Lessons for Living a Successful, Fulfilling Life Featuring Sheryl and Alice Cooper - Genius Network Episode #162

The only way to dissuade that or to change that dog chasing its own tail is to give them an alternative to that. We started solid rock. It's all Christian businessmen and the whole idea was 13 to 19 years old. Give these kids a place where they can go, that's safe, where they can find their talent. Every kid's got a talent. I don't care if it's drawing. Some of these kids are tattoo artists, but they're great. So. Well, here's an art studio. Paint. If you can draw, you can paint. If you can sing, it moves them away from that street life.

If you'd like to join world renowned entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network event, or want to learn more about Genius network, go to geniusnetwork.com Joe Polish interviewed rock and roll legend Alice Cooper and his wife Cheryl Cooper at Genius. Here is some of the wisdom that they shared.

I'm super honored to not just have Alice here with me, but his wife Cheryl. And in this conversation you're going to learn a lot more than you'd ever expect to learn from a heavy metal rocker. Please help me welcome Alice and Cheryl Cooper. Do you have any thoughts on where so many enormously talented people and we see it today that are just that are world famous. There's so much self destruction in the world of entertainers.

It's, I, I, I, I believe that some of these entertainers had success complexes. They didn't think they deserved the success. They didn't think that they actually, some of them literally sabotaged their own careers. Yeah. You know, a Kurt Cobain. I mean, that doesn't make any sense at all. The guy was brilliant. I mean, but shotguns and heroin don't mix.

Right.

You know, and, but it was a little more in our day when we were coming up, it was a little more innocent than it is now. On a level that I didn't know anybody that shot anything. At least I didn't know about it. You know, when we found out that Janis Joplin was shooting heroin, we were in shock. I mean, we drank with her. She could drink anybody under a table, you know, but nobody knew she was shooting heroin. Later on, it got into the hard drugs. I never understood the heroin thing. It just so dangerous. You know. The funny thing was, was the bands that you would think were in the hard drugs were not like Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper. We drank beer. But still, you know, alcohol is a drug. Yeah. And I have to remind people of that that alcohol is probably the most dangerous drug. If you start looking at Statistics of anything.

Had you not met Cheryl, what do you think would have happened to you?

Do you still think you would have.

Had the success or.

I. I would have been dead easily. When I quit drinking and doing Coke, I was 35 years ago, and the doctor said I'd give you about two weeks before you join your friends. You know, I woke up one morning, threw up blood, and I went, that's probably not good, you know, and this one says, hey, superstar, party's over. Boom. And I'm in the hospital. Now, the interesting thing about the hospital was I can tell you a couple great stories about this. They put me in a hospital that was obviously not just a hospital for people that are. That are coming off of a drug. Some of the people in there were in there for some really strange reasons. I had to write a whole album with Bernie Taupin about it called from the Inside.

I still have that original record where you open it up and you're.

Yeah, it was an interesting place to be for a lyric writer. It was like heaven because everybody in there was an interesting character. I'd sit and talk to these people and go, wow. You know, I write all this stuff down. I'm called Bernie. I said, wait till you hear about this guy.

Was that the most difficult part of your relationship in the many years you've been together, or.

It was a really tough time in that I didn't have a lot of faith that it could be rebuilt, and there was a lot of love that was lost. You know, I tell brides on their wedding day, don't ever say, I don't think I could ever love him any more than I do now. I go, that's just the beginning. You know, if you can hang in there and hang in there is what I did. And, you know, he really did have to prove that not only was he never going to touch any substance again, but he would spend the rest of his life making restitution to me, Whoa, that was a lot to take in. But the man I see now is not only the man I knew was in there, he's also the spiritual leader of our family. He is an example to so many who look up to him. So for me to navigate that part, yes, it was the toughest part. And that's where you're. You're hitting the pavement. You realize that you can only look up. You can only say, God, save him. Save him from. And he did. Alice will look at you and say, if you put a glass of whiskey right here and a glass of arsenic right there, I wouldn't touch either. I can't. He said, they're both poison to me. And 35 years later, true to his.

Word, I was the kid that grew up in the church, went as far away as you could get, became the poster boy for everything wrong and then came back to the church. So Cheryl and I are both Christian and there's nothing in the Bible that says that. Alice Cooper, I think Jesus would say, Alice, go be Alice Cooper. But follow me.

So where we've interacted a lot is solid rock foundation and you know, a little bit about what I'm doing with Genius recovery. And then we've talked a lot about artists for addicts and all of that. What is your big goal and what is your big mission right now?

