Actors - Alice Cooper

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	Actors - Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948), is a hard rock singer and musician. He is often called as "Father of Metal," "Founder of Shock Rock," "Glam God," and "Metal God". Alice Cooper was originally the name of Furnier's band. Furnier officially changed his own name to Alice Cooper for a successful solo career.

Furnier was born in Detroit at a hospital that carried the nickname "The Butcher's Palace", but, after a stream of illnesses moved to Phoenix, Arizona in his youth. His grandfather, Thurman Furnier, was an ordained Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite). Cooper's father, Ether Furnier, was an ordained Elder. Cooper had some distant French Huguenot ancestry; the remainder of his ancestry was English.

Cooper, influenced by British Bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks and in particular The Yardbirds, formed a number of rock bands in the 1960s, including the Earwigs, The Spiders, and The Nazz. Furnier, upon learning that Todd Rundgren also had a band called The Nazz, changed the band's name to Alice Cooper (the name Alice Cooper is said to have been agreed upon after one of Furnier's Ouija sessions, and learning that he was a reincarnation of a 17th century "witch" of the same name, according to band legend, although Cooper in interviews has said the name actually came out of thin air conjuring an image of "a cute little girl with an axe behind her back"). The classic Alice Cooper group line up consisted of guitarists Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. After moving to California in 1968, the band enlisted Shep Gordon and Joe Greenberg as their managers, and the band was soon signed to Frank Zappa's label, Straight Records - releasing two competent but outlandish albums, Pretties For You and Easy Action, to a frosty public and critical reception. Warner Brothers then purchased Straight Records from Frank Zappa and Alice Cooper was more highly promoted with this major label.

Although the band incorporated theatrics in their stage act from the outset, a chance case of press misreporting an unfortunate, unrehearsed stage routine involving Alice and a live chicken led to the band changing tack - capitalizing on tabloid sensationalism and creating a new sub-genre, shock rock. Alice claims that the chicken incident was an accident. He says he thought, "Chickens have wings, so they must be able to fly" so when it was on the stage, he threw it out over the crowd, with the intention of having the chicken fly away. But chickens cannot fly, or at least cannot fly particularly well, and it was instead ripped to shreds by the rowdy audience.

Cooper also actually influenced lots of other bands (examples being Marilyn Manson, KISS, Sex Pistols, Ozzy Osbourne and others and was also apparantly "The first punk" which is a quote from an interview on the "Prime cuts" DVD. Alice himself also says "We drove the steak through the heart of the "Peace and Love Generation". Other quotes from this DVD biography are "Alice Cooper is unkillable" said Osbourne and Slash from Guns n' Roses (Another band influenced by Mr. Cooper and his band) "Welome to my nightmare is just a record that you never get tired of and can put on when all else fails"

1970s

In 1970, after the band had recorded two records on Straight Records, the band, under the Warner Brothers label, teamed up with fledgling producer Bob Ezrin on their album entitled Love It to Death. This was the first of more than 10 Alice Cooper group and solo albums done with Ezrin who is credited with having helped to create their definitive sound. A hit single soon followed in 1971's 'I'm Eighteen'. The band's trailblazing mix of shock and glam theatrics stood out amongst bearded, denim-clad hippy bands by sporting sequined costumes by the prominent rock fashion designer Cindy Dunaway (Pink Floyd, The Who), and stage shows that involved Gothic torture modes imposed on the lead singer. His outspoken views on the Vietnam War stood out no less, as Cooper was always staunchly pro-war — in stark contrast to the vast majority of musicians at the time, who were rebelliously anti-war.

The follow up Killer included further singles in 'Under My Wheels' and 'Be My Lover' and also one of the most critically acclaimed Cooper songs in the epic 'Halo Of Flies', which was a Top 10 hit in Holland. In the summer of 1972, Alice Cooper released the appropriately-titled School's Out. The album reached number two on the charts and sold over a million copies. The title song went Top 10 in the US, was a number one single in the UK, and remains a staple on classic rock radio.

Billion Dollar Babies, released in 1973, was the band's most commercially successful album, reaching no. 1 in both the US and Britain. 'Elected' a 1972 top 10 UK hit included on the album (featuring one of the first creative promo films 3 years before Queen's promo video to 'Bohemian Rhapsody'), was followed by 2 more UK top 10 singles in 'Hello Hooray' and 'No More Mister Nice Guy' which was the last UK single from the album and also reached number 25 in the U.S. The title track, featuring guest vocals by Donovan, was also a US hit single. With a string of successful concept albums in the bag and several hit singles, the band toured the world - attempts to ban their shocking act by politicians and pressure groups only serving to fuel the myth of Alice Cooper and generate more audience interest. The 1973 US Tour broke box office records set by The Rolling Stones.

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Actors - Alice Cooper

1970s

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