Saturday, July 5, 2003 | 2:49 a.m.
WEEKEND EDITION: July 6, 2003
For more than a decade, Matt Shafer was best known as the man behind Kid Rock's turntable.
Close friends with the rap-rock star since the Detroit natives met in 1987, Shafer helped shape Kid Rock's albums, writing and performing on some of his buddy's biggest hits.
These days Shafer is carving out his own musical identity. Now known as Uncle Kracker, the 29-year-old DJ-turned-singer has released a pair of popular CDs: 2000 debut "Double Wide" and its follow-up in August, "No Stranger to Shame."
"Double Wide" was a surprise smash, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard album chart and producing top-five single "Follow Me." Shafer's latest single, a cover of Dobie Gray's "Drift Away," has also been a runaway success, racing to No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary singles chart.
Saturday at 9 p.m., Uncle Kracker performs at the Paris Las Vegas Pool. Old 97's frontman Rhett Miller is also on the bill.
Last week Shafer took time out for a phone interview from his Detroit home.
Las Vegas Sun: You and your wife were married here in Las Vegas, right?
Uncle Kracker: I did get married there, about five years ago, at the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel, and it wasn't planned out at all. I was in L.A. in May of '98 mixing the Kid Rock "Devil Without a Cause" record and we had a week off. So we both went to Vegas and once we got there we just did it.
Sun: Did an Elvis perform the ceremony?
UK: We didn't have the 60 bucks extra for the Elvis (laughs). I was totally watching money at that point. We had to take all kinds of credit card advances for that trip.
Sun: How did you decide to cover "Drift Away" on "No Stranger to Shame?"
UK: That was something I'd been doing at my shows. But I wasn't going to do it on the album because a couple people recorded it before Dobie and a million people recorded it after Dobie and nobody had any luck with it except for him.
Then somebody said, "Hey, why don't we have Dobie come in and sing on it?" And I figured, if I was going to do it, I might as well have him cosign on it.
Sun: Are you surprised that your version reached No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart?
UK: I never guessed it would be No. 1 anywhere. I never guessed it would do as good as it's doing in pop right now, and I didn't guess that CMT (Country Music Television) would pick it up, either.
The label really wanted me to do that as a cover song, and I wasn't hip on covers. But when the record company is mad at you and you're mad at them, it's tough to make it work. So I said, "All right, I'll do the cover and we'll see what happens."
Sun: Kid Rock's duet with Sheryl Crow, "Picture," spent time at No. 1 on the country chart this year. I'm guessing you guys never talked about dominating the adult contemporary and country charts back in your early days in Detroit.
UK: It's weird, the way Kid Rock's going with "Picture" and the way my stuff is going, too. But I couldn't be happier with the adult contemporary. Especially nowadays in this business, adults are the people buying records. The kids are buying some, but they're not buying what they used to or what they should be.
Sun: Kid Rock was less involved with your second album than he was with your debut. Was that intentional on your part, a way to show people you can be successful on your own?
UK: It was by design that I kind of distanced myself. People don't understand that I helped write (Kid Rock) songs like "Cowboy" and "Only God Knows Why" and "Bawitdaba" and all the other songs on those records.
I get this whole, "He's nothing without Kid Rock and he's Kid Rock's sidekick and blah blah blah." And I know that there's no way I'll ever, ever, ever, ever be able to escape that because he casts such a huge shadow. But at the same time, the more I do do by myself, the more I'll be able to stand alone.
So I think this was just me kind of saying, "All right, I'm going to try this one on my own. If I can cut through, then good for me. And if not, then I still have a good job as Kid Rock's (expletive) pimp" (laughs).
Sun: In one of his TV beer commercials, Kid Rock promises his buddy he'll "have him home early" and then keeps him out all night until early the next morning. Was that typical when you guys partied together?
UK: I tell you what, that commercial is pretty much accurate when it comes to Kid Rock. He'll have you home early, and it will be really early. He loves to have a good time. But he ain't afraid to go with you to church, either. He's down for whatever, whenever.
Sun: Has his relationship with Pamela Anderson changed the dynamic between the two of you?
UK: He knows what it's like to be committed, to have a relationship and I think he can compare what he's got going on in his life with my marriage.
But I don't know what he and Pam are doing right now. They have a relationship, like everybody else: they are (together), they aren't, they aren't, they are. You know what? So is my cousin. He's going out with this girl, and she's over on Easter, they're broken up for St. Patrick's Day. They're back on for Christmas, they're not for New Year's.
Sun: So did the two of you ever imagine this kind of success back in the Detroit days?
UK: It's almost like we did it twice: first with the Kid Rock thing and second with the Uncle Kracker thing. We both just kind of sit back and we're like, "What the (expletive)? How did that happen?" But at the same time, we don't question it.
A couple weeks ago me and Kid Rock were at a Kenny Chesney concert. He had us come out and do his encores with him. And I was thinking, "(Kid Rock) is more the guy who comes out and does somebody's encore. What am I doing here? And (Kid Rock) looks over and goes, "You're going platinum baby. This was just the next stop."
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