Encore Interview | Alice Cooper: God, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie podcast and my objective is to deliver hopefully compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website harvest.org.

So thanks for joining me for this podcast.

Well, Alice, thanks for having me at your place here. It's called The Rock, right? This is The Rock. Yeah, we started about 20 years ago. and trying to find a place for kids to go.

Where they could, you know. an alternative to what's on the street, basically. And I watched a couple of sixteen year old kids do a drug deal On the corner, and I went, how does that kid not know he might be a great guitar player? Or that that other kid might be a drummer? And it just struck me right then.

Why don't we open that? Give them that alternative to go there. And it ended up here. That's incredible. And I know you're impacting a lot of young people here.

And they come in and they wonder what's the catch, but you're just doing something for your community.

Well, and it's not only that, but it's all Christian. You know, we're all Christian guys. Lord told us to do it.

So we just obeyed. That's all.

So, speaking of that, when I've told people, Yeah, I met Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper, what's he like? I said, He's the nicest guy down to earth, so easy to talk to. And, you know, and they have kind of the stereotypical image of you, because you know, you have a persona, right? You're the guy that, well, first of all, I mentioned to a young person the other day, I'm going to talk with Alice Cooper, and they said, Didn't he bite a head off a bat?

I said, I think that's Ozzy Osborne. I said, I do know there's a story with Alice and the chicken, though, but that's sort of maybe a little mythological, right? You know, back then there was no internet, so everything was word of mouth, everything was urban legend. And they wanted Alice to be that. More than anything, I think they were looking for a villain.

And I was more than happy to be Captain Hook to everybody's Peter Pan. And so, the villain always gets. All the good lines, you know, and so I was built not to be the hero, but the villain. But the villain also has to have a sense of humor behind it. Or does it work?

And everything is based on how good is the music. You cannot put the icing on the cake without the cake. A six-hour rehearsal is five hours on the music. One hour on the theater. Wow.

So, I mean, the band, we were up against Led Zeppelin, we're up against, like you said, the Who, the Yardbirds, those guys. And you had to be as good as they were. Was it a big moment in your life, like it is for a lot of musicians today, when you saw the Beatles, like on the Ed Sullivan show? Was that kind of the moment where you said music for?

Well, it was Vincent Fernier, not Alice Cooper, at that point. And I was painting a house, and it was summertime. And I'm painting the house and the radio was always on KRIZ or K-R-U-X here in Phoenix. Top 10. It was always the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons, you know, Motown.

And all of a sudden I heard, She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I went, What? And then I heard about an hour later, I heard, I want to hold your hand. And I went, What? Yes.

There were four songs that I heard immediately, and I kept going, who are these guys? I had no idea they were the Beatles haircuts. Finally, they said, That's the Beatles from England. And then I saw what they looked like, and I went, oh, I got to do that. You know, I got to do that.

That's really too much fun. And they were almost like from another planet. You know, the Elder Accents or the Beatles, you know, we talk like this. It was great. Liverpoolian.

Who are these people? Where did they come from? And they were funny. They were. They had a great sense of humor.

They talked great. The girls loved them, which immediately got our attention. The girls loved them. You know, I was 16 or 15, actually. And I immediately called my my Dennis Dunaway, who was my best friend.

We were both on the cross country and track team. both distance runners. And he says, I know a guy that plays drums. Another guy on the cross country team.

So three of the guys. In the original Alice Cooper band. Yeah. We're four-year lettermen. We were jocks.

Which is so weird that we ended up being the most notorious band in rock and roll. And we were all jocks. That's funny. And then we found two of the. The most notorious guys at school are guitar players.

We're both guys that got kicked out 20 times for smoking and drinking and all this. And they were the two guitar players. And I went, There's our guys right there. And you started out covering a lot of Yardbird songs, right?

Well, a very unappreciated band, isn't it? I mean, they're a great band. They were the, you know, once you got past the Beatles and Chuck Berry, then you had Rock and Roll 101 down. Then you started looking at the Rolling Stones.

Okay, now it's blues-based rock. And that's pretty cool to learn. Easy to learn. And then you drifted in maybe a little deeper to the who.

Okay, they're a little more experimental. And then the yardbirds came along and we went. Oh, that's it. That's the sound right there. Did you have a favorite Yardbird song?

Oh, I mean, all of them, Train Kept It Rolling, even though it wasn't one of their songs. Uh but happenings ten years' time ago. was one of the greatest songs of all time. All of their songs. We basically did everything on the Rave Up album.

Yeah. And We were the local band called the Spiders. Yeah. Played at the inside.

Well, we were the Spiders, yeah. And we were the Yardbirds band. Yeah. So When the Yardbirds came into Phoenix, where did they play? The club we were at.

So we opened for them and did all their songs before them. Did they like that? They were over in the corner. They went, oh, really? That's great.

And then they got on stage and blew us off the stage because they were the yardbirds. No, think here you are, a young guy painting a house, listening to the Beatles. It's a big moment in your life. And then you went on to meet all the Beatles. You know, that was something weird to meet them in real life.

I never, ever thought that you would ever be even in the same building as the Beatles. And then all of a sudden you're you're you have a hit record. And Now you're in the game. Yeah. In the 70s, you were the biggest rock act out there.

Well, that happened just out of just. You know, we just wouldn't give up. Yeah. We wouldn't give up, wouldn't give up. And finally, our producer came along, Bob Ezrin, who was our George Martin.

He took a bunch of good ideas, good riffs. And said, I know how to make this into three-minute records so it'll get played on the radio. And we went right. Yeah, we're never getting played on the radio. We had 14 top 40 hits.

You know, because of him. I watched a documentary about your career called Super Duper Alice Cooper. And, you know, as I watched it, I realized watching how ahead of your time you were. You know, you've been called the godfather of shock rock. I mean, all these bands like the Motley Cruz, the Marilyn Mansons, the Rob Zombies, and many others to follow, you can see you were doing that before anybody else did that.

I looked at the Who and I said, this band is so amazing. Pete Townsend is the spirit of rock and roll himself. He just, he's still. Nickels are bleeding. He's 75 years old and he's killing it.

And Pete Towns and Daltrey. And then, of course, Keith Moon was one of my best buddies, who was the greatest drummer I ever heard in my life. Yeah, he was unbelievable. And I said, but. There's a blank canvas behind them.

And I said, well Why don't we fill that canvas? In other words, if you're going to say, Welcome to my nightmare. Don't just say it. Give them the nightmare. Why not produce the nightmare?

So it was you crawl out on this limb. And either You're going to be a genius. Or a moron. If it's a hit, you're a genius. If it's a floppy, go, what an idiot that guy was.

It just depends on if you get your record played. Yeah, and you met some of these guys from another era, like Groucho Marx and George Burns. I mean, like, they actually know Groucho Marx. I mean, that was the coolest thing ever because once you were. In Yeah, once you had a hit record, it was Willy Wonka Golden.

Ticket, you know. I knew I was going to meet. the stones and the beetles and all that. And that was the coolest thing ever. Because they were the nicest guys.

