Vincent Furnier (better known as Alice Cooper) is one of rock’s truest survivors; with a list of hits as long as your arm and a live show that will drop your jaw even after all this time.
At 67, Cooper keeps busy with not only his usual suspects – golf, touring, his long-time radio show 'Nights With Alice Cooper' – but with new, interesting projects to keep him on his toes. The latest is a new album, his first in four years, in which he enlists some living friends to help pay tribute to the dead. “I got to be friends with Johnny Depp,” begins Cooper who nonchalantly delivers what would be an incredibly exciting sentence for most.
“We did a film together called 'Dark Shadows' and really hit it off. Johnny is a great guitar player, and every once in awhile if he was in town we’d get him up to play with us. One night, we got talking about all of my dead, drunk friends; and, somehow, it managed to turn into the idea of a covers album where I glorified and paid tribute to all of them.”
Set for release within the year, the album is to be released under the name 'The Hollywood Vampires', which was the name of the drinking club Cooper assembled during his wilder years. “There are songs on there by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, The Who, Harry Nilsson, T-Rex... all of these people that I’d been friends with and that I loved,” he says.
“Johnny ended up playing on every track, and Joe Perry ended up joining in too. We had so many friends and all of these different people come in and track with us... even Paul McCartney came in one night!”
At the same time as he prepares a new album, Cooper is also looking back at the 40-year anniversary of the monumental 'Welcome To My Nightmare' LP. The album officially marked the end of Alice Cooper the band, as well as the beginning of Alice Cooper the solo artist.
The name may have stayed the same, but the circumstances surrounding it would never be the same from thereon. “It was really the epitome of what I was trying to achieve with the original band,” Cooper says in reflection on the album and subsequent tour.
“Each album was more and more theatrical; the shows kept getting bigger and bigger. It reached a breaking point – I mean, we were exhausted. We’d been touring for six years straight at that stage, and there I was pitching a two-year tour where we just kept going and going. I took every penny I had and I put it into this production, this show, called 'Welcome To My Nightmare'. It was a total roll of the dice. I knew it was either going to be brilliant or idiotic. Luckily, it was a hit.”
When Cooper and his band return to Australia in May, it will – for the first time ever – not be as a headlining act. Instead, he will be joining hair-metal heroes Mötley Crüe as their opener. It’s how Cooper has toured for nearly a year, and will stay with the band until their final-ever show on New Year’s Eve.
Although it came across as an odd pairing to many, Cooper insists their union is one that makes perfect sense; allowing things to come full circle for the Crüe as they reach the end. “Production at rock shows had gotten so big in the '70s, you definitely noticed when all the big bands in the '80s were incorporating it – Bon Jovi, Guns ‘n Roses, Mötley Crüe, bands like that,” Cooper says.
“I looked at that as being quite a compliment, but in a way I viewed it as competition. ‘These kids are great,’ I thought, ‘but I’m still here. I still want to blow them off the stage.’ All these years later, the Mötley guys called me up and told me about their tour – not a farewell, a final-ever tour. They said I was a huge inspiration to everything about the band... they wanted me to help send them out in style.
“I said yes immediately – it’s a great package. My band are bringing it every night, Mötley are bringing it every night... the audience is really the one that benefits the most from a tour like this.”
Of course, this is far from Cooper’s first, proverbial rodeo when it comes to touring Australia. He notes it’s always been a place that he and the rest of the band and crew look forward to perhaps the most out of anywhere when plotting out world tours – even if his first time here proved to be a hilariously humble, learning experience. “I was staying at a hotel in Sydney, and I woke up after some major jetlag,” Cooper says.
“I looked out of my window, onto my balcony, and there were all these people all the way down there. I could hear this...” Cooper then assumes the character of the collective, starting up a muffled chant. “AHH-RFF! AHH-RFF!
“I thought that they were all chanting ‘A-lice! A-lice! A-lice!’ So there I am, waving at them like crazy... until I realised the chant was ‘AB-BA! AB-BA! AB-BA!’ They were staying at the same hotel, one floor up from me. I looked up and waved at them. ‘Oh! They’re chanting for you guys!’”
Mötley Crüe & Alice Cooper Tour Dates
Sun 12 May - Rob Laver Arena (Melbourne)Mon 13 May - Rob Laver Arena (Melbourne)
Thu 16 May - Allphones Arena (Sydney)
Sun 19 May - Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Tue 21 May - Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Thu 23 May - Perth Arena
