Photo by Jenny Risher
SOURCE: BLABBERMOUTH
In a new interview with Matt Bingham of the Z93 radio station, legendary rocker Alice Cooper spoke about his reunion with the other surviving members of the original ALICE COOPER band — guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith — for an upcoming studio album, “The Revenge Of Alice Cooper”, which is due on July 25 via earMUSIC. This highly anticipated effort is heralded as the successor to their iconic records “School’s Out”, “Billion Dollar Babies”, “Love It to Death” and “Killer”.
The first single from the album, “Black Mamba”, was made available in April, featuring the legendary Robby Krieger of THE DOORS.
Regarding how the reunion with the other original members of the ALICE COOPER came about, Alice told Z93 (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, the funny thing was when we disbanded in ’74, that was not like a divorce; that was a separation. And we all stayed in touch with each other. Everybody did their own music. Dennis worked a lot with BLUE ÖYSTER CULT and things like that. And so on the last four Alice Cooper albums, they played on two or three of the songs. And finally I just said, ‘Why don’t we just do an album?’ And [longtime Alice Cooper producer] Bob Ezrin said, ‘I’ll do it.’ He did all the original ones with us. And the great thing was it felt like no time had gone past us. This album sounds like the album that should have come out right after ‘Billion Dollar Babies’. We didn’t try to make it sound like the ’70s, we didn’t try to make it sound like anything — it was just exactly what would’ve happened in 1975. So I’m really proud of the album. It’s just really a clever album.”
Asked by Bingham if there was a “déjà vu” feeling surrounding the recording sessions, considering that all the musicians and the producer had previously worked together more than 50 years earlier, Alice said: “Oh, yeah, absolutely. Honestly, it didn’t feel like we missed a beat. And I forgot how funny the band was. I forgot how funny Dennis and Neal and Mike were. And every song we just got along on everything. There was no argument about any song. Everybody [was] just, ‘Let’s try this.’ ‘Oh, let’s try that.’ ‘Let’s try this.’ In the end, we agreed to everything, and it sounded great. Now, we did have the luxury of going to different lead guitar players because Glen Buxton, our original lead guitar player, passed away. So, Robby Krieger played on ‘Black Mamba’ and a couple other songs. And so we had a bunch of different lead players on it.”
In a truly special moment, “The Revenge Of Alice Cooper” features a posthumous appearance by Buxton, the original ALICE COOPER guitarist who passed away in 1997, through an unreleased recording that seamlessly blends the past with the present on “What Happened To You”, featuring his original guitar part.
Asked how important it was for him that Buxton was somehow incorporated into the album, Alice said: “Very much so. One of the reasons why we did disband, I think, in ’74 was the fact that we were exhausted, and we really couldn’t put the band back together without Glen. I mean, he was so much a part of the heart and soul of this band. He was like our Keith Richards, and there was no replacing him. It just wouldn’t have sounded like ALICE COOPER. So, we had to work around him. And everybody had incredible affection for Glen Buxton. Even when he got to a point where he pretty much couldn’t really do what he used to do, we never would ever have taken it out of the band — ever. But he did pass away. And so it was one of those things where there — the whole album is dedicated to Glen. One of the luxuries we had was Dennis Dunaway never throws anything away. He had tapes from us when we were the SPIDERS in high school. And so he had a lot of Glen Buxton stuff that was on tape. And we took a couple of the Glen Buxton guitar solos and then wrote songs around those solos just so we could have Glen on the album.”
Cooper added: “We had not heard any of [those old tapes before]. And Dennis happened to say, ‘I have a whole bunch of Glen Buxton just on rehearsal tapes and on demos and stuff.’ And so as soon as we heard that, Bob Ezrin went, ‘Well, give ’em to me, and let’s see what I can salvage off that.’ And so the stuff that we salvaged off that, that’s when we wrote the song around that bit.”
Regarding the possibility of the surviving original members of the ALICE COOPER band ?going on tour in 2026, Alice said: “We haven’t even gotten to that point of even talking about it. Just the other day, we knew that ‘Black Mamba’ came out, but we didn’t know that they went on pre-sales. It was number one in pre-sales in America, number one in pre-sales in England, number one in pre-sales in Europe. So, it was a shock to us that that many people wanted to hear new, old Alice Cooper.”
One of the bonus tracks on “The Revenge Of Alice Cooper” (box set and limited smart format) also includes a long-lost gem from 1970 — a raw, alternate take of “Return Of The Spiders” (not the version heard on “Easy Action”) — recently unearthed from original multi-tracks missing for 50 years and now enhanced and mixed by Bob Ezrin.
Alice, Neal, Michael and Dennis reunited with Ezrin in an old-school recording studio in Connecticut, rekindling the magic from the 1970s. This album is a celebration of friendship, nostalgia, and the timeless sound that solidified Alice Cooper as a rock icon. Fans can expect a powerful and nostalgic experience that bridges the gap between the band’s storied past and their vibrant present.
“The Revenge Of Alice Cooper” is going to be released on July 25 in a wide variety of formats and limited vinyl colors. It will also be available as a limited box set and as a limited art print (smart format),featuring exclusive access to two bonus tracks from the start, plus the full album automatically delivered as a high-definition download on release day.