Tag: #DetroitStories

Back On The Road

Alice Cooper back on Tour

Well, the US tour is up and running and already Alice and the band seem to be firing on all cylinders. As expected this is the same basic stage show as two years ago before the pandemic cut the touring short, but there are three new songs from ‘Detroit Stories’ slotted in during the first half of the set. Lots of videos have appeared on YouTube already of course. The tour is under very strict covid rules with regular testing, masks and distancing (no guest passes/Meet and Greets’s etc) while offstage so we can only hope they continue to stay safe and well for the full tour.

Away from the tour the Detroit street that is being named after Alice has been finalised as “Alice Cooper Court” at Eloise Asylum (30712 Michigan Avenue) in Westland, Michigan. The official unveiling will take place on Thursday September 23rd at 2pm and will be hosted by WCSX DJ Big Jim O’Brien. The ceremony will also feature an appearance by tribute act ‘The Nightmare’.
For anyone is interested you can find out more about the Eloise Asylum on Wikipedia. It certainly seems an apt location for Alice Cooper Court!

Alice’s appearance at the London Film and Comic Con in November has unsurprisingly been cancelled (again). However it seems that currently no refunds are being offered as they are trying to re-book Alice for a later date.

Alice and Rock & Brews restaurants have launched a ‘Poison Burger’ which features Alice’s branded ‘Poison Reaper’ hot sauce. Alice has recorded a short promo for the burger and you can see that, and see if there is a Rock & Brews Burger joint near you (US only), on AC.com.

Atlantic City Weekly has a new interview with Alice, but it’s blocked outside of the US. Luckily AC.com have you covered for this as well so you can read it here.

Chuck Garric posted a short video to facebook, saying he’s just finished recording Alice’s vocal for a new Desmond Child (Trash/Hey Stoopid etc) song while on the road. This could be for Child’s solo album which Child first talked about a long time ago, or maybe it’s for something different! Chuck, of course, is an experienced recording engineer, and records the Alice’s chat for the ‘Nights With Alice Cooper’ radio show while they’re out on tour.

‘Brutal Planet’ is being released again on double vinyl by eONE, mastered at 45rpm for the first time. It’s due out on November 26th as part of the Black Friday Record Store Day and comes on “color in color” vinyl.

Ryan Roxie sat down ‘In The Trenches‘ with Ex-Coop Eric Dover for a long chat last week which you can check out here. He also posted a ‘Tour Kick Off‘ episode with several clips from the pre-tour rehearsals. Next up on Friday at 5pm (UK) Ryan will be chatting to Glen Hughes and Doug Aldrich of The Dead Daisies.

Lastly Wes Payton has a book out which features a rock star character which, as a fan, he naturally based on Uncle Alice. It’s called ‘House Painter Pirate Hunter’ and you can find out more on AmazonUS or AmazonUK. In the UK it’s free if you have KindleUnlimited.

Detroit Signing

Alice Cooper announces Detroit Signing

Alice Cooper is set to be signing copies of ‘Detroit Stories’ on September 23rd at Rock City Music in Livonia, MI between 4.30 and 6.30 local time. To attend you have to buy a ticket for $25, but this does includes a copy of ‘Detroit Stories’ on either CD/DVD or vinyl. Only copies of the new album will be signed, and there will be no posed photos. All attendees will need proof of vaccination or a negative covid test. Get all there details here.

Word is getting out that ALL VIP meet and greet packages for the upcoming US tour have apparently been cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. If you haven’t received an email yet be patient, you’ll likely be contacted closer to your show. Fans are being offered three options: 1. A partial refund, but you still get the VIP bag and contents, 2. a partial refund down to just the price of your ticket, or 3. a full refund. The first option seems to be the default unless you contact them and request one of the others.
This shouldn’t really come as any great surprise, as currently numerous US tours are being cancelled or postponed on a daily basis, as members of either bands or crews are testing positive after a few shows. Currently it seems the Cooper shows are still on, but make sure you continue to keep an eye on venue sites as obviously this could change.

