Vampires Tour Ends and Michael Bruce Induction

Vampires Tour Ends and Michael Bruce Induction

The eventful (if you believe any of the endless Jonny Depp clickbait) Hollywood Vampires tour is now complete after a trio of US shows, with the Bethel Woods show seeing a not entirely unexpected guest appearance by Dennis Dunaway for ‘School’s Out’. Reports are that the band were firing on all cylinders this year and better than on any previous tour. The Boston Globe, KNAC, and People have short reviews and/or photos.

Swiss site exlibris, who if I recall correctly were the first site to show images of the forthcoming ‘Road’ album, have again possibly jumped the gun a little with 30 second samples of every track from the new album. ‘Road’ is due to be released on August 25th.

Michael Bruce’s induction video from the Arizona Hall of Fame ceremony can been see here. There was also a report on Channel 3 Phoenix with Michael performing his blues version of ‘I’m Eighteen’ retitled ‘Forever Eighteen’, and further footage here, here, and here featuring interviews with Michael. The show closed with Michael and others performing ‘School’s Out‘.

Nita Strauss has been talking to the SDR podcast and revealed that Alice has been recording with her "other" boss Demi Lovato. She’s also been chatting to KNAC.

Last year Dynamite Comic announced that they would be releasing “Alice Cooper vs The Prince Of Darkness” and we’re still waiting for it. However now they have announced another Alice Cooper title which is due in shops on October 4th. This new 5-issue series is written by Rodney Barnes with art by Edu Menna and has some cool covers.

Hollywood Vampires UK Tour Roundup

With the conclusion of the Hollywood Vampires UK dates we can do a quick round up of the press and happenings during the tour. Ronnie Wood and Imelda May joined the band in London for the Jeff Tribute and Train Kept a Rollin’, while Black Sabbath legend Tony Iommi appeared in Birmingham for a unique version of ‘Paranoid‘ with Alice singing it! Not something you see everyday. Jimmy Page was also at the London show (again) but sadly didn’t make it onstage (again!).

Unsurprisingly the tour generated a great deal of press. Also unsurprisingly most of it just revolved around Johnny Depp’s every move or satorial choice. As usual I will ignore all those and concentrate on worthwhile articles or reviews about the band and/or shows.

Firstly there was the surprise appearance of Alice on ‘Good Morning Britain’ on Monday. It was a short interview and there wasn’t really anything new said but nice to see him back on UK TV. You can see a version of it on YouTube., but sadly they have blurred out the images and footage (presumably for copyright reasons). If you’re in the UK the show is currently still available on ITVX. You want Monday 10th July show and Alice appears around  1 hour 56 minutes into the show. 

There’s been various show reviews/photos, including Scarborough: Yahoo, Yorkshire Post, Northern EchoSoundsphere Swansea: WalesOnline  Planet Rock. Manchester: Daily Mail, RamZine, JustJared. London:, Far Out, The Telegraph (paywall), The UpcomingDaily Express, TotalRock, Birmingham: BirminghamLive, BirminghamWorld and here, Express & Star, Metal Planet.

While in Manchester Alice was out and about shopping and was spotted buying a T-shirt for Johnny Depp. This, of course, also made the news.

The Arizona Republic has an interesting article about the early days of the band in Phoenix and their mentor Jack Curtis, who will be inducted into the ‘Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame’ on Sunday, with comments from Dennis Dunaway.  They also have a new article on Michael Bruce’s induction into the AZ Hall of fame on the same day.

Nita Strauss made her solo show at the Whisky in LA special by geting engaged to long time boyfriend and band drummer Josh live on stage. Congrats both! Naturally it was caught on video which you can see here. There’s also new Nita Strauss interviews this week from Metal Global,  and the Mistress Carrie Podcast.

If you remember back in April 2022 Solid Rock announced there would be Alice Cooper Arizona car license plates, and then it all went quiet. But now it appears they are finally available to order and it also appears anyone can order one! On top of that $17 from each sale goes to Solid Rock.

