alice cooper tour band

Nita Strauss will return to Alice Cooper’s lineup for 2023 tour

After taking temporary leave to perform alongside Demi Lovato, the Ibanez signature artist is set to reunite with Cooper and co for a string of tour dates this year

After taking temporary leave to join Demi Lovato’s new all-female band for an extensive tour last year, Nita Strauss will be reuniting with Alice Cooper for a run of North American dates later this year.

The tour, dubbed Too Close For Comfort , will kick off in April, and will be the first time Cooper and Strauss have shared the stage as formal bandmates since the latter left to link-up with Lovato in July last year.

The move put a brief pause on the pair’s musical relationship, which began when Strauss joined the band back in 2014, though the door for Strauss’s return had always been a possibility when the electric guitar hero said the move wasn’t a formal departure and that she “may have a chance to come back”.

“She's back!” Cooper said of Strauss’s return. “Nita asked for a leave of absence to work with someone else, something I always encourage my band members to do. I like them to challenge themselves and try new things. 

“I'm thankful to my old friend Kane Roberts for stepping up and filling in for her, but she'll be back with us for the new tour that starts up in late April. It's going to be great to have her back."

A post shared by 𝐍 𝐈 𝐓 𝐀 𝐒 𝐓 𝐑 𝐀 𝐔 𝐒 𝐒 (@hurricanenita) A photo posted by on

“From the studio to the stage, it's always an immense honor to make music with Alice Cooper,” added Strauss. “I'm very excited to be rejoining the band on the road for the 2023 dates, and so I'll see you on the road in April. Let the nightmare return!”

The tour is set to kick off in April at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, with Cooper’s band set to play a run of headline shows that will conclude on May 18 at the Beau Rivage Theatre. A slot at Welcome to Rockville on May 20 will cap off the run.

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In August, Strauss, Cooper and co will then join up with Def Leppard and Motley Crue for six shows, before heading out on a co-headline tour with Rob Zombie throughout the remainder of August and most of September.

When Strauss made the move to Lovato’s band, she told Guitar World that the career change had partly been motivated by a desire to inspire a new generation of fans to play music, and to introduce guitar to individuals who otherwise might not have been interested in the instrument.

“If we can reach this next generation of passionate and intense fans, and inspire them to play music, isn’t that a wonderful thing?” she said. “They might pick up a guitar or bass, try out drums or see Dani [McGinley] on keys and think, ‘I could do that!’ Some of these younger fans might not have been reached through a traditional rock show.”

Though she left Cooper for his 2022 tour – and was replaced by the vocalist’s former axeman, Kane Roberts – Strauss rejoined the band for a one-off performance wielding a Jackson Jeff Loomis signature Kelly.

Strauss’ return to the fold almost seemed like an inevitability, after the guitarist reassured fans that original reports of her departure had turned it “into a much bigger decision than it was”.

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Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World , Guitarist and Total Guitar . He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.

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Alice Cooper Announces Spring 2023 US Tour

The legendary shock rocker will embark on the "Too Close for Comfort Tour" in late April

It’s Friday the 13th, so it seems appropriate that Alice Cooper would use the spooky day to announce a new US tour. The trek, dubbed the “Too Close for Comfort Tour,” will kick off on April 29th in Youngstown, Ohio, and run through a May 18th date in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Pre-sale tickets and VIP packages for the tour will be available starting Tuesday, January 17th, using the code SICKTHINGS . Tickets go on sale to the general public next Friday, January 20th, at 10 a.m. local venue time. Find tickets via Ticketmaster .

Last year, Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss left the band to serve in Demi Lovato’s backing group. Previous Alice Cooper guitarist Kane Roberts returned to take Strauss’ spot in the band.

In addition to the headlining dates, Cooper will perform at the previously announced Welcome to Rockville festival, taking place May 18th-21st at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The veteran shock rocker also has a handful of dates supporting Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe in August.

New Alice Cooper Coffee Table Book Celebrates the Career of the Legendary Shock Rocker

In other news, the Coop is set to release a new coffee table book celebrating his life and career titled Alice Cooper at 75 , out January 31st. He turns 75 on February 4th.

See the dates for Alice Cooper’s US Spring tour below, and pick up tickets here .

Alice Cooper’s “Too Close for Comfort” 2023 Tour Dates: 04/29 – Youngstown, OH @ Covelli Centre 05/02 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Allen County War Memorial Coliseum 05/03 – Milwaukee, WI @ Miller High Life Theatre 05/06 – Bemidji, MN @ Sanford Center 05/09 – Champaign, IL @ State Farm Center 05/10 – Louisville, KY @ The Louisville Palace 05/13 – Knoxville, TN @ Tennessee Theatre 05/14 – Spartanburg, SC @ Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium 05/15 – North Charleston, SC @ North Charleston Performing Arts Center 05/17 – Shreveport, LA @ Shreveport Municipal Auditorium 05/18 – Biloxi, MS @ Beau Rivage Theatre

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ALICE COOPER ANNOUNCES SPRING 2023 TOUR DATES FEATURING ALL NEW “TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT” SHOW

January 13, 2023 EvilG Festival/Tour News , Hard Rock 0

• ALICE COOPER

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Alice Cooper tour dates 2024

Alice Cooper is currently touring across 17 countries and has 75 upcoming concerts.

Their next tour date is at Eatons Hill Hotel in Eatons Hill, after that they'll be at Sweden Rock Festival Grounds in Sölvesborg.

Currently touring across

• 🇦🇺 Australia
• 🇸🇰 Slovakia
• 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
• 🇨🇭 Switzerland
• 🇱🇺 Luxembourg

Upcoming concerts (75) See nearest concert

Eatons Hill Hotel

Sweden Rock Festival

TRONDHEIM ROCKS

Musikhuset Aarhus

Stadtpark Hamburg

Nova Rock Festival

Unknown venue

Enteria Arena

Graspop Metal Meeting

Zénith de Nancy

Resurrection Fest

Poble Espanyol

Stadionpark Nürnberg

Junge Garde

Schloss Butzbach Schlosshof

PAUSE GUITARE - FORFAIT 4 JOURS

Montreux Jazz Festival

Breisach am Rhein - Martin Schongauer Gymnasium

Fritz-schanno-park

Base de Loisirs de Pratgraussals

Pause Guitare

Parco San Valentino

Alice Cooper| Blues Festival

Fallsview Casino Resort

Palace Theatre

Wings Event Center

Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds

Peoria Civic Center

The Rose Music Center at The Heights

BMO Harris Center

River Spirit Casino Resort

Hartman Arena

Mission Ballroom

Harrah's Resort SoCal - Dive

The Pacific Amphitheatre

Ava Amphitheater at Casino Del Sol

Isleta Amphitheater

Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre

Pinnacle Bank Arena

Xcel Energy Center

American Family Insurance Amphitheater - Summerfest Grounds

Blossom Music Center

DTE Energy Music Theatre

Ruoff Music Center

Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

The Pavilion at Star Lake

Past concerts

Broadwater Parklands Gold Coast

Cathy Freeman Park

Newcastle Entertainment Centre

View all past concerts

Support across tour dates

Recent tour reviews

Alice's newest tour, entitled Ol' Black Eyes Is Back, is out of this world! I've been to so many Alice shows over the years, so I had gotten used to his show in the last five years. I loved that show, the set, and all of the songs, but his new tour really deviates from the past few years. Alice usually carries over a lot of concepts from his previous tours, so the whole show was a huge surprise! He threw in so many old songs--songs he hasn't done in decades! The set was completely new, from the huge baby wandering on stage to the chandeliers above the set. The stairs leading to the platforms/tower in the back were astounding and the perfect background to the set. Alice sounds just as good as ever, and his attitude (including facial expressions!) while he sings shows that he's still on the top of his game at age 71!

