Following a pair of dates with members of his original band last May–one of which was for a private event–Alice Cooper announced on June 14 that the three living members would join him on tour in the U.K., returning there for the first time in 46 years. At those earlier concerts in Nashville, bassist Dennis Dunaway, guitarist Michael Bruce and drummer Neal Smith reunited to perform a five-song mini-set that included such classic rock hits as “I’m Eighteen” and “Billion Dollar Babies.”
In that June announcement, Cooper said, “When the original band broke up in 1975, there was no bad blood. There were no lawsuits — we had just burned out the creative process. We had gone to high school together and had recorded something like five Platinum albums in a row. We were never out of sight of each other for 10 years. Everybody just went their own way. Neal, Dennis and I always stayed in touch. Mike disappeared for a while and Glen Buxton passed away in 1997, which was a big blow.
“But last year Neal called me up and said, ‘I have a couple of songs.’ I said great, bring ‘em over. Then he said Mike was stopping by, so I had them come to my house and we just worked on a few things for a week. Then Dennis called up and said, I got a couple songs. So, I thought, hey let’s do this! When you listen to the record, it just fits right in.”
Cooper’s most recent album – Paranormal, released July 28 on earMUSIC – includes two new songs written and recorded by the original line-up (“Genuine American Girl and “You And All Of Your Friends”).
On Nov. 11 at First Direct Arena in Leeds, England, after performing 17 songs with his current band, Dunaway, Bruce and Smith joined Cooper on stage to play “I’m Eighteen,” “Billion Dollar Babies,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “Muscle of Love.”
They were then joined by the current members for an encore of “School’s Out.”
Watch all five songs
Three dates remain on the mini-tour:
Nov 14 – Birmingham – Barclaycard Arena
Nov 15 – Manchester – Manchester Arena
Nov 16 – London – The SSE Arena, Wembley
These will be followed by performances with his current band in Europe through Dec. 7. Tickets for his 2018 North American tour are available here.
[easy_sign_up title=”Sign up for the Best Classic Bands Newsletter”]
