Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A rock star known for macabre theatrical stage shows featuring mock executions and a signature look of blackened eyes and straggly hair.
On the island
Eight records
Yardbirds were our biggest influence. When we were kids, we learned all the Beatles' songs. We learned all the Rolling Stone songs. Those were the two staples. That's all you really needed to know.
Well, now when I was 12, I lived in Van Nuys, California, and the Beach Boys were the thing, pre-Beatles. I Get Around, came out, and it was unique to anything that was out there. And for some reason, it spoke for every kid.
Well, uh again, back in this period, the Who had a strange combination. They could play big heavy songs like My Generation, but they had a pop feel too. They made records that were really good pop records, like Substitute. And this one I picked I'm a Boy.
Maybe the most underrated songwriter of all time. Her first two albums, Every Song's a Hit. The second album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession. just crushed me, had me by the throat, like a Burt Bacharach.
Well, now our band devoured records. We loved records from England because it seemed the English bands were very creative and they were doing all these things. And we put on this record called In the Court of the Crimson King, King Crimson. And all of a sudden, this song, 21st Century Schizoid Man, I listened to it and I said, Nobody can play like that.
Uh another song that made me literally stop the car, this one song came on, uh Jane's Addiction, Been Caught Stealing, that wasn't like anything. It wasn't like any song I'd ever heard. And to this day, it's still one of the most unique records ever made.
Work SongFavourite
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Paul Butterfield was the American version of the Yardbirds. And I wasn't a blues guy, but Paul Butterfield Blues Band put it into a rock blues form that was mind-blowing.
Well, Bob Dylan, you know, the poet laureate of America, he's just so ragged. And yet you listen to him and there's so much going on with this guy. As a lyricist, of course, he's way up there. But this I had to pick one song. I could have picked 50 different Dylan songs. But this song, for some reason, always haunted me.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:47You talk about Alice Cooper in the third person, then. He's someone else, is he?
Well, I mean I I played this character that I invented named Alice for a long time. I honestly didn't know where I began and Alice ended. And it was when I was drinking. My friends at the time were Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin, all the people that died at 27 years old from excess, Keith Moon, you know. And I was trying to stay up, keep up with them. And I realized when they all died that you didn't have to be your character offstage. Jim Morrison was always Jim Morrison. He was Jim Morrison offstage and onstage. And it killed him. … You know, and I just figure, why not make Alice a character that only belongs on stage? And when I'm off stage, I don't need to be him.
Presenter asks
6:17Who were the Hollywood vampires?
The Hollywood Vampires came much later in the career when we had already made it. We had two number one records. And, you know, you're living in Beverly Hills, and there's this club called The Rainbow. … We finally decided it was a drinking club. The Hollywood Vampires, sort of last man standing. And anybody that was in town, if John Lennon was in town, he came up. And it really was a private drinking club. And there was a plaque that said, Lair of the Vampires. And I think pretty much we would all get there, sit there and start drinking and talking about music.
Presenter asks
9:29The keepsakes
The book
Kurt Vonnegut
Jeez, I should take something that's going to explain Shakespeare to me. Because Shakespeare is not that easy to understand for the middle American kid.
The luxury
Well, I always say my wife is a luxury. Can't take her. ... A luxury would be one of those indoor driving ranges. So where you can actually program the course in, I want to play Pebble Beach. Boom, it comes up. You're at Pebble Beach. You hit the ball into the screen. It tells you how far you hit it, where you are. Okay, I could live with that.
What did your mom and dad do?
My dad was an honest used car salesman, which meant that we were poor. You know, he couldn't sell a car. He couldn't lie and sell a car. And so the guys that he worked for were pretty much gangsters. And they said, Mick, we love you, but you can't sell cars because you're too honest. You really should be a pastor. And he ended up becoming a pastor.
Presenter asks
15:10What do you remember [about nearly dying of peritonitis when you were ten]?
Yeah, pretty much for three months. When I went in to get the appendix operation, they couldn't operate because they said we have to wait until the peritonitis, if he lives through that, then we can take the appendix out. So when they finally got in, the doctor told my parents, I can't tell you he's going to be alive when we go in there. I mean, that's how desperate it was.
Presenter asks
25:37What's kept [your marriage] together?
What's kept it together? Thirty five years. Never cheated on her. She never cheated on me. It was just we were two totally compatible. Both of our pa dads were pastors. I didn't find that out till later. Her dad was a Baptist pastor. We both had the same kind of grounded in a certain morality.
“It was a marriage of rock, horror and comedy. … I don't think you can really scare somebody without giving them a laugh afterwards.”
“Alice is a timeless character. You know, when I think how old is Batman? How old is Dracula? How old is Jekyll and Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Fictitious characters don't have an age.”
“My personality was basically my power.”
“Alice is not an alcoholic. You are. … Alice is the healthy one. He's the one that's working and not drinking and not taking drugs and and he's doing his job. The other 22 hours during the day is you. You're the problem. It's not the monster. It's Dr. Frankenstein.”