Brooke Elizabeth Art/Soniclivemedia
Alice Cooper performing at DTE Energy Music Theatre, 2019.
Who would have thought that a guy with a song called “Dead Babies” would find himself topping Billboard's Top Album Sales chart in 2021? Yet here we are — and we couldn't be more proud.
Detroit native and the "Godfather of Shock Rock" Alice Cooper has, at 73 years old, proven that he and his many studded belts still got it by landing a major accomplishment with his 28th studio record, Detroit Stories. According to Billboard, the recent Metro Times cover ghoul's record debuted at the top spot on the Top Album Sales chart, a first for Cooper considering this particular chart's 29-year history. Cooper is trailed by Willie Nelson and Julien Baker in the second and third spots, respectively.
Detroit Stories, a blood-soaked love letter to the city that spawned the leather-clad, guillotine-obsessed, Christ-loving rocker, has so far sold 13,000 copies, including 9,500 CDs, followed by 2,000 vinyl LPs and 1,500 digital albums.
In other words, compact disc-lovin' dads are loving Cooper's ode to the Motor City, which finds the “School's Out” rocker teaming up with a cast of Detroit players like the MC5's Wayne Kramer, Grand Funk Railroad's Mark Farner, Johnny “Bee” Badanjek and Steve Hunter of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, guitarist Garret Bielaniec, and jazz/funk bassist Paul Randolph.
Time is up, Minions. “Detroit Stories” has been unleashed on the world.
— Alice Cooper (@alicecooper) February 26, 2021
Grab your copy at https://t.co/bV1bjfq2fY#AliceCooper #DetroitStories #RocknRoll #Rock #NewMusic #NewMusicFriday pic.twitter.com/COeMcNHKuF
“There was a time when Detroit was the murder capital. There was a time when Detroit was the drug capital. And everybody keeps forgetting Motown and hard rock came out of Detroit,” Cooper told Metro Times. “The only reason that we moved back there in the early '70s was because we didn't fit in in L.A., we didn't fit in in San Francisco, we didn't fit in New York. The only place that made sense to us was Detroit.”
As for the other Billboard charts, Detroit Stories is sitting at No. 47 on the all-genre 200 chart, which is the 27th time the Coops (can we call him that?) has landed on the chart, including his debut, 1969's Pretties for You which was panned by legendary rock critic Lester Bangs as being a “tragic waste of plastic.”
Congrats, Coops! (Sorry, not sorry)
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