Alice Hits The Road

Alice Cooper hits the ‘Road’ with new album

While we’re still waiting for the official press announcement, details of the new album have been surfacing over the last few days from various retailer listings and the appearance of the short video teaser above [since removed for some reason] suggests a full announcement won’t be long coming.
What we know so far is that the album is entitled ‘Road’ and it will be released on August 25th by earMusic in various combinations. There are *at least* three different CD versions: CD, CD/DVD and CD/Blu-ray. Then there are also *at least* three double vinyl versions, in black, red and orange, which also come with the DVD. There will also be a deluxe limited edition vinyl+CD+Blu-Ray+merchandise version. The DVD contains last years Hellfest performance which was streamed live at the time. (I’ll post order links up once both AmazonUK and US have finalised their listings)
The album was produced by Bob Ezrin and features the current live band (Tommy, Roxie, Nita, Chuck, Glen) plus guest appearances by Kane Roberts, Tom Morello, Keith Nelson (Buckcherry) and Wayne Kramer (MC5) who all also co-write at least one song. The track listing as listed on Amazon is:

  1. I’m Alice
  2. Welcome To The Show
  3. All Over The World
  4. Dead Don’t Dance
  5. Go Away
  6. White Line Frankenstein
  7. Big Boots
  8. Rules Of The Road
  9. The Big Goodbye
  10. Road Rats Forever
  11. Baby Please Don’t Go
  12. 100 More Miles
  13. Magic Bus

Amazon.com has the following description:

“The road will make you or break you. To survive it, you need to be as tough as asphalt and move fast enough to make the competition eat dust. Throughout 2022, Alice collaborated closely with the members of his touring band as well as long-time producer Bob Ezrin, putting together what would become his brand-new studio album “Road.” You can feel the energy and lightness that the band brings with every riff and hear the story behind what inspired them. Bringing everything full circle, it channels the spirit of old school Alice with instantly recognizable grit and plenty of gusto. It’s everything you’d hope for from him and more. And this time his trusted longtime bandmates— Ryan Roxie [guitar], Chuck Garric [bass], Tommy Henrikson [guitar], Glen Sobel [drums], and Nita Strauss [guitar]—are riding shotgun. Kane Roberts (a touring and recording collaborator with Alice’s in years past who briefly rejoined Cooper on the road in 2022) makes a special guest appearance, contributing the raucous and rip-roaring “Dead Don’t Dance.” Other special contributors to the album include Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, who co-wrote, and plays and sings backing vocals on “White Line Frankenstein,” and Buckcherry’s Keith Nelson and MC5’s Wayne Kramer, who also co-wrote new songs with Alice.”

Obviously I’ll post the full release information as soon as it’s released

In other news, Nita Strauss has released another track from her forthcoming second album. This one is called ‘Victorious’ and features "Dorothy" on vocals. Nita says: "Victorious is the anthem I always wanted, a song about inspiring change, marching forward relentlessly, being willing to save yourself instead of waiting for someone to do it for you, and never backing down from a fight, Dorothy was the perfect powerhouse voice and personality to stand and deliver, and knock this one out of the park.” You can see the video below.

Radio Eksen in Istanbul, Turkey have posted a short interview with the Hollywood Vampires which you can check out here. It’s in English. The band began their European tour a couple of days ago with a similar set to the last tour but with a couple of nods to Jeff Beck added in.

The "Sally Steel Rocks! Show" has posted the second part of her interview with Alice talking about being on Hollywood Squares, what he feels his best song was, what he was like in high school. You can check it out here.

Beasto Blanco have signed a deal with COP International for two new singles later this year followed by a new album in 2024. You can read the full press release here.

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!

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.

Beasto Livestream Tomorrow

Beasto Blanco Livestream Reggies Show

Beasto Blanco will be livestreaming their performance at Reggies Rock Club on July 26th and tickets to watch it are available now from Zuma Live. The band have just returned from Germany after playing three arena shows with German band Böhse Onkelz.

Blue Coupe were forced to postpone the last couple of shows in Hamilton and Ottawa on their current road trip after Dennis Dunaway, Joe Bouchard, Tish and Snooky all tested positive for Covid and couldn’t continue to travel. Hopefully all will be fit again quickly. The shows should be rescheduled shortly. The Toronto Star has a feature on the band which you can read here.
In related news Joe and Albert Bouchard have booked a short UK tour for next month as ‘The Bouchard Brothers’ including shows opening for Angel. Sadly no Dennis Dunaway for these shows but it should still be a fun night and you can get al the dates and info at JoeBouchard.com.

