1960s The Spiders and Nazz In 1964, 16-year-old Furnier was eager to participate in Cortez High School's annual
Letterman's talent show, so he gathered four fellow
cross country teammates to form a group for the show:
Glen Buxton,
Dennis Dunaway, John Tatum, and John Speer. They named themselves the Earwigs. They dressed up in costumes and wigs to resemble
the Beatles and performed several parodies of Beatles songs, with the lyrics modified to refer to the track team: in their rendition of "
Please Please Me", for example, the line "Last night I said these words to my girl" was replaced with "Last night I ran four laps for my coach". Of the group, only Buxton knew how to play an instrument—the guitar—so Buxton played guitar while the rest mimed on their instruments. The group got an overwhelming response from the audience and won the talent show. As a result of their positive experience, the group decided to try to turn into a real band. They acquired musical instruments from a local
pawn shop and proceeded to learn how to play them, with Buxton doing most of the teaching as well as much of the early songwriting. Furnier also believed that the group needed a gimmick to succeed, and that other bands were not exploiting the showmanship potential of the stage. The classic Alice Cooper group lineup consisted of Furnier, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, rhythm guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. Furnier, Buxton, and Dunaway were also art students, and their admiration for the works of
surrealist artists such as
Salvador Dalí further inspired their stage antics. One night after an unsuccessful gig at the Cheetah club in
Venice, Los Angeles, where the band emptied the entire room of patrons after playing just ten minutes, they were approached and enlisted by music manager
Shep Gordon, who saw the band's negative impact that night as a force that could be turned in a more productive direction. The band's debut studio album,
Pretties for You (1969), was eclectic and featured an experimental presentation of their songs in a psychedelic context. Alice Cooper's "shock rock" reputation apparently developed almost by accident at first. An unrehearsed stage routine involving a feather pillow and a live chicken garnered attention from the press; the band decided to capitalize on the tabloid
sensationalism, creating in the process a new subgenre,
shock rock. He picked it up and threw it out over the crowd, expecting it to fly away. The chicken instead plummeted into the first few rows occupied by wheelchair users, who reportedly proceeded to tear the bird to pieces. The next day the incident made the front page of national newspapers, and Zappa phoned Cooper and asked if the story, which reported that he had bitten off the chicken's head and drunk its blood on stage, was true. Cooper denied the rumor, whereupon Zappa told him, "Well, whatever you do, don't tell anyone you didn't do it." The band later claimed that this period was highly influenced by
Pink Floyd, especially their debut studio album
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), the only Pink Floyd album made under the leadership of founding member
Syd Barrett (lead vocals and guitar). Glen Buxton said he could listen to Barrett's guitar for hours at a time.
1970–1974 Despite the publicity from the chicken incident, the band's second studio album,
Easy Action, produced by
David Briggs and released in June 1970, fared even worse than its predecessor, entirely failing to chart within the
Billboard Top 200. Around this time, fed up with Californians' indifference to their act, they relocated to
Pontiac, Michigan, where their bizarre stage act was much better received by
Midwestern crowds accustomed to the
proto-punk styles of local bands such as
the Stooges and
the MC5. Despite this, Cooper still managed to receive a cream
pie in the face when performing at the
Cincinnati Pop Festival. Michigan remained their steady home base until 1972. "L.A. just didn't get it," Cooper stated. "They were all on the wrong drug for us. They were on acid and we were basically drinking beer. We fit much more in Detroit than we did anywhere else." Alice Cooper appeared at the
Woodstock-esque
Strawberry Fields Festival near
Toronto, Ontario, in August 1970. The band's mix of glam and increasingly violent stage theatrics stood out in stark contrast to the bearded, denim-clad hippie bands of the time. As Cooper himself stated: "We were into fun, sex, death and money when everybody was into peace and love. We wanted to see what was next. It turned out we were next, and we drove a stake through the heart of the Love Generation". In autumn 1970, the Alice Cooper group teamed with producer
Bob Ezrin for the recording of their third studio album,
Love It to Death. This was the final album in their Straight Records contract and the band's last chance to create a hit. That first success came with the single "
I'm Eighteen", released in November 1970, which reached number 21 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in early 1971. Not long after the album's release in January 1971,
Warner Bros. Records purchased Alice Cooper's contract from Straight and re-issued the album, giving the group a higher level of promotion.
Love It to Death proved to be their breakthrough studio album, reaching number 35 on the U.S.
