STACK Jun #128

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If there was one thing we took
away from the film, it’s that
selflessness is very important to
you. What did it take for you to be
convinced to be the subject of this
documentary?
I had that surgery and I didn’t
really know if I was to live or die;
I’d been in a coma for a couple of
days, I flatlined a couple of times. I
was maybe three days into recovery,
still in the hospital and very drugged
up, feeling very sorry for myself.
Mike [Myers] called up and in that
moment my ego really came through
and I said ‘Yes.’ It was completely
from ego, of wanting some kind of
external symbol of self-worth. And
three weeks later, when I was back
home and I knew I was going to live,
I called him up and I said, ‘Listen,
Mike, I know I said yes, but I didn’t
really mean it.’ And he said, ‘way
too late, I staffed up already.’ So, off
we went.
You have many hilarious stories
about ‘creating popularity’
throughout Alice Cooper’s career.
Do you think this kind of artificial
construction happens today?
I mean, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga,
Miley Cyrus... I understand
the choice of words, ‘artificial
construction,’ but I look at it
differently. It’s getting to the cultural
route of what your popularity is
about, and fuelling that. I think if
it’s intelligently done, it’s combining
cultural, visual, theatrical things with
the core of what the music is driving
towards.
Why do you think your theory of
‘compassionate business’ is so
important?
We’re living in a time when the
human condition is not fantastic.
It’s hard to find good humans. I
think it’s a general problem with the
human species rather than just the
entertainment business. And there’s
so much information and so much
bombardment, [that it’s] so hard not
to get greedy.
How much input into guiding or
assembling the film did you have?
I purely did nothing at all. When
I say I did nothing, I lived my life
and I opened everything I had up
to [Mike]. I never saw it until it
was done, and I only asked him to
change one thing in the movie and
it wasn’t about me: it was about His
Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
You speak a lot about children,
and Sylvester Stallone describes
you as a ‘protector’ – who do
you think your protector is? In
the eyes of whom are you the
innocent?
My father, I always felt, lived a
life of sacrifice from me and my
brother. He gave up his life. His sole
enjoyment came from providing for
us. You can’t do any more than that.
I never saw him really go out with
friends or spend money on himself
or buy clothes. We didn’t have the
most joyous relationship – it wasn’t
a bad one, but not a lot of laughing
in the house – but I always felt like
he sacrificed so much for us, and I
realised I do the same sort of thing
but I never knew why. It wasn’t like
these people were my children.
When I look back at it,
I see it as sort of a
way for me to live
my father’s life of
sacrifice. I can do
it. With the weight
on my shoulders,
I can do it.
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