Alice Cooper has opened up about his reaction to hearing the news that John Lennon had been murdered – and how the ex-Beatle’s death at the hands of unhinged fan Mark Chapman in December 1980 led him to carry a gun.
Cooper and Lennon had become friends in the mid-’70s, when both were involved in celebrity drinking club the Hollywood Vampires. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Cooper recalls that Lennon would unsuccessfully try to get him to speak out about politics.
“I just said, ‘John, it’s the last thing I want to do,’” says Cooper, who has just published his new autobiography, Devil On My Shoulder. “And he got that. He understood it. There were other guys that wanted to be political. I just wasn’t one of them.”
Lennon was shot and killed by Chapman on December 8, 1980 outside The Dakota building in Manhattan. Cooper, who was struggling with alcohol and drug addiction at the time, was working with producer Roy Thomas Baker on the Flush The Fashion album when the news broke.
“We were working… in my pool house, so we’re getting high, of course,” he tells Rolling Stone. “And all of a sudden it comes on TV. And I’m telling you, it was like a vacuum. It was just like, ‘That can’t be right. Why him? Why not somebody political?’ And it wasn’t a political thing. But to this day, it seems unreal. I could understand somebody having a grievance over a politician, but John, ‘Give Peace a Chance’?”
Cooper adds that Lennon’s murder put him and many of his fellow musicians on high alert.
“I know that all of my friends started carrying [guns],” he says. “I started carrying back then because all of a sudden it was a threat to all of us, even though we don’t put ourselves on the level of John Lennon. It scared a lot of musicians because it was a reality now. David Bowie used to talk about that all the time, and I kept going, Dave, don’t talk about that.’”
Devil On My Shoulder has just been published via Ebury Spotlight in the UK and Da Capo in the US.
Alice Cooper: Devil On My Shoulder UK book tour 2026
Oct 11: Cardiff New Theatre
Oct 12: Cambridge Corn Exchange
Oct 13: London Palladium
Oct 14: Brighton Dome
Oct 16: Manchester Opera House
Oct 17: Stockton Globe
Oct 19: Glasgow Pavilion Theatre
Oct 20: Wolverhampton Civic Hall
Alice Cooper: Alice’s Attic tour 2026
Oct 27: Clearwater Ruth Eckerd Hall, FL
Oct 30: Richmond Altria Theater, VA
Oct 31: Atlantic City Tropicana Casino & Resort, NJ
Nov 01: Bethlehem Wind Creek Bethlehem, PA
Nov 04: Hershey Theatre, PA
Nov 06: Windsor Caesars Windsor – The Colosseum, ON
Nov 07: Kalamazoo Wings Event Center, MI
Nov 08: Waukegan Genesee Theatre, IL
Nov 10: St. Louis Stifel Theatre, MO
Nov 11: Park City Hartman Arena, KS
Nov 14: Indio Fantasy Springs Casino, CA
Nov 15: Prescott Valley Findlay Toyota Center, AZ
Nov 17: San Diego Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre, CA
Nov 18: San Jose San Jose Civic, CA
Nov 20: Wheatland Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock Hotel + Casino, CA
Nov 21: Reno Grand Theatre at Grand Sierra Resort + Casino, NV
Alice Cooper and Criss Angel: Welcome To My Nightmare residency
Nov 27: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Nov 28: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Nov 29: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Dec 03: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Dec 04: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Dec 05: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Dec 06: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Find Alice Cooper and Criss Angel tickets.
(LouderSound)
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