Alice Cooper may have only been onstage for one song in NBC’s broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar Live on Sunday, but the rock icon was unquestionably one of the highlights of the show.
NBC thought so as well, and opted to upload his performance to Twitter just as the credits rolled.
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Prove to @alicecooper that you’re no fool. #JesusChristSuperstar pic.twitter.com/x0gVmYFtnF
— NBC (@nbc) April 2, 2018
Cooper portrayed Herod, the Roman client king of Judea. In the musical, Jesus Christ (played by Grammy-award winning singer John Legend), is brought to Herod after being arrested and Pontius Pilate (played by The Excorist actor Ben Daniels) is unsure what to do with him. During his song, Herod demands Christ perform some type of miracle to prove that he is the “King of the Jews.” Christ does not answer, and Herod quickly grows impatient and angrily sends him back to Pilate.
In a recent interview with The New York Post, the “School’s Out” singer admitted he turned to religion after nearly dying from alcoholism.
“My wife and I are both Christian,” Cooper, 70, explained. “My father was a pastor, my grandfather was an evangelist. I grew up in the church, went as far away as I could from it — almost died — and then came back to the church.”
“There’s nothing in Christianity that says I can’t be a rock star,” he continued. “People have a very warped view of Christianity. They think it’s all very precise and we never do wrong and we’re praying all day and we’re right-wing. It has nothing to do with that. It has to do with a one-on-one relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Cooper told the paper he now attends Bible study frequently and goes to Church every Sunday.
Sunday’s live show was actually not the first time Cooper had portrayed Herod in the musical. In 2000, writers Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice cast him to perform “King Herod’s Song” as part of the London cast recording soundtrack. The rock opera originally debuted in 1970 and had two film versions, the first being a theatrical release in 1973 and then again in 2000 as a straight-to-video adaptation.
Copper said his inspiration for the performance was Alan Rickman’s Severus Snape performance in the Harry Potter series.
“When I first heard about it, I thought Alan Rickman — that condescending sort of arrogant character, and I kind of fashioned what I would do after what I thought Alan Rickman would do if he were alive,” Cooper said.
