Rock was born with the name Robert James Ritchie on Super Bowl Sunday, 1971. As a kid, Rock would entertain at his parents' parties when everyone got really drunk. He would sing songs like Jim Croce's "
Bad, Bad Leroy Brown."
In the 1980s, Rock joined the break dancing trend. He was rather good. The only move that tripped him up was the spinning around on one hand move. It's hard.
After gaining a following on the Detroit music scene, he signed with Jive Records in 1990 and went on tour with Ice Cube as an opening act. Jive's effort to lump him in with gangsta rap failed, and they dropped him from the label soon after. He released two independent albums before landing another major-label deal, this time with the Atlantic imprint Lava Records in 1998. Lava worked to get him national exposure on radio and MTV for his album Devil Without a Cause. It took a while, but by the end of 1999 he was one of the biggest acts in music, and one of the most polarizing: Listeners either loved or hated Kid Rock.
Also in 1990, Rock's first big break was as the opening act on Ice Cube's tour.
Rock was fined $23,750 by the FCC when a college DJ played his "Yodelin' in the Valley." It was reportedly the most vile thing ever heard by the college president, but the FCC eventually dropped the fine.
After his cousin, Paul, killed himself, Rock got "PAUL" tattooed on his left shoulder. Before hitting it big, many people actually thought his name was Paul.
The opening rap from 1996s Early Morning Stoned Pimp was chosen by the Detroit Red Wings as their victory chant. The line goes: "Ain't no party like a Detroit party 'cause a Detroit party don't stop."
Has dated Sheryl Crow and married Pamela Anderson. He once serenaded Anderson in Las Vegas by singing David Allen Coe's "I'd Like to F**k the S**t Out of You."
The first instrument he learned to play was the turntables. From there he learned many others.
He grew up in a middle-class Detroit suburb, the son of an affluent car dealership owner. The white-trash image Kid Rock portrays is something he cultivated.
He was arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge in February 2005, after an altercation at Christie's Cabaret, a strip club in Nashville.
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Kid Rock refused to sell his music on iTunes until 2012. His beef with the service: "iTunes takes the money, the record company takes the money, and they don't give it to the artists."
He was sentenced to 80 hours of community service and ordered to anger management classes after an altercation in October 2008 at a Waffle House in Atlanta involving Rock, his entourage, and a customer who was apparently bothering them.
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Kid Rock told The Guardian about his political views: "I am definitely a Republican on fiscal issues and the military, but I lean to the middle on social issues. I am no fan of abortion, but it's not up to a man to tell a woman what to do. As an ordained minister I don't look forward to marrying gay people, but I'm not opposed to it."
He became a grandfather when he was 43. He says that helps keep his redneck street cred in good standing.
Kid Rock took a huge pay cut on his 2013 Summer Tour in order to keep ticket prices for his shows capped at $20, and beer prices at $4.
He has beef with Oprah Winfrey, which he made clear in a
drunken, profane rant he let loose on stage at his Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock 'n' Roll Steakhouse in Nashville in November 2019. Rock later tweeted that his anger with Winfrey stems from a time when he considered going on her show but was asked to write down five reasons why he loved her and her show.
In the fallout from the incident, Rock didn't renew his licensing deal at the Kid Rock's Made in Detroit restaurant at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
He had a son, Junior (Robert James Ritchie Jr.), in 1993 with a woman he was involved with for about three years. She was the subject of his 1996 song "
Black Chick, White Guy," where he says she "had three different kids from three different men." She filed a lawsuit against Rock over the song, and they had a custody battle over Junior. In 1999, Kid Rock was awarded full custody, with Junior's mom paying $25 a month in child support. Junior also became a musician, recording as Robert James.
For a few years, Kid Rock enlisted the services of a 3' 9" hype man named Joe C., who started out as a fan. Joe suffered from an array of ailments, but Kid Rock loved his attitude and had him join the show. Some Joe C. highlights include fighting Gary Coleman in the "
Cowboy" video and taking a verse in the song "
Devil Without a Cause." By the end of 1999, Joe's medical issues caught up with him and he was out of action. He died a year later.
