Alice Cooper was born on Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4,1948 and is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades.
94 Facts About Alice Cooper
2.
Alice Cooper has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences.
3.
Over his career, Alice Cooper has sold well over 50 million records.
4.
Alice Cooper has experimented with a number of musical styles, mainly hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, and glam metal, but new wave, art rock on DaDa, and industrial rock on Brutal Planet and Dragontown.
5.
Alice Cooper helped to shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and has been described as the artist who "first introduced horror imagery to rock'n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre".
6.
Alice Cooper is known for his wit offstage, with The Rolling Stone Album Guide calling him the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer".
7.
Alice Cooper was named after his uncle, Vincent Collier Furnier, and the short-story writer Damon Runyon.
8.
Alice Cooper's father was an evangelist in The Church of Jesus Christ, informally known as "Bickertonites", and his paternal grandfather, Thurman Sylvester Furnier, was an apostle in and president of that church.
9.
Alice Cooper claims that the infamous "Chicken Incident" at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert in September 1969 was an accident.
10.
Alice Cooper picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away.
11.
The next day the incident made the front page of national newspapers, and Zappa phoned Alice Cooper and asked if the story, which reported that he had bitten off the chicken's head and drunk its blood on stage, was true.
12.
Alice Cooper appeared at the Woodstock-esque Strawberry Fields Festival near Toronto, Ontario, in August 1970.
13.
The group's 1971 tour featured a stage show involving mock fights and gothic torture modes being imposed on Alice Cooper, climaxing in a staged execution by electric chair, with the band sporting tight, sequined, color-contrasting glam rock-style costumes made by prominent rock-fashion designer Cindy Dunaway.
14.
In January 1972, Alice Cooper was again asked about his peculiar name, and told talk show hostess Dinah Shore that he took the name from a "Mayberry RFD" character.
15.
Alice Cooper sent her a bunch of flowers in gratitude for the publicity.
16.
In 2012 at Dragon Con, Randi and Alice Cooper discussed their working relationship during this period.
17.
The Alice Cooper group had now reached its peak and it was among the most visible and successful acts in the industry.
18.
Cooper later wrote an autobiography with Steven Gaines called Me, Alice which gave Cooper's version of that era of his career, among other things.
19.
However, the band's 1974 feature film Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper, released on a minor cinematic run mostly to drive-in theaters, saw little box office success.
20.
On March 5,1974, Alice Cooper appeared on episode 3 of The Snoop Sisters playing a Satanic cult singer.
21.
In 1975, Alice Cooper returned as a solo artist with the release of Welcome to My Nightmare.
22.
In 1978, a sobered Alice Cooper used his experience in the sanitarium as the inspiration for his semi-autobiographical studio album From the Inside, which he co-wrote with Bernie Taupin, known for his work with Elton John; it spawned yet another US Top 20 hit ballad, "How You Gonna See Me Now".
23.
Alice Cooper led celebrities in raising money to remodel the famous Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, California.
24.
Alice Cooper himself contributed over $27,000 to the project, buying an O in the sign in memory of close friend and comedian Groucho Marx.
25.
In 1979, Alice Cooper guest starred on good friend Soupy Sales' show, Lunch with Soupy Sales and was hit in the face with a pie, as part of the show.
26.
In mid-1983, after the recording of DaDa was completed, Alice Cooper was hospitalized for alcoholism again, and cirrhosis of the liver.
27.
Alice Cooper was finally stable and sober by the time DaDa and The Nightmare home video were released in the fall of that year; however, both releases performed below expectations.
28.
Alice Cooper spent a lengthy period away from the music business dealing with personal issues.
29.
Behind the scenes Alice Cooper kept busy musically, working on new material in collaboration with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.
30.
The spring of 1984 was taken up with filming, Alice Cooper acting in the B-grade horror movie Monster Dog, filmed in Torrelodones, Spain.
31.
Alice Cooper was signed to MCA Records, and appeared as guest vocalist on Twisted Sister's song "Be Chrool to Your Scuel".
32.
In 1986, Alice Cooper officially returned to the music industry with the studio album Constrictor.
33.
The Constrictor album was a catalyst for Alice Cooper to make a triumphant return to the road for the first time since the 1981 Special Forces project, on a tour titled The Nightmare Returns.
