Devil On My Shoulder with Alice Cooper

Robert Kelly (0:01)

And now, The Bonfire with Big Jay Oakerson and Robert Kelly.

Big Jay Oakerson (0:06)

Faction Talk, SiriusXM, 137, it's The Bonfire, Big Jay Oakerson, the great Robert Kelly. We are joined today by an amazing guest. Probably, and I'm going to say it, my favorite guest we've ever had on the show, suck on that Jason Presley.

Christine Evans (0:21)

Wow.

Robert Kelly (0:21)

Wow, that's just, that's crazy.

Big Jay Oakerson (0:23)

It is the legendary great.

Alice Cooper (0:24)

Just to be mentioned in the same breath as Jason Presley.

Big Jay Oakerson (0:27)

90210, classic. It is the great Alice Cooper joining us today.

Christine Evans (0:32)

Thank you. How are you, sir?

Alice Cooper (0:33)

Thank you for being here so much.

Big Jay Oakerson (0:36)

He's here promoting his new book, Devil On My Shoulder, a memoir. When it says a memoir, it always sounds like it's going to be dark.

Alice Cooper (0:41)

Yeah. Well, it is. Parts of it are, because we don't soft-soap anything in this thing. You make a lot of mistakes in your life, and so celebrate them because you overcame them.

Robert Kelly (0:53)

You want it to be dark too, because if you wrote a real happy, hey, man, everything's great my whole life, and I love everything.

Alice Cooper (0:58)

Well, it's funny because the character, Alice, that I play, and I argue through the whole book.

Oh. Because, I mean, because I'll say something, and he'll go, well, that's not what happened.

Christine Evans (1:09)

That's cool, man.

Alice Cooper (1:10)

Yeah.

Because the character is a whole different being than me. So it's kind of funny that he called me.

Robert Kelly (1:18)

How did you come up with the character? It was the band's name at first, right? And then it became... And then you took it over, right?

Big Jay Oakerson (1:24)

I was going to say, when you first started, I watched the Super Duper Alice Cooper documentary years ago, and that you guys dressed like in mod, like 1950s, like the suit and tie.

Alice Cooper (1:34)

Yeah, we were trying to be a British band from Arizona.

Because everybody was in a band. You go through different periods of what you're going to look like with this. It eventually started taking what we really were. It was this horror vaudeville comedy, but hard rock band. Starting out being a hard rock band, we wanted to be the Yardbirds.

Those were our influences, the who and the Yardbirds. Then when we started writing our own songs, we always couldn't help from putting in West Side Story or I Spy or Dracula or something. It just, that was our background, so we let it happen in the songs.

Big Jay Oakerson (2:20)

Oh yeah, I mean like Bout of Dwight Fry, it's such like, it's just a guy talking to himself, going crazy.

Alice Cooper (2:25)

And that guy deserved being recognized. He was the scariest thing in Dracula and Frankenstein.

But the thing about it was like, that was a period when you didn't know who you were going to be. You had no idea it was.

Robert Kelly (2:41)

Jay's still in that period right now.

Alice Cooper (2:43)

Figuring it out.

Robert Kelly (2:43)

Doesn't know if it's gonna be rock, rap.

Big Jay Oakerson (2:45)

Getting it together.

Robert Kelly (2:46)

Yeah, lesbian, he hasn't figured it out yet.

Alice Cooper (2:48)

Well, I can see that. Thespian or lesbian?

Robert Kelly (2:52)

Both.

Big Jay Oakerson (2:53)

If I'm going to be a lesbian, might as well act.

Alice Cooper (2:58)

So, you know, it's a matter of, did I think when School's Out was happening, that at 78, I'd be touring in four bands, in four different bands?

Big Jay Oakerson (3:11)

Yeah, it was the Hollywood Vampires.

Alice Cooper (3:13)

Yeah, and I've got the original band, and I've got my band, my touring band, and then I have these teen centers in Phoenix. You know, they're like a Christian nonprofit teen centers where any kid can come in and learn any instrument all free. It's all free. Oh, that's great. And they have a band, so I play with them.

So, you know.

Big Jay Oakerson (3:34)

You never get to stop at 78 years old?

Alice Cooper (3:35)

No.

Robert Kelly (3:36)

But when you, like, because you do go to church, you're sober, you have, like, a pretty clean life, but you're, but Alice Cooper does it.

Christine Evans (3:44)

Yeah. You know what I mean? Well, Alice Cooper is fun.

Alice Cooper (3:47)

He's my favorite rock star.

Robert Kelly (3:48)

Do you ever show up accidentally with Alice Cooper clothes?