The Beast of Alice Cooper

Early life

Vincent Damon Furnier was born on February 4, 1948, in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Ether Moroni Furnier (1924–1987) and his wife Ella Mae (née McCart; 1925–2022). He was named after his uncle, Vincent Collier Furnier, and the short-story writer Damon Runyon. His father was an evangelist in The Church of Jesus Christ, and his paternal grandfather Thurman Sylvester Furnier was a leader and later president (1963–1965) of that church organization.

The Furnier family resided in East Detroit on Lincoln Avenue near Kelly Road, a few blocks from Eastland Mall. Cooper attended Kantner Elementary School, recalled watching horror movies at the Eastown Theatre (where he would later perform), and local neighborhood trick-or-treating on Halloween, the "biggest night of the year", which he took "very seriously". Cooper was active in his church at ages 11 to 12. Following a series of childhood illnesses, he moved with his family to Phoenix, Arizona, where he attended Cortez High School.

Career

1960s

In 1964, 16-year-old Furnier was eager to participate in Cortez High School's annual Letterman's talent show, so he gathered four fellow cross country teammates to form a group for the show: Glen Buxton, Dennis Dunaway, John Tatum, and John Speer. They named themselves the Earwigs. They dressed up in costumes and wigs to resemble the Beatles and performed several parodies of Beatles songs, with the lyrics modified to refer to the track team: in their rendition of "Please Please Me", for example, the line "Last night I said these words to my girl" was replaced with "Last night I ran four laps for my coach". Of the group, only Buxton knew how to play an instrument—the guitar—so Buxton played guitar while the rest mimed on their instruments. The group got an overwhelming response from the audience and won the talent show. As a result of their positive experience, the group decided to try to turn into a real band. They acquired musical instruments from a local pawn shop and learned to play them, with Buxton doing most of the teaching and much of the early songwriting. They soon renamed themselves the Spiders, featuring Furnier on lead vocals, Buxton on lead guitar, Tatum on rhythm guitar, Dunaway on bass guitar, and Speer on drums.

In 1966, the Spiders graduated from Cortez High School and, after North High School football player Michael Bruce replaced John Tatum on rhythm guitar, the band released their second single, "Don't Blow Your Mind", an original composition which became a local No. 1 hit, backed by "No Price Tag".

By 1967, the band had begun to make regular road trips to Los Angeles to play shows. They soon renamed themselves Nazz and released the single "Wonder Who's Lovin' Her Now", backed with future Alice Cooper track "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye". Around this time, drummer John Speer was replaced by Neal Smith. By the end of the year, the band relocated to Los Angeles.

In 1968, the band learned that Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz, which was signed to a major label, and found themselves in need of another name. Furnier also believed that the group needed a gimmick to succeed, and that other bands were not exploiting the showmanship potential of the stage. They chose the name "Alice Cooper" largely because it sounded innocuous and wholesome, in humorous contrast to the band's image and music. In his 2007 book Alice Cooper, Golf Monster, Cooper stated that his look was inspired in part by films. One of the band's all-time favorite movies was What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) starring Bette Davis: "In the movie, Bette wears disgusting caked makeup smeared on her face and underneath her eyes, with deep, dark, black eyeliner." Another movie the band watched over and over was Barbarella (1968): "When I saw Anita Pallenberg playing the Great Tyrant in that movie in 1968, wearing long black leather gloves with switchblades coming out of them, I thought, 'That's what Alice should look like.' That, and a little bit of Emma Peel from The Avengers."

1970–1974

Despite the publicity from the chicken incident, the band's second studio album, Easy Action, produced by David Briggs and released in June 1970, fared even worse than its predecessor, entirely failing to chart within the Billboard Top 200. Around this time, fed up with Californians' indifference to their act, they relocated to Pontiac, Michigan, where their bizarre stage act was much better received by Midwestern crowds accustomed to the proto-punk styles of local bands such as the Stooges and the MC5. Despite this, Cooper still managed to receive a cream pie in the face when performing at the Cincinnati Pop Festival. Michigan remained their steady home base until 1972. "L.A. just didn't get it," Cooper stated. "They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else."

Alice Cooper appeared at the Woodstock-esque Strawberry Fields Festival near Toronto, Ontario, in August 1970. The band's mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out in stark contrast to the bearded, denim-clad hippie bands of the time. As Cooper himself stated: "We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love. We wanted to see what was next. It turned out we were next, and we drove a stake through the heart of the Love Generation".

