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Alice Cooper: The Godfather of Shock & Roll
This value-priced reissue of Alice Cooper at 75 (2023) celebrates the godfather of shock rock with expert commentary, hundreds of images, and an illustrated timeline.
Pythons, guillotines, stage blood…with his concoction of vaudeville, horror film tropes, and three-chord rock ’n’ roll, Alice Cooper invented a genre. Let veteran rock journalist Gary Graff and Detroit rock writer Gary Graff be your guide to Cooper’s extraordinary career through the lens of 75 career accomplishments, events, and collaborations. This exquisite volume
Stunning concert and candid offstage photographyImages of memorabilia, including gig posters, vinyl record sleeves, ticket stubs, and period adsAn Alice Cooper timeline
Through seven-and-a-half decades, Graff covers it
Cooper’s childhood in Detroit and Arizona and early garage bands the Earwigs and the SpidersAll 28 studio albums, including those as frontman of Alice Cooper the bandA selection of his greatest singles, like the classic-rock standards “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s Out,” and “Welcome to My Nightmare”Collaborations with artists including Slash, Johnny Depp, Wayne Kramer, and moreAssociations with notable guitarists, including Glen Buxton, Nita Strauss, and OrianthiNonmusical passions like classic cars and, of course, golfHis relationship with wife and entertainment accomplice, SherylTireless charity work
Beginning with his 1969 debut LP Pretties for You and continuing through his latest release, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Alice Cooper is regarded as one of the most influential performers and musicians in hard rock and heavy metal, influencing countless acts both visually and musically. This book is your unprecedented retrospective of Cooper’s career from teenage garage rocker to international star and celebrity.
The result is a unique and lavishly produced celebration of the iconic and beloved rock star.
Pythons, guillotines, stage blood…with his concoction of vaudeville, horror film tropes, and three-chord rock ’n’ roll, Alice Cooper invented a genre. Let veteran rock journalist Gary Graff and Detroit rock writer Gary Graff be your guide to Cooper’s extraordinary career through the lens of 75 career accomplishments, events, and collaborations. This exquisite volume
Stunning concert and candid offstage photographyImages of memorabilia, including gig posters, vinyl record sleeves, ticket stubs, and period adsAn Alice Cooper timeline
Through seven-and-a-half decades, Graff covers it
Cooper’s childhood in Detroit and Arizona and early garage bands the Earwigs and the SpidersAll 28 studio albums, including those as frontman of Alice Cooper the bandA selection of his greatest singles, like the classic-rock standards “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s Out,” and “Welcome to My Nightmare”Collaborations with artists including Slash, Johnny Depp, Wayne Kramer, and moreAssociations with notable guitarists, including Glen Buxton, Nita Strauss, and OrianthiNonmusical passions like classic cars and, of course, golfHis relationship with wife and entertainment accomplice, SherylTireless charity work
Beginning with his 1969 debut LP Pretties for You and continuing through his latest release, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Alice Cooper is regarded as one of the most influential performers and musicians in hard rock and heavy metal, influencing countless acts both visually and musically. This book is your unprecedented retrospective of Cooper’s career from teenage garage rocker to international star and celebrity.
The result is a unique and lavishly produced celebration of the iconic and beloved rock star.
606 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 28, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 17, 2025
Another bullet-point review incoming (as always, my favorite way to do these):
▪️Considering the number of pages rightfully dedicated to the life and times of the original lineup, I found it odd that Graff should have failed to include the story of how a bullet to the ankle spared Neal Smith the draft. Come to think of it, the other members also missed being shipped off to Nam more or less narrowly, so I can hardly think of an excuse to omit those anecdotes from the book.
▪️As a seasoned Sick Thing (as Alice likes to refer to us), I'd already known a lot, if not most of the facts presented in this lovely, large, full-color format. It did, however, make me pretty angry to discover that the elaborate LP jacket of my copy of From the Inside failed to mention that Rick Nielsen, of all people, also plays on the record. A further search similarly failed to pinpoint the exact track where the Cheap Trickster might be heard, but after reading a fan review professing that the title track's opening riff just had to be Nielsen, I put two and two together.
▪️Speaking of guest appearances, what do you mean Nikki Sixx featured on Feed My Frankenstein, and Mick Mars played guitar on Die For You, no less?