Billboard 200 album charts. It was the first of 11 Alice Cooper group and solo albums produced by Ezrin, who is widely seen as being pivotal in helping to create and develop the band's definitive sound. The group's 1971 tour featured a stage show involving mock fights and gothic torture modes being imposed on Cooper, climaxing in a staged execution by
electric chair, with the band sporting tight, sequined, color-contrasting
glam rock-style costumes made by prominent rock-fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (sister of band member Neal Smith, and wife of band member Dennis Dunaway). Cooper's androgynous stage role had developed to present a
villainous side, portraying a potential threat to modern society. The success of the band's single and album, and their tour of 1971, which included their first tour of Europe (audience members reportedly included
Elton John and a pre-
Ziggy Stardust David Bowie), provided enough encouragement for Warner Bros. to offer the band a new multi-album contract. Their follow-up studio album
Killer, released in November 1971, continued the commercial success of
Love It to Death and included further single success with "
Under My Wheels", "
Be My Lover" in early 1972, and "
Halo of Flies", which became a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands in 1973. Thematically,
Killer expanded on the villainous side of Cooper's androgynous stage role, with its music becoming the soundtrack to the group's morality-based stage show, which by then featured a
boa constrictor hugging Cooper on stage, the murderous axe chopping of bloodied baby dolls, and execution by hanging at the
gallows. In January 1972, Cooper was again asked about his peculiar name, and told talk show hostess
Dinah Shore that he took the name from a "
Mayberry RFD" character. The summer of 1972 saw the release of the single "
School's Out". It went Top 10 in the U.S. and to number 1 in the UK, and remains a staple on
classic rock radio to this day. The studio album ''
School's Out'' reached No. 2 on the US charts and sold over a million copies. The band relocated to their new mansion in
Greenwich, Connecticut. With Cooper's on stage androgynous persona completely replaced with brattiness and
machismo, the band solidified their success with subsequent tours in the United States and Europe, and won over devoted fans in droves while at the same time horrifying parents and outraging the social establishment. In the United Kingdom,
Mary Whitehouse, a Christian morality campaigner, persuaded the
BBC to ban the video for "School's Out", although Whitehouse's campaign did not prevent the single also reaching number one in the UK. Cooper sent her a bunch of flowers in gratitude for the publicity. Meanwhile,
British Labour Member of Parliament
Leo Abse petitioned Home Secretary
Reginald Maudling to have the group banned altogether from performing in the country. In February 1973,
Billion Dollar Babies was released worldwide and became the band's most commercially successful studio album, reaching No. 1 in both the US and UK. "
Elected", a late-1972 Top 10 UK hit from the album, which inspired one of the first
MTV-style story-line promo videos ever made for a song (three years before
Queen's promotional video for "
Bohemian Rhapsody"), was followed by two more UK Top 10 singles, "
Hello Hooray" and "
No More Mr. Nice Guy", the latter of which was the last UK single from the album; it reached No. 25 in the US. The title track, featuring guest vocals by
Donovan, was also a US hit single. Around this time Glen Buxton left Alice Cooper briefly because of waning health. , headquartered at the
Rainbow Bar and Grill in
West Hollywood, California With a string of successful
concept albums and several hit singles, the band continued their grueling schedule and toured the United States again. Continued attempts by politicians and pressure groups to ban their shocking act only served to fuel the legend of Alice Cooper further and generate even greater public interest. Their 1973 US tour broke box office records previously set by
the Rolling Stones and raised rock theatrics to new heights; the multi-level stage show by then featured numerous special effects, including Billion Dollar Bills, decapitated baby dolls and mannequins, a dental psychosis scene complete with dancing teeth, and the ultimate execution prop and highlight of the show: the
guillotine. The guillotine and other stage effects were designed for the band by magician
James Randi, who appeared on stage during some of the shows as
executioner. In 2012 at
Dragon Con, Randi and Cooper discussed their working relationship during this period. The Alice Cooper group had now reached its peak and it was among the most visible and successful acts in the industry. Beneath the surface, however, the repetitive schedule of recording and touring had begun to take its toll on the band.
