Alice Cooper: A Testimony of Finding Purpose Through God's Grace | Praise on TBN

when I went into the hospital doctor said you give you a month before you're joining your buddies wow because I mean you just can't treat your body like that and on top of it I'm touring so it's a constant flow constant energy constant this constant party and that sounds like fun a constant party got to a point where I would go backstage and look at my stage costume and start crying cuz I knew what I had to do to get into that costume to perform was now depression and I I'm sitting there going this is

it you were the number one rock star in the world and it started with your first hit 18 uh you were in multiple bands you started out in a band called the ear wigs right but that hit changed everything so you're in a car I think maybe with some of your band mates and you hear your song 18 on the radio for the first time what was that like we were the band that wasn't supposed to ever have a hit yeah we were the notorious Alice Cooper Band We Were The Outlaws yeah everything every parent

hated us and you that was good for business wasn't it it was we didn't necessarily do it that way we were just ended up being that yeah and we did a song called I'm 18 I'm 18 and I like it right that was almost a punk Anthem yeah having no idea that that was going to be a hit single and we're driving along and all of a sudden we here pick hit this week on ckw and 18 comes [Music] on believe me we stopped the car we had never heard any of our records ever on

the radio before and we were sitting there listening to it and we're all looking at each other just laughing going what a mistake they just made you know then I heard it 2 hours later and then you hear it again 2 hours later yeah and then you realize it's not just a pick hit it's on the charts yeah and you're sitting there between the Rolling Stones and Simon and Garfunkle and there's your song wow and to the business part of rock and roll that gets the attention of the money guys yeah the worst thing you

could do to a band like Alice Cooper is notorious we were always give us a hit cuz now you had to deal with us yeah and every go well everybody gets one once in a while you get a lucky home run once in a while second one came out was a bigger hit third one came out was a bigger hit so all of a sudden now we didn't chase the charts we didn't we didn't say we got to write a song that's going to be on the charts right we got that song on and now

the charts was looking at us yeah and we were in that golden age where Bob Ezra and our producer knew how to take our songs and make them into hits when you realized you needed Jesus and you were raised as a Christian oh I was a I mean I was the I grew up all my friends were Christian kids right I was in church Friday night Wednesday night yes Sunday all day Sunday yeah and we grew up together playing baseball and doing everything you could possibly do and then when the band accidentally took off yeah

yeah one in a million chance that your band's going to make it that's right a lot don't and we went to LA we were at that golden time when we came along with something that everybody wanted yeah we were not peace and love we were the other side yeah we were the darker [Music] side but there was a sense of humor to it yes you know and people started getting the sense of humor that this dark Vaudeville was pretty funny you know it had it had both things in it yeah I went as far away

as you could get yeah I became the poster boy for what was wrong the 700 Club was burning my albums on this is the worst person you could ever possibly did you like it at the time when that Happ we were laughing you know I I almost wanted to go on the show on the 700 Club and go okay what what book do you want to talk about in the Bible cuz I grew up in the Bible you could have given them a run for their money so but I went as far away as I

could became an alcoholic didn't realize I was going to be become an alcoholic he was just drinking beer with the boys every he did different was different was that they could stop I couldn't and that beer was constant now and it was not alcohol it was medicine now almost like a prop too and it was a Propet I mean it was a good I was never drunk I was never angry it was never mean I was always that Dean Martin kind of cool until it started started throwing up blood you've dodged the bullet more than

once when you were a young man you had a very serious surgery you still have a scar and your parents and you of course as well all believe that was a miracle but then fast forward later in your life you're at the peak of your success you're an iconic figure and you got heavily into drugs and you're in a room and you've got a rock of cocaine like the size of a softball I recall you saying something along those lines and you're using it your wife effectively has left you she's moved to Chicago she says

I'm done with this and you look in the mirror and what do you see I I had been wake for about 4 or 5 days yeah and I was up on top of Beverly Hills in my big mansion yeah I had a pipe a rock and a pistol wa and my all my wife's dresses hanging up around the room so nobody could look in cuz you're paranoid as as all G about about police coming You' got your cocaine and I and I'm sitting there going this is it I've I've alienated everybody I've got my cocaine

now though and I've got my gun and I and I go in the other bathroom and I look in the mirror now to this day I don't know if I had the Alice makeup on yeah but I looked in the mirror and the lines that come down from the makeup yeah were blood yeah and I was probably hallucinating yeah but I flushed the rock down the toilet finally called up Cheryl and I said I'm okay now I'm back and she goes not that easy yeah we finally got to a point of her saying Christian Counseling

yeah and this and that and that you set it up I want to know how serious you are about this I set it up with a Leman down down in Tucson and we started going Christian you know and it took 5 years before she realized that I was not going to fall back wow you know to steal doing cocaine and all that but it I understood that I could totally understand why she would be Su she loved me but she was suspicious and any drug addict will tell you that drug becomes Like Oxygen if you

don't have it you'll sell everything in your house to get it I mean it's it's an addiction yeah Beyond addiction and once it's gone you don't miss it at all yeah I mean once it was gone I had never even it was just gone you know but I mean at when you're addicted you are attached at the hip and honestly nothing else is important when you were younger you were just getting started in your career uh you met Frank Zappa he was going to record you he says do you have an agent said we don't

have one yet so you met Shep Gordon and you walked into a room and three iconic rock stars were in that room who were they it was uh Jim Morrison Jimmy Hendricks and Janice Joplin almost like the Mount Rushmore exactly all all dead at 27 by the way yeah so they're in the so-called 27 Club right and you know now and since then of course Amy Winehouse right uh is join that so-called Club bries yeah there are there Brian Jones from the stones and Kurt Cobain all tragically dead at the age of 27 but you

walk into this room of these iconic Rock fig years and and they were so talented I remember you told me each one kind of was an innovator in music weren't they I mean they were the three most influential people in rock yeah I mean other than the Beetles and the stones yes they were the three that were the everybody knew who they were that's right and they were Jimmy did something nobody had ever done Jim Morrison did something nobody done and Janice Joplin did great true so there they were the most creative people in the

building nobody knew at that point they were going to be dead at 27 and maybe it was that whole James Dean live fast Die Young and have a good-looking corpse but that was kind of the attitude right nobody wanted to get to 30 yeah I went when I hit 30 I went I'm washed up yeah you know nobody ever thought past 30 no cuz you went oh my gosh what am I going to do when I'm 30 yeah you know my perspective as a fan I'm a few years younger than you not that many but

um you know I grew up listening to all this music and my all these people so in a short period of time around 1970 The Beatles break up all these Rock icons die I was using drugs at that time I was smoking a lot of weed using LSD and in my mind to me it was like this era is over this is all empty and that sent me on a search yeah kind of a process of elimination what is the meaning of life was a 17-year-old kid I said well it's not in drug sex and

rock and roll been there done that in my own little version of it it's not in the affluent world that my mother lived and you know and and she was friends with John Wayne and she had a friend who was close to Frank st's wife so she knew Frank so it's not in that world that a fluent swinging world where is it and then I came across a group of very outspoken Christians on my high school campus sitting around in a circle singing songs about God I thought they were delusional but for the first time

in my life I thought what if they're right yeah so let's talk about the Hollywood vampires so it was Keith Moon Keith Moon Harry neelson Mick John Len Mickey Dolan Bernie toppen uh and every anybody else that would come into town John Lennon occasionally yeah he would come in and we would sit there and we would drink every night at the rainbow you know last man standing kind of thing and uh when that kind of broke up cuz we went back out on tour half of them were dead you know uh and still we went

right on cuz we were I was in control of this drinking at least I thought I was until I realized I really wasn't in control it was now it was now medicine and I didn't even like the taste of it anymore but I had to have it I woke up one morning threw up blood and Cheryl goes hard's over when I was in a an Institute you know to stop and you know what after 2 days I felt great but I kept going when I get out of here I'm going to go back to my

