There’s quite a bit more rock than rap on Kid Rock‘s upcoming Atlantic album, tentatively titled “Rock’n’Roll Jesus,” which will arrive Oct. 9.
Recorded at the Clarkston Chophouse studio on his home property in Michigan, the set cuts a broad stylistic swath, from metallic headbangers like first single “So Hot” and “Sugar” (the set’s only rap track) to such rootsy, gospel-hued fare as “Amen” (“The best song I’ve ever written,” Rock tells Billboard) and “When You Love Someone.”
The Motown-influenced “Roll On” rolls alongside the power ballad “Miss Understood” and the Crescent City-flavored “New Orleans” (co-written with pal David Allen Coe), while “All Summer Long” entertainingly mashes up elements of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”-with the latter group’s Billy Powell on piano.
The album ends with “Half Your Age,” a sly country kissoff to ex-wife Pamela Anderson. When it reaches the chorus’ closing line about finding a younger girlfriend who’s “twice as hot,” Rock throws his arms up and offers an exultant high five.
“I think people expect it,” he says with a shrug and smile, tapping on a cigar. “It’d be stupid to pretend that it didn’t happen and not say anything.”
Overall, Rock — who’s dedicating the album to his late friend, Atlantic co-founder Ahmet Ertegun — hopes the effect is “like going to church drunk on Saturday night. It defines America; if you just had to play one American rock album for somebody, this would be it.”
To support the album, Rock is planning a promo tour, which will include radio events, prior to the release. There will also be a series of theater and club dates to promote the album, with a full-scale tour planned for 2008.