1) When and what made you decide to play drums?
NS	By the time that I was 11 years old, I had tapped or beaten on everything in my own home as well as the homes of friends and family. I would beat on tabletops and dishes with silverware and pots and pans with wooden spoons. So I decided to take all of that energy and try to play the drums. I borrowed a Ludwig marching snare drum from my cousin, started taking lessons at school, as well as private lessons and went on from there. I love everything about drums and love playing them. It never cured me of tapping and beating on things however, only made it worse.
2) What is your principal contribution when you join in the Nazz? (Musically and artistically speaking)
NS	1966 to 1967, Glen, Dennis, Alice and I were friends as well as art majors at the same college that we all attended in Phoenix, Arizona. We had a lot in common when it came to expression in art and music. We liked everything creative and experimental from Dali to Stockhausen, the wilder, bizarre and crazier the better. My flamboyant approach to clothing, image and music was very parallel to direction that the band was heading. In Phoenix, during the summer of 1967 months before I actually joined the Nazz, Glen, Dennis, Michael and I on several occasions, went out into the Arizona desert late at night and had intense free form jam sessions. This was the musical beginning of what would become the international phenomenon known as "Alice Cooper".
3) When I am listening the first ACG album, Pretties for you, it seems your music was influenced a little bit by the ideas of the contemporary composer: Stockhausen. Do you agree with me ?
NS	Absolutely, we had a lot of influences, some out of a record player and some out of a bottle. And as I just mentioned, one of our many early influences in experimental music was Stockhausen.
4) Frank Zappa was supposed to produce that album but he didn't show up. Why?
NS	Frank did show up to produce "Pretties For You". We recorded the album in 1968 at Whitney Studios in Burbank California. The "Jefferson Airplane" were also recording in that studio at the same time. When the "Airplane" found out that we were there to record our first album, they gave us a present to celebrate the event. The gift was some really killer reefer (as you could probably imagine). Right before we started recording the album, Glen, Mike, Dennis, Alice and l went out into the back alley of the studio and lit it up and it was some killer stuff. We came back in to begin recording and Frank could tell we were pretty blasted and he got very pissed off and walked out of the session, I guess he never worked around anyone that was stoned. When Frank walked out from then on, essentially we produced "Pretties For You" ourselves. He did come back in a few days later to help with the final mixes. The whole album was completed in about a week or so, for all practical purposes it was recorded like a live studio album.
5) The song "Reflected" on the album Pretties for you has strange similarities with another one. Did that song inspired "Elected"?
NS	Yes, when I joined the "Nazz" in 1967, they had an original song called "Elected". The song was rewritten and the title was changed to "Reflected". We recorded it on "Pretties For You" and it became one of my favourite songs on the album. A few years later, after the single "Schools Out" was a hit, we were looking for another timely anthemish hit single. As the Presidential Elections of 1972 drew near, we decided to "go back to the future" and rewrite "Reflected" calling it "Elected". It's not the same song, but it's a close relative.
6) On the second album Easy Action, the sound of the recording and the production are much better than those on the first album. Do you consider these conditions were helpful to sell more albums?
NS	In 1969 we recorded "Easy Action" at Sunset Studios in Hollywood, with two of my favourite songs, "Return Of The Spiders" and "Lay Down And Die, Goodbye". At the time we had no idea what the album would sound like. David Briggs was hired to produce the album, because he was an experienced and well-known Hollywood producer. Our hope was for a more commercial sounding album. The only problem was David hated our music, and us I recall the term that he used referring to our music was "Psychedelic Shit". I think "Easy Action" sounded too dry, more like a TV or radio commercial and he did not help with song arrangement or positive input in any way. It was still not the sound we were looking for.
7) Bob Ezrin was an essential ingredient for the concept of Alice Cooper Group (ACG). Did he have an influence on your playing?
