Alice Cooper is headed to the Big Apple next month to talk up his new memoir, Devil On My Shoulder, which digs into how two Alices merged into one. Fans can grab limited tickets that include a pre-signed copy of the book here.
New York City Dates:
10/07: noon, Barnes & Noble, 5th Avenue (moderated by Anthony DeCurtis)
10/07: 7 p.m., The Strand
10/08: New York Comic Con (moderated by Stevie Van Zandt)
Devil On My Shoulder is billed as the definitive autobiography from the godfather of shock rock, whose career spans six decades. It arrives in the U.S. on Oct. 6 through the recently launched Da Capo imprint of Grand Central Publishing.
In the announcement, Cooper explains, “In the beginning, Alice Cooper was the name of a rock group. Then my stage name. And then a monster. Now I’ve written a book that tracks Alice‘s evilution, how he and I became almost fatally intertwined, and how I’ve tamed him at last. After over thirty records and sixty-plus years, the story of Alice Cooperhas become a tangle of embellishments, elaborations and outright fabrications, that I think it’s time to sort reality from myth: the slaughtered chickens, the bans and record burnings, the evangelical terrors, Ouija boards and poltergeists, resurrections and revenge from the grave, the cross-dressers, thieves, drug addicts and hopeless alcoholics, the house fires and car crashes — all will be revealed for what they really were.”
“I’m also coming clean about the extent of my addictions, my blackout years, the creative process fuelled by alcohol, drugs and round-the-clock TV, my scramble to the top of the pile and the terrible slide back down. I want to talk about the origin of Cold Ethyl, the guillotine and the dead babies, the best and worst of my reviews, my feelings of guilt and regret after people got hurt or died, what life was like on the road until the wheels came off the bus, what a romantic I am at heart and how I’ve stayed married for half a century even after my wife came at me with a frying pan.”
“And I want to talk about God. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna bang you on the head with a Bible, I just want to describe how it is that I found Him dwelling in me. Alice, that inveterate liar, was a voice in my ear for so long, whispering lies and sweet nothings, pretending to be my better conscience and my inspiration, pretending to be me, that I think it’s only right to present both sides of the story: the angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other.”
The book’s premise is that two seemingly irreconcilable versions of Cooper exist. One is the murderous, morally bankrupt stage creation who menaced Western civilization’s sense of decency. The other is the man who plays him, a sober pastor’s son who has been happily married for 50 years. Over time the two got tangled together, and amid rock and roll pioneering, booze, drugs, guillotines, slaughtered chickens, snakes, Ouija boards, house fires, car crashes and famous friends, they nearly finished each other off.
“Alice is still on tour around the world today, a proper senile delinquent playing hundreds of gigs every year, while I myself am reformed. And with the benefit of hindsight and a certain maturity, I’d like to describe our journey to Hell and back together, because it’s not only rock stars who can lose their way,” says Cooper.
In the Sixties and early Seventies, Alice Cooper was strictly the name of a band, with singer Vincent Damon Furnier gradually building the Grand Guignol persona out front. As international success rolled in, Furnier made the stage name his legal one.
“I was born Vincent Damon Furnier but, seduced by my character’s reputation, changed my name legally to Alice Cooper, and in the process lost sight of who I really was. The mild-mannered, all-American boy I’d once been became a monster and a mortal danger to himself,” Cooper says.
The book’s anecdotes span a guest list that includes Salvador Dalí, Bob Hope, John Lennon, Groucho Marx, Vincent Price, Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Gerald Ford, Andy Warhol and Tiger Woods. Cooper also casts a sharp eye on dysfunction, despair, criminality, addiction, transgression and human decency, telling the story from both sides: angel on one shoulder, devil on the other.
“Me and Alice were getting creative with the truth long before the age of ‘fake news.’ Now, after over thirty records and sixty-plus years of fibs and fabrications, I think it’s time to sort the truth from the rumors and lies,” Cooper adds.
Cooper has always done things his way, casting a long shadow over rock with an unmatched live show and anthems like “School’s Out,” “No Mr. Nice Guy” and “Poison.” He has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, earned a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2003 and joined the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame with the class of 2011.
His catalog ranks among the most influential around. Rolling Stone placed the platinum-certified Love It To Death(1971) on its “500 Greatest Albums Of All Time” list. Other platinum entries include Killer (1971), School’s Out(1972), the Billboard 200 chart-topper Billion Dollar Babies (1973), Welcome To My Nightmare (1975) and Trash(1989). The last of those also landed on Rolling Stone‘s “50 Greatest Hair Metal Albums Of All Time.”
Pop culture has absorbed him thoroughly. He turned up in a cult-favorite scene in Wayne’s World in 1992 and appeared alongside John Legend and Sara Bareilles in NBC’s 2018 Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert, the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice production. He has also popped up on The Muppets and That 70s Show! and in Tim Burton‘s Dark Shadows.
His songs have been covered by Etta James, The Smashing Pumpkins, Megadeth and The Flaming Lips, and sampled by The Beastie Boys and Disturbed, among many others. His collaborators have included Price, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and Jon Bon Jovi. He also co-founded Hollywood Vampires with Aerosmith‘s Joe Perry and Johnny Depp.
Most recently, 2025’s The Revenge of Alice Cooper brought back the surviving members of the original Alice Cooper band to strong reviews. After thousands of shows and easily a million miles on the road, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee keeps rolling into rock folklore.
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