Back on the Attack : Alice Cooper Brings His Horror-Rock Musical Theatrics to O.C.--With Some Concessions to ‘90s Sensibilities

In the early 1970s, parents cringed when their teenage kids reveled in Alice Cooper’s macabre, over-the-top stage shows. Cooper concerts weren’t simply showcases for his rebellious and hard-rockin’ hits. They were full-blown horror rock spectacles, replete with gory skits. A guillotine and a boa constrictor were just two of the props in his popular road show.

But today, the 48-year-old singer says the last thing he wants to do is outrage or repel parents.

Cooper, who plays Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre tonight on a bill with the Scorpions, said during a recent phone conversation from his home in

Scottsdale, Ariz., that he has eliminated the more controversial elements of his shows. He no longer, for instance, sings “Dead Babies” with a bloodied doll lying on stage.

“I’m pretty much out of shock rock,” he said. “A lot of people misinterpreted what I did back then. ‘Dead Babies’ probably was the first anti-child-abuse song. It was all about parent neglect. What’s important now is that nobody think that what I do is satanic. I know that’s a popular thing. I don’t want anything to do with that.”

He says his shows still have plenty of theatrical zip, though. A handful of the skits from the old days remain, including a segment involving a simulated gang fight that accompanies his song “Gutter Cats vs. the Jets.” “Elected” is used as the setting for a splashy salute to this year’s elections. Cooper (born Vincent Furnier) thinks observers now may be better able to grasp the fun and humor at the root of his elaborately staged concerts and his ghoulish stage persona.

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His career has been marked by several shifts in image and musical style. As early as the mid-’70s, he seemed bent on softening his public profile when he performed at a Lake Tahoe resort and appeared a handful of times on the popular TV game show “Hollywood Squares.” His music also began to mellow; his three hits between 1975 and 1977 all were ballads.

In 1986 he rejuvenated his fading career by recasting himself as a heavy-metal rocker, just as the genre was gaining new popularity. A major influence on a number of the era’s hard rock bands, such as Guns N’ Roses, Cooper appeared in Penelope Spheeris’ sin-soaked 1988 documentary “The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.”

His music, he says, exists “on a very, very thin line between hard rock and metal,” he said on the phone. “What is the difference? A decibel here or there? I don’t really recognize the categorizations. But I did definitely turn up [the volume], and I put together a band that I thought would be hard.”

He shifted gears again in 1989 with “Trash,” a more pop-directed album. The multi-platinum collection yielded “Poison,” his first top-20 single in 11 years. “It’s a slick Alice, but it’s still Alice,” he says of the album and song.

Now the pliable veteran is back with a band that, he said, captures much of the raucous musical spirit of his early-’70s group. He said he once again is having fun slinging out the dozen or so Cooper favorites that his fans want to hear in concert. He also noted that he is coming off a five-year hiatus from the touring grind--his longest break from the road in his 27-year recording career (although he did release an album in 1994, “The Last Temptation”).

“We would tour for a year, then as soon as that was over we’d go into the studio and write a new album,” he recalled. “That went on and on and on forever.”

During the five-year break, he says, “I actually became a human for a while, which was interesting. I got a driver’s license. When you’re on the road you never need a driver’s license. So I went and did all the things normal humans do. ‘So this is a mall? People shop here? Wow, this is great!’ ”

He also played himself in the 1992 comedy hit “Wayne’s World.” Wayne and Garth, the film’s doltish heroes, are seen genuflecting at Cooper’s feet. “We’re not worthy!” they cry with awe. Cooper says that now, when his fans meet him, they imitate the worshiping characters. It happens “at least 50 times a day. [‘Wayne’s World’] stuck me with that for the rest of my life.”

It’s probably not a coincidence that the shrewd Cooper is resurfacing now. The ‘90s have been dominated by bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam that have very basic and unpretentious ideas about image and performing. But with the original KISS now back in the pyrotechnics business and the outlandish ghoul group Marilyn Manson prowling the scene, Cooper feels the time is ripe for a theatrical rock renaissance.

“I think people want their money’s worth,” said Cooper, whose early shows influenced KISS and other theatrical rockers, including David Bowie. “If you can get a band that plays really well, then why not have a show that goes with it? That was always our theory: If you have the hits to back it up, you should be able to do whatever you want.

“If Dennis Rodman doesn’t get 20 rebounds a game, he shouldn’t be painting his head different colors. But since he can do that, that gives him the license to do what he wants.”

* Alice Cooper, the Scorpions and My Head play tonight at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, 8800 Irvine Center Drive. 8 p.m. $30, $25 and $22.50. (714) 855-4515.