Shock Rock talks. Alice Cooper here, Ask Me Anything.

Do you really enjoy visiting Milwaukee (which is Algonquin for 'The Good Land')?

Haha! Yes. You know I'm from the Midwest, I'm from Michigan, and I've always found that the best hard rock audiences are Midwest audiences. Midwest audiences seem to be the breeding ground for great hard rock music. NY is great, LA is great, they are all great, but most of the people in LA are from the Midwest! NY is its own sort of musical world, and it's a really exciting world. But for hard rock, you can't beat Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, that seems to be the breeding ground for hard rock bands. When we play the Midwest, we expect the audience to be a blue collar, hard rock audience.

And here's the weird thing about Milwaukee, or at least Wisconsin (this is a freaky fact): out of the 30 people that have claimed to be vampires, 20 of them were from Wisconsin. I have no idea WHY Wisconsin would have more vampires than anybody else, you'd think New Orleans would be the place, but for some reason Wisconsin is the center for Vampirism.

Milwaukee

Actually, I believe that's pronounced "mil-ee-wau-kay"

Also, there are more cattle mutilations in Wisconsin than anywhere else. Which might have to do with the vampires.

I think one of the most interesting aspects of Milwaukee is the fact that it's the only major American city to have elected three socialist mayors.

That might have been one of the lines I was improvising. I can't remember (see previous answer).

What can you tell us about meeting Col. Sanders? Did he bring chicken?

Pic

There was an INCREDIBLE thing that happened in the early 70's! Somebody threw a chicken onstage, I threw the chicken in the audience, the audience tore it to pieces, and then in the newspaper the next day the headline read "Alice Cooper tears chicken to pieces." It's the most notorious story about Alice Cooper that's been going on forever. And I thought "it just one chicken and I didn't even kill it, the audience killed it, so I thought why not take a picture with the mass murderer of chickens Colonel Sanders?" so to me it had a sense of humor to it. I mean, one chicken for me, seven BILLION chickens for Colonel Sanders. And yet I'm the villain. I would say if you interviewed the chickens they would be more terrified of him than me.

What terrifies Alice Cooper?

Anything to do with needles. I can put my head in a guillotine, I can put a 20 foot boa constrictor around me, but a blood test I will pass right out. It has nothing to do with the pain, it just has to do with the idea of an idea going in you and pulling blood out. I have no tattoos because I am needle phobic.

The other thing that terrifies me is clowns that make balloon animals. I cannot stand the squeaking of balloons. It is the most irritating thing in the world to me.

Mr.Cooper, being The "Godfather of Shock Rock" what was the most disturbing thing you have seen somebody do in real life ?

In real life in 1975, I had a knock on my door, I used to live on Blue Jay Way in Los Angeles. I lived in a house Mel Brooks rented to me. I opened the door and there was a little casket there. There were these two little girls that were like witches or something that were in a coven standing next to the casket in the front hard huddled over together, and they wouldn't look at me. The casket was a gift from them. I opened it up (reluctantly) and it was a cat's heart. I immediately literally called the police, because I didn't know if it was a gift, a warning or a threat, and I didn't quite know how to take it. I gave the box to the police and said "I don't know where they got this, but it can't be good." Anybody who goes that far... The things I do onstage are dark but they have a sense of humor. This did not have a sense of humor to it. The two little girls were arrested, and I never heard about them again... they might have gone on to become Heart or that's what should have happened.

Hey Alice, A couple years ago my Dad and I were in a Safeway in Maui and we ran into you. My dad was pretty excited, so decided to talk to you. You were very cool, genuine, and nice. I'm just wondering if at some point you get sick and tired of interacting with fans when you're out doing normal shit. Or do you love talking with fans? Thanks a lot.

