Working with Alice Cooper "They Should’ve Hired Me Back!" Desmond Child
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- Опубликовано: 9 дек 2023
- In this exclusive interview, renowned songwriter and producer Desmond Child, takes us behind the scenes of his collaboration with the legendary rock icon, Alice Cooper! Desmond delves into the fascinating journey of working with Alice on the album "Trash," and the massive success they achieved with the hit single "Poison."
Join host Paul Stephenson as he picks Desmond's brain about how he got involved in the project and the creative process behind writing almost the entire album with Alice. Desmond shares captivating insights into Alice Cooper's persona, explaining the theatrical nature of their songwriting approach and delving into the deeper influences that shaped Alice's character.
This interview is a rare opportunity to gain valuable behind-the-scenes knowledge of the music industry and the intriguing dynamics between artists, producers, and record labels. You'll hear about the personal rapport between Desmond and Alice, and get a glimpse into the vibrant energy and creativity that fuelled their work together.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn as Desmond shares some heartwarming anecdotes about his enduring friendship with Alice Cooper and his involvement in a special benefit event in Greece. The interview concludes with intriguing tidbits about Alice's personality, showcasing his intelligence, humor, and endearing qualities.
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Desmond is a musical genious.
Thank you for all the great work through the decades!
Thank you all for very the kind words. It's much appreciated. I wrote the majority of Hey Stoopid. 85k is absolutely wrong. It sold over 500k WW. I agree Peter Collins was the wrong producer for it. Do I think we should have sold millions? No. It was a solid record, not really focused on finding a hit, just a solid record. Did it have a "Poison" on it? No and though I highly respect Desmond, the issue was the timing. Right when Seattle and grunge were happening, so a "Poison" would not have made a difference. Is that an excuse? No, it's reality. I do want to address writing in modulations. I didn't lift that from Desmond, I lifted it from Mutt Lange, who could and did piss on both of us combined. Have a listen to the first Baton Rouge record, written entirely in modulation. The music business, as life in general, is all about timing. Hey Stoopid was full circle for me. As a kid, I was Alice's biggest fan. First concert I ever saw, first song I learned how to play on guitar. Wall to wall posters. Both Alice and Shep knew me as the annoying kid in the 70s. To work with your boyhood idol has no dollar price attached. It was an honor and dream. I'm very proud of that. This video came up in my feed, I'm glad it did. I retired long ago and forgot some magical moments. Again, thank you.
Have to slightly disagree with you. I think Hey Stoopid was a great album even better than Trash.
peter collins ruined billy squiers 1986 album enough is enough. billy said working with him was a nightmare he said he was way to technical
85k is ridiculous, I always thought it went gold (?)
@@bb-gc2txI like how Hey Stoopid sounds. Desmond Child wrote a few great songs on the album as well.
I'm a lifelong Alice Cooper fan, literally, since both my parents were fans as well. I've always thought Hey Stoopid was the better album but it's not really something to bicker over... Desmond Child should be equally proud of that album. Might As Well Be On Mars, for instance, is a masterpiece. "Die for You" would have been as big as "Poison" if it were released when power ballads ruled the airwaves... By the way, Ghost - Square Hammer seems to have the same riff as Snakebite...
Desmond is a legend! A gift from the heavens!
"Hey Stoopid" is actually a better album. It didn't sell as well because by the time it came out grunge was already taking hold.
Hey stoopid felt like they tried every trick in the book for success, just look at all the people involved. Felt very gimmicky to me and thats saying something for a later Cooper record. I've never been able to enjoy Stoopid, it just didn't work IMHO
Billy,Exactly but also people were tired of Alice.
That Trashes the world tour was filling up 1/3 in each areas they played.
Oh yeah of course except for where they made a vhs live.
@@stevosguitarsHey Stoopid Rules. The Last Temptation rules as well. Brutal Planet is one of his best. The boomers that only care about the 70's records are missing out.
@@stevedamien638Where did you get that information? By all accounts the Trash tour was very successful.
By his estimation, Hey Stoopid only sold around 75,000 copies... which is definitely an understatement! Desmond is wrong! Hey Stoopid, while not going Platinum, went Gold here in the U. S., which means it sold at least 500,000 copies!
This dude needs to quit spending so much time with his "Husband", and learn to get his facts straight!!!
When Hey Stupid came out grunge had already hit so it wouldnt have done any better. The title track actually did get a lot of airplay on MTV and they were in Waynes world. It still went Gold
Hey Stoopid actually had 2 song by Desmond - Dangerous Tonight and Might as Well Be on Mars (with Dick Wagner). And those to me were the best song on the record along with Snakebite and title track (by Jack Ponti, who also worked with Kittie, Doro and even Otep).