NS	Bob's influence and faith in the band "Alice Cooper" was the biggest musical turning point for us up to that time and I can not stress that enough. Bob became the sixth member of the band; he was a blood brother. He was as open minded, adventurous and crazy as Glen, Dennis, Alice, Michael and myself. Bob is a great "Songsmith" and a key ingredient, along with the arrangement of a song is the "Rhythm Section", i.e. bass & drums. My freedom of expression on my drums was never compromised, but Bob was influential in locking my drums and Dennis's bass parts together, forming a powerful and melodic "Rhythm Section" to make our songs come alive.
8) On the third album Love it to death, we saw you with a cane over your shoulder. Was it just for the fashion or did you get injured?
NS	Actually a little bit of both. Early 1968, before we officially changed our name from the "Nazz" to "Alice Cooper", I took a bullet in my left inside anklebone. Alice had accidentally shot me while we were out in the Arizona desert hunting "Jack Rabbits" in the dark of night like a bunch of beer drinking dumb asses. Later, March 15th & 16th, 1968, when we played our first show under our new band name "Alice Cooper" in Santa Barbara, California, I still had a plaster cast on my left leg. The cast extended from my foot up to my knee, it was very difficult to walk so I started using a cane for extra support. I grew attached to canes and have owned and used them for fashion ever since. I thought I would use a cane during the photo session for the "Love It To Death" album cover, you can see it on both the front and back covers. The back cover photo is still one of my favourite "Alice Cooper" shots, it still looks killer.
9) Each album of ACG is very special (jacket and graphic arts speaking). For example, I have three different LP's of Love it to death : one with Alice right arm with the thumb ; second with the right arm but without the thumb ; third (present time) without the right arm and the thumb. Why did Warner Bros apply a censorship on this picture?
NS	Warner Brothers censored the original "Love It To Death" album cover because it had been suggested that Alice's thumb looked like a penis. I thought that the whole thing was stupid, absurd and ridiculous. First of all if that's someone's penis, they should be fucking embarrassed. But in reality what it did was make one hell of a collector's item. There were four different versions of the "Love It To Death" album cover before they stuck to the version you see today, without the right arm and penis, I mean thumb???Morons!
10) What was your creating process when you composed a song like "Hallowed Be My Name"?
NS	For "Love It To Death", I was working on some lyrics and a song title that was a bit of a twist on a line from the Lords Prayer, "Hallowed Be Thy Name". My alter ego's bad ass attitude for stage and personal credo was "No Gods Before Me", so I wanted to come up with a song title that would convey that idea and get across how my alter ego feels and "Hallowed Be My Name", was perfect. I came up with lyrics that I was happy with, the guys in the band and Bob Ezrin like it and we learned the song and recorded it on "Love It To Death". It was suggested to me several years ago, that "Hallowed Be My Name" is conceptually similar to Alice's song "Second Coming" on "Love It To Death". That may be true and if it is that's cool, but it is purely coincidental.
11) Who played the moog synthesiser on the album Killer
NS	Bob Ezrin
12) On the School's out tour (I think), you play drums and without notice, you jumped over your instrument and you ran quickly over Alice with a baseball bat. Just like a street fight! How could you manage that, i.e. playing and acting during the concert?
NS	You are correct, that was the "Street Fight Scene" during our "Schools Out Tour". That segment of the show, as all of our shows, was well choreographed and rehearsed. At a given que a studio tape loop of the song "Street Fight" started playing loudly over the sound system and I leaped over my massive drum kit and start fighting with Alice. Actually, my weapon for the fight was a very large 3 foot long drumstick. It was very easy to pull this scene off. I loved leaving my drum kit at different times on various concerts over the years. I don't know if it was acting as much as it was hamming it up. There was more ham on our stage, than on an Iowa hog farm. The "Schools Out Tour" was fantastic because it involved all 5 of us in the theatrics.
13) Tell me about the contribution of Elmer and Leonard Bernstein on School's out?
