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DISGRACELAND: Alice Cooper: Vampires, Nightmares, and Resurrection Rock · Spooky Season Podcasts 🎃

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: story about nightmares. About rope burns, baby dolls, and black
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: widow spiders. About addiction, resurrection, and the long, strange life
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: of one of rock's most interesting showmen. It's not just
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a story about shock rock or stage blood or fake executions.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: It's a story about the real kind of darkness. The
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: kind that eats you from the inside out. The kind
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: that convinces you to pick up a gun. And the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: kind that sometimes, hopefully, you survive. This story spans decades, demons,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: and more than one near-death experience. It includes a surgeon's scalpel, gallows,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and a secret room where a beetle passed out cold
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: with a dollar bill up his nose. And it ends,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: maybe not ends, but swerves, on a day when the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: godfather of shock rock flipped on the radio in his
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Shelby Mustang and heard something that sounded like his future.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: This is a story, of course, about Alice Cooper. A
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: story that begins in an empty theater and ends more
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: or less with the voice of God. And this being
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a story about Alice Cooper means that it's also a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: story about great music. Unlike that music I played for
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my Mellotron called Jacko
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Wacko MK2. I played you that loop because I can't
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: afford the rights to Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: And why would I play you that specific slice of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: self-reflection cheese? Could I afford it? Because that. was the
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: number one song in America on April 6th, 1988. And
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: that was the day Alice Cooper put down the gun,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: flushed the coke, and clawed his way back from the grave.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: On this episode, blackouts, breakdowns, Brandy Alexanders, and the gory,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: glorious rebirth of Alice Cooper. I'm Jake Brennan, and this
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: is Disgraceland. He tried to run, but there was no escape.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: His heart was pounding. Sweat poured down from his face.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: It mixed with his black makeup, leaving long, dark trails
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: running down his cheeks. Alice Cooper looked back, and the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: shadowy figure was closing in. It was like a nightmare.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: No matter how fast he ran, the figure kept gaining
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: on him. As he came closer, he realized the shadowy
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: figure was a man wearing black robes. and black executioners
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: who had covered his face. Even more terrifying was what
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: he had in his hands. It was a long, thick
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: rope tied in a noose. Alice sprinted towards the stairs
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: that rose in front of him, but he felt his
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: legs were stuck in cement. The figure had been chasing
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: him for hours and he was exhausted. Alice tried to
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: will himself forward. He made it up the steps, but
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: then he saw something that made his blood go cold.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: At the top of the stairs... was a hangman's gallows.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Above the gallows was a large sign, a sign that read,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper. Alice turned around and his tormentor was right
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: behind him. There was nowhere to run. This was the end.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: The executioner grabbed him by the arm and pulled him
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: toward the gallows. Alice had no strength left to fight.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: It was clear. Alice Cooper was about to be hanged
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: for his crimes. At least that's how it looked from
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: the empty seats out in the house at London's Wembley Arena.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: But Alice Cooper's nightmarish stalker had a secret. He wasn't
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: an executioner. He was a wizard. Or at least as
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: close as he could get to being one in 1987.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Because behind that black mask and robes wasn't a murderous
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: monster from the 1980s slasher films that inspired Alice Cooper's
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: latest stage show. Instead, it was the celebrity magician James
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Rand a.k.a. the Amazing Randy, a.k.a. the Gandalf of rock
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: and roll. James Randy had been the wizard behind Alice
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Cooper's electrifying live shows for the last 15 years, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: The Gallows was one of his best designs. It had
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: been a fan favorite for years, and now they were
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: bringing it back as part of Alice Cooper's The Nightmare
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Returns tour, but not before rehearsing it once or twice
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: before the show. Not that they needed to. Over the years,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Randy and Alice had perfected the routine. They had done
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: it hundreds, if not thousands of times, and it ran
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: like clockwork. The key was the piano wire concealed behind
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the thick rope. When Randy dressed as the executioner, grabbed
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper by the arm, he pulled him up to
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: a real working gallows, and he pulled a real noose
