"If a tree falls in the forest..." ;-)
Perhaps others pushed, but never made it to the other side.
Alice Cooper stepped over the threshold and smashed into the Rock scene on the strength of the quality of his music, his act, and persona. HE ALONE gets credit for being THE Pioneer of his genre.
Ugliest inductees are yet to come (when they pat Marilyn Manson on the back for doing what Cooper and even Trent Reznor did before him...
Agree. Manson was a weak AC II, and Cooper knows it.
And Elvis invented rock and roll. < /sarc >