I am Kid Rock!

Bawitdaba da bang a dang diggy diggy diggy said the boogy said up jump the boogy
(Get Ready)
My name is KIIIIIIIIIIIID…Kid Rock! – Bawitdaba

One day I overheard someone say, “That kid rocks.”  I took it as quite the compliment considering the artists which were usually hanging around.  

I happen to be goofing around when I started singing Bawitdaba.  It started with Kurt trying to say, “But, wait a minute Dude!” and I heard Bawitdaba in a sleepy haze while waking up. 

I was influenced by the song Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) recorded by Perry Como.  My dad was a big Perry Como fan and his albums were usually around the house.    

“up jump the boogy” was a reference to the INXS song “Jumping” off their self titled album released in 1980. 

The mention of D.B. Cooper in the song was actually about a feud with the ultra Southern racist U.S. Senator Edward W. Carmack who was shot down in Nashville, TN in 1908, the same year my grandfather was born.

I wish all of you could know how cool it was to have Tommy Lee playing drums while I sang this song for a few that had gathered after we put the final touches on the song. 

Another song I wrote which has connection to this one is “No Diggity” performed by the R&B group Blackstreet. 

I wrote All Summer Long performed by Kid Rock and is my take on Def Leppard’s friends Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama, which growing up in Alabama I was pretty sick of hearing so I thought I would write my own version.   In 1994 Nirvana started performing Sweet Home Alabama in concert and on MTV Unplugged expressed my sentiments about the song by performing a small portion.  When talking about the song I am the one who gave him the idea for someone in the audience to yell “Freebird”.  Yes, that was planned.

This did inspire the 2002 movie “Sweet Home Alabama”.  There is a coon dog cemetery in Tuscumbia, Alabama which is the hometown of Helen Keller and near Muscle Shoals, AL where Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded albums. 

(Amy Lee, 1972, Dallas, TX)

Another song is Cowboy I wrote performed by Kid Rock.  A connection to this song is the one I wrote for Nickelback titled “Rockstar”.

Ke$ha Origins

In the early 80’s Def Leppard briefly toured with the Southern rock band Blackfoot.  Members of Blackfoot grew up in Jacksonville, Florida with members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who are honorary Alabamians for their ’74 hit song Sweet Home Alabama recorded as a response to Neil Young’s songs Alabama and Southern Man, which dealt with themes of racism and slavery in the South. 

Both Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot recorded albums at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, as did many other famous artists.

I chose the name Ke$ha for the daughter of the legendary R&B singer Millie Jackson, of Georgia, who recorded at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.  She is R&B singer Keisha Jackson. 

In September of ’83 Def Leppard finished the U.S. and Canada portion of their Rock Till You Drop tour.  In October they set off on their European portion with the British all-girl band Rock Goddess.  During the school holidays, at the end of November, Def Leppard had quite a bit of free time from the tour and Joe Elliott flew in to take me to Madrid, Spain.  After checking in at the hotel, Kurt Cobain and I went to see Rock Goddess perform.  We arrived late and I only was able to get to see them perform a couple of songs.  I was really impressed by such young performers though.

Kurt took me onstage to meet the lead singer for the band.  It didn’t take long for her to realize I was from the South.  She mentioned that Mick Jagger’s girlfriend, Jerry Hall, was from the south.  I excused myself and pulled Kurt off to the side of the stage and told him to remember this line:

“The dudes are lining up cause they hear we got swagger, but we kick em to the curb unless they look like Mick Jagger”

Inspired by the history of Lynyrd Skynyrd, when around 1972 guitarist Ed King of the band Strawberry Alarm Clock joined the band, I was able to finish the song that became Tik Tok.

At some point, Michael Jackson brought Sean Combs to meet me and I gave him the nickname P Diddy.  I liked him right off and over the years Sean continued to fly in when his career allowed.