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Video: Alice Cooper and Richie Ridge Talk JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE!
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Nov 3, 2022
Alice Cooper, a seminal figure in rock 'n' roll whose compelling stage presence has made him a must see for five decades, has been cast as the flamboyant King Herod in NBC's staged rock concert of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR LIVE! to be aired Easter Sunday, April 1. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was able to chat with the rock legend about his upcoming role. Watch below to see what Alice had to say about the musical, his upcoming turn as Herod, and what he's doing to prep for the big live show!
View Video Transcript
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Legendary rocker Alice Cooper, whose career spans over five decades, is taking on the coveted role of King Herod
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in NBC's upcoming stage rock concert of Jesus Christ Superstar Live, which will air on Easter Sunday, April 1st
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And I caught up with Alice here at the Paley Center. Welcome to the world of Jesus Christ Superstar
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I know. Great, isn't it? It's one of those plays that everybody's seen
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and when they offered me the part, you know, I just went, oh, that's fine
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I get the villain part again. You know, I'm always the villain. Nobody's ever going to cast me as the hero
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I'm always going to be the villain, which is fine. I like that. How excited are you
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They're doing this live. I mean, what's going through your mind? Yeah, especially, you know, very rarely would John Legend and I ever work together
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unless it was in something like this, you know, or Sarah, you know, because it's so compartmentalized now, rock and roll is, you know
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you're going to work with these bands, you're going to work with this, So it'll be nice to work with people that you haven't worked with
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That's for one thing. And then, you know, I'm so used to working in front of a live audience
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I do that every night. It would be weird if it wasn't a live audience, I think
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Because John works in front of a live audience and so does she. You know, so this is just like doing another concert
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Well, let's talk about the role of King Herod. I mean, how he's going to be, how your version is going to be
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Well, you know, Herod, I started looking at Herod and I started going, this guy is really, he's a lot of conflict going on with him
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Because, first of all, he's the king. but he's a puppet king. Rome is over him. And then here comes this guy that says
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no, I'm the king of the Jews. So he's threatened by this guy because this guy can do miracles
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You know, I mean, he's not just kidding around. He's humble and he's not king-like
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but he does the stuff that Herod can't do. So I think he's threatened by Jesus
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but he has him in a position now where he can just kind of poke him and and you know psychologically
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torture him you know a very cynical i keep thinking alan rickman alan rickman would be a
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great sort of like condescending oh you know wonderful to meet you you know not wonderful at
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all for you know but that's that's i think i think it's the only funny song in the whole show
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when you think of it. So I think I'm a bit of a comic relief in this
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When were you first aware of Jesus Christ Superstar? Did you have that original album that first came out
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Well, it was funny because it was just the time when we broke. It was in those days, back in the ancient days
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In our business, you made two albums a year, and then you toured the rest of the time
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So you didn't really have time to notice anything going on around you. So, you know, you'd make an album, then you'd go out and tour
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and then you'd make an album, go out on tour, and somebody would say, Jesus Christ, Superstar. Yeah, yeah, I'll see that later on
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You know, we knew about it, but nobody really. You were so busy with your career You didn have time to go to a movie let alone you know go to a play So we were very aware of it you know I didn know if it was going to be a comedy
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if it was going to be factual, if it was going to be blasphemous
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or what it was going to be. But I think it, you know, when you put it in the hands of Rice and, you know, Andrew there
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then you're going to get something pretty quality out of it. Yeah. Let's talk about them
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because you already recorded King Herod for an album they did, Didn't they request you? Tell me about that
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Well, the original one was Victor Spinetti. Victor Spinetti was, if you're a Beatles fan, was the director in Hard Day's Night
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And Tim, to me, said, I want something with a little bit more teeth to it
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something a little bit more threatening, you know. And I think that's what I brought to it
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I brought a little more growl, where you could sense danger in his voice
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Even though he's cynical, you know that he's not. He's certainly not on this guy's side at all
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So I think he listened to my voice. He said, that's what I'm looking for
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I want some Alice Cooper in that, in King Herod. And I went, well, fine
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I can do that. And Tim's been an old friend of mine for a long time. He's great
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He's a great record collector. He has thousands upon thousands of records
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And what this means to you, I mean, NBC takes on these beautiful live musicals and all
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Now they're doing, they're stepping out of the box with this one, what it means to you. Well, you know, first of all, when we first started doing theater in rock and roll, nobody had ever done it before
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And we did a piece out of West Side Story. We did the Jet Song. And this was in 1972 or 70, yeah, 72
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and we realized that that audience our teenage audience had had no idea what that was what
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west side story was i thought everybody knew what west side story was and at that point it almost
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became part of our you know part of our our job to educate that audience into theater
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and we were the only ones doing theater so it was it was fun to to kind of like do that to the
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audience um and that's been my calling card now you know ever since then oh so uh educating the
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young audience to theater is pretty cool they they then they start going well i want to go see that
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now you know that'll be the cool thing about this because it's like the melding of theater and rock
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and roll with all you incredible legends doing this with some of your fans tuning in to watch
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like theater for the first time yes it is and and not only that but here we got we've this is the
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first time in the history of rock and roll where a grandfather a father and a son all go to the
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same concert if you're 70 years old you were a beatles fan you know and from what i hear of this
