New album, mixing musical styles: Kid Rock

BOSTON:

By his own admission, when Kid Rock gets some free time and no responsibility, he’s a dangerous man — albeit one with a charitable heart.

The Detroit rocker, rapper and country music singer, is riding high off the success of his hit 2010 album Born Free.

In a recent interview, Kid Rock opened up on several of his new plans.

Looking back on the success of Born Free, would you say that was a milestone record for you in your career?

I think it kind of solidified where I was heading with Rock N Roll Jesus and kind of all the way back to the self-titled record (2003’s ‘Kid Rock’). This one I did with (producer) Rick Rubin and really followed his vision through the whole thing and obviously learned a lot. I know we wrote some classic songs; “Born Free” for instance.

Will your next album continue with that or build on different themes?

One thing I know I don’t want to do is record in Los Angeles. I had too much fun doing that. My free time was ridiculous, and when I get free time with no responsibility, I’m dangerous (laughs). But I really want the next record to be a ‘Greatest Hits’ with all new songs. I want to do something that’s all over the place with everything I love to do. I still love to do rap songs with rock guitars, I like country sounding southern rock stuff, I love to make heavy rock, I love the blues stuff.

Your fall ‘Care’ tour is both a continuation of your recent charitable work as well as a return to playing small venues and clubs. Why did you decide to do this now?

First of all, my son went off to college this year. I raised him as a single father, with a lot of help from family and friends, but nonetheless he was in my space for 18 years, and I was like, ‘Now what do I do?’ So I went and talked to the band and we were thinking about ideas for the song “Care”. So, essentially, what we’re doing is that we’ll be picking the towns where we want to play and give away some money. We’re giving away close to the amount of money that we will generate.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2011.