The Toronto Sun (torontosun.com) has issued the following report from Steve Tilley:

Talking to ALICE COOPER about the devil seems about as natural as talking to Wayne Gretzky about the NHL. Until it gets to the part where Gretzky says he hates hockey and has always been a diehard football fan.

Alice Cooper loves rock and roll, loves shocking people, and loves horror movies - that's why he's the guest of honour for the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear, one component of the massive weekend geek-out that is Fan Expo Canada, kicking off tomorrow at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

But he's no fan of Satan. Cooper - born Vincent Furnier, or Vince to his many golfing buddies - is a devout Christian who says his songs caution people about the evil in the world, rather than inviting them to hop aboard the Abyss Express.

"I'm a true believer in God and Satan. I may be one of the only people in the world that believes that Bible stories are literal," Cooper , 58, said in a phone interview.

"I literally believe that there is a character named the Devil who is definitely out for you and me. He's out there to get you and me to look away from Christ."

But just because he won't party with Lucifer doesn't mean Cooper - or at least his blood-dripping, snake-cuddling stage persona - is all sunshine and butterflies.

"I kind of look at the humour in horror," said Cooper, a longtime buff of the film genre. "I think with every good horror movie, if you're not laughing, there's something wrong."

The scares-aplenty UK flick The Descent and the video game-to-film adaptation Silent Hill are a couple of his recent horror film faves. Way, way at the bottom of the list are movies like Hostel, which eschew plot and character in the name of gruesome torture.

"I hate a movie that's just, 'Let's see how sadomasochistic we can get here,' " said Cooper, who has probably gone through tanker truckloads of fake blood in his time.

"If everything is red in a painting, then really nothing is red. But if you take a totally white-and-black painting and put in one dot of red, that red just screams. It's a matter of dynamic."

Before he comes to Toronto, Cooper will in England for a charity golf tournament, something he does on a regular basis. And speaking of demonic forces, frizzy-haired elevator music maestro Kenny G is one of the few people in the music business who can keep up with Cooper on the links.

"Kenny G is a good stick. Him and I play neck and neck," said Cooper, who has a handicap of four. "He wins one tournament, I win the next ... we kind of go off and on."

When he's not golfing or doing his nightly radio show or appearing at fan conventions to field questions about his favourite film decapitation scenes, Cooper is still recording and touring. Next month in Halifax, he'll play with the Rolling Stones for the first time in his career.

"That's one of the things you only get to do once in your life, and it took 40 years to get there," Cooper said.

And yet he'll still be the fresh-faced young kid among Mick, Keef and the boys.

"When Mick Jagger retires, I know I have at least six years left," joked Cooper. "He's six years older than me."