Related Releases 2
This section covers releases made by those associated with solo Alice Cooper.
Kane Roberts
Alice Cooper Touring Band (1986 to 1989 and 2022 to 2023)
Kane Roberts has featured as a guitarist in Alice's touring band, most notably in the mid to late 1980's (when he was famous for having more than a passing resemblance to John Rambo and sporting a flame-throwing guitar!). He briefly returned in 2022 (whilst Nita Strauss pursued other career opportunities), which resulted in him featuring on Alice's Road album.
Kane also co-wrote and played on almost all the material on the metal-heavy Constrictor and Raise Your Fist And Yell Alice solo albums, plus the supporting world tours. Additionally, he also made a guest appearance on the Trash album (Bed Of Nails).
Outside of his career with Alice, he has released four solo albums. The most notable is 1991's Saints And Sinners, which was produced by Desmond Child (who also produced the highly successful Trash album). His influence is clear and fans of Trash and Bon Jovi (who Child also produced for) will instantly like tracks like Twisted, You Always Want It and Too Far Gone.
Alice fans should also check out Kane's solo tracks Full Pull (1986) and Beginning Of The End (2019), which he provided lyrics for and made a guest appearance on respectively.
Kane Roberts, Saints And Sinners CD Album
1991, David Geffen Company, DGCD-24320
Discogs Link: Click Here
Ryan Roxie
Alice Cooper Touring Band (1996 to 2001 and 2012 to the Present)
Ryan Roxie is one of the current guitarists in Alice's touring band, having previously been a member in the late 90's / early 00's. He has also played for a number of bands including Electric Angels and Slash's Snakepit.
Ryan is also an accomplished singer songwriter and formed his own band, Roxie 77, in between his spells with Alice (to date, there has been an album and an EP released). In 2018 Ryan released his first solo album, Imagine Your Reality, which is an excellent collection of hard rock songs (my personal favourites being To Live And Die In L.A. and Me Generation.
Ryan filled in for Glen Buxton during the legendary Live From The Astroturf reunion of the Alice Cooper Group at Good Records, Dallas in 2015.
Humanary Stew, A Tribute To Alice Cooper CD Album
1999, Eagle Records, EAGCD062
Humanary Stew is an 11-track Alice Cooper tribute album featuring songs between the Love It To Death and Goes To Hell eras. A high profile cast appears on the songs including Joe Elliott, Dave Mustaine, Ronnie James Dio, Slash, Bruce Dickinson and Dee Snider, who all provide their personal twists to the songs. What results is an interesting, but unessential, release (as they were never going to top the original versions of these tracks).
This album has been re-released a few times under different names (i.e. Welcome To The Nightmare - A Tribute To Alice Cooper) with up-to three bonus tracks (Under My Wheels, Bed Of Nails and Roses On White Lace).
Discogs Link: Click Here
Chuck Garrick
Alice Cooper Touring Band (2003 to the Present)
Chuck Garrick is the charismatic current bassist for Alice's touring band. Prior to this, he played for a number of bands including L.A. Guns and Dio.
In 2013 Chuck formed the band Beasto Blanco. Unlike his appearances with Alice and the rest of the band, he is the star of the show here, providing lead vocals whilst also playing guitar. He also makes good use of his Alice Cooper connections, with fellow band member Tommy Henriksen producing the music and Alice's eldest daughter (Calico Cooper) and drummer (Glen Sobel) guesting on some tracks.
The result is a hard rocking sound with tracks that, quite literally, kick your ass! To date, the band have released four albums (three studio and one live) and have performed live dates at numerous intimate venues. Stand out tracks from the first album (Live Fast Die Loud) include Beasto Blanco and Blood Shot, whereas Buried Angels and I See You In It are notable rockers from the second (Beasto Blanco) and third (We Are) studio albums respectively.
The self-titled second album is also notable as it includes a cool high-octane cover of Alice's hit single Feed My Frankenstein.
Signed Photo
Beasto Blanco, Live Fast Die Loud CD Album
2013, Rat Pak Records, 638647 802925
Discogs Link: Click Here
Tommy Henriksen
Alice Cooper Touring Band (2011 to the Present)
Tommy Henriksen is one of the current guitarists in both Alice's touring band and the Hollywood Vampires. He is also a highly respected producer, mixer and singer songwriter and has worked for some of the industries major artists (including Ke$ha, Lady Gaga and Meat Loaf).
Tommy has released several solo albums since 1999, but it was Tommy, Tommy, Tommy (which came out in 2014) that really cemented him as a respected recording artist in his own right. Standout tracks from that album include Teenage Kicks Part 2, Give'm Hell, All My Heroes (which includes an Alice reference) and Mr Finn (which is dedicated to his son). Tommy, Tommy, Tommy was released under the Bellyache Records label and was made available on CD and black vinyl, the latter of which was limited to just 300 copies. All pre-orders from the label came with a set of button badges.
2017 saw the release of another accomplished solo album, Starstruck. This very much follows on in style from Tommy, Tommy, Tommy and includes the excellent tracks Punk City, Those Kids Are Alright and Famous. Starstruck was also released by Bellyache Records, who offered it on CD (limited to 250 copies), three vinyl variants (black, green and white, all limited to just 100 copies) and cassette (limited to just 50 copies). All pre-ordered copies were personally signed by Tommy and came with a set of guitar picks.
Starstruck Variants
Tommy Henriksen, Tommy Henriksen CD Album
1999, Capitol Records, 724349 486324
Discogs Link: Click Here
Tommy Henriksen, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy 12" Vinyl Album
2015, Bellyache Records, BR-055
Discogs Link: Click Here
Tommy Henriksen, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy CD Album
2014, Blue Martin Records, BLM 330518-2
Discogs Link: Click Here
Tommy Henriksen, Starstruck 12" Vinyl Album
2017, Bellyache Records, BR-063
Discogs Link: Click Here
Nita Strauss
Alice Cooper Touring Band (2014 to the Present)
Nita Strauss is one of the current guitarists in Alice's touring band, replacing Orianthi Panagaris in 2014. Prior to this, Nita was best known as a member of the Iron Maiden all-female tribute group The Iron Maidens.
Although comparisons between Nita and Orianthi (the only other female musician to appear with Alice) were inevitable, they are notably different with Nita being more visibly energetic and engaging with audiences. For this reason, she has become very popular with the Alice camp and fans.
For her first solo album in 2018 Nita reached out for funding via the increasingly popular Kickstarter platform. This proved to be a resounding success with her target of $20,000 smashed eight times over, with backers signing up for a host of cool incentives including signed CD and vinyl copies of the album, pizza with Nita and even a gust guitar solo for backer's own albums! Upon release, vinyl fans were also treated to a number of different exclusive variants from different sources (see images below).
Controlled Chaos is an excellent instrumental album featuring 11 mainly heavy tracks (my favourite of which is Alegria). In amongst the chaos, there are also some slower paced songs including the excellent Here With You and a cover of Queen's The Show Must Go On.
After the success of Controlled Chaos, Nita released her second album, The Call Of The Void in 2023. This time round she had a series of guests perform vocal parts (only five of the fourteen tracks are instrumental). These included Chris Motionless (Motionless In White), Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) and, most importantly, Alice Cooper, who can be heard on Winner Takes All.
This is another really good album, with notable highlights being Through The Noise, Victorious and, of course, Winner Takes All. Nita, however, is a massive individual talent in her own right and the best tracks are, in my humble opinion, undoubtedly the epic instrumentals Summer Storm, Scorched and Kintsugi.
The Call Of The Void is definitely worth getting. As before, fans were able to choose from a number of cool vinyl variants (see images below).
Nita Strauss, The Call Of The Void 12" Vinyl Album
2023, Sumerian Records, SUM2217
Discogs Link: Click Here
Nita Strauss, The Call Of The Void CD Album
2023, Sumerian Records, SUM2263
Discogs Link: Click Here
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