I'm very lucky or blessed in that I actually like people. If I talk to somebody in a store, it's because I'm genuinely like that. Alice (the character that I play) is not like that, but myself if I'm walking around in Germany or England or Toledo, Ohio, and somebody wants a picture or an autograph, I've never said no to anybody. I just believe that when you are in the public eye and people buy your records and go to your shows and support your work, that you belong to them, and so I never say no to anybody.

I've seen Marilyn Manson get compared to you alot. How do you feel about that?

Well you have to look at it this way (and he's a good friend of mine now): when Alice came out, there was nothing like Alice. We were a totally unique entity. We invented the Shock Rock genre. We were out there doing it when it was very unpopular, but we made it commercial and popular. What that means is that we broke that barrier down, which meant that KISS and Slipknot and all the bands that are theatrical now had a shot. Because they could have a heavy image. Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie could have a heavy image. But you also had to have the music to back it up. You have a lot of people with image who have nothing to back it up, but if you only have the image, you're halfway home. You have to have the cake - the music. If you don't have the music to start with, all you have is icing. If we do a 10 hour rehearsal, 9 hours is on the music, and one hour is on the theatrics. So be a great band before you have great theatrics so you can go out there and your music speaks for itself - THEN you give them the image and the show to go with it, and now you have something that's a double-barrel shotgun. You're a great band AND a great performer.

Hello Alice! I just want to say that even though you're probably unaware of this, I have had many good times singing with you in the car or in the shower. I also appreciate the look I get when I walk in the rain with mascara thanks to you. I don't have a good question, except how do you keep so effortlessly cool, and what's your favourite eyeliner?

I was born ultimately cool, I can't help it. I was just born this way. Generally I only wear makeup on stage. If I'm doing a personal appearance or if I'm doing a photo session or something, then I'll use some MAC for a base and then smear on whatever I have that's black to make it look like eyeliner I couldn't get off the night before. Onstage it's just greasepaint, black greasepaint, that goes on and off very quickly. I can take my makeup off in about a minute and a half.

If you had to explain who you were to a stranger, but you couldn't use words, you could only play one song for them, what song would you choose?

I think "The Ballad of Dwight Fry" because that is the one song that embodies Alice's theatrical side plus the rock and musical side. It's almost like an acting exercise. Because you go from singing a regular chorus and verse, but the verse line is very psychotic - you can almost picture the guy in the straightjacket. That embodies what Alice is. Really good hard rock plus the theatrics.

How was it working with Kermit the frog?

Any other celebrity encounters/collaborations that you liked?

Kermit was great. The only problem we had was that Miss Piggy kept coming onto me. She was a pig. We would be in rehearsal and her paw would suddenly be in my lap - she thought that Kermit couldn't see it...maybe she was trying to make him jealous? So Kermit and I got along quite well but Miss Piggy was just a sexual harasser.

Most of my friends are celebrities, but I will say that doing the Muppet Show was probably the most fun I've ever had doing anything. That was when Jim Henson and Frank Oz were on the show, and it was the most fun week of rehearsal and actually shooting the show. And to this day, people come up to me and say that their kids watch me on the show - so I think it was the most fun thing I ever did.

Dear Alice, I love you madly. In Feed My Frankenstein, what did you mean with "Let me drink the wine from your fur tea cup?"

That's a good question. My psychiatrist would like to know that too! When you're doing lyrics, you're trying to build images. What i like to do is throw images out and let the audience invent their own story that goes on that. That was one of my lines that I did not write, however. "Feed My Frankenstein" was sent to us by Zodiac Mindwarp, and then I doctored some of the lyrics, but that wasn't one of my lines so I don't know exactly what Zodiac was talking about. It probably has to do with something sexual, I'm not sure. But it could be about cooking, who knows?

Hello Alice! Seventeen year old here. I've gotten a lot my friends into your music as well. I'm a huge, huge fan of yours.

• Do you have a favorite album of yours thus far? Why?

• What are your plans for future albums?

• I understand you once approached Dave Mustaine regarding his drug abuse. How did that go over, if it's not too personal?

