A man named the ‘Godfather of Shock Rock’ was always going to have many batshit moments but here are just some mental Alice Cooper moments.
With such a legendary performer as Alice Cooper, it can be hard to separate truth from fiction. So many whispers of crazy antics, so many murmurings of chaotic rumours. With someone like Cooper, too, the truth often outweighed the fiction anyway.
After rising to fame in the 70’s, Cooper was always going to stay around. Using props and pyrotechnics, he used his horror and vaudeville influences to create spectacles with few equals.
For the OG of Shock Rock, making a list of his most ludicrous moments was always going to run too long so here are five to get you started. We’re sure there’s many equally mental stories that we forgot. What did we miss?
The chicken incident
You don’t need to read the following to know that the poultry in question didn’t find a happy end unfortunately. When a chicken ambled its way onto the stage Cooper was performing on in Toronto in 1969, the rocker – mistakenly thinking that chickens can fly – promptly tossed the poor animal into the audience.
The hungry and crazed crowd proceeded to tear it apart. Cooper was said to have felt bad about his error of judgement but it didn’t do his career any harm, with the chicken incident going a long way to spurring his shocking legend.
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Check out Alice Cooper talking about the chicken incident:
Cooper and his guillotine
One of his most infamous stunts, once Cooper first introduced the guillotine into his stage act there was no going back. It’s delighted and reviled audiences in equal measure for decades, and it seriously does look like Cooper loses his dead to the machine each time. Not for young eyes or the faint-hearted. Theatrical shock rock at its finest.
Check out Alice Cooper being beheaded by a guillotine:
Snakes on a Stage
Another animal entry, snakes have been a big part of Cooper’s stage persona for a while without ever meeting the sad demise that befell that chicken. Imagine if Cooper had thought snakes could fly too and had tossed one of the creatures into a crowd of people though.
Beginning when an audience member had a boa backstage during one early gig, Cooper became enamoured – despite allegedly being scared of them back then – and he’s wrapped snakes around his neck during concerts ever since.
Check out Alice Cooper’s snake appearance on Never Mind the Buzzcocks:
Baby got hacked
For his tour for the album Billion Dollar Babies, Cooper was always going to incorporate babies into his concerts somehow and it was never going to be cute. Using baby dolls as an ominous prop, he impaled the toys with a huge swishing sword, going on to wave their heads like a triumphant viking warrior. Pick on someone your own size, Coopy.
Check out Alice Cooper Billion Dollar Babies (Live):
Meeting The Muppets
A lighthearted inclusion to end the list. Watching Alice bloody Cooper try and recruit little Kermit into the dark lord’s ranks via a signed contract is pure joy. He never went for Miss Piggy because she’d already sold her soul to the devil. Just imagine switching your TV on in 1978 and seeing this unfold: you’d definitely think that you’d ingested something sinister.
Check out Alice Cooper on The Muppets:
