Alice Cooper was in a "reflective" mood on his latest album.

The rock legend released 'Detroit Stories' – his 28th studio album – earlier this year in homage to his home city and explained that he wanted to remember the guitar and metal music that came from the area in the early 1970s.

In an interview with Sorted magazine, he said: "It's an album that was always meant to be reflective and respectful to that era and the people who shared it.

"It was a special time and I've found that the older I become, the more I think about the past."

Alice, 73, also stressed that he is only looking to the future and that "sentimentality" in music should be confined to the chords.

The 'School's Out' singer explained: "I think sentimentality in music should begin and end in the chords. You can't bring back the past and you shouldn't want to. Talk about it, sing about it, but live in the present!"

Alice also revealed that discovering golf by chance during the 1970s saved him from alcoholism.

He said: "The golf thing was lucky – I stumbled upon the game, by chance, in the 1970s. It was one of those celebrity events that I basically saw as an opportunity to play a few shots and drink a few while I was there.

"Yet something really clicked for me – something in the sport gave me a purpose."

Alice continued: "When you start to look around you at the beauty of the world, it switches you on to the magnificence of it all.

"I had spent years inside bars and clubs and tour buses, and all this beauty had passed me by. All of a sudden it was there, and I started to piece together the wonder of it all, and the fact we are here to enjoy and savour this... it all started to make a bit more sense."