Ke$ha never did hear from Prince, but the incident speaks volumes about this 22-year-old newcomer’s firecracker personality and determination. “I’ve always known I wanted to be a performer,” she says. “There’s video of me at age five, naked and covered in body paint, saying, ‘I’m going to be a rock star and there’s no way anyone is going to stop me!’ It’s my calling. If I don’t go for it, I’m going to feel like a tool when I’m 50.”

Luckily, Ke$ha won’t have to find out what regret feels like. She is currently at work writing and recording her debut album with executive producer Dr. Luke, who has scored No. 1 smashes for Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, and Flo Rida. After falling for her playful half-sung/half-rapped vocal delivery on a rough demo, Luke brought Ke$ha to RCA Records, which signed her in February 2009. The album — which will also feature Ke$ha’s collaborations with veteran hitmaker Max Martin (Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears) and in-demand songwriter/producer Benny Blanco (Katy Perry, 3OH!3, Spank Rock) — is shaping up to be an edgy collection of hard-hitting electro-pop songs, made all the more irresistible by their high-octane punk energy and Ke$ha’s irreverent lyrics and attitude. “I want my music to be fun, unapologetic, rowdy, quirky, humorous, and interesting,” she says, “but with substance behind it. I’m an emotional person underneath all my fronting. I want people to listen to it and feel like they can relate.”

Not surprisingly, the songs showcase Ke$ha’s flair for storytelling, though her choice of subject matter isn’t exactly conventional. There’s a song about the time Ke$ha threw up in a closet during a party at Paris Hilton’s pad (“Party at a Rich Dude’s House”), and one she says is about the time “some dumb bitch fronted like she was my friend but then secretly tried to bring me down” (“Backstabber”), and another about finding out her boyfriend was cheating on her with a famous pop starlet who shall remain nameless (“Kiss & Tell”). Oh, and the one she wrote about beginning to see the universe as a cyclical chain of connected events after meeting a guy in a club (“Chain Reaction,” which has been featured on MTV’s The Hills).

Ke$ha credits her love for story-songs to spending her formative years hanging out with veteran songwriters in Nashville. Her mom Pebe, a former punk-rock singer, is a songwriter whose career took off in Music City in the late ’70s when a song she co-wrote, called “Old Flames Can’t Hold A Candle To You,” became a hit for Joe Sun in 1978 and a country chart-topper for Dolly Parton in 1980. But by the time Ke$ha was born in 1987 (during a party in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, Pebe was going through a bad patch, struggling to support Ke$ha and her older brother through her music. “We were on welfare and food stamps,” Ke$ha says. “One of my first memories is my mom telling me, ‘If you want something, just take it.’”

In 1991, Pebe moved the family back to Nashville, where she had landed a new publishing deal. Ke$ha saw the inside of a lot of recording studios. “I thought everyone grew up in a recording studio,” she says. She attended a music school in the Tennessee countryside (“where some of the kids didn’t have any shoes,” she recalls), took songwriting classes, and fell in love with country music greats Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and Patsy Cline. “I’d listen to these beautiful songs and they all told stories,” she says. “Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline is one of my all-time favorite records.” From time to time, Pebe let Ke$ha sing on tracks she was working on. “My mom always told me, ‘You have a good voice, practice singing,’ so I’d sing everything all the time,” Ke$ha says.

When Ke$ha was 17, she quit high school, “which was crazy because I was enrolled in an International Baccalaureate program and was going to go to Columbia University and study psychology,” she says, “but I wanted to move back to L.A. and pursue my music.” That’s when she met Dr. Luke. “I had been looking for a female artist with an incredible, distinctive voice who had her own style,” Luke says. “Ke$ha didn’t sound like anybody else.” Dr. Luke was also working with red-hot hip-hop artist Flo Rida on a track for his second album. One night, Ke$ha was hanging out with them and the rapper told her he wanted a female voice on a track and asked if she wanted to lay down a vocal. Naturally, she obliged. In February, that track, “Right Round,” soared to No. 1, selling more than 636,000 downloads its first week out, and shattering the all-time one-week digital single sales record. (Ke$ha also contributes her sassy vocal stylings to “Touch Me,” another track from Flo Rida’s upcoming 2009 album R.O.O.T.S.)

“When I first heard my voice on ‘Right Round’ on the radio, I started screaming and crying,” Ke$ha says. “I may seem kind of crazy, but behind it all I have my s**t together. I’m working really hard to make this happen and it’s nice to see that hard work pay off. I mean, three years ago I was stealing canned vegetables from the dollar store to survive. Now I’m on a No. 1 song, working on my album, and have a little change in my pocket. To be able to take my mom out to dinner is the best feeling in the world.”

While performing at the intimate Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Swift caught the eye of music industry veteran Scott Borchetta, who signed her to his newly formed label. Swift joined the roster at Big Machine Records and released her debut single, “Tim McGraw,” in August 2006. The song drew upon her experience as a lovelorn high-school student, a theme that Swift revisited throughout her self-titled debut album. Released in late 2008, Taylor Swift catapulted the young songwriter to stardom, spawning a handful of hits (five consecutive Top Ten singles, a new record for a female solo artist) while earning multi-platinum sales. Swift also received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, an award she ultimately lost to Amy Winehouse. Two subsequent EPs — Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection and Beautiful Eyes — helped maintain Swift’s popularity while whetting public demand for her sophomore release, Fearless, which arrived in November 2008. ~ Andrew Leahey & Megan Frye, All Music Guide

The recent news that Kid Rock got into a dust-up on the road at a Waffle House in Atlanta brings back memories. A few days ago, Rock found himself in a verbal tussle that escalated into a brawl, and now faces misdemeanor battery charges.

Rock was never one to back away from a fight: He warred with his father before he left home at age 15, scrapped and scraped to make a living out of music before he finally found success at age 27, and has had it out with a certain ex-wife and even the ex-husband of his ex-wife as documented in countless gossip rags.

I got to know Rock in the late ’90s, in the days before he had hits and Pam Anderson. He was a Waffle House guy then, as he is now, celebrity marriage or not. We drove around his native Detroit in a $2000 vintage Coup de Ville convertible with the top down. Rock was at the wheel with a burgundy derby on his head, a sleeveless white T-shirt on his pale torso, and a 40-ounce malt liquor between his thighs. He owned a brick bungalow in a blue-collar suburb, where he lived with his then 5-year-old son, and we drove to his dingy studio in a bombed out section of Detroit, where he was greeted like a minor local celebrity. He had headlined a string of sold-out local shows and had self-released countless records over the previous decade, but he was barely known outside of Michigan.

He would go on to sell millions of records worldwide with an improbable mix of Southern rock, blues- and country-tinged ballads, and hip-hop. And he would become an international celebrity after his on-again, off-again engagement and marriage to Anderson, and their eventual break-up.

But that success and notoriety didn’t really change Rock much, or push his music in any new directions. He has always played a bunch of instruments competently and written all his own music, even though his influences are often transparent and his lyrics sound like they were dashed off on a cocktail napkin after several rounds. On his new album, the modestly titled “Rock N Roll Jesus” (Atlantic), he initiates a shotgun marriage between Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” on the nostalgic “All Summer Long.”

“My thoughts were short, my hair was long,” Rock sings.

A man’s got to know his limitations, Clint Eastwood once said. And Rock knows his. He doesn’t pretend to be who he isn’t.

The CD cover pays homage to AC/DC’s “Back in Black,” and the flip-side image evokes “Superfly,” with a pimped-out Rock flanked by a couple of Pam Grier wanna-be’s. Inside, the music is the usual mix of guitar raunch and stoned country laments from the eight-track cassette era. Rock can be a raving boogie monster in one song, a dead-earnest balladeer in the next. He also gets in a couple of predictable shots at the ex-wife (“I found someone now who treats me better… She’s half your age and twice as hot”). His is an irony-free universe. He titles his songs “So Hott” and “Roll On,” and he means it.

But in the spirit of working-class rockers from the great state of Michigan — Grand Funk Railroad, Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, Mitch Ryder — Rock doesn’t believe music should be complicated. He’s sincere without being sanctimonious. When he weighs in on more serious subjects, his attitude is live and let live — a refreshing if somewhat dumbfounding stance from a self-professed red-neck who has been known to wave guns around.

Not that we haven’t heard it all before. “Rock N Roll Jesus” is a lot like all the other Kid Rock albums: Party music for people who lived through the ’70s, or wish they did.

As Rock once told me: “I love the ’70s, because the music was ugly and great. The faces behind it were these ugly mothers, who were great musicians and made great music. It never got better than that.”

