“Elvis walked in the room – this was before he was fat – and he said to me, ‘You know anything about guns?’ I said, ‘I’m from Detroit.’ He said, ‘OK, come in here’“: Alice Cooper’s near-deadly encounter with the King

Halloween is always a busy time for the spookiest rock star of them all, Alice Cooper. So what better time to enjoy his funniest anecdote?

The incident happened in Las Vegas back in 1973, when Alice was summoned to meet the king of rock ’n’ roll himself, Elvis Presley…

“Elvis had the top floor of the Hilton,” Alice says, “and I got this message: ‘Elvis wants to meet you.’

“When I got to the top floor, Elvis’s mafia [his entourage of trusted aides] checked me for guns. There were guns everywhere; I guess the deal was if you were going to shoot Elvis you had to shoot him with one of his own guns!

“Elvis walked in the room – this was before he was fat – and he said to me, ‘You know anything about guns?’ I said, ‘I’m from Detroit.’ He said, ‘OK, come in here.’

“We went in the kitchen and he handed me a fully loaded snub-nosed .38. He said, ‘I’m gonna show you how to take this gun out of somebody’s hand.’

“So I’m standing there with a gun pointed at Elvis, and there’s this one second when the little devil on my shoulder says, ‘Shoot him!’ Alice Cooper shoots Elvis – that’s gonna be the biggest news of all time!

“But before I could finish the thought, I was on the ground, the gun was in the corner, Elvis’s boot was on my throat, and he’s going, ‘Ain’t that cool?’”