Ep 248 | Kid Rock’s WILD White House Dinner Plan to Unite America | The Glenn Beck Podcast

and now a blaze media podcast today i sit down with a man who refuses to be put into a box he's an enigma in some way he's conservative but he's also a rock star he's country yet he's hip-hop uh he loves jesus but he drops the f-bomb whenever he wants to he is whoever he wants to be and in that way he is a red-blooded old-fashioned American hero. I mean he's he's a cowboy except he's not a cowboy he's from Detroit.
He does not comply to any kind of tyranny in any way. He won't be politically correct and he's not going to stop loving his country even when it's unpopular and it costs him friends or even audience.
We get into everything today from the rodeo to rock and roll to his plans to bring his liberal friend Bill Maher to someplace you would least expect. And we also talk about Elon Musk and AI.
Please welcome the original American badass, Kid Rock. Before we get into Kid and the interview, let me just tell you right now, the average American is still finding it difficult to pay expenses every single month.
In some cases, there's nothing left over to cover any extras. I don't have to tell you this.
You might be even one of those people. And you are going to feel trapped if you don't already.
I remember several times in my life just not being able to cover everything and juggling. It can be so hard to manage emotionally, financially, and I'm an avoider.
I just would avoid as much as I can. Or you grab the credit cards.
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Hey, kid, how are you?

Good. Nice to see you, Glenn.

Yeah, nice to see you.

I have to tell you, I don't get nervous for interviews or anything,

but you're a cool kid, and I've never been the cool kid. I feel like I'm going to be sitting in the lunchroom and I'm about to be beaten up.
No, you got me pegged wrong. I'm not the cool kid.
Yeah. Well, you are now.
I mean, you have been off and on, obviously. Arguably.
With half the country. With half the country.
What's the other half? Like, have you lost a lot? Has this cost you anything? No. I was talking to a friend about it.
Not really. Not really.
I mean, I'm just an honest person. I love my country.
That's kind of how simple it is. So it wasn't really.
It came to a point where it wasn't. Once you've seen behind the curtain in this business i know it's just freaking awful yeah it's disgusting and just didn't want to play that game you know with the awards and this that and the other and the politics involved with this and that the radio and all that and i'd say for a rainy day that definitely was a factor in things yeah where you know and i just um you know i've always said i don't give a f and that's very true in a lot of ways but it's kind of thin it's kind of thin things out i'm sorry to make the point was for your question was it's like you know you do something and your friends you get this group of friends that kind of turns their back on you yeah you're like perfect i just weed You know what I mean? It makes life so much better.
Yeah. You know, because I can talk to anybody from any side of whatever.
If they're a little bit reasonable, just be a little bit reasonable. I can sit down and talk to anyone.
Because you have done everything with everybody. You know, I mean, Sheryl Crow has not necessarily one that jumps to the mind.
We don't talk a lot these days. Come to think of it.
Yeah, okay. That makes sense.
That makes sense. So we're here at, because you're starting something with PBR, the rodeo.
Yeah, Kid Rock's rocking rodeo. So you grew up in Detroit.
There are not a lot of rodeos in Detroit. No, zero.
The Motown rodeo, nothing happened. I like the ring of that, though.
What? You know, I grew up north of Detroit. We had six acres and a couple horses.
You know, beautiful home, beautiful spread and all that. But so, no, it was far from growing up as a cowboy or rodeo.
Although, you know,

my parents were into that stuff, you know,

they used to go like to watch this fiddle player, Sneaky Pete,

it's a little dirt floor place. And, you know,

dad liked to ride his horse and things like that, but no, nothing like this.

It wasn't until probably 20, I don't know if it was 20, 25 years ago,

when I started performing at high levels and started doing rodeos,

there's Cheyenne rodeo and rodeos in Canada, Calgary, and of course the Houston rodeo. And so I was like, man, it's kind of cool.
It's kind of badass. First time you go to a rodeo, I remember I was on CNN and I used to call myself a rodeo clown.
I'm just a rodeo clown. Until I got the president of the Rodeo Clown Association, wrote to me and said, do you know what rodeo clowns do?

And I'm like, okay, you're right.

You're right.

I mean, it is really badass to use your language.

And, you know, it's one of the toughest sports.

And I don't mean tough like UFC tough.

Right.

I mean, like, cowboys and that whole lifestyle, cowgirls, they're just tough people.

I mean, just the way they live, they work so hard, the way they raise their families, the way they love this country. To me, that's tough.
It's weird because I think we were on the verge of absolutely flushing all of it away. And there's this renaissance that is going on.
You know, I grew up in the West, and there's something this renaissance that is going on you know I grew up in the West and there's something about those mountains that when you get to the mountains you know which one am I am I going to be the one in the wagon train that actually crossed those or I'm going to be like I'm out there's something about the West that is American unlike any other place yeah I think we've seen it so so many picture books and so many different things. It's kind of embedded in our culture.
And America owns that, cowboy culture. It's the greatest movies.
It's the greatest tales. Whether it's campfires, sing-alongs, cowboys and Indians, whatever it is.
It's just arguably tough, just the coolest American thing ever. I was here.
Rock and roll, give it a good run, but, you know. It comes back down to this, though.
The independent spirit of rock and roll comes from the cowboy. And I think you just summed it up there, the independent spirit of a cowboy.
Yeah, yeah. That's really, I mean, that is independence and freedom.
Like, the open range, everything with it, a gun on your side.

Like, hey, you know, you get out of line and you're really wrong, you just get shot. We're not going to have a big meeting about it with a bunch of guys with white hair on.
And, like, this thing's like, oh, you're just being an idiot and you're an asshole. And boom.
Did you watch Yellowstone? I did. That is what I think everybody.
Oh, that had a ton to do with it. Oh, everybody was looking at Yellowstone,

that critics from back East, whatever,

that just didn't understand it.