But one of Alice's best assets hasn't changed: his band! They have always been stellar, and his band of the last five years has really brought their A game to every show. Ryan Roxie, Chuck Garric, Glen Sobel, Tommy Henriksen, and Nita Strauss all deserve their own honorable mentions. They are all unique in their own way and bring something different to every show!

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A Paranormal evening with Alice Cooper was a great show at the Ordway in Saint Paul, MN. Alice delivered an exciting show as is par for Alice, I have seen Alice Cooper several times and I never get bored with his act. He truly is the Godfather of Shock Rock, Alice Cooper and all of the members of the band are true entertainers, Alice played some material that I have not heard before and they were songs that have very relevant lyrics speaking to the way people are behaving and feeling (particularly here in the USA). If you have never had the extreme pleasure of seeing an Alice Cooper event you are missing out on one of the true great performers that are left. The only song Alice didn't play that I feel should be a staple in the act is Welcome to my Nightmare but I understand that when you have a catalog of hits like Alice has; it has to be hard to pick which songs to play and which to cut out of the show.

Exceptional show from beginning to end. The set list blew my mind since I have been listening to the band since 1969, and he played most of my Loved and favorite songs. He sounds and looks very very good for 73 years of age. The band included original band member Dennis Dunaway on bass, and the other members who have been playing with him for quite some time as well. Nita Strauss is amazing!!!! The entire stage set up, and the entire stage performance was mind blowing to me. He did something very SPECIAL at the end of the set list and before the Encore. As they left the stage, there were 2 screens located 1 on each side of the stage, they came on and his voice brought our attention to the 17 Students shot here in Florida last month and he paid a beautiful homage and his respects to the Families and friends of the students. He Encored with an amazing Schools Out. As I said at the beginning, Exceptional Show.

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Alice Cooper band's record-store reunion movie is coming out. Here's how to get it

It's been three years since a documentary capturing a record-store reunion by the four surviving members of the Alice Cooper group  made its world premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival, winning Best Documentary Short  in the process.

The soundtrack to that documentary, "Live From the Astroturf, Alice Cooper,” will be released on Friday, Sept. 30, as a CD and Blu-ray Digipak and four varieties of colored vinyl with accompanying DVD.

It should be available at record stores and online retail outlets where music and movies are sold. 

The concert was originally set up as a book signing for bassist Dennis Dunaway's memoir, "Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! My Adventures in the Alice Cooper Group."

But Dallas record store owner Chris Penn of Good Records, where Dunaway's signing was scheduled to happen, had chosen that date in October 2015 because he knew the singer had the day off from touring in Texas.

That's how he was able to orchestrate a rare reunion concert by the group whose 1973 U.S. tour in support of the chart-topping "Billion Dollar Babies" album broke box-office records then held by the Rolling Stones.

'It was a perfect creative machine': An oral history of Alice Cooper's 'Killer' at 50

How tour led to 'Live From the Astroturf'

Director Steven Gaddis was on hand to capture Cooper, Dunaway, guitarist Michael Bruce and drummer Neal Smith in action for “Live From the Astroturf, Alice Cooper," which won multiple awards at festivals around the world.

"I was gonna go sign books and do a Q&A on my own," Dunaway told the Arizona Republic in 2019.

"And then we found out that Alice was going to be in town and have a day off, so Chris asked if Michael and Neal would be interested in playing and we ended up turning it into this massive event around the book signing."

'The party that never ended': An oral history of Alice Cooper's 'Love it to Death' at 50

Dunaway: 'Not bad for no rehearsal'

It's a stellar performance and the sound is great.

Or as Dunaway told The Arizona Republic, "Not bad for no rehearsal and having not played those songs in quite a few years. The night before, Neal, Michael and I got together and made sure the amps were working... It was more like a soundcheck than a rehearsal but, you know, it’s not like we haven’t played those songs before."

They hadn't done "Elected" in awhile. Ryan Roxie, who was filling in on guitar for the late great Glen Buxton, who died in 1997, talked them into doing that one.

"But it came out great," Dunaway said. "As soon as you hear the original sound and all of the parts being played the way they were written, it makes things kind of fall into place naturally."

From 'Love it to Death' to 'Detroit Stories': The best Alice Cooper albums ranked

What Alice Cooper songs did they play?

The concert opens with Bruce on lead vocals for "Caught in a Dream," the opening track on their breakthrough album, "Love it to Death."

Then, Cooper makes his entrance with guitarist Ryan Roxie of his touring band and joins his former bandmates in a raucous trip down memory lane, from "Be My Lover" to "I'm Eighteen," "Is It My Body?," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "Under My Wheels," "School's Out" and "Elected."

The soundtrack also features an instrumental version of the Alice Cooper classic "Desperado" from soundcheck.

What was Alice Cooper like in high school? Friends and bandmates share their stories

Alice Cooper group reunions through the years 

That show led to other opportunities for Cooper's former bandmates, who met as teens in Phoenix in the '60s.

Each album Cooper has released since then — 2017's "Paranormal" and last year's "Detroit Stories" — has included two reunion tracks.

The former bandmates also did a U.K. tour and an industry event in Nashville in 2017 (which led to Cooper having them onstage to take part in the encore at his Nashville concert).

The original members went their separate ways after "Muscle of Love" in 1974. Cooper went solo the following year with "Welcome to My Nightmare."

The four surviving members reunited in 1999 at the second Glen Buxton Memorial Weekend at CoopersTown in Phoenix and played Cooper's Christmas Pudding with Steve Hunter on guitar in December 2010 at the Dodge Theatre (now Arizona Federal Theatre).

It was at that Christmas Pudding concert that longtime producer Bob Ezrin announced that they'd been chosen for induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

They reunited again at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony the following March and again a month later to play the Revolver Golden Gods Awards and record a live set for a Jägermeister Ice Cold 4D webcast. 

They also appeared on three tracks on the "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" album in 2011. 

The Dallas record store concert was the first they'd played together since those events in 2011.

The Female Elvis:   How a Phoenix rockabilly teen made the cover of Bob Dylan's book

The Phoenix origins of Alice Cooper

Cooper, Dunaway and Buxton made their first onstage appearance in the Cortez High School "cafetorium," shaking the wigs they'd bought at Woolworth's while spoofing the Beatles as part of a talent show. 

By the time they hit the Phoenix club scene as the Spiders, they'd recruited Bruce, a North High football player, scoring a regional hit with a single called "Don't Blow Your Mind."

After changing their name to the Nazz, they moved to Los Angeles in 1967, where Smith, a Camelback High grad who'd been in art classes with Dunaway, Cooper and Buxton at Glendale Community College, joined on drums.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the "School's Out" album, the title track of which remains their highest-charting U.S. hit.

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley .

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

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Alice Cooper Launches Too Close for Comfort Tour: Set List and Exclusive Photos

A brand new stage show allowed Alice Cooper to bring out some new toys, as he sings about in “ School’s Out ” – and to return to some old, well-loved tricks as well.

You can see exclusive photos and the full set list from last night's show below.

The title of Too Close for Comfort Tour, which Cooper and his band premiered Friday night at the Soaring Eagle Casino Resort in Mount Pleasant, Mich., references the shock rocker’s first foray into extensive on-stage video production. Four high-definition panels at the rear of the stage brought fans closer than ever to every grimace and sneer, the details of makeup, the nuances of the costuming, the fleet fingering of guitarists Nita Strauss , Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen.

It was particularly effective during “Snakebite,” which, appropriately, marked the return of the snake draped across Cooper’s shoulders for the first time in nearly a decade; the boa got as many close-ups as the singer, and looked calm but engaged under the spotlight. The screens also allowed Vincent Price to be seen as well as heard during “Black Widow.”

With its combination of live footage and prepared videos, often blended, it was a strikingly fresh way to experience the Cooper spectacle, which only made the fast-paced 95-minute, 22-song show more intriguing and enveloping.

It was also not as tightly scripted as some of his previous productions, although the familiar crime/punishment/redemption arc still played out. It was in many ways more of a rock band kind of concert, the focus more on the song and the playing (incredibly tight after a couple weeks of rehearsals, with a sound mix to match) than the theatrics – though, as you’d expect, there were still plenty of those.

Cooper’s wife Sheryl was on hand with her classically trained dance skills as the “Cold Ethyl” Cooper abused, and to serve as a blue-gowned and powder-wigged Marie Antiodeath, straight out of mid-19th century, who marched Cooper to the guillotine after “The Ballad of Dwight Fry.” The giant monster puppet prowled the stage during “Feed My Frankenstein,” and a crew member shot paper bills into the crowd during “ Billion Dollar Babies .”

A ferocious “School’s Out” was accompanied by giant balloons that bounced around the ballroom, and for the lone encore, “Elected,” Cooper dressed as a horror movie Uncle Sam perched atop a tall podium, flanked by American flags and declaring, “Why not me?” – although during the final bows he cautioned, “Whatever you do, DON’T vote for me.”

The opening night set list mixed things up a bit as well. The show opened with a partial rendering of “Lock Me Up” from Raise Your Fist and Yell , the first time that song’s been worked into the show, before the band tore into “No More Mr. Nice Guy.” Hey Stoopid ’s “Snakebite” made its first appearance since 1991, while “Welcome to My Nightmare” returned after a nearly six-year absence.

“I’m Eighteen,” “Under My Wheels,” “Be My Lover” and “Poison” were as bulletproof as ever, while the blues-tinged “Fallen In Love” opened with Cooper on harmonica jamming with Strauss and Roxie. “Lost in America,” still eerily topical nearly 30 years after its release, was given a torrid treatment, while deep cuts such as “Bed of Nails” and “Escape” were as potent as any of the big hits.

Friday’s show was the start of plenty of road work for Cooper this year, including dates with the Hollywood Vampires and co-billed with Rob Zombie during the summer. It was a powerful start, however, setting a high bar for what’s to come.

Alice Cooper Too Close for Comfort Opening Night Set List "Lock Me Up" (partial) "No More Mr. Nice Guy" "I’m Eighteen" "Under My Wheels" "Bed of Nails" "Billion Dollar Babies" "Fallen in Love" "Snakebite" "Be My Lover" "Lost in America" "Hey Stoopid" "Welcome to My Nightmare" "Cold Ethyl" "Only Women Bleed" "Poison" "Feed My Frankenstein" "Black Widow" "Ballad of Dwight Fry" "I Love the Dead" "Escape" "School’s Out" (including Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2")

Encore: "Elected"

Alice Cooper Albums Ranked

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The Bass Player in Vixen Wants to Sell You Your Next House

By Sal Cataldi

Sal Cataldi

What do members of bands like Alice Cooper , the Dandy Warhols , Vixen , Slayer, and Hatebreed have in common? Besides gold records and juicy stories of life on the road, one of the above also might be the real estate agent who sells you your next home.

With the loss of revenues from record sales and paltry streaming royalties, an increasing number of rockers are turning to careers in real estate as a way to make ends meet. And this trend only increased when the pandemic shuttered the live performance game.

Zia McCabe , the keyboardist for Nineties alternative rockers the Dandy Warhols , is one example. Seven years ago, the Portland-based musician felt she needed a change from a life spent largely on the road.

“I was introduced to my mentor by the woman who sold me my house,” continues McCabe, who now works for Living Room Realty. “He was a touring musician and a broker… I had a cubicle and went to the office every day to learn the ropes. It was 2017, the gravy train years where interest rates were low and sales started hopping for me pretty quickly.”

As it turns out, many of McCabe’s clients are musicians and artists. 

“Musicians are natural networkers with a hustle mentality that translates well to real estate work,” McCabe says. “I started by selling to my friends in the arts and fans. As artists, we’re led to believe we don’t deserve things like health insurance and owning a home. So, it has been really gratifying for me to educate my fellow artists about the lifestyle and financial benefits of home ownership.”

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For Share Ross , bass player for the Eighties hair-metal band Vixen, the move into real estate has been more all-encompassing and certainly more financially rewarding. 

When Ross finally left Vixen in 2022, even with platinum album sales and major tours, she says she “never made a penny.” Today, she is a top-producing real estate agent with eXp Realty in West Palm Beach, Florida, with sales of $18 to 22 million per year.

At the end of 2017, Ross was still playing music part-time and working as a life coach. Through a realtor friend, Avery Carl, the wife of SiriusXM “Hair Nation” DJ Luc Carl, Ross became intrigued with the prospect of working in the industry. By the fall of 2018, she had secured her license and began to quickly close deals in Boca Raton, Boyton Beach, and Del Rey Beach.

But unlike McCabe, Ross kept her rock life on the Q.T. with clients. 

“I bought a conservative suit and never led with my rock past, but a couple of times clients did find out,” she says. “The most memorable was an 80-year-old couple who ‘googled’ and saw my outrageous glam outfits. They thought it was all ‘very cute.’”

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Heavy Realty is the brainchild of Juliet Lalouel , a Colorado and Hawaii-based realtor and investor. The daughter of a musician, Lalouel first dipped her toes into real estate by flipping a few houses in Salt Lake City. But she secured her license and began her career in earnest with a move to Hawaii in 2018.

“It really clicked for me when the lockdown happened,” Lalouel says. “I was hearing from music industry friends who were hurting because they couldn’t tour. They were looking for a way to survive and maybe a side career that could help them through the feast and famine of a maturing musicians’ career. I started this community to help educate musicians about the benefits of homeownership and investing – whether it led to becoming a realtor or an owner.”

But what about today’s tough market, with high interest rates and debates over realtor commissions and its impact on the business?

“The music business, like real estate, is cyclical — a bit of feast, a bit of famine,” Lalouel says. “Musicians can have good times when the hits are coming and there’s profitable tours, then there’s the times when times are not so hot. So, the inevitable down cycles in real estate are something they experience in their musical lives. Having a license and a supplemental income that selling real estate can provide is something that can support their artistic lives, especially in the fallow times.”

