Alice Cooper was not just "Elected" but "inducted" into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Monday March 14, 2011, at the 27th annual Rock Hall ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.
Additional performers joining the band in the class of 2011 included Dr. John, Neil Diamond, Darlene Love, Tom Waits and Leon Russell.
Acknowledged as one of the most influential groups in rock history, Alice Cooper invented the concept of the rock concert as theatre with truly trailblazing stagecraft and showmanship in the early 1970's; with Alice himself continuing as a solo artist since 1975 and remaining one of rock’s global megastars with well over 50 million record sales to prove it.
"We've always been a hard rock band we just wanted to do it with a little bit of style," stated Cooper with yellow snake in tow.
"Now that we are in, I wish we could say we wouldn't embarrass you, but that's what we do...We are Alice Cooper!"
Post induction, the surviving original band members, Alice Cooper, Dennis Dunaway, Neal Smith and Michael Bruce, were joined on stage by guitar great Steve Hunter, who filled in for the late Glen Buxton.
They rocked the venerable ornate ballroom singing "I'm Eighteen," "Under My Wheel," and with help from Rob Zombie and the chorus from the Ronald McDonald House a special rendition of "School's Out".
Rob Zombie, one of the many performers who have been influenced by Alice Cooper over the years, inducted the band into the hallowed Hall.
"Before Alice Cooper there wasn't a whole lot else out there," said Zombie, "They invented the rock show and its about time!"
In addition to a performance this Friday March 18, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, with special guest guitarist Dweezil Zappa, Alice Cooper will be on tour from this spring gearing up for the fall release of "Welcome 2 My Nightmare," a sequel to his 1975 concept album "Welcome to My Nightmare."
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