Zito Sits Down With Alice Cooper
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00:0098.7 The Shark, Jeff Zito. I got to tell you, this could be, this could be great. This is probably one of the greatest interviews for me. This could be one of the worst for Alice Cooper. I hope, Alice, that I don't come off like maybe Wayne or Garth, you know, you're not worthy.
00:16It's okay. There'll be a lot of Wayne's and Garth here today, so I think so.
00:20So how have you been? I know that, I know golf is a big part of your life, and I know that you quit drinking and replaced that addiction with golf.
00:31Funny thing is, golf and Alice never meet.
00:33Golf and Alice never meet?
00:34No.
00:35Really?
00:35I play golf in the morning, and if I'm playing a show that night, Alice, the character, never even thinks about golf.
00:42I mean, you know, two separate characters, totally.
00:44So, you know, I'll go play golf in the morning with two or three guys, and then that night I get on stage, and there's just not even a thought of it.
00:51Not even a thought.
00:52Yeah.
00:53How about, do you schedule your tours around, like, some great areas?
00:57No.
00:57No, no, no, no.
00:58Wherever you go, there's a golf course.
01:00Right on.
01:01But, I mean, you know, my guitar player plays.
01:03You'd be surprised at who plays golf.
01:05I mean, Iggy Pop plays golf.
01:08Lou Reed played golf.
01:10John Waters.
01:11I mean, guys like, most metal bands have got at least two or three guys that play golf.
01:18So, I mean, golf is a rock and roll sport now.
01:20It is.
01:21Yeah.
01:21What is it about golf?
01:23It's addictive.
01:24It's like an addiction.
01:25If you've stopped doing your addictions, like we did, I did 37 years ago, I quit drinking and doing drugs.
01:31You find an addiction that's not going to kill you.
01:35Right.
01:36So, golf is that.
01:39And it sounds like something that your dad would play, but one of my best weapons were when dads would not let their kids go to my concerts.
01:47I'd say, tell your dad I can beat him in golf.
01:50You know, that'll frost him off more than anything else.
01:53Because they don't like that.
01:54Nobody likes that.
01:56I'm from a golfing family.
01:57My brother is the GM of a very prestigious golf course in Tampa called Avala.
02:02So, let me know if you need me to hook you up.
02:04I play there.
02:04Oh, have you?
02:05Yeah.
02:05You don't need me.
02:07Who am I kidding?
02:09Alice, originally from Detroit, Rock City, baby.
02:12That's where I came in from.
02:13I just came in from Detroit.
02:15I'm recording there right now.
02:17You're recording right now?
02:18I just finished a week in Detroit recording with some of the guys in the MC5 and Mark Farner from Grand Funk.
02:28The whole album is about Detroit.
02:31Didn't you just come out with an album a couple months ago?
02:33Yeah, you've got to keep coming up with albums.
02:35Well, and, you know, the Hollywood Vampires, the other band, that's a recording band also.
02:40We've got two albums out with Johnny Depp and Joe Perry.
02:44So, I'm in two touring bands, two recording bands right now.
02:47Wow.
02:48So, when you started in Detroit, did the band start in Detroit?
02:52No, no.
02:52You started in Arizona?
02:54In Arizona.
02:54We were high school in Phoenix.
02:56But I was born in Detroit.
02:58So, that DNA is still in me.
03:00That hard rock, a lot of horsepower DNA is in there.
03:06So, you're never going to hear an Alice Cooper without three guitars that are blaring.
03:11You know, I'll never do soft rock.
03:13Good.
03:15Yeah.
03:15You know, known as the father of shock rock, paved the ways for guys like Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie.
03:25Let me ask you, did you start to incorporate the elements of the makeup and, you know, Alice Cooper right away?
03:33And how long, like, were you a regular band?
03:35As early as high school.
03:36As early as high school.
03:37As early as high school.
03:37We were doing that.
03:38We were, we were, I always thought that rock and roll was the most theatrical music.
03:42So, why not bring it to life?
03:44Why not?
03:45If you're going to say, welcome to my nightmare, give them the nightmare.
03:48Don't just say it.
03:49Give it to them.
03:50And that includes, that means you've got to produce it.
03:53You've got to get it on stage.
03:54You have to rehearse it.
03:55You have to have a good idea.
03:56You have to see how it works with the lights.
03:58You know, you really have to learn the whole craft of how to do a show.
04:01And we've been doing it like that forever.
04:04The show we're doing now is like, I mean, as theatrical as anything we've ever done, you know.
04:09And, but, I mean, I can't imagine getting up there and just being, you know, staring at my shoes, singing songs.
04:17Shoegazer.
04:17You've got to get up there and play and, you know, entertain the audience.
04:21What were some of your influences when you were a kid before you got into music or just getting in?
04:27Well, you know, I mean, like any kid, you know, I loved horror movies.
04:31It was great.
04:32You'd go to the movies every Saturday and horror movies.
04:35And, of course, my generation grew up on television because that was our babysitter, was television.
04:41So the Twilight Zone and Outer Limits and all that stuff, you know.
04:45But basically, rock and roll and that all just fit together so well with me.
04:49And then you have to wrap it around with a certain amount of comedy.
04:52If you don't have comedy in it, it sits flat.
04:57You have to have, like, a certain amount of romance, a certain amount of sexuality, a certain amount of comedy to make the horror work, you know.
05:06I mean, if you do something really horrific on stage, I want the audience to be shocked, but I want them to laugh also.
05:11Right.
05:12You know.
