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Alice appeared in this 1978 movie version of 'Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band' which also featured The Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and Aerosmith. He played the character of 'Father Sun' and performed 'Because', a Beatles song. This song featured backing vocals by the Bee Gees and can be found on the movie's soundtrack album. The video of the film is easy to find to buy or rent.
At the time, Alice was in hospital recovering from alcoholism and had to get a special passout to appear in the film on the condition he returned immediately afterwards to resume treatment which he did. Also, this is one of the few public appearances of Alice sporting a mustache.
What does Alice think about his part in the movie?
He thought it was fun and at the time, it made sense to a lot of people. Robert Stigwood (the film's producer) was the David Geffen of his day. Also, some people may not know, but Alice actually got a weekend pass to leave his alcohol treatment at the hospital in New York to go to L.A. to film the scene. So, I think his mind was still pretty muddled at the time. Oh, he knows it stinks.
(Renfield, September 1996)
Stigwood Group Ltd put out a 66 bubblegum card set based on the film. Card 44 features Alice in the film. It is the same picture as is on the soundtrack album sleeve.
Here's a pretty funny interview with Alice on the making of Sgt. Pepper from Phoenix newtimes.com this was during July '98:
Not all the participants in the Sgt. Pepper movie are unwilling to talk about the experience. Alice Cooper, about to embark on a tour, was gracious enough to answer our e-mail of infrequently asked questions (that's IFAQ in e-mailese) concerning his involvement in this historically bad film.
New Times: How many days of shooting were involved for your part as Father Sun?
Alice: It was a three-day shoot including time to record the track. The crazy thing about it was that I was in the hospital at the time undergoing treatment for alcoholism. They arranged for a three-day pass for me to leave the hospital to do the filming.New Times: Were there other people supposedly involved with the project before you agreed to do it that pulled out before cameras rolled?
Alice: Not that I ever heard.
New Times: Did anyone working with you on the film or the set voice the opinion that this movie was going to be a bomb?
Alice: Not at all. Robert Stigwood was coming off the success of Saturday Night Fever, and the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton were huge.
New Times: Were there too many drugs on the set to make such an assertion?
Alice: Again, I was becoming clean and sober at that time, so I wouldn't have known.
New Times: Were there more drugs on the set of Sextette?
Alice: Now that movie, I was very drunk for that.
New Times: Did you feel it would be a bomb?
Alice: No.
New Times: Was the mustache you sport in the film a preemptive strike at damage control?
Alice: They wouldn't let me have razor blades in the hospital. Too many crazy people running around.
New Times: Did you attend the première in New York City?
Alice: Yes. The Beatles were suspiciously absent!
New Times: Do you believe that business about a Sgt. Pepper curse and that everyone's chart success was immediately impacted by it, even George Burns' film career?
Alice: I had a hit single the year after.
New Times: Do you feel bad that there isn't a 20th-year re-release of the film, à la Grease, and if there was, would you go to that première?
Alice: Who even knew that it was 20 years besides you!!!
New Times:: Was Pepper a worse film than the Village People's Can't Stop the Music?
Alice: Who even knew that there was a Village People movie besides you!!!
New Times: Could a cast of dancing and singing midgets have saved Pepper from disaster?
Alice: Maybe Steven Spielberg could have pulled it off.
New Times: Did the experience of the movie affect your enjoyment of Beatle music?
Alice: That could never happen.
New Times: Was George Martin a sympathetic producer?
Alice: He was great. When I did the first take of the song, I did it in my best John Lennon impersonation. George said it was fine, but then told me to do it like Alice Cooper would do it. He seemed really happy with it.
New Times: Whenever the Alice Cooper box set comes out, will "Because" be on it?
Alice: Yes.