Alice Cooper has begun working on a new album to be produced by Bob Ezrin as part of a new joint venture with Bigger Picture Group. Ezrin has a rich history of hugely successful collaborations with Alice including such groundbreaking albums as Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome To My Nightmare, School's Out and Love It To Death and has, in the past, been described by Alice as "our George Martin."Ezrin is a partner in Bigger Picture Group, a Nashville based company that has been instrumental in contributing to the success of numerous artists including country music sensation Zac Brown Band, remarked, "I am delighted to be back in business with Alice Cooper and Shep Gordon's Alive Enterprises and our whole company is over the moon about this collaboration. This is not a record deal but rather a partnership that involves virtually all aspects of Alice's ever-expanding universe. And it's a reunion with the first artist I ever produced and the first great manager I ever worked with. I couldn't be happier."
Bigger Picture will contribute to strategy, staging, special products, theatrical projects as well as the production, promotion and distribution of future Alice Cooper releases. The company will utilize its distribution agreement with Warner Music Group when the new Alice Cooper album, projected for release early next year, and other recorded product launches. A tour themed to tie in with the album, the concept of which is being kept under wraps for the moment, is being planned in support of the release.
Ezrin's career has seen him work with some of the most enduring names in music including Pink Floyd, KISS, Peter Gabriel, Jane's Addiction, Lou Reed, Deftones and scores of others but traces its earliest successes to his association with Alice Cooper, the band and the man.
Alice Cooper remarked, "It feels great to be working with Bob again and the entire Bigger Picture team have been tremendously supportive. Lightning has struck more than once in the past with Bob's involvement so we feel great that we're onto something really electrifying now that we're together again. The album we're crafting is, in some ways, a 'shriekquel' to what's gone before and there's no better guy to oversee things than Bob."
Shep Gordon, whose Alive Enterprises has managed Alice Cooper since his professional debut called the deal with Bigger Picture "a paradigm for the modern music business." He commented, "We're working with Bob not just on a brilliant new Alice Cooper album but in building upon the great strides Alice's career has taken recently." He cited Nights With Alice Cooper, the internationally syndicated daily radio show that Alice hosts over a network syndicated through United Stations, the Gruesome Twosome tour that has seen Alice Cooper and acolyte Rob Zombie share bills throughout North America as well as an upcoming Alice Cooper arena tour. He also noted that "The Coop" would be headlining a string of festival dates this summer in France, Germany, Belgium, the UK, and Scandinavia. "Awareness and appreciation for Alice is at an all-time high these days," he remarked. "Bigger Picture is getting in not on the ground floor but as the elevator is zooming to the top and they're efforts will, doubtless make this a much faster ride."
