Alice Cooper says young bands too scared to rock

Not rock'n'roll: Alice Cooper

Alice Cooper says young bands are too scared to truly rock – and they seem dull when compared to pop queen Lady Gaga.

The shock-rock pioneer has called her “the female Alice Cooper” in the past and covered her track Born This Way earlier this year.

Now he adds that emerging rock acts should take a leaf from her book – and insists songs with political messages shouldn’t be regarded as rock’n'roll music.

Cooper tells Times Live: “The girls seem to be the only ones doing theatrics. The guys have taken a back seat when it comes to that. Lady Gaga and the other just seem to be more creative when it comes to stage shows.

“The guys have become boring, really. It just seems like young rock bands are afraid to be young rock bands. There’s a lot of thrust missing from rock’n'roll – I don’t know why.

“Everyone’s trying to be sensitive. In the seventies that last thing on our minds was ‘sensitive’.”

Cooper, 64, is critical of the current trend in stage dress, as well as songwriting inspiration.

He says: “Ninety percent of rock bands were corduroy on stage, with little beards, and they look like they’re lumberjacks. They sing about how much they hate oil. That’s not rock’n'roll.

“They should be singing about boys and girls – that’s what it’s always been about. If they are singing about girls it’s always, ‘I’m so sorry I was bad.’ Quit being sorry!”

Cooper recently said that, despite penning iconic track School’s Out, he enjoyed every minute of his education and would have stayed on if he’d been allowed.