Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock (also known as Bobby Shazam), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper. His style alternates between rock, hip hop, country, and metal. A self-taught musician, he has said that he can play every instrument in his backing band and has overseen production on all but two of his albums.
Kid Rock started his music career as a rapper and DJ, releasing his debut album Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast (1990) on Jive Records.
His subsequent independent releases The Polyfuze Method (1993) and Early Mornin’ Stoned Pimp (1996) saw him developing a more distinctive style, which was fully realized on his breakthrough album Devil Without a Cause (1998), which sold 14 million copies. This album and its follow-up, Cocky (2001), were noted for blending elements of hip hop, country and rock.
His most successful single from that period, “Cowboy” (1999), is considered a pioneering song in the country rap genre. His best-selling singles overall are “Picture” (2002) and “All Summer Long” (2008). Starting with his 2007 album Rock n Roll Jesus, his musical output has tended to be in the country and rock styles. (wikipedia)
Rock n Roll Jesus is the seventh studio album by Kid Rock, released on October 9, 2007. Rob Cavallo co-produced the album with Rock.[8] The album was not available at the iTunes Store in an act of protest by Kid Rock regarding a royalties dispute.[9] It was nominated for two Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album and Best Male Vocal Performance for “All Summer Long” at the 2009 Grammy Awards. “All Summer Long” from the album was named the official theme song for WWE Backlash 2008 as well as “So Hott” for WrestleMania XXV and “New Orleans” for WrestleMania 34.
The album features the vocals of golfer John Daly on “Half Your Age” and the rock hit “All Summer Long” which has brought the album to triple platinum status in the U.S. and in Canada. “Sugar” is the only song on the album that features rapping vocals. This would be the last album that Rock raps on until 2017’s Sweet Southern Sugar.
The album’s first two singles, “So Hott” and “Amen”, both did relatively well on the Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock charts. On the Mainstream Rock chart, the singles peaked at No. 2 and No. 11, respectively—the former one becoming the biggest rock hit of his career. The tracks peaked at No. 13 and No. 27, respectively, on the Modern Rock chart.
The album’s third single, “All Summer Long”, was a massive worldwide hit. It peaked at No. 23 on the Hot 100 chart, despite Rock boycotting iTunes and receiving minimum digital downloads, and No. 4 on the country chart.
It went to number one on charts in eight countries across Europe and Australia. “Roll On” and “Rock n Roll Jesus” were released at the same time as follow ups to “All Summer Long”. “Roll On” failed to chart in the U.S. but reached No. 59 in Germany and No. 67 in Austria. “Rock n Roll Jesus” peaked at No. 34 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart.
The album’s sixth single, “Blue Jeans and a Rosary”, was released in January 2009. It would peak at No. 50 on the U.S. Country Chart. “Lowlife (Living the Highlife)” was released as the album’s seventh single on March 8, 2009.
Rock n Roll Jesus has received mixed reviews from critics. The album has a score of 63 on Metacritic, based on 12 reviews. Rolling Stone gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, stating “His good-hearted faith in rock & roll delivers a powerful kick. As he well knows—and Rock N Roll Jesus proves—roaring guitars, truckloads of attitude and an unquenchable lust for life make up for a multitude of sins.” Billboard stated “We may be more entertained at times by Rock’s extramusical affairs, but the “Devil” should still be given his due as a clever and creative musical force.”
The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, selling about 172,000 copies in its first week. It is Kid Rock’s first and only album so far to top the Billboard 200. The album rebounded in March 2008 when “All Summer Long” was released as a single climbing back into the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 staying for 17 weeks. It has been certified 3 times platinum by the RIAA and it had sold 3,493,000 copies in the US as of December 2013.
Worldwide the album has sold 5 million copies, and it was certified 2 times platinum in Canada and gold in Germany, Austria and Australia. (wikipedia)
When it comes right down to it, what Kid Rock attempts is kind of tricky: he’s trying to create new classic rock, songs to compete with Skynyrd and Seger as the soundtrack of choice for jukeboxes and pickup trucks across the country. This is the sound of the white-trash, downriver rocker in him coming through, triumphing over the jive rapper who brought him his fame. It was there even when he was aping the Beastie Boys and yodeling in the canyon, but once the country-rock of “Picture” revived the sales of the flagging Cocky, he put all his chips on classic rock, beginning with 2004’s eponymous platter, a good record without a single hit single.
That lack of a hit was enough to scare Kid, to strip away his few lingering subtleties and turn out an album as big, bold, and brainless as 2007’s Rock N Roll Jesus. Apart from a drum loop here and a chanted bridge there, this is classic white-trash rock through and through, but where his heroes were creating a blueprint, Kid Rock is doggedly following their path, and he won’t ever let you forget it, either. He name-drops relentlessly, steals songs titles from both Alabama and Billy Squier, cribs rhyme schemes from Seger and melodies from Elton John (“Blue Jeans and a Rosary” is straight out of “Levon”), adopts John Fogerty’s fake mushmouth Southern accent for his obligatory Big Easy salute, “New Orleans,” and pays homage to Back in Black with his cover art. He works hard to evoke the ghosts of the past, hoping that all his allusions will give him classic rock cred by association, when it only winds up underscoring the distance between him and his heroes. Nowhere is this truer than on “All Summer Long,” a spin on “Night Moves” built entirely upon the chords from “Werewolves of London” with a slight lift from “Sweet Home Alabama” on the chorus, which only brings to mind how much better those three songs are than this mash-up.
Kid Rock’s problem on Rock N Roll Jesus is two-fold: his music is so cluttered with comforting clichés, it plays like music for a theme restaurant, and his words fall flat. Of the two problems, the music isn’t as serious: splashy and silly though it may be, at least it gets the basic sound right, even if it’s way too polished and precise. Kid chases after shopworn riffs without ever reworking them or infusing them with enough spirit to make them his own; they just lie there, crushed beneath the weight of classic rock history. Nor does he goose his conventional chords with his signature ribald humor, which perhaps is the most shocking and notable thing about Rock N Roll Jesus: he’s lost all of his verbal facility, to the point where he can no longer tell a dirty joke. It’s as if by leaving rap behind, he’s also discarded any claims at being clever.
The man who once saluted all his heroes in the methadone clinics now just lazily spits out profanities and rhymes “things” with “things,” telling lowlife tales so generic they feel invented. It’s not that his topics are tired — easy sex is as timeless a topic for rock & roll as true love — but he’s no longer inhabiting a role, he’s acting it, which makes his tawdry tales not only cheap, but disposable. There’s one exception to this rule and that’s his nasty, clumsy David Allan Coe-styled kiss-off to ex-wife Pamela Anderson, “Half Your Age,” the one song that is truly steeped in the dirty grit of real life. It may ring true, but it’s so mean-spirited, it strips him of any residual roguish charm — and when a rogue loses his charm, he just comes across as a prick, as Kid Rock does on Rock N Roll Jesus. (by Stephen Thomas Erlewine)
Personnel:
Rayse Biggs (trumpet)
Jimmie Bones (keyboards, harmonica)
Dan Dugmore (pedal steel-guitar)
Stephanie Eulinberg (drums)
Paul Franklin (pedal steel-guitar)
Larry Fratangelo (percussion)
Aaron Julison (bass)
Jason Krause (guitar)
David McMurray (saxophone)
Billy Powell (piano)
Kid Rock (vocals, guitar, banjo, lap steel guitar, piano, percussion, synthesizer, talkbox, turntables, organ)
Marlon Young (guitar, bass, mandolin)
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John Daly (vocals on 11.)
Vinnie Dombroski (drums on 01. + 05.)
Bobby East (slide guitar on 12.)
Jeff Fowlkes (drums on 08. + 12.)
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background vocals:
Barbara Payton – Sylver Logan Sharp – Jessica Wagner – Hershel C Boone
Tracklist:
01. Rock N Roll Jesus (Tudrick/Young/Ritchie)
02 Kid Rock Amen (Ritchie)
03. All Summer Long (King/Rossington/Marinell/Shafer/Ritchie/Vanzant/Wachtel/Zevon)
04. Roll On (Young/Ritchie)
05. So Hott (Young/Ritchie)
06. Sugar (Ervin/Simon/Smith/Krause/Young/Shafer/Ritchie)
07. When U Love Someone (Young/Shafer/Ritchie)
08. New Orleans D. A. Coe, R. J. Ritchie Rate
09. Don’t Tell Me U Love Me (Young/Shafer/Ritchie)
10. Blue Jeans And A Rosary (Young/Ritchie)
11. Half Your Age (Ritchie)
12. Lowlife (Living The Highlife) (Eddie/Ritchie)
It was 1989, my thoughts were short my hair was long
Caught somewhere between a boy and man
She was seventeen and she was far from in-between
It was summertime in Northern Michigan
Splashing through the sand bar
Talking by the campfire
It’s the simple things in life, like when and where
We didn’t have no internet
But man I never will forget
The way the moonlight shined upon her hair
And we were trying different things
We were smoking funny things
Making love out by the lake to our favorite song
Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking ’bout tomorrow
Singing Sweet home Alabama all summer long
Catching Walleye from the dock
Watching the waves roll off the rocks
She’ll forever hold a spot inside my soul
We’d blister in the sun
We couldn’t wait for night to come
To hit that sand and play some rock and roll
While we were trying different things
And we were smoking funny things
Making love out by the lake to our favorite song
Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking ’bout tomorrow
Singing Sweet Home Alabama all summer long
Now nothing seems as strange as when the leaves began to change
Or how we thought those days would never end
Sometimes I’ll hear that song and I’ll start to sing along
And think man I’d love to see that girl again
The official website:
Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971), known professionally as Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, musician, record producer, and actor. In a career spanning over 20 years, Rock’s musical style alternates between rock, hip hop, and country. A multi-instrumentalist, he has overseen his own production on nine of his eleven studio albums.
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