Too Close For Comfort US Tour

Alice Cooper has announce new shows for this May under the title of ‘The Too Close For Comfort Tour’. Pre-sale tickets (use code SICKTHINGS) go on sale January 17th with a general public on sale on January 20th. The dates so far are as follows:

April 29th Covelli Centre, Youngstown, OH
May 2nd Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, IN
May 3rd Miller High Life Theatre, Milwaukee, WI
May 6th Sanford Center, Bemidji, MN
May 9th State Farm Center, Champaign, IL
May 10th The Louisville Palace, Louisville, KY
May 13th Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville, TN
May 14th Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, Spartanburg, SC
May 15th North Charleston Performing Arts Center, North Charleston, SC
May 17th Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, Shreveport, LA

Following the announcement of the sad death of guitar legend Jeff Beck on Tuesday various members of the Cooper Family have posted their own tributes:

Alice Cooper: “”When I was 16 years old, The Spiders, who became the original Alice Cooper band, opened for the Yardbirds. That night I experienced the greatest guitar player I had ever heard. Half a century later Jeff Beck is still the greatest guitarist, PERIOD – The greatest of all time. He was a friend, and there will NEVER be another Jeff Beck. Ever. “

Hollywood Vampires: “We are saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend and guitar legend Jeff Beck. Jeff’s incredible musicianship and passion for guitar has been an inspiration to us all. His contributions to the industry will never be forgotten. He was a true innovator and his legacy will live on through his music. Rest in peace, Jeff. You will be greatly missed by us all.”

Chuck Garric: “RIP to the greatest. Thank you for all the inspiration and beautiful music.”

Glen Sobel: “RIP Jeff Beck. One of the most innovative and influential guitarists in history who kept reinventing himself over and over. Electronica, rock, fusion, progressive, blues, country, rockabilly, Middle Eastern melodies…he touched on all of it. The list of legendary drummers, bassists, singers, and keyboardists who passed through his band is lengthy. He always brought out the best in his bands and he left us with plenty of amazing studio and live records to enjoy. I’ll be listening tonight to ”Live At Ronnie Scott’s” as well as other records from his vast catalog.”

Cindy Smith Dunaway: “He changed music forever and will stand in history as one of rocks best and most innovative guitarists ever. He was a master, a kind soul and will be greatly missed. Condolences to Jeff Beck’s family and family of friends. Well played, literally sir.”

Damon Johnson: “Devastating and horrible news of Jeff Beck’s death. Love him, love his playing, and am grateful to the gods that we spent some time together on a couple of occasions over the years. I am so sad. We guitar players are always asked: who is the greatest of all time? It’s Jeff. It has always been Jeff. Ask any guitar legend you can think of: Gibbons, Brian May, Clapton, Page, Lukather. And if you would have asked Edward and even Hendrix. They’ll all tell you, “It’s Jeff Beck”. Jeff scratched his name in the back of my Les Paul (thanks to my buddy Andy) when we hung out in Birmingham in Nov. ‘89. I’ve cherished it ever since, and of course now it is priceless. Thank you for everything, Jeff. Rest in power, sir”

Steve Hunter: “There is a bruise on my heart today, and I’m sure, on the hearts of every guitar player on the planet. You see, we have lost our King, Jeff Beck. We all looked up to him as our hero. There have been many beautiful words spoken about him, but all I can say is that Jeff played with sensitivity, power, emotion, humor, sex, and wisdom. Each and every note had value and purpose, and each and every note managed to wrangle its way into your soul. No one will follow in Jeff’s footsteps…that is impossible. It is a sad day for me….”

Ryan Roxie Launches Weekly Radio Show

Ryan Roxie of the Alice Cooper Band launches new weekly radio show.

Press Release:

Alice Cooper guitarist RYAN ROXIE Launches Weekly Show on MONSTERS OF ROCK® Radio

MONSTERS OF ROCK®, the gold standard of hard rock for over 40 years, welcomes Ryan Roxie to the radio airwaves.

Long-time Alice Cooper guitarist Ryan Roxie has launched his weekly radio show, broadcasting for two hours on Thursdays from 9-11am PT. The show is accessible worldwide, without commercials and without subscription, at themonstersofrock.com/radio.

MONSTERS OF ROCK® RADIO is home to music’s greatest hard rock & heavy metal. Celebrating over 40 years of all things rock, MONSTERS OF ROCK® is the premiere brand for hard rock and heavy metal worldwide and is currently heard by over 700,000 listeners a day on the Dash Radio Network.

The new weekly radio program – ‘The Ryan Roxie Show’ – shows off a consistent yet refreshing mix of Ryan Roxie’s rock n’ roll favorites, as well as carefully selected album deep cuts. Between songs, Roxie reflects on his real-life encounters with the bands he plays.

Ryan Roxie is no stranger to the broadcasting world. Since the beginning of the pandemic, his weekly YouTube podcast ‘In The Trenches’ has reached a loyal and growing following, as Ryan interviews many of the great names in rock n’ roll in an in-depth discussion format.