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: tightly around Alice's neck. But while all this was happening
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: to distract the crowd... Alice Cooper was busy clipping the
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: thick piano wire to a harness on his back. The
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: executioner would pull the handle, the floor would drop out,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and Alice Cooper would plummet downward. Then, just an inch
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: before the rope pulled tight, the harness would catch Alice
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: and stop him from choking to death. The illusion was convincing,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and along with the rest of the show... which featured
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper beheading baby dolls with a sword and simulating
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: sex acts with mannequins and murdering an evil nurse who
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: tortured him and never failed to get a reaction. Audiences
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: loved it, but politicians and other professional scolds railed against
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the violence on stage. Some even called for the shows
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: at Wembley to be canceled. That was nothing new for
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper. He had been shocking crowds for years, just
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: as he had been doing this gallows scene for years.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: so Alice Cooper wasn't worried about the noose as it
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: pulled tight around his neck. What did worry him, though,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: more than any controversy, were the declining ticket sales, the
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: cancelled shows, the ten years since his last hit, and
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the new crop of hair metal bands. They'd probably grown
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: up on his music, and now they were lining up
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: to replace him. He hoped this tour would turn things around,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: but as he was led towards the gallows, he had
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: his doubts. Maybe the world had moved on, and maybe
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: it was harder to shock people in 1987 than it
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: had been in 1973. As Alice Cooper looked out into
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the thousands of empty seats in the arena, he couldn't
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: help but wonder, was this going to be his fate
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: on this tour? Would he kill himself every night in
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: front of empty arenas? And could the world still be
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: shocked by Alice Cooper? Alice felt the burn as the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: rope closed tightly around his neck, Behind him, the band
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: was playing a dark rock and roll dirge. A drumbeat
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: urged him onward as he stepped into the gallows. And
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: with everything in place, the band was building to a climax.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: The guitars suddenly cut out. And then there was a drumroll.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Everything went silent in the arena for just a second
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: as the tension built. And then Randy pulled the lever.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Strobe lights flashed. Fog billowed across the stage. Alice Cooper
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: felt the floor drop out from beneath him just as
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: it had so many times before. He felt himself falling.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: And then he heard a loud snap. He felt the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: safety wire go slack. He was falling through the air
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: with nothing to stop him. Nothing except the noose at
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the end of the rope. It all happened in a
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: fraction of a second. But Alice later swore he saw
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: his life flash before his eyes as he fell. He
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: saw his bandmates back in Arizona when they were just
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: starting out as a high school talent show joke. He
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: saw his wife Cheryl and their kids. He saw his friends, idols,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and fellow icons he'd crossed paths with over the years.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: He saw the dark times that had nearly killed him
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and the light that had saved him. In those two seconds,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: he saw it all. But he also felt the rope
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: getting tighter and tighter. In an instinct of self-preservation, he
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: snapped his head back as he fell. He felt the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: rope rake across his chin. It dug into his flesh
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: and ripped away a patch of skin. He hit the
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: ground with a loud bang and collapsed to the floor.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: His head slammed onto the stage and everything went black.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: When he opened his eyes a moment later, there were
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: people standing over him and they were staring at him
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: with fear in their eyes. Alice felt a wet spot
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: on his chin and he lifted his hand to it.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: When he pulled his hand back, it was covered in
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: dark crimson blood. Death had come for Alice Cooper, but
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: he'd literally been able to slip the noose. Afterward, he
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: was recovering in the dressing room when his manager asked
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: if he wanted to cancel tomorrow's show, or at least
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: remove the gallows scene from the setlist. Of course Alice
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: didn't want to remove the scene. What he wanted to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: do was to get a thicker piano wire for his harness.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: He was going to give the people what they wanted.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Anything less would be a disgrace. because Alice Cooper had
