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Of courseAlice Coopers Zoom profile picture is of a guillotine.
(The Detroit native legally changed his name from Vincent Damon Furnier to Alice Cooper in 1975.)
I created Alice to be my favorite rock star.
Bob Ezrin, who produced your new albumRoad, also produced your 1970s run of platinum releases.
Bob is the other half of Alice Cooper.
He was our George Martin.
When he came to the band, we had just done two albums with Zappa.
Zappa didnt really care if we had a hit.
He viewed us more as a freak act, whereas we wanted to be taken seriously.
They have a signature sound.
Thats what you dont have.
Were going to develop the Alice sound.
Thats whenLove It to Deathcame out.
Then you listen to that record and go, Ah, thats Alice Cooper.
Bob is the only one other than me that understands Alices personality, the character that I play.
We would sit there and do a vocal and look back and go, Alice would never say that.
Youve joked that your live shows get reviewed before your actual music does.
If there was an eight-hour rehearsal, seven hours were on the music.
We really wanted to be Americas Yardbirds.
We wanted to be that band that could play with Led Zeppelin.
Ive been listening to theKillerandSchools Outreissues, which were released earlier this year.
Im Eighteen was a hit because it was like nothing on the radio.
Im embarrassed that they even know were alive.
Its a humbling thing.
Even in emo, like My Chemical RomancesThe Black Parade.Teenagers is a great song.
I listened to that and said, How did I not write that?
That and Smells Like Teen Spirit.
When I heard that on the radio, I went, Dammit, I should have written that song.
Would you have changed anything about Smells Like Teen Spirit?No.
But I heard it and went, I get it.
Very hard to find bands that write good songs.
Its easy to write good parts.
But its hard to find goodsongs.
The last band I heard that I really flipped out over was the Strypes.Snapshot, that album.
Theres not one clunker on it.
You once said you werent a Vampire Weekend fan and wondered why new American bands were so wimpy.
Youre a rock band!
I have the same problem with baseball.
Why would you call your baseball team the Orioles?
Vampire Weekend is very good at what they do.
Vampire Weekend were onSaturday Night Live, and Im expecting vampires.
But they had enough nerve to have two keyboards, and theyre wearing Polo golf shirts.
Now that works if the golf shirts are stained in blood.
If theyre totally bloodied out and theyre singing these nice songs, then I get it.
That appeals to my sense of humor.
But when I saw what they did, I went, What a horrible waste of a great name.
They should have been Guys That Cut the Lawn.
I think they missed the joke.
Styx, even, though theyre a little more prog.
They have perfect records, but they have no danger.
Gene Simmons goes, Rock is dead.
And Im going, No, rock is where it should be.
We used to be at the top of the mountain.
Now young bands are on the outside looking in.
We werent invited to the party.
Hip-hop was, and so were all these girl acts that are now Vegas shows.
But dont call them rock.
Young bands are now outlaws.
Theyre not the favorite son anymore.
Thats a good place to be for young bands.
You want to be the kid that got thrown out of class.
Vampire Weekend and Tame Impala do something that I cant do, so Im not knocking them.
Im just saying dont put them in the same category as the Who or the Yardbirds.
Because I protect rock.
Rock should have an attitude.
Rock should have a standard, and some of these bands dont.
What standard?Theres a certain amount of sex involved with it.
When I hear these other songs, I go, … Yeah.
Oh, how lovely.
Again, Im not knocking it.
There are people that love that music.
My tour is very choreographed.
But when I play with the Vampires, I dont have to be Alice Cooper.
I could just be the lead singer.
Its fun to be in a bar band again.
Every females looking at Johnny Depp[laughs], which is totally understandable.
I mean, Johnnys a great guitar player.
Joe Perry, same thing.
Alice the character never talks to the audience.
Because that would make him human.
Youre never going to hear, Hey, how are you doing tonight?
Is everybody having a good time?
In this show, though, I talk about Keith Moon.
I talk about the Doors.
Because what were really doing is were honoring our dead drunk friends.
We do a lot of tributes.
We do a full tribute to Jeff Beck.
If you talk to Johnny about it, it was something that happened.
He was just like, Yeah, yeah, whats the next song?
Its because of the fame of both people.
Whos not gonna go see that?
Im going to see that!
To make it even better, make their lawyers Angie and Brad.
All you need is a really funny director, and thats gonna be a monster hit.
I never watched a moment of the trials.
It was so blown out of proportion.
It was such a Hollywood thing.
The most absurd person that you could ever want for president would be me.
Now that I see who the candidates are, its not so absurd.
You were an early pioneer of being a celebrity running for president.
How do you feel when you see other celebrities getting into politics?I hate politics.
Well, thats not fair.
People like their rock stars more than their politicians.
So theyre gonna vote for whoever the rock star tells them to.
I mean, thats the last person I would go to if I wanted any information about politics.
Rock stars should be worried about their next song, their next album, and the next show.
What Bono does, what Sting does, I dont look at that as being political.
I look at that as being humanitarian.
Thats a whole different thing.
Im all for that.
You come from a religious family, and youve talked about your faith in interviews.
The idea of Catholic guilt feels familiar in the works of artists like Bruce Springsteen or Martin Scorsese.
All my friends were from there.
The right-wing Christian world thought I was satanic.
It was based in dark comedy.
There was never anything anti-Christian in my show.
There were never any upside-down crosses.
There was nothing satanic.
When I became Christian, my pastor said, Look at where God put you.
And I said, What do you mean?
He says, Well, you were the Fonz.
You were the leader of the pack.
And now youre Christian.
Dont you think its a great place for you to be in rock and roll?
I went, Yeah, I do.
I take time out to read and pray every single morning.
I pray right before I go onstage.
Im in church every Sunday with my wife.
We have a Christian teen outreach.
But its not going to affect the show because there was never anything in the show that was anti-Christian.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