The bigger they were, the nicer they were. Sinatra, Elvis, everybody. And And then one night somebody says, Groucho's coming to your show. What? You know, Grotcho Marx, anyway, yeah.

So he comes to the show. And he sees it as vaudeville. That's how he pictured it. He said, Well, this is vaudeville.

So he brings George Burns, Jack Benny, and we look on the corner of the site, and there's all these Borsch Belt, you know, vaudevillians. And Fred Astairs over there watching our dancers, Sherilyn, the dancers, you know, and he's going. You know, these kids are great, you know. And we're getting all this great. And I didn't realize that that's how they saw it.

They saw it as vaudeville. You know, George Burns is going, yeah, Gracie and I, 1929. You know, he said, we, uh, Well, we saw a guy, a magician, use the guillotine like that. Didn't use the snake, but he used the guillotine. And I'm just sitting there going, Wow.

So I was the only rock star. In the Friars Club. Wow.

And I'd walk into the Friars Club and there's Sinatra and there's Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope and all the great comedians and me. Because apparently they saw me as comedy. And you grew up probably watching them on TV, right? Oh man, Steve Allen. I mean, all the guys that I adored were in that room.

And I was just, and I was all in black leather, they're in tuxedos. And they just. Totally accepted me. As that. I was that.

I was Alice Cooper. And they treated me. Hey, Coop. You know?

So, when did Vincent Fernier become Alice Cooper? I know you had a band called Alice Cooper, and then later you just actually changed your name. We were called the NAS for a long time. And went to LA as the NAS. There was a yardbird song called The NAS Are Blue.

And I said, NAS, that's a great name. We found out later on their Todd Runtgren's band was called the NAS.

So now we gotta change the name. And everybody came up with these horrific names, you know, just because that was the thing right then. And we, with our image and all that. And I said, why don't we go the other way? Why don't we give them something they're not going to expect?

How about I was thinking Betty Crocker. You know, but Alice Cooper came out. Yeah, yeah. And that was the name that sounded like the little old lady that. made cookies for everybody down the street on the on the porch.

And I said, Alice Cooper. That's the band's name. Everybody goes. That's so weird. You know, and I went, yeah, it's gonna, and it's gonna.

Just irritate every parent in America. And the rest is history, of course.

Now, here, I'm going to look back.

Well, let me just ask you one question. You mentioned Elvis.

So, you've met all these people.

So, what is it like to meet Elvis Presley in person? Is he, how different is he from the persona we have of him? This was 71. Yeah. Elvis was Elvis.

So he's in Vegas at this point. He's in Vegas, and he's Elvis Presley. And it's not fat Elvis, it's not drugged out Elvis, it's Elvis. And I get a call. Elvis wants to meet you.

Wow.

I went, wow.

Okay. Yeah. So I get there to the Hilton Hotel. You know, the elevator opens up and it's uh Liza Minelli. Chubby Checker, Linda Lovelace, and Mate.

Unbelievable. We go up. and they check you for guns. And you're sitting there, you know, talking and talking, and then he comes, he comes in the room. And he is the room.

I mean, he's Elvis. This is black leather. Good looking. Handsome Elvis. And he walks in and says, hi, and he goes, hey, man.

You're that cat with a snake, ain't you? And I went, yeah. He said, makeup and all that stuff. Yeah. He said, I dig that, man.

That's cool. He said, that's really cool. You know. And he says, um,. You're from Detroit, right?

And I went, yeah. He said, come on in here. I'm going to show you something.

So I go in with him to the kitchen. opens up a drawer, hands me a loaded Smith and Wisson. Thirty-eight. And I go, I start taking the bullets out, you know, because I'm from Detroit. And he goes, no, man, keep the bullets in.

I'm going to show you how to take a gun out of somebody's hand. Oh my gosh. A loaded gun? Yeah. By the time I said that, the gun was out of my hand.

I'm on the floor. Those are the karate moves of Elvis. Yeah, there's a boot in my neck. Oh, my God. That's great, Elvis.

Can I get up now? Yeah, right. And he says. You won't see my most prized possession. And I went, yeah.

So it's just me and him now. and go in the bedroom and he closes the door and I started going Most prized possession. What am I doing in Elvis' bedroom now? I don't know what his prized possession is. And he opens up a drawer and he pulls out an envelope.

with X-rays. And he says He said, What happened was I was leaving the bar the other night, you know, with with my boys, He says, and there's three boys out there drunk and they want to fight me. He says, and I called my boys off and I fought all three of them. And he says. Broke the guy's collarbone right here.

He says, then I swung around. He said, and I broke the guy's wrist here. And I'm sitting there going. This is your most prized possession. realizing now that That was his only Contact with the outside world.

was that fight. Yeah. Thank you. The colonel wouldn't let him. Go left, right, up, down.

He couldn't go to a movie. Yeah. He couldn't go. play pool. He couldn't go to a bar.

Because That was his little life, in that, he could have anything he wanted. in that room uh or Graceland. But he couldn't leave.

So right then I realized If anybody puts you in a mansion or no matter what, and gives you anything you want, you'll find a way to kill yourself. Because it's not natural to be Held up in a place like that. And he did. I mean, he ate himself to death, he drugged himself to death, and he died early. And that's happened to so many.

Michael Jackson. Exactly. Who ended up marrying Elvis' daughter? Yeah. But it's happened to so many rock stars.

I mean, going back to the so-called 27 Club, you know, Brian Jones and you knew these guys. But yet your life didn't go that way. I mean, it did for a while, didn't it? It could have. And you were starting to go in that direction.

You had a serious alcohol problem. And I remember hearing that you were like, you had a big rock of cocaine and you were like bleeding out of your eyes. It was insane. After about, you know, after about two weeks, Cheryl had gone, she'd gone to Chicago and said. I can't watch this.

Right. But the cocaine was speaking a lot louder than her. And uh Finally, I looked in the mirror and it looked like my makeup. But it was blood. Coming down.

I think I might have been hallucinator. I don't know. flush the rock down the toilet. and went to bed for three days. And I woke up and I called her and I said, it's done.

And she goes, right. You know, she said, you have to prove it. And that was, you know, that was the beginning of our relationship coming back. One of the deals was we start going to church.

Okay. And we started going to North Phoenix Baptist, and there was a pastor there, Jackson. who was a hell's fire. Pastor. And he there's 6,000 people and he was talking to me.

Because I was a prodigal son. Yeah. Remember, I grew up in the church. My dad was a pastor. My granddad was an evangelist.

And when the when the ban happened, It took me as far away as you could possibly. I was the poster boy for everything wrong. And then when I got sober, Yeah, everything. came back to the church realizing that's where I belonged. There.

So we started going to, and you know, a lot of people say, you know, I came to Christ because my love of Jesus. I came to Christ because of my fear of God. I totally understood that hell was not getting high with Jim Morrison. Yeah. Hell was going to be the worst place ever.

In fear. I came back to the Lord. But I went to another church and that pastor Preached. the love of Christ, which Now you put the two together, and it was exactly right. Yes.