Muscle of Love, released at the end of 1973, was to be the last studio album from the classic lineup, and marked Alice Cooper's last UK Top 20 single of the 1970s with "
Teenage Lament '74". An unsolicited theme song was recorded for the
James Bond spy film
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), but a different song of the same name by
Lulu was chosen instead. By 1974, the
Muscle of Love album still had not matched the top-charting success of its predecessor, and the band began to have constant disagreements. For various reasons, the members agreed to take what was expected to be a temporary hiatus. "Everyone decided they needed a rest from one another", said manager Shep Gordon at the time. "A lot of pressure had built up, but it's nothing that can't be dealt with. Everybody still gets together and talks." Journalist
Bob Greene spent several weeks on the road with the band during the Muscle of Love Christmas Tour in 1973. His book
Billion Dollar Baby, released in November 1974, painted a less-than-flattering picture of the band, showing a group in total disharmony. Cooper later wrote an autobiography with
Steven Gaines called
Me, Alice (1976) which gave Cooper's version of that era of his career, among other things. During this time, Cooper relocated back to Los Angeles and started appearing regularly on television shows such as
The Hollywood Squares, and Warner Bros. released the
Greatest Hits compilation album. It featured classic-style artwork and reached the US Top 10, performing better than
Muscle of Love. However, the band's 1974 feature film
Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper (consisting mainly of 1973 concert footage with 'comedic' sketches woven throughout to a faint storyline), released on a minor
cinematic run mostly to
drive-in theaters, saw little box office success. On March 5, 1974, Cooper appeared on episode 3 of
The Snoop Sisters playing a
Satanic cult singer. The final shows by Alice Cooper as a group were in Brazil in March and April 1974, including the record indoor attendance estimated as high as 158,000 fans in São Paulo on March 30, at the Anhembi Exposition Hall at the start of the first ever South American rock tour.
1975–1979 '', 1975 In 1975, Alice Cooper returned as a solo artist with the release of
Welcome to My Nightmare. To avoid legal complications over ownership of the group name, "Alice Cooper" had by then become Furnier's new legal name. Speaking on the subject of Alice Cooper continuing as a solo project as opposed to the band it once was, Cooper stated in 1975, "It got very basically down to the fact that we had drawn as much as we could out of each other. After ten years, we got pretty dry together." Manager Gordon added, "What had started in a sense as a pipe-dream became an overwhelming burden." Such was the immense success of Cooper's solo project that he decided to continue as a solo artist, and the original band became officially defunct. Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith went on to form the short-lived band Billion Dollar Babies, producing one studio album—
Battle Axe—in 1977. While occasionally performing with one another and
Glen Buxton, they did not reunite with Alice until October 23, 1999, at the second Glen Buxton Memorial Weekend for a show at CoopersTown in Phoenix. They reunited for another show, with
Steve Hunter on guitar, on December 16, 2010, at the
Dodge Theatre in Phoenix. This lineup performed together again (televised) on March 14, 2011, at the induction of the original Alice Cooper group into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as well as on May 11, 2011, at London's
Battersea Power Station at the
Jägermeister Ice Cold 4D event (webcast). In 2011, Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith appeared on three tracks they co-wrote on Alice's solo studio album
Welcome 2 My Nightmare. In 2017, they appeared on two tracks they co-wrote on Alice's solo studio album
Paranormal, released in July, and in November they joined his current live band for five tour dates in the United Kingdom. Following the 1976 US No. 12 ballad hit "
I Never Cry"; In 1978, a
sobered Cooper used his experience in the sanitarium as the inspiration for his semi-autobiographical studio album
From the Inside, which he co-wrote with
Bernie Taupin, known for his work with Elton John; it spawned yet another US Top 20 hit ballad, "
How You Gonna See Me Now". The subsequent tour's stage show was based inside an asylum, and was filmed for Cooper's first home-video release,
The Strange Case of Alice Cooper, in 1979. Around this time, Cooper performed "Welcome to My Nightmare", "You and Me", and "School's Out" on
The Muppet Show (episode #307) on March 28, 1978 (he played one of the
devil's henchmen trying to dupe
Kermit the Frog,
Gonzo and
Miss Piggy into selling their souls). He also appeared in an against-typecasting role as a piano-playing disco waiter in
Mae West's final film,
Sextette, and as a villain in the film ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. Cooper also led celebrities in raising money to remodel the famous
Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles, California. Cooper himself contributed over $27,000 to the project, buying an O in the sign in memory of close friend and comedian
Groucho Marx. In 1979, Cooper also guest starred on good friend
Soupy Sales' show,
Lunch with Soupy Sales and was hit in the face with a pie, as part of the show. When asked about the experience, Cooper had this to say about his friend: "Being from Detroit, I came home every day and watched Soupy at lunch (Lunch with Soupy Sales). One of the greatest moments of my life was getting pie-faced by Soupy. He was one of my all time heroes."
