Alice Cooper born Vincent Damon Furnier ; February 4, [ 1 ] is an American rock singer whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions , [ 2 ] Cooper is considered by music journalists and peers to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock ". The band released seven albums from to and broke up in Having legally changed his name to Alice Cooper, Furnier began a solo career that year with the concept album Welcome to My Nightmare.
During his career he has sold over 50 million records. Cooper has experimented with various musical styles, mainly hard rock , glam rock , heavy metal , and glam metal , [ 6 ] [ 7 ] as well as new wave , [ 8 ] art rock , and industrial rock. In , year-old Furnier was eager to participate in Cortez High School's annual Letterman's talent show, so he gathered four fellow cross country teammates to form a group for the show: Glen Buxton , Dennis Dunaway , John Tatum, and John Speer.
As a result of their positive experience, the group decided to try to turn into a real band. They acquired musical instruments from a local pawn shop , and proceeded to learn how to play them, with Buxton doing most of the teaching, as well as much of the early songwriting.
By , the band had begun to make regular road trips to Los Angeles to play shows. Around this time, drummer John Speer was replaced by Neal Smith. By the end of the year, the band relocated to Los Angeles. In , the band learned that Todd Rundgren also had a band called Nazz , which was signed to a major label, and found themselves in need of another stage name.
In his book Alice Cooper, Golf Monster , Cooper stated that his look was inspired in part by films. One night after an unsuccessful gig at the Cheetah club in Venice, Los Angeles , where the band emptied the entire room of patrons after playing just ten minutes, they were approached and enlisted by music manager Shep Gordon , who saw the band's negative impact that night as a force that could be turned in a more productive direction.
