Alice Cooper has named three bands that he feels every aspiring musician must listen to.
Cooper is currently employed as a judge on the No Covers show, where musicians are marked on their original tracks, instead of singing material written by others.
Speaking to LA Weekly, Cooper mentioned the three bands that young musicians must listen to.
According to Cooper, young musicians must listen to the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Four Seasons.
“I’m always saying everything revolves around how good the song is", Cooper said.
He continued, “You know, I don’t care how exciting you are up there. Spend your time listening to the Beatles. I tell young bands all the time: ‘I want you to listen to the Beatles, the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons. They wrote perfect songs, right? Their records were perfect".
Cooper also added that the Beatles and Beach Boys are wonderful examples of how to write a song that has "a verse and a chorus", as opposed to being an "angry punk band, and write a song about it".
"You can be an angry punk rock band, but write a song around it. Don’t just play a riff or a drum part and yell at me. That’s not a song. You have to have a verse and a chorus", Cooper stated.
"That’s why I want you to listen to early Beatles and the Beach Boys. You can be just as angry and have a good song. You don’t have to just throw it away. Too many bands just throw it away".
“They remind me of when my band was in high school. We couldn’t be onstage long enough", Alice Cooper also said of his enthusiasm for watching young bands.
"We wanted to be up there for eight hours. ... And then I’ve just got to say … you’ve got to be a star. If you’re going to be a star, you have to think you’re a star. You can’t just go out there and just be face value, you have to understand that you are a star or the audience will not regard you as one".
Two weeks left on our European Tour. Where will we be seeing you?
21 Jun - Dusseldorf, DE
22 Jun - Frankfurt, DE
24 Jun - Clisson, FR
25 Jun - Tilloloy, FR
28 Jun - Vienna, AU
29 Jun - Milan, IT
1 Jul - Barcelona, ES
2 Jul - Madrid, ES
6 Jul - Athens, GR📸 @jhrockbladet pic.twitter.com/AKYHarjN4A
— Alice Cooper (@alicecooper) June 21, 2022
Speaking of the Beach Boys, lead singer Brian Wilson recently celebrated his 80th birthday. More on that here.