Well, you know, the Bible even says some saved by fear. You know, and there's a point where some people they need the hell scared out of them. I'm telling you, I had because I knew if I died. And I knew, in other words, I knew who Christ was, Jesus Christ was. And I was denying him.

Yeah. Because I was living my own life and I was living my life without him. I knew that there had to either come a point where I either accepted Christ and started living that life. Or if I died in this zone. I was in a lot of trouble though.

And that's what really motivated me. What does that mean when you say accepted Christ? What does it mean to accept Christ?

Well, you know, I don't think we accept Christ. We accept the fact that he accepted us. And I just got to a point of saying I'm tired of this life. And I know that this is right. When people say, well, how do you know that?

Put that into words and I go you can't put that into words It's because God opens your eyes and He says, You know, and it's supernatural. And You try to tell that to people, and they go, Well, yeah, but so's voodoo, and so is this. And they go, No, you don't understand. And I could never explain it to you. But when When the Lord opens your eyes and you suddenly realize who you are and who He is.

Oh. It's a whole different world. You know, and right then. You know, I was baptized. And um I went to my pastor and I said, I I think I gotta quit being Alice Cooper now.

And he goes, Really? He says You think God makes mistakes? And I went, no. He says, look where he put you. Yeah.

He's saying put you in The exact camp of the Philistines. And you. We're basically the leader. That's true. What if you're Alice Cooper, but what if you're now following Christ?

And you're a rock star. But you don't live the rock star life. Your lifestyle is now your testimony. And that made total sense to me. Yeah.

So uh there were lyrics I changed. There were certain songs. Yeah, so what's the difference between 70s Alice Cooper and Alice Cooper of today? The big difference was the 70s Alice was alcohol-driven. That character was a victim.

He was carrying the load of all the teenagers out there that were disenfranchised. They were the ones that were like, nobody understands me.

Okay, so Alice was them. He represented them. And on stage you can see that, you know, this was like Yeah. When I that Alice was gone. I said, now what am I going to do?

And I thought. Wouldn't it be fun to be like the arrogant villain? Hmm.

Now, you know, I mean... In a sense of, say, Alan Rickman, who's really arrogant and condescending, but funny. Almost John Cleese, almost, you know. where he looks down on people and you can see that it's funny, but it's still Yeah. Scary a little bit.

I said that's how I should play Alice now. And that worked. But I found myself now, my lyrics were now. Yeah. towards Christ.

Yeah, you started looking and ly the the lyrics and you started going, wait a minute. That's pointing to Christ. And the only people that understood that were the Christian kids. One of my albums, The Last Temptation. Was being sold in Christian bookstores, and my record company couldn't figure out why.

Because it was all totally You know, it was doctrine. It was saying, hey. The last temptation. I mean, if you want what the world has to offer you. That's all you're going to get.

You know. Yeah. You know, there's so many young people today. You know, we hear the names of all these people that you've known personally. We talked about Jim Morrison and the Beatles.

And did you ever meet Hendrix? Oh, yeah. Hendrix is one of my best buddies. Wow.

You know, Jimi Hendrix was the first guy. The first guy that ever went, here I am. Wow, really? And I went, oh, okay. You know, like anything.

You think he's the greatest rock guitarist of all time? You know, the most inventive. Yeah, the other. I'd say the most inventive. There's others like Jeff Beck Clapton that are, you know.

They all respected Jimmy on a whole level. No one sounded like Jimmy. No, he did it so differently, and they all came out to see him. And they all kind of looked at each other and went. Wow.

We thought we did everything there could be done to a guitar, and look at him now. He's playing it upside down. Yeah, yeah. He's playing the blues, but it's. Yeah.

And everybody loved him. But he was the nicest guy. nicest guy. And and his death was just totally an accident. But yet, these stories keep repeating themselves.

You know, you go to the 27 Club of the 60s, then fast forward to Amy Winehouse or Kurt Cobain, most recently, Rock DJ Avici. Same story. Chris Cornell. Chris Cornell. Yeah.

And Chester Bennington. Chester Bennington. You know, and it's like, come on. You know, this story keeps playing itself out. And, you know, there's someone watching this right now.

You've lived this life. You've been there. You've known these people. They've been your friends, many of them. All of them.

So, like, what would you say to somebody that's thinking there's some kind of an answer or fulfillment in the trappings of this kind of life or drugs or any of that or alcohol even? What would you say to them as to what course they should follow?

Well, there's an old, old saying that, you know. Trying to fill that hole that God should have with alcohol, drugs, sex, money, everything, and it never works. Most of the guys I know that listen. that actually Are interested in Christianity are the guys that hung over the edge. And we're that far from going down.

They're the ones that go. Really? Yeah. And because they know. Yep.

There is no fulfillment in that. How many? How many wives can you have that doesn't work? How many cars do you need? How many this and this and this?

And they keep going, but there must be something. It seems almost as though they try everything but Christianity.

Well, because if you become a Christian, what you're saying is I'm not God anymore. Yeah. If you're saying I'm not God anymore, that's everybody wants to be God. Even Christians have a hard time giving up. True.

That's the last thing they want to give up: is the fact that I want to make my decisions. And finally, what do they come up with? Finally, the only thing is I've tried everything. Shot. I'm tired.

I'm just going to kill myself. Yeah. You know, I mean, I I think a lot of it has to do with clinical depression. Yeah, I'm sure. And sometimes it's just undeniable.

I mean, you can't talk a person out of clinical depression. You know, it's there, and I've luckily never had that, you know. Uh I would really be afraid of that. Yeah. But again Even Christians, there could be Christians clinically depressed, but at least they have a Savior.

That's right. You know. And now today, you know, you have your band, The Hollywood Vampires, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp. And, you know, you hang out with these guys that you told me that you gave a Bible to Marilyn Manson. They respect you because you're you.

You know, you're still Alice Cooper, but you're a changed man on the inside. And they, you know, they respect you. And, you know, you have this platform to reach people that, like a guy like me, who's a preacher, it never listened to a guy like me, but they'll listen to a guy like you.

Well, they, you know, because they knew me before. Yeah. And they know me now. And they go, okay, what happened? I said, the Lord's in my life now.

And what do they say to that? Yeah a lot of guys think oh just another Religion. Yeah. Okay, well, the last thing you want is religion in your life. What you want is Christ in your life.

You don't want religion in your life. I think people judge Christians. By other Christians. And immediately they think, well, you're Christian, so you can't do any wrong, and you're better than me. And I go, that's just the opposite.

And when you become Christian, you become very aware of how far away you are. But again, you know, Satan uses that. Satan uses that as a weapon. You know, I'm Christian and I made a mistake. Oh.

Well then you're not really a Christian.

Well, we're a work in progress, aren't we?

Well, exactly. But, you know, you'd be surprised how much that they have this image that you have to be perfect if you become a Christian. We'd like to be perfect, but we're certainly not going to be. Right. Well, heaven is not going to be filled with perfect people.

