ALICE COOPER: “I'm 77 now, and I think I'm doing my best shows”
26-01-2026
On a recent episode of the Rock & Roll High School podcast, hosted by two-time Grammy Award-winning producer and music executive Pete Ganbarg, legendary rocker Alice Cooper was asked if he is “still having fun” touring with his band. He responded: “Oh, yeah. Touring for me is just part of life. I’ve been touring since I was 16 years old. I’m 77 now, and I think I’m doing my best shows now.
Cooper went on to say that musicians are either lifers, like he is, or they are not. He explained: “Same with (THE ROLLING STONES‘ Mick) Jagger, same with (THE BEATLES‘ Paul) McCartney and Ringo (Starr) and all those guys. We could have all retired 30 years ago financially, but it’s what I love to do, and actually it really keeps me healthy. I get up and do 90 minutes a night 200 times a year. I feel great. If you’re not on drugs, you’re not drinking, you’re not smoking cigarettes, it’s a pretty healthy lifestyle… I mean, Jagger does a half an hour on a treadmill before he does the three-hour show, where he never stops.”
Alice continued: “My wife says, ‘With all the murder and all of the disease and all of the death on this planet, what kind of world are we gonna leave (THE ROLLING STONES‘) Keith Richards?’ … But you’ve gotta put (THE WHO‘s) Pete Townshend in there, and you’ve gotta put Rod Stewart in there and Elton John, all the guys that just do what they love to do. And especially Bob Dylan — he doesa 200 shows a year. He never stops. BEACH BOYS were like that too. So I’m just saying there are certain people that were born to be on stage.”
Cooper added: “The great thing about Pete Townshend is, I tell young bands… They said, ‘What should we do?’ And I tell ’em, ‘Go see GREEN DAY.’ I said, ‘Because GREEN DAY brings it every night.’ I said, ‘And go see Pete Townshend.’ Pete Townshend is 78, 79, maybe he’s 80 years old — I don’t know — and his knuckles are still bleeding because he’s hitting that guitar so hard. And he still has that angst, that WHO angst from ‘My Generation’. I said, ‘Maybe that never dies. I hope it doesn’t.’ And if you don’t have the desire to do it, those are the people that just go, ‘Okay, I’m done. I can’t do this anymore.’ I can’t imagine not doing it.”
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.
Social media