Original Alice Cooper group still angry with late Glen Buxton on new song "I Hate You"
Surviving members of the original band aired grievances at each other before turning their anger on the guitarist who died in 1997, producer Bob Ezrin says.
A song on Alice Cooper's new album "Detroit Stories," released in 2021, finds the surviving original members of the Alice Cooper group directing anger at guitarist Glen Buxton, who died in 1997, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. The track, "I Hate You," features bassist Dennis Dunaway, drummer Neal Smith and guitarist Michael Bruce.
Producer Bob Ezrin said the song is "very truthful in the sense that they all aired their grievances with each other in a very loving, openhearted comical way," per the outlet's reporting. He said the members "all came together and told the most fundamental truth about the Alice Cooper group as it is now, that there is a hole on stage."
Alice Cooper himself said of the song, "That was really heartfelt. All of us really do miss Glen," according to Ultimate Classic Rock.
Why Buxton looms so large
Cooper described Buxton's death as pivotal to the band's identity going forward: "Glen passing away was the stake in the heart of the original band. He was our Keith Richards," he said, per the retrieved coverage. The lyrics quoted in the reporting turn from the members criticizing their own flaws to addressing Buxton directly over his absence: "We hate you, we hate your sneer / The cigarettes, the smell of beer / But most all we're filled with rage / At the empty space you left on stage."
What the song represents for the band
Ezrin's framing — that the song expresses anger specifically because Buxton "gave himself away" — points to a decades-long tension the surviving members apparently still carry: gratitude for the band's legacy paired with unresolved frustration at losing a founding member to his own choices. That the song appears on a 2021 album underscores how long that frustration persisted after Buxton's 1997 death.
What the coverage does not address
The retrieved reporting does not specify the exact circumstances of Buxton's 1997 death or detail any prior public statements by the surviving members about him between 1997 and the 2021 album's release.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Ultimate Classic Rock. It restores a story originally published on this site in April 2021; figures are as reported at the time.