North American syndicated rock radio show and website, InTheStudio With Redbeard: The Stories Behind History’s Greatest Rock Bands, catches up with Grammy Award performer, Rock Hall Of Famer and leader of the Hollywood Vampires, Alice Cooper, to recall February 1971’s release of his breakthrough third album, Love It To Death.

Says host Readbeard: “Detroit’s blue-collar bars and cheap motels along Woodward Avenue may be less than 200 miles away from the steps of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland, but it turned out to be a four decade odyssey for Alice Cooper. Only in rock n’ roll can a preacher’s son named Vincent Furnier dress up in make-up, leather, and fishnet stockings while simulating his own execution by hanging, beheading, and electric chair as 10,000 mesmerized fans gladly pay for the macabre experience.

“In 1969, five friends from Phoenix moved to Los Angeles as a band named Alice Cooper, but after recording two unsuccessful albums, Pretties For You and Easy Action on Frank Zappa’s Straight Records label, Alice Cooper headed for Furnier’s birthplace of Detroit in hopes of better luck. Inking a deal with Warner Brothers, they actually released two albums in 1971, Love It To Death and Killer, with both albums becoming instant successes because of hit songs “I’m Eighteen”, ”Under My Wheels”, and “Be My Lover”.”

Alice shares his fond memories of an early concert which illustrate the fact that the Alice Cooper band was unlike anything before. “We played at a thing called the Lenny Bruce’s Birthday Party with The Doors, Paul Butterfield, Love, all of these great bands. Six to eight thousand people inside this place. Alice Cooper came on last. Within I would say four minutes we had cleared the place. They could not take it!... We were like everybody’s rock & roll nightmare come true, and they sat there and their mouths were open, and then they ran for the door. It was the greatest reaction. There were four people left standing there, my manager Shep Gordon, Frank Zappa, and two of the GTOs.”  

Alice Cooper Love It To Death /InTheStudio interview is available now at this location.