It's going to be filled with forgiven people. That's it. And we just have to admit our sin and we still sin. The Bible even says: if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is, everyone's going to sin.

And there's all kinds of sins you can do: sins of commission, sins of omission. I pray all the time. I said, If I sin, don't let it be something that I... purposely decided to do. I don't want a sin that I designed myself.

I said, because that's like first-degree murder. That's premeditated sin, is something you want to avoid at all costs by. We're going to sin by omission. We're going to sin by Not honoring God to where he should be honored. But when you sit there and go, okay, now I know what I'm going to do here.

I'm going to. God will forgive me this, you know. Sin is sin to God. And it's not funny to him.

Well, a lot of people are surprised to find out that Alice Cooper believes in Jesus Christ. And they're also surprised to find out that Steve McQueen believed in Jesus Christ and had strong faith before he died. And they're also surprised to find out that Johnny Cash had a strong faith in Jesus from his childhood. He struggled, but I think that he was just sort of like the prodigal son who came back again and again and again, but he never lost sight of his roots or his father. That's exactly how I relate to him because I was that same guy.

I went as far away as I could and then came back because it kept calling me back. He kept calling me back. And the great thing was he gave me a wife. that was a prayer warrior. I mean, you know, and that was That was what really solidified everything.

Was like, if I. That's what really was the people say, well, how can you be together for 43 years and still flirt with each other? You know, because that's that's what the Lord gave us. That was our marriage. Yeah.

And that's great. And just as God gave you, Cheryl, uh, the Lord gave Johnny June Carter cash. And she probably saved his life, literally. Oh, sure. Because he kept spinning out on drugs.

And, you know, she really hauled his feet to the fire. First of all, all of us guys that are married. We're way out of our league with our wives. That's right. Every guy I talk to, I say, How far out of your league are you with your wife?

And he goes, Oh, yeah, my wife is so much for you. I'm in that category, too.

So Johnny Cash, an American icon, The Man in Black, Alice Cooper. Great musician, also a man in black, often, not always, but often. And so. You know, what do you think of cash kind of looking at Music in general. Where do you see him?

Like, some, you know, he is actually in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Sure. He's in the country music hall of fame. He really, you know, when he started out, his music was called Rockabilly, which is kind of the precursor to Rock and Roll, along with Elvis and Jerry Lee. Absolutely.

Lewis. And then later he became more of this country icon, but toward the end of his career, he kind of reclaimed his title as just this, you know, American original. Why does, because you look at kids today. They'll have tattoos of Alice Cooper, of course, but they'll also have tattoos of Johnny Cash. That's right.

Why would a young kid today think Johnny Cash is cool, and why has he transcended time? There was something about him. That He was like Steve McQueen. Yeah. He was like.

James Dean. There was this coolness about him. That everybody could respect. No matter if you were into country music, if you were into hip-hop, if you were into everything, just go. If you say Johnny Cash, you go, oh yeah.

Because he was maybe more relatable. than Dylan was. Dylan was very abstract. and wrote a lot of things that Sounded great and it was deep and all that, and some of it wasn't deep, some of it was just fun. You know, Johnny Cash had this homespun.

Kind of Americanism to him that everybody understood. Same with Elvis, though. Elvis, everybody loved Elvis because he was that kid. From the south. that learned how to play and he there was an honesty about him.

There was no sort of like there was nothing shady about him. And Johnny Cash was that icon. that every single person could go. Yeah, I listened to Johnny Cash. And nobody would go, Johnny Cash.

They'd go, cool. And then at the end of his career, he was doing nine-inch nail songs. Yes, he was. And he was doing Depeche Mode songs. Yes, in fact, you were on your own personal Jesus by Depeche Mode Mode.

He did some of the high voices on that one, yeah. I did, but I never met him because I was in a studio. He had already done his volume. Wow.

You know, it was so fast that they called me in. They said, Do you want to do this? thing on Johnny Cash's album. You know, and I said, What song? And I said, Own personal Jesus.

I had to go listen to the song, I didn't know the song. And I said What do you want me to do? You know, and we got in there, and they said, Well, this is his vocal. And I said, Well, the natural thing is to do the fifth on the choruses. Give me twenty minutes.

you know, and I was done. I said, okay. That was it. Unbelievable. Yeah.

I was kind of hoping that he would be there, you know, and everything like that, but it was just. In and out. But that's, you know, in this business, you can do that now. Yeah, you can sing on somebody's album without ever seeing them. You know, it used to be If I if I did something with Guns N' Roses, I was with them in the studio.

Yeah. You know, or or if somebody was on your album, It was fun to have everybody in the studio because you never knew what was going to happen. You know, something good could really come out of that. But that one was really kind of mechanical. You know, and To be honest with you, I don't even know if it's my voice that's on there at the end.

You know, I think it's me, sounds like me, but you never know. It's a great song. Yeah. I didn't know until you told me that that was you vocalizing. I love that song.

I love that vocal. I did it and don't know if it ended up on the album.

So, I mean, that's, I never really. paid any attention to it. I just said, well, I know I sang with Johnny Cash, but I don't know if it ended up on the album. They could always just kind of go, Well, yeah, this didn't work, this didn't work. And I understand that.

I've had people on my album, I've gone, Mm-hmm. As much as I want to use that, it just doesn't work. Yeah. You know?

But there was not one person that didn't respect Johnny Cash. He had been in jail. He'd been a, you know, but he was an all-American character. He was. And there was something extremely honest about him.

Yeah. You could trust him. Yeah. Whereas other rock stars you couldn't could you trust You know. Chuck Berry.

Chuck Berry was the best lyricist of all time. I agree. He was the architect of what we call rock and roll. But if he couldn't think of a word, he'd make one up. Don't give me no botheration.

Use botheration in a scrabble game and see what happens. You know, the coolerator was filled with the coolerator. There was something so great about Chuck Berry, but. Did you trust him? Nobody I know trusted Chuck Burton or Jerry Lee.

Yeah. Everybody trusted. Johnny Cash. He could be like your cool uncle. Totally.

You know what's interesting about Johnny, too? A lot of artists, you know, they start well and they don't always finish well. I mean, Elvis, you know, he was rock and roll to many people. You know, that's all right, Mama. You know, Jail Huss Rock, Blue Suede Shoes.

But then, you know, he went in the Army. He came out. Then there's sort of Vigas Elvis and later Elvis. But Johnny started off, you know, as this rockabilly icon, the same place that Elvis started, Sun Studios with Sam Phillips. But at the end of his career, sort of Rick Rubin, a great producer, comes along and says, Johnny, we got to get you stripped down in a front room with your guitar and just start recording.

And then Rubin's bringing songs like From Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, you know, Bono, others, Tom Petty and The Heartbreaker. Probably songs you'd never heard before. Probably songs you'd never heard before. And it kind of reintroduced him to a new generation. And in many ways, he ended as strong as he started.

The other cool thing about him, he'd go to prison. Yeah, he would. And do an album for all those guys in prison. Those guys in prison went, Johnny Cash. That's right.

