Alice Cooper may have retired the eye shadow and fake blood years ago, but the heavy-metal legend still has plenty to say about the music industry. We caught up with Cooper — who hosts a radio show, “Nights With Alice Cooper,†five nights a week — at the launch party for Guvera, a new online music-download service, where he was the event’s keynote speaker. “I love the fact that bands are going back to the garage,†Cooper told us excitedly. “Those are the bands now that sound like we did when we were 16 or 17 years old. I’m a little disappointed when I see bands that give you a great name like Vampire Weekend and then they make the Dave Clark Five sound heavy.†(The Dave Clark Five, by the way, were a British rock band active between the years of 1959 and 1970.)
And Cooper has an idea of his own for the music industry. “Susan Boyle could be the lead singer of Queen easily. She could actually dress like the Queen and she could sing any note that Freddie Mercury could sing. She’d be the perfect choice.†Cooper laughed, turning to his manager as if he was waiting for him to start making calls. “That would be great. If they don’t do that, there’s something wrong. Queen and Susan Boyle doing ‘Fat Bottomed Girl’ with her dressed as the Queen. It’s the song of the year.†We agree. Now somebody just needs to make that happen.