In autumn 1970, the Alice Cooper group teamed with producer Bob Ezrin for the recording of their third studio album, Love It to Death. This was the final album in their Straight Records contract and the band's last chance to create a hit. That first success came with the single "I'm Eighteen", released in November 1970, which reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1971. Not long after the album's release in January 1971, Warner Bros. Records purchased Alice Cooper's contract from Straight and re-issued the album, giving the group a higher level of promotion.

Love It to Death proved to be their breakthrough studio album, reaching number 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album charts. It was the first of 11 Alice Cooper group and solo albums produced by Ezrin, who is widely seen as being pivotal in helping to create and develop the band's definitive sound.

The group's 1971 tour featured a stage show involving mock fights and gothic torture modes being imposed on Cooper, climaxing in a staged execution by electric chair, with the band sporting tight, sequined, color-contrasting glam rock-style costumes made by prominent rock-fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (sister of band member Neal Smith, and wife of band member Dennis Dunaway). Cooper's androgynous stage role had developed to present a villainous side, portraying a potential threat to modern society. The success of the band's single and album, and their tour of 1971, which included their first tour of Europe (audience members reportedly included Elton John and a pre-Ziggy Stardust David Bowie), provided enough encouragement for Warner Bros. to offer the band a new multi-album contract.

1975–1979

In 1975, Alice Cooper returned as a solo artist with the release of Welcome to My Nightmare. To avoid legal complications over ownership of the group name, "Alice Cooper" had by then become Furnier's new legal name. Speaking on the subject of Alice Cooper continuing as a solo project as opposed to the band it once was, Cooper stated in 1975, "It got very basically down to the fact that we had drawn as much as we could out of each other. After ten years, we got pretty dry together." Manager Gordon added, "What had started in a sense as a pipe-dream became an overwhelming burden." The success of Welcome to My Nightmare marked the final breakup of the original members of the band, with Cooper collaborating with their producer Bob Ezrin, who recruited Lou Reed's backing band, including guitarists Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, to play on the album. Spearheaded by the US Top 20 hit ballad "Only Women Bleed", the album was released by Atlantic Records in March of that year and became a Top 10 hit for Cooper. It was a concept album that was based on the nightmare of a child named Steven, featuring narration by classic horror movie film star Vincent Price, and serving as the soundtrack to Cooper's new stage show, which now showcased more theatrics than ever, including an 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) furry Cyclops which Cooper decapitated and killed.

Accompanying the album and stage show was the television special Alice Cooper: The Nightmare, starring Cooper and Vincent Price, which aired on US prime-time TV in April 1975. The Nightmare (which was later released on home video in 1983 and gained a Grammy Award nomination for Best Long Form Music Video) was regarded as another groundbreaking moment in rock history. Adding to it all, a concert film, Welcome to My Nightmare, produced, directed, and choreographed by West Side Story cast member David Winters and filmed live at London's Wembley Arena in September 1975, was released to theaters in 1976. The film was released in a special edition DVD in 2017.

Such was the immense success of Cooper's solo project that he decided to continue as a solo artist, and the original band became officially defunct. Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith went on to form the short-lived band Billion Dollar Babies, producing one studio album—Battle Axe—in 1977. While occasionally performing with one another and Glen Buxton, they did not reunite with Alice until October 23, 1999, at the second Glen Buxton Memorial Weekend for a show at CoopersTown in Phoenix. They reunited for another show, with Steve Hunter on guitar, on December 16, 2010, at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix. This lineup performed together again (televised) on March 14, 2011, at the induction of the original Alice Cooper group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as on May 11, 2011, at London's Battersea Power Station at the Jägermeister Ice Cold 4D event (webcast). In 2011, Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith appeared on three tracks they co-wrote on Alice's solo studio album Welcome 2 My Nightmare. In 2017, they appeared on two tracks they co-wrote on Alice's solo studio album Paranormal, released in July, and in November they joined his current live band for five tour dates in the United Kingdom.

