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Alice Cooper recalls the moment he first played music to Frank Zappa

Thu 16 March 2023 16:09, UK

Alice Cooper has looked back upon his friendship with the great Frank Zappa and recalled the first moment he played the late musician his work.

Zappa signed Cooper to his label, Straight Records, after seeing the group perform at a party. Later, they released three albums for him before parting ways. Now, Cooper has explained how their creative partnership was born and spoke of how Zappa’s confused reaction to his work led to the band signing for Straight.

“When we first played our stuff for Frank Zappa, Frank Zappa listened to it, and it was very … Pretties for You was very complicated. [The songs] were only two minutes long, but [there were] 38 changes in a song,” he told Ultimate Classic Rock.

Cooper continued: “And he’d sit there and he goes, ‘I don’t get it.’ I went, ‘What?’ And he goes, ‘I’m Frank Zappa and I don’t get it.’ And I said, ‘Is that good or bad?’ And he says, ‘No, I’m signing you because I don’t get it’. Now, people listened to that album at the time, and they went … OK, one guy reviewed it as ‘a tragic waste of plastic,’ which I thought was a great review. But now it’s being reviewed as art. People are looking at and saying, ‘This was so far ahead of its time. And some of it was.”

Meanwhile, last week it was confirmed Nita Strauss was returning to Cooper’s band after departing last year to perform with pop-star Demi Lovato.