Lalouel’s Heavy Realty is today a community of 20-plus music industry professionals/real estate agents and investors spanning the nation. It includes not only musicians, but guitar techs, A&R execs, music publicists and veteran tour managers like Yvette Uhlmann .

Nashville-based Uhlmann notched a wide range of experiences behind-the-scenes in her 25 years in the music business. She was the personal assistant to Black Sabbath’s guitarist Tony Iommi on their final tour and a manager, publicist, and A&R executive for hard rock bands and labels. She has spent the last 10 years as tour manager for Bush.

Now that the touring business is back in full swing, Uhlmann is keeping her hand in both music and the real estate game.

“I was on the road for 10 weeks last summer with Bush and Alice in Chains, but I would fly home and schedule closings around my touring,” she says. “As I get older, I don’t see myself doing tours much beyond the next 10 years. So real estate is providing me with a supplemental safety net for now and a solid financial option for my future.”

Some of Lalouel’s affiliated brokers even come from the world of hardcore music, including Queens, New York-based Warren Lee and his twin brother Royce. The duo work for the Ideal Properties Group, doing sales and rentals in Forest Hills, Rego Park, and Kew Gardens.

Both brothers came out of the city’s infamous hardcore scene of the early Nineties, working as bassists, guitar techs and tour managers with notable bands like Slayer. 

“We both got our licenses during Covid,” says Warren Lee. “It was a way to remain solvent when touring was on hiatus and when record sales died. Today, I’m back on the road as a guitar tech for Rancid and it’s a nice supplemental income. But then it really was the only option for income.”

One of the most successful rocker-turned-realtor transitions is that of Neal Smith , the drummer and founding member of the Alice Cooper band.

From 1985 through his retirement in 2015, Smith was an agent for William Pitt Sotheby’s in Westport, Connecticut. By this time, Smith had largely left the world of music, shorn his waist-length hair and looked like “a nice clean-cut Lutheran boy.” 

“Our manager Shep Gordon was very savvy and imparted a lot of his financial wisdom to us,” says Smith. “When we hit it big with our album Billion Dollar Babies, we all bought houses. My first was in Phoenix and I tripled my investment when I flipped it a couple of years later. That, and the fact that real estate wasn’t a 9-5 job and left plenty of time to play golf, is what sold me on it.”

As for his rock star status, Smith kept that quiet. “Most people are hyper-focused on buying a home. They want to see as many as possible in a day and rarely bother to ask about your personal life. I was very studied in keeping my two lives separate.” 

Today, Smith divides him time among homes in Connecticut and Phoenix and a farm in Finland. 

He also back to pursuing music with his solo project, KillSmith.

“I can say I was very happy with both careers,” Smith says. “I’m also proud that I am the only rocker/real estate agent in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

While some rockers are finding financial security as agents, many others have found buying and selling real estate not only a smart investment but a lifelong passion.

One such rocker is Carmine Appice , the legendary drummer for Vanilla Fudge , Rod Stewart, and Ozzy Osbourne, among others.

“I’ve been seriously involved in real estate since I bought my first home in Oceanside in 1969, when I made from my first real money with Vanilla Fudge,” says Appice. 

Since that time, Appice estimates he has invested in well over three dozen properties including residential homes and multi-unit buildings in Southern California, New York, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Florida and Memphis. He even once traded a car for a house and invested in a block of mobile homes in Burbank.

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A native New Yorker who spent 40 years in Los Angeles, Appice is now residing in Florida, in a home with a recording studio where he does remote sessions with top-flight musicians all over the world. 

And while Appice chronicled his crazy rock life in a 2016 book, his latest project is a little more sedate and perhaps more useful: He is shopping a proposal for a book about his property adventures called Rockin’ Real Estate.

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ALICE COOPER Re-Releases 'Breadcrumbs' With Bonus Tracks

Available today, April 26, as a CD edition including bonus tracks is "Breadcrumbs" by Alice Cooper , the release that initiated the success of the album "Detroit Stories" .

Inspired by the rebellious energy of the late '60s and early '70s punk scene, Cooper returns to his roots and the unpolished garage sound that his fans love so much. Previously only available as a limited and now-out-of-print 10-inch vinyl, this gem is now finally being released as a nice price CD edition.

The release contains the six tracks from the original 10-inch, which showcase Cooper 's raw and energetic interpretation of classic Detroit songs: "Your Mama Won't Like Me" by Suzi Quatro ; Bob Seger 's "East Side Story" ; MC5 's "Sister Anne" ; Shorty Long 's "Devil With A Blue Dress On" ; and THE DIRTBOMBS ' "Chains Of Love" . All are performed in the popular and well-known Alice Cooper style. In addition, this release includes the two bonus tracks "Don't Give Up" , Cooper 's message of hope and appeal to the perseverance of his fans during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a live version of "Go Man Go" from his electrifying set at Hellfest 2022.

"Breadcrumbs" track listing:

01. Detroit City 2020 02. Go Man Go 03. East Side Story 04. Your Mama Won't Like Me 05. Devil With A Blue Dress On + Chains Of Love 06. Sister Anne 07. Don't Give Up (bonus track) 08. Go Man Go (Live At Hellfest 2022) (bonus track)

Fresh from the success of his latest album "Road" , a concept album about the thrills and spills of touring, Alice is back, accompanied as always by his long-running live band of Ryan Roxie (guitar), Chuck Garric (bass), Tommy Henriksen (guitar), Glen Sobel (drums) and Nita Strauss (guitar).

"For 'Road' , I wanted the band to be involved in the foundation of all the songs," says Alice . "I only see these guys when we're on the road. So, I wanted them to be as tight as they are for the show but on all new material. When you have a band this good, I believe in showing it off, and this is my way of doing so."

Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical brand of hard rock that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood and boa constrictors. He continues to tour regularly, performing shows worldwide with the dark and horror-themed theatrics that he’s best known for.

With a schedule that has included six months year in and year out on the road, Cooper brings his own brand of rock psycho-drama to fans both old and new, enjoying it as much as the audience does. Known as the architect of shock-rock, Cooper (in both the original ALICE COOPER band and as a solo artist) has rattled the cages and undermined the authority of generations of guardians of the status quo, continuing to surprise fans and exude danger at every turn, like a great horror movie, even in an era where CNN can present real-life shocking images.

With his influence on rock and roll and popular culture long since acknowledged, there is little that Cooper hasn't achieved in his remarkable career, including platinum albums, sold-out tours and any number of honors and career achievement awards.

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DEEP PURPLE Join ALICE COOPER On Bill For Montreux Jazz Festival 2024

April 18, 2024, a week ago

news hard rock deep purple

Deep Purple have been confirmed for the 2024 edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland. The band will perform on the same night as previously announced Alice Cooper, on Monday, July 8.

Complete Montreux Jazz Festival details can be found here .

Deep Purple recently announced the North American leg of their = 1 More Time Tour, "Celebrating Over 50 Years Of Smoke On The Water", with special guests, YES.

Ticket links at deeppurple.com .

