Robert James Ritchie (born January 17, 1971 in Romeo, Michigan), known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American musician and actor. He has sold over 23 million albums since the release of his debut album Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast in 1990.
Ritchie's career began at age 11 when he danced at a mall for the fun of it as a member of the b-boy group The Furious Funkers. After the success of Run DMC and The Beastie Boys, he bought a cheap belt-driven turntable and honed his craft. In high school, Ritchie DJed at parties for beer. He eventually joined Bo Wisdom of Groove Time Productions, in Mt. Clemens, Michigan for a few shows. It was then that he was given his stage name; club goers dubbed him with the moniker "Kid Rock" after they had enjoyed watching "that white kid rock."
In addition to DJing, Rock started rapping and joined hip hop group The Beast Crew comprised of The Blackman, Champtown, KDC, Crisp and Doc Rounce Cee. Rock also became friends with producer D-Nice of the legendary hip-hop group Boogie Down Productions. When Rock opened for BDP one night, D-Nice invited an A&R representative from Jive Records to see him perform. This meeting led to a demo deal, which developed into a full record contract. Against his parents' wishes, Rock signed the deal at the age of seventeen. Despite his new record deal, he had a falling out with The Beast Crew when he signed over fellow member Champtown (the two have since made amends). Rock later became part of the Straight From The Underground Tour, where he found himself alongside several heavyweights of rap including Ice Cube, Too Short, D-Nice, and Yo-Yo.
In December 1990, Kid Rock released his debut album Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast on Jive Records. The lead single "Yo Da Lin In The Valley" was banned by the FCC for its fixation on oral sex, and received at the time the largest non-commercial radio fine of all time at $23,750 fined to SUNY Cortland Radio (WSUC-FM). Because of this Jive sat on the record and then released Kid Rock from their roster in 1991.
In 1992, Kid Rock was picked up by an independent record label, Continuum Records, which released his second album The Polyfuze Method the following year. While the album saw some local college radio success at Central Michigan University with the track "Back From The Dead", the lead single, "U Don't Know Me", failed to chart, and the music video received little airplay on any major music video channels. After releasing an EP called Fire It Up! in 1994, Continuum went bankrupt and Rock was left again without a record deal.
Rock started his own label, Top Dog Records, and released monthly demo tapes dubbed The Bootleg Series, which featured demos of him and other up-and-coming rappers in the Detroit area. He signed on Curt Hauer, Dave Long, and the Cook twins to be his "Top Dog Interns". The interns would help him promote his shows and design his own merchandise line in the Detroit area. Around the same time, Rock formed his back-up band Twisted Brown Trucker, later recruiting Joe C, who he met at a 1994 concert, as part of the group. In 1995, Rock took a job as a janitor at Whiterooms Studios in order to pay studio fees. When he wasn't working, Kid would record the material that would eventually make up his fourth album, Early Morning Stoned Pimp. The album was released in 1996 and Rock sold 14,000 copies out of the trunk of his car and after concerts.
While Rock was now popular in Michigan and controlling his own label, he felt he needed to get attention from a major label. In December 1996, Lava/Atlantic Records A&R man Andy Karp, traveled to Cleveland to see Rock perform at a small club called The Grog Shop. On March 30, 1997, Rock performed a special showcase concert, with Jason Krause on guitar, to attract major label attention. While many of the major labels were invited, the only attendees were Karp and Lava President Jason Flom Lava/Atlantic Records. Following the performance, record executives said they loved him but expressed doubts about the strength of his material. Kid Rock returned to the studio and cut a six song demo tape; the first two were "Somebody's Gotta Feel This" and "I Got One For Ya". After hearing the two songs, Jason Flom supported Karp in signing Kid Rock to a record deal for $100,000, without even hearing the rest.
In 1997, Kid Rock added drummer/vocalist Stefanie Eulinberg to his band, joining Kenny Olson, Jason Krause, Jimmie Bones, Uncle Kracker, Mike Bradford, and Joe C. In August 1998, Atlantic released Devil Without a Cause behind the single "Welcome 2 The Party". Kid Rock went on the Vans Warped Tour to support the album.
"Welcome 2 The Party" was ignored by audiences and Devil sat on the shelves collecting dust for eight months. While sales nationwide lagged, his performance on the 1998 Warped Tour in Northampton, Massachusetts stimulated regional interest in Massachusetts and New England. This led to substantial airplay in the summer and fall of 1998 on rock staples in Massachusetts WZLX and WAAF. In December 1998, after meeting Carson Daly, he got an offer to perform on MTV Fashionably Loud in Miami, giving the nation its first taste of Kid Rock. From there MTV took him under their wing as he performed on MTV's Wanna B A VJ and was the DJ for TRL on the Spring Break Special as well as a judge on Say What Karaoke. This sparked him to gold status by April 1999.
In May 1999 he released the song "Bawitdaba" to radio outlets, and proceeded to blow up overnight. By June the album had gone platinum. Kid Rock gave away a free download of Bawitdaba in July 2008. Kid Rock went on the Limptropolis Tour with fellow rap-rockers Limp Bizkit and Staind in the same month, his first major tour. By the time he made his career defining performance at Woodstock 99 on July 27, 1999, he was double platinum. The following single "Cowboy" was an even bigger hit. It was an odd ball mix of southern rock and old school rap that found its way into the Top 40. Rock helped create one of the most memorable moments in MTV History with his 1999 Video Music Awards Medley with Run DMC and Aerosmith who rejoined to perform the seminal rap rock version of "Walk This Way", that revived Aerosmith's career in the 1980s. Rock's next single, the southern rock ballad "Only God Knows Why", became a top 20 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 Charts and a Top 10 on the Top 40 Charts. After the final single "Wasting Time" was released, Devil Without A Cause had gone seven times platinum and was nominated for three Grammy Awards. It was certified 11 times platinum by the RIAA on April 17, 2003.
After reacquiring the rights to his early material in 2000, Rock released The History of Rock, a collection of remixed and re-recorded songs. The only new track, "American Bad Ass", sampled the Metallica track "Sad But True". The song was later used as pro wrestler The Undertaker's entrance song in the World Wrestling Federation.
In the summer 2000, Rock joined the Summer Sanitarium Tour with Metallica, Korn, Powerman 5000, and System of a Down. Kid Rock filled in for James Hetfield of Metallica to sing vocals of the songs "Enter Sandman", "Sad But True", and "Nothing Else Matters" and the turntables for "Fuel" for three shows after Hetfield injured his spine riding a jet ski on Lake Lanier the day before the Atlanta concert. Later that year, he joined Phish on stage for several cover songs at a concert in Las Vegas. Kid Rock recorded a few songs with the legendary blues artist Robert Bradley and Robert Bradley's Blackwater Surprise in 2000 on their album Time To Discover.
In early 2001, Rock inducted Aerosmith into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and performed "Sweet Emotion". The same year, Rock landed his first acting role in the David Spade white trash comedy Joe Dirt.
In the spring 2001, Rock began dating Playboy playmate and actress Pamela Anderson, after the two met at a VH1 tribute to Aretha Franklin. By April 2002, he and Anderson were engaged, but the engagement was later called off. In November, Rock released Cocky, which was marketed as the official follow up to Devil Without a Cause. The first single, "Forever", featured his standard rap rock sound. The second single showed a glimpse of the future. "Lonely Road Of Faith", a country ballad, received some minor airplay on CMT. That was followed by the southern rocker "You Never Met A Motherfucker Quite Like Me". By November 2002 album sales lagged far behind "Devil Without A Cause".
However, the release of "Picture", a country-influenced duet with Sheryl Crow, introduced Rock to a wider audience. "Picture" was ultimately the most successful single on the album, and was eventually certified gold, with album sales reaching 5 million. Interestingly, neither his record company nor Sheryl Crow's wanted anything to do with "Picture" as a single. Allison Moorer remade the song for the single version after Rock released the song against his label's wishes. Once it began to climb the country charts, Sheryl Crow's label caved and the original version was released.
On December 14, 2001, CMT aired an episode of Crossroads featuring Rock with Hank Williams, Jr. The episode drew 2.1 million viewers, a record on CMT. At the end of 2002, Uncle Kracker left the band to pursue a solo career and Detroit underground rapper Paradime replaced him. Kid Rock also made his second movie, Biker Boyz, with Laurence Fishburne.
In 2003, Kid Rock returned with an eponymous album, almost stripping away the accustomed rap rock sound that he had created, opting for southern rock and country ballads instead. The album's lead single was a cover of Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love". A media blitz accompanied the single capped off by the VH-1 special A Kid Rock Christmas, which aired on December 14, 2003. He released the country ballad "Cold And Empty" and the blues rocker "Jackson, Mississippi" as dual singles. He followed the same path with "I Am" and the David Allan Coe penned "Single Father". "Single Father" became his second charting country song.
Kid Rock was involved in the half time fiasco at Super Bowl 38 in Houston, Texas on February 3, 2005. He was criticized by war veterans, for his choice of wearing the American flag as a poncho.
Kid Rock was arrested later that month on assault charges for punching DJ Jay Campos in 'Christies Cabaret' strip club. Rock pled no contest and was sued for $575,000 by Campos. The following month, Kid inducted Bob Seger into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In September, Kid Rock filled in for Johnny Van Zant, the lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd on the band's hit Sweet Home Alabama at the Hurricane Katrina benefit concert.
On February 28, 2006, Kid Rock released his first live album, Live Trucker, comprising songs from his homestand performances in Clarkston (on September 1, 2000, and August 26 through August 28, 2004), and Detroit's Cobo Hall (March 26, 2004). The album contained the last two performances of Joe C on "Devil Without a Cause" and "Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp", as well as Kid duetting with country star Gretchen Wilson on "Picture". Other highlights included "Only God Knows Why" and the medley of "Somebody's Gotta Feel This" and "Fist Of Rage" bridged by a thrash metal take on Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love". He brought Detroit's favorite son Bob Seger back from semi-retirement during his Super Bowl concerts on February 2 and 3, 2006. The two performed a rousing version of Seger's "Rock 'N' Roll Never Forgets" on both nights. Kid Rock would appear on Bob Seger's much anticipated, 10 years in the waiting, Face The Promise, as well as on a Vince Gill cover of "Real Mean Bottle", a tribute to country legend Merle Haggard.
Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson resumed their on-again, off-again relationship, culminating in a surprise wedding in July 2006 after it was reported Anderson was pregnant. They divorced 5 months later after Anderson lied that she had a miscarriage.
Rock N Roll Jesus was released on October 9, 2007. The album became Kid Rock's first album to go number 1 in his career, selling 172,000 copies in its first week. He made the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine for the second time of his career and appeared for the first time ever on Larry King Live to discuss the new album. Kid Rock was cited for assault on Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee on September 9th ,2007 at MTV's Video Music Awards. He would follow that up with a Waffle House brawl in October 2007.
The album's lead single So Hott described as a strip club banger by Rolling Stone Magazine was his best charting rock song of his career, as it climbed all the way to Number 2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and Number 13 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks.
Amen was the second released single off the album peaking at No 11 on Mainstream Rock and No 27 on Modern Rock. Kid Rock boasted it was the greatest song he had ever written.
All Summer Long is the current single from Rock N Roll Jesus. The song was used as the WWE's theme song for the Backlash 2008. The song is a mash up of Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama. The song has become his biggest hit to date charting on every major U.S. and Canadian chart (outside of the Rap and R & B charts) as well as going Number One in Europe, Ireland, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The song has also placed in the Top 10 in Sweden and the Netherlands. It is currently at #52 on the Billboard Hot 100 without the songs being available for download on Itunes. It's also his highest charting song in the United Kingdom charting at No.3.
"Rock N Roll Jesus" took home the award for Most Outstanding National Album at the 2008 Detroit Music Awards, the first time he has won that award since "Devil Without A Cause" in 1999.
Kid Rock is currently on his Rock N Roll Revival Tour. The tour has been done in a revue style with the J. Geils Band's Peter Wolf, The Allman Brothers' Dickey Betts and Rev Run of Run DMC all joining him on stage to perform their classic hits between Kid Rock's own hits. Lynyrd Skynyrd will co-headline the Rock and Rebels Tour starting in August.
Kid Rock and TBT cut a new song entitled "Warrior" for a National Guard commercial. It will be able to be downloaded in its entirety on the National Guard's website once the commercial airs.
Reverend Run has confirmed an album with Kid Rock called Running With the Kid, a play on Eric Clapton and B. B. King's Riding With The King collaboration. The release date is yet to be determined. Kid Rock will appear on Lil Jon's 2008 album, Crunk Rock and will also be on the track "Together Forever" with Trick Trick on his forthcoming album.
Kid Rock has stated for his follow up album to Rock N Roll Jesus he will be going back to his roots to make a hip-hop album, after his side project with Rev Run.
