Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday and get
something off my chest (as you all probably know I’m not
a big blogger! But I do read my website and myspace
page when I have time, and thank you for all the kind
words and shout outs!).

I headed to Europe last Friday for a small tour and then am
most likely going back to the Middle East to entertain our
troops for the holidays (again!) I’d be lying if I didn’t
mention it’s kind of bittersweet due to the fact that I
petitioned the judge (Alvin T. Wong, Dekalb County,
Georgia) in my “Waffle House” case so that the 80 hours of
community service he sentenced me to would be served by
my holiday trip to entertain our troops (for my 3rd
Christmas and 4th time!). Apparently he thinks it’s more
important that I do something else rather than sing, shake
hands, take pictures and spend time with the men and
women who put themselves in harms way to protect the
very freedoms he and all of us live by. I really take it as a
slap in the face, and really have trouble thinking of a better
way to “serve the community,” especially at Christmas time
when it’s obviously the hardest time for soldiers to be away
from their families and home (and I try not to think about
it when I’m there, but it’s a little freaky being in the middle
of a war zone!). It’s not that I don’t take responsibility for
my actions, because I do, and I have, in more ways than
one. The case got so much press (a lot of it very silly press)
that I decided before I even went to court that I would have
a fundraiser at a local Georgia Waffle House and donate the
money to a local Dekalb County homeless shelter that helps
families get back on their feet (we raised close to 20
thousand dollars for that shelter).

I figured I would use the opportunity to turn a negative into a positive (The judge didn’t seem to care
to much about that either, but whatever, that wasn’t about anything other than using the media BACK
to do some good!). I’m sure a lot of you will comment on this and in a weird way it will make me feel a little better, but either way this judge will leave a bad taste of ignorance in my mouth, but I don’t let
even the DEVIL get me down so, WHATEVA!! Well, that’s my rant, I hope I’m doing the right thing by
sharing my feelings (I’m usually better at it on a song!!). So in ending I would just like to wish all of
you, my friends, a happy holiday season. Thank you for all your support, I truly appreciate each and
every one of you! God Bless!

Your Friend,

Kid Rock

Man, for a man of the people, he sure does want to be able to use his celebrity so he doesn't have to pick shit up on the side of the road, huh?

Welcome [KidRock.com via Smoking Section]

He didn't rap. He didn't sing. He barely "played" more than one string on his guitar, which he stopped pretend-playing about halfway through Kid Rock's good-natured, but extraordinarily derivative "All Summer Long." Weezy stuck to the background mostly, wearing a Titans jersey (with "Lil Wayne" written on the back) to match Mr. Rock's and acting like a rock and roll hypeman, waving his arms about, messing with his hat, and plucking away on that one string. I kept waiting for him to grab the mic and spit, but nope, nothing happened. We didn't even get a "yeah, yeah, yeah" or anything. It was downright tasteful! Color me disappointed. I was really hoping for something to punctuate the unctuous, slick, hermetic awfulness of what came before and after.

Hey, but hats off to former semi-Athenian Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, who racked up two awards. And can we just admit that Rascal Flatts is going to keep winning Best Vocal Group until they break up because there aren't really any country bands out there? They should just call it the Alabama Award or something. Meanwhile, Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, the Statler Brothers, and Ernest V. "Pop" Stoneman were all inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, as well they should be.

The complete list of winners:
Entertainer Of The Year - Kenny Chesney
Female Vocalist - Carrie Underwood
Male Vocalist - Brad Paisley
New Artist - Lady Antebellum
Vocal Group - Rascal Flatts
Vocal Duo - Sugarland
Single of the Year - "I Saw God Today," George Strait
Album of the Year - Troubadour, George Strait
Song of the Year - "Stay," Sugarland (written by Jennifer Nettles)
Musical Event of the Year - "Gone, Gone, Gone," Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Music Video of the Year - "Waitin' on a Woman," Brad Paisley
Musician of the Year - Guitarist Mac McAnally

Lil Wayne joins Kid Rock on stage at Country Music Awards show [The Canadian Press]

Kid Rock's new video for "Roll On" features the brawl-happy singer rolling through his hometown of Detroit while wearing one of those ginormous rope chains that I haven't seen worn by a lot of people since the Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast days, and the song, while sounding something like day-old oatmeal that hasn't been reheated to me, is strummy and "heartfelt" enough that it'll probably be eaten up by those people who loved "Only God Knows Why." But you can't say that he isn't savvy about blitzing the press: The same day the above video premieres on MTV, VH1, and CMT (although I think at this point that verb is code for "is placed on the front page of each of those channel's Web sites"), Rhapsody announces that they've become the first online music service to cross the digital divide with the Kid; his entire catalog is streaming there now. Wonder if he negotiated for a higher royalty payment, or if he's just trying to flip Apple the bird as a way to start off his weekend? [Detroit News / RealNetworks Blog]

With this move, Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. scores his first No. 1 as a lead artist (he was credited two years ago on Justin Timberlake's chart-topper "My Love") and sets a new Hot 100 record for biggest leap to the top spot. T.I. takes the record away from Maroon 5, who set it just 16 months ago when "Makes Me Wonder" leapt from No. 64 to No. 1 in a single bound. They, in turn, had stolen the record from Kelly Clarkson, whose only No. 1 hit, "A Moment Like This," held the record for about four years, after she leapt from No. 52 to the top in 2002.

Before Clarkson, this record was held for 28 years, by the Beatles' "Can't Buy Me Love" (No. 26-No. 1 in 1964). The fact that a record held for three decades has been broken thrice in the last six years says less about these songs' popularity and more about the quirks of the modern charts and the sometimes dysfunctional relationship between sales and airplay.

And it means T.I. shouldn't gloat for too long—this record's likely to be broken again.

Prior to this week, "Whatever You Like" was performing so modestly on the chart that I'd barely even noticed it. The song debuted a couple of weeks ago, way down at No. 99. Then it made a solid 28-spot move last week—but that still left it in the bottom third of the chart.

The August 19 digital release of "Whatever" provided the rocket fuel: the song sold more than 200,000 copies in its first week at iTunes and elsewhere. Radio airplay is growing quickly, too, as it leaps into the top 20 of the Hot 100 Airplay chart and the Top 10 of the radio-centric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. But T.I.'s airplay growth is dwarfed by his explosion in sales.

As I've said here often, in the modern, iTunes-fueled music economy, the mismatch between sales and airplay—particularly on new records by established artists—produces weird chart moves. The only reason T.I. is setting the leap-to-No. 1 record this week is that he had a fairly serious misalignment between radio and pent-up fan demand.

Let me offer a hypothetical: If "Whatever," which was sent to radio back in mid-July, had been embraced by radio programmers sooner, as of last week the song would have been further up the Hot 100 thanks to airplay points—say, the Top 50. Then, when those 200,000 in sales came crashing in, the song still would have made an impressive moon-shot to No. 1, but it wouldn't have beaten Maroon 5's record. (The same goes for Maroon 5 in 2007, with a song radio eventually played to death but not right away; and especially Clarkson in 2002, with a song that American Idol fans bought in droves but radio embraced only half-heartedly.)

The fact is, chart feats like T.I's are becoming more yawn-inducing all the time. This year alone, we've seen numerous massive Hot 100 leaps, all fueled by sudden digital sales bursts on songs that were a little too new for radio.

Two of them shot to No. 1 with leaps that didn't quite beat Maroon 5's record: Usher in early March, with a 50-spot jump by "Love in this Club"; and Rihanna in mid-May, with a 52-space move by "Take a Bow." Other big chart moves this year included two back-to-back jumps of more than 70 spaces each, by Lil Mama, with the short-lived Top 10 hit "Shawty Get Loose," and Lil Wayne, with the chart-topper-to-be "Lollipop."

