Pop R&B Classic: Kool & The Gang Join Kid Rock Tour

LOS ANGELES, May 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In keeping with the resurging popularity of 70s and 80s sounds, legendary groovemeisters of the period, Kool & The Gang (koolandthegang.com), are back in the arena limelight joining the first leg of Kid Rock's "Rebel Soul Tour" (www.kidrockrebelsoul.com). The tour kicks off in Washington, DC, June 28, at Jiffy Lube Live.  In an unprecedented, fan-friendly move, Kid Rock announced a limited number of $20 tickets are being offered for the tour. Tickets are on sale now exclusively thru Ticketmaster.com.

The Kool & The Gang-Kid Rock pairing follows on the heels of their wildly-successful 50-plus city tour in 2012 with Van Halen. Billboard reported: "One unqualified success was the experiment of Kool & The Gang's opening set. If some — actually many — wondered how the R&B group would fare in front of Van Halen's hard rock crowd, doubts were dispelled quickly with the breezy lite funk of the 11-piece outfit's 50-minute set, which had the T-shirted, beer-drinking, fist-pumpers dancing exuberantly." Kool & The Gang also plan on joining the Dave Matthews Band in Hershey, PA, July 13 at Hershey Park Stadium.

Unique pairings for Kool & The Gang don't exist only on stage; their bulletproof funk and jazzy arrangements have also made them the most sampled band of all time. With the explosion of hip-hop in the '90s, Kool & The Gang's incredible catalog of grooves has made them DJ favorites, and they are second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap-music samples. The Hits Reloaded album found the band collaborating with such acolytes as Lil' Kim, Sean Paul, Ashanti, and Blackstreet, among others.

Selling over 70 million albums worldwide the band influenced the music of three generations. Thanks to songs like Celebration, Cherish, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, Kool & The Gang has earned two Grammy® Awards and seven American Music Awards and amassed 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albums.  They have performed continuously longer than any R&B group in history.

"We are not over yet, we have other things we want to do—when my legs won't run to those airports anymore then I might give up," says band co-founder Ronald Khalis Bell.

As the purveyors of such booty-rocking standards as Jungle Boogie and Hollywood Swinging, the gang never fails to flex their funk – on both old-school workouts and hip-hop jams. Their music has been created by the same core of players for over four decades: Robert "Kool" Bell, his brother Ronald Khalis Bell, their longtime friends Dennis "DT" Thomas and George "Funky" Brown.  Other band members include, Clifford Adams, Lavelle Evans, Larry Gittens, Timothy Horton, Shawn McQuiller, Michael Ray and Curtis "Fitz" Williams.

SOURCE Kool & the Gang