Background

From drinking club to Supergroup

Where does the name come from?

The name "Hollywood Vampires" is taken from a celebrity drinking club that Alice Cooper started in the 1970s. The club included people like John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. 

Alice recalls:

"Because they only saw us at night and all we did was drink. I remember it, but the lines are a little blurred. Our lines would all get blurred quite a lot. It just seemed to be the place where everybody ended up."

The name of the drinking club was then adopted by the band decades later. In the beginning, it was all about honoring their drinking friends who has passed away in the seventies, so Alice toyed with the idea of starting a cover band that played exclusively in bars. This quickly turned into more...

To the roots

How did the four greats actually get together and decide to form a band? The project was born when Alice and Johnny met on the set of the movie "Dark Shadows" in 2012.

Joe recalls:

"They were hanging out and Johnny started playing guitar and Alice looked at him and said 'Holy shit, this guy's got chops!''

Alice says about this encounter and genesis of the band (The following quote is compiled from several interviews):

"On the film set of Dark Shadows, I played a supporting role in 2012. At the same time, I gave a few club concerts. I always knew that Johnny was a great guitarist before he became an actor. I invited him to perform with us and asked him, 'Wouldn't it be great fun to start a band that honors our dead friends?' Johnny grew up listening to the music of people like me, David Bowie and Kiss, he kind of studied our generation, so it was very easy for him to join us. He said 'Sure, let's do that.' Then Joe Perry from Aerosmith came along, and all of a sudden we had a band. We were going to be the most expensive bar band in the world."

However, Joe didn't join until later...

"Well, I kind of came in near the end of this project in a real sense and also in a kind of esoteric sense. I come from Boston, so whenever Aerosmith wasn't on the road bumping into some of these guys, we'd be back home and there just wasn't that kind of a scene going. There was a rock scene, but we were always kind of outsiders, even in Boston."

Tommy Henriksen first worked in the background as a producer of the songs, but by the band's first live performance on September 16-17, 2015, all four vampires were united. 

(Neala R. - Jul. 2023)

Unleashed Spirits - The Rise of the Hollywood Vampires

Banner photo: Kyler Clark