Singer and songwriter Neil Diamond was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, crooning his signature mellow rock songs in a stark contrast to fellow inductee heavy metal band Alice Cooper.
Diamond and Alice Cooper were honoured alongside Tom Waits, Darlene Love and Dr John at a black tie event at New York’s Wardorf Astoria hotel, with Cooper performing in a typically theatrical fake blood-spattered shirt and eye makeup while thanking the crowd with a live snake writhing around his neck.
“We have always been a hard rock band, we just wanted to decorate it a little bit differently,” Cooper said after his band performed the 1972 hard rock anthem School’s Out. He later opined the “shock rock” style the band helped originate was gone — “I don’t think you can shock an audience anymore,” he said. —Reuters