August 14 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live 15 - Tampa, FL - Seminole Hard Rock Event Center 17 - The Woodlands, TX - The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion 18 - Durant, OK - Choctaw Casino - Grand Theatre 19 - Forth Worth, TX - Dickies Arena 21 - Cincinnati, OH - PNC Pavilion At Riverbend Music Center 22 - Sterling Heights, MI - Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre At Freedom Hill 23 - Tinley Park, IL - Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre 25 - Toronto, ON - Budweiser Stage 27 - Montreal, QC Bell Centre 28 - Gilford, NH - Banknh Pavilion 30 - Camden, NJ - Freedom Mortgage Pavilion 31 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts Center

September 1 - Wantagh, NY - Northwell Health At Jones Beach Theater 3 - Bridgeport, CT - Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater 4 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Broadview Stage At Spac 6 - Bethel, NY - Bethel Woods Center For The Arts 7 - Bristow, VA - Jiffy Lube Live 8 - Scranton, PA - The Pavilion At Montage Mountain

Deep Purple's = 1 More Time Tour will land in Europe and the UK this October and November. Jefferson Starship will be special guests on the Europe dates, and Reef will be special guests for the UK shows.

EU/UK tour dates:

October 17 - Katowice, Poland - Spodek Arena 19 - Berlin, Germany - Max-Schmeling-Halle 20 - Berlin, Germany - Messehalle 22 - Mannheim, Germany - SAP Arena 23 - Munich, Germany - Olympiahalle 25 - Essen, Germany - Grugahalle 26 - Lingen, Germany - Emsland Arena 28 - Brussels, Belgium - Forest National 29 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Ziggodome 31 - Esch-sur-alzette, Luxembourg - Rockhal

November 1 - Paris, France - Zenith 4 - Birmingham , UK - Resorts World Arena 6 - London , UK - 02 7 - Leeds, UK - FD Arena 9 - Manchester , UK - AO Arena 10 - Glasgow, UK - OVO Hydro

Find Deep Purple's complete tour itinerary here .

Warner Records and Rhino Entertainment honour Deep Purple's Machine Head, the album which featured “Smoke On The Water”, with a comprehensive version introducing new mixes and previously unreleased live recordings. Machine Head: Super Deluxe Edition is available as a 3CD/LP/Blu-ray and available digitally for streaming and download.

Members of Deep Purple unbox Machine Head: Super Deluxe Edition below:

In addition to the newly-remixed original album, which is included on LP and CD, The Super Deluxe Edition also contains two captivating live performances. The first, recorded on March 9, 1972, at the Paris Theatre in London, captures the group’s unrivalled stage presence during the Machine Head Tour. The second, previously unreleased, was recorded in April 1971 at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland, before the events depicted in “Smoke On The Water.”

Order your copy of Machine Head Super Deluxe via the following links:

- US, Canada & Japan - World Excl. US, Canada & Japan

Tracklisting:

LP: 2024 Remix

Side One "Highway Star" "Maybe I’m A Leo" "Pictures Of Home" "Never Before"

Side Two "Smoke On The Water" "Lazy" "When A Blind Man Cries" (B-Side) "Space Truckin’"

CD1: 2024 Remix "Highway Star" "Maybe I’m A Leo" "Pictures Of Home" "Never Before" "Smoke On The Water" "Lazy" "Space Truckin’" "When A Blind Man Cries" (B-Side)

2024 Remaster "Highway Star" "Maybe I’m A Leo" "Pictures Of Home" "Never Before" "Smoke On The Water" "Lazy" "Space Truckin’"

CD2: In Concert  ’72 Introduction "Highway Star" "Strange Kind Of Woman" "Maybe I’m A Leo" "Smoke On The Water" "Never Before" "Lazy" "Space Truckin’" "Lucille" "Maybe I’m A Leo" (sound-check)

CD3: Montreux ’71 "Swiss Yodel" "Speed King" "Strange Kind Of Woman" "Into The Fire" "Child In Time" "Paint It Black" "Wring That Neck (Hard Road)" "Black Night" "Lucille"

2024 Atmos Remix "Highway Star" "Maybe I’m A Leo" "Pictures Of Home" "Never Before" "Smoke On The Water" "Lazy" "Space Truckin’" "When A Blind Man Cries" (B-Side)

Quad Mix "Highway Star" "Maybe I’m A Leo" "Pictures Of Home" "Never Before" "Smoke On The Water" "Lazy" "Space Truckin’"

5.1 Mixes "When A Blind Man Cries" "Maybe I’m A Leo" "Lazy"

LP1: All tracks previously unreleased CD1: Tracks 1-8 new remix previously unreleased CD1: Tracks 9-15 new remaster previously unreleased CD2: Previously released 2012 CD3: All tracks previously unreleased Blu-ray: Tracks 1-8 new remix previously unreleased Blu-ray: Tracks 9-15 previously released 1974 Blu-ray: Tracks 16-18 previously released 2012

"Smoke On The Water" (2024 Remix) video:

(Photo - Ben Wolf)

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Alice Cooper To Perform At Palace Theatre This Summer

Rock singer Alice Cooper will perform at the Palace Theatre in Albany on July 31 as part of his “Too Close For Comfort” Tour. 

Alice Cooper has pioneered his grandly theatrical brand of hard rock that was designed to shock many. With equal inspiration from vaudeville, garage rock, and horror films, the ensemble put on a theatrical production complete with electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood, and boa constrictors. He is still on tour regularly, taking his dark and horror-themed theatrics to audiences all over the world.

Cooper and his family relocated to Phoenix after he was born in Detroit, Michigan. The Alice Cooper Band was founded when the members were still in high school in Phoenix. Frank Zappa found the band in Los Angeles in 1969 and later signed them to his record company. Their breakthrough third album Love It to Death, which debuted on the charts in 1971, was the result of their collaboration with the up-and-coming record producer Bob Ezrin. It was followed by the hits “Killer,” “School’s Out,” “Billion Dollar Babies,” and “Muscle of Love.” Every album release was accompanied by a more grandiose traveling stage production. They later released their album titled Greatest Hits , in 1974. Cooper subsequently released his now classic debut solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare in 1975, which was backed by his legendary and groundbreaking theatrical “Welcome to My Nightmare” concert tour.

Alice Cooper’s impact on rock & roll and popular culture has been widely recognized for a considerable amount of time. Throughout his incredible career, he has received numerous accolades and awards, sold-out tours, platinum records, and numerous other honors.

Cooper will perform at the Palace Theatre in Albany on July 31 as part of his “Too Close For Comfort” tour. Tickets go on sale Friday, April 19 via Ticketmaster . 

I’m currently a junior at SUNY Albany studying communications, I enjoy music, concerts and reading on my free time.

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Watch CBS News

Animated metal band Dethklok brings tour with Babymetal to the Masonic for two nights

By Dave Pehling

Updated on: April 24, 2024 / 5:39 PM PDT / CBS San Francisco

The popular death metal band led by Brendan Small, the creative force behind popular Adult Swim animated show "Metalocalypse," Dethklok comes to the Masonic in San Francisco for two shows with co-headliners Babymetal.

Arguably the second most popular virtual band behind Gorillaz (the animated group helmed by Blur singer Damon Albarn), Dethklok made their as the stars of "Metalocalypse" when the show created by Small and partner/voice actor Tommy Blancha debuted in 2006. The world biggest death metal band in the program's absurd and surreal alternate universe, Dethklok stands as the planet's seventh largest economy despite the fact that the group's members are idiotic incompetents incapable of doing anything besides writing and performing brutal metal songs.

