“What I like about that is it is a very inventive time,” Alice Cooper tells UCR. And relaxation assured these are inventive days certainly for the king of shock rock.
Cooper is simply days away from launching his Too Shut for Consolation tour on April 28 in Mount Nice, Mich., debuting a model new stage present and celebrating the return of guitarist Nita Strauss to the band after a short absence. He’ll be supporting Def Leppard and Motley Crue on just a few Stadium Tour dates, too, and has a Freaks on Parade North American trek with Rob Zombie beginning in August. In the meantime, Hollywood Vampires — his all-star band with Joe Perry, Johnny Depp and Tommy Henriksen — will probably be in Europe throughout June and July at the side of their Reside in Rio album that comes out June 2.
And Cooper has a brand new studio album, titled Highway, due out this yr, although particulars haven’t been introduced. Plus, he has a tune, “I am All the time Chasing Rainbows” from 1976, on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Superior Combine at the side of the film’s launch on Might 5.
Not dangerous for a man simply a few months previous his seventy fifth birthday and nonetheless as energetic as ever. So let’s let him give us a roundup of every thing coming from Camp Cooper as of late.
What You will See
Cooper and his band have been rehearsing in Nashville for the spring tour, the successor to his Haunted Fortress present. “That was actually lots of enjoyable,” Cooper says of that manufacturing. “That is kind of like what my Friday night time horror film ought to appear like. That is form of what the texture of it was. However this present is completely totally different to that.” Cooper is not revealing a lot, however he does say that spouse and longtime stage mate Sheryl will probably be enjoying a brand new character, Marie Antoideath, and that video know-how will permit the tour to dwell as much as its title.
“It is known as Too Shut for Consolation as a result of now you will be seeing … like when Alice does Dwight Fry – earlier than you can by no means see the facial factor happening there, the place you can be seeing it this time,” Cooper explains. “We simply form of acquired uninterested in folks not with the ability to see a number of the actual intricate components. I believe folks lose a number of the actual element within the present. So there’s that, however that is just a bit a part of it. There’s gonna be lots of issues happening within the present that we have not accomplished but, and some issues that we have accomplished however reimagined. I can let you know it is actually gonna be cool.”
What You will Hear
Cooper says with the tour repertoire the songs will stay the same-ish.
“Like anything, we have now to do the hits,” he acknowledges. “The viewers needs to listen to the hits, so it is, How do you adorn these hits? How do you set them right into a story type or some form of a brand new method of trying on the present.” He does promise that “we have added two or three new issues,” and he holds out the potential of adjustments being made throughout rehearsals.
“We’ve a set record … and I do know that is going to vary seven or eight instances as a result of we’re gonna go, ‘Ah, that tune would not go into that tune proper. Let’s put this tune in there and that method it’s going to bridge into this subsequent factor,'” Cooper explains. “After which musically my guys can be taught a tune in an hour, any tune. So we’re good on any entrance.
“It is placing a puzzle collectively, actually. It is only a matter of connecting the dots when you stand up there. And I’ve acquired all of the folks that have accomplished this for 50 years. Sheryl and I’ve been placing a present collectively like this without end. And [manager] Shep [Gordon] has been actually extra within the lighting of the present. So we actually do know how one can put all of it collectively.”
Guys … and a Gal
Strauss’ return will not be sudden. She left on good phrases final fall to tour with Demi Lovato with guarantees that she was welcome to come back again at any time.
“I’ve [a] revolving door form of coverage,” Cooper says. “I instructed her proper up entrance, ‘You need to go [do] this,’ however I stated, ‘The door’s all the time open’ and he or she got here again. There was by no means any dangerous blood about stuff like that, and I acquired to deliver Kane Roberts again for some time, which was enjoyable.
“To me, that is music, and that is showbiz. It is bizarre when folks get offended with folks for leaving. After they have a chance to do one thing, I am like, ‘See ya. Come again any time you’ll be able to.’ So Nita’s again within the fold, and that is going so as to add that different ingredient she brings. I can open up and do some songs that I do not usually as a result of she will be able to symbolize that Kane Roberts period.”
Watch Nita Strauss Carry out With Alice Cooper in 2017
The Highway and ‘Highway’
We’re nonetheless ready for launch particulars on Highway, Cooper’s follow-up to his well-received 2021 album, Detroit Tales, which debuted within the Prime 5 of the Billboard Onerous Rock Albums and Prime Rock Albums charts. Produced with longtime compatriot Bob Ezrin, the album showcases Cooper’s highway band.
“I needed to indicate this band off just a little,” he says. “So we wrote the songs and did them dwell within the studio with very, little or no … if there’s any overdubs, it is minor, and solely as a result of that little bit could possibly be just a little higher right here or there. However 95% of this album is dwell within the studio. I did that on goal to indicate off how good the band is.”
