Is Alice Cooper a Christian?

Answer: Yes

Disclaimer: It is not our role to determine whether or not somebody is a Christian. We just use our discernment based on the evidence we have found on the internet to come to a likely or best-guess answer. Our answers do not actually determine who is or is not a Christian and it is ultimately between the person and God. Not us.

Alice Cooper whose birth name is Vincent Damon Furnier is an American Rock musician and actor who has been in the rock music game for over five decades. The 73-year-old rock star who is said to be the “godfather” of Shock rock music uses many props and illusions when he stages a show. These materials range from guillotines, fake blood, pyrotechnics, electric chairs, baby dolls, dwelling swords, and reptiles.

Alice Cooper who is married to Sheryl Goddard started his music career in 1964. He is known to merge Hard Rock, Glam Rock Shock Rock, and Heavy Metal genres into his music. He has taken some themes of his shows from vaudeville and horror films.

“Alice Cooper” was originally in a band called the “Earwig” and he was the lead vocalist, Glen Bluxton played the lead guitar and Dennis Dunaway played the bass guitar while also backing them up with his voice.

Cooper has received lots of nominations and awards including the Bravo Magazines Award, Grammy Awards, NME Awards, Motor City Music Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Classic Rock and Roll Honor Awards, and The Rocks Award, among several others.

There have been many reports that Alice Cooper is a devout Christian but people still debate his status as a Christian because of his choice of music, lyrical content, props and costumes as well as his stage performances. In this article, we will analyze his comments and statements in interviews to provide answers about his status as a Christian.

Is Alice Cooper Religious?

People have different opinions and understanding about religion, but in the context of this article, we will define religion according to the Cambridge Dictionary which States that religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or any such system of belief and worship.

This means that a religious person is someone who believes in God and publicly expresses that belief while also keeping the rules and principles of the said religion. Alice Cooper grew up in a Christian home, his father was a preacher while his grandfather, Thurman Sylvester Furnier was an apostle and the president of The Church of Jesus Christ also known as “Bickertonites.”

It is reported that Cooper was very active in his Church when he was 11 and 12 years old but moved away with his family when he had a series of sicknesses. Even though he didn’t dedicate himself to Christ earlier in his career, he has said that he studied his Bible every day. He begins and ends his day with prayers. He goes to church unfailingly every Sunday.

During an interview with Times Newspaper, he said that studying the Bible “puts him in a positive frame of mind”. ”I’m up before the sun; 5 am is my time. Straight out of bed, make a cup of coffee, grab my Bible, then spend the next hour reading and praying,”  he stated. “I read a couple of chapters a day. This is my 12^th reading. It puts me in a positive frame of mind.”

In his interview with Greg Laurie, a Pastor, and an Evangelist, he said that religion has always been a part of his life but that he didn’t dedicate his life to Christ until after he quit drugs and alcohol in the ‘80s because his wife persuaded him to quit.

Does Alice Cooper Believe in God?

From the statements the rock star has made, it is clear that Alice Cooper believes in God. 

In a 2007 interview on BBC Radio 2 with Johnnie Walker, he said that he wasn’t a Christian and didn’t believe in God but is grateful to God for “taking it away”. “I mean if He [God] can part the Red Sea and create the universe, He can certainly take alcoholism away from somebody.”

He also stated that while lots of alcoholics are only able to quit alcoholism with the help of support groups, he was able to win the fight over alcoholism with the faith he had in God. 

He said “I never went to AA, everyone said, ‘Oh you have such great willpower,’ I said, ‘No, God has great willpower. He took it from me.’ My dad was a pastor, my granddad was a pastor, and Sheryl’s (his wife’s) dad was a pastor. I had such a strong prayer for myself. Even the doctor said, ‘This is an absolute miracle.’ I said, ‘Why?’ They said, ‘Well, you should be hiding bottles all over the house and you should be sneaking drugs.’ I said, ‘I have no desire for that at all.’”

Even though he didn’t express his belief in God from the beginning, he’s now very expressive about his belief in God.

