Kid Rock had a little fun and pulled off a little track list switcheroo with his upcoming album Halfway 2 Jesus.
In case you didn’t hear, the “All Summer Long” singer has a gospel record coming out this Saturday (October 17). Though it might seem like an out-of-left-field move for Kid Rock, the rock/rap/country artist has already had a No. 1 hit song on Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart. His cover of Cody Johnson’s 2022 hit, “Til’ You Can’t,” which featured a new verse about giving your life to Jesus, debuted at the very top of the chart, with over 3.7 million streams and 51,000 units sold.
That, along with the personal faith journey that Kid Rock is currently on, came together to create a new Christian and/or faith-based rock album that’s titled Halfway 2 Jesus. The album will feature a collab with fellow Michigan native, Eminem, as well as appearances from Rascal Flatts frontman, Gary LeVox, and Jimmie Allen.
As you might imagine, a couple of those collaborations were met with backlash.
Last week, Kid Rock clapped back at those calling him out for having Allen featured on the album, as well as those who criticized Eminem for joining Halfway 2 Jesus and being featured on a song called “7 Sins.” Earlier today, Ritchie posted a video online to let all of the internet trolls know that Eminem was no longer going to be helping him with “7 Sins,” and had been replaced with another, well-known rap artist:
“There’s been some people on the internet and what not, like there always is, that don’t seem to be too thrilled about my old friend of almost 40 years, Eminem, doing a song with me on my new album. You folks will probably be happy to hear that he’s no longer on ‘7 Sins.’ Another very good friend of mine, Lil Wayne, is now on ‘7 Sins.'”
There… are all of internet trolls happy?
But I mentioned the switcheroo earlier in this story, right? That came in the form of Eminem being removed from “7 Sins,” but still being featured on the album, as Kid Rock explained while also rightfully declaring that it’s okay for people who don’t see eye-to-eye on everything to work together:
“It’ll probably not make you very happy to hear that Eminem is still on the album. He’s just on another song now, called ‘Heal My Faith.’ I just want to reiterate that thinking differently and having the freedom to do so is what makes this country great.
As God is my witness, not only the special guests, but all the musicians, songwriters, engineers, everybody involved with this record, we all don’t think the same.”
He’s right about that.
Kid Rock went on to say later in the video that, in another example of getting along with those who don’t subscribe to the same politics, he’s having another dinner with President Trump and left-leaning Bill Maher at the White House. Clearly Kid Rock is making a push to bring people together in whatever ways that he can, and he truly believes that Halfway 2 Jesus will help in that effort:
“I’m promoting this album as hard as I can because I know how important this message is, and this album is bigger than me. I know how many lives it’s potentially going to change. I couldn’t be more proud of it.”
As far as the updated track list is concerned, it appears that a prelude to “God Is Good” may have been absorbed by the actual song or omitted altogether. The list of songs still comes in at a total of 17, even with the new song – “Heal My Faith” – with Eminem that was added:
Halfway 2 Jesus Updated Tracklist
1. Freedom
2. James 1:17 (Jesus Is King)
3. 7 Sins (w/ Lil Wayne)
4. Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus
5. Heal My Faith (w/ Eminem)
6. Water Into Wine
7. Halfway 2 Jesus (w/ Gary LeVox & Jimmie Allen)
8. I Don’t Drink The Whiskey Anymore
9. Me and Jesus
10. God Is Good
11. Into the Setting Sun
12. Broken Hearted People
13. ‘Til You Can’t
14. Why Don’t You Look Into Jesus (RIRI Mix)
15. High Road
16. Procession
17. God Bless The USA
