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At Home With The 'New' Alice Cooper

Finally Sober, He's Found God

The insane king of shock rock, Alice Cooper, 40, has transformed from a snake loving, chicken blood drinking, alcoholic vermin into a human being.

"I feel as though it's just great to be alive again," confides the "new" Alice as he leads MODERN PEOPLE photographers on a tour of his luxurious home during which these exclusive photos were shot. "It's like I died now and I've been given another chance.

"You know, a lot of the old Alice died in the hospital, and now there's the 'Alice 2,' like 'Jaws 2,' Streamlined, but still some of the old craziness," Alice admits, looking back on his three-month stay to combat alcoholism at the New York state hospital nut-house.

Alice used to brag about drinking a case of beer a day. But the beer eventually turned into two quarts of whiskey each day, his career went into a shambles.

The "new" Alice hasn't had a drink in a year. He spends his sober time with his wife Sheryl, 23, his cocker spaniel puppies and bottles of Coca-cola in a beautiful Beverly Hills home. Coming home to Sheryl straight made Alice very paranoid.

"I was coming out after two years and I didn't know if Sheryl was going to like me like this," he confesses. "She married me when I was having my drinking problem and I wondered whether she'd like me any other way."

Things are apparently working out. Sheryl, the daughter of a Baptist minister, and Alice (who changed his name from Vincent Furnier), also the son of a minister, are still happily married after two years.

Sheryl looks back on the days when she and Alice took the great marriage dive:

"As soon as my father met Alice he fell in love with him," happily recalls Sheryl, a charming brown eyed blonde. "Of course, he's such a likable person. He's very intelligent with the driest sense of humor in the world. My parents were elated. They couldn't think of anyone better for me."

"It came as a surprise when he proposed to me. We had reached the point where I knew he was the man for me and vice versa." she coos lovingly. "He was very hesitant about marriage. He used to say, 'Sheryl, there are three things I'm against: marriage, socks, and underwear. But I was firm about not wanting to live with him — for my own personal reasons."

Cooper digs golf, sometimes playing with his father-in-law. He loves watching THE GONG SHOW. He doesn't take drugs, not even aspirin for a headache.

As ministers' children, the Coopers are somewhat religious, "although I hate the word religion," Sheryl protests. "I'm a born-again Christian, but I turn off when anyone says, 'Are you saved?' I believe there's a God and I believe I'll go to heaven when I die."

What about Alice? "For Alice, God is his pal, his friend. He's not a churchgoer. Religion is more in his own mind," Sheryl confides.

Sheryl has found steady work as a dancer on variety shows and television specials. She has studied ballet practically since she learned to walk, and now studies jazz dancing.

Alice has been working on a soon to be released album FROM THE INSIDE and a new stage show to go along with it.

"Well, we've taken the audience into the nightmare and hell thing and now I'm going to take them into a very strange, surrealistic kind of recreation room in a mental hospital," Alice reveals, "something that the audience has never seen before. It's not going to be artsy fartsy, it'll be real Alice Cooper, very Cooperesque."

There you have it — the "new" Alice. The new Alice is less crazy. Sheryl reveals: "I think I've brought him a little more down to earth. He was just outgrowing his craziness when I met him. At one time, he actually was trying to live the character of Alice Cooper offstage. It was a mistake."