BY DAVID MENCONI, Staff Writer
THE NEWS & OBSERVER (Raleigh, NC Daily)
In a twisted way, Kid Rock is the Jesse Helms of rock ‘n’ roll. Like North Carolina’s retired senator, Rock (real name Bob Ritchie) has lots of detractors as well as acolytes. And among the latter, he is beloved for always making it clear exactly where he stands.
So if you’re going to Rock’s show in Raleigh tonight, you probably have a pretty good idea about the R-rated, beer-drinkers-and-hell-raisers spectacle you’re in for. As Rock puts it in his new album’s closing track, he’s a “Lowlife (Living the Highlife).” And if that’s not your thing, it’s best to stay far, far away.
By now, he’s used to it. Ask him to name the best and worst things about being Kid Rock, and he laughs.
“The best thing is the love, and the worst thing is the hate,” he says, calling from a tour stop in Huntington, W.Va. “It’s pretty cut and dried. I’m not a guy where too many people say, ‘Eh, he’s all right.’ But there are people who would lay down and die for me, and others who would not miss me a bit. I’ve gotta live my life and be myself. I try to be respectful where it’s earned, outgoing and nice to the people I care about and anyone who looks up to me.”
Of course, there is that other side, the hate. Last fall, Kid Rock hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts for the first time with his 10th album, “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Atlantic Records), featuring his usual blend of classic-rock riffs, punchline country and angry blue-collar populism. But Rock made fewer headlines for his music than for a pair of altercations.
One was at September’s MTV VMA Awards, where Rock got into a dust-up with Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee over their mutual ex-wife, Pamela Anderson. The following month, Rock was arrested after a scuffle at a Waffle House in Atlanta, after which his mugshot traveled far and wide across the Internet.
“The things in between, things happen and cell phones and cameras are everywhere,” Rock says. “So the news is what you see. It’s the times we’re living in, but it’ll pass. Within five to 10 years, I think people will finally start to say, ‘OK, enough.’ The general sense I see is that people already don’t believe half of what they read. It’s entertainment and they understand that at the end of the day, it’s not credible or newsworthy.”
Meantime, Rock has his “Rock N Roll Jesus” tour, an overt attempt to unite hip-hop with white-trash country and redneck rock. To that end, the show features Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts as well as Run-D.M.C.’s Rev. Run.
Run-D.M.C. always had a streak of rock, going back to the metallic guitars on 1984’s “Rock Box” and the breakthrough collaboration with Aerosmith on 1986’s “Walk This Way.” Still, Run (Joseph Simmons) adopted the title “Reverend” a few years back. It’s hard to imagine a man of the cloth abiding the stripper-pole hedonism of a Kid Rock tour, and some of the language on songs such as “So Hott” (chorus: “I wanna [expletive] you like I’m never gonna see you again”).
Rock says it all works out just fine.
“We’d talked about doing a record together, and he called one day and said, ‘I wanna rock,’” Rock says. ” ‘I know you’re going out on tour and I want to do a few songs with you, get back into that.’ ‘Dude,’ I said, ‘I’ve got this idea for a tour that’s perfect.’ It was to do a rock ‘n’ roll-style revue like the old Motown tours. Kind of a crazy idea, but we stuck with it and worked it out. We cover a lot of ground, everything from ‘Rock Box’ to ‘Walk This Way,’ old-school stuff. It’s super-entertaining.”
As to the post-show extracurricular activities, Run apparently manages to keep his distance.
“He doesn’t judge people, he judges what’s in your heart,” Rock says of Run. “We sit and philosophize and talk all the time. He knows me, my family, my kids — our kids call each other ‘cousin’ — so he knows how good my heart is. I mean, yeah, I’m a single guy, I go out and meet women, drink, this and that. But at the end of the day … I can’t say how he feels, but he does not judge people.”
Speaking of odd-couple pairings, perhaps the oddest in recent memory was at this month’s Grammy Awards. Rock appeared with Keely Smith, the late Louis Prima’s duet partner, to sing “Old Black Magic” — and it was, to put it charitably, a mess. The pairing was not Rock’s idea, but it’s exactly in character with the slot he fills at awards shows.
“It’s been weird like that throughout my career, I’m always ‘that other guy,’” he says. “I was Dave with Sam, singing ‘Hold on, I’m Comin’.’ I was Waylon with Hank [Williams Jr.], I’m D.M.C. And now they call me up wanting me to be Louis Prima singing a swing-jazz song? What? But I’m glad Keely was cheeky about the whole trainwreck, God bless her.
“She didn’t look at the teleprompter, just started talking. And I stared at her and asked, ‘What would you like to do?’ ‘Anything you want, honey,’ she said, winking. Then they started the music and the monitor wasn’t on and it’s not a song that just starts out 1-2-3-4 — it’s in sixths or something. So I knew I was off at the start, there was nothing to do but hope I’d catch up. There was a moment when I was two bars off and just laughing to myself, ‘What the [expletive] are you doing, trying to sing swing jazz in front of the entire world?’”
But as usual, he got away with it. And as usual, the party continued long into the night.
“When it was over,” Rock says, “I said to Keely, ‘After that, I need a drink.’ ‘Oh, let’s,’ she said.”
david.menconi@newsobserver.com or blogs.newsobserver.com/beat or (919) 829-4759.