• When are you coming back to New Jersey?

Well, when you have 28 albums, they are like 28 children. It's hard to pick your favorite child out of those because they all represent a different 6-8 months out of your life. Every time you do an album, it's a little bit of a confession of where you are in the universe - it's about what you're doing or where you are thinking. I can go back and look at all the albums and pretty much tell you what state of mind I was in or what was going on with me right then. "School's Out," "Billion Dollar Babies" were very creative times. "Love it to death" and "Killer" -that was when the band was really making it. Then there were other albums fighting through a time that wasn't so great. But they are just as valid. If I had to pick one that represented Alice the most, it would be "Killer" or "Love it to death" album.

I'm working on an album right now that's my very first covers album. I've never done covers of other people's work in 40 years of recording, and I decided to do covers of all of my friends who I used to drink with who died. Sort of all my dead drunk friends, which includes Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Harry Nillson, T-Rex, John Lennon, Keith Moon. All the guys I used to get drunk with in my glorious drinking days... so I decided that I would do an album that's a tribute to them.

Well I was asked to talk to Dave, and I am very happy to say that Dave is now one of the most sober guys I know, and one of the most productive. He's one of the most -I call it "thinking man's metal." When he approaches rock n' roll, it's very thought-out. He is one of the most intelligent guys I have ever met in the business. He went through a patch of dependency that I helped him get out of.

When we're on tour, we tour 6 months every year, so we do a thorough united states tour, and we do Europe, Australia, South America, Canada, so we are always in the neighborhood at some point, usually in the summertime. I would say next year, May / June / July, somewhere in that area.

Can you tell us any "behind the scenes" stories about your Top Gear appearance?

It's a phenomena, that show is in England, and the guys are very funny and very cool. But the European idea of racing is on a track. American idea of racing is drag racing. When I was a kid, you had to have the fastest car from one light to the next light, and you go through the gears as fast as you can. So for me to get in a car and go around a track, that's very un-American. It's something we're not born to. But if that was a drag race now, with two hot rods, I think I would have done a lot better because that's what I would do as a kid. Europeans are more sophisticated about their racing, so I didn't really know how to drive on their obstacle courses. They have me a 90 horsepower Kia and a racing helmet, and I'm going "I don't think I need this helmet with a Kia. Why don't you let me drive that Aston Martin sitting there?" It was like driving a sewing machine. But these guys are VERY funny and very clever and I really enjoy their show.

Do you have any advice for bands on how to deal with record labels and the music industry?

What record labels? There are very few record labels left as I know it. A record label used to be something that would invest in your career and keep the band afloat. It doesn't seem like that anymore. The best thing it seems to be now is to make your own albums in your garage and sell them on your website. If you're lucky enough to be with a really good label like I am, you get distribution all over the world. But generally record labels are not what they used to be. Columbia, A&M, Elektra, those were really great rock labels. Capitol had the Beatles, etc. But now with technology the way it is, you don't go to a record store and buy records anymore. I don't exactly know what a record label does anymore. I would say if you are a young band, be the best live band in the neighborhood and make sure there is nobody around better than you, because that is where you can sign. Anybody can make a great record in a garage, but you can't fake a live performance.

Yeah, that's basically the same feeling I get. My friends were talking with Sony, and even some smaller labels like Razor and Tie, but they basically just seem like banks that give you a really shitty loan. My friends have already made an awesome record, and are about to release it themselves. Labels weren't interested until they hear the record, but that seems kind of like a chicken and egg scenario.

If there are labels that are worth it, do you think there are certain questions we could ask in order to find out if a label is legit? Thanks for the AMA!

