Legendary AliceCooper has just announced that he and his crew will be embarking on a spring tour across the United States this year. Starting in Texas and finishing up in New Jersey, his theatrical performance will be a new production that was introduced last fall during AliceCooper‘s co-headlining tour with JudasPriest. The tour is also in support of his latest record, The Revenge Of AliceCooper, released this past July via earMUSIC.
Tickets go on pre-sale on Tuesday, January 27th at 10am local time, and will run until Thursday, the 29th at 10pm local time. General on sale will kick off on Friday, January 30th at 10am local time. You can get your tickets here, and find tour dates below.
ALICE COOPER ON TOUR: 4/14 — San Antonio, TX @ Majestic Theatre 4/15 — Irving, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory 4/17 — Topeka, KS @ Topeka Performing Arts Center 4/18 — Cedar Rapids, IA @ Alliant Energy PowerHouse 4/19 — Terre Haute, IN @ The Mill 4/21 — Toledo, OH @ Stranahan Theater 4/23 — Columbus, OH @ Mershon Auditorium 4/24 — Pikeville, KY @ Appalachian Wireless Arena 4/25 — Huber Heights, OH @ Rose Music Center at The Heights 4/27 — Virginia Beach, VA @ The Dome 4/28 — Durham, NC @ Durham Performing Arts Center 4/29 — Spartanburg, SC @ Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium 5/1 — Albertville, AL @ Sand Mountain Park & Amphitheater 5/2 — Albany, GA @ Albany Civic Center 5/3 — Pensacola, FL @ Pensacola Bay Center 5/5 — Fort Myers, FL @ Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall 5/6 — Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Broward Center – Au-Rene Theater 5/7 — Daytona Beach, FL @ Welcome to Rockville* 5/9 — Camden, NJ @ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion *Festival Date
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The show was recorded back in September, before a Pittsburgh Alice Cooper and Judas Priest concert. Roxie played songs he wrote and took questions from fans. This marked the first time Rocky’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Symphony was filmed with people sitting in the audience.
Roxie strummed acoustic versions of “Second Chances,” “When You See God,” “The Risk,” “36 Hours,” and “The Question” during the taping. A fan asked if there was an Alice Cooper song he loved that would probably never get played at a concert. Roxie answered with “Perfect,” a track he co-wrote with Alice Cooper for the Dirty Diamonds album, then performed it right there.
The guitarist has worked with Alice Cooper for years. He calls his fan-first approach the “Rock ‘n’ Roll Parking Lot.” This includes meet-and-greets in venue parking lots and visits to record stores.
Anthony “Rocky” Lamonde hosts Rocky’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Symphony. The program focuses on Pittsburgh-based bands and has often featured guests, including Samantha Fish.
Attendees described the evening as “a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I’ll never forget.” Roxie shared stories and musical insights throughout the night.
The special will run through December 28 and will be available on demand on Dec. 29.
Shock-rock pioneer Alice Cooper has joined forces with illusionist Criss Angel for a once-in-a-lifetime Las Vegas event titled “Welcome to Our Nightmare.” Caesars describes it as a theatrical mash-up. It’s a live rock and death-defying magic show set to light up the Strip in March 2026. Alice Cooper and Criss Angel are teaming up for two nights only… at least for now.
Details of the Alice Cooper and Criss Angel Show
The two-night limited engagement takes place at the Criss Angel Theater inside Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on Friday, March 6 and Saturday, March 7, 2026. The announcement on Alice Cooper’s website, describes the show as the “Shock Rock Magic experience of a lifetime.” The show will combine Cooper’s signature hits, songs like “Poison,” “I’m 18,” “School’s Out,” and “You & Me” with Angel’s jaw-dropping illusions and theatrical staging.
Fans can expect a 90-minute spectacle featuring a full band, and mind-bending magic tricks. It’s a clash of rock theatrics and Las Vegas showmanship. Alice Cooper’s built his career on guillotines, snakes and horror-movie theatrics. On the other hand you have Criss Angel, who has dominated the illusion-world with TV specials and his longstanding Vegas residency.
Tickets for Alice Cooper and Criss Angel’s “Welcome to Our Nightmare” shows are available to the general public on Thursday, November 6 2025 at 1 p.m. EST. A special presale begins Tuesday, November 4 2025 at 1 p.m. EST. VIP “Nightmare Collectible” packages and backstage meet-and-greets will be available. You can get tickets through Ticketmaster.com/crissangel, or by calling (855) 234-7469.
A Perfectly Macabre Match-Up
Both Alice Cooper and Criss Angel have reputations for boundary-pushing performances. “Welcome to Our Nightmare” promises to be one of 2026’s most thrilling Las Vegas residencies. Plus both performers love wearing straightjackets. Granted, it’s only a two-night residency, but still, it’s shaping up to be unforgettable.
Donielle Flynn has two kids, two cats, two dogs, and a love of all things rock. She’s been in radio decades and held down top-rated day parts at Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington DC radio stations throughout her tenure. She enjoys writing about rock news, the Detroit community, and she has a series called “The Story Behind” where she researches the history of classic rock songs.
Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, Corrosion of Conformity Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion October 26, 2025
Did you know last night’s Alice Cooper/Judas Priest show at The Woodlands was the final date of a tour stretching back into 2024? Me neither. The fact was presented (if at all) without much fanfare. The openers mentioned it, and Priest’s Rob Halford read a data sheet summarizing the excesses of the experience (1,000 pizzas!). But if anyone was pointing out the obvious significance of a couple of septuagenarian rock acts wrapping up another spin around the globe, I must have missed it.
Cooper and Priest have shared a bill before (1991’s Operation Rock & Roll), and even if their nations of origin and respective flavors of metal don’t completely mesh, they’re not entirely different beasts. Cooper is the founding father of shock rock, while Priest were an integral part of the original New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Both can be lumped into the “hard rock” category and heard with regularity on radio stations or playlists of that variety. So even if your mind doesn’t immediately put them together, the co-headlining thing doesn’t come out of nowhere.
Corrosion of Conformity, on the other hand, were last night’s example of “which of these things is not like the other?” Starting out as North Carolina punkers, CoC moved into the thrash lane before settling more comfortably into a sludgier metal sound in the late ’90s/early ’00s. Even so, they were never as radio friendly as Alice or Priest.
They’re also relative youngsters compared to Cooper (77) and original Priesters Rob Halford (74), guitarist Glenn Tipton (77) and bassist Ian Hill (74).
Throwin’ the horns will never die. Credit: Jennifer Lake
It was a fine autumn night at the Pavilion, which doubtless made it more comfortable for both our leather-clad musicians and the “none more black” outfitted audience. Roughly a third of the venue was filled when Corrosion of Conformity lead singer Pepper Keenan’s bellowed, “Tejas!” So began a set of sludgy, heavy shit the assembled masses were only slightly prepared for.
CoC came on stage to an abbreviated version of “Bottom Feeder” before launching into a short set highlighted by “King of the Rotten,” “Seven Days,” and “Clean My Wounds.” Keenan briefly cut in to say, “Judas Priest and Alice Cooper … give me a break. Doesn’t get any better than that.”
The band, including drummer Stanton Moore, epically bearded bassist Bobby Landgraf, and lead guitarist Woody Weatherman (also the sole remaining founding member), have morphed into something reminiscent of early Sabbath/late Black Pyramid. They were having a blast and as they left, Keenan said he hoped they made some new friends. I think it’s safe to say they did.
There’s not a lot left to say about Judas Priest, icons of the NWOBHM (yes, it has it’s own acronym). The core unit of Halford, Tipton, and Hill were joined by guitarist Richie Faulkner (replacing K.K. Downing) and drummer Scott Travis (replacing…well, the less said about him the better). Both Faulkner and Travis have been with the band for years, so the show is a comfortable one, relying heavily on decades-old hits.
Halford stalked the Pavilion stage, ducking out between every other song to don yet another in a series of more elaborate jackets — and props to the guys for continuing to rock that leather look well into their Grandpa Era — before finally bringing out the trusty motorcycle for show closers “Hell Bent For Leather” and “Living After Midnight.”
More like “livin’ after early suppertime.” Credit: Jennifer Lake
The band was backstopped by scenes depicting — among other things — industrial filth (“You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” ), snake handlers (“Touch of Evil”), and a surprisingly Christmas-y Invincible Shield sigil (“Gates of Hell”). The only constant being a blasted cityscape that looked like it was ripped from Kiss’ Destroyer album.
Having never seen Priest live (shun the heretic), it was great to hear the classics, along with some surprisingly strong new cuts, including “Giants in the Sky,” which received some of the biggest roars of the night, thanks to memorial reel featuring — among others — Ace Frehley, Lemmy, and Ozzy. Last night may have been the last night of the tour; and you’d be forgiven for thinking Rob and the boys might hang it up, but as they assembled for their farewell bow; the screen behind them promised “The Priest Will Be Back.”
Alice Cooper, on the other hand, never left. After a 30-minute intermission, the former Vincent Furnier took the stage. Cooper’s shtick has been pretty much unchanged since the ‘70s. And unlike Judas Priest, he doesn’t even bother to sprinkle new songs into his act. The latest album to make an appearance last night was 2005’s Dirty Diamonds.
But most attendees at a so-called “classic rock” show aren’t there for surprises. And in that sense, at least, Cooper delivered. And if Halford is still (almost) fully in command of his vocal capabilities, Cooper tends more toward the Vince Neil approach. But then, his voice was never the attraction. “Fortunately,” most of the old familiar props made an appearance, like the big skull belt buckle, the 10-foot “modern Prometheus” during the ode to Cooper’s boner, “Feed My Frankenstein.” He also ran a paparazzo through with a mic stand during “Hey Stoopid.” This all in addition to the top hat, occasional cloak, and creepy backdrops.
Cooper’s band does a lot of the heavy lifting, and he frequently threw it to journeyman bassist Chuck Garric (who has a kind of taller Danzig thing going), guitarist Ryan Roxie, and guitarist Nita Strauss who gets her own dedicated solo and some of the night’s biggest cheers. It’s not difficult to see why.
Cooper’s no idiot. Credit: Jennifer Lake
It’s been a running gag for many years now about aging rockers still singing about teenagers (looking at you, Depeche Mode). At least Cooper gets the joke, bringing out a crutch (albeit a “spooky” one) for “I’m Eighteen” (fun fact: Cooper was 22 when he wrote that). He also produced some maracas for “Muscle of Love.” Spooky maracas.
Perhaps the least surprising of the night’s developments was the fan exodus during the second half of Cooper’s set, though I don’t think he can really be blamed for that. Putting relatively obscure cuts like “Brutal Planet,” “Ballad of Dwight Fry,” and “Cold Ethyl” in the back half of your set isn’t going to keep hold of Houston’s notoriously mercurial audiences.
As I’ve hinted, it’s hard not to ascribe some sense of finality to last night’s proceedings, but consider: both Priest and Alice are veteran, incessant touring machines. The former has slowed down somewhat, and Cooper never embarked on a “farewell tour,” like JP did in 2012. If I had to put money on it, I’d say we’ll be seeing both Judas Priest and Alice Cooper again.
If *we’re* still alive, that is.
School’s been out for a long time, dude. Credit: Jennifer Lake
Personal Bias: I remember picking my kids up at day care while “Painkiller” was playing on my car stereo. One asked who I was listening to. I said, “Judas Priest.” They said, “She sounds mean.”
The Crowd: Who let all these grandpas out of the assisted living center?
Overheard In The Crowd: “I’m allergic to alcohol. Whenever I drink, I end up in handcuffs.”
