The song came to him in the middle of the night. Everything else followed from there.
Kid Rock announced Halfway 2 Jesus, the first Christian album of his career, arriving October 17 through his own Top Dog Records. The lead single, “James 1:17 (Jesus Is King),” is out now, and it takes its name from a verse in the New Testament book of James.
He told the Detroit Free Press it was a record he felt called to make.
That phrase carries some weight coming from a man who built a thirty-year career on rebel anthems and stage antics. Nineteen years ago this month, he released an album called Rock N Roll Jesus, whose title track declared a rock revival where you don’t need a Bible. The new record features seventeen tracks, including “Water Into Wine,” “Me and Jesus,” and “God Is Good.”
He Made the Album Because He Could Not Find the Music He Wanted
Kid Rock explained the decision on Fox and Friends back in August, and the reason was simpler than most people expected.
“Growing up Catholic and going to Catholic church, I was always like, I have to confess this is boring. This music is terrible,” he said. “And I’d go to Baptist churches and non-denominals just looking for the music that I wanted to hear and there’s some good stuff, but it was always a little bit of this dark place.”
So he wrote his own.
“I decided to write the songs that I kind of wanted to celebrate Jesus and my faith with, which are rock and roll, country, hip-hop,” he said.
That is the whole thesis of the album in one sentence. He did not try to sound like a worship band. He made a gospel record out of the three genres he already knew how to play.
The Verse That Started It
James 1:17 reads, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
The single built around it is plainly a testimony. “I have wandered through the ages and flipped through all your pages,” he sings. “Every stage of life I’ve run through, I refuse to compromise. I’ve been locked up in your cages, and my sins became contagious. But when I got right with Jesus Christ, I found things that money can’t buy.”
Speaking in August about where he has been, Kid Rock did not sugarcoat it.
“I’m really looking forward to people hearing this. It’s a cr𝐚zy journey I’ve been on,” he said. “I’ve grown a lot stronger in my faith.”
The album artwork shows him on a path toward a glowing cross with the devil at his back, which is about as unsubtle as the title.
For You
He Dedicated the Video to Two People Who Are Fighting for Their Lives
The part of this story that deserves the most attention is the one getting the least.
The music video for “James 1:17” was filmed at Kid Rock’s honky-tonk in Nashville and directed by Blake Judd. It is dedicated to two people.
The first is Jimmie Bones, his longtime keyboard player and a founding member of the Twisted Brown Trucker Band, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2024.
The second is Kalvin Lynch, a fan living with an inoperable brain tumor. His Make-A-Wish request was to play drums with Kid Rock.
Posting about the video on Instagram on September 30, Kid Rock pointed straight at them. “There are some very special people in this video and a real significance to this song and the album to follow,” he wrote.
A man watched his keyboard player get an ALS diagnosis and met a kid whose dying wish was to sit behind a drum kit next to him. Then he made a record about God. The timeline explains itself.
He Already Had a Number One on the Christian Chart
This turn did not come out of nowhere.
In February, his cover of Cody Johnson’s “’Til You Can’t” reached the top of Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs chart, according to the Detroit News. That song appears again on Halfway 2 Jesus as track thirteen.
The album also brings in help from across country music. Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts and Jimmie Allen appear together on the title track. Eminem, his friend of nearly thirty years, turns up on a song called “7 Sins.”
It closes with “God Bless the USA.”
Kid Rock has said he already has a back-to-basics follow-up record ready to go after this one. For now, he has made the thing he said he was called to make, named it after a Bible verse, and handed it to a fanbase that has followed him through every other version of himself.
Halfway 2 Jesus arrives October 17.
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