ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Listening to this new album, it's hard to imagine being a reasonably rowdy 20-year-old kid out there in middle America and not wanting to blast this record. So the question is, how big can an album that has that kind of mass appeal be right now? Nobody quite knows the answer.
KID ROCK: No. I think we'll hear people loud and clear at the end of the day, though. I like how 50 Cent and Kanye West are like, ''I'm gonna sell more than you! I'm gonna sell more than you!'' I'll go on the record saying I'm gonna sell more than both of them put together, at the end of the day. But they're rappers, and everyone goes, ''Whoa, rappers fighting! Wow!'' I'm f---in' bored with all that s---. I'm bored with all the halfway music and all the great controversy, but no one delivers a f---in' album. I have an album. There's no question. And whether someone writes that I do or don't, at the end of the day, the people will say I do. Not because I rap in bow ties and people think it's ''weird.'' ''Look at the crazy black kid rapping with the f---ing funny golf pants on! That's genius!'' I just watch all that s--- going on and it's just like, come on: ''I'll sell more than you the first day!'' It's like [saying], ''I'll kick your ass after school!'' That'll take you far in life.

To give people a teaser of the album, I'll ask you about three very different songs: ''Amen,'' ''All Summer Long,'' and ''Half Your Age.''
[Editor's note: This last song, a honky-tonk ballad that closes the album, features the chorus line ''She's twice as hot and half your age.'' The lyrics have been widely construed to be unfavorably comparing his ex-wife, Pamela Anderson, to his new girlfriend, supermodel May Andersen.]
It's funny. Every interview I do, I can tell you what the people are gonna say. They're gonna talk about the record; about five questions down, they're gonna ask something silly; about eight questions down, they're gonna try to ask me about Pamela. It's so f---in' cookie cutter, it's almost hilarious. Because everyone is supposed to be so creative and have these innovative magazines and want to be great writers and do things in their own way, yet they're all the same — on down the line, every single one of 'em. And I know the editors tell 'em all to do it. [Breaking into an imitation of a journalist.] ''I didn't come up with the questions, dude. I gotta ask you about it, though.'' Do you really? Well, that's fun. You sound like a disc jockey nowadays: ''I don't play what I want, I'm told what to do.'' It doesn't sound like something you go to school for and be creative. Anyway, go ahead.

So, ''Half Your Age'' is clearly a work of imagination and conjecture and fiction on your part. Ha ha. Now, we don't have to talk about Pam, but...
I've never said that was about her. To anybody. For the record. [Chuckles] I don't like lawsuits. You can thank every f---head attorney in the country for that — every ambulance-chasing f---ing attorney. Even my own attorney. I hate my own attorneys!

I know you don't want to get specific about her, but would you be specific enough as to say it's also a song in praise of your current girlfriend, May?
I don't like getting specific with anything — thanks to all the attorneys in the country. I would like to get specific about how all the attorneys in the country can [perform a sex act on Kid Rock]! I'll get specific about that.

Look for the rest of our Kid Rock interview next week.

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