ALICE COOPER CHICKEN INCIDENT
ALICE COOPER CHICKEN INCIDENT
In 1969, Alice Cooper was performing at the Toronto Rock and Roll revival Festival on 13 September 1969. The line-up had big names including John Lennon (in his first performance after he left the Beatles); Yoko Ono was there, and there was also The Doors, and Chuck Berry. Cooper at the time wasn’t as well-known and his management team decided to put his band’s performance between The Doors and John Lennon, to ensure they gained a large audience.
It was rumoured that Cooper killed a chicken during this live performance. During Cooper’s bands performance a live chicken got loose on stage, and he later said, ‘I don’t know how it got there’. Cooper made the terrible decision to pick it up and throw it into the audience (he said he thought the chicken would be able to fly away). Those in the crowd cruelly tore the bird apart.
It was later discovered that it was Cooper’s manager Shep Gordon idea to put the chicken onto the stage. The band used to rip apart pillows on stage which would leave a mess of feathers on stage, so Gordon was frustrated with the mess that the feathers would make. So he decided instead of pillows he would throw ‘live chickens out’ and why not use the real thing?
Regardless of whose idea it was, it is animal cruelty and it so unnecessary. Shep Gordon, Alice Cooper and the audience are all guilty of being cruel, torturing and murdering this poor animal. Shame on them!
#alicecooper #shepgordon
