Billion Dollar Baby
Article by Bindi Lavelle

To kick off our shock rock series let's take a look at a 61 year old republican golf-nut who despite his day job still manages to teach bible studies once a week, Vincent Damon Furnier, also known by his stage persona: Alice Cooper.

Alice Cooper began as a dirty Detroit rock band consisting of: Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton,Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. ho were signed by Frank Zappa to his label. However the band eventually became the mouth piece of Furnier, who continues to use the character of Alice to explore the darker side of the human condition.

Despite the obligatory detour into debauchery in the earlier days of the band, which he described to Ink 19 earlier this year, "I began to realize that I didn't have control. I'd had no idea that I had an addictive personality. Now I realize everything I do is extreme. Like, I play golf every day." the man himself has maintained a level head, a rarity in rock music. How he is able to do this is simple, Alice Cooper is a character that he plays, not him

And that gives Furnier both creative and persona space, to develop musically and theatrically where next to take his creation. This can be seen in his latest album Along Came A Spider which he described to the Sydney Morning Herald as:"I hadn't written a concept for about four albums and, all of a sudden, it started taking off, this personality, I started realizing that this guy Spider was a serial killer, but very slick and elegant. This tour came up on us so fast that it's written, but not recorded. Who knows, it might even be a double album."

Alice Cooper is also the ultimate in rock opera, the perfect marriage between theatrics and hard rock. A typical stage can consist of everything from snakes to zombies and a hell of a lot of blood. His concerts will show you without a doubt why Alice Cooper is a legend.

One of the originators of the shock rock genre, Alice is still the leader.