JUDAS PRIEST SET LIST All Guns Blazing Hell Patrol You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ Freewheel Burning Breaking the Law A Touch of Evil Night Crawler Solar Angels Gates of Hell Electric Eye Giants in the Sky Painkiller Hell Bent for Leather Living After Midnight
ALICE COOPER SET LIST Who Do You Think We Are No More Mr. Nice Guy House of Fire I’m Eighteen Muscle of Love Feed My Frankenstein Dirty Diamonds Caught in a Dream Hey Stoopid Dangerous Tonight Poison Brutal Planet Ballad of Dwight Fry Cold Ethyl Only Women Bleed Second Coming Going Home School’s Out
Halloween is my personal sweet spot for rock and roll tie-ins. SO MANY of my favorite classic rock songs lend themselves to the Halloween spirit. I have chosen songs that aren’t written with Halloween in mind, but they definitely have a Halloween ambiance. While I love those deliberate Halloween rock songs like “Monster Mash,” the majority of the best Halloween classic rock songs are accidental.
Having said that, Alice Cooper is the King of Halloween with “Feed My Frankenstein,” “Welcome to My Nightmare” and so many more. In my opinion, for Alice, every day is Halloween (no Ministry pun intended).
The only other contender I would put up for the King of Halloween title is Ozzy Osbourne. Much of Ozzy’s song content revolves around some sort of horror or magic. (Black Sabbath was named after a 1963 horror movie of the same name.)
The rest of my list has an amazing array of Halloween feels, but none of the songs were written to be “Halloween songs.” It just happened… magically. Let me know what you think of my list! Which songs would you add or remove? I love the discussion of classic rock. Happy Halloween!
13 Unintentional Halloween Classic Rock Songs
#13 “Superstition” – Stevie Wonder
“Superstition” of course, has to be song #13. This song has nothing to do with Halloween and yet it has a ton of Halloween culture wrapped into it. What could be more Halloween than black cats, the number 13, and other superstitions? The history between Jeff Beck and Stevie Wonder behind the song “Superstition” is amazing. Click here to check it out.
#12 “Highway to Hell” – AC/DC
“Highway to Hell” was the nickname for the Canning Highway in Australia. It runs from where lead singer, Bon Scott, lived in Fremantle. The highway ends at a bar called The Raffles, which was a big rock ‘n roll drinking hole in the ’70s. As Canning Highway nears the pub, it dips down into a steep decline. “No stop signs… speed limits… nobody gonna slow me down.”
So many people were killed by driving fast over that intersection at the top of the hill on the way for a good night out, that it was called the highway to hell. When Bon was saying “I’m on the highway to hell” it meant to The Raffles bar to rock and drink with his friends. “Ain’t nothing I would rather do. Going down, party time, my friends are gonna be there too.”
#11 “Sympathy For the Devil” – Rolling Stones
The lyrics were inspired by The Master and Margarita, a book by Mikhail Bulgakov. Marianne Faithfull was Mick Jagger’s girlfriend at the time and she gave him the book. In the book, the devil is a sophisticated socialite, a “man of wealth and taste.” It was a brilliant move for the Stones. They were the bad boys to The Beatles. This song helped cement that perception.
#10 “Spirits in the Material World” – The Police
Sting explained the song’s meaning in Lyrics By Sting: “I thought that while political progress is clearly important in resolving conflict around the world, there are spiritual (as opposed to religious) aspects of our recovery that also need to be addressed. I suppose by ‘spiritual’ I mean the ability to see the bigger picture, to be able to step outside the narrow box of our conditioning and access those higher modes of thinking… Without this, politics is just the rhetoric of failure.” Super deep… no actual Halloween affiliation and yet… It’s Halloween rock. Sorry, Sting.
#9 “Boris The Spider” – The Who
This was the first song that John Entwistle wrote for The Who. He also sings on this track. Entwistle was afraid of spiders as a kid and decided to write a song about the spider dropping from the ceiling and getting squished. The song started out a joke. However, it became a fan-favorite at their live shows. It was a nice balance to The Who’s more serious songs. In between the spider and the baseline, this is definitely Halloween rock.
#8 “People Are Strange” – The Doors
If you saw the ’80’s flick, Lost Boys, you REALLY think this is Halloween rock, but that’s not where it came from. The song is about alienation. Jim Morrison was feeling depressed. He realized that “if you’re strange, people are strange.” The lyrics followed from there.