“We are excited to bring one of the most authentic guitarists in rock to the most authentic brand in live digital radio”, said Harlan Hendrickson, CEO, MONSTERS OF ROCK®. “Our partnership with Dash Radio gives rock fans globally access to the best rock for free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and unencumbered by commercials.”

“Giving artists and brands as iconic as MONSTERS OF ROCK® and Ryan Roxie a 24/7 home to deliver the best audio programming live directly to fans is why we build Dash”, stated Scott Keeney, CEO of Dash Radio. “We are thrilled to welcome Ryan Roxie to Dash Radio.”

Since it’s 2015 launch, Dash Radio has become the world’s largest all-original digital broadcaster, empowering many of the world’s biggest artists, influencers and brands to take radio over the top, directly to fans, without fees or subscriptions. Featuring over 80 curator-championed original stations, Dash is available on 50+ platforms – inside nearly every connected car service, smart home product and IoT device.

Ryan Roxie summarizes: “Performing on rock stages around the world and delivering my weekly ‘In The Trenches’ YouTube podcast are great passions for me, I will never lose the excitement that comes with performing. Now I get to present new audio soundscapes on this different type of stage. I love selecting songs for the radio show, and explaining what they mean to me.”

Ryan Roxie will be on tour with Alice Cooper in the United States this summer, together with Motley Crue and Def Leppard.

You can listen here to MONSTERS OF ROCK® RADIO:
www.themonstersofrock.com

Also available as app at:
www.dashradio.com/monstersofrock

Vampires Play Hellfest and Roxie Plays Athens

The Hollywood Vampires play Hellfest in France, while Ryan Roxie plays special solo show in Athens.

It’s been a pretty quiet New Year’s for Alice and the gang. It appears there was no New Years Eve gig in Hawaii this year, presumably related to the sad passing of Alice’s mother, and very of anything else going on.
However there are a few things to cover before they are out of date.

The Hollywood Vampires have been added to the bill at Hellfest in France on June 15th. They will play second on the bill to Kiss. Four day festival tickets are sold out, but the site says one day tickets will be available at some point.

Ryan Roxie will be flying to Greece in February to play a special solo show with Greek Alice Cooper Tribute band Snakebite. It will take place on February 18th at the Temple, Athens and tickets are available now. Support comes from Scream Collision and Wild Machine with a DJ set from Johnnie Holliday. You can also find the event on Facebook.

For collectors there are two new Alice figures on the way. The first comes via Good Records (the shop behind the ‘Live at the Astroturf’) and is a "Super7 ReAction Glow In The Dark’ figure. From the images it looks a little weird, but maybe it looks better in the dark! You can pre-order this one now via Good Records.
The second figure is slightly more conventional – an 8" "Mego Action" figure in ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ costuming. This one is due in May and can also be pre-ordered now.
With both these items beware of outrageous shipping costs to the UK. In the case of the Mego figure the postage appears to be $10 more than the doll itself!

Alice Plays Rockville

Alice Plays Rockville

Alice Cooper will play the ‘Welcome To Rockville’ festival in Daytona Beach FL in May 20th next year. Tickets are available now. Also on the bill the same day are Pantera, Godsmack, Sepultura, Kreator and a host of others.

Also announced is yet another Alice Cooper book, but this one is actually official! It’s an ‘official pictorial autobiography’ entitled ‘Starring Alice Cooper’ and is expected to be available in the second half of next year with exact details revealed in the new year. The book will be released in three versions including a limited edition signed hardback in slip case. You can see images at AC.com.

And if you’re looking for that last minute Xmas present for the fan who needs everything… how about limited edition Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding socks! Yes, Solid Rock are selling Alice Cooper Christmas themed socks (2 pairs) in a nice gift box, plus a special edition of The Rock’s own magazine. Good luck getting it to the UK by Xmas day though!!

US Tour Dates

Alice Cooper will be joining Def Leppard and Motley Crue for US shows in August 2023

Alice Cooper will be joining Def Leppard and Motley Crue for US shows in August 2023. Pre-sale tickets go on sale December 15th via AC.com using code “COOPER23”. The dates are as follows:

August 5th – Syracuse, NY – JMA Wireless Dome
August 8th – Columbus, OH – Ohio Stadium
August 11th – Fargo, ND – Fargodome
August 13th – Omaha, NE – Charles Schwab Field Omaha
August 16th – Tulsa, OK – H.A. Chapman Stadium
August 18th – El Paso, TX – Sun Bowl

AZCentral has a full report from the Xmas Pudding show last weekend with photos.

New Cooper Magazine Covers

Two new magazines have Alice on the cover

Phoenix New Times, a free Phoenix entertainment magazine, features Alice on the cover this month and a article celebrating 20 years of Christmas Pudding shows. You can read the full article here.

Spanish magazine ‘This Is Rock’ also has Alice on the cover and can be purchased here. The article seems to be based on Martin Popoff’s recent Cooper books.

