February 5, 1972: Bob Ezrin

SOME THIRTY MONTHS Ago I first experienced Alice Cooper. Alice was new to the rock and roll game then, fresh out of Arizona, a state totally unrenowned for its pop music contributions. Even taking into account Alice's inexperience, the greatest surprise is not that Alice has since gone on to become a first-rate star, but that he survived at all.

We were at the 1969 Rock And Roll Revival in Toronto, one of this continent's last great pop festivals. After all this time, the memories remain fresh: the very frightened chicken, a battered watermelon, and guitarist Neal Smith climbing banks of speakers, supposedly in search of meaning but more apparently trying to disassociate himself from the chaos below.

"We were scared," Neal admits now. "The only way we could go on stage was to get drunk first." Until Yoko Ono made her appearance, Alice was easily the worst performer of the day.

So why is Alice suddenly a star? He didn't make a success of himself without some outside help. By no coincidence, his real success dates back to the day he was taken in hand by Bob Ezrin.

Since that time, Ezrin has earned himself the nickname "Boy Wonder" and become a full partner in Jack Richardson's Nimbus 9 (The Guess Who) organization. But just over a year ago, he was merely another young producer.

New Musical Express Newspaper