Legendary rocker Alice Cooper spoke to Dave Lawrence of Hawaii Public Radio about how today’s “Black Lives Matter” protests against police brutality and injustice recall the turbulent 1960s, when people marched for civil rights, women’s rights, and against the American war in Vietnam.
“Well, isn’t it amazing that that was 50, 60 years ago, or something like that, and we’re still dealing with the same problem?” Alice said (hear audio below). “You would have thought that that solved the problem. But there’s always that five percent of people that are racist.
“To be honest with you, I know a lot of cops,” he continued. “I don’t know one racist cop. But I guarantee you that five percent of the police force in every city have got a racial problem. And those are the guys that get all the headlines, because they do all the stupid things.
“I think we have to look at that like almost in everything,” Cooper added. “Five percent of the Muslim population — maybe five percent — back ISIS,” referring to the acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist group known for its radical beliefs and violence. “The rest of ’em are just like we are. If you put a Muslim family with an American family, they’d have a barbecue and they wouldn’t be even talking about politics, but there’s always that five percent that will upset the entire world. And I think that’s our problem with the police department. You don’t have a full police department of racists in there; you have maybe a small percentage, and those are the guys that need to be weeded out. I can’t see why we don’t spend the money on getting a committee in every city to weed out the bad guys.”
This past May, Alice released a new single, “Don’t Give Up”. Produced by Cooper‘s longtime collaborator Bob Ezrin using remote technology, the song is a spontaneous reaction to the challenges facing us all right now.
A strictly limited “Don’t Give Up” seven-inch vinyl picture disc will be released on August 14 on earMUSIC.
Cooper recently completed work on his new album, “Detroit Stories”. The LP, which was once again produced by Ezrin, features contributions by such Michigan talent as the MC5‘s Wayne Kramer, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD‘s Mark Farner and Johnny “Bee” Badanjek of MITCH RYDER & THE DETROIT WHEELS. They also used the Detroit Horns and Detroit background singers.
Last September, Cooper released a six-track EP called “Breadcrumbs”, described as a tribute to the garage-rock heroes of his hometown of Detroit.
