Alice Cooper is known for his theatrics, but along with that came some quite in depth storytelling over the years. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer says whether everything always came together in one neat package or not, he always had an eye toward creating conceptual pieces of work.

The vocalist told the Aquarian, “I don’t know why and I don’t know how, but I’ve always thought of everything in concepts from the very beginning. It always seemed to me that any song is conceptual. For instance, if you come up with a title, any title at all, I don’t care what it is, it could be ‘Welcome to My Nightmare,’ so write a show around that. ‘Welcome to My Nightmare?’ Okay, what does it consist of? All right, we’ve got a little kid that can’t wake up from his nightmare. Okay, that’s good, now what happens to him?”

Cooper says he takes whatever the initial idea is and tends to build a full story from there. After he’s got the story, he can then start filling in the musical details. The singer adds, “It was always like that for me. I can’t not think in terms of concepts. It’s automatic to me. I think every album I’ve done has been a conceptual album in my head.”

‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ was a major triumph for the singer, who ventured out solo for the first time with the album. Now, years later, he’s currently promoting the sequel ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare.’ Cooper calls the original landmark disc “a giant roll of the dice” and adds that he knew he’d either be dubbed a genius or an idiot for choosing to go that path. But either way, he knew it was important to take a risk.

He explains, “[You] go out as far as you can on that limb and either be a genius or an idiot. If you’re an idiot, you fall off the limb and then you climb the tree again. But whatever you do, don’t stay in the middle. Never stay in that gray, mediocre area. Go out and do something that’s gonna startle everybody or that’s gonna make everybody think of you when they think of that.”

Alice Cooper is currently touring in support of the ‘Welcome 2 My Nightmare’ album. Check out his dates here.

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