billion dollar baby revisited

billion dollar baby revisited

Bob Greene, a contributing editor to Esquire, writes a Chicago Tribune column that is nationally syndicated. He is also the author of eight books. His 1974 Billion Dollar Baby (currently out of print) is probably the best book ever written about a rock ’n’ roll tour. Greene recently spoke to CREEM about his experiences with Alice Cooper.

When I talked to Alice, he said he hadn ’t read the book. But I always thought the book was part of the reason the band broke up.

I don’t know that they broke up because of the book. They were obviously in the process of breaking up during the tour. They were having a lot of problems while I was seeing them. And I saw the band sort of disintegrating before my eyes. They just didn’t get together very much on the road with Alice. It was always like the other guys were just a step below. I don’t think the book broke the band up, but it may have hastened it.

From the book, it seemed there was a lot of jealousy on the part of the band towards Alice. They started together, and suddenly he was the star.

Yeah, which is very much how Shep planned it. Yeah. They were very hurt that Alice was suddenly becoming a superstar. And Alice had his own bodyguards, and they didn’t. Or Alice had his limousine, and they would go in the other limousine. And what they said at the time was that everyone knew the names of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but the only name people knew in their band was Alice Cooper. And Shep would tell them that they wouldn’t be making so much money if that wasn’t the case.

Have you kept in touch with any of the other guys besides Alice?

No. In fact, I wrote a piece on Alice about two years ago for Esquire. It was funny because Alice called me, and he and his wife and I met for dinner. I asked him after dinner if he’d mind if I wrote about it. He said that would be OK. Then the next weekend, we spent a couple of hours on the phone. And then, just as we were going to have the picture taken for Esquire, I got word that Shep Gordon wanted to talk to me. Shep said, “What’s this about a story?” And I said, “Shep, Alice called me."

And he said. “Well, we’re not going to have any pictures taken, and we don’t want to cooperate with the story.” So I don’t know what their problem is. When you talked to Alice, did he seem to have a problem with me?

Not at all. I asked if he’d been in contact with you, and he said he saw you several years ago. But that’s about all he said. He may have been a bit hesitant talking about the past, like he wants to concentrate on the present.

Well, I’m sure that’s true.

He said that he’s been in contact with the other guys. The only one he hasn't been in contact with is Mike Bruce.

Which is weird because Bruce wrote most of the songs, and I wondered if there’s resentment there.

Well, I know that Mike resented Alice. I don’t know that it was vice versa.

Well. Alice seems like a nice enough guy.

Yeah. I really like Alice. I like Alice tremendously. He’s one of the smartest and funniest people I’ve ever met. But I don’t know. I got the impression two years ago that he wanted to get back on the road, but, for some reason, he was being held back.

You wrote an Esquire article about what Motley Crue’s fans will do to meet them. Do you think there’s been a degeneration in morals between what Alice was doing and what’s happening today?

Well, you know, there’s probably a direct line from Elvis to Alice to Motley Crue. It’s like everybody has to do something a little more outrageous for the next generation. I don’t know what Motley Crue does onstage. But Alice’s saving grace was that he always did it with a very calculating mind and a sense of humor.