Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier) is a singer-songwriter widely considered the Godfather of Shock Rock. Alice came to fame in the early 1970s, alarming audiences with his garish, often ghoulish stage performances. He is based on the historical figure of the same name.

Biography
Sometime during his early career, Alice Cooper and his band pooled together whatever money they had and flew to New York City to meet with Richie Finestra at American Century Records but were stood up for reasons unknown. This incident caused Alice to develop a resentment to ACR.

In 1973, Clark Morelle sits through a tedious recording session with American Century act England Dan & John Ford Coley at Electric Lady Studios. En route to the men's room, he bumps into Alice Cooper, who's laying down vocals for Todd Rundgren, and introduces himself as an American Century employee. Recognizing ACR as "Richie Finestra's outfit," Alice hears out Clark's suggestion of signing him as a solo act because "the band's just a bunch of guys standing behind Alice."

Later, Clark attends a wild party with Alice Cooper. Alice gives Clark a litany of grievances with his bandmates, his manager Shep Gordon, as well as the group's image and current record label, Warner Bros.. Clark assures Alice he'd never have those problems at American Century. The two talk and drink well into the night, and a wasted Clark follows a surprisingly sober Alice for a round of golf the following morning. Alice worries about his bandmates' reaction to his going solo and Clark promises to handle all the messy details.

Clark, still tracking Alice, sits in on an Alice Cooper band rehearsal, where he watches their special effects guru, The Amazing Randi, test the guillotine for their stage show with a watermelon. Alice introduces Clark to the band and "accidentally" reveals that Clark wants to sign him solo and that he called the rest of the group "a bunch of schmucks who stand behind Alice." Locking Clark into the guillotine, Alice recalls how Richie screwed the band over by making them fly out to a meeting, then stood them up. Clark, fearing for his life, reminds Alice that he's not Richie. "That's right," Alice says. "And I'm going to make sure you never will be." Randi drops the blade, and Clark is released -- safely -- into the basket below. Alice, holding his fake severed head, continues to mock Clark and tells him to give his regards to Richie Finestra.

Trivia

 * Ironically, Alice Cooper (band) did break up two years after 1973. Vincent Furnier took "Alice Cooper" as his own name and carried on with a new group of musicians, the original band became officially defunct.