Align interview: Pat Boone



Pat Boone’s plan to be a teacher/preacher got interrupted by a career still going strong 70 years later.

The pop icon's early success gave way to decades atop the show business ladder. Hit songs. Blockbuster movies. Best-selling books. Music spanning gospel, country, pop, rock, and more.

'God lets us reap the consequences of our actions and our betrayal of him ... the worse we get, the harder times we get, and then a revival breaks out.'

Remember “In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy," his disc of heavy metal covers? Boone teamed with Alice Cooper to present the award for "Hard Rock/Heavy Metal" at the 1997 American Music Awards.

He looks back with a chuckle, content to have provided for his wife and young child at the dawn of a remarkable career.

At 90, retirement isn’t on the agenda. There’s still too much to create, and pop culture could use Boone’s God-fearing art.

Still.

His early success struck him as a curiosity, nothing more.

“It was something I would tell my kids and grandkids about,” Boone tells Align about signing with a “Tennessee start-up” label called Dot Records in the mid 1950s.

That initial pairing yielded “Two Hearts.” Boone never looked back.

“Well, it was fun to do, and it became a million-seller,” he says of the song, adding he followed it up with a cover of Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame.” “All of a sudden I was a teen idol. ... It wasn’t a goal, but it was happening to me.”

Fame, fortune, and endless opportunities followed, but Boone wouldn’t take any ol’ project that crossed his path. Then or now.

“I just kept on doing what I could honorably do,” he says, adding he would go through a song’s lyrics with a “fine-toothed comb” to make sure it matched his godly values. He even turned down a project co-starring Marilyn Monroe.

Along the way, he realized he didn’t have a traditional congregation like he once imagined for himself. He’d use his pop culture perch instead. He could reach the masses on his own terms.

White artists from the 1950s have been criticized for appropriating R&B, sometimes known then as “race music,” for their own benefit. Race relations were fraught at the time, and the music industry often placated white audiences for its content.

Boone sees it differently. Consider his take on “Ain’t That a Shame.” He says it outsold Domino’s version, but since the singer owned the rights to the song, he benefited from both versions.

The cover version steered bigger royalty checks his way, Boone says.

The ageless crooner is proud to share another anecdote tied to improving race relations. He recalls receiving praise from the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He once appeared on a Rainbow Coalition Chicago radio program to promote an album of R&B covers he sang with the original musicians.

That impressed the civil rights leader, apparently.

“I think Pat Boone did more for race relations in his early career than any other artist,” Jackson said, according to Boone. “Not only singing the songs and bringing them on his television show but treating [black musicians] as peers and equals.”

Boone, who appeared in hits like “Journey to the Center of the Earth” (1959) and “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (1965), keeps busy on the big screen to this day. He snagged a small role in the recent “Reagan” biopic and plays an older Thomas Jefferson in “The American Miracle” co-starring Kevin Sorbo, slated for a 2025 release.

He hasn’t stopped singing either. Not only did Boone croon a bit during the Align conversation, his 2023 release “Country Jubilee” features five of Pat Boone's Top 100 Country recordings. That includes the duet "You and I," featuring Crystal Gayle.

The entertainer is keenly aware of the state of the America, cautiously optimistic despite cultural trends.

“God lets us reap the consequences of our actions and our betrayal of him. ... The worse we get, the harder times we get, and then a revival breaks out,” he says. Boone’s America went from singing a patriotic song before the school day started to being taught “warped history” in public schools.

“Now, you can’t say anything about Jesus or patriotism,” he notes.

He also finds hope in the “miracle” of President Donald Trump surviving the July 13 assassination attempt and coming back stronger than ever.

Trump, like President Ronald Reagan before him, survived a bullet and proceeded to do “what God wanted him to do.”

“We’re going to hear more of [Trump’s] confession of faith and how God spared him. Americans will resonate with that,” he says.

Leftist Activists Used To Be About Fighting ‘The Man.’ Now They Are ‘The Man’

It’s only natural that the anti-establishment rockers have adapted to now rail against the new pro-transgender establishment.

Alice Cooper Canceled By Cosmetic Line For Stating Mainstream Views On Transgenderism

A popular rockstar just got canceled for sharing the same views as a majority of Americans.

Alice Cooper shreds efforts by gender ideologues to confuse kids about their sexuality, riffs on insanity of woke culture: 'What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?'



Shock rocker Alice Cooper — born Vincent Damon Furnier — noted last year that the first thing he does in the morning is "make a cup of coffee, grab [his] Bible, then spend the next hour reading and praying."

It appears that in addition to being attuned to the highest reality, Cooper, whose new album "Road" debuts Friday, is also cognizant of biological realities that LGBT activists are alternatively keen to dismiss or reject altogether at the expense of the innocent.

After recollecting upon his rise to fame as well as on how he once babysat a young Keanu Reeves — whom he retroactively referred to as "John Wick" — the rocker blasted efforts by gender ideologues to confuse children and woke cultural imperialism in a recent interview with Stereogum.

Stereogum's Rachel Brodsky ostensibly set Cooper up to win over leftists with a softball question concerning his "forward-thinking responses to questions about sexuality and gender" in a 1974 interview.

"Recently some of your 'theatrical' rock peers have commented about gender identity, with Paul Stanley and Dee Snider calling gender-affirming care for kids a 'sad and dangerous fad,'" said Brodsky. "As someone who played around with gender expectations early on, do you have any thoughts on what some of your contemporaries have said before they walked those comments back?"

Cooper made clear by his response that the time for "Mr. Nice Guy" had passed, at least with regards to gender ideology.

The rocker called so-called transgenderism "a fad," stressing that it is "wrong when you've got a six-year-old kid who has no idea. He just wants to play, and you're confusing him[,] telling him, 'Yeah, you're a boy, but you could be a girl if you want to be.' I think that's so confusing to a kid. It's even confusing to a teenager."

"You're still trying to find your identity, and yet here's this thing going on, saying, 'Yeah, but you can be anything you want. You can be a cat if you want to be.' I mean, if you identify as a tree," continued Cooper. "And I'm going, 'Come on! What are we in, a Kurt Vonnegut novel?' It's so absurd, that it's gone now to the point of absurdity."

"I look at it this way, the logical way: If you have these genitals, you're a boy. If you have those genitals, you're a girl," he said, adding that an individual's desired sex does not negate their actual sex.

Brodsky, agitated by Cooper's answer, responded, "I don't think parents are encouraging doubt in their kids' identities. I would just hope that they listen to their kids and find pediatricians that provide appropriate care."

The interviewer's intimation that parents are better off finding a doctor who might mutilate their confused kids didn't sit well with Cooper, who suggested he could "see somebody really taking advantage of this."

Cooper extended his criticism beyond the efforts to confuse kids by social constructivists to the "whole woke thing."

"Who's making the rules? Is there a building somewhere in New York where people sit down every day and say, 'Okay, we can't say "mother" now. We have to say "birthing person." Get that out on the wire right now'? Who is this person making these rules? I don't get it. I'm not being old school about it. I'm being logical," he said.

Cooper indicated he doesn't know "one person that agrees with the woke thing," calling it a "huge comedy."

Leftists didn't find Cooper's critique of gender ideology and woke neologisms funny.

Rolling Stone — fresh off of denigrating a working-class musician, criticizing an anti-child trafficking film, and spreading more falsehoods — denounced Cooper, suggesting he had "leaned on right-wing, anti-trans scare tactics."

Although Rolling Stone staff writer Jon Blistein took issue with the musician's apparent refusal to sever sex from gender as the Mayo Clinic has elected to do, he appeared most incensed by Cooper's suggestion that a "guy can walk into a woman's bathroom at any time and just say, 'I just feel like I'm a woman today,' and have the time of his life in there[.] ... Somebody's going to get raped."

Blistein wrote, "These 'bathroom predator' myths been widely debunked."

However, contrary to Blistein's contention, there have been multiple incidents in which transvestites have stolen into women's areas and traumatized the real females therein. For instance, a male reportedly raped a young girl at Stone Bridge High School in Loudoun County, Virginia, after taking advantage of the school's LGBT policies.

Like Rolling Stone, Billboard zeroed in on Cooper's apparent opposition to ruining children's lives with genital mutilation and irreversible hormone therapies, writing that he was "anti-trans" and against "best-practice medical care for transgender youth."

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ALICE COOPER 'I'm Alice' - Official Video - New Album 'Road' Out August 25thyoutu.be

Alice Cooper talks decades of sobriety and Christianity: 'Straight out of bed, make a cup of coffee, grab my Bible'



Shock rocker Alice Cooper — born Vincent Damon Furnier — has opened up about his life at 74 years old, which now involves Bible-reading, praying, and volunteering.

What are the details?

For a recent interview in the U.K.'s Times, the Detroit, Michigan, native said that God is the figurehead of his life and at the very center of everything he does.