Well I'm not knocking down all record labels, I'm just saying it's a different era that you're in than we were in. When I signed with Warner Brothers and when David Bowie signed with Columbia, they wanted 20 albums and they wanted to shape your career. In other words, they were all in. They wanted to be involved in every part of your career. To me, that's telling me they care. Whereas, if you're a young band now, you might get money to do one album. So it's a different time, and I think that it's hard for me to relate to it to be honest with you. I'm almost from another planet. If you were to ask Elton, or Bowie, they would say the same thing. I think bands now are at a disadvantage. We had people believing in us enough to put a lot of money behind us and that paid off for everybody. Whereas now you're on your own, and if a big record label comes up to support you good - but have a good lawyer in your back pocket, because the record label has a good lawyer in their back pocket.

Can you tell us a little about your friendship with Groucho Marx?

Well Groucho Marx - I grew up on Groucho Marx. The Marx Brothers, every time they were on, I would sit and watch them and laugh like crazy because they were so funny. I never thought I would get a chance to meet Groucho. And so the deal was, he came to one of the shows. And when he came to the show, they asked him "what did you think of Alice Cooper?" and he said "Alice is the last chance for Vaudeville." And I took that as a real compliment, because what we do is a dark humor, rock n' roll style of Vaudeville, and he had seen the guillotine and the snake before in Vaudeville. There had been acts that were like that. And then we got to be very good friends. He was sharp as a tack, even when he was 86 years old his mind was as sharp as it ever was. And it was so much fun to hang out with Groucho Marx.

How was it working with Wayne and Garth?

Well I of course watched Wayne and Garth on SNL like everybody else did. Then when the movie came up, Mike Myers called me up and said "I think you should be the icon that we go to see in the story" and I said "Great! Let's do it." The funny part was we were just supposed to do the song, and when we got there he said "We have some dialogue for you to do" and he gave me like 8 pages for me to do and I asked when we were supposed to shoot it and it was in about 30 minutes. So the going on and on about Milwaukee, about half of it I was making up, because I couldn't possibly remember all of it that was in the script, and Mike and Dana were trying to do EVERYTHING to get me to laugh and break character. And I absolutely found a place between them and delivered all the lines without breaking character. Mike and I are still really good friends and I see Mike all the time.

What's the one thing you most owe your longevity as an artist to?

You know, when I was a kid I was a long distance runner. I was a miler and a two-miler. And then I ended up being a really long distance runner, like twenty miles. And there was a certain thing about that determination that you just didn't quit. And I think that in my generation, the deal was that you write songs, you record songs, and then you go and perform songs. That's what I was born to do, that's all I want to do, and that's all I've done since I was 15 years old. I'm 65 years old and I'm still doing 100 cities a year, and when people say "retirement" I say "What?" Bob Dylan's doing 200 cities a year! If I didn't have what I do, I would be very bored.

My dad raised me on two bands; The Beatles and Alice Cooper. Sort of a strange duality I guess... but I just wanted to say thanks for allowing me a glimpse into a vein of music that changed my tastes in music as I grew up! I still jam out to Billion Dollar Babies today and when I visit the folks my dad will sometimes still throw on Welcome to my Nightmare!

It's funny - when my kids were starting to listen to music, the three things that I played when they were young were The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Four Seasons. Because all of their songs were happy, 3 minute songs. 3 minute happy pop songs. And after that, then they appreciated what a good song was, and then they started acquiring their own taste for what was good to them. My son kind of went towards the Yardbirds and the Who, where my daughters were more on a pop level, they went towards the boy bands for a while, then they went towards indie pop rock bands. But they were raised on those three.

Hello, Alice! Long time fan here… Thanks so much for all of the entertainment, company, and inspiration.

So – When they make you life story into a movie, who gets to play the part of YOU?

Thanks again for keeping me young!

Well, I already told Johnny Depp he is going to have to have his nose broken in order to play me, so he's working on that right now... no, actually, Steve Carell - if you put my hair and the makeup on Steve Carell, it would probably look really close. We have a very similar kind of smile and face structure. It would be a weird choice but we have the same smile and he's probably in some kind of really dark metal band that we don't know about anyways.

