Happy to finally be in the Hall

Alice Cooper is humbled by his induction earlier this year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He's also relieved.

Cooper's fans, who have championed him for the Hall of Fame since the Cleveland landmark opened in 1986, finally are satisfied.

"Every day, three times a day, I would have to hear 'How come you're not in the Hall of Fame?' " says Cooper, whose album Welcome 2 My Nightmare - the sequel to his 1975 Welcome to My Nightmare - is scheduled for release Sept. 13.

"There's no answer to that question. I don't know how they work it. . . . And honestly, it's weird; once you get in, you start thinking 'How come Deep Purple's not in? How come the Moody Blues aren't in?' You start thinking about the list of people who aren't in the hall."

Cooper's honor is in part a testament to his staying power and his ability to create a character (he was born Vincent Damon Furnier in Detroit in 1948) who transcends music. Cooper's stage shows use Grand Guignol theatrics wed to an aesthetic that pays homage to Vincent Price by way of Edgar Allan Poe.

Here's the thing about Cooper that's often overlooked: He's an excellent songwriter, as evidenced by "Eighteen," "School's Out," "Under My Wheels," "Elected," and "Only Women Bleed."

But far too many people view him through the prism of his fantastic, gory, stage productions.

"I started getting recognition when [Bob] Dylan mentioned that I was an underrated songwriter," Cooper says. "When you get people like that mentioning your name, then all of a sudden you start getting recognition from everybody."

The goal, Cooper says, always was to fashion a group "as good as, or at least able to be on the same stage as, Led Zeppelin or Thin Lizzy or any of the great rock bands." He credits producer Bob Ezrin, who worked on Welcome 2 My Nightmare, with drilling his band endlessly.

"He wouldn't let us get away with putting filler in a song," Cooper says. "He wouldn't let us get away with riffing a song. He'd say, 'You gotta have a verse, a B section, a chorus, a bridge, and every one of those parts has to be something you can sit down at a piano and sing.' "

The Hall of Fame would seem to be the ultimate reward, but Cooper has his eye on another iconic destination: Broadway. If Green Day and The Who can mount successful, theatrical productions, why can't he?

"I think that will happen," Cooper says. "I think when people start looking around for what else is viable for Broadway, I think they'll realize the Alice story is a great story: the alcoholism, coming up from being the most-hated band in L.A. to being the most-beloved band in metal."

Meanwhile, Cooper says he's helpless against his latest addiction: golf, "the most addicting thing that was ever invented."

Cooper plays more than 300 rounds per year. At home in Arizona, he's up and playing at 6 a.m. "If we play 100 cities around the world on a tour, I'll be out golfing about 75 times," he says. He adds, "There's not too many things better than golfing in Pennsylvania in October. It's as good as anything anywhere."