Legendary shock rocker ALICE COOPER is featured in a new interview with Classic Rock Revisited's Jeb Wright. An excerpt is available below:

Jeb: I have been listening to Welcome 2 My Nightmare and loving it.

Alice: "Bob Ezrin always brings out the worst in me and I always bring out the worst in him. When we get together, our creative juices get really done."

Jeb: When did the idea come up to do a sequel?

Alice: "It's funny, we weren’t even going to do this; it wasn’t the original idea. I was just going to write some songs with Bob. We started talking and it was the 35th anniversary of the album Welcome to My Nightmare. We started wondering what Alice’s nightmares would be 35 years later. One thing led to another and pretty soon we were writing songs. Seventeen songs later, we had an album. We weren’t there to write an album and, out of nowhere, we had one. Not only that, but it was one of the five best albums we’ve ever done. We were kind of surprised that so many good things came out of it."

Jeb: Tell me about the song you did with Ke$ha. When I saw her name on the album I went, “What the hell?”

Alice: "I sometimes rebel against my own fans. When my fans come up to me and go, 'You can’t have someone like her on your record.' Then I go, 'I can’t? Why?' If someone tells me that I can’t have Vince Gill play lead on a song, then I say, 'Why?' If he plays the greatest guitar solo that you ever heard then who cares?

I met Ke$ha at the Grammys and she never looked, to me, like a Diva, she looked like a rock singer. I told her, 'Eventually, everyone leaves the Divas. There is no way you can have a long lasting career as no one ends up loving the Divas forever. However, everybody loves a rock band.' It’s true, no one ever says anything bad about Chrissie Hynde. I am trying to talk her into getting a real rock band behind her.

When I met her, I had an idea for a song. I needed a character to play the devil. In the song, she finally has enough, and its time for Alice to pay her with his soul. We decided to call it 'What Baby Wants Baby Gets' because in the song he tries to say, 'Hey, that wasn’t part of the deal' and she says, 'No, no, no, you don’t understand, what baby wants, baby gets!' For me, it was a perfect line for her to say. .

Go to this location for the complete interview.

As previously reported, Cooper performed his new single 'I'll Bite Your Face Off' on the September 9th, 2011 installment of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. It was the inaugural performance of Cooper's new guitarist, Orianthi. Check out the footage below.

Australian-born Orianthi Panagaris replaces Damon Johnson for the next leg of his 2011 No More Mr. Nice Guy world tour, starting September 22nd in Auckland, New Zealand. Currently in progress, the tour hits ninety plus cities, covering five continents, including Europe and North America twice over. Check out rehearsal photos with Orianthi below:

Check out more photos on Alice Cooper's Facebook wall here.

At the young age of 26, Orianthi has already experienced what most aspiring musicians only dream of. She's opened for her hero, STEVE VAI; backed CARRIE UNDERWOOD; traded solos with CARLOS SANTANA; shared the stage with the King of Pop, MICHAEL JACKSON, and accompanied Alice during his live performance of 'School’s Out' on the 2010 season finale of American Idol.

"It’s very difficult to find someone to match the talents of Damon Johnson,” commented Cooper, “but not only did we find someone who is more than up to the challenge… she also looks WAY better."

Orianthi will join world-renowned guitarist Steve Hunter (toured and recorded with Cooper and LOU REED) and Tommy Henriksen (co-wrote and played on Cooper’s upcoming release); drummer Glen Sobel and Alice's longtime bassist Chuck Garric round out the band.

“I’m super excited to go on tour with Alice,” said Orianthi. “It’s a huge honor to be able to get on stage and jam with an icon.”

Alice Cooper's live itinerary can be found here.

Alice Cooper's Welcome 2 My Nightmare album was released in mainland Europe on September 9th, will hit the UK on the 12th and North America on the 13th. The US Best Buy version will feature the following four exclusive bonus tracks:

'Under The Bed' (new studio track)

'Poison' (live at the Download Festival)

'No More Mr. Nice Guy' (live at the Download Festival)

'Black Widow' (live at the Download Festival)

BraveWords.com has heard the album and a review can be read here.