From The Vault - KID ROCK Part 2 of 2

Click on any of the pictures to see more photos of Kid Rock in 2000 on the Summer Sanitarium Tour (27).

My only other experience with Kid Rock (see From The Vault Part 1 from Lawrence, Kansas in 1999 here) was as part of Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour on July 15, 2000 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Kid Rock just played St. Paul this past Friday). I had a wonderful friend at Warner Bros. at this time, and I asked with less than a week before this event if it would be possible to get a photo pass. She told me that everything had to be approved personally by Metallica's management and hardly anyone was being given access at this show, but she'd see what she could do. Lo and behold, the day before the show I got the call that management had approved my request! My friend at Warner once let me know that she was a high school friend of Incubus singer Brandon Boyd and she remembered my interview with him in the very first issue of my magazine. She told me this was some of the first national press that Incubus had so she'd help me with anything I wanted. Never did I imagine this would eventually allow me to photograph Metallica (thank you I will never forget this!)!!

Alongside Metallica, this tour featured Korn, Kid Rock, Powerman 5000, and System Of A Down. I missed System as all 8-10 photographers allowed were shown backstage and given access to a blocked off section of the stadium where we could sit, and we were given instructions about where we were permitted. Basically, this isolated section of the stadium was for us when we weren't in front of the stage. The photo pass we were given is the biggest one I've ever seen - this thing is the size of three typical passes! Another funny story was the photographer who was banned from leaving our seating during Korn. As she told it, Korn was mad that she published some old photos from their early days and their management had her banned from any Korn show!

So on to Kid Rock - by this time Devil Without A Cause had exploded and he was a superstar. His band had undergone some changes and the stage production was bigger since I saw him the year before, but the intensity of his show remained. The late Ron Jeremy introduced Kid Rock, and Joe C (also late) came out to rap for a few songs. I can't tell you what he played, but I'll assume that only material from Devil Without A Cause was performed. Kid Rock is one of the few major artists I can think of who has been able to successfully transition between musical genres. This undoubtedly has enabled his long-term success, but hopefully these pictures will take you back to a time when he was briefly accepted by metal fans.

From The Vault - KID ROCK Part 1 of 2

If anyone is hated in metal more than Fred Durst, Kid Rock would be near the top of the list. Sure, he put out a couple rap-rock records, but not much qualifies him as metal. There was a time, however, when the metal community embraced him (over 11 million copies of Devil Without A Cause were sold in the U.S. alone).

Click on any of the pictures to see more photos of Kid Rock in 1999 (11).

I'll throw a couple Kid Rock posts out here anyways since he just played the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul with Bob Seger this past Friday (March 15). First up are some pictures of Kid Rock playing a club date at the Granada Theater in Lawrence, Kansas on April 16, 1999 - right before Devil Without A Cause took on a life of its own. To be honest, I went to this not knowing who Kid Rock was. I was there for opener Staind, whose major label debut Dysfunction had just come out a couple days prior. I had been given an advance, unfinished mix copy of Dysfunction in late 1998 and was really enjoying it so their label was eager to have me see them.

Not knowing anything about Kid Rock I was stunned that this 500–600 seat venue was sold out. Everyone was going crazy for him and you could tell that something big was about to happen. I've never been a fan, but I'll give him credit for putting on a very lively, entertaining show. As you can tell, I didn't have a decent camera at this time - yeah, these pictures aren't the best but I did with them what I could.