Desmond Child talks not doing Trash 2

[RemarkablyInsincere]

https://youtu.be/yD4n1ElmAME?si=LOocL00hYZ8Ghug5

[VinceRaven]

He deserves some credit for the colossal exaggeration on how badly Raise Your Fist and Yell sold. We've heard him use that exact figure before and he's clearly sticking with it.

[Si]

He deserves some credit for the colossal exaggeration on how badly Raise Your Fist and Yell sold. We've heard him use that exact figure before and he's clearly sticking with it.

He's also conveniently unaware that Alice wasn't dropped by Epic after HS, as they released TLT four years later - and even after that he wasn't dropped by Epic. The contract was done and he moved on to Hollywood Records (which is another story).
I will, however, forgive him thinking that Trash was a better Alice Cooper album then either RYF OR HS. It was his album after all haha

[Babysquid]

He may have got a few of his facts wrong but I’ve always found Desmond comes over as affable and candid. He gets a lot of stick from fans and musicians for what he does but without him a lot of them wouldn’t be in the position they are today.
I know it’s an unpopular opinion here but I actually agree with him on Hey Stoopid vs Trash. Trash is a far leaner and direct record whereas Hey Stoopid , while having some killer songs, has a weaker side two and could have been trimmed by 15 minutes . Just my opinion of course. Plus Trash is the album that introduced me to Alice (and actually music as a whole) so I had no preconceptions of the character before. I know it’s almost hair metal paint by numbers but it’s done well and Alice sells it like he means it.
Of course after Trash I discovered all the other stuff and it wasn’t long before I was knocking it myself and automatically “hating” any song that i saw Desmond Child on the credits! But hey I’ve mellowed now and can enjoy it for what it is. I still feel Hey Stoopid loses it from Hurricane Years to Dirty Dreams though.

[While Heaven Wept]

That was a really enjoyable interview. I get why he feels that way towards Hey Stoopid, even if I do prefer it to Trash. It must have felt like a bit of a kick to the teeth being dropped after the huge success of Trash. I also happen to love his work with Meat Loaf. He managed to mimic the style of Steinman incredibly well. Additionally, I think his contribution to I Am Made of You is one of the highlights of W2MN. I certainly wouldn't be averse to hearing more collaborations between the two of them.

[Holly Grail]

That was a really enjoyable interview. I get why he feels that way towards Hey Stoopid, even if I do prefer it to Trash. It must have felt like a bit of a kick to the teeth being dropped after the huge success of Trash. I also happen to love his work with Meat Loaf. He managed to mimic the style of Steinman incredibly well. Additionally, I think his contribution to I Am Made of You is one of the highlights of W2MN. I certainly wouldn't be averse to hearing more collaborations between the two of them.

I fully agree about “I am made of you”. For me, it is one of the best post-2010’s songs. Atmospheric and unique. I think Desmond deserves to write some new songs.

[jacknifejohnny]

I’m one who would take a “Hey Stoopid” over “Trash” any day of the week.

[Babysquid]

I’m one who would take a “Hey Stoopid” over “Trash” any day of the week.

I said mine was an unpopular opinion

[tuneylune]

I’m one who would take a “Hey Stoopid” over “Trash” any day of the week.

I said mine was an unpopular opinion

Not as unpopular as You think

[Daggers & Contracts]

I’m one who would take a “Hey Stoopid” over “Trash” any day of the week.

I said mine was an unpopular opinion

Not as unpopular as You think

"Trash" brought me back into the fold.
However, I did see the "Operation R'n'R Tour"
AC's set was short & awesome for the slot.
Motorhead was a big disappointment!
They missed that night of the Tour.
Judas Priest shredded!!

[boy/man]

Desmond talked about going in another direction for "Trash 2"; industrial hard rock/heavy metal. Well.. Brutal Planet, anyone?

[cooperrocks]

Overall it was a good interview. I get where he is coming from in regards to Hey Stoopid after Trash was such a successful album but several thoughts here. First, as Si referred to, Raise Your Fist and Yell was not a bomb nor was Constrictor. Both albums outsold the early 80s material. No, they weren't massive hits but Alice got reestablished with the hard rock and even metal crowd and I believe in the United States they initially sold around 250-300000 copies. Anything in the 250 range back in the day was a decent seller justh not massive but considering Alice had been out of the spotlight for quite a while and the label he was on gave him a limited budget, those numbers are actually quite good.

Trash was the perfect album for its time. It was commercial hard rock and while there was a little bit of Alice's dark humor in songs like Bed of Nails etc, it was more of a Bon Jovi/Aerosmith type of album and it worked. A very good hard rock album but an album that wasn't totally "Alice" at the same time. Hey Stoopid basically used the same commercial sensibilities but it had a little bit more of vintage Alice in it. I always thought Love's a Loaded Gun could have been from an earlier era. The problem with Hey Stoopid was I never thought the title track was the right first single (and I like the song) and the music industry was changing. Had the album came out six months to a year before, it would have been back to big massive hits. However, it did not do that poorly reaching gold in a few places etc. An industrial rock album would have been a little bit premature even when Hey Stoopid came out because the hair bands while starting to decline, still were doing fairly well. The Last Temptation was a masterpiece, it just happened to come out in 1994 so having a hit off of that or the label pushing Alice much just wasn't going to happen.