In three of the above four cases, radio eventually caught on and made the songs not just chart smashes but radio ubiquities. (Poor Lil Mama.) But what all four songs had in common was an aberrant week of massive digital sales, fueled by a carefully timed iTunes release designed to maximize the acts' impatient fans—the kind you can count on to buy anything you release the instant it's available. We saw something similar just last week, when Idol runner-up David Archuleta dropped his official post-show single, and rabid fans bought enough copies to give the song a big debut at No. 2 on the Hot 100. Nice, but who knows—if Archie had scored slightly better airplay the week before, the song might've spent a week at No. 99 or so before pole-vaulting to the runner-up slot, and we'd be talking about him setting a different record.

In short, I advise chart-watchers not to be too amazed anymore by big leaps into the upper reaches or seemingly out-of-nowhere debuts. It's an event to be savored by screaming fans or savvy label promotional teams—but the true measure of a song's reception by the general public is what it's doing a week later.

Here's a rundown of the rest of this week's charts:

• Speaking of week two, and big debuts, let's talk about the two aberrant debuts from last week, and one more from this week. Archuelta's single makes a predictable second-week plummet, falling 13 spots to No. 15. Digital sales fell by nearly half after Archie's big iTunes debut, and the song's airplay remains too weak (it's still nowhere to be found on Hot 100 Airplay) to offset that fall-off. Falling even faster is Taylor Swift's "Change," which drops 29 spots after its No. 10 debut last week. Her sales go down by 56%, and country radio still isn't focused enough on the song to give it an airplay boost.

This week, the eye-popping debut comes from Pink's "So What." Sales of more than 100K out of the box splash her onto the chart at No. 9—the exact position her last two hits peaked after much longer, more deliberate chart runs. (Something tells me, a year from now, we'll still be hearing those two very good hits, "U + Ur Hand" and "Who Knew," on the radio a lot more than we'll be hearing "So What.")

• Following up on my Thursday report, on Atlantic's campaign to sell more Estelle albums by pulling her from iTunes, the near-Top 10 hit "American Boy" makes (sigh) an expected massive drop this week. Falling 26 spots to No. 37, it's barely clinging onto the Top 40. It's a bad week for Estelle all around: not only does Atlantic's gambit not produce growth in her corresponding album sales, but radio is cooling on the song, too. "Boy" loses its bullet and falls back a bit on the Hot 100 Airplay list; it's now the 25th-most-played song at radio nationwide.

• Meanwhile, Estelle's label-mate and fellow iTunes boycotter Kid Rock is still seeing airplay growth and a Hot 100 bullet—but the highest-charting version of "All Summer Long" is no longer his! The cheesy insta-cover by Hit Masters vaults 46 notches to No. 19, outdistancing the Kid, who holds at No. 25. Meanwhile, as I noted in a comment yesterday, there's now a cheesy insta-cover of the Estelle song, too, by a group calling itself the Studio All-Stars. According to iTunes, this cover has been on sale since mid-July, but unsurprisingly it only sold enough copies to register on the charts the week Estelle's original version got pulled. With more than 30,000 downloads sold last week, the "Boy" cover debuts on the Hot 100 at No. 85—and you can expect it to make a big leap next week.

(A quick public service to loyal readers and pop fans: I actually spent $1.98 to hear these two covers, and... oy! The Hit Masters' "Summer" is actually passable and surprisingly listenable, if you can ignore the obvious replacement of the original Warren Zevon and Lynyrd Skynyrd samples. But the Studio All-Stars' "Boy" is nigh-unlistenable, with the worst Kanye West impersonation imaginable. Avoid at all costs.)

• Even if you know little or nothing about country, you'll probably recognize two names in its Top 10 this week: Kid Rock, whose crossover smash "All Summer Long" makes its inevitable rise into the red-state winner's circle; and Darius Rucker, whom a couple of my sharp-eyed commenters noticed entering the Country Top 10 last week. "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," the debut country-crossover single by The Artist Formerly Known As Hootie, moves up to No. 7 this week.

One of my favorite throwaway gags in Airplane! is the bit where the little old lady asks Julie Hagerty's flight attendant for "something light" to read, and Hagerty replies, "How about this leaflet, Famous Jewish Sports Legends?" A list of Famous African-American Country Stars would fill a similar-sized document. When this Guardian article was written two years ago, Grand Ole Opry-inducted legend Charley Pride was the only black country star signed to a major label's Nashville imprint. It's impossible to search Billboard chart records by race—so if anyone has some decent research on this, help me out. But best as I can tell, Rucker's Top 10 hit is the first on country radio by a black artist in a long, long while. Pride's last Top 10 hit was 20 years ago, and in the '80s only Lionel Richie and Ray Charles—both with duets—made inroads on this chart.

• The R&B/Hip-Hop chart continues to be August's most interesting list, with constant shake-ups at the top. There's yet another new No. 1 this week—the fourth chart-topper in four weeks—this time from newcomer and Missy Elliott protégée Jazmine Sullivan, with the growling ballad "Need U Bad." (Interestingly, she's probably getting an airplay boost from the guy at No. 1 on the Hot 100—T.I. joins Missy on the song's official remix.) The one constant in all this change at the top: Keyshia Cole can't be stopped. Her former No. 1, "Heaven Sent," which was evicted by Lil Wayne three weeks ago, has been quietly holding down No. 2 ever since while the songs that succeeded her at No. 1 (Weezy's, and Rihanna's "Take a Bow") have both dropped past her.

A little lower down, two songs move into the Top 10: the aforementioned T.I. track, and "Spotlight," the surprisingly excellent post-Dreamgirls debut by Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson.

• On the flip side, Modern Rock continues to be the most boring chart of the summer, with the entire Top Eight staying the same from last week. Hilariously, last week's No. 9 track, Offspring's "Hammerhead," is this week replaced at No. 9 by a newer song from the same band. Oh, and Weezer now has two songs in the Top 10. (Zzzzz.)

• The most notable rock debut of the week is by Metallica, whose "The Day That Never Comes" materializes on three charts. The song is the week's highest Modern Rock debut at No. 25. But at Mainstream Rock, the band's more natural home, "Day" debuts all the way up at No. 7. Finally, thanks to nearly 58,000 digital sales, the song debuts on the Hot 100, at a solid No. 31—for the record, that's Lars & co.'s sixth career Top 40 hit, dating back to their first (still their best!), "One," in 1989.

Top 10s
Last week's position and total weeks charted in parentheses (Digital Songs chart includes total downloads/percentage change in parentheses):

Hot 100
1. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (LW No. 71, 3 weeks)
2. Rihanna, "Disturbia" (LW No. 1, 10 weeks)
3. Chris Brown, "Forever" (LW No. 3, 18 weeks)
4. Katy Perry, "I Kissed a Girl" (LW No. 4, 16 weeks)
5. Kardinal Offishall feat. Akon, "Dangerous" (LW No. 7, 16 weeks)
6. M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (LW No. 6, 6 weeks)
7. Coldplay, "Viva la Vida" (LW No. 5, 16 weeks)
8. Ne-Yo, "Closer" (LW No. 8, 19 weeks)
9. Pink, "So What" (CHART DEBUT)
10. Rihanna, "Take a Bow" (LW No. 8, 20 weeks)

Hot Digital Songs
1. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (CHART DEBUT, 186,000 downloads)
2. Rihanna, "Disturbia" (LW No. 2, 144,000 downloads)
3. M.I.A., "Paper Planes" (LW No. 4, 116,000 downloads)
4. Pink, "So What" (CHART DEBUT, 116,000 downloads)
5. Hit Masters, "All Summer Long" (LW No. 32, 95,000 downloads)
6. David Archuleta, "Crush" (LW No. 1, 89,000 downloads)
7. Coldplay, "Viva la Vida" (LW No. 7, 79,000 downloads)
8. Katy Perry, "I Kissed a Girl" (LW No. 8, 78,000 downloads)
9. The Pussycat Dolls, "When I Grow Up" (LW No. 12, 76,000 downloads)
10. Jason Mraz, "I'm Yours" (LW No. 13, 73,000 downloads)