1980s

Cooper's studio albums from the beginning of the 1980s have been referred to by Cooper as his "blackout albums" because he cannot remember recording them, owing to the influence of his new, and increasing, cocaine addiction. Flush the Fashion (1980), Special Forces (1981), Zipper Catches Skin (1982) and DaDa (1983) saw a gradual commercial decline, with the last two not charting within the Billboard Top 200. Flush the Fashion, produced by Roy Thomas Baker, known for his work with Queen and the Cars, had a thick, edgy new wave musical sound that baffled even longtime fans, though it still yielded the US Top 40 hit "Clones (We're All)". The track also surprisingly charted on the US Disco Top 100 chart. Special Forces featured a more aggressive but consistent new wave style, and included a new version of "Generation Landslide" from Billion Dollar Babies (1973). His tour for Special Forces marked Cooper's last time on the road for nearly five years; it was not until 1986, for Constrictor, that he toured again. 1982's Zipper Catches Skin was a more pop punk-oriented recording, containing many quirky high-energy guitar-driven songs along with his most unusual collection of subject matters for lyrics, and Patty Donahue of the Waitresses provided guest vocals and "sarcasm" on the track "I Like Girls". 1983 marked the return collaboration of producer Bob Ezrin and guitarist Dick Wagner for the haunting epic DaDa, the final studio album in his Warner Bros. contract.

In mid-1983, after the recording of DaDa was completed, Cooper was hospitalized for alcoholism again, and cirrhosis of the liver. He credits his Christian faith for a recovery doctors described as "miraculous" and he talks of how he did not "recover" but how his addiction was "taken away" by Jesus Christ. Cooper was finally stable and sober (and has remained sober since that time) by the time DaDa and The Nightmare home video (of his 1975 TV Special) were released in the fall of that year; however, both releases performed below expectations. Even with The Nightmare scoring a nomination for 1984's Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video (he lost to Duran Duran), it was not enough for Warner Bros. to keep Cooper on their books. By February 1984, Cooper became a "free agent" for the first time in his career.

Cooper spent a lengthy period away from the music business dealing with personal problems. His divorce from Sheryl Cooper was heard at Maricopa County Superior Court, Arizona, on January 30, 1984, but a decision was made by the couple not to move forward with the divorce. The following month he guested at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards alongside co-presenter Grace Jones. He also returned to his native Phoenix, Arizona: "It was kind of a dramatic move back, because I had just finished my thirteen-year alcoholic career in Los Angeles. To me, the Hollywood social scene was nothing but drinking and partying every night."

1990s

In 1991, Cooper released his nineteenth studio album Hey Stoopid featuring several notable rock musicians guesting on the record. Released as glam metal's popularity was on the wane, and just before the explosion of grunge, it failed to have the same commercial impact as its predecessor. The same year also saw the release of the video Alice Cooper: Prime Cuts which chronicled his entire career using in depth interviews with Cooper himself, Bob Ezrin, and Shep Gordon. One critic has noted that Prime Cuts demonstrates how Cooper had used (in contrast to similar artists who succeeded him) themes of satire and moralization to such good effect throughout his career. It was in the Prime Cuts video that Bob Ezrin delivered his own summation of the Alice Cooper persona: "He is the psycho killer in all of us. He's the axe murderer, he's the spoiled child, he's the abuser, he's the abused; he's the perpetrator, he's the victim, he's the gun slinger, and he's the guy lying dead in the middle of the street".

During the early 1990s, Cooper guested on records by the most successful bands of the time, such as the Guns N' Roses third studio album Use Your Illusion I, on which he shared vocal duties with Axl Rose on the track "The Garden". He also had a brief appearance as the abusive stepfather of Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street slasher film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991).

Cooper made a cameo appearance in the 1992 comedy film Wayne's World. Cooper and his band first appear on stage performing "Feed My Frankenstein" from their studio album Hey Stoopid. Afterward at a backstage party, the movie's main characters Wayne Cambell and Garth Algar discover that when offstage, Cooper is a calm, articulate intellectual as he and his band discuss the history of Milwaukee in depth. Wayne and Garth respond to an invitation to hang out with Cooper by kneeling and bowing reverently before him while chanting "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"

In 1994, Cooper released The Last Temptation, his first concept album since DaDa (1983). The album deals with issues of faith, temptation, alienation and the frustrations of modern life, and has been described as "a young man's struggle to see the truth through the distractions of the "sideshow" of the modern world". Concurrent with the release of The Last Temptation was a three-part comic book series written by Neil Gaiman, fleshing out the album's story. This was to be Cooper's last album with Epic Records since according to Brian "Renfield" Nelson, Cooper's personal assistant, "Alice was interested in going to Hollywood Records even before 'The Last Temptation' was released because Bob Pfeifer, who originally signed Alice to Epic, was now the President of Hollywood Records. After 'The Last Temptation' was finished, Alice requested that Sony/Epic let him go so that he could make the switch to Hollywood. He just wanted to go where his friends are." and was his last studio release for six years, though during this period the live album A Fistful of Alice (1997) was released, and in 1997 he lent his voice to the intro track of Insane Clown Posse's The Great Milenko.