Feed My Frankenstein rules.
Imo, Hey Stoopid is the better record.
The singles didn't knock it outta the park the way the hits on Trash did, but start to finish... imo, it's a more solid record.
Love both Trash and Hey Stoopid both. The Last Temptation is even better than those two but all are awesome.
I love hey Stoopid but brutal planet is my favorite. I would have loved to hear the follow up to trash with Desmond's vision.
I'm loving Alice before even Billion Dollar Babies...stuff that came out before I could afford records.
Muscle of Love, Big Apple Dreamin' , Hard hearted Alice.
Trash a great Alice Cooper record. 🤘🏴🇦🇺
No
@@Stigmatix666Yes.
Alice was not dropped by Epic after Hey Stoopid. He was dropped after The excellent The Last Temptation. It would then go six years before his next release. The very great Brutal Planet.
That kind of things happens a lot. Stupid record company decision makers purposely avoid doing the very thing that sold a ton of albums on the previous release.
What Desmond says is absolutely true. It was a bo brainer to re-hire him. The proof is in material. The somgs were not going to be Trash 2 and would’ve sold extremely well regardless of what was coming out musically at that time. I hope they can work together again hooefully for the next record.
Agreed , it was his best Album by far.
"Trash" is great but "Hey Stoopid" is a much better album!
I've noticed that Alice is not shy about chasing popular trends. He chased New Wave in the early 80s (Flush the Fashion, Special Forces), chased heavy metal in the mid-80s (Constrictor, Raise Your Fist and Yell), hair metal in the late 80s/early 90s (Trash, Hey Stoopid). When grunge hit he collaborated with Chris Cornell on two tracks off The Last Temptation (his best album of the 90s IMHO). Then he chased industrial/nu metal in the aughts (Brutal Planet, Dragontown). But he more often than not successfully adapts the trend he chases into unmistakable Alice Cooper sensibilities, but he always seems to write his strongest material when he has a concept to hang a song cycle on (such as School's Out, Welcome to My Nightmare, Last Temptation or Brutal Planet). He is one of the most clever lyricists in the history of rock. Even Bob Dylan said so. "Killer" still stands as one of the greatest rock albums ever made.
Trash is the best A. C. album for me !!!
Superb
Given how bad Alice's music has been since 2017, Desmond should have definitely come back.
Trash is a great Album. I remember liking it the minute i listened. Hey Stoopid is also a great one as well. His label did not drop him after Stoopid . There was a last studio album called The Last Temptation and a live album Fistful Of Alice on Epic. Alice asked to get out of his deal with them as I read in different interviews. Desmond is a legend but has selective memory
Any rock bands that released an album after the peak 87-89 period sold less, it was a change in the times, the marketing dropped and hey stoopid is a great album and id say as good as Trash
By late 89 the hairspray metal craze had run its course. A dime a dozen bands all chasing the success of bon jovi and whitesnake. All of them looking and sounding the same. The last good band of that era was Danger Danger that put out two singles Naughty Naughty and Bang Bang in the summer of 89. Then the bleep of gross grunge and hiphop killed American testosterone driven R&R.
Hey Stoopid a masterpiece.
Trash very good album but I see it as commercial as any good Bon Jovi album(first 4 only..)and like the Black album from Metallica even to some easy listening commercial music with beats like Rob Zombie,
My point an album you like right away and listen to it everyday for 2 weeks then it go deep in in the cd shelves.
KILLER - LOVE IT TO DEATH - BILLION DOLAR BABIES These LP's are Classic and then....well
I played the hell out of my Love it to death album that I bought as a kid in 1981.
Hey Stoopid is a far superior album imo - it's heavier, lyrically more potent and doesn't sound a calculated/formulaic as Trash does.
When I saw 4.5 million for the Poison album I was like, WTF? I did some research and I am right. It has only been certified platinum = 1,000,000 U.S. and a little over 500,000/Gold world wide. Desmond is off by 3 million.
Hey Stoopid also sold a lot more then 85k. It was much more popular in the U.K.
Hey Stoopid was certified gold - certainly not as successful as Trash, but not 85k copies
I think he's talking about the US sales. It was never certified gold there. Here's a search of the RIAA database for Alice Cooper, it doesn't appear: www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&se=Alice+cooper#search_section
I guess I shouldn’t believe Wikipedia lol. It says RIAA certified gold.
Alos--yep 2 millions in sale worldwide.
That's is 4 millions profit for Alice and the band share.
Back then they had lower contracts but got 2$ for each album sold.
