She's here to help

Does Kid Rock's mom call him Kid Rock?

Thu., May. 10, 2007 4:56 PM PDT by Leslie Gornstein

When celebrities change their names, what do their friends and family call them? I just can't imagine Bono's mother calling him Bono!
—Jo, Edinburgh, Scotland

The B!tch Replies: I have dutifully sent a request to Bono's publicist on your behalf. But given that Bono's mom died when the lad was 14, she probably isn't calling him much of anything. At least one biography claims that his wife, Alison, and his close friends do call the singer Bono, not his given name of Paul David Hewson. And given that he has had his nickname since adolescence, this fact should neither surprise nor entertain.

But let's broaden this answer to other musicians...eh, what? There's fellow U2 member the Edge, formerly Dave Howell Evans. Bono calls him Edge. in an interview with CNN in 2005, Bono said, "Even his mom calls him the Edge."

Kid Rock's mom probably calls him Bob Ritchie, because Pam Anderson, when she was married to him, called him Bob Ritchie—that's his name.

Prince was born Prince Rogers Nelson. Just to confuse you, his mom, Mattie, called him Skipper, because Mattie was already calling her husband Prince. "[My son] was small in size, and he was real cute," Mattie later told a Minnesota paper. "He was a darling baby."

And here's one for you. Bow Wow, formerly Li'l Bow Wow, young connoisseur of ghetto girls, was born Shad Gregory Moss. A shad is a fish—a source of caviar, in fact, and a member of the herring family. His mom must adore that fish, because she still calls her son Shad.

One report insists Jay-Z's mom still calls her son by his given name, Shawn Carter. What a waste. The man has a thousand nicknames, including Jigga, S-dot, Young Hova, J-Hova, William H. Holla, Young Hov, Jazzy, J-Hova, Jiggaman, Iceberg Slim, Lucky Lefty, Hovito and That Lucky Bastard Who Gets to See Beyoncé Naked.

On the plus side, I hear that only Jay-Z's mom still calls him Shawn.