thing and it's going to be everywhere I came out of there never once had a fall back never fell back on alcohol never fell back on drugs 39 years 38 years so God literally took it away from me so you don't describe it as you were cured you say you were healed yeah people would say well you're a cured alcoholic and I go no I was a healed alcoholic what's the difference well God took took it away from me even the doctor said it's impossible that you don't at least fall off the wagon three or

four times cuz you're the classic alcoholic and I said you what you don't understand is that God took it away from me I said it's a miracle after a while though they went you know what God took it away from you because they said everything about your life should be deception that's what an alcoholic and a drug addict does they they they put on this air that they're cured but back here they're doing this and they're doing that that never happened and so even the doctors were going Miracle you're one in a million case I

went well I you know God works like that I think people are really surprised to hear that a lot of people don't know that you believe in Jesus Christ it still comes as a surprise to people and yet not only do you believe but you have a strong faith in him you established a a center for young people called Solid Rock where you're trying to really help turn people get their lives turned around turn them toward God you don't hide this in any way so who is Jesus Christ to you he's the core of everything

he's life itself he's the light you know I mean it's if we don't all revolve around Christ and we're way out in space somewhere you he draws you in he's the light you're drawn to that light and it's nothing you can explain in words you know it's something that happens to your heart where all of a sudden you realize who this is and you realize oh my gosh I don't I'm not worthy of this talk about I'm not worthy I'm not worthy we're we are not worthy and yet still being hung on the cross he

knew you're name he knew my name and that made me go how can I not believe in this he changes your heart now he didn't say and now that you're a Christian you can no longer be in rock and roll his plan was now you're a Christian go be in a rock and roll band but Follow Me Be Alice Cooper you know and that's what Christians don't understand I can be Alice Cooper and you can't I can't tell you how many emails I get saying you know that song you wrote hey stupid yeah changed my

life I was going to myself this that song spoke to me some of the songs that don't make any sense at all they go you know I I turn to Christ because of that song and I go that song what it spoke to them differently it said something differently so now when I write I always try to have some lyric pointing towards Christ at one point we did an album called brutal planet and dragon town and what it was talking about was it was a heavy metal album every oh this is so cool man it's

and then Christian and kids started listening to it and going this is a Christian album it's talking about how this is a brutal planet and dragon town is the result of it if you you get one shot you don't get another chance if you end up in Dragon town There's no no way out but brutal planets pointing out all the things that point to Christ you know the horrible things but the things also that point to Christ that album And The Last Temptation which was another album about that was it was written sort of like

Something Wicked This Way Comes The Circus Comes to Town the kid goes to Circus and they try everything to get him to join the circus right and he at the end he doesn't right they were being sold in Christian bookstores and my record company couldn't figure out why they're going what why are we getting why are we selling records in Christian bookstores because it was Christian albums you know uh two or three of my songs were were used like in choirs you know that a song like I am made of you um salvation there's on

these stories is you know Murder Mystery but there's a song called salvation how the murderer is going is there any chance for salvation like this well that's the song that so you did all these horrible things but yeah there is a chance for salvation it's an amazing thing that you know people chase after these things young people today you know a poll was taken among them and they said what do you want more than anything else and they said to be rich and famous and Andy Warhol who you knew uh once made his statement it's

attributed to him at least uh one day everyone will be famous for 15 minutes something along those lines and today that literally is true for some people suddenly you're famous online because you posted this video that went viral you become a so-called influencer and and this is their whole goal in life chasing after Fame but look you've been there you've done that you've bought the t-shirt in fact you've been the t-shirt and and you're saying that what you're really looking for is God am I hearing you right if that's not your final goal and that's

should be the most important goal right everything else is secondary everything else is third everything you know I I always said this before and and a lot of people don't like the statement but if I were going to put what's important to me in order Alice Cooper would be about fifth yeah once you've answered that knock yeah and once you've committed to that and once you start realizing how merciful that we've been treated yes and you know and how how much grace we've been given you said there's like Alice Cooper on your list is like

