Q&A with Alice Cooper on ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’

A true entertainment legend, Alice Cooper is enjoying a banner year. In March he was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after more than 15 years of eligibility, and today (Sept. 13) he unleashes Welcome 2 My Nightmare, his 26th studio effort and the sequel to the original platinum-selling concept album. Recorded in Nashville, the disc reunites Alice with Bob Ezrin, who produced the first Nightmare and all of Alice’s ’70s classics.

I spoke with Alice while he was in the studio of his worldwide syndicated radio show Nights with Alice Cooper to discuss the new album, his relationship with other artists he’s inspired like KISS and Marilyn Manson, and who he’d like to see inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.

What can we expect from the new album?

The idea of the album was, [producer] Bob Ezrin and I were going to start working on another album, actually, and he mentioned that it was the 35th anniversary of Welcome to My Nightmare. And we started thinking, what would Alice’s nightmare be 35 years later? [The original was] what’s under the bed, what’s in the closet at night, and you’re pretty sure your toys come to life at night, you know? So it was sort of the classic nightmare. This new nightmare, [Alice] would of course hate technology, he would hate disco with a passion, still…that would be a nightmare to him. So we started writing songs, and we ended up with 17 songs working with Bob Ezrin—I bring out the worst in him, and he brings out the worst in me. And so it ends up being one of the five best albums I’ve ever done.

And you know, we had access to a lot of great musicians in Nashville…a great bunch of guys who love playing rock and roll, because that’s their first love, you know? They knew all my old songs. So the bed tracks were basically studio guys on that, and all the deluxe stuff was guys like [veteran guitarist] Steve Hunter. So the idea was just to create a new nightmare, and I hadn’t worked with Bob in such a long time. I had forgotten how much fun it was to write with him—he’s (laughs) the same type of writer that I am; we write the punchline first and then write the song around the punchline.

I love what you guys did with Brutal Planet [Cooper’s 2000 album with contributions from Ezrin].

Almost every album’s got a flavor to it, and every time you pick a producer, you’re picking that guy because you believe that he can produce what you’ve got in your head. With Brutal Planet I said, “I want a modern day metal album, but I don’t want it to be a ‘duh’ album; I want it to be a story that makes you think.” So it was just after Columbine and all these things that were going on, so there was a lot to write about. That album came out great, and it was really fun to work with those guys.

You’ll be touring to promote the album, and it’s been five years since you’ve played New York City.  Are you planning on coming back anytime soon?

It’s always the promoters or the managers who decide how the schedule’s going to be, so when the guys that promote the shows see that we’re coming into those areas, we’re going to be in Pennsylvania, we’re going to be in Philadelphia, we’re going to be here, here, here and here, and then they just see if there’s a date that opens up in a venue that’s the right feel. So a lot of times, in a New York City theater like [around] Halloween or some kind of special occasion, we come to New York City…I love it there.

You tour a lot in Europe, especially in England.  Where did their love affair with you begin, and what’s kept it strong all these years later?

I think England was the very first place that actually got Alice Cooper, the whole concept of Alice. We played in the States, and everyone kind of knew we were a bit of an anomaly. We were not peace and love, we were not groovy at all. Underneath it, we were more Clockwork Orange—there was quite a bit of violence onstage, and that’s what we brought on tour in ’67, ’68.

Detroit got what we were doing, because they had the Stooges and the MC5…Alice Cooper fit right in there. And I’m from Detroit, so I’m sort of the long lost son that came home. But when we went to England, there was already an urban legend about Alice. I was creating a mythical character there…they knew we were banned, and anytime that you get banned, you’re gonna do really well. And  really, the British public were the first ones that saw our show and really got what it was about, and got that it had a sense of humor about it—a very dark sense of humor, but certainly a sense of humor.

What are your thoughts about being referenced in the film Annie Hall?

(Laughs.) That was great. They had two or three references about me in different movies, which I really liked—I really liked the idea that “five people went to the hospital with bad vibes,” you know? It was an Academy Award-winning movie.

Did you know if that line was going to be in the movie before it came out?

No, not at all. In fact, I was a big Woody Allen fan—Take the Money and Run and Bananas. His early movies were so funny, that [after] Sleeper we couldn’t wait to see the next one. And when he did that line that came out of nowhere, I saw him at [the New York restaurant] Elaine’s and I saw him and I said, “Thank you for using my name in the movie,” and he said, “Oh, it was a good joke,” so that was great.

A lot of your fans have a strong affinity for your early ’80s work. Do you have any memories of when you did that performance of “Clones” on the TV variety show Pink Lady and Jeff?

(Laughs.) Yeah, that was so weird. And Jerry Lewis was also on that show, which was one of our absolute heroes. The show was such a strange ’80s show, and the song was weird enough; it was maybe the weirdest Alice single of all time, with [producer] Roy Thomas Baker, who went with that ’80s sound. To me it was weird enough, but as long as it sounded like Alice it would be okay.

Was that song originally a cover, or was it brought to you?

We didn’t write that song, which is unusual, but when it came in and we did it, it felt like an Alice Cooper song. We do that in the show now; we haven’t done “Clones” in quite a long time, and it’s in the new show.

At the end of that clip, I can’t help but think about Marilyn Manson.

(Laughs.) The funny thing was that I had never met Marilyn Manson. We had dueled in the press a few times, the fact that I was Christian and he was tearing the Bible up onstage. It was odd, our relationship. And then the fact that we finally met each other in Transylvania—we did a co-headlining show in Transylvania—and he came back to the dressing room and we sat down and talked and started laughing about everything, you know? All we talked about was marriage. It was funny; we didn’t talk about horror movies or anything, we just talked about marriage because he had just gotten a divorce [Manson and burlesque model/actress Dita Von Teese split in 2007—Ed.], and I had just had my 30th anniversary. So we talked the whole time about marriage which, again, is a very strange conversation for Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson’s first meeting.

What did you learn from that conversation?

The one thing I’ve always been suspicious of [is] Hollywood marriages, especially with stars; I just don’t ever see any happy ending there. And he was very serious about this marriage…he was really broken up about it, the fact that the marriage didn’t last…I’m glad that it wasn’t just a throwaway marriage.

Do you plan on doing any other early ’80s songs of yours in the future?

They find their way into the show every once in a while. “Who Do You Think We Are,” songs like that. There’s so many good little gems from that era, songs like “Model Citizen,” and every once in a while I find one of those and I go, “Let’s rehearse this and see how it works.” And you know, only the real Alice aficionados know those songs. If we do one, I look down into the audience and like 12 people go, “Yeah!!” and everyone else goes, “What’s up with that?”

Why was “Look at You Over There, Ripping the Sawdust From My Teddybear” left off your Special Forces album?

I think it was a last minute cut. We really liked it, and then it came down to the fact that there were too many songs on the album, so we put it on as a bonus cut [a demo of the song was officially released on Alice’s 1999 box set]. But we never did that song onstage; in fact, you’re the third person this week that’s mentioned it. It’s a weird little Alice song, but I love songs like that; I love [the 1983 song] “Dyslexia,” you know? There are certain songs from that era that I really, really did like.

Out of curiosity, what is your relationship like with the band KISS?

Well, we knew KISS before they were KISS. Like before they called the Dodgers the Brooklyn Dodgers, they were a bunch of different things. Basically, we told them where to buy their make-up, you know? I think the only thing I said to them was, “You’re gonna get criticized anyway because you’re wearing make-up, and people are going to immediately equate you with this.” And what they said in the press was very smart, you know: “If one Alice works, then four ought to work.” And they were smart also do a show that wasn’t anything like my show. They used pyro and lasers and all the stuff that Alice didn’t use.

And Gene [Simmons] is very smart, and so is Paul Stanley, and they’re smart enough to work with Ezrin, and they kind of chose him for what they were doing, and it worked. And I’ve never been at odds with KISS, ever. They’ve always been guys that we’ve gotten along with; we’ve never really been at each other’s throats at all. In fact, I’ll probably be the one that’s championing them for the [Rock and Roll] Hall of Fame.

Now that you’re finally in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, who else would you like to see in there?

What about Burt Bacharach? Burt Bacharach’s not in the Hall of Fame, and he wrote more hits than anybody on the planet. That would be one that I would go for. So is Deep Purple—there are so many bands out there. I think you’re going to see a rash of bands from the 1980s now like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest that have lasted over those years...Joe Cocker, Donovan, Chicago, you know? Let’s switch gears. There’s a ton of bands out there that are not in the Hall of Fame that I thought were already in the Hall of Fame. So yeah, now I’ve gotta kind of see which ones that I’m gonna be able to push for.

What’s your next career goal?

A Broadway play. I think there will eventually be a Broadway play just called Alice. And it’ll be about the life of Alice Cooper, all about the alcoholism; there’s a lot of great stuff going on in there. You’ve got the connection to Groucho Marx and Salvador Dalí, and there’s a billion ways to go with that. And I would love to see somebody else play Alice, you know? I think that that would be fun. Or I wouldn’t mind doing Welcome to My Nightmare parts one and two on Broadway myself and turn it into a Broadway play, but not water it down; keep it as electric and loud as it is in a regular concert. They kind of watered [the Who’s] Tommy down; when you put rock on Broadway they suddenly start making it viable to the 80-year-old in Iowa that wants to come in and see a show, and they start softening it. I would never do that; I’ll keep it just as hard as it is.

Welcome 2 My Nightmare is available now. For more information and upcoming tour dates, visit Alice’s homepage at http://alicecooper.com.

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