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: already lived through darkness worse than death. And now he
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: was determined to get out. back on top. No matter
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: what it took, he was going to drag the world
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: back into Alice Cooper's nightmare. The Sunset Strip was living
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: up to its name. It was bathed in pink and
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: orange light as the evening sun sank into the Hollywood Hills.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: The strip looked beautiful for just a moment. Then it
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: plunged into darkness. However, the darkness was far from still
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: and far from silent. Because the darkness had a voice.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: A voice that called out to the creatures of the night.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: The ones who slept in the daytime, staying hidden from
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: the sun. The voice of the night called out to them.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: It pulled them out of their hiding spots. It demanded
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: they take to the streets to satiate their unquenchable thirst.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Their thirst for blood. Because at night, the Sunset Serp
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: was crawling with vampires, if he knew where to look.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Not long after the sun finally disappeared behind the hills,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the vampires stirred. They slunk down the boulevards, staying hidden
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: in the shadows. and they crept through the alleyways, stalking
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: their prey. These vampires would go to the ends of
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: the earth to satisfy their craving, and further, to get
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: their fix, they would travel all the way over the rainbow.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: And that's exactly where a coven of vampires was meeting
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: on this night in 1973, in their lair above the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Rainbow Bar and Grill, one of the hottest night spots
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: on the Sunset Strip. Below in the bar, luminaries from
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Lemmy to Elton were rubbing elbows. But in the tiny
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: room above the rainbow, the same small group of vampires
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: met every night. And tonight they picked up the scent
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: of the crimson elixir they craved before the young blonde
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: bartender even stepped into the room. She threw open the door,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: completely unprepared for what was waiting on the other side.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: As soon as she stepped into the room, they were
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: on her. Their mouths were foaming. And they screamed in
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: tongues that she could barely understand. Because these Hollywood vampires
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: weren't looking for the blood from the young bartender's veins.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: They were looking for the blood of the vine. Because
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: these vampires were no ordinary bloodsuckers. They were some of
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the biggest boozehounds in rock and roll history. Keith Moon,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Mickey Dolenz from the Monkees, and
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Elton John's songwriter, Bernie Taupe. and the captain of this
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: cabal of Hollywood vampires, Alice Cooper. In 1973, they gathered
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: in this tiny room above the rainbow to let loose
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: out of the public eye. The room had a sign
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: out front that read, Lair of the Hollywood Vampires, a
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: nickname they had earned from their habit of sleeping all
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: day and drinking all night. The sign listed Alice Cooper
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: as the club's president. Keith Moon was the vice president.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and the rest of the members joined by going through
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: a hazing process that would kill most mortals. They had
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: to out-drink every member of the club. That's exactly what
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: John Lennon was trying to do that night as he
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: took down his 12th Brandy Alexander. Alice Cooper slowly sipped
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: on a Bud Tallboy as he rode a golden buzz
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: into the night. He listened to Lennon ramble incoherently about
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: getting back with Paul McCartney for a new album together,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: or maybe just quitting music altogether and going back to Yoko.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: It was hard to follow if Alice was being honest. Still,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: he couldn't believe he was sitting in this dimly lit
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: room chatting with an honest-to-God Beatle, even if the Beatles'
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: train of thought was a little hard to follow. The
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Brandy Alexanders were part of the problem, but the cocaine
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: definitely didn't help either. John Lennon straightened up another four-inch
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: line of white powder on the small wooden table behind them.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: He offered a rolled-up dollar bill to Alice Cooper, but
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Alice waved him off. Alice could handle his booze no problem,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: but drugs weren't really his thing. He grew up in
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: a religious household. His dad was a preacher. And even
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: though he had left the church behind years ago, there
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: were certain things that he kept off limits. And cocaine
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: was one of them. He talked about his anti-drug stance
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: in interviews all the time. John Lennon shrugged and he
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: lowered his head to the table to snort the coke.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: But the Brandy Alexanders won the battle with the cocaine.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And before we could inhale... Lennon slumped over in his
