DETROIT — Kid Rock isn't changing. But he is trying to find a little grace.

The 55-year-old Motor City rocker, father, grandfather and cultural lightning rod continues to be an extremely divisive figure, especially in American politics, where for the last decade he has closely aligned himself with Donald Trump and the MAGA right.

It has cost him fans, and he knows that. It has cost him personal friendships and corporate sponsorships, and he knows that, too. There's little in the world of Kid Rock that he doesn't already know, and he's not offering apologies for any of it.

But there are times when he sees the way he comes across, and that's where he says he sees room for some, well, refinement in his ways.

"I'm not gonna just lay down and get stepped on, but that doesn't mean I have to walk around with my fists clenched all the time," says Rock, puffing on a cigar in the home theater of his Tennessee home on Monday, Oct. 12, chatting with The Detroit News during a visit to his sprawling 200-acre complex in Whites Creek, on the northern ridge of Nashville. "I could execute a little more grace."

The conversation comes ahead of the Saturday, Oct. 17, release of "Halfway 2 Jesus," the first Christian album from the man born Robert James Ritchie, in which he preaches his version of the good word on tracks such as "Me and Jesus," "God is Good" and the first single, "James 1:17 (Jesus is King)." Rock's fellow Detroit bad boy, Eminem, is featured on the album, although not on the track he was originally announced on.

For a guy whose 1998 breakthrough album branded him a "Devil Without a Cause" — and whose reputation has since more or less lived up to the title — a Christian album from Kid Rock might seem like either a bold leap of faith or a crass cash-in, depending on your point of view.

But Rock has been paving this pathway for some time, through heartland- and gospel-leaning rock tracks like "Only God Knows Why" and "Lonely Road of Faith"; it's not even his first album with "Jesus" in the title, an honor that belongs to 2007's "Rock n Roll Jesus."

While he's working on cooling his overall delivery, don't expect him to soften his edge.

"I'm not fundamentally changed," says Rock, though he concedes he's "making a conscious effort to be a little less polarizing.

"But I honestly don't know where this journey leads."

Game's over

The journey has gotten him this far, and that's already plenty, Rock says candidly.

The new album "could be the death blow to my career, or it could take me to heights unknown," he says.

"I came to terms with that, and I was fine with that. There's nothing I need anymore. Even the powers that be that are always throwing punches at me, and I'm throwing them back, I'm like, 'game's over.' I already won the game. The game has been played; I won the game."

That said, he's not giving up his controller just yet.

"Halfway 2 Jesus" — the album was initially branded as both "Halfway 2 Jesus" and "Halfway to Jesus" on his website, a consequence of Rock running his site himself — came together over the course of the last year, and Rock says the memorial service of slain political personality Charlie Kirk was part of the inspiration for the project.

There were other external factors. Rock's father, Bill Ritchie, died in 2024 at age 82, after a long battle with prostate cancer. That same year, Rock's longtime Twisted Brown Trucker keyboard player, Jimmie Bones, was diagnosed with ALS. Both played a role in Rock's shifting view of the world, and his place in it.

"I know the loss of his father has definitely impacted him, and I think what happened with my diagnosis, I think that has hit him and everybody in the band rather hard," says Bones, born James Trombly. "The guy, I know him as somebody who has a really big heart, and I think maybe he's just trying to get more in touch with that side of himself, I suppose. I think that's it right there."

Then came Rock's participation in Kirk's Turning Point USA organization's alternative Super Bowl halftime show in February, where he debuted his cover of Cody Johnson's 2021 hit "'Til You Can't." The song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart, earning Rock his first faith-based No. 1.

The rest of the album's material flowed naturally, with the aid of some unnatural tools.

In addition to the album cover and his new merch, Rock says he employed the use of AI on several "Halfway 2 Jesus" tracks. He's become a fan of AI music generator Suno, which he used to beef up the sounds on songs such as the instrumental album opener "Freedom" and "7 Sins."

On the latter, "It's all my singers, but we're stacking them, and it sounds like this great choir," he says.

Elsewhere, Rock used Suno to hum or play a melody into it and have it turned into something that sounds much larger on the back end.

"I can go (into the studio) and play my guitar and get it like a keyboard, or play it like a string section. What I'm hearing in my head, (Suno) puts it together with this orchestral thing," Rock says.

"For the bulk of songs, we're on there playing together. But I really do view (AI) as another tool," he says. "As a kid, I grew up using drum machines, s— like that, and when that came out, they said, 'oh, it’s going to ruin music!' They say that about everything."

