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Alice sets the record straight

Vincent Furnier is the Detroit native who grew up the son of a preacher and got hooked on golf. Alice Cooper is the L.A.-groomed horror-rock pioneer who scared parents in the '70s and got himself addicted to beer and cocaine.

That's the Jekyll-and-Hyde theme coursing through the freewheeling new "Super Duper Alice Cooper," the authorized documentary premiering nationwide this week, including Friday at Cinema Detroit. (Be sure to call ahead — some screenings are already sold out.)

The film traces the story of Cooper from his early Detroit childhood and the Furnier family's move to Arizona, on through his band's game-changing emergence in the early 1970s, when Cooper brought a gory, theatrical flair to post-hippie rock.

"Super Duper" was the brainchild of the Toronto-based filmmaking team Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (here with Reginald Harkema), who have made a cottage industry out of the hard rock docs including "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage" and "Iron Maiden: Flight 666."

"They came in and said if we're going to do an Alice Cooper documentary, it's got to be different from other documentaries," said Cooper, 66. "It needs to be as theatrical as Alice Cooper himself, and not just a bunch of talking head."

Cooper, a Phoenix resident still quick to veer into Detroit Tigers talk if he spies the chance, spoke with the Free Press about the film and his busy 2014, including his opening slot on Mötley Crüe's farewell tour.

QUESTION: One thing that jumps out early: The filmmakers unearthed quite a bit of archival footage.

ANSWER: I think these guys really went deep — they called friends, people from back in the day, and they just found this stuff. I'd never seen some of it before. It was just cool to see those pictures of the Spiders and the Earwigs. You always want to see bands back in their high school days, see how nerdy they were. (Laughs)

I'm not one of those guys who lives in the past. I don't collect my own stuff. So I'm watching the documentary and getting inspired for ideas going forward, even though I appreciate it and how it all happened.

Q: What was you main involvement in the film?

A: I did 30 hours in interviews. I sat down and talked for five hours at a time, six different sessions. I got so sick of just talking about me, but when you're talking you do remember things, the funny stories.

They wanted to make it in chronological order of how it all happened. I think somehow I found myself like the more uncomfortable parts. There were points where I said, "We need to be brutally honest about the breakup of the band. When you're interviewing Neal (Smith) and Dennis (Dunaway), we can't edit that. If it's saying something we don't agree with, it's got to be there." We had different points of views on why we broke up, what we were thinking, what they were thinking.

Q: This will probably last as the defining film document of your career. What else did you feel a duty to be candid about?

A: I was in the great cocaine blizzard of Los Angeles. I had never copped up to that before. I said we can't ignore that I had a bout with that for about six months. In L.A. at the time (the 1970s), I didn't know one person who wasn't doing that. It was like a blizzard, and like the good addicted character that I am...

But alcohol was the one that really caused the damage. I was the most functional alcoholic in the world &mdash I drank beer every day, never missed a concert, never missed a move, never slurred a word. I was never that kind of alcoholic. When it did finally get to me, it really did throw me out. I was throwing up blood. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

Q: I thought the film sort of breezed through the band's Detroit chapter. (Cooper's group relocated here from L.A. in 1970, and has long credited the Detroit rock scene for being a career catalyst.

A: When we did those interview, that's probably what I gave the most time to... We gave full credit that L.A. hated us, New York put up with us on a hip level, but Detroit loved us. We felt at home in Detroit, and when we got there, we said, "We belong here." You've got Iggy (Pop), the MC5, Ted Nugent, all these eccentric rock stars. And we were the missing finger in that glove.

I've been living in Phoenix for 55 years now, and even to this day, when people ask where I'm from, I say Detroit.

(Originally published in the Detroit Free Press, May 1st-7th, 2014)