Love him to death: Original shock rocker Alice Cooper comes home to Michigan State Fair stage

Welcome home, Vince Furnier, better known to all as Alice Cooper.

The original shock 'n' roller is back in Detroit, where his career took off in the early 1970s, to play at the Michigan State Fair. Furnier was born here, spent his formative years in Arizona, then hightailed it back to the Motor City when it was the capital of prototype punk and garage rock over 30 years ago. Here is Alice Cooper live in Detroit, 1971, to give you some idea of the strangely theatrical performance style of the singer and his band. Drawing inspiration from horror movies, vaudeville, heavy metal and psychedelic rock, the group created a stage show that featured electric chairs, guillotines, fake blood and huge boa constrictors - with a slithery, cross-dressing dude called Alice in the middle of it all.

Now 60, Alice Cooper appears at the Michigan State Fair, the nation's oldest state fair (officially first held in 1849, 12 years after Michigan attained statehood, the fair settled down at the present fairgrounds in 1905), on Wednesday, Aug. 27. Showtime is 7 p.m. The fairgrounds are at Woodward and 8 Mile Road in Detroit. For more info and complete schedule of events at the fair, which runs until Sept. 1, go here.