Alice Cooper

The godfather of shock-rock on the Hollywood Vampires, having a stress-free life, and never expecting to live past 30

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There’s no ‘off’ switch on Alice Cooper. Even as the legendary shock-rock icon, Hollywood Vampire and consummate master of the macabre attended his recent 75th birthday party – hosted by Poison songwriter Desmond Child in Nashville – his mind kept wandering to the minutiae of his next tour. “I’m the Ziegfeld of rock,” he says. “It’s all about the show. All I can think is: ‘Will that thing work in the second song?’” Prior to hitting the road with fellow Vampires Joe Perry, Johnny Depp and Tommy Henriksen, Alice is busy recording a pair of albums with producer Bob Ezrin and preparing his next all-important stage extravaganza. “Preparing an entirely new production is the calm before the storm… The fun part.”

Fifty years on from the release of Billion Dollar Babies, are there plans to expand the album to an even greater extent than its 2001 Deluxe Edition?

Oh yeah. We’re putting a billion dollars into it. Actually? We’re not… I rarely have anything to do with reissues. We have approval, but when they’re planning to put my baby shoes in the box and things like that, I just go: “Okay, I don’t care. Go ahead.” As much as I love the history of the original band, I don’t sit around thinking about it; I’m all about what’s next.

You had just turned twenty-five when the album was released. Could you have imagined that you’d still be a professional decapitee at seventy-five?