Alice Cooper announces new album 'Detroit Stories'

The master of shock rock is releasing an homage to his hometown

Alice Cooper - Detroit Stories album cover
Author: Brendan AppletonPublished 11th Nov 2020
Last updated 11th Nov 2020

Our very own superstar DJ Alice Cooper has announced his brand new studio album, 'Detroit Stories' will be unleashed upon the world on 26th February 2021.

The first single from the album ' Rock 'n' Roll' will be released, appropriately enough for the master of macabre, on Friday 13th of November. You'll be able to hear its first UK play on Nights With Alice, this Thursday from 11pm.

'Detroit Stories' will be Alice's twenty-eighth studio album and his first full-length release since 2017's 'Paranormal', and features guest appearances from Joe Bonamassa, original Alice Cooper members Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith, MC5's Wayne Kramer, U2's Larry Mullen and even Sister Sledge.

Named after the city that spawned the original Alice Cooper group, the album follows in the footsteps of last year's 'Breadcrumbs' EP as an homage to the toughest rock scene in the US.

As Alice himself explains: "Detroit was heavy rock central then. You’d play the Eastown and it would be Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, The Stooges and The Who, for $4! The next weekend at the Grande it was MC5, Brownsville Station and Fleetwood Mac, or Savoy Brown or the Small Faces. You couldn’t be a soft-rock band or you’d get your ass kicked!"

Alice Cooper

"Detroit was the birthplace of angry hard rock. After not fitting in anywhere in the US (musically or image wise) Detroit was the only place that recognised the Alice Cooper guitar-driven, hard rock sound and our crazy stage show"

"You couldn't be a soft-rock band or you'd get your ass kicked!"

Alice has been teasing something on his social media platforms for the last week, with videos of his album cover gradually coming to life in each post

Now, 50 years after that formative period in the 1970s, Alice has assembled some iconic Detroit musicians in Detroit's Rustbelt Studios to celebrate that electrifying hard rock scene.

Legendary livewire guitarist Wayne Kramer features on a cover of the 'Sister Anne' which he originally recorded with MC5 back in 1971. The first single 'Rock 'n' Roll' is a cover of The Velvet Underground song written as a tribute to Detroit by Lou Reed, and featuring drummer Johnny "Bee" from The Detroit Wheels on Alice's album.

Once again Alice is produced by long-time collaborator Bob Ezrin (Hollywood Vampires, Deep Purple and more), who first met him back in 1970, when Bob walked into the Alice Cooper group's infamous farmhouse on the outskirts of Detroit to create their masterpiece 'Love It To Death'.

Watch: Alice Cooper vows to carry on longer than Mick Jagger

Legend has it that Ezrin drilled the band for 10 hours a day to define their signature sound. Whenever they nailed a song, the inmates at the hospital for the criminally insane across the road cheered and thus the classic Alice Cooper sound was born.

Detroit Stories tracklist:

  1. Rock ‘n’ Roll
  1. Go Man Go (Album Version)
  1. Our Love Will Change The World
  1. Social Debris
  1. $1000 High Heel Shoes
  1. Hail Mary
  1. Detroit City 2021 (Album Version)
  1. Drunk And In Love
  1. Independence Dave
  1. I Hate You
  1. Wonderful World
  1. Sister Anne (Album Version)
  1. Hanging On By A Thread (Don’t Give Up)
  1. Shut Up And Rock
  1. East Side Story (Album Version)

Listen to Alice Cooper every week night on Planet Rock

'Detroit Stories' will be available on CD, CD+DVD Digipak, CD Box Set (including CD, Blu-ray, t-shirt, face mask, torch light and 3 stickers), and 2LP Gatefold on February 26th 2021.

You can pre-order the album here.

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