Celebrity Nooz: Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper (Rock Star)

Updated: 05/16/2006

Name: Alice Cooper

Birth Name: Vincent Furnier

Born: February 4, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan

Claim To Fame: Rock Star

More frightening than Marilyn Manson, kookier than Kiss and funnier than Freddy Krueger, Alice Cooper inspired all three and a host of other rock bands.

Family Life: Sheryl Cooper, since 1976. They have three children.

Info: Alice Cooper was born Vincent Damon Furnier, in Detroit and was the son of a minister. He moved to Phoenix, AZ at a young age and still lives in that city today.

At 17, he formed a rock band called Alice Cooper, named after a woman who was persecuted for being a witch in Miedeval Europe.

They got their first big break playing at the Wiskey - a - GoGo in L.A. one night when Frank Zappa discovered them and signed them to an album deal in 1969.

After their first album the band broke up (1975) and there was a dispute over who would be able to coninue using the Alice Cooper name, the band or the man who Alice. Vincent ended the dispute by having his name legally changed to Alice Cooper, so the band played on as the Billion Dollar Babies. That same year, Alice met his would-be wife, Sheryl, who was a dancer on the "Welcome to My Nightmare" tour.

Trivia: Alice and his original band made the song "Man With the Golden Gun" intended for the James Bond movie of the same, but the movie producers deemed Alice "too controversial" and went with another song of the same title sung by Lulu for the movie.

He once belonged to the exclusive Hollywood club the "Hollywood Vampires" in the mid to late 70s.

In 1998 opened up his own restaurant right in Downtown Phoenix called "Cooperstown".

He is an avid golfer, and has participated in several celebrity tournaments.

The song 'Why Must I Be Sad?' by They Might Be Giants is about Alice.

In 1977 Cooper was hospitalized in the New York sanitarium for alcoholism. Ironically this proved fruitful for a surprise return to form on the hard-rocking, semi-autobiographical album "From The Inside."

He went to school at Cortez High School, which was just down the street from where I used to own a video store called Video Extra.

Where Are They Now: Alice is still tourning and released two albums in the past year, "The Eyes of Alice Cooper" and "Hell Is".

He also has a radio show that you can catch if you are in any of the following areas:

KDKB 93.3 Phoenix, Arizona
WGMO 95.3 Shell Lake, Wisconsin
WNHI 93.3 Belmont/Laconia, New Hampshire
WIBA 101.5 Madison, Wisconsin
KZEL 96.1 Eugene, OR
KRZZ 96.3 Wichita, KS
KKBX 101.9 Fargo, ND
KTUN 101.5 Eagle/Vail, CO
WVNA 105.5 Muscle Shoals, AL
WRQR 104.5 Wilmington, NC
KYJT 100.9 Yuma, AZ
KARX Amarillo, TX
KURK Reno,NV

Write To Alice Cooper:
No info available.

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