Kid Rock - Rock N Roll Jesus Review

Posted by Mitch Michaels on 10.09.2007

Kid Rock f*cks us like he’s never gonna see us again…

My Story
When Kid Rock broke big with “Bawitdaba”, I didn’t have much love for the man’s music. He seemed like just another Limp Bizkit clone, mixing rap and metal for a generation of pissed off white college guys. It wasn’t until Kid’s career began taking a much different path, (taking souther rock and mixing it with the hip-hop if you will) that I began to take notice.

Today, I’m definitely a Kid Rock fan. I’ve seen the guy live (great show) and have been anticipating his new album since his 2003 release. What does Kid have in store for us now?

His Story
Kid Rock was born Bob Ritchie in 1971, raised in Romeo, Michigan, a rural community near Detroit. Inspired by acts like the Beastie Boys, white kids who blended hard rock and rap to much success, Rock began performing as a teenager. His first big break came in 1988, when he scored and opening spot for legendary hip-hop act Boogie Down Productions. It was at this show that he was noticed by Jive Records, who signed Rock to his first contract.

Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast, Kid Rock’s debut, was released in 1990. The album was dismissed by most critics as a poor man’s License To Ill, and sales weren’t any better. Grits Sandwiches only single, “Yo-Da-Lin In The Valley”, a tribute to oral sex, was only notable for causing a college radio station in New York to be fined over $20,000 for airing it. Unfortunately, 1990 was not the best time to be a white rapper. Following the meteoric rise and fall of Vanilla Ice, Jive Records saw Kid Rock as more of a liability than a prospect. He was dropped before he could record a second album.

Undeterred, Kid signed with indie Continuum Records, who released his second album, The Polyfuse Method, in 1993. Neither of the Polyfuse singles were hits, but the reviews of the album were slightly more favorable. Most notably, the record featured Rock dipping more heavily into the rock half of his sound. An EP, Fire It Up, followed in 1994, but it would be Rock’s last release through Continuum, as the company went bankrupt shortly after.

Once again without a record label, Kid Rock returned to Detroit to work on his next album. He bought studio time with the money he made as a janitor at White Room Studios. Early Mornin’ Stoned Pimp was released on Kid Rock’s own Top Dog Records in 1996. With no national distribution, many of Kid’s sales came from the trunk of his car. It was around this time that Kid began to assemble his Twisted Brown Trucker Band, whose lineup would solidify around tiny rapper Joe C., guitarists Jimmy Olsen and Jason Krause, keyboardist Jimmy Bones, drummer Stefanie Eulinberg and DJ Uncle Kracker.

Though Kid Rock’s fame had grown in his home state of Michigan, he was still an unknown quantity in the rest of the US and still without a record deal. In 1997 (not long after self re-releasing The Polyfuse Method as Polyfuse Method Revisited), Rock invited several record executives to a special showcase before a gig in Detroit. Atlantic Records would be the only label to show up, but it didn’t matter. Rock was signed to Atlantic a few days later.

Devil Without A Cause, Kid Rock’s fourth album, was released in August of 1998. Devil wasn’t an immediate success, but it garnered much better critical reception than Kid’s previous efforts. The first single, “Welcome 2 The Party”, tanked, but the second, the more metal-leaning “I Am The Bullgod”, became Kid’s first charting hit, reaching #31 on the Mainstream Rock charts. That would only be the beginning for Kid, though.

Devil Without A Cause’s third single was the anthemic “Bawitdaba”, which became a massive hit on both radio and MTV, charting #10 on the Modern Rock singles. A follow-up single, “Cowboy”, reached #5 and also managed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, another career first for Rock. By the end of 1999, Devil Without A Cause had peaked at #4 and had spawned an unprecedented chart-climbing fourth single (“Only God Knows Why”). Even more amazingly, the record had been certified five times platinum. After nearly a decade, Kid Rock had become an overnight sensation.

2000 was another good year for Rock. “Only God Knows Why” became his first ever Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. That summer, he released The History Of Rock, a compilation album that featured several re-recorded or remixed songs from his two indie albums, as well as a few new songs. History reached #2 on the Billboard charts and spun off the Top 20 Modern Rock single “American Bad Ass”, which famously sampled the riff from Metallica’s “Sad But True”. History Of Rock quickly reached double platinum status, while Devil Without A Cause closed out 2000 with nine million units sold. Sadly, the year would end tragically for Rock, as Twisted Brown Trucker member Joe C. passed away.

In 2001, Kid Rock released his hotly anticipated proper follow-up to Devil Without A Cause. Cocky reached #3 on the Billboard charts and yielded two more Top 20 Mainstream Rock hits with the lead single “Forever” and “Lonely Road Of Faith”. It was the third single, however, that struck a chord with the masses. “Picture”, a county tinged duet with rocker Sheryl Crow, became Kid’s first ever Top 5 Hot 100 tune, reaching #4. Another version of the song, featuring Allison Moorer, was certified gold the next year.

Kid Rock was on top of the world following the release of Cocky. He had a string of big hits, he was famously dating model/actress Pamela Anderson, Cocky was a 4x platinum success, Devil Without A Cause was certified diamond and he’d made his acting debut in the David Spade comedy Joe Dirt. Hell, even Rock’s former DJ, Uncle Kracker, had become a Top 40 success.

