Photo: Wenn.com
As far as veteran rocker Alice Cooper is concerned, calling Mumford & Sons a rock band amounts to an insult to rock ‘n’ roll music.
The folky quartet might be riding high at the moment, having closed the main stage at Glastonbury and then played to 60,000 Londoners a week later, but in Cooper’s eyes they definitely should not be classed as rock ‘n’ roll.
Speaking to Fuse he said of current rock music: “I just feel that this whole generation need to all eat a steak. Maybe they just need to quit eating vegetarian food and get out there and get some blood pumping in their system.
“Rock ‘n’ roll is not about ‘Happy happy happy, everything’s okay. We’re The Lumineers, let’s clog dance’. Hey, there’s a place for that. If I wanted to see a great clog dancing band, I’d see The Lumineers.”
He went on to use Mumford & Sons as an example of what he meant, saying: “Mumford & Sons are great at what they do. But it’s not rock ‘n’ roll. Don’t call it rock ‘n’ roll. It’s an offence to rock ‘n’ roll.
“I get they want to be folk rock, and I guess they want to look like everybody else,” he went on. “I’m old school when it comes to if you’re in a band, you’re an outlaw. You don’t play by those rules, you’re a rock ‘n’ roll outlaw. It doesn’t mean you have to be on drugs, but when you get on stage you don’t play the guitar up here, and it’s not and acoustic guitar. You play the guitar down here. It doesn’t come from the brain, it comes from you guts. It comes from your groin. It’s sexual. It’s tribal.”
They might be big, but they ain't rock 'n' roll
Cooper finished by saying that if bands like Mumford & Sons weren’t interested in embracing what he saw as the rock ‘n’ roll principles that meant there was more room for bands like Foo Fighters and Green Day, “more for the bands that really are rock bands.”
He closed by adding: “I don’t understand why everybody is so afraid to be in a rock band.”
Below: Who's scarier? JLS at G.A.Y. or Alice Cooper at Wembley?