Alice posted a short statement and video a couple of days ago, commenting of the sad death of legendary Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts:

“We have lost one of rock and roll’s true gentlemen. Charlie Watts kept the beat for the world’s greatest rock band for over 50 years. I consider him the greatest pocket drummer of all time. Every time I would go backstage to see The Rolling Stones, Charlie was the first to greet me. He will be sorely missed and impossible to replace but I’ve no doubt The Stones will go on. My message to Charlie? Rest In Beat!”
– Alice Cooper

According to Rolling Stone Alice will be taking part in Audible’s new ‘Words + Music’ storytelling series. The AC edition will be released on October 7th and entitled: ‘Who I Really Am: The Diary of a Hollywood Vampire‘, “where he’ll not only share tales from his lengthy career, but ‘introduce’ fans to the person that created and crafted the Alice Cooper persona.”

Ryan Roxie is interviewed by ‘Slasher Pepper’ in a new video posted to YouTube.

US Tour Dates Announced

Alice Cooper is back! Catch Alice on tour this Fall with special guest, former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley.

Celebrating the release of his new album, Detroit Stories, Alice will hit the road starting September 17th in Atlantic City, NJ with stops in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville and more – culminating in a performance at the 2021 Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta! 
VIP Tickets and Presales available tomorrow, Tuesday, May 18th at 10am local time with code SICKTHINGS. Tickets go on general sale this Friday, May 21st at 10am local time.

2021 TOUR DATES
September 17th – Ovation Hall at Oceans Resort Casino in Atlantic City, NJ (no Ace Frehley)
September 18th – Bank of NH Pavilion in Gilford, NH
September 19th – Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater in Bridgeport, CT
September 21st – Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA
September 22nd – Long Island Community Hospital Amphitheatre in Farmingville, NY
September 24th – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island in Chicago, IL
September 25th – DTE Energy Music Theatre in Detroit, MI
September 27th – Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre in Youngstown, OH
September 28th – Rose Music Center in Huber Heights, OH
September 29th – Farm Bureau Insurance Lawn at White River State Park in Indianapolis, IN
October 1st – BMO Harris Pavilion in Milwaukee, WI
October 2nd – Saint Louis Music Park in St. Louis, MO
October 3rd – Ascend Amphitheatre in Nashville, TN
October 5th – Appalachian Wireless Arena in Pikeville, KY
October 6th – Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC
October 7th – Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre in Charlotte, NC
October 9th – Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, FL
October 10th – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, FL
October 11th – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL
October 13th – Montgomery Performing Arts Center in Montgomery, AL
October 14th – BJCC Concert Hall in Birmingham, AL
October 18th – Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land, TX
October 19th – HEB Center in Austin, TX
October 20th – Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium in Ft. Worth, TX
October 22nd – Bancorp South Arena in Tupelo, MS
October 23rd – Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta, GA

In other news Alice turned up on the BBC News channel during the week promoting ‘Detroit Stories’, which you can currently watch here.

Alice can also been see on the ‘Word On Woodward‘ podcast talking about ‘Go Wings Go’, and there’s another new interview over at ‘Page Six‘

Another news story that has been all over the place in the last few days is that the Andy Warhol “Little Electric Chair” print Alice found in his garage a while back is going to be auctioned by the Larsen Gallery in Arizona. So if you have a few spare millions sitting around, here’s your chance! The gallery has placed an estimate on the print around $2.5 million to $4.5 million!! A percentage of profits will go to Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock charity. – AZCentral also has a report.

Dennis and Cindy Dunaway’s appearance on the Alexxis Steele Podcast can be seen here, but make sure you put aside some time to watch it all as it’s nearly 2 hours long!

Go Wings Go

Alice Cooper released ‘Go Wings Go’ video

Alice Cooper has just released a new video for ‘Go Man Go’ from ‘Detroit Stories’ but with revised lyrics reflecting his love of Detroit Red Wings hockey team. It’s called ‘Go Wings Go‘ and you can see it below. Obviously Alice is well known as a sports fan having been sighted at baseball, football, and hockey games in the past, not to mention a few boxing matches. Can’t help wondering of his actual home town of Phoenix, where he grew up, started a band, and has lived most of his life, is feeling a little unloved recently!

Also newish is a ‘bonus episode’ of the ‘Alice Cooper’s Vintage Vault‘ podcast with Alice talking to William Shatner on ‘Nights With Alice Cooper’.

Alice turned up on CBS Detroit’s ‘Michigan Matters’ for a short zoom interview which you can watch here and there’s an interview in the Detroit Free Press.

‘Autoweek‘ has a story about Alice’s old 1963 ‘Studebaker Avanti’ which was apparently previously owned by a KGB spy!

Dennis Dunaway makes an appearance on Lydia Lunch’s podcast ‘Lydian Spin‘ around 20 minutes into the show. Lydia Lunch has frequently covered ‘Black Juju’ over the years in her live shows and it’s featured on her album ‘Shotgun Wedding’ from 1991.

Joe Bonamassa interviews Nita Strauss on his ‘Live from Nerdsville‘ podcast.

Interviews

‘Detroit Stories’ Interviews

Phoenix New Times has a new interview with Alice, as does Australia’s ‘May The Rock Be With You‘ and ‘Flood‘ magazine.

Also Australia’s ‘Heavy‘ magazine has Alice on the cover and a new interview during which Alice again talks about the next album featuring the current band.

‘Louder‘ has Alice answering questions that were apparently sent in on facebook. Many other news sites have picked up on Alice’s answer about his relationship with David Bowie. Alice is quoted as saying:

“David used to come to the show when he was a mime artist, he was Davy Jones back then. I remember at one of our Welcome To My Nightmare shows, he brought his band the Spiders From Mars and he was saying, ‘This is what we should be doing.’

This is basically correct of course, but unfortunately Alice has the time period wrong. Years ago in his biography ex-Spiders bassist Trevor Bolder talked about this happening but it was in 1971 at The Rainbow in London, not four years later on the 1975 ‘…Nightmare’ tour. This mistake is unfortunate in that it is easy for people to just discount Alice’s statement as false (The Spider’s From Mars were long gone by 1975) when in fact the basic story, according to several sources, is true.

According to a post on facebook Alice will be a guest at the ‘Days Of The Dead‘ convention at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas between May 14th and 16th. The organizers seem to be doing everything they can to make the event safe during this pandemic and tickets are on sale now. Of course as with anything at the moment it could be postponed or cancelled at any time.

Alice’s appearance on the BBC Radio 2 ‘Rock Show with Johnnie Walker’ can be heard here for the next months or so. The Alice section isn’t very long and starts around 35 minutes into the show with him talking about Jeff Beck.

Alice also showed up for 20 minutes on the ‘Jim Kerr Rock’n’Roll Morning Show’ on Q104.3 which you can listen to here.

AZCentral has a long article marking the 50th anniversary of ‘Love It To Death’ looking at the Alice Cooper band through the years with quotes from the band and some rare photos.They also have an article ranking the 28 Alice Cooper studio albums which has a few surprises.

‘Far Out‘ has Alice picking musicians for his ultimate band. The choices aren’t exactly a surprise – half ‘The Who’ and half The Beatles’ and add in Jeff Beck.

Dennis Dunaway was on radio station CFMU for almost an hour the other night and you can listen to the show online here.

The latest ‘In The Trenches’ podcast from Ryan Roxie features the "Metal God" himself, Rob Halford and can be seen on YouTube now with some bonus footage tacked on the end.

Nita Strauss is interviewed for an hour on the ‘Daily Stoic’ podcast which you can check out here.

#1 In Germany!

‘Detroit Stories’ Chart Positions

First week chart positions are coming in from around the world with the best being a #1 placing in the German charts! The UK mid-week #2 ended up as a #4 (although it’s been suggested it actually sold the most physical copies) and Billboard in the US have tweeted that while ‘Detroit Stories’ was the ‘top selling album‘ of last week, that only equaled #47 in the official ‘top 200 albums’. Work that one out…
Elsewhere the album entered at #17 in Belgium, #51 in The Netherlands, #7 in Sweden and #39 in Italy.

There’s been some speculation whether the images posted to the official AC channel of the Alice Cooper projections in various cities around Europe are genuine… well they were, and here’s a little clip of how they are doing it!

New Alice interviews have turned up at Loyola Phoenix, The Sun, and NPR (audio).

Ultimate Guitar have an article about ‘Love It To Death’ which was released 50 years ago this week.

