Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Anything Alice Cooper or AC band related goes here

Moderators: Devon, Gorehound, Si, SickThings, Shoesalesman

pitkin88
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 4478
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 3:25 am
Location: calif

Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by pitkin88 » Tue Feb 24, 2015 3:19 am


User avatar
RemarkablyInsincere
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 2800
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:47 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:05 am

pitkin88 wrote:Interesting thread over at SHTV

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/a ... er.416775/
What's interesting about it?
"Golly gee it's wrong to be so guilty..."

pitkin88
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 4478
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 3:25 am
Location: calif

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by pitkin88 » Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:12 am

Sorry If it's not interesting to you. I'll forward any future threads for your approval before I post them.

User avatar
RemarkablyInsincere
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 2800
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:47 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:28 am

pitkin88 wrote:Sorry If it's not interesting to you. I'll forward any future threads for your approval before I post them.
Overly sensitive, as usual.

It was a serious question. Everyone here knows the reasoning for this by now, it's been discussed, so what did you find so interesting about it?

I'm guessing nothing.
"Golly gee it's wrong to be so guilty..."

pitkin88
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 4478
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 3:25 am
Location: calif

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by pitkin88 » Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:11 am

Time frames, reason why not to mention one over the other. Who initiated bring it up now? Was it Alice/producers, Shep? Severity of one over the other, the reason to open up about the cocaine now. Did the drink nearly kill him in 78 and then the coke nearly kill him in 83?

Looking forward to you not responding due to lack of interest on your part.

mr.barlow

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by mr.barlow » Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:21 am

The booze nearly killed Alice in 1978 and the cocaine almost finished the the job in 1982. After his near death during Zipper, I believe that's when he went back to drinking for a brief period. Wagner mentions Alice drinking during Dada. It was shortl;y after this that he finally was able to get completely sober.

Wagner also made several mentions of Alice's cocaine use during the making of Zipper over the years, most were in general terms.

I'm thinking that Shep deciced not to mention the drug use to the general public out of respect for ALice and mainly his family. His drug use was really not that big of a secret in the indusrty at the time and one look at him at that time one could see that it was very clear that it was much more than booze.

^The thing for me persoanlly is that I think the SF era Alice is just incredible. His live performances were just downright insane. The hair in a bun, the eye make-up, just everything about it was unnervingly weird. His delivery and stage presence at time made your skin crawl. I've said it many times--to me SF era is what an Alice Cooper should look and act like!

It's terrile to think that the guy was literally killing himself and in very bad shape while doing it!

I'm not sure why they decided to finally tell about it in SDAC. My best guess is that Alice finally felt ready to open up about it. Possibly that his family encouraged him to talk about it. I think it's the one reason why he rarely, if ever, talks about that period or those albums. It was the ultimate low point for him, expecially on a personal level. He'd rather forget about it. Why dwell on a few bad years when you have so many great years you can focus on.

Alice has never played the "tortured artist", say like a Lou Reed. He was always a happy-go-lucky guy who LOVED and embraced his fame.He also was raised in a traditional American family at a time when any type of drug use was considered very shameful. I think he looks at his drug use as a major personal failing and not a badge of honor.

I'm hoping that as time goes on that Alice will start feeling confortable at least talking about the music and those albums as they are all some of my favroites. I would really love to see him really open up about Dada. But....I have a feeling it's not going to happen.

mr.barlow

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by mr.barlow » Tue Feb 24, 2015 7:23 am

The story about Alice looking in the mirror and seeing his eyes bleeding may have been the inspiration for the following line in "Pass The Gun Around":

Feels a little blood run from his eyes;
Feels a little hotel paralyzed

User avatar
dadascot
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 977
Joined: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:17 pm

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by dadascot » Tue Feb 24, 2015 8:13 am

mr.barlow wrote:The story about Alice looking in the mirror and seeing his eyes bleeding may have been the inspiration for the following line in "Pass The Gun Around":

Feels a little blood run from his eyes;
Feels a little hotel paralyzed
Very good observation. This is one of my favourite lines and this makes it even more personal.

