Alice Cooper has revealed that, when the COVID-19 pandemic first began to impact live shows early last year, he set funds aside to ensure his touring crew would still be able to make ends meet.

The legendary shock-rocker did so, he explained in a recent interview with Forbes, because he foresaw the pandemic outlasting any government assistance his crew would be entitled to.

“We could see that it was… something,” he said. “So we put money aside as a backup for them. Because we knew that their unemployment would run out, you know? And then they’d have something to go to. I think all responsible bands did that. Hopefully.

“Because these are people we live with. We work with them every day. The guys that run the stage are as important as the guys that play guitar. So we made sure that everybody was covered. And that was really important. Hey, we thought this thing was gonna last a month! 18 months?! Unreal.”

Cooper himself ended up contracting COVID-19 last year. Noting that he wasn’t vaccinated at the time – but did wind up getting the jab back in February – he said that, “For three weeks, I felt like I went 12 rounds with [boxing legend] Roberto Duran; I was just beat up.”

The artist – who recently said he wants Johnny Depp to play him in a biopic – released his most recent album, ‘Detroit Stories’, back in February via earMUSIC. In announcing it, Cooper, who was born in Detroit, said the album would explore how the city helped to popularise “angry hard rock” in the US.

Fans will able to catch tracks from the record played live when Cooper embarks on a sprawling world tour in 2022. Alongside a US tour in the winter, and a co-headlining run with The Cult set to hit arenas across the UK, Cooper will perform at a slate of festivals such as the Monsters Of Rock cruise and the Graspop Metal Meeting.

This year also saw Cooper release an Audible-exclusive podcast, Who I Really Am: Diary Of A Vampire, that saw him open up about his past struggles with alcohol addiction. In addition to recalling key events in his life, the series – which is branded as part memoir and part musical performance – had Cooper share new recordings of some of his biggest hits, including ‘I’m Eighteen’, ‘School’s Out’ and ‘Poison’.