▪️Kudos to Graff for likening Hell Is Living Without You to a Def Leppard tune. So on point!
▪️Apparently, at some point in 1985 Alice wrote with Andy McCoy. 1985. Good ole Vince fresh out of the rehab. 1985. Less than a year after Razzle's death. I repeat: with Andy McCoy, not McSoberBoy. I'll let you do the math. (And if you're interested in my general thoughts on Andy McCoy, here you go.)
▪️I loved that Graff saw to it that Nita Strauss be granted an entire chapter, and I'm even more glad that she eventually returned to the band and is actively touring with them as I type this!
▪️My only gripe (aside from a handful of spelling errors that I found really annoying) was the overall attitude toward the blackout records. "Gaunt, whacked out appearance" at Tom Snyder's show in 1981? Yeah, sure, Alice looked like a walking corpse, but I just love that interview. I often go back to it because even at his absolute lowest (knocking on death's door, quite literally), the man was so articulate and intelligent that, ironically enough, his words alone betrayed nothing of the demons he was battling at the time. And the new wave influences on Flush the Fashion and Special Forces, although generally frowned upon, worked well with the Alice persona. I absolutely love those albums, as well as Zipper Catches Skin and DaDa. I've always seen the latter as a conceptual sequel to 1976's Goes to Hell, an additional link in Steven's musical chain of nightmares, if you will.
▪️Another (minor) gripe: Graff claims that Poison wasn't followed by any major hits from Trash, but I find that hard to believe. You would, too, especially after seeing and hearing the crowd go ballistic at Bed of Nails not once, but twice!
See you in Pilsen, Coop!
▪️Considering the number of pages rightfully dedicated to the life and times of the original lineup, I found it odd that Graff should have failed to include the story of how a bullet to the ankle spared Neal Smith the draft. Come to think of it, the other members also missed being shipped off to Nam more or less narrowly, so I can hardly think of an excuse to omit those anecdotes from the book.
▪️As a seasoned Sick Thing (as Alice likes to refer to us), I'd already known a lot, if not most of the facts presented in this lovely, large, full-color format. It did, however, make me pretty angry to discover that the elaborate LP jacket of my copy of From the Inside failed to mention that Rick Nielsen, of all people, also plays on the record. A further search similarly failed to pinpoint the exact track where the Cheap Trickster might be heard, but after reading a fan review professing that the title track's opening riff just had to be Nielsen, I put two and two together.
▪️Speaking of guest appearances, what do you mean Nikki Sixx featured on Feed My Frankenstein, and Mick Mars played guitar on Die For You, no less?
▪️Kudos to Graff for likening Hell Is Living Without You to a Def Leppard tune. So on point!
▪️Apparently, at some point in 1985 Alice wrote with Andy McCoy. 1985. Good ole Vince fresh out of the rehab. 1985. Less than a year after Razzle's death. I repeat: with Andy McCoy, not McSoberBoy. I'll let you do the math. (And if you're interested in my general thoughts on Andy McCoy, here you go.)
▪️I loved that Graff saw to it that Nita Strauss be granted an entire chapter, and I'm even more glad that she eventually returned to the band and is actively touring with them as I type this!
▪️My only gripe (aside from a handful of spelling errors that I found really annoying) was the overall attitude toward the blackout records. "Gaunt, whacked out appearance" at Tom Snyder's show in 1981? Yeah, sure, Alice looked like a walking corpse, but I just love that interview. I often go back to it because even at his absolute lowest (knocking on death's door, quite literally), the man was so articulate and intelligent that, ironically enough, his words alone betrayed nothing of the demons he was battling at the time. And the new wave influences on Flush the Fashion and Special Forces, although generally frowned upon, worked well with the Alice persona. I absolutely love those albums, as well as Zipper Catches Skin and DaDa. I've always seen the latter as a conceptual sequel to 1976's Goes to Hell, an additional link in Steven's musical chain of nightmares, if you will.
▪️Another (minor) gripe: Graff claims that Poison wasn't followed by any major hits from Trash, but I find that hard to believe. You would, too, especially after seeing and hearing the crowd go ballistic at Bed of Nails not once, but twice!
See you in Pilsen, Coop!
Displaying 1 of 1 review