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of this concert it's it's more like a concert than it is a production yeah i mean i'm saying
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it a production but more of a concert than a theater piece so you got three people up there three or four people that that what they do concerts so i going to treat it just like that You know I mean in our show most of the songs are produced
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You know, this song does this because this. Welcome to my nightmare. Well, yeah, the bed comes down and people come out from under it and all that
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You know, so it really, it's just like doing a song from my show. You have this phenomenal over five decade career
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You tour all the time. You're fans generation after generation. How cool is that
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Like I was telling you, my nephews at like 9, 10, 12, 16, 22, everybody loves your music
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What is it like touring for the fans and meeting them? Well, the one thing is that the type of music I play is the one kind of rock and roll that won't die
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Just hard rock, guitar rock. What Guns N' Roses did, what Aerosmith does, what we do
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Actually, we're all based on Chuck Berry. We're all based on the Rolling Stones and what they did
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We just took it in a different direction. But that's the one kind of music that teenagers love, 20s love, 30s love, 40s, all the way up to the 70s
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People will sit there and go, yeah, that's my music. That's my song. Yeah, I remember that
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Because it's a soundtrack to their life. Somebody that's 60 years old goes, oh, yeah, you have 27 albums out
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I can remember what car I had when that song came out. I can remember
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And I'm like that with the Beatles and the Stones. I go, oh, yeah, I remember that song
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I was going out with, you know. So we basically write soundtracks for people's lives is what it is
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And, yeah, you know, I mean, I never have backed down from hard rock
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That's really what I do. And I probably will never not do that
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Just talk about touring. I mean, this is a busy year for you. I mean, what you're working on now, tell us
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Well, you know, touring is hard if you're working with people that you don't
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that you have to work with. and touring is hard if you're touring because you have to tour touring because you want to tour
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and you're working with all the people that you want to work with is an entirely different thing
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i look forward to it i used to go oh i got a tour coming up you know now i go well okay i'm with
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all my friends they're the best players in the business my wife is in the show she plays two
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characters in the show this is going to be fun you know we're going to go out and do our music
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the way we want to do it, and we're sold out every night. So, I mean, why wouldn't you want to do that
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It would be different if it went, oh, I've got to go out because the mortgage is due and this and this and this
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But it's wholly different if you're doing it because you want to do it
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Somebody asked, I think, they asked me why I'm still touring, and I went, I don't think I've written my best song yet
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I don't think I've done my best show yet. I think if you actually think that you shouldn't tour, you shouldn't record
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because then you're just treading water. Ask Paul McCartney if he's written his best song yet
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and he'll tell you no. I've still got it in me somewhere
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So you out all of March touring Have you started rehearsals yet at all Have you done mini rehearsals for Superstar No I haven done anything for this show yet I really only have two days
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In fact, I leave after the show, come here, rehearse, and go back out on tour
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You're talking about vaudeville here. But I know the song, and I know the staging, I think, at this point, what they want from it
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So I think it should be fun. You know, it'll be more fun than anything else
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Going back to the beginning, what was that defining moment for you when you said
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I want to write and I want to be an entertainer? Do you remember? Yes. I heard the Beatles the first time
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And I went, what was that? I'd never heard anything like that
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We were Beach Boys fans. Of course, we were 13, 14 years old. Or the Four Seasons or Top 40 radio
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And then all of a sudden, the sound came on. And what was that
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I've never heard anything like that. And then an hour later, the same band, another song, and then another song
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It was like an avalanche of new music. And then the Rolling Stones, and then the Yardbirds, and the Who
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So I was exactly at that age of going, that's what I want to do right there
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I mean, I cannot wait to put a band together and just go do that. I had no idea it was going to blossom into full-out theatrics with the rock
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But that just came. that was in the, I don't know where it came from, it was in the DNA
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And it just so happened that everybody in the bands were in it too
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They all loved the idea of bringing the lyrics to life. So we filled a void that wasn't there
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You're as popular today as you were when you started out. So what is the best bit of advice that you live by, personally and professionally
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I always believe that your next show is going to be your best show. you know um i never ever go on stage unless it's going to be 100 you know and i expect that from
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my band i expect that from a lighting guy i expect it from everybody you know i said this show is
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something you've got to be proud of that when you walk away you go i was in that show you know and i
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want that out of everybody but i i if i don't believe that then it would be work you know i
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really believe that every single night you have to go into this thing full board going i can't wait
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to get in front of this audience, you know. So finally, what are you looking forward to the most
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about Sunday evening, April 1st, Jesus Christ Superstore? Well, I think the whole experience
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is going to be certainly new for me, you know. And just doing one song is going to be odd
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because I'm just doing 25, you know. But at least I get to put it all into that one song
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You know, I think, like I said, I haven't met the director yet and I don't know what he'll let me do
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I think there's some dialogue that should happen with Jesus, with the king
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You know, with the king kind of looking at him going, you're going to have to do better than that kid
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You know, this is the big time. That's Jerusalem out there. You're working with the best creative team
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You're working with the best director, with David Laveau. Just have the very best time. We'll all tune in
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