And what it was, was we're living in a time where the bad guys don't pay.

It doesn't seem like anybody who's connected

pays for anything, and there's no common sense.

And that's what it was.

I think the Yellowstone secret was

Thank you. who's connected, you know, pays for anything and there's no common sense and that's what it was.
I think the Yellowstone secret was boom. Sorry.
And we got to thank that guy, Taylor Sheridan, like because now it's like pretty much half the country, you know, I guess we call them as divided as things are. It's like half the country the girls like, they're all just dressing up as sexy cowgirls now.
I got no problem with that. I got gotta tell you women it's better than like the blue hair and the big nose ring the black goth dress you're like whoa

hey don't say it don't look good i used to be a man i look really great um the uh there's nothing

sexier than a woman on the on the horse with the flag going around and riding around. Three thousand percent.
I've said that a million times. It is the most beautiful.
It is. It's beautiful.
It is. It really is.
So Generation X was really responsible in many ways for Trump's win. You had a big part of that.
What is it about Generation X? Which one is that again? The younger one? No, that's the after 60, born 65. Oh, okay.
The older one. Yeah.
I don't know all those things. Not the old, old one.
Not the old, old one. You're Generation X.
So my generation. Your generation.
Yeah. Got to use layman's terms yeah start confusing me with big words so x uh what what is what is the is there something different about that generation our generation i mean i think we just i mean the way i grew up was like you went into dumb stuff you got your buddies and your bikes at the gravel pit and you're like which one's gonna go first you know go down this huge hill with no helmet on and like yeah somebody broke their arm or got hurt this that and the other and it's such a conundrum especially you know having to raise a son and having a couple grandkids now it's like i get it wearing a helmet but you're like man you got to get some bumps and bruises at the same time but god forbid something happened to your child or their friend that was horrible you're like you're caught in this i call it kind of i don't know how else to say but the pussification of america exactly right it's exactly how i describe it yeah well yeah that's what it seemed like.
I mean, I'm sitting there watching Trump's speech last night, and somehow it came into my head, like, what if George Washington was sitting here listening to this?

Or like one of our forefathers.

And I'm like, can you believe these mofos would be like, and there are only two genders, male and female.

And George Washington's like, what the hell has been going on here? Are you kidding me? What are you guys talking about right now? Talking about advancing America and making a great society and living free. And he's like, hey, there's only men and women.
And half the crowd's like, meh. You're like, this shit is going on, man.
This is bananas. I know.
I know. And you don't have to go to George Washington.
You could go to George W. Bush back in the day and say that.
He was probably sitting at home laughing along with, like, are you kidding me? We actually have to say this, like, in a big speech. What the hell is wrong? You saw him last night.
What are they thinking? Man, they always just look weird to me, like these far left people. They just look like people you don't like i mean i hate to say this but you can tell i can usually tell by the glasses they're wearing yeah red red frames you're like far left idiot yeah like you know yeah i hate to stereotype people it's so freaking fun so honest too half the time but yeah you can literally i was talking with a buddy last night you can kind of see people they just look miserable like everyone's not pretty i get that i look like freaking brad armpit i get it but you know what i mean it's something about and i'm not talking their physical looks just something how they look they look miserable and it's not just now because they lost and they got to take a whooping from the principal and like one of these.
It's just they've always just looked kind of – I mean, there's women protesting outside of abortion centers. Like, no one's sleeping with you.
Like, what are you doing? Like, who are you protesting for? Like, have you looked in the mirror? And it's not your physical looks. It's just everything about your aura.
Like, yeah, you're just miserable. You're just a man-h hater it's the opposite of the girl with the flag on the horse complete opposite the um i was talking about it today imagine not being able to clap for the little boy who had brain surgery and brain cancer not being able to clap actually saying as elizabeth warren yeah, five more years of war.
I'm looking miserable. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. You're like, sir, ma'am, ma'am, sir? She, the, I actually have pity for them because I can't imagine living your life like that.
What? Trump derangement syndrome is real. It's crazy.
I know. It's freaking real.
You just saw it last night. This poor, just beautiful little boy.
I didn't even know he had brain cancer when they first started. Yeah.
Like, we're making him a FBI agent or a Secret Service guy or whatever, and this, that. And, you know, they're like, oh, man.
And then they see his brain cancer. They're like, oh, you know, God bless him, you know? And these people are sitting there like, nah.
I know. matter with you i know find no hope uh in that you were just weren't you just golfing with trump and elon musk yeah sunday oh elon doesn't golf he doesn't golf no he came out and hung with us like the last three four holes or something just we're having a blast he one thing is the age of president, he's 78 and I don't think I could keep up with him.
I can hardly keep up with him. I'm the energizer go buddy.
I mean, what is that? Is that just genes? What is that? I don't know, because God bless him. It's not from eating the healthiest foods.
God bless bless me it's just i mean you couldn't pick an american out like bacon eggs sausage yeah diet coke and like you know a few holes in he's like you want a hershey's bar i'm like yeah you want a fanta yeah then cheeseburger fries i'm like this. Yeah, everything that RFK is going to say is bad, he does.
Did you know him before during the first term? I met him. I endorsed him in Rolling Stone as soon as he came down that elevator.
I'm like, boom, I want a business guy. This dude, I don't care who somebody slept with or what they did.
You know, these little things that just your personal life i'm like i don't care if they're not like you know doing weird stuff with kids or like killing people i'm like whatever live your personal life like the america of business has sucked yeah decades and decades i'm like let's somebody knows how to run a business get in there so i endorsed him there didn't know him but I was pretty vocal about it. Of course, it took a ton of crap, which I like.

