ALICE COOPER: ‘Crack cocaine almost killed me.’
Cooper has been completely sober for the past 43 years.
“If you’re in a touring band, nobody gets high, nobody ever drinks, because now it’s a big business and you can’t afford to have a guy that’s doing that. In the Seventies, you didn’t hire the guy unless he got high, so everybody was on the same level,” he laughs.
When did that change?
“You know, I think that’s in the last 15 years. Now, almost everybody’s a health freak. Mick Jagger’s, what, 82? [The Stones frontman turned 83 in July.] He does a half an hour on the treadmill before a three-hour show. Come on! He’s everybody’s blueprint for lead singers. Nobody gets better than that.
“And Keith Richards, my wife has the best line about Keith Richards. She says, ‘With all the wars and all the disease and all that death going around, what kind of a world are we gonna leave Keith Richards?’”
He is 78, with a sinewy build, black hair curling towards his shoulders; his face is marked by deep creases on his cheeks, accentuated this morning by the black lines running down his face and the black circles on his eyes applied earlier by his make-up artist. He is dressed, of course, totally in black.
Nowadays, Cooper usually plays golf each day – the perfect example, he acknowledges, of replacing one addiction with another – but touring in Europe, he is only able to play once a week. The show itself, he says, “is an aerobic exercise”.
Cooper peers through the window. Outside, the rain is sluicing the city’s grey buildings from the slate-grey sky.
He was a long-distance runner in school, he says. “And I’ve always maintained that body. There was a survey about your lifestyle, which tells you what your physical age is – it said I was 41. I’m 78, but I don’t drink, I don’t smoke – my dad smoked, all my uncles smoked, but I didn’t get what anybody was getting out of it. I just thought it was a nuisance. I get constant exercise, happily married, da-da-da, da-do-do, and all that adds up.
Regarding smoking, former Nirvana bassist Pat Smear discovers the one unacceptable habit on the left: Nirvana member faces backlash for smoking during VMAs acceptance speech.
Nirvana, the iconic Seattle outfit that shaped the sound of ’90s alternative rock music, was honored with the Video Vanguard Award. Yet, the touching moment was overshadowed when one band member lit up during the heartfelt tribute, sparking criticism across social media.
The MTV Video Music Awards took place at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Throughout the CBS telecast of the pop culture awards show, Public Enemy rapper Chuck D gave a moving tribute to the legendary grunge act, particularly remembering the late Kurt Cobain. In a rare occurrence, the surviving members came together onstage to receive their accolade.
As Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic stepped up to accept the honor, Pat Smear was apparently puffing on a cigarette.
Rick Beato has some thoughts on the sea change that has occurred regarding smoking, in both the American population at large, and particularly among musicians, over the last 60 years or so: