Yet I was Marilyn Manson - times 10.

We started combining the use of light and the use of theatrics and the use of as many art forms as possible, and it`s still growing - that`s the whole idea of it.

If you confine it, you`re confining a whole thing. If you make it spontaneous, so that anything can happen, like we don`t want to confine or restrict anything. What we can do, whatever we can let happen, you just let it happen.

We can only take it so far, because man can only take it so far, lower self can only take it so far, and you have to realize that the public is only at a certain place.

We don`t mind that, that`s making them accept more, making fun that we accept that. The thing is this is the way we are. We think it`s a gas.

It`s a big flash of all these things and whatever you take out of that statement`s one statement, one mind, one statement, one act, one show, and all the songs are one.

I think he was trying to produce more of a... sort of a cheaper image.

Drinking bear is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that`s a tough call. That`s rebellion.

We got on his label, and the Bizarre organization is just going up and up. So we have faith.

If it`s total freedom, I guess the ultimate thing you can go into is total silence between the audience and performer, with the performer projecting something he doesn`t even have to play.

We wanted it more live and raw. We didn`t want a studio sound.

Well, we were all in high school and we got together, and in college - we were in art college together.

They coincide with each other but they don`t at the same time. So what it is, is when people come to see us the first time, they see this.

City people live the city. We live in L.A., New York, we live in places where it`s chaotic and you never know what`s gonna happen. And that`s the music - you never know what`s gonna happen.

People that haven`t seen us yet are shocked because they think that Alice Cooper must be a female folksinger. They don`t expect the whole thing.

You can`t get the visual thing on the record as much as you`d like to. We produced this album, and we`d never done that before, except when we produced singles for ourselves.

When we get together and rehearse, which is always living with each other, we always talk about what would make it better, what would mean more, what would say more. So we`re always improving and growing.

That was very close to getting killed. Usually at pop festivals we have people jumping on stage.

You just let your lower self go, and then it takes on all these aspects of the society - the city with horns blowing, the people yelling things at each other, and the all-in-all violence and chaos of the city. Put that on stage with music, and that`s what this is.

He started to, but we said we weren`t happy with the feelings we got off the cut... the album now is more us than the other production that Frank did.

They`re reacting and that`s wonderful. It`s better than them sitting there doing nothing. I say make them react - do whatever`s in your power to move the audience, and if that`s where it is, and there where it is with America, sex and violence, then I say project it.

That`s like making fun of a maniac because his brain isn`t completely right, because he isn`t in the norm.

We identified with Frank. We were of course influenced - when everybody hears Zappa, they`re influenced by him, just like The Beatles.

So what this is is us, our personalities refined down on to a stage performance. In other words, the way we play is the end product of the way we live - we live in the cities, you see.

The hippies wanted peace and love. We wanted Ferraris, blondes and switchblades.

We like reactions - a reaction is walking out on us, a reaction is throwing tomatoes at the stage, that`s a healthy psychological reaction.

All I really wanted to do was make an album that was going to be just back to what I like to do... And it was a coincidence that these new bands, this new wave of bands, were doing Alice and Iggy rock.

We just set it up and recorded it the way we played it. But that was the way we played it then.

We play it differently now. If we did the album now it would be different.

It`s Frank`s painting on the cover. We were originally going to use a Salvador Dali painting that we got permission from Salvador Dali to use, and Frank found this one, and it really did fit the music much more.

I appreciate an audience that reacts to the music, even if they jump on stage and try to beat us up, I think that`s a fantastic reaction. I think that they`re really hearing something then.

If you`re listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you`re a bigger moron than they are.

We try to be as much involved in our product as possible, because then it`s us.

From the moment I leave my house or my hotel room, the public owns me. The public made Alice Cooper and I can`t imagine ever turning my back on my fans.

I`m 18 and I like it!

It`s like this - these five members have been influenced of course by other groups, because that`s where this generation`s groups came from - an environment like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and The Who. People like that.

That`s where their heart is from the sex and violence of TV and the movies, and that was our influence. We weren`t brought up under a blues influence.

They pick all of us out, and then they decide, they computerize, decide if they like it or don`t like it, and then they go home, and then they come back again because they`re not sure what they saw.

He (Marilyn Manson) has a woman`s name and wears makeup. How original.

It`s not an anti-sex trip. Like, we`re taking sex, which is probably another half of American entertainment, sex and violence, and we`re projecting it, and we`re saying this is the way everything is right now.

[About Marilyn Manson] He took a girl`s name as his first and wears a hell of a lot of makeup. I wish I`d thought of doing that.

On Frank Zappa: "Throughout my life, there are four people I`ve met who were truly original people. The other three were Groucho Marx, Jim Morrison, and Pablo Picasso."

"On stage, I`m this figure, this actor, who does things that people aren`t used to seeing and I relish in that reaction. In real life, though, I play golf, I shop and I walk around with no makeup on and my hair in a ponytail. I may not be the typical middle-aged Joe, but I`m closer to normal than you think."

"The late sixties and early seventies were kind of a breeding ground for exciting new sounds because easy listening and folk were kind of taking over the airwaves. I think it was a natural next step to take that blissful, easy-going sound and strangle the life out of it."

We`d found out that another band was called the Nazz. And I said, "We don`t have anything to lose, let`s do something that no one`s going to relate to at all." I could have said "Jennifer Smith" or "Mary Truesdale", but it just happened that "Alice Cooper" came out. It was the very first name that came out too. There was something axe-murderish about "Alice Cooper". It reminded me of Lizzie Borden (Lizzie Andrew Borden). Alice Cooper - Lizzie Borden. That`s got a What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) feeling to it. It was like feminine, but it wasn`t feminine. It had some sort of ring to it, something disturbing.

I didn`t go to my senior prom, but I played it.

"To me that`s treason. I call it treason against rock n` roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics." - criticizing the rock artists involved in the anti-Bush "Vote For Change" tour.

[Regarding rock artists involved in the 2004 "Vote For Change" tour] "When I was a kid and my parents started talking about politics, I`d run to my room and put on the Rolling Stones as loud as I could. So when I see all these rock stars up there talking politics, it makes me sick. If you`re listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you`re a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we`re morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."

"The hippies wanted peace and love. We [the original Alice Cooper band] wanted Ferraris, blondes and switchblades."

I have never made fun of religion. Religion is something I don`t even want to mess with, because I am really afraid of the clouds opening up and my being struck by lightning. Satanism is something else I don`t mess with. I think that the heavy metal bands that do are playing with fire. I have never influenced people in a negative way, and I`m not about to start now.