Dunedin Free Press - Alice Cooper Page 2

Alice wrote for his high school newspaper. Interestingly, Emmit Smith, the school’s Cross Country Coach, also taught journalism. One of his class projects was to build a working guillotine for slicing watermelons. Smith and Cooper remained in touch throughout his career. Smith plays a large role on VH-1’s “Alice Cooper: Behind the Music.”

The Earwigs became the Spiders and then The Nazz. As the Spiders, they had a local #1 radio hit with their original song, released as a single, “Why Don’t You Love Me.” When they found out that Todd Rundgren already had a band called The Nazz,

Depending on who asked him and when, Alice would give different stories about the group’s name. One claimed that it had been spelled out on a Ouija Board, another that he simply pulled the name out of the air to conjure up the image of “a cute, sweet little girl with a hatchet behind her back…like Lizzie Borden.” Alice Cooper is also the name of a Mayberry RFD character. Cooper is a known TV addict.

Alice Cooper was originally the name of the classic line up of Glen Buxton on lead guitar, John Tatum on rhythm, Dennis Dunaway on bass and John Speer on drums, but Furnier assumed the role of the character and the name, He would legally change it in 1974. With it, he took gender bending beyond wearing a dress to actually adopting a woman’s name. On him it seemed to become completely masculine, even in tattered women’s clothing and eye make up.

The band relocated to California, becoming, according to Cooper, “the most hated group in Los Angeles," and earning them a dedicated new manager and a spot on Frank Zappa’s new label, Straight Records.

Both came out of their slot at a memorial for Lenny Bruce at the famed Cheetah Club in Venice.
Their performance, which included an onstage pillow fight, quickly cleared the room, leaving only Shep Gordon, Frank Zappa and two of the Zappa-produced girl-group, the GTO’s. Gordon saw potential in their power for controversy, and insisted on becoming their manager, then got them an audition with Zappa who was looking for bizarre new acts for his label. Zappa was impressed when he told the band to show up at 7, and they showed up at 7 am.

Cooper was the original shock rocker with live mock executions on stage and songs with fresh and horrifying subject matter, like “Dead Babies,” (about child abuse) and “Cold Ethyl” (about necrophilia).

He caused an international incident with what he has explained as an onstage accident, highly misrepresented in the media, leading him to incredible fame.

While performing at The Toronto Rock N Roll Revival concert in 1969, a chicken “somehow” got onstage during his performance. Knowing nothing about chickens, cooper has explained, he threw it out above the audience, thinking it would fly. The incident was on the front page of many national papers, reporting that Cooper actually bit the head off a live chicken and drank its blood onstage.

The controversy led him to new heights of popularity, proving Frank Zappa right when he advised him, “whatever you do, don’t tell anyone you didn’t do it.”

But it wouldn’t all be about the controversy. Front to back album classics like Killer, School’s Out and Billion Dollar Babies with singles like “Halo of Flies,” and “I’m 18” would hold up for decades, sounding just as good in a modern context as the day they were released.

When Frank Zappa’s Straight Records was purchased by Warner Brothers, the publicity of the "chicken incident” combined with the higher level of promotion they received from the major label would be a profitable combination for the band. The label teamed them with Producer Bob Ezrin for the third and final album of the Straight Records contract, Love It To Death. “I’m 18,” their first hit single released in 1971, was the result. Ezrin is generally credited with helping the band to develop its distinctive sound.

The band was fed up with California’s indifferent attitude toward them. “LA just didn’t get it, “Cooper has said. "They were on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else.”

The success of Love It To Death and “18,” and the subsequent European tour attended by Elton John and Daid Bowie, led Warner Brothers to sign them to a new multi-album contract.

The Alice Cooper Group stood out from bearded hippie bands in jeans, wearing tight-sequined costumes designed by prominent rock fashion designer, Cindy Dunaway, who was, conveniently, bass player Dennis Dunaway’s sister.

They horrified both parents and society like some traveling carnival of filth and terror. The more effort politicians and special interest groups put into banning them, the more fans and audience members they gained.

Onstage, Cooper played the villainous threat to society who was eventually executed for his crimes in every show by a variety of methods: hanging, electric chair or guillotine.

Killer, released in late 1971, continued their commercial and artistic success. Packed chock full of timeless hits including the hauntingly catchy “Desperado,” and “You Drive Me Nervous, almost early punk, and singles like “Under My Wheels,” and “Halo of Flies,” (a top ten hit in the Netherlands covered by Jello Biafra and The Melvins in 2002, 30 years later, on their album, Sieg Howdy). To quote official Alice Cooper biographer and former Creem Magazine contributor, Jeffrey Morgan, "it was a veritable soundtrack for the calculated outrage and disruptive congestions of their stage show. Killer focused on the alienated outcasts of the world, either through premeditation for gain (“Desperado”), or as a result of society’s neglect …Killer had something for everyone.”

Killer's single, “School’s Out,” released in Summer 1972, was the band’s first huge hit, reaching the Top 10 in the US and #1 in the UK. The album reached #2 on the US charts and sold more than a million copies. The band moved into a mansion in Grenwich, Connecticut with the money they made and recorded their next commercial success.

Billion Dollar Babies, released in February 1973, reached #1 in both the US and UK and remains the band’s biggest commercial success.The album's title track features a guest appearance by teen heartthrob, Donovan. “Elected” reached the top ten in the UK in 1972. It’s video was one of the first ever made for a song, long before MTV. Two more UK top 10 hits followed, “Hello Hooray” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy, which also reached #24 in the US. Mick Mashbar was added to the band on this album because of lead guitarist Glen Buxton’s health problems. He also played with the band without credit on Muscle of Love.

