Rock legend Alice Cooper is the subject of a new faith-based film that reveals how fame, fortune, and partying drove him to the brink of destruction and ultimately led him into the arms of Jesus.
Evangelist Greg Laurie and Harvest Christian Fellowship have produced a documentary that chronicles the careers of Cooper, MLB legend Darryl Strawberry, actor Steve McQueen, Country singer Johnny Cash, and many others in an effort to answer the question, “Is fame all it’s cracked up to be?”
“A recent poll was taken among young people and they were asked what they wanted most out of life,” Laurie wrote on X, promoting the film. “The majority of them said, ‘To be rich and famous’. Is that the answer? This new film shows the emptiness of pursuing notoriety and forgetting about God in the process.”
We are premiering a brand-new film later this month titled, “FAME”. A recent poll was taken among young people and they were asked what they wanted most out of life.
The majority of them said, “Te be rich and famous”,
Is that the answer?
This new film shows the emptiness of… pic.twitter.com/fS85H277DN
— Greg Laurie (@greglaurie) October 6, 2023
The film, a companion to a book titled Fame: Fortunes, Failure and Faith, is set to premiere exclusively on Harvest platforms beginning October 20 and will explore how the pursuit of fame, has in some cases, led to tragedy, and for others has led them to Jesus.
“Deep down inside, we all have a desire to be seen and known. And thanks to social media everyone can have some kind of fame,” Laurie explained. “We unpack the stories of those who have tasted fame and what they discovered on the other side.”
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As CBN’s Faithwire reported, Alice Cooper almost drank himself to death while partying on the road with his band the Hollywood Vampires.
“Alice, at one point, was the No. 1 rock star in all of the world,” Laurie, author of Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus: The Spiritual Biography of Rock and Roll, told Faithwire. “He started living the rock star life to excess. He was pretty much drunk every day. He was using drugs heavily. His life began to unravel. His wife Sheryl left him.”
In the documentary, Cooper shares firsthand what life was like during the height of his rock career.
“Any drug addict will tell you, that drug becomes like oxygen. If you don’t have it, you will sell everything in your house to get it,” Cooper explained in the documentary. “You will always be trying to fill that hole with something. It is either going to be drugs, or it’s going to be Ferraris, or it’s going to be houses, or wives, or fame. And you’re never going to achieve it.”
He continued, “But there comes that point in your life where you go, ‘What is this about? Is this really it? Because it can’t be.’ And I think that’s when you start hearing the Lord knocking.”
Laurie told Faithwire that Cooper found himself using cocaine alone in his room one day at the height of his dysfunction.
“He was snorting it, and he looked in the mirror, and he said, ‘I saw blood coming out of my eyes. I don’t know if it was a hallucination or if it was really happening, but all I knew was I was going to die,” Cooper recalled.
At that moment, Cooper “called out to God” and his entire life changed.
“My wife and I are both Christian [now],” the 70-year-old performer 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.”
Cooper is now using his platform to help young people understand that God loves them and that the devil is real.
“Be careful! Satan is not a myth. Don’t sit around pretending like Satan is just a joke,” Cooper said. “I think my job is to warn about Satan.”
Laurie is using the film and book to point people to Jesus.
Meanwhile, “Jesus Revolution,” the box-office smash hit film that chronicles Laurie’s conversion during the height of the Jesus Movement in the 1960s and early 70s, continues to impact millions.
“God wants to pour His Spirit out. God wants to save people,” he told CBN. “Scripture says that God believes that no one should perish but that all should come to repentance. This is God’s heart – to reach this culture and this generation. There are differences between the late 1960s and today, but there are also many similarities.”
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN