As part of Alice Cooper’s current Spend the Night Tour, he’ll be reuniting with his Alice Cooper Band members for one night only at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Andrew Jackson Hall in Nashville, Tennessee on May 14.
Cooper will be joined by Neil Smith, Dennis Dunaway, and Mike Bruce, with whom he had previously announced to be working on a new album with in 2015. The last time the group reunited was for a surprise show at a Dallas record shop in 2015, which was later recorded and distributed as an exclusive Record Store Day live show 7-inch.
In regard to why Nashville was chosen as the destination for the reunion, Cooper stated to Loudwire, “We’ve recorded much of my last album and my new one in Nashville and it’s such a great music town. With so many musician, songwriter and producer friends here, as well as great rock fans who come to our concerts, it’s special to be performing with Neal, Michael and Dennis in Nashville for them.”
At the end of 2016, Cooper revealed to the Arizona Republic that he was working with producer Bob Ezrin on the album, and they had already recorded some demos for the album.
“We have three songs from the original band that we’re gonna look at and see if we can turn them into something. If not, we tried. But Neal and Mike and Dennis and I wrote songs together. And what we always do, we know the best 10 songs are gonna make the album. It doesn’t matter where they came from,” Cooper stated.
The original Alice Cooper Band lineup was formed in 1968, and released their first album Pretties for You in 1969. Although the album was considered a failure, the band was able to rise to fame after capitalizing on tabloid sensationalism and incorporating bizarre antics into their live shows. The most well-known incident involved Cooper throwing a chicken into the audience. Rumor had it that Cooper bit the chicken’s head off and drank its blood. Because of this, they’re credited for creating the subgenre “shock rock.”
In addition to the Spend the Night Tour, you can also catch Alice Cooper this year at the 2017 Rock in Rio Festival in September.