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Who is Alice Cooper?

Author: Henry Edwards

"On stage, I'm Bela Lugosi; offstage, I'm Fred MacMurray." Alice Cooper delivers a broad grin. 24 years old, he is currently America's most popular rock star. Many consider him a sensational trendsetter; others label him a menace. No other rock star has ever appeared on stage with a boa constrictor wrapped around his neck, sung odes to dead babies, and ended his performance with his own staged destruction, usually featuring a gallows or an electric chair.

"The on-stage Alice is Frankenstein's Monster," observes the star as he relaxes on a red velvet settee in the sunny yellow bed room of his 40-room mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. "He's Mr. Hyde. If I were that 'Alice' right now, I'd be chasing you around with an ax because that is what 'Alice' would do.

"Our whole philosophy is to have fun," continues Cooper. "One of the ways I have fun is by scaring people. If I see someone on drugs in the audience,

I'll go out of my way to scare him."

Alice contorts his face and he suddenly takes on the look of a death mask. "and that's so much fun!" he gasps. "People love it when I reach down from the stage and yank someone's hair. It's a voyeurism thing! When I pull a girl's hair, they fantasize all sorts of incredible things. When I pull a boy's hair, the embarrassment he feels is incalculable."

Cooper rubs his sleepy looking eyes. He is dressed in nondescript jeans and a t-shirt. He takes a sip of beer. The theme from Goldfinger blasts through the speakers of Alice's stereo system. Alice's television set is also going full blast. This young man, who can listen to music and watch television at the same time, hardly seems like a menace.

"When we wrote 'Dead Babies' we knew that 'Alice Cooper' would have to do something horrible to a baby. The natural thing is to chop one up and throw it to the audience. I'm asked: 'How did you ever think that up?' I reply: 'It's so obvious!' Using a snake in the act is also an obvious gesture. Think of how many different unpleasant and threatening things a snake can suggest to the human mind. "I know that I project an ambiguous sexual image and I know that my image is also threatening. I have six or seven guys around whose job it is to kick kids off the stage when they climb up on it. There may be crazy people out there and I don't want them to get too close because one of them may have a knife.

"People do have blood lust. When I bleed a little on stage, people go crazy. They want more blood."

Alice stares at the TV set. Another theme from a James Bond movie spirals around the room. "John Barry is my favorite composer," he says heartily. "I also like Burt Bacharach. What I'd really like to do someday is an album of Burt Bacharach songs. I'd also like to do a kiddy show for television." There is a wistful expression on Alice Cooper's face. "I'd call it Uncle Alice," he says softly.

At home it's obvious that the Fred MacMurray component of Alice Cooper's personality does take the upper hand.