Alice Cooper has shared his honest opinion on The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, declaring he’s “the pinnacle of being a lead singer”.
During an appearance on BBC Radio (via Ultimate Guitar), Cooper was asked to elaborate on having previously called Jagger an inspiration to him.
In response, Cooper said: “He’s an inspiration, yeah. To any lead singer, Mick Jagger is the prototype. He is the pinnacle of being a lead singer because he’s Mick Jagger.”
He continued: “He’s a performer, he doesn’t just do the song, he sells it, he makes you believe it. I learned a lot from watching him. I went in a different direction but I learned a lot watching him.”
Cooper went on to describe Jagger as a “rooster” who is “very demonstrative” when performing on stage.
“If you looked at Mick Jagger and put him in a Pentecostal Church, he’d be a great Pentecostal preacher. He’s very demonstrative about everything he’s doing, and he lets you know who he is – he’s the rooster!” he said.
“We learned about that, we learned that the lead singer didn’t have to just stand behind the mic. The lead singer could take advantage of that stage,” he continued.
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“And when I saw that, immediately I knew I could break away and become a character, and make the whole show a character-driven thing.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Cooper sang the praises of Chuck Berry, whose music he said “every young band should be learning”.
“The best thing you can do when you’re learning to play is learning Chuck Berry,” he said.
“Chuck Berry – every young band in a garage right now should be learning Chuck Berry because that’s the basis of everything. That’s the basis of every kind of hard rock there is.
He continued: “And The Beatles were doing Chuck Berry, The Stones were doing Chuck Berry, every single British band was doing Chuck Berry. And to this day, I think that hard rock, even what we’re playing now, is based on that nucleus of Chuck Berry.”
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Check out Alice Cooper discussing Mick Jagger on BBC Radio:
