Uncle Kracker
Every once in a while, a musician comes along that defies genre or explanation. Artists like this, often times, have bigger audience appeal since they cater to so many people’s musical tastes. One such artist is Michigan-native Uncle Kracker. If you were alive in the summer of 2001, then there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard his biggest hit “Follow Me,” which appeared the year before on his debut album “Double Wide.” According to Uncle Kracker (born Mathew Shafer) this song, co-written by Michael Bradford and produced by Kid Rock, just wouldn’t quit.
“Follow Me” would eventually reach number one in eight countries, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., topping the Adult Top 40 listing. This single would also become a top-10 hit in Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, also peaking within the top 40 in several other European countries. Flashforward to 2004 and Uncle Kracker would hit the musical jackpot again, appearing alongside country music singer Kenney Chesney in their duet “When the Sun Goes Down,” which also reached the number one position on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles and Track chart.
However, behind his easy-going singer-songwriter persona, there’s a hip hop fan always trying to get out. In fact, hip hop and turntables were the name of the game when Uncle Kracker was just starting out as a teenage DJ. Eventually his skills would land him in Kid Rock’s backing band, Twisted Brown Trucker Band, a project that morphed into Uncle Kracker DJing for Kid Rock outright on tour. And speaking of tours, Uncle Kracker will be swinging by AT&T Stadium as part of the Kenny Chesney: Sun Goes Down Tour, featuring the Zac Brown Band on May 11.
We recently had a chance to talk with Uncle Kracker about his start in the music business, his relationship with Kid Rock, and his intrinsic need of a chorus before recording any song in the studio.
FM: Okay, the first question I always like to ask any artists is how they got started in music in the first place. What inspired you to do what you do?
Melissa Coulier
Uncle Kracker photographed by Melissa Coulier
UK: I started out learning about music in Detroit on our public access stations. The early television you could see on Friday nights at midnight. You could watch all the dance shows and they started having these rappers on there, and we're going back to like 1984. And I just remember at 10 years old being awake later than I should have been on Friday. I was like, 'what is that?' And I remember watching The Fat Boys on this stage. It was great for somebody like me, I was such a Fat Boys, Run DMC fan back then. They started having movies like ‘Crush Groove’ and ‘Disorderlies.’ It was fun. It was a good time for rap music.
FM: I know you played turntables for Kid Rock, but I guess I didn’t put it together that your first musical influence was rap, given your big hits weren’t rap songs at all.
UK: It absolutely was. I had my first record deal when I was 15, because from there I went and I bought a drum machine, and I did all the normal things you would do to try to put yourself into that circle. But I had my first record deal at 15 and by the time I was 16 and a half, Kid Rock got me out of that record deal and put me on stage with him doing turntables for him.
FM: What was that like being with Kid Rock starting up, especially as a teenager?
UK: So, when I was 16 and a half, we didn't go very far from Michigan for a few years. We ran a gauntlet of Michigan, Illinois, Ohio. We'd hit Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and then head back home. We did a Midwest Circle a lot and just beat the hell out of those clubs down there. And it was something, looking back, you didn't really know it at the time, you were just having fun. But looking back, man, it was such an experience. I wouldn't trade it for nothing. Especially the early Kid Rock days too. He knew what he was doing. He was very driven; I don't want to say methodical. I don't know anybody… I still haven't met anybody that has his work ethic.
FM: Did you pick up some of that work ethic hanging out with him?
UK: I should have. I should have, but I didn't. But I'm serious about that man. Nobody has his work ethic. I know he comes off a completely different way, but that guy is the man. He's in the studio at 4:30 in the morning and he won't leave until late at night either. It's pretty incredible to be honest.
FM: When did you make the decision to go out on your own? Basically, step out from behind the turntables.
UK: Kid Rock was Kid Rock, and it was pretty much like he asked, ‘how am I going to take care of this kid? Oh yeah, we'll get him a record deal,’ right? It was funny because Kid Rock, the record company wanted to give him a small label deal after his first record broke and they gave him five records and they picked mine and wanted to make that the first thing out of his camp. Well then, we recorded ‘Double Wide’ out of it, but that was always the plan like, alright, let's focus on this and once we get this, then we'll worry about your stuff. It was always second and that’s how that works. The Twisted Brown Trucker Band was supposed to follow also with an album, et cetera.
I don't know what happened. Something happened and that got botched. There just wasn't enough time or because Kid Rock always wanted to oversee every square inch of everything and if he wasn't involved in it, it wasn't going to happen. So, his time was really spread pretty thin and he did what he could with it. But that was always the plan; to go it alone at some point.
FM: How do you get from DJing for Kid Rock to “Follow Me?”
UK: So, there's a song on the first album called “Better Days,” and it was the first song on the “Double Wide” album. Well, that's the song they gave me my record deal for. They thought at the time when I turned that demo in, that I could be on par with Everlast, you know, “What It’s Like” Everlast, from the late 90s.
But that's how I ended up getting my deal was through that. They thought I was going to do that. Well, when I got a record deal, I guess we didn't really think it was going to work or we didn't have all of it figured out, so I ended up sitting around like I'm making a rap record basically, aside from “Follow Me.” So, “Follow Me” came up as an homage to old Motown stuff that I grew up listening to as well. There were only a few songs on that record that weren't rap. And then when the first single was released, it was a very ‘rappy’ song and that didn't work. So, the only clear path we thought we had to radio play was “Follow Me” and it worked, thank God. But it also, I don't want to say it pigeonholed me, but “Follow Me” was so big we couldn't even release a second single because that one wouldn't go away.
But again, like I said, it was all rap on that record. And then as I started evolving, I guess I'd go to these radio stations at 6 a.m. to promote and I'd go to these pop stations. Well, they'd want you to show up and do an acoustic set of three or four songs. And I was like, ‘What do I play here?’ Kid Rock suggested I play ‘Drift Away’ acoustically when I’m doing the promo tour stuff at the stations and the news stations, the television news stations and radio stations. So, I would show up and I would just do ‘Follow Me.’ It was acoustic and then I'd take a couple covers and do something. I’d do one of Kid Rock’s songs that was working at the time … just so that they gelled. No one wanted me to sit up there and do a rap thing. And then when the second record came, I turned in more rap. The record company was like, ‘what are we going to do with this?’
FM: I asked Pat Green this same question about a week ago, do you come up with the words first or the melody when writing a song? Or does it depend on the song?
UK: I guess chorus would fall into melody. It would be there, but I've got to have that melody and that lyric before I even attempt a verse, right? I remember Kid Rock scared me early on when I was in the studio with him and I had all these raps written and I was probably 17 and we were going to take a couple days and do some of my stuff. And I walk in there and he's got this beat up and I was like, oh, that's perfect. Let's do that. And then I got three solid smoking wrap verses with no chorus. And I think, 'oh, we'll just scratch something in there. 'This was a different day. We were going to make some rap, rap. He was like, ‘you have a chorus?’ I'm like, ‘what do you mean?’ The way he brought it up was so matter of fact. I think he wanted to get out of there too at some point. But all I knew is I wasn't leaving the studio with something to listen to on the way home, and it crushed me. I was like, ‘that didn't work out so well.’ So ever since that day I was just like, if I don't have a chorus, I'm not doing it. It spooked me that bad.
