Article Database

Alice Cooper: Superstar Of Rock With 2 Personalities!

Vincent Furnier legally changed his name to become rock superstar "Alice Cooper" long ago, but the two distinct personalities still occupy the same body.

At one time, Furnier's alter ego used to scare him "half to death."

"It was frightening," he told INSIDER. "He (Alice) used to go out of control on stage, and sometimes it ended with broken arms or ribs.

"But I can control him now, although he still does some wonderful, spontaneous things.

"You know, he can really break you up with laughter and then the next minute make you cry."

Furnier is the world's leading authority on Alice Cooper, the Marquis de Sade or Black Prince of rock 'n' roll. After all, he invented him.

HE ALWAYS talks about Cooper in the third person, usually with affection and respect. At show time, however, Jekyll becomes Hyde, as the All-American boy from Arizona turns into one of the most highly controversial entertainers in the world.

Cooper currently is in Europe, where he is touring with a $400,000 extravaganza, entitled "Welcome to My Nightmare."

The 90-minute show includes dancing skeletons, giant spiders climbing gigantic webs and a fight with a 9-foot cyclops who loses when decapitated on stage.

"It's all done just for fun," Furnier said. "There is no message, and it's about as frightening as a Sinbad movie."

The 1975-version Alice Cooper IS much tamer than previous models.

COOPER NO longer is carried on stage inside a coffin. He no longer beats up Santa Claus or chops up dolls with knives, stunts that caused one critic to term his work "the culture of the concentration camp."

"I never really knew what that meant," said Furnier, a ravenous beer drinker. "I get tired of being thought of as America's No. 1 freak. People still think I kill chickens on stage, but I never did.

"I used them, sure: But I never killed them. Even so, I never bothered to deny the rumor. As an entertainer on the way up, I didn't mind the publicity, whatever it was."

Furnier created Cooper while eating lunch with friends one day and discussing their efforts to break away from the usual pop-group format.

"THE NAME came out of nowhere," he said. "I thought of it and realized it sounded like the name of a blonde folk singer. So I made Alice a hatchet murderer, a Lizzie Borden character.

"Everybody hated it when I wore eye makeup back in 1966, and when I saw the hostile reaction, I played right to it.

"But I don't believe any of the violence Alice has used on stage is at all detrimental. I'm not an intellectual, but I'm not dumb, and I know that there is more violence in Shakespeare than in anything Alice has ever done."

Now, however, Furnier is wealthy enough to bid farewell to the Cooper character whenever he chooses.

"I actually believe in the whole Hollywood bit," he told INSIDER, noting that he had just bought a Tinseltown-style mansion. "Isn't that fantastic?

"BUT I love Alice. He really makes me laugh. Mind you, I went through a heavy identity problem when I thought that I had to be Alice all the time. People expected it.

"I was drinking two bottles of whisky a day. I was never into dope at all, but sometimes I would wake up in the afternoon somewhere with a bottle in my hand and not know where I was.

"Then I managed to divorce the two personalities, and now I'm Alice only when working."

Furnier is a self-admitted, 27­year-old conservative who admires President Ford. His biggest joy in life comes from playing golf, in which he shoots to a 12 handicap.

His steady girlfriend for the past six years is Cindy Lang. Although still together, they have no plans to marry.

"I DON'T believe in marriage — or funerals," Furnier said. "I also hate underwear and socks.

"Children? I'm too much of a kid myself to have kids right now, but I expect we will have, probably when I'm about 35."

Even though his father is a minister, Furnier holds to no religion.

"I'm a Frisbee-terian," he told INSIDER.

"I believe that when I die, my soul will go up to the roof, and I won't be able to get it down again."

Almost in the same breath, however, Furnier admitted that he does have a faith in God and a belief in the hereafter. Once more, he is the All-American boy.

AS FOR Alice Cooper, however, he will be moving on to films when the current tour is over. Meanwhile, he will continue to wrestle with monsters and fight with spiders — all in the name of fun.

"Alice has the license to be a brat," Furnier said. "But he never preaches. He takes an audience by the throat and never allows them to have to decide whether or not they like him. They look at him and — wow!"

But Cooper's "Welcome to My Nightmare" presents Furnier with a new identity problem.

"You see, Alice plays a character called 'Steven' in 'Nightmare.' So I have to psyche into Alice, who has a psyche into Steven."

For a moment, Furnier looked puzzled.

"I wonder who they'll get to play ME when they film Alice's life story?" he mused.

(Originally published in the The National Insider, Fall 1975 -- actual date unknown)