More US Dates Added

Alice Cooper adds five shows in August

Alice Cooper has announced five more headline shows in August with tickets going on sale tomorrow. The new shows are:

August 6th – 1st Summit Arena at Cambria County War Memorial, Johnstown, PA, Johnstown, PA
August 15th – Juanita K Hammons Hall, Springfield, MO
August 19th – Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center, Midland, TX
August 20th – The Buddy Holly Hall at Helen DeVitt Jones Theater, Lubbock, TX
August 22nd – Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, San Antonio, TX

The Hollywood Vampires show at Hellfest almost didn’t go ahead after their equipment was stuck in traffic at the French border. Luckily thanks to Kiss and their crew, who were also at the festival, they managed to put together enough gear for them to play the show.

Dennis Dunaway will be appearing on ‘Voodoo Radio’ tomorrow at 7pm UK time. Anyone can listen in to this via the stations website here.

There’s a new 90 minute interview with Chuck Garric thanks to the ‘Mama Tried Show & Flat Out Friday’ Youtube channel which you can check out here.

Hollywood Soapbox has a short interview with Neal Smith talking about his latest solo album ‘Killsmith Goes West’.

Nita Strauss jumped up on stage with Demi Lovato again the other night, on a night off during her current tour, to guest on ‘Heart Attack’. Blabbermouth have videos.

Nita Strauss Album Details and Ryan Roxie Events

Nita Strauss Album Details and other news.

Nita Strauss has officially announced the title of her forthcoming second solo album ‘The Call Of The Void’. The album will be released through Sumerian Records on July 7th and the latest single ‘The Golden Trail’ featuring Anders Fridén if In Flames can be seen here.. You can pre-order now through AmazonUK and AmazonUS on vinyl, CD and streaming.
Nita has been talking to Soundsphere and Kerrang! about the album, working with Alice and more.

Ryan Roxie will have a busy week in Fort Wayne, IN in July when he has two solo events taking place.
The first is on July 27th when he will be hosting a ‘Master Class’ evening including a 2 hour chat and Q&A, talking about his career, somgwriting, touring and anything else that comes to mind. Tickets for this exclusive event are $100 and available here.

Secondly Sweetwater Studios will be holding a 2-day ‘recording workshop’ with Roxie on July 28th-29th. This is a more technical two-day class with day one titled ‘The Basics of Tracking a Session’, and day 2 ‘Mixing to Yield Professional Sounding Results’, and during that time Roxie will actually be recording a new solo single! Places for this event are extremely limited and can be booked here.
If anyone on here is going to attend, email PerfectWave@USA.com letting them know you’re from SickthingsUK so they will "add on some special benefits" for you!

Rhino have posted a new track from the forthcoming ‘Killer’ deluxe edition. This one is ‘You Drive Me Nervous‘ record at the Mar Y Solo festival in 1972.

The Hollywood Vampires have released yet another clip from the forthcoming ‘Live In Rio’. This time it’s their version of Hendrix’s ‘Manic Depression’ which you can see here. ‘Live In Rio’ is due June 2nd from earMusic.

Dennis Dunaway and Michael Bruce have been interviewed for a new article about ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ in the June issue of ‘Vintage Guitar‘ which should be on the news shelves soon. The issue you want has Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton on the cover.

The Rock Pit has a review and photos of the Mystic Lake Theatre show last week which you can read here. Smile Politely has a review and photos of the Champaign show.

Neal Smith has been talking to the Akron Beacon Journal about his life and career here.

Classic Rock/Louder have posted a long article about the early days of Alice Cooper (possibly reposted from a earlier magazine article) with quotes from Dennis Dunaway.

SiriusXM Celebrates 50 years of Billion Dollar Babies

SiriusXM Celebrates 50 years of Billion Dollar Babies

Ozzy’s Boneyard, with Jay Hudson on SiriusXM Ch. 38 in the USA spotlights 50 years of Alice Cooper’s influential album ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ from today at 8am ET through to Monday and 11pm ET including songs and album insights from Alice Cooper and Dennis Dunaway every hour all weekend.

Dennis Dunaway will be hosting at Q&A with Mae Pang at a screening of ‘The Lost Weekend: A Love Story’, a film based on Pang’s books detailing her relationship with John Lennon. It takes place on April 26th at the Angelika Theater on Houston Street in New York City. Tickets are available now.

Hollywood Vampires Release My Generation Clip

The Hollywood Vampires have released a new live video of ‘My Generation’

The Hollywood Vampires have released another clip from the forthcoming ‘Live In Rio’ album/film. This time it’s their cover of The Who’s ‘My Generation’ which you can check out here or below.

