In 2006, the guitarist—whose main influences are Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Schenker, and Gary Moore—locked down a spot in Alice Cooper’s unholy orgy of guitar violence. Kelli has definitely come a long way since 1978, when his grandmother bought him his first guitar after the youngster saw Queen at the L.A. Forum and decided his future was going to be molded by the instrument. Obviously, Kelli is not just a talented and creative guitar player—he’s also a psychic.

How did you snag the Alice Cooper gig?
I kind of knew all the guys in the band. I was actually asked to be on call around 2001, when it looked like [Cooper guitarist] Eric Dover would have to leave the group for a few weeks to handle a family emergency. They needed somebody to come in and learn the whole set on the spot—which is pretty crazy, because there are about 30 songs, and some of them are cut up into medleys. I flew down, watched a couple of rehearsals, they gave me a tape, and that was that.  They ended up not needing me that time, but when a spot came open a little more than a year ago, they called me and asked, “Do you want to come down and jam?” So here I am.

I don’t know what it was like getting these types of gigs in the ’80s. If Ratt needed a guitar player in 1987, did they put an ad in the paper and audition 400 guys? I don’t know. But I can tell you that in the last ten years, you usually get the gig because someone in the band knows you or your reputation. There might be literally two or three guys who come down and play a few songs. When Slash auditioned me, he just called me to jam, and the next thing I knew I was in the band [laughs].

How do you get into the headspaces of all the guitarists who have powered the Alice Cooper band over the years?
Obviously, Alice has an immense catalog of great guitar players—Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, and then Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, and all the trippy later stuff with Steve Lukather and others. I always try to maintain some of the integrity of the tonal characteristics and riffs of the original recordings. I mean, I’ve heard different weird concert bootlegs, and I think the guitar parts got a little off the track at one time or another over the years. When I got in the band, I kind of backtracked. I listened to the old records, took everything apart, and brought the tones and parts closer to the roots. Going out there with a metal sound through a cranked-up Mesa/Boogie isn’t going to work when you’re playing “Is It My Body” or “Billion Dollar Babies.” Actually, the original guitar stuff is a lot cooler and more intricate than people give it credit for.

Which songs surprised you the most from a guitar standpoint?
Well, take “Halo of Flies”—it’s an eight-minute piece with a lot of harmonies and Middle-Eastern elements. Then, in “Muscle of Love,” the solo section goes into a weird half-time off beat, and they play these F# minor licks that are very Ritchie Blackmore-ish. And “Dead Babies” is awesome—the chords go from an A minor to an A# major back and forth. That kind of stuff is really trippy, and I think it’s way more complex than what you’d call conventional acid rock or FM rock back in the day.

Just to take the Buxton/Bruce phase, how do you and co-guitarist Jason Hook divide that stuff up?
We just went through the lines, and said things like, “Great—I’ll play this part, and you can play the high-harmony line.” We didn’t specifically arrange parts so that I was Glen, and Jason was Michael, or that Jason was Steve, and I was Dick.

Does Alice get very involved with what you play, and/or how you sound?
We’ve been rehearsing for the past month, and I’ve never heard him mention anything about tones or arrangements. The most I’ve heard him say is, “Something’s weird—is that the right chord?”

When we’re on stage, there are a few songs where he’ll go, “Get out there, do whatever you want, and just go crazy!” His references are “Be Jimmy Page” or “Be Jeff Beck.” In those sections, we can pretty much do whatever we think is appropriate, so that’s where I might bring out my Michael Schenker riffs. But I know my place, and I’m aware that dropping Yngwie licks all over the solo to “Eighteen” would be tremendously inappropriate. My main job is doing a great job for Alice—and for the people—and that means playing the songs properly and with respect.

How do you craft the tones for the various musical phases of Cooper’s career?
The majority of the stuff we’re playing is the ’70s era—about 85 percent of the set—and I’m sure they were playing cranked Marshalls back then. So the gain isn’t too saturated, and I actually think it’s more powerful to have guitars playing with less gain—not clean, but not buzzy, either. I set channel one on the Diamond head for a clean tone—something that sounds great on “Welcome to My Nightmare” with my ’74 Strat set to the neck position. Then, there’s my main tone on channel two—which is a very powerful, old-school rock sound. I use that channel about 90 percent of the time for rhythm and lead—I don’t use any kind of solo boost. For a little more hair—like on Alice’s 1989 hit, “Poison”—I will go for a more modern, saturated tone using the B section gain on channel two.

Are you constantly playing with the controls on your guitar to change tonal colors?
No. My tone knobs are basically disconnected, and whenever I’m playing live, the guitar’s volume is usually full up. For solos or certain sections, I’ll go to the rhythm pickup to get that tone, but I’ll typically stay on the bridge pickup.

How difficult is it to reconcile arena stage moves with what you have to deliver musically? 
Alice wants us to be out there full-tilt rocking, and he wants the show to be bombastic. So the entertainment element is always there—even though I try to be true to my instrument. But I wear the guitar low for how it looks, and there’s a fine line between looking good and being able to deliver the licks when the guitar’s down at your knees [laughs]. Playing the parts properly is really the bottom line, so if a part is difficult, I might pull the guitar up on my thigh. One of the coolest tricks is to actually drop down on your knees. The people are going, “Man, he’s on his knees—he’s really rocking!” But I’m thinking, “Man, it’s ten times easier playing these licks this way!”

Keri’s Krew

Guitars: Two Les Paul Standards (tobacco burst and standard burst, both with Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro humbuckers in the neck and bridge), Gibson Firebird (white with blood splatters—also loaded with Seymour Duncans), ’74 Fender Stratocaster (fretboard is scalloped; pickups are Seymour Duncan Vintage Staggered), Gibson Les Paul SG Custom, Crafter GLXE-3000S. All guitars are tuned to Eb.

Amps: Two Diamond Amplification Spec Op 100-watt heads (one primary, one backup amp) into six Diamond Amplification Spec Op 4x12 cabs (three loaded with the stock setup of two
Vintage 30s and two Celestion G12H Anniversarys, and three loaded with four Vintage 30s.

Effects: The pedalboard includes a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power II, a Morley Bad Horsie wah, a Voodoo Lab Analog Chorus, a DigiTech digital delay, an Ernie Ball Volume Pedal, a MXR Phase 90, and a Dunlop DC Brick. Connected to the amp’s effects loop are an MXR Super Comp, a DigiTech Synth Wah, and an ISP Decimator.

Strings & Things: Dean Markley Jimi Hendrix strings (.011-0.52), In Tune custom extra-heavy picks, Shure UC LX wireless.
—Brian Sateia [Kelli’s tech]