Question about Fireball, and your birthplace

[Agrophile in Texas]

Hi Dennis, a couple questions.

I have family who live in Oregon, I lived there as well a few times. And as a big fan of Buster Keaton and the movie The General, I was aware of that being filmed in your birthplace, Cottage Grove (cool connection, one of my favorite comedic actors, and one favorite bassists/songwriters having ties to the same place). Now I've heard why Alice moved from Detroit and read interviews with Neal about he and Glen being born in Akron, but I can't recall you saying much about Cottage Grove. I thought, well maybe he was very young when his family moved, but I thought I'd ask if you had any memories of Cottage Grove, did you stay their long?

Second question? I know the ACG had several songs that quoted or drew from the movies, West Side Story, Bond, Day the Earth Stood Still... There was a movie from the late 70s titled A Fire in the Sky, which was about a comet hitting Phoenix, Arizona (the birthplace of the Alice Cooper band). While the characters are different from song to movie, I do wonder if it served as any kind of inspiration for Fireball.

Thanks in advance (and I hope you and yours are doing well).

[Dreary]

I touch on this in my book.
I actually lived in Creswell, Oregon but in 1946, the nearest hospital was in Cottage Grove.
Our family moved to Phoenix, Arizona when I was 5 years old but we visited my grandfather's farm in Creswell every year, including the summer of 1964 when I worked on grandpa's farm to get the money to buy my first bass.
I love Oregon rain and all!

Fireball was all imagined in my mind. Any outside influence, if any, wasn't conscious, and I'm always happy to credit things that inspire me.

[Agrophile in Texas]

thanks so much for the reply, appreciate it. I have the book and love it, but it seems my old man's memory failed me on that detail.