I could care less.

The last guy that's going to get upset, you know,

I'm the sticks and stones epitome.

And then Sarah Palin, I knew her a little bit.

And the first couple months of him being in office,

she got invited to dinner,

and the president told her to bring some interesting people.

So she called me and Ted Nugent.

Two very interesting people. I remember having an awesome time at the White House.
It's just when you meet somebody, and you can tell they're kind of cut from the same cloth. He's definitely got a rebellious spirit.
So what is it?

What is it?

Because he, I mean, you cannot relate to his kind of wealth. Elon, the same way.
You just cannot relate to that kind of wealth. And yet he's not, he's not, he's not what you think he is.
He's just a regular guy. I told a buddy yesterday, I'm like, you know, I've got to spend a few times with Elon now.
We text a little bit. Like, I'd say we're friends at this point.
And I was like, I'm not even thinking about how much money is. To me, it looks like he doesn't have two nickels to rub together.
I know. Like, you know, he's just that dude.
We're clowning about this new app he has, and we're making jokes at the UFC. And it's kind of the same with Trump.
You know, of course, all the stuff you're around, you're like, wow. And I love that stuff.
Because this whole Hollywood thing is always like, it's this cool Hollywood thing not to put a picture of yourself in the house. You know, not to have your awards up.
And I'm like, I got my stuff everywhere. I'm absolutely proud of what I've done.
Right. You know what I mean? I stuff i'm like oh awesome he's got him everywhere have you seen have you seen over i think it's in the bar of mar-a-lago he's got the pictures uh on the main floor he's got the picture of him with the tennis racket he looks like 25 years old so good like i don't think you ever really played tennis, but I love the idea.

So good.

It's just fun.

You know,

I don't think people get sometimes like same with me,

but sometimes I'm doing stuff.

I'm like,

and people are laughing at me.

They don't realize I'm laughing harder at myself than you're laughing.

Yeah.

Like I'm just having a blast and having fun.

And he,

and there's a,

there's a,

there's a fine,

you know,

there's a fine line there with some of it,

but we just got to cut from the same cloth on a lot of things. And Tucker Carlson said it, he introduced me at this show, our first year at this festival I do called Rock the Country, and he said one of the most poignant things I've ever heard.
He was describing like, what does a real American look like? And he was describing me to intro me and he goes, he would be both disobedient but decent. I was like, boom, I love that.
I was watching the speech last night. And Trump may have used the word revolution.
But it struck me as I'm watching, I thought, this is a revolution without any bloodshed.

This is, and I don't think people really understand that yet.

Everything is changing.

Everything is changing.

That's cultural revolution number one.

Yeah.

And that really spills over into politics.

So do you think that that cultural revolution is lasting or real?

I keep, you know, we're only, what, six, seven weeks into it. Yeah yeah and so you're kind of like okay is this really gonna last because we were so crazy literally i think we lost our mind as a country absolutely there's no question i mean but they're still crazy you know it's, it's just that pendulum swings.

Does it have to keep swinging so far to each side?

Yeah.

I'd like it just to be a little right over here.

It doesn't have to be way up here, right?

Just a little right over here.

That would be my personal preference.

But I just hope it doesn't go back and forth and we get in this boom where it's like, hey.

We can't survive as a country if we keep doing that. No, we got to just remember we're on the same team.
We want the same things. We disagree on how to get there.
And most reasonable people can have discussions and agree to disagree. I mean, it's the little thing in the book.
Find common ground, you know, here and there. And just, you know, okay, you're pro-union.
Somebody had a bad experience with them here and their boss was taking too much money and it got corrupt. And, you know, you can have different points on many things and still be rational and reasonable.
It's just unreasonable people, nah, put their heads in guillotines at this point. Okay.
Where's that? Don't just tell me Pam's not building any guillotines, Pam Bondi. She might be.
I love Pam.

Yeah, she might be.

So you were, weren't you just with Pam on Ticketmaster? Weren't you? Yeah. I had dinner with her at Mar-a-Lago before she got sworn in.
And it's not really, I mean, I've said this, like Ticketmaster, like they've been bad actors for years. If the DOJ takes them out and makes them sell their company, I will not shed a tear.
It does not solve the problem of trying to get concert tickets into people's hands at the prices artists want to set because of the bots, the scalpers, the bad actors. And actually, the president just appointed Alina Habba to spearhead my ticketing thing, which is basically, there's several things to it.
I won't bore you with them all, but the main thing is, and I deregulation guy i'm a capitalist through or through there's no other way to do this have to do it like france did a few other people we need to cap the resale of tickets at like between 10 and 20 otherwise american people are just getting screwed yeah and you're just you're just handing money to the bad actors to the bots the scalpers or any any other and the the american people and i told the president i go look this doesn't seem like a top line thing i get it but just hear me out i go what do people really want after and this could be in the this could be number one too what do people really want after to be safe and to you know have a good economy to be making money be able to take care of their families. They want to have fun.

They want to have fun.

Let's make America fun again.

You know what I mean?

If we can get this done, you're going to be a hero because people are going to not have to decide

whether to come to one of my shows or a family vacation.

What is the difference that you see your tickets scalped for?

What do your tickets go for, and then what do you see them scalped for?

