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Alice Cooper Says He Knows Who He Is

It should come as no surprise that Alice Cooper took his recent hospital experiences and used them as the basis for an album and his forthcoming stage production. And recently, Alice has been only too happy to talk all about it.

Shortly after the release of "From The Inside" (written by Alice, Bernie Taupin and Dick Wagner and produced by David Foster), Alice flew to London for a three day promotional tour. Holed up in one of the Savoy Hotel's best suites — view of the Thames, marble bathrooms and all — Alice talked nonstop about his triumphs over alcoholism, his unique image and his return to the stage.

As the room service waiter wheeled in an elegant assortment of cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon, and non-alcoholic beverages, Alice said, "I've always been a public drinker and I think that once you belong to the public as much as I do then the public cure should also be a part of it. In my case it should be the show."

HP: Having conquered alcoholism, do you now see yourself as a model for others, sort of the Betty Ford of rock?

Alice: Yeah, I like that company ... I look at everything theatrically so when people said "Are we going to keep this quiet?" I said "No, it's ridiculous to try and keep it quiet." First of all, it's the kind of thing that screams theatricality and we shouldn't let this experience go to waste; it's just too good of a story not to put on stage. Unfortunately it happened and it was tragic at the time but it did happen, I can't do anything about it, so let's all look at it and have fun with it.

HP: What made you finally decide to get help?

Alice: I just hit the end of the fuse. I was at the point where I was either going to totally pass out physically somewhere and end up in the hospital without my own commitment or I was going to commit myself. That was the hard part — taking that step, saying "I'm going to go in before it gets me."

I'm really glad I did it... You don't have to kill yourself to become a legend. You don't have to die in the arts in order to become an Oscar Wilde or a Jim Morrison...

HP: How has it affected you?

Alice: I noticed so many things when I came out of the hospital. When I went in it was hard for me to understand what the public thought about me, you know an artist never really has a picture of what the public thinks of him. I had done 14 albums, they were all gold, and everyone thought I was real successful but the public didn't see that I was absolutely crazy. I put on this act that everything was cool but inside I was totally crazy. Nobody knew I was drinking 2 quarts of whiskey a day — they knew I was drinking but I wasn't drunk so nobody knew I was really in a lot of trouble...

When I got out of the hospital I felt like I was 17 years old again, I was so cleaned out and so clear about what I had done. It seemed like those 10 years were like a blur so this album feels like a virgin album, it feels like my first album. And my voice cleared up and went up three notes in range...

HP: Do you listen to your earlier albums?

Alice: Oh yeah, all the time but it's hard because it's a whole different era, a different person... I listen to them and think "Gee, why didn't I do that with that song..." I'm sure The Beatles listen to "Sgt. Pepper" and say "Why didn't we do that better" and we would sit back and say "How could they possibly do it better?"

When I came out of the hospital I wanted to do everything brand new. I'd never worked with another lyricist before, and I had done all my lyrics, so I got together with Bernie, who's my best friend. We've been threatening to work together for years so I finally said I can do it, let's really get involved...

HP: How involved were you?

Alice: I'd say we spent 500 hours just on his project... I was an absolute firecracker as far as my whole attitude, I was so naturally wound up by my new head that I was just wearing everyone out around me.

It's not hard for me to make a decision now where before, a decision was really impossible for me to make. I'm probably there 99% of the time on everything. We did all the writing, we went in there for every track and we picked all the musicians. I hadn't done that before because I just wasn't capable and Ezrin (Cooper's previous producer) had his own mind about things like that whereas with Foster, this is only the 2nd or 3rd album he's produced. He's fresh and he has all these ideas and he totally responded to what we wanted to hear. Bernie had a lot to do with production too. It's the first time I ever had an album that came out sounding exactly the way I wanted it to sound.

HP: Is Bernie going on tour with you?

Alice: I keep trying to talk him into it. He's an extremely talented actor and I want him to play Millie in "Millie and Billie," ha ha ha. The only way I can get him in there is if I can get him into a pool game and he loses.

HP: What new theatrics are planned?

Alice: Well, we've taken the audience into the nightmare and the hell thing and now I'm going to take them into a very strange, surrealistic kind of recreation room in a mental hospital. The whole thing will have kind of an Escher (European artist, M.C. Escher), look the angles will be all off and you won't be able to quite tell what everything is but it'll have a real mental institution kind of look to it.

HP: Are you designing the sets?

Alice: Oh yeah, everything. I have total control and I like that very much. We're going to have some really different things this time. There's a song called" Jackknife Johnny" that I want to do as a ballet, with one guy as a Viet Cong and the other as an American GI but I want it to be a ballet with bayonets... something that the audience has never seen before. It's not going to be artsy-fartsy, it'll be real Alice Cooper, very Cooperesque.

I don't know if people think my image is changing, but the Alice Cooper thing is just going in a different direction. There's always that negativity there... but now it's classier than it used to be, the theatricality is really classy.

We're not dwelling on the rebellion because we've already done that whole punk rock thing, that's built into us anyway. I don't even like the word "negative" anymore, but I think when people think of Alice Cooper they think there's going to be a certain black humor involved, no matter what it is.

HP: Are you going to do any other media events around this theme, like a TV Special or movie?

Alice: Not TV, I don't think rock belongs on TV in the least bit. I've never seen anything come off right on TV when it comes to rock and roll but I have been approached by people who want to do this thing as a major motion picture. We're already working with 2 or 3 writers but I can't mention their names until we work out a deal. But when we do, it'll be a real full-blown musical.

HP: Do you ever think about working in other areas of show business?

Alice: Well, later on I could dedicate more time to doing things like even writing a movie or acting in one but as it is, right now, I want to do the things I'm really comfortable with, and that's putting on a production and touring again. I really want to go out and destroy the country with a new production.

HP: You've been quoted as saying you'd like to produce stage shows for other groups. Is that true?

Alice: Yes, if they would give me 100% control. I would love to, cause if you think of it, can you tell me what anybody in Chicago looks like? Ha ha ha. Or anybody in — name me any bands... Bands have just totally forgotten about image. It seems to me that there are certain bands that are out to make 2 or 3 records and that's it, they've totally forgotten about their public image... I couldn't tell you what anybody in Boston looks like. That aspect of rock and roll has totally been forgotten.

HP: Don't you think theatrics can get kind of gimmicky?

Alice: If it's treated gimmicky, it'll come off gimmicky, but I totally believe that you can do it with class. There are certain people that are very classy and do it right, I think David Bowie's got a lot of class when it comes to his public image and I think Mick Jagger and those people have a lot of class...

HP: There's always been a certain confusion about your image. Is the real Alice the one who plays golf and invests his money, or the lunatic on stage?

Alice: I kind of like that confusion myself, ha ha ha, but I'm not at all confused, I'm totally aware of what I'm doing. I don't particularly know if I want the audience to know who I'm going to be when they see me...

(Published in the Hit Parader 1979 Yearbook, Fall 1979. Interview was originally published in May 1975 issue of Hit Parader)