End of august see the release of a new album by legendary ALICE COOPER called „Road“. Time for an interview with the master and a cool Track by Track for the album.
Your new album is called “Road” – what was the inspiration for the title, and where does this road lead to?
I’ve had a lot of bands, and they’re all been great bands. But there are certain bands that are so good live that you want to show them off. The last band I did this with was with Roxy and Dover and Eric Singer, Chuck. But that was another band when we did the eyes of Alice Cooper. This band here is so tight, and everybody’s best friends. I said I wanted to write an album. But if I wanted the band to write it, also, and show off the fact that they were so good that we could do this album in the studio live with very few overdubs. So basically, that’s what we did. I mean, we did preproduction outside. And really, the idea of what it is, when do we all meet on the road. So it should be about the road, you know, it would be silly to make it anything else. Because that’s where we all live on the road. So, every character that we write about, and this is extremely exaggerated, there’s nobody specific in mind that when I got the lyrics, I developed it so that all the characters that we meet in this are fictional characters, but they all have to do with the road.
How would you describe “Road” musically?
It’s a hard rock album, I mean, I’ve got a hard rock band. There’s a couple of really, really good ballads. There’s a lot of humor, because there’s a lot of humor on the road. There’s a ballad, a couple of really touching moments. “Baby Please Don’t Go” is that moment when the guy’s with his wife or girlfriend and he’s getting up to go for three months on the road. And he’s being very quiet, it gets right to the door opens and writes, he gets ready to open the door. He hears her say, ‘baby, please don’t go’. And it just kills you, breaks your heart. Because everybody that’s ever been on the road knows what that feels like. And the song is exactly that. Also, the rest of the songs have a lot of humor in it. You know, when I exaggerate a character, I try to make them funny characters. But very guitar driven. I’ve got three guitar players, monster guitar players.
It is the first studio album together with your current touring band. How did the process of writing and recording differ to yo ur previous albums?
Basically, Bob Ezrin, and I write most of the stuff with another writer. And then Bob and I shape it. Because only we know what Alice would say and what Alice wouldn’t say. And so, you know, I wanted the band, I said: “Everybody write me a song, write me a couple of songs about the road”. And they all came in with songs. And all of them were developed into this album. In fact, I don’t think they’ve heard what we’ve done to their songs yet, which is going to be fun to have a playback party. So that when they hear it, they’re gonna go that’s not what it started out to be.
Tom Morello, Keith Nelson and Kane Roberts are featuring artists on this record. How did the cooperation come about?
Well, Bob, and I always find the people that we think are the right people for the right song. Kane brought in a song and at the time, he was in the band because Nita was out with Demi Lovato and so he came in with a song. And Tom Morello came up with one. And we, you know, we kind of considered Tom part of the band, and we consider Kane part of the band, guys that have been on the road with us, you know, and so, you know, you just, it’s like making, it’s like making food, you add that element. You add a little bit of this, you put some of that in, oh, I know. It would be good. Boom, you know, and those are the players that you use that are the sort of the auxilary kind of guys that come in and and you know, I mean, that’s the idea is that know what guy plays on what song the one that Tom Morello plays on? We just go Oh, yeah, Tom Morello. Gotta have him on the song
Bob Ezrin again produced the album. You have a long-lasting friendship and have been working together on many records. What makes working with him special, was there any difference in working with him compared to previous times, also given the full band was involved?
Yeah, because I mean, Bob and I almost created the concept record back in back in the day of “schools out” and “billion dollar babies” and “love it to death” and “killer”. I’ve done 17 albums with him, more than half of the 30 albums that we’ve done. He and I are the only two that really knows what Alice would say or do. We work really well together, specially on the vocals. He’s very,hard in the studio. But he gets what he wants to get. And I always tell people, when you’re working with Ezrin, don’t take anything personal. He does it. When he’s yelling, he’s not yelling at you. He’s yelling at the part. He’s yelling at the performance. He’s yelling, mostly at the equipment. And I have to tell the engineers, guys, don’t take this serious don’t take that, you know, he’s just, he’s basically making you a better engineer. We laugh a lot in the studio. And sort of the same people that are, you know, that are going like this in the studio are also laughing. But we get the product done. It’s no difference. It’s music. It’s like, you take a piece of music, it’s a piece of clay, you have your basic piece of clay, you have basic shape of what you want. And then you start molding it into what you really want it to be. What specifically do you want this to look like? What do you want it to sound like? And we may finish a song. A week later, I have a great idea for this. Okay, we’re going to go in and change it. Yeah, yeah. But it’s, it’s that good of an idea. And then it’s, yeah, okay, we’ll do that.