fourth down on the list what's number one to three I think your your relationship with Christ is the number one thing of course your family my family are all Christian you know my wife is just I mean she's like walking in Bible herself H and yet she plays Mel Guillotine on stage and she plays all these characters um the kids are all in show business but they're all Christians you know so when people say to you they say what who are you I go well first I'm a Child of God second of all I'm in

a rock band you know it's not I'm Alice Cooper the rock singer and I'm a Christian the priority is that I'm a Child of God oh and then I'm a rock singer and I do this and I'm a father and I'm a husband you know so in in that order I think is really who you are do you think when you're young and you're hungry like you're a young rock star you're in your band The Spiders then you become Alice scoper you're climbing your way up and then when you get there then you go to

the stage two and stage three and in your case you become iconic you're still iconic uh you walk into a room you told me you walk through an airport people say we're not worthy because it was in Wayne's World and they think they're the first people that did it when in fact it happens to you all the time but you know when you get to whatever stage that is do you think that for some of these people who start abusing drugs or even take their own life is it because they get to the top and

they realize there's nothing there it maybe when they thought it would be there it keeps them going but when they get there and they don't find it is that why they check out what do you think happens in the mind of a person I think if you don't have the Lord in your life yeah you're always going to be trying to fill that hole Yeah with something yes it's either going to be drugs or it's going to be Ferraris or it's going to be houses or wives or this or that or fame yeah and you're

never going to achieve it yeah because there's that inner thing of us that when we're born yeah of reconnecting with God yeah that's there and even if you're denying it that's what you're searching for and and so they'll go to uh oh the new fat is this I'm going to go be uh now a Buddhist I'm now going to be a uh a a vegetarian goat yoga person I'm going to be this and they go through everything yeah and still don't find it and the last place they look is the Lord that's right why do

you think it is well I think because once you say God you're you're my God you're my savior now you have to answer to him yes people do not want to give up their God self yeah the self that they control I control my life right even people go to church I go to Church okay yeah but you haven't given yourself yeah you know you haven't given yourself fully and that's where the Fulfillment comes from you can't explain that to somebody that's not searching if you put anybody and say you here's the biggest mansion on

the planet you can have anything you want you can have drugs you can have alcohol you can have women food what but you can't leave the Mansion it's a prison at a point you'll find so you'll either eat yourself to death you'll drug yourself to death you'll do something because it's not natural to be in prison yeah true and that's everybody that was in that position ended up dying you know way before their [Laughter] time I became an alcoholic and a drug addict for a good reason I didn't know it was a good reason but

I didn't know God was going to use it yeah I can now go into a place and talk to a kid about drugs and alcohol and they can't say well what do you know about it yeah you've been there I did everything okay I've been there I almost died from everything that I did I can speak from experience now I think God used my alcoholism and my drug addiction and said yeah you're going to go through this but it's going to it's going to be something I can use later yeah and I sit there and

I go I have no idea why he let me live Yes except for the this fact that I can I can talk about it now and I can give him all the credit yeah our setback can turn into a setup and God can use it and you speak from experience I mean the Apostle Paul was a brilliant orator and communicator but in almost every time he spoke he just told a story yeah and you know there's there's power in a story and you have one of the most amazing Stories I've ever heard so maybe there's

a young person right now watching and they're they're almost where you were or maybe they are where you were when you in that room and you had the dresses up blocking out the windows and and you're at the end you've got a rock of cocaine you've got a gun and what would you say to that person right there here's what you need to do for one thing I don't know one drug addict that ever said what a great idea I don't know one alcoholic or one in rock and roll or in movies or anybody you've

ever heard of that said good idea it's the most unfulfilling thing there is and yet Satan uses it pretty well because it's a thrill what do you got what do you got to lose you know here's a thrill um I would say to him and kids are smarter now than they used to be uh unfortunately their world is more dangerous now when we were kids if you got in a fight you got a black eye bloody nose and next day a little respect now somebody might drive by your house with a machine gun when we

