Alice Cooper I Remember…

Rock legend Alice Cooper, 71, is best known for such hits as “School’s Out” and “No More Mr Nice Guy” as well as his shocking stage antics. He looks back on his Detroit childhood, finding fame in England and how he once nearly ended it all…

…BEING CHASED BY A GIANT BUMBLEBEE. That’s the first thing I remember. I was three or four years old and when you’re that young a bumblebee is about the size of a bird. I remember it chasing me and I couldn’t get into the house, although eventually I did manage to get away without it stinging me.

…I GREW UP IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN, which was a sort of all American city where one street was Polish, one street was Italian, one street was Irish, and everything was about sports: baseball, football, hockey. We’d get up in the morning and ask, “Who are we playing at baseball today? We’re playing the Irish? Great!” There was never any racism going on; we were all just friends.

…DETROIT WAS AMERICA’S CAR CAPITAL and my dad sold cars so I was steeped really early in my life in what was a Plymouth, what was a Ford and what was a Chevy. To this day I still have that in my DNA and I own eight cars. My father was a used car salesman and an honest one, which meant he never made any money, but my mum worked as a waitress—one of those jive-talking waitresses you’d always get in the diners—and it seemed we had everything we wanted. It was a very happy childhood.

…MUM AND DAD WERE JITTERBUG CHAMPIONS. They did swing dancing on the local circuit and my dad played saxophone and was into Sinatra and big bands, which is where my love of music comes from. It was also around the time of doo-wop and Elvis and Chuck Berry so my parents also introduced me to rock ‘n’ roll.