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Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper is Rock n' Roll royalty, but you'd never realize it by just speaking to him. Funny, smart, and down to earth, Cooper seems to really care about the whole interview dynamic and the world at large, the polar opposite of his dark stage persona. As we talked about Cooper's new release, Brutal Planet [Spitfire], a line of movie dialogue kept bouncing back and forth in my thick skull: "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!" - Rich

Under the Volcano: How do you stay excited about music after doing it for 30 years?

Alice Cooper: Y'know, it's funny, 'cause I think that if it's in your blood you never get tired of it. I'm still a Rock n' Roll fan. I have a 19 year old and a 15 year old, and I'm probably the only dad in the world that band on their door and says "Turn that up!" If it's good Rock n' Roll, I'm the first one to turn it up. Like anything else: there's great Rock n' Roll, there's crappy Rock n' Roll. And I'm not real prejudiced; as much as I'm not a big rap fan, I LOVE Eminem; I think Eminem is very funny.

UTV: I was watching something on him last night, he's had a really rough life...

Alice Cooper: He has had a rough, but he's got a very funny sense of humor. I can go from Eminem, to Rob Zombie in a heartbeat. I've always been a big music lover and everything, and so any time I can get up on stage — and 90% of our songs are songs people have heard on the radio — it's fun to be able to do hits all night. The hard part is introducing new songs because people always wanna hear the old stuff.

UTV: As a kid, I remember a rumor that Alice Cooper was a 16th century witch that channeled through a Ouija board...

Alice Cooper: Y'know, everybody has got a different story about Alice Cooper. When the movie Urban Legends came out, it should have been about me, because 90% of what you've heard about Alice Cooper is urban legend. I have hard so many incredible stories... and it's not just me... Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson... anybody that's in the business gets these incredible rumors going. Granted, I have done some pretty strange things on stage, and in my new show there are even more strange things on stage, but 90% of the things I hear on the road I didn't do.

UTV: Yeah, I know. Like the chicken.

Alice Cooper: The funny thing about the chicken is somebody did throw a chicken on stage. I threw it back in the audience. I didn't even throw it; I thought it would fly away. 'Cause it's a chicken, it had wings! I'm from Detroit, I didn't know anything about chickens, I didn't know they couldn't fly. I throw it into the audience and the audience tore it apart. And the crazy thing about that is it wasn't just the audience. They put all of the people in wheelchairs in the front row, so it was the handicapped that tore the chicken apart. They made it into a handicapped chicken. I didn't even do that! The audience did that, and I got blamed for it.

UTV: You're the son of a reverend...

Alice Cooper: Yes, my dad was a pastor. I lead a very strange life I think, because I'm a christian. I still have very high christian values I think, and my shows are very anti-satanic, and the things I write about are anti-satan. I got out of my way to warn people that if you think Satan doesn't exist, then he's already beat you, because he does. Maybe it sounds old-fashioned or almost archaic, but I believe in the classic God, and I believe in the classic devil. It explains a lot of evil in the world.

UTV: I'm actually kind of impressed that that's the way you see things; I'm kinda surprised.

Alice Cooper: I mean, we keep blaming things on movies, we blame things on music, we blame things on videos, and we keep forgetting where it comes from. It comes from a much darker place.

UTV: The character of ALice is a super-villain. What redeeming qualities does he possess, if any?

Alice Cooper: The good thing about Alice being a villain is he shows the audience the evil in the world, then he gets executed. Evil never wins in my show, even though I'm the one who gets nailed in the end. Like in this show, I get my head cut off, and I get put into a giant vice... they have to kill me twice this time. I think it's a morality play. No matter what Alice does up there, he always ends up paying for it. I think it's kind of a classical Shakespearean bad guy/good guy thing. I think I need to be the villain; I'm so good at being the villain that in the end — when Alice comes out at the very end, after they execute me — he always comes out in a white tophat and tails. And it's balloons, and confetti, and everything's okay. I never leave the audience with a bad taste in their mouth. I always want them to leave saying, "Man, that was the greatest party I was ever at." They have confetti in their hair, and streamers... It's like, "Were you just at a New Year's party?" "No, I was at an Alice Cooper concert!" Whereas I think a lot of bands forget to do that. It's a show, and it's fun, and my stuff is totally choreographed. I think that the fun part is the part where they walk away having a great time.

UTV: How did it end up that Spitfire released Brutal Planet?

Alice Cooper: Independent labels are the future. I think that you'll see a lot of your major stars going to independent labels because they're tired of working for banks. Big record companies are basically banks, they really, really are. They have 60 or 70 artists, and they sell all these records, take all the money, invest it, and live off the interest. It's got nothing to do with promoting the artist. The artist is basically a "product" to them, whereas I think that at an independent label, there's a lot more attention given to the artist development and the art of the product.

UTV: I'm really happy that you're on Spitfire. They're so nice...

