While modern rock is littered with "now you hear them, now you don't" bands, Alice Cooper has some serious staying power. "I think a lot of [Alice Cooper] records of the '70s, the hard-rock stuff, are really solid," says Phil Freeman, a rock critic and the managing editor of Global Rhythm. "If you go back to it, it's really well-played, well-produced, really good hard rock, with good melodies and interesting lyrics. Yeah, Alice is hugely important. I don't think underrated, but he should be listened to more." The original band released its first album, Pretties for You, in 1969. It took a while for Cooper to trust that anybody really got his band. "I honestly thought we were the black sheep of rock and roll. I thought that until we had platinum albums and number one albums," he says. And later, the Alice Cooper action figures and comic books, along with a turn as a clue on Jeopardy!, really convinced him he had made it. "If you become a Pez dispenser, that means you are recognized around the world," he says.

IN PERSON, Cooper is instantly familiar, but sans makeup, there's a kindness about his face that the stage Cooper would certainly sneer at. He smiles easily (especially when he's poking fun at me or cheering me on). His golf attire won't win any villain points either: Instead of wearing the theatrical outfits rock fans know him for (not every man can pull off a black leather jacket bedecked in giant sequins), Cooper dresses in a white polo shirt piped with black and black pants, making him a lean, country-club-ready figure. His black hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and a white Callaway visor - he's the golf brand's hardest-rocking pitchman and devotee - is snuggled onto his head.