Alice Cooper really hopes all bands did their bit to support their crew members through the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a recent interview with Forbes, the legendary rocker discussed what his organisation did for its crew members when he realised the frightening scale of the pandemic.
“When we saw this coming, we put money aside for our crew,” Cooper said. “We could see that it was… something. So we put money aside as a backup for them. Because we knew that their unemployment would run out, you know? And then they’d have something to go to. I think all responsible bands did that. Hopefully.”
He continued: “Because these are people we live with. We work with them every day. The guys that run the stage are as important as the guys that play guitar. So we made sure that everybody was covered. And that was really important. Hey, we thought this thing was gonna last a month! 18 months?! Unreal.”
Cooper then remembered the sudden and unexpected downtime during the pandemic as “absolutely unusual.” “I’ve been touring for 55 years,” he said. “And we usually average 100 to 200 shows a year. We’re so used to being on stage that 18 months off was like insane!”
He added that when he and his crew finally returned to rehearsals for upcoming shows, they were all “giddy” because “we didn’t know if there was going to be an end to this! Maybe it was all over? Now people are out doing shows again – it’s back to the grind. And we love the grind!”
His charitable care for his crew will only enhance fan’s love for Cooper. An old picture of the shock rocker doling out food to children at what appears to be a food band went viral again this month.
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“Alice Cooper was essentially accused of making and promoting the devil’s music as a shock rocker, even though he’s a born-again Christian,” noted a Twitter user. “Here he is doing something that’s more Christian than some of the people accusing him ever do!” Or as another person put it, “In a world of Eric Claptons, be Alice Cooper.”
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Check out ‘Bed of Nails’ by Alice Cooper:
