Shock rock icon ALICE COOPER will be ushered into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame during the 26th annual induction ceremony, tonight (Monday, March 14th) at New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Set to be honoured alongside singer Alice Cooper himself are drummer Neal Smith, bass player Dennis Dunaway, keyboardist Michael Bruce and the late Glen Buxton, who died of complications from pneumonia in October 1997.

Cooper's influence spans generations and to celebrate the aforementioned honour, BraveWords.com asked self-confessed Cooper junkie MELIAH RAGE guitarist Anthony Nichols to reflect on what Alice meant to him as a youth and onward in his musical life. That was the beauty of Vincent Furnier, his macabre masterworks not only touched the rock community, but he was embraced full throttle by swarms of metalheads post-70's and he lapped it up.

So let's pass the mic to powerful riff-meister Anthony Nichols as he expresses thoughts on the legend that is Alice Cooper:

"The year was around 1972 and I was eight or nine years old visiting some relatives in Joplin, Missouri that I had never met before. I vividly remember a distant female cousin who was probably in her early teens bringing me into her room and started playing a record for me to hear. The first thing I remember about that was the album cover that had a snakes head on it and the inside was a calendar with the singer being hung by a rope. You would think that would be the most memorable moment of that day a very young kid, but it wasn't. Then the music began and I was instantly mesmerized by the sound which was heavy, dark but somewhat catchy. I was too young to realize music genres or if a band was controversial, but I did know that I liked that sound.

That record was Alice Cooper's 1971 Killer and almost 40 years later I'm still mesmerized by that sound! During the following years, I picked up every Alice Cooper record that was released at the time including their other 1971 release Love It To Death which along with Killer will always will be in my top ten list of desert island classics. I'm certainly not alone with these feelings as early Alice Cooper along with BLACK SABBATH laid the template for dark heavy metal for years to come which is the most beloved form of rock music period in my book!

Getting deeper into the history and career Alice Cooper you will find there are really two different Alice Coopers. From the late '60's to the mid-'70's, Alice Cooper was a band which consisted of Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton on guitar, Dennis Duaway on bass, Neal Smith on drums and Vincent Furnier who adopted the name Alice Cooper as the band seeked a gimmick early on. Their first two records Pretties For You and Easy Action were pretty much unlistenable unless you were on drugs. Of course it being the late '60's, there were probably a few fans of these two records, but the real magic happened when the band hooked up with producer Bob Ezrin who ended up producing the band's next five records. Those five records were titled Love It To Death, Killer, Schools Out, Billion Dollar Babies and Muscle Of Love and would produce most of Alice Coopers hits. Songs like 'Schools Out', 'Eighteen', 'Elected' and many others from those records are still being played on a daily basis around the world. Quite simply they are classic records and have influenced hard rock and heavy metal to this day in one way or another without even mentioning the performance, image, shock rock and lyrics that have influenced ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON and just about every shock rocker in the last 40 years.

Like a lot of bands after years of recording, touring, partying and just being glued to each other, the members decided to part ways in the mid '70's. That leads us to second career of Alice Cooper where he went solo under the same name. As a solo artist he uses studio musicians and has been releasing records to this day including 1975's Welcome To My Nightmare which along with the earlier band releases is considered a classic to this day.

Finally, the heavy, dark yet melodic music of Alice Cooper has certainly been an influence on me as I've heard more than once that Meliah Rage has tried to achieve this sound. As stated before, I think heavy metal is the most beloved form of rock music by a mile and along with Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper set the table for decades to come for metalheads!"