Alice Cooper sounds off on copycat artists

Alice Cooper says today’s big pop acts are just copying his ideas.

And he reveals he initially thought Marilyn Manson was unoriginal when he burst on to the scene – but says his stage antics are completely different to his.

He tells Music Radar: “I think the girls at this point have taken over the shows. You go look at Shakira, Rihanna, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga – they’re doing Alice Cooper. That’s what we were doing in the late 60s and early 70s through to now.”

He continues: “When Marilyn Manson came out I said, ‘OK, let me see, a guy with make-up on with a girl’s name who does theatrics – I wish I’d thought of that. Marilyn and I are good friends now – we’ve toured together. If you look at his show, it’s nothing like my show – he has his own style of grotesque.

“Rob Zombie does a really good show, Marilyn does a great show. Gwar and Rammstein – it’s all derivative of what we started doing. But the Alice show is still different.

“You focus on Alice as the main character, so we don’t use pyro and things like that – I want the audience to get sucked in by the character because everything happens either to him or because of him.”

The rock icon also credits outspoken moral crusader Mary Whitehouse with his success in the UK in the 1970s.

He adds: “When she decided to ban us, we couldn’t have asked for anything better than that. Every time they would try to ban us, the British public was behind us. They’d say, ‘You can’t tell us what we can and can’t see.’ School’s Out went to No.1 and we sold out every ticket we had. We couldn’t have planned it any better.

“I give the British a lot of credit for my success because they got what I was doing first.”

Earlier this year, the frontman admitted he would have recorded more hit albums if he’d stayed sober and said his band put an end to the hippy movement thanks to their brand of shock rock.

Cooper is also about to launch a live CD/DVD and Blu-ray titled Raise The Dead: Live From Wacken on October 21 via UDR. It features 22 tracks which were recorded at the German festival in August this year.

Tracklist

Hello Hooray 2. House Of Fire 3. No More Mr Nice Guy 4. Under My Wheels 5. I’ll Bite Your face Off 6. Billion Dollar Babies 7. Caffeine 8. Department Of Youth 9. Hey Stoopid 10. Dirty Diamonds 11. Welcome To My Nightmare 12. Go To Hell 13. He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask) 14. Feed My Frankenstein 15. Ballad Of Dwight Fry 16. Killer 17. I Love The Dead 18. Break On Through 19. My Generation 20. I’m Eighteen 21. Poison 22. School’s Out/Another Brick In The Wall

Scott has spent 37 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, highlights deals, and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 12 years, Scott has written more than 11,500 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from news and features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.