The first batch of shows for the upcoming UK tour just announced. More dates to be added soon!
Nov 30- London, UK- Hammersmith
Dec 2- Zurich, Switzerland- Maag Event Hall
Dec 3- Munich, Germany- Zenith
Dec 6- Vienna, Austria- Stadthalle Wien
Dec 7- Schladming, Austria- Planai Arena
Dec 9- Hamburg, Germany- Sporthalle
Dec 10- Berlin, Germany- Columbiahalle
Dec 12- Offenbach, Germany- Stadhalle
Dec 14- Dusseldorf, Germany- Philisphalle
Kid Rock’s latest album ROCK N ROLL JESUS album climbed up to the #2 spot this week on the charts with over 100,000 units sold! Thanks to all the fans out there for picking up the new album and requesting “All Summer Long” at their local stations….much more to come…stay tuned.
Not one to mince words, Kid Rock nevertheless says don’t ask him to sound off on affairs of state.
“I truly believe that people like myself, who are in a position of entertainers in the limelight, should keep their mouth shut on politics,” the rap-rock musician, 37, tells CMT Insider. Click HERE to read the entire interview/feature from people.com now.
Kid Rock will shoot the video for his latest single “Roll On” this Wednesday in Detroit. The track is off his latest album ROCK N ROLL JESUS in stores right now! More info on video coming soon, stay tuned…
By Jonathan Perry
Globe Correspondent / August 25, 2008
MANSFIELD - Rebel flags and Run DMC. Southern rock royalty and hip-hop history. Slide guitar solos and turntable scratching. Confederate ghosts and Compton toasts.
Rock & Rebels Tour
With Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd
At: Comcast Center, Saturday
Saturday evening’s Rock & Rebels Tour double bill of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock made for a double-dose boilermaker of high spirits and lowlifes - 30 years of motley musical traditions that shot all the way from Jacksonville and Detroit to New York City and Boston.
Improbable as it may have seemed, the pairing worked wonderfully well and even made strange sense, thanks in large part to Kid Rock’s all-inclusive, junkyard jumble of hip-hop, hard rock, outlaw country, and gospel-tinged testifying.
During his 90-minute coheadlining set, the Michigan-born rapper-singer threw in everything but the kitchen sink, and then threw that in, too. Call him a trailer park Beck without the sense of duty to irony or good taste.
Backed by an 11-piece band, Rock rapped his way through a crass catalog of mostly unprintable observations on the three essential party food groups: sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll.
But amid the escape-fantasy aggregation of pimps, playas, and prostitutes who populate Kid Rock’s toxic tales, there were also calls for tolerance and unity (the acoustic gospel anthem, “Amen,” for one) that befitted a white artist so indebted to African-American music.
As if to underscore that point - and have one hell of a party while doing so - Rock brought out Run DMC’s Rev Run for torrid miniset duets on Run DMC’s “It’s Like That” and a scorching cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” Then, to keep the Boston theme going, out came ex-J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf to dance and trade verses with Rock on “Centerfold.” Along the way, we also got the nasty bravado of “Cocky,” a lethally salacious “Cowboy,” and a fistful of bling from Rock’s latest album, “Rock N Roll Jesus,” including “All Summer Long,” whose melody borrows Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.”
It thus made sense when Kid brought out Skynyrd’s lone original members - guitarist Gary Rossington and pianist Billy Powell - to replicate their parts live.
Performing live is one thing Skynyrd has perfected.
Of course, the band was all but destroyed in a fatal plane crash in 1977 that claimed four people, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.
But it’s been 21 years since a reformed lineup, featuring Ronnie’s younger brother Johnny on vocals, returned to the road to play classics like “Sweet Home Alabama,” “What’s Your Name,” and, of course, the flicked-lighter (now lighted cellphone) epic, “Free Bird.”
During its 75-minute coheadlining set in the second slot, Skynyrd played those and more with the kind of fiery precision that comes from years spent refining a clutch of classics that rivals those of just about any American rock band.
Johnny Van Zant’s voice didn’t have the wounded poignancy or preternaturally aged swagger of his older brother, but it got the job done, and the songs across.
Skynyrd’s three-guitar frontline attack was intact, and made for an orgy of swapped leads on numbers like the swamp boogie of “Gimme Three Steps” and the haunted epic “That Smell.” Both were cautionary tales from a band whose music was always more complex than its self-styled redneck image suggested. Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock, rednecks and rap: a Saturday night special, indeed.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2008/08/25/rebels_make_saturday_night_so_special/
By Tom Kielty
Kid Rock’s appreciation for American music has always been more than skin deep.
From the beginning of his career, the Detroit native has liberally mixed such seemingly disparate ingredients as the hip-hop influence of Run-DMC with deep Southern soul inspired by the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd and ’70s bar blasting rock such as that created by the J. Geils Band.
On Saturday night, Rock personally reached out to each of these influences and the result was the type of American music revue that only a uniquely American artist could envision.
Backed by his eight-piece Twisted Brown Trucker Band, as well as two female backing singers, Rock (given name, Bob Ritchie) worked through his recent forays into gospel with the triumphant “Amen” as well as such earlier hits as “American Bad Ass” with a seasoned stage experience. He also welcomed a slew of influential guests.
The first were Lynyrd Skynyrd survivors Billy Powell and Gary Rossington, who contributed keyboards and guitar to “All Summer Long,” Rock’s latest hit single that samples that band’s classic, “Sweet Home Alabama,” as well as Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.”
Rock later welcomed the Reverend Run of Run-DMC fame for electrifying runs through that band’s “It’s Tricky” and its ’80s collaboration with Aerosmith, “Walk This Way.”
As if his vocal Steven Tyler impression were not memorable enough, Rock then immediately welcomed Peter Wolf onstage for the Geils Band gem, ‘Centerfold.” Not many artists of any age can keep up with the energetic Wolf, but Rock easily stood his own, seeming to inspire the veteran.
The current incarnation of Lynyrd Skynyrd may not be all veterans, with only Powell and Rossington remaining from the band’s ’70s glory, but this group’s stomping performance brought the audience back to that era.
Singer Johnny Van Zandt has now fronted the group for more than twice as long as his deceased brother, Ronnie, and his delivery of a collection of classics including “That Smell,” “Gimme Three Steps” and “Simple Man,” which was accompanied by a video montage of servicemen that spanned both genres and wars, was a reminder that the band’s material was worthy of inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with Rock as their presenter) in 2006.
Yes, they closed with “Free Bird,” and yes, it was fantastic.
kielty_tom@yahoo.com
http://news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view/2008_08_25_For_Kid_Rock__American_Rock_is_where_it_s_at/srvc=home&position=also
Missed Kid Rock’s performance on ABC’s Good Morning America this past Friday morning? Don’t worry ABC.com got you covered! Click HERE to watch highlights from Kid Rock’s performance with Lynard Skynard right now - don’t wait!
By Jennifer Rogers News Producer
Kid Rock’s new hit “All Summer Long” is charting on rock, country, Top 40 and adult contemporary radio stations around the country. The music superstar will bring his hits to the Port City for the 14th Annual BayFest Music Festival in October. Kid Rock is scheduled to perform on Saturday, October 4 in Downtown Mobile.
Kid Rock joins other confirmed acts Rodney Atkins, Blake Shelton, Eric Church,
Buckcherry, Avenged Sevenfold, Puddle of Mudd, Saving Abel, MAZE featuring Frankie Beverly,
The O’Jays, The Whispers, and The Stylistics.
The BayFest Music Festival will be held October 3, 4 and 5 in Downtown Mobile. Advance tickets are on sale now.
http://www.wkrg.com/local/article/kid_rock_to_rock_bayfest/17138/
Two Unconventional Artists Proved the Worth of Authenticity and Simplicity
August 21, 2008; Written by Chet Flippo
Nashville Skyline
In a year when Kid Rock seems to be becoming a welcome alternative to many young aspiring country singers, I start rethinking some things. And they all have a way of going back to realness. Not just reality. But real-ness. As in grit. True grit.
I think that’s what Kid Rock is. That also brought up in my mind a country singer who isn’t mentioned much these days but who made a mark because of her real-ness, in an era when that was unlikely. And that’s Kitty Wells. She and Kid Rock are alike in one regard: Each is an original and each became an unlikely country success. And each has, I think, a bit of a lesson for today’s country.
Kitty Wells deserves every female singer’s thanks. Not just female country singers. But female singers, period. Madonna. Mariah Carey. Amy Winehouse. If it weren’t for a few pioneering women like Kitty Wells or Hazel Dickens … many or most of these women singers would still be waiting in line behind all the cute, young dudes. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that women country singers were routinely referred to and labeled as “girl singers.”
Kid Rock is what a lot of young aspiring country singers want to be. The rebel. The wastrel. But you can’t act that. You can’t pose that. You either are that or you aren’t. The distinctive country stars of today don’t have to try to be something or somebody. They are who they are, whether it’s George Strait or Alan Jackson or Kenny Chesney or Tim McGraw or Keith Urban or Toby Keith or whomever. They know who they are, and they sound like who they are. That’s why they have huge followings. They have an identity and a style. That’s why fans love them.
Kid Rock has had some country hits because he too has something to offer country fans that they’re not getting from anybody else. And he’s not posing. He is who and what he is. And he’s writing direct and simple songs. They work. I’m not saying he’s what all country music should be, because he’s not. But he’s got more of the spirit and fire of the traditional country music soul than a whole lot of the young new candidates I see trotted out on a regular basis. Kid acts like he doesn’t give a damn. And he doesn’t, about a lot of things that more conventional people do. But he does care, about things like paying careful attention to songwriting and recording and performing. That’s why his current CD Rock N Roll Jesus sold over 100,000 copies last week, 45 weeks after it was released. That’s more than any country album can manage to sell in a week these dark days.
As for Kitty Wells, she’s been on my mind ever since I toured her new Queen of Country Music exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. It’s a fitting tribute, one that traces her pioneer’s progress from 33-year-old housewife and mother to overnight country star.
Back when women in country music were not supposed to be heard above a respectful “Yes sir, I’ll get your coffee now,” Kitty Wells was standing up to be heard.
As a result, Patsy Cline could also stand up and be an individual and a star, and so could Tammy and Dolly and Loretta and Barbara and Trisha and Patty and Lee Ann and LeAnn and Carrie and Taylor. And so on.
Wells’ Hall of Fame exhibit is more about her modesty and her gingham dresses than about sequins and flash, but she got her message across in a very large way in 1952.
Her massive hit “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” more or less blew the barn doors wide open. At the time, Wells was an unassuming “girl singer” for her husband Johnnie Wright’s duo of Johnnie & Jack. When they were on the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, La., she was sidelining as “Rag Doll,” a radio disc jockey and seller of quilting supplies. Her husband had changed her real name of Muriel Deason to a new stage name of Kitty Wells, taken from an old sheet music title. When Johnnie & Jack moved to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, she had been recording with no real success. But she cut an answer song to Hank Thompson’s huge 1952 hit, “The Wild Side of Life.” She was initially hesitant to cut the song, written by J.D. Miller, but was convinced by the $125 session fee. She was not put off by the song’s directness and bluntness about cheating. It was not a view that women in polite society were expected to voice publicly.
The song countered Thompson’s story line of “I didn’t know God made honky-tonk angels” with her answer song and its initial release sold more than 800,000 copies. It became the first Billboard No. 1 hit for a female country artist. Women listeners responded in a big way. It was a song with a strong backbone and a fierce, if understated, attitude.
The lyrics confronted Thompson’s song with such replies as: It wasn’t God who made honky-tonk angels/As you said in the words of your song/Too many times married men think they’re still single/That has caused many a good girl to go wrong.
The song was so controversial for the time that both the NBC radio network and the Grand Ole Opry banned it. So, it worked. And women were heard. If you look at the Billboard top country artists chart of the 1940s, there were no women in the Top 20. For the 1950s, Kitty Wells weighed in at No. 10. In the 1960s, Wells was No. 11 and Loretta Lynn appeared at No. 15. For the 1970s, Wells had dropped away from the chart, but Dolly Parton, Lynn, and Tammy Wynette were solidly in the Top 10 and Lynn Anderson made the Top 20.
Wells continued on with a steady country music career of touring and later cut an album for the rock label Capricorn Records that is a pleasing amalgam of country, rock and R&B. She wonderfully covers both Otis Redding and Bob Dylan but still sounds like the thoroughly country Kitty Wells, with that trademark piercing voice. It’s an album I still play. Forever Young was recorded with leading Southern rock musicians. And it still sounds like a genuine original. A lot of people didn’t like it and still don’t. But it makes a statement. She has got that independent streak, quiet as she is.
And Kitty Wells is still very much a Nashville presence. And a good influence. We should introduce her to Kid Rock.
http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1593309/nashville-skyline-what-kid-rock-and-kitty-wells-can-teach-todays-country.jhtml
By ADRIAN THRILLS
When Kid Rock was mulling over ideas for his latest album, Rock N Roll Jesus, he hooked up with his friend Rick Rubin and played the legendary producer some new songs.
It wasn’t the first time he had sought the advice of Rubin, the man who helped propel rap music into the mainstream and revived the careers of Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond.
But if the hard-living, Michigan-raised singer was expecting a pat on the back, he was in for a surprise: the Kid was told, bluntly, that he needed to raise his game.
‘Rick Rubin told me to stop repeating my own name in every song and start writing about something more relevant,’ says Rock, 37, who was born Robert James Ritchie.
‘He reminded me that most American rock stars move to LA or New York, but that I was one of the few guys around who still lived in the place where they were born. I’m still in Michigan, and that should give me a much better idea of what’s really going on in America. Rick told me to write about that. So I went off to show him what I could do.’
The fruits of Rock’s invigorating chat with Rubin are evident on his current album and single All Summer Long. The change is paying off, too: All Summer Long gave the singer his first UK No 1, and he is finally getting wider recognition for his music and not just his turbulent relationship with ex-wife Pamela Anderson and a reputation for bar-room brawls.
Colourful and contradictory, Rock is a middle- class white boy who became obsessed with hip-hop and ran away from his suburban home to live in the Detroit ghetto.
Now a single parent with a 15-year- old son, Bob Jnr, he finds trouble hard to avoid. And while some of his songs are not for the squeamish (many of his records have ‘parental advisory’ stickers), he has still sold 24 million albums in a career that has seen him move from the rap underground to the pop charts.
Speaking from Nashville, on a short break from his tour with Southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd and veteran rapper Rev Run, a relaxed Rock admits sending out confusing signals.
He says: ‘Depending on where you get your information from, I’m either a hard- drinking, tabloid freak who’s always getting into fights, or a great guy who gives to charity, spends time with the troops in Iraq and raises his son to have decent values. I can be either of those people.
‘The one side people don’t see is me with my son. I spend a lot of time with him, but I keep it private. You won’t see pictures of that. And you won’t hear me talking about him.’
On All Summer Long, Rock combines snippets from two American rock anthems of the Seventies - Warren Zevon’s Werewolves Of London and Skynyrd’s southern epic Sweet Home Alabama - to tell his own, fondly remembered tale of an adolescent romance in Michigan.
‘It’s a true story,’ he continues. ‘When I look at the music I listened to as a kid, whether it was Bob Seger or Run-DMC, I believed totally in the songwriters. I felt a total connection to them. We’ve lost a lot of that, but my songs still seem to relate to working-class people.
‘In LA, people listen to Radiohead and the bands who are too cool for school, but I’m making money in Louisville, Kentucky. If you ever wanted to rob a trailer park, do it during a Kid Rock concert. When I hit town, the trailer parks empty out and everyone comes to the show.’
One of four children, Rock had an idyllic upbringing in the small town of Romeo that was about as far from trailer trashdom as possible. His dad, Bill Ritchie, ran two car dealerships. The family’s lakeside home was located in an orchard.
‘My dad used to pay me to collect apples,’ he recalls. ‘But, from the moment I heard rap music, I didn’t want to be in the orchard any more. I wanted to be a hip-hop DJ in Detroit.’
The teenager’s move to the city’s notorious housing projects understandably filled his parents with dread. His mother, Susan, often tracked him down to haul him back home.
‘My parents were completely freaked out by what I was doing, and I can now see what I was putting them through,’ he admits. ‘I’d moved to a tough neighbourhood. I was selling drugs and listening to rap, but I also learned a street sensibility that couldn’t be taught anywhere else.
‘My father once collected me from the middle of the ‘hood, took me to church and then dropped me back in Detroit. We get on well now. I’m really close to all my family. They come to the shows and rock out.’
After three independent albums, Rock broke through with his first major release, 1998’s Devil Without A Cause, a 12 million selling CD that kick-started his move from hard-hitting rap and heavy metal to a more rounded combination of Southern rock, soul ballads and country and blues.
Shortly afterwards, he also began a stormy relationship with film star Pamela Anderson. The couple eventually married in France in 2006, but divorced just four months later, with Rock claiming that Anderson had lied to him in claiming that she had suffered a miscarriage.
Some of his new songs reflect the split, but Rock insists he is now over the relationship.
‘If I see Pam, we will say hello and I’ll ask how she is,’ he says. ‘But that’s about it. I don’t want to be a part of that whole world any more. Let me put it this way. The stove was very hot. I touched that stove - and it burned my f***ing hand. I don’t think I’ll be touching the stove any more.’
As for his brushes with the law - he was charged after a brawl in an Atlanta waffle bar and also had a fight with another of Anderson’s former husbands, Tommy Lee, at last year’s MTV Music Video Awards - Rock says he never goes looking for trouble. It just seems to find him.
‘My problem is, I’m always standing up for people who won’t stand up for themselves. I should keep my nose out of other people’s business, but if I see a guy treating someone else disrespectfully, I’ll tell him to cut it out. Next thing I know, the fists start to fly.
‘It’s never been anything mean-spirited or a case of me wanting to start fights. It always seems to finish the same way - with me getting sued or ending up in jail.’
Now on the straight and narrow, Rock is focusing on his music and, as he points out, his dedication is paying dividends.
‘I’ve never been more comfortable in my own skin than I am now. I’m in my element as a songwriter, a father and a person. And people are finally accepting me for who I am.
‘But I’m not doing this to prove the critics wrong. I’m doing it to prove my fans right.’
• Rock N Roll Jesus is out now. Kid Rock tours the UK later this year. Dates to be announced.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1047901/Why-Kid-Rock-stop-kidding-around.html
The official website for the National Guard Warrior has now been launched. Head over to the site now to check out the brand new music video for “Warrior” and download the track too!
Click here to check out the track & video right now!
“Rock N Roll Jesus” experienced a 12% sales surge to 101,000, climbing 4-3 this week!
Head over to MTV.com to see Kid Rock featured as MTV Buzzworthy’s Artist of The Week!
Written by Robert Herrington
Lynyrd Skynyrd and the multi-genre Kid Rock sound as different as they are intertwined, but on Saturday night the two shared Verizon Wireless Music Center’s stage with both providing their fans a solid, powerful, rockin’ set.
The sold-out crowd, 25,000-plus strong, arrived early for Southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd, which was good because the show started 45 minutes early.
Among the great American rock bands, Skynyrd is also one of rock’s great tragedies. Three days after the 1977 release of “Street Survivors” – the album that solidified Skynyrd’s standing as a marketable and creative powerhouse – the band’s plane crashed in Mississippi en route to a show in Baton Rouge. Both pilots and four members of the band died, including vocalist and primary songwriter Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines.
Now only two original members (keyboard player Billy Powell and guitarist Gary Rossington) lead the rejuvenated band, which includes Van Zant’s younger brother Johnny singing the songs Ronnie and company wrote decades ago.