#7 “Black Magic Woman” – Santana
Santana didn’t write this song as a Halloween song. In fact, Santana didn’t write this song at all… Fleetwood Mac did. This is a Peter Green song. Santana and Fleetwood Mac both have blues roots. “I used to go to see the original Fleetwood Mac, and they used to kill me, just knock me out,” Carlos Santana said in the book, The Guitar Greats. “To me, they were the best blues band.” For more songs that you may not know are covers, CLICK HERE
#6 “Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)” – David Bowie
A song describing a woman’s withdrawal from the world and descent into madness. “When I looked in her eyes they were blue but nobody home. Now she’s stupid in the street and she can’t socialize.” This song wasn’t written for Halloween, but it definitely has the Halloween feels.
#5 “Werewolves of London” – Warren Zevon
This song started as a homework assignment from The Everly Brothers. When Warren Zevon was working with The Everly Brothers, Phil Everly asked Warren and Robert “waddy” Wachtel to write a dance song for the Everly Brothers called “Werewolves Of London.” According to warrenzevon.com, Wachtel and Zevon were good friends and were playing guitars together when someone asked what they were playing. Zevon replied, “Werewolves Of London,” and Wachtel started howling. Zevon came up with the line, “I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand.“ They exchanged lyrics back and forth until they had their song.
#4 “Running With The Devil” – Van Halen
“Running With The Devil” was one of the tracks Van Halen included on the demo that Gene Simmons produced for them in 1977. Gene is the one who had the idea for the horn blare at the beginning. It was the first song on Van Halen’s first album. Although it did not get a lot of airplay when it was released, it’s still a fan favorite today.
#3 “Psycho Killer” – Talking Heads
Let’s jump in the head of a deranged murderer, ya know… just for fun. This song came about when David Byrne decided to write a song from the Alice Cooper playbook during the height of shock rock. Byrne wanted Japanese to be a part of the bridge. He asked a girl who was from Japan to come up with some Japanese murderous lyrical content. She freaked out, but can you blame her? Tina Weymouth knew French, so she wrote that part of the bridge instead. She used Norman Bates as inspiration. Qu’est-ce que c’est? (what is this). “Psycho Killer” was Talking Heads’ first song.
#2 “Bark at the Moon” – Ozzy
A werewolf who comes back from the dead and seeks revenge… You have to love “Bark at The Moon” and Ozzy. As I said, Alice Cooper is the King of Halloween, but Ozzy may have it for a tie… or at least a close second.
#1 “Feed My Frankenstein” – Alice Cooper
“Let me drink the wine from your fur tea cup. Velcro candy, sticky sweet.” This Frankenstein is definitely looking for some kind of trick-or-treat, but I don’t think it’s specifically Halloween-related. “Feed My Frankenstein is actually a COVER. It was originally written and performed by the British band, Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. Alice’s version features Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on guitar, and Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue on bass.
Most honorable mentions to a couple of old-schoolers: Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” and The Zombies “Time of the Season” are two of my old-school favorites. This list only represents a small slice with the 13 songs. Happy Halloween!
I have never been one to dwell on death. While it is a fundamental part of life, it is also generally a stone drag. But I must address the passing of Ace Frehley, one of the founding members of Kiss who inspired tens of thousands of kids to pick up a guitar during the ‘70s. These are now the same middle-aged guys you see in Guitar Center on Saturday trying out an instrument, playing too loud, and looking around to see if they impressed anyone with their rendition of “Smoke on the Water.”
Over the years, many people expected that Frehley might die of a drug overdose or some similar fate, due to his wild lifestyle and the fact that, for many years, he was in nonstop party mode. No, the Space Man (who discarded his harmful habits years ago) died as the result of a head injury caused by a fall in his home studio. It is my fervent hope that, when he fell, he had just recorded a blazing solo.
The original Kiss lineup was split into two factions. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were the “straight” guys, definitely horndogs but eschewing (to quote Keith Richards) “booze and pills and powders.” Frehley and Peter Criss, on the other hand, made up for their bandmates’ sobriety in spades.
