Rapping about life

Riding high on his hit single “All Summer Long,” Kid Rock comes to the Spokane Arena on Tuesday after finishing an August “Rock ’n’ Rebels” tour with co-headliner Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Before heading out on the road, Rock called from the back porch of his spread outside Detroit. Early in our conversation, he said he hoped not to say anything “too stupid.”

That’s up to you, I replied.

He laughed: “That’s the problem.”

With that, Rock held forth on everything from the origins of his song “New Orleans” to why you won’t hear Radiohead in strip clubs.

Q: You were on vacation last week. Where does Kid Rock go on vacation?

A: A friend of mine gets a yacht in the south of France every year, so we went to Italy. I was going to stay home, then I was talking to Rev. Run about how well “All Summer Long” has done in Europe. It’s my first No. 1 single in Europe. He’s like, “What are you doing? Go celebrate in Europe where your record is No. 1.” So I took my brother and we had a good time.

Q: People may think, “Why does Kid Rock need a vacation? He sings about “taking strippers out for breakfast.” Your normal life seems vacation-like.

A: (laughs) It’s that old saying, “I need a vacation from my vacation.”

Q: You define yourself on your albums. Your current “Rock ’n’ Roll Jesus” is evenly split between your nobler instincts – “Roll On,” “Amen” – and your more primal instincts, e.g. “So Hott” and “Sugar.” Is that an apt description of your two competing sides?

A: Absolutely. That’s how I live my life. People connect with the music what I connected with music when I was young. Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd or Run-DMC or Bob Seger … when I heard those songs, I really believed it was them. They were writing about the things they knew and who they were. When I saw it live it touched me.

That’s missing from so much music nowadays. There’s four songwriters, two producers, a stylist … so much smoke and mirrors involved before you get to the heart and soul of an artist. That’s why a lot of people connect with what I’m doing.

Q: Mashing up “Sweet Home Alabama” and Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” into a summer anthem seems obvious, but no one else thought of it.

A: I’m sure people aren’t thinking about it as deep or as crafty as I’d like them to think I am. Mash-ups are huge; rappers have been rapping over them for years. For that matter, people from the Rolling Stones on down have been borrowing riffs, whether it be Motown or anything else. What I did was blatantly come out and take this, put some original beats to it, and wrote an original melody and lyric on top of it. We (Rock, Skynyrd, Zevon’s estate) split the song’s publishing. Everyone agreed that it’s something old and something new.

Q: Did you audition the girls for the “All Summer Long” video?

A: No. I’ve never gotten into that. People think I’m out getting (women) for the videos, that I’m one of those guys who hangs around like, “Hey, you want to be in my video?” I don’t think I’ve ever said that in my life. I’ve never been to an audition, I’ve never watched the tapes. It’s a big misconception. (But) if I’ve had a friend ask to be in it, sure.

Q: Is “New Orleans” your Hurricane Katrina tune?

A: I started writing that before Katrina. That’s an old song that I’d been working on. I didn’t know what it was about; I just knew it had that groove, and I could hear the horns in my head. New Orleans is one of my favorite spots in the world, and that’s never changed. After Katrina, I kept writing it. (Outlaw country songwriter) David Allan Coe helped me out with the lyrics. He gave me “le bons temps rouler” and a lot of the New Orleans stuff that I wasn’t educated on.

After Katrina, I thought, “I wonder if Fats Domino is OK? Did somebody get Fats?” I’d been by his house. So I started writing the song kind of about him, in a metaphoric way. God bless his soul. He’s one of my favorites ever.

Q: The lyrics of “New Orleans” have some obvious images, like “jambalaya” and “crawfish pie,” which refer to Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya.” Who came up with the more insider “hey pocky way” line?

A: That was me. The Meters … that’s been one of my favorite tunes forever. That’s always a (tour) bus favorite. When you’re going to kick the party into high gear, I don’t grab for the Radiohead CD. I grab the Meters’ “Hey Pocky Way.”

Q: You don’t hear a lot of Radiohead at strip clubs.

A: None. (Radiohead singer) Thom Yorke said the other night onstage in Indianapolis, “If you’re looking for Kid Rock, he’s not here.” Which I thought was kind of funny. I’ve been poking at him for years, in a fun way. He finally took the bait. (laughs) It’s all in fun. I’ve got nothing against them or anybody.

Q: You recently pleaded no contest to simple battery after a fight at an Atlanta-area Waffle House. Do you plan to steer clear of Waffle Houses?

A: (laughs) I embrace the Waffle House. In Atlanta, I went back and signed autographs at the Waffle House and we raised about $15,000 for a shelter that helps homeless families get back on their feet. So we flipped it around and turned it into something positive, because it was so dumb. Of course when you’re Kid Rock and something dumb like that happens, you catch a lawsuit for $4 million.

Q: So does your show feature women in cages again?

A: No. Next year I’m planning on the whole fiasco – fireworks, girls, the whole nine. That’s my plan right now. (For this tour) with the 11-piece band, I wanted to take it back to the music, which has worked out great. I’ve gotten the best reviews of my life.