Here's more of the uncut interview as it happened...
[By Doug Van Pelt]
How did these recent tv commercials come about, and how have you felt about the process and the outcome?
"Well, the funny thing about it is ?? I've always like the idea of injecting Alice into places he doesn't belong. In the early days, Alice was, without the nastiness, I was the Marilyn Manson of that day. Or now you could say, 'Marilyn Manson is the Alice Cooper of his day.' The difference was that Alice Cooper had a sense of humor. I mean, the things that I did, they were never political. They were never religious. They were never anything. Mine was all pure schlock horror, comedy, and rock and roll. It was pretty harmless compared to what's going on now. So, I always like the idea that Alice was Americana. He was an American, sort of, character that people totally now ?? ten, thirty years later, now I'm Americana. I'm a piece of the fabric of America, as much as Bob Hope is. Or anybody like that. So, I think that Alice being in the middle of suburbia chastizing a guy for cutting his lawn and not taking his kids to the park is a funny idea. I think that it's actually such a juxtaposition, a strange juxtaposition, that Alice is being the one that's sort of being the establishment guy, saying, 'Hey! Get off your butt and take your kids to a ballgame or something...' I like that idea."
I think America likes it, too. Everybody I've heard that's seen it just loves it.
"Well, it does make a point. I think that people . . . now that people know I am Christian and now that people know that I am a dad and a father, the Alice character is a character that I play. The same way that if I were playing Dracula or if I was playing The Joker, or if I was playing Ming The Merciless or any of these characters... It's a character that I play on stage, and when I leave the stage, he stays there. I go home and, you know, take the kids to the basketball game and take my little girl to ballet class. I always tell people, 'I'm Fred McMurray offstage and Bela Ligosi onstage.'"
A lot of your music has had the appearance of being somewhat autobiographical in nature. Take From The Inside era, for example. And the trilogy you wrote that began with The Last Temptation seemed to mimic this trait as well. What kind of price have you paid or benefits have you seen from freely sharing a part of yourself in your art?
"Well, I think that a writer ?? especially a lyric writer ?? is always going to be confessing at all times. No matter what he does, he's always going to be talking about what he thinks, what he believes. Even if it's in irony, if it's in story, if it's in whatever ?? you're always revealing a lot about yourself. From The Inside was definitely written about my alcoholism. The Last Temptation to me was a good storyline, because it was about a kid that was offered everything... And, of course, it was a parallel of Christ being tempted in the wilderness. But this kid gets offered everything. You think, ??Well, he's going to buy into it. He's going to join this guy's circus.' And the circus, of course, is like a synonym for the world. The showman was a synonym for a satanic thing. So, this guy's offering him sex, women, money, fame, and the catch at the end of it is the kid doesn't buy into it. I was trying to make the point that you don't have to buy into it. I was trying to make the point that, Hollywood tells you, ??If you're 15 and you haven't been laid yet and you're not high all the time, then there's something wrong with you.' I think that's the worst message that you can give a kid. He's got all his life to deal with that. Why are we forcing him into all these heavy things when he's 14? Well, it's because it makes money. That album in particular was saying, ??Don't buy into it. You don't have to.' In fact, you're the hero when you don't buy into it. Now, for Alice Cooper to be saying that, it obviously makes people that were Alice Cooper fans before kind of take a step backwards and say, ??What a minute! This is the same Alice Cooper that was selling sex, death, and money!' And I'm like, ??Exactly, but I'm not him anymore. Now Alice . . . there's a change of heart. There's a change of what I believe. Now I'm telling you, with more authority, that you don't have to buy into that.' And when they say, ??How dare you!' I go, ??Well, you know, I'm not going to sell as many albums doing this, but I don't care about that. The fact is, there may be some kids out there that listen to that and go, ??Wow, good. The pressure's off. Now I don't have to go try to get laid every weekend. Or I don't have to try to get stoned just so I can be part of the guys. I can be like Alice. I can do what Alice does.' And really, it's not what I'm saying, it's what Christ said! I'm just trying to echo what He would want you to do. But it's funny that I have to use the Alice Cooper character to get that point across.
"The funny thing was that The Last Temptation really wasn't part of the trilogy. That was on its own. That was the first thing I wrote as a Christian. And then, it was six years before I wrote Brutal Planet. Brutal Planet was a whole different story. Brutal Planet was a story that was talking about, ??What's the world like? Let's get a picture of the future 50 years from now, when all of the systems have failed ?? church, family, school, politics, every system has failed, and there's no God. Let's say that no one believes in God. Well, what have we got? Now we've got Brutal Planet ?? this horrible place that nobody wants to be. That's what that album was about. Dragontown was part two of that, which was a little bit more character driven. I was kind of like showing you characters that are there. The point on that one is, ??You can even be a nice guy and be in Hell. The road to Hell is littered with nice guys with good intentions.' Part three is in the works right now."
Any hints or directions you're going to take there?
"Well, I think I'm going to solidify the fact that once you're there, you're there. You don't work your way out of Hell. You don't work your way into Heaven and you don't work your way out of Hell. The work's already been done by Christ to get to Heaven, and by not accepting, that's what gets you into Hell. And so, that's not going to be a popular thing, either. But, you know, it's really not my job to make it popular. It's my job to make a great sounding album and to make people go, ??Wow! What a cool album!' And then when they start listening to it, they get the message."
I think you've done a really good job on the last two.
"Well, thanks. I surprised people, because it was as heavy as Rob Zombie. It was as heavy as any of these bands that are out there, and they're all friends of mine. So, when they heard this album, they were going, ??Oh man! Alice is really heavy and he's right there with us.' I think when they heard the message on it, they were a little taken back, because of the fact that it sounds like it's going to be selling something else. Then, when they hear it, they go, ??Wow! This is a heavy album that's selling something good.'"
I'm not concluding here, but I want to say that I am grateful for your time today.
"Oh, thanks a lot. I'm glad that we finally got to talk!"
Yeah, me too. I'm honored to do the interview. I've been pursuing it for a couple years now. I was happy to get a call from your wife to set it up...
"Oh yeah, she's great! My wife is great. 25 years..."
Congratulations. That leads me to ask, ??Are there any unusual circumstances or motivations that made you want to do this interview?
"You know, first of all, I do mostly the secular rock. But I think . . . My pastor feels the same way. I am not necessarily praise rock. I'm not Christian praise music. I think that I go to a different place. And I think that Christianity needs to go much more into the secular arts. I think that we need to be heard not just by Christians. I mean, it's nice . . . bands like Creed, P.O.D. There's some bands out there that are saying some pretty good things. And then there's a lot of really good praise rock bands. I've just never felt... I do that in church. I do that in prayer. I do that, but I think that my message is more of a warning. I don't mind being the prophet of doom. I think that that's more fitted for what Alice is. I feel that, if God is going to use Alice Cooper, it's going to be more on a level of a warning. It's not going to be on a level of, ??Isn't everything great? Isn't everything good? Aren't we all wonderful?' Alice is going to be more like, ??Be careful! Satan is not a myth. Don't sit around pretending like Satan is just a joke.' Because I have a lot of friends that do believe that. I think my job is to warn about Satan."
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