2000s

The first decade of the 21st century saw a sustained period of activity from Alice Cooper, the decade in which he turned 60. He toured extensively releasing a steady stream of studio albums to favorable critical acclaim. Beginning in 2000 with Brutal Planet, a return to horror-filled heavy metal, industrial rock, set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future. The album was produced by Bob Marlette, with longtime Cooper production collaborator Bob Ezrin returning as executive producer. The accompanying world tour, which included Cooper's first concert in Russia, also resulted in Brutally Live (2000), a DVD of a concert, recorded in London, England, on July 19, 2000.

Cooper made a guest appearance in 2001 on a third-season episode of That '70s Show titled "Radio Daze", in which he partook in a game of Dungeons & Dragons.

Brutal Planet was succeeded by the sonically similar and acclaimed sequel Dragontown (2001), which saw Bob Ezrin back as producer. The album has been described as leading the listener down "a nightmarish path into the mind of rock's original conceptual storyteller" and by Cooper himself as being "the worst town on Brutal Planet". Like The Last Temptation, both Brutal Planet and Dragontown are albums which explore Cooper's born-again Christianity. It is often cited in the music media that Dragontown forms the third chapter in a trilogy begun with The Last Temptation; however, Cooper has indicated that this in fact is not the case.

Cooper again adopted a leaner, cleaner sound for his critically acclaimed 2003 release The Eyes of Alice Cooper. Recognizing that many contemporary bands were having great success with his former sounds and styles, Cooper worked with a somewhat younger group of road and studio musicians who were familiar with his oeuvre of old. The resulting Bare Bones tour adopted a less-orchestrated performance style that had fewer theatrical flourishes and a greater emphasis on musicality.

Cooper's radio show Nights with Alice Cooper began airing on January 26, 2004, in several US cities. The program showcases classic rock, Cooper's personal stories about his life as a rock icon and interviews with prominent rock artists. The show is broadcast on nearly 100 stations in the US and Canada, and has been broadcast internationally.

A continuation of the songwriting approach adopted on The Eyes of Alice Cooper was again adopted by Cooper for his seventeenth solo studio album Dirty Diamonds, released in 2005. Dirty Diamonds became Cooper's highest-charting album since 1994's The Last Temptation at the time. The Dirty Diamonds tour launched in America in August 2005 after several European concerts, including a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on July 12. Cooper and his band, including Kiss drummer Eric Singer, were filmed for a DVD released as Alice Cooper: Live at Montreux 2005 (2006). One critic, in a review of the Montreux release, commented that Cooper was to be applauded for "still mining pretty much the same territory of teenage angst and rebellion" as he had done more than 30 years previously.

2010s

In January 2010, it was announced that Cooper would be touring with Rob Zombie on The Gruesome Twosome Tour. In May 2010, Cooper made an appearance during the beginning of the season finale of the singing competition show American Idol, in which he sang "School's Out".

With his daughter, and former band member Dick Wagner, Cooper scored the music for the indie horror flick Silas Gore (2010).

During 2010, Cooper began working on a new studio album, dubbed Welcome 2 My Nightmare, a sequel to the original Welcome to My Nightmare (1975). In a Radio Metal interview, he said that "We'll put some of the original people on it and add some new people ... I'm very happy with working with Bob (Ezrin) again."

On December 15, 2010, it was announced Cooper and his former band would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony took place on March 14, 2011, where Cooper was inducted by fellow horror-rocker Rob Zombie. Original members Bruce, Cooper, Dunaway, and Smith all made brief acceptance speeches and performed "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out" live together, with Steve Hunter filling in for the late Glen Buxton. Cooper showed up for the event wearing a (presumably fake) blood-splattered shirt and had a live albino Burmese python wrapped around his neck. Cooper told Rolling Stone magazine that he was "elated" by the news and that the nomination had been made for the original band, as "We all did go to the same high school together, and we were all on the track team, and it was pretty cool that guys that knew each other before the band ended up going that far".