34.
In 1987, Alice Cooper made a brief appearance as a vagrant in the supernatural horror film Prince of Darkness, directed by John Carpenter.
35.
Alice Cooper's role had no lines and consisted of generally menacing the protagonists before eventually impaling one of them with a bicycle frame.
36.
Also in 1987, Alice Cooper appeared at WrestleMania III, escorting wrestler Jake "The Snake" Roberts to the ring for his match against The Honky Tonk Man.
37.
Roberts considered the involvement of Alice Cooper to be an honor, as he had idolized Alice Cooper in his youth and was still a huge fan.
38.
Alice Cooper recorded a music video for the "Poison" B-side "I Got a Line on You" after the song was featured on the soundtrack to Iron Eagle II.
39.
In 1991, Alice Cooper released his nineteenth studio album Hey Stoopid featuring several notable rock musicians guesting on the record.
40.
One critic has noted that Prime Cuts demonstrates how Alice Cooper had used themes of satire and moralization to such good effect throughout his career.
41.
Alice Cooper had a brief appearance as the abusive stepfather of Freddy Krueger in the A Nightmare on Elm Street slasher film Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
42.
Alice Cooper made a cameo appearance in the 1992 comedy film Wayne's World.
43.
In 1994, Alice Cooper released The Last Temptation, his first concept album since DaDa.
44.
Alice Cooper just wanted to go where his friends are.
45.
Also in 1996, Alice Cooper sang the role of Herod on the London cast recording of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
46.
In 1999, the four-disc box set The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper appeared, which contained the authorized biography of Cooper, Alcohol and Razor Blades, Poison and Needles: The Glorious Wretched Excess of Alice Cooper, All-American, written by Creem magazine editor Jeffrey Morgan.
47.
Alice Cooper toured extensively releasing a steady stream of studio albums to favorable critical acclaim.
48.
Cooper's radio show Nights with Alice Cooper began airing on January 26,2004, in several US cities.
49.
One critic, in a review of the Montreux release, commented that Alice Cooper was to be applauded for "still mining pretty much the same territory of teenage angst and rebellion" as he had done more than 30 years previously.
50.
In December 2006, the original Alice Cooper band reunited to perform six classic Alice Cooper songs at Cooper's annual charity event in Phoenix, entitled "Christmas Pudding".
51.
On July 1,2007, Alice Cooper performed a duet with Marilyn Manson at the B'Estival event in Bucharest, Romania.
52.
The performance represented a reconciliation between the two artists; Alice Cooper had previously taken issue with Manson over his overtly anti-Christian on stage antics and had sarcastically made reference to the originality of Manson's choosing a female name and dressing in women's clothing.
53.
In January 2008, Alice Cooper was one of the guest singers on Avantasia's third studio album The Scarecrow, singing the seventh track "The Toy Master".
54.
In July 2008, after lengthy delays, Alice Cooper released Along Came a Spider, his eighteenth solo studio studio album.
55.
Alice Cooper won the living legend award at the 2006 Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards event; and he won the 2007 Mojo music magazine Hero Award.
56.
Alice Cooper received a Rock Immortal award at the 2007 Scream Awards.
57.
Alice Cooper appeared on the British TV series Room 101 where a balloon model of him was featured.
58.
In January 2010, it was announced that Alice Cooper would be touring with Rob Zombie on The Gruesome Twosome Tour.
59.
In May 2010, Alice Cooper made an appearance during the beginning of the season finale of the singing competition show American Idol, in which he sang "School's Out".
60.
The induction ceremony took place March 14,2011, where Alice Cooper was inducted by fellow horror-rocker Rob Zombie.
61.
Alice Cooper showed up for the event wearing a blood-splattered shirt and had a live albino Burmese python wrapped around his neck.
62.
Alice Cooper told Rolling Stone magazine that he was "elated" by the news and that the nomination had been made for the original band, as "We all did go to the same high school together, and we were all on the track team, and it was pretty cool that guys that knew each other before the band ended up going that far".
63.
In June 2011 Alice Cooper took his place in the Reasonably Priced Car at the BBC motoring show Top Gear.
64.
Alice Cooper used the opportunity to hit out at the "anaemic" rock music that dominates the charts, and said he has no intention of retiring from the industry.
