Alice Cooper recently spoke about surviving addiction and the role Jesus played in his recovery. He made the comments in an interview with Pastor Greg Laurie.
Cooper described a hospital stay during his years of heavy drinking and drug use. He also explained how touring fed that lifestyle.
“When I went into the hospital doctor said you we give you a month before really you’re joining your buddies,” Cooper said. “Because I mean you just can’t treat your body like that. And on top of that I’m touring. So it’s a constant flow, constant energy, constant this, constant party. And that sounds like fun. A constant party.”
He then explained how the party lifestyle changed for him over time.
“It 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,” Cooper continued. “It wasn’t fun like it used to be.”
Cooper also separated himself from his stage persona when discussing the source of his struggles.
“And it wasn’t because of the Alice character. Alice had was not the villain. Alice wasn’t the problem. I was the problem,” he said. “Alice was kind of the relief because Alice didn’t drink on stage. Alice didn’t do drugs on stage. I was the one that was, you know, Mr. Dr. Jackekal was the problem, not Mr. Hyde.”
He went on to describe his faith and how it helped his recovery.
“And really, the only cure I had was Jesus,” Cooper said. “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, ‘Well, I get letters like this. If you can stop drinking, well, I can.’ That’s like saying if Keith Richards, you know, if you can stop, well, then everybody can.”
Cooper said his story could offer hope to others.
“So, God made me 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,'” he said. “People will look at that and go, ‘Wow, there’s hope. I can I can come out of this.’ And then I think once you get sober then you can start recognizing Christ.”
He added that sobriety changed his priorities.
“It’s very hard to recognize Christ when you’re when you’re high because everything’s fine then,” Cooper said. “You know it’s when you’re sober is when you start going what’s important now? Oh I need to go after the light. I don’t need to go after this anymore. I don’t need another car.”
Cooper closed by describing how he sees his faith and his career.
“First, I’m a child of God,” Cooper said. “Second of all, I’m in a rock band. He’s the core of everything. He’s life itself. He’s the light.”
Those words come from a man whose road to recovery was long and far from smooth. The timeline of his sobriety shows how much of his life he has spent rebuilding.
Cooper first checked into treatment in 1976 to address his drinking. He spent four weeks in a facility. He later drew on the experience for his 1978 album From The Inside. The stay did not end the struggle. He relapsed in the years that followed, and his sobriety only held for good in 1983.
Cooper has now been sober for 43 years. He has said openly that his addiction went beyond alcohol. Crack cocaine nearly killed him. His recovery has lasted far longer than the worst years of his drug use. It has run alongside a career that never stopped.
Faith was central to the turning point. After rehab, Cooper returned to the Christian beliefs he shared with his wife, Sheryl. She had given him a choice to get clean and come back to the faith they both held. He has described how natural the return felt.
“And it was almost a relief to get back to church.”
Cooper and his wife have also carried that mission into their community. They founded Solid Rock in Phoenix, a foundation that runs centers for at-risk teenagers. The centers offer music, dance, self-expression and creativity as an alternative to drugs and crime.
