It’s pushing mid-morning, and Alic

It’s pushing mid-morning, and Alice Cooper is reciting the ingredients to a rather surprising recipe during a phone call from his home in Arizona.

Not for spider soup, barbecued boa constrictor or billion-dollar-babe stew.

No, the shock-rock icon known for hits such as “School’s Out,” “I’m Eighteen” and “Welcome to My Nightmare” is running through his mom’s recipe for tuna-noodle casserole.

“You open the can of Campbell’s mushroom soup, add the noodles and the tuna and mix it like this,” says Cooper, who incorporates his mother’s recipes into the menu of Alice Cooper’stown, the sports bar and restaurant he owns in Phoenix. “What we do here is comfort food: meatloaf, mashed potatoes. Things that make people come in and say, ‘Oh, man, that sounds good!’ ”

It’s all awfully normal for a guy who became infamous for chopping off his own head on stage—and who brings that legendarily theatrical stage show, guillotine and all, to the Scranton Cultural Center on Tuesday.

“We kill Alice four times in the show,” says Cooper, born Vincent Furnier. “There are four different (segments), and when we’re done with the six or seven songs of each phase, we say, ‘OK, time to cut his head off!’ ”

The concert, dubbed the “Theatre of Death” tour and offering up 28 songs culled from classic LPs such as “Killer” and “Billion Dollar Babes” as well as last year’s “Along Came a Spider,” marks the first time Cooper has allowed his lyrics to drive the narrative and the illusions performed on stage. “We went through all the lyrics and let them tell the story. It invented a really interesting show for us,” he says. “I put my head together with the guy who directed ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on Broadway and said let’s turn the show upside down and backwards. Let’s surprise the audience with a lot of different stuff.”

Like Alice the character attacking an on-stage nurse, removing her wig and shimmying into her dress before singing the ballad “I Never Cry.”

“I did it in rehearsal and thought it was really uncomfortable,” he admits, explaining that dark comedy is essential to tempering the madness. “When you do horror or psychodrama, you always have to play that against either romance or comedy. And there’s a lot of dark comedy in this show. It’s very Vaudeville-ish.”

But according to the man who invented shock rock in the 1970s and influenced bands such as KISS and Marilyn Manson (but who has, shockingly, yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), it’s actually a challenge to freak out an audience in the 21st century.

“Marilyn Manson and I have talked about this. CNN is more shocking than anything that either one of us can do, because they’re based in reality. We’re based in fantasy,” he says, recalling a somber revelation he had while watching footage of the Sept. 11 attacks. “I sat and watched the planes hit the buildings, and I thought, how could anything I do on stage be more shocking than that?”

Often seen wielding a sword to skewer baby dolls and dollar bills during his concerts, Cooper is arguably more skilled at swinging a 9 iron. Cooper golfs every day—even while on tour.

“A Callaway rep usually picks me up, along with my guitarist and bassist. We’re in the lobby of the hotel at 6:30 in the morning ready to go,” he says. “Some people get up and do yoga, and some people get on the StairMaster. I play 18 holes in two and a half hours. My day is started then. I shot 69 this morning.”

On any given day, he’s likely the only male golfer on the course who can shoot a 69 and nimbly apply mascara. “We have a makeup person (on tour), and they say it’ll take 30 minutes—but I get it done in five,” he says, laughing. “I can do it faster than anybody in the world.”

Clear 32°

Features

IF YOU GO

Click to Read the Guide Online!

Place Quick Ads