Alice Cooper, Continued...
HG: Is the song "Gimme" from the perspective of the devil?
Alice Cooper: Yes, absolutely. Thank you! I'm so glad that somebody picked that up. People always think that the devil is gonna come as this evil character; he's not. He's probably gonna come as the most appealing guy you've ever seen...
HG: ... or one of my old girlfriends!
Alice Cooper: ...or one of your old girlfriends. And she did come up, I want you to know that...her name did come up! But, he’s always gonna say, “Whatever you want; I’m your only friend.” And Man’s point of view is “Gimme this!” It’s like turning a kid loose in Toys R Us. So the devil says, “I’ll give you anything you want,”...you’ll notice he says, “Kneel down, I’ll give you what you need.” All he wants is that; when he was tempting Christ in the wilderness, he said, “I’ll give you anything you want, just kneel down and tell me. That’s all he wanted, the “kneel down” part. I had to throw that in; it was too appropriate for this song.
HG: I hear a similarity between the riff on "Cold Machines," and the one from Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People"...
Alice Cooper: I didn’t notice that; I don’t write the music, I write the lyrics, and somebody brought that to my attention. I said, “Y’know, it’s a rock n’ roll riff, I guess there’s a million of those. There’ll probably be 10 more of those coming out.” If it is, it’s kind of ironic. I sort of like the idea that finally, something sounds like somebody else!
HG: It kind of serves as a ribbing, given the context...
Alice Cooper: I’d like to think of it that way...
HG: Does the fact that Marilyn Manson exists make you angry, happy or indifferent? I consider him a poor imitation of the original. Your thoughts?
Alice Cooper: I’ve never met Marilyn. I’ve met everybody else in the band. I like the song “Dope Show”...There are a couple of songs I really, really, like. I understand that he’s changed his image a whole lot. I had a really big problem when he first came out, tearing the Bible up and all that, and then calling me his hero. I was like, “Wait a minute, let’s get this straight;what I do on stage is pretty much warning people like you. I think he’s very smart. I think he knows how to push all the right buttons, and I think if he concentrated on the music, he’d be around for a very long time. The theatrics are easy, but I think he needs to find some good writers, because he’s a good lyricist.
HG: "Take It Like A Woman" tells a horrific story about a woman who was tortured and killed...
Alice Cooper: She was tortured and killed because she took it too long. She’s one of these women I never understand. When I’m watching TV and watching these battered women and they’re saying, “It’s the tenth time he’s beaten me up and almost killed me,” I’m just like, “then why are you there?” The first time someone hit me, I’d be gone. Why does somebody stay there? I always believed that women are emotionally stronger, and physically stronger -- they can take more actual pain than men can, so “Take It Like A Woman” is actually probably more correct. And on stage we do “Take It Like A Woman” into “Only Women Bleed,” and it really does connect well. I think women will understand that this is about a woman that took it too long. It ends up that you realize he’s singing it from her grave.
HG: I’m actually very surprised by your spiritual nature...
Alice Cooper: I’m politically incoherent. People ask me if I’m politically correct, and I’m like, “I’m Alice Cooper. I should be able to say what I want to say. Just because it doesn’t jive with what the general rock n’ roll public says, that’s not my problem. The amazing thing is, if Alice Cooper pisses off the rock n’ roll community for something he says, that’s the ultimate rebellion for him! I think that I say it pretty powerfully record. I don’t do christian rock, but I am a christian. It’s more prophetic rock: here it comes, guys!
HG: As always, your lyrics are really cutting; you obviously focus when you write.
Alice Cooper: You know what was a really hard song for me to write? “Blow Me A Kiss”...”blow me a kiss/and blow me away.” This is not veiled. It’s about Columbine. These people are senseless, absolutely senseless. They’re point of view is; “You’re black? You’re dead. You’re gay? You’re dead. You’re afraid? You’re dead.” We can’t ignore that, I can’t let that one go by. And “wicked Young Man” is another one. When he says, “I’ve got a pocket full of bullets and a blueprint of the school”? I wrote him as a futurists character, but this kid is now.
HG: How previous to Columbine did you write this?
