On this day in 1983, famous shock rocker Alice Cooper successfully completed a stint in rehab. Struggling with drug and alcohol addiction for some time, Cooper went sober, became a Christian, and decided to help others beat substance abuse as well. And it’s a story that has historically gone in a much darker direction for similar rock stars.
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Alice Cooper’s journey to sobriety didn’t start in 1983, though. In fact, during Cooper’s 1977 US tour in promotion of albums Alice Cooper Goes To Hell and Lace And Whiskey, it was clear that Cooper was in a bad way. It was rumored that he was allegedly consuming nearly two entire cases of beer and a bottle of whiskey daily. After that particular tour wrapped, Cooper famously checked himself into a sanitarium to be treated. While he was in treatment, his live album The Alice Cooper Show dropped. Sadly, because of his struggle with alcohol and a number of factors related to the tour, the live album received less than stellar reviews.
Cooper sobered up after that stint in the sanitarium. He used the experience to write From The Inside, his famous collaboration with Elton John songwriter Bernie Taupin. However, not all was well. Cooper continued to struggle with addiction until 1983.
Alice Cooper Beat Addiction Against All Odds and Worked To Help Others Do the Same
Around mid-1983, after completing the album DaDa, Alice Cooper was hospitalized for alcohol-related issues again, this time for cirrhosis of his liver. While hospitalized, Cooper claimed that his faith as a Christian contributed to his “miraculous” recovery. After completing his stint in rehab, Alice Cooper beat the odds and maintained his sobriety to this very day. According to Cooper, his wife, Sheryl Goddard, had actually filed for divorce due to his alcoholism. However, the pair reconciled in 1984 when it became clear that Cooper had cleaned up his act.
In the years since beating the odds and becoming sober, Alice Cooper has worked to help others in similar, dark situations. He even worked with several members of Megadeth who were struggling with alcoholism, and he was later recognized in 2008 for his work in helping fellow addicts by being given the Stevie Ray Vaughan Award from MusiCares.
“I’ve made myself very available to friends of mine,” Cooper said in 2008. “They’re people who would call me late at night and say, ‘Between you and me, I’ve got a problem.’”
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