Well, you can't put them for what you want anymore. What does mean like if i think like you know like hey i'm gonna play for a hundred dollar ticket for these really good seats then it's gonna be 50 bucks you know for the other ones you know the the higher seats is set in the other the bots and scalper is gonna eat those all up and those front ones are gonna be anywhere from 500 to 2500 to whatever they get.
They just put them out there. Those high ones, so now you have to do this, what do they call it, price, dynamic pricing.
Yeah. So you're trying to cut the scalpers down because, hey, let's face it, like I said, I'm a capitalist.
I'm not going to be a good guy and sell my tickets for, you know, whatever, $20 and go make the scalpers millions of dollars. Right.
Well, if there's no other other way to do it i'm making the money and i'm going to take care of the people i want to take care of right you know i've had a million ideas can we sell them like airline tickets you don't get to resell your airline ticket you turn it in you know if you can't go maybe you know 48 hours before you can turn it back into the system there's all these different plans we've been trying to solve this for decades and literally the quickest way right now is to put a cap on the resale and it's really bad in sports but i'm not going to take on those guys yet so what what is the is it because uh or is it just because of the scalpers or does this have anything to do with i mean i remember when michael jackson went on tour and he was charging 19 a ticket remember tour? And everybody was like, 90. I didn't make that tour, Glenn.
But it was a big deal because his tickets were $19. And that was outrageous.
I think the highest ticket up to that point was maybe $10. They just wanted to sell the albums.
I'm overpaid. I'll be the first one to say it.
Trump's like, what'd you say? I'm like, I'm telling you, I'm overpaid. Market value.
It's ridiculous. I've never had to ride around.
I'm like, my window's tinted here and there because I've made an unhonest dollar of a working man's back, and I'm very proud of that. But at the same time, I'm like, the way the system's set up now, this is why managers, now have really become record companies, which, by the way, Live Nation owns some of the management companies.
They own the buildings. They sell the tickets.
Oh, yeah. This, that, and the other.
It's gotten so out of hand. The managers don't want to solve it because you're making more money than ever.
It comes all about this thing. I'm like, there's enough money in here for everybody.
There's's so much money in this business for if I booked this building the promoter the building owners there's plenty of money for them to make a promoter of the show there's plenty of them to make there's plenty money for us to make as a band it's all right there it's just got ask anybody who's bought a concert ticket in the last whatever decade and what maybe two decades they'll tell you it's a freaking fiasco it's garbage you

get in there now there is a supply and demand thing that people got to understand if i'm going on tour and there's 300 000 tickets and 700 000 people want to go certain people can't go yeah but that shouldn't stop people that shouldn't mean you have to pay dynamic pricing that's fine right well that's no the dynamic pricing is you do dynamic pricing to certain levels like the front row is not worth this right but i don't like to sell the dynamic pricing is, you do dynamic pricing to certain levels. Like the front row is not worth this.
Right. But I don't like to sell my front row.
But if you do dynamic pricing and you don't have the bots and the scalpers, then that's right. Right? Yeah.
If you can only, yeah, then it will work. Yeah.
Right. If you can only sell it 10% over what you paid for it of the all-in pricing.
That's the other thing that's on the bill or whatever executive order is going to pass. is like, you know, you's like, you know, you can't buy a $100 ticket and then you go to checkout and you're like, it's $165? What happened? Right.
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What is the, um, what's the business like now compared to when you first got in?

Oh, just as dirty and as evil.

It's the most.

Why do you say it that way?

Oh, it's just full of scoundrels and scumbags, rip off con artists.

I mean, what business, let's take a record company, what business basically to give you

a loan?

Now, of course they do promotion and artist development and things like that. When you break it down to brass tacks, kind of giving you a loan.
And then after that, they basically take 80% of everything you make. Like what business can survive doing that? Now there's a lot of money and there's an argument.
You know, I like to argue both sides that, you know, the artists go out and make the money touring where the money's at the gate. That's where the big money is.
record companies usually don't share in that they tried two years ago with these 360 deals they didn't work but I mean they've been they were charging artists for years like when records were out certain percentage of those records would get broke in transit makes sense so they had a 10% free goods clause which means they charge an extra 10% because 10% of those records usually get broke they kept that through digital I mean just start there look at the black artists when they started you know the tales there I get the payoffs you know if you've ever read any of the books of the payola for radio the way these award shows work the Grammys and the Oscars are such horse shit. But you use the word evil.

And when you said that, I think of P. Diddy.

Is that real?

I have no idea.

Do you think it's real?

I think there was some, if I had to take an educated guess, there's some freaky stuff going on.

Is freaky stuff illegal?

No.

Involved children?

