Alice Cooper has released 30 studio albums over his storied career, but the Rock Hall of Famer recently admitted that he has no recollection of writing three of them. Heck, Cooper stated that he doesn't recall recording or touring them, either, as his life was in a haze due to substance abuse.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Speaking with veteran music journalist Billy Sloan on Oct. 19, Cooper reflected on his drug addiction in the early 1980s.
"We always did a little coke in our nose," he said. "And then somebody came along and said, 'You know, if you smoke it, it's not addictive.' And we're, like, 'Okay.' And it's the most addictive thing on the planet. It totally takes your life away. You feel that euphoria, your whole body rush. You're pretty sure you can move mountains, whereas you really can't do anything. I wrote three albums like that, and don't remember recording them. Don't remember writing them. I don't remember touring with them. I remember little bits of it. But that was truly a scary period."
Alice Cooper Details His Journey to Sobriety
Despite having months' worth of memories erased, Cooper said that his drug addiction served as a valuable life lesson.
"People ask me all the time, they say, 'If you could go back and change one thing, what would it be?' And they would think that it would be that. But it taught me so much about myself, going through the alcohol and the cocaine addiction. Now, when I do talks with teenagers about drugs and alcohol, I can talk from a platform that if they say, 'Well, what do you know about it?' I say, 'I used to get high with Jim Morrison, okay?' And they're, like, 'Who?'"
"But I think it was planned that way," Cooper added. "Now, 43 years later, I've never even had a temptation to have a drink or a drug. And I was the poster boy for that when it was happening, which I consider to be a modern-day miracle. Even the doctor said, 'That's biblical, that miracle, the fact that you're not hiding things around the house.' And I said, 'No, I just have no desire to have a drink.' Even in the most pressure situations. No, that just wasn't part of it."