NS	Leonard Bernstein composed "The Jets Song", "from "West Side Story", and on the "Schools Out" album, Glen and Dennis wrote a song called "Gutter Cat vs The Jets", in which portions of "The Jets Song", are used. Elmer Bernstein composed "Walk On The Wild Side", of which musical segments appear in the song "Grande Finale" written by the entire band including Bob Ezrin. So naturally, we had to give Elmer and Leonard credit on the album and that's why their names appear with the writers credits on the "Schools Out" album.
14) I read somewhere that Stanley Kubrick was influenced by the concept of Alice Cooper before the shooting of "Clockwork Orange". Is it true?
NS	I have never heard that before, it may or may not be the case. But with the eye makeup like Alice's, which was an idea brought to the band by Dennis and the use of a boa constrictor, an idea that I brought to the band as "Kachina" the snake on the cover of "Killer" was my pet snake, anything is possible. Let's not forget the radical image of the band with stage deaths and violence. What I do know for a fact is that "A Clockwork Orange" was a definite influence for our "Alice Cooper" image conceptually for "Schools Out", for the album and for the tour, which was a futuristic, violent rebel street gang mentality. We all loved that movie!
15) In the Rolling Stone Magazine (no 105 March 30, 1972), you said to the weird mannequin : "Hey ! don't mention any other band, around here, this is our car and we're the kings." At that time (1972-1973), which band do you consider was a serious competition to ACG?
NS	I recently went through my archives and found that article from Rolling Stone and recalled that exact quote. The quote its self, is self explanatory, but when it came to competition, serious or not our band "Alice Cooper" had no competition during our reign, end of story. Other bands, that were our contemporaries, had no fucking clue what we were doing. When you start a whole new trend in any field, the only competition is what follows. If Kiss, Marilyn Manson, and bands like that were around when we were, we still would have blown them away. I will put our "Alice Cooper Greatest Hits" album, up against any of the so-called theatrical, shock rock bands greatest hit albums any day.
16) During B$B tour, what happened exactly at the Toledo's concert?
NS	December 13, 1973, we headlined "The Toledo Sports Arena", the 5th show of our "1973 Holiday Tour" with "ZZ Top" as the opening act. Our show had just begun and we were playing the 2nd song of the concert, which was "Billion Dollar Babies". A couple of bars into the song there was an explosion on stage right in front of Michael. Some jerk had thrown an M-80 up on the stage, it hit one of our lights, causing pieces of glass to fly through the air. We immediately stopped playing and left the stage and did not return to finish the show. There were a couple of reasons that we did not return to the stage. First of all a few years earlier in Toledo some asshole threw a hammer on stage hitting Glen in the knee. Until the day Glen died he was carrying a floating bone chip around in his knee from that incident continually causing him pain. Secondly, people don't remember today, but we were banned from playing certain places and we used to get death threats. In the New Haven Coliseum, not far from where I presently live in Connecticut, we had a bomb threat there during the "Billion Dollar Baby" tour in 73. Policeman with bomb sniffing dogs checked everywhere finding nothing. We decided to go on stage and do the show, figuring that if we were blown up and killed on stage, at least we died doing what we loved to do.
17) The Chicago columnist Bob Greene has written a book about this tour. But this book became a weapon against the ACG. Why? After 29 years, isn't it time to revise the book?
NS	Rock n' Roll does not have a code of ethics like many other professions and probably shouldn't. Even if the Rock industry did it could never hold people, like Green outside of the business accountable. Entertainment tabloids and TV make millions of dollars dishing the dirt about celebrities everyday, weather it's true or not. With that said, Green had a golden opportunity as a writer, to get inside the inner circle of the entertainment Rock monster called "Alice Cooper" that the 5 of us had created and tell a great American success story. Instead, he decided to take the low road. He took meaningless statements from each band member, put them under the microscope, blow it out of proportion to fabricate his own story about America's most notorious band, the "ACG" being a band in ciaos who's members were back stabbing each other all of the time. His fictitious spin was total bullshit and could not have been farther from the truth, plus he did not even come close to understanding the sense of humour of our band. If the book was used as a weapon against the "ACG", the weapon was like a gun loaded with blanks. When you pull the trigger it fires and sounds dangerous, but it's totally harmless. Revising the book might be a good idea, but throwing it away would even be a better one. I guess the "ACG" gets the last laugh after all, recalling Green's recent arrested in Chicago for having sex with an under age girl. Now I know why Green was always trying to hang out with the women in our crew, he was trying to get laid all the time.
