NEPA Scene Staff

Alice Cooper rocks Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre with Tesla and Lita Ford on June 17

Alice Cooper rocks Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre with Tesla and Lita Ford on June 17
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From a press release:

Today, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Alice Cooper announced his summer 2020 tour plans – he will be touring North America with multi-platinum rock band Tesla and special guest Lita Ford, the “Queen of Metal.” Cooper has extended his “Ol’ Black Eyes Is Back” show, which debuted last summer, into 2020.

Cooper’s spring 2020 leg launches on March 31 in Niagara Falls, Ontario and ends April 22 in Portland, Oregon before the summer 2020 leg of the tour kicks off May 30 and runs through June 27. It will stop at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township on Wednesday, June 17 at 7 p.m., presented by Scranton classic rock radio station Rock 107 and produced by SLP Concerts.

Tickets, which start at $49.75, plus fees, go on sale this Friday, Jan. 24 at 10 a.m. at the arena’s NBT Bank Box Office (255 Highland Park Blvd., Wilkes-Barre), ticketmaster.com and all Ticketmaster outlets, and by phone at 800-745-3000.

In other Alice Cooper news, he released the “Breadcrumbs” EP, a tribute to some of the garage rock heroes from his hometown Detroit, last year via earMUSIC. Inspired by the city’s punk scene in the late ’60s and early ’70s, the Detroit-born icon returned to his roots and the raw garage sound his fans love. The Bob Ezrin-produced EP consists of six brand new recordings. Cooper and Ezrin are also working on a full-length album that follows up “Breadcrumbs” and is also inspired by the Detroit rock scene.

Alice Cooper pioneered a grandly theatrical brand of hard rock that was designed to shock. Drawing equally from horror movies, vaudeville, and garage rock, his group group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood, and boa constrictors. He continues to tour regularly, performing shows worldwide with the dark and horror-themed theatrics that he’s best known for.

With a schedule that includes six months each year on the road, Cooper brings his own brand of rock psycho-drama to fans both old and new, enjoying it as much as the audience does. Known as the architect of shock rock, Cooper (in both the original Alice Cooper band and as a solo artist) has rattled the cages and undermined the authority of generations of guardians of the status quo, continuing to surprise fans and exude danger at every turn, like a great horror movie, even in an era where the news can present real-life shocking images.

Cooper was born in Detroit, Michigan and moved to Phoenix, Arizona with his family. The Alice Cooper band formed while they were all in high school in Phoenix and was discovered in 1969 by Frank Zappa in Los Angeles, where he signed them to his record label. Their collaboration with young record producer Bob Ezrin led to the breakthrough third album “Love It to Death,” which hit the charts in 1971, followed by “Killer,” “School’s Out,” “Billion Dollar Babies,” and “Muscle of Love.”

Each new album release was accompanied by a bigger and more elaborate touring stage show. 1974 saw the release of a “Greatest Hits” album, and then he released his first solo album, “Welcome to My Nightmare,” in 1975, accompanied by the legendary groundbreaking theatrical “Welcome to My Nightmare” concert tour.

Associated with that album and tour was the groundbreaking network TV special “Alice Cooper: The Nightmare.” Other film and television appearances include “The Muppet Show,” Mae West’s last film “Sextette,” “Roadie,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and appearances on “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson” and Tom Snyder’s “The Tomorrow Show.” The original band also made an appearance in the movie “Diary of a Mad Housewife” in 1979, filmed the full-length feature film “Good to See You Again, Alice Cooper,” and he appeared in a 1972 episode of “The Snoop Sisters.”

Cooper’s solo career skyrocketed in the late 1970s with a succession of hit singles, including “You & Me,” and classic albums, including “Lace and Whiskey” and “From the Inside,” with bigger and even more elaborate concert tours.

In the ‘80’s Cooper explored different sounds, highlighted by the new wavish album “Flush The Fashion,” the heavy metal “Constrictor” and “Raise Your Fist and Yell,” and then 1989’s melodic hard rock album “Trash,” which featured the massive hit single “Poison” and became his biggest-selling album and single worldwide. During this period, he also appeared in the horror films “Monster Dog” and “John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness” and recorded songs for the soundtracks to “Roadie,” “Class of 1984,” “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives,” and “Wes Craven’s Shocker.”

Cooper’s most memorable movie appearance was as himself in “Wayne’s World” in 1991. He also played (fittingly) Freddy Krueger’s wicked stepfather in “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare” and appeared on Gene Wilder’s TV series “Something Wilder” as well as “That ‘70’s Show.” The ’90s also saw the release of the albums “Hey Stoopid,” “The Last Temptation,” and “A Fistful of Alice,” a live album.

1999 saw the release of the definitive historical four-CD box set “The Life and Crimes of Alice Cooper,” from Rhino/Warner Bros.

In the new millennium, Cooper has been very productive and busy, writing, recording, and releasing the albums “Brutal Planet,” “Dragon Town,” “The Eyes of Alice Cooper,” “Dirty Diamonds,” “Along Came a Spider,” and 2011’s “Welcome 2 My Nightmare,” plus “Old School 1964-1974,” a box set celebrating the original band.

He also wrote and published a memoir, “Alice Cooper, Golf Monster,” in 2007, which tracked his life from childhood to rock stardom and his journey from alcoholic to golf addict. Cooper, guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, drummer Neal Smith, and guitarist Glen Buxton (posthumously) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March of 2011.

He was featured in the Tim Burton film “Dark Shadows” in 2012, and his latest full-length album, 2017’s “Paranormal,” was produced by longtime collaborator Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Deep Purple) and features guests like ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr., Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover, and a mini-reunion of the original Alice Cooper band members.

With his influence on rock ‘n’ roll long since acknowledged, there is little that Alice Cooper hasn’t achieved in his remarkable career, including platinum albums, sold-out tours, and any number of honors and career achievement awards.

As he heads back out on the concert trail each year, Cooper insists he’s still motivated to continue touring and recording albums, as well as making time for such side projects as Cooper’stown, his Phoenix-based restaurant/sports bar, and his “Nights with Alice Cooper” nightly radio show, syndicated domestically and worldwide on over 100 stations.

See NEPA Scene’s photos of Alice Cooper performing at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre in 2018 here.