With the start of the new tour rapidly approaching Ryan Roxie is again offering his "All Excess Pass" for the whole 2023 schedule. Buying a pass gives you access to all sorts of offstage videos, Q&A’s, contests and post show livestreams and can be purchased here.

Neal Smith was on the ‘Interviewing the Legends’ podcast last week promoting his new solo album ‘Killsmith Goes West’. You can check out the 46 minute show here.

You can also see video from Dennis Dunaway’s VersoFest Q&A at Westport Library here.

Hollywood Vampires Release Live Rio Clip

Hollywood Vampires Release Live Rio Clip

The Hollywood Vampires have released a clip for ‘I’ve Got A Line On You’ from the forthcoming ‘Live In Rio’ album/film. You can check out here or below.

Alice was interviewed for 96.1 KLPX this week promoting the Coopstock event in Phoenix tomorrow which you can listen to here.

Nita Strauss was on the ‘Appetite for Distortion’ podcast this week talking about her new single ‘Winner Takes All’ which features Alice on vocals. Check it out here.

Dennis Dunaway could be heard on radio WPKN’s ‘Rock Therapy’ earlier this week. You can listen in from around 62 minutes here.

Neal Smith has released two tracks from his new Killsmith album ‘Killsmith Goes West’ which you can find on his YouTube channel.

Designer Ernie Cefalu has released an interesting video interview talking about creating the classic ‘Old School’ box set a few years ago, which you can check out here.

Neal Smith To Release New Album

Neal Smith is releasing a new Killsmith album next month called “Killsmith Goes West”. The album will include 10 new songs and Neal will be launching the album via a live appearance on TalkShop.live on March 2nd at 7PM ET (Midnight UK Time). You can pre-order signed copies of the CD now via Talkshop.live.

In addition to Blue Coupe’s show at the Westport library on March 10th Dennis Dunaway will be returning there on April 2nd for a book signing featuring the famed ‘Snakes Museum of Rare Alice Cooper Artifacts’ and a screening of ‘Live From The Astroturf’. You can get all the details here.

There’s another new book on Alice Cooper coming out on March 28th. This one is Sickthing Chris Sutton’s sequel to his “Alice Cooper in the 1970s” and is called “Alice Cooper in the 1980s.” As the title suggests, this book will concentrate on Alice’s career between ‘Flush The Fashion’ in 1980 and the mega-hit album ‘Trash’ in 1989, a period often given little if any space in other AC books. Chris has interviewed many of the key players from the period including Mike Pinera, Jan Uvena, John Nitzinger, Graham Shaw, Ken Mary, Kip Winger, Kane Roberts, John McCurry and Al Pitrelli so there promises to be lots of new stories to enjoy. You can pre-order the book now via AmazonUK and AmazonUS

Today is Astroturf Day

‘Alice Cooper, Live From The Astroturf’ Released

Today sees the official EarMusic release of the ‘Alice Cooper, Live From The Astroturf’ movie and associated vinyl/CD. To mark the event there is a new official video for ‘Under My wheels’ which you can see below.
The Dallas Morning News has a new article telling the story of the album

Blue Coupe’s postponed show in Hamilton, Canada has now been rescheduled for October 28th and tickets are available now.

Alice Cooper in Sirius Adverts

Alice Cooper in Sirius Adverts

Alice Cooper is featured in two new advertisements for Sirius-XM radio in the US. The first features Alice, Alanis Morissette and others having dinner while talking about the stations channels (watch here), while the second, which doesn’t seem to have been posted yet, features Alice raving about Sirius podcasts.

Nita Strauss has released a new single from her forthcoming second solo album.
It’s called ‘Summer Storm’ and you can check it out on YouTube now. There’s also a new interview with Nita on LouderSounds where she talks about leaving Alice Cooper’s band (and potentially returning), and what it’s like playing for Demi Lovato.

Just when you thought there were enough Alice Cooper books on the way (there’s at least three others on the way) another one is announced! ‘Alice Cooper Confidential’ is a "new book chronicling the misadventures of America’s sweet heart, Alice Cooper" and is written by Jeffrey Morgan who did the biography for the ‘Life and Crimes’ box set. It’s a ‘hard cover coffee table size book’ with an introduction by Dennis Dunaway and is due to be released on September 15th. You can pre-order it now on AmazonUK with AmazonUS presumably adding pre-sale links soon.