Rock Legend Mitch Ryder Talks About His Upcoming Show at Trenton Mid-Summer Festival

Legendary Detroit rocker put down the microphone and picked up the telephone Tuesday to talk with Trenton Patch about his upcoming show at the Trenton Mid-Summer Festival.

Ryder has the headliner slot for the first night of the weekend-long festival. He takes over the main stage from 9:30 to 11 p.m. Friday.

Trenton Patch: Have you ever been to Trenton before?

Ryder: Oh, no. Being a Michigander I've had reason to either drive through or meet somebody there, conduct business ... I don't think I have any close friends in Trenton, but I'm familiar with Trenton.

Trenton Patch: What songs can people expect to hear at Trenton Mid-Summer Festival?

Ryder: It's really going to depend on the amount of time they give us to play. Every set, naturally, includes all of the old hits from the 60s. We generally throw in one or two cuts from the John Mellencamp produced album (Never Kick a Sleeping Dog, 1983). We do a couple of original songs that have yet to be released. We do songs that have been released in Europe only and we do cover songs.

It's a mixture of all of those, but it's done by a bunch of highly-qualified musicians and everybody, as far as I know, after 50 years of doing this for a living, enjoys themselves.

Trenton Patch: What's the best thing about playing festivals?

Ryder: Now that the heat wave is kind of gone, I think it's just the idea of being outdoors and having it be warm. You know how much we hate these cold Michigan winters. I love outdoor stuff too. I love, especially during the Christmas season, snow, but, other than that, you can pretty much box it up and ship it somewhere else.

I think people enjoy that, being able to go outside and have fun and walk around. Outdoors is beautiful. It's hard to beat it when it comes to finding something to do, and this kind of event that we're doing offers more than just entertainment.

It's all kinds of different things for the public to do. I'm glad to be a part of it. I'm glad to have been selected to be one of the performers for this event. I think Downriver ... is very nice and there are good human beings down there. We enjoy very much playing in that area.

Trenton Patch: In your biography it states that Rolling Stone magazine named you one of the five most influential rock and roll singers to ever come from Detroit. Why do you think your songs have had such a profound impact on the landscape of music?

Ryder: You're asking the wrong guy. I don't know what made people take to that. What I do know is that whenever I'm called upon to create something I do it to the best of my ability.

That was the case with ... I put out my first American album in 30 years produced by Don Was (The Promise). I put out my autobiography, which won three national awards (Devils and Blue Dresses). I've got an album coming out in a matter of weeks over in Europe. I'm working on a musical, right now. I'm just working with the tools that God gave me and trying to make the best of it.

Trenton Patch: What can people expect from your autobiography called Devils and Blues Dresses? Is this a tell-all about life on the road or is it about the music?

Ryder: The theme is ... my search to become an artist as opposed to a manufactured star out of New York, but it's not a tell-all book. That's for cheap people and pulp-fiction novels.

I wrote the book to describe my entire life up to this point. It talks about my childhood. It talks about my high school years and a lot of stuff before music even entered into my life. It talks about my relationship with the three wives that I've had. It talks about my children and it talks about my music in great details. It talks about the social and political landscape of each of those time periods, and the stuff that was surrounding me, my environment as I continued on through my career.

It's a very good read for people to understand what makes up a human being in this particular instance — me. I'm like billions of other people, coming from a working class family and a lot of hard work to do to get to the top.

I wouldn't call it ... when you say tell-all it indicates like these sleazy stories like, 'Oh, we had a 16-year-old girl in our room and here's the Polaroid to prove it.' It's not one of those stupid things.

Trenton Patch: What can Trenton residents expect from the show on Friday?

Ryder: A very good time.