In a brand new, exclusive interview conducted by Nightwatcher's House Of Rock, legendary drummer Neal Smith of the original ALICE COOPER Group discusses the recently released album from KILLSMITH, Sexual Savior, the possibilities of being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and also the chances of an Alice Cooper reunion. An excerpt from the interview follows below:

NHOR: A couple of Christmases ago, you, Michael Bruce and Dennis Dunaway got back together with Alice for a mini reunion at Alice's annual Christmas Pudding show in Phoenix. What was that experience like being back together again, and was there any further discussion of the the four of you getting back together for an album or any further shows?

Smith: "The four of us got together in Phoenix, Alice has his restaurant down there, Cooperstown, and we had the second Glenn Buxton Memorial Weekend celebrating Glen's life after he passed away. That was in 1999. That was actually the first time we had played together since we got off stage in South America in 1974. So that was 25 years. At any rate, Dennis and I, with the band Bouchard, Dunaway and Smith, we played the songs. Michael plays the songs. So to get together just to run through the songs, even without a rehearsal wasn't a big deal for that show. But for the Christmas Pudding we wanted something a little more polished. Mike and I had some musicians and worked a full week, then Dennis came and worked a couple of days, then Alice came in and worked a day with us, two rehearsals. Then we did the show. So it was a lot more polished than getting up and playing at Cooperstown. Everybody gets together, and it's always great. Without a doubt it's fantastic, it's like no time has passed at all. I don't think that's unusual for people who have gone through that type of experience like we did. But as far as anything in the future, it really is... we're always doing research for the right thing. It would have to be the right thing. Of course there were discussions about it. If it'll ever happen, I don't know. There's always some talk about it. Recording, I don't know. I would like to do like CREAM did. Three shows in one town or venue, then three shows in another town, and that's it. Have a CD and DVD available. Because there's a lot of fans that have never seen the band other from old footage, which is great, and I'm glad that was done. It was amazing how much wasn't done of our band. Things are talked about, but if something again will happen I don't know. I'm certainly the optimist in the group. The only reason being is that I'm a business person also. Because of that, I never give up when there's the possibility of doing something that would be a lot of fun. We'll see. Five years ago some of the guys wouldn't have thought we'd get back together again but we raised over $150,000 in one evening to help Alice's charity. We're all very proud of that, so it was a very cool thing to do. We'll see what the future brings."

NHOR: Alice was quoted earlier this year as saying he kind of likes the idea of being blackballed from the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. Do you think Alice really thinks that, and would you agree with his comments, that it's more of an honor not to be in there than to actually be in there?

Smith: "Well, I know a little bit about the politics around the hall, so I'm not really at liberty to say anything about that. I think whatever he thinks are his thoughts and opinions. I would like to be in there, but the way I look at it the true band Alice Cooper pissed people off way back then, and apparently we are still doing it. When you think of the things we started then, there's a whole vein of music which didn't exist before us. Everybody from KISS all the way up to MARILYN MANSON. All the bands in between in that vein were one way or another inspired by Alice Cooper. I read, and hear things from people all the way up to this day all the time, that they wouldn't be playing an instrument if it weren't for us. STEVE VAI, the first album he ever learned from beginning to end was Love It To Death. A lot of great musicians, and just that whole vein of music, the shock rock thing, or whatever you want to call it was brought upon by us. And to totally ignore that, and pass it over year after year just surprises me, that's all. My spin on it is if we're blackballed, who needs 'em anyway. I look at it as we're still ruffling feathers after all this time. Somewhere, somebody doesn't set easy with us. But you know what? When we were with Warner Brothers, they were ready to cancel our contract after every single album. We had to renegotiate after every single one. They kept thinking it was a fluke. The only ones who believed in us were us and Shep Gordon, our manager. That was it, and our fans. We had to cut a demo for Love It To Death. It was always a fight and a struggle for us. So the fact that somewhere somebody doesn't like us, that's fine with me. (Laughs)"

NHOR: Well, let's face it Neal, the Alice Cooper Band was never one of Rolling Stone Magazine's darlings, which seems to be a criteria to being inducted...

Smith: "I always said that, the magazine's not called, "Alice Cooper", it's called "Rolling Stone". And bearing in mind with what you just brought up, and I'm not going to elaborate on it much more, but we're talking about that whole San Francisco area there. Which does have a lot of influence on what goes on with the Hall. It's all politics, and there's nothing wrong with THE TALKING HEADS, but when I saw that they got in I said, "You've got to be kidding me". I know they had a couple of hit songs but I can't even really tell you what they are. The Alice Cooper Greatest Hits album is really a greatest hits album. How many records did they sell? I don't know. I think they should start up a Shock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The Hall Of Fame's cool, I've been there, and it's got some great stuff. The majority of the people who are in there certainly deserve to be in there and it's cool for the fans. And the other question is, if it happens, are they going to put Alice in by himself, or the whole band? That would be the biggest kick in the head for us, if they'd put Alice in by himself. Actually, I've had a couple people I've talked to from the Hall in New York, and they've said, 'Believe me, everybody knows the original band was the band.'"

To read the entire interview go to this location.