www . steelnotesmagazine . com
Alexxis : Oh yes , so that was still The Spiders you were talking about , right ?
Alexxis : Until you saw Todd Rundgren . [ Laughter ] Right ?
Steel Notes Magazine
Dennis : Still The Spiders . Yeah .
Dennis : But the theatrics were getting more and more elaborate at that point .
Alexxis : Glen and Alice ’ s dad both helped make some of those theatrical stage things , didn ’ t they ?
Dennis : Well , they came down and kind of talked about their work while they brought lumber down . More like this guy named Scott Ward , who was a photographer from Cortez High School . His dad is the one who made the guillotine for us and I think his Dad actually helped us work more . Alice ’ s dad and Glen ’ s dad were there while we built the Spider Sanctum , but they were more locked into conversation about their researches I recall .
Alexxis : [ Laughter ] Fun times !
Dennis : You know the stages , we built in such a hurry . We found this carpet in the back room so we covered it because we didn ’ t have enough wood to fill in everything so there were two places on the stage where you didn ’ t want to step but we put carpet over it and then we had Go-Go Girls in the corner of the stage and we had to tell them , “ Ok well when you dance make sure you don ’ t dance over here because you might fall through .” [ Laughter ]
Dennis Dunaway , Neal Smith , Alice Cooper , Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton at the Landmark Hotel Hollywood 1968 photo by Craig Folkes
Dennis : Yeah , I mean we built the name . We were getting a good reputation playing for The Doors and all kinds of bands in Los Angeles , so by now we had migrated and we had become the house band at this club , The Cheetah Club , which was out on the pier right next to Pacific Ocean Park . So this place was gigantic and it was made famous by Lawrence Welk in the 30 ’ s to broadcast radio show from there and it made the venue famous and it made Lawrence Welk famous . Anyway , we migrated to California and we built the name The Nazz , we had a pretty good reputation and then we heard about this other band from Philadelphia or wherever they were from , Philadelphia right ?
Alexxis : Yes , Philadelphia . Dennis : Oh yeah . Alexxis : [ Laughter ]
Dennis : Ok , well this time we really had to come up with a name that nobody would think of . So we were coming up with all kinds of things you know . I don ' t know what , the craziest names you could think of ..
Alexxis : Now was , this was at the point that where Neal had joined the band ?
Dennis : Yes , by this point Neal joined when we were still The Nazz in 67 . And soon after Neal joined we decided to change our name again and we came up with Alice Cooper .
Alexxis : That ’ s when you were hanging out at the house of the girl from The Weeds of Idleness .
Dennis : Right . The Weeds of Idleness . [ Laughter ]
Alexxis : Oh wow that could have been a disaster !
Dennis : Yeah ! We didn ’ t have that much supervision and were just winging it .
Alexxis : Now you had started out with The Earwigs , you wound up having to change the name of that band because someone else came out with it . Then when you changed it to The Spiders , a signed Japanese group released an album so you had to change it again . Then you changed it to The Nazz right ?
Dennis : Yes , we thought The Nazz was a name that nobody had .
Dennis : Now that ’ s a great name ! We should have taken their name !
Alexxis : Right now especially with pot being legalized all over , it would definitely be a good name . [ Laughter ]
Dennis : Well we were also in Arizona and on the border where everything came across . But , the Weeds of Idleness was a perfect name for them because it was three girls that had a little house in Phoenix and they had equipment set up in their living room but we never saw them play a note , so the Weeds of Idleness was a perfect name for them .
Steel Notes Magazine www . steelnotesmagazine . com
9