Reddit loves James Randi who was the Demented Dentist on your tour. I interviewed him about the experience and he recounted some great stories working with you. Can you give us a favorite James Randi story?

Well James Randi - the strange thing about him is that we worked together in 1975 or 1976. When he came in he was a little man with a white beard who was balding, and sort of a little old of professor. I just saw him last year and he looks EXACTLY the same. 40 years have gone by and he looks exactly the same. So he was 80 years old when he was 40. His greatest trick is the fact that he's still here. We just did a documentary about him called "An Honest Liar." He's one of those guys who if you can prove psychics are real, he has a check for a million dollars in his wallet, and no one's been able to prove to him yet that psychic abilities are real.

Hi Alice!

If I were to go to your restaurant in Phoenix, could I ask if you were in, and and say Hi? Or do you get that 1,000 times a day and it's annoying at this point?

You know, I never know when I am going to be in the restaurant. When I'm in Phoenix I'm probably there once or twice a week. When I'm there, I test the ribs or whatever it is we're serving to make sure it's good. In the 15 years we've been open, they have always been consistently great, so the restaurant is something to be proud of. Any restaurant that's been open 15 years and is staying strong, that's hard to do in this day & age.

Whoa man. This is awesome that you're doing this :) Huge fan here, just saw you with Marilyn Manson not too long ago. You both were amazing.

Here's my question: Who was your favorite person to tour with, overall?

Oh boy, that's a good one. We did a lot of tours with Cheap Trick and they were very good friends of ours. Rob Zombie was a really good friend. As far as the bands and the shows getting along well together, touring with Rob Zombie and Marilyn. It's hard for me to pick just one. We've done more shows with Cheap Trick because they've been around so long. But I've gotten to know Rob and Marilyn better as a result of us touring together, so I'd have to say it's between those two guys.

What was your favourite moment of the 70's?

I also got to see you in Buffalo with Anvil two summers ago, and it was the best $13 concert I've ever been to, hands down.

Wow, that's pretty amazing because that's when Alice Cooper was at the peak. I think when you get your first number one album - we were voted number one band in the world at that point. You have to think that is your high point right there, you are selling out every concert and you are voted number one band in the world by a British rock magazine. To be honest with you it was embarrassing because we happen to know that the Beatles and the Stones are higher on the list but we just happened to be more popular then. I recall sending letters to them apologizing saying something along the lines of "We know you guys are better if you're looking at the rock world... we're just more popular right now." For us to be voted above them was a sacrilege to me, they were like the ones who invented us.

Hey Alice, your radio show is killer. Question: do you have a preference between wet and dry ribs?

I prefer the wet because you are getting extra sauce on it but the ribs should be so tender they are falling off the bone. At Cooperstown, they put the ribs in a 5 AM so they cook all day and by the time you get there, they are PERFECT. I can't stand tough ribs, they should be soft and easy to eat.

We're not talking about human ribs, are we? You eat one missionary and you get branded a cannibal the rest of your life, so unfair.

Hi, Alice, I love you so much <3 Do you have a favourite book? :)

Other than The Bible, I'd say that my favorite book of all time is probably Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I've always thought that his sense of humor was very similar to mine. Or any of Ian Fleming's early James Bond books, even if you've seen the movies, they are great reads. But if I can only pick one, I'd say Breakfast of Champions.

Seems to be mainly Pop Stars are the shocking ones these days...any favorites among these?

You mean everybody that's out there right now? Well I am one of those guys that likes pop music. I'm not big on hip hop, but when I hear a pop record that really gets me, I will go "wow that's really good." I love a well-written pop song. When I first heard "My Sharona" I said "Wow, I can't believe how good that record is." I think that's why the Beatles were so good - they were fun to listen to - same with the Beach Boys, they wrote good pop records. I think this band fun. has done some interesting things. They're Broadwayish. And I think the Killers have done some really good pop records. I talked to Lady Gaga and I told her the meat dress was a great idea but it didn't take it far enough. On my stage we would have put her on a bar-b-que and barbequed the dress, then had the audience come and eat the dress off of her. She said "I think that's a great idea." I guess she's always wanted to be covered in bar-b-que sauce, so that's the next thing.

in the live video of you singing "i'm eighteen", and in the intro you go "MAAAAAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAA...mamamamamaaaa yeaaaahhh" were you drunk? i love that version of the song, honestly. what do you think of it when you hear it now?