The quintet of singer Nathan Explosion (who was inspired by Cannibal Corpse vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher), guitarists Skwisgaar Skwigelf and Toki Wartooth, bassist William Murderface and drummer Pickles live and work in their massive fortress-like home and studio Mordhaus, venturing into the world to secure lucrative sponsorship deals and play huge concerts for their legions of fanatical followers with outlandish stage theatrics like over-the-top pyrotechnics, lasers and a giant swinging pendulum blade, inevitably resulting in widespread death and destruction.

Over the course of four seasons and a special broadcast on Adult Swim, "Metalocalypse" became one of the network's more popular shows and a favorite among musicians, with such notable figures as King Diamond, Alice Cooper, Jon Hamm, Werner Herzog, Jack Black and members of Metallica, Exodus, Emperor and Mastodon appearing on the show. Dethklok further built on its fanbase with a series of studio albums featuring the satirical songs featured the show like "Murmaider," "Bloodrocuted" and "Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle." The band also delivered entertaining live performances with widescreen clips of the animated band projected behind Small and his talented band including monster drummer Gene Hogland (Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad, Testament, Devin Townsend) and former Frank Zappa collaborator Mike Kenneally on guitar.

Dethklok would make regular festival appearances and tour with the likes of Mastodon, High On Fire, Machine Head and the Black Dahlia Murder. After the broadcast of the hour-long rock opera special, "Metalocalypse: The Doomstar Requiem" in 2013, the band continued to perform, but the project went on hiatus after the show was cancelled two years later.

The band returned to action in 2019, playing the Adult Swim Festival to ecstatic crowds. Dethklok also returned to the festival post-pandemic in 2022. The following year, Smalls was at last able to release the final chapter in the Dethklok story with the film Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar , which was accompanied by both a soundtrack and the band issuing its acclaimed fourth studio recording,  Dethalbum IV .

With the show having run its course, the band's current tour could be Dethklok's last hurrah as it takes to the road with previous touring partners and co-headliners Babymetal which stops at the Masonic for two nights starting Wednesday . A sensation in their native Japan since first forming in 2010, the group mixes elements of heavy metal with elements of J-Pop and "kawaii" -- the Japanese "culture of cuteness" as exemplified by Hello Kitty and Pokemon. Singer Suzuka Nakamoto had impressed producer Kobametal (aka Key Kobayashi) in her earlier girl groups Karen Girl's and Sakura Gakuin when he wanted to start a new band performing a heavier style of music.

Initially a successful offshoot of Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal became independent in 2013 and enjoyed growing popularity with the release of their self-titled debut the following year. Featuring Nakamoto along with fellow singers Moa Kikuchi (also a member of Sakura Gakuin) and Yui Mizuno executing synchronized dance moves and melodic vocals backed by a group of shredding metal session players known as the Kami Band, the album delivered a dizzying juxtaposition of sunshine pop and metallic crunch. The band rocketed to success in Japan and were playing sold-out shows to thousands when the girls were still in their teens.

The notoriety in their native land soon led to international touring in Europe and North America, with Babymetal appearing at major metal festivals and opening for Lady Gaga. By the time the band was set to release their sophomore album Metal Resistance in 2016, they were headlining Wembley Arena in London and the huge Tokyo Dome to 55,000 screaming fans. More high-profile support gigs with the Red Hot Chili Peppers followed.

While the band suffered some hardship with the accidental death of guitarist Mikio Fujioka late in 2017 after he fell from an observation deck and the departure of Mizuno due to health reasons the next year, Babymetal continued to tour and in 2023 announced the addition of Momoko Okazaki as Fujioka's permanent replacement. The band plays fan favorites and songs from its fourth album The Other One  at the Masonic. Opening acts on the two nights will be different, with hyper-technical British power metal band DrangonForce playing Wednesday and theatrical LA-based melodic death metallers Nekrogoblikon kicking off the show Thursday. 

Dethklok and Babymetal Wednesday-Thursday, April 24-25, 6 p.m. $75.75 The Masonic

Dave Pehling started his journalism career doing freelance writing about music in the late 1990s, eventually working as a web writer, editor and producer for KTVU.com in 2003. He moved to CBS to work as the station website's managing editor in 2015.

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History History

In 2011, the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper band were finally inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame, where they performed for the first time publicly in many years. The original band also contributed to Alice’s 2011 album “Welcome 2 My Nightmare”, a follow up to Alice’s first solo album.

In 1975, Alice Cooper joined forces with longtime collaborator and producer Bob Ezrin to begin his solo career with the album Welcome to My Nightmare, a theatrical concept album about the nightmares of a young boy named Steven. Now, he’s followed Steven into adulthood and presents Welcome 2 My Nightmare, a new but familiar concept album about the fear, anxiety and disgust that haunt Alice Cooper’s dreams in an era of Facebook, Lady Gaga, Sketchers and Angry Birds.

“Alice hates technology, disco is still a nightmare for him and working in a cubicle from nine-to-five would give him cold sweats,” Cooper says. “At the same time, this is a nightmare so all these normal life things are thrown into this crazy world that’s only logical when you’re in the nightmare. You could have an elephant in your garage, and you’re on the lawn in a pink tutu cooking hot dogs. And at the time it’s fine. But when you wake up you go, ‘How insane is that? Where did that come from?’ So we realized that having Alice in a modern-world nightmare is a great place to come from theatrically because we can go anywhere we want and make it as insane as possible.”

A wild, surreal odyssey, Welcome 2 My Nightmare provided Cooper and Ezrin the opportunity to work with numerous musicians and experiment with various musical styles. The three surviving members of the original band, guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith, co-wrote three songs and they all played on “When Hell Comes Home,” a gritty ‘70s-style rock track about the nightmare of domestic abuse. “I wanted the song to feel like it was off of Love it to Death or Killer, Cooper says. “But we never had to talk about playing the song ‘70s-style, they just did it. It was great and there was nothing we could do to make it any more ‘70s ‘cause that’s just the way these guys play.”

The collaborations with his fellow original band members stemmed from their 2010 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for which they reunited to play four songs. “I was always looking for a logical reason to work with them again,” Cooper says. “When we broke up there was no bad blood. Most bands break up and they start suing each other. We never broke up on that level. We broke up on a very friendly level. ‘You go do what you’re gonna do, I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do. Let’s see what happens.’ When we got in the Hall of Fame I called them up and I said, ‘We have to do four songs. Let’s get together and rehearse.’ And they sounded great. They played great. We did a few projects after that. We played a couple times together. And I said, ‘Let’s keep it going. Let’s get these guys on the album.’ And Bob said, ‘That’s a great idea. Let’s write with these guys.’ It just worked.”

The first single from Welcome 2 My Nightmare, “I’ll Bite Your Face Off,” is about a gorgeous but deadly female who takes Alice by the hand and guides him through the various scenes of his nightmare. The song was co-written by Neal Smith and features a swaggering ‘60s British rock rhythm, brash, bluesy guitars and sneering, seductive vocals. “We tried to make this sound as much like early Rolling Stones as possible and we really did capture that,” Cooper says. “We’ve been doing it onstage and the audience sings along without knowing the song.”

