're just listening to this to piss me off! But there's still hope for them because they'll watch 'Poltergeist' 13 times and they'll watch any horror movie with me without batting an eye. But as far as music goes, they'll watch whatever's on 'MTV'. And they love Daddy (he grins). When Daddy goes out there and starts splitting skulls, they say, 'That's my dad!' And he does it better than anybody!'"

Alice Cooper was certainly always more evil than others - more evil than evil, a devil that creeps into the brains and balls of little boys and leads them astray. Parents hated Alice. And then he seemed to become unfaithful to himself, taking part in TV quiz shows, laughing and joking with the enemy, even doing a commercial for the U.S. Army! And his hits were ballads your mother sang....

Why this sellout?

"At a certain point, I was totally confused about the image for a while. When this disco style came along, there was no more rock 'n' roll, zero, and I was a total alcoholic; I had been going through this bad HM boy for so long and I thought that the only way to be shocking again was to go into the enemy camp, be on a quiz show, but as Alice with the black makeup and everything. And suddenly I became a media star instead of the horror Alice that I was. And I thought it was funny and fun! My sense of humor told me: you should be in the middle of normal America, that's still the only way to throw people off. I'm sure that 90 percent of the television audience would say, 'Throw him out of there!' He shouldn't be on with Bob Hope!' I wanted to really irritate the parents by being seen with their idols.

But the shot backfired. My audience didn't understand the fun at all. They thought I really wanted to be presentable in Las Vegas; but I didn't, I never lost sight of rock 'n' roll. At the same time, in terms of music, I experimented around a lot, working with different producers, for example, and I did a couple of ballads that happened to be hits. They were not destined to become singles from the beginning.

Then there was his hiatus until we came back with records that were very underground style. It wasn't the same Alice that would have sold four million records. From there we worked our way up to where we are today, which is fantastic. I think it's actually quite good to always start from scratch."

So is it harder or easier to make records after all this time?

"I find it much easier to co-write, especially with Kane Roberts. We really don't have to rework anything. Anyone who spends eight months in a studio has to ask themselves what they're thinking about. I think people like that go into the studio without the slightest idea of what they're going to do. I want everything to be written, pre-recorded and ready before I go into the studio."

Sure — studios aren't exactly the best places to have a good time anymore. You're lucky these days if someone makes you a coffee, if there's a slot machine and a few old groupies left over from the 70s.

"Yes that's true. There's no glamour in the studios anymore. In the old days, the early '70s, when I was single and absolute everything was going on, we had a good time in the studios because there were a lot of girls, a lot of drugs and alcohol and stuff like that, and you felt like you were in the middle of heaven! And now you realize — this is about my 19th album — that you can listen to the recordings afterwards and determine if your ideas were good. And at the moment everyone is terrified of sex anyway!"

The mid-80s are not a good time for teenagers.

"No, I really don't. You know, that's a really good idea for a song: the idea of being totally afraid of sex as a teenager! When we were teenagers, it was a totally different story - everything was okay. You knew that if you had any problems at all, then at the most it would burn a little bit when you piss, then you would get a shot, and everything would be over. But now you're dying! That's very drastic!"

It's funny - now that you're not the only heavy rocker who has given up sex, drugs and alcohol, the censorship stories are flourishing; now that most HM stars have shown themselves to be the most sensible and responsible in years! Ozzy made ads against heroin, Mötley Crüe supported a campaign against drinking and driving and getting married. It seems to be mostly the politicians and priests who are involved with extramarital sex, drugs and other debauchery.

"Yeah, you hit it right on the head. I think the people who have experience with the rock 'n' roll business — and even the newbies — are starting to realize that you really have to be in shape to tour. If you're going to compete with bands that do a two-hour concert, you really have to be in shape to pull it off full power. If I was drinking, I wouldn't be able to do that. I think it's just not hip anymore to be so high that you can't keep going; it just doesn't work. And nowadays people expect so much from a concert; the audience has become much more demanding and the expectations are high.

Nevertheless, I love the competition. I think it's one of the factors that drives me. I think it's good that now there are bands trying to combine rock with theater, although it's clear that no one has yet brought the kind of theater that would be comparable to ours (he smiles).

And the Alice Cooper story will go even further. We have two or three special effects in the new show that I don't even know if they'll succeed."

And what do they look like?

"Well, there's a lot of anatomy in the new show (he laughs). It's kind of like autopsy rock! There are people working on the show who were on the 'Alien' and 'The Fly' movies. It's going to be an incredible show if we can get it technically right. We haven't had a chance to put the show together yet, but you'll see it when we tour again probably in the spring."

Have you been offered roles in any weird horror movies lately?

"Yeah, 'a lot. Right now, I'm even working on a movie."

It's funny how these days horror movies and heavy metal seem to go hand in hand, partly through bands starring in the movies or writing the music for them, or by including movie-like clips in their shows.

"I think HM and the horror film are an optimal marriage. Rock 'n' roll certainly puts itself in the service of the horror film. There's something gothic-romantic behind it; and the sound fits together really well, too. When the blood spurts, it just needs a loud guitar sound."

What was the main way you got into horror film?

"When you're like 10 to 11 years old, you're into horror movies because they scare you, and it's kind of a macho thing to watch the whole movie without being scared. And I just never grew out of that fascination with horror movies. They're also getting better and better, especially the technology. I still rent three horror videos a night - movies that nobody rents but me.

My goal is to make a horror video and capture the horror and suspense in it in five to six minutes. If I could work with John Carpenter and some of these guys, maybe I could make it happen."

Would you ever go out there and put on a straight show without the horror, without props and without makeup? Would you be up for it?

"I would rather open a McDonald's somewhere than do that! I would never want to go on stage and deliver anything average. It's either all the way, or not at all! I would feel silly going on stage and trying to be a Bryan Ferry. I just wouldn't feel comfortable without show-stopping support, makeup and the other trappings. I really like dressing up."

And if you had an unlimited budget, what would the ultimate Alice show look like?

"When you have your audience together in one place, you can influence the sensations of each one, and if you threw a subconscious suggestion in there, they would be yours! Sounds diabolical, doesn't it? (he chuckles) You hit everyone's sensations at the same time, and you hit everyone's mind and soul at the same time with this subconscious message, and among the entire audience, 100000 people or so, an orgy would go off (Alice grins). I could rule the world!"

(Translated from the original German language publication, April 2021)