32 | Steel Notes Magazine steelnotesmagazine . com | July 2014
The band had decided it was time to change their name , so one night when they got together , Neal Smith dropped acid and consulted the ouija board , followed by Vince , who was instructed by the ouija board that in a former life he was a woman in England who was killed as a witch , by the name of Alice Cooper . The name stuck , and Alice Cooper was born . They enlisted the help of the GTO ’ s with their outfits for their first show under their new name , wearing makeup , costumes , and using a lot of theatrics . Miss Christine & Miss Pamela went to Frank Zappa , showed him a picture of the band , and said “ wait until you see this band ”. Frank was excited at the thought of a male verison of the GTO ’ s and told them to show up at 7 . Getting confused about the time , they showed up at 7am instead of 7pm , barged in , set up the equipment and started playing . Frank was baffled at seeing this band from Phoenix , which was unlike anything he had expected , and asked them if they had a manager , which they did not have . Shep Gordon moved to LA from NY and checked into the Landmark Hotel , where he was dealing drugs among the musicians . He was told by the owner about covering up how he was paying for his room by saying he was a manager . Since he needed to have a band to manage , he mentioned that the Alice Cooper Group was living in the basement . That night they were invited to the Hollywood Landmark Hotel , where they were introduced
32 | Steel Notes Magazine steelnotesmagazine . com | July 2014