By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
December 18, 1987
Vincent Furnier — son of a Detroit preacher, husband for 11 years and father of two children – would never subject himself to the atrocities his rock ‘n’ roll alter ego goes through every night onstage. But Alice Cooper, the godfather of shock rock, thinks nothing of sticking his head under a real guillotine or hanging himself from the gallows.
“It’s all entertainment,” Cooper said in a phone interview from his home in Phoenix. “On the plus side for me, I go through so much therapy onstage where I get to play this Alice Cooper character who’s so opposite of Alice Cooper the person.”
Cooper the rocker will perform at 7:30 tonight the UIC Pavilion. Tickets, $16, are available at Ticketmaster outlets (559-1212).
Currently on an eight-month tour to support his latest album, “Raise Your Fist and Yell,” Cooper said he’s enjoying rock ‘n’ roll more than he has in years. He attributes his refreshed attitude to his five-year abstinence from drugs and alcohol.
“I’ve been making music for 17 years now,” said Cooper, 39. “And in those years I have finally progressed to the point where I don’t drink or take any drugs. I feel 100 times better than I did 10 years ago. I am in control now.”
Not surprisingly, one of the things Cooper does to relax on the road is to watch horror films. He likes them gory. Though he likes extravaganzas such as “Poltergeist,” Cooper said he preferred films that “look like they’ve been made for $50 and are shown only on trips to the Philippines.” He said he’d consider it an honor if people called him the Stephen King of rock.
In keeping with his love of gore, last year Cooper penned the single “He’s Back” for “Friday the 13th, Part VI.” This year he not only performed the title song to “Prince of Darkness,” he had a cameo role as a male bag-lady who slaughters a person.
“The thing is that a lot of these horror movies are comedies where you’re rooting for the so-called villain because the supposed heros and heroines are so dumb,” he said, chuckling. “Like, if I’m stranded in a desolate cabin with no electricity and I hear all these noises, I’m not going out there without some sort of weapon asking, `Who’s out there?’ ”
Cooper, who starred in movies such as “Monster Dog,” “Roadie” and “Sextet,” said he’d like to do more acting.
Cooper also is something of a television junkie. “I guess I’m just addicted to it,” he said, laughing. “I’ve got 22 TV sets in the house and they’re always on. They range in size from 8-feet-by-8-feet to 1-inch-by-1-inch. I just like to have the noise around. And, of course, that means I have plenty of gory movies on video to watch, too. Tipper Gore (wife of Sen. Albert Gore Jr.(D-Tenn.)) probably wouldn’t like that too much.”
Given the fact that the Parent’s Music Resource Center has cited Cooper’s concerts as excessively violent, it’s likely Tipper Gore (a supporter of PMRC) wouldn’t approve of his taste in movies.
“The PMRC is so funny is because they’re such a necessary evil,” Cooper said. “Without them we wouldn’t be outlaws, you know? I think what happened is, they just got a little too old to rock ‘n’ roll and they remembered back to when they used to rock ‘n’ roll, and now they’re really jealous that they can’t do it anymore. I really think they’re a bunch of frustrated, jealous yuppies.
“When you think of it, they start out with the premise that all kids are created stupid. I don’t believe that.
“The kids I see in the audience understand satire and theater and special effects. They know that what Alice does is horrifying at times, but after they leave, they can laugh and talk about their homework assignments.”
Does Cooper allow his children — Calico, 6, and Dashiell, 2 — to attend his concerts? The answer is a resounding yes.
“My kids are aware of what I do and who I am on and offstage. If I thought what I was doing was dangerous to kids, I wouldn’t let any of them see it. I don’t have one set of standards for other people’s kids and another for my own. If you raise them properly, they know what can and can’t be taken seriously.”
