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0:00
Yah, Welcome
0:06
to Induction Vault, a production of I
0:09
Heart Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
0:15
M Who
0:31
better to induct the godfather of shock rock,
0:33
Alice Cooper, along with the rest of the Alice Cooper
0:35
Band than horror movie director and fellow
0:38
spooky rocker Rob Zombie. Zombie's
0:41
hilarious speech recounts his lifelong
0:43
idolization of Cooper and the momentous
0:45
inspiration that Alice Cooper's theatrical
0:47
rock and maccabb's stage shows were not
0:50
only for Zombie's career, but for rock music
0:53
in general. Then, Cooper,
0:56
Dennis Dunnaway, Michael Bruce, and Neil
0:58
Smith make brief but poignant remind paying
1:00
tribute to late bandmate Glenn Buxton
1:03
and thanking the fans and others who helped
1:05
them along the way, perfectly illustrating
1:08
why so many devotees remember
1:10
the poop Hello,
1:17
Hello, good evening, um
1:19
rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I was thinking about
1:22
rock and roll heroes and what they mean. I
1:24
mean, we love rock and roll heroes because they're
1:27
cooler than us, they're smarter than us, they're
1:29
richer than us, and we all
1:32
love them right. Wrong?
1:35
Wrong? Uh?
1:37
I mean Let's put it in perspective. I don't want to
1:39
name names, but say James Bond.
1:41
You know what good is James
1:44
Bond without gold Finger or
1:46
dr No or pussy
1:49
galore. He's just a
1:52
swab boring guy in a tucks with
1:55
a nit picky drink order that UH
2:00
like to say his name a lot. You know, Bond, James
2:02
Bond, Hey Bond,
2:04
James Bond, Buddy and um.
2:08
In nineteen sixty nine, that was essentially
2:11
what had happened to Rock. All heroes,
2:14
no villains, and you're thinking,
2:16
what about Jerry Lee Lewis, what about Keith Richards?
2:20
Badass motherfucker's to be sure, but
2:23
not villains. But
2:26
then in nineteen sixty nine, a very special
2:28
event happened. It was in Venice, California,
2:32
at the Cheetah Club where a new band,
2:34
Alice Cooper, appeared on stage.
2:41
You say that now, but not in nineteen sixty
2:44
nine, because that show is
2:46
famous for the fact that within five minutes
2:48
they cleared the room.
2:51
They told me the story themselves. It's true, they
2:53
cleared the room. Everyone hated him except
2:55
one man. Now,
2:58
I see John Densmore brought a up and so
3:00
did I. Uh I figured
3:02
that was a very intense moment in rock history,
3:05
so I wanted to act it out for you, but
3:08
I need my script, told him the
3:11
one man who saw the beauty, and that was Frank's
3:14
appa. Exactly
3:18
who else? So
3:21
Frank went up to that band said
3:24
I'm gonna sign you to my label. I don't
3:26
like you. I don't understand
3:28
your music. You're so freaky.
3:31
I don't get it. Are you on
3:33
drugs? Which
3:35
Alice said no, not
3:38
on drugs. I
3:41
don't know. Maybe he wasn't uh,
3:44
And then Frank asked, hey,
3:46
where are you from?
3:49
Phoenix, Arizona.
3:52
Well, I guess Phoenix Arizona
3:54
was all Frank needed to hear, because right after that
3:57
he signed him to his label. The rest is
4:00
history. I mean, they went on at that point
4:02
to become the most rock
4:05
star destroying band of all time.
4:07
Nobody could understand. They took everything to
4:09
a new level. They even tried to explain
4:12
it in their own songs. This this one
4:14
song be My Lover with the
4:16
lyrics go. She asked me why the singer's
4:18
name was Alice. I said,
4:20
listen, baby, you just wouldn't understand.
4:25
As my mom would say, which one's at which one's
4:27
Alice? Is that she is? Is she the one that's Alice?
