Retro Insider - "Alice Cooper"

He is one of the most influential artists of all time and one of the most controversial and feared by authorities ever.  He has never released a “Christian” album but his lyrics explore spirituality... and his name is Alice Cooper.

Alice Cooper was born Vincent Damon Furnier in 1948 in Detroit, Michigan, and only took the Alice Cooper name after playing a Ouigi board session.  Cooper began performing in the 1960’s.  His reputation as a shock rocker began in Toronto in 1969 with the” chicken incident,” where a chicken was thrown to Cooper onstage where he then threw it into the audience where it was tormented to pieces.  Interestingly enough, despite his controversial acts, Cooper was not from a dark background, his father was actually a fundamentalist preacher.

The 1970’s saw Cooper release a variety of albums including Welcome to my Nightmare.  Then, his popularity took off in the mid eighties with Constrictor, Trash, and Hey Stoopid.  His live shows over the years have included a guillotine, snakes, and swords, and Cooper himself has struggled heavily with alcoholism in the earlier years.  However, it was in 1994 with the release of The Last Temptation that his spiritual issues really began to surface.  Cooper rededicated his life to Christ somewhere in the 1992-1993 timeframe, and now has a youth ministry called Solid Rock Foundation in Arizona, a non-profit Christian organization dedicated to helping troubled teens and children.

Cooper is an avid golfer and has an autobiography,”Alice Cooper, Golf Monster” on store shelves.
For more info, visit http://www.alicecooper.com/, or http://www.alicecoopersolidrock.com/.