Kid Rock

music

music music music music There was a point at which Kid Rock went from being a musician to an icon to a one-man movement and that's... and a friend of ours! And that was the moment we want to sit down once again with him in studio and check in on how he's doing changing america great to see you great to see you so uh i remember doing my text right before bed one night and i read that bud light has decided to go tranny that's kind of distressing the next day with like 12 hours later you release the video of you executing the Bud Light with the carbine.
Fuck Bud Light and fuck Anheuser-Busch. Have a terrific day.
And then months later, Bud Light effectively apologizes, doesn't go out of business, closes two bottling plants, but it is terrible for the guys who work there, but then comes back and hands the UFC $100 million basically to say, we're sorry, we will get better. That seems like a win to me.
I think it could be. I think they got some work still to get some of that base that they lost.

I think to get them back.

I've said a few times I'd love to see them get

triple fratty.

Hit it head on.

Make light of the situation. Self-deprecation.

But

at the end of the day, when you step back and look

at it, yeah, they deserved a black eye and they

got one. They made a mistake.
How did you

know? You moved so fast on that. A lot of of things going on it was like a lot of people just pissed

me off i was and i kept you know i keep a lot of beer on the property a lot of light beer the light was one of them and uh i was like i know who my consumers are yeah i was doing a little marketing to my folks you know it was spot on for me but also a fun excuse to get my machine going i don't have some fun but also to make a statement like hey a lot of us aren't cool with this you know i believe a lot of people fought and died for people's right to be whoever they want but when you're that type of brand you know who you consumers are you know how this kind of started i think i thought about it so they moved part of their corporate offices from st louis to new york city yeah they did okay then they start hiring these these Ivy League progressive you know people to work for them who don't know shit about working-class people are middle America and this country unhappy women yeah and so somebody wasn't watching the hen house they're riding high and mighty is number one and a fox gets in yes it was a mistake so do I want to hold their head underwater and drown them because they made a mistake no I think they got the message like hopefully other companies, hopefully other companies get it too. But, you know, at the end of the day, I don't think the punishment that they've been getting at this point fits the crime.
It's like, I would like to see people get us back on board and become bigger because that's the America I want to live in. Well, it's better to improve than destroy.
Yeah. So that seems like a win.
We were talking about this off camera and you said, what would that say about us as like-minded people? were like hey cut it out what's the matter with you that you know if we brought them back up you know that's kind of the america i want to live in like it's not wrong with giving a spanking you know the kid does something wrong it tries you know maybe he's gonna harm themselves but you know spanking for the rest of their life you kind of you know someone gets taught a lesson they say we made, man, let's move on. I mean, we've done it for a whole lot worse.
What about Japan, Germany? You drop two atom bombs on Japan, then you rebuild it, then you become allies. Can't say it enough.
You know, who's getting hurt in all this boycotts and stuff when people make mistakes, this cancel culture crap. It's the working class people who don't have any dog in the fight.
It's like, all right, we don't want to hurt these people. You know, message sent.
All right, let's move on. Here's a bag of ice.
Put it on that shiner. Let's talk about it.
I noticed that is not a Bud Light you're drinking. I saw that getting poured.
Have you had one since this all started? Dude, my whole life has become Bud Light. I got a stack for the CO's because every one of my friends thinks it's a joke to bring me a 12-pack.

So you just got a lot of free beer out of it.

Yeah, or shove them in my golf bag.

You know, they pop up everywhere.

It's like it's kind of become, you know, a fun thing for my friends to mess with me on.

But, you know, I'll drink any kind of cold free beer.

Let's put it that way.

So that's like your main criterion, cold, free.

Cold and free.

Trump.

You've seen Trump a lot recently.

Thank you. that's like your main criterion cold free cold and free Trump you've seen Trump a lot recently how's he doing he's doing great it's incredible you know we just got to spend some time with him which you seem to be having more fun than anybody I was having you watch that video back and we're walking to the ring and everyone's looking all tough and You're like, this is the greatest day of my life.
I loved it. Which was, that was so much fun.
It was amazing. I love spending time with him, getting to know him, you know, since he became president the first few months, having dinner at the White House with him.
And from there on, we've just really hit it off. And, you know, I can relate to him in a lot of ways.
As somebody who might speak out of turn a little bit and say what's on his mind. But, you know, I think if you look at his track record and who he is as a whole, there's a lot more good there than anything.
And I think people, you know, I could go both ways. I always say with me, you can go on the Internet and you can make me out to be some crazy wild party animal who just has his middle fingers in the air and doesn't care.
Or you can be someone who's a single father, who loves his family, loves his country,

does a lot of philanthropy.