1980s Cooper's studio albums from the beginning of the 1980s have been referred to by Cooper as his "blackout albums" because he cannot remember recording them, owing to the influence of his new, and increasing, cocaine addiction.
Flush the Fashion (1980),
Special Forces (1981),
Zipper Catches Skin (1982) and
DaDa (1983) saw a gradual commercial decline, with the last two not charting within the
Billboard Top 200.
Flush the Fashion, produced by
Roy Thomas Baker, known for his work with
Queen and
the Cars, had a thick, edgy
new wave musical sound that baffled even longtime fans, though it still yielded the US Top 40 hit "
Clones (We're All)". The track also surprisingly charted on the US
Disco Top 100 chart.
Special Forces featured a more aggressive but consistent new wave style, and included a new version of "Generation Landslide" from
Billion Dollar Babies (1973). His tour for
Special Forces marked Cooper's last time on the road for nearly five years; it was not until 1986, for
Constrictor, that he toured again. 1982's
Zipper Catches Skin was a more
pop punk-oriented recording, containing many quirky high-energy guitar-driven songs along with his most unusual collection of subject matters for lyrics, and
Patty Donahue of
the Waitresses provided guest vocals and "sarcasm" on the track "I Like Girls". 1983 marked the return collaboration of producer
Bob Ezrin and guitarist
Dick Wagner for the haunting epic
DaDa, the final studio album in his Warner Bros. contract. In mid-1983, after the recording of
DaDa was completed, Cooper was hospitalized for alcoholism again, and
cirrhosis of the liver. He credits his Christian faith for a recovery doctors described as "miraculous" and he talks of how he did not "recover" but how his addiction was "taken away" by
Jesus Christ. Cooper was finally stable and sober (and has remained sober since that time) by the time
DaDa and
The Nightmare home video (of his 1975 TV Special) were released in the fall of that year; however, both releases performed below expectations. Even with
The Nightmare scoring a nomination for 1984's
Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video (he lost to
Duran Duran), it was not enough for Warner Bros. to keep Cooper on their books. By February 1984, Cooper became a "free agent" for the first time in his career. Cooper spent a lengthy period away from the music business dealing with personal problems. His divorce from
Sheryl Cooper was heard at Maricopa County Superior Court, Arizona, on January 30, 1984, but a decision was made by the couple not to move forward with the divorce. The following month he guested at the
26th Annual Grammy Awards alongside co-presenter
Grace Jones. He also returned to his native Phoenix, Arizona: "It was kind of a dramatic move back, because I had just finished my thirteen-year alcoholic career in Los Angeles. To me, the
Hollywood social scene was nothing but drinking and partying every night." Behind the scenes Cooper kept busy musically, working on material with
Aerosmith guitarist
Joe Perry. The spring of 1984 was taken up with filming, Cooper acting in the
B-grade horror movie
Monster Dog, filmed in
Torrelodones, Spain. Shortly thereafter he reconciled with Sheryl. The year closed with more writing sessions, this time in New York during November with
Hanoi Rocks guitarist
Andy McCoy. In 1985, he met and began writing songs with guitarist
Kane Roberts. Cooper was subsequently signed to
MCA Records, and appeared as guest vocalist on
Twisted Sister's song "Be Chrool to Your Scuel". A music video for the song featured actor
Luke Perry and Cooper donning his black snake-eyes makeup for the first time since 1979, but neither the song nor video drew public interest. In 1986, Alice Cooper officially returned to the music industry with the studio album
Constrictor. The album spawned the hits "
He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" (the theme song for the movie
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives; in the video for the song Cooper was given a cameo role as a deranged psychiatrist) and the fan favorite "
Teenage Frankenstein". The
Constrictor album was a catalyst for Cooper to make a triumphant return to the road for the first time since the 1981
Special Forces project, on a tour titled The Nightmare Returns. The Detroit leg of this tour, which took place at the end of October 1986 during
Halloween, was captured on film as
The Nightmare Returns (1987), and is viewed by some as being the definitive Alice Cooper concert film. It was released on DVD in 2006. The concert, which received rave reviews in the rock music press, was also described by
Rolling Stone magazine as bringing "Cooper's violent, twisted onstage fantasies to a new generation". The
Constrictor album was followed by
Raise Your Fist and Yell in 1987, which had an even rougher sound than its predecessor, as well as the Cooper classic "
Freedom". The subsequent tour of
Raise Your Fist and Yell, which was heavily inspired by the slasher horror movies of the time such as the
Friday the 13th series and
A Nightmare on Elm Street, served up a shocking spectacle similar to its predecessor, and courted the kind of controversy, especially in Europe, that recalled the public outrage caused by Cooper's public performances in America in the early 1970s. In Britain, Labour MP
David Blunkett called for the show to be banned, saying "I'm horrified by his behaviour – it goes beyond the bounds of entertainment." The controversy spilled over into the German segment of the tour, with the German government actually succeeding in having some of the gorier segments of the performance removed. It was also during the London leg of the tour that Cooper met with a near fatal accident during rehearsal of the hanging execution sequence that occurs at the end of the show.
