PINEHURST — School’s out for the summer and the “Godfather of Shock Rock” is ready for golf.
Two Richmond County natives, who now live in Moore County and who happen to be brother and sister, both saw Alice Cooper on Tuesday.
Stylist Jenny Moree had just left her salon and had stopped by Ten Ya for Japanese take-out when she looked up and saw Cooper, whose birth name is Vincent Damon Furnier, walking with his wife and another couple.
“I just said “Hey! Mr. Alice, would you take a pic with me?” she recounted Wednesday. “He said ‘Yes, of course,’ (then) introduced me to his wife and the other couple.”
She said the man from the other couple offered to take the photo.
Cooper then commented “Nice car” on her black Corvette and her tattoos and asked “Are you in a band?”
“I said, ‘No sir, I just play a little but my brother is and he’s at Dugan’s (Pub) right now,” she said. “He then went on to talk about my Fender tattoo and the Fender reverb amp tattoo and was saying that was best amp ever put out. He said, ‘Tell your brother good luck with the band and again,I really like that car.’”
She sent the photo of herself with the rock legend to her brother, Frankie Moree, who fronts the country cover band Dark Horse, and relayed the good luck message.
“I told Rachel when I got home, ‘I’m sorry, food may be a little cold — I was just chilling with a rock star for a minute,’” she said.
Meanwhile, over at Dugan’s, Frankie Moree said he had seen a post about Cooper being in town to play golf but “didn’t think too much about it (as) lots of famous folks play golf in my backyard every day.”
When he got the photo from his sister, he realized it was just down the street.
“I said, ‘When was this?’ and she says, ‘Just now,’” he remembered. “So I was walking upstairs on my break and I was looking up and down the street. I saw folks walking and didn’t see anyone that looked like Alice Cooper.”
When he turned to walk back down the street, Frankie Moree said he heard someone ask, “Hey, are you a local ? We are lost.”
“I turned around and said, “I am a local — and you are Alice Cooper!” Frankie Moree said. “He smiled and said, Yes I am.’”
Frankie Moree told Cooper that his sister had just posed for a photo with him.
“And he replies, ‘The girl with tattoos and black Corvette?’ I said yes and he said, “Oh you’re her brother who plays with Dark Horse.’ I about passed out. I said, ‘That would be me.”
Frankie Moree said he then gave Cooper and company directions and walked with them toward their destination, talking about music and players of the past.
Cooper thanked Frankie Moree for the directions and then asked if he wanted a photo.
“I said, ‘I would love that don’t wanna bother you,’ He said, ‘It’s cool.’”
After the photo, Frankie Moree said Cooper started to walk off and said, “Good luck with your band Dark Horse.”
“How freaked out was I? Frankie Moree exclaimed.
Both of them posted their photos on Facebook.
Jenny Moree noted that it was ironic that they both had the opportunity to meet Cooper.
“Jenny and I have had a knack of being in the right place at the right time for meeting folks,” Frankie Moree said. “It’s always been that way.”
It’s not Alice Cooper’s first visit to the Sandhills.
He and his band, which was called Alice Cooper, played the Peach Tree Celebration at N.C. Motor Speedway in 1972 with Three Dog Night , Faces and the James Gang.
Jenny and Frankie Moree are both fans of the 71-year-old rocker, whose first album was released nearly 50 years ago. They both have their favorite songs. For Frankie, it’s 1973's angsty “No More Mr. Nice Guy;” for Jenny, it’s the 1989 hit “Poison.”
Jenny Moree said she was surprised to learn that the man known for his outrageous and macabre stage act, which includes simulated decapitations, played golf.
In his memoir “Alice Cooper, Golf Monster,” he actually credits the sport for saving his life.
“So I am obviously a golf addict. I am the first to admit it,” he wrote. “But it didn’t used to be that way … my addictions used to be much more destructive and the road to redemption was a long, painful one.”
He then goes on to describe being admitted to rehab as an alcoholic after two years of touring.
Also included in the book are his 12 golf steps he created “that enabled me to trade in those harmful addictions for healthier ones."
“Totally didn’t peg him as a golfer,” Jenny Moree said. “Can’t judge a book by its cover.”
Despite his popular song and on-stage persona, the Moree siblings concur that Alice Cooper actually is a Mr. Nice Guy.