At 78 years of age, with a career spanning back to the ‘60s, Alice Cooper still isn’t throwing in the towel as he takes his legendary rock shows across the world and performs like the calendar still reads 1987.

Alice has always been known for his shock rock edge, from inviting giant Frankenstein’s monsters to terrorize the stage, to performing with a live boa constrictor hung around his shoulders. But as the “Poison” singer nears 80, some fans are calling him a living legend as he refuses to scale back his on-stage horror and embrace those retirement years we all dream of.

It’s never been more apparent than in his “Ballad of Dwight Fry” routine; an eerie psych ward power ballad first released in 1971, which still features on his set list, with a mind-bending theatrical twist. Music Man readers can check out what Alice does with this spooky track in the viral video above – it’s already topped 132,000 views to date!

A haggard Alice stands wrapped in a straitjacket, clutching the mic in one hand. Around him, two ghoulish nurses (played by Alice’s wife of 50 years, Sheryl Cooper, and their daughter, Calico Cooper) dance whilst wielding huge injection needles, soon dragging the star by his hair to center-stage.

Alice’s aged vocals embody his psych ward character perfectly as he uncomfortably twists his body to reach the mic. His voice is artfully tortured, melancholic, and manic as he sings in his straitjacket and serves not just a rock concert, but absolute theatre. But then, the real drama unfolds…

Alice rips his arms from the straitjacket, strangles his wife Sheryl, and is captured by two faceless mobsters as a full-scale guillotine is wheeled out on stage. His head shoved between the holding boards, Alice’s gig evolves into pure horror as the blade falls in a jaw-dropping decapitation magic trick, one of the mobsters soon holding Alice’s severed head sky-high for all to see.

After watching contemporaries such as Paul McCartney, Elton John, and even KISS scale back their stage performances as the years catch up with them, Alice is practically the last rock god standing, delivering the same stage mastery as back in his 20th-century heyday. And as fans stumble across this viral clip, they all agree on one thing: “Alice never gets old.”

As one fan wrote, “Alice Cooper puts on the best rock shows ever – if you ever went to one of his shows, you would understand!” Another added, “This is a well-crafted song, both musically and lyrically. And the theatrical aspect of it is superb. It is mesmerizing, and conjures up an atmosphere of classic Gothic horror. I’ve seen his live show, and he doesn’t disappoint his audience. He is a true showman.”