Most of you have heard of (and dismissed) Alice being a Mormon. Believe it or not, there is a sliver of substance to the two-generation rumor.
Regardless of your religious affiliation, please stay with me on this one . . .
Alice was born Vincient Damon Furnier, the son of Ella Mae and Ether Moroni Furnier. No jest, his dad is named after two Book of Mormon headline prophets.
His dad was a minister in the Church of Jesus Christ, which originated as an off-shoot of the main stream body of Mormons back in the mid-1800s. Sidney Rigdon, an early leader in the Mormon Church during the Kirtland-Missouri-Nauvoo periods, formed the Church of Jesus Christ of the Children of Zion following the death of Joseph Smith.
That church disintegrated after 10 years, but in 1862 William Bickerton, one of Rigdon's converts, organized the Church of Jesus Christ in Monongahela, Pennsylvania. The church, which currently has a membership of about 12,000, accepts both the Book of Mormon and King James Version of the Bible as scripture. Its members are sometimes referred to as Bickertonites.
In his pre-Alice days, Vincient was actively involved in the church when he was 11 and 12-years old. The family moved to the Phoenix when soon-to-be Alice was 16. According to various blogosphere sites, Ether Moroni later became a minister in the Baptist Church.
It is well documented that Alice now professes to be a born again Christian.
So while it would be a long stretch to say that Alice Cooper is or was a Mormon, at least we know how the rumor began.
Peace, love and all that Jazz,
Charlie