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Hollywood Vampires

If you ever wondered where Hollywood Vampires got their name from... The Rainbow Bar And Grill in Los Angeles has seen its share of debauchery over the years. The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead and others frequented that club in the 60s, but the early to mid-70s ushered in a whole new breed of depravity. Led Zeppelin were frequent fliers there, but it was The Hollywood Vampires Drinking Club that surpassed it all. The regulars were Keith Moon, Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees, Ringo Starr, Harry Nilsson (one of the greatest musical composers of all-time), and the one and only Alice Cooper. Honorary members included John Lennon, Keith Emerson, Marc Bolan and others. In order to get into the club, you had to out­drink its members! Imagine trying to out­do Keith Moon! Fast-forward to 2019 and Hollywood Vampires are a supergroup comprised of Alice, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp, and they've just released their second album entitled 'Rise'. Powerplay sat with Alice to get the details on this great new release.

With each of the three primary members having such complex and arduous schedules, I asked Alice how they found time to write and record. "Well, it was truly one of those times when technology took over on this one. Johnny had just finished filming something, but he's always writing. He keeps a diary and he does a lot of his lyrics in the diary, which is kind of like poetry, and it's his own private thing. And a lot of lyrics came out of that. And, of course, Joe's out in residency [Las Vegas] with Aerosmith. So, this is one of those things where I'd be in Joplin, Missouri somewhere and I would get three songs from the guys. I'd get them and listen to them... and I think the most important thing was to take my fingerprints off of it. In other words, the last thing I wanted this to be was to sound like Alice Cooper. I wanted it to certainly have a flavour of Alice Cooper, because when I do the vocals it's going to definitely give it that flavour. And it doesn't sound like Aerosmith. So, the great thing is that we didn't tamper with a lot of Johnny's songs, because we wanted them to be original. If it were my album, I would say cut that B section in half and I would have made the chorus half as long as it was — you know, that kind of thing. Just out of doing 27 albums, you get to know those things and how to make it sound good on the radio. But, this was like... we all kind of went, 'we don't care about the radio.' It's one of those things where we said, 'let's let this album breathe. Let's let these songs be what they want to be.' We didn't want to tamper with them and chase the radio, and I think that's what made it sound so original."

I wondered if 'Rise' feels like Hollywood Vampires' first proper record, especially considering that the debut was primarily a covers record? "Yeah. We introduced our writing on the first one, because I realised one thing: here's the whole idea behind the Vampires: we're celebrating our dead, drunk friends... Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Keith Moon, Jim Morrison - all the guys I used to drink with and get high with. We actually have the authority to do that, because we did get high with those guys and drink with them. So, there's a certain amount of authenticity to what we were doing. So, everybody got that idea, but then we had to explain it a little more by writing a couple of our own songs. We wrote 'Raise The Dead', and we thought it was pretty good. Bob Ezrin [producer] said that it was good, too. And then we wrote 'Dead Drunk Friends'. It's about a guy that goes to the Rainbow Bar And Grill at three or four in the morning when it's closed and all of those ghosts are there.

So, that's kind of a feel of what that was. I was very happy with the two or three songs that we wrote because, again, it didn't sound like Alice Cooper and it didn't sound like Aerosmith; it sounded like the Vampires. So, with all this in the back of our minds, we went, 'the next album is gonna be originals. Let's push the envelope here. What do we have to lose? Everybody knows that Alice Cooper sells records and so does Aerosmith!' But, with the Vampires, it's like starting all over again. The idea was not to chase the charts; let's just let these songs be what they are and see what happens."

So, there was no overt push and pull when it came to the songwriting? "When you get three guys that are all alpha-males who are used to running the show and you put them together, generally that's a mixture for total chaos and that's going to be nothing but problems. I have never been in a band that is less egotistical than this band. There's not been one argument and there's not been one disagreement. We might disagree on something and then go, 'let's play it both ways and see how it works.' Then we play it both ways and say, 'I think that that one works better.' There's never been an argument and nobody's ever walked out of the room. It's just the opposite of what it should be. There's no ego involved. Actually, the only ego that belongs in this band is on stage. I wanna see all the ego on stage, because you have to have the ego on stage. That's what makes people listen to you. You have to get up there and really let them know you're a rock star. That's where the ego belongs, but in the studio and with rehearsals and stuff, I say that's where we just have to be friends and that's the way it was with us."

The first single off 'Rise'is 'Who's Laughing Now'. I know that they didn't want 'Rise'to sound like Alice or Aerosmith, but inherently this track does have an Aerosmith swagger to it and an Alice-like chorus as well. What was the reasoning behind selecting this song as the first taste off the new album? "Here's the great news: I had no say in it! I've got a whole different attitude with this band. In my band, it would be Shep [Gordon] and I deciding what the single would be. I sat there and said, 'whatever you guys think the single should be — good!' The less that I put pressure on anything, the better it was. The less that anybody put pressure on it... I just said, 'what do you guys want?' They said, 'how about 'Who's Laughing Now?' and I said, 'sure!' They could have said 'I Want My Now' or 'Boogie man Surprise' or any of those and I would've gone, 'sounds great!' I would have no problem putting any of these songs on the radio. In the 7Os, I could sit and listen to ten songs and go, 'that's the single.' I don't even know what a hit single is anymore! I think there's so many variables now on the radio that any one of these songs could catch the audience's imagination and become a single. I think that 'Rise' is going to be something in 2020 during the election. I think 'Rise' is going to be some sort of a satirical anthem, because it applies to all politics, not just presidential."

Alice had previously said that he loves the diversity on 'Rise'. It truly is an album that one cannot pigeonhole. Was that the band's intent? "The diversity was absolutely intentional. I said to the guys, whatever comes out... if it's something that I just listened to and I go, 'guys, this just doesn't work. I don't get where it's going.' All of us had to listen to it and go, 'yeah, let's go after that song!' There were ten other songs where we just went, 'ahhh, not sure about this or that.' You can always tell the songs you want to record, because they're the ones you start playing in rehearsal, or say 'hey, I wanna get that one in the studio; that's got something to it.' 'Git From Round Me', for example — that thing just rocks and you don't know why, but it does! The main thing is what songs did we all like? Where all three of us went, 'yeah, that's really something to go for!' There's a song called 'Welcome To Bushwhackers'. Johnny's telling me this story where he says, 'John Waters [filmographer] and I are going into this bar in deep Alabama...' and I said, 'stop right there!' Johnny Depp and John Waters are going into a hillbilly bar in Alabama! That's a movie right there! And Johnny goes, the very first thing they said was, 'hello! Welcome to Bushwhackers! It's automatic weapons night!' and I just started laughing! That's a great story! So, Johnny played the song he made up about it for me, and Jeff Beck heard the song and said, 'I wanna play on that!' That right there — that's such a bucket list! Having [Paul] McCartney play on the first album and then having Jeff Beck on the second album pretty much finishes my life! If I could write a song with Burt Bacharach and Brian Wilson, that would be it over! Everything would be done in my life! Anyway, Jeff Beck's on it and with the opening... I said, 'why don't we get Waters to actually do that opening announcement?' So, we call him up in the studio and he gets on the phone. I told him what we wanted and he says, 'well, I can't say anything about automatic weapons, because I'm in an organization called Gays Against Guns' and I go, 'wait a minute! You're in a gay organization called GAG!?' And he goes, 'I know!' So, I said, 'do this; say, 'Hi. Welcome to Bushwhackers. It's Gays Against Guns night!' And John says, 'OK, I'll do that!' That's even funnier! So, getting John to do that and then having Jeff Beck on it... We used to do that song on stage and people loved it!"

My favourite cut on 'Rise' is a cover of Jim Carroll's 'People Who Died', which was cult classic from the 7Os. Johnny sings on the song and is amazing. He's got that understated Lou Reed vibe to his singing that fits in perfectly with the track. "I knew the song from back then, but I didn't know Jim Carroll. Johnny knew him though, and maybe Joe knew him as well. I really liked his songs. So, when Johnny wanted to do this, it was just perfect for this album. It's just so off-center. I told Johnny that he had to sing it, because I can't do that dead-pan kind of singing, whereas he could do it more free-form. That's what really makes that song sound great. It's so beatnik. And when Joe came along with the Johnny Thunders song ['You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory'], I said, 'Joe, this is a personal thing with you, right?' And he goes, 'Yeah.' So, I asked him to sing it. I think it's great that I'm not singing every song. On stage it looks great to switch around the vocals, and I think that's what the Vampires should be. It's more versatile like that."

With Alice on tour with his band from early July through mid-October and Joe in residency with Aerosmith in Las Vegas (among other places) for the long­ haul, it doesn't look like Hollywood Vampires will hit the road any time soon. However, to quench your thirst, 'Rise' is out on 21 June and it is an incredible record. Stay up-to-date with Hollywood Vampires via their website: www.hollywoodvampires.com.