It has sold over 500,000 in the U.S. but record labels have to pay the RIAA for certifications. There are many artists with gold, platinum or multi platinum albums (sales wise) that never got certified.
i think eyes of alice cooper paranormal welcome 2 my nightmare detroit stories and road are so much better than late 70s 80s and possibly 90s alice
I see why alice doesn't call. Bob ezrin is a better producer.
I like Hey Stoopid. I don’t like Trash much except for Poison. I don’t want my Alice Cooper to sound like Bon Jovi. Desmond ruined Aerosmith. I only like his work with Meatloaf
The problem is that these songs aren't Alice Cooper songs. They're all Vince Furnier and guest songs. They haven't been Alice Cooper Band songs since 1974. There's a reason why songs like 18 and schools out are still popular and are still played in the live show. The character was a group invention and the music was a group invention. It's different nowadays.
True but Welcome to my nightmare is arguably their best album, though I like Killer just as much. Since Nightmare? Meh. Bob Ezrin has an interesting history as a producer. Cooper, Floyd, Kiss, Lou Reed.
@@baronvonlichtensteinWelcome to my Nightmare was Alice/Vince’s first solo album after ending the band. Incredible album still to this day. He & B.Ezrin used Lou Reeds live backing band for the sessions and produced a masterpiece.
I know some people (no offense to you) can't get past the original band but people have a selective memory with that School's Out was a shift in sound becoming more of a radio band. Alice gets blamed for the breakup but a lot of that is on Michael Bruce. The original band are very good but somewhat limited in what they could do. Alice as a solo artist is far more diverse. The original band was just one era of Alice Cooper. Many Alice albums after the original band are just as good or even better.
It was mainly Shep Gordon.
He knew where the money was.
Bruce wrote some great songs,
But he could not do it without Ezrin.
Has you listed to his solo record?
It's crap!
Hunter Wagner were more Ezrin's people. In fact Lou Reed fired them because he got jealous of reviews raving about how good they were live.@@chrissomerville2625
His best work, though, was when he didn't chase popular trends, but created them. Trash was the beginning of the end, artistically, for me, just pop radio friendly stuff. And then it went further downhill. Desmond is fine and talented, but as soon as he started working with an artist, said artist started losing their edge. Became more popular, but less interesting.
ditching this guy after 4.5m sales seems totally insane....
Desmond Child would believe from himself that he invented the Spanish wax.
Hey Stoopid is one of favorite all time rock album. The guitars are sparkling. Stef Burns is a brilliant guitarist.
And Trash has aged badly, very sleaze glam. And none of Child's albums sounds good.
Sorry guys, Trash really has the perfect album title here; it is just that - trash.😒Hey Stoopid is a whole lot better than Trash which I never liked, not even one song on it it's a huge disappointment at the time for me, Hey Stoopid is definitely the better album overall even though it's certainly not perfect either but this whole late '80s/early '90s metal era of Alice wasn't my cup of tea anyway. Still, it's the best of this era Alice at least its producer Peter Collins had Alice actually sing at times where Child only had him snarling throughout...🥴
I really liked "Raise your fist & yell" "Trash" was okay but, it was more of a chic's album, my wife LOVES it. "Hey Stupid" sounds to me like any song on it would fit perfectly on a Bon Jovi album & I HATE Bon Jovi.
Hey stupid worked for me…
Nah, too poppy, what followed post Desmond much better, he made band into hair metal to a certain point
Hey Stoopid according to Sound Scan has sold slightly over 500,000 copies in the United States so the 85,000 thing is way way off. Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell before Trash both sold over 300,000 in the U.S.
Love Trash. I actually prefer solo Alice to the original band
That's interesting. The official RIAA website doesn't list it as certified gold, so sales under 100,000. You can see the search of Alice Coopers catalogue here:
www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=Alice+Cooper&ti=&lab=&genre=&format=&date_option=release&from=&to=&award=&type=&category=&adv=SEARCH#search_section
I only like Alice Cooper's original work with his original band everything else is Kaka
They’re all going to hell 🧟♀️
No...just Alice Cooper...
I haven’t forgotten ‘Bed of Nails’. It’s one of the dopiest songs in the Cooper catalogue - witless and pandering. Thanks Desmond! 🙄
Desmond Child is just a soulless writer. I love some of his songs, don't get me wrong, but he's just thinking and writing with his wallet.
Even if "Hey Stoopid" had sold just one copy is still one of the best Cooper album.
Of course music industry doesn't work on glory but on money but if you talk about art you should think with the heart.
Desmond writes products and not pieces of art that's the truth. Then luckily some of his songs was candy coated by amazing artists and became art.