Sticking to the classics, Skynyrd played “What’s Your Name,” “You Got That Right,” “Gimme Three Steps” and “Call Me the Breeze.” Video images of American troops served as the backdrop to “Simple Man.”
“I’ve been waiting all night to say this, ‘I do believe it’s time for the south to rise again baby,’” Van Zant said before “Sweet Home Alabama” was played.
As the band exited the stage to the deafening applause, everyone in attendance knew what the encore was going to be, especially after a golden eagle statue was placed over a Confederate flag on the piano.
The crowd responded even louder, which caused the speakers to be turned up so the audience could better hear “Freebird,” As Van Zant sang the opening lyrics – “If I leave here tomorrow would you still remember me?” – names and photos from Skynyrd’s past flashed on the screen behind him in a touching remembrance of those no longer with the band.
About an hour later, those same fans roared with applause as Kid Rock sampled “Sweet Home Alabama” and Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” on the harmony- and acoustic guitar-laden “All Summer Long.”
Rock took the baton from Skynyrd and continued the evening of rock ’n roll laced with other genres. Saturday’s set list was stacked with staples from Rock’s 1998 breakthrough album, “Devil Without a Cause,” several tracks from 2007’s “Rock N Roll Jesus,” and a mixture of hits from the three albums in between.
Rock and his Twisted Brown Trucker band kicked things off with the title track to “Rock N Roll Jesus.” “Testify, it’s a rock revival!” Rock sang.
He continued with 2001’s hit about never meeting a person like him and intertwined that with 2000’s “American Bad Ass.”
It was like that all night, with Rock and his band slashing through rap, country, gospel and rock.
Showing just how far his style has evolved since his rapping debut, Rock’s gospel “Amen” centered on how hard life is in American. To lighten the song’s heavy message, Rock stopped the music and instructed all in attendance to high-five someone they didn’t know, just as he did by running around the stage and greeting as many audience members as he could.
Rock’s second career single, “Cowboy” became an interesting mess. He began with a cover of the chorus of “Midnight Runner” and detoured into a cover of the “Dukes of Hazzard” theme midway though the song, only to swing back into a fully amped version of “Cowboy.”
The set also included “Only God Knows Why,” “Devil Without a Cause” and “Picture.” Rock’s debut single, “Bawitdaba,” ended the night that left the crowd screaming as loud as they had hours earlier for Skynyrd.
By Robert Herrington
rherrington@noblesvilledailytimes.com
http://www.county29.net/cms2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17424&Itemid=230
We have heard that their are versions of “All Long Summer” on iTunes. Just to let you know this is NOT the official version from Kid Rock’s latest album Rock N Jesus, these are just cover versions.
On Friday, Aug. 22 Kid Rock & Lynyrd Skynyrd will be performing at New York City’s Bryant Park. This free show will be open to the public and is presented by Good Morning America as part of their Summer Concert Series. Those interested in attending should arrive at the park or studio no later than 7 a.m. For full details, visit GMA’s All-Star Summer Concert page.
Kid Rock’s ‘All Summer Long’ is #1 in:
Germany (GOLD!!)
Holland
Austria
Switzerland
Ireland
And….
UK…
Yes that’s No.1 in 6 EUROPEAN markets!!
And……
Sweden No.5
Norway No.19
AND Airplay is going up – EVERYWHERE! Now @ #6 on the European Airplay Chart!
‘Rock N Roll Jesus’ is also…
Germany No. 10
Austria No. 3
Switzerland No. 4
Ireland No.4
UK No. 6 (midweek)
Canada No. 6
Holland No.19 and climbing….
Much more to come……
Just certified double platinum by RIAA!
This may not come as much of a surprise, but Kid Rock isn’t exactly the biggest fan of following the rules.
So when it came time to release the third single off his Rock N Roll Jesus album, he decided to forego conventional wisdom, ignoring the most popular singles medium out there — a little thing called “digital” — and opting instead to simply push the tune to radio stations. And just why did he choose to do this? Well, because he’s Kid Rock, that’s why.