Kid Rock released his sixth album, a self-titled effort, in 2003. Kid Rock featured rock moving even farther into the direction of southern rock and country. Though the album wasn’t as successful as Kid’s other recent efforts, it did certify platinum and reach #8 on the Billboard charts. It also produced three Top 40 Mainstream Rock hits, including the #14 “Jackson, Mississippi” and a cover of Bad Company’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love”.

Following the release, Rock took time away from recording, though he was still very visible, showing up on TV regularly. In 2006, he released his first live album, Live Trucker, which reached #12 on the Billboard charts.

In 2007, Rock announced that he’d be releasing a his first new studio album in four years. The album was rumored to feature only rap song. The lead single, “So Hott”, reached #2 on the Mainstream Rock charts, a career high.

The Album
On October 9, 2007, Atlantic Records released Rock N Roll Jesus, the seventh album by Kid Rock and the follow-up to 2003’s Kid Rock. The album is available in clean and explicit versions. The Wal*Mart exclusive version contains a DVD as well as the bonus track “Lowlife (Living The High Life)”. The Best Buy exclusive version contains the bonus tracks “Guilty” and “Jackson, Mississippi (Live)”.



The Band: 5.0
Kid Rock: guitars, banjo, percussion, piano, drums, programming, Moog synthesizer, talk box, lap steel, vox organ, mixing, producer

What the fuck happened to Kid Rock? From the moment Rock N Roll Jesus kicks off, with its strange drum beat that sounds like it’s coming out of a Pringles can, you know something is terrible wrong. Sadly, “right” is hardly ever in sight. First, there’s Kid’s vocals. You know, Kid Rock has never been a beautiful singer. Even on his most “sung” single, “Picture”, it was mostly just him talking while Sheryl Crow sang. On RnR Jesus, it’s ALL Kid singing, all the time, and even the best of John Mellencamp’s female backers (who are plentiful here) can’t up the quality on a guy that JUST CAN’T SING. Kid Rock rapping is great. Kid Rock singing is harsh. Kid Rock singing a whole album is torture.

Even worse, though, is the once fiercely rocking Twisted Brown Trucker Band, which sounds completely neutered here. Never is this more apparent than on tracks like “Roll On” and “All Summer Long”, which sound like an approximation of classic rock so generic and lackluster that they should have the words “Drew’s Famous” attached to them.

Sure, there are moments that rock here. “So Hott” has a tough riff and is a nice throwback to Kid’s 2003 album, but when you’re only reminded of Kid’s weakest efforts at the record’s best points, you know there’s gonna be trouble.

The Songs: 6.0
1. Rock N Roll Jesus
2. Amen
3. All Summer Long
4. Roll On
5. So Hott
6. Sugar
7. When You Love Someone
8. New Orleans
9. Don’t Tell Me You Love Me
10. Blue Jeans And A Rosary
11. Half Your Age

There’s a lot I hate about this album. A LOT. But let me tell you what I love. I love “So Hott”. It’s an AC/DC-level simple song, and that hook of “I wanna fuck you like I’m never gonna see you again” is brilliant. I also dig “Sugar”, the album’s only “rap” song, which sounds like a retread of Devil Without A Cause, but hey, a retread of something awesome can still be awesome. Just ask, well, AC/DC. Finally, I love southern rock. I love Bob Seger, I love Lynyrd Skynyrd. I love all that shit and I’m not just saying that. But this is NOT southern rock. This is not classic rock. This is trash.

The album kicks off with the title track. It’s a cool title, but the song itself is just too tired. Too many shout outs to the same ol’ places, too many horns. “Testify/It’s a rock revival”. Ugh. That’s followed by “Amen”, a cringe-worthy acoustic number that’s somehow worse than Hank Williams, Jr.’s recent material, retelling us all of the things that are wrong with America. Politicans lie. No shit?

All of this crap though is nowhere near as offensively bad as “All Summer Long”, a song that borrows, get this, riffs from “Werewolves In London” and “Sweet Home Alabama” as well as the storyline of “Night Moves”. Is Kid Rock in there anywhere? I’m sure this is supposed to be a tribute to easy-going classic rock, but it winds up being awkward and boring. “Roll On” comes next, which sounds like the closing number of a bad classic rock review that you’d see at an overpriced theme park, which is really just an excuse to sit in air conditioning for 30 minutes.

The rest of RnR Jesus follows suit, with n’ery a highlight in sight. “New Orleans” is embarrassingly derivative, while “Half your Age”, Kid’s big kiss off to Pam Anderson, comes across as a just plain mean country song.

I’m tired now. This album is shit.

The 411: I love Kid Rock, but Rock N Roll Jesus is the most bland, completely boring album he’s ever produced. There are two decent songs that see the Kid Rock we know coming out, but those cuts don’t justify picking up a record that will leave you frustrated and cringing. The odes to classic southern rock come across as generic templates, sounding like one of those compilation CDs where band’s with no name pay tribute to “Rockin’ Party Songs” or “Classic 70’s Hits”. There’s worse stuff out there in the mainstream today, but that’s no excuse for something so uninspired. Don’t buy this.

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]