Fame & Fortune: Alice Cooper Outlandish on stage, humdrum on money
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Bankrate: So you don't have any clue what these investments are?

Alice Cooper: No. I couldn't care less. He sends me a thing two inches thick at the end of the month, and I go, "How much do we have in the bank? Oh, OK." That way I don't sit around worrying about it. I have friends who turn on CNN in the morning to the stocks, and they're ready to jump out the window, and I call my guy and say, "Should I get ready to jump out the window?" and he says "No, don't worry about it. You're fine."

Bankrate: So you're doing OK in light of everything that's happened?

Alice Cooper: Oh yeah, fine. I never got into any of the high tech stuff. I don't mind making 4 percent on my money, as long as it's still there at the end of the year. What happens is, guys get greedy. I have friends who got real greedy, put all these eggs in one basket, became paper billionaires, and two weeks later were getting loans from me. And I'm going, "Guys, how dumb is that?"

Bankrate: So the strategy is, lots of low-risk investments?

Alice Cooper: Lots of low-risk stuff and real estate. To me, that's real sensible stuff.

Bankrate: What kind of real estate?

Alice Cooper: I've got stuff in Hawaii, Arizona, California -- things that don't go away. Everything I've bought real-estate-wise has gone up about four times what I paid for it. I've made more money in real estate than I have in rock 'n' roll. I'm not saying I don't know where anything is, I just really make a point of not caring. I'll never die of an ulcer over the money. I know how much is put away that I can't touch so my kids are taken care of, and everything I do now is just gravy.

Bankrate: What has been your greatest source of income in recent years?

Alice Cooper: I've got 26 albums out, and I wrote all of it. Publishing is everything. Too many young bands go out there and sign away the publishing. Somebody waves a little check in front of their nose, and these guys are a garage band, and $100,000 sounds like a lot of money to them. $100,000 is one or two days of a hit record, if it's selling. They don't realize that the record company owns 99 percent of that, they're getting 1 or 2 or 3 percent. My guy never bought into that -- he said we own everything, and we keep everything.