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: seat and passed out, with a rolled-up dollar bill still
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: sticking out of his nose. Alice Cooper shook his head
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and grinned at the unconscious Beatle. If John Lennon wanted
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: to join the Hollywood Vampires, he would have to pass
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the test some other night. Alice sipped his beer and
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: reminded himself for the millionth time to stay off the powder.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: For him, it was enough of a high to play
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: to packed crowds every night. as he had been doing
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: for the past three months on a massive 64-day tour
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: with his band, Alice Cooper. That was another thing about
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper in 1973. Alice Cooper wasn't actually a person
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: at all. Alice Cooper was a band. Alice Cooper was
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: founded by five school friends in Phoenix, Arizona. They ran
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: cross-country together. And eventually they realized they had an equal
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: love for everything from the Beatles and The Who to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Leonard Bernstein musicals and avant-garde art. Alice Cooper, the man,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: was born Vincent Fournier in Detroit. He moved to Phoenix
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: in high school, whereupon he convinced the rest of the
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: guys to play a few school-related Beatles parodies in their
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: high school talent show. The response was so good that
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: they started a real band, one they called The Spiders.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Then The Naz, not to be confused with Todd Rundgren's
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: The Naz. And finally settling on, you guessed it, Alice Cooper.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: After conquering the local Phoenix scene, Alice Cooper, the band,
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: quickly headed for Los Angeles. But that was a mistake.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Their first show in town, they cleared out a 2,000-person
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: ballroom in less than 10 minutes. Because L.A. at the
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: time was deep into the Laurel Canyon flower power folk
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: rock thing. And Alice Cooper, again, the band, were anything
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: but hippies. And they didn't care about politics. They didn't
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: want to sing protest songs. What they wanted to do
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: was make hit records that rocked. They wanted groupies, fast cars,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: and stacks of cash. So they split from L.A. and
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: headed to Detroit. Away from Hollywood, they knew they would
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: need to find ways to get attention, and they were
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: willing to do whatever it took. So they began taking
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: to the stage in women's clothes and in S &
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: M gear and heavy makeup. This was years before Kiss
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: put out their first album, by the way. Alice Cooper
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: courted controversy by dismembering baby dolls with axes on stage
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: and reportedly once doing the same to a live chicken.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: The band sang about necrophilia, they sang about murder, and
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: they sang about literally blowing schools to pieces. When their song,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Schools Out, became a surprise hit, the band decided to
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: go even bigger for their next album. They recorded Billion
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Dollar Babies in studios stretching from LA to London. Hollywood
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: vampires Keith Moon, Harry Nilsson, and Ringo Starr were all
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: said to take part in the late-night drunken recording sessions,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: but everyone's memory was too blurry to know for sure
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: who played what. The tour was equally over the top.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: They hired the choreographer from West Side Story, a magician,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: James Randi, to construct a live show that reportedly cost
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: $ 1. 2 million in production alone. As production costs swelled and
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: the attention grew, so did the ego of Vincent Fournier,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper's frontman, a.k.a. Alice Cooper. He was the one
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: doing the interviews, he was the one on the covers
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: of the magazines, and he was the one almost everyone
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: was calling Alice Cooper. So, in 1974, he had his
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: name legally changed. And it wasn't long before Alice Cooper,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the man, started thinking that he could get along without
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper, the band. So the next year, he ditched
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: his old high school friends for his first solo album
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: using the now legal name of Alice Cooper. Welcome to
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: My Nightmare was another audacious concept album that mixed the
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: avant-garde with vaudeville horror and hard rock. The tour was
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: like a dark Broadway musical. It featured a huge set
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: that cost a quarter of a million in production dollars
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: to build. In addition to the famous gallows scene, it
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: also included moving six-foot-tall Black Widow spiders suspended on 20-foot-high
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: crystal pyramids, plus a 10-foot cyclops and nearly 100 crew members, musicians,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: and backup dancers. One of those backup dancers was 18-year-old