Alice Cooper: I can’t positively say that is was before Columbine, but when I heard about [the shootings] I was just like, “Sheeesh...this is now. When that happens, you can’t just say, “I’m not gonna write this,” to be sensitive. I think you hafta write it to be sensitive. So, in the song “Wicked Young Man,” I’m not condoning him, I’m exposing him. I’ve got three kids, a 19 year old girl, a 15 year old boy, and a seven year-old girl in a great big house. I know if my son’s got a firecracker; I know if he’s got a hunting knife. How can you not know a person’s got 50 bombs and a shotgun? If you’ve got kids, you know where they’re at. It’s part of being a dad. If you’re that removed from your kids, something’s really wrong. So, if this Wicked Young Man is out there, somebody should be picking up on his vibe.
HG: My understanding is that there was a time where the line between Vincent Furnier and the character of Alice got very blurred...
Alice Cooper: Well, I was an alcoholic for a very long time. About 18 years ago I quit drinking.
HG: So, sobriety helped you separate the two identities?
Alice Cooper: I thought I had to be Alice in order to be believable. I thought I had to go out and wear the make-up with a snake around my neck. I lived in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and I’d go out in all black. I thought I had to be this heavy character. You have to remember, I used to drink with Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin, and Keith Moon, and John Lennon. Almost every one of my big brothers died...Jimi Hendrix. These are all people that tried to live their image. I learned that you’d better separate that image.
HG: On a cool note, I’m happy I’m talking to the person I’m talking to...
Alice Cooper: Oh yeah, you don’t wanna talk to Alice. I tell people Alice doesn’t do interviews. Alice does shows. I hafta talk for Alice. I like Alice, because he's my favorite rock star, and if there's ever a day when he's not my favorite rock star, then I'd better hang him up. I always invent him--every show--to be somebody that I would really like to see. So, if there's ever a day that I like to watch somebody better than me, then I better re-invent Alice again.
HG: By the way, I was listening to Flush the Fashion this morning. I love that record.
Alice Cooper: Yeah, I do too. There's some very odd stuff on that record; "Aspirin Damage"...
HG: "Talk Talk"..."Leather Boots"...
Alice Cooper: "Leather Boots" was a weird little song, wasn't it?
HG: That reminds me of the days of hangin' out on street corners in combat boots...I think I understood what you meant.
Alice Cooper: I listen to those albums and I go, "What the hell was I thinking then?" It was a whole different time. There are three albums I don't remember doing. I don't remember doing Dada. I don't remember Special Forces, or Zipper Catches Skin. Those were three albums during my blackout period, and I listen back to them and I go, "Ha...there's some pretty cool stuff on there!"
HG: You worked with Bob Ezrin for awhile...why did the two of you part ways?
Alice Cooper: Bob is actually executive producer on the new album...I brought him back...He had just finished working with Trent Reznor on Fragile, and I was thinking, "For this album, I need someone that understands my type of theatricality. So to Bob Marlett -- who produced the record -- I said, "I wanna use Bob Ezrin as my executive producer, to be the overseer of this whole project. Because he did ...Nightmare, he did School's Out...he did all my of my big albums, all the theatrical albums. Bob was the one--anytime we started getting soft--who would go "No, that's getting too soft. We hafta get back to the raunch."
HG: Speaking of School's Out, there was a pair of panties packaged with the original record...
Alice Cooper: [laughs] Yeah, limited edition!
HG: What was the idea behind that?
Alice Cooper: When you were in high school, what was the most prized possession you could have in your desk?
HG: The same thing I see as my most prized possession now...
Alice Cooper: When you were that age and you opened your desk and pulled out a pair of panties, you scored. Instead of a paper wrapper, we just decided to give every 15 year-old boy bragging rights! And if you find one, they're very collectable!
[Alice gets a beep; there's another interview waiting].
Alice Cooper: Well, thank you very much; that was fun!
HG: Thank you very much; I wish you the best.
Alice Cooper: Again, I really appreciate when people listen to the lyrics and actually get it! You're in the five percent!
HG: Thank you Alice! X
*****
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN HORROR GARAGE #2.
ISSUE OUT OF PRINT.
*****
