0:00:26 > 0:00:30In 40 years, Alice Cooper has gone from being a man who respectable
0:00:30 > 0:00:33God-fearing Americans wanted to hit with a golf club
0:00:33 > 0:00:38to someone who plays golf with the same section of society.
0:00:38 > 0:00:43The angry reaction at the start was in response to the stage persona,
0:00:43 > 0:00:49the long-haired satanic radical figure who sang anthems of rebellion including School's Out and Elected,
0:00:49 > 0:00:53and wrapped snakes around his neck before being executed.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56Off-stage, Alice Cooper is a polite, thoughtful, non-drinking man
0:00:56 > 0:01:00whose only addiction is golf, but some people are still confused
0:01:00 > 0:01:04by the gulf between the rock monster he created
0:01:04 > 0:01:09and the man born in Detroit as Vincent Damon Furnier.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12I'm interested, with people who become famous under a stage name,
0:01:12 > 0:01:15is there anyone to whom you're still Vince?
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Yeah. My mom. My mom still calls me Vince.
0:01:19 > 0:01:25It's funny cos she still lives with us. My dad passed away, so my mom lives with us.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29It's still with her, "Hey, superstar! Take out the garbage!"
0:01:29 > 0:01:35I didn't become a star to her until I brought home a picture of me and Frank Sinatra.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39When she saw that, she went, "OK. Now you're something!"
0:01:39 > 0:01:42To her, that was like the passage.
0:01:42 > 0:01:48She'd seen me on TV, but that didn't mean anything until she saw the Sinatra picture!
0:01:48 > 0:01:52- Which I understand.- So on your passport, it is Alice Cooper?
0:01:52 > 0:01:57Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I changed my name legally about 1972.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01My manager, who's been my manager for 43 years now, Shep,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05he said, "We've got to own the name. We've got to make it a brand.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09"You need to be Alice Cooper." I said, "OK.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13I had to say to my mom and dad, "By the way, I'm Alice Cooper now."
0:02:13 > 0:02:18My dad's reading the paper, "Oh, that's nice."
0:02:18 > 0:02:24You have this double life, which I know from people who knew I was going to interview you today.
0:02:24 > 0:02:30Lots of people, including my teenage children, said, "He's really scary. Be careful."
0:02:30 > 0:02:35Yet a very posh London lawyer said, "I played golf with Alice Cooper."
0:02:35 > 0:02:37This is your curious double life.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41I like the juxtaposition of me and Alice.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44I grew up in a Christian home. My dad was a pastor.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48My grandfather was an evangelist. My wife's father is a pastor.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53I grew up in, not a strict, but a very Christian home.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56Then I went as far away as I could.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01I was the prodigal son. Came back and became Christian again.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04And so, you know...
0:03:06 > 0:03:10When I did go out there, I created this Alice character,
0:03:10 > 0:03:15because it is so easy to be the villain,
0:03:15 > 0:03:19even though my real life is nothing like Alice at all.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23It's fun, though, to put on his skin and the make-up,
0:03:23 > 0:03:28and become this arrogant Alan Rickman-type of condescending villain!
0:03:28 > 0:03:30Because it's nothing like me.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34It's probably the same with Anthony Hopkins and Hannibal Lecter.
0:03:34 > 0:03:40If you meet the two, you go, "How could you be playing that horrific guy?"
0:03:40 > 0:03:44That's the fun of it. I don't take a lot of responsibility for Alice.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48I talk about Alice in the third person, you know.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53But it's more complicated. Anthony Hopkins has played CS Lewis.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56He doesn't go around with people calling him Hannibal.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00- LAUGHS I do!- Yeah, sure.
0:04:00 > 0:04:06But it is more complicated for people because it's a permanent persona for you.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09Yes, I think so, and I think there was a time
0:04:09 > 0:04:13when I didn't know when to turn Alice off.
0:04:13 > 0:04:19There was that early... When they recognised me as Alice,
0:04:19 > 0:04:24I didn't know where the grey area was, where he began and I ended.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29That had a lot to do with alcohol. I was the most functional alcoholic.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31As soon as I got sober,
0:04:31 > 0:04:37I realised there had to be a break between me and Alice.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Because that Alice really didn't want to be married.
0:04:41 > 0:04:46He didn't want to play golf, go to the movies, have kids,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48do all the stuff that I like to do.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52So I said, "Why shouldn't we do that together? You be Alice.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57"I'll play you on stage and when the curtain comes down, you're gone
0:04:57 > 0:04:59"and I become me again."
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Honestly, it's a very good relationship we have together!
0:05:03 > 0:05:06In that hour or so before you go on stage,
0:05:06 > 0:05:11in the way that an actor gets into character, is it the same thing,
0:05:11 > 0:05:15- or can you do it quite easily now? - Now I do it quite easily.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19It used to take me half the day to psych up into being this character.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23Now it's at a point where the curtain's down, I'm in the make-up,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26I'm talking to my guitar player,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30"Hey, we have a 7.30 tee-off time tomorrow. Da-da-da..."
0:05:30 > 0:05:34The curtain opens and it's...
0:05:34 > 0:05:36And I'm Alice. My posture changes.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40My face goes like this. Everything is now Alice.
0:05:40 > 0:05:44And you're Captain Hook up there, really hamming it up.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49It's nothing like it. You could have a toothache or have pneumonia.
0:05:49 > 0:05:51You could have six broken ribs
0:05:51 > 0:05:57and nothing's gonna bother you while you've got that adrenaline rush.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00# I'm driving in my car now.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03# I got you under my wheels
0:06:04 > 0:06:07# I got you under my wheels... #
0:06:07 > 0:06:10There's a huge amount about this basic question,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14whether performers become addicts or addicts become performers.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Rob Lowe the actor, in his recent memoir, he says that he believes
0:06:18 > 0:06:22that addicts are attracted to show business
0:06:22 > 0:06:24because of the gamble of it.
0:06:24 > 0:06:30The fact that you can be on top one minute and down the next. Do you buy into that?
0:06:30 > 0:06:32I tell young guys all the time,
0:06:32 > 0:06:37"In this business there's very few guys that just keep riding the top."
0:06:37 > 0:06:42The Beatles, OK. The Rolling Stones have their roller coaster career.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46Michael Jackson had a career that stayed up there.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48There's a few people like that.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52I say, "If you're not ready to take some defeat,
0:06:52 > 0:06:56"if your ego is so fragile that you can't take a slap in the face,
0:06:56 > 0:07:02"if you can't lose a few rounds to win the fight, I don't know you're going to survive in this business.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05"You're going to get knocked down.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07"Your ego's going to get bruised.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11"You just have to find a way to fight back up."
0:07:11 > 0:07:13There are various theories.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Some people say that stars simply have more money for pills and booze.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21- And a lot more time. - A lot more time.
0:07:21 > 0:07:27Other people say it's about recreating off stage the buzz that you get of being on stage.
0:07:27 > 0:07:30- Do you have a theory? - It's just pure decadence.
0:07:30 > 0:07:32You're a kid in a candy shop!
0:07:32 > 0:07:34You're 21 years old.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37You have a hit record that's Number One.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41Money is pouring in and there's nobody to say no.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45What could go wrong?