We can trust him. Yeah. Isn't that something? I mean, a guy that can exude that much trust. I think maybe Mr.

Rogers is the only other guy I can trust. Interesting contrast. Johnny Cash and Mr. Rogers were the two guys you could trust. Oh, neighbor.

Maybe Jimmy Stewart. You know, there were certain guys you just went, well, if that guy was president, I would trust him. But Johnny Cash had this downhome. You know, he sang about being in prison. He sang about.

I killed somebody and now I'm going to die. Shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. Just to watch him die. Of course, he never did that, but I think people maybe thought he did. Understood it.

And the guys in prison totally got that. Because they were there because of that. But there was this only scandal about him might have been pills. He struggled with amphetamines throughout his entire career because when he was starting out in the road, he couldn't keep up with the pace.

Someone introduced him to uppers, basically. And he continued to struggle with Benny's. It was Benny's at the time. Yeah. Through most of his life.

Even late in the later years. All those guys did, though. I mean, all those guys were, you know, they were touring on a bus through the south. Yes. A lot of these guys couldn't even go to the bathroom, go into the bathroom.

So. They you know, and they were doing like two songs a night. But they do 25 shows in a row.

So, yeah, they're popping Benny's.

Well, the thing about it is, when you're. in a garage with your friends and you're learning songs. It never occurs to you that you're going to be on the road someday. You know, you figure, well, we're going to go to Tucson, maybe. Oh, that's on the road.

You never realize at some point you're going to be on the road for four years. And without a break. And when you're 20 years old, you're also indestructible. And fame does not come. with a handbook.

with an instruction book. It says, okay, now you're famous and this is what you're supposed to do.

So bunch of twenty-one-year-old guys. They've got a number one record, and everybody's throwing money at you. It doesn't say now, now, this is what you're supposed to do. You're a kid in a candy shop. Yeah.

So you're doing everything. And And again, you've got so much energy. that you're never tired. Yeah. So it's really easy to burn out at 27.

I watched the guys burn out at 27 because the party never ended. And if you lived in LA or New York or London. The party never ended. 24 hours. You know, and I was in that party, you know, but Again, you get to that point where I think that there's a, your body, your body starts talking to you saying, You have to sleep now.

Yeah. First of all, you cannot believe your own hype. You know, once you start believing what you're reading about yourself. Uh That's when guys get in trouble and they start going. Hey, it says here, I'm the best songwriter.

That's one guy's opinion. You have to take what's happening to you almost. As you're in a very special place where you have a record everybody likes and they like what you do on stage, that's it. You are not You know, you are no better than this guy. You're no better than that guy.

You might tell better stories, you might be more personable. But Every guy that I met that was a major, major, major star was the nicest, most personable people. Frank Sinatra was, to me, was one of the nicest guys around. Wow.

Peter Sellers. One could was just as cool as could be. Dean Martin was as cool as could be. The Beatles were the nicest guys in the world. The stones couldn't be nicer.

Elvis couldn't be cooler. And I I kept going. What I'm learning from this is When you get to there. The guy that's sweeping the floor is just as important as the guy playing lead guitar. And I always treated everybody exactly like that.

Never looked down on anybody, you know. And that is what keeps you going. You don't make enemies that way.

Now, I know, guys. that are just hated. in this business. People will look at them and go, Yeah, they're famous, but I just hate them. Yeah.

And you go, wow. You've got that shame. Why not? Why not use it? Is to be a nice guy rather than a bad guy.

That's right. You know, and a lot of guys have what's called a success complex. They will actually sabotage their own careers. Because they don't think they deserve it. I just kind of went, look, I was in the right place, right time with the right stuff.

And I kept it going. And I. To me, everything was about quality. How good are the songs? We cannot afford to do a bad show.

I don't care if you do a thousand. 15,000 shows, there's not one bad show in there because you cannot afford that. Yeah. Maybe that's what Kept me going. My natural thing is, I like people.

Yes. I, you know. The day that people come to you and say, I want your autograph, and you go, I can't do that. The day you have to worry is when they don't want your autograph. That's right.

And when they don't want to take a picture of you.

So there's never been a time where I've said no. I always said, okay, let's take it. Let's fix your bad. Fame, like you said, fame can kill you, or it can be the greatest thing in the world if you use it right. Yeah.

You know?

The road though is You're so excited about getting on stage. And the audience already knows your songs. And there's the excitement of getting on the stage in that very first chord. If you're tired, or if you have a toothache, or if you have a headache, or if you have pneumonia. The adrenaline takes care of all that.

And you're suddenly just fine. I'll tell you a great story.

Okay. I have this sword that I use on stage. Swashbuckling of me. It's Errol Flynn's sword. Wow.

So it's very. Very cool thing to have. And at one point, You know, I'd stick it in the stage and walk over.

So the fog and adrenaline, and I stick it. And it goes right through my leg. Oh no.

So. It doesn't hurt that bad because I'm in shock and I let go of it and it just kind of. And it's spurting. Oh my God.

Now, the audience thinks it's a trick. The ultimate. Yeah. The band knows That it's not a trick and that I actually I'm going And I turn around to the get and they're going. There are little puddles of blood everywhere, right?

And finally I just take it, pull it out, stick it in this thing, and fine.

So Soon as the show's over. Ah! Because now the adrenaline's gone. And there's a hole there. And, you know, they said, well, we've got to go get a tetanus shot.

And I'm going, well, I already put a sword through my leg. I'm not going to go get a shot. And I took a bottle of whiskey and just poured it on. Are you kidding me? You know, because that's what James Bond would do.

Yeah. Right. And I'll be all right. And I'll wrap it up. And I couldn't walk.

Cheryl was You know? I could not walk at all.

Next night, the show. Bang, nothing. I'm all over that stage. Really? As soon as the club, you know.

Oh, yeah. The adrenaline. And I've seen her do the same thing because she's a dancer and she'll have, she'll twist her ankle or she'll do something else. Hi, you can't dance tonight. And she'll say.

I'll find a way to do it, you know. And she gets out and dances beautifully. And I go, well, what happened? And she goes, ah. Yeah.

Because This audience is there. This show is there. You're not going to let them down. Yeah, you actually said something. I don't think you meant it this way.

You said the adrenaline's there, but afterwards, there was a hole there. And I thought, you know, there's the adrenaline rush, but then afterwards, it stops. And now the crowd's gone, and you go back to some obscure hotel room. And do you think that's where a lot of people get into trouble because they're trying to maintain that high, that euphoria? Yeah, that's when all of a sudden, well, I better take a.

The downer to go to sleep.

Well, and now I better take a Some speed to wake up. And now I better take a downer to balance that out. And then I'll get, and now you're on a roller coaster. I never got into that. I was very happy I never got into that.

But I knew a lot of guys that were just living on this speed and this downer and this speed and this downer. And you know, I said, Yeah, that can't work. That teeter-totter kind of lifestyle can't work. I found when I got sober. I had so much more fun touring.

Yeah. Because now I could remember what I did. Yeah. You know, and I was never. A drunk drunk.

I was on a golden buzz. I was on that sort of Maybe the most Operative alcoholic, there ever was. I never missed a show. Knew all my lines. If I was going to do a movie, I knew all my lines.

Everything like this. The psychiatrist then, when I went to the hospital, he goes, So how much do you drink when you go on stage? What I want. I never drink when I'm on stage.

Well Well, when when you're doing a movie, how much do you drink when you're, you know, filming? And I go, I never drink when I'm doing a movie. She says so. Alice is not the alcoholic. Alice is totally straight.

When he's working, He's not high. Hmm.

I went, yeah? He says, The monster isn't the problem. Dr. Frankenstein's the problem. He says he's fine.

When you're working, you're. You're maintaining, you're doing everything. As soon as you get done, you go back to medicating yourself. Yeah. You know, and so I didn't realize that when I was working, I never used to drink on stage ever.

So it was very interesting to find out who Who the monster was. It was me, not the character. I always blamed him. It was easy to blame Alice. I think that performing was so important to me.

Performing in front of the audience and getting it right was so important to me. And it was once you were in front of that audience. There was no excuses. You know, there wasn't no let's take that again. The audience was there, and you had to do it right the first time, so I could not afford to be drunk.

Yeah. I had to be on it. Yeah. Now, as soon as that was done and I got them and I did it and I walked off, now I needed to relax from it. And I would start this habit again.

I still have this habit, but now it's Diet Coke. You know, everything. You never lose that habit. But it's just what you're drinking now. You've been clean and sober for how long?

37 years.

So is it a point where you don't even drink any alcohol at all? Nothing at all. Not even near beer. I mean, Johnny Depp, you know. I go over to his house and he's smoking fake cigarettes.

Because he's trying to quit smoking and he's drinking. Fake beer. I said, John, you're going to have a fake heart attack.

So you just gotta you know have the heart attack that really was if it was all about Yeah. I won't even taste. Fake beer, you know, near beer, what they call it, you know. I said, because why? That's a trigger.

Yeah. That's just a trigger for me. I can't do a trigger like that. I won't take, like, if you go to the dentist and they say, well, you're going to have a lot of pain.

So here's this. Yeah. I go. Advils, okay? Yeah.

Right. But that's it. I I can't do anything addictive. The only thing addictive to me right now is golf. Yeah.

You play how many days a week? I play six days a week. Incredible. Every day. But all the guys I know in rock and roll that were former alcoholics.

Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Dylan, Neil Young, people that you would never expect all play golf. Really? Yes. Dylan plays golf. Dylan plays golf.

And he boxes. Building boxes? His main thing, if he was going to go on the $64,000 question or Jeopardy, and his category was boxing, he'd win a billion dollars. He knows everything about boxing. Never knew that.

No, he has his own gym, he has his own sparring partner. Bob Dylan is like, and when I talked to him, all I talked about was. Roberto Duran. Wow.

And, you know, who was the best middleweight in the 80s. He seems so mystical and mysterious. Is he that way when you just talk to him? Robert Zimmerman, the real guy? If you say boxing.

Okay. Yeah. You're right there with them. Wow.

Isn't that weird that certain guys are so locked in in that? Here's Lou Reed that we used to live together. at the Chelsea Hotel, which was Sodom and Gomorrah. Modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, there were people there sitting in.

The lobby who couldn't get their key in the door because they were so harrowing out. Wow.

Yeah, he was one of them. And I see him years later. And he goes, Alice, how you doing? Oh, hey, Lou, how you doing? He looks pretty good.

And he goes, oh yeah. He says, yeah. Hey, listen, I'm hitting the ball a little bit right, and then I'm going. There.

Yeah. You're playing golf? Lou Reed's playing golf. And he goes, Alice Cooper's playing golf. And I went, yeah, we wouldn't be having this conversation 25 years ago at the Chelsea Hotel.

And he goes, no.

Well, how is it that you could go from heroin to golf and somehow that it would change? What is it? There's something about. You stand up in front of the ball, and you hit it, and you hit a great shot. And it goes right down the middle, and you go Yeah.

Yeah. That's just like taking a really great hit, whatever you're doing. You'll chase that You'll take five or six Horrible hits. And bad shots to get one more like that. And you hit it and you hit another good one.

Oh. Now you're back. I said, Lord help you if you hit. 20 good shots in a round because now you're going to play every day. And it it's it's the biggest addiction.

Golf is like Is like the crack of sports. Wow.

Nobody's ever called it that. But it's a topic for the day. Yeah, that is a crack of sports, Alice Cooper. But you'd meet guys that were addicted and they all played golf. Oh, interesting.

Yeah. I've always wanted to learn, but I've always, I think, because I'll have to be bad for so long before I would be even competent. And I have so many friends that golf. Billy Grimm once told me, he said, you know, Greg, you should learn how to golf. And I said, why?

He said, because many of the people I've met that I've been able to share the gospel with, I met him golfing. He'd golf with Bob Hope, with people that would become congressmen and senators and later presidents. I hang with them all. I'm a point where I said, I wouldn't vote for a president, didn't play golf. You know, and any golf, any president that says I don't cheat at golf, don't vote for him because he's lying.

Every president. Everybody I know cheats at golf. Not when you're playing with your friends, they're not cheating, you're just playing. Playing around. In a tournament, though, you can't cheat.

Or if you're playing for money, you can't cheat. But when you're When you're playing with your friends and you say, I don't cheat, come on. Who are people that you've golfed with that we would never think Alice Cooper would golf with? Oh, Groucho. Groucho Mar.

Groucho Mar. Group. I played a lot of people. I played with Bob Hope. Bob Hope, of course.

Big golfer. He took his club out in the stage as part of his life. Him and Bing Crosby were both five handicappers. They were really low handicappers. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were both five handicappers.

They were both really good players. And I remember one time, this was the classic story. Here's Alice Cooper with hair down to here. black leather at one of these friars clubs. Everybody's in tuxedos and everybody you look at is somebody that you went, oh my god.

Oh my gosh. Yes. Jonathan Winters. That's, you know, da da da da. That's da da da.

And a guy comes over and he says, hey, Bob wants to talk to you. Yeah. They say, yeah, come on. And I walk over in there and there's Bob Hope. President Ford.

The president of Steel, of US Steel, and four or five other guys. And I walk over and Pod says Alice. Yeah. I seem to be slaxing the ball, you know, and I said, Well, relax your right hand and let the club turn over and everything. And I have a picture of me.

Like that and him standing there looking at it and the president goes and I went This is so weird. You know, here's these guys. Yeah. That Alice Cooper should be somebody they wouldn't even ever talk to, but golf was the common denominator. Interesting.

And that was the thing that everybody's going, oh, yeah. Yeah. I'd get a call it I got a call one time at the new I was staying at the the um One of the big hotels, I can't remember in New York City. The plaza. Yeah.

And I get a call. And it says, hi, this is Tom. He says, yeah, I'm President Ford's. Press agent, hey, listen, he's got three hours off tomorrow. You guys want to play?