2021 will also be the 50th anniversary of ‘Killer’ and Pale Wizard Records will be marking the event with an all new recreation of that original album featuring some of the best new underground bands including The Grand Mal tackling ‘Be My Lover’, Sergeant Thunderhoof on ‘Halo of Flies’ and Mos Generator with ‘Dead Babies’. The album also features 1968, Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Night, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and Ritual King. A Kickstarter campaign will launch this Friday to help fund the project, and the album is scheduled to be released in November.

Something new on YouTube worth checking out is professionally filmed footage of the full 2017 Los Angeles Greek Theatre show during the AC/Deep Purple US tour. The sound isn’t perfect but the multi-camera video is excellent and in HD!

Those of you who don’t regularly check out the STUK forums may want to drop in again and check out ‘Dr. Dreary’s Secret Dungeon’. where Alice Cooper founder and Hall of Fame inductee Dennis Dunaway is answering YOUR questions about Alice Cooper, The Earwigs, The Nazz, Blue Coupe, and anything else he’s done during his career. A great opportunity to finally get the answers to all of your questions direct from a guy who would know them!

Detroit Stories Midweek Placing

‘Detroit Stories’ has been out just under a week now and seems to be doing pretty well. It currently stands at #2 in the official UK mid-week album charts (and #1 for actual physical sales) and is doing similarly well in other countries. Noise11 are reporting it could be Alice’s first #1 in Australia!

Alice has been all over the press and TV in the last few days. Even as I was preparing this post he suddenly appeared on the TV, on BBC1’s ‘The One Show’ for a short interview. It’s available now on iPlayer.
You can also check out the following:

Alice’s full interview on GMTV here.
The Guardian in the UK had an interview.
The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit Metro Times both have features.
Rolling Stone has a album review.
NME have a video interview.
AV Club asks Alice "11 Questions"
The Telegraph has an interview but it paywalled, however it seems to have been republished here.
The Irish Times has an interview.
The NZ Herald has a recent interview from ‘Radio Hauraki’.
Radio station KKLZ’s ‘Rock Talking with Meltdown‘ has a podcast featuring Alice.

Coming up Alice will be on the Radio 2 Rock Show on Saturday March 13th which will turn up here after broadcast.

New Alice magazine covers to add to the collection include Metal Hammer in Spain, and ‘Spark‘ in the Czech Republic. Sadly the UK has been poor in this regard with Classic Rock putting Pink Floyd on the cover. despite having an 8 page article about ‘Detroit Stories’ inside.

At the weekend the band, including Alice and Sheryl, took part in a very special episode of Ryan Roxie’s ‘In The Trenches’ and boy was it a blast. Apart from being VERY funny, producer Bob Ezrin also showed up to announce that they are already working on the NEXT Alice Cooper album, which at long last will be written and performed by the current band! The plan is to write and record it on the road during the next tour, and in fact Alice is toying with the idea of calling it "The Road", or just "Road". Hopefully he’ll come up with something better… Chuck also revealed that he’s already writing material for both this and a new Beasto Blanco album. Of course plans can always change, but the fact they are already talking about it publicly is a good sign it will happen! Check out the full show on YouTube.

Dennis Dunaway and Blue Coupe can be seen in a new video by occasional Blue Coupe backing singers Tish and Snooky. It’s a version of ‘Pills’ in tribute to New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain who died a few weeks ago. You can check out the video here. Dennis is also interviewed by the ‘Metal From The Inside’ podcast which you can see on YouTube.

Nita Strauss has posted a video highlighting her new ‘Jiva Jr’ guitar, a budget version of her own signature Jiva guitars.

Chuck Garric turns up singing Alice In Chains classic ‘Would!’ in a new video and it’s amazing!

Even More Stories

With just a few hours to go before ‘Detroit Stories’ is officially available (presumably streaming from midnight in your region) there’s even more coverage to report before it gets lost.

I’ve already mentioned it, but worth a reminder that Alice will be doing a livestream album launch tonight (2AM UK) over at TalkShipLive. Not exactly sure what it will involve but could be cool.

Alice will be "taking over" radio station Triple M Rock tomorrow at 9PM local Australian time (you’ll have to work that one out yourself) to mark the release of the new record, and they promise Alice "playing his favourite songs and doing whatever he wants!"… so that would be playing golf? It will be available via their website and local DAB radio.

