ALICE COOPER: 'I Just Hate Politics'

Two months ago, legendary rocker Alice Cooper said that he was gearing up for the 2024 presidential election in the only way he knows how — by running for president, something he has done satirically every four years since releasing the song "Elected" back in 1972.

To accompany the announcement, the Godfather of Shock Rock released a "campaign" video in which he touted his qualifications thusly: "Well, I'm Alice Cooper and I'm a troubled man for troubled times. I have absolutely no idea what to do, so I should fit right in."

Asked in a new interview with the 96.1 KLPX radio station if he is selling "Alice For President" t-shirts at all the shows on his current tour, Cooper said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, yeah. There's all kinds of stuff like that."

He explained: "I am extremely nonpolitical. I would only do this as because the song was a hit — 'Elected' was a huge hit. It was John Lennon's favorite song, 'Elected' was, because it was such a great satire on politics. But you're never gonna see anything political in my show. I just hate politics. But in an election year, yeah, you have to do it — you have to do the satire on the whole situation."

Alice added: "I'm telling you, we're living in such a Kurt Vonnegut world right now, where everything is so absurd. For a person like me or a comedian, it's writing itself."

Elaborating on how his stage show has evolved, Alice said: "It's so funny because it used to be easy to shock an audience in the '70s. Now nobody's really trying — we're not really trying to shock an audience. I don't think anybody is 'shock rock' anymore, but those elements still remain in the show because they're fun to watch. It's still fun to watch the guillotine and the fact that you really buy in to it because of what happens before that. You're really concerned about this character Alice up there, what happens. And that's what I like about it. I want the audience to get involved in the show. We don't do a lot of lasers. We don't do things like that, because I want the emphasis to be on the character Alice, what happens to him and what he what exactly he's doing. But all that happens during all these songs that everybody knows — 'Feed My Frankenstein' and 'Poison' and 'No More Mr. Nice Guy' and, of course, 'School's Out' at the end."

The original 1972 "Elected" music video is when Cooper first announced his "candidacy" and the formation of the Wild Party.

"Elected" was the first single from Cooper's iconic sixth studio album, "Billion Dollar Babies". The record reached No. 1 in the U.S. and U.K. and was certified platinum by the RIAA.

In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Cooper said that he keeps his political opinions to himself. "I don't like to mix politics and rock 'n' roll," he said. "I don't look at Bono, Sting and Bruce Springsteen as political. I look at them as being humanitarian. I'll contribute to anything humanitarian. Helping people who can't help themselves. But when musicians are telling people who to vote for, I think that's an abuse of power. You're telling your fans not to think for themselves, just to think like you. Rock 'n' roll is about freedom — and that's not freedom."

Eight years ago, Cooper said that rock stars offering their political opinions is "the worst idea ever." "First of all, why do people think rock stars know more than they do?" he said. "That is the biggest fallacy in the world — if anything, we're dumber. We're not smarter than anybody else. I mean, why do you think we're rock stars?

"Trust me, we don't read magazines you don't read. Nobody calls us up and gives us as inside information on politics. We know less than you do. If I watch TV, it's 'Family Guy'.

"Rock 'n' roll was built to go as far away from politics as you could get. When my mom and dad talked about who to vote for, I'd go in the other room and put on THE BEATLES or ROLLING STONES — and I'm still like that."

Cooper, who considers himself a humanitarian, said that he had no problem with artists using their platform to highlight global issues if it benefited others. He said: "I think what Bono does and what [Bruce] Springsteen does, Sting and all the people that raise money for others — that's humanitarian, and I'm all for that. But I don't think that's political."

In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Cooper stated about then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump: "He's an interesting character. It seems like he shoots himself in the foot every single day and gets more popular by doing it. It's the weirdest. It's like [Kurt] Vonnegut: Everything that shouldn't happen is happening."

Cooper previously said that he would even go so far as to do the opposite of what everyone else is doing just to make a point. During the 2004 election season, he said: "When I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush."

He also mused about sitting between such political rocker icons as John Lennon and Harry Nilsson while they argued politics and thinking, "I don't care."

Photo credit: Jenny Risher