Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow Co-Wrote ‘Picture,’ But He Originally Cut It With Someone Else
Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow co-wrote the hit duet "Picture," which was released to radio in November of 2002 and came off of Rock's Cocky album of the previous year. The song became a success both commercially and critically, earning Rock his highest-charting single ever on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and Crow her second highest-charting (following 1994's "All I Wanna Do"). So why wasn't Crow originally the one singing the female vocalist's lines of the song? Well ... it's a long story.
A video compiled by The Boot's partner site, Taste of Country, explains that when "Picture" starting going for adds, Rock wasn't exactly the darling of the radio industry. For one thing, "Picture" was the fourth in a lackluster line of singles off of Cocky, none of which had done particularly well on the charts.
More importantly, Rock had a bad track record with radio-friendly language. His previous single, "You Never Met a Motherf--ker Quite Like Me," encountered opposition, for obvious reasons. Rock's affinity for the F-word and controversial subject matter spanned the tracklists of all of his previous albums, which included songs such as "B--ls in Your Mouth," "F--k Off" and "F--k That."
Crow's record label opposed her collaboration with Rock, and so they blocked him from releasing the version of "Picture" that featured Crow as a single. Not to be deterred, Rock cut a version with singer songwriter Allison Moorer and shipped it to radio, but invited Crow to co-star with him in the music video.
The version with Crow was the one that made the song a hit, and it's the one people remember today. However, at the time, the duet stoked even more drama, apparently causing friction between Rock and then-girlfriend Pamela Anderson, and fueled already existing rumors that Crow and Rock were romantically involved.
To learn the reasons why Rock's record label was worried the song might ruin his image, plus more of the label drama that almost kept "Picture" from ever seeing the light of day, press play on the video above.
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