User avatar
SickThings
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 875
Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2005 4:04 pm
Location: Elizabethtown, KY
Contact:

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by SickThings » Tue Feb 24, 2015 12:00 pm

mr.barlow wrote:I'm not sure why they decided to finally tell about it in SDAC.
In one of the interviews I read leading up to the release---sorry, I didn't keep the URL---it was revealed in SDAC because Bernie Taupin said he'd be interviewed, but only if he could talk about the cocaine usage. He said (I'm paraphrasing) that he'd felt guilty all of these years for having introduced Alice to it, and he wanted to clear the air.

I couldn't find that interview, but this one in Rock Cellar magazine has this:
Alice:... The other thing was the cocaine thing. I never ever admitted to taking cocaine but when it got to that, I said, “It’s part of the story and we can’t ignore it” even though it was a small part of my story – it wasn’t a big part of my story. The alcohol was really the monster.

But it still had to be told any because of the fact that Bernie Taupin was my very best friend and that had a lot to do with Bernie’s story with me.
Ah, here it is. It was Sam Dunn talking about Bernie in this interview on MetalInsder.net: "Director Sam Dunn discusses his new film about ‘super duper’ Alice Cooper"
I think the most surprising thing I learned about Alice is that he was addicted to drugs in the late 70s and early 80s. This is something he never revealed before. When I approached Bernie Taupin for the film, he said he would only do it under the condition that he would get to talk about what he wasn’t able to talk about for decades, and that is his drug addiction and his time with Alice when he was also freebasing cocaine. I think this is something that Bernie has felt somewhat guilty about and he’s had this kind of weight on him for a long time. We approached Alice and Shep and they both said, “Okay I think we’re ready to tell this story.” And it just shed a whole different light on that period of Alice’s career. If you look at photos of him from that time, he’s incredibly gaunt, he doesn’t look healthy. Musically, he was creating this really kind of edgy frenetic, a bit scattered sound, very different than stuff he’s done in the 70s. So it just shed a whole different light on this period of Alice’s life.
Hunter

User avatar
recoop
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 1886
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 9:58 pm
Location: York, England

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by recoop » Tue Feb 24, 2015 1:02 pm

As substances they both have major effects on dopamine levels in the brain, so its possible someone could sunconsciously try to manage one's mood through either substance. It used to be thought that Freebasing Cocaine was not that dangerous and therefore might have been seen as safer than alcohol. However,subsequently it is now understand that all Cocaine use carries health risk including seizures (it shares this danger with alcohol). Similarly, people used to assume that all forms of cannabis were safe (now it is fairly generally accepted that paranoia and mental health issues may be more likely in users dependant on the strain of drug). I am not relating this to our favourite rock star as his own experience, usage and side effects are his business- people's usage of drugs often lead to varying outcomes. If cocaine use threatened Alice's marriage, I am not surprised he did not go public. I am not an expert but I have been involved with many alcohol misusers and it is common for them to move to another drug. Often it is about finding a positve replacement-golf anyone?
You are an individual, just like everybody else.

A_MichaelUK
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 5383
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 12:35 pm

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by A_MichaelUK » Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:11 pm

From pitkin88:
“Time frames,”

As I keep saying, I have found that most of the people we’re discussing are very bad when it comes to things like chronology, specifically because of the kind of lives they were leading.

> reason why not to mention one over the other.

I think this is covered in the book that came with the special edition.

>Did the drink nearly kill him in 78

It was 1977 to be exact.
Last edited by A_MichaelUK on Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.

A_MichaelUK
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 5383
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 12:35 pm

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by A_MichaelUK » Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:17 pm

From mr.barlow:
"My best guess is that Alice finally felt ready to open up about it.

Yes - especially as it was such a long time ago that all this happened.

>or those albums.

He does like a lot of what's on them though and he knows that a lot of serious fans really like them as well.

>He also was raised in a traditional American family at a time when any type of drug use was considered very shameful.

Exactly - I think the same point (more or less) is made in the book that came with the special edition.

>I'm hoping that as time goes on that Alice will start feeling confortable at least talking about the music and those albums

If he's asked, as he sometimes is, he will. There really is no problem there.

A_MichaelUK
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 5383
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 12:35 pm

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by A_MichaelUK » Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:23 pm

From recoop:
"Often it is about finding a positve replacement-golf anyone?"

