Nearly killed me? Well, maybe.
Every July I’m reminded about the time Alice Cooper nearly split my head open.
He was at Pine Knob performing with Hollywood Vampires. Beach balls were bouncing around in the crowd, and Alice was swinging his baton around trying to pop them. A rogue beach ball dropped between me and Alice while I was in the pit taking this photo.
He took a quick swing and missed but managed to connect with my forehead. I nearly dropped my camera. Only maybe by a hair’s width did he not unzip the skin above my eyes. Because I felt the baton woosh by but no pain, no blood.
I’ve been hurt pretty bad in the photo pit before. Shoved. Feet stomped on. CO2 canons erupting under my chin. My camera shoved into my face. That all hurts, but I never think about it much in the moment. Too much adrenaline going and Im focused on the job i had to do. So I suspected I might’ve been hurt, but since I didn’t see any blood, I kind of ignored it.
Yeah, so I checked afterwards and I was fine. No problems. Kind of anticlimactic but still a close call.
A few years later, I caught up with Alice Cooper at Motor City Comic Con. I told him about this he said that no one’s really part of the Alice Cooper band until they bleed. And it’s a cool story and all, but it would’ve been better if he had actually split my head open. He’s sorry he missed me. Maybe next time.