“I’ve always had a problem with people telling me, ‘Oh, you have to do this because you have to do it,’ ” laughed Rock, who was just announced as a performer at this year’s VMAs. “So when everyone was telling me that I had to release my single on iTunes because they own the market and that’s just what you’ve gotta do these days, I decided that I wasn’t going to do it. My whole career, I’ve done that. Whenever everyone’s headed in the same direction, I turn around and run the other way.”
Click here to read the entire interview/article with Kid Rock @ MTV.com
“Whenever everyone’s headed in the same direction, I turn around and run the other way,” he says.
By James Montgomery
This may not come as much of a surprise, but Kid Rock isn’t exactly the biggest fan of following the rules.
So when it came time to release the third single off his Rock N Roll Jesus album, he decided to forego conventional wisdom, ignoring the most popular singles medium out there — a little thing called “digital” — and opting instead to simply push the tune to radio stations. And just why did he choose to do this? Well, because he’s Kid Rock, that’s why.
“I’ve always had a problem with people telling me, ‘Oh, you have to do this because you have to do it,’ ” laughed Rock, who was just announced as a performer at this year’s VMAs. “So when everyone was telling me that I had to release my single on iTunes because they own the market and that’s just what you’ve gotta do these days, I decided that I wasn’t going to do it. My whole career, I’ve done that. Whenever everyone’s headed in the same direction, I turn around and run the other way.”
Essentially, by saying no to iTunes, Rock made it impossible for fans to download “All Summer Long.” He was instead betting on the fact that most people would be willing to shell out $15 for a copy of his album in order to own the song. It was a risky move, but in the end, it paid off. Jesus, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart back in October but had all but disappeared from the top 200, rocketed back into the top 10, and has sold more than 1.3 million copies so far. And “All Summer Long” continues to be a beast on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, thanks mainly to its near-constant radio play. And while most artists would spend every waking minute trumpeting successes like these, Rock is doing quite the opposite.
“This whole thing wasn’t some attempt to change the way the industry works or some sh– like that. It was basically me knowing I had a good song, one that people would love when they heard it,” he explained. “I mean, people say iTunes is popular because it’s convenient, but so is McDonald’s — that don’t mean people aren’t still making reservations to go eat at fancy restaurants too.
“I knew the track was solid — it’s got two of the best songs of all time mashed up together [Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Sweet Home Alabama' and Warren Zevon's 'Werewolves of London'], it’s got great melodies, so really, my work was done,” he continued. “I knew people would hear it and know I wrote it. They’d know it was real, and there’d be that connection. And that’s what’s missing in music today. I think people don’t believe half the sh– they hear some rapper or some pop girl singing about … but with me, they do. And that’s why people have reacted the way they have to the song.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the song is a totally killer summer anthem — a nostalgic celebration of sun-drenched days and beery evenings that just so happens to sound great on sun-drenched days and beery evenings — or that Rock is promoting the tune the old-fashioned way; by touring the bejeezus out of it alongside one of its progenitors, the almighty Skynyrd. It’s an old-school formula for success — one that the notably old-school Rock finds remarkably refreshing, given the times in which we live.
“I think today everyone’s worried about looking cool, about over-thinking everything, about all this bullsh–. If Jesus Christ were to come back tomorrow and forgive our sins, I feel like the first blogger who wrote about it would say something like, ‘Oh, Jesus Christ is a douche bag,’ ” he laughed. “I just think that’s a waste of time, and I think a lot of other people do too. I just want to have fun, enjoy life and have a good time. And I think there’s a lot of people out there who are just like me.”
And while he’s sticking with that line of reasoning, if prodded, Rock will finally admit to enjoying the success of “Summer,” if only because it stands as one giant middle finger to an industry that counted him out and called him crazy. And why does he feel this way? Because he’s Kid Rock, that’s why.
“I keep saying I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. I just knew I had a great song that flew in the face of everything you hear on the radio or in pop music. Basically, all pop music is now just bad rap songs, or like, Mariah Carey or girl pop, so this song is really a breath of fresh air,” he said. “People wanted to tell me how to release it, or that I was making a huge mistake by choosing to ignore iTunes and all that, but I’ve always known I can say ‘F— you’ to the best of ‘em, and I have done just that, many times before. And I’m sure I’ll do it many times again.”
