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Romantic Ghoul

The 'new' Alice Cooper

Author: Dennis Hunt

Has Alice Cooper, the grand ghoul of rock 'n' roll, the granddaddy of glitter ­rock, gone soft? Will he purge his show of such grisly antics as electrocutions, hangings, and simulated mauling's of babies and chickens?

Speculation about the cleansing of Cooper's act has surfaced because his last two hits have been starkly romantic ballads, "Only Women Bleed" and "I Never Cry." Currently Warner Bros. Records is trying to decide whether his new single, due later this month, will be another ballad, "You and Me."

Though the singles are giving Cooper a reputation as a ballad singer, it should be noted that his last two albums, "Welcome to My Nightmare" and "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell," mostly consist of the kind of comically devilish rock 'n' roll songs that made him fa­mous. All this uncertainty about the ef­fect of the ballads has arisen because Cooper hasn't performed for more than a year. Will he tour again and, if so, will it be with another of those eerie, elaborate productions?

Cooper candidly answered questions about his future one afternoon at Carlos 'n Charlie's, a new Sunset Strip restau­rant of which he and his manager, Shep Gordon, are part owners.

"Yes, I'm going on tour again," Coop­er declared. "I'm going to work in Aus­tralia for a week in mid-March and we're going to tour the United States this summer."

Cooper, who just turned 29, took a year off from working because he des­perately needed the rest: "I started on the road when I was 20 and I feel like I'm 50 now. For five years we hardly had a month off. And when we had time off that meant time off to record. We did things like playing 65 shows in 72 days. Sometimes I wasn't really healthy. I'm anemic and I have to watch myself carefully.

"Since I've been away from the grind for a year I'm rested and I'm even get­ting a little bored with not working. I'm anxious to get back on stage again."

Album without theme

Usually the theme of Cooper's latest album dictates the theme of his show. But Cooper, one of the giants of theater ­rock, is unsure about the content of his next show because "Lace and Whisky," the new Cooper album scheduled for early April release, doesn't have a theme. "All my other albums have had concepts," he said. "For once I wanted to do an album that didn't have a con­cept. The album has some songs that were intended for past albums but wer­en't used because they didn't fit the con­cept of a particular album. It's like the Best of Unused Alice Cooper."

Cooper stressed that he would never go on stage without a colossal produc­tion: "I couldn't do a show where I just sing songs dressed in normal clothes. It wouldn't be any fun. Anybody can do that. I would feel totally naked on stage without all the sets and the costumes and the makeup.

"I like being a part of a big produc­tion that focuses on me. Then I have to be in control of everything that happens on stage. I love that sense of control."

What kind of show will the new one be? "I'm not sure yet," he replied. "I'm thinking very seriously about a best-of-Alice Cooper show, something that would have the best parts of the past shows. And I'm not sure yet how I'm going to do the ballads on stage. I'll do them the way it seems natural for me to do them. I'll be interested to see what I come up with."

"Normal" ego

Rock 'n' roll's foremost kook is not very kooky off stage. Cooper is an amusing mild-mannered man who does not seem to be plagued, like many other rock superstars, with a bloated ego. Small and frail, he certainly doesn't look capable of living up to his legend­ary beer-drinking exploits. "I used to drink a case of beer a day," he said. "Now I only drink about six or seven beers a day. I don't get fat because of all my nervous energy. I drink a lot of these now." He pointed to his cocktail, a whisky-and-Coca Cola concoction that looked as lethal as its name — a black widow.

Considering his image, Cooper's tastes are surprisingly different from those prevalent in the youth-oriented rock subculture. During his year off he spent most of his time playing golf, which he does superbly. Cooper is a Frank Sinatra fan but his favorite musician is, of all people, Burt Bacharach. "I'm a deadly romantic," he boasted. "I love Bacharach because his music is so romantic. That's why I like music by people like Jobim and Brazil '66. I also love soundtrack albums from movies. I have very few rock 'n' roll records. I know that's weird for somebody with my reputation."

The son of a minister, Cooper grew up in Phoenix as Vince Furnier. His talent for merging theater and rock originated during his high school years. Recalling those days, Cooper said, "I was a sick kid. Everybody thought I was nice but they also thought I was very, very strange. The strangeness really came out when I started performing in high school. In my very first gig I came out on stage in a bathtub. Me and the band used every prop we could think of. We didn't make any sense but people were interested."

Cooper's role as a pioneer in theater rock evolved from his position as a pioneer in glitter rock. In 1967, after get­ting nowhere under the names Spiders and Nazz, Alice Cooper was born. Sensing that rock was ready for the outrageous, Cooper and his band, which was with him from the high school days un­til two years ago, began performing in dresses, high heels, and makeup.