kid rock - 'born free' review

Ever since I interviewed Kid Rock for Blender back in 2007, right before Rock N Roll Jesus came out, I've liked the guy. Warm, personable, and much smarter than you might think, he was fun company. His new album, Born Free, invests too much energy in "I am like you, Heartland listener" bromides, but it's a record that's stuffed with strong, mellow country-pop tunes. You can read my review to get all the details.

blender magazine folds

I started writing for Blender in 2004 thanks to Rob Tannenbaum, who had liked my pithy contributions to The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop issue and invited me to write for the magazine. With him and Jonah Weiner as my editors, I wrote a lot of album reviews and got to interview everyone from Kid Rock to Busta Rhymes to Lars Ulrich to Chris Brown. (Imagine that supergroup.) I enjoyed every minute of it, which makes today's news such a bummer.

kid rock talks to me

To promote his new album, Rock N Roll Jesus, Kid Rock sat down for an interview with me. The results can be found at Blender.