Dynamite Comics have a new Alice Cooper graphic novel on the way which seems to be titled "Alice Cooper vs The Prince Of Darkness’. Written by Rodney Barnes with art by Edu Menna the book doesn’t seem to have a release date yet but watch for it towards the end of the year.

You may remeber a while back the ‘Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame’ in Cleveland held a exhibition of Music related pinball machines called “Part of the Machine”, which featured the Alice Cooper pinball machine and the original Electric Chair. The exhibition now seems to be on the move and can be seen at the Artisan Gallery on the Brewery Arts Center campus in Carson City, NV. Also on display are machines themed on Kiss, the Rolling Stones, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses among others.

Alice In Greece

Alice makes an appearance with Desmond Child in Athens

Alice Cooper made an appearance at Desmond Child’s show in Athens, Greece last night, and you can watch him and Kip Winger performing ‘Poison’ and ‘Bed Of Nails’ now thanks to YouTube.
Athens Voice also has a new interview with Alice (try this for a rather dubious Google translation).

While the hoped for livestream from Hellfest didn’t happen, the show at the Graspop festival a few days before WAS livestreamed and you can watch it now on YouTube.

Beasto Blanco (with Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper) will be playing as support to German Band ‘Bohse Onkelsz’ for three shows in July. This means their previously announced show at Rascals in Moline, IL has had to be moved a couple of days forward to July 25th. Refunds are available of you can’t make the new date. All other previously announced shows are unaffected and go ahead as planned. The German shows are:

July 20th – Jahrunderhalle-Frankfurt, DE
July 22nd – Waldstadion -Frankfurt, DE
July 23rd – Waldstadion-Frankfurt, DE

There’s a new FunkoPop Alice Cooper figure due in November, this time based on ‘Welcome To My Nightmare’ Alice with top hat and tails. It’s available to pre-order now.

And finally here is the full press announcement from earMusic for their version ‘Live From The Astorturf, Alice Cooper’ with details about of the different packages available.

‘No Cover’ Launches April 20th

‘No Cover’ TV Show Launches April 20th

No Cover‘, the new TV talent show Alice filmed last year, now has a trailer and official release date. Season one will launch on April 20th exclusively on YouTube, Recorded at the legendary Troubadour club in West Hollywood the new show is a rock’n’roll equivalent of the seemingly endless pop talent shows, the difference being all the acts play live and perform their own material. Alice judges along side Lzzy Hale, Gavin Rossdale (Bush), Bishop Briggs and Tosin Abasi.

Arizona will be releasing Alice Cooper car number plates in the near future. The specialty plates will cost $25 per year for the driver, $8 of which is an administrative fee. The remaining $17 per plate per year will go to Alice’s ‘Solid Rock’ charity.

Beasto Blanco, featuring Chuck Garric and Calico Cooper, have announced a week of shows in July. The dates are as follows:

July 23 – Rascals Live, Moline, IL
July 26 – Reggie’s, Chicago, IL
July 27 – Eclectic Room, Angola, IN
July 28 – The Winchester, Lakewood, OH
July 29 – 2300 Arena, Philadelphia, PA
July 30 – Dingbats, Clifton, NJ

The Edmonton Journal have a review of the recent show at the Jubilee with a few photos.

Roxie All Access Pass

Roxie All Access Pass

Ryan Roxie has launched a new ‘All Access Pass’ for the new US tour which began last night at Foxwoods. With the virtual pass you will get access to exclusive backstage videos, contests and giveaways, access to an exclusive instagram account with more content and lots more. You can sign up now at RyanRoxie.com.

Ryan’s ‘In The Trenches‘ podcast interviewed David Libert, the Alice Cooper 70s tour manager who has just released his biography ‘Rock and Roll Warrior’. The book is sadly only currently available in the US from Sunset Blvd Books, but they are looking at distribution in the UK and elsewhere.

Roxie is also the guest on the latest ‘Noisy Paul Podcast’ which you can check out on YouTube.

Alice is interviewed by ‘The Aquarian‘ talking about the problems of remaining politically correct among other things.

Check out Calico Cooper’s video promoting the first Beasto Blanco comic book ‘Space Wave’ on facebook here or below.

Nita Strauss is interviewed on iHeartRadioCA talking about ‘Dead Again’ and her forthcoming second solo album.

Finland Update and Greek Show

Alice Cooper plays Finland and Greece

Firstly a correction. The Finland show mentioned in the last update appears to actually be two shows in Finland. The ‘Rock In The City’ festival appears to be taking place in two places, and Alice Cooper is scheduled to play at both locations. The correct dates appear to be June 10th 2022 in Vantaa, Finland and June 11th in Kuopio, Finland.

In addition to the Finnish shows there is now an additional show on July 6th in Athens, Greece at the Olympic Stadium, as special guest for The Scorpions.

