Alice Cooper, singer of beloved tracks like "School's Out," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," and "I'm Eighteen," talks with Dan Rather about how The Beatles pushed him toward a career in music, forming a band with his school friends in Arizona, getting a big break thanks to Frank Zappa and more.
The Conversation
Alice Cooper was born Vincent Fier he
grew up in a religious household and
spent his formative years in Arizona in
high school he excelled as a track and
field star but he was inspired to try
his hand at music when he saw the
Beatles make their historic appearance
on the Ed Sullivan
[Music]
Show Alice how did you grow up you're the
Son of a Preacher yes Protestant my
granddad was an evangelist my granddad
worked with the Sue Indians he was a
missionary with the sue my dad was a
missionary with the
Apaches and I basically spent every
weekend up on the Apache reservation
going to church you know I was all my
friends were church kids I was the
prodical
son were you singing at that time did
you sing Hy it was at the
1345 is when the band started so 14 I
started singing locally
which kind of was a ripple you know but
my dad was very cool this was the
British Invasion every week there was a
new band there was The Kinks The Yard
Birds the who you remember because you
were in that era too when you were going
wow where are these bands coming from
the Beatles of course was the point on
the Arrow um and I would sit and watch
this with my dad my dad would be shaving
right and I would say I'd open up the
Bible I go Ephesians 3:4 2 and he says
and the Lord said on to right I said
okay um Luke 28 he says and Jesus said
to them and I'd say who plays bass for
the an for the animals he goes Chaz
Chandler and I go my dad is really hip
he's cool well he went he says I love
the
music he says I can't stand by the
lifestyle you know free love and drugs
and sleeping around and all these I
can't certainly abide by that but your
show and the music I have no problem
with our radio was always on my parents
like really liked rock and roll they had
no problem they were big band of course
but they liked rock and roll and so the
Beatles came along and all of a sudden
oh my dad guys are really good you know
they they weren't the uh you know
shaking the fist don't ever do that of
course when they saw the stones the
first time they might have been a little
shook suddenly The Beatles were fine you
know not realizing that I was already
thinking I'm going to make the stones
look like choir
boys and you
did well let's pick up the story so you
go to college you go to college in
Arizona well the band started in high
school right at 15 is when the Beatles
first came out and that was that summer
where I just went oh I got to do that I
just love that you know that music was
so different it was the first time I'd
ever heard a band that played and sang
together at the same time and wrote
their own songs you know you just went
wow that's totally different and then
you saw them again and the Beatles just
kept coming out with great songs and
pretty soon I was on the track in cross
country team with Dennis dunway and John
Spear and that summer John learned how
to play drums Dennis learned how to play
bass I decided to be the singer we found
the two biggest juvenile delinquents in
the school that both played guitar and
we had a band
and we started playing little parties
not ever realizing where it was going to
go your band's been going since you were
what 14 15 years old you're trying to
make it big yeah wasn't working so what
happened well the only way you could
make it big was go to La you had to go
to Los Angeles and we figured we were
pretty cocky we figured we were awfully
good and nobody had this kind of
theatrical Edge that we had and so we
went and auditioned at every single Club
there was not realizing that we were the
best band in Arizona against the best
band in Wyoming Illinois Michigan they
were all there trying to get the same
jobs we were trying to get and literally
starved our way for about two years
every record company turned us
down until Frank Zappa Frank Zappa saw
listened to what we were doing and he
says I don't get
it I said what do you mean he says I
don't get it and I said well is that bad
and he goes well no I'm signing you CU I
don't get it is that was to him was
amazing that there was some band out
there from Arizona of all
places that was doing something that he
hadn't thought of you know he was the
Maestro Frank Zappa was sort of like the
looked up to by everybody he was the mro
oh he was huge in the business Frank
Zappa was not just making fun of the
politicians he was making fun of the
hippies the very people that were
supporting him so he was totally unique
and for him to put his brand on you was
a big deal that gave us all of a sudden
we were kind of looked at differently I
want to ask you we you grew up the Son
of a Preacher of a pastor you had a
pretty typical very good childhood yeah
but the question is where is this Mr
Hyde personality come from do you think
it's a a somewhat a revolt against
father in the strict religious
Doctrine my dad wasn't strict my mom
wasn't strict um that was the thing I
think it was I saw as an artist that
rock and roll horror and comedy were all
in bed together I mean horror and comedy
to me the scarier the movie was the more
I was laughing you know I was going this
is so over the top it's hysterical you
know uh add Rock to that and let's see
what happens and to me it was a natural
thing it just was so natural for us the
very first show The earwigs in high
school we were the earwigs we put on
beetle wigs we had our track Uniforms on
and we did parodies of beetle songs that
very first show there was a coffin on
stage with a guy coming out and there
was a
guillotine and that somehow followed us
it just was always there because I think
that we saw understood that that every
bit of this horror that you saw had a
punchline to it it had a comic relief to
it and you couldn't be a villain without
getting it in the end you have the bad
guys's got to get it and there's a
relief to that to the audience but at
the same
time the audience was laughing too they
got the joke