Kid Rock - Picture Gallery

Date: January 10, 2009
Event: AVN Adult Entertainment Expo
Location: Venetian Hotel - Las Vegas, Nevada
Photographer: Johnny Web
Copyright © Maxim Photography, all rights reserved.

41 Photos

The second studio album from the Pussycat Dolls was scheduled for release worldwide on September 20 2008, and in the U.S. on September 23, with tracks produced by Dr. Dre, Timbaland, Eminem, The Clutch, Sean Garrett, Quiz & Larossi, New Kids On The Block, Scott Storch, Darkchild, Fernando Garibay, Ryan Tedder, Mark Taylor, Taio Cruz, and others. Two other confirmed tracks are “Bottle Pop” and “Away” which were written and produced by Fernando Garibay.

On May 28 they confirmed in a radio interview that one of the tracks from the album is titled “In Person”, and that it has a ’1960s’ vibe, a la Tina Turner. Timbaland will be the executive producer of the album.

The second song from the album will be “Whatcha Think About That” featuring rapper Missy Elliott. The video was shot on September 9 and 10 in Los Angeles.

They performed their hit singles “Buttons” and “When I Grow Up” at the MTV Asia Awards 2008 in Genting Highlands, Malaysia and performed in Singapore for Singfest 2008, as part of a line-up of international music acts. They performed the singles “Buttons”, “Don’t Cha”, and “When I Grow Up”, including a special solo dance segment “Show Me What You Got”.

There is the whirlwind, and then there is the young woman at its center. The key to Carrie Underwood may lie in knowing that, three years down the road, the two remain separate. For all the awards, the record sales, the chart-topping hits, the non-stop schedule and the incessant media attention, Carrie remains firmly in touch with the shy Oklahoma college student she was before becoming a star. Through all of it, she retains a genuine likeability that, coupled with her enormous talent, goes a long way toward explaining the phenomenal nature of her success.

Buy CD “Carnival Ride”

And it is indeed phenomenal, even when measured by the achievements of others who have found success as she did, via American Idol. The show’s co-creator and acerbic judge Simon Cowell had predicted during the competition that she would win and that she would outsell all of Idol’s previous winners. He was right on both counts. Carrie’s debut album, Some Hearts, is the biggest-selling American Idol album to date, selling more than 6 million records in the U.S. alone. Her debut CD, Some Hearts, released in 2005, has been the best-selling female country album of 2005, 2006 and 2007. Carrie hit #1 with every single she has released to date, and has won two Grammys as well as a host of trophies from the AMA, ACM, CMA, People’s Choice and Billboard, among many others.

Her own favorite metaphor for the journey, taken from the Hillary Lindsey/Chris Lindsey/Aimee Mayo song “Wheel Of The World,” which closes her eagerly awaited second album, has become the project’s title.

“This part of my life has been absolutely crazy,” she says, “and to think it all started from one little decision I made to get on that ride. That’s why Carnival Ride works as my album title, because it describes the wonderful craziness I’ve been through over the past couple of years.”

Some Hearts was a snapshot that captured a moment, dealing with coming of age and with establishing a foothold in a wider world. Its success speaks volumes about the attractiveness of its message and of the woman who delivered it. Carnival Ride, on the other hand, is a big-screen movie, wide-ranging in theme, cinematic in scope. It reflects Carrie’s increasing strength as a vocalist, her continuing emergence as a songwriter, and her growing maturity as an artist and a person.

“Last time,” she says, “I didn’t set out to talk about a specific thing. I just picked songs that reminded me of home and made me think, ‘Wow! I can relate to that,’ and by the end, there was a theme.” Taking a broader view this time, she drew on her instincts as a fan in selecting songs that range from the enchantingly light-hearted to the deeply inspiring.

“It’s a collection of songs I would want to hear on the radio,” she says, “and songs I want to sing. I really hope my fans will get a little bit more of me out of these songs.”

The presence of four songs co-written by Carrie will help them do just that. “All-American Girl” turns the story of a baby girl born to a man praying for a boy into a celebration of femininity. If there is a bit of autobiography in the song–Carrie is the youngest of three daughters–there is even more in “Crazy Dreams,” an ode to “long shots” and a celebration of the fact that “even crazy dreams come true,” something she knows better than almost anyone. “Last Name” is a bit of pure fun celebrating reckless abandon, and is one of two songs Carrie wrote with Hillary Lindsey. The other is the album’s first single, “So Small,” a song that announces the new project as a major step forward. With “So Small” Carrie focuses on what’s important in life and not worrying about the small things. It also focuses on the strength of her voice and personality, instilling it with freshness and relevance.

Lindsey, who co-wrote “Jesus, Take The Wheel,” and Carrie have become fast friends since meeting when a group of songwriters gathered at a songwriter retreat in Nashville after her Idol win to help Carrie write and select songs for Some Hearts. In addition to “Wheel Of The World” and the pair of songs she wrote with Carrie, Lindsey co-wrote “Get Out Of This Town,” a bit of upbeat restlessness, “Twisted,” about a relationship on the edge, and “Just A Dream,” a powerful song dealing with the effects of war on a young bride-to-be.

Carrie’s emergence as a songwriter on Carnival Ride is another of the album’s revelations. She brought together another group of top Nashville tunesmiths, including Brett James, Luke Laird, Kelley Lovelace, Aimee Mayo, Steve McEwan and others for a second writers’ retreat. This one held at the Ryman Auditorium, the most famous former home of the Grand Ole Opry, throwing herself into the creative process and expanding greatly her confidence as a songwriter and her depth as a creative force in modern country music.

The process of writing with and looking through the catalogs of the cream of Nashville songwriting helped make Carnival Ride the strong artistic statement it is.

“We had so many great songs to choose from it was really hard to narrow it down,” she says. “We set the bar really high. Songs that would be hits hands-down might not have made it onto the album because one was a teeny notch better.”

The strength of those songs helped propel the subsequent recording sessions.

“We really took the first part of the year to make sure we had the best material we could possibly find,” she says, “and then we went in every day to the studio, which is something I really love to do. It is a very controlled environment. Mark [Bright, her producer] is so easy to work with. He’ll encourage me to play around with vocal approaches because, at the end of the day, it’s my voice, and the song is something I’ll be doing on stage every night. He trusts the instincts I have and I trust him. That makes us a good team.”

Holding the entire package together is the passion and believability fans came to know and love on American Idol and which haven’t dimmed a bit. The combination grew out of a lifelong love of country music nurtured in her hometown of Checotah, Oklahoma.

“I had a very happy childhood full of the wonderful simple things that children love to do,” she says. “Growing up in the country, I enjoyed things like playing on dirt roads, climbing trees, catching little woodland creatures and, of course, singing.” She sang in church, then in grade school musicals and area talent shows, winning a savings bond here, a trophy there.

“After high school,” she says, “I pretty much gave up on the dream of singing. I had reached a point in my life where I had to be practical and prepare for my future in the ‘real world.’”

She attended Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK, where her sorority sisters at Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority worked to bring her out of her shell.

“They always tried to make me sing at everything,” she says, “but I was too embarrassed. During the summers I mustered up enough courage to sing at the Downtown Country show–a Branson-style show that included singing, dancing and comedy. It was mainly there that I learned what it was like to be in front of a crowd.”

She majored in broadcast journalism, her sights set on a career in television news. Then, in her senior year, she saw news reports of tryouts for American Idol’s 2005 season.

“People always told me that I should try out for the show, but I never thought I would be able to handle it.” When her mother offered to drive her to St. Louis for tryouts, though, she decided to go. That, of course, set in motion the whirlwind.

“I remember certain things–Saturday Night Live was really cool,” she says. “It was great to be added to the list of such great iconic artists who have performed on the show before. And of course, being on stage at the Grammys–that was an amazing moment. Who’d have thought? But each one runs together. I’d love to revel in the moment a little more sometimes.”

Still, it is a mark of Carrie’s level-headedness and determination that amid the demands of a star, she made it a goal to complete her college degree. Even among the madness of winning American Idol in May 2005, recording and launching her debut album in November 2005, she finished her credit hours and earned her B.A., graduating magna cum laude in May 2006. And while she has grown a little more accustomed to the elite circles in which she sometimes travels, now and then she can tap into the fan she has always been, as when she met Randy Travis not long ago.

“I’ve loved him ever since I was little,” she says. “So, it was kind of like, ‘Wow! This is the person I hoped would take home the awards when I watched as a little girl.’ It was kind of a crazy day and I guess my emotions were running a little high when I got to meet him. I met him and he was so nice, and I started crying. I never know what to do with people when they cry when meeting me, so I was thinking, ‘Gosh! I’m one of those people now! I’m being completely silly,’ but it was just the way it happened.” Her version of Travis’s hit “I Told You So” appears on Carnival Ride.

She appears on Brad Paisley’s album 5th Gear, joining him on “Oh Love” as her reach continues to expand. She recorded an original song called “Ever Ever After” for the Disney movie Enchanted and filmed a music video for the project. Her versatility is such that she has covered the work of artists including the Eagles and Bob Wills on the Grammys, Fleetwood Mac on Fashion Rocks, and she made the Pretenders’ classic “I’ll Stand By You” her own in a version that raised money for the “Idol Gives Back” charity effort. As part of her involvement, Carrie traveled to South Africa to visit and perform for schools, orphanages, hospices and health care centers in and around Johannesburg.

In 2006, Carrie performed over 150 shows on tour with Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley as well as headlining her own dates. She ended the year headlining a USO Tour during the Christmas holiday season and performing for U.S. troops in Kuwait and Iraq. Carrie, known for her love of animals, is also a major supporter of the Humane Society of the United States.

Such charitable efforts are yet another indication that, in a world where celebrity is often about mere self-indulgence, Carrie brings as much grace, style and substance to her life as she does to her stage performances. She has quickly become one of country music’s most effective and best-loved ambassadors, using her success as a springboard for good. Now, with the release of Carnival Ride, we are reminded once again of the rich talent that underlies that humanitarian spirit, and of the bottom line when it comes to the popularity of this remarkable young woman.

Scanning well over a million individual tracks digitally since DAUGHTRY’s debut, Chris always knew the secret of his connection with his fans was widening the circle surrounding his music no matter what medium of transfer. Whether he was interpreting other artists material or his own, his razor-sharp instincts told him the right band could take such a bond to even greater heights. I’m a tough music fan myself. I’m not swayed easily, but one of the things I’ve always loved about great bands is you feed off of each other’s confidence, build on each other’s strengths and create an opportunity for something magical to happen every time you go out there,he notes. Daughtry is living proof of that edict, garnering rave reviews on the road, locking down what quickly became 2007′s must-see show: “Daughtry clearly connects with the audience and it would seem to be only the beginning” raved the San Francisco Chronicle.

What a beginning: The double-platinum juggernaut that is Daughtry has hovered in the Top 5 of the Billboard Top 200 Albums since its release, the first album since the 2006 phenomenon High School Musical soundtrack to log more than 9 weeks among the Top 3 albums, and the first rock band to achieve such a streak in the first 15 weeks of release since Creed in 2002. Daughtry is also the first rock band release in nearly 20 years – since Bon Jovi’s 1988 classic New Jersey – to hit the top spot after debuting below #1.

Born and raised outside of Dallas, Texas, Jessica began her performing career by sharing the stage with famous gospel acts such as Kirk Franklin, God’s Property and Ce Ce Winans. With her unmistakable voice and unique pop sound, Jessica caught the eye of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola. After joining a tour in support of the boy-band 98 Degrees, she quickly burst onto the music scene in 1999 with her debut release Sweet Kisses. Her RIAA-certified double platinum debut featured Jessica’s massive breakthrough hit, “I Wanna Love You Forever,” which hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Aside from Jessica’s entertainment prowess, she enjoys tremendous success as a designer and business woman with her Jessica Simpson Collection. Launched in 2005, the collection has grown to include footwear, handbags, optical/ sunglasses, lingerie, jewelry and outerwear. Belts, girls shoes and dresses are soon to be added. Jessica’s first fragrance “Fancy” launches in August of 2008.

An enthusiastic philanthropist, Jessica serves as Operation Smile’s International Youth Ambassador. She most recently joined the Operation Smile international medical mission in Nakuru, Kenya where she assisted the volunteer team with the medical evaluations of the more than 280 children who visited the remote region with the hopes of receiving life-changing corrective surgery for their facial deformities.

Jessica has been praised by fans and recognized by critics with three Teen Choice Awards for Breakout Artist, Love Song of the Year and Red Carpet Fashion Icon, and nominations for two American Music Awards including Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist and Favorite Pop/Rock Album and two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Female Video and Best Pop Video. She has also graced the covers of many high-profile magazines, such as Rolling Stone, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, GQ, Marie Claire, Allure and Elle.