Chuck Garric is interviewed by LaughingMonkeyMusic in a new video on YouTube.

Kane Roberts has been chatting to Guitar World about his return to the band after over 30 years.

Ryan Roxie is auctioning a signed kids toy car(!) for the ‘Save The Children’ charity on Ebay in Germany. Certainly an odd collectable to have and no bids so far!

More Vampires Dates

More Vampires Dates

The Hollywood Vampires have announced three more shows for next year. They are:

June 17th – Pinkpop, Landgraaf, NL
June 18th – Graspop, Dessel, BE
July 16th – Slavkov Open 2023, Slavkov, CZ

Catfight Coffee have released a special edition Alice Cooper ‘Burundi AA Coffee’ in special packaging with exclusive T-Shirt. Says Catfight: “When we heard ‘Caffeine’ from Alice on the ‘Welcome 2 my Nightmare’ we knew we had to do a coffee that would live up to the song. This coffee is certified by the Specialty Coffee Association and ranks in the top 20% traded on the market. It’s a single-origin Burundi AA roasted to a Medium/Dark profile. The champagne of coffees!” You can order now here.

The Arizona Department of Transport ran a “name-a-snowplow” competition to name some of their 200 snowplows and after 4,700 names and 7,000 votes one of the names selected is ‘Alice Scooper.’ The Alice Scooper snowplow will be stationed in Flagstaff, AZ and can be seen around the local area over the winter. Alice posted a short video on Twitter.

Crossbone Skully Launched

Crossbone Skully Launch

Today was the official launch of Tommy Henriksen’s ‘Crossbone Skully‘ project and this evening Tommy was ‘In The Trenches‘ with Ryan Roxie spilling the beans on the concept behind the record/film/comic and it’s special guests which include fellow Vampires Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry, along with appearances by Sheryl Cooper, Nikki Sixx, Chris Wyse and many more! The first single ‘Evil World Machine‘ is available now on all good streaming service so go check it out!

The Arizona Desert Sun has a report from last weekends ‘Rock The Plaza’ event which featured Alice along with Orianthi, Teddy Zig Zag, Eric Singer, Paul Rodgers, and Josh Homme amongst others. The event raised $200,00 for ‘Save The Plaza’.

Neal Smith is reissuing the first two Killsmith albums ‘Sexual Savior’ and ‘Killsmith Two’ and will be appearing on Talk Shop Live on November 23rd during which signed copies of both CDs will be available.

The current issue of UK horror magazine ‘The Darkside’ has a Alice on the cover and a feature inside. You can order a copy here.

If you are into baseball cards there’s a new one to search out. You can find it in random packs of ‘Topps 2022 Allen & Ginter‘ cards in the US and features art of Alice about the throw a baseball.

Youtube houses a wealth of rare material but one new video worth highlighting is 13 minutes of silent super8 footage filmed at the Toronto show on December 14th 1973, What makes this footage so special is this was the show the band were forced to play without the legendary ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ stage show, which didn’t arrive at the venue on time due to adverse weather conditions. As mentioned in Bob Greene’s ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ book, the band had to scramble around to decorated the stage with Xmas decorations and change the show at the last minute, which makes this footage truly unique, especially as it includes Greene himself, as Santa, being beaten up at the end of the show! Definitely worth a look.

Dave Libbert, Alice Cooper tour manager in the 70s is featured in two new interviews promoting his recent book ‘Rock And Roll Warrior’. The first is live tonight at 10PM PST on KFI-AM. This is apparently NOT archived so you can only hear it live. The second is an interview with All Music Live which you can check out on YouTube.

Vampires In Italy and Poland

Hollywood Vampires confirmed for the Marostica Summer Festival

The Hollywood Vampires have been announced as playing the Marostica Summer Festival in Marostica, IT on July 2nd. Tickets go on sale tomorrow.
They have also been confirmed as playing the Rock Legends Festival at Dolina Charlotty, Słupsk, Poland on July 22nd.

Alice turned up at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame awards at the weekend to finally induct British legends Judas Priest into the hall. You can see fan footage now on YouTube. An edited version of the show will be televised at a later date.

Tommy Henriksen is following Beasto Blanco in publishing his own comic book. ‘Crossbone Skully: Thing #1’ will be available exclusively st the San Francisco Fan Expo 2022 which takes place between November 25th and 27th, and Tommy will be there to sign copies. Attendees will also be able to enter a competition to win one of Tommy’s guitars. The comic is based on Tommy’s forthcoming concept album of the same name and the first single from the album will be launched to coincide with the comics release. Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper will also be at the Fan Expo signing copies of their ‘Beasto Blanco: Spacewave Conquest’ comic. For Tommy’s full Expo schedule see here.
Crossbone Skully also have a track entitled ‘Evil World Machine‘ included on the soundtrack to new horror movie ‘The Retaliators’. The film is available in the US now via Amazon Prime. Presumably a European release will follow shortly.