At 77, Alice Cooper Is Back! ‘I Enjoy Playing the Villain’

Does your wife, Sheryl, still appear onstage as a Marie Antoinette character who’s bitter about getting beheaded, so she wants to behead you?

Sheryl still plays Marie Antoideath and does the whip dance better than any 20-year-old. We’re the Burns and Allen of rock ’n’ roll.

How did the absence of Glen Buxton impact this project? 

Glen was our Keith Richards, the total juvenile delinquent, a Bowery Boy, the guy who always had something illegal with him. But he was everybody’s best friend. It was impossible to replace him, and that had a lot to do with the band not getting back together until now.

“What a Syd” stands out as a funny, biting commentary on hipsters. 

After half a century apart, Alice Cooper is back with the new album, ‘The Revenge of Alice Cooper.’

Jenny Risher

That’s [about] Glen. Dirty blond hair, stolen guitar. He liked that kind of music. We grew up on movies, and our babysitter was the television. You would find a little bit of West Side Story, Walk on the Wild Side, I Spy, The Untouchables and James Bond in our songs. We knew every character on Dobie Gillis.

Did you go overboard in your extravagant shows in the ’70s? 

There is no such thing as overboard, but we definitely took it to places nobody’s ever been. We proved you could be theatrical and have hit records. That’s how Kiss and David Bowie were born. They saw us and figured out what characters they could be.

Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Elton John praised your songwriting, but did theatricality overshadow your music? 

In the beginning, yeah. It was, they’re fun to watch, but musicians? Come on. That really pushed us. We were up against Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. If we had an eight-hour rehearsal, seven hours were on the music so we could show the audience our band was really good musically. Theatrics was the icing. When Lennon and Dylan started singling me out as a songwriter, that’s when people had to take notice. And when we had albums at No. 1 or No. 2.

As an alcohol and cocaine addict, what do you advise young musicians about the temptations of sudden wealth and fame? 

I came from a Christian home. I was the prodigal son. I got sober 42 years ago. A lot has to do with my wife, whose father also was a pastor. We realized we had all the success we wanted, and we needed a closer walk with the Lord. I think God let me go through alcohol and cocaine addiction so I could talk to kids on a real level. They can’t say, “What do you know about it?” Are you kidding? I almost died with the best of them.

Should fans be surprised you were a preacher’s kid?

I always had that moral fiber. There was never blasphemy or satanic stuff in our shows. We were much more like a Friday night horror show, scary but funny. And I never drank or got high on stage.

Why did you found Arizona's Solid Rock arts training centers for teens?

I thought, Let’s open a place that’s not a church. Come learn guitar, bass, drums, art, ballet. It’s a small Juilliard, and it’s free. We get 100 kids a day. We get the satisfaction of seeing a kid find his talent and not go to jail or get shot. He’s not in a gang. He’s in a band.

You’ve been married since 1976. What’s the secret? 

She’s still my girlfriend. We’re still like kids. We never get tired of each other, and we never argue.

How did you get so deep into golf? 

I have an addictive personality. There must be 12 television sets in my house. I drink too much Diet Coke. When I got sober, I said, I have to find an addiction that’s not going to kill me. I was a good baseball player. I could hit a fastball and thought, How hard is it to hit a ball that’s not moving? The first swing I took, I hit the ball right down the middle. That was the greatest feeling. Glen Campbell was a really good player and taught me a lot.

You’ve run for president every four years since releasing “Elected” in 1972. Are you gearing up for 2028? 

Oh my God, who wants that job? Politics and rock ’n’ roll should never be in bed together. Rock ’n’ roll should be an escape from politics, not a weapon of politics. “Elected” was a total satire on being the president, which is why John Lennon loved it.

What do people get wrong about you? 

A lot of people don’t realize I play a character. I’m nothing like him. I just enjoy playing the villain. When kids wanted to be Peter Pan, I wanted to be Captain Hook. Good villains are dark and sinister, but they all have a good sense of humor. I wanted Alice to be terrifying, but I didn’t mind if he slipped on a banana peel.