On March 10, 2011, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Cooper, Jennifer Warnes, and others performed at a benefit concert in Tucson, Arizona, benefiting The Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding, a foundation that raises awareness about and provides medical prevention and treatment services to people with mental disorders. In June 2011, Cooper took his place as the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car at the BBC motoring show Top Gear.

On June 9, 2011, Cooper was awarded the Kerrang! Icon Award at Kerrang! magazine's annual awards show. Cooper used the opportunity to hit out at the "anaemic" rock music that dominates the charts, and said he has no intention of retiring from the industry.

2020s

Cooper released his twenty-first solo studio album, Detroit Stories, on February 26, 2021. In May, he announced a fall tour to promote the album, supported by Ace Frehley, which began in September 2021.

Cooper wrote the afterword to Jeffrey Morgan's autobiography Rock Critic Confidential which was published by New Haven on June 28, 2021.

Cooper participated as a judge on the music competition television show No Cover season 1 that started to be aired in the Sumerian Records YouTube Channel in April 2022.

On July 11, 2022, touring guitarist Nita Strauss announced she had departed the band. A few days later, it was announced Kane Roberts had rejoined the band, replacing Strauss. On March 6, 2023, it was announced Strauss had rejoined the band.

Cooper's twenty-second studio album Road was released on August 25, 2023.

In the fall of 2023, Cooper co-headlined the Freaks on Parade tour with Rob Zombie, with Filter and Ministry acting as the opening acts. The tour spanned one month, lasting from August 24, 2023, until September 24, 2023, visiting 19 venues across the United States and Canada.

Cooper presents a show five weekdays on the UK's Planet Rock.

Cooper recorded the album Solid Rock Revival with different, child-friendly lyrics for his songs and those of other artists. "School's Out" became "School's In", "No More Mr. Nice Guy" became "Now, I'm Mr. Nice Guy" and "I'm Eighteen" became "I'm Thirteen". With Rob Halford he recorded "Pleasant Dreams", and with Darryl McDaniels he recorded a hip hop version of "In the Midnight Hour" called "Midday Hour". Proceeds go to Norelli Family Foundation and Cooper's Solid Rock Foundation.

In January 2024, a newly revamped syndicated radio show, Alice's Attic with Alice Cooper syndicated by Superadio Networks debuted on over 70+ radio stations in the US and worldwide.

Artistry

During an interview for the program Entertainment USA in 1986, Cooper told interviewer Jonathan King that the Yardbirds were his favorite band of all time. Cooper had as far back as 1969 said that it was music from the mid-sixties, and particularly from British bands the Beatles, the Who, and the Rolling Stones, as well as the Yardbirds, that had the greatest influence on him. Cooper later paid homage to the Who by singing "I'm a Boy" for A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who in 1994 at Carnegie Hall in New York, and performing a cover version of "My Generation" on the Brutal Planet tour of 2000. During an interview with Ozzy Osbourne from radio program Nights with Alice Cooper on May 22, 2007, Cooper again affirmed his debt of gratitude to these bands, and to the Beatles in particular. During their discussion, Cooper and Osbourne bemoaned the often inferior quality of songwriting coming from contemporary rock artists. Cooper stated that in his opinion the cause of the problem was that certain modern bands "had forgotten to listen to the Beatles".

On seeing shock rock pioneer Arthur Brown performing his US number two hit "Fire" in 1968, Cooper states, "Can you imagine the young Alice Cooper watching that with all his make-up and hellish performance? It was like all my Halloweens came at once!" A 2014 article on Alice Cooper in The Guardian mentioned Arthur Brown and his flaming helmet, "British rock always was more theatrical than its US counterpart. Often this involved destruction or macabre gimmickry", with Cooper responding, "That's why most people thought we were British at first."

Evidence of Cooper's eclectic tastes in classic and contemporary rock music can be seen in the track listings of his radio show; in addition, when he appeared on the BBC Radio 2 program Tracks of My Years in September 2007, he listed his favorite tracks of all time as being: "19th Nervous Breakdown" (1966) by the Rolling Stones; "Turning Japanese" (1980) by the Vapors; "My Sharona" (1979) by the Knack; "Beds Are Burning" (1987) by Midnight Oil; "My Generation" (1965) by the Who; "Welcome to the Jungle" (1987) by Guns N' Roses; "Rebel Rebel" (1974) by David Bowie; "Over Under Sideways Down" (1966) by the Yardbirds; "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" (2003) by Jet; and "A Hard Day's Night" (1964) by the Beatles, and when he appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2010 he chose the songs "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" by the Yardbirds; "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys; "I'm a Boy" by the Who; "Timer" by Laura Nyro; "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson; "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction; "Work Song" by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band; and "Ballad of a Thin Man" by Bob Dylan.

