BLABBERMOUTH.NET
ALICE COOPER bassist
Chuck Garric has confirmed to
Metal Rules that the legendary rocker's upcoming follow-up to last year's
"Detroit Stories" album will feature
Alice's entire current touring band consisting of
Garric, guitarists
Nita Strauss,
Tommy Henriksen and
Ryan Roxie, and drummer
Glen Sobel.
"[
Cooper's longtime producer]
Bob Ezrin and
Alice approached us and said they wanted to do a band album, so we all started filing in songs and ideas from each member,"
Chuck said. "
Bob also got some other outside members to write songs. We collectively got in a room like anything and started making it come to life. We have tracked everything for the most part and just doing some final touches. We are still a bit away from it being complete, but it's pretty cool."
Asked how many songs he contributed to,
Chuck said: "I think there are two that I contributed on and there is co-writing on other guys' songs as well."
Earlier this month,
Nita told Toronto's
94.9 The Rock radio station about what it has been like to work with
Ezrin on
Alice's new LP: "
Bob definitely has his own style of working, his own personality, and as long as you understand that and that rapport, I think
Bob is an amazing, amazing person. He's an amazing person to work with regardless, but I definitely think you have to understand his production style and his critique style and understand where he's going with everything in his specific vision. We had a great time making the record."
According to
Nita,
Bob gave her and her bandmates plenty of room to showcase their own styles during the recording process. "Who are any of us to tell
Bob Ezrin how to make an
Alice Cooper record?" she said. "He has a vision, he has it how he wants it, and it was our job to come in and execute it. And I think we did that to the very best of our ability and absolutely retained our personalities and our own style. He gave us a ton of freedom to express ourselves. He gave us a lot of notes, of course. I think
Alice wanted us to make a record that sounds like his band, sounds like the live band, and I was really grateful that
Bob and
Alice gave us the opportunity to do exactly that."
Last month,
Alice revealed during an appearance on an episode of
SiriusXM's
"Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that he is working on two albums right now. "All I can say is that one is written — totally written — and we'll be doing bed tracks for that one pretty soon," he said. "And then the other one is just a touch in the future, but that's being written right now too. They're two entirely different kinds of albums, but they're
Alice Cooper pure rock and roll albums. The two albums will really be hard rock albums."
Also last month,
Nita told Detroit's
WRIF radio station that she and her
Cooper bandmates "recorded quite a bit of music" for his upcoming album. "The band did also have a huge part in the writing this time, which is the first time that's happened in the eight years that I've been in the band," she said. "So it was really, really fun — really exciting for us to get to work with a legend like
Bob Ezrin. [It was] a huge, huge honor to be in the studio with him and
Alice creating what we hope will be some more
Alice Cooper music to just add to his legacy."
She added: "I'm on the [
Alice Cooper] live DVD. I'm on the live album releases, the live tracks that are bonus tracks and stuff, but [this is my] first studio album with
Alice. I'm actually the only person in the [current lineup of
Alice's] band that hasn't recorded anything with
Alice before, so this is huge for me. [I'm] very, very honored."
Released in February 2021,
"Detroit Stories" was recorded with
Ezrin, mostly in Royal Oak with Detroit musicians and featuring a mix of original material alongside covers of songs by
Bob Seger, the
MC5,
Mitch Ryder's
DETROIT and
OUTRAGEOUS CHERRY.
In 2018,
Cooper issued
"A Paranormal Evening At The Olympia Paris", a recording of his December 7, 2017 concert at the world-renowned Olympia venue in France. The effort captured
Cooper and his current bandmates performing a choice selection of classic
Cooper hits, in addition to some highlights from 2017's
"Paranormal" album.
Alice later said that he wanted to release a document of his band's onstage prowess because they "deserved a live album."