"I’m up before the sun; 5 a.m. is my time," he told the outlet. "Straight out of bed, make a cup of coffee, grab my Bible, then spend the next hour reading and praying. I read a couple of chapters a day — this is my 12th reading. It puts me in a positive frame of mind."

He added that his wife, Sheryl Goddard, has been instrumental in his 39 years of sobriety.

"Thanks to Sheryl — she committed me to an asylum for treatment — this is my 39th year sober," he said, and went on to detail the indulgences of his younger years — a time of heavy partying with the likes of Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and more.

"At first it was fun, hanging out with Jim Morrison, Keith Moon and Jimi Hendrix," he recalled. "Jimi gave me my first joint. We thought we were gonna live forever, but then everybody started dying."

Cooper said that the fun eventually caught up to some of his peers — including Morrison.

"I spent a lot of time with Jim Morrison and I don’t think I ever saw him not drunk or high," he recalled. "On stage he was an absolute professional, but nobody was surprised when he died."

Cooper added that once he became a father — his two adult daughters are now 30 and 40 years old — everything changed.

"It gave me a reason to stay sober," he admitted. "On stage I was Alice, but after the show, I wanted to be Dad. That life was better than a life in the bottle."

Cooper said he now spends his days with his wife by his side, working with a kids' charity he founded called Solid Rock.

"We’ve set up places where any teenager can come in and learn any instrument for free," he said. "Music changed my life; hopefully, we can change a few more."

Cooper added that praying is the very last thing he does before he dozes off for the night.

"I’m rarely in bed later than 11," he said. "Then I pray for a while. I believe in heaven and hell. People think of the Devil with horns and a pointy tail. Man, you are so far off the mark! The Devil is going to be the best-looking, smoothest-talking guy in the room. He’s going to make you feel like a million bucks. But you better watch out, because he’s got a whole different set of plans for you."

Music legend Alice Cooper says rock 'n' roll shouldn't be political — and leftists blast the 'School's Out' singer as 'out of touch'



Music legend Alice Cooper has turned heads in recent years not simply due to his ghoulish theatricality on stage but also for certain beliefs of his that are decidedly un-rock 'n' roll.

Primarily it's Cooper's faith in Christ and ministry-mindedness that have had some of his fans scratching their heads. A few years back he recorded a video that called on members of the Evangelical Covenant Church to come to Phoenix for a denominational conference and to check out his Solid Rock teen ministry at the Rock at 32nd Street Church.

And who knew Cooper was best friends with ... Glen Campbell? Yup, he sure was. In fact, after Campbell's 2017 death, Cooper opened up about their unlikely friendship and their shared Christian faith.

Now what?

Still going strong at age 74, Cooper surprised — and some might say put off — some fans after going on the record in the last week by declaring that rock 'n' roll should be "anti-political."

Oops.

“When my parents started talking about politics, I would turn on the Stones as loud as I could," he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. "I don't want to hear about politics, and I still feel that way."

He added to the outlet, "I don't think rock 'n' roll and politics belong in the same bed together, but a lot of people think it does — because we have a voice, and we should use our voice. But again, rock 'n' roll should be anti-political, I think."

Cooper also told the outlet that his show is "designed to give you a vacation from CNN, you know what I mean? I'm not preaching anything up there, and I'm not knocking anybody. If I do a thing like on 'Elected,' which we would always do during the elections, and I’d bring out Trump and Hillary to fight, and both of them would get wiped out! That's what was funny about it. If you're in the political theater, you’d better be able to take a joke. So, that’s OK. I don't mind the satire of it, but I don't ever go up there and tell you who to vote for."

Pushback

Well, as many of them are wont to do, a number of leftists didn't take kindly to Cooper declaring that rock should be free of politics and ripped him for it on Facebook:

  • "Alice Cooper can go back to golfing and using music as a nicey nice gothic entertainment moment," one commenter said. "Otherwise we need people who put their money and iZod shirts on the line for all sorts of injustice."
  • "Art should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," another commenter declared. "Clearly this rich septuagenarian is too comfortable."
  • "Cooper is out of touch," another commenter wrote. "The fact is some of the best songs are influenced by politics."
  • "Alice is a hardcore conservative Christian, so not at all surprising he said something so ridiculous," another commenter noted.

But others seemed to have a handle on where Cooper was coming from.

"Write songs about whatever you want, but outside of the art people should only be able to guess or assume what the artist actually believes," one commenter added. "Once you open that door, you lose half of your audience. These days society cannot handle differing opinions like it use to."