Is Alice Cooper a Christian?

From Cooper’s interviews, it can be deduced that Alice Cooper is a Christian because he has recently been very expressive about his faith.

In an interview with New York Daily News, Cooper said, “My wife and I are both Christian. My father was a pastor, my grandfather was an evangelist. I grew up in the church, went as far away as I could from it — almost died — and then came back to the church.”

When he was asked about the relationship between his type of music and his religion, he said: “There’s nothing in Christianity that says I can’t be a rockstar,”. “People have a very warped view of Christianity. They think it’s all very precise and we never do wrong and we’re praying all day and we’re right-wing. It has nothing to do with that.”

Some years ago when he went to a Church in Cleveland, he told the Pastor, Alistair Begg that: “Christianity got hold of my life and turned me upside down, which was really to turn me the right way up”. He continued “Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that’s a tough call. That’s the real rebellion.”

When he had an interview with CBS News in December, 2014, he said that: God’s chipping away at your life all the time to try to make you more like Him, that’s what a Christian is, a person that’s been molded and shaped all their life. I think the Lord expects you to do your best in His name. I had to struggle for a long time with rock and roll. I realized it’s not really the music. It’s what’s being said with the music. So I think you have to be careful of what you’re writing, what you’re representing.”

Cooper sees his faith as an ongoing process. He said “Being a Christian is something you just progress in. You learn. You go to your Bible studies, you pray.”

In an interview in 2006, he said, “Christianity is a one-on-one relationship with Jesus if you’re a disciple of Jesus. It doesn’t say anywhere in there that I can’t be a performer. It doesn’t say anything in there that I can’t be an artist. I don’t do Christian rock, but I’m a Christian that does rock,” he added.

Many have said that Alice Cooper is a devout Christian but some are still saying that he is not, calling him the “devil” because of his stage performances. 

Is Alice Cooper Baptized?

In 1996, Cooper said in an interview with NBC News, “I grew up in a Christian household, My dad was a pastor and he was an evangelist for 25 years. I used to go up and do missionary work with him with the Apaches in Arizona. My grandfather was a pastor for 75 years… My wife’s father is a Baptist pastor, so I always refer to myself as the real prodigal son because I went out and the Lord allowed me to do everything and then just started reeling me back in.”

After he rededicated himself to Christ, he got baptized into the Christian fold.

What does Alice Cooper say About Jesus?

When he finally stopped drugs, he called his wife who had left him, and told her: ‘It’s done.’ And she goes, ‘Right. You have to prove it.’ One of the deals was we start going to church. I knew who Jesus Christ was, and I was denying him. I knew that there had to either come a point where I either accepted Christ and started living that life, or if I died in this, I was in a lot of trouble. And that motivated me. I just got to a point of saying, ‘I’m tired of this life.’ And I know that this is right when the Lord opens your eyes and you suddenly realize who you are and who He is.”

In another interview with Greg Laurie, he was asked if he had shame in admitting that he is a believer of Jesus Christ, he answered “No”. He continued, “People talk about Alice being a rebel, there was never more of a rebel than Jesus Christ,” he stated. “You wanna talk about a rebel, he was the ultimate.”

Some time ago he said, “In the back of my brain, there are times when I get really mad when I read the Passion Play on how Jesus was treated, and it angers you…” 

When he was further asked how he reacted to the world belonging to Satan,  he replied, “If you don’t have Christ in your life, then you’re a victim to it. So I think what we have to be very careful about is how we react to the world. If we have Christ in our life now, we have to react humbly. React in a teaching way and at the same time be humble about it.”

Conclusion

Although Rock star, Alice Cooper didn’t give his life to Christ in the early stage of his career, since he later rededicated himself to Christ, he has brought up his faith in God and his Christianity status in every interview he has had. But then people continually debate about his status as a born-again Christian because of his Shock Rock music career. Based on his comments and statements we think he is a Christian. However, we are not in a position to decide because matters of faith are strictly between the person involved and God.

Think we were wrong? Write your reasoning in the comments and prove us wrong!