| Alice Cooper was born on February 4, 1948, and is known around the world as the first ‘shock rocker’. This American hard rock musician paved the way for other sounds like heavy metal and punk rock. His real name was Vincent Damon Furnier; he legally changed it to Alice Cooper after the name of his band. His band is remembered for its amazing theatrics during their performances. He had the works; scary face paint, fake blood, and even a boa constrictor, but maintained that it was only dark humor and his aim was to be an entertainer. His influences included many British bands such as The Yardbirds, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Pink Floyd. Alice Cooper’s original band line up was Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton on guitars, Dennis Dunaway on the bass, and Neal Smith on drums. With Shep Gordon as manager, they recorded their first album ‘Pretties For You’ in 1968. Cooper went on to record a number of albums like ‘Killer’, ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’, ‘Billion Dollar Babies’, and ‘Flush the Fashion’. Some of his best singles are ‘Teenage Lament’, ‘School’s Out’, ‘Poison’, and the beautiful ‘You and Me’. Alice Cooper launched his latest album in 2005 called ‘Dirty Diamonds’. He also started his own radio show called ‘Nights with Alice Cooper’. Alice Cooper’s fans include a huge list of celebrities including Marilyn Manson, Kiss, Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen, Cradle of Filth and even surrealist artist Salvador Dali. Alice Cooper has had around 25 gold albums and sold around 50 million records. Now in his fifties, he is still recording and performing at sold out concerts. |
