Alice Cooper is running for president — again.
His slogan: "A Troubled Man for Troubled Times."
Or, "Make America Sick Again."
Or this one, which Cooper announced Friday during an interview with the Star to promote his Aug. 26 show at the AVA at Casino del Sol: “I Can Do Nothing As Well As They Can Do Nothing.”
It's all a joke, of course, a long-running gag by the king of shock rock ("School's Out," "No More Mr. Nice Guy") that goes back to 1972. Each presidential election year, the Phoenix musician and businessman throws his hat in the ring and comes up with a catchy slogan and a list of things he would do if elected. But mostly it's his answer to those people who seek out his and other rockers' opinions on who they think should be sitting behind that big desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
“That makes me laugh, thinking that rock stars know more than they do,” Cooper said during a phone call from a tour stop in Oklahoma City. "Rock stars would not be the person you should ask about anything. What do we do? We play rock and roll at night. And somehow they seem to think we have an inside track on who to vote for.”
Cooper early Friday took his joke to a national audience, appearing on CNN for a tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek interview on Cooper the candidate's platforms and positions. Among his positions, according to CNN: Banning selfies with the exception of National Selfie Day.
"Kind of like 'The Purge,'" he told CNN "Legal View" host Ashleigh Banfield. " 'Selfie Day' would be like 'The Purge' where everybody gets to take selfies."
Cooper did offer that he believes the 2016 presidential election between Republican billionaire Donald Trump and Democratic former secretary of state Hillary Clinton was coming down to “people ... voting against somebody, not for somebody.”
“People seem to think that when a new president comes in, everything is going to change. A president gets dealt the same cards that the last president had. He gets the same economic problems, the same world problems, and it’s not just going to change," Cooper, 68, said during the Star interview. "Whoever gets in, if it’s Trump or it’s Hilary, (they are) going to have the same cards that Obama had when he left. Really, the president doesn’t have that much power. He’s more of a figurehead. I say whose face do you want to see the most? That’s really what you’re voting on.”
Cooper is bringing his "Spend The Night With Alice Cooper" show to the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road, at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 26. Tickets are $35 to $75, with VIP packages running from $175 to $700.
(See the full interview in Thursday's Caliente.)
