Rocker Alice Cooper returns to Tucson with a new adventure for Alice

When you have a bonafide rock superstar living 90 minutes up the road, you come to expect that you’ll see him on a regular basis.

Which has been the case with shock rocker Alice Cooper, the Phoenix native who was here last October and returns this weekend to the AVA at Casino del Sol.

You might think that’s too soon, but if you’ve ever seen Alice live, you know he doesn’t follow the rock-and-roll script.

He does rock theater and over 90 minutes on Saturday, Aug. 17, he will take us into the sometimes twisted and always intriguing mind of Alice.

Not the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who boasts a four handicap on the greens and is known to play six days a week when he’s not on tour.

It’s the character Alice that the man Alice Cooper plays on stage.

“There’s me and then there’s Alice,” Cooper said. “I don’t ever want him to be explained. I don’t know what he is myself, to be honest with you, but that’s what makes him fun to play. Every once in awhile, he surprises me.”

It took Cooper, who grew up in Phoenix and still calls the Valley home, getting sober in 1984 before he realized that the person he was on stage since he started performing in 1964 could not be the person he was off stage.

“Before I got sober, I never really knew where I ended and Alice got started,” he explained. “The alcohol and drugs all kind of made it a gray area. When I got sober I realized that I’m playing this character, and that character up there does not want to live in this world. He doesn’t want to go play golf. He doesn’t want to watch TV. He only wants to perform. So I leave him on stage. When I get done, when the show is over, he’s gone. Then if you see me on the street and you want to take a picture, sure, of course. I’ll talk to you all night. But Alice will never talk to you.”

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The separation of those two personalities allows Cooper to create wickedly fun and twisted storylines interwoven with his greatest hits.

In his latest story coming to the AVA on Saturday, Alice’s career is on trial; he has to prove who he is. And of course, this being an election year, Alice is once again running for president — his presidential election year gag that he has continued for decades.

“It’s the most satirical thing we do. I hate politics; I’m not into politics at all. But when we do that song (‘Elected’), in this period of time, it makes it even more absurd,” Cooper said. “It’s all of the stuff. It’s the guillotine, it’s the straight jacket, it’s the snake. It’s everything.”

In the end, the audience gets to decide “if I get guillotined or I don’t get guillotined,” Cooper said.

Spoiler alert: “I have never been acquitted,” he said. “They want to see that head come off.”

Cooper returns with the same band he had last year, featuring Nita Strauss on lead guitar, Ryan Roxie on guitar and drummer Glen Sobel.

“This band I have is just beyond great. It’s like the best touring band I’ve ever had,” Cooper said during a concert stop last week in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “Nita Strauss is a show unto herself.”

Saturday’s concert begins at 8 p.m. at the AVA, 5655 W. Valencia Road. Tickets are $30-$75 through casinodelsol.com.