Cooper, Alice

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948), is a hard rock singer and musician. He is often referred to as the founder of shock rock. Alice Cooper was originally the name of Furnier's band. more...

Furnier officially changed his own name to Alice Cooper for a successful solo career.

Furnier was born in Detroit at a hospital that carried the nickname "The Butcher Shop", but, after a stream of illnesses moved to Phoenix, Arizona in his youth. His grandfather, Thurman Furnier, was an ordained Apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite). Cooper's father, Ether Furnier, was an ordained Elder. Cooper had some distant French Huguenot ancestry; the remainder of his ancestry was English.

Cooper, influenced by British Bands such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks and in particular The Yardbirds, formed a number of rock bands in the 1960s, including the Earwigs, The Spiders, and The Nazz. Furnier, upon learning that Todd Rundgren also had a band called The Nazz, changed the band's name to Alice Cooper (the name Alice Cooper is said to have been agreed upon after one of Furnier's Ouija sessions, and learning that he was a reincarnation of a 17th century "witch" of the same name, according to band legend, although Cooper in interviews has said the name actually came out of thin air conjuring an image of "a cute little girl with an axe behind her back"). The classic Alice Cooper group line up consisted of guitarists Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. After moving to California in 1968, the band enlisted Shep Gordon as their manager. They recorded their first album Pretties For You on Frank Zappa's label, Crooked Records. Frank told them to show up for the recording at 8:00 and the band mistakenly assumed he meant 8:00 AM, they showed up reeling drunk which is quite apparent when listening to this recording. The second album Easy Action was recorded on Frank Zappa's label, Straight Records. This album featured the hit "Refridgerator Heaven". The two competent but outlandish albums, received a frosty public and critical reception. Warner Brothers then purchased Straight Records from Frank Zappa and Alice Cooper was more highly promoted with this major label.

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