LEGENDARY rocker Alice Cooper has run out of snakes for his stage show after his Scottish supplier was hit by a second snake death in two years.
Bill Crowe, 56, from Haddington, East Lothian, has been providing boa constrictors to Cooper's UK tours for 13 years.
Mr Crowe loaned the mascara-painted hell-raiser his first boa, Lady Macbeth, in 1997 after meeting Cooper at a record signing.
Lady Macbeth died in February 2011 and Dali, who weighs two stone (12.7kg), slithered along for his chance at fame.
But the 8ft boa, which features on the front of Cooper's newest album, has now died of suspected pneumonia.
Mr Crowe, a life-long Cooper fan, is frantically searching for another boa before the rocker returns to the UK this summer for his next tour.
The snakekeeper, who works with the NHS at Herdmanflat Hospital in Haddington, said: "Alice is back in the UK in August and Dali was expected to be there, but obviously he won't now.
"Alice and his people are aware that Dali's dead. They put an acknowledgment of his loyalty on their website.
"Dali started off with Alice in Belfast in 2011, and after that it was the photo-shoot for the new album Welcome 2 My Nightmare. He's on the front cover of that."
Mr Crowe said he was "frantically on the lookout for another sizeable boa constrictor" – but admitted "they're not easy to source". He said: "There are none locally. You have to travel miles to get one."
In a moving tribute to his pet snake, Mr Crowe wrote on Facebook: "Sadly, yesterday, after a battle against a respiratory ailment, Dali was put to sleep. A veteran of Donington, 2 UK Night of Fear tours plus the 100 Club gig in London, Dali also featured on the cover of W2MN and book. He was a great performer and will be sorely missed."
After the announcement, hundreds of messages of condolence flooded in to Alice Cooper's official Facebook page.
One Cooper fan, David Middaugh, wrote: "RIP Dali. Any snake that has rocked with Alice has had a good life and recognition."
Autumn Parry posted: "This is so sad. Dali was awesome –Rock on my slithering friend."
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