This division was unwittingly put under a microscope when the band appeared on Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow show on Halloween in 1979. Frehley and Criss were ripped and having a great time, while Simmons and Stanley glowered. Frehley in particular hit it off with Snyder. When asked to explain his outlandish outfit, he said, “Actually, I’m a plumber!” To which Snyder, who was by then getting into the spirit of things, replied, “Listen, I’ve got a little piece of pipe backstage that I’d like you to work on.” You can see the video here, with the previous exchange beginning at the 11:53 mark.
Frehley was always completely genuine, a hardcore rocker through and through. When he plugged his Les Paul into a dimed Marshall amp, you could hear not only his influences – Zeppelin, Hendrix and Clapton – but also his own sometimes quirky but always blazing inimitable style. Rest easy, Ace. Thanks for never letting us down.
Ticket Alert
Tickets are still available for Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s show on Friday, November 7, at the 713 Music Hall. Ditto for funk-father George Clinton at the House of Blues on Friday, November 28. Clinton’s show is scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving, so, if the family is still sitting around in a turkey / tryptophan coma, you can say, “Well, Granny, I have to go. Got to do some serious funkin’,” as you walk out the door.
Gary P. Nunn will always hold a special place in the heart of Texans, as he is the man who wrote “London Homesick Blues,” aka “I Wanna Go Home with the Armadillo.” The progressive country legend will be at the Heights Theater on Wednesday, December 10, with a show billed as the “2025 Birthday Bash.” Nunn was born on December 4 – in Oklahoma! – but don’t tell anyone that last part. Tickets are on sale now.
Now that all of the classic rockers are of a certain age, many of their offspring have forged their own careers in the music business. For instance, there’s The Sons of Cream. The band includes Kofi Baker (son of Cream drummer Ginger Baker) on drums, Malcom Bruce (son of Cream bassist Jack Bruce) on bass, and Rob Johnson (nephew of Ginger Baker) on guitar. Their mission is simple: play songs recorded by Cream faithfully but with their own interpretative twists thrown in to keep things interesting. As a bonus, the band also plays some Blind Faith (a band which included Ginger Baker and Cream guitarist Eric Clapton) material too. Tickets are on sale now for the Sons’ show at the Heights Theater on Sunday, February 15.
Concerts This Week
Texas music fans have long been familiar with guitarists Ian Moore, Jesse Dayton and Johnny Moeller, so there was great anticipation and excitement when it was announced that the three string slingers had formed a new group, the Texas Headhunters. You can read more about the group’s gestation here in this week’s Houston Press interview with Moeller. The guys will be spanking the plank on Friday at the Heights Theater.
The only member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ original lineup still in the group is vocalist / harmonicist Kim Wilson. But that doesn’t mean it is any less of a band. After a Grammy nomination last year, the T-Birds are on tour with a show that pays particular attention to the Chicago blues which inspired Wilson as a young musician. The Fabulous Thunderbirds will play Main Street Crossing on both Saturday and Sunday, so take your pick.
Why would someone want to go see Alice Cooper and Judas Priest? Why? Why the hell not? A few months ago, the pioneering shock rocker released an album recorded with the original Alice Cooper band (yes, at one point, “Alice Cooper” was the name of the band, not the lead singer) to positive reviews, which must have put some pep in his step and glide in his stride. Ol’ Black Eyes is back! Also crushing it in old age is Judas Priest, led by Rob Halford, the Metal God. What a double bill. Catch it on Sunday at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.
For hip-hop fans, Toyota Center is the place to be this week. NBA (Never Broke Again) YoungBoy rolls in on Tuesday with the “Masa” tour and a bill that includes Offset, NoCap, DeeBaby, Mellow Rackz, Baby Mel, Lil Dump and k3. If you plan on attending the show, bear in mind that there are street closures due to construction around Toyota Center, so head there early and plan accordingly.
Rising from the ashes of At the Drive In during the early noughts, The Mars Volta (please include the definite article) is a musical collective which coalesces around guitarist / guiding light Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist / lyricist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. How to describe the band? Well, Rodríguez-López has been quoted as saying, “”Progressive is not a dirty word for people to use about us.” Ok, then, let’s go with prog rock, thought the Volta frequently flashes its psychedelic influences. Get trippy on Tuesday at the 713 Music Hall.