On “Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever,” Cooper combines a tongue-in-cheek disco beat and rhythm with near-rap vocals and lyrics about taking a machine gun to zombie disco dancers who refuse to die. Then there’s the zany surf rock of “Ghoul’s Gone Wild,” the derelict down-on-his-luck slur of “The Last Man on Earth,” and the Beatles meet Gary Glitter show tune “The Congregation,” which stars Rob Zombie as a narrator describing such modern-day nightmares as telemarketers, lawyers, pimps, mariachi bands and mimes.

One of the highlights for Cooper is the throbbing, modern rocker “What Baby Wants,” which stars Ke$ha as the devil. “Some people thought I was crazy to have Ke$ha on the record, but I never saw her as one of these Britney Spears diva girls. I saw her more as a rock singer. So I said, ‘Let’s present you not as a diva, but as a rock singer on this.’ We wrote the song together and in the end the darker lyrics were hers.”

Like The original Welcome To My Nightmare, which was highlighted by “Only Women Bleed,” Welcome 2 My Nightmare also features a lovelorn ballad, “Something to Remember Me By,” which was written with Dick Wagner back when they released “I Never Cry” in 1976. “We never used it on an album before because I never felt I was good enough to sing that song,” Cooper reflects. “It was never in my key, I could never get it right. Finally, we got it where my voice is in the right place so we included it and it may be the prettiest ballad we ever wrote. Steve Hunter played guitar on it and we really got a nice Beatles-y sound out of it. So when you’re listening to it you hear this really pretty romantic song and then you realize that in the Nightmare Alice is singing to a pile of bones that used to be a girl.”

The Early Years

1968 - the nazz become alice cooper, early theatrics, 1969 - pretties for you, june 1970 - easy action, fall 1970 - love it to death, 1971 - killer, 1972 - school's out, 1973 - billion dollar babies, 1973 - muscle of love, the end of an era.

In 1964, 16-year-old Vincent Furnier (Alice Cooper) was eager to participate in the local annual letterman’s talent show, so he gathered fellow cross-country teammates to form a group for the show. They named themselves The Earwigs. Because they did not know how to play any instruments at the time, they dressed up like The Beatles and mimed their performance to Beatles songs. As a result of winning the talent show and loving the experience of being onstage, the group immediately proceeded to learn how to play instruments they acquired from a local pawn shop. They soon renamed themselves The Spiders, featuring Furnier on vocals, Glen Buxton on lead guitar, John Tatum on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar and John Speer on drums. Musically, the group was inspired by artists such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Doors and The Yardbirds. For the next year the band performed regularly around the Phoenix area with a huge black spider’s web as their backdrop, the group’s first stage prop. In 1965, The Spiders recorded their first single, “Why Don’t You Love Me” (originally performed by The Blackwells), with Furnier learning the harmonica for the song. The single’s B-side track was the Marvin Gaye Tamla Records hit, “Hitch Hike”. The single was released by local record label, Mascot Records, owned by Jack Curtis, a concert promoter who also owned the Stage 7 teen club which later became the VIP Club where The Spiders were the house band.

In 1966, The Spiders graduated from high school and after North High School footballer Michael Bruce replaced John Tatum on rhythm guitar, the band released their second single, “Don’t Blow Your Mind”, an original composition which became a local #1 hit, backed by “No Price Tag”. The single was recorded at Copper State Recording Studio and issued by local micro-imprint, Santa Cruz Records.

By 1967, the band had begun to make regular road trips to Los Angeles to play shows. They soon renamed themselves The Nazz and released the single “Wonder Who’s Lovin’ Her Now”, backed with future Alice Cooper track “Lay Down and Die, Goodbye”. At around this time, drummer John Speer was replaced by Neal Smith. By the end of the year, the band had relocated to Los Angeles.

n 1968, the band learned that Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz, and found themselves in need of another stage name. Furnier also believed that the group needed a gimmick to succeed, and that other bands were not exploiting the showmanship potential of the stage. The legend is that the name “Alice Cooper” came from a session with a ouija board, but this story is untrue. The name was simply said at random, it was largely chosen because it sounded innocuous and wholesome, in humorous contrast to the band’s image and music, and eventually adopted this stage name as his own. Cooper later stated that the name change was one of his most important and successful career moves.

Nonetheless, at the time Cooper and the band realized that the concept of a male playing the role of a villain, a woman killer, in tattered women’s clothing and wearing make-up, would have the potential to cause considerable social controversy and grab headlines. In 2007 in his book Alice Cooper, Golf Monster Cooper stated that his look was inspired in part by film. One of the band’s all-time favorite movies was What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? starring Bette Davis. “In the movie, Bette wears disgusting caked makeup smeared on her face and underneath her eyes, with deep, dark, black eyeliner.” Another movie the band watched over and over was Barbarella. “When I saw Anita Pallenberg playing the Great Tyrant in that movie in 1968, wearing long black leather gloves with switchblades coming out of them, I thought, ‘That’s what Alice should look like.’ That, and a little bit of Emma Peel from The Avengers.” The classic Alice Cooper group line-up consisted of Furnier, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith. With the exception of Smith, who graduated from Camelback High School (which is referred to in the song “Alma Mater” on the album School’s Out), all of the band members were on the Cortez High School cross-country team, and many of Cooper’s stage effects were inspired by their cross-country coach, Emmett Smith (one of Smith’s class projects was to build a working guillotine for slicing watermelons). Cooper, Buxton and Dunaway were also art students, and their admiration for the works of surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí would further inspire their future stage antics.

One night after an unsuccessful gig at the Cheetah club in Venice, California, where the band emptied the entire room of patrons after playing just ten minutes, they were approached and enlisted by music manager Shep Gordon, who ironically saw the band’s negative impact that night as a force that could be turned in a more productive direction. Shep then arranged an audition for the band with composer and renowned record producer, Frank Zappa, who was looking to sign bizarre music acts to his new record label, Straight Records. For the audition Zappa told them to come to his house “at 7 o’clock.” The band mistakenly assumed he meant 7 o’clock in the morning. Being woken up by a band willing to play that particular brand of psychedelic rock at seven in the morning impressed Zappa enough to sign them to a three-album deal. Another Zappa-signed act, the all-female GTOs, who liked to “dress the Cooper boys up like full size Barbie dolls,” played a major role in developing the band’s early onstage look.

Cooper’s first album Pretties for You (released in 1969) had a slight psychedelic feel. Although it touched the US charts for one week at No. 193, it was ultimately a critical and commercial failure. Alice Cooper’s “shock rock” reputation apparently developed almost by accident at first. An unrehearsed stage routine involving Cooper, a feather pillow and a live chicken garnered attention from the press; the band decided to capitalize on the tabloid sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre, shock rock. Cooper claims that the infamous “Chicken Incident” at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969 was an accident. A chicken somehow made its way onto the stage into the feathers of a feather pillow they would open during Cooper’s performance, and not having any experience around farm animals, Cooper presumed that, because the chicken had wings, it would be able to fly. He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away. The chicken instead plummeted into the first few rows occupied by disabled people in wheelchairs, who reportedly proceeded to tear the bird to pieces.The next day the incident made the front page of national newspapers, and Zappa phoned Cooper and asked if the story, which reported that he had bitten off the chicken’s head and drunk its blood on stage, was true. Cooper denied the rumor, whereupon Zappa told him, “Well, whatever you do, don’t tell anyone you didn’t do it,”[21] obviously recognizing that such publicity would be priceless for the band.

The band later claimed that this period was highly influenced by Pink Floyd, and especially the album Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Glen Buxton said he could listen to Syd Barrett’s guitar for hours at a time.[23]

Despite the publicity from the chicken incident, the band’s second album Easy Action, released in June 1970, met with the same fate as its predecessor. At around this time, the band, fed up with Californians’ indifference to their act, relocated to Cooper’s birthplace, Detroit, where their bizarre stage act was much better received by the crowds of the Midwest states who were accustomed to the similar hard rock styles of local bands such as The Stooges and The MC5. Despite this, Cooper still managed to receive a cream pie in the face when performing at the Cincinnati Pop Festival. Detroit would remain their steady home base until 1972. “L.A. just didn’t get it,” Cooper stated. “They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else.”

Alice Cooper appeared at the Woodstock-esque Strawberry Fields Festival near Toronto, Ontario in August 1970. The band’s mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out in stark contrast to the bearded, denim-clad hippie bands of the time.[25] As Cooper himself stated: “We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love. We wanted to see what was next. It turned out we were next, and we drove a stake through the heart of the Love Generation”.

In autumn 1970, the Alice Cooper group teamed with producer Bob Ezrin for the recording of their third album Love It to Death. This was the final album in their Straight Records contract and the band’s last chance to create a hit. That first success came with the single “I’m Eighteen”, released in November 1970, which reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1971. Not long after the album’s release in January 1971 Warner Bros. Records purchased Alice Cooper’s contract from Straight and re-issued the album, giving the group a higher level of promotion. Love It to Death proved to be their breakthrough album, reaching number 35 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album charts. It would be the first of eleven Alice Cooper group and solo albums produced by Ezrin, who is widely seen as being instrumental in helping to create and develop the band’s definitive sound.

The group’s 1971 tour featured a stage show involving mock fights and gothic torture modes being imposed on Cooper climaxing with a staged execution by electric chair, with the band sporting tight, sequined, and color-contrasting glam rock-style costumes made by prominent rock fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (sister of band member Neal Smith, and wife of band member Dennis Dunaway). Cooper’s androgynous stage role had developed to present a villainous side, portraying a potential threat to modern society. The success of the band’s single and album, and their tour of 1971, which included their first tour of Europe (audience members reportedly included Elton John and a pre-Ziggy David Bowie), provided enough encouragement for Warner Bros. to offer the band a new multi-album contract.

Their follow-up album Killer, released in late 1971, continued the commercial success of Love It to Death and included further single success with “Under My Wheels”, “Be My Lover” in early 1972, and “Halo of Flies” which became a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands in 1972. Thematically, Killer expanded on the villainous side of Cooper’s androgynous stage role, with its music becoming the soundtrack to the group’s morality-based stage show, which by then featured aboa constrictor hugging Cooper on-stage, the murderous axe chopping of bloodied baby dolls, and execution by hanging at the gallows. Back then, the real criticism was aimed at questioning the artists’ sexual ambiguity, rather than the stage gore. In January 1972, Cooper was again asked about his peculiar name, and told talk show hostess Dinah Shore that he took the name from a “Mayberry RFD” character.

The summer of 1972 saw the release of the single “School’s Out”. It went Top 10 in the USA and to number 1 in the UK, remaining a staple on classic rockradio to this day. The album School’s Out reached No. 2 on the US charts and sold over a million copies. The band now relocated to their new mansion inGreenwich, Connecticut. With Cooper’s on-stage androgynous persona completely replaced with brattiness and machismo, the band solidified their success with subsequent tours in the United States and Europe, and won over devoted fans in droves while at the same time horrifying parents and outraging the social establishment. In the United Kingdom, Mary Whitehouse, a Christian morality campaigner, persuaded the BBC to ban the video for “School’s Out”, although Whitehouse’s campaign did not prevent the single also reaching number one in the UK. Cooper sent her a bunch of flowers in gratitude for the publicity. Meanwhile, British Labour Member of Parliament Leo Abse petitioned Home Secretary Reginald Maudling to have the group banned altogether from performing in the country.

In February 1973, Billion Dollar Babies was released worldwide and became the band’s most commercially successful album, reaching No. 1 in both the US and UK. “Elected”, a late-1972 Top 10 UK hit from the album, which inspired one of the first MTV-style story-line promo videos ever made for a song (three years before Queen’s promotional video for “Bohemian Rhapsody”), was followed by two more UK Top 10 singles, “Hello Hooray” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, the latter of which was the last UK single from the album; it reached No. 25 in the US. The title track, featuring guest vocals by Donovan, was also a US hit single. Around this time Glen Buxton left Alice Cooper briefly due to his waning health.

With a string of successful concept albums and several hit singles, the band continued their gruelling schedule and toured the United States once again. Continued attempts by politicians and pressure groups to ban their shocking act only served to fuel the myth of Alice Cooper further and generate even greater public interest. Their 1973 US tour broke box office records previously set by The Rolling Stones and raised rock theatrics to new heights; the multi-level stage show by then featured numerous special effects, including Billion Dollar Bills, decapitated baby dolls and mannequins, a dental psychosis scene complete with dancing teeth, and the ultimate execution prop and highlight of the show: the guillotine. The guillotine and other stage effects were designed for the band by magician James Randi, who appeared on stage during some of the shows as executioner. The Alice Cooper group had now reached its peak and it was among the most visible and successful acts in the industry. Beneath the surface, however, the repetitive schedule of recording and touring had begun to take its toll on the band, and Cooper, who was under the constant pressure of getting into character for that night’s show, was consistently sighted nursing a can of beer.

Muscle of Love, released at the end of 1973, was to be the last studio album from the classic line-up, and marked Alice Cooper’s last UK Top 20 single of the 1970s with “Teenage Lament ’74”. An unsolicited theme song was recorded for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, but a different song of the same name by Lulu was chosen instead. By 1974, the Muscle of Love album had not matched the top-charting success of its predecessor, and the band began to have constant disagreements. For various reasons, the band members agreed to take what was expected to be a temporary hiatus. “Everyone decided they needed a rest from one another”, said manager Shep Gordon at the time. “A lot of pressure had built up, but it’s nothing that can’t be dealt with. Everybody still gets together and talks.” Journalist Bob Greene spent several weeks on the road with the band during the Muscle of Love Christmas Tour in 1973. His book Billion Dollar Baby, released in November 1974, painted a less than flattering picture of the band, showing a group in total disharmony.

During this time, Cooper relocated back to Los Angeles and started appearing regularly on television shows such as Hollywood Squares, and Warner Bros. released the Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits compilation album. It featured classic style artwork and reached the US Top 10, performing better than Muscle of Love. However, the band’s 1974 feature film Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper (consisting mainly of 1973 concert footage with ‘comedic’ sketches woven throughout to a faint storyline), released on a minor theatrical run mostly to drive-in theaters, saw little box office success. On March 5, 1974, Cooper appeared on episode 3 of The Snoop Sisters playing a Satanic cult singer. The final shows by Alice Cooper as a group were in Brazil in March and April 1974, including the record indoor attendance estimated as high as 158,000 fans in São Paulo on March 30, at the Anhembi Exposition Hall at the start of the first ever South American rock tour.