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1592838/20080814/kid_rock.jhtml
by The Associated Press
Kid Rock and Lyrnrd Skynyrd
Kid Rock is back in the headlines.
The Detroit native’s current radio hit, “All Summer Long,” landed in the Top 20 of Billboard magazine’s Pop 100 and Hot Country Songs charts. In Austria, Ireland, Germany and Switzerland, it peaked at No. 1 on the singles chart.
Built on samples of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” “All Summer Long” diverts attention from Rock’s recent exploits.
As anyone who keeps up with pop culture knows, he: married Pamela Anderson in 2006, a union that ended quickly and disastrously; punched Anderson’s ex, Tommy Lee, at the 2007 MTV Music Video Awards; was arrested a few weeks later in connection with a brawl at a Georgia Waffle House.
Rock, who will share a bill Saturday with Lynyrd Skynyrd at Verizon Wireless Music Center, talks about his sixth studio album, “Rock N Roll Jesus”:
Question: Your music has not been genre-specific. Is this album?
In my previous albums I have always touched on different genres whether it has been hip-hop, country and the rock element. On this one I just feel more comfortable in my own skin than I have ever felt as an artist, songwriter, as a father, just as a human being. This is the record that everything has come together on.
Are you afraid that your tabloid headlines will overshadow your music?
I think it has in the last few years……. I never wanted that, but I knew what I was getting into when I got into everything I got into. The stove was hot and I wanted to touch it. I touched it and it burnt the hell out of me. I am hoping to bring it back to the music now.
Do you regret marrying Pam Anderson?
No. I fell in love. It was a great thing……. I was a complete idiot in love. I always say getting married was a ball. Being married sucked. Maybe for some people it is not meant to be.
What constitutes success for you on this album?
I wouldn’t be honest with myself if I said that it wouldn’t hurt if this album didn’t sell. It would. It would be painful because I think it is my best album to date……. I am scared of being broke and famous. That helps me to make myself better and always try to improve as a songwriter and singer so I don’t ever have to face that.
- By Alicia Quarles / Associated Press
Kid Rock
With: Lynyrd Skynyrd and Back Door Slam.
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday, August 16th.
Where: Verizon Wireless Music Center, 12880 E. 146th St.
Tickets: Sold out.
http://www.indy.com/posts/10735
After last year’s scuffle with Pam’s other ex, Rock returns with his certified hit.
By Gil Kaufman
Guess who’s coming back to the VMAs? Kid Rock. And this time, we hope, the only fists flying in the audience will be pumping in the air when he plays his titanic beach-weather anthem, “All Summer Long.”
After making headlines at last year’s awards for a fight with fellow Pamela Anderson ex Tommy Lee in the audience during Alicia Keys’ performance, Rock joins a roster of live performers on the September 7 show that already includes the Jonas Brothers and Lil Wayne.
Nearly a year after his Rock N Roll Jesus album debuted at #1, Rock has been making headlines for the record’s slow rise back into the Billboard top 10 thanks to the kick-back jam “Summer,” which mashes up samples of the classic rock staples “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.” The tune has charted on top 40, rock, country and adult contemporary radio, despite not being available on iTunes as a download, as Rock is one of the few remaining major holdouts on iTunes.
The 25th annual show, airing live from Los Angeles, will be hosted by British comedian/actor Russell Brand, who is making news himself this week for the surprise viral-video heat of his promo commercials for the show with one of last year’s most notorious performers, Britney Spears. Additional performers and presenters will be announced soon.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1592790/20080814/kid_rock.jhtml
Head over to MTV.com to catch Kid Rock ride in a helicopter, get lost in New Orleans and become a Sheriff. Plus they got exclusive performance clips of ‘Bawitdaba,’ ‘All Summer Long’ and more - that you can’t see anywhere else!
And don’t forget to keep it locked all week to the channel to see even more Kid Rock on your TV screen!