Really? You know, I said, Yeah, I can play tomorrow. Great. About five, ten minutes later, I get this call. Hey, how is it Jerry?

He said, I can't play tomorrow. I got to go to Puerto Rico. There was some kind of a thing going on. Jerry. President Ford, Jerry, you know, and I'm going, well, okay, President Ford.

And I said, well, we'll play some other time. And he goes, okay, yeah, give me a call. Keep me in the. Click. That way.

What other sport would that be? That's true. It's golf was like the common denominator. Wow.

I had a very special thing with the audience in the fact that I realized after a long period of time that All they really cared about was the songs. They want to hear those songs. Yes. Okay, I'd go to hear the stones. I want to hear brown sugar.

I want to hear the last time. I want to hear. This, this, this, and this. On our thing. Was not only did they want to hear the songs, but they wanted to see the show.

They would be disappointed if I didn't do the guillotine. They'd be disappointed if I didn't do the straitjacket, or if Cheryl's nurse didn't come out and become the nurse. They expect those things. You go, okay, we're going to give you that. And we're going to give you more than that.

We're going to surprise you two or three different ways. But your relationship with the audience is the very first time that you feel like you're going to die, and you start schools out in the audience. Goes crazy, you realize that's what they're there for. That song. meant something to them.

Yes. Or you do a ballot, only women bleed. And that song meant something to those you all of a sudden you see flashlights. or things like that, because that's them saying. This song meant something to me.

And I think about that with the Beatles when I think about certain Beatles songs. I go. Oh yeah. That every time I hear that song it's Means something to me. I've seen Paul McCartney in concert a few times, and whenever he's doing the Beatles songs, people flip out.

Then, when he starts going back into the catalog of some obscure songs, that's when people go to the restroom. And he's aware of it too. Totally. But when he does those Beatles, he does the first chord or whatever, people know those songs. Yeah, we were back.

Sheryl and we were backstage when he was doing a show. I think it was here in Phoenix. And you know, we've known Paul forever. You know, we're talking to him and everything like that.

So, let me see your set list. And I look at the set list, and there's 40 songs. Every single song. I know every lyric, too. Yes.

And he says, yeah, that's our set list tonight. He said, You want to see our other one? I say, you have another one? And I see another 40 songs that I know every single word to. Right.

And so we're sitting in the front row. You know, it's kind of a VIP area, and I'm sitting there like this, and they start out with. I saw her standing there. I'm on my feet. I'm 16 years old and I'm going, Yeah.

I never do that for anybody. Right. You know, and I couldn't help myself. Yeah. Shirley and I were both up there screaming, you know, yeah.

Yeah, you know, because that song meant And that's how your audience gets when you're doing schools now. Exactly. Other hits, it's like, so you get that. You want to give them what they do. You have that.

You have now that connection with your audience. That only you have. And that's your private connection with that audience. And that may be the only personal thing you have with them. But when you do that song, you look at them, they're going, oh.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, so you try to do every song you can that they're going, it's going to represent a period of their life. You know. That's amazing.

I I get in trouble with this sometimes. Because I defend rock and roll. on a level that what's being called rock and roll now isn't rock and roll. Yeah. You know, uh I see a band with an accordion and a banjo.

And they go, best new rock band ever, you know, and I go. Look what you're settling for. Would you really put that band? Record store as the who. Yeah.

What This is so far away from being rock and roll.

So, when a rock band does come along, The Struts or the Stripes or Foo Fighters or Green Day, a real rock band. I go, that's what rock is. Right there. But what I'm seeing that you're calling rock. is settling For some Fourth rate band.

Yeah. You know, I think there's going to be a time when there's a lot of now, every generation rebels against the last generation. Last year. Vinyl went up 85%. Why?

Because kids are tired of buying air. Yes. Now they've got into the ritual. of now I want to buy an album. I want to open it up.

Smell it, look at it, see who did what, put the ritual, put it on a turntable, put the needle down, and listen to it. That's right. The other generation was just. I just want to buy one song. Yeah.

And they don't own anything, it's just air. These kids now got an album. Remember when we opened up Sgt. Pepper's for the first time, and you have the lyrics actually printed out? We did that with every album, though.

Yeah, for the white album with all the little goodies they put in there, the photos, and things like that. I think that is now apparent to what kids are doing now. They're back to that organic thing where I want to be. I want to own a piece of this band. I want to invest in this band.

That's right. Good. Great, that's great. You know, there's good, great Christian bands. My son's band is a.

Great band. Co-op. I mean, if they sound like Lincoln Park a little bit, only harder. And then you listen the lyrics, and it's. Christian bass lyrics.

Wow.

Tug of war, you know, where the world's pulling you this way and God's pulling you this way. Never whisper the truth. Scream it. Don't whisper it. Yeah.

Rock and roll. Tell everybody. And if you didn't know, if you didn't listen to the lyrics, you'd go, this is just a. Hard rock band. But then you listen to the lyrics and you go, oh, wait a minute.

These guys are guys are. Agents. And a lot of the vinyl that people are buying are are albums and bands from The 60s. Imagine to be a 15-year-old kid and put your first Doris album on, yeah, and go. Yeah.

What? Yeah. Who is this? Or you hear Jimi Hendrix for the first time? Yep.

You know. I always think about this. The very first time you accidentally turn on MoneyPython and you're 16, and you're laughing your head off, and you're going, who are these guys? You know, I mean, that's all that lost stuff that the kids are.

now start rediscovering, right? You know, some of these kids have no idea that Paul McCartney was in the Beatles. Yeah. You know, that's so crazy to me because, you know, we've lived through the Beatles. I have a friend, Eric, we've talked to us.

I said, Who's your favorite band of all time, Eric? He says, Paul McCartney and Wings. I said, wait, not Paul McCartney and the Beatles? No, Wings. I'm thinking seriously.

Yeah, because that's, you know. He's a little younger than me. I mean, I like some Wings songs, but come on, the Beatles. What is your favorite Beatles album? I have my opinion.

I'll tell you mine. Revolver. And here's why Revolver. A lot of people because it was before Sergeant Peppers and it was not quite the old Beatles. That was transitional, Eleanor Rigby, you know, kind of a tax man, certain songs you can see where they're going, but it just kind of was like a moment in time.

And of course, rubber soul in the heels of it. George Harrison once said you could have released them as a two-album set. Yeah, you know, Revolver and everyone says Sergeant Peppers, but I think Revolver. If you eliminate Sergeant Pepper, yeah. Um I would say the Meet the Beatles.

Yeah, of course. Because that was the one that made you just go, wow. Yeah. You know?

And then The White Album. Yeah, it was amazing. They just released it. The White Album is, there's so many great things going on on that album. You know, and it was too bad because it was at a point when they were not getting along, yeah.

But they were writing just great songs as my guitar gently weeps, one of the great solos of all time. And it wasn't George Harrison, it was Eric Clapton. Yeah, that's right. You know, I just rediscovered Glass Onion. That's a cool song.

