Rock legend Alice Cooper may play a bloodstained ghoul straight from a horror show on stage, but in real life, he’s a devout Christian who prays daily, reads the Bible and credits his faith with helping him stay sober.
The “Welcome to My Nightmare” singer is even a devout family man, having been married to his wife, Sheryl Goddard, since 1976, and raising three kids with her, daughters Sonora and Calico and son Dashiell.
“My grandparents were married 76 years, my parents were married over 50 years, my wife’s parents were married over 50 years,” the “Godfather of Shock Rock” told Page Six.
“To me when you got married, that was it. I always tell people don’t marry the person you love, marry the person you’re in love with, that means you would never do anything to hurt that person. I still whisk her off to a cheap motel every once in a while.”
That’s not to say they haven’t had their ups and downs.
In November 1983 at the height of Cooper’s alcoholism, Goddard, a ballet instructor and choreographer, filed for divorce, but they reconciled the following year.
The “Only Women Bleed” singer says he was never an aggressive or mean drunk, but was “on that golden buzz” due to drinking “a case of beer a day at least.”
Cooper, 73, says that because he always did his shows and wasn’t outwardly drunk, no one realized the extent of his drinking.
“But internally my pancreas and liver were being destroyed,” he explained. “I woke up one morning and I threw up blood and that’s how I kind of knew it was over. My wife grabbed my ear and said, ‘Hey, the party’s over.'”
The “Poison” singer says he went to the hospital for rehab and “when I came out, I never had a craving for alcohol again.”
“I never went to AA,” he continued. “Everyone said, ‘Oh you have such great willpower,’ I said, ‘No, God has great willpower. He took it from me.’ My dad was a pastor, my grandad was a pastor, Sheryl’s dad was a pastor. I had such strong prayer for me. Even the doctor said, ‘This is an absolute miracle.’ I said, ‘Why?’ They said, ‘Well, you should be hiding bottles all over the house and you should be sneaking drugs.’ I said, ‘I have absolutely no desire for that at all.'”
Cooper, whose catalog includes songs like “Dead Babies” and “Halo of Flies,” says his clergyman father had no problem with his dark theatrical side.
“My dad knew my sense of humor, my dad was very cool,” Cooper explained. “He loved rock and roll. He said, ‘I love the music, I can’t abide the lifestyle.’ He said, ‘I know the character you’re playing. He’s comical. He’s a villain but at the same time, he’ll slip on a banana peel.’ It took a while for people to understand that I was playing a character named Alice Cooper, I wasn’t Alice Cooper, I was playing that character. It was like a dark vaudeville.”
Cooper, known for elaborate, horror-inspired stage shows in which he often holds snakes and wears dark makeup, is still happily touring and says that before COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were implemented, he was doing 200 shows a year.
He also says that despite being on the road for the last five decades, he’s never sick of singing his classics like “School’s Out” and “I’m Eighteen.”
“I learned this really early in life, we were just starting to make it and I was in a room with Jimi Hendrix and he was getting ready to go on and he goes, ‘If I have to play “Foxy Lady” one more time’ … and I thought if I was in that audience and he didn’t play ‘Foxy Lady,’ I would be so mad. So I’ve played ‘School’s Out’ and ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ so many times that I look forward to playing them. When that song starts up, the audience goes crazy, how many songs do you get like that in your life?”
Despite staying put because of COVID, Cooper has been keeping busy by playing golf six times a week.
“I shot two over this morning,” he said.
He’s also partnering with Cooper Tire to find the country’s most talented garage bands in a “Driven to Perform” contest. The Ohio-based band South of Eden won, and as the grand prize, the band will open for Evanescence in a special livestreamed concert on May 13.
The concert, which will be hosted by Cooper, is free and open to the public with online registration at DrivenToPerformConcert.com.