16 February 2021
Newsdesk
Alice Cooper believes modern audiences are "shock proof".
The 73-year-old rocker doesn't think the theatrical performances his group staged in the 1970s - which featured snakes, blood, and guillotines - would cause so much controversy today because crowds aren't fazed by anything.
'You could cut off your arm and eat it on stage and it wouldn’t matter. The audience is shock proof," he told Independent.co.uk.
The School's Out rocker wanted to give fans something their parents wouldn't approve of and for it to be so shocking, people couldn't take their eyes away from the stage.
"We gave the audience everything their parents hated," he smiled. "The way we saw it, if you’re driving by and you see Disneyland on the left side and a plane wreck on the right, you’re going to look at the plane wreck. We were that plane wreck.”
But the band's early work proved too much for the local scene in Los Angeles and Alice - whose real name is Vincent Furnier - admits people didn't understand what they were trying to do.
"I think we scared the LA audience, he recalled. "They were mostly on acid and Alice Cooper is not what you want to see when you’re on acid.”
The veteran rocker is looking forward to getting back on stage once the coronavirus pandemic eases and he insisted he always feels comfortable performing I'm Eighteen because his alter ego is just a character and never ages.
"When you sing that song in front of an audience, you are 18," he explained. "The way I look at it, Alice is like Batman or Spiderman. Those characters never age."