Screw you. You know, if there's certain, you know, I don't know.
That's the Epstein thing. I don't know if it's...
Yeah, when do we get to see that list? Ask Pam. I know.
Ask Pam. But, you know, you look at Epstein, you look at Diddy, and then you go to Pizzagate and you're like, okay, they didn't have children in the basement of that pizza place.
But there's something collectively, I think, in our universal mind that we're like, something's wrong. There's the marketing and selling of children for sex.
That is freaking disgusting. Those people should be lined up and shot, period.
There should be nothing for there. We should go to medieval times on that, in my opinion.
Pedophiles, like, pfft. No, there's just nothing there.
I couldn't do enough evil things to the pedophiles. Let's put it that way.
But, you know, the other stuff, you know, you see a lot of people in business, this, that, and the other, you know, especially when you're younger starting out, everything's crazy. You know, I got money and this, that, and the other, and things are wild, you know.
But I said from day one, I was like, you guys realize you get more girls if you treat them really nice. It's just kind of a, like, I don't have to, you know, MIT to figure that out.
out. The lifestyle, did you ever, I mean, I know you did cocaine, but that's not what others have done.
Did you live that rock and roll lifestyle? And if so, how did you get out? How did you not? I did, but I was very balanced. I was a single father.
I had custody of my son since he was very, very young. I mean, he was dropped off on my doorstep at six months and was raising and then of course i got some money came back looking for you know yeah so i pretty much had him the whole time but had great help with his godmother my sister my mother i mean just just great people so that really balanced me out you know i'd pick my windows and i'd be mr rock star but then i to drive to field trips and, you know, and be dad a lot of time.
That really helped me out the most. So it's weird.
I didn't know that you were Bob Ritchie. No idea.
I was thinking of you, Kid Rock. Never thought Kid Rock was your name.
That's what I would like most people to see. Yeah, yeah.
I'm trying to sell this American badass thing. Don't screw it up for me.
So can we go down that road for a minute, though? We had to go to court the one time, and these people are going to have to get up there and testify. He's a great guy.
So I'm like, oh. They're like, no.
No, no, no, no. I'm actually making some money with this thing, man.
So is it, A, hard to be one one i mean no there are times when you're like i'm i know are you always bob ritchie is i'm jackal and hyde a little bit of both you know it's that's and i i'd rather enjoy being it sometimes i do that you know when i'm screwing with people just trying to get their panties in a bunch i'm gonna something online. Like, yeah, it's Kid Rock.
Sometimes I'll point something real poignant and that'll be from Bob Ritchie. Sometimes I'll post from both of them and I've kind of enjoyed that.
Yeah. The video between Kid Rock and Bob Ritchie after president was elected.
Exactly. That's pretty much me right there.
Completely two different people. Completely.
So was the Kid, was that Kid Rock, was that? That was Kid Rock. Like the media had been messing with me for how many years? You know, he's just a washed up this, that, and the other.
Meanwhile, I'm selling out every show, you know, operating at the highest levels in this business. But, you know, they're trying to create this thing because I love Trump, you know, and any little thing I do.
It's like yesterday we got contacted by TMZ. Apparently I was at this little redneck bar Sunday night after playing with the president.
We were just stopping by. We had dinner, and then we had some drinks after.
So I said, let's stop this little redneck bar. You know, just me and my brother.
Let's just pop in. There's going to be nobody in there.
Pop in there. Having some fun with the few locals that are sitting there.
Apparently, I told a girl she was kind of fat. Apparently.
She was. Shut up.
But somebody, then TMZ contacts, and they're like, you know, like, somebody got a video. You know, these people that can't do nothing but video everything you do.
And they're like, Kid Rock called a girl fat. And I'm like, and I asked my brother.
He goes, how are you going to handle it? And I go, I only have one question for you. Was she fat? And he's like, yeah.
I'm like, well. And I was just being honest.
I was like, my brother goes, you were actually trying to help her. He her he's like because i'm on this huge health kick and somehow it came up and i was saying something she was like this that and the other and i was like you are kind of fat kind of saying it like that like you could you know use my program a little bit you know i was trying to you know yeah yeah saying this to all my friends i'm actually getting ready to shoot a video on my health program because a lot of my fans i think a lot of people in my circle got on board.
They really cleaned up a lot of eating habits and started doing things. And I was like, man, you know, they always say you have influence over people.
Never really realized it like that to people that were close. So I was actually trying to help, but I was like, I don't give a shit about that.
Like the TMZ is like, so Elon showed me this new AI thing. I posted this thing.
I was, did you see that? Yeah. That's just fun.
Yeah. I'm like, I'm just trolling people.
I'm fun. How much of Elon is a troll? Like I, I see Grok and then, you know, what is it? Insane or something? Unhinged.
Unhinged Grok. It's genius.
And the balls to do that at that level, like no corporate entity. No, it's like he's 12.
He's the smartest, richest man. And there are times he's like, I'm just going to screw it.
I can relate. It's so great.
Nobody does that. Nobody does that.
I think it's, you know, I get the trolling thing, I get it. But I think it's, I would call it more non-conforming.
Yeah. It's like we're not going to conform to this political correctness.
Nobody can take a joke anymore or somebody hurt my feelings. You know, this, that, and the other that's gone on for, I mean, it's ruined movies.
I know it's ruined comedy shows. I'm a huge comedy fan.
And I'm like, we, we're not going to hear stepbrothers again. Or like the hangover.
I mean, how funny is the guy pulls up? He's like paging Dr. Faggot.
You're like, it's hilarious.

None of my gay friends got offended.

None of them cared.

You know what I mean?

It's just funny.

That's, I think, why I like the Tesla, what is it?

Cybertruck.

Yeah, I got one.

Do you?

I love it.

Everybody says it's ugly, and I'm like, that's, I think, part of the point. You know, it's completely different.
Mine is a general lead. It looks awesome.
Oh, that's great. That's great.
It's just he's not conforming ever. No.
He's just not doing it. So he's also pushing the boundaries, but in an unbelievable way, he's changing so many things for the better for so many people.
I mean, just making lives better. You know, at the end of the day, that's what it is.
You mean to tell me you can't have some fun while you're doing that? Yeah. I mean, that to me is when people get too serious and take themselves too serious, it just looks miserable.
How concerned are you? Are you up on the AI, artificial general intelligence? Yeah, that's all I use. Singularity? I don't use Google search anymore.
Yeah. I use AI.
Yeah. Grok? I am now.
Yeah. I mean, I didn't see that on Hinge thing until Sunday.
I was like, he literally just took all the, I was using ChatGPT. He literally just took all their users and they're like what i know so i can actually get the info i want but i can also have some like complete bonkers fun yeah with this yeah i'm like right there he wins i'm like i invested in tesla a while back and i i am not the electric car guy i was i'm a muscle car this that the other my car collection i'm like i'd get one and I like got that thing and I was like oh my god my mind's blown I told him I go I don't think you know you created the greatest farm truck ever I doubt you guys you and your engineers were thinking of this I'm like but as someone who has a farm and likes to hunt and likes the outdoors I'm like I don't drive my can-am anymore my Polaris I like I got a long gun locked in the front i got my pistol here if i see a skunk or a coyote that we trapped or something i go i drive by wild turkeys or or you know deer that'd be a 10 point bucks in there that thing won't even move it doesn't know what that car is it makes no noise it's just sitting there i'm like this is and it goes anywhere it goes right up and down my mountains no problem i'm like'm like, he goes, yeah, we didn't design it for that.
What a surprise. Never know how someone's going to use new technology.
I know. You have a car collection.
What do you have? I've sold a few. I just sold one.
I had a 1930 V16 Cadillac. Oh, my gosh.
One of the first, one of the last few left, but it just sat there for years. So I sold that.

