11/28/06 - My voice sounds like crap now,” Bob Seger proclaimed. It was the morning after the fourth concert of his first tour in 10 years.
He’d just woken up. On stage, however, his voice is “holding up really good,” he said. “It’s actually getting stronger every night, believe it
or not.”
The 61-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer drinks Throat Coat Tea and takes a mucous-dissolving product — but “that’s probably way too much information,”
he said with a joyous phlegm-filled cackle that resonated down in his belly. After the long hiatus, Seger has developed a new routine for
gig days: Wake up at 8:30, take care of business, maybe nap, see the kids after school, fly to the gig on a private plane, do sound-check, eat dinner,
nap again, loosen up, drink more tea, perform, fly home, fall asleep by 3 a.m. or so.
“I just don’t do well in hotels,” he said from his home in Detroit. “West Virginia last night was like 55 minutes home. The big thing is making sure I
get enough sleep.” It wasn’t the rabid fans who got Seger to return to the road. It wasn’t the drooling promoters, who knew he’d be playing
sold-out concerts. And it wasn’t his always-willing Silver Bullet Band. It was his kids, the same two people who got him to voluntarily quit touring in
1996 to become a full-time father.
For years, Cole, 13, and Samantha, 11, have heard about Dad the Rock Star. In 2004 they saw him play a couple of songs when he was inducted into the Rock
Hall of Fame, and they watched him sing “Rock & Roll Never Forgets” at a Kid Rock gig in Detroit last year. Seger said they told him: “Gee, Dad,
you’ve got a new album. We want to hear it live.” Before he agreed to undertake the tour, he went to see his doctor. The only issue was a little arthritis
in his lower left back. A little ibuprofen and some stretching, and he’s good to go. “I’m just grateful that I’m not passing out up there,” he
said. “Physically, I’m feeling good.”
Even though it was obvious at his Hall of Fame performance that he was not in shape for the stage, he didn’t do any special regimen in the gym.
“I really just rehearsed,” he said. “That’s the best because those are the muscles you use. Just a lot of long rehearsals. “My wind is good.
I’m amazed at that. Everything is going along rather well.”
In the decade between the new disc “Face the Promise” and his last album, 1995’s “It’s a Mystery,” Seger said he never stopped writing songs.
Last year, he went to Nashville to record. He was joined by Detroit rap-rocker Kid Rock, who had given Seger’s Hall of Fame induction speech, and country
singer Patty Loveless, one of Seger’s longtime favorites. The new album debuted at No. 4 and has gone gold. One rock number, “Wreck the Heart,” has received
airplay on rock stations, and a ballad, “Wait for Me,” has been aired on adult pop stations.
The tunes also have gotten some play on country radio. “Real Mean Bottle,” a Vince Gill-penned raveup featuring Kid Rock, sounds like a can’t-miss country hit.
Seger, who received country play for such pop hits as “Fire Lake,” “Against the Wind” and “Shame on the Moon,” thinks he might release it as a
country single next summer — especially if he goes on tour with Kid Rock, as the younger Detroit hero has suggested.
But Seger is not thinking that far ahead. He initially planned only 21 concerts over two months but now the tour has been extended into next year.
“It’s a little daunting, knowing that we’re doing close to 50 gigs,” he said. “I’m trying to get into that mindset.” Will this be his last tour?
“I don’t think like that,” said the silver-haired rocker, who did his first tour in 1966. “I never say never. And I go day to day. Right now,
I’ll be done the middle of March, and I’ll rest for a month and see if I want to do it again.”
In concert, Seger is doing at least five songs from the new CD. Of course, he’s also offering a generous selection of the hits that made him a classic-rock
staple in the 1970s and ‘80s — “Night Moves,” “Old-Time Rock & Roll,” “Against the Wind” and “Katmandu.” Seger is getting two thumbs up from his kids,
who have seen two shows. “They’re really digging it,” he said, and he hopes to take them on the road every weekend.
Backed by a horn section, Grand Funk drummer Don Brewer and mainstays of the Silver Bullet Band, Seger claims that the current show is longer than the one
on his 1996 tour. There is a short intermission designed for Seger’s priorities. “My wife says it’s not long enough: ‘You don’t give women a chance to go to
the bathroom,” he said with a cackle. “I have to change clothes; I get so wet (from sweat) up there. That’s the reason we do an intermission.”
Has he cut back on his smoking habit? “Heck, no,” he said with a cackle. “Me and Jim Leyland, the (Detroit) Tigers manager — we’re chimneys. I am trying to cut
back a little bit, and it’s not working.” People who saw Seger sing “America the Beautiful” before the first World Series game between the Tigers and the
Cardinals might have noticed his tobacco-stained teeth. “Oh, yeah,” he said without missing a beat. “I had to get them whitened a little bit.
Even whitening them, it’s just a slightly lighter shade of yellow.” He burst into a big, long laugh.
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