Alice Cooper’s always struck me as a down to earth person who didn’t have
that rockstar attitude and this story pretty much confirms that for me. In the early 90’s
an Alice Cooper fan was on the verge of losing his home. The fan went to pretty
extreme lengths to get some attention to keep his home and possibly sell it. But,
to his surprise he made headlines everywhere and even got the attention of Alice Cooper’sbut sadly
the story wouldn’t have a happy ending. That’s what we’re going to discuss in today’s video.
A California Homeowner named Patrick Kelly who according to some news reports was either an
unemployed musician or a real estate investor purchased a home in Riverside California in 1987
for $265,000. He had hoped to flip the house and resell it and make a profit.
He put the home up for sale in 1990, but the soft real estate market resulted in
him continually dropping the asking price down to $250,000. Several years after being on the market
there wasn’t a single showing at the property and by 1992 Kelly and his
family were on the verge of being foreclosed on owing thousands of dollars in backpayments
Patrick would tell a local news station he fell asleep one night with his headphones on
and had a dream about what to do with the house. Unhappy with his bank Patrick spray painted his
house psychedelic colours drawing pictures and lyrics in homage to The Rolling Stones,
Elvis and his favourite artist Alice Cooper. The paint job of course angered his neighbours,
caught medias attention and soon became a tourist attraction
drawing people from out of state and was soon dubbed “the house of alice.’
Here’s a news clip from 1992 covering the house and the neighbours reactions
Show News Clip Up to 1 minute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WEE0qiW698
Splice from 1:19 to 1:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov5nbZTFxpg&t=4s
Alice Cooper would see the story on CNN. During the media coverage Patrick claimed he was in
touch with Cooper’s management to see what could be done to save the home. Initial reports claimed
that Cooper would visit the property and even loan the family the money to get out of foreclosure
on the condition that it not be repainted and stay as a tribute to the rocker.
Then On Nov 22, 1992 the rockstar showed up to the home to a crowd of 3,500 people.
Cooper would talk to fans, sell his merchandise and signed autographs for six
hours to help raise funds for the Kellys, Cooper would tell the phoenix gazette
"People in rock 'n' roll live in such a fantasy world," "It's one of those things where I think
we forget there are a lot of people out there one or two payments away from the street.” After
his appearance at the the house Cooper would then take to the airwaves and host a syndicated radio
auction Saturday, selling rock n roll memorabilia donated by friends, including Aerosmith, Kiss,
Billy Idol and Guns n Roses. The LA Times reported that, Ozzy Osbourne sent a $1,00. check,
and Eugene, Ore., radio station KLCX also helped out raising another $1,000 from it's listeners.
Cooper would raise around $13,000 which was enough to bring the Kelly’s mortgage
up to date. The shock rocker would tell the phoenix gazette "I know you can't go around
saving everyone losing their house, but maybe this could spark something,” “This is such a
good idea somebody should take it and really get it going. ... Helping the guy next door,
that's the important thing." "It reminded me of 'It's a Wonderful Life'," Cooper says. "People
were coming in with $3 here, $5. there, $10 here, until the job was done. It was
certainly the longest autograph session I've ever done. It lasted five or six hours."
Patrick was shocked at the reaction telling a local news crew
"I didn't think it would get anyone's attention except the neighbors and the local cops,"
“I think he's a hell of a nice guy for doing something like this. I never expected it."
But the story wouldn’t have a happy ending.
The $13,000 that Cooper raised was just for the backpayments and didn’t wipe out the entire
mortgage. Kelly’s next mortgage payment was due in January of 1993 in the amount of $1,300.
During an interview with the phoenix Gazette he would tell the paper he was looking for work but
that he won’t pursue a career in real estate. The LA Times followed up on the story the same
month and discovered that the Kelly’s defaulted once again on their payments and abandoned the
home. The family would be tracked down by the local animal control office who found
four dogs left behind at the property. The family was tracked by animal control
to an orange county motel. The family opted to only keep one of the dogs. .