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American Bad Ass

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"American Bad Ass"
Song

"American Bad Ass" is a song by the American musician Kid Rock, released from his 2000 album The History of Rock. "American Bad Ass" uses the instrumental structure of Metallica's "Sad but True."

Music and lyrics

The song is built around samples from Metallica's song "Sad But True". Its lyrics pay lyrical tribute to Johnny Cash, Grandmaster Flash, David Allan Coe, the Beastie Boys and Bob Seger.[2][3] The song's music style has been described as nu metal.[1]

Reception

A new recording made for The History of Rock, "American Bad Ass" has been praised by Allmusic and Rolling Stone as being the best song on the compilation.[2][3]

Music video

The music video for the single aired on MTV2 upon release, and reached #1 on Canada's MuchMusic Countdown.[4] The song was performed on Saturday Night Live.

At the beginning, Kid Rock watches TV and then after going to a rapping party, he goes to a concert on a cabriolet, surrounded by bikers. At the middle of the song, Kid Rock's car explodes and the thrash metal party starts to play. At the end of the video, Kid Rock with his band plays at a concert on the stage.

The video features a cameo appearance by Ron Jeremy.

  • After the USS Cole bombing in October 2000, the song was played on the ship's PA system upon leaving the port of Yemen after the national anthem and other patriotic songs were played.[5]
  • The song was also featured in promotional material for the film adaptions of two popular Hasbro franchises. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, in which their TV spot is aptly titled "American Badass" [6] and Battleship.
  • "American Bad Ass" appeared in the TV spot for the film The Gunman.
  • A version of the song was used as an entrance theme in 2000 for the WWF (now WWE) wrestler The Undertaker while he was using his "American Bad Ass" gimmick. The song would be replaced by Limp Bizkit's "Rollin".

Track listing

  1. "American Bad Ass" (clean album version)
  2. "3 Sheets to the Wind" (Live)
  3. "Cowboy" (Live)

Charts

Chart (2000-2001) Peak
position
Canada Rock (RPM) 24
songid field is MANDATORY FOR GERMAN CHARTS 26
Ireland (IRMA) 30
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[7] 81
UK Singles (The Official Charts Company) 25
U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 20
U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 33

Parody

In 2001, the American glam metal band Tuff made a parody of this song, named "American Hair Band".

References

  1. ^ a b Hill, Stephen (July 4, 2017). "The Top 40 nu-metal songs of all time". Metal Hammer. Retrieved July 5, 2017. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. American Bad Ass at AllMusic
  3. ^ a b Rolling Stone review
  4. ^ "MuchMusic Countdown - Fri, Jun 30, 2000". MuchMusic. Archived from the original on 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2011-03-13. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ rollingstone.com "Kid Rock Show to Honor USS Cole"
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ "Kid Rock – American Bad Ass". Swiss Singles Chart.


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