Pain Train
Release Date: 10/28Sadly, Kid Rock has abandoned his original plan for the follow-up to 2002's quadruple-platinum ''Cocky'': ''I thought about doing a triple album, 'Kid Motherf---ing Rock,''' he says. ''The 'Kid' record would be country, the 'Motherf---ing' would be hip-hop, and the 'Rock' would be rock.'' Kid reluctantly deemed that strategy excessive. Instead, the new album will be a single disc, compiling the best of 42 genre-spanning songs. ''It's kind of frustrating,'' the former Bob Ritchie explains. ''It's like having 42 kids and you can only keep 13 of them.''
The recent success of ''Cocky'''s soft rocker ''Picture'' should ensure that ballads will figure prominently. Among the lighter-fare candidates are the slow jams ''I Do It for You'' (''It will haunt me for the rest of my life,'' Kid says, ''it's just a phenomenal f---ing song''), ''Cold and Empty'' (''kind of a rock ballad''), and ''Single Father'' (a David Allan Coe-penned ''tearjerker'').
Meanwhile, as he dives deeper into rock's blues and country roots, Kid Rock is moving away from the ''Bawitdaba''-style rap that was his calling card. ''There hasn't been any hip-hop that's excited me in a long time, that's made me wanna, ya know, turn my hat backwards,'' he says. And the 32-year-old's evolution doesn't stop there: ''There's a few songs on this record that I don't say my name in, which is a big shock.''