Constrictor (1986) and
Raise Your Fist and Yell (1987) were recorded with lead guitarist
Kane Roberts and bassist
Kip Winger, both of whom left the band by the end of 1988 (although Kane Roberts played guitar on "
Bed of Nails" on Cooper's 1989 studio album
Trash). In 1987, Cooper made a brief appearance as a vagrant in the supernatural horror film
Prince of Darkness, directed by
John Carpenter. His role had no lines and consisted of generally menacing the protagonists before eventually impaling one of them with a bicycle frame. Also in 1987, Cooper appeared at
WrestleMania III, escorting wrestler
Jake "The Snake" Roberts to the ring for his match against
The Honky Tonk Man. After the match, which Roberts lost, ended, Cooper got involved and threw Jake's snake Damien at Honky's manager
Jimmy Hart. Roberts considered the involvement of Cooper to be an honor, as he had idolized Cooper in his youth and was still a huge fan. WrestleMania III, which attracted a
WWF record 93,173 fans, was held in the
Pontiac Silverdome near Cooper's home town of Detroit. Cooper recorded a music video for the "Poison" B-side "
I Got a Line on You" after the song was featured on the soundtrack to
Iron Eagle II (1988). On April 7, 1988, Cooper nearly died of asphyxiation after a safety rope broke during a rehearsal concert wherein he pretended to hang himself, a stunt he often performed during live concerts. In 1988, Cooper's contract with MCA Records expired and he signed with
Epic Records. Then in 1989 his career finally experienced a legitimate revival with the
Desmond Child produced and
Grammy-nominated studio album
Trash, which spawned a hit single "
Poison", which reached No. 2 in the UK and No. 7 in the US, and a worldwide
arena tour.
1990s In 1991, Cooper released his nineteenth studio album
Hey Stoopid featuring several notable rock musicians guesting on the record. Released as
glam metal's popularity was on the wane, and just before the explosion of
grunge, it failed to have the same commercial impact as its predecessor. The same year also saw the release of the video
Alice Cooper: Prime Cuts which chronicled his entire career using in depth interviews with Cooper himself, Bob Ezrin, and Shep Gordon. One critic has noted that
Prime Cuts demonstrates how Cooper had used (in contrast to similar artists who succeeded him) themes of satire and moralization to such good effect throughout his career. It was in the
Prime Cuts video that Bob Ezrin delivered his own summation of the Alice Cooper persona: "He is the psycho killer in all of us. He's the axe murderer, he's the spoiled child, he's the abuser, he's the abused; he's the perpetrator, he's the victim, he's the gun slinger, and he's the guy lying dead in the middle of the street". During the early 1990s, Cooper guested on records by the most successful bands of the time, such as the
Guns N' Roses third studio album
Use Your Illusion I, on which he shared vocal duties with
Axl Rose on the track "
The Garden". He also had a brief appearance as the abusive stepfather of
Freddy Krueger in the
A Nightmare on Elm Street slasher film ''
Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare'' (1991). Cooper made a cameo appearance in the 1992 comedy film ''
Wayne's World. Cooper and his band first appear on stage performing "Feed My Frankenstein" from their studio album Hey Stoopid''. Afterwards at a backstage party, the movie's main characters Wayne Cambell and Garth Algar discover that when offstage, Cooper is a calm, articulate intellectual as he and his band discuss the history of
Milwaukee in depth. Wayne and Garth respond to an invitation to hang out with Cooper by kneeling and bowing reverently before him while chanting "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!" In 1994, Cooper released
The Last Temptation, his first concept album since
DaDa (1983). The album deals with issues of faith, temptation, alienation and the frustrations of modern life, and has been described as "a young man's struggle to see the truth through the distractions of the 'Sideshow' of the modern world". Concurrent with the release of
