Alice Cooper says Keith Moon was his hero

ALICE COOPER has said that Keith Moon was the ultimate rock 'n' roll hellraiser.

The rocker said late Who frontman is one of his biggest musical heroes because of his infamous hotel-trashing behavior.

Moon even tried to blame rats for the damage he caused to a room before convincing the manager to join in his rampage.

Cooper said: "There are so many Keith Moon stories out there, thousands! Once, he left his tape recorder in the hotel room next door to him. So he starts putting a huge hole in the wall. The manager comes into the room and is like 'What is that?'

"So Keith replies, 'Rats. Big rats, and I'm not paying my hotel bill until you get rid of the big rats'. The manager, obviously not being taken for a fool replies, 'Well that will actually cost you £16,000.'

"Keith says, 'So I've pretty much paid for the whole room then, right? So lets just trash the whole lot!' The manager then helps him trash the whole room."

Moon died of a drug overdose in 1978 and his bandmate, bassist John Entwistle passed away in 2002 of a heart attack reportedly caused by cocaine use.

The two surviving members, guitarist Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltrey, are planning on releasing a new album in 2010.