Alice Cooper on why he would do anything for Australia ahead of tour and Fire Fight bushfire concert
Before Alice Cooper brings his Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back tour Down Under, he reveals the recipe for his long career and why he’s joined the Fire Fight Australia concert.
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Alice Cooper was banned from bringing his now legendary Welcome To My Nightmare tour to Australia in 1975.
The shock rocker was branded a “degenerate” by then ALP Immigration Minister Clyde Cameron, who refused to grant Cooper a visa as he “could powerfully influence the young and weak-minded”.
Fast forward 45 years and not only is Cooper headed back here for his eighth tour over the past two decades, he is also one of the star attractions of the epic Fire Fight Australia concert for bushfire relief next month.
“We would do ANYTHING to help Australia at this time; it’s one of our favourite places in the world, and needs everyone’s help right now,” he told News Corp Australia.
The 71-year-old performer, who did eventually bring the Welcome To My Nightmare production down under in 1977, crossing paths with Swedish tourists ABBA on the road, has shared a mutual admiration with Australian rock fans across five decades.
For all the theatre of his shows – the guillotine, the fake blood, the spider webs – it is his vast catalogue of hard rock classics from School’s Out to Poison that are responsible for enlisting new generations into his fan army each decade.
“Unlike a lot of those Vegas (pop) shows, I see ours as being closer to a Broadway show but it’s guitar-driven, hard rock and we don’t back off that at all,” he says.
“I think rock is in a good place right now because again we are on the outside looking in, we’re the outlaws.”
Cooper has been juggling dual rock identities for the past five years since forming the Hollywood Vampires with his friends Johnny Depp and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry.
The Vampires were named after the infamous drinking club Cooper convened at LA’s Rainbow Bar and Grill in the 70s, whose members included John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr, The Who’s Keith Moon, the Monkees’ Mickey Dolenz and Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin.
Cooper, who has been sober since the mid ‘80s, said his frontman role in the Vampires – which he jokes is the world’s most expensive covers band – is vastly different to that of his iconic rock persona.
“When I play Alice in the Alice Cooper band, Alice never talks to the audience until the end of the show because if he did, he would become human,” Cooper explains.
“I’ve always wanted him to be more of a Phantom of the Opera character.
“With the Vampires, I talk all through the show, telling the audience the stories behind the songs.
“The fact is, all of us started off as covers bands, The Beatles and the Stones, and the idea behind the Hollywood Vampires was to do songs for our dead, drinking friends.”
What both outfits share is their bonhomie. Cooper doesn’t appear to attract the kind of “musical differences” drama and ego tantrums which can foment in either a supergroup or a collection of players assembled behind a commanding frontman.
It takes some logistical juggling of Depp’s acting commitments and Perry’s day job with Aerosmith to get a Vampires tour together.
And they conversely have to fit in with Alice Cooper Band tours such as the Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back run of shows which kick off in Australia on February 8.
“What’s fun is the fact that everyone in both bands are best friends,” he says.
“There’s no ego, no people throwing fits or stomping off stage, like I hear with all these other bands, the ones that have brothers like Oasis or the Kinks. Those guys can’t live with each other and we’ve never had an argument.”
The Alice Cooper Band has always been a family affair. His wife of 44 years, Sheryl Goddard, plays different roles in the vaudevillian set pieces of the show, his daughter Calico Cooper also toured with her father as a teenager.
Cooper and ballerina and choreographer Goddard fell in love on the Welcome To The Nightmare tour in 1975 when she was 18, and they married the following year.
“When we had kids, she had to go off the road for a while and when my daughter got to be 16, she joined the show before Sheryl came back after the kids got married,” he says of their juggling act.
“Backstage is fun, I’m putting on my make-up and she’s putting on her make-up and our conversations are about ‘Tonight, when you stab me, make sure you get me in this spot’ or “Turn your head a little to the left when I am strangling you and I’ll put my head back to the right because the lighting will be better’. It’s very funny.”
The proud grandparents reckon their five-year-old twin grandsons Falcon and Riot, the children of their son Dash who has his own band Co-op, will join the family business.
“They’ve already told me the name of their band is The Alligators,” Cooper says, chuckling.
“They watch the shows and then go back into their room and imitate all of us; they love being backstage and on the tour bus.”
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Cooper sees no end date on his performing or recording career, joking he and his Hollywood Vampires drinking buddies never thought they would make it past 30 as they drank each other under a table in the Rainbow Bar in the ‘70s.
He claims to be in such phenomenal shape he was able to continue with a show after tripping over and sustaining two busted ribs and cuts.
“At 71, anyone else would be in hospital for two days and I never missed a beat,” he says proudly.
“My wife always has the best line. She says with all the wars and the terrorists and the disasters and horror going on, what kind of world are we going to leave for Keith Richards?
“He’s still going to be here long after all of us have gone.”
Alice Cooper kicks off his Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back tour at the RAC Arena, Perth on February 8 and then plays Adelaide Entertainment Centre on February 12, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne on February 14, Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney on February 15 and Brisbane Entertainment Centre on February 18.
He will also appear at the sold-out Fire Fight Australia bushfire relief concert at the ANZ Stadium on February 16.
Originally published as Alice Cooper on why he would do anything for Australia ahead of tour and Fire Fight bushfire concert
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