65.
Alice Cooper supported Iron Maiden on their Maiden England World Tour from June to July 21,2012, and then headlined Bloodstock Open Air on Sunday August 12.
66.
On September 16,2012, Alice Cooper appeared at the Sunflower Jam charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, performing alongside Brian May lead guitarist of Queen, bassist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, drummer Ian Paice of Deep Purple, and Iron Maiden lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
67.
In 2013, Alice Cooper announced that he had finished recording a covers album, based on songs by his rock star drinking buddies in the 1970s who had since died from excess, and that it was scheduled for a spring 2014 release.
68.
On January 28,2014, it was officially revealed that Alice Cooper would be the opening act for Motley Crue's final tour, which would span throughout 2014 and 2015.
69.
Alice Cooper was featured on the song "Savages" on Theory of a Deadman's fifth studio album.
70.
In 2016, Alice Cooper made headlines again as he resumed his running gag of campaigning for the US presidency.
71.
Alice Cooper featured as a co-headliner with Deep Purple and Edgar Winter for several tour dates from August to early September 2017.
72.
Alice Cooper released his twentieth solo studio album Paranormal in July 2017.
73.
On Easter Sunday, 2018, Alice Cooper performed as Herod in NBC's live performance of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert.
74.
Alice Cooper released his twenty-first solo studio album, Detroit Stories, on February 26,2021.
75.
Alice Cooper wrote the afterword to Jeffrey Morgan's autobiography Rock Critic Confidential which was published by New Haven on June 28,2021.
76.
Alice Cooper participated as a judge on the music competition television show No Cover season 1 that started to be aired in the Sumerian Records YouTube Channel in April 2022.
77.
Alice Cooper had as far back as 1969 said that it was music from the mid-sixties, and particularly from British bands the Beatles, the Who, and the Rolling Stones, as well as the Yardbirds, that had the greatest influence on him.
78.
Alice Cooper stated that in his opinion the cause of the problem was that certain modern bands "had forgotten to listen to the Beatles".
79.
However, the editor ended up reporting that Alice Cooper was the real Haskell.
80.
Alice Cooper discussed various issues during the talk, including the horrors of acute alcoholism and his subsequent cure, being a Christian, and his social and work relationship with his family.
81.
Cooper ended up marrying ballerina instructor and choreographer Sheryl Goddard, who performed in the Alice Cooper show from 1975 to 1982.
82.
Alice Cooper has stayed close to lead vocalist Dave Mustaine, who considers Cooper to be his "godfather".
83.
Since overcoming his own addiction to alcohol in the mid-1980s, Alice Cooper has continued to help and counsel other rock musicians with addiction problems.
84.
On occasion, Alice Cooper has spoken out against musicians who promote or opine on politics; for example, in the build-up to the 2004 presidential election, he told The Canadian Press that the rock stars campaigning for and touring on behalf of Democratic candidate John Kerry were committing "treason against rock n' roll".
85.
Every four years since releasing his single "Elected" in 1972, Alice Cooper has satirically run for president.
86.
Alice Cooper is a fan of both the NHL's Detroit Red Wings and Arizona Coyotes.
87.
Alice Cooper is a longtime baseball fan, supporting the Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers.
88.
Alice Cooper has coached Little League baseball teams since his son played in the early 1990s.
89.
Alice Cooper is a fan of NBA basketball, supporting both the Detroit Pistons and the Phoenix Suns.
90.
Alice Cooper is an avid golfer and says that the sport played a major role in him overcoming his addiction to alcohol, and has even gone so far as to say that when he took up golf, it was a case of replacing one addiction with another.
91.
Alice Cooper has appeared in commercials for Callaway Golf equipment and was a guest of veteran British player and broadcaster Peter Alliss on A Golfer's Travels.
92.
Alice Cooper wrote the foreword to the Gary McCord book Ryder Cup and participated in the second All-Star Cup in Newport, Wales.
93.
In October 1979, Alice Cooper was featured in the Marvel comic book Marvel Premiere, Volume 1, Number 50 loosely adapting his From the Inside studio album.
94.
Alice Cooper is the subject of the "We're not worthy" meme, which was popularized during his cameo in Wayne's World with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in 1992.