The Metro has an interview with Alice about The Vampires 
‘It’s a very odd thing for all of us to be off tour at the same time,’ says Alice. ‘Johnny’s either making a movie or Joe’s with Aerosmith and I’m with my band. We had to carve out this time like a year in advance in order to honour everybody’s schedule. Johnny had to do five movies last year, just so he could take off enough time to work on the album and go on tour.’
The Hollywood Vampires is all about honouring ‘dead, drunk friends’. The idea originated in the 1970s in the Rainbow Bar & Grill on Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip. The upstairs bar was frequented by hedonists such as Jim Morrison, Keith Moon and Jimi Hendrix, and to join the club you simply had to outdrink the existing members. What could go wrong?
The lifestyle took its toll on dozens of stars, and today’s Hollywood Vampires’ setlists comprise cover versions of their music, as well as a few tracks that Alice, Johnny and Joe have written themselves, including one called My Dead Drunk Friends, which includes the lines: ‘We drink and we fight/and we fight and we puke/and we puke and we fight and we drink/we drink and we puke/and we fight and we puke/and then we die.’
Alice laughs: ‘One of my friends said, “Hey, you guys never do any of my songs,” and I go. “You really don’t want us to. You don’t want to be in the group: they have one thing in common that you don’t want to have in common with them.”’
Alice’s onstage persona terrified middle America and beyond in the mid-1970s, thanks to a clever cocktail of nightmarish make-up and urban myths (he never killed a chicken at a concert but let the rumour flourish because the publicity was dynamite).
In reality, the man behind songs such as School’s Out, Poison and Only Women Bleed is an avuncular, clean-living, golf-loving, family man who probably has an assiduous skincare regime. Asked whether he has any regrets, he says: ‘You would think that the alcoholism would be something I would have avoided and yet, in a lot of ways, it shaped me. But I haven’t had a drink or any drugs in 37 years now. I’m 70 now and I’m never tired. Everybody calls me the Energizer bunny.’
Given that alcohol may have played a large role in Johnny Depp’s problems (including allegations of domestic violence), does it question the band’s celebratory approach to legendary boozers? Alice leaps to his friend’s defence.
‘I know Johnny pretty well,’ he says. ‘When I read all the stuff I go, “Wow, this is such bull.” He’s the sweetest person you’ll ever meet in your life. There’s not a mean bone in the guy’s body.’
He’s also full of praise for the actor’s musical abilities. ‘He can play with anybody. If you throw a lead at him he’ll throw it right back at you. He originally went to Hollywood to be a guitar player and became an actor by accident. Some director saw him and said, “Hey we want you to do this film,” and he said, “Yeah, I’ll do it for a bit to support my band,” and ended up being one of the highest paid actors in Hollywood.
‘He’s also the most humble guy I’ve ever seen. I’m the one who makes him stand up in front on stage, and when he says, “I don’t wanna sing that song — I can’t sing,” I say: “You did Sweeney Todd!” and he says, “Oh, right. I did.”’
Alice is also very good-natured when people repeat the ‘We’re not worthy’ line immortalised by Wayne’s World to him. ‘I always try to pretend that nobody’s ever done that. Like, “Oh, how clever.” I’ve just had dinner with (Wayne’s World star and creator) Mike Myers. I see him all the time. He said, “I could have stuck you with something much worse than that.”’ And you can’t argue with that." In other news
There is a new limited edition deluxe book by Martin Popoff entitle 'Welcome To My Nightmare: Fifty Years of Alice Cooper' due to be released on August 18th directly from publisher WymerUK only - £59.99
The press release reads: "This large format tome from Martin Popoff is an easy to read book utilising his celebrated timeline with quotes methodology, allowing for drop-ins on all aspects of Alice’s busy life. The author has made use of his extensive archive of interviews with Alice and the band as well as producers, designers and even The Amazing Randi, world-renowned magician and inventor of Alice’s legendary guillotine prop. 'Welcome To My Nightmare' is an immense addition to Alice Cooper scholarship. Alice Cooper was one of the biggest concert draws in the seventies with a string of gold and platinum albums to his name. Alice continued to shake pop consciousness with 'Welcome to My Nightmare' and a string of hit ballads. He appeared regularly on TV and talk shows. Following a debilitating drug and alcohol addiction and subsequent notorious dark period in the early eighties which is addressed in the book, Alice returned to gold and platinum status with albums like 'Trash' and 'Hey Stoopid', featuring smash singles “Poison” and “Feed My Frankenstein.” He’s never stopped touring and being a multi-media whirlwind since - Alice, with his pioneering use of facepaint, remains one of the most famous faces in America. The key here is the rich content Popoff brings to the project. 'Welcome To My Nightmare' is sure to impress the Alice expert and novice alike, with new revelations and interviews turning up page after page.
Fully illustrated throughout with many unpublished photos this is the largest and most comprehensive Alice Cooper book ever published."  
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People try to put us down
Just because we get around
Golly, Gee! it's wrong to be so guilty |