Alice Cooper Announces New Autobiography 'Devil on My Shoulder' + UK Book Tour Dates (Reaction)

I may not be the most well-read individual, but when it comes to my literary preferences, there's nothing I love more than autobiographies. I enjoy any form of non-fiction, but to hear people's life stories directly from the source is unbeatable — for specific examples geared towards my interests, some of my favorite books include Kane Hodder's Unmasked and Sebastian Bach's 18 and Life on Skid Row. There are several great autobiographies for both rock musicians and horror film stars, and the shock-rock trailblazer Alice Cooper just announced a new memoir, entitled Devil on My Shoulder, releasing October 6 in the US and October 8 in the UK.

Alice Cooper's career is one of the most epic runs in all of music, from the creation of the first full-fledged theatrical live show that set the standard for live music across all genres today, to the commercial ups and downs and more musical reinventions than some artists have releases in general. With a career as legendary as his, that has also come with controversy, misinformation, and exaggerated fibs here and there. In this new book, Cooper explains that he intends to tell the story of his character and career, and "to sort reality from myth: the slaughtered chickens, the bans and record burnings, the evangelical terrors, Ouija boards and poltergeists, resurrections and revenge from the grave, the cross-dressers, thieves, drug addicts and hopeless alcoholics, the house fires and car crashes—all will be revealed for what they really were."

When reading Cooper's description of this upcoming book and what to expect in terms of subject matter, the most compelling topic to me is addressed in the second paragraph — Cooper states, "I’m also coming clean about the extent of my addictions, my blackout years, the creative process fuelled by alcohol, drugs and round-the-clock TV, my scramble to the top of the pile and the terrible slide back down." Hearing about Cooper's sobriety at a young age was one of the main inspirations for me living a straight-edge lifestyle and never touching alcohol, and it's a topic that I've always been curious about.

Cooper was always transparent about his alcoholism during his early success in the 70s, eventually being treated for it at Cornell Medical Center in 1977 (which served as the inspiration to his 1978 masterpiece album, From the Inside). In early documentaries, like VH1's Behind the Music, stories were told of an alcoholic relapse, but it was later revealed to be a freebasing and cocaine addiction in the late 70s and early 80s in the 2014 documentary Super Duper Alice Cooper. Cooper refers to the albums made during this period as his "blackout" albums, due to his inability to remember even making them due to the extremity of his addiction. I'm very curious to see if there is any new information about this chapter of Cooper's career, because it's one of the most compelling and interesting eras due to the lack of concrete information that's been publically told about this timeframe.

One of my least favorite things about so many documentaries and interviews done with Alice Cooper is the fact that most of them only focus on his work in the 70s, — I get it, "School's Out" is a great song, Billion Dollar Babies is a wonderful album, Welcome to My Nightmare is a conceptual gem, but it's flat-out disrespectful to barely acknowledge all the incredible work that rivals, and in some cases surpasses, his early work. If there are discussion points from later in his career, it's often reduced to the release of his 1989 smash-hit comeback single "Poison" and his appearance in Wayne's World (1992). These documentaries and interviews are missing out on telling the stories on some of Cooper's most interesting musical eras, and I'm hoping that this new book gets to shed some light on some career chapters that he rarely gets to discuss in the press. Aside from the addiction and recovery story in the early 80s, I would love to hear more stories and anecdotes about his eclectic creativity in the early 2000s, with albums like Dragontown and The Eyes of Alice Cooper being some of his most unique work to date.

I wanted to become a music journalist through watching Alice Cooper's interviews, particularly his appearances on VH1 Classic's "That Metal Show," and I've had millions of questions about his life and career for what feels like forever. It's highly unlikely that I'll ever get to ask these questions firsthand, so I'm just hoping that this book sheds some more light on the parts of his career that have typically been skimmed over in the past. Obviously, the early years will be a big part of the narrative, but at over 350 pages, hopefully the book explores more than the same stories that have been told for decades. Regardless, I've personally never been more excited for a book to release, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy and most likely read through it faster than I've ever read any other book.

Alice Cooper will be promoting Devil on My Shoulder this fall with a book tour across the UK in October, with attendees receiving a book with the purchase of a ticket, along with a Q&A discussing the book and Cooper's iconic legacy. Nothing's been confirmed at this time, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a US book tour either later in the fall/winter or sometime next year. For dates and tickets, click here.

Alice Cooper's touring schedule is still as relentless as ever — this spring, he'll be embarking on a headline run in the states with the new "Alice's Attic" stage show, with festivals around the country sprinkled in as well. His Vegas collaboration with Criss Angel just premiered over the weekend, with extra dates in early April and late May. He returns to Europe in June and July, and brings his side project The Hollywood Vampires back to Europe from mid-August to early September. For all tour dates and to buy tickets, click here.

Pre-order Devil on My Shoulder here.