4:29
Anyway? They were more than a band. They
4:32
were more like a murderous gang
4:34
of drag queens. Say
4:38
in a good way, that's good. But
4:41
their mission was, as they would say it themselves,
4:44
was to destroy the hippies dreams of
4:46
peace, love and understanding, and
4:48
to quote them, all they wanted were ferraris,
4:51
switchblades and blonds. Well
4:55
maybe Rolls Royces too, I don't know. In
4:57
fact, they knew how, you know, the villains know how
5:00
a party, And even Jim Morrison wrote about
5:02
it. He would sing, I woke up this morning,
5:04
I got myself a beer, which
5:06
is a line he stole from Alice. When Alice
5:08
was just explaining his morning ritual.
5:11
Jim thought, wow, hardcore.
5:14
Anyway. The Alice
5:16
Cooper band was glam rock before
5:18
anyone thought of glam rock. They were punk rock
5:20
before anyone thought of punk rock. In
5:23
fact, Johnny Rotten audition for the Sex
5:25
Pistols by singing at Alice Cooper song so
5:29
what are you gonna doing? I mean everywhere
5:32
I turned someone references them, I mean rocky
5:35
horror picture show. The main reference was Alice
5:37
Cooper everything's Alice Cooper. I
5:40
mean they were just basically em appeal meets
5:42
baby Jane under the guidance of Dr
5:44
Frankenstein. I
5:47
can't think of any other way to describe it, even
5:50
for a fourth grade I remember I was worshiped
5:52
Alice Cooper and brief little story,
5:54
you know, his fourth grade little art fair at the
5:56
local public library. Everybody had a paint a picture
5:58
of somebody they had fired. They figured,
6:01
you know, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, whatever, boring.
6:04
I painted a portrait of Alice Cooper with
6:06
the words love it to death and blood dripping down
6:08
the side.
6:12
It seemed like a good idea at the time. Well,
6:15
I got yanked out of the art show and made the paper
6:17
front page, you know, sick kid loves
6:19
Alice Cooper or something. So Alice,
6:21
thanks for the early press. I appreciate
6:23
that. Um anyway,
6:26
of course, Alice Cooper did one thing that I
6:29
think people forget. He did he invented
6:31
the rock show. Before Alice Cooper,
6:34
it was not a rock show. He invented
6:37
the rock show. I
6:42
could list all the things that he did, but I'd
6:44
be here all night. But dancing skeletons,
6:47
bog and strictors, guillotines, hangings, electric
6:49
chairs, black widows, dead babies, balloon,
6:51
shield of money, blizzards of bubbles,
6:53
confetti, chickens with machine guns, nurses,
6:55
platform boots, tuxedos, blah
6:58
blah blah blah blah,
7:00
and makeup the iconic makeup.
7:02
Oh yeah. He also did a
7:05
thriller of a track with Vincent
7:07
Price, long before Michael
7:09
Jackson ever thought of it, just
7:11
to stick it in there. Um.
7:14
Anyway, I wouldn't be here talking about
7:16
Alice Cooper if it was just the stage show. You
7:18
know, stage shows get old,
7:20
outrage fades, and
7:23
last year's freak show is this year's awards
7:25
show. But
7:29
within that a man would come
7:31
along who was sort of as George Martin was
7:33
to the Beatles. This man would be to Alice.
7:36
That's Bob Ezran Bob.
7:38
Where are you, Bob?
7:41
You've been bugging me all night? Where did you go? Um?
7:45
In a short period of time, they would just crank out
7:47
amazing platinum record after amazing platinum
7:49
record. He'd have to hit that became more
7:51
than hits. They became anthems,
7:54
teenage anthems. Everything was an anthem. Schools
7:56
out eighteen no more Mr nice guy
7:59
under my wheels, on and on and on.
