There’s no ‘off’ switch on Alice Cooper. Even as the legendary shock-rock icon, Hollywood Vampire and consummate master of the macabre attended his recent 75th birthday party – hosted by Poison songwriter Desmond Child in Nashville – his mind kept wandering to the minutiae of his next tour. “I’m the Ziegfeld of rock,” he says. “It’s all about the show. All I can think is: ‘Will that thing work in the second song?’” Prior to hitting the road with fellow Vampires Joe Perry, Johnny Depp and Tommy Henriksen, Alice is busy recording a pair of albums with producer Bob Ezrin and preparing his next all-important stage extravaganza. “Preparing an entirely new production is the calm before the storm… The fun part.”
Fifty years on from the release of Billion Dollar Babies, are there plans to expand the album to an even greater extent than its 2001 Deluxe Edition?
Oh yeah. We’re putting a billion dollars into it. Actually? We’re not… I rarely have anything to do with reissues. We have approval, but when they’re planning to put my baby shoes in the box and things like that, I just go: “Okay, I don’t care. Go ahead.” As much as I love the history of the original band, I don’t sit around thinking about it; I’m all about what’s next.
You had just turned twenty-five when the album was released. Could you have imagined that you’d still be a professional decapitee at seventy-five?
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Dream Theater
With friends (and bandmates) reunited for the band's 40th anniversary, it'll be a special night for fans at Wembley Arena.
Royal Republic
Livewire, turbo-harmonised, disco-rocking Swedes get ready for upgraded UK and Europe dates.
GOTTA KEEP MOVIN'
In 1968 the MC5's Kick Out The Jams album was a grenade thrown into the music scene. In the decades since, Wayne Kramer acted as guardian of the band's legacy until he died earlier this year, after making one final album.
THE KILLING FLOOR
Now revered as a linchpin moment in the history of the blues, Howlin' Wolf's London sessions in 1970, with a superstar cast that included some of England's rock royalty, came out of a chance encounter several months earlier at a gig in San Francisco.
ROGUE TRADER
Recording almost everything on his latest album himself and putting it out on his own label, Tuk Smith followed the adage that if you want something doing properly, do it yourself.
BILL WYMAN
WW2 evacuee, RAF airman, Rolling Stone, hit solo artist, bandleader, author, restaurateur, archaeologist, cricketer... Even just his time in The Greatest Rock'N'Roll Band In The World is storied, but there's been much, much more to his life than that.
LIFE IS A JOURNEY
For some people, travelling life's road is easy. For lifelong worrier Myles Kennedy it's anything but. But with his brand new solo album The Art Of Letting Go he's learning just what that title says.
ALL ABOUT BEING LOUD
In an exclusive extract from his Fast Eddie biography Make My Day, long-time Motörhead associate Kris Needs looks back at the making of their game-changing Overkill album and the subsequent killing-it UK tour.
Nikki Sixx
The Mötley Crüe bassist on making new music, replacing Mick Mars, work-life balance, learning when to say no...
Bobbie Dazzle
Meet the West Midlands singer bringing back upbeat music, fun and fashion of the 70s.
