Alice Cooper has revealed that his next album will be titled Paranormal, and it’s scheduled to hit stores in July.
The album will be his 27th studio record and first solo effort since 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare. It will feature guest appearances from ZZ Top‘s Billy Gibbons, three members of the original Alice Cooper group and, most surprisingly, U2‘s Larry Mullen Jr. on drums.
Speaking to Eddie Trunk on his SiriusXM Trunk Nation show, Cooper said producer Bob Ezrin was the one to suggest recruiting Mullen Jr. for the sessions: “I said, ‘that’s a great idea, it’ll change things up so much, just on the basic tracks.’”
Mullen had a rather surprising method of preparing for the collaboration, asking to see the lyrics for the songs he was working on. “He said, ‘I play to the lyrics, I don’t play to the bass,’” Cooper explained. “And I said that is so cool, just the idea that you’re interpreting the lyrics on the drums. It totally makes the album another album.”
Gibbons plays guitar on a song called “I’ve Fallen in Love and I Can’t Get Up.” “After we cut the record I said, ‘If BIlly Gibbons doesn’t play on this, we shouldn’t put this one out,’” Cooper declared. “Because it is just so him. And [when] he got the record, he said, ‘I got the flu, but, man, this song makes me feel better.’ He just killed it.”
Drummer Neal Smith, guitarist Michael Bruce and bassist Dennis Dunaway — three members of the original Alice Cooper group — helped write and will perform on three songs on Paranormal.