Earlier this year, the Rick Rubin-produced, folk-country Born Free followed suit. The album features Zac Brown on “Flyin’ High,” Trace Adkins on “Rock Bottom Blues” and, on the standout track “Collide,” both Sheryl Crow and Rock’s childhood idol, Bob Seger.
And that’s just the musical side of things. Watching the economy of Detroit — and the nation as a whole — go bust, Kid Rock decided to get involved. First, he rescued, then reinvigorated, failing Michigan clothing company Made In Detroit, putting a whole new staff back to work with street-smart designs.
“We even have a Rosie the Riveter shirt on our site,” he says. “That was a company that was close to me when I was growing up, but it was going bankrupt and being sold. So I went and bought it, just because I didn’t want to see it die. And I’m not making a dime from it, not a penny, not that I don’t plan to one day. But right now I’m trying to show that there’s some good shit going on in Michigan, and there are ways that we can help out and actually have fun while we’re doing it.” Which was also the thinking behind Kid Rock launching his own signature beer, Badass American Lager, brewed locally with water from the Saginaw aquifer. In this case, he started the line out of spite. “I was angry that Budweiser, Coors and some of our greatest American companies sold out, at a time when this country needed them most,” he vents. “I don’t know about a lot of things, but I know about music, and I know about beer. So I came up with one with no aftertaste, no frills. You don’t need to put a lemon in it. Our ads feature a Badass bottle with this old rusted-out truck with no tires sitting on it, and it says ‘That’s the only way you’ll ever see a lemon on it!
Read the full article at CSIndy.com.
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