The ‘Godfather of Shock Rock’ returns to his home state to play Kalamazoo’s Wings Event Center Nov. 7. Writer Bill Forman interviews the rocker whose band once stood out as ‘the freaks of the freaks.’
‘Never Phone It In’: Alice Cooper keeps touring and has released a new album with his original band. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene
Alice Cooper has more than earned his reputation as the “Godfather of Shock Rock.”
From his half-century of onstage decapitations to last year’s unexpected reunion album with his original band, Cooper has stood the test of time. Along the way, he’s also inspired a dark parade of outrageous acts that include Kiss, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Slipknot and Gwar.
The Detroit native’s own ghoulish tendencies are built on a hallowed tradition of macabre rock spectacle.
There was, for instance, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, who rose from a coffin to sing “I Put a Spell on You.” Screaming Lord Sutch adopted a Jack the Ripper persona and showered audiences with “internal organs.”
And not to be outdone, Arthur Brown, aka the God of Hellfire, donned a flaming helmet that once set his hair on fire and was put out by a bystander pouring a pint of beer on him.
Demanding the Best Live Show: Alice Cooper on stage at Pine Knob Music Theatre in 2024. (Photo/Michael Mastre)
For his live shows, Cooper’s personal arsenal of props has included a choice of guillotine, electric chair, or gallows for his nightly “execution,” as well as live boa constrictors, fake blood, and dismembered baby dolls. Expect to see all of that and more on his current “Alice’s Attic” tour, which stops back in his home state on Nov. 7 with a concert at Wings Event Center in Kalamzoo.
Tickets, $60.75-$145.25, for the 8 p.m. show are available online here.
Cooper hasn’t stopped recording either. Released last year, he released “The Revenge of Alice Cooper,” subtitled “The Return Album The World Was Afraid Of,” which is his first album in 50 years to feature his original band.
The critical response has been favorable. “Mojo” describes the album as “a bold attempt to re-capture what the intervening years have depleted or erased.”
In addition to the three surviving members of the original band — Dennis Dunaway (bass), Neal Smith (drums) and Michael Bruce (guitar) — the album reunites the band with the legendary Bob Ezrin, who produced pop-savvy Cooper anthems like “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s Out,” “Elected,” “No More Mister Nice Guy,” and “Billion Dollar Babies.”
“It was exactly like it was, it had not changed one bit,” said Cooper of the sessions in a recent interview. “We got in the studio, we wrote the same way, we played the same way, and we accidentally made a 1975 album.”
The one band member who wasn’t present in the studio was guitarist Glen Buxton, who passed away back in 1997.
“We knew we couldn’t do it without him,” said Cooper, “so we found an old tape with him on it and isolated the guitar part. Then we wrote a song around that guitar riff, so he could be on the album.”
A STORIED PAST, SIGNING WITH FRANK ZAPPA, ACHIEVING COMMERCIAL SUCCESS
To celebrate the album, the band played a one-off reunion show to a sold-out crowd of 12,000 fans at London’s massive O2 Arena.
It was a powerful evening, not just for the fans, but for the musicians who started playing together in Phoenix after Cooper, aka Vincent Damon Furnier, moved from Michigan to Arizona at age 13.
“We went to high school together,” Cooper said. “We ran track and cross country together. We did everything together. Then the Beatles came out and we all looked at each other and went ‘Let’s put a band together’ just so we could play parties and meet chicks. That was the whole idea. And then we got good.”
Alice Cooper, aka Vincent Damon Furnier (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
Good enough, in fact, for Frank Zappa to sign them to his appropriately named Bizarre Records label, which was home to the manic Wild Man Fischer, the unhinged GTO’s and yes, God of Hellfire Arthur Brown.
“We were all sort of the freaks of the freaks, which is what Frank Zappa wanted on his label,” recalled Cooper. “But what he DIDN’T realize was that we were not just going to be a novelty act. We wanted to be the next Yardbirds, as far as we were concerned.”
Seeking a more receptive Midwest audience for its “shock rock,” the band relocated to Pontiac, Michigan, in the early 1970s when it recorded its first commercially successful album with Ezrin: “Love It To Death,” recorded at a Chicago studio.
Since then, Cooper has thrived and survived in an industry that has chewed up and spit out a lot of his peers. Part of that is a product of his work ethic and high standards.
“I try to make every single show the best show I’ve ever done,” he said. “And the same thing with the albums. Never phone it in. I tell young bands this all the time. People will come back if you give them a great show, and you perform great, and you sing great, and your band is great, and the album is great.
“If you can keep doing that over and over and over – like the Stones, like Paul McCartney, like Rod Stewart, like Aerosmith – people will let you go on forever.”
All of which is hard to do.
“It is hard to do,” Alice said. “But if that’s what you love doing, you’re going to do it well.” – By Bill Forman, Last Word Features
VIDEO: Alice Cooper, “No More Mr. Nice Guy” (Live)
Copyright 2026, Spins on Music LLC