The Last Temptation was a three-part comic book series written by
Neil Gaiman, fleshing out the album's story. This was to be Cooper's last album with Epic Records since according to Brian 'Renfield' Nelson, Cooper's personal assistant, "Alice was interested in going to
Hollywood Records even before 'The Last Temptation' was released because Bob Pfeifer, who originally signed Alice to Epic, was now the President of Hollywood Records. After 'The Last Temptation' was finished, Alice requested that
Sony/Epic let him go so that he could make the switch to Hollywood. He just wanted to go where his friends are." and was his last studio release for six years, though during this period the live album
A Fistful of Alice (1997) was released, and in 1997 he lent his voice to the intro track of
Insane Clown Posse's
The Great Milenko. During his absence from the recording studio, Cooper toured extensively every year throughout the latter part of the 1990s, including, in 1996, South America, which he had not visited since 1974. Also in 1996, Cooper sang the role of
Herod on the London cast recording of the musical
Jesus Christ Superstar. In 1999, the four-disc box set
The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper appeared, which contained the authorized biography of Cooper,
Alcohol and Razor Blades, Poison and Needles: The Glorious Wretched Excess of Alice Cooper, All-American, written by
Creem magazine editor
Jeffrey Morgan.
2000s The first decade of the 21st century saw a sustained period of activity from Alice Cooper, the decade in which he turned 60. He toured extensively releasing a steady stream of studio albums to favorable critical acclaim. Beginning in 2000 with
Brutal Planet, a return to horror-filled heavy metal,
industrial rock, set in a
dystopian post-apocalyptic future. The album was produced by
Bob Marlette, with longtime Cooper production collaborator
Bob Ezrin returning as executive producer. The accompanying world tour, which included Cooper's first concert in Russia, also resulted in
Brutally Live (2000), a DVD of a concert, recorded in London, England, on July 19, 2000. Cooper made a guest appearance in 2001 on a third-season episode of ''
That '70s Show titled "Radio Daze", in which he partook in a game of Dungeons & Dragons''.
Brutal Planet was succeeded by the sonically similar and acclaimed sequel
Dragontown (2001), which saw
Bob Ezrin back as producer. The album has been described as leading the listener down "a nightmarish path into the mind of rock's original conceptual storyteller" and by Cooper himself as being "the worst town on Brutal Planet". Like
The Last Temptation, both
Brutal Planet and
Dragontown are albums which explore Cooper's born-again Christianity. It is often cited in the music media that
Dragontown forms the third chapter in a trilogy begun with
The Last Temptation; however, Cooper has indicated that this in fact is not the case. Cooper again adopted a leaner, cleaner sound for his critically acclaimed 2003 release
The Eyes of Alice Cooper. Recognizing that many contemporary bands were having great success with his former sounds and styles, Cooper worked with a somewhat younger group of road and studio musicians who were familiar with his oeuvre of old. The resulting Bare Bones tour adopted a less-orchestrated performance style that had fewer theatrical flourishes and a greater emphasis on musicality. Cooper's radio show
Nights with Alice Cooper began airing on January 26, 2004, in several US cities. The program showcases classic rock, Cooper's personal stories about his life as a rock icon and interviews with prominent rock artists. The show is broadcast on nearly 100 stations in the US and Canada, and has been broadcast internationally. A continuation of the songwriting approach adopted on
The Eyes of Alice Cooper was again adopted by Cooper for his seventeenth solo studio album
Dirty Diamonds, released in 2005.
