Return, Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall! – Hosea 14:1

Today's Scripture Reading (April 17, 2026): Hosea 13 & 14

Alice Cooper admits there is a period in his career that is basically a black hole; he simply doesn't remember it. In a 2009 interview, Cooper made this comment.

Well, there's three albums that were basically my blackout albums – Zipper Catches Skin, DaDa and Special Forces. I wrote them, recorded them and toured them and I don't remember much of any of that (Alice Cooper, The Quietus, 2009).

A year earlier, he actually added a fourth album to that list: Flush the Fashion. All of the four recordings were made between 1980 and 1983.

You've heard of lost weekends—well, those were my lost years. I ambled through those albums and tours in a foggy haze. By the summer of 1983, I was drinking hard, rail thin, malnourished, and knocking on death's door. Again (Alice Cooper, Golf Monster, 2008).

Cooper at least recognized his problem, worked hard to get clean, and is still rocking his audiences forty years later. But if he hadn't recognized his problem, he might have never made it out of the 80s.

There is a song in the Alice Cooper catalog that has been called a bit of a historical curiosity. The song tells the story of a singer who is listening to his own music and doesn't remember ever writing it. It is a song that perfectly describes the lost years of Alice Cooper. The song is "I Never Wrote Those Songs." The opening words of the song say this:

My tape recorder, it must be lyin'
'Cause this I just can't believe
I hear a voice that's cryin'
That's not me
The wheel goes round, I hear a sound
It's comin' out all wrong
And I swear to you
I never wrote that song

The historical problem? The song was included on Cooper's "Lace and Whiskey" album and was written in 1977, before Cooper's black hole. It is almost as if Cooper knew where his life was leading him before the black hole that convinced him he needed to take a different path.

I have to admit that "I Never Wrote Those Songs" has long been one of my favorite Cooper compositions. And it is a good reminder that our actions have consequences. And it is not just politicians who sometimes want to distance themselves from the past; we often want to do the same thing.

God has made the argument that Israel has suffered because of their sin and the things they have done in the past. Now, he offers the solution. Return to me. James would sum up this concept for all of us.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up (James 4:7-10).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 27