Alice Cooper's show is an experience

Some rock performances feature great musicianship and iconic classic songs. Sometimes it is a show that is about entertainment. However, few can do both.

Then there’s Alice Cooper, who will perform Friday at Harrah’s. Cooper is a master of both as his live performances feature not only a broad range of classic rock hits but a macabre spectacle that is as entertaining as the music being played.

“The theatrical has always been there,” said Cooper. “I always thought of rock as that way so why not run with it. Everyone is afraid to do that, but we were thinking ‘What do we have to lose?’ We said, ‘Let’s rehearse our music eight hours a day and once we are good as anyone then we can add them dimension to our shows.’ I mean, if you are going to be the villain of rock you might as well do it well.”

Cooper, the son of a preacher, began playing in bands in high school, working hard performing anywhere that would let them play. Over time there were big hits such as “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s out,” “Welcome to My Nightmare,” “Poison” and “Teenage Frankenstein.”

Then there was the stage show, featuring electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood, and boas. In part, that is clearly the influence of the horror films that he always has loved.

“I always liked the villains because villains get the best lines, and everyone wants to be the hero, but not me,” he laughed. “I’d rather be Basil Rathbone than Errol Flynn. You get to be dark and foreboding. Your show is scary and has a sense of humor.”

Of course, he was also influenced by the rock stars who had a stage presence.

“We wanted to be The Yardbirds because we knew we weren’t going to be The Beatles or the Stones, but we saw no reason not to be the American version of The Yardbirds,” he said. “We took a cue from what they were doing, which was just blues rock and adding a much faster pace. The Who had a theatrical quality to them, and I tell every young band to watch Pete Townshend. He still plays with anger and he plays it with attention. He plays like a windmill and his knuckles are bleeding but he still has energy.”

Of course, there were the well-known battles with addiction and simply being able to separate the stage Alice from the man.

“It was a gray area, and I didn’t know where I began and where it ended,” he said. “It took me getting sober, and I looked at guys I used to drink with like Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and those guys and realized their image killed them. Hendrix had to be Hendrix every minute of the day. Every single one of them didn’t know when not to be that character.”

Fortunately, Cooper has it figured out.

“My character is going to be more intense and I had to figure out how to keep Alice on stage so I could play golf, be on ‘The Muppet Show,’ be on talk shows and be the character I am,” he said. “He never talks to the audience during the shows, never says hello. You will never hear Alice chit chatting and I don’t want the audience to relate to him. I want him to be something that is not real.”

It can lead to some funny moments backstage.

“People will come backstage to meet me and when they see me they want to know why I’m dressed the way I am and acting the way I am,” he laughed. “Well, that’s Alice out there on the stage. This is me!”

The separation is really a key to success – and sanity.

“You have to be engaging and do talk shows and TV stuff and not be that guy,” he said. “Alice on stage has to be exclusive. I mean, there are things he would never do. He will not cuss at you, but he might slit your throat! He might do a horrendous thing and then slip on a banana peel! All the coolness and all the swashbuckling is great.”

But do not think that Alice is an evil character.

“I think he’s the most perfect thing,” he said. “He is the Vaudevillian. He is Vaudeville and totally slapstick, then after the theatrics he walks out in a white suit, which shows people he will be back for the next show.”

But “The Muppet Show,” really?

“It was the craziest thing in world when The Muppet Show happened,” he said. “I was at the peak of insanity. I watched The Muppet Show every week and I said I just can’t do it. I just created this scary character and I can’t do that show. Then they told me that the last couple of weeks they had Vincent Price and Christopher Lee. Okay, now I can do it!”

And he can still entertain, even if he doesn’t think he has the best voice even in his own family.

“Everyone in my family sings better than me, but I know how to sell it,” he laughed.

He also may just be at the peak of his abilities.

“More now than ever I think I have a really good place with the show,” he said. “We go out there and hard rock, and we don’t give people a chance to rest. We hit it right there doing ten songs in a row that they have heard and then give it a second layer.”

It is a multi-pronged show.

“I looked at this show as glam rock, high energy glam rock, then a nightmare section,” he said. “I’ll do the hit rock songs and then do a totally different section doing ‘Go to Hell,’ ‘Welcome to My Nightmare,’ ‘Feed My Frankenstein,’ then once Alice gets his head cut off in the guillotine, he should wake up on the graveyard of the Hollywood Vampires, which was my drinking club with Lennon, Morrison, Ringo, among others. I dedicate it to my drinking friends and then do some of their songs.”

That part of the set features such songs as “My Generation” and “Break on through,” among others.

“Who else can get away with it if not me,” he said. “The hardest thing about show is you have thirty albums to go to, and I know there are at least 12 to 15 songs I have to do that the audience wants to hear, and then I have five to maybe seven songs that I can go deep and do the theatrical. That doesn’t give me much room to move.”

But he can play with the songs.

“You can always treat them differently,” he said. “I used to do ‘Eighteen’ with my letter sweater - my real one from high school where I was a four-year letterman in track, thank you very much. Now I’m singing it and I am closer to eighty than eighteen. When I am playing Alice and singing that now, I am walking around on a crutch. The audience gets it and loves it.”

And he is still loving not only the stage, but the theatrical essence of performing – and the villains.

“I was just watching the original ‘Batman’ with Jack Nicholson,” he said. “He really was the best Joker, this character that had humor. It’s what Alice Cooper does on the stage.”