Former Sterling Heights auto dealer dies at age 82
Bill Ritchie, a prominent metro Detroit auto dealer who later became a close adviser to his son, Kid Rock, died Thursday after a 14-year battle with prostate cancer. He was 82.
Ritchie passed away peacefully at his home in Florida, his son Billy Ritchie Jr. told the Detroit Free Press.
The gregarious, enterprising Michigan State University graduate owned Crest Lincoln-Mercury in Sterling Heights and eventually became a power player with the Detroit Auto Dealers Association (DADA), including a stint as the organization’s regional representative to the National Automobile Dealers Association.
“He was spellbinding in a meeting. He was an inspirational speaker. His son inherited that,” said Rod Alberts, current DADA executive director. “I thought the world of him.”
Born William R. Ritchie, he grew up in Dearborn, later graduating from Catholic Central High School and then top of his class in MSU's business school. With his wife, Susan Ritchie, he raised his family in Romeo while running the Sterling Heights dealership. After selling his Lincoln-Mercury business in the late '90s, Ritchie purchased homes in Charlevoix and Jupiter, Florida.
Kid Rock, born Robert Ritchie, alerted fans to his father’s passing in a Friday social media post.
“My Dad, Bill Ritchie Sr, moved on to be with Jesus yesterday. He was an incredible father, grandfather, great grandfather, and so much more, none shy of being quite the character!” Kid Rock wrote. “Thank you for your condolences in advance. God Bless you and I love you Pop!”
Kid Rock’s tribute included a link to his 2015 song “Drinking Beer with Dad.”
“We’d hem and haw, we’d cuss and fight / But that’s where I learned life’s best advice,” the lyrics go. “The best education I ever had / Was out there on the back porch drinking beer with dad.”
Early in his music career, Kid Rock was upfront about his youthful combative relationship with his father, a point he once caustically highlighted in songs such as “You Never Met …” and “My Oedipus Complex.” Having attended Romeo High School, Rock turned down opportunities to work at his dad’s dealership, opting instead for a flashy, hard-partying life amid dreams of rap success.
The two made peace and strengthened their bond over time — indeed, the senior Ritchie became a tight business confidante as his son’s career took off. Rock would later credit his father for instilling a strong work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit, traits that served him well as he built his own music, merchandise and marketing empire.
In the Ritchies’ Romeo home, the parents kept country music front and center, including at weekend barn parties on their rural Macomb County property. Those influences left a stamp on the young Bobby Ritchie; later, as Kid Rock, he began incorporating country sounds into his hip-hop-rock brew before fully embracing the genre in the 2000s and eventually moving to Nashville.
Bill Ritchie and his wife, Susan, were ubiquitous sights at Kid Rock’s hometown concerts through the years, holding court and enthusiastically greeting fans from their seats in the family section.
When Kid Rock played a pair of shows last summer at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena, Bill Ritchie was there — wearing a new, salmon-pink Versace outfit his son had purchased for the occasion.
By that point, Ritchie was well into his cancer battle, then at stage 4.
Ritchie is survived by his wife, Susan Ritchie; a daughter, Carol Ritchie; sons Billy Ritchie Jr. and Robert Ritchie (Kid Rock); three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.