News is coming in that original Earwigs/Spiders guitarist John Tatum sadly passed away this morning from "complications of alzheimer's". He was 71.
John was there at the beginning, the first Letterman's show at Cortez High that began the whole Alice Cooper story. After leaving 'The Spiders' in 1966 he had various bands and toured the world for the USO. Later he became an 'Ordained Music Minister' with a bachelor degree in music from Arizona State University, produced a Christian Radio show, and formed the 'John Tatum Network' to develop "empowering and healing tools to help people find faith, hope and victory in their lives." Through the JTN he continued to play write and record.
I was lucky enough to be in contact with John for a while and interviewed him for this site in 2009 when I found him open, friendly, and happy to answer my questions about his life so many years before as well as being passionate about his faith and more current work.
My condolences go out to his family and friends.

The Hollywood Vampires have announced four UK dates for next September with pre-sale and VIP tickets on sale tomorrow followed by a general on-sale on Friday. Support seems to come from 'Primal Scream'. The dates are as follows:

September 2nd - UK, Leeds - First Direct Arena
September 3rd - UK, Glasgow - The SSE Hydro
September 5th - UK, London - The O2
September 6th - UK, Birmingham - Birmingham Arena

Consequence of Sound have a new audio interview with Alice which you can listen to here. There's also short interviews at the Albany Times Union, Toledo Blade, and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Johnny Depp will appear at this years Christmas Pudding show in Phoenix, which is headlined by the original Alice Cooper band (Alice, Neal, Dennis and Michael). AZCentral has a report. The annual show takes place December 14th at the Celebrity Theatre.

OutsiderRock has a new interview with Dennis Dunaway and Blue Coupe talking about the excellent new album 'Eleven Even'. There's an album review here. The band have also posted new professional live footage of 'Under My Wheels' from the Sweden Rock festival with guest Ryan Roxie.

Fox24 had a chat with Glen Sobel last week while sitting on the castle stage set, and you can check it out on Facebook.

Glide Magazine has photos from the Greenville show.

The Hollywood Vampires have released a new video for 'I Want My Now' and have announced shows in Europe for next August and September. The dates are below. Pre-sale and VIP Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10AM local time.

August 15th - Mainz, DE - Summer In The City
August 16th - Hamburg, DE - Stadtpark
August 18th - Strzelinko, PL - Legends Of Rock Festival
August 20th - Belin, DE - Citadel Music Festival
August 23th - Lingen, DE - Emsland Open Air
August 25th - Oberhausen, DE - Konig-Pilsener Arena
August 27th - Klam, AT - Clam Castle
August 28th - Munich, DE - Olympiahalle
August 29th - Aarburg, CH - Riverside Festival
September 8th - Luxembourg, LU - Rockhal
September 10th - Milan, IT - Mediolanum Forum

Blue Coupe's new album 'Eleven Even' apparently sold on on CD in just 20 minutes, but you can get the digital download at CDBaby, and more physical CDs should be available shortly!

'Hour Detroit' has an few words with Alice on "Why he's proud to be a Detroiter" while the Greenville Journal has a slightly longer chat.

Ceative Loafing have a review of the recent Clearwater show here, with photos here, while the Sarasota Post has a review as well. KNAC have a review and photos of the Orlando show.

Ryan Roxie has released a new lyric video for 'Nevermind Me' from his 'Imagine Your Reality' album. There will apparently be three different videos for the song with two more soon!

The 'Drifting Podcast' has a new hour long interview with Shep Gordon which you can listen to on YouTube.

Blue Coupe, featuring Dennis Dunaway, Al Bouchard and Joe Bouchard, will release their third album 'Eleven Even' on November 11th and below you can watch the new lyric video for the first single 'D Train'. 'D Train' was written by the late David Roter who also co-wrote the Blue Oyster Cult classic 'Joan Crawford (Has Risen From The Grave).' Signed copies of the CD will be available directly from the band, while standard copies and downloads will be purchased from CDBaby. To mark the release the Blue Coupe website has also received an face lift.