That's what I love about.

I got a lot of Dodges.

That's what I love about Leno is they have to be driven. Drive it.
Drive it. Drive it.
I don't drive. I like to drink beer.
So I'm always being driven. Okay.
Well, that's probably it. I drive to the dentist.
Yeah, that's probably a good thing. My granddaughter's like dance recitals.
I read that you used to say you are socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Yep.
Would you still describe yourself as that? Well, until that transgender stuff came up. Right.
I was like, these people are just nuts. So you didn't.
I was like, I got gay people in my band.

You know, everyone's got gay family members, something like this.

I don't know what to make of it still, but I don't care.

Yeah.

I really don't care what anybody does.

Right.

I don't want to shove it down our throats.

I don't want to teach my grandchildren this.

Like, teach them how to write and do arithmetic and stuff, you know,

be socially, you know, conscious and, you know, to a certain degree

and, you know, want a better world and treat people right. And then it got too far.
I'm like, come on, man. It's just, you know, so I'm still socially liberal, I would say.
I'm like live and let live to a certain extent. But then it just got too nuts.
Yeah. I mean, you tell me that's not a freaking mental illness.
I'm like, you know, all these different things that happen with these shooters and this, that, and the other.

There's too many nutty people out there to begin with.

Like, you know, Ted Nugent said, and I agree with him.

He said that at that dinner, actually, at the White House, he's like, you know, we're talking politics a little bit.

I'm like, I just shut up and eat.

Like, I don't, I don't, I'm not really, you know, self-educated in this where I need to be spouting out stuff right now. You know, what should I do about North Korea? I'm not really self-educated in this where I need to be spouting out stuff right now.
What should I do about North Korea? I'm like, pfft. But Ted, he goes, we started talking about it.
He goes, sir, I need to bring the nut houses back. He goes, remember they got rid of all the nut houses and those people got nowhere to go now and now they're just running around the streets.
Or in Congress. Or Congress.
True. We saw him sitting on that side.
It's amazing to me how bat crap crazy everybody is. And then they have switched places with us.
I used to be... It was not cool to be conservative.
No. No.
It is now. It's starting to be.
It's starting to be. Trump made the party, wouldn't he? Yeah.
You know know who was buttoned up and you know this that and the other you know as someone who made a career out of you know in using four-letter words you know pushing the envelope and being a little wild this that and the other but still had those values from you know instilled in me growing up um yeah it's completely changed immensely as you know he still is button up to some degree. When he has to be, he's buttoned up.
Yeah. When he's just a regular guy, he's not buttoned up.
And that's what I want out of a president to some degree. I want, you know, he is so unpredictable if you don't know him, if you don't get it, he is so damn unpredictable that he's just...
Which the best negotiators are. Right.
He's just running circles around everybody, and everybody's like, this is crazy. Yeah, you know why? Because you're playing the game the old way.
It's over. It's over.
I've sold more things off that game for years. The press just can't...
Because now it's a point where they have to get clicks and views, you know, to make money and all this stuff. So I just use them for it.
I got something to promote. You know, it used to be, okay, we got to go to Europe for this amount of time.
We have to spend a week in New York City. We have to go to LA, blah, blah, blah.
Now I just, you know, like, you know, call Oprah a bad name and say, I got a new record coming out. Everybody knows about it.
I'm like, that was easy. If they would just use the old thing, just he'll tire himself out.
Just ignore them. Yeah.
They can't. No, they can't.
They can't. They can't.
They can't. They can't.
You have no problem letting everybody, the politicians especially especially they don't want anybody. They want, they want, I am a small town guy.
I grew up in a middle-class way. If I heard Kamala Harris say middle-class family one more time, I was going to hang myself.
You're a kind of guy. And I don't, I don't think it's different, but I think politicians would.
You're like, I don't care. Yeah, I made a lot of money.

Big deal.

American dream.

Right, American dream.

But you still have the values.

I don't think they understand that it's not the amount of money that you have or anything else.

Maybe that changes them, but it doesn't have to change you.

You can still be the

guy who like donald trump loves people he just loves them incredible he's he's got and wants to be loved right what a knob what a concept and everything is shattering everything that is this bogus plastic has been bogus plastic world.

