The hotel room is a combination of drab green and beige, butAlice Cooperis a vision in black. Sitting regally on a couch in his quarters while on tour in Germany, Cooper smiles often. His long black hair is combed back and his over-ear headphones on, fitting for the radio pro he is in addition to his 50-plus-year career in music as a pioneering shock rocker. Cooper is eager to talk about"The Revenge of Alice Cooper,"the first new album in more than five decades from The Alice Cooper Group. Yes, for the uninitiated, those early '70s anthems of rebellion –"School's Out,""I'm Eighteen,""Billion Dollar Babies"among them – are the work of the Group: Cooper (initially using his real name, Vincent Furnier); guitarist Michael Bruce; bassist Dennis Dunaway; drummer Neal Smith and guitarist Glen Buxton. But the end of The Alice Cooper Group with 1973's "Muscle of Love" album and the beginning of Alice Cooper, who legally changed his name as a solo star, just two years later with "Welcome to My Nightmare," blurred the distinction. Now, the original band is back with "The Revenge of Alice Cooper," 14 heavy-hitting songs including"Black Mamba,""Wild Ones"and"Up All Night,"that snarl and thunder far beyond expectations for guys approaching 80. Even Buxton, who died in 1997, lives on through a technological assist on the track "What Happened To You." The engaging Cooper, 77 –on tour now and again this fallwith Judas Priest – reminisced about playing with his old friends, shared some details about his upcoming memoir and expressed his appreciation about this year's induction into theRadio Hall of Fame. More:Surprise! Johnny Depp joins Alice Cooper for Ozzy Osbourne tribute Question: So for what, exactly, is The Alice Cooper Group seeking revenge? Alice Cooper: We were always the underdogs. The press said this band will last for one year; they're great onstage but not good musicians. Then we had all these platinum albums. There is no stage involved there. So they had to admit, we have to put up with these guys. … The revenge is that 50 years later we do an album and none of us knew what this was going to be and it turned out we made a really good 1975-type record. We didn't break up with bad blood. We didn't divorce. We just separated and were best friends and my career went on and on and they all made money when I released an album and the back catalog sold (laughs). Did you record the album the old-fashioned way, with everyone in the same room at the same time? Yes. Why not show out the band? When we got together, it just jelled. The whole album is dedicated to Glen. He was everyone's favorite guy. And then we had (The Doors guitarist)Robby Kriegeron "Black Mamba." He was the perfect guy for that song. And our (other guitarist) Gyasi Heus, who said he learned from Glen, he just killed it. How did you get Glen's guitar solo on "What Happened To You"? Dennis Dunaway, who is my oldest friend, never threw anything away. He had tapes of us rehearsing in our parents' living room when we were 15 and also tapes of us writing songs that never quite made it. We took a Glen guitar part and isolated it and wrote a song around it so we could have him on the album. With technology now you can do that. I forgot how much fun it was to work with the original band, how funny they were. I was shocked at how well Neal and Dennis played. They played every bit as well as back in the day. Congrats on the nomination for the Radio Hall of Fame. Did you ever think you'd parlay a career as a rock star into a side gig as a broadcaster ("Alice's Attic"is syndicated around the country)? Radio has always been part of my life.Dick Clark once asked me23 years ago: If I had a radio show, what would it be? … And I said I would take it back to 1968 when DJs played what they want to play. He said, "Let's see if it works." And 22 years later, it's still working! (Cooperrelaunched his original"Nights with Alice Cooper" as "Alice's Attic" in 2024.) More:My Chemical Romance announce 2025 tour with Alice Cooper, Devo: Tickets, dates, more You play a lot of classic rock bands on "Alice's Attic" (The Doors, Styx, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin). Do you worry about the existence of rock bands in the future? We were in the golden age. If a label wanted you, you got signed for 15 albums and they would support your band until you could pay them back. Young bands don't have that support, so I can understand how a young band can't survive right now. But the good point is, when we started, rock(ers) were the kids not invited to the party, the outsiders. Now it's getting back to that, and young bands are in garages and playing clubs and guitar-driven rock 'n' roll. It's been a minute since your 2007 book"Golf Addict"came out. Would you do a sequel? It's being written right now, more the classic story about who I am, how I became Alice, all the things about my family and coming from a Christian background. I was the prodigal son and went as far away as you could. Now I occasionallyteach Bible studyWednesday mornings in Phoenix. Everything about me and the band was about coming out of the ashes and somehow winning even when you weren't expected to. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Alice Cooper talks band reunion, teaching Bible study
