There was a little loft at the  Rainbow Room in LA, they only had that for the club: the club was myself, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Micky Dolenz, Harry Nilsson, it was that crowd, every night those same people. Every once in a while John Lennon would come into town or Keith Emerson and they would be honorable members of the night. They still have a plaque there at the Rainbow, where it says "The Lair of the Hollywood Vampires."

-- Alice Cooper [1]

 

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier; February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, Cooper is considered by many music journalists and peers to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock audiences. Originating in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1964, Alice Cooper was originally a band consisting of Furnier, guitarists Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. The band released seven albums from 1969 to 1973, and broke up in 1975. Having legally changed his name to Alice Cooper, Furnier began a solo career that year with the concept album Welcome to My Nightmare. Throughout his career, Cooper has sold over 50 million records. Cooper has experimented with various musical styles, mainly hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, and glam metal, but also new wave, art rock, and industrial rock. He helped shape the sound and look of heavy metal, and has been described as the artist who "first introduced horror imagery to rock'n'roll, and whose stagecraft and showmanship have permanently transformed the genre". He is also known for his wit offstage, with The Rolling Stone Album Guide calling him the world's most "beloved heavy metal entertainer". Aside from music, Cooper is a film actor, a golfing celebrity, a restaurateur, and, since 2004, a radio disc jockey with his classic rock show Alice's Attic.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Alice Cooper", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.