Also, horror films, bad martial arts films, salt, ice - cubes, throwing knives, cars, rice - pudding, popcorn with too much butter, Red Vines, Diet Coke (when he used to drink it), watches - it's a long list.

User avatar
recoop
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 1886
Joined: Sat Dec 04, 2004 9:58 pm
Location: York, England

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by recoop » Tue Feb 24, 2015 4:00 pm

There is, perhaps, enough there for a whole Conference concerning addictive personality traits lol- some I didn't know and I am sure there are many more- interesting person with many interests (not sure I have ever seen a good martial arts film)
You are an individual, just like everybody else.

Babysquid
Fashion Flusher
Fashion Flusher
Posts: 543
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:13 am

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by Babysquid » Thu Feb 26, 2015 1:23 pm

A_MichaelUK wrote:From recoop:
"Often it is about finding a positve replacement-golf anyone?"

Also, horror films, bad martial arts films, salt, ice - cubes, throwing knives, cars, rice - pudding, popcorn with too much butter, Red Vines, Diet Coke (when he used to drink it), watches - it's a long list.
When did he stop using Diet Coke? What does he drink now?

A_MichaelUK
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 5383
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 12:35 pm

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by A_MichaelUK » Thu Feb 26, 2015 3:58 pm

From Babysquid:
"When did he stop using Diet Coke?"

Five years ago or so. He possibly still drinks a little but not as much as he used to when it was an obsession.

> What does he drink now?

I think Vitamin Water is the current favourite.

Babysquid
Fashion Flusher
Fashion Flusher
Posts: 543
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:13 am

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by Babysquid » Thu Feb 26, 2015 8:05 pm

Could i ask why he's stopped? I'm not being stupid, but I myself drink a tonne of the stuff. I've heard a lot of stuff about the perils of aspartame but a little research has led me to believe this is the result of an an Internet hoax in the late 90's. However there is something about it that feels wrong and addictive.

pitkin88
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 4478
Joined: Sat Dec 09, 2006 3:25 am
Location: calif

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by pitkin88 » Thu Feb 26, 2015 10:10 pm

Babysquid wrote:Could i ask why he's stopped? I'm not being stupid, but I myself drink a tonne of the stuff. I've heard a lot of stuff about the perils of aspartame but a little research has led me to believe this is the result of an an Internet hoax in the late 90's. However there is something about it that feels wrong and addictive.


I am not sure when Alice stopped or started but it might have something to do with it being bad for the teeth. Alice's teeth at one point where in very bad shape with quite a few missing. His dental records where as interesting as the music.

User avatar
RemarkablyInsincere
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 2800
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:47 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Thu Feb 26, 2015 10:41 pm

pitkin88 wrote:Time frames, reason why not to mention one over the other.
From Alice's interview with Eddie Trunk a few weeks ago:

"Talking about cocaine was something that I never talked about. I always left that part of my life away from the press because I didn't w... it to me was embarrassing that Alice Cooper got into cocaine. Cause I just thought that was too uncool. But we had to. I said when it got to that part they looked at me and I said we have to tell the whole story. We can't not tell that part of the story because, again, it's a story of getting lost in it and then coming out of it and winning. Ya know. It's part of the story."
"Golly gee it's wrong to be so guilty..."

User avatar
RemarkablyInsincere
Dada God
Dada God
Posts: 2800
Joined: Wed Sep 07, 2005 5:47 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: Alice Alcohol v Cocaine

Post by RemarkablyInsincere » Thu Feb 26, 2015 10:44 pm

Babysquid wrote:Could i ask why he's stopped? I'm not being stupid, but I myself drink a tonne of the stuff. I've heard a lot of stuff about the perils of aspartame but a little research has led me to believe this is the result of an an Internet hoax in the late 90's. However there is something about it that feels wrong and addictive.
Diet Coke and other soda drinks are not good for you. They have artificial chemicals in them and preservatives. Neither are good for you and the more of that stuff you drink the worse off.

I used to drink a ton of it, but I have sensitivities to artificial stuff so I can no longer drink it. It's for the best, although once in a while I do indulge myself.

These days, I mostly drink water and to satisfy the carbonated drink craving, I drink naturally flavored carbonated waters now.
"Golly gee it's wrong to be so guilty..."

Post Reply