You know, I was, I went, Cheryl and I went to visit this neighborhood ministries where one lady has taken on a city block in the worst part of the west side of downtown Phoenix and brought little kids in and got them sort of the safest place they could be. She does it on her own dime. She does it on her. We went there. I watched a drug deal go down with a 16 year old, two 16 year old kids. I'm being from Detroit, you know, I've seen drug deals go down and I watched this thing go down and I, and it came to me, I said, how do I, how does that kid know he might not be the best guitar player in Arizona or the other kid might be the best drummer? Because they've never had the opportunity to put those instruments in their hand. They're born into the gangs. Mom and dad are both in the gangs. They're arguing not if they're going to be in a gang. They're arguing which gang they're going to be in. So their future is blueprinted already of what's going to happen to them. You know, we talked about it and I said the only way to dissuade that or to change that dog chasing its own tail is to give them an alternative to that. So we, you know, for 20 years now, we started solid rock. It's all Christian businessmen and the whole idea was 13 to 19 years old. Give these kids a place where they can go, that's safe, where they can find their talent. Every kid's got a talent. I don't care if it's drawing. Some of these kids are tattoo artists, but they're great. So. Well, here's an art studio. Paint if you can draw, you can paint if you can sing if you can. You know, one can say what, what Part of the guitar. And they're in there every day. And now they're pretty good players. But what it happens is it moves them away from that street life. And now they're more addicted to the music than they are to selling meth. The crazy thing is, is their older brothers and sisters who are gang bangers are all for us. They're, they're 100 for us and the parents are for us. You get one kid that changes, you change. Not just that house, you change a neighborhood. Right, because they're rooting for that kid to be a guitar player, not a drug dealer. You know, we've never had any problems with gangs ever bothering us because most of their little brothers and sisters are, are there. So we're fairly protected in there.

So this is a place where, here in Phoenix where people can go, any.

Teens, any teenager can come in. And the funny one is, is, you know, people say, well, you know, it's for kids that are, you know, in danger. And they say, you know, on the west side all these kids are selling drugs. And I go, who do you think they're selling the drugs to? The kids on the east side with the money. How do you say that? One is less in danger than the other. Yeah. So we have kids that come in from Scottsdale, the biggest houses in Scottsdale. Kids that come in from the worst barrios and they sit down together and what do they talk about? Music. That's what they have in common. And that is the common denominator right there. Now we're a Christian organization, but we don't beat people over the head with the Bible. We just say, look, this is what we do. We give you this opportunity. And the kids are smart, they go, what's the catch? I said catch is you show up, we hear stories that make your jaw drop. A 14 year old kid that's done every drugs, tried suicide four times. They've lived a life that all of us put together couldn't live in 14 years. And they're, they've done it all. They all, I don't know what's next and I go, try dancing Cheryl. And they come there every day. That's feeding them, that is that artistic drive. They find something they like and they go to that that's a win. I said that to me is we've already won. So to us that's, you know, that's a big deal in our life is solid rock. And you know, it's fun too. These kids are half of them don't have any idea who I Am.

What are some of the life lessons that you would recommend for living not only a successful life, but a fulfilled life?

See, for us, the career comes about four or five rungs down the ladder. It really does, because I think so many people, when you meet somebody, what's one of the first things you ask them? Tell me about yourself. And what's the first response? Oh, I'm a. Or, this is what I do. And I want to say, that's not what I asked you. I want you to tell me about yourself. So many people equate who they are by what they do. This man does not, because who he is is a child of God, a person of worth, a faithful husband, a loving father. So the career follows that. And what I love is that he hangs up the coat and hat like Captain Hook once the show is over and he comes back to being the most amazing spouse and partner ever. So, I mean, that in of itself the priority, you know, having God be first, having each other be second, our kids right up there. But Job is fourth or fifth. So who you are is not necessarily what you do. It's a byproduct of who you are. But I don't think my husband lets that define him, and that's fulfilling.

I don't know where Alice goes, but it certainly doesn't come off stage. He stays on stage. There was a time when I didn't know where that gray area was. I didn't know where I started and where Alice ended. When I got sober, I started realizing if I. If I look at videos of Alice when I was. When I was high, Alice was a victim. He played a victim. He played society's victim. Every kid could. Could look at that and say, yeah, that's me. Everybody hates me. They. They're going to cut my head off. They're going to hang me. They're going to do all this stuff, you know, When I got sober, I started realizing I can't play that character anymore. What am I going to do with Alice? And I said, I want Alice now to be the villain. I want him to be the joker. I want him to be this. When he walks on stage, the audience goes, you know, oh. Because he doesn't go up there and say, gosh, I hope you like us tonight. He goes, come here. And the audience wants that. They want to be taken, you know, okay. You know, and that's how we play them now, you know, but it. He would never swear on stage because he's too much of a gentleman. He'd slit your throat. But he'd never swear, you know. Yeah. And it would be in the nicest.

Way, knowing what you know now, what you've been through. What would you have told your younger self back then?

Well, I. I did this with my kids, with our kids. And I said, I noticed that all of you drank. Oh, yeah. I said, do me a favor, go two weeks without it. Calico did. She went, a month. She said, I'll go a month. She went, you know, and I said, good. Okay, good. Then you drink because you like. Because you like the taste of it, and you can stop, right? Absolutely. All three kids did the same thing. They just said, yeah, I could take it or leave it, but I had to be sure. I didn't know if it was, you know, I didn't know if it was, like, in the DNA or not. So that's the one thing is you have to take. You have to check yourself to make sure that you're not. That it's not medicine. If it becomes medicine. It's not. You're. You're well on your way to alcoholism.

Cheryl, relationship advice for all married couples and people that are in partnerships.

Anybody that ever comes to you and tells you that relationships are 50, 50 run, they are 100 and 100, or they're nothing. And they may not always look like that, because there are some times where he's got to schlep my bags, take out my trash, defer to me, defer to me, you know, and other times, I'm running in his dust. So it doesn't always look. I mean, it can look like 90, 10, but the intention when you get up in the morning is, how can I serve that person? How can I make their day better? Not to be a doormat, but that's what a partnership is, is to look at it as 100, 100.

Awesome.

Love it.

Thank you.

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