The Alice Cooper Band’s 1973 US Tour broke the box office record previously held by the Rolling Stones. Special effects and theatrics in the tour’s stage show included Billion Dollar Bills, decapitated Baby Dolls and mannequins, a psychotic dentist’s office scene, dancing teeth and a Guillotine designed by magician James Randi, who appeared as executioner at several venues.

Muscle of Love, released in late 1973, was the last studio album by the classic line up. It’s UK Top 20 single, “Teenage Lament 74", was recorded for the James Bond Film, Man With The Golden Gun, but was later replaced by a song by British chanteuse, LuLu. Sales fell from previous albums and the band and Cooper fell into a conflict over the emphasis on theatrics in the show, then took a hiatus.

Alice returned to Los Angeles, virtually becoming Alice Hollywood. He appeared on Hollywood Squares, made close friends with Groucho Marx and Peter Sellers, who called him 'Inspector Maurice Escargot,' and hung out in the “The Lair of Vampires” at LA’s famous Rainbow Bar and Grill, spending late nights there with Harry Nillson, Keith Moon, John Lennon, Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin and occasionally Jack Nicholson and Bruce Springsteen. One crazy night he hung out with Liza Minelli, Linda Lovelace, Chubby Checker and Elvis. He was the first Rock Star to be invited to join the Friar’s Club. He appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone twice and Forbes magazine once. Forbes called him “The New Breed Of Tycoon.” He has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

The other members of the Alice Cooper Group were releasing solo albums, so Alice decided to do the same. Collaborating with producer Bob Ezrin and Lou Reed guitarist, Dick Wagner, he recorded his first solo album, Welcome To My Nightmare supported by Lou Reed’s entire backing band. The concept album became a top 10 hit for Cooper and featured a guests appearance by horror film “hero” Vincent Price.

“Welcome To My Nightmare” took the Cooper stage show to new heights, featuring dancers, monsters, sets and more props than ever. In a groundbreaking moment in Rock and Roll, Cooper and Price starred in a TV special broadcast on ABC Prime Time TV, “The Nightmare.” The special received a Grammy nomination for Best Long Form Video. It was on the “Nightmare” tour that Cooper and his wife Cheryl, a dancer on the show, met. Cooper subsequently became the plaintiff in one of the country’s first Palimony suits, second only to actor Lee Marvin, when his longtime live-in girlfriend sued him over their split.

Alice Cooper has always sited the friendship he developed with artist Salvador Dali as a highlight of his career. A visual artist since childhood, Alice had always admired Dali. In his book, Golf Monster he tells of posing for “Alice Cooper’s Brain,” Dali’s Holographic Sculpture inspired by him.

He has continued to be a dedicated and evolving artist, releasing albums, some experimental, many yielding hit singles even if they were not a commercial success, and touring regularly to huge audiences filled with lifetime fans.

He currently hosts a radio show, “Nights with Alice Cooper” five nights a week and “Breakfasts with Alice,” an outgrowth of “Nights.” The show is part talk, part music. Nine of his top ten song picks are:
1) The Yardbirds - “Over Under Sideways Down” – Roger the Engineer
2) The New York Dolls - “Personality Crisis” – The New York Dolls
3) The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - “Born In Chicago” – The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
4) Mott The Hoople - “All The Way From Memphis” – Mott The Hoople
5) The Stooges - “Loose” – Funhouse
6) Pink Floyd - “See Emily Play” – Relics
7) The Hollies - “Pay You Back With Interest” – The Hollies Greatest Hits
8) The Who - “The Punk And The Godfather” – Quadrophenia
9) Alice Cooper - “Ballad Of Dwight Fry” – Love It To Death.

Today, Alice Cooper owns a restaurant in Phoenix, Alice Cooperstown, named after the Baseball Hall of Fame. It is an entertainment complex with video and sound systems, a video wall, outdoor scoreboard and outdoor live music stage. Its wall space is covered with a mix of rock and sports memorabilia including Alice’s concert photos, gold records and autographed Fender guitars. Cy Young award winner Randy Johnson is also a partner in the restaurant. Cooper can reportedly often be seen at the restaurant when he is not on tour, talking with fans, signing autographs or making menu suggestions.

He lives in his hometown of Phoenix and is a model and celebrated Phoenix citizen. You can reportedly find him on the golf course, at his restaurant or coaching little league games.

Alice’s struggle to fight and overcome alcoholism throughout his career is well documented. Golf now holds the center position that drinking once did for him. He writes in the opening of his new book, Alice Cooper: Golf Monster, “If Rock and Roll made my life, then golf saved my life.” He hosts his own charity golf tournament in Phoenix each April.

Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: A Rock N Roller’s 12 Steps To Becoming a Golf Addict, was published May 8, 2007. By its own description it is “an unlikely and captivating tale full of wretched excess, life-saving redemption, ghoulish eye makeup, power chords and five irons to the center of the green,” detailing Alice Cooper’s life as a Rock Star.

One of Alice Cooper’s greatest passions today is his Solid Rock Foundation, which he describes as a Christian nonprofit organization that helps inner city kids stay out of gangs and away from guns and drugs. The Foundation raises $150,000 a year for its mission.

Alice Cooper has three children and lives with his wife, Cheryl, of 20 years. His oldest daughter, Calico, is a dancer in his current stage show.