Catch up with Reverend Run in Bristol

Joseph Simmons qualifies as a pioneer in music.
Better known as Run from seminal hip-hop trio Run-D.M.C. and now billed as Reverend Run, he will appear on March 14 at Viking Hall, along with headliner Kid Rock and rock guitar legend and former member of the Allman Brothers Band, Dickey Betts.

“It’s beautiful,” Run said by phone Tuesday afternoon from Atlanta. “There are no opening acts. The show starts, Kid Rock comes out and does some of his records. Then, Dickey Betts comes out, and he does some of his records, and then Dickey and Kid do the Allman Brothers’ ‘Ramblin’ Man.’
Then, I come out and do some of my records. Then, Kid and I do ‘It’s Tricky.’ ”
In other words, fans can expect a slam-banging musical hodgepodge that keeps the fuel burning.
“Kid does all three hours of the show,” Run said. “He’s on stage the whole time. He’s a phenomenal guy.”
That’s what folks have said for years about Run, too.
Run’s star nowadays shines most noticeably as the star of the reality television show, “Run’s House,” which airs on MTV. Four seasons in, “Run’s House” documents the daily comings and goings of Run and his large family.
“The show is coming back for a fifth season,” said MTV spokeswoman Louisa Harris.
Speculation of late has it that filming of some sort will occur in Bristol. Not true, Run said.
“We just started filming the new season this week,” he said. “They’ll show a little bit of backstage and hanging out with Kid Rock on stage, and they’ll show my kids trying to drive my wife crazy back home and waiting for me to get home.”
Again, he said there will not be any filming in Bristol.
“Oh no,” Run said. “They’ll pick back up next week in Toledo, I think.”
Music made Run a star.
Hip-hop was a fledgling afterthought before Run-D.M.C. came along during the early 1980s. Along with such early rappers as Grandmaster Flash, the Hollis, Queens, N.Y. trio of Adidas sneaker-wearing musicians helped legitimize rap amid a climate of rap novelties such as The Fat Boys.
“I’m thankful that the music did so well,” Run said. “I get inspired by good people. I get inspired by good things.”
WXIS (103.9 FM) program director Todd Ambrose said that Run-D.M.C. imposed a profound impact on contemporary music. Though the Erwin hip-hop station plays mostly modern-era hip-hop and R&B, Ambrose said that requests for the trio still come in from fans.
“They’re icons,” Ambrose said. “They opened doors and turned people onto sounds they hadn’t heard before. They are major icons.”
Run-D.M.C.’s albums sold well. But a collaboration in 1986 with hard rockers Aerosmith on a re-recording of the latter’s 1970s hit “Walk This Way” spirited Run-D.M.C. from rap’s isolated core and into the pop and rock mainstream.
Rap followed suit.
“Their project with Aerosmith joined the two formats together,” Ambrose said.
Mainstream radio then gradually opened its play lists to include a growing influx of hip-hop.
“They knocked the doors down and introduced the world to hip-hop,” Ambrose said. “Their popularity was huge.”
Many a music fan blinked and did a double-take at the prospect of rock and rap bound together. However, history shows that a rock and rap hybrid succeeded. Run said it’s pure common sense.
“They’re both art forms, and they’re kind of rebellious,” Run said. “We’re kinfolk.”
Ironically, even though Run-D.M.C. helped open the gates to the mainstream for hip-hop, their sales soon thereafter waned as much harsher gangsta rap assumed the lead in hip-hop.
So Run diversified.
Now he’s an ordained minister and the star of his own television show. He’s also an author. “Words of Wisdom: Daily Affirmations of Faith,” was published in 2006. Run and his wife, Justine, have a new book due in stores in three months.
“It’s called ‘Take Your Family Back,’ ” Run said. “My job is to do the best to raise my kids. I teach them to be very humble.”
Fatherhood figures on television began almost the second that television first sparked alive in America’s living rooms. However, Reverend Run is no Ozzie Nelson, Andy Griffith or Bill Cosby.
MTV’s Louisa Harris said that’s because “Run’s House” isn’t dramatized.
“There’s something in the show for everyone,” Harris said. “His fans who are now parents themselves enjoy it. Fans who are kids enjoy it. It’s hip. It’s cool.”
And Run’s televised family is real.
“I have five kids and one adopted kid, six kids,” Run said. “I’m dad. Ten-year-old kids can watch my show and say, ‘Oh, that’s my dad.’ ”
That’s why the show works so well, Run said. People can relate. Perhaps not with his obvious wealth, but certainly in that they seem so normal.
“Everybody loves family,” Run said. “Plus, it’s a little funny at times. But everybody loves family. It’s the first institution that God put together.
“It’s real. It’s family,” Run added. “I had a concept: here’s my family. And I thought people would like them.”
Mission accomplished.
As for music, Run’s latest album, “Distortion,” was issued late last year to middling sales and reviews. Also, while on tour with Kid Rock, he and the Detroit rocker are working on songs for a forthcoming album together, titled “Running With the Kid.”
“It’s working,” Run said. “He has some songs, and I have some songs.”
That rap music lasted at all no doubt shocks more folks than might admit to their surprise. But as with Run’s basic mantra, rap’s survival and success can be explained rather simply.
“It’s poetry,” Run said. “It’s not so much hip-hop as it is poetry. You can rap over most any music.”
So simple and so true.
Meanwhile, the mild-mannered and affable man known as Joseph Simmons to relatives, Reverend Run to his fans and Dad to his kids maintains life as he knows it on a firm balance.
“I’m a man who loves God,” Run said. “I am a father and a husband. I’m a poet. I love the arts. I fear God, and I read the Bible. That’s my life. Life is brilliant.”

IF YOU GO
What: Kid Rock’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival Tour with Kid Rock, Reverend Run and Dickey Betts
When: March 14, 8 p.m.
Where: Viking Hall, 1100 Edgemont Ave., Bristol Tennessee
Tickets: $42
Info: (423) 764-0188
Web: www.kidrock.com
Also: www.revrun.com

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .

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