Alice Cooper on why he agreed to do 'The Muppet Show'

Alice Cooper's career spans more than four decades. He's a singer, songwriter and actor. He's appeared in such movies as "Wayne's World" and "Dark Shadows," but being on "The Muppet Show," he says, has been one of his favorite guest appearances. Cooper tells Yahoo Entertainment he got a call to be on the Halloween show in 1978 but was concerned "The Muppet Show" would "water down" his image. After some thought he decided to do it and says it was the most fun he's had. "It was the number one show in the world," Copper explains. "Everybody in the world loved that show and it was cleverly written." He rehearsed in London for a week and connected so much with the muppets he felt they were human. "They would react exactly how a person would react," he explains. "They never broke character." Watch the video above for more with Alice Cooper.

Video Transcript

LYNDSEY PARKER: There were all these movie musicals that were just so bonkers, "Xanadu," "The Apple," "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park." It seemed like between 1978 and 1980, like, everybody was trying to get in on this. Were you ever approached to do, like, your own variety show or your own TV show or maybe the rock star next door style sitcom or whatever? That would have been some TV I would have wanted to see.

ALICE COOPER: Yeah, and we turned most of that down, only because we were touring at that time constantly. It was at a time when Alice Cooper was at its peak. So if that were to come along later on, I did do a lot of stuff, you know, the "Wayne's World" and stuff like that later on.

But I never wanted to be in a show where I had to kind of totally lose the Alice character and become something else. You know, I don't mind doing guest shots. The way I met Johnny Depp was "Dark Shadows." In that movie, they were going back to 1972, and they said, well, Alice, you know, let's have Alice at this party. That's how I met Johnny, and that's how the Hollywood Vampires got started right there.

But that was fun to do a major movie with Tim Burton.

LYNDSEY PARKER: I know you did TV. You did, like, "The Muppet Show."

- You, sir, are a demented, sick, degenerate, barbaric, naughty freako.

ALICE COOPER: "The Muppet Show" was one of those things where it was the number-one show in the world because it was green people making fun of purple people. You know what I mean? And they weren't people. Everybody in the world loved that show. And it was very cleverly written.

So I get a call, and they go, how would you like to do the Halloween show? And I kind of balked at first. I went, oh, man. I said, you know, I've been spending all this time building this villain image. If this is just going to water it down-- I said, who was on, like, the last month? And they said, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price.

And I went, I'm in. I didn't have to think about it. I went, I am in. If those guys can do it, I-- I am privileged to do it. I never had so much fun in my life.

You rehearse for a week in London. And after a while, these Muppets were people. You were talking to them, like, what are you gonna have for lunch today? Oh, I don't know. I was thinking about going down-- and you catch yourself talking to this piece of felt because they would react exactly the way a person would react.

Miss Piggy would say, well, do you want a Diet Coke? Because I know that you're not drinking now. And I went, yeah. I said, sure, that would be-- but I mean--

LYNDSEY PARKER: So they never broke character.

ALICE COOPER: No. They never broke character.

LYNDSEY PARKER: They never just hung them up on the wall and, you know, shattered your world.

ALICE COOPER: They'd come into your dressing room. Hey, you want some lunch? Yeah, Kermit, I'll be right there. I got to--

- Freakos one, civilization zero.