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Cheryl Goddard. On tour, she and Alice bonded while watching
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: old horror movies after the shows. And within a year,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: they were married. Alice Cooper was one of the biggest
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: rock stars on the planet, and he was newly married.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: But as his fame grew, so did his appetites. But still,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: he told himself he was cool. After all, he didn't
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: drink on stage, and he never touched drugs. There were
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: lines he wouldn't cross. At least that's what he told himself.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: But Alice Cooper was about to meet a demon. one
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: that would make those lines disappear. We'll be right back
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: after this word, word, word. It was the middle of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the afternoon. From the outside, it was a completely normal
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: sunny day in this upscale Beverly Hills neighborhood. Completely normal,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: except for the DEA agents and the SWAT team swarming
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: around one of the mansions. Inside, the house was pitch black.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper was lying face down on the floor, terrified.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: Next to him was a pistol, loaded with six bullets
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: in the barrel. And next to the pistol was a
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: rock of cocaine nearly as big as the barrel of
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the gun. There was no escape. His life was about
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: to be over. The police were about to bust down
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: the door and arrest him. That's when he heard, The
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: demon's voice. Grab the gun, Vincent. The demon had entered
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Alice in 1978. Now, six years later, it was almost
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: completely in control. And it only had one goal. To
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: kill Alice Cooper. Unable to resist the command, Alice reached
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: for the gun. He felt goosebumps raise on his arms
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: as his fingers grazed the cold steel. The demon urged
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: him onward. Do it now, Vincent. Pick up the gun.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: With every shred of willpower, he tried to resist. He
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: tried to think of something else. So he focused on
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: his wife, Cheryl, and their baby girl. The demon had
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: scared them away months ago. In fact, they left in
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: such a hurry that Cheryl's closet was still filled with dresses.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Those dresses were now covering every window and every door
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in the mansion, meant to block out the sun, but
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: now also blocking out the sight of the gathering SWAT
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: team outside. Because although the cops wanted Alice Cooper in 1984...
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: It seemed like no one else did. Cheryl was done
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: with him, and so were his fans. It all started
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: back in 1977, with a 77 tour. Alice was visibly
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: drunk on stage for the first time in his career.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: He missed cues and flubbed lyrics. Even worse, for the
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: first time in his career, the shows were boring. Fans
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: began whispering that something was wrong with Alice Cooper. Ticket
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: sales plummeted. And as soon as the tour ended, Cheryl
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: insisted that he go to rehab. Even if he spent
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: most of his morning puking up blood, Alice still did
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: not think that he had a problem. But to save
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: his marriage, he agreed. However, in typical Alice Cooper style,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: he did it in the most theatrical way possible. Rather
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: than a rehab facility, he checked himself into an insane
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: asylum in upstate New York. He spent days in group
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: therapy sessions and nights writing songs in a padded cell.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and he did manage to kick moves while he was there.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: But from the start, it was clear he had much
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: bigger plans for his stay on the inside than just
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: getting clean. Because immediately after he got out, Alice Cooper
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: started working with fellow Hollywood vampire Bernie Taupin on a
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: new concept album based on the patients he met in
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the asylum called From the Inside. Soon after, the pair
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: hit the road for a short publicity tour for the album.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: In interviews, Alice Cooper claimed he had been cured of
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: his cravings for alcohol. In photos, instead of Bud Tallboys,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: now he held cans of Coke. But Bernie Taupin liked
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: Coke too. And for Bernie Taupin, Coke wasn't a drink
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: in a can. It was blow. It was dust. It
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: was the devil's dandruff. In A Newly Sober, Alice Cooper
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: was desperate for something else to take the edge off.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: So he did something he swore he would never do.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: He let a demon in. And it didn't take long
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: for the demon to take control. Soon, Alice wasn't just
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: snorting cocaine. He was smoking crack. every day. And his
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: drinking came back with a vengeance. Now, fueled by blow,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: he wasn't riding a golden buzz into the night anymore.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: He was tossing down bottles of whiskey and wreaking havoc
