Yesterday we rang up our drinking buddy Kid Rock at the adult amusement park he calls home, near Detroit. We called to congratulate Rock for selling out all 35,000 seats of Comerica Park -- home of the Detroit Tigers -- in less than thirty minutes! Tickets went so fast for the July 17th hometown show that they added another night. “We try to do a lot of stuff to make it so everybody can come out,” he says. “The most important thing is keeping tickets right. Not to get greedy.” Those gigs are part of a huge Summer tour of the U.S.
Rock answered the phone at his home studio, where he's been crankin' away on the follow-up to his 2007 blockbuster, Rock & Roll Jesus. “I have 12 songs,” he tells us. “Everyone who’s heard it thinks it’s my best stuff ever.”
Rock had intended to be on the road right now, but postponed the run because he was feeling artistic. “Everyone thought I was crazy for turning down that money, but I saw I was in a good spot creatively.”
Rock & Roll Jesus guitarist Marlon Young is back, and Detroit-native Herschel Boone -- a veteran of Mary J. Blige's band, who Rock describes as a “tremendous singer" -- is helping out with melodies and vocals. Rock says that he's also been getting advice from producer Rick Rubin, and if all the stars align, the album may come out as soon as November.
And Rock hopes to have his signature beer available by Labor Day. Rock exclusively reveals to the S.S. that his beer will be named, fittingly, Bad Ass Beer. “It’s good. It just tastes like good American light beer, and there's no aftertaste.”
Rock adds, "There are so many funny ads you can do with a thing called Bad Ass Beer."
Click the jump to read about the marketing campaign and our full chat with Kid Rock!
Tell us about the new material.
I have 12 songs done right now. Everyone who’s heard it thinks it’s my best stuff so far. I’m trying to write really original, great, timeless songs. It just seems like it’s wide open, where I need to be, halfway between good rock songs and that country flavor. It’s really what I’ve always done, kind of all over the map.
Where did you write the songs?
Some of it was written on the road during the last tour, just melody ideas and stuff that I put lyrics to. A lot of it was done in three or four weeks here at the studio. I was supposed to be out now in the spring, but I canceled that tour. I was like, “I don’t know, I’m going to stay home and record.” Everyone thought I was crazy for turning down that money, but I saw I was in a good spot creatively. I just thought I could do no wrong, and thank God I followed my instincts.
Who’s in the studio with you?
My guitar player from the last record, Marlon Young, and I have a phenomenal kid from Detroit named Herschel Boone, who’s a tremendous singer. He’s probably one of the best singers I’ve ever seen in my life. He’s been on the road with Mary J. Blige, but he doesn’t want to be on the road; he wants to be at home with his kids so he spends the day at the studio with us helping me vocally, getting away from that auto-tune shit. We sing everything and play everything. I try to do it the right way instead of the easy way. My longtime engineer, Al, is still here. I’ve been writing with Kracker a lot too.
Where did you meet Herschel?
I met him through Marlon. The kid is unbelievable. He was raised like one of the Jackson 5, that old mentality. Dad wakes him up, him and his sisters, and he’d play G chords and make them sing three-part harmonies. He has unbelievable instinct when it comes to singing. He’s got me singing in new ways on a couple of songs, which is kind of Marvin Gaye-ish. It’s something I’ve never tried or done before, and it’s worked out really good.
When will the album be out?
We have it scheduled for November now, but that depends on if somebody like Rick Rubin comes in, if we’re going to keep the demos I have now and turn those into songs or if I’m going to go back into the studio somewhere and grab great players and really step it up another level. I’m kind of scared about that because I don’t want to make a record that sounds like a lot of the music that’s out today. It kind of loses the feel. Today’s music is so packaged and derivative. I don’t want it to sound like it’s something that came out of a Nashville studio with the same old players. I don’t want it to sound like a lot of these rock records that are big. They just lose the feel.
Some of the magic, sometimes, is in the demos. That’s what I was talking to Rubin about. We keep talking about it and we’ll see what will be the right way to do it. You have to go for the feel of the songs that are great and not really worry about whether it’s going to be accepted by the radio and all that stuff, because that’s never what I’ve been about.
Any chance we’re going to hear that stuff this summer, at the shows?
Yeah, there’s a chance of it. I’m thinking about doing that for the first time. I don’t like to get out and bore people with new stuff, but I think there’s a few of the songs that are instant listeners when you hear them, and people go, “Wow.” So if we start rehearsing them, which we have, and some of them start coming out that way, then I’ll pull some of those out during a performance. But I like to look at it like a fan. I like to go out and play the hits and pop in some of the old stuff that we haven’t played in a while and switch it up. I like to focus on really giving people the songs they want to hear and a good show rather than trying to force-feed them new material.
What will you pull out of your catalogue this summer?
I might pull out some stuff from History of Rock, I might do “Prodigal Son” or maybe some stuff from the last record, like “When You Love Someone” or “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me.” We have a great version of “Son of Detroit” that we’ve been opening up with. The last few years, we’ve kind of stripped everything away to go out and prove that we could do this without anything, without the girls dancing, without the pyro, with nothing, and just go out and give a great show. That gave us some of the best reviews and, more importantly, best responses I’ve ever gotten from the fans. Maybe we could bring a little bit of that back and have some fun intros, maybe throw in some pyro for “Bawitdaba” or some of those big spectacles. But I’m thinking about fine-tuning it a little bit to find that middle ground between all that.
Who's opening the tour?
Skynyrd will be out for most of it. And for the big stadium shows, it will be Sykynrd and Robert Randolph on one, and I think the other one is Alice in Chains and Cypress Hill.
Are you surprised Comerica sold out in 20 minutes?
We expected it to do well, to sell 20,000 tickets or something, but we knocked them all out. You definitely hold your breath, especially with the way the economy is, and especially the way it is in Detroit, Michigan, right now. We try to do a lot of stuff to make it so everybody can come out, like $99 for six tickets in the upper deck, The most important thing is keeping tickets right. I’ve never been greedy about my tickets. If you look back, I’ve had some of the lowest prices of anyone in the business, and I try to keep along that theme and never get greedy, just slow and steady.
The poster promises beer specials?
We’re trying to figure that out. I have a beer coming out, so we’re trying to figure some way to incorporate that. There’s different procedures in different stadiums, hopefully we can give them some sort of special on drinks that we’ve worked out with the stadiums. I don’t know exactly what that is yet. We’re trying to think of everything to try keeping the pricing down, but it’s so tough.
Beer is too expensive at shows.
Yeah, when I was a kid, there was a way to work it out where people who sat on the lawn could bring coolers. I would be the first one to take a price cut if everyone else will, but as soon as you say you’ll take a price cut, everyone just jumps up for joy because they know they’re going to make a bunch of money on. You try to take the money and give it back to your fans in other ways.
When does your beer come out?
We’ve been trying it, it’s good. We’re trying to shoot for Labor Day. We have some great stuff as far as marketing. Not only is it a good beer, it’s made in Michigan, made in America, and we’re getting everything we can, like the barley and the hops, in the States. It’s creating jobs in Michigan at the brewing company. We know people are hurting here so we’re trying to take that whole approach, “This is all made right here for hard-working American people,” and I’m not going to sell it out to the Belgians any time soon.
What does it taste like?
It just tastes like good American light beer, a regular beer and a light beer, an everyday beer. The people who listen to my music are hard workers, and we’ve been trying to put together a package with Jim Beam for those hard workers. Jim Beam has a new thing called Red Stag. I’ve been singing about and drinking Jim Beam my whole life, and when they approached me for a deal, it was a no-brainer. We’re trying to work something out with Moderno where if we can get around the logistics of different markets of having to sell beer and liquor separately, we’d like to pair a shot of Jim Beam and one of my beers. Get off work, get a 22-ouncer and a shot, you’ll be all right. We have funny-ass ads.
What's it called?
It’s going to be called Bad Ass Beer. The ads are so funny. There are so many funny ads you can do with a thing called Bad Ass Beer. There’s one where it looks like the Budweiser horses, and they’re all up in the air, just freaked out, like they went haywire, and whatever they ride on is smashed up, and it just has my beer sitting in the front, it says “Bad Ass.” And “…and the horses they rode in on.” There’s another one where we f*ck with Corona. We have an old rusty truck with no tires on it and it’s sitting on the Bad Ass beer, and it says, “The only way you’ll ever see a lemon on it.” We’ve got another one with the Bad Ass beer simulating like it’s f*cking the St. Pauli’s girl. We’re all doing it locally with an ad agency here in Detroit that does a lot of car ads. The guy lives next to me and runs my favorite bar here. They come up with really funny stuff. It’s just wide-open for f*cking with people. And the beer actually tastes good, there’s no aftertaste.
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