Recommendations of the Editorial team
Alice Cooper has lived thousands of lives if you count the number of times the shock rock pioneer has guillotined himself on stage. In his new book, “Devil on My Shoulder: A Memoir,” out October 6, the 78-year-old singer promises to look back on his one, singular life.
His publisher describes the book as a “definitive autobiography” – a remarkable classification since he has already published his life story twice: in “Me, Alice” (1976) and “Golf Monster” (2007). The new book aims to shed light not only on the creation of the Alice Cooper character that the singer (real name: Vincent Furnier) developed with his bandmates in the late 1960s, but also on the contradiction between his stage life as the “Godfather of Shock Rock” and what his publisher describes as the “deeply religious, sober man behind the mask.”
“I wrote this book to follow Alice’s ‘evilution’ and how I finally tamed it,” the artist said in a statement. “Just as he and I became almost fatally intertwined, the story of Alice Cooper, after more than 30 albums and more than 60 years, has become a web of embellishments, exaggerations and tangible inventions – and I believe it is time to separate reality from myth.”
Encounters with legends
Cooper also promises insightful stories about the many other artists he encountered in his life – including Salvador Dalí, Bob Hope, John Lennon, Groucho Marx, Vincent Price, Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Gerald Ford, Andy Warhol and Tiger Woods. He also announces that he will talk about some of his most famous stage props, including the guillotine, “Cold Ethyl”, dead babies and the snake.
“And I want to talk about God,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hit you over the head with a Bible. I just want to describe how I found Him dwelling within me. Alice, that incorrigible liar, was a voice in my ear for so long, whispering lies and sweet nothings, pretending to be my better conscience and my inspiration, pretending to be me – so I think it’s only right to tell both sides of the story: the angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other.”
Cooper released seven albums with the original Alice Cooper Band from the late ’60s until their breakup in the mid-’70s, as well as another last year, “The Revenge of Alice Cooper.” Since his first solo album, “Welcome to My Nightmare,” he has released an additional 21 solo albums. He has numerous tour dates coming up in the spring, and a tour with his supergroup Hollywood Vampires is planned for the summer.
