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THE 50TH BOB HOPE CLASSIC HOSTED BY ARNOLD PALMERJanuary 20, 2009Alice CooperLA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA MARK STEVENS: Okay. We would like to welcome Alice Cooper to the media center. Mr. Cooper just got done telling me he's played in this event 10 times and we welcome him back for the 50th anniversary of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. And Mr. Cooper, if you would just start out giving some general comments on your thoughts on this event and what attracts you to this event and what's special about the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. ALICE COOPER: Well, what's great about this is I knew Bob Hope, Bob Hope actually when we first started, he was one of the guys that actually kind of championed us. And I think it was because that we were vaudeville. And he came from vaudeville. So he kind of saw our show, even though it was controversial as it was and as strange as it was he saw the vaudeville part of it. Him and Groucho, he was another guy that liked our show and sort of took us under their wing. And it wasn't until later that I got into golf. But I've got a great picture of me showing him a different grip on a club. And it's weird seeing Alice Cooper and Bob Hope talking about golf of all things. You would think that we were on total opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to everything, but it wasn't, really, we really never talked about anything except golf. So, I mean, that's one of the reasons why you feel a certain connection with this tournament, even though he's gone, you still feel like you're part of it. And who is the first person I bumped into the other day it was Arnold Palmer. It was great. I've had a connection with Arnold since the Callaway thing, I've been with Callaway 15 years and Arnold is over there now. So it's great. MARK STEVENS: We'll take questions now. Q. The celebrity golf tournaments, there aren't that many of them any more. There's this and there's AT&T. Is there kind of like a culture of the celebrity golfers that travels from one to the other? ALICE COOPER: Yeah, honestly there really is. There was a time when I played six or seven in a row. So I'm probably playing more golf than the pros are. But I do anyway, I play six days a week. So everybody wants my job. I play golf in the morning and rock and roll at night. So you can get any better than that. But I really do play six days a week. So if there's a -- if you go in that period where you're playing the Phoenix Open, the AT&T, the Bob Hope, the L.A. Open, all those right in a row, you're literally on TOUR for about six weeks. So you get to know all these guys pretty well. And all the guys that play golf Kenny G and I play a lot, and Samuel L. Jackson and I play a lot and there's those guys are getting, Kenny can play. He's a good stick. It's pretty hard to beat Kenny, he's a really good player. There's not many hard rockers though that have gotten up to that level yet. But there will be. Q. Well that kind of brings me to my next question which is do people still, you've been around this tournament and have played other tournaments, you made your love of the game known through the television commercials, are there still people who find it kind of incongruous, that guy and this guy? ALICE COOPER: I had to be a closet golfer when I started. Because so many -- nobody wanted Alice Cooper to play golf. I was the anti-establishment guy. And yet I was addicted to the game. So I was really torn between the two. So I would have to go out and put a mustache on and go out in Indiana somewhere and find a public course and go play where nobody could see me. I got tired of it and I just said enough of this. If you're going to be a maverick, be a maverick all the way. So why not put Alice in a place he doesn't belong. If you can play good, who cares. Basically that's what we did. When I get on stage I'm still Alice, I play a really horrendous villain up there, but during the day I don't have to be him. Q. What attracts you to Mr. Palmer? There's so many things people like about him, but what is it that you most enjoy about chatting with him? ALICE COOPER: He's everybody's uncle. He's that uncle that would hand you five dollars and say don't tell your mom. Keep it down. He's that guy that he's the coolest guy, collar's up, cigarette, you know, he was, he was almost a Rat Pack guy when he first came up. And I was at that age when I kind of looked up to that. He was always sort of the swinging guy. I thought. So Arnold has still maintained his cool. If you ask any kid out there, Arnold Palmer, they go, oh, yeah, he's cool. I don't know why there's certain guys from that era that relate to teenagers. For some reason there was a period of time there in the grunge rock where Tony Bennett was the biggest thing. Explain that one to me. I don't get that one at all. Then you realized he was the dad that they didn't have. He was the cool dad that they didn't have. And I went, oh, I understand that. I get it now. I think Arnold Palmer is kind of like that. He's the cool uncle that you never had. Q. What is the fine line you walk as a celebrity playing in this tournament with the pros? Obviously a big part of it is the celebrities, the actors, the singers, but these guys are out here doing their work, kind of what have you learned about that? ALICE COOPER: Well you learn that first of all we were talking about Arnold Palmer in the same situation. The first year that we played it was Samuel L. Jackson, Chris O'Donnell and myself and Arnold. And after about the third hole I realized I said, guys, hang back, because when he walks up to the green he gets a standing ovation. He's Elvis. I said, I