were kids if you got in trouble with a girl you got a penicillin shot now you die every the ant is up on everything so these kids have got to be smarter and I think kids can look at at our drug problems and go I don't really want to get involved in that my thing I would say to them is when you hear that knocking at the door answer the door if the Lord is knocking at your door answer it it's the best thing that you could ever do and you can avoid all this Insanity

you know I Think Jesus sued it up perfectly when he said the thief speaking of Satan comes to steal kill and destroy but I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly you know the Lord says in scripture behold I set before you life and death blessings or curses choose whom you will serve so it's a choice but then I love how that verse goes on to say choose life so it's almost like the Lord saying okay here's a test here's the correct answer on the test make this choice but it's up

to us isn't it he's not going to force us to believe you didn't have to turn back to the Lord you could have continued on that course and quite frankly you could have been another tragic rock and roll story I was as close as anybody ever came yeah and when I went into the hospital doctor said you give you a month before you're joining your buddies wow because I mean you just can't treat your body like that and on top of it I'm touring so it's a constant flow constant energy constant this constant party and

that sounds like fun a constant party got to a point where I would go backstage and look at my stage costume and start crying because I knew what I had to do to get into that costume to perform was now depression it wasn't fun like it used to be and it wasn't because of the Alice character Alice had was not the villain Alice wasn't the problem I was the problem Alice was kind of the relief cuz Alice didn't drink on stage Alice didn't do drugs on stage I was the one that was you know Dr

Jackal was the problem not Mr Hyde and really the only pure I had was Jesus you know and the fact that I can still go out and play the character and I can still go out and do the shows and have fun doing it and know that I'm still helping people out in a way you know people that can look at it and say wow I hear letters like this if you can stop drinking well I can so God made me that that exception you know where he said you are going to be known for

this and then you're not going to do it anymore people will look at that and go wow there's hope I can I can come out of this but they're comes that point in your life where when you're lying in bed somewhere in Witchita on a tour bus where you go what is this about you know is is this really it is this all there is there's that song is that all there is cuz it can't be there must be something better than this and I think that's when you start hearing the Lord knocking because you

know there's nobody on this planet that's that he hasn't knocked on the door you know again you said we have a choice do we keep pursuing what's in the world you seek me and everything will be added to you you know when I started proclaiming Christ everybody thought well that's the end of Alice Cooper we have never done better I mean on every level since I have proclaimed Christ it should have gone the other way it should have absolutely ruined my career well especially because of a Persona and a trajectory that people may perceive that

you're on but in reality they don't realize it's a performance you take on the role of a character sure but you've redeemed it and turned it around exactly to use as a tool for good I I think that's how it's been used you know my play my Show's always been a good against against evil Alice plays the the villain and what happens to him he gets his head cut off because the bad guys's always got to get his head cut off and then what happens he comes back white top hat and tail balloons and he's

redeemed and just that Simplicity of that is Will connector people go oh he can be redeemed he's not they can't kill him well you can kill his body but you're not going to kill his Spirit you know and that's always been the ongoing theme of Alice Cooper is has been Redemption at the end and it is redemption and we're we're so thankful for how you speak up for your faith Alice could you define what Redemption is to you well none of us deserve Redemption but Christ on the cross if that blood is the most precious

thing that is your Redemption he was the perfect sacrifice there's no sacrifice we could make that would be better than the Son of God dying for you that's right understanding your sin understanding that you're going to sin after that and yet still paying the price you can't do you can't ever repay that and once you realize that then you are connected to to to the Lord you he has taken a resonance in your life and now he's with you at every moment so Redemption is giving into that and saying Lord you're right here I am

exactly when Jesus died on the cross he said it is finished it was a complete payment it wasn't like here's a down payment we'll work out the rest later a complete payment and the word finished is interesting it comes from a single word telesti which means it's completed it's accomplished it's done yes you know like the old song says Jesus Paid It all all to him I owe yeah that's true there's no no way of repaying God back except for acceptance and again we go and we live this life and we're in an everyday situation

where everything comes at us in a Million Ways How do you deal with it well you lean on Christ