Snakes go with Alice Cooper performances like peanut butter and jelly, so when the legendary rock provocateur lost his beloved onstage co-star, a boa constrictor named Julius Squeezer, on this day (June 5) in 1977, it proved a dark day for the singer.
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Julius had suffered a bite from his own breakfast, succumbing to the rat-induced wound shortly after. “It was bit like being bit on by your Wheaties,” Cooper said (via Mojo).
According to the outlet, Cooper had lost snakes before – most notably, one that escaped down a hotel toilet only to resurface later in a room that country star Charley Pride occupied, having survived for weeks on sewer rats – but none quite as tragically as Julius.
The loss of his serpentine friend meant Cooper’s reptile-clad live displays of his classic song “Snakebite” were incomplete, so the star held auditions to replace Julius. A little over a week after the constrictor’s passing, pressed for time with upcoming tour dates on the horizon, the “I’m Eighteen” rocker called all snakes with star quality to the ABC Entertainment Centre in Century City, California.
A panel of judges was present to choose a successor from 40 scaly candidates. Another Boa constrictor named Angel was decided on for the role. With a new co-star around his neck, Cooper would show off the 9-foot Angel on the television special Alice Cooper And Friends, which aired later that year. He would also parade the reptile across stages.
“The funny thing about the boa constrictors is that they have a mind of their own onstage,” the rocker explained of performing with snakes, saying that they move as they please. “I just let her go wherever she’s got to go and I have to improvise with where she’s at. Every night it’s different.”
However, traveling with snakes has proved increasingly difficult for the star, and even in 1977, Angel was not allowed into Canada, forcing Cooper to hire a surrogate once across the border.
(Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Keep Memory Alive)
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