Go see Alice if you want your rock music hard

By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
ARE BONES" IS THE NAMEof Alice Cooper's current concert tour, but the star says people shouldn't take the title so literally.
"It's been a little misinterpreted," Cooper said Thursday, having just returned to the United States from performances in England, Belgium and Austria.
Elements of Alice Cooper's famously bizarre stage show -- the straight jackets, snake, Cold Ethel and what he calls "a little sick tribute to Elvis" -- are intact.
"I mean, Alice is going to be Alice," said 55-year-old Cooper. He refers to himself often in the third person.
Before this tour, as Cooper performed hits from his 30-plus year career, he "distorted" them, he said, by adding long solos and other flourishes.
He changed his mind after realizing that when he listened to other bands, he wanted them to perform songs as they did on their records. So "bare bones" means "taking original versions and cutting all the fat off," he said.
"It's a very hard rock show," Cooper continued. "We play 28 songs. ... We hit you with 15 songs in a row without giving you a break."
Or himself.
The already-thin Cooper gets such a workout onstage, under those hot lights, that "I lose two waist sizes the first two weeks of the [tour], and I eat everything I want to eat."
Straight-ahead
Bare bones also describes the approach that Cooper took with his next CD, titled "The Eyes of Alice Cooper," that will be released in September. He calls it "a tribute to early Alice."
During the recording, he and his band made a concerted effort to avoid the use of overdubbing. They rehearsed the new material, then started recording them and chose the best take, "so you get this real freshness on these songs ... it's not in the studio being picked apart," he said.
New garage-rock bands such as The White Stripes and The Hives are "a real response to 'American Idol,'" Cooper said, referring to the Fox TV reality show for young vocalists.
"I know those kids -- Kelly [Clarkson, the first winner], Justin [Guarini, runner-up to Clarkson], Ruben [Studdard, the most recent winner]. They're great. The problem is, it's not rock 'n' roll. If you want to see rock, see Iggy Pop, MC5, AC/DC."
Cooper performed last on an end-of-school special that aired recently on Fox. His band was preceded by various pop artists.
The audience, of course, was very young. Cooper came out singing his 1972 hit, "School's Out," and the youths reacted with surprise. "They had never seen a band with attitude that came out there to just blow their heads off. It was like a revelation to these kids. I got a kick out of looking at their faces."
Full of drama
Cooper is full of surprises. Back in 1968, the former Vincent Furnier -- whose father was a preacher --changed his name to Alice Cooper, who was described as a 17th-century witch who had been burned at the stake and reincarnated in his body. The name stuck with his band and shaped their controversy-stirring concerts.
Today, Cooper hosts a celebrity golf tournament that benefits Solid Rock Foundation, which has various inner-city Christian ministries.
Alice Cooper the husband, father, golfer and restaurateur (there's an Alice Cooper'stown in Cleveland) doesn't take Alice Cooper the front man all that seriously.
"I've had 30 years to separate the two," he said. "When I play Alice on stage, I play it all the way -- the way [Jack] Nicholson would play The Joker or Hannibal Lecter would be played by Anthony Hopkins. When the show's over, I don't take him off the stage. ... If you do, I don't know what you're trying to accomplish.
"I really enjoy playing Alice for an hour and a half. I guarantee Alice is still the premier monster out there. He's sort of the Phantom of the Opera."
shaulis@vindy.com