0:07:45 > 0:07:51Everything, if you don't have somebody there to kind of direct it.
0:07:51 > 0:07:56Of course, the first thing we did was we'd go party with Keith Moon
0:07:56 > 0:07:58and all these insane rock stars.
0:07:58 > 0:08:00Cos we were now one of them.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05We were buying Rolls-Royces, doing everything you could decadently do.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Luckily, Shep was watching the money.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13"Yeah, go ahead and get that, but, you know, keep a lid on it."
0:08:13 > 0:08:18But partied every single night, and we felt it was our job!
0:08:18 > 0:08:21It was our job to read in the paper the next day
0:08:21 > 0:08:27that Keith Moon and Alice Cooper were caught in a 7-Eleven stealing a candy bar or whatever.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30It was in the press, "Well, they're rock stars.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33"They're allowed to do that."
0:08:33 > 0:08:38There was no such thing as a night that wasn't a party - no such thing,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41when somebody says, "He's staying at home tonight."
0:08:41 > 0:08:43What? What are you talking about?
0:08:43 > 0:08:49How many years are we going to be in this situation? We'd better take advantage of every night.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Reading your book,
0:08:51 > 0:08:55four times, we can say you've cheated death.
0:08:55 > 0:08:59I'm not a doctor, but if you'd gone on drinking you probably would have died.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04He gave me two months. He said, "I'll be really generous with you.
0:09:04 > 0:09:11"The way that your internal organs are right now, if you're throwing up blood, you have pancreatitis.
0:09:11 > 0:09:17"That means this has shut down, that has shut down. Your liver's probably ready to go.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21"I'll give you...a month to two months."
0:09:21 > 0:09:24He said, "Now the ball's in your court.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28"You could either join your buddies Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix,
0:09:28 > 0:09:35"or you can quit and it will all repair itself, but it will take a lot of time."
0:09:35 > 0:09:41I think everyone that's still around right now - Lou Reed, Iggy Pop...
0:09:41 > 0:09:47- David Bowie.- All the guys that are here my age that are still working came to that crossroad also.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51Had to decide if they were going to live or die.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55The ones that are here decided to live and that was where I was at.
0:09:55 > 0:10:01The other side, which is admirable, is that some people who try to get sober,
0:10:01 > 0:10:03it's very hard and they fail.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07Was it a struggle, and does it remain so?
0:10:07 > 0:10:11Well, it was an interesting thing. We talked about...
0:10:11 > 0:10:15I talk to atheists all the time. "There is no God. There is no God.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19"There's no miracles." And I say, "You're looking at a miracle."
0:10:19 > 0:10:23I was the most addicted alcoholic on the planet.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25You never saw me without a drink.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29My natural thing was to always have it with me.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32I was drinking all day, yet I would never miss a show.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37I would never blow a line in a movie on television or anything like that.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39That was probably my problem.
0:10:39 > 0:10:41I never got drunk enough.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45I was on that Dean Martin kind of buzz, you know.
0:10:45 > 0:10:51And so... To me, there was just no problem with it at all,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54but I was buzzed all the time.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56The alcohol was my prop of props.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01I went in the hospital. I came out. I went right into a bar.
0:11:01 > 0:11:05I sat down and ordered a Coca-Cola, waiting for the craving to come.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10I said, "I'm going to have to face it. I'm going to face it right now."
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Nothing happened. I had my Coca-Cola and I left.
0:11:13 > 0:11:19"Boy, this thing's gonna hit me like an avalanche. I'm going to wake up in the night needing a drink."
0:11:19 > 0:11:2530 years later, I've never had that craving. I have never had that...
0:11:25 > 0:11:31Even in the most pressured situation the thought of having a drink never occured to me.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35I really believe God just took it away from me.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39Even the doctor said, "You've never been to an AA meeting?" "No."
0:11:39 > 0:11:41"You don't have a sponsor?" "No."
0:11:41 > 0:11:46"Then your willpower..." I said, "No. I have zero willpower.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50"It's just gone. It's like I had cancer one day.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52"I don't have cancer the next day."
0:11:52 > 0:11:55I said, "It's just that simple."
0:11:55 > 0:12:00I can't tell you... I didn't do anything miraculous. It's just gone.
0:12:00 > 0:12:05So I have to attribute that to a higher source, you know.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10There's that disparaging phrase for people who haven't gone through the programme,
0:12:10 > 0:12:17- the white-knuckle drunk clinging on to sobriety, but you're not remotely that.- Not in the least bit.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21I am probably the most stress-free person in the world, you know.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24I am more surprised than anybody else.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28My doctors would call months later and go, "How are you doing?"
0:12:28 > 0:12:32"Fine. Do you want to play golf? Do you want to go to a movie?"
0:12:32 > 0:12:36They would shake their heads and go, "I don't believe this.
0:12:36 > 0:12:39"You should be having all kinds of reactions."
0:12:39 > 0:12:42It was just a medical miracle.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45A lot of writers and actors who've got sober,
0:12:45 > 0:12:49they panicked the first time they went to the page or the stage sober.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53They thought that somehow the talent was connected with the addiction.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Did you feel that?
0:12:56 > 0:13:00Oh! I wore a hole in the carpet the day that I played Alice sober.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03I decided to go back on tour.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08I said, "What if I go out in all this leather and Alice doesn't show up?"
0:13:08 > 0:13:11I was truly worried about it.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15The music was ready. The band was ready. Everything was ready.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19The only thing I could do was just stand up and just be angry.
0:13:19 > 0:13:23And this new Alice was born, this really arrogant...
0:13:23 > 0:13:26The only way I could approach it was to be vicious,
0:13:26 > 0:13:31to treat the audience like I was a dominatrix and they were my trick.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33That's how it felt, too.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37I realised that the audience loved that. Alice never said thank you.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40Alice just kind of went...
0:13:40 > 0:13:42I really enjoyed playing it like that.
0:13:42 > 0:13:47So I said, "Good. I have a new Alice to play."
0:13:47 > 0:13:50# No more Mr Nice Guy!
0:13:50 > 0:13:54# No more Mr Clean
0:13:54 > 0:14:01# No more Mr Nice Guy They said I'm sick, I'm obscene... #
0:14:03 > 0:14:08The other thing is whether there is such a thing as an addictive personality.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11There's a running gag through your autobiography
0:14:11 > 0:14:14that golf has become the replacement addiction.
0:14:14 > 0:14:19It's almost that you have to have as much golf as possible, and the best.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22I am the most addictive personality there is.
0:14:22 > 0:14:26When I was a drinker, I always had a drink in my hand.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30If I watch television... I had 28 televisions in my house!
0:14:30 > 0:14:32I still have a lot of televisions,
0:14:32 > 0:14:36but you learn to be addicted to the right things.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39I've been married 35 years.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41I've never cheated on my wife.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45The things that I love, I am desperately loyal to.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49My band, just rock n roll in general.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51I'm very loyal to Alice Cooper.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55A lot of times, Alice should have hung it up and moved on.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59But I said, "I will not let this Alice die!"
0:14:59 > 0:15:03So there were about five different careers with Alice.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06And so, yeah, golf became...
0:15:06 > 0:15:10When I quit drinking, I said, "I've got all day here.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12"To do what?
