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The nightmare
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At once glammy and ghoulish, pioneering “shock rocker” Alice Cooper’s contribution to rock ’n’ roll theatrics is of course immeasurable, and even after 40-plus years of stomping the pines, he can still put on one of the best shows around. On record, though, he has delivered some of rock’s greatest moments (“I’m Eighteen”) and its worst (“Hey Stoopid”). Refusing to be put out to pasture at the tender age of 60, Cooper proved he still has a few tricks up his sleeve when he recently delivered his most solid record in decades, Along Came a Spider. The Mirror talked to Cooper, aka Vincent Furnier, over the phone from a tour stop in Vancouver. Mirror: How did the concept for the new record, Along Came a Spider, happen? Alice Cooper: I wrote the short story a while back, and I just found it in my drawer and read it again, and it just clicked that this story, based on this serial killer with all of these character personality conflicts, would make a good concept for a record. M: I also thought that, musically, it was a return to form, with a sound more akin to classics like 1971’s Killer and Love It to Death. AC: On the song “Hungry,” our producer came in with this guitar riff and I said it was really reminiscent of “Is It My Body,” but just different enough. It was definitely a reminder of that era. If you’re going to go back and grab a retro sound, grab your own. I don’t mind ripping myself off every now and again (laughs). M: What were those early days in Detroit in the late ’60s like, playing with the MC5, Stooges, Mitch Ryder and so on? AC: Detroit at that time was by far the healthiest music scene going. When we first went to Detroit, we had never heard of the MC5 or the Stooges. We went on after the Stooges at this festival and when I saw Iggy, I just realized that I had found some competition. Detroit audiences would only respond to bands that had attitude, offered no excuses and played it loud. Every week, we would play bills like Stooges, MC5, Alice Cooper and the Who at the Grande, and even at that time we realized that these were some of the greatest rock ’n’ roll shows that would ever happen. Everybody was really competitive too. If Keith Moon had 31 drums, Neal [Smith, ex-drummer] would make sure he had 32. Vaude-villainyM: It does seem rare that the Stooges and your current show can still deliver after 40 years. AC: When people call me and Iggy dinosaurs, I just tell them we’re carnivores because we will take on any band full of 20-year-olds right now and blow them off the stage. I’m not even basing that on content or showmanship, but just on energy alone. M: Do you ever get pissed that so many people have ripped off your image and theatrics, and continue to do so? AC: When Marilyn [Manson] came along, I thought, if he was playing hard rock, it was way too close, but he didn’t really. I mean, I respect what he does, but I still think it’s a little funny—gee, a guy with a girl’s name wearing make-up, I wish I would’ve thought of that. When I first met him, it was like Bela Lugosi meeting Boris Karloff. M: Is there ever a clash between the practising Christian Vincent Furnier and the Alice Cooper character? AC: I don’t have swearing in my show, references to Satanism or anything I wouldn’t want children to see. To me, it’s just very black vaudeville—it’s not as black and dark as say, Shakespeare. Macbeth is about murder, incest, witchcraft and the occult, and most people will say that’s okay, but if I hang myself on stage or kill a vampire baby in a baby carriage… I think if you can’t laugh at that, there is something wrong with you. My show can be scary in places but I always give the audience a punchline. My show has always been a morality play. When does Alice ever get away with anything without being punished? Never. The bad guys never win in my show. When I see that audience, my posture, voice and attitude instantly changes and, for the next hour and 45 minutes, I don’t break that character, but offstage, I am really nothing like Alice. He’s very dastardly, arrogant and is a pure villain, and I still really love slipping into that skin. WITH ECONOLINE CRUSH AT THÉÂTRE |
