‘Rocky Horror’ at 40: Hear Soundtrack Outtake, Read Producer’s Reflections
“Rocky Horror never surprises me,” says Lou Adler, who executive-produced The Rocky Horror Picture Show. “I can be sitting in the most conservative meeting about some other subject, and somebody will say, ‘I have to admit…,’ and then they give me their Rocky Horror story.”
Later this month, Adler will be able to say he’s heard four decades’ worth of Rocky Horror lore, since the cult movie about newlyweds trapped in a mansion with a “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania” will be turning 40. To celebrate, the film will be reissued in a limited-edition box set, which is due out September 22nd and comes with collectibles like fishnets and pink surgical gloves. A reissued version of the classic soundtrack is available now. The album, retitled Absolute Treasures: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, is available digitally and on red vinyl and CD, and it includes the movie version of the song “Sword of Damocles,” which has never before been available on a soundtrack.
Adler originally brought the theatrical production, The Rocky Horror Show, over to the States from the U.K., keeping original actor Tim Curry in the iconic, starring role of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, and he has seen Rocky Horror grow from a cult film to a $150 million success. “It is the longest-running film in history, so it’s touched a lot of people,” Adler says. “When you look at the grosses of Star Wars or E.T., and you see these enormous numbers, you have to remember Rocky went from a cult film to making $150 million when tickets were $3 and $4. So the amount of people that have seen Rocky is probably way above that have seen those other films.”
Adler, who started out in the record industry working with Herb Alpert, Jan and Dean, and Sam Cooke before producing Cheech and Chong, and Carole King’s Tapestry, recently spoke with Rolling Stone about how Rocky Horror became more than a cult sensation.
You saw a theatrical production of The Rocky Horror Show in 1973 and decided to bring it to the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. What struck you about it?
Well, Tim Curry’s legs to begin with. As much as he had a manly feel about him, it was seeing him dressed as Frank-N-Furter in heels. When it was playing at the Roxy, even if I didn’t go for the whole show, I always made sure I was there for the entrance. So it was that and the music. I was brought up in the Fifties with that pop rock & roll music. The fact that musicals had any rock & roll sense, like Hair or Jesus Christ Superstar, was interesting. Musicals all had Broadway-type music then. That’s what got me.