Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948), is a heavy metal singer, musician, and composer. He is best known for his stage performances, which are often theatrical and violent, utilizing make-up, electric chairs , guillotines, decapitated human heads, fake blood, and boa constrictors.
Alice Cooper was originally just the name of Furnier's band. Furnier officially changed his own name to Alice Cooper for a highly successful solo career.
Furnier, born in Detroit and heavily influenced by The Beatles, formed a number of rock bands in the 1960s, including the Earwigs, The Spiders, and The Nazz. Furnier, upon learning that Todd Rundgren also had a band called the Nazz, changed the band's name to Alice Cooper, which at that time included guitarist Mike Bruce, guitarist Glen Buxton, bassist Dennis Dunaway , and drummer Neal Smith. After moving to California in 1968, the band enlisted Shep Gordon as their manager, and the band was soon signed to Frank Zappa's label, Straight Records - releasing two competent but outlandish albums, Pretties For You and Easy Action, to a frosty public and critical reception. Although the band incorporated theatrics in their stage act from the outset, a chance case of press misreporting an unfortunate, unrehearsed stage routine involving Alice and a live chicken led to the band changing tack - capitalising on tabloid sensationalism and creating a new sub-genre, Shock Rock.