18) News: "Alice Cooper told a press conference at the Coconut Grove in L.A. that the group spent $ 32,000 on beer in 1972" (R.S.M. No. 137 June 21, 1973). What it just a marketing strategy or did it indicate a real drinking habit? Why does a rock musician need to drink as much when he became rich and famous?
NS	All that I can say is that being famous or marketing strategies had nothing to do with our love for beer in massive quantities. In the days that we were starving in California, even when we didn't have money for food we always found a way to get beer. Well, Alice tells a lot of stories doesn't he, and I love most of them, but If you think about it there's really no way of knowing how much beer, in dollars that we consumed, although the amount of $32,000 may not be far from the truth. What I do know is that between "Rod Stewart and The Faces" and the "Alice Cooper Group", it was a very close tie as to which band consumed the most alcohol in the early 70's.
19) How did you know that Keith Moon (The Who) had 35 pieces on his drum kit? Could you tell me this story?
NS	Keith Moon and Ginger Baker were the 2 drummers that most influenced me into using drum sets with double bass drums and over the years I did have the privilege of meeting both Ginger when he played with "Cream" and Keith on several occasions with the "Who". I've never known how many drums were in Keith's largest drum set. A story about Keith and I always outdoing each other on the number of drums that we played, has taken on it's own life over the years. The real point is not the number of drums but how phenomenal a drummer Keith was and I think in my drumming career I have had my moments as well, being inspired by the musicians I've played and performed with, Glen, Alice, Dennis and Michael. Keith's first double bass drum set with the "Who" had a total of only 7 drums, my first double bass drum set in "Alice Cooper" had a total of just 8 drums. The largest drum set that I played was on the "Billion Dollar Babies Tour" in 1973 and it had a total of 21 drums, that was a massive drum kit I still have all of my drum sets to this day. Keith's later drum kits were large, but I seriously doubt if they were larger than my set and no where near 35 drums. Bottom line, fuck the number of drums Keith Moon played, he Pete, John and Roger the "Who" are one of the best bands in the world ever, nothing more needs to be said.
20) What do you think about the movie "Good to see you again, Alice Cooper"?
NS	I thought that the original idea of doing a movie for the fans was a great idea. There were 2 versions of the movie and for different reasons both versions seriously missed what the band was really all about. The live Billion Dollar Babies stage footage was great and recently our album "Billion Dollar Babies" was re-mastered and re-released and included a 2nd bonus live CD featuring the music from that filmed concert in Dallas Texas. Around that time there were outside influences trying to come up with creative ideas for our band "Alice Cooper". Unfortunately these influences crept into the movie and in my opinion both versions of the movie came out silly and corny not representing the real "Alice Cooper". The saving grace is that someday hopefully, we will release the concert footage of the live "Billion Dollar Babies Show" on DVD featuring the whole band in it's glory. When it's just the band it has to be Killer!
21) Is there a difference between playing drum on a Premier kit or a Slingerland kit?
NS	The reason that I wanted a Slingerland sponsorship was because Gene Crupa was sponsored by and always played Slingerland drums. The reason that I wanted a Premier sponsorship was because Keith Moon was sponsored by and always played Premier drums. Both companies were great to be sponsored by and they were both willing to develop new ideas that I would come up with. I was very lucky.
22) What is the most important thing to keep in mind when you're learning, like me, how to play drums?
