Before Marilyn Manson, Kiss, or even Ozzy Osbourne, there was Vincent Damon Furnier, better knmown as Alice Cooper. Born the son of a minister, he put together a band with Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway, and Neal Smith. They went under the names of the Earwigs, the Spiders, and the Nazz before deciding on Alice Cooper. Vincent decided on this name for himself as well after a session with a Ouija board that told him he was a reincarnation of a seventeenth century witch.
Coopers penchant for using props onstage resulted in his most notorious scandal: the chicken incedent.
In 1969, Alice saw a chicken onstage and decided to throw it into the audience, who tore the bird apart.
Apparently he expected it to fly. Some of Alice's other stage theatrics included:
1970- wore a straight jacket while performing "The Ballad of Dwight Frye", followed by his "excecution" on a staged electric chair.
1971- first appearance of his boa, which Alice would let slither slowly between his legs before pushing
the animals head into his own mouth. During his performance of "Dead Babies",
Alice would fondle and rape a baby doll, then chop it up with a hatchet.
1972- A truck with a twenty foot replica of Alice, completely naked with only his boa draped across his groin area,
drove past Buckingham Palace before stalling in the middle of an intersection.
1973- Alice incorperated a guillotine with a real 40 lb. blade into his show. He was excecuted
with it while performing "I Love the Dead", a song about necrophilia. A replica of the president was then thrown into the audience and torn to bits.
