Alice Cooper remains one of the most consistent and viable bands in rock and roll history. Not only has he had a great career, but he continues to make strong new albums, and of course put on a legendary show every night. Chuck Garric has played bass and been one of the leaders of Alice’s band for more than a decade. A fine musician and a noted hell-razor, Chuck has become a fixture with his fiery performances, and contributions with past music, and writing a new Alice Cooper album, hopefully out for 2017. He had a lot of insights into the twisted world that is touring with Alice to share with Ghost Cult.
We checked in with Chuck at the start of a new Alice Cooper tour, and talked about what the process is for him.
Chuck: Everything is going great. It’s always a lot to look forward to when you’re touring with Alice Cooper. One of the things I enjoy the most, working with him through the years is when we co-develop a new show and get into rehearsals and start digging into his catalog, and start figuring out what songs we can play and that we haven’t played in a while. Putting together the whole theatrical side of it, it’s always just a lot to look forward to.
Casual fans may not know this fact, but that every time the band tours, it’s a brand new show every time, and it’s a new set list, except for the hits.
Yeah, you have to remember that there is a reason why you hear this certain number of songs that, for the majority of the people, they want to hear. Now, for your deeper cuts, and longer fans that listen to everything, there are some songs that they would like to hear that maybe aren’t as recognizable to some of the fair weather fans, as you will. There are just some people that aren’t deep cut fans. You want to please everybody; but at the same time you’ve got to put in the set what flows. There’s a certain way a set flows, and certain songs work better with others. Some songs are amazing live. Some songs are better left to listen to on the record. We always try to keep that mind when we’re developing the set.
Do you personally get surprised at certain songs that get pulled out, or surprised certain songs don’t get performed often?
No. I’ve been involved now for over thirteen years, so I … The set list gets passed off by table as well. I have toured in suggesting songs, so it’s a fun process to go through. Sometimes, you’ll push for a certain tune, and you’ll hope that it flows. We’ve got a great band, so everybody just does their part, learns it, and you just hope for the best. At times, yeah, you get a little surprised, maybe something was flowing. We were really digging it and the band was jamming, but maybe at the same time, it just didn’t have enough for the show. It didn’t really add to the whole theatrical side or the show die if it, so it may get pulled. That’s just the way it goes. You learn the songs, and you know that they’ve got an idea that is really going to understand what they want to show the beat.
Many times for Alice Cooper shows, it’s often amphitheaters and theaters, and mid to big clubs, in my opinion, venues, right? Are there challenges because you have a stage set up and there’s a lot of stuff coming and going, costume changes, props?
I don’t see it … Alice is so, pretty much fits in any stage. It’s such a visual show, and sonically, it’s real pleasing as well. I think with the interaction between the band members, and the way the set is designed, they can throw it up there on any size stage. Yeah, there are times where you can’t build a set for bigger size stages and arenas, where we will be playing mostly smaller venues, or theaters. We just, we try to keep in mind what the tour is going to be like, what size stages there are, and just try to compensate for those particular venues where it happens. Just like the Mötley Crüe tour, we did where it was all big arenas. I thought that our show and our set, and the whole thing just fit perfectly into the size of those big arenas. Like I said before, just a high energy band and a song, it works great.
As much as any band ever in rock history, Alice’s music is meant for the night. In a festival atmosphere, some stuff works theatrically in the daylight, and some doesn’t. Do you ever find that challenging to play a festival, to a festival crowd outdoors?
It doesn’t really change what we do. I think if anything, it just gives the lighting guy a little time off. It doesn’t change. At night, obviously, it can get a little bit moodier, and you get the full effect of the show, but there is an element too, I don’t want to sound cliché or so optimistic, but an element of playing in the day time. You can really see who it is you’re playing in front of, especially if it’s a bigger site for us or something. I personally don’t really mind, but I think everybody would say you’ve got a show put together like an Alice Cooper show, you’ll always say it’s going to be better at night.
As the most veteran guy of the Alice band, for thirteen plus years now, I know musically, Alice has a couple of projects in the works. I know you had some credits on Welcome To My Nightmare 2 in 2012. Do you have any update on the new Alice music?
I think everybody is going to be contributing. We are all writing. We are all preparing for the time when songs are being pushed across the table, and everybody’s given the chance and an ear for what’s going on. We’re all going to collaborate, and just do our part, deal with that basically.
Is there some time-table for that album’s’ release?
I really don’t know. There’s not been a timetable discussed with me as of yet. I know that it’s just up for grabs to continue to write and submit songs when I have them, and that’s what I’ve been doing.
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INTERVIEW BY KEITH CHACHKES
PHOTOS BY EVIL ROBB PHOTOGRAPHY
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