Alice Cooper: Still rockin' and shockin' on stage at 70, but at home, he's grandpa

Mike Nunez
For FLORIDA TODAY

With a theatrical brand of hard rock designed to shock, Alice Cooper has been entertaining audiences since the early 1960’s. Born Vincent Damon Furnier in 1948, Cooper’s raspy voice and over-the-top stage performance that blends elements of horror movies, vaudeville and garage rock quickly made him a household name.

On Tuesday, March 20, Cooper brings that unforgettable stage show to the King Center in Melbourne.

I spoke with Cooper about changes in the music business, his persona and rumors he has read about himself. So let’s Shake, Rattle & Know: Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper is the godfather of shock rock.

QUESTION: How different is the offstage Alice Cooper from the guy we see on stage?

ANSWER: They are absolutely different, in fact, there is no middle ground there. At home, I am dad, I am grandpa. I run a Christian youth organizations in Phoenix, where youth can come learn rock 'n' roll. They can learn guitar, bass, drums or whatever they want for free. That takes a lot of my time. I am about as far from the Alice Cooper you see on stage as could be. I have been doing this long enough that people know Alice Cooper is a character I play, and I have learned how to separate or divorce the two (personal and professional) lives. When I leave the stage, I leave that Alice Cooper there. You have to in order to lead a healthy life. Guys like Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison were great musicians, but they were the same person on and off the stage and you just can’t go like that all the time. When you live that lifestyle off the stage you have to find something to fuel that, so people turn to drugs and alcohol. I knew early on, I need to separate the two.

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Q: I am sure in your 50-plus years in the music business you have seen some outrageous things written about you. What’s the most ridiculous thing people have said?

A: There have been so many over the years. Before the Internet, there was a lot of urban legend things going around. I guess the most known is the chicken incident in Toronto, Canada. Everyone said I killed a chicken. I didn’t kill it. There was a chicken, and I gave it to an audience member thinking they would take it home and keep it as a pet, but the audience started to maul the chicken and throw its carcass up on the stage. I didn’t know that would happen. I love animals — that’s the last thing I would have done. The SPCA still shows up at just about every show I do to see if anything like that will happen again. I guess a lot of artists have these crazy stories that have somehow grown legs, and people have accepted as truth, just like Ozzy Osbourne and a bat. That incident did do a lot for the mystique of Alice Cooper even though it didn’t happen. It made him the villain I wanted him to be.

I also have read before that Captain Kangaroo was my father. Another popular one was that I am actually the guy who played Eddie Haskell in "Leave it to Beaver." I don’t even know how that one got started or why people would believe it. I don’t have red hair or freckles, but that was a popular one for a long time. It’s amazing how audiences invent these things and that people believe them.

Q: How different is the music business today than when you first started?

A: Everything has changed including how music is recorded. When we went into the studio to record the newest album "Paranormal," we practiced, we rehearsed and we had excellent musicians like Larry Mullin Jr. (U2) recording with us on drums. I didn’t want to layer tracks. I wanted to go in and play live in the studio and try and capture that sound. Not only were we doing that, but we were playing on 1961 Telecasters and on old amps to get that rich sound. I’m also happy to see vinyl making a comeback in the business. Vinyl just has a different sound and people feel like when they buy that album they have an actual piece of you as an artist. It is so impersonal when you download a track and that’s all you get.

I do think that the bands of the 1960s and 1970s were real bands. They were the real deal. They practiced hard, they carried their own equipment and they played four-hour gigs if that’s what it called for. I think bands back then were closer to the Beatles era so they strived harder to be like them and write great songs. The musicianship was just better back then. There are a few great bands like Foo Fighters and Green Day that bring it every single time, every single night. There aren’t many good musicians that work as hard as bands used to back in the '60s and '70s.

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Q: What motivates you to continue to perform?

A: I never outgrew my love for a great Pete Townshend power cord. I surround myself with musicians like that. I still love music. If you broke down Alice Cooper, you would find that I am about 90 percent Detroit rock with the rest being horror movies and theater. I am a mixture of a lot of things. I am hard rock and every once in a while, a movie theme might show up.

Q: Few bands have had the lasting power than an artist such as yourself. What do you think today’s music and musicians are missing?

A: Attitude. Bands are content with just fitting in. I see bands made up of guys who are ages 18 to 25 and all they want to do is fit in or sound like someone else. No one is trying to be a star. You can’t be happy with blending in, you have to want to stand apart. You have to take the stage with swagger, maybe even some arrogance. You have to have confidence. People take the stage with a, “I hope you like this” attitude. Alice Cooper will just grab a microphone and say, “You are mine for the next two hours.” Artists like Lady Gaga does it right. She gets it. As I mentioned, the Foo Fighters are a real throwback, and they get it. Bands need to take the stage with a “Look at Me!” approach. Motley Crue and Guns N Roses used to be that way. They were showoffs and knew what rock should be.

Q: What is the best advice anyone ever gave you on your way up in the music business?

A: I don’t know if it was advice, but it was something I learned. Never let an audience see you before the show. Don’t let them see you tuning your instruments or getting ready. When you take the stage, you want to do it with a certain amount of mystery. You want them to think that maybe you don’t put your pants on like everyone else. Make it a mystery and don’t kill the glamour.

Q: When people meet you in person, are they surprised at how down to earth you are and how different you are from the onstage Alice Cooper?

A: I think that makes me more interesting to people. A lot of people who are portrayed as villains are actually wonderful human beings. Vincent Price used to scare people, but he couldn’t have been a nicer person. I found in my lifetime some of the biggest stars I ever met were also some of the nicest people. Elvis, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, and Fred Astaire were all so nice. It is usually guys in the middle or on the way up who feel like they have something to prove that have an ego problem. The bigger stars have nothing to prove. If anyone approaches me for a photo or an autograph I will gladly oblige. It’s not until people stop wanting your autograph or photo that you need to worry.

Q: You are coming to Florida, so I have to ask you, how’s the golf game?

A: You know what? I turned 70 on Feb. 4, and I announced at my party that I wanted to shoot better than my age at least once in my life. The very next day I went out and shot a 69, which was 4 under par. It was just one of those days where everything went well and the ball was really finding the hole. I can mark that off my bucket list now.

Q: If you had to use one word to describe yourself, what would it be and why?

A: Follower. I know in some ways I am a leader, but I am a follower of Christ. I play a part on stage. Some people may be firefighters or poets or whatever; I just happen to be a rock star. Jesus said, “follow me,” and that is my lifestyle. I follow Jesus. I know what I do on stage may not seem to portray that but that is art, that is theater. My lyrics don’t glorify Satan at all. In fact, if I get an opportunity to denounce him in a song where it makes sense, I will.

If you have an artist/band you’d like to recommend for review, contact Nunez at srkmusic@cfl.rr.com or follow Mike on Twitter: @srkmusicflorida

Alice Cooper performs along with his touring band at Alice Cooper's Christmas Pudding Fundraiser concert at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Saturday, December 9, 2017.

The details

Who: Alice Cooper

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 20

Where: King Center, 3865 N. Wickham Road, Melbourne

Cost: Tickets are $49.50-$84.50.

Info: Call 321-242-2219 or visit kingcenter.com. For more on Cooper, visit  alicecooper.com or Tweet him at @alicecooper