NS	As I mentioned I started playing drums when I was 11 years old. I began by learning to read music as well as learning and studying all of the basic rudiments on the snare drum. I took music classes in public school as well as private lessons. A few years later, after I had learned all of my basics, I got a drum set and began applying those techniques and rudiments to a full set of drums. In school I played as much as I could, "High School Marching Band", "High School Orchestra", even "Drum and Fife Corps", "School Talent Shows" and occasionally setting in with live bands in my Jr. High and early High School years in Ohio. After I had my full set of drums I would also play along with my favourite records of the early 60's. I still put on headphones and play along with some of my all time favourite music once in awhile. In short my answer is, learn the basic rudiments of drumming, play music that inspires you and be creative. I little natural talent doesn't hurt either.
23) Muscle of Love, seventh album of ACG, doesn't reach the same peak as the precedent album. The sales weren't the same. How do you explain that?
NS	I actually like our "Muscle Of Love", album very much. The only song that I was not happy with on the record was "Crazy Little Child". You have to remember that we wrote and recorded this album under a brand new set of circumstances for the "Alice Cooper Band". One, we had just come off the most financially successful tour in rock history up to that point, "The Billion Dollar Babies Tour". And two, our "Billion Dollar Babies" album, had reached #1 in all three music trade magazines at the same time, a very rare feat, making us the #1 band in the world in 1973. We had never written a new album before, coming off of that kind of stellar success, plus music trends were changing and we were writing songs within this whirlwind of success and change. Also, I thought that the first choice for a single off the album should not have been "Teenage Lament", even though I wrote the song with the help of Michael & Alice. I think the first single should have been "Muscle of Love", "Working Up A Sweat" or even "Big Apple Dreaming". The album, upon it's release made over $1,000,000. reaching immediate gold record status. The unconventional package with the album in a stained cardboard box did have a few shipping problems, but I loved the whole concept. To date it is our only album of the 6 that we recorded with Warner Brothers, that has not gone "Platinum", however I expect that someday it will, as "Love It To Death" finally went "Platinum" a few years ago in the summer of 2001.
24) ACG were always ahead of time for the promotion. For example, each of you were dressed as prisoners. The film was taken at an abandoned New York police station. That was the marketing strategy to promote Muscle of Love on BBC. Do you remember that?
NS	Yes, I remember shooting the promo film for "Teenage Lament 74", off of the "Muscle of Love", album. As I mentioned I wrote the song along with Alice and Michael, and I never could figure out what the promo film of us escaping from prison had to do with the song. Like "Good To See You Alice Cooper" outside influences, other than the 5 of us, were trying to come with creative ides for the band and it wasn't really working. The film is interesting, but could have been a lot cooler.
25) Did the song "Man with the Golden Gun" was written for the purpose of the Bond producers (The man with the golden gun)?
NS	All of us were huge "James Bond" fans and we knew that the next Bond movie to be released in 1974/1975 was going to be "Man With The Golden Gun". So even without consulting the Bond producers, we went ahead and wrote a theme song for that movie, which to this day I still love. But the title song for the movie, was eventually song by "Lu Lu". I thought that the song "Lu Lu" sung was embarrassing for a kick ass Bond movie. We always thought that the idea of the "Alice Cooper Band" doing the theme song for a "James Bond" movie was fantastic, but in reality it probably scared the hell out of the producers.
26) How do you explain the renewed interest about the ACG material?
NS	I can't explain it, but I think that it's fantastic. It never ceases to amaze me that 30 years after we started recording, people still buy hundreds of thousands of our records and CD's around the world. The only reasonable explanation is that there must be a lot more crazy fucking people around the world than we ever thought. And I love them to death; we're luck to have the greatest fans on the planet.
27) After all these years passed with ACG, what is your best stage act?
NS	My favourite all time shows! 1) The Pretties For You show at the Toronto Rock n Roll Revival 1969 2) The Killer Show at the Pierre Cordon Theatre in Paris 1972 3) The Schools Out Show at the Hollywood Bowl Summer of 1972 4) The Schools Out Show at the Rainbow Theatre in London 1972 5) The Billion Dollar Babies Concert at New York's Madison Square Garden 1973 6) Muscle of Love Concert Sau Paulo Brazil 1974 in front of 120,000 plus fans indoors.
