For his new concept album, “Along Came a Spider,” Alice Cooper wanted to create a serial killer people could, well, like.
So he created Spider, a character the Detroit-born shock-rocker notes is “psychotic” but has a degree of “charm” as he lures and kills his victims, wrapping them in silk that matches their eye colors and cutting off one of their legs to
“I think (Spider’s) got a romantic sense. He’s got a sense of humor. I think in the end you kind of like him. You have somebody you could actually listen to and go, ‘I like this guy
’ ” ...
Cooper is no stranger to concept albums. His 39-year recorded repertoire includes previous conceptual works such as 1975’s “Welcome to My Nightmare,” 1978’s “From the Inside” and 1994’s “The Last Temptation.” But he says that it’s not something he can push create his own arachnophobic appendage.
“It’s very easy to pull for a fictitious serial killer, a Hannibal Lecter or a Jason Voorhees,” explains Cooper, 60, real name Vincent Furnier, who resides these days in the Phoenix area with his wife and three children (oldest daughter Calico is part of his stage show). “I don’t think anyone was ever cheering for Ted Bundy or Richard Speck . or anything like that, but when it’s a fictitious serial killer, you . can get behind him. . . on every project.
“The last two albums (2003’s ‘The Eyes of Alice Cooper’ and 2005’s ‘Dirty Diamonds’), there just wasn’t a good story there, so I said, ‘Let’s just make a great Detroit sort of garage rock album,’ ” Cooper explains. “When you get a good story, like when ‘The Last Temptation’ came along, I said ‘That’s a good story. I can work with that.’ That doesn’t happen every time, but you have to be ready to go with it when it does come along.”
Key to the story, Cooper adds, is the narrative line, which includes surprises such as what happens to Spider when he actually falls in love with his eighth victim (the unwitting donor of his final leg) as well as a particular revelation in the epilogue that we won’t spoil by revealing here.
“There’s a twist, and then there’s a twist,” Cooper notes. “To me, that’s very Alice Cooper. That needs to be there for it to be an Alice Cooper thing.”
Sonically, the album — which debuted at No. 53 on the Billboard charts after its July 29 release — also has its twists, which Cooper credits to co-producers Greg Hampton and Danny Saber.
“They’re both guitar players, also — one (Saber) was more modern, one (Hampton) was more classic,” Cooper recalls. “That was kind of good for me. (Saber) really wasn’t that steeped in old school Alice Cooper, so ... I got a certain freshness out of him which was really good.”
“Along Came a Spider” also features contributions from Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash on the first single “Vengeance is Mine,” while Ozzy Osbourne co-wrote and plays harmonica on the track “Wake the Dead.”
Cooper, who’s recovering from a broken rib and ligament damage suffered in an onstage fall July 31 in Oregon, is planning a full-fledged stage show to support “Along Came a Spider” but won’t have it on the road until 2009; his current Psychodrama Tour, he notes, is “basically the classic rock tour, all the hits.”
At the same time, he reports, “I’ve got people that are drawing things up” for next year, including, he says, “ a new way for Alice to die” that’s different from the guillotine and gallows he’s used up to this point.
Cooper also is mulling over a visual treatment of “Along Came a Spider” with different horror directors creating videos for each song.
“We’ve started thinking about ‘What can we do to make this really interesting and what new things can we do with the stage?’ he explains. “A lot of clever minds out there are working on it.
“It’s weird to be working on a show for a year from now, but at the same time I can at least give myself a good head start.”
Alice Cooper performs at 7 p.m. Wednesday (Aug. 27) at the Michigan State Fair, Eight Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, Detroit. The show is free with State Fair admission ($10 for adults on weekdays); Gold Circle seats are available for an additional $20. Call (313) 369-8250 or visit www.michigan. gov/mistatefair.
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