I often tell people I have three role models: my mom, Jesus, and Alice Cooper. What do the three of them have in common? Love for others. Authenticity. And being unashamed to stand for what they believe. And all three, in my mind, are identified by one mutual concern: faith.
That’s right, Alice Cooper is a Christian. The man who practically created “shock rock” also teaches Sunday school. The guy who has a guillotine cut his own head off at each show… and then prances around with it singing, kinda like David with Goliath (1 Samuel 51:17–18). He’s produced songs about monsters and murderers (“Feed My Frankenstein,” “He’s Back (The Man Behind the Mask“). His iconic makeup consists of thick black grease paint around the eyes. He looks like someone who would burn Bibles, not teach them.
For much of my life, Alice Cooper has been a household name. “School’s Out” was, of course, one of my favorite songs as a child, desperate for the school year to end. Now I do research for a hobby… imagine that. The song this post is titled after? Alice Cooper. Wayne’s World, still a popular comedy when I was a child? He even appears in that. “It was pronounced, Milly-WAH-keh.” He has left an impressive print upon pop culture.
Even when I went through my phase of only listening to Christian music, Alice Cooper was in my rotation. There’s nothing Christian about “I’m Eighteen” or “Poison.” But I knew the kind of person Alice is, and I had so much respect for him.
A rockstar who can simultaneously energize and terrify audiences through loud music and horror imagery, while still living out his faith with no shame. And for that, I believe, Alice Cooper is an excellent theological role model.
The Phases of Music
I’ve always gone through “phases” with musical artists. First, as a child, it was Rod Stewart. Then Bryan Adams. Then Skillet. It was Skillet for many years. Then the Ramones. Then back to Christian rock, with RED. A brief phase where I loved KISS. And then, finally, it was Alice Cooper.
August 21st, 2017. One of the best days of my life. It was also the day of a solar eclipse, which I’ll never forget. But that’s just an aside. The real highlight of that day was seeing Alice Cooper in concert that evening. He performed alongside Deep Purple (“Smoke on the Water”) and Edgar Winter (“Free Ride”). I’ve yet to find a lineup that tops this one.
The coolest show I’ve ever seen. Surrounded by hippies well over twice my age, the entire place reeking of dank weed… it was glorious. Everyone was happy, the music was loud enough to reach the soul.
It was everything you’d expect from such a concert. Waiting in line, there were even doomsday prophets. They stood on their soapboxes pronouncing God’s judgment and telling people to repent or face death.
And I thought it was ironic. You guys, the fundamentalists, are giving turn-or-burns at the entrance to a horror-themed Alice Cooper show. And yet, you seem clueless that Cooper practices the same faith. He terrified his audience, sure, but not with threats of eternity in pain and suffering.
Better yet, Cooper is himself the prodigal rockstar. During the 1970s, Cooper was to the metal/punk community what Elvis was to rock n’ roll. One of my favorite bands, the Ramones, based a song on “I’m Eighteen.” Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson are heavily inspired by Cooper. And those three artists, alone, inspired countless other artists. The Godfather of shock rock, indeed, but I’d venture to say hard rock, punk, and metal.
A Nightmare of His Own
But also like Elvis, Cooper became famous. And what do people with such fame do? Not always, but often, they turn to drugs. Those with fame are far more likely to struggle with addiction. He was a bitter alcoholic, did drugs, and generally lived the rockstar lifestyle. He felt drugs and alcohol, in particular, were a necessary tool for his on-stage persona.
In the 1980s, like many rockstars of the time, he also turned to crack cocaine. As someone who has walked the path of addiction a time or two before, I know what Alice was dealing with. His body started to fail. He was literally dying.
His wife, Sheryl, was his accountability partner. She essentially forced him to either get sober or lose her too. After a night of puking blood, he agreed to enter treatment.
I mentioned other rockstars looking to Cooper like Presley. I mean that. He may not be the exact same sensation as Elvis, but there is certainly some overlap. He inspired the whole rock genre, from being associated with horror to thick eyeliner to music that draws on heavy metal, punk, hard rock, etc. But, as I read many years ago, perhaps no rockstar owes more to Alice Cooper than Dave Mustaine.
Alice Cooper: A Metal Godfather
I’m not too familiar with 1990s metal. But I’ve always had some respect for Megadeth. I couldn’t tell you a single song they created, but I can tell you the frontman’s story.
Cooper battled addiction. He survived. He survives to this day. But as anyone in addiction will tell you, it doesn’t stop there. No, he truly adopted the AA method. Step #12: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.”
Alice Cooper took Megadeth’s frontman, Dave Mustaine, under his wing. Or under his wheels, I guess. Having survived the throes of addiction, Cooper served as a mentor and peer support for younger rockstars like Mustaine. According to Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir, which I have not read, Cooper was blunt but empathetic. As such, Cooper became Mustaine’s “godfather.”
It is a famous piece of metal trivia. Accordingly, Alice “[took] a risk to say something to someone he didn’t know.” The rest is history. Cooper and Mustaine are both alive and performing. Go see them.
Keeping the Faith
But this is not an AA blog. This is not a mental health blog. Beyond the Logos is NOT about celebrity news or reading the DSM. The denominator, in the case of Alice Cooper, is faith. That is the theological connection.
Yes, the Alice Cooper with horror-themed rock shows. The Alice Cooper who sold a shirt that said “I Love the Dead,” which my mom crossed out with a permanent marker. The Alice Cooper who gave countless people their end-of-the-school-year anthem, “School’s Out.” He is a Christian… and I cannot think of someone who more closely resembles the character of Jesus.
Obviously, Cooper is not Jesus, and I would never venture to make that argument. But Cooper did for rockstars what Jesus did for fishermen. He gave them hope. He gave them himself.
Only after he suffered first. Had Cooper never gotten sober, I imagine the rock/metal industry would look a lot different. Had Jesus never turned water to wine, would we even have Christianity? Who knows?
A Prodigal Rockstar
A modern Jesus is not a pastor’s child. It isn’t someone who is born into the faith and never does anything wrong. Think about Jesus’ own parable. You know it. Everyone, Christian or not, seems to know the story of the prodigal son.
The son takes his wealth, travels far, and lives a life of vain pleasure. But once the money was wasted on personal game, the fame and association were dead, and the son had no choice but to come to a realization: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” (Luke 15:18, NRSVue).
And yet, the father danced when these words were spoken. When he saw his son after years of no contact, he didn’t say, “see? I told you so.” He danced. Maybe he didn’t bring out a guillotine to “chop off his own head,” but he did not sit idle. And he welcomed the son back with open arms.
Alice Cooper was too far gone. Even seeing him perform sober, I thought, there is no way this guy is actually a Christian. But I got my own lesson on judgment there.
As someone who loves a good ole’ Cokesbury hymnal, I can admit, a hymnal does not make you Christian. It DEFINITELY does not make you a good Christian.
Sometimes, the best Christians sing about how only women bleed and laying on beds of nails. Is there such thing as “best Christians”? Probably not. But also:
As someone who is “lost.” As someone who wears eyeliner and loves rock music… there is no greater hope to me than the hope Alice Cooper demonstrates each night. He beat addiction. He helped others beat their addictions That takes character. That takes strength.
Conclusion: The Value of Ingenuity
I don’t find God in opening the Bible and reading about genocide. I find God when I see someone who has thrown their life away for drugs and alcohol… realizing that they are so much more than the bottle. SO much more.
People love to invite me to their church. “It’s different than other churches,” they always say. It never is. It’s always the exact same. I’ll never turn down such an invite, but I’ll never embrace it, either. The sermons about getting right with God don’t have the same effect as those demonstrating how someone survived a painful, perhaps deadly, struggle with addiction.
Sometimes, the people who inspire you to “keep the faith” are those who seem to have no faith at all. They host concerts that smell like pot and bad choices. They act with guillotines and nine-foot tall Frankensteins.
And yet, they’re sober. They want others to have what they have. They slap on thick grease paint and say, “Welcome to my nightmare.” But they don’t force anyone into their nightmare.
That, to me, is honesty. That’s a faith I want a part of. Not an environment where I’m told I’ll spend an eternity in hell for thinking one bad thought. I want someone who says, “you’ll be okay,” when, in reality, you’ve screwed up worse than you could possibly imagine.
Alice Cooper shares that message. He has lived that message. And so, to me, whether I am an adult male paying bills or a seventeen year-old obsessed with rock and horror, I’m gonna listen to the one who doesn’t have an Mdiv. I’m gonna listen to the one who threw their life away, but got it back, on the basis of grace and redemption.
And, also, those who address me like this: “Hey, hey, hey, HEY, hey stoopid.”