05:13Alice Cooper, our guest here on 98.7 The Shark, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 2011.
05:23What are your thoughts on the broadness of the Hall's inductees?
05:29And do you think there's anybody that's left out that should be?
05:32Well, of course, there's always, you know, for me, the one that is so obvious is Burt Bacharach.
05:38Wow.
05:38Burt Bacharach wrote more rock and roll hit songs than the Beatles, you know, and he's not in the Hall of Fame.
05:45And I wonder, why is he in there?
05:46And Randy Newman is in the Hall of Fame, and Burt Bacharach wrote 50 times more songs than him, you know.
05:52Right.
05:53It doesn't make any sense, you know, to keep Burt Bacharach out of the Hall of Fame.
05:57And that would be like, you know, forgetting to put the Rolling Stones in.
06:02Right.
06:02You know.
06:02Right.
06:03But there are bands, you know.
06:05I mean, I think, you know, Judas Priest, you know, I think MC5.
06:09Oh, yeah.
06:11You know, there's so many bands out there that have been around for Iron Maiden, you know.
06:15They've been around.
06:16They have an army out there.
06:19There's just so many groups.
06:20There was a long time there where I kept saying, how come the Moody Blues are not in the Hall of Fame?
06:24Right.
06:24Well, they got it.
06:25And they finally got in, you know.
06:27I was a big Paul Butterfield fan.
06:29I was a big Laura Nero fan.
06:31And they all got in, which was great.
06:33But there's some obvious ones that should be in, you know.
06:36So, I got to ask you.
06:38I hear you're a big sports fan, probably more of an NHL fan.
06:43You're a big Coyotes fan.
06:45Well, I'm born in Detroit, so I'll always be a Red Wings fan, you know.
06:51But when the Red Wings play the Coyotes, I don't go to that game.
06:55You don't?
06:55No, I can't.
06:56Keep it neutral?
06:57Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:58But I do go to a lot of Coyotes games.
07:00And, you know, my son plays hockey.
07:04And hockey is just part of the thing.
07:07But, you know, all sports.
07:09Right.
07:09Most rock and roll guys are into sports.
07:11We get off of the stage and we get on the bus, turn on TV to see who won.
07:16Right.
07:16You know, did Detroit win today?
07:18Did Oakland win?
07:19Right.
07:20Everybody has their own team, you know.
07:22Well, here in Tampa Bay, you know, our hockey team is the Tampa Bay Lightning.
07:26And we, you know, we love the Lightning.
07:28So, I brought you a little gift.
07:30If you wouldn't mind me giving this to you.
07:34What size are you?
07:35Are you large or medium?
07:36Large or medium.
07:37Either one.
07:37Okay.
07:37Well, this is, let me show, let me give you the large.
07:42Because they run small.
07:44This is.
07:44We're sports fans.
07:45So, I mean, you know, we just go to, if there's a game tonight on the night off, we go to the game.
07:49This is our 98.7 The Shark Tampa Bay Lightning inspired t-shirt.
07:57So, I wanted to make sure you had one of these.
08:01Very nice.
08:01Because, you know, the bolts are big here in Tampa.
08:04The bolts are great.
08:05The bolts are big.
08:06And what about your Buccaneers?
08:06Well, you know, you can't have it all, Alice.
08:09We're big fans of the Bucs.
08:11I'm a Lions fan.
08:12You know exactly what we're going through.
08:14They don't look so bad this year.
08:15No, they look pretty good.
08:16They actually do.
08:16I always thought Matthew Stafford was among the elite.
08:20My wife is from Detroit.
08:21Big Detroit Lions fan.
08:23They're even talking about getting, you know, Megatron back.
08:27Oh, I hope so.
08:28That would be a great target.
08:29Unbelievable.
08:30We got our own Megatron here in Tampa Bay.
08:32His name's Mike Evans.
08:33Oh, yeah.
08:33He's just a big boy.
08:35Well, I got to tell you, Alice, I am such a fan, obviously.
08:39Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.
08:41I hope I didn't come off like Chris Farley in Saturday Night Live when I said, hey, do you remember when you did that song, Welcome to My Nightmare?
08:52Wait, do you really have nightmares?
08:54Stupid, stupid, stupid.
08:58Chris, you know, I got to know Chris after doing Wayne's World.
09:01Right, right.
09:02And he was, that was really one of those guys that I think because he was big, he felt he had to be funny all the time.
09:11Right.
09:11There was no off button on him.
09:13And I think that has something to do with killing a person, you know, where they just can't be themselves.
09:19They feel that they have to entertain at all times.
09:22Wow.
09:23Yeah.
09:23It's too bad because he was a great guy.
09:24Funny guy, man.
09:26Funny, funny dude.
09:28The show is November 7th, Ruth Eckert Hall in Clearwater.
09:32I can't tell you how many bands I've seen there.
09:36Chris Cornell, acoustic, fourth row, dead center.
09:39Yeah.
09:40I'm going to be there.
09:41Same thing for Alice Cooper.
09:43If you're in the fourth row, you're in the blood seats.
09:45Oh, really?
09:45Yeah.
09:46So maybe I got to wear a poncho?
09:47You just call it the blood seat.
09:49Okay.
09:49I'm going to make sure I wear some clothes that I paint with or do odd jobs around the house with.
09:55Such a great opportunity.
09:58Thanks for meeting me.
09:59And I hope this wasn't a low light of your career.
10:03Not at all.
10:03And you're worthy.
10:04Oh, thank you.
10:06Yes.