Nita Strauss has launched a new 'patreon' campaign for her second solo album which is due next year. When you become a patreon you will have access to various behind the scenes videos and clips following the creation of the record from start to finish as well as a copy of the finished record. There are three levels of patreon and you can find all the details here.

Alice appeared on Tampa Bay Fox 13 last week for a short interview which you can watch here.

With the band back in the road (with Chuck back on board!) for the next few weeks there's a review of the Fort Myers show at News-Press, and a new interview in the Montgomery Advertiser.

Above is last nights Hollywood Vampire's performance on 'The Late Late Show', which was actually recorded earlier in the year when they recorded 'Heroes' for the same show.

Nights With Alice Cooper posted a short video of Alice reading a Halloween story which you can watch on facebook. There's also new facebook and instagram 'filters' that can add Cooper make up to your photos. You can check that out here for facebook and here for instagram.

Wednesday's 'The Big Interview with Dan Rather' on ASX TV in the US seems to have gone down well with those who saw it, but I haven't found a way for the rest of us to watch it online yet. All there is so far is the 'sneek peek' promo that appeared last week.

According to Blabbermouth Alice and Lzzy Hale are among the stars who will appear on a new single by the 'Planet Rock All Stars' to be released digitally on December 6th. The single will be a version of John Farnham's 'You're The Voice' and is being released in connection with the 'Road 2 Rockstock 2' charity event which sees Planet Rock DJ Wyatt cycling 2000 miles in two weeks.. Limited edition CD's of the song will be available to buy throughout the event, but the report appears to suggest they will only be available if you meet up with Wyatt at some point during his ride. You can see more info and a list of his 'pitstops' here.

Kerrang! have an article looking at the promotional video for 'Poison' which you can check out here.

Creative Loafing have a new interview with Alice promoting the forthcoming Florida shows, while Tampa Bay Times promotes Alice's appearance at the 'Spooky Empire' Convention this weekend with another interview. A third new interview can be found at News-Press prompting the Fort Myers show and there is also an audio interview from WDET Detroit here.

Detroit News has a good report on Alice's appearance last week st the 'Kirk Gibson Foundation' charity bash. Alice appeared in an interview session along side Jack White (White Stripes) and baseball player Kirk Gibson. One snippet of news from this is that Alice was in Detroit recording in Royal Oak for the next Alice Cooper album. Detroit Free Press, Rolling Stone, and Billboard also have reports from the event.

Detroit News also reports that Scottsdale, AZ got it's first 'White Castle' restaurant this past week, and it has an 'Alice Cooper' corner as Alice has long been a fan of fast food chain and was inducted into the White Castle 'hall of fame' a few years ago.

In other food news Alice Cooperstown is back! Apparently the 'Talking Stick Resort Arena', home of the Phoenix Suns, has a new Cooperstown concession stand offering 'Cuban Sandwich's' and the 'Nightmare Dog', a foot long hot dog.

The 'Cold Cold Coffin' film will get its 'worldwide release' on October 26th when it will go live on Youtube to co-incide with Dennis Dunaway and friends appearing at the Chiller Theatre Expo at the Hilton Parsippany, NJ. At Chiller Dennis will perform with The Snakecharmers and special guest Nick Didkovsky!

Nita Strauss has booked a guitar clinic while in New Zealand with Alice. She'll be at Wellington's 'San Fran' on Monday February 24th at 7pm and you can get tickets now.

Louder Than War has a review of the recent Birmingham show.

Florida Weekly has a new print interview with Alice, while Newstalk has an audio interview.

Backstage Auctions have announced there 2019 'Rock & Pop' auction and as usual it features some Alice Cooper related items. Check it out.

Alice is among the talking heads featured in a new documentary called 'Come On Feel The Noise - The Story Of How Rock Became Metal' which is due out on December 13th. You can check out the trailer here.