Everything on that cool song. You know, you listen to Blackbird, yeah, and you go, This is a piece of art. It is, absolutely. You know. Songwriting is I've you know I realized this a long time ago That I am sitting there with Pink Floyd.

in our house because they lived with us for a while. We lived together. And who are we listening to? We're listening to Bert Bacharach. Really?

And we're sitting there going, Wow, that's really good what he did right there. We were talking about the construction of the song, how that verse Went right into the B section effortlessly, just effortlessly. And then it went right to the chorus. And then what did he do? He had his little something else.

And then he went back to the B section. And we're all sitting there because we're all songwriters going. That's so simple. And then you realize why were the Beatles so good? They were so simple.

They nothing got in the way of the lyric. Nothing got in the way of the vocal. The Beatles would not have been as good as they were without Ringo. Ringo was a pocket drummer, and he just stayed back there and kept it going.

Songwriting was everything.

So I would listen to. Lord and Arrow. And I'd go, wow. Scroll rights amazing. Once you get a lyric and a chord structure.

and you marry them together. Mm-hmm. And it works. Mm-hmm. There's, you can't explain why it works.

You just sit there and you go, everybody in the room. my producer and I will play it and then we'll all look at each other at the same time and go That worked. I used to do a funny thing. I had two daughters and my wife. And we'd write ballads.

We wrote like four big ballads: Only Women Bleed, You and Me, I Never Cry, How Are You Gonna See Me Now? like that, they were all big hits. And I found that. I would play them for my wife and my daughters. And there's that one moment where that chord hits that lyric.

And it's the heartbreak moment. Wow.

And if I heard this, Oh. Mm. I went, hit. It's a hit. Wow.

I'd play it for Cheryl, you know, and she'd be listening, and the girls would be listening, and they'd go like this, and then he'd go, oh. And I'd look at bikes or distributions. We just broke her heart. And that's what made it work. Wow.

You know, Eleanor Rigby. Yes. And she recorded. Yeah, which I they. I don't know why he chose me for that song, but he did.

And it was your interpretation.

Well, just the fact that they let me sing it, you know. I figured they were going to, I was going to do Helder Skelder or something. But they said, you know, Eleanor Rigby. And I went, what? Yeah.

You know. Okay. But the fact, though, that they did it so many times, they did so many times where that lyric and that chord. And that thing hit at the right time. and made an emotional Response to you and you went.

Oh. Wow.

You know. I love that song. Yes. That's the magic. of r of writing.

You get it every once in a while. Every once in a while you get that one little moment where you just go, Got it. Yeah. You know, and only you know it. Then you hear it on the radio and people go, Oh yeah, I love that song.

Why do you think there's sections in an artist's career or a band's career when they have it's so fertile and there's so many songs and then maybe they get to a point where those songs aren't Coming at the same pace, is it because maybe, well, everyone's first album, you know, you're storing up music and maybe you're suffering in that time and they've come out of life, and then maybe later your life changes and you don't have the same lifestyle. I don't know. That's exactly what it is. Every album is where you are at right now. I can listen to an album.

I know we wrote an album from the inside right when I came out of the mental institution from the drinking. And I wrote a song about everybody in that mental institution because it was just like a writer's dream. There were so many psychotics in there that were interesting to me. And Bernie Toppin and I would write the lyrics, you know, back and forth. And But that was at one period.

The very next album was Totally different from that.

So you look at those albums and you go, wow, what was I thinking during that album? There's three albums that I did. I call them the Blackout albums.

Well, I don't remember writing them, recording them, or touring with them. Unbelievable. And I wasn't blacked out. I just. Erased it.

How many years was that? Oh, it was a period of time, right, in the late 70s, early 80s. Wow.

When literally, and they were good albums. I'd listen to them and I'd go, wow, that's great. I don't remember writing that song. Unbelievable. Isn't that something?

You know, and now our fans. Love those albums. because they were the tortured albums. They were the ones where I was writing all about this stuff, and I was gone on cocaine, or I was gone on this. And the songs were so unique.

It didn't sound like anything on Love It to Death or Killer or Billion Dollar Babies or Schools Out. It was. This artist is insane. But let's delve into this insane mind and see what's going on. And some of the stuff was great, you know.

And now I listen to it and I go, what was I thinking? You know, where was a hat? you I can look at those albums. I still appreciate them. Yeah.

But I have no idea where I was at during that. Yeah. You know. Well, because my nightmare was one that was something that I Loved. I was so immersed in that album because it was so thick and rich and full of stuff.

But I wasn't in trouble then, mentally. Yeah. You know. I'm so glad you've come through. And you're just, you know, your recollection and your stories and just the life in you is just so wonderful that you're here continuing to make great music and making an impact.

And especially considering the fact that you're not ashamed to say to anyone that wants to know that you believe in Jesus Christ. Oh, absolutely. You know, people talk about Alice being a rebel, and there was never a rebel more of a rebel than Jesus Christ. He was the ultimate rebel. He went against everybody and took it.

You know, but I mean, you know, if you want to talk about a rebel, he was the ultimate. That's right. Once you realize that That Alice is a character. And that's another world over here. Here's the world of Alice Cooper.

And so I'm not touring right now, so I'm over here. I'm in solid rock right now.

So, this is the world I'm in right now. I'm in solid rock. Tomorrow's a big tournament, and this and that. People have to remind me I'm Alice Cooper because I totally kind of forget about it, you know. But In a couple months, I'm going to be back over here again.

I don't take any of it seriously. I take the music seriously. I take the show seriously. I don't take the hype seriously. Yeah.

I am way past that, you know. I respect Alice, the character. And I love the character. He's funny. He's my favorite rock star.

Because we even talk about him in the third person. Yeah, notice that. Yeah. We say, you know, what should Alice wear here? Yeah.

I think Alice, I don't think Alice would wear that. you know or we'd say you know right here is where you should do this and this and this and i go I don't think Alice would say that. You know, and that song is not the song he would do there. He would do this song. Yeah.

So he's Totally divorced for me. I don't think like him when I'm on stage, I think like Alice. Yeah. And that's a different thing. But again, with the career and all the stuff.

Hey, for one thing, I'm Christian. Yeah. If you were going to put what's important in my life. Alice Cooper would be somewhere around fifth or sixth place. Wow.

What would be one, two, three, and fourth? What do you think your relationship with God, your relationship with your wife, certainly, your kids? Yes. And now, solid rock is like a very big part of my life. But I realized that.

It all comes from here to me. The funniest, oddest thing is this character that used to be. They used to tear my albums up on the 700 Club. This is the worst person you could ever die. They're tearing the albums up and everything.

And now is an agent for Christ. Yeah. And that to me is like, what a miracle that is. Yes. You know, and I'm still Alice Cooper, I'm still playing this dark character.

But he's an agent of Christ. Very weird. Weird and amazing and fantastic. Yeah, I always say I'm never surprised. I'm always.

You know. I'm always totally shocked. Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries, please subscribe and consider supporting this show.

Just go to harvest.org. And by the way, if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God, go to knowgod.org. Dot org. That's K N O W G O D Yeah. Yeah.