Conceptually the album is — shock – in regards to the highway. “It is issues that occur on the highway,” Cooper says. “There’s lots of humor in it. There’s a few heartbreakers, however it’s very guitar-driven as a result of that is what I search for in an album. I really like writing the songs with Bob and the fellows, and we actually emphasize that the principle instrument is gonna be guitar. It is not gonna drift off into some other land on the market.”
Cooper has spoken about engaged on a number of albums with Ezrin, however he will not speak about any of that but. Addressing one risk, he says, “Let’s simply put it this manner: It is historic and on the similar time it is actually form of quirky. Typically you sit there and go, ‘Actually? OK, let’s go together with that.’ [Laughs] We’ll get to that one afterward, and it will be actually cool, too.”
The Vampires Awaken
Hollywood Vampires have been within the coffin since earlier than the pandemic, and Cooper is worked up about reactivating that band, too. “We have had sufficient day off now, so all people’s able to get again on the highway,” he says, noting that Henriksen, who serves as musical director, was working with the band at Depp’s home in Hollywood earlier than Cooper’s tour rehearsals began. “It is a band that performs nice dwell,” Cooper says of the covers-heavy troupe. “There’s not lots of theatrics in that present. It is principally a bar band that places out a very good, enjoyable vibe, and but it is nonetheless just a little darkish. If you image Joe and Johnny and I and the entire vampire factor, it actually does have a darkness to it. However ultimately, individuals are simply having a good time, as a result of all of the songs which might be being performed are songs all people needs to listen to.”
Cooper hadn’t seen Depp for almost three years till he and Jeff Beck carried out in Phoenix on Nov. 1, however he’d been vocally supportive of his fellow Vampire throughout Depp’s sensational trial with ex-wife Amber Heard. “I kinda went backstage and I opened his door and went, ‘Sooo … what’s new?’ Had been you doing one thing on TV?'” Cooper says with fun. He guarantees that there’ll “actually” be a tribute on this yr’s exhibits to Beck, who died in January.
“I’ve identified Jeff since I used to be 16 years outdated,” Cooper says. “I met him again then, and I’ve all the time been a pal of his. I noticed him there in Phoenix they usually have been nice. Jeff performed pretty much as good as I’ve ever heard him play. So it was an actual shock when he [died].”
Watch Hollywood Vampires Carry out Reside in 2019
Rainbow Chasing
Cooper says his inclusion on the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 got here as a shock. “I used to be on the premiere of the brand new Ant-Man film. We have been in L.A. and Michael [Douglas] and Catherine [Zeta-Jones] stated, ‘You gotta come all the way down to the premiere,’ so we went,” Cooper remembers. “And there was the principle man from Marvel there and he is a giant Alice Cooper fan, and he says, ‘I acquired one in every of your songs within the new Guardians film,’ and I stated, ‘Actually?!’ I did not even find out about that. So I can not wait, as a result of I am a giant fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy. I believe they’re actually humorous. It is what Marvel ought to do; it is all of the motion, all the nice CGI stuff, with a humorousness.”
Cooper included “I am All the time Chasing Rainbows,” a vaudeville tune written for the Dolly Sisters in 1917, because the penultimate monitor of Alice Cooper Goes to Hell in 1976. “[Ezrin] stated, ‘We want one thing that is so reverse of what this [album theme] is, and [the song] suits proper in with the purpose once I’m going residence when Alice lastly talks his method out of hell someway, and he is going residence. I believe [Ezrin] began enjoying it, and I stated, ‘Effectively, let’s deal with it just like the Thirties as if Al Jolson have been singing it.’ And [Ezrin] is the king of placing productions collectively. The orchestrations have been spectacular on that. And the best way it goes into ‘Going Residence’ actually was sensible. These two songs subsequent to one another actually introduced the story to an ideal shut.”
Zombie Stomp
Freaks on Parade will not be the primary time Cooper and Zombie have hit the highway collectively. They went out because the Ugly Twosome in 2010, and Zombie inducted the unique Alice Cooper band into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame the next yr.
“I can not wait to try this,” Cooper says of the upcoming tour. “Rob’s like my little brother. We’ve lots of enjoyable doing these exhibits. It is actually good as a result of the 2 exhibits are so visible and each bands are actually, actually nice.” Freaks on Parade will get underway on Aug. 24 in Dallas and performs 19 dates earlier than wrapping up on Sept. 24 in Cooper’s floor zero of Phoenix.
Watch Alice Cooper Carry out With Rob Zombie in 2022
2023 Rock Tour Preview
Reunions, farewells and long-awaited exhibits are on the horizon.