0:15:12 > 0:15:15"I don't work till nine o'clock at night.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19"Am I gonna watch TV all day thinking about alcohol or what?"
0:15:19 > 0:15:23I didn't know how I was gonna react to being sober.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26"I've gotta find something that's a positive addiction."
0:15:26 > 0:15:32I picked up a golf club and I hit the ball and I think I was immediately addicted.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36The ball took off, had a little draw on it,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40landed in the middle of the fairway and it was like a ballet to me.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42I just went, "That was great!"
0:15:42 > 0:15:46So golf is the perfect way of becoming addicted.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51You might hit 60 bad shots, but Lord help you if you hit five good ones.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55Then you're addicted, cos next day, you hit six good ones.
0:15:55 > 0:16:00Then you hit seven or eight good ones and now you don't want to go to work any more.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Because of the example you are to people,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06there clearly are people who are in trouble,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08do you want to get in contact?
0:16:08 > 0:16:11I almost feel it's a duty.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15I've had people call me, major actors call me, and say,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19"Keep this quiet but I really have to go some place and get sober."
0:16:19 > 0:16:24I say, "Let me tell you one thing. You don't go in there to slow down.
0:16:24 > 0:16:29"'I'm gonna take this vacation from alcohol, drugs or whatever.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33"'Then when I come back, everything will be OK.'
0:16:33 > 0:16:38"It won't be. You're going to go right back. Maybe more."
0:16:38 > 0:16:42People go into Betty Ford 15 times. They didn't go in there to stop.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46I think you have to get down to where you can't go any lower
0:16:46 > 0:16:49before you raise your hands and go, "Help!"
0:16:49 > 0:16:54You think you have that moment where you can save yourself. You can't.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58You just gotta get to the lowest rung then give up.
0:16:58 > 0:17:03Something that's less serious but you have to face in a long career
0:17:03 > 0:17:07is this pressure that there are fans who want the early stuff, old stuff.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10Some performers resent that.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13To me, that's suicide! LAUGHS
0:17:13 > 0:17:17I'm a fan. I go to see the Rolling Stones.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21I wanna hear Brown Sugar. I don't wanna hear the reggae version.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24I wanna hear the version I know.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28I wanna hear them do ten or 15 of their greatest songs.
0:17:28 > 0:17:33The Who, Paul McCartney, everybody. My youth is invested in those songs.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36I don't want to see you do them differently.
0:17:36 > 0:17:38Now I'm in that same position.
0:17:38 > 0:17:43When we go on stage, we may do 28 songs in the show.
0:17:43 > 0:17:49I'd say 18 of those songs are standards that you have to do.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53- Eighteen.- School's Out. Billion Dollar Babies, No More Mr Nice Guy,
0:17:53 > 0:17:58Poison, Only Women Bleed, all those songs they have to hear.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02- Elected is a favourite of mine. - It's our last song in the show.
0:18:02 > 0:18:04And I realise,
0:18:04 > 0:18:08if I was in the audience and didn't hear that, I'd feel a little angry.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11# ..Doodle dandy in a gold Rolls-Royce
0:18:11 > 0:18:14# I wanna be elected... #
0:18:16 > 0:18:21But there are hits and then there are what you'd call stage hits.
0:18:21 > 0:18:26Dwight Fry was not a radio hit, but they expect to see Dwight Fry on stage,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28the straightjacket, the guillotine.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31I would never take that away from them.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35I stage it differently. I set it up differently.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40I light it differently but when they see the nurse with a straightjacket,
0:18:40 > 0:18:44the place goes crazy, they want that more than anything.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46I'm not going to not do that.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52SCREAMS: I gotta get outta here! I gotta get outta here!
0:18:52 > 0:18:55I gotta get outta here! I gotta get outta here!
0:18:55 > 0:18:59I gotta get out! I gotta get out! I gotta get outta here!
0:18:59 > 0:19:03Going back into your childhood, you were born in Detroit
0:19:03 > 0:19:06just after the Second World War,
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Vincent Damon Furnier.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13The significance of Damon, Damon Runyon, creator of Nathan Detroit.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Famous in print and more so in Guys N Dolls.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20My dad and my brother... and his brothers, all my uncles,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24were Daschiell Hammett characters, Damon Runyon characters.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28They were actually those wise guys on the corner.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32You know, my Uncle Vince, my Uncle Lefty!
0:19:32 > 0:19:36- You even had an Uncle Lefty, which sounds a fictional character.- Yes.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40I never saw my Uncle Lefty without a tuxedo on
0:19:40 > 0:19:44that was kinda half undone and a martini glass and cigarette.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48He was one of the Rat Pack. He was dating Ava Gardner.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52My dad was sort of in the middle. My dad was a really sharp guy.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55My dad and my mom were jitterbug champions.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57They could dance.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02They had all kinds of trophies for that kind of '40s swing dancing.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06So they were all in that world of Damon Runyon.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10Guys N Dolls, when I watch that movie,
0:20:10 > 0:20:15it looks like I'm looking at a family reunion, you know!
0:20:15 > 0:20:20- Uncle Lefty was "lefty" because he was a boxer?- He was a boxer.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22These guys were all real characters.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26They would sit around. Everybody had a cigarette and a beer.
0:20:26 > 0:20:31They were watching fights on Friday night on this black and white TV.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33I was the only boy in the family.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36I'd sit there watching the fights.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40I'd take a sip of the beer and say, "That's just awful!"
0:20:40 > 0:20:46Cos it tasted awful! I'd take a hit of the cigarette and go, "Who would ever...?!"
0:20:46 > 0:20:50But they were my uncles and they were great. They were really...
0:20:50 > 0:20:55Even when I became an international star, they were still the same guys.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59So when I saw Guys N Dolls and Westside Story
0:20:59 > 0:21:01and those kind of shows...
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Or the Thin Man, William Powell and Myrna Loy,
0:21:04 > 0:21:08I was looking at my family cos they all were those guys.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12Your dad would have been a fantastic Damon Runyon short story.
0:21:12 > 0:21:17The secondhand car salesman who is fatally honest and therefore...
0:21:17 > 0:21:22My dad sold used cars in Detroit in the '50s and couldn't lie.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26He couldn't lie. Honest Mick, they would have called him.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Cos he would sell the guy the car.
0:21:29 > 0:21:35The guy would be driving away and he would stop the car and say, "We turned the odometer back."
0:21:35 > 0:21:39He says, "The axle's broken on the back." He had to confess!
0:21:39 > 0:21:44And the other guys, who were all criminals, would go, "Mick.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46"Come here.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50"You can't be a used car salesman and tell them the truth.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53"Become a preacher. Become a pastor or something."
0:21:53 > 0:21:56And he ended up being that.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59It's in many ways amazing that we're talking to you now.
0:21:59 > 0:22:04Before the age of 20, you almost died twice, I mean, seriously.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08- First of all, burst appendix at the age of 11.- 11 or 12, yeah.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12Peritonitis. They seriously didn't think you would survive.
0:22:12 > 0:22:17I was gone. They took two or three quarts of peritonitis out my stomach.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20The problem was that my appendix broke
0:22:20 > 0:22:26and I didn't get that immediate doubled-over pain that you get.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29I just got sick. I thought I had the flu.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33So for two days, I was throwing up, I thought I had the flu
0:22:33 > 0:22:38when it was peritonitis that was dripping through my system.
