Alice Cooper on the band 'you couldn't have Led Zeppelin without'

Alice Cooper was recently interviewed on The Mistress Carrie Podcast. As reported by Ultimate Guitar, Cooper spoke on a variety of things, including The Who’s Keith Moon, AC/DC and The Yardbirds.

As it turns out, The Yardbirds are actually one of the rocker’s all-time favourites, saying “There are so many good bands out there that don’t get their time, but you couldn’t have Led Zeppelin without The Yardbirds. I play as many Yardbirds on radio as I do Led Zeppelin.”

Cooper continued, “And people go, ‘Wow, I love that Zeppelin song.’ I go, ‘That was the Yardbirds,’ and you can see where Led Zeppelin came from – The Yardbirds. And so I do a little education on it, I let them know who’s who and why.”

Continuing to speak on the topic of radio, Cooper said, “If I was driving down the street and I heard ‘Happening Ten Years Time Ago’ by The Yardbirds, I’d go, ‘What? Are you kidding me?’ Or if I heard ‘Stephanie Knows Who’ by Love, or ‘Seven Plus Seven,’ or any of those – right next to AC/DC and these great radio bands.”

“I would go, ‘Man, I’m listening to that radio station because they’re gonna give me a surprise every once in a while,’ maybe a little bit of Frank Zappa here, and a little bit of this here.

Finally when asked whether he thinks that you have to “ride that line of genius and insanity” to be successful in rock n roll, Cooper brings in back to music that you connect to.

He said, “Look what you’re talking about, you’re talking about music you connect to. Everybody loved The Beatles, that was easy, but then when you got with The Yardbirds and you’ve got The Who and The Kinks, and The Pretty Things and all these bands, you really had to pick the band that really affected you. We were a Yardbirds band.”