8:03
By that point it was impossible
8:06
to ignore these sick things, and
8:08
their place in rock history was already rock
8:11
solid. But I still remember
8:13
seeing this picture of Alice Cooper leaning at
8:15
the bar or maybe leaning on the counter
8:18
at the holiday and I'm not sure, and
8:20
he had a denim jacket that said remember
8:22
the coupe embroidered on the back. Well,
8:26
forty years later, fifty million records
8:29
later, yeah, we fucking remember
8:31
the coop all right after
8:40
the break quill here from members of Alice
8:42
Cooper Band on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
8:44
Induction vault. Thank
8:50
you, Cochuta
8:56
cachun Are Snake here called a little
8:58
left out because
9:00
she normally performs with us, but you know, yes,
9:05
that is Elton John will be there. That's right.
9:07
Such a groupie, it's unbelievable. We
9:11
just want to thank the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for voting
9:13
us in. Um.
9:15
We really have to thank our
9:17
manager of forty two years, Ship Gordon.
9:23
We still don't have a contract. We'll get around to that.
9:25
And Joe Greenberg Bob
9:28
Ezrin who produced all of
9:30
the big records for us, and
9:34
uh we want to recognize
9:36
the late Glenn Buxton, who was the heart
9:38
and soul of
9:41
our band as
9:43
black and dark as it. Maybe it's the heart and
9:45
soul played tonight,
9:47
of course by Steve Hunter on
9:50
lead guitar. You
9:54
know, we were the first generation brought
9:56
up by the Beatles and the Stones, who
9:58
influenced everybody. But
10:00
the bands that really really
10:02
hit home for us were the Yardbirds, the
10:05
Who, the Kinks. They
10:08
gave us our musical education. I
10:10
hope I never outgrow a Pete
10:13
Townsend windmill chord. I
10:15
hope I never outgrow a Jeff Beck lead
10:17
guitar. If
10:19
I do, just shoot me. We've
10:23
always been a hard rock band. We just wanted
10:25
to decorate it just a little bit differently. Uh.
10:29
I wish I could tell you that being in the hall
10:31
now, that we'll
10:33
never embarrass you, but
10:36
I really can't make that promise. I
10:39
mean, after all, we are Alice Cooper. It's
10:42
what we do. I'd
10:57
like to thank the rats there in the snake
11:00
stomach for sacrificing the
11:02
ultimate sacrifice for art. Lots
11:05
of things happen over the years. Number
11:08
One, you trade these in for
11:10
these. Uh.
11:17
Also, one
11:19
thing I did not anticipate to the volume
11:21
that it has been. As as soon as we found
11:24
out that we were inducted, the
11:26
phone rang off the hook. I've been
11:28
so busy and I'm not him.
11:32
The snake probably got more than me too, even
11:34
but but uh,
11:38
I've been so busy. This is what I ended
11:40
up with for a speech.
11:44
I'd like to thank Dwayne Eddy and the Rebels
11:46
for playing at a
11:48
double feature movie and between
11:50
movies they came out and played and I said, that's
11:52
what I want to do. And I
11:55
talked to my my other
11:58
skinny nerd friend at high school. We were
12:00
the two nerds, and uh,
12:02
we decided to start a band. How
12:05
did we get here? I'd
12:08
like to thank John Spear, John Tatum,
12:10
Mike All and Charlie Carneal Dick
12:12
Christian Jack, Curtis Fender
12:15
for the billion dollar base that you saw
12:17
tonight and the equipment
12:20
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I
12:23
love him. Uh we are
12:25
here. Uh. My
12:27
wife, Cindy, who had
12:29
a lot to do with blinging us out,
12:32
and she was a dancing tooth.
12:35
She was the original nurse and she
12:37
was also a major therapist
12:40
for all of us. My daughter's Renee
12:42
and Chelsea for all of their support,
12:46
my mom and dad, Joe
12:48
Greenberg, Chef Gordon for
12:51
seeing something that a whole room full
12:53
of people didn't. Uh.
12:55
Bob Ethern, it's
12:57
always uh an honor and a joy
13:00
to work with him. Uh he he
13:02
puts up with a lot out of my
13:04
abstract excursions into
13:07
the pioneering realms of outer
13:09
space. Uh.
