Interview with Alice Cooper on late musician Glen Campbell

uh you heard the news, yeah, and what was your first thought, what were some of the things that you were thinking. I think it's a relief for Glenn and the family. I know Glenn and I are of the same faith, we're both Christians and uh. I know where he is now and I know he is in a perfect place. Glenn was one of the most unique guys. You know, you think about Glenn. Country. Alice Cooper. Rock And Roll. We couldn't have been closer. He was one of the first. both rock and country guitarists and a lot of people don't know this, but I mean, when the respect I had in the rock and roll world, people like Eddie Van Halen once said, can you give me a guitar lesson? with Glenn now most rockers would say what kind of guitarist he was, he was considered one of the five best guitarists out there um and he's not, but he was the most unique guy uh I played a lot of golf with Glenn he had a I laughed a lot with him and when I heard this was happening I almost hoped he would leave sooner because I know it's a long, slow, cruel death and, but you know, our families were very, very, very close.

Cheryl and Kim are very good friends, our children Cal and Calico are very close and everyone with them grew up together. You said three years ago in an

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that you saw him slide. What were some of the things you noticed? Oh, you know, it was one of those things where I was playing golf with him and when he was in good shape he was on tour and he played guitar and he played golf every day and he was doing Branson and every once in a while he would say something to me. joke on the first tee and then on the fourth tee, tell me the same joke again and then on the 16th hole, he would tell me the joke again and the guys, you know, we'd all be fine, maybe we just forgot, You know?

Could we see the beginning of him slipping a little bit, you know, and those were the things that lifted us up? He was making the pudding one time, the Christmas pudding and, uh, uh, Gary Muer and I were backstage, uh, and we. They were telling jokes, everyone was telling jokes and I told him a joke and he was laughing out loud and he left, he came back like 10 minutes

late

r, he says, tell me that joke again. I tell him the joke came back about five times and finally Gary did something. passing by and I said, yeah, something, something's not quite there yet, you put a guitar in his hand and he was a virtuoso, you put him on stage and he was automatic, I don't care how much he had slipped, he was there when the time has come. that he was there the same with golf, the guy was the best, I always said as an amateur 60 yards in the best player I played with, he was a master of the short game, but I mean, we had some really fun times.

He played at least once or twice a week with Glenn when he lived here at the time, so he saw him all the time. You know, you said he's unique, what made him unique, and particularly when you think about your relationship with him, your friendship with him. was unique in the fact that we were so far away from him in music, the Alice Cooper character and he was so in the middle, uh, really, in the middle of mainstream rock and roll, you know, he was kind of a person. that I could go out with. a pack of rats or he could hang out with Donnie and Marie or he could hang out with the Beatles or whoever was in that environment he was just the pretty all-around guy who could do anything, he was the Golden Boy and yet he and I we were like that when it came to sense of humor, when it came to golf, when it came to music, you know, one of the ones who played on almost all of Beach's vocals, you know it was a beach that was played in the Beach Boy songs that were played. all the early rock stuff, he was very well regarded in the business as a

musician

, singer and all-around artist, you know, I mean, I really admired him on that level and he was always nice, always laughing. always ready to make you laugh you just know he had it he had it all he had the charisma you just can't buy you know the Scottdale red light ticket yeah you think about that today the day I normally drive and Glenn and I were

late

, of course, for tea time.

I pick him up, you know, and he said I'm going to drive. I said okay GL, go ahead, so of course he takes that McDonald turn and goes to 60 and me, Flash and I said okay, I said it was going to be a good photo. Glenn Campbell and Alice Cooper get like this. They have that at the police station in Paradise Valley. They have an enlargement of that photo of me and him, you know, looking like two kids. The two deer in the headlights, you know, and I said, "That's a great photo, that's a great album cover." It's actually the day he was arrested for returning home from Phoenix.

