See Kid Rock’s Surprise ‘Cowboy’ Medley With Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney took his summer-long Spread the Love Tour to Detroit’s Ford Field on Saturday night, bringing along a stacked bill that included sets by Miranda Lambert, Jake Owen and Old Dominion. Halfway through his headlining performance, Chesney added another guest to the lineup: hometown hero Kid Rock.
“He is my brother in music [and] in life, and he is from Detroit, Michigan,” Chesney told the crowd, while someone’s bra strap dangled from the microphone stand in front of him. “He needs no introduction. Please make welcome Kid Rock!”
With that, the two kicked into an extended, five-minute version of Kid Rock’s “Cowboy,” bookended by snippets of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider” and David Allan Coe’s “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” Released as a single in the late-Nineties ¬– where its mix of hip-hop, backwoods twang and party-heavy lyrics helped lay the foundation for bro-country’s arrival more than a decade later – “Cowboy” has brought Chesney and Kid Rock together more than a few times, including the June 2003 performance in the University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium that, coincidentally, doubled as Chesney’s first headlining stadium show. As always, they shared frontman duties during the song’s performance in Detroit, swapping lyrics and acting as each other’s hype men. Watch the performance above.
Chesney will wrap his Spread the Love Tour in early September, rounding out the summertime trek with five upcoming stops at amphitheaters, stadiums and motor speedways. He’ll release his latest album, Cosmic Hallelujah, on October 28th.