Back in July, Metal Sludge posted that it was rumoured that guitarist Kane Roberts would be returning to Alice Cooper's band. Guitarist Nita Strauss announced her departure from the Alice Cooper’s band after 8 years playing with the legendary rocker and Roberts was indeed welcomed back to the fold.
Roberts played with Cooper from 1985-1988 and performed on the albums Constrictor (1986) and Raise Your Fist And Yell (1987).
Roberts recently spoke with Andrew Daly at VWMusic about returning to Cooper#s band. Following is an excerpt from the interview.
VWM: You’re back with Alice Cooper again after all these years. How did it happen?
Kane: "Alice and I, of course, are friends, so we talk all the time. And, you know, I’m a big fan of Nita, actually, I’m a big fan of his entire band right now. They’re all very good. And Alice, he knows that, so when Nita implied that she’d be leaving for a little while, I guess it made sense to Alice for him to call me. But before that, Alice had played on my The New Normal album, with Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy on the song 'Beginning of the End'. And then they both agreed to be in my video and all that stuff, so he knows I’ve been active, and then recently, I wrote a song with him, so we’ve been in touch musically as well.
But the call from Alice to join, it came out of nowhere. I was just sitting at home watching TV or whatever after I was done with my day, and then Sheryl Cooper called, and said, 'Hey, Alice wants to talk to you.' So, Alice got on the phone and said, 'Hey, do you want to be in the Alice Cooper band for the fall tour?' and I went, 'Yeah, sure,' because it’s nothing but fun when we’re together. So, I’ve been listening to the set and everything, and it kicks ass. It’s really been kind of a natural thing, and of course, I’ve had a crap ton of stuff to get together. There were also these existing musical arrangements that have been developing with the band over the last eight years, or whatever, but all this stuff is in my fingers. I’m working really hard, and yeah, it’s great."
VWM: Going into Constrictor and Raise Your First and Yell, what was the collective vision to elevate Alice’s music from where it had been?
Kane: "Well, once we got together, we just really got into it, and we made Constrictor, which came out great. And then, before the tour, we discussed what was going on, and my notion was always, I didn’t want Alice to seem like he survived rehab, I wanted him to come back as sort of a nuclear version of what he had been. So, my thought was, 'Look, there’s Van Halen, there’s Ozzy, and all these insane bands out there. We have to upgrade the energy level in the sound to make it much more metal.' I mean, that’s always where I came from, but I also wanted to preserve the sort of historic events in terms of the music, and retain the essence of the classics. So, we agreed on that, and so that’s how the album and that tour came about.
So, we came off the tour, and we went in and we recorded, Raise Your First and Yell, and it was killer. We just tore right through it. We had Kip Winger, Ken K. Mary, Paul Taylor, and all these guys. After we had that done, we hit the ground running. It was a really good process, and we had a really good relationship, and on the road, it was incredible again. Of course, it ended when I got the record deal with Geffen, and Alice had changed labels as well from MCA to Epic, and then he did Trash, and everything. But we didn’t end on bad terms or anything, and there wasn’t any controversy, we just sort of stepped in different directions a little bit. And even though I left, we maintained our friendship and our communication throughout all of it."
Read the complete interview here.
Cooper issued the following statement regarding Roberts' return: "I'm looking forward to welcoming back Kane Roberts for our shows in September and October. We've been friends all this time, and he's always been one of my favorite guitarists. He's bringing more muscle to the Detroit Muscle Tour. We've always had a swinging door policy where players can come and go, so it's very exciting to get back on stage with Kane. The fans are in for a real treat at these shows. It's gonna be a blast. Kane Roberts, Ryan Roxie, and Tommy Henriksen on guitars? Hell yeah!"
