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Alice Cooper is reuniting with the surviving members of his original band for their first album in more than 50 years. On Monday (April 21), the shock rocker announcer The Revenge of Alice Cooper, which features Michael Bruce (guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass), and Neal Smith (drums), as well as a special appearance by Glen Buxton, who died in 1997. The band built the song "What Happened to You" from a riff off one of the late guitarist's old demo tapes.
“It was very much like this was our next album after [1973's] Muscle of Love, just like, ‘OK, this is the next album,’” Cooper told Billboard about the new project. “Isn’t that funny after 50 years? All of a sudden it just falls into place.”
The band also reunited with Bob Ezrin, who produced their iconic albums from the early 1970s: Killers, School’s Out, and Billion Dollar Babies. “None of them has changed much as a person,” Ezrin told Billboard. “Obviously everyone’s older and more mature and more settled, but when we all get together and I watch the interplay between them, it’s like they just walked out of high school and were hanging out in the local cafe. They just revert to type. They revert to who they were as kids when the first got together… and make music together like they did 50-some years ago.”
The Revenge of Alice Cooper is slated for a July 25 release. Its lead single, "Black Mamba," is set to drop on April 22. Cooper is hitting the road with his current live band for a spring/summer tour and co-headlining tour with Judas Priest.