Alice Cooper still rocking at 63

No More Mr Nice Guy tour hits Auckland

BRIDGET JONES

For a man nearing the retirement age, Alice Cooper doesn't like the idea of taking things easy. In fact the 63-year-old says he is always keen to try the trickier things in life.

"Opportunities come up all the time for a lot of different things. You pick the things you think you can do, and occasionally you pick something that makes you uncomfortable. 

"I like getting in a position that I'm not necessarily comfortable in because it makes you stretch a little bit."

The American shock rocker sure does like to be stretched.

Along with his current No More Mr Nice Guy tour that hits Auckland this week, Cooper is juggling a new album, a restaurant and bar, a book about golf, a nightly radio show, a number of film rolls and a Halloween ride at a theme park that's in the works.  

"It's been non stop, it really has," he says.

"We had three weeks off recently - I mean literally off-off, where I didn't have to do anything - and I was kind of going a little bit crazy."

The man born Vincent Furnier burst onto the scene in a cloud of make up, big hair and fake blood in the late sixties with his band, but it was his first solo album - 1975's Welcome to My Nightmare - that cemented him as one of the most scandalous stage performers in music.

But his "shock rock" reputation started by accident at a concert in 1969.

The story goes that a live chicken was thrown on stage. Because he knew very little about farm animals, and assuming it could fly, Cooper threw it into the audience where the bird was torn to pieces.

Nowadays, the animals seem to be safe, but that hasn't stopped the singer pushing the boundaries on his latest tour.

"There's a part where I am standing on a garbage can, with a noose around my neck, in drag because I had just killed a nurse and I decided I would become the nurse... and I really looked horrific singing just the prettiest song.

"The audience is mesmerised by it."

So who goes to see Alice Cooper perform these days? A bunch of aging men wanting to relive their youth?

"Our audiences are, well the very first 20 rows are 15 to 25-year-olds.

"They know all the songs, they're in the make up - they want to be in the show. They realise if they are in the first 20 rows, you usually are in the show because everything is going to come your way!"

Being theatrical was always on the cards for Cooper, but he says being a musician wasn't always as obvious.

"I knew I was going to be in show business somewhere, it was just in me.

"I thought I might be a writer... I didn't really know I was going to be a performer until I got in the band and then I felt more comfortable behind the mic than anywhere else.

"At school I was Ferris Buller. I basically ran my school. I had deals with my teachers; 'don't give me a D or and F, give me a C and I will keep the class entertained'. 

"And that was a good deal - I was the class clown and I would keep everyone happy."

And almost 50 years later, Cooper is still keeping people happy. So much so, the original Alice Cooper line-up was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year.

The man of the moment says it was a great feeling to be recognised by the musicians he looked up to as a kid.

"It's like graduating. Because you are being voted in by the very guys who you learnt from, your teachers. Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Pete Townsend - all those guys who are in the Hall of Fame, they get the ballot. These guys looked at that and realised 'oh yeah, Alice needs to be in there'."

Alice Cooper will be at Auckland's Trust Stadium Arena on Thursday September 22.

Tickets from Ticketek.

- © Fairfax NZ News