Alice Cooper to open Rock Solid Teen Center in West Valley
Sep 18, 2023, 8:43 AM
Alice Cooper visits the SiriusXM Studios on Sept. 7, 2023, in New York City. Cooper is opening another Phoenix-area Solid Rock Teen Center in Goodyear, Arizona. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
(Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
PHOENIX – Shock rocker-turned-nice-guy Alice Cooper is expanding his free performing arts program for teens to the West Valley.
The third location of Alice Cooper’s Rock Solid Teen Center is expected to open next year in Goodyear, in the former library on Van Buren Street just west of Litchfield Road, the city announced.
“With the support of the local community, more teens will have a safe space to spend their time, and they can also pursue their dreams with free high-quality music, art and dance lessons,” Cooper said in a press release last week. “[Wife] Sheryl and I look forward to joining teens in the recording studio, being on stage with teens and in the dance studio at the Goodyear teen center.”
Cooper previously opened Solid Rock Teen Centers in Phoenix and Mesa.
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What are Alice Cooper’s Rock Solid Teen Centers?
The venues provide free music, dance, photography and art classes as well as vocational training in sound/recording, staging/lighting, video production for people ages 12-20.
“I am thrilled to have Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center join the Goodyear community,” Mayor Joe Pizzillo said in the release. “It’s so unique and something that’s really needed in our city to give teens a safe, fun place to learn and express themselves through the arts.”
Cooper famously started his first band, known as the Earwigs and then the Spiders, while attending Phoenix’s Cortez High School in the 1960s.
He hit the big time after moving back to Detroit, where he was born, with classics such as “I’m Eighteen,” “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and “School’s Out.” The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer later made Paradise Valley his permanent home.
Lineup for Cooper’s 2023 ‘Christmas Pudding’ benefit revealed
Cooper recently announced the date and lineup for this year’s “Christmas Pudding” concert, an annual benefit show for the teen centers. Sammy Hagar, Nancy Wilson of Heart, Quiet Riot and Sixwire will join Cooper on the rotating stage of Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix on Dec. 9.
Before then, Cooper will perform in front of the hometown fans this Sunday as part of Rob Zombie’s “Freaks on Parade” tour stop at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre in Phoenix.