Alice was on BBC radio this afternoon with Steve Wright and you can hear that short interview at around the 2 hours 36 mark here. He’ll be back on the BBC on Saturday around 6.15 on Radio 4 during the ‘Loose Ends‘ show.

Alice, Dennis, Neal and Michael have all recorded material for a show on ‘Foo Fighters Radio’ SIRIUSXM Channel 105 that celebrates the 50th Anniversary of ‘Love It To Death’. Presented by Foos’ Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett it will premiere on March 11th at 2PM ET, with repeats each day for the next week at various times. Unfortunately you need a subscription to hear it.

The new issue of Spanish magazine ‘Ruta 66’ has Alice on the cover and an article inside.

There’s been three (so far) short official videos posted featuring Alice talking about ‘Detroit Stories’ which you can see on YouTube. They are "Rock Hard Capital", "Where’s The Party?" and "The Myth".

There’s also new articles/interviews over at Ultimate Classic Rock (with Alice talking about the Detroit bands that influenced the new album), at Stack HiFI in Australia which will also be featured in their free print magazine next week, Inside Hook, WDET Culture Shift, and an interview video on Yahoo Entertainment.

Fancy a personal 20 minute personal video call with Alice? Then get your credit card out! ‘Sports Dinner Auctions‘ is offering exactly that to one lucky bidder and you have 6 days left to bid.

Ryan Roxie was interviewed on "Fields & Friends" for over and hour the other day and you can see that on YouTube.

Live Band Meeting Saturday

Set aside whatever you were going to do this Saturday, February 27th (8PM UK/3PM EST), as the entire Alice Cooper Band invites you to sit in on their live-stream ‘Band Meeting’ as they catch up on what each of them have been up to, and quite possibly drop some ‘Easter eggs’ of what’s coming up in 2021. And by "entire" we mean Ryan, Tommy, Nita, Glen, Chuck AND Alice and Sheryl Cooper! This promises to be a real "one off" event and you can watch it free on YouTube.

Meanwhile reviews of ‘Detroit Stories’ are now turning up all over the place, so if you need to know what a journalist thinks check out: Charlotte Observer, First Post, Metal Hammer, Vinyl Chapters, Riff Magazine, Wall of Sound, and Ghost Cult to name a few.

There’s also new interviews at the Detroit News, and American Songwriter.

More Detroit Tales

New Alice Cooper Interviews and book

Lots of interviews are appearing now in the run up to ‘Detroit Stories’ on Friday. New ones have appeared at Forbes Magazine, and the Boston Herald.

Alice was also on the BBC 6 ‘Radcliffe and Marconie’ show yesterday morning and you can listen in around the 1.36 mark for the next month or so here.

Alice and Dennis Dunaway have recorded a zoom interview with Keith Roth for Sirius radio’s channel 38 ‘Ozzy’s Boneyard’ which is due to air on February 27th at 11am EST, with repeats at 7pm on March 1st and 9pm March 3rd. The show will apparently also be available on demand.

Alice is on two more European magazine covers, this time it’s ‘Rock Hard‘ from Germany, and ‘Popular 1‘ from Spain.

‘Watchonista‘ have an article about Alice’s collection of watches.

I mentioned a couple of months ago that Sickthing Chris Sutton has a new book on ‘Alice Cooper in the 70s’ on the way. Well, it now has a confirmed publication date of March 28th and can be pre-ordered from AmazonUK with AmazonUS to follow. Below is the official blurb for the book, plus the cover.

"In Alice Cooper In The 1970s, Chris Sutton, explores the story of Alice Cooper the band and the solo performer from the early years through to the end of the decade.

The book features interview material from key figures including Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith from the original band, plus their hired gun Mick Mashbir. Also interviewed are Prakash John, John Tropea and Allan Schwartzberg from the solo years, and Ernie Cefalu, whose company Pacific Eye and Ear designed the album covers Several other musicians, concert promoters and even the band’s first roadie have also contributed their thoughts.
All of the albums and singles from Don’t Blow Your Mind, until From The Inside are examined in detail, along with related archive releases and songs that didn’t make the cut.
An essential guide to Alice Cooper in the decade the band helped to define."