Alice Cooper’s Right: Iron Maiden Should Be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Ask any metalhead who they think should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and you’re liable to get scores of band names hurled at you. Motörhead, Ronnie James Dio, Scorpions, Alice in Chains, Megadeth… The list goes on. During a recent Q&A on last month’s Rock Legends Cruise (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), shock rocker and dude who thinks trans people are a “fad”, Alice Cooper, said the most obvious thing when it came to the Rock Hall topic: Iron Maiden should already be in the damn thing.
Cooper, who’d been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 2011, noted that all inductees become voters for future classes after they’re added to the hall. When asked who he thinks should be in but isn’t, the answer was pretty clear:
“Iron Maiden. I mean, come on — Iron Maiden. How can you dis Iron Maiden? They have their own army out there. And another one is [American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist] Burt Bacharach. Burt Bacharach wrote as many hits as The Beatles and he’s not in the Hall Of Fame, and yet there’s other guys that are in the Hall Of Fame that were writers. that weren’t anywhere near Burt Bacharach. So, Burt Bacharach is certainly something that I would say.”
He’s not wrong about the whole army thing. Iron Maiden fans around the world are rabid supporters of that band and rightfully so. Any band that features a 70-something dude running and jumping around a massive stage for a couple hours each night while hitting high notes deserves to have a rabid fanbase after all these years.
Oh and Cooper’s not wrong about Burt Bacharach, either. Dude was a fuckin’ legend.
As for the inclusion of rap and country acts to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cooper said he had a hard time parsing why those genres were creeping into the hall.
“Yeah, it’s really hard for me to put somebody, let’s say, like Missy Elliott in with The Who. I mean, those are two different worlds. But, like you said, it’s a lifestyle. And it’s really who brought what to the table. If somebody came in and had an impact that wasn’t there before, and that’s why you’ll see some interesting people in the Hall Of Fame. I was like you. I was in there going, ‘Come on. It’s rock and roll bands — that’s what rock is. But then I kind of loosened up that idea. Even Dolly Parton said, ‘I don’t belong in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.’ I mean, she’s going, ‘What am I doing in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame?’ But then she made a rock record. I don’t think anybody begrudges her that, but I would still I would prefer to see an Iron Maiden in there before I would see some of these other ones. Joe Cocker [would be good too]. [He] got my vote too [this year].”
