January 30, 2008. Copyright 2008, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Hell-raising rock star Alice Cooper reaches 60
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, January 30, Graphic News:  These days he is just as likely to be found at his restaurant in downtown Phoenix, decapitating nothing more alarming than a langoustine. Or you might spot him enjoying a round of golf with Tiger Woods, on the pro-celebrity circuit. And you'll certainly see him in church, as the minister's son whose stage show once allied him more closely with Satan, now describes himself a walking miracle, brought back from life-threatening alcohol abuse to the faith of his forefathers.

But there's a whole generation out there, now parents themselves, for whom it is still impossible to stand at the school gate on the last day of the academic year, without humming that 1972 anthem, School's Out. For them, and millions more fans worldwide, Alice Cooper will forever be the first truly scary rocker, infamous for live acts involving execution equipment, sporting grunge make-up -- long before grunge was invented -- and making a fashion statement with a pet boa constrictor.

Among his fans over the decades, Cooper can count the late Groucho Marx and the Spanish-born surrealist painter, Salvador Dali. Both hint at the unique nature of Cooper's brand of entertainment. Even the band's name, Alice Cooper -- which Detroit-born Vincent Furnier later took as his own -- was designed to shake the Californian audiences upon which they launched themselves. In the early seventies scene of hippy groups, wearing denim and pedalling peace, their breakthrough album, Love It To Death, heralded the arrival of shock rock. Or, as Cooper himself has put it: "Everybody at that point was Peter Pan. And I wanted to be Captain Hook".

Success was due in part to early support from Frank Zappa and continued via numerous collaborations with producer Bob Ezrin. The summer of 1972 saw School's Out top the charts in the UK and reach the top ten in the U.S. The following year came the band's most successful album, Billion Dollar Babies. These were the heydays for the five-strong Alice Cooper band. The line-up had changed since high school days, when they had hung a trademark web at the back of the stage and called themselves the Spiders, but the mission to outrage was as strong as ever. Politicians called for them to be banned, which only fuelled their following, notably in 1973, when a tour of the United States set a new record in ticket sales.

By the mid seventies, the group had disintegrated as its members went in search of solo careers. Cooper broke new ground in 1975 with Welcome To My Nightmare, a stageshow that also became a TV event starring horror movie star Vincent Price. The album contains the uncharacteristically tender ballad, Only Women Bleed, made a hit three years later by Julie Covington. Undisputedly a great showman, Cooper can date his troubles with alcohol from this period, citing the pressure of gruelling nightly performances in his macabre persona. His marriage to dancer Sheryl Goddard almost foundered as a result, but the pair reunited after Cooper's treatment for alcoholism, an experience reflected upon in his 1978 album, From the Inside. The couple have three children.

Cooper's status nowadays as a cult figure can be seen in his hugely popular radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper, broadcast from his home, which airs on stations from Australia to Ireland. He has written film themes, sung the role of Herod in a London cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, and appeared as himself in the hit movie Wayne's World, thereby lodging another legendary line in the collective memory as Wayne and Garth hail their hero with the words: "We're not worthy". Cooper continues to perform live, says he has no plans to "mellow", and is planning to release his album "Along Came A Spider", later this year.
/ENDS