Alice Cooper fans run the gamut between teenage goths in ripped fishnets and pension-age old rockers with slightly grown-out mullets and a little too much denim. After all, hes been making music for close to fifty years, and a star for most of that time. Never exactly a critical darling, his legions of rabid obsessives still comb old record shops for sixties bootlegs and cram arenas worldwide to hear the hits (and more; much, much more) delivered faultlessly just one more time. And yet, with all that, he still feels like ours: that's why we all call him 'Alice', like he's the guy we see in the pub every Friday night. Hes the shock rock icon whos kept the tabloids in lurid copy for the last five decades: a sneering, androgynous serial killer on stage in the seventies, smeared with blood and eyeliner, belying his secret reputation as the nicest man in showbiz. Hes Alice Cooper, and if youre an Alice Cooper fan, there are a few things you know and understand about the man and his music that few others will.
17. He's The Son Of A Preacherman
You'd think that a man christened Vincent Damon Furnier wouldn't need to take on a stage name to get across his diabolically sinister alter ego in front of an audience of umpteen millions. I mean, it already sounds like one of the names Anton LaVey crossed out in his school exercise book. However, the future Alice Cooper, scourge of the PTA, was born the son of a of a lay preacher in the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ - otherwise known as an offshoot of the Mormons. His fathers father, Thurman Sylvester Furnier, was an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ - its also known as the Bickertonite Church. They dont call themselves Mormons, but well, who are they kidding?
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