0:22:38 > 0:22:43The doctor took my blood then went, "Get this kid to hospital right now!"
0:22:43 > 0:22:47I got there and my white corpuscles were just...
0:22:47 > 0:22:50The doctor was looking at me and thinking I was going to die.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54So I was in the hospital for a month and a half, two months
0:22:54 > 0:22:58before they could even take the appendix out.
0:22:58 > 0:23:04They said, "If we opened him up right now, all of his organs would be like mush.
0:23:04 > 0:23:10"We have to keep draining this poison until he's strong enough to get the operation."
0:23:10 > 0:23:14I weighed 68 pounds. I couldn't eat. I couldn't do anything.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18And once again, another miracle.
0:23:18 > 0:23:25When they did the operation, the doctor told my mom and dad, "When we go in there, he might not be alive."
0:23:25 > 0:23:29They walked in. I was reading a comic book and chewing gum.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Going, "Hey! How you doing?"
0:23:32 > 0:23:36So I was... The doctor went, "What?" LAUGHS
0:23:36 > 0:23:38"The kid has a real will to live!"
0:23:38 > 0:23:421967, by then you were in a band.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44It was The Nazz at that point.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49- The band van was flattened on the freeway.- On Good Friday morning.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53Coming into Los Angeles. Can't say that we hadn't had a few beers.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Cos we had. There were six or seven of us, with all the equipment.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02Coming down, a lady cuts us off and the van starts going like this.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07It flipped over three times, landed on its roof and just spun around.
0:24:07 > 0:24:12It was literally, you could put the whole van... It was like pancake.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14The amps all over the freeway.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19I woke up and I looked up and I was laying on the freeway.
0:24:19 > 0:24:23Glen our guitar player was on the freeway. Dennis was over here.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27We all kind of woke up at the same time and looked around.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32I think the worst injury was a cut here, on one of the guy's shoulder.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35Nobody had a broken bone. Nobody had anything.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39It was just... And the van was destroyed.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44There was nothing left of it. The guys in the band were fine.
0:24:44 > 0:24:50Everybody that was working on the freeway that day said, "Well, everybody's dead."
0:24:50 > 0:24:55And we all got up and sat down on the kerb. We were in shock.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58We were all in shock, but nobody was hurt.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01It was insane that that was...
0:25:01 > 0:25:05If you looked at the van. You would go, "Ah! That's impossible."
0:25:05 > 0:25:10The fourth near-death experience, the most weird one, in Brazil, on stage,
0:25:10 > 0:25:15somebody pulled a gun, which could have been an attempt to kill you.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19There's a picture. It's 158,000 people indoors.
0:25:19 > 0:25:25It was the loudest crowd. It was the biggest indoor concert of all time.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28And there's a picture from back here with us on stage.
0:25:28 > 0:25:34It wasn't the security, it was the army that was in front, there was that many people.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38One of the army guy's gun is gone out of his holster,
0:25:38 > 0:25:44and right behind him there's a guy and he's pointing it right at me.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48Maybe he was just going to shoot it in the air,
0:25:48 > 0:25:52but it was pointed right at me.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56So that was a weird one, that one was.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Your musical influences in childhood.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03You say Elvis was out there, but you didn't take much interest.
0:26:03 > 0:26:09Your dad sang Sinatra in the car but it was Uncle Lefty, he gave you a Chuck Berry record.
0:26:09 > 0:26:14A Chuck Berry record. Sweet Little Sixteen, or something like that.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17It was the first time I'd ever heard that guitar...
0:26:17 > 0:26:19SINGS RIFF
0:26:22 > 0:26:24Just that blues riff.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27And I was immediately this.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29I was already bought into it.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34And I didn't really hear that kind of riff again
0:26:34 > 0:26:38until the Beatles and the Stones, who went back to Chuck Berry.
0:26:38 > 0:26:44We didn't know anything about Sonny Boy Williamson or Willie Dixon or any of these blues guys.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48I thought the first Rolling Stones record, they wrote it all.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52Then I looked and it was all blues guys from the south.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56So they basically sold us back our own music!
0:26:56 > 0:27:00But it was great! They did it so good. They were so cool about it.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04We suddenly started buying these records,
0:27:04 > 0:27:08these old blues records, trying to find songs that we could redo.
0:27:08 > 0:27:13Sixteen, the Chuck Berry, must have been an influence on Eighteen, when you came to it?
0:27:13 > 0:27:15It probably was.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18We did Eighteen during the Vietnam War.
0:27:18 > 0:27:23I think the crux of that song was that "I'm a boy and I'm a man".
0:27:23 > 0:27:29You know. "I'm confused. I can get killed but I can't vote about it.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33"I can't even drink because it's not my age.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37"18 is just miserable - and I like it."
0:27:37 > 0:27:41The punch line at the end was not "I'm 18 and I hate it."
0:27:41 > 0:27:46It was "I'm 18 and I...like it. I love it."
0:27:46 > 0:27:50It's like the confusion of being 18 was great.
0:27:50 > 0:27:57I think that was the punch line of that song. The audience love it when you go, "I'm 18 and I like it!"
0:27:58 > 0:28:02# I gotta get outta this place
0:28:03 > 0:28:06# I'll go running in outer space
0:28:06 > 0:28:08# I'm 18 and I like it
0:28:11 > 0:28:12# Yeah! #
0:28:12 > 0:28:16We've talked about the various ways you might have died in your life.
0:28:16 > 0:28:23- You could have died in Vietnam. Many of your generation did.- We were all 1-A. Everybody in our band...
0:28:23 > 0:28:26To explain, 1-A was that you were good to go.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30If there would have been another big resurgence.
0:28:30 > 0:28:36- We were in college and we should have been 1-Y, but they were getting to the point...- 1-Y was exempted.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Exempted, for being in college, but we were all 1-A.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43And, er... I think we would have gone.
0:28:43 > 0:28:48I don't think there would have been any problem. I was not anti-war.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52I was always taught to be extremely loyal to America.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56And at the time, it was a righteous war.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59At the time. Later, it became something else.
0:28:59 > 0:29:05A couple of years later, we realised we could have won it, and we didn't.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08Why? It was a money-making machine.
0:29:08 > 0:29:13Everybody started protesting the war but at that time, I would have said,
0:29:13 > 0:29:17"Yeah. Let's go get the commies." I would have been happy with that.
0:29:17 > 0:29:24But it was a lottery system that we came out way back on the other end of it, so we never got called.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29But, no, I would have gone! The guys in the band were very much the same.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32The long hair, which you kept throughout your life,
0:29:32 > 0:29:38that was a direct rebellion because in the army you had to have very short hair.
0:29:38 > 0:29:43We lived in Arizona, where hair this long would get you killed
0:29:43 > 0:29:45from drunk cowboys.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49And there were many times when we had to fight our way out to the cars
0:29:49 > 0:29:55to get out of town because in 1965, '66, you would leave...
0:29:55 > 0:29:58There'd be a rock club and a cowboy club.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01They both let out at the same time.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05So we'd be trying to get to our cars and there'd be five, six cowboys
0:30:05 > 0:30:10leaning on your car going, "Hey! You a boy or girl?"