Dirty Diamonds became Cooper's highest-charting album since 1994's
The Last Temptation at the time. The Dirty Diamonds tour launched in America in August 2005 after several European concerts, including a performance at the
Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland on July 12. Cooper and his band, including
Kiss drummer
Eric Singer, were filmed for a DVD released as
Alice Cooper: Live at Montreux 2005 (2006). One critic, in a review of the Montreux release, commented that Cooper was to be applauded for "still mining pretty much the same territory of teenage angst and rebellion" as he had done more than 30 years previously. In December 2006, the original Alice Cooper band reunited to perform six classic Alice Cooper songs at Cooper's annual charity event in Phoenix, entitled "Christmas Pudding". On July 1, 2007, Cooper performed a duet with
Marilyn Manson at the B'Estival event in
Bucharest, Romania. The performance represented a reconciliation between the two artists; Cooper had previously taken issue with Manson over his overtly
anti-Christian on stage antics and had sarcastically made reference to the originality of Manson's choosing a female name and dressing in women's clothing. In January 2008, Cooper was one of the guest singers on
Avantasia's third studio album
The Scarecrow, singing the seventh track "The Toy Master". In July 2008, after lengthy delays, Cooper released
Along Came a Spider, his eighteenth solo studio album. It was Cooper's highest-charting album since 1991's
Hey Stoopid, reaching No. 53 in the US and No. 31 in the UK. The album, visiting similar territory explored in 1987's
Raise Your Fist and Yell, deals with the nefarious antics of a deranged
serial killer named "Spider" who is on a quest to use the limbs of his victims to create a human spider. The album generally received positive reviews from music critics, though
Rolling Stone magazine opined that the music on the record sorely missed Bob Ezrin's production values. The resulting Theatre of Death tour of the album (during which Cooper is executed on four separate occasions) was described in a long November 2009 article about Cooper in
The Times as "epic" and featuring "enough fake blood to remake
Saving Private Ryan". During this period Cooper was also recognized and awarded in various ways: given a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003; in May 2004 he received an honorary doctoral degree from
Grand Canyon University. In June 2005, he was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. In May 2006 he was given the
key to the city of
Alice, North Dakota. He won the living legend award at the 2006
Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards event; and he won the 2007
Mojo music magazine Hero Award. He received a Rock Immortal award at the 2007
Scream Awards. Cooper appeared on the British TV series Room 101 where a balloon model of him was featured.
2010s in Helsinki, Finland, 2011 In January 2010, it was announced that Cooper would be touring with
Rob Zombie on The Gruesome Twosome Tour. In May 2010, Cooper made an appearance during the beginning of the season finale of the singing competition show
American Idol, in which he sang "
School's Out". in London, England, 2012 With his daughter, and former band member
Dick Wagner, Cooper scored the music for the indie horror flick
Silas Gore (2010). During 2010, Cooper began working on a new studio album, dubbed
Welcome 2 My Nightmare, a sequel to the original
Welcome to My Nightmare (1975). On December 15, 2010, it was announced Cooper and his former band would be inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony took place on March 14, 2011, where Cooper was inducted by fellow horror-rocker Rob Zombie. Original members Bruce, Cooper, Dunaway, and Smith all made brief acceptance speeches and performed "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out" live together, with Steve Hunter filling in for the late Glen Buxton. Cooper showed up for the event wearing a (presumably fake) blood-splattered shirt and had a live albino
Burmese python wrapped around his neck. Cooper told
Rolling Stone magazine that he was "elated" by the news and that the nomination had been made for the original band, as "We all did go to the same high school together, and we were all on the track team, and it was pretty cool that guys that knew each other before the band ended up going that far". On March 10, 2011,
Jackson Browne,
David Crosby,
Graham Nash, Cooper,
Jennifer Warnes, and others performed at a benefit concert in
Tucson, Arizona, benefiting The Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding, a foundation that raises awareness about and provides medical prevention and treatment services to people with mental disorders. In June 2011, Cooper took his place as the
Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car at the BBC motoring show
Top Gear. On June 9, 2011, Cooper was awarded the
Kerrang! Icon Award at
Kerrang! magazine's annual awards show. Cooper used the opportunity to hit out at the "anaemic" rock music that dominates the charts, and said he has no intention of retiring from the industry. Cooper supported
Iron Maiden on their
Maiden England World Tour from June to July 21, 2012, and then headlined
Bloodstock Open Air on Sunday August 12. On September 16, 2012, Cooper appeared at the