Each song kind of describes an individual stage of a tour: from saying goodbye to loved ones, to the moments around the tour bus, to the ego-driven jubilation on stage including all the ups and downs. Are all of the scenarios described in the songs based on true events?
You know, everything’s based on things that happen on the road. We all know that, you know. Some of the funniest things in the world happen, because you’re not expecting them. And a lot of times, there’s things that you just think, really, you know, I mean, I’ve been on the road for 55 years and that’s never happened before. Those are the things you’re write about. Those are the things that make the road Interesting. Yeah, we all know, we’re gonna live a suitcase, we all know what we’re going to eat. We all know what what the day is going to look like to get this show up and down. Everybody else’s rock show is pretty much ‘set the amps up and the band will come up and play’. This is like a Broadway show almost where props have got to be in place, they have to work at their exact right time. The thing I love about this, our tour packages, and all the people that work is everybody has a real pride in this show. Everybody who’s responsible for certain things really care about that it works that night. So it really does make it a big sort of family thing. And we only hire professionals, we only hire people that really know what they’re doing.
What is your favorite part and what’s is you least favorite part about being on tour, being on the road?
Well, it used to be, that I had to leave my family, you know, and be gone for three months, four months on the road. Kids are all grown up, they all have their own kids now. Sheryl, who started in the show when she was 17 or 18 years old, is now back in the show. And I mean, My daughter Calico played the part for 10 years, you know, and she got a lot of stage experience to it. She’s now an actress and an improv comedian. And that gave her a lot of experience. I bring home with me, Sheryl’s on the road, she is a very essential part of the show. And with the Vampires also. And really, that’s the only thing that I’ve kind of overcome. I have fun on the road. I actually doesn’t kill me. You know, it used to really wear me down. But then again, 40 years ago, I used to drink. And I used to take drugs. So I mean, when you’re sober, you have as much fun on the road as you can. But all of the energy at the end of the day has to be into that show. No matter what you do during the day, you have to be ready for 100% for the show.
The special edition of the album also includes the live video for your performance at Hellfest 2022 in France. We remember it being extremely hot during that weekend and you performed in front of a beautiful sun set to an enthusiastic audience. Can you describe the feeling of standing in front of such a big crowd?
I mean, being in front of a crowd for 40 or 50 years. You know, I always tell people that you do the same show for 100 people that you do for 100,000. You put the same energy into that show that you do, you know, for 100,000. And so don’t change the show. Don’t change your attitude, don’t change what you do. So 100 to 300,000 people doesn’t affect me one bit. You know, I’m going to do the same show.
How is playing Alice Cooper shows different than playing shows with Hollywood Vampires? Is there a difference at all?
Oh, that’s entirely different. It’s the same intensity, except that the Alice Cooper show Alice plays Alice, I play a character that doesn’t talk to the audience. He’s very arrogant. He’s a villain. He has a sense of humor about it, but I mean, he’s extremely full of himself, which makes him almost comical. He’s almost Captain Hook. Whereas in the vampires, I’m the lead singer. I talk to the audience all night. I play guitar on a few songs. I do all the things that Alice never does. So it’s a bit of a relief to play with the vampires, it’s a lot less hectic, a lot less concentrated, as it is playing Alice.
There might be too many, but what’s the craziest thing, that happened to you, while being on the road?
That’s impossible to answer. I mean, we’ve had holes in the airplane. We’ve hit moose in the bus. Every day, something happens. I could write probably a 10 volume book on things that happened on the road. So I can’t really think of one thing in particular, that we didn’t laugh our heads off after or scared to death of.
Your recent studio album “Detroit Stories” was released in the height of the (Covid) pandemic. You charted on #1 in the US Billboard charts, #1 in Germany and top 10 in many other countries worldwide. Does being this successful with music, your passion, still surprise you after all these years?
That surprise me, that surprised me. Because we were coming out of this worldwide Depression, kind of thing. It was the weirdest thing I think ever happened in the world, where everybody was affected by one thing, where the whole world shut down. And everybody had to improvise. For the first time I can think of, you know, certainly in my lifetime. So coming out of that with a product. And then going to number one was like a bit of a shock to me. I knew the album was good. And I knew that it was one of my best albums, but I didn’t really expect it to be number one. You know, I glowed for about a week. And then then I started working on the next album
Can we expect to see you back in Europe for Alice Cooper shows?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. There’s no way that this show that we’re doing right now doesn’t go to Europe, South America, Australia. Japan everywhere. Is not on not this year. But next year I would imagine it’ll be a full world tour with this show.