Do we, do we, what does the world look like at the end of four years? Hopefully it looks like President J.D. Vance.
Hopefully to me, that's what it looks like. Do you travel Europe? I hope we can bring, I really hope we can, I'm actually going to try to unite this country.
And I'm starting at the end of the month, taking Bill Maher to the White House for dinner. This guy has done nothing but talk smack about the president since day one.
But he's a comedian too. And I can have conversations with him.
If you don't get into Trump, because I because i'm like i fucking love him yeah it's like i don't i'm like let's talk about other things we can find common ground he's actually you know more reasonable than a lot of people on the right would think oh i'm sure no i think especially the last maybe four years so i said so i said to him i was doing his podcast and i said if i can hook you guys up this that and the other and trust's a lot more people deserving at that table, you know, for dinner. So it's a big deal to me to, you know, bring him there and even have the president be like, yeah, do it.
Let's do it. I go, man, what would it say to this country? Let's start at the top where you, you know, very public figures, him, television comedian, you president of the free world.
You know, we could just break bread, have some laughs, take a picture and be like, hey, you know, we don't agree on everything, but we got along. Does that start to send a message to people or do they just think I'm an idiot? You know, does Bill Maher look soft for going? Does Trump look weak? Like, I'm like, man, I think we just got to start somewhere like there and be like, look, man, we just had dinner.
We had some laughs, we had fun. Like, maybe call that family member that you got into it over politics or that person, you know, at the school that, you know, you don't like to talk to anymore that you used to have a coffee with in the morning.
Maybe just get back with them and be like, look, man, it's okay. Everybody calm down a little bit.
Anybody that is not pushing that is anybody who is saying, don't talk to your family member.

That's evil. You've heard the stories.

Yeah.

But it's just evil.

Yeah.

I had one person do it.

One person I could really, me and Cheryl just got into it over like uncontrolled and we've

had some honest conversations about it and things.

And then I was just like, no, it's not, I still love her to death.

You know, she's like a sister to me, you know, but it's like, yeah, she's not first call anymore on the dinner list, on the dinner invite. Yeah, that's too bad.
And I'm not on hers. I don't believe either.
I would. But I know we can still be cordial and have some laughs in the room.
Do you travel to Europe very often? No. Did you see what happened with J.D.
Vance over in Europe a couple weeks ago? What, his speech? Yeah. I saw his speech, thought it was awesome.
Awesome, right? Yeah. Did you see the foreign minister of Germany after it was over? No.
Openly wept and said, I learned a lot this week after listening to his speech. We no longer have as much as we thought

we had in common with the Americans.

And I thought, if that's actually what you believe,

I don't want to be a NATO.

I don't, I don't, why?

You're on the other end.

As soon as the red flag went up with it,

it's crying, you're like.

Beat it.

Especially a German. Yeah.
It's supposed to be tough, stoic tough stoic like you know like we don't laugh at anything right right but we have do we have stuff in common do we have enough in common because it seems to me that we're in a it gets drowned out by the media a lot yes we all have a ton ton in common, but they like to keep us polarizing that media on all sides, to be fair. To be fair, on all sides, a lot more on the left side.
But I mean, everything's become this social media freaking media nightmare. It's just like, it's just there's too much information.
All me and my friends do is send memes to each other. And I love that.
That's great. I'm like, I don't want to hear about your trip.
I don't want to see it on Facebook or, you know, the tweets or whatever. Like, and we get together and we golf, we have dinner or whatever.
We got something to talk about. We can catch up on old times.
I was like, don't text me. Happy birthday.
Merry Christmas. Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy 4th of July. If it's really that big of a deal, send me a card.
Otherwise, I'm not worried about it. I was like, I just don't need 300 texts coming in like happy birthday.
I'm like, come on, man. It's just, it's annoying.
Tell me about the concert coming up this summer. I'm doing 19 shows.
And, you know, I've usually been, like, not too big on politics in the show, just trying to entertain people. This is the exact opposite.
These are MAGA rallies. Really? Yeah, 1,000%.
I put together a whole new show. I'm only doing 19.
I'm doing seven arenas, which are going to be a blast. And then I do this Rock the Country Music Festival, which just...

No one had ever started a music festival for hardworking people who love this country.

Yeah.

Like, that's simple.

Well, it used to be...

I mean...

But now it's got this...

Hank Williams, Leonard Skinner, Nick Matt.

I mean, that was for hardworking Americans.

Very small towns, middle of fields or, you know, public places like these very, I mean, you don't know where these towns are. I know.
Why? We did them our first year last year. I have ownership in that, so I really got to help shape and mold it.
And it's literally, I mean, our lighting rig out by the soundboard is a cross. You know, just some really cool stuff.
There's thousands of American flags we put up everywhere it's just it's just to celebrate america listening to music and like these people are the greatest people i don't just say that because they're paying money to come to my stuff i'm not that shallow but i mean literally i've heard this from everybody you can walk through this rock and roll outlaw country crowd with 30 000 people there there. Excuse me.
You can walk right through to the bathroom, walk back. No static.
Yeah. No fights.
I think we had a couple drunk drivings. Like it was just, these things don't, we have more problems than my honky-tonk in Nashville.
That holds a couple thousand people. I know.
We have that with our audience. We did an event in Washington.
Remember, these people are partying. They're partying hard.
Right. hard right they're they're drinking they got their campers they're carrying on usually when you add alcohol to any situation you know somebody's gonna get into it but but it's still there is something about the american that everybody in the media has forgotten that we generally I mean mean, I think we've felt forgotten.
Yeah. That's why he won in the first place.
Absolutely. And I think that's why he's doing so well, uh, right now.
He's, I've never seen a president who said, I'm writing down everything. Remind me.
I said on the campaign trail, and then I'm just going to start not checking them off in priority order. Never seen that.
Have you ever seen that? No. Never seen that.
Talked about that with a million friends too. Yeah.
Same thing. Yeah.
It's like, he's just checking that list off like, and that shows for the first time a politician who does not forget. He's not using you.
He's not coming out and saying,

I'm just like you

and I'm going to do these things

and then you get in

and you forget it.

You like my shiny ring?

Right.

I've never seen anything like it.

And this is the first guy,

the first administration

that started like,

hey, let's look

where our money's being spent.

I mean, that is bananas.

I know.

Especially supporting politicians through the years, this, that, and the other why don't you mother why don't you people look for this like what are you doing yeah like this is the like it's but i don't know if we could have done it as at least as effectively as musk can do it because of ai true i mean you know in three years from now the ai we have going over the budget oh it's going to be yeah we're going're going to know everything about these politicians. Even doing my ticketing thing, I've been doing research for years, have hired attorneys at certain points, people to get info, this, that, and the other.
Sometimes I always don't give it to you in their yearly reports. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This, that, and the other. Not now.
AI. It's all there.
You worried about art with AI? Not really. Everybody else is.
There's a group that has tested 500,000 songs and ranked them. Out of the top 10, the top five are AI songs.
Yeah, we better get better as songwriters. Yeah.
I mean, that's crazy. Well, the way I figured, I actually met with a young man and had some other prominent musicians and record heads to have an off-the-record conversation about AI and music.
And the app's called Suno. And it's bananas because it's pretty dang good.
For writing music? It produces music. See, what Spotify's doing is a lot of their, you know, they have to pay money every time they play one of our songs.
They're creating tons of, you put on a beach playlist that has a hundred songs. 20 of those songs might be by some artists you never heard of because AI created it.
They don't got to pay anybody. Wow.
But are they using our stuff to make it? Yeah. But the way I looked at it is I looked at like Napster when that started and I was like, what's going on? And you know, all the artists were up in arms and the record companies wanted us to get behind you know they're stealing they're pirating music and I'm like hold on are they stealing from the record companies like stealing from everybody I'm like huh good I care less I make all my money live but now with with AI I'm like so I'm asking this guy and I'm like so I can give you some acapellas in my vocals and you can model my voice and then you can put it on your system and however many people want to write songs for me with my voice can write them yeah yep I'm like that's kind of like gonna have like a hundred thousand people right now there's gonna be some funny ones and they're like you know Kid Rock right Joe Biden I get it I'll laugh at those but let's say I got a million people writing songs for me.

If one of those person nails it and they come up with this life-changing song,

I go play it live.

Yeah.

I'm like, I'm not seeing the evil in here yet.

The record companies and managers get all the artists up in arms about,

we're not going to stop it.

I know that much.

You are not going to stop it. No.
So it's like, let's figure out how we use it as a new tool the best, like anything else in life. Who is the influence in your life musically? I mean, you've worked with almost everybody.
And you're weird. You break all of the rules.
You've rap, country.

Isn't that what rock and roll is supposed to be?

Yeah, it is. But nobody does that.
Nobody does that.

So what was your musical influence?

It was everything.

I mean, the real big ones at the top was, you know, my parents' record collection while I was young.

It was just all great classic rock and, you know, not real country, more outlaw country it's like i said the whalands and things like that the eagles and stuff like that of course bob siegers you know religion growing up and still is in my household so proud to call him a friend but then when i got into hip-hop that changed everything for me you know the early stuff but it was really like when stuff went mainstream like run dmc and everything from that era and then i didn't figure it out until i was older i was like this has literally been you know outside if you want to go back to like celtic music which created you know this right but american music is like basically jazz and blues spawned everything everything everything until hip-hop came along and once rap came along it was like that has its fingerprints on every form of music now since then so we've I didn't get to witness the birth of the blues or really you know the 50s and 60s and stuff but I got to witness that and to me it kind of lines has a lot of parallels with blues and jazz like what hip-hop's done do I like a lot of the new hip-hop no I don't a more old-school hip-hop guy but that's cuz I'm old, I would assume. Right.
What are the parallels? That blues and jazz spawned everything up until hip hop. And now hip hop has its fingerprints on everything.
I don't care if it's country music, rock and roll music, whatever. There's tinges of hip hop all over it, just like any of those records up until the late 70s or whatever, when hip hop started, 80s started coming in.
They were all had had the touches of jazz and blues on them, whether it was soul music, whether it was rock and roll, whether it was country or whatever. So you but you were you into that? What's that? Blues and.
I was. I mean, I would listen to those records.
Just I would listen to music all the time. But then when hip-hop really came I started more to emulate

it you know even though I had that rock and roll we had a piano and there was an old guitar laying

around I would noodle here and there and then started screwed up my mom's aerobics turntable

trying to scratch records and so my parents had no clue what I was doing with any of this you know

in Romeo Michigan there was not right did you did you have the uh talk with your parents or anybody

in your family of this isn't really a career it's I mean it's a good little my whole life yeah

Thank you. where it's not.
Right. Did you, did you have the talk with your parents or anybody in your family of this isn't really a career? It's, I mean, it's a good little.
My whole life. Yeah.
I didn't go to college. I barely made it out of high school.
I was so focused on music. Yeah.
I was, well, it was, can't, can't you just do this as a hobby on the weekends? I got the same thing. I got the same thing.
I was doing radio when I was 13 years old, and I got the speeches. 13? Yeah.
I got the speeches from my family. And, you know, this is a nice hobby, but, you know, it's probably not going to work out for you.
I'm like, well. Sometimes the best motivation is it not? Exactly right.
Exactly right. It has been great to talk to you.
Great to talk to you, too. Thank you for having the balls to stand up and just be who you are.
Thank you. I get that compliment a lot.
It's one of the best ones I get. That and how wonderful my son is.
Those two compliments mean a lot. I love this song.
I love this. This concert was great.
But it's like, thanks for having the balls to stand up. It means a lot now, especially where we've come to now.

It's been a long journey.

And I have a terrific son and grandchildren.

Good.

Great talking to you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

God bless.

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