Sunflower Jam charity concert at the
Royal Albert Hall, London, performing alongside
Brian May lead guitarist of
Queen, bassist
John Paul Jones of
Led Zeppelin, drummer
Ian Paice of
Deep Purple, and Iron Maiden lead vocalist
Bruce Dickinson. Cooper cameos as himself in the 2012
Tim Burton adaptation of
Dark Shadows that starred
Johnny Depp,
Michelle Pfeiffer and
Helena Bonham Carter. Assuming his name to be that of a woman, Depp's character in the film
Barnabas Collins describes Alice as the ugliest woman he has ever seen. In 2013, Cooper announced that he had finished recording a covers album, based on songs by his rock star drinking buddies in the 1970s who had since died from excess, and that it was scheduled for a spring 2014 release. Later he announced that the album would likely be released in 2015. On January 28, 2014, it was officially revealed that Alice Cooper would be the opening act for
Mötley Crüe's final tour, spanning 2014 and 2015. Cooper was featured on the song "
Savages" on
Theory of a Deadman's fifth studio album. Cooper was the subject of
Super Duper Alice Cooper, a biographical documentary film by Canadian directors
Sam Dunn,
Scot McFadyen and
Reginald Harkema. The film won a
Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the
3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015. In October, Cooper released the live album and video
Raise the Dead: Live from Wacken, which was recorded at Germany's
Wacken heavy metal festival the previous year. In 2015, Cooper premiered
Hollywood Vampires, a
supergroup featuring
Johnny Depp and
Joe Perry with a new studio album of rock covers, featuring many guest artists including
Paul McCartney, and live dates at L.A.'s
Roxy Theatre and at Brazil's
Rock in Rio festival in September. In 2016, Cooper made headlines again as he resumed his
running gag of campaigning for the US presidency. Cooper featured as a co-headliner with
Deep Purple and
Edgar Winter for several tour dates from August to early September 2017. Cooper released his twentieth solo studio album
Paranormal in July 2017. It featured contributions from drummer
Larry Mullen Jr. of
U2,
Billy Gibbons of
ZZ Top on guitar and
Roger Glover from Deep Purple on bass guitar. Guitarists
Tommy Denander and
Tommy Henriksen contributed most of the guitars. in
Windsor, Ontario, 2022 On Easter Sunday, 2018, Cooper performed as
Herod in
NBC's live performance of
Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. Reviews were positive, with
The New York Times critic Noel Murray praising "Alice Cooper's magnificently scenery-chewing performance" as a "startling moment of clarity," and Lorraine Ali of the
Los Angeles Times describing his performance as, "Weird? Yes, but also perfect in a campy, dramatic and evil 'Billion Dollar Babies' kind of way. Cooper's part was small but indelible." Cooper had previously recorded the song (though not performed it live) in 2000, with the 1996 London revival cast.
2020s Cooper released his twenty-first solo studio album,
Detroit Stories, on February 26, 2021. In May, he announced a fall tour to promote the album, supported by
Ace Frehley, which began in September 2021. Cooper wrote the afterword to
Jeffrey Morgan's autobiography
Rock Critic Confidential which was published by New Haven on June 28, 2021. Cooper participated as a judge on the music competition television show
No Cover season 1 that started to be aired in the
Sumerian Records YouTube Channel in April 2022. On July 11, 2022, touring guitarist
Nita Strauss announced she had departed the band. A few days later, it was announced
Kane Roberts had rejoined the band, replacing Strauss. On March 6, 2023, it was announced Strauss had rejoined the band. Cooper's twenty-second studio album
Road was released on August 25, 2023. in Washington state in 2023. In the fall of 2023, Cooper co-headlined the Freaks on Parade tour with
Rob Zombie, with
Filter and
Ministry acting as the opening acts. The tour spanned one month, lasting from August 24, 2023, until September 24, 2023, visiting 19 venues across the United States and Canada. Cooper presents a show five weekdays on the UK's
Planet Rock. Cooper recorded the album
Solid Rock Revival with different, child-friendly lyrics for his songs and those of other artists. "
School's Out" became "School's In", "
No More Mr. Nice Guy" became "Now, I'm Mr. Nice Guy" and "
I'm Eighteen" became "I'm Thirteen". With
Rob Halford he recorded "Pleasant Dreams", and with
Darryl McDaniels he recorded a
hip hop version of "
In the Midnight Hour" called "Midday Hour". Proceeds go to Norelli Family Foundation and Cooper's Solid Rock Foundation. In January 2024, a newly revamped syndicated radio show, ''Alice's Attic with Alice Cooper'' syndicated by Superadio Networks debuted on over 70+ radio stations in the US and worldwide. In April 2025, it was announced that Cooper had reunited with
Michael Bruce,
Dennis Dunaway and
Neal Smith for a new album, titled
The Revenge of Alice Cooper, making it the first since 1973's
Muscle of Love to be released under the
Alice Cooper band rather than as a solo album. It was released on July 25, 2025, and also includes never-before-released tracks by their original guitarist
Glen Buxton. In 2026, Cooper started performing with illusionist
Criss Angel at
Planet Hollywood for a set list named “Welcome to Our Nightmare”. ==Artistry==