get it now. You know. They're not applauding for us, they're applauding for Arnold. So we all just kind of stayed back 10, 15 yards when he would walk up to the green because that was the honor that he had gotten. He had earned that. We're more than happy to be way in the background when it comes to guys like that. Rock stars and actors are in awe of these guys of these PGA guys. Of course every PGA guy wants to be in a band. Q. Some of them are. ALICE COOPER: I know. Well, Jacobson actually had a pretty good band there for awhile. But I think everybody wants to switch jobs at some point. I've never met a baseball player that didn't want to be in a band. And I never met a guy in a band that didn't want to either play center or you know, or be an outfielder. I think I could actually play for the Lions this year if I really wanted to. I'm from Detroit, I'm allowed to say that. Q. Speaking of being from Detroit, when you were younger growing up did you watch the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic on TV? I grew up in Michigan and I loved watching it on television and I would think it's January, it's 20 below, snow outside, yeah, I those pictures look great. I want to be there. And I eventually ended up moving out here? ALICE COOPER: It was Disneyland if you lived in Detroit and you're looking at that, it's Disneyland, you just can't believe it even exists. And, but then when you move out there I never thought I would ever be playing in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. When I was a kid we really only had three sports in Detroit, we had baseball, football, and grand theft auto. So the guys who played golf, we go, golf? Is that a game? We didn't know about that in Detroit. I didn't even know about the game until I was, ideal I quit drinking, really. Most guys golf and then start drinking, I was a drinker and then stopped and played golf. So I was the opposite. Q. You are still busy, you had an album come out, you got the radio show, you do shows. ALICE COOPER: Busier now more than ever really. It's crazy. Q. How do you keep your golf game sharp with all of that? ALICE COOPER: I don't practice. I just play. I get up every morning and play. And I consider that practice. If I got up and actually practiced short game I might lose a few strokes. But it's not my career. I just like to play. I like to get out and play. If I have a bad day I still enjoy it. I like bad days every once in a while. You just don't want to have a bad day here. I tell people if you can hit the ball off the first tee, the 10th tee, and if you look good coming in on the 18th short in your last shot on 18, you're going to be fine. A lot of the celebrities get very nervous out here. I say you only have to hit three very good shots all day. Q. Are the celebrities getting better? ALICE COOPER: Yeah, Samuel L. Jackson has become a really good player. Walter, he's only been playing a couple years and he murders the ball. There's, I have seen some of the rock guys, Cheech Marin, he's playing a lot better now. Meatloaf. (Indicating) It's fun to play with him. (Laughter.) I always tell people say who is the worst golfer you ever played with and I say, you know, Eddie Van Halen is a great guitar player. (Laughter.) I'm just going to leave it at that. Q. What's your handicap right now? ALICE COOPER: I'm five. Q. Been as low as two? ALICE COOPER: I got down to two for a while and that got real old. One a side is no fun at all. You can't really play with two unless you, honestly, unless you practice your short game all day. It's, you lose that so quick. Especially if you're on tour and I'm doing 100 cities a year, I'm going to play three times a week maybe on tour. And you can't keep, you can't play to your handicap. I just kind of my goal is kind of on tour if I can break 80 on any course then I'm happy. Q. Who is maybe your best friend on TOUR? ALICE COOPER: When I play in these things? Q. Or just in general. Is there a guy you text a lot when you see him? ALICE COOPER: Rocco is one of those guys. Rocco was, and I played AT&T a lot of years. And he's everybody wants to play with Rocco. The guy's the coolest guy in the world. And he's always laughing, and I thought it was so great, that Tiger and Rocco playoff thing. That was such a great thing for Rocco. Q. So you were rooting for Rocco? ALICE COOPER: Well, I had to. Even Tiger said there were a few times when he was rooting for Rocco. So that's how likeable the guy is. And he's sneaky great. The guy has got, can get up-and-down from anywhere. So when he has a couple of good days he's hard to beat. Q. Who would be your dream foursome then? ALICE COOPER: If I was going to have an of all time? It would be Hope and Crosby, Martin and Lewis. I would caddie for those four. I would think that would be maybe the funniest game you could ever get to. First of all, all four of them were single digit handicappers. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis were both single digit and Hope and Crosby were. So you would have an, actually a very good game going there. But can you believe what would be going on, the banter in that group? I would carry all four bags just to walk 18 with those guys. Q. You play any golf at all as a kid? ALICE COOPER: No. Q. In Michigan? ALICE COOPER: I started playing -- honestly, I got out of the hospital for alcoholism, I opened up the Yellow Pages, put my finger down on a golf course and went out there and I said, okay, teach me. I picked up a 7-iron, I swung it once, hit it right down the middle and said, well, this is great. And I was addicted immediately. So it's the most addictive game in the world. Being a former addict I understand addiction. It's the crack of sports. (Laughter.) Q. What was the reaction at the course when you showed up? ALICE COOPER: The first time? It's funny the guy that's caddieing for me, Craig back there, he was the first guy that was my teacher. And he's my caddie now. Still beats me to death on the golf course. But it was, I came out and I said, look, I'm an alcoholic, I stopped drinking yesterday, it is my first sober day. We played 18 holes, had lunch, played another 18 holes and he dropped 600 balls and said, okay, let's get these all on the green. Every day for a year. I did that every day for a year. 36 holes a day and practice. So at the end of that, I went from not knowing anything about the game to a nine handicap in one year because I was playing with pros every day, it was like a 10 hour lesson. Q. Would you say then that golf saved you? ALICE COOPER: Oh, yeah. And the funny thing is the guys that I know that play golf now are guys that were all in a lot of trouble either alcohol or drug wise. Lou Reed plays golf, Iggy plays golf, Cheech plays golf. Not that Cheech has ever done anything illegal. (Laughter.) They used to open for us. Can you imagine going across the Canadian border with Cheech and Chong? I used to find out what time they would be going across and I said, we want to go either three hours before or three hours after them. (Laughter.) Q. Speaking of being addicted to golf, did you become an equipment addict too and be buying new clubs? ALICE COOPER: I'm a club junkie. Yeah. And for a long time it was every kind of club. Now of course, being a Callaway guy, I try it to find the old Bobby Jones clubs, and when I first got with Callaway, I would call up Ely and say, hey, can you get me one of those Bobby Jones 3-woods, and he would go, no, because if you'll hit it you'll like it and you'll play it and I don't want you playing all the old stuff, I want you playing the new stuff. So I do have all that stuff in my garage though. My garage looks like an outlet. (Laughter.) If you ever get to Phoenix don't bring your clubs, I got everything. Q. Did you watch the Inauguration this morning and if so your thoughts and even if you didn't your thoughts? ALICE COOPER: I drove in today from Phoenix so we didn't really watch it, but it was on all morning. Obama is a rock star. He's JFK. He's got that rock star quality to him. And I think that what he represents right now is hope for the country and I think it's a image change for the country. Don't necessarily agree with everything that he represents, but at the same time I totally get it. I was just in Europe and people were patting me on the back because I was an American. And I said why? And they said, just the fact that your country can go from this to that, like that. Because the people want that. And I said yeah, that's the way the country's always been. And it's amazing to other people in other countries to see America get what they want. And I think when we got Bush we got what we wanted there. We needed him at that time. When you're in the middle of a war you don't want a poodle, you want a pit bull. But when it's over then you want the next guy. So every guy's got his job in there. Everybody inherits his own cards. So now Obama has got to play these cards he's been dealt and hopefully he does well with them. Q. Have you ever played golf with a President or former President? ALICE COOPER: Well Gerald Ford. And there's times when you're in those golf tournaments where you're in with two or three Presidents and it's pretty impressive. Because they are the President. Even though they're not President any more they're still, you look at them as the President. Q. Can you do you have any stories? ALICE COOPER: When I first started playing tournaments, it would be Jackie Gleason and Bob Hope and Gerald Ford and guys like that. And I would just -- I was just trying to hit the ball off the tee. I wasn't thinking about these guys being the President -- I remember one instance at Bob Hope's house he was having a birthday partying for Steve Allen. And every Major comedian was there. And me. I don't know, I was like I stuck out like a sore thumb because I had hair down to here and smeared makeup and somebody says, hey, Bob wants to see you. So I go in there and there's Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, Johnny Carson, all the giants in comedy. And Bob says, I'm pushing my drive to the right, a little bit. And I said, well, relax your right hand. Just let your right hand turn over a little bit. And that's all we talked about. And I realized that when I walked away it was Bob Hope, the President, and we never once spoke about anything except how to get your right hand square. That just shows you what golf is. It goes, it cuts right through anybody's job, anybody's political stance, anything. Q. On tour in other countries do you find time to go out and check the golf courses? ALICE COOPER: Oh, yeah. Especially Australia. They have got great golf there. I played at the Moscow Country Club which was a nine hole little country club. And any one of us here could be the head pro there, by the way. (Laughter.) Those poor kids that were the head pros, you know that they just got them out of high school or something and said, you're the head pro now. But it was a nice little golf course. And now I understand there's a Trent Jones course there and I talked to Arnold he's building one there. So Moscow's going to end up being a probably some sort of golf capital now. But I play all over European. Q. Scotland? ALICE COOPER: Scotland and every place. When you get to Ireland you always want to play Ireland and Scotland. MARK STEVENS: Okay. Thank you very much. ALICE COOPER: Okay. All right. Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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