As an independent artist footing production tabs himself — his last album, 2022's "Bad Reputation," cost about $200,000 to make, and Rock says "Halfway 2 Jesus," which he's also releasing on his own Top Dog Records, is likely to end up in a similar ballpark — he says he sees AI as both a money and a time saver, and a way to get music out of his head and into a mixing console.

Bones ended up penning one of the songs on the new album, "Into the Setting Sun," which was written about his ALS diagnosis. He originally planned to write, record and release the track himself, but he says he was honored when Rock decided to take it on and include it on the new album, and the "Joe Walsh-type" feel he put on it.

Bones says the Christian album is a natural progression for Rock.

"I love the idea because everybody goes down that road — especially singer-songwriters, and especially the most outlaw people," Bones says. "Johnny Cash has done it, Ray Charles, Elvis has done numerous gospel, Christian or faith-based records," he says. "So why not?"

Rock life

Rock is in what he calls the best shape of his life, thanks to the a hard cardio regimen, daily pickleball games and a strict weekday diet that consists mostly of arugula and sardines. (That's when he's not fasting.)

He says he's been paying attention to numerology, especially the recurring 1s and 17s he's been seeing throughout his life.

For example, his birthday is Jan. 17, or 1/17. (He shares a birthday with Benjamin Franklin, Al Capone, Muhammad Ali, James Earl Jones, Jake Paul, Steve Harvey, Michelle Obama and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.)

His "Halfway 2 Jesus" first single, "James 1:17," refers to a Bible verse that says that all good things come from God. He's got a stash of James 1:17-branded sunglasses around his house; he got 100 of them for $50 from Amazon, and a pair is never far from reach.

He broke up with his longtime fiancée, Audrey Berry, in 2024; they were together for 17 years and were engaged in 2017.

That makes him single, or "pretty single," as he says, noting, "I do have some great people in my life."

It's not his intent to be single from here on out, and he says he'd like to get married again, "but I'm very hesitant after having been through some big relationships," he says. "We'll see what happens down the line."

He came to Tennessee around a decade ago, he says, because his son moved here. He splits his time between Tennessee and Charlevoix, Michigan, where his mother lives for part of the year, and his spots in Jupiter, Florida, and Alabama. But he never intended to not be a full-time Michiganian.

"I never in my life thought I'd be a resident outside of Michigan, ever," he says. When he comes into Detroit today, whether it's a pop-in to see a Lions or Pistons game or a visit with friends, "I miss it a lot," he says.

The 2019 kerfuffle over his restaurant at Little Caesars Arena, which followed an onstage rant against Oprah Winfrey and some other comments, resulted in protests from several groups, including the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, and left a bad taste. Rock and LCA mutually agreed not to renew the lease at Rock's restaurant at the arena, and Rock's presence in town has been visibly diminished since.

"The only thing that was disheartening about it was I had done so much good stuff (in the city), strictly because I love Detroit. I just tried to help out wherever I could. And really, none of those people had anything to say?" Rock says. "I was happy to help, happy to be in a position to help, you know? Detroit's my everything. So that was a little disheartening.

"And you know who lost out on that? Detroit. It was the No. 1 restaurant in LCA, every walk of life in there, people having fun. And I'm like, I'm gonna go where you're celebrated, not tolerated. And not by the people of Detroit, by the powers that be, these race-baiting people. Al Sharpton's race-baiting action network. I go, 'This is just ridiculous.'"

The signage from Rock's LCA restaurant is now displayed at the Detroit Cowboy, Rock's upscale steakhouse in Nashville's Capitol View neighborhood. And the dining room of the restaurant displays a large mirror with the message, "Go where you're celebrated, not tolerated."

He feels a sense of renewal with the new album, "Which is weird, because I wasn’t planning on making something life-changing at 55 years old." He says he's toying with how to tour it, and is playing with the idea of big revival-style shows in the spirit of the album.

His current outlook involves taking the Kid Rock playbook and amending it ever so slightly.

"It's second chances, it's forgiveness, it's trying to show a little more grace," he says. "It's trying to heal some of the division, just putting a positive message out there in the world. Which I've touched on other positive messages, I feel, but I'm also Kid motherf— Rock, that guy. And at the end of the day, I'm both those guys."

The balance is what he's trying to find, and it's the same road he's walked on his entire career. His road to salvation is by no means complete, hence the project's title. He knows he hasn't reached his destination yet, but he's on his way.

"I think that comes with age, too. I don't think that's quite an unusual concept," he says. "As crazy as things are and as much s— as I get all the time, things are just so positive, so good in my world. I'm gonna see if I can spread a little bit of that to the rest of the world."

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