Today, Cooper remains a fixture of rock, even if the logistics of his signature stage props have become more complicated.
Cooper, born Vincent Furnier in 1948, first emerged as a teenage musician in the 1960s before adopting the Alice Cooper persona in 1968.
The character was designed to stand out among a sea of garage bands, incorporating horror theatre into the act and transforming Furnier into a gothic antihero.
But despite his shock-rock reputation, Cooper is now a reformed Christian and sober after decades of battling addiction.
“I am enjoying life,” he said in an interview in Bologna, Italy. “So many of my brothers in rock are now dead and in the ground. I’ll keep going till I’m too fat, stupid and stooped over to perform.”
His voice carries the weight of decades — and the loss of friends such as Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon.
He said about going the distance in rock: “I’ve discussed this with Marilyn Manson. I’ve discussed it with Nicolas Cage. Perform the dark role, but don’t let it consume you. So many of my friends didn’t make it: Jim Morrison, Keith Moon, Jimi Hendrix… These were my brothers and I watched them die. They all lived fast and became good-looking corpses, but it was a tragedy to see.”