0:30:10 > 0:30:16Lots of times, somebody would break a bar stool, give us one in each hand and say,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19"The only way you're gonna get to your car."
0:30:20 > 0:30:22It was just a melee!
0:30:22 > 0:30:27But there were guys that had long hair that got killed in Phoenix...
0:30:27 > 0:30:31- Seriously?- Guys that were beat to death. They were out on their own.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Car load of cowboys come up, you know, and that was it.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40Now the cowboys have all got hair like me! It's OK to have long hair.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44But back then, if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47it was like rockers and mods, you know.
0:30:47 > 0:30:52Arizona in the 1960s. Not only having long hair but taking a girl's name.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55- That was quite...brave.- Oh, yeah.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58We couldn't have been more slap in the face.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02We were way out on a limb on that one!
0:31:02 > 0:31:04But, yeah, that was it.
0:31:04 > 0:31:08That was going to be the thing that was going to make us different.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12We had no problem wearing our girlfriend's slip,
0:31:12 > 0:31:15as long as it had blood over it, black leather pants
0:31:15 > 0:31:19and motorcycle boots and make-up smeared on.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23We were probably scarier then than we ever were any time.
0:31:23 > 0:31:25There was nothing to compare us to.
0:31:25 > 0:31:30Five of us would walk in, everybody would go, "What the hell is that?"
0:31:30 > 0:31:34So that got Frank Zappa's attention, anyway.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37"I love these guys." You know.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41Alice Cooper is such a famous name, it's one of those amazing things.
0:31:41 > 0:31:46You were sitting round in one of the early bands, looking for a new name.
0:31:46 > 0:31:51- Yeah.- And just for some reason, that came out of your mouth.
0:31:51 > 0:31:56It was one of those things. The guys in the band were all art students.
0:31:56 > 0:32:00Nothing was just going to be what it was.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03It was always more surrealistic than that.
0:32:03 > 0:32:09When we decided to change the name from The Nazz, we said, "We've got to come up with something."
0:32:09 > 0:32:13"How about the Husky Baby Sandwich?" You know! Ridiculous names!
0:32:13 > 0:32:15The Blood Of A Dragon and all that.
0:32:15 > 0:32:21I went, "We've got to come up with something that's the opposite of what we are.
0:32:21 > 0:32:26"What if we had a name like a little old lady that lived down the street?
0:32:26 > 0:32:30"Like an Alice Cooper." That was the first name that came out.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34I could have said Betty Thompson or Martha Franklyn or whatever.
0:32:34 > 0:32:41Alice Cooper was the first name I could think of that sounded like an old lady that baked cookies
0:32:41 > 0:32:43and sat and knitted on her porch.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45Then we started thinking.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50Alice Cooper, Baby Jane, Lizzie Borden.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54It had a rhythm to it that kind of was macabre.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59It had that sort of strangeness to it.
0:32:59 > 0:33:04You never had one of those moments years later thinking, "My mum knew a woman called Alice Cooper"?
0:33:04 > 0:33:08No, but I lost my bank card and I went to my bank.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11And I said, "I lost my bank card."
0:33:11 > 0:33:15The girl didn't look up. She said, "Name?" I said, "Alice Cooper."
0:33:15 > 0:33:19There's 20 Alice Coopers at my bank!
0:33:19 > 0:33:25She said, "Which one are you?" I said, "Probably the only mister."
0:33:25 > 0:33:29We had a thing for every city we went into, it was,
0:33:29 > 0:33:33"If your mother or grandmother or aunt is named Alice Cooper,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36"she gets a free pass backstage."
0:33:36 > 0:33:41We would get backstage, there'd be like nine old ladies with blue hair.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44"I'm Alice Cooper." We'd take pictures with them.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48That became a funny thing. Who's the real Alice Cooper?
0:33:48 > 0:33:53Your manager is like your dad being too honest to be a car salesman.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57He took an amazingly honest stand for somebody in the rock business.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01- Even now, you don't have a formal... - We have no contract.
0:34:01 > 0:34:05We've been together 43 years. Jimi Hendrix knew us.
0:34:05 > 0:34:12We were living in the basement of this black band called The Chambers Brothers in Watts during the riots!
0:34:12 > 0:34:14We were the only white guys.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17We had to look up. There were tanks outside.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20Jimi Hendrix knew who we were. He knew Shep.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24And he says, "Shep, you're Jewish, right?"
0:34:24 > 0:34:30Shep goes, "Yeah." He said, "You need to be a manager. I know a band that needs a manager."
0:34:30 > 0:34:34He put us together. The next day he was my manager and, you know...
0:34:34 > 0:34:37The very next day we got signed by Frank Zappa.
0:34:37 > 0:34:40Everything major happened in two days.
0:34:40 > 0:34:43There are so many stories in rock,
0:34:43 > 0:34:48so many bands end up suing the manager who has stolen the money.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52This is the opposite, with Shep. When you've run out of money,
0:34:52 > 0:34:56you discover that he's locked it away for you.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Yeah. He was very, very... Shep and I had this thing that we...
0:34:59 > 0:35:03I don't know why I trusted him with my life.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07He doesn't know why he trusted me with his life.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11I never questioned him, ever, on any business deal.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15I said, "Shep, you're the smartest business guy I know.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17"You do the business. I'll do the art.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22"We'll meet in the middle and figure out how this works."
0:35:22 > 0:35:28There was never a discussion of what the percentage was, discussion of where the money was...
0:35:28 > 0:35:35And I might have been the only guy in the business for my whole career that had cash.
0:35:35 > 0:35:38Shep made sure I always had cash somewhere.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42Even if I thought I blew all the cash, he had it.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46So, I mean, that was the relationship, always has been.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50- It's another of those narrow escapes. It could... - Oh, yeah.- In this business.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54- There are so many people who ended up with nothing.- That's right.
0:35:54 > 0:36:01A million-to-one that you find a manager that's not going to take advantage of that money coming in.
0:36:01 > 0:36:0550 million albums, you know. It's a lot of cash coming in.
0:36:05 > 0:36:07And I never once, ever...
0:36:07 > 0:36:10even questioned anything.
0:36:10 > 0:36:15He never questioned anything for me and there was never a problem.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19So, to this day... We might get a contract in ten, 20 years.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Just to see how it works out. MARK LAUGHS
0:36:23 > 0:36:29A lot of the Alice character was planned, but some of it, the notoriety, was accidental.
0:36:29 > 0:36:311969, I think, the legend
0:36:31 > 0:36:34that you killed a chicken during a stage show?
0:36:34 > 0:36:41- In the more exotic versions, it goes on that you drank the blood. - Oh, yeah. Never killed a chicken.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44The audience killed a chicken.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48At the end of our show, we would open up feather pillows.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Two pillows would fill this room.
0:36:51 > 0:36:55The next thing I know, there's a chicken on my stage.
0:36:55 > 0:36:5760,000 people out there in Toronto.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00A Canadian had brought a chicken!
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Somebody said, "I've got my wallet, my drugs, my keys, my chicken!
0:37:04 > 0:37:06"Let's go to the show!"
