Michael Bruce | |
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Birth name | Michael Owen Bruce |
Born | March 16, 1948 |
Genres | Rock, Hard rock, heavy metal |
Occupations | Musician, songwriter |
Associated acts | Alice Cooper |
Michael Bruce (born Michael Owen Bruce on March 16, 1948) is a US rock musician. He was a guitarist, keyboard player and backing vocalist for the original Alice Cooper group[1] (Vince Furnier aka Alice Cooper/Michael Bruce/Glen Buxton/Dennis Dunaway/Neal Smith).
Bruce co-wrote many of the hit songs with some or all of the other members of the band. There are several Bruce-only songs including "Be My Lover" from Killer. Bruce also sang lead vocal on the majority of "Sing Low, Sweet Cheerio" on the first album Pretties For You and all of "Below Your Means" and "Beautiful Flyaway" on the follow-up Easy Action, prior to the band's breakthrough album Love It to Death on the Warner Bros label, the first Alice Cooper album produced by Bob Ezrin. The Alice Cooper group broke up in 1974.
'Billion Dollar Babies' was the name of the band founded by Michael Bruce, Mike Marconi, Dennis Dunaway, Bob Dolin, and Neal Smith after they split from Alice Cooper in 1974. This band was embroiled in a legal suit over the use of the name. They only released one album, 1977's Battleaxe, before disbanding.
No More Mr Nice Guy : Inside Story of the "Alice Cooper" Group by Michael Bruce was released on October 1, 1996 (and updated and re-released in 2000). It is a relatively short book with some rare pictures and some rather commonplace ones. It was published by a small company in the UK. For the most part, it is rehash of the Alice Cooper history with some interesting anecdotes.
Bruce still tours with his own band and has some solo records out, as well as a live CD, Halo Of Ice. His current group, The Michael Bruce Group, performing some Alice Cooper classics as well as a few from his solo album Michael Bruce, In My Own Way, The Complete Sessions, features Bruce (guitars and vocals), Bob Russell (guitars and vocals), Tommy Dominick (bass and keyboards) and Bob Allen (drums).
May 1, 2004 saw Michael debut a new Michael Bruce Group in Tucson, AZ. The line up was Bob Russell on guitar, Jeff Harris on sax, piano & vocals, Thomas Dominick on organ & keys, Mondo Thomas on bass, Robin Horn on Drums, and Bruce on guitars, keys, & vocals.
Friday September 16, 2005 saw the release of a new Michael Bruce album authorized for release in Iceland in a limited edition of 200 copies in De-luxe Digipak. "The Second Coming Of Michael Bruce - Alive & Re-Cooperated" is Michael Bruce's first official release in years (although exclusive only to Iceland at this time) and features 17 songs recorded in Iceland 2002 -2003.
The 74 min long CD includes new studio recordings as well as previously unheard live recordings of Michael Bruce & his Icelandic band performing songs from throughout his career from Alice Cooper to Battle Axe to his solo years. All the recordings were recorded professionally on 24-track and mixed by Ingo & Silli Geirdal. The De-luxe digipak includes artwork of Michael Bruce by Ingo, band photos and exclusive liner notes by Dennis Dunaway.
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