A Country B-Boy Survives

Kid Rock flips 1999's dismal script in his favor

Comments (0) By Hobey Echlin Thursday, Nov 4 1999

Sean Murphy

How did a washed-up footnote to the Vanilla Ice story become one of 1999's biggest acts?

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Music begins at noon with Citizen King, Pennywise, and Guster among the bands appearing. Tickets cost $18. For more information call 561-616-4688.

Performs at the fourth annual daylong WPBZ-FM (103.1) Buzz Bake Sale on November 7 at Coral Sky Amphitheater in West Palm Beach.

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Gimmicks aside, Rock has also proven to a world so fickle it can't keep Trent Reznor in the Top 10 for more than a few weeks, the value of staying power. The key to that, apparently, is simply staying put. While Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst dates serial celebrity mongers and signs embarrassingly derivative bands like Orgy to his own group's corporate home, Interscope, Kid Rock is spending his time back in Detroit producing an ambitious album of campfire blues-hop for his own soft-spoken DJ, Kracker. He's also taking pains to raise his six-year-old son away from the cameras in a modest suburban bungalow. Having been burned by the business before, he prefers, like country musicians and old-school rappers, to stay close to his audience. These days, that crowd even includes his career's doppelgänger, Vanilla Ice. "I always said if I ever ran into him, I'd kill him," Rock admits. He begins laughing and then continues with a smile: "And then he came up to me after a show in Texas. I was like, 'You ruined my life for the last ten years. I don't know whether to punch you in the mouth or shake your hand'"