Mar. 5, 2016

ALICE COOPER MANAGER SHEP GORDON GIVES THUMBS UP TO HBO’S ‘VINYL’

SOURCE: Billboard.com

Gordon’s Alive Enterprises even loaned the producers Cooper’s guillotine for a scene on the show.

HBO’s Vinyl, the new series helmed by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, has received mixed reviews from music execs for its depiction of the early ’70s record business. Manager Shep Gordon, however, is a fan of the show and was pleased by its recent depiction Alice Cooper, his long-time client, in Episode 3 of the series. Gordon’s Alive Enterprises even loaned the producers Cooper’s guillotine for a scene on the show.

In the episode titled “Whispered Secrets,” Cooper’s character — played by Dustin Ingram — is courted by young American Century A&R weasel Clark Morelle (Jack Quaid), who tries to convince the frontman to leave the band that bears his name for a solo career. It’s a scene that Gordon says never happened, although Cooper did eventually split from the band, following the success of the 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies.

“If you got a million miles away to Mars, then it was accurate,” Gordon quips. “But in that moment, it wasn’t. I think the story has been told over and over again. It didn’t come out of an A&R guy’s thing. It really came out of each of the guys having the desire to do their own things.” Coincidentally, Gordon adds, Cooper and original band members guitarist Michael Bruce and drummer Neal Smith are writing together in Phoenix this week.

While Vinyl didn’t stick to the facts about Cooper’s real-life story, Gordon acknowledges that it is based in some fact. “I saw A&R guys pitching lead singers every day of the week at the Roxy or the Whisky,” he says. “As soon as a band got successful, these guys would come like locusts, telling everybody anything they wanted to hear, and I’m sure that’s the stuff they were saying behind closed doors.”

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