Bob Ezrin

'Toronto' Bob Ezrin produced, co-wrote and performed on 'Love It To Death', 'Killer', 'School's Out', 'Billion Dollar Babies', 'Welcome To My Nightmare', 'Goes To Hell', 'Lace And Whiskey' and 'Dada'. He is also credited as executive producer on `Brutal Planet` and Dragontown. Bob was a vital part of the Cooper's success. He acted as a sixth member of the original band, writing and playing with them in the studio.

Ezrin has also worked with Kiss ('Destroyer', 'The Elder'), Pink Floyd ('The Wall'), Berlin ('Berlin') and Lou Reed amongst others.

In 2004 Bob was inducted in to the Canadian Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Check out Bob's page at Wikipedia.

NME August 18, 1973

"The Coopers were my first ever project. I was hired by Nimbus 9 (a production company formed in Canada) basically as a management consultant, not as a producer -- I did stuff like Coke jingles, never anything like a group. Anyway I went up to the office one day and everyone was in hysterics. The cover of 'Easy Action' (Alice Cooper's second abortive attempt at making an album) was laying around -- and we were all really straight guys y'know -- I mean, I was never really that much into rock 'n' roll. I had arrived at it more or less through things like Simon and Garfunkel. Anyway we put on the album and just broke up laughing. We didn't know if Alice Cooper was a guy or a chick and eventually it became a standing joke around the office that if anyone messed up that week we'd be forced to go and work with Alice Cooper."

A persistent Alice Cooper road manager, commissioned by manager Shep Gordon to get Jack Richardson -- another Nimbus producer -- for Cooper's future recordings put the heat on Ezrin in order to get him down to see the band.

"I wasn't interested in the least. I hated the record, but this guy made my life such hell with his persistence that I reckoned that I'd go and see 'em just so they'd get off my back. So I went to meet them at Toronto. I walked into their hotel and ....these five guys -- everyone of 'em is a faggot everyone of 'em and they're all after me. I can tell. The road manager is a faggot, the roadies are faggots. I'm sitting there in my blue jeans, with my short-hair, shaking inside, man, and here's this guy Alice Cooper -- his hair is stringy and down to his shoulders, his pants are so tight I can actually see see his penis through the crotch -- they're slit at the side. He's talking with a slight lisp .... I just could not handle it. Anyway they said, 'We're great and we want a producer'. Finally we parted company and I was like so relieved. It was such a horrendous experience -- I was such a straight guy before all this started -- and I just forgot".

More harassment by the Cooper minions forced Ezrin to witness the band at Max's Kansas City.

"After the gig I went backstage. I didn't know why, but I just thought the show had been great, and I went up to the band and said, 'I think you guys can make hit records', and they said, 'That's good -- we think you can too'. It was a nice punk start. Actually I was still pretty scared because I still believed they were all faggots. It was just a riff someone had decided on as an image, but I'd just had those album covers to go on before so l didn't know better. Anyway I moved to Detroit into a shoddy motel -- hated Detroit -- and the guys just crowded into the bedroom in the morning. We started to talk and they played me tapes. The tapes were horrible. And I mean, horrible! They said, 'We like this sound. can we get it in the studio'. I almost threw up."

"The first thing we ever did was 'Eighteen'. Their original arrangement was eight minutes long and had a lot of excess bullshit. You see, my job was first to transform stage arrangements into record arrangements, which was something they'd never bothered to consider. Ultimately it was a great rush to hear the 2 min. 38 secs. version. I knew it would be a hit from then on."

'Eighteen' actually did become a hit, reaching No. 18 in the American charts, and is still arguably Cooper's best single to date, sharing that accolade with "Schools Out". "Love it To Death", the album that followed, was both their first critical and financial success. The Coopers' days as an esoteric, bizarro trash delight were over, and Ezrin was most definitely their mentor in this respect. From then on, his work in the studio became more complex and demanding: Even session guitarists were often added to beef up the Coopers' sound.

"I think that's what a producer's job is -- to decide what should be done and what shouldn't be used and if the group can't cut it you should supply it for them. "That's the role I've always played for the Coopers and I've always been very careful to stick with that identity."

From a radio special:

"..there was a heavy blue smoke hanging in the air, and everywhere there people pushing and shouting. Then band came on and Alice opened the show on his hands and knees with a hammer in his hand and was pounding it on the stage, the song was 'Sun Arise'... It was one of the most powerful images I've seen in my life.."
(Bob Ezrin on seeing the band perform live for the first time)

Why did Alice stop using Ezrin as his producer in the late 70s and why did he decide to work with him on "Dada" years later?
I don't think there was one particular reason. Change can be good. In my opinion, the albums that Ezrin did with the original band are sheer genius. In my opinion, 'Welcome To My Nightmare' was good. In my opinion, 'AC Goes To Heck', 'Lace & Whiskey', and the live album ain't that good. Now, I'm not saying this is all Ezrin's fault-not at all. Alice was drowning in whiskey. I think Ezrin wasn't called back for 'From The Inside' cuz the previous albums weren't that hot and it made a lot of sense to use a fresh producer for a freshly rehabilitated Alice. From there, as things progressed in the early 80's (or digressed in my opinion) things were just very different and an Ezrin reunion just didn't happen until 'Dada' and then why not use Ezrin at that time.
In current years, I think there hasn't been an Ezrin hook up for a few reasons. One of the big reasons is that Ezrin simply wasn't necessarily available at the time of production. Alice and Ezrin and Wagner did do some pre-production work when Alice began to put together the 'Last Temptation' (yes I do have the tapes-ha,ha) but it didn't flush out. FYI - Ezrin was the musical director for the Daltrey at Carnegie Hall show that Alice did [performing 'I'm A Boy'].
(Brian Nelson, July 1999)