28) Tell me the highlights about your solo career (past and present) ?
NS	I have always written songs, most of the time in collaboration with other band members, which was the case in Alice Cooper. I'd write with Michael, Alice and sometimes the rest of the band. "Hollowed Be My Name" from "Love It To Death" however, was the exception, I wrote that song myself. My first solo project in 1974 "Platinum God", gave me an opportunity to again write songs totally on my own. I wrote every song except "Rock n Roll Radio" which was a collaboration with four other people. Also, I had always wanted to play in a power trio format with Dennis and I as the rhythm section. That's one reason why I presently enjoy "Bouchard, Dunaway & Smith" so much. In the early 80's I played on a few albums with friends. One was "Buck Dharma's" (from Blue Oyster Cult), solo album called "Flat Out". Buck co-wrote the hit single "Born To Rock" with me and it was made into a MTV video. I then recorded with my buddies in the "Plasmatics" and again co-wrote a song with them called "Plasma Jam" for their album "Beyond The Valley Of 1984". Then in 1989, Dennis, Joe Bouchard and I put a band together called "Deadringer", recording "Electrocution Of The Heart". This was a great album featuring killer lead vocals by "Charlie Huhn" from "Ted Nugent". Again I wrote and co-wrote songs on this album. This CD is available only at www.nealsmith.com great record! I wrote a collection of songs in the early 90's programming drums and synthesisers, which I have never released. Someday I may release them on my label Kachina Records. Although I despise synthesised drums, I look at using them in this project, as a glorified metronome. I am currently working on a new Neal Smith solo project I'm writing, singing lead vocals, playing rhythm guitar, plus a combination of playing and programming drums, "Peter Catucci" from "Cinematik" is playing bass guitar. Richis Stotts from the "Plasmatics" is playing lead guitar. It is a very industrial strength journey into the dark side of Neal Smith and it's not for the faint of heart. I love it to death and I'm very excited!
29) What's next for the future?
NS	I presently work with two bands. The main live performing band is "Bouchard, Dunaway & Smith", a classic rock power trio. "BDS" currently has two CD's available, "Back From Hell" (studio album) and "BDS Live In Paris", recorded live on our 2002 tour in Europe. "BDS" features Joe Bouchard from Blue Oyster Cult on guitar and vocals, Dennis Dunaway on bass and vocals and me on drums. We are currently writing songs for a new album to be recorded and released later this year. The second band I work with is "Cinematik", which is basically a recording band also with 2 CD's available, The 2 Cd's are called "Cinematik" and "One Full Moon Away". One of the great aspects of this group is that our engineer and producer is Rob Fraboni. Rob has worked with the "Rolling Stones" in the studio for many years. "Cinematik" features Peter Catucci on bass and vocals, Robert Mitchell on guitar and vocals and me on percussion and vocals. This band is very mellow and melodic, giving me the liberty to use and experiment with hand drums and percussion from my large personal collection. I also get some wonderful opportunities to explore more primitive and exotic drumbeats from all over the world. As I mentioned previously, I am working on a new "Pedal to the metal" Neal Smith solo project that will be released on Kachina Records later in 2004, that is very killer. All the music that I have mentioned is available at my site www.nealsmith.com I'm equally excited about all of my projects, but it's always very cool playing live in front of our fans with "BDS", as well as the occasional times that we get to play in front of them with Michael Bruce and/or Alice. When ever and wherever in the world the next "Glen Buxton Memorial Weekend V" will be held, God willing, we will be there. Playing for our fans, old and new, is what it's all about and it's always fucking bad-ass-fantastic to play for them, I love em all. THANKS A BILLION! NEAL SMITH Thank you very much for your precious collaboration on this project! Serge Nadeau 2003-09-05