CONNECTCOMMENTEMAILMORE

Two years is a lengthy gap for Kid Rock around these parts.

We haven’t seen much of the rap-rocking, country-singing Romeo native since he helped inaugurate Little Caesars Arena two years ago this week. Once ubiquitous around metro Detroit, Rock has slowed his roll while spending more and more time out of state.

The performer, 48, is headed to DTE Energy Music Theatre for shows this Friday and Saturday, and again on those same days next week. Tickets, which went on sale in April, remain available for each date.

The weekend-only performances fit the new, relaxed touring pattern Rock outlined during a 2017 appearance on “The Howard Stern Show,” where he declared that he’s “done with the music business.”

“How much money do you need, and what is peace of mind worth?” he said to Stern. “I’m watching (recent music deaths), from Tom Petty to Glenn Frey to Chester Bennington to Chris Cornell. I’ve been Googling this: The average age of a pop star lead singer is 40 years old. I beat it by six (years), but I understand, this s— will kill you.”

More: Kid Rock’s posh childhood home listed in Macomb County for $1.3M

More: Kid Rock talks golf, Trump and his hole-in-one as he hits Detroit Golf Club

Since his LCA stand, Rock has released an album, “Sweet Southern Sugar,” which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200. He opened a Nashville restaurant (Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ‘n’ Roll Steakhouse) and played golf with President Donald Trump. And he revealed that his headline-grabbing Kid Rock for Senate campaign, which was treated to serious analysis in the political press in 2017, was a marketing stunt.

Rock’s rightward political shift through the years — he’s been a vocal and sometimes boisterous Trump supporter — has made him an increasingly divisive figure. His run of LCA shows in September 2017 had him playing six sold-out nights for 90,000 fans. But it also drew protesters who decried his selection as venue opener, citing his Trump allegiance and past use of the Confederate flag.

(Note: A critical column by former Free Press editorial chief Stephen Henderson drew Rock’s ire, and he barred Freep photographers from the LCA concerts.)

Rock, who has never been a shrinking violet when it comes to swipes at fellow celebrities, has also drawn recent heat for jabs at Joy Behar (he called the “View” co-host a “b-tch”) and Taylor Swift (he said the pop star “looks like she will suck the door knob off Hollyweird” to get into movies).

After featuring a feisty, barbed “stump speech” in his shows during 2017 and 2018, Rock seems to have pared the politics out of his recent performances. His sets this summer, including a show last week at Ohio’s Put-in-Bay that drew 20,000, have been all-hits affairs with some cover tunes tossed in.

“I’m just going to play the jams and entertain,” Kid Rock told the Free Press in June at the Detroit Golf Club, where he was part of a celebrity game ahead of the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Rock’s upcoming four-night DTE stand is scaled down from his record-setting 10-show run there in 2015, though it’s worth noting that attendance that summer was boosted by his $20 across-the-board ticket promotion.

Rock hasn’t abandoned his home state — he spent part of the summer vacationing in northern Michigan — but it’s clear that Nashville has become his primary home. 

In July, he listed his riverside Detroit mansion for sale, and within a month, the property was purchased by an unnamed buyer for $2 million. Rock also recently dismantled the recording facility adjacent to his Clarkston house, a studio where he cut some of his biggest hits.

But a metro Detroit show is still a hometown concert for an artist who earned his stripes in the region — and even if the relationship has gotten a little rocky, you can bet the hard-core fans will be out in full voice.

Kid Rock

With Lee Brice (7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat.)

With Blackberry Smoke (7:30 p.m. Sept. 13-14)

DTE Energy Music Theatre

I-75 at Exit 89, Clarkston

248-377-0100

$39 and up

CONNECTCOMMENTEMAILMORE

Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/brian-mccollum/2019/09/05/kid-rock-dte-energy-music-theatre-clarkston/2198897001/