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Forbes
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Alice Cooper: ‘Jimi Hendrix Passed Me My First Joint', Golf And More
Alice Cooper during the Celebrity Pro-Am at the Kraft Nabisco Championships at The Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California on Wednesday, March 29, 2006. (Photo by S. Levin/Getty Images) In the first two parts of our exclusive interview series with classic rocker Alice Cooper, we covered his infamous "chicken" incident, his associations with Kiss, David Bowie and Elton John, the first time he heard one of his songs on the radio, his radio show, "Alice's Attic" and its affiliation with KLOS-FM and Superadio, his 1973 appearance on the cover of Forbes, and why he still tours at age 77. Here, in Part 3 we discuss the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, his addiction to golf and alcohol, and his faith in Jesus Christ. Following are edited excerpts from a longer phone conversation. Jim Clash: I know you're an active golfer. It seems so unlike the energy you put into live stage performances as Alice? Alice Cooper: Golf is an escape from rock-and-roll. When we're on tour, my guitar players and - I'm a longtime Callaway spokesperson - set up golf outings every day for whatever city we're in. We get up in the morning, play nine holes, then look forward to the show that night. Golf is a whole other addiction. I got rid of my bad addictions for a good one, what golf is. Jim Clash: One of those bad addictions was alcohol. Did accepting Jesus Christ help with that? Alice Cooper: I saw what I was missing. The music is not as fulfilling as you might think. I had the greatest wife in the world, the greatest band, the greatest success, but not the most important thing, Jesus Christ. He was not in my life. It was a miracle that when I went into the hospital, I came out and never had another drink, not even the desire. It's been 42 years now. The doctor even said that it was a major miracle. Clash: When did you know you had an alcohol problem? Cooper: I was the classic, somebody that uses alcohol as medicine. I'd go out and have three or four drinks, and do it every night because I needed them, not because I wanted them. "Oh, I've got two interviews, I'd better have a drink." Pretty soon, you drift into alcoholism. You don't realize it until it's too late. I never got drunk, but I always had a drink in my hand, that golden Dean Martin buzz. It didn't look like I had a problem. I never missed a show. If I were acting, I knew all of my lines. But my guts were saying, "Hey, we're dying in here." One morning I got up and threw up blood. Time to go to the hospital. Clash: Did the alcohol help you onstage? Cooper: I had a great psychiatrist. He asked me how much I drank on stage. And I answered, 'I never drink on stage." He then asked how much I drank when I was filming or recording. I told him I never drank then. 'So,' he says, "Alice isn't the problem, you are." I didn't even realize that. It was me the other 22 hours when I wasn't Alice. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 05: Alice Cooper poses in the press room during the 37th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Microsoft Theater on November 05, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) A light came on. Now, like every other kid, we smoked grass in the band when we were young. In fact, Jimi Hendrix was the first to pass a joint to me [laughs]. The [real] drugs never were a problem, but the alcohol, which actually is a drug, was legal. I didn't want to go to jail for a drug, so I drank. Clash: Your induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2011 - what did that mean to you, if anything? Cooper: Everybody who is not in the Hall Of Fame says, "I don't care. Even if I get in, I'm not going to go." But getting in - it's the greatest thing ever. We got in when it was valid hard rock, when the bands really deserved it. I'm not saying that anyone who has gotten in recently doesn't belong. I just think they're spreading rock-and-roll pretty thin. Some bands in there now, I'm wondering whether they can put them in the same category as The Who. Burt Bacharach isn't in - he wrote as many hits as The Beatles. And Iron Maiden isn't, either. When we got in, we were a garage band from Detroit that happened to be in the right place at the right time. You're in the audience [at the induction] with Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck and Mick Jagger all cheering, and you think, "If we belong, we're in the lower level' [laughs]. I fully expected an envelope and a secret handshake [with a piece of paper] that says, "Who shot Kennedy - UFOs, are they real?" But all it is, really, is recognition, and not necessarily for how many records you sold. It's more like, 'What did you bring to the table that was historic and changed everything?" That was something we did.
