ALICE COOPER Takes A Page From Groucho And Allen For Talk Show
November 10, 2006, 17 years ago
The following report is courtesy of Clea Simon from Boston.com:
If Groucho Marx had a radio show today, would it sound like ALICE COOPER's? That's the theory ghoulish rock luminary Cooper proposed recently, when he visited the WZLX-FM (100.7) studios to discuss his Saturday Night With Alice Cooper show, which runs Saturdays, 7 p.m.-midnight, on the classic rock station.
"I learned from Groucho, and I used to watch Steve Allen incessantly," said Cooper, who befriended the famous Marx brother before his death in 1977 . Allen, a legendary TV interviewer, "had the best approach to a talk show because he sounded like he was just winging it constantly. I try to do that. I'll interrupt a story and ask, 'What was I talking about?' I want the audience to hear me get lost every once in a while and bumble about a little bit. Anything that goes against the general delivery of a disc jockey is fine by me."Cooper's had a bit of practice. Although the horror-rock star's Saturday night show only debuted on WZLX last month, he's been doing a syndicated program every weeknight since early 2004. The Saturday version, which distills bits from the previous week's shows, mixes classic rock with Cooper's interviews and quips. The interviews, with rockers of his generation such as Roger Daltrey and Bill Wyman , stand out from your typical celebrity chat, said Cooper, because they're conversations between peers. "I know these guys, that's the great thing," he said.
Sometimes that results in interviews that stray from music. Talking with Slash of GUNS N' ROSES, for example, Cooper asked, "So, are you still keeping snakes?" To which Slash replied, "Oh yeah, I lost one the other day."
"It's just two rock guys talking," said Cooper. Slash, he explained, "had like a hundred snakes. He had some bad boys. Some black mambas. You did not want to clean that cage!"To read the entire interview head to this location.
