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 band after eight years of 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). He recently spoke with Guitar World about his return to Cooper's band. Following is an excerpt from the interview.
Guitar World: To bring fans up to speed, how did you end up on stage with Alice Cooper again?
Kane: “Well, it was basically that Nita [Strauss] was going to take some time and play with Demi Lovato. And they talked about it, which was amicable; nothing was contentious about it. So, I guess Alice was thinking of who he'd like to get to replace Nita, and somebody said, ‘What about Kane?’ So, Alice called me and said, ‘Hey, you want to do the fall tour?’ And I said, ‘Okay, let's talk about it.’ From there, he explained what happened and that Nita was taking some time, so I said, ‘Okay, I'll do it.’”
Guitar World: After being away for so long, what stood out the most for you as the tour unfolded?
Kane: “The most memorable thing was watching Alice and thinking about how amazing he was. As far as getting comfortable, that took about a week, and suddenly, we were back to where we were.
As you know, Alice and I are still best friends, but now it has become something where we're always laughing, hanging out, and going to dinner. We had breakfast every morning and did stuff like going to the movies. So, it turned into a wonderful hang-out, which made it a tremendous experience beyond what we did on stage. Aside from that, I had massive respect for Alice's ability. He still owns the audience. Like, when the band starts playing the intro to Feed My Frankenstein, which was the first song, Alice would walk out, and he's like a vacuum.
He came out and sucked the whole audience into his persona. And that's what I remembered so vividly from back in the day, and on this tour, I got to see up close that Alice is still as powerful as he ever was.”
Read the complete interview here.
Roberts played his first show with Cooper since 1988 on September 7th at the fall tour kick-off show in Bethlehem, PA at the Wind Creek Event Center. Fan-filmed video is available below.
The setlist on the night was as follows:
"Feed My Frankenstein"
"No More Mr. Nice Guy"
"Bed of Nails"
"Hey Stoopid"
"Fallen in Love"
"Be My Lover"
"House of Fire"
"Under My Wheels"
"He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)"
"Go to Hell"
"I'm Eighteen"
"Poison"
"Billion Dollar Babies"
- guitar solo - (Kane Roberts)
"Roses on White Lace"
"My Stars"
"Devil's Food" (band only)
"Black Widow" jam
"Steven"
"Dead Babies"
"I Love the Dead" (band only)
"Escape"
"Teenage Frankenstein"
Encore:
"School's Out"
