Alice Cooper, born in 1948 as Vincent Damon Furnier in Detroit, Michigan, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, and radio personality. At age 16 in 1964, Furnier started what would become a music career by recruiting four sports teammates to create a band for their local school talent show, calling themselves the Earwigs. The group used costumes and wigs to resemble the Beatles and won the talent show. Throughout the next four years, the band overcame lineup changes, band name changes, and even added to their stage presence—snakes, guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, and various other horror imagery and props.