When Esquire magazine asked me to return to my hometown of Detroit for their second annual songwriting challenge-slash-fashion shoot, I said yes for four reasons. I thought it would be a good excuse to visit my friends there and introduce them to my son; I wanted to work with the photographer Danny Clinch, of whom I'm an admirer; I wanted to wear clothes I couldn't afford and meet the other musicians involved; and I thought it would be fun for my wife to meet Dierks Bentley, as she has a crush on him.
Growing up around Detroit, I never really thought much about leaving. I'm a fan of Motown, The Stooges and The MC-5, and I figured that if they could make great music here, then so could I. But in 2005, soon after making the first Raconteurs record, I had a string of bad luck. I got assaulted, knocked unconscious, robbed, and left for dead in a gas station parking lot -- in the middle of the day. Another time, I had to chase some guy out of my house, down the street, and he stabbed me in the arm. Detroit, the city that had inspired and influenced and shaped me all my life, had turned ugly. I moved to Nashville and have been back to Detroit only a handful of times since.
This past March, though, when I returned with the gang from Esquire to take part in their photo shoot and songwriting contest (long story short: I had to write an original song inspired by the phrase "Last Night In Detroit"), I was delighted to see how much the city had grown. Things had changed. I sensed a whole new energy, a turnaround in progress, and a sense that things are only going to get better. Walking on East Grand Boulevard, checking out my old neighborhood, and being photographed at massive landmarks like the Masonic Temple, I could tell that people were carrying their heads a little higher. This, I thought, was a city with some life left in it yet.
Sure, there's still a lot of work to be done. The education system has to be fixed. Unemployment is a problem. The local government needs to get its act together. But contrary to what a lot of people are saying, it isn't a lost cause, and there are still 750,000 or so people who wake up in Detroit every day and fight for their city.
With Esquire, I was proud to join that fight. Like the other four artists in the songwriting challenge (Raphael Saadiq, Dhani Harrison, my old friend Ben Blackwell, and the object of my wife's affection, Dierks Bentley), I'm donating the proceeds of my new song, "Last Night In Detroit," to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit. Big Brothers Big Sisters does hugely important work matching up kids in need with mentors, and every song that we sell will go to helping the next generation of Detroiters. To hear the songs, and maybe even join in the fight for Detroit's future, go to esquire.com/detroit.