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Welcome to the Brutal Planet

The planet is cold and filled with dismay and destruction, something Alice Cooper likes to call the Brutal Planet. His work makes Escape from New York look like a ride at Disneyland. As always, Alice finds himself in the depths of hell that we call home, this time he takes a look at the future and finds no more Billion Dollar Babies, but instead wicked young men. The tour through this crazy world can only be led by "the Prince of Darkness" and "Master of the Brutal Planet," Alice Cooper. So strap yourself in and be prepared for the unexpected. Here is your Master of Ceremonies, Alice Cooper.

No More Mr. Nice Guy

"It's been nice having a career that has spanned this many years, but I keep getting people who want me to make another Love it to Death or Killer, but I'm competing with the likes of Rob Zombie. The last thing I need to do is make a 70s album. (laughs) I needed something that is cutting edge, so I hooked up with producers, Bob Marlette and Bob Ezrin to record Brutal Planet. The lyrics are dark because I wanted to write a pieces of music like Welcome to My Nightmare. So I said, 'Let's see what Alice would see in the future. What are Alice's thoughts on what's going to happen.' And it turned out very negative, like Dante's Inferno's king of place. It's perfect for the stage. The funny part was I realized fact was scarier than fiction. When you write about news stories, the facts become more startling than anything I could invent. Songs like "Wicked Young Man," "Blow Me a Kiss, Blow Me Away" and "Pick Up The Bones" are straight from CNN. It's scary when CNN is scarier than Stephen King."

Generation Landslide

"When I was 16 years old, you think your life is over at 21 or your rock n roll career is over at 30. The way rock n roll is now, age doesn't matter. Look at Ozzy, Aerosmith or AC/DC, all your classic rockers are 50 and they are playing harder then they ever did... the ones that are still alive (laughs). I'm in that club. Brutal Planet is the heaviest album I ever made out of 25 albums and I don't see me slowing down at all. The stage show is harder, longer and more physical of a show. The strange thing is I'm physically in better shape than I was 20 years ago. When you do a show like I do, you have to be in good shape. Again, I'm competing against kids 20 - 30 years old. It's like a boxer, you better be in top shape if you are going to get in the ring. Musically, when the first chord hits, I have no age."

I am the Future

"Selling Alice is easier now than in the beginning, because the one consistent thing in music is 'hard rock.' That's the one thing that doesn't go away. Music goes in tangents. Now, it's the whole 'latino rock thing' with Santana and Ricky Martin. Before that you had the Seattle thing and you have the Britney Spears and even punk, but it always seems to come back to five guys in a garage. If you look at groups that are still here from the 70s or late 60s, it's all hard rock bands. Ozzy, Aerosmith, Alice, AC/DC and all those kinds of bands are garage bands. The Stones are the biggest garage band in the world. If Guns n' Roses were together, they would be one of those great garage bands. When you get up on stage and do 'Under My Wheels,' '18' or 'School's Out' it could be 1970 or 2005. I guarantee 50 years from now, people will be playing hard rock. Everyday someone turns '18.' "School's Out' will always work, angst will never die."

It's the Little Things

"The greatest thing Alice Cooper did for music was prove rock and theater could work together, and not just work together, but be commercial. The fact is we were the most uncommercial band of all time and we did a stage show that upset everybody and had number one records to back it. We also sold out shows every night... and still do. We made the business suits stand up and take notice. We brought the marriage of theater and rock, after that Bowie, Kiss and Manson started to come out."

Cold Machines

"I don't know if there will be anymore classic rock bands, they are a dying breed. Groups don't stay together long enough to become classic. Today is all about 'take the money and run' with some flash. Twenty five years from now I don't think you will find any bands from 2000s still around. The business isn't designed like that anymore.

Back when we started, the record companies had a different attitude about bands. The idea was to build a career, to have a band put out 15 albums. Now if you're lucky if you can get a two album deal. Here's today's motto - hit - tour - if they waiver, drop them.

Bands like Zeppelin, hell, even us would not have made it if they didn't work with you. Think of how much money the labels would have lost, how much are they losing now?

Frank Zappa signed us first, because we emptied arenas opening for bands. He liked that. Luckily, Warner Brothers saw past that, they distributed Frank's label. They had an option on us and when they heard Love it to Death, there was enough foresight to realize it does work, it will be huge. And to show our appreciation, we were never late with an album and worked harder, we knew we were the underdogs."

Sanctuary

"When I was writing this song, I noticed my two teenage kids and my seven year old daughter used their rooms as their sanctuary. Your room is where you are king and it's one place that is off limits to everyone. I wrote 'Sanctuary' with that in mind. I wrote it as a kids anthem, because they will all understand what that is. Even as an adult, when you are out in the world and you want to kill yourself because you are wearing brown shoes and a gray suit going to work everyday and you have the same headache, but when you get home you go to your room... that's sanctuary."

Identity Crisis

"People laugh, but I enjoy golfing. The funny thing is, a while ago I had to separate Alice from Vincent. All my friends are dead, because they lived their image on stage, offstage. Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, were like my big brothers and sisters... They are all dead. In order to maintain that image, you have to drink and do drugs pretty hard. I made Alice a great American villain character, but I'm not going to live his life... His life is on stage and that's it, mine is offstage. If I go play golf or go Christmas shopping or anything any dad or husband would do, well that's just my life. When you see me on stage you get Alice. I wouldn't want to be Marilyn Manson or Rob Zombie all day, it's too hard of an image to maintain all day."

Feed My Frankenstein

"I never had a problem drinking, just stopping. (laughs) I haven't had a drink in 18 years. One of the reasons is because I'm addictive easily, so I got addicted to being straight and it works for me. I had a lot of demons in me, when I was at my peak. I was drinking a bottle of whiskey a day with beer chasers everyday for 2-3 years, maybe ten, I can't remember. When I started throwing up blood every morning in a hotel room, I thought doing this on stage is cool, but alone in a room isn't. It became a matter of survival, either quit drinking or die. I could have ended up like Morrison and never known how the story would play out."

See Me in the Mirror

"Looking in the mirror and seeing the true you can be scary. Alcohol brought out a different Alice compared to today. I think you still would have gotten an Alice, but I don't know if he would be as insane. I did let the alcohol loosen me up a bit. After I quit drinking, I became a much better and effective Alice. I always played the victim. I watch my old videos and I was always slouched over with my shoulders bent over. People like that, the same way they like Ozzy right now. Ozzy is bent over and looks fragile. Now the Alice you see is much more in control to the point of being arrogant."

Thrill My Gorilla

"The biggest thrill for me is waking up every day and realizing you are still here and still viable. (laughs) Really, anytime you first hear your record on the radio is a thrill. I remember way back, the radio was playing a Beatle song, then the Rolling Stones followed by a Zeppelin record and the DJ said here is the most requested song of the hour, here is Alice Cooper. The whole band was sitting there going 'that's got to be wrong.' And the next week our record was number one. How cool is that?"

Hey Stoopid

"The most misunderstood thing about Alice is that we were never a satanic band. Even when Alice was at his darkest, and maybe that is now, there was never anything satanic about it. We were never that. Many black metal bands took what Alice was doing and added to it. We always got compared to them, because of that.

Alice was more of a mysterious Phantom of the Opera character than these bands with the 666 and upside down crosses. I never want to be accused of being a satanic band. That's the biggest misconception about Alice Cooper. We tried to not take it that deep, just have some good ole' rock n roll fun with a twist."

(From the collection of Kyle Wolfe. Originally published in the Rock n Roll Reporter, Volume 9, Issue 99 - October 2000)