Rocker builds refuge for troubled teens.

HE ONCE SANG SONGS WITH NAMES like "Welcome to My Nightmare," "Sick Things," and "No More Mr. Nice Guy," so Alice Cooper knows something about impressionable young minds. But Cooper, whose ghoulish makeup shocked audiences in the 1970s, says that despite perceptions to the contrary, "Kids love boundaries. We used to fight against them, but we really did want to know where we could go," he told the press.

So, to provide a physical and spiritual base for young people, Cooper is raising money for a 20,000-square-foot teen activity center catted The Rock, which will be built at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. A longtime supporter of the university, Cooper says the Phoenix area has been troubled recently with a wave of gang and drug activity. "In the middle of all that is a bunch of 12-, 13-, 14-year-old kids that can go one way or the other."

The $3 million center will have a recording studio, basketball courts, rock-climbing walls, a game room, and a concert hall. The project is being funded by the Solid Rock Foundation, a Christian nonprofit organized by Cooper.