Alice Cooper Has Jimi Hendrix To Thank For Longtime Manager

According to Contactmusic.com, Alice Cooper owes Jimi Hendrix his career - because the guitar legend introduced the shock rocker to his longtime manager.

The shock rock legend has been represented by Shep Gordon since the 1960s - and it was only because of Hendrix that the pair met in Los Angeles, launching Cooper's band's career.

He tells Britain's Daily Express: "My manager for the last 40 years has been Shep Gordon. In the late Sixties, Shep met Jimi at an L.A. hotel pool with (soul band) The Chambers Brothers. When Jimi asked Shep what he did he replied he didn't know yet. Jimi replied: 'Are you Jewish? You should be a manager.'

"One of The Chambers Brothers then said, 'There's a rock band living in our basement and they need a manager.' If Jimi hadn't been sunbathing that day who knows where we all might have ended up?"

The Alice Cooper Band will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame March 14.

"Getting in the Hall Of Fame is about the ultimate thing you can do when you're a garage band from Cortez High in Phoenix," Cooper told Azcentral.com. "It's the most humbling thing in the world when you realize who else is in there. You look out at the audience, and every guy who influenced you is sitting there, and they are the people who voted on you."

Cooper and his original band - guitarist Michael Bruce, bassist Dennis Dunaway, drummer Neal Smith and late guitarist Glen Buxton - will be honored at a ceremony in New York City.