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: just like John Lennon and Keith Moon. Even worse, the
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: demon led him to commit the ultimate sin. He abandoned
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: hard rock for a new wave. The stylistic change was
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: a total flop. His label refused to even support a
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: tour for his album, Zipper Catches Skin, Not that Alice
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: was in any shape to perform. Instead of playing for
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: packed crowds, now his days revolved around smoking crack in
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: a Beverly Hills mansion with the windows blocked out by
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: his soon-to-be ex-wife's abandoned clothing. He could hear the demon
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: hissing all of this into his ear, and he knew
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: it was all true. Everything was gone. Any minute the
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: police would break down his door and arrest him, they
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: would expose him as a hypocrite and a junkie. after
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: he'd spent his entire career railing against hard drugs. Pick
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: up the gun, Vincent. The demon was growing insistent. It
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: forced him to grab the gun tightly in his hand.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper was desperate and exhausted, and he knew he
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't hold out much longer on his own. In desperation,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: he combed his memories for another voice. A voice he'd
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: heard once as a teenager, after a freak accident. Like
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: the demon, this voice once commanded him. But unlike the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: demon who was trying to kill him, this voice commanded
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: him to live. And so, he did. Later, his parents
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: called it the voice of God. They said it meant
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: that he was destined for something big. Alice Cooper believed
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: it once too, but that was a long time ago. Still,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: the thought of his parents stopped him in his tracks.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: They loved him, despite everything, even after he left the church.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: even after he became the most controversial shock rocker on
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the planet, even after he became a drug addict. Now,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: as he struggled with the demon inside him, their love
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: gave him just enough power to drop the gun. He
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: stood up and walked towards the front door, ready to
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: surrender to whatever was waiting on the other side. He
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: took a deep breath, and then he stepped outside with
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: his hands in the air. And outside waiting for him
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: there was nothing. No SWAT team. No LAPD. No DEA agents.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: It had all been a trick of the demon inside him.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: The demon that was trying to kill Alice Cooper. It
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: screamed at him. It tried to force its way back inside,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: but it was too late. The exorcism was already complete.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper was free. He picked up the cocaine and
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: sprinted towards the bathroom. Before he could change his mind,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: he tossed the drugs into the toilet and flushed them
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: down the drain. The next morning, he picked up the
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: phone and he called Cheryl. And he just said two words.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: I'm back. Of course, it wasn't that easy. Not for
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: his addiction. And not for his marriage either, and especially
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: not for his career. It took years to build up
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: enough trust for Cheryl to move back in. It took
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: years for record labels to believe that he was really
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: clean enough to work. And it took years before anyone
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: would trust him with the cash to mount a major
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: tour like the comeback special he had planned in his head.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Because to do it right, Alice Cooper knew that the
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: show would have to have everything. All the big hits
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: from the past, the six-foot Black Widow spiders, the dismembered
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: baby dolls, and of course, the gallows scene. Because this
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't the first time that Alice Cooper had nearly escaped death,
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: and he had a feeling it wouldn't be the last.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: But it didn't matter, because whatever it took, Alice Cooper
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: had a feeling He was about to be back on top.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: The End Vincent Fournier screamed in agony. The pain in
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: his side felt like he was being jabbed with a
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: lightning bolt. At just 13 years old, he wondered if
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: he was dying. From his hospital bed, he looked up
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: at his parents. The terrified expressions on their faces told
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: him he just might be. Then he looked over at
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: the doctor standing next to his parents, and he didn't
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: feel any more reassured. He knew this was serious. Earlier
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: that morning, he woke up with a bad stomachache. It hurt,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: but it didn't seem that bad. A few hours later,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: the pain was so horrible he could barely stand. And
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that's when his parents decided to take him to the
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: emergency room. It was a good thing that they did