Alice Cooper may record with his first bandmates after releasing The Revenge of Alice Cooper in July. Cooper shared the news while on tour. The group’s last album before thiswas Muscle of Love, which dropped in 1973. The Revenge of Alice Cooper hit Billboard’s charts in the top 10, reaching No. 6 on the Vinyl Albums chart.
While on the Too Close For Comfort tour with Judas Priest and Corrosion of Conformity, Cooper said, “I think we’ll probably do another album. I can’t see why we wouldn’t. This one did so well, we might as well do another one,” according to VICE. The project would unite Cooper with pianist and vocalist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, and drummer Neal Smith. They’ll add computer-made parts from the late guitar player, Glen Buxton. Bob Ezrin could step in as producer, but the plans aren’t final.
While on tour, Cooper mixes old hits like “Spark in the Dark” with “House of Fire,” “Dirty Diamonds,” “Poison,” “I’m Eighteen,” “School’s Out,” “Who Do You Think We Are,” and “Dangerous Tonight.” The shows will keep going until October 26, with a final stop in Houston.
Cooper maintains a friendly relationship with Judas Priest, and he hosted a British high tea for them in their dressing room. His band also performed Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” as a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne after his death.
They’ll also play Cooper’s Christmas Pudding show on November 15 in Phoenix. The money helps the Solid Rock Foundation’s teen centers. After that, they’ll perform in Germany in December and continue touring Europe in January.
Heavy metal gods Judas Priest stopped at Pine Knob Music Theater Thursday on their co-headling tour with Alice Cooper. While Cooper closed the show, Priest was the highlight, with a set full of leather and speed.
It’s probably a given that Priest will play “Breaking the Law,” “Living After Midnight,” “Hell Bent for Leather,” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’.” These are the popular “radio-friendly” tracks that longtime bassist Ian Hill said, in our 2022 interview, helped bring heavy metal to a wider audience who may not have paid attention to it before.
When I spoke with Hill in 2022 and told him my favorite Priest song was Sin After Sin’s harrowing “Raw Deal”, he seemed surprised and then chuckled lightly. That should have been a sign that I was born much too late to ever hear that song live. They haven’t played it since 1977, but a girl can dream.
On the way in, a man waving a massive MAGA flag with a Charlie Kirk sign stood on the corner of Bob Seger Drive, leading into Pine Knob. It has always been strange to me when extremists and bigots are also Judas Priest fans, as if Rob Halford is not a gay leather daddy. “Raw Deal” is about cruising in a gay bar and was a coming out of sorts for Halford. In his autobiography, Confess, he mentions that many Priest lyrics are veiled ways of him talking about cocks (hot rods are not just motorcycles, y’all).
Alice Cooper and Judas Priest perform at Pine Knob Music Theatre on Thursday, October. 2. Credit: Randiah Camille Green
Back inside the venue, Halford reminded us that heavy metal is for everyone. It’s about “heavy metal brothers and sisters coming together to celebrate rock ’n’ roll,” he said.
The night was filled with tracks from Painkiller — five out of the 14-song set were from the speed-fueled 1990 album. Beyond the title track, there were songs I wasn’t expecting to hear like “Night Crawler,” “A Touch of Evil,” and “All Guns Blazing.” Priest also played a deep cut from Point of Entry, “Solar Angels,” which hasn’t been part of their setlist since 2005.
Down in the seated area, half of the audience seemed either bored, underwhelmed, or they just didn’t know the songs. Maybe it’s that the crowd down there was a bit older, and the young headbangers are on the lawn.
Alice Cooper and Judas Priest perform at Pine Knob Music Theatre on Thursday, October. 2. Credit: Randiah Camille Green
Halford dedicated “Giants in the Sky,” from their 2024 effort Invincible Shield, to heavy metal and rock musicians who have passed away. A banner with Ronnie James Dio, Lemmy, Jill Janus, Neil Peart, Randy Rhoads, Freddie Mercury, Chris Cornell, and others was displayed behind the band during the song. It felt incomplete without Ozzy Osbourne, but the Prince of Darkness got a solo tribute with just his photo near the end of the song.