Personal life

In the early 1970s, a story was widely reported that Leave It to Beaver actor Ken Osmond had become "rock star Alice Cooper". According to Cooper, the rumor began when a college newspaper editor asked him what kind of child he was, to which Cooper replied, "I was obnoxious, disgusting, a real Eddie Haskell," referring to the fictional character Osmond portrayed. However, the editor ended up reporting that Cooper was the real Haskell. Cooper later told the New Times: "It was the biggest rumor that ever came out about me. Finally, I got a T-shirt that said, 'No, I am not Eddie Haskell.' But people still believed it."

On June 20, 2005, ahead of his June–July 2005 tour, Cooper had a wide-ranging interview with interviewer of celebrities Andrew Denton for the Australian ABC TV's Enough Rope. Cooper discussed various issues during the talk, including the horrors of acute alcoholism and his subsequent cure, being a Christian, and his social and work relationship with his family. During the interview, Cooper remarked "I look at Mick Jagger and he's on an 18-month tour and he's six years older than me, so I figure, when he retires, I have six more years. I will not let him beat me when it comes to longevity."

Cooper frequently refers to himself in the third person as "Alice" as a way to distance himself from his stage persona.

Marriage and relationships

In the period when the Alice Cooper group was signed to Frank Zappa's Straight label, Miss Christine of the GTOs became Cooper's girlfriend. Miss Christine (real name Christine Frka), who had recommended Zappa to the group, died on November 5, 1972, of an overdose. Another long-time girlfriend of Cooper's was Cindy Lang, with whom he lived for several years.

After his separation from Lang, Cooper was briefly linked with actress Raquel Welch, although according to Dick Wagner, Cooper rejected Welch's advances. Cooper ended up marrying ballerina instructor and choreographer Sheryl Goddard, who performed in the Alice Cooper show from 1975 to 1982. They married on March 20, 1976. In November 1983, at the height of Cooper's alcoholism, Goddard filed for divorce, but by mid-1984, she and Cooper had reconciled. They have three children: daughters Sonora and Calico, and son Dashiell.

Cooper and his wife started Solid Rock foundation in 1995. The first of several teen centers opened in Phoenix, Arizona in 2012. Another opened in Mesa, Arizona in 2021. The centers offer vocational and arts training.

In a 2019 interview, Cooper said that he and his wife Sheryl have a death pact, wherein they will die at the same time, sparking a flurry of headlines. But Cooper clarified his comments, telling USA Today, "What I was meaning was that because we're almost always together, at home and on the road, that if something did happen to either of us, we'd most likely be together at the time. But neither of us has a suicide pact. We have a life pact."

Use of alcohol and other drugs

Since overcoming his own addiction to alcohol in the mid-1980s, Cooper has continued to help and counsel other rock musicians with addiction problems. "I've made myself very available to friends of mine – they're people who would call me late at night and say, 'Between you and me, I've got a problem.'" In 1986, thrash metal band Megadeth opened for Cooper on his US Constrictor tour. After noticing how Megadeth's band members abused alcohol and other drugs, Cooper personally approached the band to try to help them get clean. He has stayed close to lead vocalist Dave Mustaine, who considers Cooper to be his "godfather". In recognition of the work he has done in helping other addicts in the recovery process, in 2008 Cooper was given Stevie Ray Vaughan Award at the fourth annual MusiCares MAP Fund benefit concert in Los Angeles.

Religion

During an interview with Johnnie Walker on BBC Radio 2 in September 2007, Cooper said that he was not a Christian when he gave up drinking, but stated that he thanks God for "taking it away", saying, "I mean if He [God] can part the Red Sea and create the universe, He can certainly take alcoholism away from somebody." Although he originally did not speak publicly about his religious beliefs, Cooper was later vocal about his faith as a born-again Christian.

Politics

Throughout his career, Cooper's philosophy regarding politics is that politics should not be mixed with rock music. Cooper has usually kept his political views to himself, and in 2010 said, "I am extremely non-political. I go out of my way to be non-political. I'm probably the biggest moderate you know. When John Lennon and Harry Nilsson used to argue politics, I was sitting right in the middle of them, and I was the guy who was going 'I don't care.' When my parents would start talking politics, I would go in my room and put on the Rolling Stones or the Who as long as I could avoid politics. And I still feel that way."

