THE RETURN OF ALICE COOPER
Veteran shock-rocker Alice Cooper has had a legendary career with plenty of accolades, but even he admits to being surprised at having a No. 1 album with his latest release, Detroit Stories. “If someone had told me 50 years ago that in 2021 at 73 this would be happening to me, I would have said, ‘What, are you kidding, like reading fairy tales or something?’ but I’m still rockin’ and rollin,’ and it’s all been a very strange trip.”
Born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948, in Detroit, Michigan, the son of an Evangelist preacher, his onstage theatrics have included having his “Alice” character “guillotined,” “hung,” “electrocuted,” “tortured,” surrounded at times by lots of decapitated dolls and fake blood, plus actually being wrapped around by a real boa constrictor. However, all of these over-the-top histrionics tends to overshadow the fact that Cooper, besides being a highly entertaining performer, is actually also a great rock singer.
His original late-’60s band adopted the androgynous-sounding Alice Cooper moniker after discovering that Nazz was already used by Todd Rundgren’s group. The original group, which included lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bass player Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
In 1968, the band’s manager Shep Gordon arranged an audition with famed music impresario Frank Zappa, who was impressed enough to sign them to a three-album deal for his Straight Records label. While those three albums failed to attract national recognition, the group’s popularity grew quickly after being signed by the much larger Warner Bros. conglomerate. They soon struck gold with their first Top 10 hit, “School’s Out,” and most successful album, . However, by 1975, with the release of , the band was no more. In a savvy move to avoid possible future legal problems that now plague so many classic rock bands fighting over name ownership, Furnier not only took possession of the group’s name, he also legally had his birth name changed to Alice Cooper, for a new solo career.
