Exclusive Interview and Photos: Alice Cooper on Rock Stars and Politics

Legendary shock rocker Alice Cooper talks to us about why rock stars should never talk politics

Alice Cooper broke my camera.  OK, not exactly…I’d used the same Nikon camera to shoot numerous shows from KISS to Rob Zombie. Then, poof, in the middle of capturing the Coop, it went up to that big camera cloud in the sky. Luckily, before it went belly up, I managed to knock off a few good shots for the gallery below. You see, I recently saw Alice Cooper in Grand Prairie, Texas. The show was nothing short of a well-oiled machine complete with decapitations, electrocutions and giant monsters. I had the opportunity to talk with Alice and like any good interview, it went somewhere I hadn’t planned. With the current U.S. political climate and the Presidential debates behind us, it was the perfect time to talk about NOT talking politics… which we talked about.

Normally, I’d do a clever intro and explain to everyone how big of a star Alice Cooper is and why he is so important to rock and horror culture.  The truth is, if you don’t already know, I’d just be spinning my wheels… with you UNDER MY WHEELS. Was that clever enough?

SHOCK: How’s it going? Busy day?

Cooper: Every day is a busy day… getting ready to go back out on tour, doing interviews, gotta do my radio show… my twin grandsons are over and they are tearing the house apart. These guys are almost two years old. Their names are Falcon and Riot. They live up to their names.

SHOCK: I was really impressed with the live show. Your crew must really be on its game. The show went off without a hitch like clockwork.

Cooper: I think it’s important to involve everybody. If you are a guitar tech, you are probably gonna be in the show.  f you are the truck driver, you’re probably gonna be in the show. It’s almost like the carnival back in the old days, where the guy who would take the tickets at the door was also the tightrope walker and the lion tamer. I like people to have their own jobs, but at the same time, it’s exciting for them to actually be in the show.

SHOCK: Oh, yeah! That is awesome!

Cooper: So, I love involving everybody in the show. That way they get the feeling it’s all their show.

SHOCK: Sounds like one big family!

Cooper: Yeah, the one thing I learned over the years was you treat everybody exactly the same. The guy that sweeps the floor gets the same treatment as the guitar player.

SHOCK: So true! We all know the trash collector is the guy we’d miss first in this world! Everybody’s job is important.

Cooper: I think the more you involve them in the show, the better the show is. Everybody takes their job seriously. Everybody knows their first job is to make sure the guitar is in tune or the guy gets the right guitar at the right time and then on this song, he is gonna be some sort of creature that comes out and puts Alice in a straight jacket. But that moment on stage is really exciting. He realizes he is an intricate part… he realizes without him, I don’t get in the straight jacket. He’s gotta be on the money.

SHOCK: I noticed you are really pushing your political platform this year. I love that you’ve thrown your hat into the ring with “Elected.”

Cooper: I am so unbelievably unpolitical. Every four years this comes up because of the “Elected” song. It just so happens that that song ended up being a number one song in England and a couple of other places and was a hit in the states. So, every four years that song raises it’s ugly head again and they do this whole thing with Alice for President and I go, “Oh, brother…that again!” (Laughs) I am so not political. I don’t believe rock and roll and politics belong in the same breath together.

SHOCK: I’ve always found it ludicrous that any celebrity thinks because of their position in the public eye that they are suddenly qualified to have some loud, outspoken political agenda on every news outlet. It’s exhausting.

Cooper: I always laugh about it. I go, “Why would you ever ask a rock star about politics? We’re rock stars… doesn’t that say enough? We play rock and roll music and party all night and stuff. Why would you think that we would know who to vote for? That would be like asking the garbage man, you know, “Hey man, what do you think about nuclear physics?’” (Laughs) We don’t have any information that anyone else doesn’t have. I do think it’s really unfair when an actor or a rock star says, “Vote for this person! If you are truly my fan, you will vote for this person!” Because then they are just treating the audience like sheep.

SHOCK: Suddenly, it’s like a lobby group.

Cooper: Yes! I mean, you can say, “I’m voting for this person,” and let it go there, but when you shame people into voting for them because you are voting for them, that becomes a little ridiculous. I think that what Springsteen does and what Bono does and even Sting… I don’t look at that as political but more humanitarian. That’s different than politics. When you get someone saying, “You better vote for Hillary!” or, “You better vote for Trump!” that is something different.

SHOCK: I wanted to ask about your live performances. I loved the tributes you’ve done to some rock icons as part of your stage show.

Cooper: Well, it really started out with the movie, Dark Shadows, with Johnny Depp. We went to a club in England and he came out and jammed with us and we started talking about the old days in Los Angeles when we would all meet every night and drink. It was the Hollywood Vampires. Harry Nilsson and John Lennon and Keith Moon and myself and Mickey Dolenz and Bernie Taupin… it was a bunch of guys who met every single night and drank. I said it would be great if we did an album or band that did nothing but tributes to our dead, drunk friends. So, we started looking at the songs and looking at the guys we used to drink with like Jim Morrison and Jimmie Hendrix and all these guys and pretty soon the band was born. Johnny played guitar and Joe Perry walked in and said, “I’m in!” and  pretty soon it was a band. It was so easy to do. We just went into the studio and started playing these songs. Bob Ezrin produced. McCartney would show up. Joe Walsh would show up. Dave Grohl would show up… it was great because everybody sort of wanted to contribute to the song or the character they knew and be part of it. So, I carried that on to my show. Obviously it happens after Alice gets his head cut off. Well, how does he come back onstage? Well, they bring him back on a gurney and he wakes up in the graveyard of the Hollywood Vampires. Then the voiceover says, “What are you trying to do, raise the dead?” Then of course, the song starts right there. That’s the way that the Alice Cooper show works. We try to thread it all together so there’s a reason why that happens. I think we are the only ones that try to do that… thread a storyline through the whole show. So, when you are sitting there you say, “Oh! I see why that happened!”

Catch one of the remaining Alice Cooper shows by checking out the tour dates here.

Check out the exclusive Alice Cooper live photos below, courtesy of Brian Steward.