On occasion, Cooper has spoken out against musicians who promote or opine on politics; for example, in the build-up to the 2004 presidential election, he told The Canadian Press that the rock stars campaigning for and touring on behalf of Democratic candidate John Kerry were committing "treason against rock n' roll". He added, upon seeing a list of musicians who supported Kerry, "If I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush." In December 2018, Cooper predicted that the next U.S. president would be "worse" than Donald Trump, while arguing that musicians talking politics to their fans was an "abuse of power".

Every four years since releasing his single "Elected" in 1972, Cooper has satirically run for president.

In 2023, Cooper made remarks against the transgender community and suggested women would be sexually assaulted in bathrooms if men were permitted access and called most instances of transgender identity a "fad", resulting in the loss of a cosmetics branding deal.

In a 2025 interview with The Times, Cooper expressed support for Donald Trump, stating that: "(America) got so 'woke' with the Biden people, even they thought it was crazy. If a guy says to a coworker, 'I like your new dress,' that means he now gets fired? That's crazy. It got so over the top that whoever ran against the Democrats was going to win. America got sick of the stupidness and all I can say is, in a shooting war, you don't want a poodle; you want a pitbull."

Sports

Cooper is a fan of both the NHL's Detroit Red Wings and Arizona Coyotes. On February 18, 2012, the Coyotes gave away his bobblehead in a promotion for the first 10,000 fans for a game with the Dallas Stars. Cooper is a longtime baseball fan, supporting the Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers. As a child, he dreamed of playing left field in the Tigers outfield alongside Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline. He has coached Little League baseball teams since his son played in the early 1990s. Cooper is also a fan of NBA basketball, supporting both the Detroit Pistons and the Phoenix Suns.

Cooper is an avid golfer and says that the sport played a major role in him overcoming his addiction to alcohol, and has even gone so far as to say that when he took up golf, it was a case of replacing one addiction with another. The importance that the game has had in his life is also reflected in the title to his 2007 autobiography, Alice Cooper, Golf Monster. Cooper, who has participated in a number of pro–am competitions, plays the game six days a week, off a handicap of four. He also, through golf, enjoyed an unlikely friendship with country guitarist and singer Glen Campbell after they became neighbors, playing together "nearly every other day".

Cooper has also appeared in commercials for Callaway Golf equipment and was a guest of veteran British player and broadcaster Peter Alliss on A Golfer's Travels. He wrote the foreword to the Gary McCord book Ryder Cup and participated in the second All-Star Cup in Newport, Wales.

In popular culture

Cooper, a fan of The Simpsons, was asked to contribute a storyline for the September 2004 edition of Bongo Comics's Bart Simpson's Treehouse of Horror, a special Monsters of Rock issue that also included stories plotted by Gene Simmons, Rob Zombie and Pat Boone. The title of his song "Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me", from Dragontown, is a reference to the series.

In October 1979, Cooper was featured in the Marvel comic book Marvel Premiere, Volume 1, Number 50 loosely adapting his From the Inside studio album.

Cooper is also the subject of the "We're not worthy" meme, which was popularized during his cameo in Wayne's World with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in 1992.

Cooper contributed his likeness and over 700 voice lines to Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, a pinball machine released in 2018 by Spooky Pinball that also features ten songs performed by Cooper. Only 500 machines were made.

At the Musical Instrument Museum of Phoenix, Cooper is honored with a dedicated exhibit showcasing props and instruments from his career, including one of the dummy heads used during the infamous guillotine stunt.

Band members

Current members

Alice Cooper – lead vocals, harmonica, guitars, percussion, synthesizer (1974–present)

Ryan Roxie – guitars, backing vocals (1996–2006, 2012–present)

Chuck Garric – bass, backing vocals (2002–present)

Tommy Henriksen – guitars, backing vocals (2011–present)

Glen Sobel – drums, percussion (2011–present)

Anna Cara – guitars, backing vocals (2026–present)

Discography

Band studio albums

Pretties for You (1969)

Easy Action (1970)

Love It to Death (1971)

Killer (1971)

School's Out (1972)

Billion Dollar Babies (1973)

Muscle of Love (1973)

The Revenge of Alice Cooper (2025)

Solo studio albums

Accolades