Alice Cooper is the original makeup-ed metaller, and there are no substitutions. Taking from heavy metal, vaudeville and symphonic rock, the “School’s Out” rocker built his legacy on mixing haunting musical sounds with horrific onstage theatrics – everything from bright red blood to mile-long syringes to electric chairs. The result? The Coop always paints a picture of horror in his concertgoers’ minds.
Along the way, Alice Cooper has developed a somehow lovable persona, making him rock’s favorite villain to date. In the following choice quotes, Alice talks about hitting rock-bottom during his struggle with substance addiction, touring with fellow horror rocker Rob Zombie, finding a Christian faith and getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rock on, Alice!
On finally getting inducted into the Hall of Fame, as told to USA Today in 2011:
We were Susan Lucci for quite a long time – or Pete Rose, whichever way you look at it! … I went, ‘That’s kind of cool. Every year, it’s this new outrage.’ I was sitting there, going, ‘Calm down. Don’t worry. Our time will come.’”
On staying excited about music 30-plus years later, as told to Horror Garage:
You know, it's funny, ’cause I think that if it’s in your blood, you never get tired of it. I’m still a rock ’n’ roll fan. I have a 19-year-old and a 15-year-old, and I’m probably the only dad in the world that bangs on their door and says, ‘Turn that up!’ If it’s good rock ’n’ roll, I’m the first one to turn it up. Like anything else: there’s great rock ’n’ roll, there’s crappy rock ’n’ roll. And I’m not real prejudiced. As much as I’m not a big rap fan, I love Eminem. I think Eminem is very funny.
On Lady Gaga, as told to the Washington Post in 2011:
Lady Gaga is the female Alice Cooper. She created a character named Lady Gaga. She wrote songs for Lady Gaga. Not for herself – for Lady Gaga. I write for Alice; I don’t write for me… And she produced those songs on stage for Lady Gaga. Now there’s a Lady Gaga nation out there, and if you meet her off stage, she’s nothing like that person on stage. [Laughs] It’s like, me either. I’m nothing like Alice. But we created a character that belongs to rock and roll.
On touring with fellow horror rocker Rob Zombie, as told to the Gannett Lansing State Journal in 2010:
You know, Rob is one of my very best friends in the business, so it’s great to be out with him. The shows are funny, because my show is so Alice in that it’s got a sense of humor to it, and so does Rob’s, only his is a whole different kind of thing… We’re much more of an opera than anybody else. When Alice says, ‘Welcome to My Nightmare,’ he gives you the nightmare. Everything about the lyrics tells us what to do theatrically with the song.
Regarding how his Christianity and art work together, as told to HM Magazine in 2011:
You know, first of all, I do mostly the secular rock. But I think … My pastor feels the same way. I am not necessarily praise rock. I’m not Christian praise music. I think that I go to a different place. And I think that Christianity needs to go much more into the secular arts. I think that we need to be heard not just by Christians. I mean, it’s nice ... bands like Creed, P.O.D. There’s some bands out there that are saying some pretty good things. And then there’s a lot of really good praise rock bands. I’ve just never felt... I do that in church. I do that in prayer. I do that, but I think that my message is more of a warning. I don’t mind being the prophet of doom. I think that that’s more fitted for what Alice is.
I feel that, if God is going to use Alice Cooper, it’s going to be more on a level of a warning. It’s not going to be on a level of, ‘Isn’t everything great? Isn’t everything good? Aren’t we all wonderful?’ Alice is going to be more like, ‘Be careful! Satan is not a myth. Don’t sit around pretending like Satan is just a joke.’ Because I have a lot of friends that do believe that. I think my job is to warn about Satan.
On the cost of a Cooper show, as recorded by Rock Around the World in their 1970s archives:
Just the stage alone cost around $400,000. But with 43 people working and with rehearsals and everything I would say you’ve got to be spending ... boy, I’m the worst at figures ... but you’ve got to be spending at least a quarter of a million dollars a month just on maintaining everybody. Probably more than that. I’m not really sure ’cause I don’t do any business at all I’m the worst businessman.
On hitting rock bottom, as told to Reuters in 2007:
But it got to the point where I was drinking so much that I was throwing up blood in the morning. Guys in my business – like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison – usually lasted until the age of 27. I watched them drink themselves to death. And I was pretty much on my way there.
On his love for golf and how it helped save him from substance abuse, as told to Billboard:
I traded one bad habit for another habit, only this habit [golf] was a lot healthier. Golf ended up being a good trade-off. The thing about this book [Cooper’s memoir Alice Cooper, Golf Monster: A Rock 'n' Roller's 12 Steps to Becoming a Golf Addict], is that when I look at the whole juxtaposition of who Alice Cooper is, the golf addiction and the music addiction, still, it’s pretty interesting how they can co-exist.
Regarding his popular radio show, Nights with Alice Cooper, as told to the Gannett Local Music Beat in 2010:
The Dick Clark organization came to me. Everybody was going into satellite radio, and Dick Clark said to me, ‘If you had a radio show, what would it be?’ And I said, ‘I would go back to what I remember FM radio to be: where the DJ played what he or she wanted and it wasn’t a corporate decision.’ You know, ‘These are the most popular songs by demographics for 20 to 35-year-olds’ – I hate that. That kills the whole idea of rock and roll. So, I said, ‘I’ll play bands I like and tell stories about them, because everybody I play, I’m going to know.’ So, I might play songs from The Kinks, Frank Zappa and Iggy and tell stories.
On what horror movies give Alice Cooper the willies, as told to the Concert Livewire in 2001:
There are a couple of horror movies that I think hold up as being scary, and the reason that they are scary is that they're based on real things. I think that when you get into things like Nightmare on Elm Street you're talking about things that just don't happen. But when you're talking about The Exorcist, that's based on truth. That happens a lot. Demon possession and exorcisms really do happen. That’s not just me or anybody saying that, it’s documented on medical record. So it’s very hard to not explain that. I think that anytime you get into the occult you have a realization that this stuff does exist. Probably not as graphic as they do in the movies, but there’s something creepy in the fact that it does exist…
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Formed in 2002, the Phoenix, Arizona-based group describes their sound as “AC/DC meets The Yardbirds who slept with Led Zeppelin who had an illegitimate love child.” Other influences cited by the band include The Who, Neil Diamond, Audioslave and, of course, Alice Cooper. 
“What would Alice’s nightmare be 35 years later?" Cooper asked the Vancouver Sun. “Well, there’s technology. Alice is a technotard. Disco is still a big enemy of his, so disco would be in there. But I allowed this album to have a great sense of humor, even though there’s some very, very dark moments.”