Ty Stone’s music career got sizzle from Kid Rock

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/...-rock.html

Ty Stone’s music career got sizzle from Kid Rock

BY TRICIA DESPRES

Feb 23, 2011

Ty Stone will be one of the opening acts for his mentor, Kid Rock, in concert at the United Center.

KID ROCK, JAMEY JOHNSON; TY STONE

♦ 7 p.m. Feb. 26

♦ United Center, 1901 W. Madison

♦ Tickets, $29.50-$89.50

♦ (800) 745-3000; ticketmaster.com

So, did you hear the one about the guy who was working flipping burgers at a hamburger joint in Los Angeles until the day his friend casually handed a demo tape to Kid Rock at a Detroit Pistons game?

Well, it’s no joke. In fact, it’s the beginning of the fairy tale of Ty Stone, a country rocker from Detroit coming to Chicago on Feb. 26 along with Jamey Johnson as the opening acts on Kid Rock’s “Born Free” tour.

“In my wildest dreams, did I ever believe that some rock star would pull me out of a hamburger place and introduce me to people like Elton John or Axl Rose?” says Stone from the white van he currently refers to as his tour bus. “In one word — no.”

But as the story goes, that’s exactly what happened. While on a cigarette break in the alley behind Molly Malone’s Irish Pub, Stone received a voicemail that would change his life.

“It was from Bob [Ritchie, aka Kid Rock], asking if I wanted to come to Detroit,” Stone recalls. “He sent me a limo to pick me up from the airport. We pull up in front of his house and here comes Kid Rock out the front door, grabbing my bags out of the trunk. It was surreal.”

Armed with rock-hard vocals and a down-to-earth attitude, Stone is on the verge of bursting out of the shadow of some of his more well-known Detroit friends. Originally from Lincoln Park, Mich., Stone has put countless amounts of sweat and tears into a music career that didn’t start taking off until being signed to Kid Rock’s label in 2007. Now, his country-tinged, blue-collar anthems are starting to hit the airwaves, beginning with his current single, “American Style.”

“I think it’s true for everyone when I say cool songs tend to write themselves,” he claims.

Now living in Nashville, the 34-year-old says he hopes to release his first album with Top Dog Records/Atlantic Records later this summer.

“This record took four years to be made and, yes, I probably changed directions a number of times during those years in terms of what I wanted to put out there,” Stone says. “During that time, I wrote over 100 songs, and this record is the best of all of it. It’s been a lot of digging to get where we are today. It can be tough being a small piece of a big machine. But overall, I’ve certainly developed as a musician, and I’m a stronger person than ever before.”

Stone says he and his bandmates are looking forward to spending a day in Chicago before their United Center appearance.

“Growing up in Detroit, Chicago was the big city and the place to go to party,” he says. “You can be sure we will be out rocking the neighborhood before the show.”

Tricia Despres is a local free-lance writer.