Alice Cooper: I know they're working hard because every time I wake up in the morning I have 12 interviews to do! At my old record company, they would just say, "Well, whatever you want to do is fine." These guys are going, "You've got 12 interviews to do," and I'm going, "Great!" They flew 50 guys into Los Angeles to listen to the album. They flew 40 people in from Europe into Phoenix to interview me. It's amazing, the kind of things that they're doing, so I'm happy with it.

UTV: Is it possible that the sociological observations on Brutal Planet coincide with Alice taking inventory of his life?

Alice Cooper: I think that's what it is, I'm kind of looking into the future. I'm not gonna say it's science fiction, I'm gonna say it's social fiction. I kinda compare this album to THX1138... any one of those, like 1984... we're all kinda faceless. In this thing, it's more Road Warrior. Instead of technology taking us forward, it's eaten itself, we've technologied ourselves to death. Now all that's left are survivors; we're almost back to being cavemen.

UTV: Is the song "Gimme" from the perspective of the devil?

Alice Cooper: Yes, absolutely. Thank you! I'm so glad that somebody picked that up. People always think that the devil is gonna come as this evil character; he's not. He's probably gonna come as the most appealing guy you've ever seen...

UTV: ... or one of my old girlfriends!

Alice Cooper: ...or one of your old girlfriends. And she did come up, I want you to know that... her name did come up! But, he's always gonna say, "Whatever you want; I'm your only friend." And Man's point of view is "Gimme this!" It's like turning a kid loose in Toys R Us. So the devil says, "I'll give you anything you want,"... you'll notice he says, "Kneel down, I'll give you what you need." All he wants is that; when he was tempting Christ in the wilderness, he said, "I'll give you anything you want, just kneel down and tell me." That's all he wanted, the "kneel down" part. I had to throw that in; it was too appropriate for this song.

UTV:I hear a similarity between the riff on "Cold Machines," and the one from Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People"...

Alice Cooper: I didn't notice that; I don't write the music, I write the lyrics, and somebody brought that to my attention. I said, "Y'know it's a Rock n' Roll riff, I guess there's a million of those. There'll probably be 10 more of those coming out." If it is, it's kind of ironic. I sort of like the idea that finally, something sounds like somebody else!

UTV: It kind of serves as a ribbing, given the context...

Alice Cooper: I'd like to think of it that way...

UTV: Does the fact that Marilyn Manson exist make you angry, happy or indifferent? I consider him a poor imitation of the original. Your thoughts?

Alice Cooper: I've never met Marilyn. I've met everybody else in the band. I like the song "Dope Show"... There are a couple songs I really, really, like. I understand that he's changed his image a whole lot. I had a really big problem when he first came out, tearing the Bible up and all that, and then calling me his hero. I was like, "Wait a minute, let's get this straight; what I do on stage is pretty much warning people like you. I think he's very smart. I think he knows how to push all the right buttons, and I think if he concentrated on the music, he'd be around for a very long time. The theatrics are easy, but I think he needs to find some good writers, because he's a good lyricist.

UTV: "Take It Like A Woman" tells a horrific story about a woman who was tortured and killed...

Alice Cooper: She was tortured and killed because she took it too long. She's one of these women I never understand. When I'm watching TV and watching these battered women and they're saying, "It's the tenth time he's beaten me up and almost killed me," I'm just like, "then why are you there?" The first time someone hit me, I'd be gone. Why does somebody stay there? I always believed that women are emotionally stronger, and physically stronger — they can take more actual pain than men can, so "Take It Like A Woman" is actually probably more correct. And on stage we do "Take It Like A Woman" into "Only Women Bleed," and it really does connect well. I think women will understand that this is about a woman that took it too long. It ends up that you realize he's singing it from her grave.

UTV: Sexism and Rock n' Roll seem to kind of go hand in hand; do you expect a backlash from the Rock n' Roll community for saying something like this?

Alice Cooper: I hope not. People say, "What are you preaching here?" I"m not preaching anything except to say, "There's good, there's evil. We have a choice." This is Alice's view, not my view; I'm the optimistic one. Alice's view is very pessimistic; Alice sees things going to hell. What I've said from the very beginning is: this is 50 years from now; this is a world without God. This is what the world will look like without God. It's a horrific place, and of course my stage show is gonna make it entertaining, so Alice the character is gonna make it entertaining, but the main message is "This is a place where we don't wanna be." There's no redeeming value to this place at all.

UTV: I'm actually very surprised by your spiritual nature...

Alice Cooper: I'm politically incoherent. People ask me if I'm politically correct, and I'm like, "I'm Alice Cooper. I should be able to say what I want to say. Just because it doesn't jive with what the general Rock n' Roll public says, that's not my problem. The amazing thing is, if Alice Cooper pisses off the Rock n' Roll community for something he says, that's the ultimate rebellion for him! I don't do christian Rock, but I am a christian. It's more prophetic Rock: here it comes, guys!

