RocknWorld.com recently hooked up with former ALICE COOPER BAND bassist Dennis Dunaway to discuss the new DENNIS DUNAWAY PROJECT album, Bones From The Yard, and to take a look back at the early years. The following is a brief excerpt:

antiMUSIC: Looking back, what are your memories of the first few years of the original Alice Cooper? What events or shows particularly stand out?

Dennis: Before we named the band Alice Cooper, we called ourselves THE SPIDERS and we had a regional hit called, 'Don't Blow Your Mind', which landed us a booking at an air force base in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, near Mexico. When we arrived, the troops were ready for entertainment but the honchos took one look at us and said we couldn't go on because of our long hair. As the crowd grew increasingly restless, and as the honchos realized they had no alternative, they finally gave in and let us play. The troops recognized 'Don't Blow Your Mind' and everything turned out fine. Even the honchos liked us after that. Early on, Alice Cooper got several gigs because the club owners thought we were a girl folk singer. We got used to showing up and having people freak out before we even went on."

antiMUSIC: Alice Cooper as a band has its place in rock history. So much has been made of the stage show which obviously influenced thousands of followers such as KISS, NEW YORK DOLLS, etc. Do you feel that the band has got enough recognition for the songs themselves, many of which you wrote?

Dennis: "Considering the original Alice Cooper group has soared way beyond my wildest dreams, nope."

antiMUSIC: Do you recall how the evolution began from rock band to shock rock band? Was there a lot of experimentation in terms of costumes and your stage show or did everything sort of present itself fairly clearly?

Dennis: "In 1964, Alice, Glen Buxton, and I played our very first gig as a real band at the Halloween dance at Cortez High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Our show featured spider webs, a coffin and a guillotine. We always loved gimmicks of one kind or another, even if it was a fake stage riff, fight and all. Alice went through a period where he kept his back to the audiences. We had stopped doing covers and he wasn't sure about what he should do. I suggested that he imagine a different character for each song and that helped. One of Alice's was a dark one that he had was developing on a song called 'Fields of Regret', which we recorded for the Pretties For You album. The audience members, who hadn't left our show in disgust, liked that character the best so I urged Alice to expand on it, which lead to me writing, 'Black Juju'. Once that ball was rolling it gained momentum and Alice took it to phenomenal heights."

To read the entire interview go to this location.