On Saturday, February 27th the entire Alice Cooper Band held a livestream band meeting, catching up on what each of them have been up to.

Alice, his wife Sheryl, and all the members of his current touring band, Nita Strauss, Ryan Roxie, Tommy Henriksen, Chuck Garric and Glen Sobel, met up online and gave fans a sneak peek at one of their band meetings. The Band Meeting or After-School’s Out Special was a unique episode of In the Trenches, Ryan Roxie’s weekly podcast, and streamed on YouTube and Facebook. 

Cooper's new release Detroit Stories, his 21st solo album, is a first full-fledged tribute to the city that helped shape him. The album’s producer Bob Ezrin even popped on the show to tout the accolades that have already been bestowed upon the album by critics and fans alike. The album includes Detroit musicians like Mark Farner, members of the original Alice Cooper Band, some original tunes as well as covers of songs by Bob Seger, the MC5, Mitch Ryder’s Detroit and Outrageous Cherry. 

Cooper: "So now we’ve gotta think what’s next. And what’s next to me is showing off this band. And I think that the only way to do that is to take it on the road, write songs now but rehearse them during soundcheck on the road, and, at some point, on the road, record the whole album live in one of the venues that we’re doing. With this band, the whole idea is to show off how tight the band really is, so we’ll write the songs, rehearse them on the road, record it on the road, and call the album The Road or just Road. That would be the concept for the whole album; stories about the road."

Missing the road was a big part of the band’s discussion, but Cooper is optimistic that they will all be back out on tour this year.

Alice Cooper's new studio album, Detroit Stories, was released this Friday, February 26, via earMUSIC. Join Alice as he goes behind the scenes into the inspiration and recording of his new record in About Detroit Stories, Part 3: The Myth:

About Detroit Stories - Part 1: Hard Rock Capital:

About Detroit Stories - Part 2: Where's The Party?:

Named for the city that launched the original Alice Cooper group on the road to success, Detroit Stories follows last year’s Breadcrumbs EP as a modern-day homage to the toughest and craziest Rock n Roll scene there ever was.

In 1970, fledgling producer Bob Ezrin walked into a farmhouse on the outskirts of Detroit to work with the Alice Cooper band. Abandoning flower power Los Angeles, because they were the opposite of the hippie peace and love ideal, Alice had brought his decidedly darker gang back to his birthplace to the legendary rock scene that gave birth to hard rock, garage rock, soul, funk, punk…and more.

Ezrin drilled the band for 10 hours a day to define their signature sound. Whenever they nailed a song, the inmates at the hospital for the criminally insane across the road cheered and thus the classic Alice Cooper sound was born.

“Detroit was Heavy Rock central then,” explains Alice, “You’d play the Eastown and it would be Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, the Stooges and the Who, for $4! The next weekend at the Grande it was MC5, Brownsville Station and Fleetwood Mac, or Savoy Brown or the Small Faces. You couldn’t be a soft-rock band or you’d get your ass kicked.”

“Los Angeles had its sound with The Doors, Love and Buffalo Springfield,” he says, “San Francisco had the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. New York had The Rascals and The Velvet Underground. But Detroit was the birthplace of angry hard rock. After not fitting in anywhere in the US (musically or image wise) Detroit was the only place that recognized the Alice Cooper guitar driven, hard rock sound and our crazy stage show. Detroit was a haven for the outcasts. And when they found out I was born in East Detroit… we were home.”

50 years later Alice and Ezrin gathered some legendary Detroit musicians in a Detroit studio to record Detroit Stories, Alice Cooper’s new album that celebrates that spirit for a new era. If 2019’s “Breadcrumbs” EP laid down the trail to the city, Detroit Stories drives like a muscle car right down Woodward Ave.

“We recorded with Wayne Kramer (guitarist and writer from the MC5), Johnny “Bee” Badanjek (drums - from the legendary Detroit Wheels), Paul Randolph (legendary Detroit jazz and R&B bassist) as well as the Motor City Horns and other local musicians,” explains Ezrin, “We had musical ideas and encouragement from John Varvatos, the support of the folks at Shinola, and we recorded at Rustbelt Studios in Royal Oak. This was Made In Detroit for Detroit by Detroit denizens!”

Discover Detroit Stories as they were meant to be told.

Detroit Stories is available on CD, CD+DVD Digipak, CD Box Set (including CD, Blu-ray, T-shirt, face mask, torch light and 3 stickers), and 2LP Gatefold on February 26th 2021 on earMUSIC.

The DVD and Blu-ray will show the incredible live performance “A Paranormal Evening At The Olympia Paris” for the first time on video. With the whole concert culture being shut down due to covid-19, Alice Cooper felt the need to share one of his latest shows with his fans as he cannot wait to get back on the road - better than ever.

Tracklisting:

"Rock ‘N’ Roll"
"Go Man Go" (Album Version)
"Our Love Will Change The World"
"Social Debris"
"$1000 High Heel Shoes"
"Hail Mary"
"Detroit City 2021" (Album Version)
"Drunk And In Love"
"Independence Dave"
"I Hate You"
"Wonderful World"
"Sister Anne" (Album Version)
"Hanging On By A Thread (Don’t Give Up)"
"Shut Up And Rock"
"East Side Story" (Album Version)

Full album preview:

"Social Debris" video:

“Our Love Will Change The World” lyric video:

"Rock 'N' Roll" visualizer: