has forever done better than scare and shock is create titillating heavy rock filled with odd, often dangerous characters and their noir-ish tall tales. Cooper’s new “Detroit Stories” is ripe and rocking with such offbeat personalities and their memories, all in dedication to the Motor City where Alice Cooper — the man, and his original same-named band co-starring Neal Smith, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and the late Glen Buxton — made their bones back in 1970.
It was always more about the shock value. Nobody in the band was gay or had thoughts toward dressing like a woman. We didn’t even think of it as dressing like a woman. The “Alice Cooper character” was androgynous, but frightening. It was pretty to look at, kind of. But it was also threatening. I would be on stage, wearing a skin tight pair of leather black pants, right? Then I would have my girlfriend’s pink slip on top, ripped, and with blood all over it.
When I’m working with the touring band, who are younger, they’re very crisp and precise in what they play. A hair faster, too, say on songs like “Billion Dollar Babies” and “Under My Wheels.” I sing higher with them too. When I get with the original band, we play slower, heavier and darker, so I sing that way. It’s amazing what the difference is.
We all go back to Chuck Berry, the first guy who started a record with a guitar, and the greatest lyricist whoever lived. He could tell you a story in under three minutes, while making up half the words. “Don’t give me no bother-ation?” Classic. The odd thing about Detroit; we’d be playing at the Grande, maybe us, Brownsville Station and the Who. You’d look into the audience and see sweaty, long-haired rock dudes in leather.
Bob and I are close. The only guy who knows “Alice” as well as I is Bob. We talk about “Alice” in the third person; have for all the 15 albums we’ve done together. If I write a lyric, Bob might jump in with, “I don’t think ‘Alice would say that.’” When we considered covers for “Detroit Stories,” I remembered Lou Reed’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” with the Velvets, the height of NYC heroin chic. I decided to take it to Detroit and put a V-8 engine in it, up the horsepower.
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Can't wait for the new Hollywood Vampires album!
Nothings more exciting than Detroit...except everything
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