Kane Roberts recalls receiving no offers to join any other bands after parting ways with Alice Cooper

Kane Roberts recalls receiving no offers to join any other bands after parting ways with Alice Cooper

Former Alice Cooper guitarist Kane Roberts has just released a new solo album titled The New Normal via Frontiers Music Srl, which includes the song “Beginning Of The End” featuring Cooper and Arch Enemy frontwoman Alissa White-Gluz. The guitarist was recently interviewed by eonmusic and spoke quite a bit about his time with Alice Cooper, which included co-writing and playing on the albums Constrictor (1986) and Raise Your Fist And Yell (1987).

The guitarist was asked how he got the gig with Alice Cooper back in the day to which he replied: “Well, their search at that time was not just; “Hey, let’s find a guitar player and a co-writer for Alice”; it was a little bit beyond that because he was coming out of a very special situation with where is career had been, and where he was in terms of rehab and all that stuff that was going on. So the things that they liked about me, first it was the music; Bob Ezrin [producer] heard a tape I had sent out, and that was number one. Number two, they wanted to make sure, I think, that I wasn’t just part of the same things that were happening everywhere; they looked for something a little different. So I walked in the room; I didn’t look proper, I didn’t do any drugs, I didn’t drink or anything, and the final thing was that Alice and I became best friends, literally within ten minutes of meeting each other. It was very bizarre, and it was almost like we knew each other for a lot of years.

Roberts continued: “Those were the type of things that got my foot in the door, and then when I said to Alice; “When you come back, especially live, we don’t want people to think you ‘survived’ rehab”, I said; “You’ve got to come back like a nuclear version; like you were bitten by a nuclear beast or something like that. And that it’s a different version of you, because you have to compete with Ozzy and Van Halen and all these bands that are out there; you can’t just sort of assume that what you did before, and manner that you presented it is going to get you through the day” because, the culture of rock and metal was changing. So, you can see how that discussion manifested itself.”

In terms of what brought the duo’s partnership to an end, Roberts advised: “Well, it’s almost like different outside teams kind of entered and separated us. I was doing the ‘Saints And Sinners’ [1991] record on Geffen; that was a big deal for me, and I wanted to take a real shot on that, and Alice was moving into the [more commercial phase]. Both of us ended up writing with Desmond Child, which was unusual, but you could see there was almost a calculated effort to maximise what he and I could each do, separately. But I’ll tell you something; he and I never stopped being best friends. He came up to play in Vancouver, and he asked me to come in and sit with him on ‘School’s Out’, which I didn’t do because I had too much to do the night before the show. But who knows what might happen? But if he and I are going to do some more, I’m going to harass him and see if I can do some writing on his next record.”

It was noted that Roberts must have had lots offers to join other bands after parting ways with Alice Cooper but the guitarist clarified: “This is such an interesting question, and it’s actually got a real strange answer. My belief has always been if you work hard enough, if you really become obsessed with whatever it is that you want to do in life, and you get yourself to a certain level – and I’m not saying I’m special or anything because of how much work I did – but I believe the world will beat a path to your door. It’ll eventually greet you with open legs, and I’m living proof of that, because if you think about it, Alice Cooper, with the way I looked, was the only band on the planet that ever would have hired me. Somehow, I ended up in front of Alice. It was kind of crazy, so that rule still took place once I left Alice; no-one’s going to hire me.  My point is that, no, I didn’t get one offer. And I didn’t expect it, because I think one of the reasons is my image, my history or whatever; there’s a little bit of a few too many layers of unusual on top of it for people to sort of say; “Okay, let’s get Kane in the band”.
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Roberts added: “Think about it; Cinderella; “Oh, he weighs 230lbs, he’s perfect!” It wasn’t going to happen! White Lion wants me to join? That’s not going to happen. There’s guys that would do it if they thought it was the right thing; people that I’ve met, musicians and stuff, but I always say, Alice Cooper was the only band that would ever hire me. Believe me; the phone never rang, but I told myself, that’s the reason.”

You can read the rest of the interview with Kane Roberts at eonmusic‘s website.

Alice Cooper‘s “Freedom” video:

Alice Cooper – Freedom (Official Music Video)

REMASTERED IN HD! Official Music Video for Freedom performed by Alice Cooper. Follow Alice Cooper: Facebook: https://facebook.com/AliceCooper Instagram: https://instagram.com/alicecooper Twitter: https://twitter.com/AliceCooper Website: https://alicecooper.com #AliceCooper #Freedom #Remastered