White Room Studios

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

Brothers Michael and Andrew Nehra ran White Room Studios out of the historic Peter Smith and Sons Building, a 1913 high-rise on Griswold Street in Detroit's Capitol Park neighborhood also known as the Capitol Park Building. In the 1990s a young Kid Rock, not yet a national star, reportedly worked as the studio's janitor to earn free studio time, and he recorded his 1990 EP Fire It Up there before going on to cut his breakout 1996 album Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp and his multi-platinum 1998 album Devil Without a Cause at White Room as well. The studio built a reputation well beyond Kid Rock, hosting sessions over the years with Bob Seger, Aretha Franklin, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tori Amos, D12 and Detroit's own Electric Six and Detroit Cobras. White Room eventually moved out of downtown Detroit to Ferndale, and the old Capitol Park Building itself sat vacant for years before developers converted it into apartments in the mid-2010s.

1. Run by brothers Michael and Andrew Nehra in the historic Capitol Park Building
2. Kid Rock reportedly worked here as a janitor to pay for studio time in the 1990s
3. Kid Rock recorded Fire It Up, Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp and Devil Without a Cause here
4. Also hosted Bob Seger, Aretha Franklin, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tori Amos over the years