Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper [ˈælɪs ˈkuːpɚ], stage name and later legal name of Vincent Damon Furnier, born on February 4, 1948, in Detroit, Michigan, is an American hard rock singer-songwriter whose career spans over five decades. His attitude and appearance, as well as his stage shows including guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, snakes, dolls, and swords, along with several performers – notably a sadistic nurse first played by Sheryl Cooper, his wife, and later by their eldest daughter Calico Cooper – have earned him recognition as the principal father of shock rock. He drew inspiration from horror films, vaudeville, garage rock, and Halloween to create this new genre of macabre and theatrical rock, whose purpose is to shock.

Originally, Alice Cooper was a band comprising Vincent Furnier on vocals and harmonica, Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce on guitars, Dennis Dunaway on bass, and Neal Smith on drums. The band released their first album in 1969, but it wasn't until 1971 that they truly came to prominence with their first major international hit, I'm Eighteen, from the band's third album, Love It to Death. This success was confirmed the following year with the single School's Out and the eponymous album, but it was in 1973 with Billion Dollar Babies that the band's commercial success reached its peak.

After the band's dissolution in 1974, Vincent Furnier embarked on a solo career and legally changed his name to Alice Cooper. The following year, he released the conceptual album Welcome to My Nightmare, which was a resounding success. Welcome 2 My Nightmare, released in 2011, more than 35 years after the original, serves as its sequel.

Particularly prolific and eclectic, this true rock icon has traversed various musical styles throughout his career (hard rock, art rock, new wave, heavy metal, industrial rock), with a recurring tendency to subject trends to his own style. Offstage, Alice Cooper is known for being a sociable and humorous character. He was named the "world's most beloved heavy metal artist" by The Rolling Stone Album Guide. He helped shape the style and appearance of heavy metal and is considered the first artist to introduce horror imagery into rock, with his stage productions and showmanship having "definitively transformed the genre." In addition to music, Alice Cooper is a film actor, golfer, and since 2004, a radio host for the show Nights with Alice Cooper.

On VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Hard Rock Artists" (this ranking also includes artists from several rock genres), Cooper is ranked 20th.