Alice Cooper and Judas Priest perform at Pine Knob Music Theatre on Thursday, October. 2. Credit: Randiah Camille Green
The set closed with “Painkiller,” followed by encores of “Hell Bent for Leather” and “Living After Midnight,” played well before midnight, just before 9 p.m. As expected, Halford rode in on a motorcycle for “Hell Bent For Leather,” further proving why he will forever be the metal god. It felt like a travesty to end the night without hearing “Victim of Changes,” but at least I have memories of them playing it in 2014 at the Fox Theatre.
Alice Cooper and Judas Priest perform at Pine Knob Music Theatre on Thursday, October. 2. Credit: Randiah Camille Green
I thought the crowd was waiting for “Painkiller” to lose their shit (like me), but it turns out they were waiting for Alice Cooper. The entire ground floor came to life when Cooper emerged from a giant tome. I’m not a Cooper fan, but an energetic and lightning fast Nita Strauss on guitar was amazing to watch.
Alice Cooper and Judas Priest perform at Pine Knob Music Theatre on Thursday, October. 2. Credit: Randiah Camille Green
With my “Painkiller” adrenaline waning, I left about halfway through Cooper’s set during “Hey Stoopid.” Turning off Bob Seger Drive, I caught a glimpse of MAGA man, still posted at the corner, but more interested in his phone than waving his obnoxious flag. I guess he got bored too.
The co-headling tour will continue on to Cincinnati and wrap up in Houston on October 26 with support from Corrosion of Conformity.
You may not be familiar with Nashville, Tennessee, rock band Beasto Blanco, but one name may sound familiar. The hard rock outfit includes vocalist Calico Cooper, daughter of legendary shock rocker and longtime Phoenician Alice Cooper…
Arizona may host myriad celebrities within its borders at any time, but they’re typically here for a short visit. Special events like the WM Phoenix Open or stylish resort destinations like Scottsdale or Sedona are popular draws, attracting famous names to our state each year…
The War of the Roses, a 1989 black comedy based on Warren Adler’s bleak novel of the same name, was a financial hit even as it simultaneously attracted and repelled critics like the Robert Ebert. The movie, which starred Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as the titular Roses, was “a black, angry, bitter, unrelenting comedy,” Ebert wrote at the time, “a war between the sexes that makes James Thurber’s work on the same subject look almost resigned by comparison.”
If you found yourself thinking of the late critic’s words as you watched Depp v. Heard, the Netflix docuseries about the 2022 libel trial between former husband-and-wife Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, you’re not the only one who saw parallels between the two doomed couples: “School’s Out” singer Alice Cooper says he told Depp the couple should work out their differences by remaking the popular film.
Cooper, who for 11 years has collaborated with Depp as part of rock band Hollywood Vampires, made mention of the reboot idea in an interview published today in the UK newspaper TheTimes. Though Cooper says Depp “never talked” about his stormy relationship with Heard, whom he met in 2009 during production on The Rum Diary, the rocker was able to glean from outside sources that the pair’s relationship went from loving to toxic over the course of their 2014-2016 arc from engagement to divorce.
“I said, ‘I have a great idea. You and Amber do a remake of The War of the Roses. Who wouldn’t go and see that?’” Cooper says he told Depp, who lost a U.K. libel case against The Sun newspaper after it referred to him as a “wife-beater” but won a U.S. libel case against Heard after she referred to herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”
The trial between the pair was a bitter one, not unlike the plot of the Danny DeVito-directed film. In the case of Roses, a wealthy and once-happy couple threaten and kill each other’s pets, physically attack one another, and damage their shared home. While Depp and Heard reached a $7 million divorce settlement after Heard filed a restraining order against her spouse, the Roses faced a far more miserable fate, both killed by a fallen chandelier during a particularly nasty fight.
Based on Cooper’s account, Depp tried to move past Cooper’s cinematic suggestion by turning the conversation back to the band. “He laughed. Then it was, ‘What songs are we doing?’” Cooper said. “Johnny is a good guitarist and in a way he would have been happiest doing that, playing side of stage in a band and not having to deal with the level of attention he gets.”
