Tour Kick-Offs: Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, Warped, More

Kid Rock performs in Atlantic City at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa

Check back every week for a rundown of summer festivals and tours kicking off in the coming days.

WARPED TOUR
June 24th-August 14th
Tickets: $28-$47
"Ice-T once told me, 'you gotta trust your gut,' " says Vans Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman. "Before, I tended to listen to other people and not my own ears." For the tour's 17th year, Lyman took Ice-T's advice and spent two months straight listening to potential acts before picking an eclectic 114-band lineup including electro-rap jokesters 3OH!3, metalcore crew the Devil Wears Prada and Eminem protégé Yelawolf. Warped standbys like Paramore and Against Me! will anchor the roster. "It'll be like a high school reunion," says Paramore's Hayley Williams, a six-time Warped Tour vet. "I'll be running around, yelling things and acting a fool."

ELECTRIC FOREST
Rothbury, Michigan
June 30th-July 3rd
Top Acts: The String Cheese Incident, Tiësto, Kaskade, Pretty Lights, Bassnectar
The Midwest's top new jamfest fills its forest setting with trippy lights at night, plus heavy beats from top DJs and six jam-tastic sets from headliners the String Cheese Incident.

KID ROCK
July 2nd-September 3rd
Tickets: $29-$79
Kid Rock has a good idea what his summer shows will be like: "Beer-fueled rock & roll, country and soul, with a dash of hip-hop for a toe-tappin', deep-fat-frying good time." Expect frequent duets with opener Sheryl Crow, and a possible live LP after the tour. "I'm 40," says Rock. "I'm not going to be at the top of my game forever. But I am right now."

Related: Photos: The Week's Hottest Live Shots
Photos: Kid Rock's Birthday Concert
Photos: The All-American Rejects, Pretty Reckless and More Play Warped Tour 2010

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

More Song Stories entries »

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