Well we did a version of that on a TV show called the Beat Club in Germany in about 1971 or 1972, and it was in Bremen, Germany. I can remember that out of all the tours because I keep seeing it. I figured that people would never see it, but of course now with technology I see it all the time. I had a bottle of whiskey in my hand, and I was probably as drunk as I could be legally, and it really was one of those videos now ... it was probably one of the most punk things I ever did. I'm 18 and I like it and I'm drunk and I'm stupid. And most of the punk bands now look at it and say "That is REAL punk right there." And I remember putting on the fact that I was drunker than I was, because the song was saying that, so I remember actually going for that.

Hi Alice, i´m curious about this little spherical necklace you seem to wear all the time! Does it have a special meaning?

You mean the one with the pearl on it?

Hi Alice! What are some ways one can stand out in the entertainment industry?

Find something that nobody's done, and then do it better than anybody else. In other words, I've never seen a lead singer in a band that was also a ballerina... if I was looking at a punk rock band, and the lead singer was a girl en pointe in a ballet costume singing heavy metal, that gets my attention. Not only is the juxtaposition something that doesn't fit together (which is GREAT. The best reaction you can get is "What!" and also "how do they do that"). Even if you're not a ballerina, or a fake ballerina, even better. If you weigh 300 pounds and you're a ballerina, even better. Now there are probably going to be 25 bands with ballet singers being metal.

(I've never seen a lead singer who was a bullfighter either.)

Take something out of your imagination and when you're onstage, once you assume the character, be that character until you get offstage.

Hello Alice, big fan here!

Among today's bands, who do you think will stand the test of time and be regarded as classics in 10-20 years time?

If you think of music as a product, do you think the market is oversaturated with too many and too similar products?

I think that it would be the hard rock bands that stick around the longest. The Foo Fighters, Green Day (if they're still around, they seem to right really memorable songs), Jack White is one of those guys that keeps producing great interesting music, I don't know how much dance music is going to stand up as being classical. They all sound so much alike. When it comes to the metal genre, Aerosmith and Guns & Roses have songs that will stand up 30-40 years from now, Metallica will stand the test of time. These are really the ones I can think of right now. It's like every era has its glut of music where 80% of it is something that you'll never remember, but those 20% of songs you will remember and say it will live forever. I will find it thinner and thinner. In the 60s there were a TON, in the 70s there were a ton, in the 80s it was thinner but you had U2, Prince, you had bands writing memorable sorts of anthems. The 90s got to be a blur, there were great bands like Nirvana that will always be remembered because their songs were very memorable and well-written. When you get to 2000 and on you start to really get thin when it comes to classic songs. I think Bruce Springsteen will have songs that will last, but not many more artists like that. I think the further away you get from the Beatles the less memorable you get, we all learned how to write from the Beatles and people like that. Now it just seems to be like you write something and it goes away, it doesn't stick the way those songs did.

We keep hearing rumors of an "Alice on Broadway" show. Any chance of a blockbuster announcement here today?

No. I can't tell you anything about that. The mystery is this: I can't talk about it.

Hi, my Dad's a big fan, he's been to a heap of your concerts and my name was influenced by you (Cooper). He was just wondering if there's any plans on making a Monster Dog sequel?