0:37:06 > 0:37:11We didn't bring it! Somebody threw a chicken on stage.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14Being from Detroit, never being on a farm in my life,
0:37:14 > 0:37:19it had wings, it had feathers, it was a bird, it should fly.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22I picked it up and chucked it into the audience,
0:37:22 > 0:37:27hoping it would fly out, somebody would take it home as a nice pet.
0:37:27 > 0:37:32It plummeted into the audience and the audience tore it to pieces.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36Nice hippy Toronto audience tore it to pieces
0:37:36 > 0:37:39and threw the parts back up on stage.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43Next day, "Alice Cooper kills chicken, blood everywhere."
0:37:43 > 0:37:45Of course, it never happened.
0:37:45 > 0:37:50The kicker to the story is the first five rows were in wheelchairs.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53They were the ones that killed the chicken.
0:37:53 > 0:37:58That made it more weird to me. "I'll kill this chicken and throw it back up!"
0:37:58 > 0:38:03Frank Zappa called and says, "Alice, did you kill a chicken last night?"
0:38:03 > 0:38:07I went, "No." He said, "Don't tell anybody. They love it!"
0:38:07 > 0:38:09I went, "They love it?"
0:38:09 > 0:38:12And realised that I was suddenly this...
0:38:12 > 0:38:15vicious, insane killer of chicken.
0:38:15 > 0:38:21Nobody ever said anything about Colonel Sanders kills a billion chickens a week!
0:38:21 > 0:38:24But this rock star killed a chicken.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27You know, I can deny it now because it never happened,
0:38:27 > 0:38:30but at the time I didn't deny it.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33The more conscious decision was the snakes.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37I was surprised by this because I'm frightened of snakes,
0:38:37 > 0:38:41but apparently, as long as they're well fed, they're not dangerous.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45I was just like you. I was backstage in Florida at a concert.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50One of the girls backstage had just a little...boa constrictor.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53This big. I jumped!
0:38:53 > 0:38:57And immediately thought, "Wow! If I jumped like that,
0:38:57 > 0:39:01"what would a snake five times that big look like on stage?"
0:39:01 > 0:39:05So I had to learn to like the snake, too.
0:39:05 > 0:39:10I had to learn to pick up the snake, put it around my neck and go, "OK."
0:39:10 > 0:39:12I knew it was going to get a reaction.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16I immediately went out and we found this big eight-foot snake,
0:39:16 > 0:39:22put it on and, honestly, I was just like everybody else, like that.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Until I realised that it really had no problem.
0:39:25 > 0:39:27It kind of liked it up there.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32# Now, is it my body?
0:39:34 > 0:39:36# Or something I might be?
0:39:38 > 0:39:41# Or something inside me, yeah... #
0:39:41 > 0:39:43And for your parents.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Your dad, as you say, was a preacher,
0:39:46 > 0:39:50and in the British newspapers you were often called the Antichrist.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55I wasn't in politics, so I couldn't have been the Antichrist.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59- LAUGHS - But was it uncomfortable for them?
0:39:59 > 0:40:04I think there was a period of time when my dad and mom both paid for it
0:40:04 > 0:40:07because the press did paint me as being
0:40:07 > 0:40:12the worst thing to happen to anybody's kids ever, of all time.
0:40:12 > 0:40:16And we milked that. I saw that as an opportunity.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20The more the parents hated me, the more the kids liked me.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25But my parents did go through a lot of stuff.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29My dad, though, had a great sense of humour. My mom did, too.
0:40:29 > 0:40:33My dad would actually address the church,
0:40:33 > 0:40:37and say, "Look, you all know Vince, since he was this big.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40"You know his sense of humour."
0:40:40 > 0:40:45And they had to agree that that was my dark sense of humour.
0:40:45 > 0:40:49I was either going to be an actor or this and this is what it ended up being.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52So they gave him a pass on it, you know.
0:40:52 > 0:40:57There was nothing anti-Christian about what I was doing.
0:40:57 > 0:41:03I always had that core of believing, so I would never cross the line.
0:41:03 > 0:41:09You know, I never claimed Satan as anything except an enemy.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12I always looked at Satan as the enemy.
0:41:12 > 0:41:17- Never as my ally.- It's been said that you've been crucified on stage.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19- Is that a myth?- I never did that.
0:41:19 > 0:41:24I would never do that. That would be something Alice would never do.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27That would go totally against Alice's grain.
0:41:27 > 0:41:32First of all, he would think that that was too...obvious.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35He would think that that was too sacrilegious.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42Obviously, they cut my head off. They hung me.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45I would never do a crucifixion.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48That would be going totally against what I believe.
0:41:48 > 0:41:50That would be blasphemous.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57It's strange. Few people thought David Bowie was Aladdin Sane.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01They saw it as a character he took on, but it was odd with you.
0:42:01 > 0:42:03People thought that you were Alice.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06Yeah. And, I mean, there was a...
0:42:06 > 0:42:10Well, you have to remember, we did not have internet.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13We didn't have immediate information.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16We had a lot of good urban legend.
0:42:16 > 0:42:22By the time it got to Mary Whitehouse, we were the worst things that could come to England.
0:42:22 > 0:42:24They immediately banned us.
0:42:24 > 0:42:28So the notoriety of Alice Cooper became even more.
0:42:28 > 0:42:31"What did he do?" "He set a German Shepherd on fire!"
0:42:31 > 0:42:34"He did this and he did that."
0:42:34 > 0:42:38By the time I got here, I was the worst human being on the planet.
0:42:38 > 0:42:43But the public, the British public...hated the fact
0:42:43 > 0:42:47that Mary Whitehouse was telling them what they couldn't see.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52My allies were the British public. They crusaded for me and said,
0:42:52 > 0:42:56"Even if we don't like him, let us decide we don't like him."
0:42:56 > 0:43:00But when they did see it they liked it so, I mean...!
0:43:00 > 0:43:05I always credit the British public for actually
0:43:05 > 0:43:09being a very big part of Alice's career.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13The American public didn't get me till the British public got me.
0:43:13 > 0:43:20I think they got the tongue-in-cheek sense of humour behind what I was doing.
0:43:20 > 0:43:26It's interesting you say that your parents would say at the church, "It's Vince's sense of humour."
0:43:26 > 0:43:30It is very funny. School's Out is a funny song. Poison.
0:43:30 > 0:43:34"I'd like to kiss you, but you're next of kin." They're funny songs.
0:43:34 > 0:43:39Yes. To me, the cleverness of the lyrics were very important to me.
0:43:39 > 0:43:44I'd say, "Nobody has written more clever lyrics than Chuck Berry."
0:43:44 > 0:43:46So I would listen to Chuck Berry.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50I said, "What you do is you write the punch line first,
0:43:50 > 0:43:52"then back up the song.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55"That's how you write these songs."
0:43:55 > 0:44:01Ray Davies was very good at that, writing Lola and Dedicated Follower Of Fashion.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05So I learned from watching those guys, how they did it.
0:44:05 > 0:44:12Then I did it and took it one step further and said, "Here's a story in three minutes.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15"Here's a bigger story in 12 songs."
0:44:15 > 0:44:22So it became a bit more of a Broadway theatrical piece for me.
