While most people think of Alice Cooper as a guy…the singer…it was originally the name of a band, started in Phoenix Arizona by a bunch of high school friends in the mid 60’s. While urban myth has the name being divined by an Ouija board, the singer Vince Furnier (who later legally changed his name to the band’s after their 1975 breakup) said it came from a character on Mayberry R.F.D. It was this original band that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011. Though singer and band had been at odds since the breakup, they buried the hatchet and reunited for the ceremony, minus original lead guitarist Glen Buxton, who passed away in 1997, but reunion appearances have been few and far between, and Alice the man continues to play with his own backing band.
But fans of the band got an über-rare treat last night in Dallas, where the Alice Cooper/Motley Crüe tour continues tonight. The occasion was a book signing for bass player Dennis Dunaway’s new biography Snakes! Guillotines! Electric Chairs! My Adventures in the Alice Cooper Group at Good Records. The plan had been for Dunaway to play a short set with ACG guitarist Michael Bruce and drummer Neal Smith, which would have drawn a sizable crowd in itself, but as rumors started circulate through the weekend that Alice would join them, bringing along Ryan Roxie from his band to cover the Glen Buxton parts, hundreds showed up trying to squeeze into the small record store. It was a rare treat to be sure, but Alice Cooper fans remain hopeful that some sort of reunion will happen again tonight at the much larger American Airlines Center.
Surprisingly, or perhaps not since no cell-phone selfies were allowed, no one has put footage of the reunion up on YouTube yet, so we offer this from 2011:
