First Day for “First Kiss”

As I talked about before, it’s been a great honor and just amazing to see a painting that used to hang on my wall is now the cover of Kid Rock’s new album. “First Kiss” was released today and Bob has been making the rounds. He was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night and The Today Show this morning. Check out the performances & interview.

The reason why the cover features Niagara’s iconic “Hot Box #1” is because Bob was kind enough to help put the book fundraiser over the top with his generous gift. I sent him the painting, with a mix of tears and smiles. Then, he asked Niagara about licensing the image. Not only is it on the cover, but it’s on the CD as well. So, I guess he likes it!  

Plus, I’ve seen the image on flasks and other items. I picked up this fan pack online which includes a t-shirt with the same image and a bullet bottle opener that just says Kid Rock on it.  

Have to say, it’s weird how the ORBIT universe works, isn’t? Consider that Bob was just a 19-year-old kid when we met him the magazine in late 1990-early 1991. In a recent interview with Gary Graff for the Oakland Press he talked about why he made the gift, used the Niagara art, and more. It’s all comes back to a sense that Orby and his pals were great to him in the early days.

“Orbit was great to me in my early career and I saw they were trying to fund a book. And I saw that beautiful piece of art and I thought, ‘Man, if that doesn’t remind me of a great image for a first kiss.’ It all just worked out in my head where I could fund their book, get rights to this piece of art, hopefully help her with her career. It’s just a phenomenal image, one of my favorite record covers I’ve had to date. It’s gonna look great on a T-shirt, maybe a big thing on stage or something. And with her being from Michigan, from our area, that was special, too. Everything about it was perfect.” - Kid Rock 

Anyhow, beyond the CD, tickets for Kid Rock’s summer stand at Pine Knob (I still can’t bring myself to call it what it is called today) went on sale today. He even added two more shows - those tickets go on sale Saturday morning. I’ve never seen him live, but friends and family have and they say he puts on a great show. So, I’ll be there in August – maybe we’ll run into each other! Look for the cat sporting the old school Orbit t-shirt.

Again, it’s still just super cool to see something I picked up a few years ago that I loved become not only an iconic album cover, but one of the favorite ones that Bob has put out according to his recent interview.

Thanks again,

Rob St. Mary