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
1. Jazmine Sullivan, "Need U Bad" (LW No. 4, 17 weeks)
2. Keyshia Cole, "Heaven Sent" (LW No. 2, 22 weeks)
3. Rihanna, "Take a Bow" (LW No. 1, 18 weeks)
4. Lil Wayne, "A Milli" (LW No. 3, 18 weeks)
5. Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West, "Put On" (LW No. 5, 16 weeks)
6. Yung Berg feat. Casha, "The Business" (LW No. 9, 14 weeks)
7. Robin Thicke, "Magic" (LW No. 6, 14 weeks)
8. T.I., "Whatever You Like" (LW No. 13, 6 weeks)
9. David Banner feat. Chris Brown, "Get Like Me" (LW No. 7, 26 weeks)
10. Jennifer Hudson, "Spotlight" (LW No. 12, 15 weeks)

Hot Country Songs
1. Keith Urban, "You Look Good in My Shirt" (LW No. 2, 14 weeks)
2. Keith Anderson, "I Still Miss You" (LW No. 3, 30 weeks)
3. Brad Paisley, "Waitin' on a Woman" (LW No. 5, 11 weeks)
4. Jimmy Wayne, "Do You Believe Me Now" (LW No. 4, 22 weeks)
5. Taylor Swift, "Should've Said No" (LW No. 1, 15 weeks)
6. Kenny Chesney, "Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven" (LW No. 13, 4 weeks)
7. Darius Rucker, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" (LW No. 10, 19 weeks)
8. George Strait, "Troubadour" (LW No. 9, 13 weeks)
9. Toby Keith, "She Never Cried in Front of Me" (LW No. 11, 9 weeks)
10. Kid Rock, "All Summer Long" (LW No. 14, 15 weeks)

Hot Modern Rock Tracks
1. Coldplay, "Viva la Vida" (LW No. 1, 12 weeks)
2. Foo Fighters, "Let It Die" (LW No. 2, 21 weeks)
3. Staind, "Believe" (LW No. 3, 9 weeks)
4. Weezer, "Pork & Beans" (LW No. 4, 19 weeks)
5. Disturbed, "Inside the Fire" (LW No. 5, 22 weeks)
6. Carolina Liar, "I'm Not Over" (LW No. 6, 17 weeks)
7. Saving Abel, " Addicted" (LW No. 7, 23 weeks)
8. Ludo, "Love Me Dead" (LW No. 8, 23 weeks)
9. The Offspring, "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid" (LW No. 19, 5 weeks)
10. Weezer, "Troublemaker" (LW No. 16, 7 weeks)

We won't find out how Estelle fared until the new Hot 100 appears later today, but yesterday's release of SoundScan figures bears out ukidol's prediction. "American Boy," which the prior week was the sixth-best selling digital song in the country, fell to 64th, as its sales took a 78% tumble from 86,700 copies to 19,100 copies. (Presumably, virtually all of those 19,100 copies sold in the first day or two of the tracking week before the song got pulled from iTunes.)

As of last week, "American Boy" was at No. 11 on the big chart. While the radio half of the Hot 100's sales-plus-airplay formulation might keep the song from falling out of the Top 40, no amount of radio growth will keep it from dropping at least a double-digit number of slots—if not this week, then the next.

But that's a small price for Estelle's U.S. label, Atlantic Records, to pay if pulling the single has the (presumably) desired effect: giving her a gold album. So far, in the States, Estelle's album Shine has sold 95,000 copies.

Kid Rock is exactly the right comparable to invoke here, especially since both Estelle and the Kid are on the Craig Kallman-run, Edgar Bronfman-owned Atlantic. Warner Music Group told the Wall Street Journal that the removal of "American Boy" from iTunes was part of a digital-release plan where the label honchos would figure out strategies "uniquely tailored to each artist and their fan base in an effort to optimize revenues and promote long-term artist development."

Of course, when labels toy with a new sales-and-promotional model for one act, it's not a stretch to assume they'll try it again with another. Consider EMI Records in 1990. They were behind the year's biggest pop breakthrough, in crossover dance-rapper M.C. Hammer; and the second-biggest, in Hammer's tourmate and pop-rap contemporary Vanilla Ice. Each enjoyed a chart-topping album with blockbuster sales—Hammer's on Capitol, Vanilla's on the now-defunct SBK, both distributed by EMI. Each act achieved those sales via a massive rap-pop hit fueled by an instantly recognizable classic-pop sample. And finally, each topped the album chart, in no small part, thanks to EMI's strategic withholding of those two big hits from the singles market.

As I explained in a recent "100 and Single," Capitol forced fans of Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" to buy his Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em album by only releasing the song in the spring of 1990 as a 12-inch vinyl single. The result: a 21-week-chart-topping, 10-times-platinum album. Their tactic that fall with Vanilla Ice was different, but similarly diabolical: the Queen/David Bowie-fueled "Ice Ice Baby" was released in the popular cassingle format and charged up the Hot 100, but once SBK knew the song was poised to top the chart, the "Baby" single was deleted. The result: the song spent only one week at No. 1, but on the album chart Ice's To the Extreme shot to No. 1 and stayed there 16 weeks, shipping 4 million copies out of the gate and eventually going septuple-platinum.

In short, EMI produced two back-to-back smash albums, first by withholding the big hit from the most popular singles medium altogether, and the second time by pulling the big hit from the market just as it peaked.

I have long posited 1990 as the year that launched the Great War Against The Single, a decade-long campaign that saw endless casualties (not least, the consumer's wallet) and didn't end until the Rebel Alliance that was Napster and the Versailles Treaty that was iTunes.

Now, in 2008, it appears that Atlantic is attempting to start the War all over again, and they're doing it by replicating EMI's first two strategic moves from 1990, verbatim. (Insert joke about history repeating as farce here.) If Kid Rock's "All Summer Long," never released on iTunes, is Atlantic's new "U Can't Touch This," then "American Boy" is their new "Ice Ice Baby."

I am deeply depressed by the prospect of repeating the 1990s pattern again. As a public service, I thought I might warn you all what we have to look forward to, assuming all the other phases come to pass during the 2010s—here's how the 1990s went down:

The Market-Test Phase (1990-1991): Embodied by the Hammer and Vanilla Ice singles, as described above.

The Rockers as New Zeppelins Phase (1991-1994): In which the labels use the advent of a new rock genre, alternative, as an excuse to exhume 1970s rockist practices and not release new rock songs—even the biggest radio hits—as singles. During this phase, every leading grunge and post-post-punk act, from Pearl Jam to Soundgarden to Alice in Chains to Smashing Pumpkins to Green Day, released no singles. (The exception: Nirvana.) The result: Ten becomes the biggest-selling album of the grunge boomlet, outselling even Nevermind. (Dookie comes close.)

By the mid-'90s, fan-friendly rockers like Eddie Vedder and Billy Corgan realize their U.S. fans are getting fleeced, often paying top dollar for import singles, and insist that their labels release their new radio hits (and some catalog) as singles. Relenting at the rockers' insistence, the labels then move on to...

The Big-Pop Phase (1996-1998): In which more obviously Top 40-bound acts with insanely catchy singles are withheld from the singles market. Big game starts to appear during this phase, songs so ubiquitous on pop radio—"I'll Be There for You," "Don't Speak," "Killing Me Softly," "Lovefool," "Fly," "Iris"—that consumers are bewildered to find themselves forced to pony up $16 for a full-length CD. It starts with developing pop acts (respectively, the Rembrandts, No Doubt, the Fugees, the Cardigans, Sugar Ray, the Goo Goo Dolls), but by 1998, even long-established pop acts like Janet Jackson are having singles withheld on a case-by-case basis.

The One-Hit Wonder Phase (1997-2000): In which the labels get so successful at their no-singles tactics, and so greedy, that they begin thinking, Maybe we can get a multiplatinum album from an act for whom we have no intention of ever releasing more than one single. Amazingly—and due in no small part to a booming U.S. economy—it works: millions of consumers willingly pay just shy of a Hamilton for full-length CDs from Chumbawamba, Natalie Imbruglia, Aqua, Everlast, Lou Bega and Eiffel 65. (Say what you want about the boy bands during this phase, at least most of them had multiple hits. In retrospect, Backstreet Boys' Millennium was a far better value than Tubthumper, the album.)

After 2000, the commercial single was essentially dead for everyone except American Idol winners, until the launch of iTunes in 2003. You know the story from there.

The sad fact of all these phases in the War On Singles is that the labels were, if craven, also correct: withholding singles does force a certain sucker-subset of your audience to pay for the full-length. It's a truism that holds to this day, as Kid Rock's Rock N Roll Jesus moves up to No. 2 on the album chart, nearly matching the No. 1 peak of the disc's debut week last fall.

As for Estelle, Atlantic's tactic doesn't appear to be working, at least not yet: the same week her single became unavailable, her album Shine fell 24 spots on the album chart and sold 16% fewer copies (about 4,200) than it did the week prior. That said, these things take time to be reflected in the market, and we might see the Estelle album stage a comeback and reach a new peak in the weeks to come.

Whatever happens to her and the Kid, the labels can't go home again to the iron-fisted control they enjoyed a decade ago. Not just with file-traders, who are doubtlessly sharing millions of illegal copies of "All Summer Long" and "American Boy" as we speak. No, I mean even iTunes will trip them up this time: remember that tacky remake of "All Summer Long" by quick-buck cover group the Hit Masters? Last week, it sold 95,000 copies, making it the fifth best-selling digital download in the country.

So much for reigniting the war.

At a time when record companies are continuing to bemoan the decline of CD sales, Kid Rock observes, "If people had good albums, they'd be buying albums. But people are buying singles because they only have good songs."



As evidenced by his latest album, Rock N Roll Jesus, it's clear he's not having a problem sustaining his success at retail. Still in the Top 10 of the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, the title has sold more than 1.6 million copies and is currently selling more than 100,000 copies per week after being released almost a year ago. He's also enjoying a major country hit with "All Summer Long."



In an interview with CMT Insider, Kid Rock said the music industry is failing in its efforts to create superstar acts.



"The program director at a radio station, by the way, is not the superstar," he said. "If he was a superstar, he'd be out creating songs, but he's not. But he wants to act like he has control and power."

I'm not really sure where this animosity towards radio program directors came from, but what I think Kid Rock means to say is that if the program directors were the superstars they'd be out lazily exploiting the hooks of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Warren Zevon to create catchy singles.

"I truly believe that people like myself, who are in a position of entertainers in the limelight, should keep their mouth shut on politics," he noted. "Because at the end of the day, let me tell you what I 'm good at: I'm good at writing songs and singing. What I'm not educated in is the field of political science. And so for me to be sharing my views and influencing people of who I think they should be voting for ... I think would be very irresponsible on my part. So I'll just keep my mouth shut on that."

Well, at least he's honest. And if you need further proof beyond his own admission of political ignorance, look no further than the next paragraph of the article:

"I think celebrity endorsements hurt politicians," he said. "Because as soon as somebody comes out for a politician, especially in Hollywood, when they all go, 'I'm voting for this guy!' — I go, 'That's not who I'm voting for!' ... As soon as Oprah Winfrey pops up and goes 'Ha-la-la-la-la,' I'm like, 'I love Barrack Obama. I hate Oprah Winfrey.'" He adds, "I don't hate her. I just don't believe in her, so I don't want any part of any of that. I think celebrities hurt politicians."

I suppose he could still get out and encourage people to vote. His commercial would go something like "Make sure you vote this November...even if it's just to spite Oprah."

The crowning glory of this article is not Kid's sage political wisdom, but rather his thoughts on the Internet:

"There's a real problem with this Internet thing and everyone thinking they have a voice," he said. "This is where freedom can get out of hand. Everybody should not have a voice is what we've just proven by the Internet. Because I'm convinced that Jesus Christ could come back onto this earth and forgive everybody's sins, and it'd be the greatest day in mankind ever. Somebody would take a picture of him. They'd put him on a Web site like TMZ, and the first comment would be 'Jesus is a douche bag.' You know what I'm sayin'?

"This is what the Internet and bloggers are all about. They're all little haters. It's like, 'Welcome to Haterville. Population: You!'"

All sarcasm aside, he's got a point. While many bloggers are intelligent, articulate, and thoughtful, some are not, and I think Kid Rock's hypothetical second coming scenario pretty much sums it up.

Kid Rock Offers Views on Music Industry, Politics ... and Oprah [CMT]

I really believe its about a connection to the artist and the "lack of" that plays a big part in this. When I would hear a Bob Seger or Run DMC record as a kid, I really believed they WERE the songs, and that they were who they sang and wrote about. I think that connection, especially in pop music has been missing for sometime. Shit, I dont think kids even believe in half the rappers are who they claim to be anymore. On another note, the radio has fucked so much of it up, for instance, that James Mcmurty song is a pop hit, but they know he wont suck thier dick so they say fuck him and as a result kids lose out on hearing a great song and pop music suffers. Now obviously i dont suck dick either, but i know how to put my arm around em and make em feel good, maybe tickle thier balls a little if it means more people will hear my music. BUT NO DICK SUCKING!! Programmers are not the fucking stars, artists are, but if they would rather party with brittney or mariah rather than folks like me, thier missing one hell of a party!! I mean ,I wanna be friends with radio and have met some good folks in it, but overall they make it very difficult with the politics and bullshit, and the record companys share in that as well. (shit, sometimes us artists do too)

And this biggest thing is, you ll never beat word of mouth on a good product! And when people love something, theyll do whatever it takes to get it. Itunes is convienient, but so is Mcdonalds, but....... a lotta people still wait in line and make reservations to eat elsewhere!! Sometimes when you believe in yourself and your product, NO is the best answer. Thiers plenty of ways to have big sales without itunes (or conventional wisdom), i just proved it! (dont mean to toot my own horn but BEEP FUCKING BEEP!!!! haha) bottom line, lets bring some creativity back into this buisness and make it fun again,lifes too short, thats where im at with things.

I wasn't aware that "smushing together a bunch of old classic-rock radio staples and turning them into a juicy nugget of rock-radio-ready jammage" was what "creativity" meant these days, but I guess the lexicon is always changing.

All Summer Long [Lefsetz Letter]

The TV premiere of her concert film, which chronicles a show on the Best of Both Worlds Tour, is this Saturday. The movie was shot in 3-D, and the glasses needed to view Hannah/Miley in her illusory glory are exclusively available at Wal-Mart, where they're likely stocked somewhat near copies of her new album. Top that, Sugarland!

In other news, Nas' untitled album looks to make the now-standard second-week slide down the charts, while the improbable run of that ABBA covers album featuring Colin Firth continues. Speaking of improbable runs, thanks largely to people in my neighborhood, I believe, Kid Rock looks to grab a somewhat distant fourth place. Of course, as last week showed, these numbers can change rather quickly between now and the week's official close on Sunday, so place your chart-related wagers wisely.

The current projections:

1. Miley Cyrus (Hollywood) 360-380k
2. Sugarland (Mercury Nashville) 340-360k
3. Mamma Mia (Decca) 130-140k
4. Kid Rock (Atlantic) 85-90k
5. Coldplay (Capitol) 75-80k
6. Lil Wayne (Cash Money/Universal Motown) 75-80k
7. Nas (Def Jam/Columbia) 60-65k
8. Camp Rock (Walt Disney) 60-65k
9. Taylor Swift, Beautiful Eyes (Big Machine) 40-45k (Wal-Mart exclusive)
10. Now 28 (Capitol) 35-40k

Rumor Mill [HITS Daily Double]

It's a risky move, because the Billboard Hot 100 is dominated by songs that scale the chart by amassing sales as well as airplay. But the song is so mindlessly catchy, the act's people figure it'll be a big chart hit anyway with radio alone.

I could be talking about M.C. Hammer's 1990 smash "U Can't Touch This," the "Superfreak"-sampling hit that made the Top 10, even as Capitol refused to issue it as a cassingle.

But I could also be talking about Kid Rock's "All Summer Long," a mashup of Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" and Lynyrd Skynrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" that debuts on the Hot 100 this week at No. 80 despite his lack of interest in releasing it digitally.

Can the erstwhile Robert Richie pull off in 2008 what one Stanley Kirk Burrell pulled 18 years ago?

A No. 80 debut might not seem all that impressive for the Kid's insanely catchy song, but it's appearing on the chart with one hand tied behind its back thanks to the lack of any digital single release. Just for comparison, in early May, Weezer's "Pork and Beans" debuted at No. 84, even with iTunes on its side—as well as radio, where the song has been massive, topping the all-airplay Modern Rock list for 10 weeks. (On the Hot 100, "Pork" never went much higher after its debut; it peaked at No. 64 a few weeks back.)

Right now, 99 songs on the Hot 100 are available at retail in some form, virtually all at iTunes. But "All Summer Long" is the only one with the Billboard footnote "PROMO ONLY," which is basically code for "radio can play this, but the consumer can't buy it." Atlantic has even provided a single-length "radio edit" of the song to programmers, but you can't buy that, either.

Kid's isn't the only song this year to make a splash without digital sales. You may recall that in February, Mariah Carey's album-leading single "Touch My Body" appeared on the chart on radio points alone, debuting way up at No. 57. That would seem to minimize Mr. Rock's achievement. But let's get some perspective: (a) Mariah is a massive pop artist who crosses multiple radio genres and treats the Hot 100 as her personal fiefdom; and (b) everyone knew ahead of time that the song would get a digital release eventually—which it did in April, shooting the song to No. 1 on the big chart.

Kid Rock is a different rock n' roll animal. He scores radio hits only every half-decade or so: massively in 1999, with a string of rock hits off his breakthrough Devil Without a Cause; briefly in 2003, with a country-pop crossover track, "Picture." And more important, he doesn't want to release any of his material—albums or singles—on iTunes. So, for radio program directors to play one of his songs, they've got to get great listener feedback; they're never going to have the kind of sales data that tells them when a song's connecting with the public.

So far, it looks like "Summer" isn't having trouble winning PDs' support. It's already more than halfway up the Hot 100 Airplay list and rising fast (No. 45 this week, up from No. 60). And it's got multiple radio formats providing it with a chart boost: Top 40, adult contemporary, mainstream and modern rock, and country stations are all playing it. Assuming it never goes on sale at iTunes or Amazon MP3, this Kid Rock single, more than Carey's "Touch," might prove to be a pure experiment in the reach, and limits, of an all-airplay single with huge listener appeal.

Kind of like "U Can't Touch This."

Beyond the gleeful pillaging of Rick James on Hammer's hit, and Zevon and the Van Zandt brothers on Kid Rock's, "U Can't Touch This" and "All Summer Long" would seem to have little in common. But for those of us who've watched the history of the retail single for the last 20 years, "U" is a pivotal record.

Tapped as the second single from 1990's Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em after the modest R&B hit "Help the Children," "U" was only issued as a 12" vinyl single, a clever tactical move. That allowed "U" to qualify for the Hot 100 (until 1998, all singles had to be released at retail in some form to be eligible for the big chart) but guaranteed that the overwhelming majority of consumers desiring the song would have to buy Hammer's album on cassette or CD. For all intents and purposes, "U" was a grand experiment on Capitol's part, a de facto airplay-only hit on a chart where every other record had a mainstream retail component—cassingle or maxi-cassette, CD-single—providing chart points. And they didn't do it with a low-priority song, either; they did it with a preordained rap-pop crossover smash with huge MTV play.

Long story short: the experiment worked like a charm. "U" made the Top 10 anyway, thanks to its blanketing of the Top 40 airwaves in the summer of 1990. If a cassingle had been released, the song indubitably would have gone to No. 1 and stayed there for months... but what did Capitol care? They made money hand over fist: Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em spent a staggering 21 weeks atop the Billboard album chart and went 10-times-platinum, the first hip-hop album of any kind to see that kind of success. Since 1990, no other album has spent that long on top of the chart (Billy Ray Cyrus, Whitney Houston, and Alanis Morissette have come closest).

In short, "U Can't Touch This" was the song that kicked off the record industry's decade-long campaign to bury the single as a retail medium. (Don't get me started—I could go into a long diatribe about all the other experiments, from deleting singles early to limited releases, the labels used to get out of releasing retail songs over the next 10 years.) By the start of the 2000s, virtually no song on the Hot 100 had a retail component. Billboard caved in '98 in allowing non-retail tracks to chart, and the first all-airplay song to top the chart was Aaliyah's "Try Again" in 2000.

Since the early 2000s, of course, the paradigm has shifted again, thanks to the inclusion of digital song sales on the Hot 100 starting in 2005. Consumer sales once again have a major impact on the chart. In fact, sales skew the Hot 100 more radically now than at any time in the chart's history. The tide has turned against radio: it's now virtually impossible to make the Top 10 without sales—as proved this spring by Carey's hit, which couldn't get higher than No. 15 on airplay alone before iTunes propelled it to the top.

I doubt that quite as much thinking has gone into Atlantic's withholding of "All Summer Long" from iTunes as went into keeping Hammer's hit off mall-shop shelves in 1990. (Mostly, it seems the Kid has a beef with his label's digital-release royalties, or Steve Jobs, or something.) Still, the effect has been the same: this week, Rock's nine-month-old Rock N Roll Jesus disc is back in the Top 10 for the first time since last fall.

Good for Kid Rock and Atlantic—but I think we can agree that this year's anti-single experiment will not prove a Hammer-sized success, even if Jesus does return to No. 1 on the album chart for a week or two, and even if "Summer" does manage to make the Hot 100's upper reaches. If the Kid, as he claims, doesn't care about people illegally downloading or torrenting his music, there's got to be a slew of people too cheap to buy a full-price CD and too savvy to do without his hit on their iPods.

Here's a rundown of the rest of this week's charts:

• It's been eight weeks since Rihanna's "Take a Bow" topped the Hot 100, and it looks like she might claw her way back. The song, which never left the Top Five, moves up two spaces to No. 2 this week, right behind Katy Perry's three-week champ "I Kissed a Girl." In the modern, sales-skewed Hot 100, the chart pattern we've seen by "Bow" is becoming more typical: an explosion in sales, followed by a radio catch-up.

The iTunes release of the song sent Ri hurtling more than 50 spots to No. 1 in May; since then, her sales have cooled, but the song has risen in the airplay rankings to become the second most-played track in the country behind Lil Wayne's "Lollipop." (R&B programmers, in particular, have only recently caught on; "Bow" reaches the Top 10 for the first time this week on the airplay-centric Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs list.) Perry continues to have the top-selling digital song, but if Ri can keep her sales respectable—it's ranked seventh on the digital chart this week—and keep growing her airplay, we could see a coup.

If Ri were to pull off the repeat appearance in the penthouse, the nine-week gap between No. 1 stints would likely go down as the second-largest in Hot 100 history. It's unlikely that any song will ever top the all-time record-holder: Chubby Checker's "The Twist," which went to No. 1 in 1960 and then again, 16 months later, in 1962. (Reportedly, the kids got into the dance first, and then their parents caught on later.)

• I didn't realize this until Fred Bronson told me, but the new song on top of the Hot Country chart this week is actually a remake of a modern-schlock smash. "Home," originally written and recorded by the millennium's New Sinatra, Michael Buble, topped the Adult Contemporary chart in the summer of 2005. Covered by Blake Shelton for a fan-soaking rerelease of his 2007 album Pure BS (man, I'll say!), "Home" is now a Country chart-topper, as well.

Can't wait for the inevitable R&B revamp by Robin Thicke, or maybe Eric Benet... with special guest T.I., of course.

Top 10s
Last week's position and total weeks charted in parentheses (Digital Songs chart includes total downloads/percentage change in parentheses):

Hot 100
1. Katy Perry, "I Kissed a Girl" (LW No. 1, 9 weeks)
2. Rihanna, "Take a Bow" (LW No. 4, 13 weeks)
3. Lil Wayne feat. Static Major, "Lollipop" (LW No. 2, 17 weeks)
4. Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love" (LW No. 3, 21 weeks)
5. Coldplay, "Viva la Vida" (LW No. 6, 9 weeks)
6. Chris Brown, "Forever" (LW No. 8, 11 weeks)
7. Natasha Bedingfield, "Pocketful of Sunshine" (LW No. 10, 21 weeks)
8. Jonas Brothers, "Burnin' Up" (LW No. 5, 2 weeks)
9. Plies feat. Ne-Yo, "Bust It Baby (Part 2)" (LW No. 7, 15 weeks)
10. Miley Cyrus, "7 Things" (LW No. 16, 5 weeks)

Hot Digital Songs
1. Katy Perry, "I Kissed a Girl" (LW No. 1)
2. Jonas Brothers, "Burnin' Up" (LW No. 2)
3. Miley Cyrus, "7 Things" (LW No. 6)
4. Coldplay, "Viva la Vida" (LW No. 4)
5. The Pussycat Dolls, "When I Grow Up" (LW No. 7)
6. Rihanna, "Disturbia" (LW No. 5)
7. Rihanna, "Take a Bow" (LW No. 10)
8. Metro Station, "Shake It" (LW No. 9)
9. Lil Wayne feat. Static Major, "Lollipop" (LW No. 8)
10. Chris Brown, "Forever" (LW No. 14)

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
1. Keyshia Cole, "Heaven Sent" (LW No. 1, 15 weeks)
2. Lil Wayne, "A Milli" (LW No. 2, 11 weeks)
3. The-Dream, "I Luv Your Girl" (LW No. 4, 19 weeks)
4. Plies feat. Ne-Yo, "Bust It Baby (Part 2)" (LW No. 3, 19 weeks)
5. Alicia Keys, "Teenage Love Affair" (LW No. 6, 21 weeks)
6. Chris Brown, "Take You Down" (LW No. 5, 15 weeks)
7. Lil Wayne feat. Static Major, "Lollipop" (LW No. 7, 17 weeks)
8. Rihanna, "Take a Bow" (LW No. 11, 11 weeks)
9. Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West, "Put On" (LW No. 10, 9 weeks)
10. Usher feat. Beyonce and Lil Wayne, "Love in This Club, Part II" (LW No. 8, 11 weeks)

Hot Country Songs
1. Blake Shelton, "Home" (LW No. 2, 24 weeks)
2. Alan Jackson, "Good Time" (LW No. 4, 13 weeks)
3. Montgomery Gentry, "Back When I Knew It All" (LW No. 1, 20 weeks)
4. Kenny Chesney, "Better as a Memory" (LW No. 3, 16 weeks)
5. Brooks & Dunn, "Put a Girl in It" (LW No. 6, 11 weeks)
6. Dierks Bentley, "Trying to Stop Your Leaving" (LW No. 5, 26 weeks)
7. Sugarland, "All I Want to Do" (LW No. 8, 7 weeks)
8. Keith Anderson, "I Still Miss You" (LW No. 10, 23 weeks)
9. Keith Urban, "You Look Good in My Shirt" (LW No. 12, 7 weeks)
10. Taylor Swift, "Should've Said No" (LW No. 13, 8 weeks)

Hot Modern Rock Tracks
1. Weezer, "Pork & Beans" (LW No. 1, 12 weeks)
2. The Offspring, "Hammerhead" (LW No. 2, 9 weeks)
3. Foo Fighters, "Let It Die" (LW No. 3, 14 weeks)
4. Linkin Park, "Given Up" (LW No. 4, 18 weeks)
5. Seether, "Rise Above This" (LW No. 5, 20 weeks)
6. Coldplay, "Viva la Vida" (LW No. 8, 5 weeks)
7. Disturbed, "Inside the Fire" (LW No. 7, 15 weeks)
8. Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Possess Your Heart" (LW No. 6, 16 weeks)
9. Saving Abel, " Addicted" (LW No. 11, 16 weeks)
10. 3 Doors Down, "It's Not My Time" (LW No. 12, 20 weeks)

1. Green Day

American Idiot is their biggest album since Dookie, so the boys probably aren't ready to get back in touch with their inner Gillman St. An Operation Ivy reunion, though? With Rancid now stuck with the drummer from the Used, that shit could happen tomorrow.

2. U2

On a relative scale, that post-Rattle & Hum period was a bit icky. Not that most bands today wouldn't be happy to have been in their cowboy hats.

3. Kid Rock

Oh sure, "All Summer Long" is nostalgic. But not for this.

Beyond that, I'm at a loss! Even old bands with comeback albums like Motley Crue and Def Leppard were still doing better in '89! Journey was on hiatus, but Neal Schon was still making hit ballads with Bad English! Don Henley may not have had the Eagles, but he had The End Of The Innocence! Rod Stewart could do what he wanted, and Janet could rely on the Rhythm Nation. Neil Young may be proud of Living With War, but it's not "Rockin' In The Free World." Elvis Costello had "Veronica," Paul Westerberg had "I'll Be You," Donna Summer had "This Time I Know It's For Real." Rattle & Hum was only barely a flop, but I just cannot think of an act that did worse but is doing fine now. Can you think of a veteran artist today who can say they are in a better state, commercially and artistically, than they were in 1989?

Michael Jackson Plans Comeback With New Kids On The Block [Showbiz Spy]
Green Day live @ Paint Factory 1989 prt1 [YouTube]
Siskel & Ebert review "Rattle & Hum" [YouTube]
Kid Rock - Yo Da Lin In The Valley [YouTube]

The performer - whose real name is Robert Ritchie - said his record company Atlantic had asked him to "stand up for illegal downloading" a few years ago because it told him "people are stealing from us and stealing from you".



"And I go: 'Wait a second, you've been stealing from the artists for years. Now you want me to stand up for you?'



"I was telling kids - download it illegally, I don't care. I want you to hear my music so I can play live."



Asked whether he was worried about illegal downloading, he replied: "I don't agree with it. I think we should level the playing field. I don't mind people stealing my music, that's fine. But I think they should steal everything.



"You know how much money the oil companies have? If you need some gas, just go fill your tank off and drive off, they're not going to miss it."



But he said he did not implement that advice himself. "No, I don't steal things. I'm rich."

If I was rich I wouldn't even speak the word CD-R, so I hear ya, Kid. The hunger for a big hit may be getting to the Kid already; "All Summer Long" is already available on iTunes in Europe, and the track will be soon available for download in the UK as well.

Kid Rock boycotts iTunes over pay [BBC]

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Idolator's 2008 Summer Jam Tournament: The Story So Far

After a few sluggish months of slow-rising hits, the past few weeks have seen some major movement on the Billboard rock charts, with several new entries making big impacts. And the biggest comes from Disturbed, the Chicago nu-metal band distinguished primarily by frontman David Draiman's resemblance to Howie Mandel with multiple facial piercings, as well as his usually annoying, occasionally awesome Korn-meets-Shudder-To-Think vocal tics. "Inside The Fire," the lead single from their forthcoming album Indestructible, entered the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart at a staggering No. 5, and moved up to No. 4 last week—pretty impressive, considering that even the biggest monsters of rock tend to take at least a few weeks to reach that high on the chart. This marks the band's tenth consecutive top 10 hit, and it's also quickly becoming one of its biggest hits to date on Hot Modern Rock Tracks, where it's historically had less traction. But since Draiman neither goes "oooh-wah-ah-ah-ah" nor covers Genesis on "Inside The Fire," the song is not one of the rare instances where I will refrain from changing the station when a Disturbed song comes on the radio.

Elsewhere on the Mainstream chart, a number of recent entries suggest the following theory: rap-metal is back, just without the rapping. The chart is still littered with holdovers from that widely maligned subgenre's turn of the century heyday, but right now three of those acts have hits rising up the chart without busting a single fresh rhyme: Linkin Park's "Given Up"; P.O.D.'s "Addicted"; and Kid Rock's "All Summer Long." Now, don't get me wrong. Mike Shinoda, Sonny Sandoval, and Bob Ritchie are not among my top five MCs of all time; they wouldn't even make my top 10. (Sorry, Sonny!) But these bands' early hits were at least a lot more fun than listening to these jokers and their bandmates decide to get 'melodic.' Please, nobody tell Fred Durst that all he has to do to get back on the radio is start earnestly crooning. He might cover The Who again.

As Chris Molanphy noted in his last 100 And Single column, the other big Modern Rock debuts come from the Raconteurs and Death Cab For Cutie. "Salute Your Solution," the lead single from the Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely, is at No. 11 after entering the chart at No. 26 for the first week that anyone, including radio stations, had a copy of the song, given that the album it comes from was made available in "EVERY FORMAT AT ONCE" on March 25. Although Jack White's insta-release stunt was ostensibly done in part to circumvent the major-label "first-week sales" mentality, both the album and the single got off to very strong starts. Still, "Salute Your Solution" is one of my least favorite tracks off the album, and I can't see it topping the chart like "Steady, As She Goes" did in 2006. Death Cab, whose 2005 album Plans was just certified platinum this February, are right behind the Raconteurs at No. 12 with "I Will Possess Your Heart," an ambitious eight-minute single that most stations are presumably playing in its four-minute radio edit.

So what isn't on the Modern Rock chart? Two big rock hits currently in the upper reaches of the Hot 100 and the Pop 100.
• Three Days Grace's actually-kinda-good "Never Too Late" was one of the most-played Modern Rock hits of 2007, but it dropped off the chart well before its current crossover to VH1 and adult top 40 stations. That crossover was helped by program directors being made less squeamish about the song's anti-suicide theme through a new edit that changes the chorus line "you want to end your life" to "you want to change your life."
• Meanwhile, Fall Out Boy's cover of "Beat It," which has already been hailed by one Idolator contributor as potentially the best rock song of 2008, is all over pop radio, but it has yet to crack the rock charts. I'm not shocked, given that one of the big theories put forth in my '07 wrap-up was that FOB are quickly losing their rock radio support. But I wonder if those stations will keep holding out on this one, considering that many of them still play that damn Alien Ant Farm version of "Smooth Criminal." Personally, I think the band's take on "Beat It" is weak sauce—Patrick Stump earns his better-than-your-average-emo-frontman bona fides much more easily when he's not held to the higher standards of pop and R&B vocals. Nonetheless, when he hits the Rod Stewart Great American Songbook phase of his career in a couple of decades, he'll have a head start thanks to this cover, not to mention his previous work interpolating Supertramp and Jermaine Stewart with Gym Class Heroes and covering Go West with New Found Glory.

Contacted by the chain with an eye on mending corporate/mook-rock fences, the initial plan was to have Kid slinging hash to hungry Georgians himself this week, but a scheduling conflict (and/or laziness) forced him to simply scribble autographs with proceeds going to charity. And autograph hounds, fans, and the mildly horny curious descended on the House, the mom-daughter teams and the families with children setting up camp at 3:00 a.m. (and somehow not having Children's Services called on them), some from as far away as West Virginia. Kid brushed off the initial incident "silly," but noted that if he got in another dust up at a popular chain eatery and was then guilted into signing autographs for locals as a PR move, he would try to make it a Hooters. For the fans.

Kid Rock Causes Scene At Waffle House [AP]

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^* My unfrozen caveman's grasp of technology is why they keep me here, where I can be left alone to write about old Huey Lewis videos, rather than on Gizmodo.

When you're flipping through the TV listings on Saturday and see Cinemax touting a "Kid Rock Video Premiere"—an "uncensored" version, no less—one tunes in with certain expectations. (Even Maura responded to the news of Kid Rock on Cinemax with a text message that simply read: "boobies?") But this clip is totally SFW. Can Kid Rock even manage being a properly unconscionable sleazedouche anymore? Still, while the song boogies with the verve of a Puddle Of Mudd b-side, the chorus is worth quoting:

Because you know you're
So hot I wanna get you alone
So hot I wanna get you stoned
So hot I dont wanna be your friend
I wanna fuck you like I'm never gonna see you again

Ah, so it's his lyrics that are keeping the unconscionable sleazedouche rep alive. (I'm sure she wants to fuck you like she's never gonna see you again, too, Bob.) Also: WTF at "premiering"? This crud has apparently been on YouTube for months. We call foul, Cinemax. On multiple levels.

Kid Rock - "So Hott" [YouTube]

There's a big difference between a first date and a one-night stand. A first date: be kind, be respectful and have a great time. I pay for dinner and buy flowers. I believe in opening doors. The basics. A one-night stand: go for it. Turn it up to 10 and put the pedal to the metal.

Damn near enlightened by KR standards. But lest you think he had some sort of quasi-feminist epiphany on the tour bus, Kid is quick to note that there's still a direct relationship between bouquet size and dress size.

The girls go with the record sales. You know, when your record sells 50,000 or 60,000 copies, you're hooking up with bigger women in, like, Southern Ohio. Then 10m, 15m... when the sales went up, the girls got prettier.

Sigh. Don't take this the wrong way, Bob, but we kinda hope your dick shrivels right off one morning. And then you write a whiny series of e-mails about it.

This Much I Know: Kid Rock [Guardian]

Im sure its difficult to sit on the bench while us folks play in the big game. Your a failed musician with a big mouth.

You try to make a name for yourself with half ass opinions based on everyone who is actually trying to do something in music. Yet you do NOTHING but talk. See you on the streets you punk ass mother fucker!!!

Kid Rock

On the streets? Well, Waffle House parking lots are paved, so I guess they kind of count. But wait, there's more, because it's the Internet!

From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: Re:
Date: November 8, 2007 4:14:03 PM PST
To: kidrock@_________
Cc: Billy Ritchie, Ross Schilling, Ken Levitan, Livia Tortella, Lyor Cohen, Rick Roskin, Rick Rubin, Ian Rogers

Oh lighten up Bob.

Don't you remember me singing your praises during the "Devil Without A Cause" days?

Yeah, you spend time in Nashville. Recorded your album at Bluebird...

But, are you a rocker or a country act? I'm against people from other genres stunting on these TV awards shows. If you'd come out and sung a country song, if your music had been moving up the country chart...I would have said something different. But, this just looked like a promotional appearance.

I applaud your irreverence. Just didn't wholly work here.

But isn't it interesting that you're so irreverent, and then I am and you've got a thin skin!

I was surprised that your record did as well as it has. Good for you.

And don't worry, your peeps are looking out for you. I got e-mail excoriating me, defending you...

But if you're in the spotlight, if you're in the public eye, you've got to take criticism with a grain of salt. It goes with the territory.

As for being a failed musician... Never. Maybe a failed competition freestyle skier!

Good for you for canning Punch! Now embrace new technology.

Keep bonding with your fan base.

Your buddy,
Bob

That thin-skinned line is pretty classic. (Perhaps Kid is just grooming himself to become the next Bill O'Reilly once the music business finally hits the shitter for good.) Now, do you notice the cc's in Lefsetz's e-mail? As it turns out, they weren't put in there by the cranky ol' coot—they were instead inserted by the Kid himself. Lyor Cohen and Rick Rubin. Do you think they get cc'd on these sorts of things a lot?

Anyway, Kid wrote back!

From: kidrock@_________
Subject: Re: lighten up! Haha
Date: November 8, 2007 4:55:12 PM PST
To: Bob Lefsetz
Cc: Billy Ritchie, Ross Schilling, Ken Levitan, Livia Tortella, Lyor Cohen, Rick Roskin, Rick Rubin, Ian Rogers

Stunting? I had a fucking ball last night while you were typing emails. You got a big mouth and no weight to back it up. you can mother fuck me all day long, but i will see you one day, and when i do it will be fun to watch you bitch up! ....ohh and last time i checked it makes perfect sense to make promotional appearances asshole. And i didnt can punch, dickhead, he is one of the greatest managers of all time. I also didnt record my album at bluebird, i did overdubs at "blackbird"....your last email shows just how inaccurate your facts are. Cant wait to watch you bitch up!

Kid Rock

Ooh, a fact-checking cuz and a hater of bloggers. This guy sounds like my dream reader! (Hi Kid, if you're reading this! Drop me a line, we can go out for hash browns!)

From: Bob Lefsetz
Subject: Re: lighten up! Haha
Date: November 8, 2007 5:02:25 PM PST
To: kidrock@_________
Cc: Billy Ritchie, Ross Schilling, Ken Levitan, Livia Tortella, Lyor Cohen, Rick Roskin, Rick Rubin, Ian Rogers

Mea culpa. Blackbird.

As for the truth re Punch, I'll never know for sure. But he hurt your career more than he helped it. You had your biggest hit BEFORE he came on board.

As for the attitude... For a guy with such intelligent rhymes, I'm stunned that all you can come up wth here is drivel about me "bitching up".

Hey, I give you credit for making it. As AC/DC sang, it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll... But, I'm stunned that you're evidencing the behavior of the street as opposed to the millionaire you are.

And your new album STILL isn't on iTunes. Even Metallica and Zeppelin have made deals. The thinking here?

Come on, let's not get physical, let's use our brains.

Your friend, if you'd only be open about it...

Bob

Kid Rock's rhymes "intelligent"? Bob, you can be his friend, but honesty is usually valued among friends. Just saying. And Kid wasn't having any of that nicey-talking anyway!

From: kidrock@_________
Subject: Re: lighten up! Haha
Date: November 8, 2007 5:37:57 PM PST
To: Bob Lefsetz
Cc: Billy Ritchie, Ross Schilling, Ken Levitan, Livia Tortella, Lyor Cohen, Rick Roskin, Rick Rubin, Ian Rogers

You went from "fuck kid rock" to lets be friends pretty fucking quick bitch boy!

Kid Rock

Ah, that classic Kid Rock wit. Somehow, a punch seems like it would have been a lot more eloquent here.

The Lefsetz Letter [Wordpress]

Kid Rock got into a scrap at a Waffle House in Georgia yesterday, throwing down with a man who was accompanying a former acquaintance of the singer and his band:

The musician stopped at the Waffle House restaurant shortly after 5 a.m. after his performance at The Tabernacle in Atlanta, authorities said.

"He and five members of his entourage were involved in a fight with a male customer inside the Waffle House," said Mekka Parish, a spokeswoman for the DeKalb County Police Department.

The customer recognized a female with Kid Rock's party and exchanged words with her, Parish said.

"It escalated to a physical altercation between Kid Rock and that male customer and moved outside to the parking lot," she said. At some point the customer punched out a restaurant window, she said.

Rock was arrested, booked, and eventually released on bond yesterday evening; I'm going to guess that this whole tussle was, at its heart, a ploy to keep Rock & Roll Jesus in the top 10 during its third week on store shelves. He may have parted ways with his manager, but that doesn't mean he can't reuse the marketing techniques he learned while under his stewardship!

Kid Rock Arrested After Georgia Fight [AP]
[Kid Rock mug shot via ScanDeKalb.com]

Biggest Debuts: Leann Rimes' 12th (!) album, Family, entered the chart at No. 4; a year after her abrupt departure from Dancing With The Stars, Sara Evans' Greatest Hits debuted at No. 8; and Josh Groban's Noel signaled the beginning of "Holiday Albums Taking Up Top-Ten Slots" season, bowing at No. 10. Also, eagle-eyed chart watcher Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy informed me that the No. 12 debut of Jennifer Lopez's Brave may be the first time that an album by the diva has missed the top 10—unless, of course, those ads for Chuck on NBC that use "Do It Well" spur a run to the record stores.

Notable Jumps: Colbie Caillat's Coco bubbled up to No. 16 on a 22% sales gain; the two editions of the Across The Universe soundtrack also experienced a bit of a bounce, with the deluxe edition up 47% and the plain version up 23%. The two albums are now at Nos. 45 and 46, respectively, and I can't help but wonder if the incessant TRL ads for the albums might actually be working. (The kids of today should defend themselves against the '60s, etc.) Further down the chart, Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga also enjoyed a post-Saturday Night Live bounce of 26%, moving up from No. 195 to No. 147.

Dropping Off: Records that are currently outselling will.i.am's sinking-like-a-stone Songs About Girls, which is at No. 156 in its third week on the chart: My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade (No. 145, out 51 weeks); The Evolution Of Robin Thicke (No. 153, out 54 weeks); and Buckcherry's 15 (No. 155 with a bullet, out 79 weeks). Well, at least dude knows how to twist a Little Richard sample, right?

Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Given that Nickelback's popularity is becoming more and more explicable by the day, we may need to revisit this category's name in an effort to stay current. Suggestions? Keep in mind that freaking Hinder is still selling enough records to be bobbing around the lower reaches of the top 200, although I'm thinking Rascal Flatts (two albums on the chart, one at No. 3, the other on the chart for 80 weeks and counting) may be a better choice. Then again, who doesn't love a "Life Is A Highway" cover?

The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Kid Rock, Rock N' Roll Jesus (172,000)
2. Bruce Springsteen, Magic (133,000)
3. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (96,000)
4. Leann Rimes, Family (74,000)
5. Matchbox Twenty, Exile On Mainstream (72,000)
6. Kanye West, Graduation (71,000)
7. Reba McEntire, Reba Duets (68,000)
8. Sara Evans, Greatest Hits (66,000)
9. High School Musical 2 Soundtrack (66,000)
10. Josh Groban, Noel (64,000)
11. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (53,000)
12. Jennifer Lopez, Brave (53,000)
13. Alter Bridge, Blackbird (47,000)
14. Eric Clapton, Complete Clapton (45,000)
15. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, souljaboytellem.com (42,000)
16. Colbie Caillat, Coco (41,000)
17. Foo Fighters, Echoes Silence Patience & Grace (41,000)
18. Jill Scott, The Real Thing: Words & Sounds, Vol. 3 (40,000)
19. 50 Cent, Curtis (38,000)
20. J. Holiday, Back Of My Lac' (37,000)

"Then there's Rick Rubin, the guru to the late Johnny Cash, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beastie Boys and Neil Diamond who challenged Kid to write something more than a lap-dance soundtrack.

"He basically told me that he had been listening to me my whole career and that he thought I had something more in me, something relevant," Kid said. "I thought: 'I'll show him.' I went to friend's house over in Malibu overlooking a bluff and I sat there and looked at the ocean. And I thought: 'Amen.' What a powerful word."

That word gave him the title for a new song that bemoans the influence of lawyers and corrupt pastors in America even as troops continue to be in harm's way overseas and families go hungry in Africa:

It's another night in hell

Another child won't live to tell

Can you imagine what it's like to starve to death

And as we sit free and well

Another soldier has to yell

Tell my wife and children I love them in his last breath

Never short on confidence, Kid said those are "some of the relevant lyrics of our day and age."

O RLY?

Dreaming Big About Acting Big [LA Times with hat tip to Ned "But I Ain't No Midget" Raggett]