You know, that's a very interesting thing because it's actually come up recently. When I got sober, the very first thing I needed to do was work, to see if I could do work sober. We shot it in Spain and it was a 2 month shoot, and it proved to me that I could work sober. They promised me that it would only be released in the Philippines. Now it's a cult movie, and somebody - my daughter actually mentioned that she was trying to get the rights to it (she's an actress, writer, director) and she either wants to make part 2 or re-do it, so there may be another life to this movie.

I told her already that the catchline is "his bite is worse than his bark."

Hi Alice, do you think that your music and persona would be "accepted" into the music industry if you were trying to make it in today's music world?

I there's such a thing as determination. When our band started out, we were the last band that any record company would sign. We were SO bizarre and our music was not really commercial. But there was never a moment that we ever thought that we weren't going to make it. So it was just a matter of determination until we DID make it. I don't think even in the very worst worst of times, the band said "let's quit." So I think it had to do with that determination. And when you're that determined, you get better and better and better at your craft. Until one day we were a band that just could not be ignored.

Have you ever been approached by filmmakers with interest in adapting one of your concept albums into a film? If not, would you be open to such a thing at this point in your life?

Absolutely. I think almost every one of my albums is a story. I'm a storyteller. So I figured that if I could tell a small story in 3 minutes, then I make my albums 12 or 13 songs that tell a bigger story. A good example would be "Along came a spider" which is a story about a serial killer but he was a very interesting, DEXTER type of serial killer. And we treated it like a short movie, so every song was set in that. Same thing with "The Last Temptation", "Welcome to my Nightmare," "Dragontown." I really like the medium of rock music to tell stories. Any one of those could be a movie, easily. And if you have like $10 million dollars, feel free to make a movie out of one of them!

What's Mustaine like on the golf course? How many strokes do you have to spot him?

In order to play great golf, you have to play 4-5 times a week. I play 6 times a week. Every single day I play golf which is why I can play to a 1 or 2 handicap. If you only play a few times a week, you can't be as good. If Mustaine played as much as I did, he would only a 1 or 2 handicap.

Hello Alice! My name is Alice (:D) and I'm your huge fan . I'm your fan since always, I think that's my dad's fault :). But in a good way. I'm just curious what bands do you like :D. And books, if you like them :). I don't know what to ask, I just wanted to write something and thank you for everything. You inspired me to play guitar and start a band!

That's great! You know the bands I like now - I like Slash and the Conspirators, and the Foo Fighters, there's a lot of great bands out there. The interesting thing is that we have Orianthi in the band, our female Australian lead guitar player, and it's funny how some people learn how to play guitar just because they can pick up the guitar and play it. I work with a group called Fretlight where they've invented a system where the fretboards light up to tell you what chord you are playing. It's a whole new way to play guitar that illuminates so you can look down and see where an A chord is, so it teaches you immediately how to play guitar. Then after a while you take away the lights and you know those chords. So it's an amazing way to learn how to play. Look it up! It's an interesting thing. I got to play a Quitter's anonymous therapist about telling people not to quit playing guitar. http://www.quitters-anonymous.com

I want MORE people to play guitar. I wish I would have kept playing more when I was learning. I kick myself for not continuing my guitar lessons. So now they have Fretlight and there is no excuse for quitting now. It might really advance you, it's an amazing system.

Hey Alice - first off just wanted to thank you for everything, I'm a huge fan and I'll be seeing my 30th Alice Cooper concert in October. Looking forward to much more great music from you!

My question - you've played concerts in an extraordinary number of countries compared to most rock artists. Is there any particular country or countries you haven't played in yet that you'd really like to?

Thanks, all the best!

Well nobody's broken in China yet. I think our show would go over well in China because they have a background of theater to start with, and I think our show would really do well there. I think in India also. But it seems like India would be much more into pop, if you ever see Indian movies you never see people as happy in your life! We might be a little bit too dark for India. But I'd love to do 20 cities in China. I've played Hong Kong, and I'd love to get over there. I don't think they are quite open there yet - I think they have had the Rolling Stones over there, but I'd love to go play all the major cities in China.