By Steve Newton
Yesterday I posted my first-ever interview with shock-rock king Alice Cooper, which I’d conducted 30 years ago, after Cooper had released his Constrictor album.
During our conversation the Coop mentioned the infamous onstage wipeout that occured during the opening song on his Welcome to My Nightmare Tour at Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum on June 23, in the Year of Our Lord, 1975.
The article said that Cooper tripped on a wire onstage, but it turns out that’s not accurate. Ear of Newt reader and long-time Cooper fan Bean David of Salmo, British Columbia, sent in a comment setting things straight:
“I was at the Welcome to My Nightmare show in Van,” explains David. “He didn’t trip on a wire. He climbed into the toybox prop and it wasn’t secured to the stage. It threw him backwards and his heels took out a footlight and he broke his ribs and smashed his head on the barricade. He ended up two feet in front of me!
“The crowd rushed the stage,” he adds, “and the bouncers were side-arming fans to get him back on stage. The guy beside me caught his remote mic and handed it back to the bouncers. (I would have kept it) lol.”
So there you go. A first-hand account of what really happened on that fateful day. Thanks Bean!
Bean David (left) and Alberta rocker Brock “Stick” Armstrong, formerly of Vancouver prog-metal band Mad Duck, toast the remote mic that got away.
I saw that too. I wasn’t so close to the stage but I could see the giant toy box rocking and tipping. It looked like Alice sprinted backwards to avoid it and went over the edge. I knew a girl who was up close and bragged that she got Alice’s blood on her. I guess not only women bleed.