Alice Cooper’s new album, Welcome 2 My Nightmare, was recorded with longtime collaborator Bob Ezrin, who produced the original multi-platinum Welcome To My Nightmare in 1975.
Cooper used an array of collaborators on the new album, including original Alice Cooper members Denis Dunaway, Michael Bruce, and Neal Smith on three tracks, global pop superstar Ke$ha, and Steve Hunter, who is part of Alice’s current touring band.
Musically, the album ranges from trashing disco to garage punk, pop balladry to a rocking number. The ballad “Something To Remember Me By” is described by Alice as “the prettiest song we have ever released.”
“I wanted a ‘70s feel for ‘When Hell Comes Home,’ he added. “And I didn’t even have to ask for it, it’s just how they play and they did it live in the studio. When they got done playing the basic track, Bob and I just looked at each other, that sound is built into their DNA. We didn’t need to go and fix anything. The way they finished was a little bit ragged, and that’s the way we used to finish songs, that’s what I like about it.”
Co-writers include Ezrin, Ke$ha, Dunaway, Bruce and Smith, plus Buckcherry’s Keith Nelson, Desmond Child (who co-wrote and produced “Poison”), longtime collaborator Dick Wagner, current touring band member Chuck Garric, and film composer Jeremy Rubolino.
“That’s my rebellion,” says Alice of the more surprising guests, “I like people that don’t belong and yet what they’re doing works perfectly. I don’t care where it comes from, as long as it’s right. If you tell me something doesn’t work, I’ll work my head off until it does then shove it down your throat.
“I think a lot of my audience is going to go ‘KE$HA!?’, but she probably wrote the most wicked lyrics in the song – we had to rein her in. I like people to know that just because artists are put in a pigeonhole, that doesn’t mean that’s what they are. Give people a little room.”
With Hunter added to the lineup of guitarists Damon Johnson and Tommy Henriksen, bassist Chuck Garric, and drummer Glen Sobel, Alice has been tearing up venues worldwide on his 2011 “No More Mr. Nice Guy” tour.
This year, the original Alice Cooper group was inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, and Alice was honored with both the Kerrang! Icon Award in the U.K. and the Revolver Golden God Award in the U.S.