UTV: As always, your lyrics are really cutting, you obviously focus when you write.

Alice Cooper: You know what was a really hard song for me to write? "Blow Me A Kiss"... "blow me a kiss/and blow me away." This is not veiled. It's about Columbine. These people are senseless, absolutely senseless. They're point of view is: "You're black? You're dead. You're gay? You're dead. You're afraid? You're dead." We can't ignore that, I can't let that one go by. And "Wicked Young Man" is another one. When he says, "I've got a pocket full of bullets and a blueprint of the school"? I wrote him as a futuristic character, but this kid is now.

UTV: How previous to Columbine did you write this?

Alice Cooper: I can't positively say this was before Columbine, but when I heard about [the shootings] I was just like, "Sheesh... this is now. When that happens, you can't just say, "I'm not gonna write this," to be sensitive. I think you hafta write it to be sensitive. So, in the song "Wicked Young Man," I'm not condoning him, I'm exposing him. I've got three kids, a 19 year-old girl, a 15 year-old boy, and a seven year-old girl in a great big house. I know if my son's got a firecracker; i know if he's got a hunting knife. How can you not know a person's got 50 bombs and a shotgun? If you've got kids, you know where they're at. It's part of being a dad. If you're that removed from your kids, something's really wrong. So, if this "Wicked Young Man" is out there, somebody should be picking up his vibe.

UTV: My understanding is that there was a time where the line between Vincent Furnier and the character of Alice got very blurred...

Alice Cooper: Well, I was an alcoholic for a very long time. About 18 years ago I quit drinking.

UTV: So, sobriety helped you seperate the two identities?

Alice Cooper: I thought I had to be Alice in order to be believed. I thought I had to go out and wear the make-up with a snake around my neck. I lived in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and I'd go out in all black. I thought I had to be this heavy character. You have to remember, I used to drink with Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin, and Keith Moon, and John Lennon. Almost every one of my big brothers died... Jimi Hendrix. These are all people that tried to live their image. I learned that you'd better separate that image.

UTV: On a cool note, I'm happy I'm talking to the person I'm talking to...

Alice Cooper: Oh yeah, you don't wanna talk to Alice. I tell people Alice doesn't do interviews. Alice does shows. I hafta talk for Alice. I like Alice, because he's my favorite Rock star, and if there's ever a day when he's not my favorite Rock star, then I'd better hang him up. I always invent him — every show — to be somebody that I would really like to see. So, if there's ever a day that I like to watch somebody better than me, then I better re-invent Alice again.

UTV: By the way, I was listening to Flush the Fashion this morning. I love that record.

Alice Cooper: Yeah, I do too. There's some very odd stuff on that record; "Aspirin Damage"...

UTV: "Talk Talk"... "Leather Boots"...

Alice Cooper: "Leather Boots" was a weird little song, wasn't it?

UTV: That reminds me of the days of hangin' out on street corners in combat boots... I think I understood what you meant.

Alice Cooper: I listen to those albums and I go, "What the hell was I thinking then?" It was a whole different time. THere are three albums I don't remember doing. I don't remember doing Dada. I don't remember Special Forces, or Zipper Catches Skin. Those were three albums during my blackout period, and I listen back to them and I go, "Ha... there's some pretty cool stuff on there!"

UTV: You worked with Bob Ezrin for a while... Why did the two of you part ways?

Alice Cooper: Bob is actually executive producer on the new album... I bought him back... He had just finished working with Trent Reznor on Fragile, and I was thinking, "For this album, I need someone that understands my type of theatricality. So to Bob Marlett — who produced the record — I said, "I wanna use Bob Ezrin as my executive producer, to be the overseer of this whole project. Because he did ...Nightmare, he did School's Out... he did all of my big albums, all the theatrical albums. Bob was the one — anytime we started getting soft — who would go "No, that's getting too soft. We hafta get back to the raunch."

UTV: Speaking of School's Out, there was a pair of panties packaged with the original record...

Alice Cooper: [laughs] Yeah, limited edition!

UTV: What was the idea behind that?

Alice Cooper: When you were in high school, what was the most prized possession you could have in your desk?

UTV: The same thing I see as my most prized possession now...

Alice Cooper: When you were that age you opened your desk and pulled out a pair of panties, you scored. Instead of a paper wrapper, we just decided to give every 15 year-old boy bragging rights! And if you find one, they're very collectable! [Alice gets a beep; there's another interview waiting].

Alice Cooper: Well, thank you very much; that was fun!

UTV: Thank you very much; I wish you the best.

Alice Cooper: Again, I really appreciate when people listen to the lyrics and actually get it! You're in the five percent!

UTV: Thank you Alice!

(Originally published in Under The Volcano magazine, issue #57, September/October 2000)