Universal Music EnterprisesAlice Cooper is planning to pay tribute to some of his musical friends with a new album of cover tunes he's hoping to have ready for a 2014 release.  At designer John Varvatos' recent charity fundraiser in Los Angeles, the shock rocker shared details about the project with Rolling Stone, revealing that it will be an homage to the members of his old 1970s drinking club that was known as the Hollywood Vampires.

"It was Keith Moon, John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Micky Dolenz -- a very eclectic bunch of drunks," explains Cooper, who has been sober for about 30 years.  "Half of them are dead."

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer already has been performing a Hollywood Vampires tribute set during his concerts, which sparked the idea for the record.

"We do [The Doors'] 'Break On Through,' [The Beatles'] 'Revolution,' [The Who's] 'My Generation' and Jimi Hendrix's 'Foxey Lady,'" notes Cooper.  "I just kind of said, 'We've never done a covers album, let's think about that.'  So [producer Bob] Ezrin and I are kind of bouncing it around right now."

The singer says most of the tunes he's planning to include on the album will be from "that sort of drunk era" of 1973 and '74. Among the songs he's considering are 'Break On Through' and the late Nilsson's "Jump into the Fire."

Cooper reports that ***** likely begin recording the album around December of this year, after his upcoming tour with Marilyn Manson winds down.

Looking back on his years of excess with his fellow rock stars, Cooper maintains that despite the negative aspects of their overindulgence, that period was a creatively fertile time.

"It was all artists, and that was the cool thing about it," he notes.  "It was all guys that were competing with each other in a really good way."

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