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: because the doctors immediately realized that his appendix had burst.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: The rupture was sending enough poison flooding into his gut
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: to kill a dozen men. The pain was so bad
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: that he was fading in and out of consciousness while
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the surgeon told his parents that he needed an emergency
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: surgery to save his life. But the doctors were not optimistic.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: He heard the surgeon say to his parents that there
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: was only a 50-50 chance Vincent would survive. As the
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: pain continued to ripple through his insides, he watched his
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: father and mother clasp hands, and then they frantically began
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: to pray. Prayer was the family's natural reaction to any
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: major events these days. It was why they had just
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: moved to Phoenix from Vincent's birthplace of Detroit, because his
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: father had heard God's voice. And the voice told him
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: to give up his job as a car salesman to
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: become a preacher. So he did. And then the voice
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: led him to a church in Phoenix. So the family
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: packed up and moved across the country in 1960. Vincent
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: heard the words of his father's prayers echoing off the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: tile walls of the hospital as the doctors wheeled him
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: away to the operating room. But then he heard another voice,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: one that seemed to come from inside of him. It
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: wasn't a demon. It was peaceful, calm, full of light.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: While the surgeon cut into his side and tried to
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: remove the damaged organ, he hovered in a dream between
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: life and death. And in the dream, the voice stayed
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: with him. And every time he started slipping off into
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: the darkness, it was there to guide him back towards
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the light, commanding him to live. For hours, he floated
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: on the edge of death until finally the surgeon removed
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: his appendix. When he woke up, the voice was gone.
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: He had a four-inch-long scar across his abdomen, but he
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: was alive. Was it a miracle? His parents were convinced.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Was it science? The surgeon credited recent medical advances for
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: saving his life. Or was it just plain luck? It
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: was impossible to say, but whatever it was, Vincent Fournier's
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: life was saved. Years later, that voice would save Alice
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Cooper's life as well. And that was how Alice Cooper
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: found himself driving around Phoenix in his black Shelby Mustang
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: on a warm spring day in 1989. It had been
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: years since he had had a hit. and he was
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: scanning the radio dial looking for a familiar song. Something
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: by the Beatles or The Who. But instead, he landed
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: on a song by Bon Jovi. They were just one
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: of the new crop of hair metal bands that were
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: making it big on the glam-heavy version of rock and
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: roll that Alice Cooper had practically invented. Part of him
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: hated these dudes, but he had to admit, guitars were rockin'
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: and the songwriting was good and the production was great.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: But it needed something. Something dark. Poison. Like that poison
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: that ran through his gut as a teenager. Like the
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: poison that ran through his veins for most of the 80s. Poison.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: It had a nice ring to it. It sounded like
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: the name of a hit song. The kind of song
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: that would put Alice Cooper back on top. After all,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: that was his destiny. And anything less would be a disgrace.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. All right, thanks
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: for checking out this episode on Alice Cooper. Guys, which
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: artist has had the greatest second act in music history?
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper obviously has had an incredible run after his
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: fall from grace, but there's plenty of others to choose from.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Frank Sinatra, John Frusciante, the list goes on and on
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: and on. Will Kanye West ever redeem himself and make
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: a second act? Let us know, 617-906-6638. Voicemail and text,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: you might hear yourself on the next After Party at
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: DisgracelandPod on the socials, DisgracelandPod at gmail.com to email me.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: All right, here comes some credits. Disgraceland was created by
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: yours truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: The Exactly Right Network, and iHeart Podcast. Credits for this
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: episode can be found on the show notes page at DisgracelandPod.com.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: if not, you can become a member right now by
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: going to DisgracelandPod.com slash membership. Members can listen to every
• 33:14
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• 33:18
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• 33:22
  Speaker 1: and on YouTube at YouTube.com slash at DisgracelandPod. Rock-a-roll up.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: He's a bad, bad man.