Alice Cooper says age has only improved his live performances

Legendary rock star Alice Cooper was asked if he is “still having fun” touring with his band on a recent episode of the Rock & Roll High School podcast, which is hosted by two-time Grammy Award-winning producer and music executive Pete Ganbarg, as per Blabbermouth.

Oh, yeah. Touring for me is just part of life. I’ve been touring since I was 16 years old. I’m 77 now, and I think I’m doing my best shows now.

Cooper continued by saying that musicians are either lifers, like he is, or they are not.

Same with Jagger, same with McCartney and Ringo and all those guys. We could have all retired 30 years ago financially, but it’s what I love to do, and actually it really keeps me healthy. I get up and do 90 minutes a night 200 times a year. I feel great. If you’re not on drugs, you’re not drinking, you’re not smoking cigarettes, it’s a pretty healthy lifestyle… I mean, Jagger does a half an hour on a treadmill before he does the three-hour show, where he never stops.

My wife says, ‘With all the murder and all of the disease and all of the death on this planet, what kind of world are we gonna leave Keith Richards?’ … But you’ve gotta put Pete Townshend in there, and you’ve gotta put Rod Stewart in there and Elton John, all the guys that just do what they love to do. And especially Bob Dylan— [he does] 200 shows a year. He never stops. Beach Boys were like that too. So I’m just saying there are certain people that were born to be on stage.

The great thing about Pete Townshend is, I tell young bands… They said, ‘What should we do?’ And I tell ’em, ‘Go see Green Day.’ I said, ‘Because Green Day brings it every night.’ I said, ‘And go see Pete Townshend.’ Pete Townshend is 78, 79, maybe he’s 80 years old — I don’t know — and his knuckles are still bleeding because he’s hitting that guitar so hard. And he still has that angst, that Who angst from ‘My Generation’. I said, ‘Maybe that never dies. I hope it doesn’t.’ And if you don’t have the desire to do it, those are the people that just go, ‘Okay, I’m done. I can’t do this anymore.’ I can’t imagine not doing it.