Hip-hop artist embraces culture
Showing no signs of slowing down, the seemingly permanently touring Alice Cooper rolls into Sasktel Centre on Saturday, bringing along his trademark stage show filled with swords, straitjackets and a guillotine primed and ready to behead Cooper night after night.
He knows what his fans want, and he is eager to deliver on those expectations with a performance that has been perfected over decades.
“It’s actually the only way I really know how to do it,” Cooper explained over the phone as he prepared for a recent show in Jackson, Calif.
“We started 50 years ago, and it had theatrics, and I just let it grow into the point now that it’s just so natural ... and I just let the lyrics decide what is going to happen on stage, so if you’re going to say ‘ Welcome to My Nightmare’ at an Alice Cooper show — you give them the nightmare.”
But while the show is a sight to behold, Cooper says creating the theatrics is the easiest part. For him, everything comes down to the quality of the music, so he seeks out the absolute best musicians to ensure “the music is rock solid and at the point it can’t get any better,” before even thinking about choreographing the rest of the show, he said.
With such an expansive musical archive, Cooper knows the fans are coming to see more than the material off his newest album, Paranormal.
As a showman, he understands the excitement of hearing his classic hits and is more than happy to give fans what they want.
“I’ve never understood that,” he explained. “A lot of artists do that, they ’ll say ‘I’m tired of doing these songs’ but the audience isn’t tired of hearing those songs, so I really believe in giving the audience their money’s worth.
“I do all the hits, and I salt and pepper the show with oddities and certain songs that they weren’t expecting to hear.”
Spending so much time on the road doesn’t seem to faze Cooper, who has already played more than 130 shows in 17 countries on the A Paranormal Evening with Alice Cooper tour — and any time off he spends performing with his other band, the Hollywood Vampires.
“Other than that, I’m not really that busy,” he laughed.
For most people, spending this much time away from home can be tough, but he is able to combat this problem by bringing along the most important aspect of home — his wife, Sheryl Goddard, who regularly tours with Cooper, utilizing her own talents, from choreography to backing vocals, to perfect the show.
But, even with the stresses of a packed touring schedule, Cooper said he always makes time to play a local golf course every morning — nine holes on a show day and 18 when he has the day off.
With no plans to slow down anytime soon, Cooper said the one thing he takes pride in the most is the longevity of his career and that people are still excited to come out and see the show.
“People are still coming to see Alice Cooper for all the right reasons: they come for the music first and the icing on the cake is the theatrics — they know they are going to get a good show,” he said.
“My reputation has always been that we just don’t do bad shows.”