Rock-theatre icon Alice Cooper had some of the most personal, profound, and heartfelt memories of another master, Glen Campbell. The “Only Women Bleed” composer laid open his big heart for his dear friend this week. Ashley Campbell, the youngest of her father's eight children and honored musician in her own right, shared words in the most personal way she knew.
In a handwritten spiral notebook page, the daughter pours out her heart to her dad. He was the man considered by many to be one of the five greatest guitar players ever to live. She used a song as her last conveyor of how she cherished the years that she and her dad shared on stage and off.
The Cooper and Campbell clans were beyond close, and only close friends can truly express what no words can ever say. These are the kind of friends who understand that sometimes parting from this life brings the only lasting respite from the pain of stolen life.
Bonded as brothers
When Alice Cooper spoke for 10 minutes or so to his local Fox affiliate in Phoenix about his feelings on Glen Campbell's passing, “relief” was the first word that came, followed by a cascade of memories and smiles that could not be contrived. “We share the same faith,” Cooper affirmed with no hesitation. “I know where he is. We're both Christians,” said the singer who has also been a devoted Sunday school teacher as time permitted in his schedule through the years.
“If he had had the choice, I know he’d have wanted to go sooner.”
Sadly, as he struggled in the late stages of Alzheimer's, no one could know what was most desired in Glen Campbell's thoughts. Perhaps saddest of all is that his gift with strings that had been so remarkably displayed since he possessed his first $5.95 guitar bought from a catalog became impossible for him to bestow in his last difficult months.
Glen Campbell knew poverty as a sharecropper’s son. He always said that he was from Delight, Arkansas because it was the nearest community that was actually a town. The musician was laid to rest in a private ceremony there on Wednesday. Alice Cooper reiterated the tremendous respect paid to Glen Campbell from all realms of music, remembering how Eddie Van Halen requested a lesson with Glen Campbell.
Besides having wives who both had been dancers, and children who have stayed in the music business, Alice Cooper and Glen Campbell were passionate golfers, and regulars on courses around Paradise Valley.
Both superstars had come to Phoenix for its “separateness” away from the LA-Hollywood fast-track lifestyle after finding their personal and professional way through the “cocaine blizzard” that seemed to overtake the 70s music business “Glen navigated his way through that, and so did I. We both have great wives, great families,” marveled the rocker more than once. The call for a golf game was rarely declined between the partners, who could share stories from Sinatra and the Rat Pack, to Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, Roger Miller, and nearly every music notable in between.
“I loved him, I loved the stories,” Cooper couldn't finish without a chuckle. “Glen was a short game master,” added his friend, just for good measure.
Sometimes the good times got a little dangerous. There was the day that Glen asked to drive on their golf date, departing from the usual habit of him taking the passenger seat. “He took that McDonald turn at about 60 mph,” Alice Cooper remembers. He also recalls the jaw -dropping, “deer in the headlights” look on the both buddies'’ faces captured by police speed cams. The photo still hangs in the Paradise Valley PD.
Another unique invitation came for a Campbell family Passover Seder. Cooper was very humbled by the holiness of the occasion and being included, but definitely felt that the “hillbilly Seder” had food items that were questionably kosher.
Alice first noticed Campbell succumbing to his condition when jokes would be repeated on the golf course or at events. He conceded that in the later stages, a sense of giving permission to part over took him, saying it was like a whisper of “any time now.” Cooper credited the devotion of Campbell's wife, Kim, and all his family in caring for the musician and mentor.
A daughter remembers
Glen Campbell always wanted to give back to his audiences that remained faithful through all his decades onstage and in the studio. His performing years spanned from The Wrecking Crew and The Beach Boys to his own classics like “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and more before his last farewell tours. Respect for that generosity as a performer is likely part of the reason his music sales have spiked over 5000% this week, but the Campbell family feels an even deeper purpose.
In their moving documentary, “Glen Campbell...I’ll Be Me,” the family hoped to offer another gift of hope and honesty to families joined in the struggle of Alzheimer's, and Ashley Campbell was at her father's side every step of the way. She would gently remind her father of lyrics, lead him with familiar riffs into songs, and most of all, stand in admiration and support of the man who imparted a lifetime of his love and a lifetime of music to her.
The loving daughter describes that “music was the thing that could bring him back to us when the fog would just pull him a little further away.” She now relates how her song “Remembering “ gives her a feeling of her father “reaching back to me,” as she tried to reach him through the song.
Ashley Campbell further elaborates that it was her “honor and a privilege” to care for her dad “through his entire journey through Alzheimer's disease.” Anyone who understands the ravages of the condition can attest that the turns in that journey are never easy.
Easy times are never promised in this life, but now, Glen Campbell's music is ringing through higher places, and he has every moment in his memory fully intact. Those are gifts that remain, and with friends, like Alice Cooper, and his daughter, Ashley, keeping his genuine legacy alive, many generations will keep remembering this man and his immortal talent.