All Pics by: Jenny Risher
THE ROAD – Track by Track
I’m Alice
“I’m Alice” is just a song that Ryan Roxy brought in. And we just blew it up into this incredible opening song, where Alice’s is just “I’m Alice”, that kind of thing big and crazy and really cool. But it could only be an opening song.
“Welcome to show”
“Welcome to show” is telling the audience “Here it is”. We’re ready to go. We are fully loaded. And here it comes.
“All Over The World”
All over the world is one of those things where, you know, it was basically a travelogue about all the places that you go to. And you even talk about places that are so obscure, you know, that nobody ever goes to he spent time in jail in Japan. And then he’s in this and he’s that. And again, once again, it’s overblown. And it’s exaggerated. But it’s a bit of a comment on you do go everywhere
“Dead Don’t Dance”
The dead don’t dance is just you know, it was one of those songs that it was just a great riff. And the lyric was just very tricky, and fun to write. And I don’t think we’re considered a dance band. Our audience is not, you know, deadheads were the undead heads.
“Go Away”
Go away is about a guy who gets one of those girls, or guys that will not give up. They just are there. Every time you turn the corner, they’re there. And it’s nice that they’re fans, but this guy or this girl, will not get the answer. It’s over. And that makes it very funny. Because he’s just “could you just go away”
“White Line Frankenstein”
White Line Frankenstein is the monster that we created. That’s the truck driver or the bus driver. And he’s the guy that lives on there. He is a road rat for ever. He’s the king of the road. He doesn’t live in a house. He lives in that truck. You know, that is his truck. And that’s where he lives. And he is the king of that. The white line Frankenstein has the white lines going past him, not the white lines going in his nose.
“Big Boots”
Big boots is the funniest song of the album. The band stops at a diner and the girl comes up. And she’s really cute. And she’s from the south. And she talks like that a little bit. Her name is Fancy. And the guy goes wow, she’s got big boots. Of course the audience are gonna go “big boots”. Right? That I think is my favorite song on the album. Because it’s right there, you know, with “Cold Ethyl” or something like that.
“Rules Of The Road”
Rules of the Road is something that when Shep used to talk, he used to tell other young managers there’s three things you have to remember as a manager. 1. “Get the money”, 2. “don’t forget to get the money”, 3. ”never forget to get the money”. And so we wrote this whole section about telling a kid if you’re going to be a rock star, if somebody gives it to you, you take it. If somebody hands you the keys, steal it. And so on and on. And at the end, of course it says, if you follow all of these rules, you’re gonna die.
“The Big Goddbye”
The big goodbye is always that thing that every girl dreads. It’s the fact that she wants that relationship to be forever. In the 70s guys just went through girls like a hot knife through butter. And in the end, he’s going you knew who I was. Why are you shocked at this? You know, the big goodbye. So again, it’s another I’m not saying right or wrong. I’m saying that it’s what he has happened in the past and it was just part of the deal.
“Road Rats Forever”
Road Rats Forever is of course a remake of the song “road rats”. From “Lace and whiskey”. It was too perfect for this album. It was our tip of the hat to the roadies. You know, the show doesn’t go on without these guys. They’re the pirate ship
“Baby Please Don’t Go”
Baby please don’t go is a heartbreaker. That’s the one that everybody has gone through. It’s that last minute when you know you’re going to be gone for three months. And the worst thing that she can say is Baby please don’t go. Because you know you have to go she knows you have to go but still. You don’t want to think about it.
“100 More Miles”
100 more miles is the guy that’s just beat to hell. He’s been on an eight month tour. He’s finally almost there. Maybe he’s a truck driver. Maybe he’s a bus driver. And that last 100 Miles is like 1000 miles because it’s like running in sand in a dream. You can’t seem to get home, you know wherever it is. Chuck Garrick brought that song in.
“Magic Bus”
We just couldn’t think of a better cover to do than Magic Bus because we all live in a bus. And what The Who have contributed to at least our career. I mean, they were a huge influence on us. We got who in the Yardbirds, of course. So we just said well, let’s do a version of it. Let’s do a little bit. A lot. We did our own live in the studio. And I don’t think there was any overdubs on that one. We just did it all right then, and it just came out great.
Alice rules always and forever!!!!