0:44:22 > 0:44:27The key thing about Alice, which we've mentioned, was that parents hated Alice Cooper
0:44:27 > 0:44:30and young people liked Alice.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34- The key song in that respect is School's Out.- Yeah.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38It reflects what students think rather than their parents.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42You figure this, how many chances do you get to write an anthem
0:44:42 > 0:44:46that everybody on every continent's going to get?
0:44:46 > 0:44:50What can you say that's gonna unite that many people...?
0:44:50 > 0:44:54- Did you think as consciously as that?- Yeah.- You did?
0:44:54 > 0:44:58We knew there was Happy Birthday, there was Merry Christmas.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01I said, "What is that common denominator?
0:45:01 > 0:45:04"School. What about school?
0:45:04 > 0:45:10"The last day of school. The last three minutes before you have three months off!"
0:45:10 > 0:45:15The biggest release of all time. You knew you didn't have to go to school for three months.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18If we can capture that three minutes
0:45:18 > 0:45:22and that reaction in a song, it's gonna be huge.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26We started writing "school's out", "school's been blown to pieces",
0:45:26 > 0:45:28"school's this, school's that."
0:45:28 > 0:45:32It has a built-in guitar part that was almost...
0:45:32 > 0:45:34SINGS CHILDISHLY
0:45:34 > 0:45:36It was really bratty.
0:45:36 > 0:45:41That was the only song out of all the hits that I was sure was a hit.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45All the other ones, I went, "Maybe. I don't know. Maybe."
0:45:45 > 0:45:48You listened to it for three minutes and you went,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51"It's the anthem of all anthems."
0:45:53 > 0:45:58# School's out completely
0:46:00 > 0:46:06# School's been blown to pieces... #
0:46:06 > 0:46:09Then you start writing and thinking,
0:46:09 > 0:46:14"What's the next one?" You try to write, School's Back In.
0:46:14 > 0:46:18Nobody's celebrating that! Nobody says, "Yay! School's back in!"
0:46:18 > 0:46:21You get one of those in your life.
0:46:21 > 0:46:23School's Out was ours.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27My Generation was The Who's. Satisfaction, the Rolling Stones'.
0:46:27 > 0:46:33When you hear that one song, that's the one that connects you with that band for ever.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37So that was our... sort of our key song.
0:46:37 > 0:46:41- Alice began to have interesting fans.- Yeah.- Salvador Dali.
0:46:41 > 0:46:45You'd started as an art student interested in Surrealism.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48- He was our hero. - Then you end up with...
0:46:48 > 0:46:52He actually did specifically say he liked Alice Cooper?
0:46:52 > 0:46:56He didn't just like it. He created a piece of art around it.
0:46:56 > 0:47:00He said, "I'm going to do a three-dimensional hologram."
0:47:00 > 0:47:04He didn't say that. We couldn't understand a word he said!
0:47:04 > 0:47:08But it was Alice Cooper on this pedestal, singing a song
0:47:08 > 0:47:10with all these diamonds on.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14It took three days to shoot it, and you could put your hand through it.
0:47:14 > 0:47:20But it was moving. I don't know how he came up with the idea how to shoot it, but he did.
0:47:20 > 0:47:25Then the third day he comes in and he had his hand behind his back,
0:47:25 > 0:47:29and he goes, "This is the Alice Cooper brain."
0:47:31 > 0:47:35And it was this plaster brain that he had built that night.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39It had a chocolate eclair running down the back.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44It had ants crawling all over it, painted on, that said, "Alice and Dali."
0:47:44 > 0:47:47And I went, "That's great. Can I have it?"
0:47:47 > 0:47:50He goes, "Course not. It's worth millions!"
0:47:50 > 0:47:56The idea was in this painting that this brain was falling out of the back of my head.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00I wonder, the darkness that is there in the Alice act,
0:48:00 > 0:48:03the many references to death and guillotines.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08- You've got skull and crossbones socks on.- Yes. Very scary socks.
0:48:08 > 0:48:14Is there a connection there, that you've had to think about death a lot?
0:48:14 > 0:48:18I think that it's classic that there's no...
0:48:18 > 0:48:21There has never been any commercial movie,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24any Shakespeare play, any book,
0:48:24 > 0:48:30anything that's been a commercial success, that didn't have to do with sex, death or money.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Those are the three things that everybody's most interested in.
0:48:34 > 0:48:39Death is something that, since we don't know exactly what happens...
0:48:39 > 0:48:43As a Christian, I know what I think happens.
0:48:43 > 0:48:49It's always that mysterious place to go. What happens afterwards?
0:48:49 > 0:48:51My show was always a morality play.
0:48:51 > 0:48:56If you're the bad guy, no matter how much fun you have, you're gonna get it.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01Alice always got his head cut off, or hung. The villain has to get it.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03So, what happens after that?
0:49:03 > 0:49:07Next time you see Alice, he comes out in a white top hat and tail.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11Fred Astaire style. Balloons with confetti. He's back.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15The party's started again. That's always been the style of the show.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18# ..Baby, baby
0:49:18 > 0:49:21# Come on and save me, save me
0:49:21 > 0:49:25# My, my baby, baby
0:49:25 > 0:49:28# Come on and save me now... #
0:49:28 > 0:49:31There are lots of horror movie references.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35You've also become involved in various horror movies.
0:49:35 > 0:49:41As an actor - Prince Of Darkness, Nightmare On Elm Street. You're on the soundtrack of Scream.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45Being involved in those movies was something I really liked.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47I liked being asked to do that.
0:49:47 > 0:49:52Cos I always looked at myself and Ozzie as the new monsters,
0:49:52 > 0:49:54the new generation's monsters.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59So when we got asked to be involved in those movies, which were the modern...
0:49:59 > 0:50:05They weren't Dracula and Frankenstein. They were the new killers, the boogie man, basically.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10I enjoyed either writing songs for it or doing a cameo in it.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13Playing Freddy Krueger's father,
0:50:13 > 0:50:18I had to be this Southern, kind of real horrible sorta...
0:50:18 > 0:50:21you know, Tennessee Williams kinda drunk.
0:50:21 > 0:50:26'That was fun cos I didn't play Alice. I got to play somebody else.'
0:50:26 > 0:50:28Are you ready for it, boy?
0:50:29 > 0:50:33You've been a waste since the day I took you in.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35Now it's time to take your medicine.
0:50:40 > 0:50:44'And because of Scream and the Alice stage show,'
0:50:44 > 0:50:49you curated a season at the National Film Theatre of horror movies.
0:50:49 > 0:50:51Does that go back to teenage years?
0:50:51 > 0:50:55Oh, no. This big. In Detroit, we were this big.
0:50:55 > 0:51:02On Saturday, our parents would drop us off at the movie theatre, we would sit there all day.
0:51:02 > 0:51:07And have the best time of our life. They were a little bit scary. We would run out then come back in.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09Cos you wanted to see it.
0:51:09 > 0:51:16When they asked me to put together a list of the best Halloween movies, it's fun for me.
0:51:16 > 0:51:20I go through the list and go, "Oh! I forgot about that one."
0:51:20 > 0:51:25The Haunting Of Hill House. Claire Bloom and Julie Harris.
0:51:25 > 0:51:30That's a good one. You never see the monster. It just scares the hell out of you.
0:51:30 > 0:51:35I like finding those old ones that everybody forgot about.