13:11
And last but not
13:14
least, the great the fire
13:16
of the band, Glenn Buxton, Thank
13:19
you Obi
13:27
still my raging heart. I
13:30
just wanted to say thank you for
13:33
the wonderful uh Alice's
13:35
parents Mr Mr Fern for
13:38
putting up with us as we rehearsed and said
13:40
on their Naga Hyde couch and
13:42
during the summer and it's stuck. And
13:45
uh also the Buxton's
13:47
Uh Glenn of course, uh
13:50
a wonderful man who's not with us tonight.
13:53
And also my folks
13:55
who are not with us tonight, and we
13:59
couldn't have on it without you. And
14:01
also i'd i'd just like to extend
14:03
this uh find it in your heart for brothers
14:06
and sisters in Japan who
14:08
have suffered a tremendous loss and
14:11
they'll need all of our help to get back on
14:13
their feet. And God bless you all
14:15
and rock on. First
14:25
of all, I'd like to thank four
14:28
of my best friends in the world. Glen Bucks in Lake, Glen
14:30
Buckston, Michael Bruce, Vincent
14:33
Fernier, came Alice, and then
14:35
it's Donaway. These four characters
14:38
gave a homeless drummer a place to stay in
14:40
Santa Monica. Two weeks later,
14:43
they asked me to play drums in their band and
14:46
UH I accepted. UM
14:49
thanks to Todd run Gren for calling his band
14:51
the naz and we had to
14:53
change the name bar band. We chose a name Alice
14:55
Cooper. And thanks to Frank's Dappa
14:58
and thanks to Dennis's
15:00
wife, Cindy my sister for
15:03
being at at work in Los
15:05
Angeles when two cool looking
15:08
dudes from New York came into
15:10
her shop to do some shopping. She
15:12
found out their names were Chef Gordon and
15:14
Joe Greenberg and that they
15:16
had come to Los Angeles to manage a
15:18
band. And she said, so
15:21
coincidentally, my brother is in a band called
15:23
Alice Cooper. Frank Zappa
15:25
wants to sign them. Joe
15:28
and Chef, thank you they did sign
15:30
us as our managers. UM
15:33
and and also thanks to Bob ezmun and
15:37
thanks to Jack Richardson. Jack
15:39
Richardson didn't really want to record the band,
15:42
so we threw us at Bob, who
15:44
became the sixth member of the band, even
15:46
though he is Canadian Altgad,
15:49
I love their beer. Uh. And
15:52
Mr Mr Hess, my fifth grade
15:55
music teacher who was ready to wrap
15:57
a troumbone around my throat and told me, why don't I try
15:59
to play something guel like the drums? Thank you and
16:02
Uh. Lastly, and most
16:04
importantly to all
16:07
the Alice Cooper fans around the planet
16:09
that have been supportive over the years and
16:12
hoping that this day, this
16:14
night would eventually come. Well,
16:17
guess what, Alice Cooper and the Rock
16:19
Roll Hall of Fame but now collided, and
16:22
this statue is because of you. It's
16:25
about you, and it's for you. Thank
16:28
you a fucking billion.
16:34
Thank you. By the way, it's my thirty fifth anniversary
16:36
to my wife Cheryl over there, who
16:41
was our skinny little ballerina and nightmare
16:43
and we're still happily married. Thank you,
16:46
Ed, thank you. Thanks
16:53
for joining us on this week's episode of Rock
16:55
and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Vault for
16:57
more on your favorite inductees, to shop
16:59
inducting arch or to plan your trip to
17:01
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, visit rock
17:03
Hall dot com plus Rock
17:06
and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Special on demand
17:08
on HBO Max. Our
17:11
executive producers are Noel Brown, Shelby
17:14
Morrison, and Lisa Gurkey. Supervising
17:16
producer is Taylor Shakoin. Research
17:18
and archival assistants from Isabelle Keeper
17:21
and Shannon Herb. Thanks again for joining
17:23
us on this week's episode of Rock and Roll Hall
17:25
of Fame Induction Vall Induction Ball
17:27
is a production of I Heart Radio and the Rock
17:29
and Roll Hall of Fame. For
17:37
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the I
17:40
heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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