Just that classic octopus-arm drumming on “Billion Dollar Babies” should cement Neal Smith in rock and roll drumming infamy. Sitting behind the kit and co-writing songs in the original Alice Cooper Band is only part of the story.
Since the 70s, Smith has also worked with the Plasmatics, Buck Dharma of Blue Öyster Cult and Bouchard. More recently, he’s spent time on his own projects with KillSmith. When you add being a successful licensed real estate agent to his resume, it’s easy to see that Smith is quite the accomplished guy.
Fortunately, with his busy schedule, Smith was able to take some time and talk about his new rock opera KillSmith & The Greenfire Empire, Alice Cooper (then and now), selling houses and so much more.
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Before we get into the new record, I wanted to ask about the rock and realtor aspect of your duo persona. How does one go from drumming for Alice Cooper to selling real estate in Connecticut?
Well, I don’t sell real estate full time — it’s more or less something I got into in the mid 80s having gone through a divorce, not playing so much at that time and thinking, ‘Hey, what else can I get into?’ Way back when we started making money in Alice Cooper I decided I was going to save half of what I made and have fun with the other half. We were all pretty smart that way in wanting to invest, and we actually had some good accountants who were looking out for our money. So they got us into some property, an apartment building in Minnesota, some property in Arizona where we’re all from. And it just grew from there. I have always had an interest in it. So that time in the 80s, I figured I’d go get my license and a woman I was dating at the time had a mother in the business so I set up my shingle with her and then I sold one house, then another. It grew from there.
Do you get “Hey we’re fans of Alice!” from people you show houses to?
Sometimes. I tell you what I do get a lot of: People looking for houses and not only telling me they know me from Alice but also that they have kids who are into our music as well and know me.
That is pretty cool.
Actually there has been an upsurge in Alice Cooper interest ever since we were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.
I also saw that Super Duper Alice CooperI see here and there premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and I know that an SACD of Billion Dollar Babies was recently released. That’s a lot of current interest. So, where are you with those guys now? Are you all on good terms these days?
Yes, Alice and I especially get together a few times a year; in fact, I’ll go see him in a few weeks when he plays up here. I fly out to see him a lot as well…he’s still pretty much kicking my ass in golf.
So many bands don’t have that. They break up for whatever reason and the band members scatter or purposely don’t want to speak to one another again for a multitude of reasons.
Yes, I know, but with us we just never let that happen. When we took a break in 1975 as far as we all knew we were going to get back together, we thought it was just a temporary break. But for a bunch of reasons we didn’t get back together and when it seemed that the band wasn’t going to continue, we were certainly presented with that classic scenario where everybody gets together and sues everybody, But we just decided right then and there not to go that route, that’s not the kind of guys we are, it’s not in our background to be that way. So we choose to stay friends, handle our business that way, and that’s why to this day, we all get along.
Let’s talk about KillSmith & The Greenfire Empire. It’s a concept album, I know, but I have to tell you lots of those songs just work on their own, as basic good rock tunes, if that makes any sense.
Well, I am glad you said that, thanks. I do believe that, yes, this is a collection of songs that work as whole, tell the story, as well they are songs you can just listen to on their own merit.
Which is what a good concept album should deliver, right?
Yes, I think so. Beyond this CD, I will also be releasing a CD with a booklet to expand on the concept even more. I am very excited about that and that should be out soon. For fans who want to immerse themselves further in the whole story.
Did you sit down to write the whole story specifically, blueprint it so to speak, or did these songs just come out one at a time and the story flowed organically?
I write songs all the time, there were a bunch here that I wrote around the time of the last album but they just didn’t seem to fit with what KillSmith was doing at that time. But when I looked back at these I thought there might be a cohesive piece I could work around, to get them together in a way. So that’s how it happened.
I really like the variety here as well. A bluesy almost Dr. John feel to “Good Morning Blue Soul,” the big metal “Palacio de Esmeraldas,” which is right deep there in the concept. Then a tune like the piano ballad “Noelle No Wonder” and the fun of “Pandemonium,” with its backing vocal bed and sirens, all that stuff. It’s just great, there’s so much different stuff going on.
Thanks, I’m glad you are picking up on the variety. That’s really important to me that you can listen to the CD straight through and find so much different stuff. “Pandemonium,” that backing vocal is taken from something we did before and fixed up to get in there, I think it works real well. I’m especially thrilled to have had the great Hubert Martin sing on “Good Morning.” He is in a local band in the area, a funk Latin fusion band really, and I asked him to sing on it and he is just great.
And you’re playing drums, singing, playing guitar and piano, along with the full band of KillSmith, right?
Yes, guilty as charged.
Will you be touring the record?
These days, touring is certainly something you want to have on the table but it’s not so easy to make happen for a multitude of reasons. But we will certainly be going out to play these tracks as much as we can, but no there is no official tour planned just yet.
Well thanks Neal for taking the time to talk with me today. Everybody here is surely great fans of yours, and I think the new CD is just great.
Thank you.
