FEBRUARY 9 • 2023 | 57

album “Detroit Stories” in Royal Oak.
Alice Cooper has acquired a surpris-
ing collection of mentors, collaborators 
and admirers over the decades. Early 
in his career, he earned the approval of 
the members of the Friars Club, most 
of them elderly Jewish comedians. They 
“got” the ghoulish stage effects that 
so shocked others in their age cohort. 
George Burns recognized in-performance 
beheading as “shtick,” something like a 
Vaudeville act he and Gracie had seen by 
“the amazing whatever,” who also had a 
guillotine and got his head cut off. 
But the early dramatic performances 
that accompany Alice Cooper songs are 
not just shtick. In a curious way, they 
forecast his own life story. Alice Cooper 
expresses surprise that he has lived long 
enough for Alice Cooper @ 75 to appear. 
He often says, “By all rights, I should be 
dead.” 
The brief stage dramas take the form of 
tiny morality plays in which the protag-
onist does dangerous or evil deeds, earns 
his violent punishment and returns puri-
fied. Alice Cooper in real life indulged in 
self-destructive behavior with drink and 
cocaine and seemed on a path to an early 
death. His wife, Sheryl, filed for divorce 

in 1983, only to 
move back when he committed to sobri-
ety. They credit his successful sobriety 
to his return to Christianity, his love for 
Sheryl and his addiction to golf. 
Now Graff describes Alice Cooper 
as “a Christian Mensch.” Cooper and 
Sheryl created Solid Rock Foundation, 
which supports charitable endeavors. 
Their Solid Rock Centers are dedicated 
to showing at-risk youth how to find 
another path other than drugs or crime, 
as Cooper says, through “music, dance, 
self-expression and creativity.” 
Alice Cooper @ 75 provides back-
ground on the 28 albums and on dozens 
of the performer’s singles; recounts Alice 
Cooper’s collaboration with an aston-
ishing list of musicians, artists, actors, 
public figures of all sorts; includes movie 
stills and lavish photographs of tickets, 
publicity ephemera, comic books, public 
performances and moments from the 
singer’s personal life. 

Alice Cooper @ 75 is available on Amazon.

Some images from Graff’s 
book Alice Cooper @ 75.