User:English3050group12/sandbox

Jocaine is

an American singer-songwriter from Hazel Park, Michigan.

Biography
Jocaine was raised in Hazel Park, Michigan, a northern suburb of Detroit. He also lived for a time in Nashville, Tennessee. He has a lifelong loved of music that his parents instilled in him, and his father taught him to play guitar when he was 7 or 8 years old. As teens, both Jocaine & Bob Ritchie (Jocaine & Kid Rock respectively) spent time at North Lake Studios, once owned by the infamous gansta rapper Awesome Dre of Awesome Dre and The Hardcore Committee. Jocaine and Ritchie didn't talk much, but knew each other as the only other white kid who frequented the studio at 7 Mile & Van Dyke.

Jocaine’s original intentions were not to pursue a music career. As a 6′ 4″, 245 lb. all-American tight end in college, Jocaine had plans to go pro. An absolute hurricane with a football in his hands, his teammates christened him “Jocaine”. Football took a backseat, though, when Jocaine decided to double down on his skills on the mic. The 2003 release entitled “Piggy Back Ride” was recorded at Pearl Sound (MPA) and produced and engineered by the infamous Chuck A (Tori Amos, Tool, Bob Seger, Eminem, Robert Plant). “Piggy Back Ride” features 10 slices of world-class rock and country served up side-by-side. “Piggy Back Ride” has sold over 6000 copies in the metro Detroit area alone, the title “Piggy Back Ride” is a reference to the wishful thinking and hangers-on of the entertainment industry. He has also written a song on Uncle Kracker’s “Good to Be Me” deluxe album called “Sittin Here.”

The sound & The line-up
When Jocaine started, he hopped on the rap-rock train conducted by Kid Rock and Uncle Kracker, whom he'd known since his teens. Kracker, in particular, has mentored him over the years, hooking him up with producers and musicians in Nashville and beyond.

He had some success around town with the not-so-subtly titled single "Do You Wanna Hump?" which earned some local radio airplay. He scored opening gigs with R. Kelly and Marky Mark and a record deal with Life/Bellmark, which put him on tour with the hip-hop group, Tag Team.

Now he's a crossover country and Southern rock act, with a good ol' boy smile and a Nashville dream. "I wasn't wearing a cowboy hat" then, he says about the Marky Mark days.

Jocaine is backed up by 75 North, a cast of characters that usually includes two guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, a keyboardist and a female backup singer.

Notable Events
Jocaine has developed a soft spot for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, the Memphis, Tenn.-based medical facility known for its work in finding cures for children with cancer and other diseases.

"I want to make this huge," he said this week. "If things go well, I'd like to do it every year and hopefully next year we'll have some celebrities and musicians, and maybe some pro athletes. This is all about helping the children." His first appearance at the Downtown Hoedown was in 2008.

Albums
2011	American Made

2009	Can’t You Smell What’s Cookin’

2009	Piggy Back Ride

Singles
2013	“Lip Gloss”

2012	“Country Chillin’”