Early Career bio
Kid Rock was born Robert James Richie on January 17, 1971 in Detroit, Michigan. Performing earliest at the age of 11 in local malls, Richie was interested in following the success of early rappers such as the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. In high school, he performed at parties in exchange for beer and played a few shows at local clubs, where he received his stage name "Kid Rock" from fans telling about how much they loved seeing "that white kid rock." After signing a contract with Jive Records at the young age of seventeen, Kid Rock would join popular rap artists such as Ice Cube and Too $hort on the Straight From The Underground Tour. His debut album, Grits Sandwiches for Breakfast, was highly controversial for its provocative lyrics and resulted in his release from Jive Records, after the record company was fined nearly $25,000. Kid Rock was then picked up by an independent label, Continuum Records, where he experienced some success at a local college until the label went bankrupt in 1994. After these two disappointing stints on record labels where one released him and the other went bankrupt, Kid Rock decided to launch his own label, Top Dog Records, working part-time as a janitor to get money to pay for studio fees. Kid Rock released his fourth album, Early Morning Stoned Pimp which sold 14,000 copies at concerts and out of the trunk of his own car. Kid Rock finally caught his big break in 1997, when he caught the eye of a representative from Atlantic Records and signed a $100,000 recording contract.
Mainstream Career bio
Kid Rock finally attained national and even global success with the release of his Devil Without A Cause album, followed by his two hit singles "Bawitdaba" and "Cowboy." The album reached 11-times platinum status and was nominated for three Grammy Awards. In 2000, Kid Rock attained the rights to the material he wrote early in his career and came out with his seventh album, A History of Rock. Later in that year, Kid Rock joined the Summer Sanitarium Tour with bands such as Korn and Metallica, for which he stepped in on vocals for famous Metallica songs like "Enter Sandman" and "Sad But True." Kid Rock started his infamous relationship with former Playboy playmate and actress Pamela Anderson in 2001. He released the album Cocky in September of 2002 with his original style of rock music, although it featured two country songs entitled "Lonely Road of Faith" and "Picture," a duet with female country star Sheryl Crow. Kid Rock and his band, Twisted Brown Trucker, released three more albums from 2003 to 2007. The first of these three was his self-titled album, which featured a different genre than fans were used to from Kid Rock, with more of an emphasis on southern rock and country styles. Kid Rock's first live album, Live Trucker, and the album Rock N Roll Jesus, which was his first album to go #1, are the latest two albums. Kid Rock is currently working on several new albums including a duet album with Rev Run (formerly known as Run DMC) as well as releasing a song entitled "Warrior" for a commercial for the National Guard to be featured only on their website.