Alice Cooper is going on the record to separate fact from six decades of embellishment, previewing his new memoir, 'Devil on My Shoulder,' ahead of its release this week.

The book, out October 6 in the U.S. through Da Capo Press and October 8 in the U.K. through Ebury Spotlight, digs into the tension between Cooper's horror-theater stage persona — guillotines, snakes and all — and his offstage life as a sober, churchgoing family man. According to the publisher's description, the memoir recounts Cooper's brushes with cultural figures including John Lennon, Salvador Dalí, Groucho Marx, Frank Sinatra and Jimi Hendrix.

'A Tangle of Embellishments'

Cooper, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, has said the goal of the book is to set the record straight after more than 30 albums and over 60 years in the spotlight turned his own story into what he calls 'a tangle of embellishments, elaborations, and outright fabrications.'

SEPARATING MYTH FROM REALITY

He's backing the release with an eight-date speaking tour in the U.K., where each stop will pair Cooper with a different guest moderator for a conversation followed by an audience Q&A — a more intimate format than his famously theatrical arena shows.

The memoir arrives as Cooper, still touring well into his seventies, continues to be treated as rock's elder statesman of shock theater, with a new generation of acts citing his stagecraft as a blueprint.