Alice’s recent appearance on the Eddie Trunk podcast is available now on Spotify. You can also listen to Alice’s appearance on Freq 90.5 FM yesterday at Speaker.com.

There’s a new interview with Chuck Garric at Metal-Rules promoting the new Beasto Blanco comic book, during which he says the new Alice Cooper album is well on it’s way with most of the instrumental tracks recorded. It’s likely a release is a fair way off yet though.

Ryan Roxie will be on ‘Reignite with Cathy Grant’ webcast on march 12th, and you can set a reminder for that here.

Nita Strauss will be opening for Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society during a break in the Cooper tour during May. The dates are as follows:

April 30th – San Diego, CA – House Of Blues
May 1st – Reno, NV – Virginia Street Social Outdoors
May 3rd – Casper, WY – Gaslight Social Outdoors
May 5th – Belvidere, IL – Apollo Theater
May 6th – Sault Ste. Marie, MI – Kewadin Casino
May 7th – Bowler, WI – North Star Mohican Gaming & Resort
May 9th – Lexington, KY – Manchester Music Hall
May 10th – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
May 11th – Chattanooga, TN – The Signal
May 13th – Fayetteville, AR – JJ’s Live
May 14th – Tyler, TX – Country River Club
May 15th – New Orleans, LA – Fillmore
May 17th – Birmingham, AL – Iron City

Alice Cooper And The Tome Of Madness

‘Alice Cooper And The Tome Of Madness’ 12″ Release

The new tour was expected to start last night but it seems the first show in Windsor, Ontario was cancelled
. I’m not sure how much notice there was of this as it was only pointed out to me yesterday, but looking at the venue site it seems the whole place is currently closed until the 31st so maybe that’s why. Hopefully tonights show will go ahead as expected.

‘Metal Department’ have announced the release of "Alice Cooper And The Tome Of Madness" as a 12" vinyl single. This is taken from the Alice Cooper slot machine game which appeared a couple of months back and features Alice narrating an 18 minute horror story featured in the game. The record come in two forms – a plain black vinyl version and a limited edition (500) yellow vinyl version both in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with artwork from the game. Both are available exclusively from Metal Department and they aren’t cheap, especially when you add in postage to the UK! The slot machine game is apparently available on a couple of gambling sites, but you have to sign up to them to play. You can see a short promo video here.

Nita Strauss appears to like being on the road as she’s added even more solo shows on her ‘Winter Wasteland‘ tour during the gaps in the Alice Cooper schedule. The new shows are:

February 22nd – Jacksonville, FL – Underbelly 
February 23rd – Tampa, FL – The Brass Mug 
February 24th – West Palm, FL – Respectable Street 
March 1st – Atlantic City – Anchor Rock Club 
March 2nd – Annapolis, MD – Rams Head On Stage 
March 3rd – Hampton, NH – Wally’s 
March 4th – Frederick, MD – Cafe 611 
March 5th – Johnson City, TN – Capones 
March 6th – Huntsville, AL – Side Tracks Music Hall 
March 8th – Corpus Christi, TX – House Of Rock 
March 9th – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live 

Nita is also on the bill of the ‘Rockfest‘ festival in Cadott, WI on July 14th.

Beasto Blanco have a new comic book on the way from Source Point Press entitled ‘Beasto Blanco: Spacewave Conquest’ and it looks really nice! Check out some images from it here. It’s due sometime during the summer but some comics sites seem to be taking pre-orders from next month.

New Swedish Festival Date

Alice Cooper plays Atlas Rock

Another festival date seems to have been announced for next year. Alice will be headlining the ‘Atlas Rock‘ festival in Sweden on June 4th. Tickets go on sale Monday. So far he seems to be the only act announced for the festival.

Dennis Dunaway plays on a new single by TBelly called ‘I Never Want To See Me Again’ which is now available via Bandcamp. There’s also a cool video for the song which you can see below.

CBC in Canada have a new interview with Alice, talking about ‘Detroit Stories’ and the early Detroit scene.

Alice seems to have filmed a new commercial for ‘Progressive Insurance’ recently with Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield. The commercial is part of the ‘At Home With Baker Mayfield’ series of adverts and presumably will turn up on Youtube when it is aired.

Beasto Blanco are releasing their recent ‘Freakstream’ webcast on Blu-Ray in mid-August. This version of the film will feature footage not included on the original streaming version of the show, and initial copies will be signed by the band. Be warned however that if you are ordering from the UK shipping and customs charges are likely to cost as much as the disc itself!

Ryan Roxie was interviewed on the ‘2020’d’ podcast a couple of days ago and you can check it out here.