Fifty years after he first performed here, Alice Cooper is returning to Huntsville. The singer is known for classic hits like “Eighteen” and “School’s Out,” as well as his influential shock-rock stage show.

In 1975, Cooper’s “Welcome To My Nightmare Tour” — his first as a solo artist, as the moniker “Alice Cooper” originally referred to an entire band — hit the Von Braun Center.

Now, Cooper is bringing his “Too Close For Comfort Tour” to the VBC’s Mark C. Smith Concert Hall on May 2. Tickets start at $59.50 (plus applicable fees) and go on sale 10 a.m. Friday via Ticketmaster.com and the VBC Box Office, address 700 Monroe St.

Cooper’s classic songs also include “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “Poison,” Elected” and “Under My Wheels.” His horror-meets-vaudeville stage show features a guillotine and live snake among other props, as well as his signature eye-makeup look.

The Sex Pistols, Mötley Crüe and Guns N’ Roses are among the many famous artists Cooper’s influenced. The Detroit-born singer was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.

Cooper last performed in Huntsville in 2019. That setlist included songs like “Feed My Frankenstein,” “Billion Dollar Babies” and “Escape.”

Cooper’s 1975 VBC show was during the Huntsville arena’s first year of operation. His stage show on that tour featured giant spiders, a 9-foot-tall cyclops and even a show-tune dance number.

In our 2016 AL.com interview, Cooper recalled what it was like touring the South at the height of his pop-culture fame and controversies regarding his stage show.

“It was in some ways dangerous,” Cooper said. “Because it was at a time when I was certainly the poster boy of everything the religious right was against, and here I am now [more recently] teaching Bible study every once in a while and becoming a Christian.

“I’ve never been a militant Christian, and there were people, especially at that time, that were militant,” Cooper said. “They would tear my records up on TV and they would burn it. I was ‘Satanic’ and all this. We were not Satanic but at the same time we were indescribable, so it was very easy for people to look at it and say ‘Satanic.’”

His band in ‘75 featured Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, guitarists also known for their live work with Lou Reed and ghosting on Aerosmith’s studio version of “Train Kept A Rollin’.” Decades later, Alabama natives and guitarists Damon Johnson and Eric Dover were members of Cooper’s band.

Just last week, Cooper, with “Use Your Illusion” Guns N’ Roses member Gilby Clarke filling in on guitar, performed at Mobile’s Saenger Theatre. Cooper’s longtime shredder Nita Strauss had prior comments. Orianthi, the mononymous blues-rock virtuoso formerly with Cooper’s band, was previously scheduled to sub for Strauss.

But partially due to injury, Orianthi needed to bow out and Clarke was brought in. There’s no word yet on whether it will be Clarke, Orianthi or Strauss performing with Cooper in Huntsville. His ace touring band also features guitarists Ryan Roxie and Tommy Henriksen, bassist Chuck Garric and drummer Glen Sobel.