Alice Cooper - avid golfer, Christian and recovering alcoholic - has no problem defining his place in rock's history books.
"There was no David Bowie before Alice Cooper," the pioneering shock-rocker said. "Well, there was a David Bowie, but there was no Ziggy Stardust. There was an Elton John, but there wasn't the Elton John who became Liberace. All these guys came to our shows and were inspired to do something theatrical."
Many rock fans tend to downplay Cooper's significance. Young fans who grew up watching bands use massive props, pyrotechnics, makeup, video screens, short films and performance art as routine parts of their shows have no idea Cooper and his band were among the first to make a rock concert a theatrical event. And older fans have, generally speaking, moved on.
The 58-year-old Cooper hasn't, though; he is in the midst of his fourth globe-trotting tour in four years - stopping in Utah Saturday - and it doesn't sound as if he's mellowed at all, at least onstage. The man born Vincent Furnier might spend every waking moment offstage working on his golf game and his Phoenix-based Christian nonprofit group the Solid Rock Foundation, but onstage he's still no Mr. Nice Guy.
"When we get up there, well, if you're in the first 10 rows, don't wear your good clothes because when Alice's head comes off, it's going to spray," Cooper said.
Aside from writing songs for the occasional new album, such as last year's "Dirty Diamonds," Cooper might get the most satisfaction creating new stage gimmicks to shock and amaze his longtime fans.
"You're sitting there backstage and you're going, 'We have this song, "I Wish I Was Born in Beverly Hills," ' " Cooper said. "Wouldn't it be great if Paris Hilton came onstage and she had her little dog and the dog grabs her throat, and she can't pull the dog off? And then the paparazzi, instead of helping her, is just taking pictures of her. And she's squirming on the floor and blood's going everywhere. That would be hysterical! Tell me what audience wouldn't love that!"
Cooper admits that not every idea is as golden as the classic bits where he is guillotined onstage or strapped to an electric chair. He recalls one tour when a cannon would shoot him across the stage, and although the cannon worked just fine, the audience didn't give "any reaction at all." Cooper was able to sell the cannon to the Rolling Stones for one of their tours, but he hasn't always been so lucky.
"I can't tell you how many times I've spent thousands of dollars on a prop," Cooper said. "We had this one thing called 'The Crusher,' and it was this huge mechanical machine thing that Alice is in the middle of. And at one point it's like a vise and goes 'Wham!' and crushes it all together. Of course, inside it's foam rubber. But the spikes really do look real and there's blood squirting out all over. And it just didn't work. I'd be in there and it would happen, and no reaction.
"But if you walk out onstage and trip over a garbage can at the right time, the audience will go crazy."
Cooper is smart enough to work those accidents into his show. Rarely is there an unplanned moment in a Cooper show. He studiously plots the set list so the theatrical set pieces work together properly, and incorporates new songs carefully alongside classics such as "Welcome to My Nightmare," "School's Out" and "Billion Dollar Babies."
"I keep the show so kinetic that you really don't want to look away from the stage because every single song has a theatrical bit to it," Cooper said. "I don't care if it's Alice with a sword, or Alice on a crutch, whatever. Every single song has its own personality, and some songs are much more elaborate, an entire piece of music with an entire piece of theater."
If Broadway can turn Abba's bland Euro-disco into a hit musical, just think about what a stage natural like Cooper could do.
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Super Cooper
