Alice Cooper is Dennis, Neal, Alice, Michael and Glen
My highly controversial review of the recent Alice Cooper biography, Golf Monster is up now at This Link! Check it out now!
Tag Archives: book
Martin Atkins, Drummer, Label Owner, Author and Entrepreneur
Gail, you simply fucking rock! I love your piece for my book (Tour: Smart) in the section on Press and Publicity – your “Pet Peeves and How to Avoid Them” shreds any fence sitting and bestows some priceless advice – THANKS!
Gail’s Rad Advice For Bands to be Included in Book on Touring
I have conducted and written about a gazillion interviews in my career, and most have turned out really good or great, not just thanks to my extreme talent but also to my good fortune at being able to interview some of the most verbose and charismatic figures in rock music. Somebody who’s always an amazing interview is Martin Atkins: drummer, label owner, entrepreneur and mastermind behind the revolving line-up underground supergroup, Pigface. Martin is the shit. Fortunately for all you struggling musicians out there, Martin has just written the definitive insiders’ book on touring tips for bands, entitled Tour: Smart. I was quite flattered to be among the 150 or so music industry luminaries that Martin solicited for input to be included in the book. Of course, I was thrilled to oblige.
My contribution to Tour: Smart centers on interviews, mistakes musicians make when approaching interviews, how bad that pisses me off and what you can do to avoid my wrath. You will probably really enjoy reading that section, because I name names and use a lot of swear words. Tour: Smart should be released this summer, and is a guaranteed must-read.
Some Kind of Golf Monster
Smart, Beautiful, Maybelline
Last night my friend Katherine (please see Ian Hunter blog a few entries down for the back-story on Katherine) took me out to dinner as a belated Birthday gift. Because she rocks so hard, she also gave me a copy of Alice Cooper’s new biography, Golf Monster. I’ve only had time to casually page through the book since it fell into my possession last night, but it looks like a pretty easy read; something you can tackle in one or two afternoons at most. From what I understand, Golf Monster tells the story of how Alice got sober for good by getting up every day at the crack of dawn to play golf. But of course, it’s also a biography where he waxes nostalgic on his career, including the gory glory days of the original band called Alice Cooper – the group that started the whole shock rock thing that Alice basically gets exclusive credit for even though it was invented by five guys. Don’t even get me started on that.
I’m most interested in reading Golf Monster to find out what stories Alice retells in this book that I’ve already written about in the book I’m working on with Neal Smith. That way, Neal and I can compare the two versions and make sure our version is a million billion times better. I’ve already been told that Alice talks about the time he shot Neal during a hunting trip out in the Arizona desert, but since Neal is the one who actually got shot, and Neal never spent any time in rehab, I’m pretty sure we can one-up him!
I’ll check back in with my verdict on Golf Monster once I’ve finished reading Alice’s latest collection of tall tales. I’m sure it’s no Billion Dollar Baby – because, seriously, what the hell is? – but it’ll be good for a few laughs, no doubt.