2011 Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Honors Alice Cooper

Epic rockers Alice Cooper, Neil Diamond, Tom Waits, Dr. John and Darlene Love were honored on Monday night at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria. These renowned founding fathers of rock were inducted for their lifelong contributions to rock and roll music.

Mixed in amongst the crowd were some familiar faces that included Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bette Midler, John Mayer and Michael J. Fox.

Cooper, who rose to prominence with songs like School’s Out and Eighteen, was inducted by rocker Rob Zombie. Loyally true to form, Cooper wore a white shirt covered in bloodstains, plus a snake around his neck and black eye make-up.,"We’ve always been a hard-rock band," Cooper said. "We just wanted to decorate it a little differently."

While the choice of inductees came as no surprise as rockers become eligible 25 years after the release of their first song, it was the unlikely behavior of one of the nominees that became the talk of the night.

Although most would expect any sort of mayhem to come from notorious rock and roll bad boys Cooper or Waits, it was Brooklyn's own docile-natured Neil Diamond who stole the show with his unanticipated acceptance speech.

The jet-lagged rocker spurted out to the audience, "Here I am. I'm sorry I didn't write a speech. I just got off tour from Australia, I did a show two days ago, I got on a plane, commercial, yesterday. I've been flying my a** off for 45 hours, got in this morning. I have no idea where we are... What are we doing here? What the heck is going on right here?"

However, Cooper who was not to be outdone, invited a children's choir from Ronald McDonald House onstage to perform with him later on in the night. The Ronald McDonald House is a non-profit organization specializing in the care for sick children and their families. All the children rocked on as they also sported Cooper’s signature black eye makeup.

After all what would the legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame be without a little unexpected thrill to shake things up? Now generations to come can appreciate these rockers’ talent as the latest inductees to the prestigious list.