Glenn Campbell was having lunch and a glass of wine. because I was trying to be very serious the day I couldn't play with him. I said hi Glenn. I said I can't play today. I said I have

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s in the morning. I have to do radio and everything I need. He said yeah, man, so he goes to Phoenix and has lunch and has about six of those little glasses of wine and drives home and of course you meet some guys when they get a little drunk. The peasant boy gets a little belligerent and punches him. the cop after he gets home and the cop says Glenn, I wasn't even going to give you a ticket, but you can't hit me, you know?, and suddenly he's there, but you still sit down.

There you go, come on Glenn, you know you're so smart, you can't do that, you know it was just a slip, you know what was the best you got out of him and what was the best thing he got out of him. You, I, I think we were both songwriters, we were both

musician

s, we were both in the business for 50 years and then we understood the business, we understood that we both survived the world of alcohol and drugs. I mean, he was, you know, he, he, he did cocaine more than just. about anyone who was there during what you'd call the L.A. blizzard, when everyone was into cocaine, but he had a real problem with it, I mean, a big problem that he navigated, that I sailed, and that we both came out on the other side with big families.

We both got sober, we both became Christians, we both understood where we were and that's what we had in common is that we were survivors of that world and we both moved to Phoenix to get away from that world and we're still in business, in other words, you can be in this business and be a Christian and navigate your life through it and I think that's what we really had in common and our families were the same way our families understood that maybe it's the strangest thing ever. existed. with Glenn I was going to a Passover Seder, a peasant Passover Seder, what you went to a Seder, yeah, at Glenn Campbell's house and it's like what's the point, I mean, I'd never been to a Sader before and I didn't know what is normal.

Sader was, but especially a country western. Sader was very unique. You know it's different for sure with Mel Schultz. Mel Schultz was the next-door neighbor, so Mel made a lot of sense now out of context, although he's a lot funnier. What's there? one thing is you look back and say, you know what my favorite part of Glenn is ah Glenn Glenn was always, you know, if Glenn called and said Alice, let's play tomorrow, I would absolutely go, let's go. I love being with Glenn. I love it. I loved playing for them uh he had a million stories about his world and I had a million stories about my world in other words he would tell me a story about Roger Miller and Bobby Goldsboro and this guy and this guy and I was laughing and I'd say okay, I'll tell a good one about Paul McCartney and Jimmy Hendricks and you know, I mean, we could both tell a lot of stories because we were both in those different worlds and sometimes they crossed paths with you.

I know, I mean, we knew the same people, we knew the Sinatras and we knew Elvis Presley and we both knew the Beatles and we both knew, so we all had stories about that too, so a lot of it was just telling stories about the things that happened to us, you know, and Glenn had some good ones, I mean, Glenn, it was him, he managed, that's how they say, but we both ended up with great wives, we both ended up with great families and, you know , I was married for 41 years. Cheryl and I have been married for 41 years and she and Kim were dancers, so there was a lot in common, a lot in common between the families: our daughter, my daughter, my son and my other daughter, all in the music business, his children, all in music. business, so there were, you know, there were all kinds of entanglements in families with Alzheimer's, you know, sometimes there is a period almost of mourning where you know that person has it and then, as you said in from the beginning relief there is a part of you that is something like this is coming I have already come to this conclusion I think everyone in that particular illness knows that it is inevitable, there is no cure for it and when they get sick really very exaggerated bad where you really can't function you just go any time now would be a good time you know you don't sit there and say oh I hope he lives another 10 years because it's living in misery for everyone for 10 years and I'm sure Glenn, if it were up to Glenn, Glenn I would have said five years ago it would have been fine for him, you know, but Kim was so faithful, you know, in taking care of him and his family, his children were so faithful. in taking care of him and you know, I mean, they're in that period of grief right now that's inexplicable, but you know Cheryl just emailed Kim a couple of seconds ago and you know we'll be in touch with them.

Unfortunately, the whole family I think I'll be on tour when the funeral is. I'll be in Europe or I'll be somewhere, you know, but we'll certainly know that we're there with them.