Alice Cooper To Join Barack Obama At Arizona Graduation?

Alice Cooper will reportedly share the stage with Barack Obama when the President delivers a commencement speech to an audience of 8,000 Arizona State University graduates and more than 60,000 attendees this Wednesday, May 13th, at Phoenix's Sun Devil Stadium. Why is the shock rocker on the same bill as Rolling Stone's Number One Agent of Change? According to Blabbermouth, Cooper will perform his 1972 ode to summertime and the end of education, "School's Out." He'll be backed by the band Runaway Phoenix, which features Alice's son Dash Cooper, who is on pace to graduate from ASU in 2010.

"Of all the people I've ever shared a stage with, Obama is the biggest rock star," Alice said, joking, "And I'd like to thank him, in advance, for changing the national anthem to 'School's Out.' " Despite widespread reports of Cooper's appearance at commencement, however, a search of the ASU official Website makes no mention of the "School's Out" performance. For Cooper, the ASU commencement would represent the strangest thing he's done since teaching Wayne and Garth how to properly pronounce "Milwaukee" in Wayne's World. (Granted, "School's Out" was also performed by ">Slash and the American Idols last week.)

In fact, as we head off into June, "School's Out" seems primed to become a summertime hit again after Idol gig; it will also feature during the promotion of the upcoming film I Love You, Beth Cooper. Cooper will hit the road this summer to play various fairgrounds this summer.

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

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