ALICE COOPER talks about reuniting with his original bandmates for new album
"it sounds exactly like it did back in 1974"
01-08-2025
In the new issue of Rock Candy magazine, Alice Cooper told editor Howard Johnson why now was the right time for the ALICE COOPER band to work together again and why they split up in 1974 after seven groundbreaking studio albums.
“I’ve always known it couldn’t have lasted between us back then,” he said. “There were too many things in the way. Mike (Michael Bruce) went through a bad period, Dennis (Dunaway) had some physical problems, Neal (Smith) had some physical problems. Plus I was dealing with my cocaine and alcohol things and that set me back at least five years. At the end of the ‘Muscle Of Love’ album period, we were not on the same page lifestyle-wise. I don’t think anyone really understood where the group should be going. We were dysfunctional.
“I think the way it has finally worked out is perfect,” Alice continued. “I never truly felt the band divorced. Rather we separated, and everyone went off down their own track. But what you have to remember is that we were in high school together, so we have real history… and when we finally got back together and started playing as a band, it felt just like coming home.”
The new studio album they created, “The Revenge Of Alice Cooper“, with the help of “fifth band member” producer Bob Ezrin has come out this month and sounds like they picked up where they left off in 1974.
“I was aware that some people were going to be cynical about whether we could do it, but the band sounds exactly like it did back in 1974,” Alice said. “I was pretty amazed by that.”
For the first time in over 50 years, the surviving members of the original ALICE COOPER band — singer Alice Cooper, guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith — have reunited to release a brand-new studio album, “The Revenge Of Alice Cooper”, on July 25 via earMUSIC.
This highly anticipated album is heralded as the successor to their iconic records “School’s Out”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Love It to Death” and “Killer”.
The second single from the album, “Wild Ones”, is out now.
Watch “Wild Ones” below.
Inspired by the iconic 1953 film “The Wild One” starring Marlon Brando, the track captures the same defiant spirit that once shocked middle America and defined a generation. With snarling guitars, pounding drums, and Alice‘s unmistakable snarl front and center, “Wild Ones” isn’t just a song; it’s a statement.
Watch the previously released “Black Mamba” below.
Due on July 25 via earMUSIC, “The Revenge Of Alice Cooper” also includes a special appearance by late COOPER guitarist Glen Buxton, who died in 1997 at the age of 49. The song “What Happened To You” was built from the riff on an old demo tape Dunaway and Buxton made together and the limited-edition box set bonus track “Return Of The Spiders 2025” is an updated remix of a track from the COOPER group’s second album, 1970’s “Easy Action”.
“The Revenge Of Alice Cooper” was produced by longtime Alice Cooper collaborator Bob Ezrin, who worked with the COOPER group on 1971’s “Killers”, 1972’s “School’s Out” and 1973’s “Billion Dollar Babies”, and who has helmed a number of albums that Cooper released as a solo artist.
The 14-song album’s first single, “Black Mamba”, will debut on Tuesday, April 22 on Cooper‘s syndicated radio show “Alice’s Attic”. The track features a guest appearance by THE DOORS‘ Robby Krieger.
Cooper told Billboard that making a new album with his original bandmates “was very much like this was our next album after (1973’s) ‘Muscle Of Love’, just like, ‘Okay, this is the next album.’ Isn’t that funny after 50 years? All of a sudden it just falls into place.”
Ezrin said about the making of “The Revenge Of Alice Cooper”: “None of them has changed much as a person. Obviously, everyone’s older and more mature and more settled, but when we all get together and I watch the interplay between them, it’s like they just walked out of high school and were hanging out in the local cafe. They just revert to type. They revert to who they were as kids when the first got together… and make music together like they did 50-some years ago.”
As for the possibility of the original COOPER band hitting the road again, Alice said: “We haven’t even gotten to that point yet. I don’t really see it being a full-out tour; it would be very, very hard, I think, if you haven’t done it for a long time. But I could see it being a feature, like going into certain cities — Detroit, New York, L.A., London maybe, and doing a half-hour or 40 minutes in a club or something. We always leave those things open, and if it looks feasible, then we do it.”
“The Revenge of Alice Cooper” track listing:
01. Black Mamba
02. Wild Ones
03. Up All Night
04. Kill The Flies
05. One Night Stand
06. Blood On The Sun
07. Crap That Gets In The Way Of Your Dreams
08. Famous Face
09. Money Screams
10. What A Syd
11. Inter Galactic Vagabond Blues
12. What Happened To You
13. I Ain’t Done Wrong
14. See You On The Other Side
15. Return of the Spiders 2025 (bonus track)
16. Titanic Overunderture (bonus track)
Formed in 1968, the original ALICE COOPER band forged a theatrical brand of hard rock that was destined to shock and had never been seen before. Within five years, they would release no fewer than seven studio albums, amongst them their international breakthrough “School’s Out” (including the Top 10 hit of the same name) and the U.S. No. 1 “Billion Dollar Babies” (1973). By 1974, the band had risen to the upper echelon of rock stardom… and then it dissolved.
In October 2015, over 40 years later, record store owner and superfan Chris Penn convinced the original lineup to reunite for a very special performance at Good Records, his record store in Dallas, Texas. Alice, Michael, Dennis and Neal were joined on stage by Alice‘s current guitarist Ryan Roxie (standing in for Buxton).
Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical brand of hard rock that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood and boa constrictors. He continues to tour regularly, performing shows worldwide with the dark and horror-themed theatrics that he’s best known for. With a schedule that includes six months each year on the road, Cooper brings his own brand of rock psycho-drama to fans both old and new, enjoying it as much as the audience does. Known as the architect of shock rock, Cooper (in both the original ALICE COOPER band and as a solo artist) has rattled the cages and undermined the authority of generations of guardians of the status quo, continuing to surprise fans and exude danger at every turn, like a great horror movie, even in an era where mainstream media can present real-life shocking images.
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