0:51:35 > 0:51:41A lot of the newer scary movies aren't anywhere near as scary as some made in the '60s.
0:51:41 > 0:51:48One thing you've been doing in England is filming the new Tim Burton film, Dark Shadows.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52That goes back to your adolescence. It was an American TV show.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56It was an American soap opera which was so out of place.
0:51:56 > 0:52:02It would have been equal to Coronation Street or something like that, only it was vampires!
0:52:02 > 0:52:06And they had all the same problems that the people next door had.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09The daughter getting pregnant.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14All of a sudden, his brother had a twin that nobody knew about.
0:52:14 > 0:52:18All the same plot things, except they were vampires.
0:52:18 > 0:52:24And only Tim Burton would remember that soap opera enough to bring it back to life.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26You know.
0:52:26 > 0:52:31And I think only Johnny Depp would be the guy to play the main vampire.
0:52:31 > 0:52:37So when they called me to play it, I went, "Dark Shadows? Really? I'm in!"
0:52:39 > 0:52:41It's really going to be...
0:52:41 > 0:52:45Tim Burton has to be a long-lost brother or cousin of mine.
0:52:45 > 0:52:51We talked the other night and every single reference point we had was the same reference point.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53The same movies, everything.
0:52:53 > 0:52:58We grew up, basically, together, but never meeting each other!
0:52:58 > 0:53:02It struck me, he must have been influenced by Alice.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07- It's the classic look that Tim Burton goes for... - When it came to rock n roll,
0:53:07 > 0:53:09I was his guy
0:53:09 > 0:53:13because I was, basically, the rock n roll monster that he wanted.
0:53:13 > 0:53:19I came along, and there it was. He knew all the songs, the lyrics, everything. So did Johnny.
0:53:19 > 0:53:25I'm a fan of theirs. They're a fan of mine. That worked out well.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30We talked about people becoming confused between you and Alice, the character,
0:53:30 > 0:53:35people who think you're going to be scary and difficult and frightening.
0:53:35 > 0:53:39- You must get a lot of, "You're actually really nice!"- I do!
0:53:39 > 0:53:44I'm Mr Nice Guy. I never say no to an autograph, no to a picture.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47I generally do like people, you know.
0:53:47 > 0:53:49Which, I think, surprised people.
0:53:49 > 0:53:56When I first started being Alice, I didn't know, "Am I supposed to go to the movies with a snake?"
0:53:56 > 0:54:00"Do I put my make-up on in order not to disappoint people?"
0:54:00 > 0:54:03That's when that grey area started getting clear.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07That guy couldn't live in my world and I couldn't live in his.
0:54:07 > 0:54:13So I started going, "I just gotta be me and let Alice be Alice."
0:54:13 > 0:54:17People go, "How come you don't live in a big dark castle somewhere?"
0:54:17 > 0:54:20And I go... What can you do?
0:54:20 > 0:54:23In golf or music, do you still have ambitions?
0:54:23 > 0:54:26Are there things you think, "I want to do that?"
0:54:26 > 0:54:29I think there should be an Alice Cooper Broadway play.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33- Whether I'm in it or not doesn't matter.- A sort of Mamma Mia?
0:54:33 > 0:54:37- Yes.- Using the songs. - There's so much story involved.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41The songs are already written and who doesn't want to see a play
0:54:41 > 0:54:44that's sort of written in a nightmare?
0:54:44 > 0:54:46It could be a lot of fun.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49I think that play will probably happen...
0:54:49 > 0:54:52probably as an homage to Alice Cooper
0:54:52 > 0:54:54after I'm probably done,
0:54:54 > 0:54:59because it's a really good story and the songs are right there.
0:54:59 > 0:55:05I've always wanted to do Welcome 2 My Nightmare on Broadway, without watering it down.
0:55:05 > 0:55:11Without taking an orchestra and making it palatable for 75-year-old people from Iowa.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15Let them go see Mamma Mia. Great. The Alice Cooper show would be rock.
0:55:15 > 0:55:19It would be a real band playing at full Alice volume those songs.
0:55:19 > 0:55:25What would happen on stage would be, not just visual, not just auditory,
0:55:25 > 0:55:31but smell, have the seats wired a little bit for a little shock.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35Never knowing who's sitting next to you,
0:55:35 > 0:55:37if they're in the show or not.
0:55:37 > 0:55:42A guy next to you might all of a sudden go up into the ceiling.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47A sort of Hell's-A-Poppin', where the theatre itself IS the show.
0:55:47 > 0:55:53You kind of don't know if you're in the show or not. That would be a great show.
0:55:53 > 0:55:57I think it's not going to happen till I'm, like, 70.
0:55:57 > 0:56:00Maybe another seven years, but I would like to direct it.
0:56:00 > 0:56:07I would like to sit back there and have the fun of directing somebody else playing me.
0:56:07 > 0:56:09I think that would be a lot of fun.
0:56:09 > 0:56:15I would say, "Alice wouldn't do that! Are you crazy? Alice wouldn't say that!"
0:56:15 > 0:56:21- Do you have a cut-off date? Can you see yourself being Alice 70s, 80s? - I don't see why not.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24I think if you're physically able to do it.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28I always said if I get fat, if I lose my hair,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31if I get on stage and I don't want to do this any more,
0:56:31 > 0:56:34if the audience doesn't show up,
0:56:34 > 0:56:37those are all things that would make me go, "OK, enough."
0:56:37 > 0:56:42None of that's happened, so there's no reason for me to stop.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46At 63, I'm probably in better shape than I was when I was 30.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50When I was 30, I felt like I was 63, cos I had partied that much.
0:56:50 > 0:56:54But when I quit drinking, 30 years later, I'm 63,
0:56:54 > 0:56:58I have got more energy now than I ever had when I was 30.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01I don't see where the cut-off point is.
0:57:01 > 0:57:06Mick Jagger's four years older than me. He does three hours on stage.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11He's kind of a prototype for me. I look at him and go, "OK!"
0:57:11 > 0:57:14You know. "Party on, Mick!"
0:57:14 > 0:57:17You talk about being loyal to Alice.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21We've all seen comedians who have a particular character,
0:57:21 > 0:57:24they retire the character and go off on another one.
0:57:24 > 0:57:30- Have you ever thought, "I'm going to cut the hair..."- No. - "..and get an acoustic guitar"?
0:57:30 > 0:57:33I like the idea that Alice became
0:57:33 > 0:57:36woven into the fabric of rock n roll as a character.
0:57:36 > 0:57:4150 years after I'm dead, I hope there's somebody else playing Alice.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45I just think he's now a true American character.
0:57:45 > 0:57:50I think he's now... You could go to a halloween store and buy an Alice costume.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53And I'm very happy with that.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57I'm very, very happy to have created a character the way Edgar Allan Poe
0:57:57 > 0:57:59created a character,
0:57:59 > 0:58:03the way that Tom Sawyer was created or any fictitious character.
0:58:03 > 0:58:09I'm kind of proud that I did create a character that will, hopefully, live on.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13- Alice Cooper, thank you very much. - Thank you.
0:58:13 > 0:58:19MUSIC: "Eighteen" by Alice Cooper
0:58:24 > 0:58:27Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:27 > 0:58:30E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk