Gretchen Wilson and Kid Rock on the Red Carpet on Wednesday, Nov. 7 for "The 41st Annual CMA Awards" in Nashville. Photo courtesy of the CMA.
Sept. 4, 2008 — Kid Rock has a reputation as a do-it-my-own-way, rebel spirit, but there are still times that he looks for approval from others — particularly from musicians he admires.
That’s how things went when he and Uncle Kracker wrote "All Summer Long" using a sample of a couple of classic-rock hits: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s "Sweet Home Alabama" and Warren Zevon’s "Werewolves Of London." He thought he had a winner, but he knew he needed to run it by the Skynyrd guys first.
"We sat down at a bar," Kid told the national radio show GAC Nights: Live From Nashville. "I said, ‘Why don’t you guys come in, have a drink and sit down?’ And they all came in and sat down, and I was like I’m gonna go get the song and play it for ‘em now. I was tellin’ ‘em, ‘I did something with ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’’ And I sat there with Gary [Rossington], and I remember I put it on in the club and played it, and he just loved it. He goes, ‘Man, that’s really cool, Bobby. That’s great.’ And it’s like getting permission to marry the daughter from the father, so to speak. So, it was very cool. Everyone was really fair — we split it up a third and a third and a third between Warren Zevon’s estate and Skynyrd people and myself."
"All Summer Long" is now in the Top 10 on the national country charts. And Kid Rock is on tour with Skynyrd.