Forbes
05-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
More Alice Cooper: Horror Movies, Kiss, Keith Richards, David Bowie
American Rock musician Alice Cooper (born Vincent Furnier) performs onstage at the University of Michigan's Crisler Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan, December 12, 1973. (Photo by) In Part 1 of our exclusive interview series with theatric classic rocker Alice Cooper, we covered the infamous "chicken" incident and its repercussions, his reaction when he first heard one of his songs on the radio, his 'Alice's Attic' radio show and its recent addition of KLOS-FM in Los Angeles syndicated via Superadio, and his appearance on the cover of Forbes magazine in 1973. Following are more excerpts from a vastly entertaining phone conversation. Jim Clash: When you first started out, did you consciously invent your over-the- top theatric image as a marketing tool, or was it just inherent in what you did? Alice Cooper: It was what we did, and really we had no idea. We just knew we liked it, and it worked. We had a strange sense of humor, a dark one. When I was a kid, I enjoyed horror movies. I saw all of them. I might have been the only one laughing, but a horror movie really is a comedy. Some aren't, though. "The Exorcist* was not a comedy. It's about your soul, not your intellect, and that's what made it scary. That could happen. You can write off Michael Myers in 'Halloween,' 'Friday The Thirteenth' and 'The Boogeyman.' So the silliness of horror movies just came into our music. All of the band was from that era. We wanted to be The Yardbirds, but the theatric urges just flowed through us. We couldn't help it, to be honest [laughs]. But now I don't think you see Alice in that sense. There are so many things out there that are dark. When you come to an Alice show, you're coming to a real good Halloween party. The songs are still there, all of the hits. And I've got the best band I've ever worked with, too: Nita Strauss, Glen Sobel. People walk way - and I love this - talking more about the music and less about theatrics. L - R: Musicians Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, Ace Frehley, and Gene Simmons of American rock band Kiss attend the 38th Annual Grammy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, 28th February 1996. (Photo by) Clash: You all were doing theatrics and wearing makeup way before the likes of David Bowie and Kiss, correct? Cooper: Bowie used to come to our shows when he was a mime artist. He told his band that [what we did] is what they had to do. He even mentioned it in one of his interviews. As for Kiss, we told them where to buy their makeup [laughs]. We were the band that broke down the barriers that you could be theatrical and have hit records. Kiss did that very well, too. They blueprinted us. They were the four comic book characters. Bowie was the space guy. Alice Cooper was the phantom of the opera. Elton John was sort of a Liberace, only better. Everybody found a theatrical character to go to, and I never felt threatened by any of them because we were all doing different things. Clash: Given all of your stage antics, can you give me a funny story from touring when that backfired, if you will? Cooper: When I saw "Spinal Tap," I thought for sure it was just about us. Because when you're using the props we were, and all of the special effects, you know it can go wrong. We decided we were going to shoot Alice out of a cannon in Three Rivers Stadium in front of like, 50,000 people. So we bought this giant cannon. The trick was to put me in it, then I secretly get out. There was just a dummy in there to shoot across the stage. The cannon went "boom," and the dummy comes out - but only halfway - and then flops over. What do you do at that point? You just go, 'Okay, that didn't work" [laughs]. The next day we sold the cannon to the Rolling Stones. NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 19: (Exclusive Coverage) Keith Richards performs during The Rolling Stones surprise set in celebration of their new album 'Hackney Diamonds' at Racket NYC on October 19, 2023 in New York City. (Photo byfor RS) Clash: You're 77 now, and still touring. Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane once told me that a person over 50 should not be singing rock-and-roll songs. Your reaction? Cooper: We're called lifers, those who will do what they do until they can't. My wife has the greatest line about Keith Richards: "With all of the wars, with all of the disease, with all the death on this planet, what kind of world are we going to leave Keith?" Because he'll be the only thing left - him and Twinkies and maybe cock roaches [laughs].
