Guitarist Kane Roberts has spoken to eonmusic about his Alice Cooper years, reconnecting with music on his new album The New Normal, and his striking image.

Roberts, who played with Cooper from 1985 - 1987, was responsible for helping relaunch Cooper's career following a stint in rehab, and the guitarist admitted that it was a big responsibility taking on that challenge. Said Kane; "Well, their search at that time was not just; 'Hey, let’s find a guitar player and a co-writer for Alice'; it was a little bit beyond that because he was coming out of a very special situation with where is career had been, and where he was in terms of rehab and all that stuff that was going on."

He continued; "They looked for something a little different. So I walked in the room; I didn’t look proper, I didn’t do any drugs, I didn’t drink or anything, and the final thing was that Alice and I became best friends, literally within ten minutes of meeting each other."

Roberts appeared on the albums Constrictor (1986) and follow-up Raise Your Fist And Yell (1987), sets that he says were designed with a new approach in mind. "I said to Alice, 'When you come back, especially live, we don’t want people to think you ‘survived’ rehab; you’ve got to come back like a nuclear version; like you were bitten by a nuclear beast or something like that. And that it’s a different version of you, because you have to compete with Ozzy and Van Halen and all these bands that are out there; you can’t just sort of assume that what you did before, and manner that you presented it is going to get you through the day', because, the culture of rock and metal was changing. So, you can see how that discussion manifested itself."

Going on to talk about the infamous album cover for his self-titled 1987 solo debut, the guitarist admitted that it deserves its place in the 'Worst Album Covers of All Time' list. Said Kane: "I was looking at it going; 'What the fuck is this?!' I’m there [on the sleeve], and I’m in an alley, and behind me is a little Vespa motor scooter, and I’m looking at it going; 'Seriously?!' And then they wrote my name in flames, and it looked like ‘Kake Roberts’."

Roberts did admit however, that he can see the funny side of it. "It’s really funny; I was sitting with Vito [Bratta] from White Lion, and he said he had the worst cover ever, which was the one with the lion in the grass with the White House behind it (‘Big Game’, 1989), and I said; 'No, I think I got ya beat; mine’s like a McDonalds commercial on acid', you know what I mean? So he still thinks his is worse than mine."

Finally, Kane admitted that following he split from Cooper, he never received a single offer to join another band. "If you think about it, Alice Cooper, with the way I looked, was the only band on the planet that ever would have hired me. I didn’t get one offer. And I didn’t expect it, because I think one of the reasons is my image."

Read the entire interview here.

Kane Roberts' new solo album, The New Normal, is out now via Frontiers Music Srl (order here).

Tracklisting:

"King Of The World" (Feat. Nita Strauss)
"Wonderful"
"Beginning Of The End" (Feat. Alice Cooper, Alissa White-Gluz, Aoyama Hideki, Kip Winger)
"Who We Are" (Feat. Katt Franich)
"Forever Out Of Place" (Feat. Kip Winger)
"Leave This World Behind"
"The Lion’s Share" (Feat. Kip Winger)
"Leave Me In The Dark"
"Above And Beyond" (Feat. Kip Winger)
"Wrong"

"Beginning Of The End" (featuring Alice Cooper and Alissa White-Gluz) video:

"King Of The World"  (featuring Nita Strauss):

"Forever Out Of Place" (featuring Kip Winger):

(Photo - Mike Goedecke)