It's all there for the taking.

And, you know, I try to see the good in people.

I haven't always executed that correctly or, you know, on spot.

But, you know, whatever it is, when I give it,

it's 100% real. Well, so without, like, betraying the details of your conversations,

you've been with Trump a bunch of times since he got indicted and the world has kind of crashed in around him. How does he see him? Can't tell.
Really? No. I mean, when we're golfing and we're hanging out in different scenarios here and there, his spirits are always up.
And he's always talking about this country. He's always talking about this country and how he wants to win for it.
He likes to win at anything that's anything well we're golfing like it I want a hundred bucks from him at the UFC I don't think he was too happy about it but what'd you bet on we were betting up fights you know we're just picking guys you know to make it more interesting yeah and man somebody that's that's in that office in any, that wants to win for this country, I'm in.

I've never seen anybody that wants to win for this country like that guy.

And I don't think we'll ever see anything like it in our lifetime.

To me, it's the greatest president we've had.

And he's unaffected, in your experience, by everything that's happening.

Is he pissed off? Sure.

Yeah, but he doesn't seem broken at all.

I don't want to speak out of school, you know, but, you know, yeah,

who's not going to hem and haw a little bit about the people that are doing this to them? You know, these people in New York. It's a freaking joke.
Yeah. I mean, one Google search on Zillow, property in Palm Beach, there's like a couple acres that comes up on the water.
It's $200 million. And they're like, Mar-a-Lago's only worth $17 million.
It's like, well, you are a stupid son of a bitch if you say that. Yeah.
You know, he gives out, he takes loans from the bank. Whatever.
He pays them all back. Everybody makes money.
There's no crime here. Yeah.
I just, you know, they're just, it's completely, anybody who can't see their fucking with them, it's just blinded. Yeah.
I know the guy speaks out of turn a little bit, says some things. I can relate.
Yes. I do it myself, you know, quite often because I'm, I just say what's on my mind and I can get that, but I don't know how you look at his track record and what he did and how he had this country fired on all cylinders when he was in office.
Everybody working, you know, military is the strongest. He's leading with, you know, strength and borders, you know, under control, just energy independent.
You know, he could go on and on. I don't get it.
You know, I understand because it seems like it's a lot of women. Like in my life and stuff, they're like, I don't like the way he talks.
It's like, come on. You're not putting him in the office to hear him talk nice.
How many years have we had of that? People that it seems like everybody, you know, because everything is very polarized. I get it.
And speaking of Bud Light, it's like, I wish those guys could take this opportunity. Maybe they could start a little civil discourse with the negative that's happened to them.
Maybe they could figure out a way with that beard to kind of maybe bring people together a little bit. I don't know.
I don't think they're going to hire me as the head of their marketing anytime soon. They probably should.
Yeah, well. I like my day job.
By the way, did they ever call you after you opened up on them with a machine gun? No, there's been some distributors who claim they know the people atop and this, that, and the other. I said, man, I'll sit down with anybody, anytime.
And, you know, we actually got to talk to the CEO, me and Trump, the other night at the UFC fight. I was there.
You were were standing behind me. I recognized.
Yeah, you were there. And I was like, that's kind of funny.
I'm sitting there with Trump. And I'm like, hey, that dude behind us is the CEO of Anheuser-Busch.
He's like, I don't give him some shit. I'm like, ew.
Trump's like, let's go. And actually, it was a really pointy conversation.
The dude, that dude, his name's Brendan. He's in the CIA.
He was a Marine. Yeah.
He says when he got the videos of me shooting up the cans, he was hunting in Texas. I'm like, you sound like somebody I'd be friends with.
Like, how'd you guys get this so wrong? And you know, I hate speaking out of turn when I have conversations with people, but I don't think, I wouldn't mind this. I was like, when you did that morning show, were you coached? And he was like, I was.

I was like, fire that fucking person.

I was like, it's terrible.

I was like, they asked you at one point, like, if you had the chance to send that can again, would you send it?

And you go off in this, we've been supporting the ABCDLGBQ for 25 years.

I'm like, ah, what are you doing?

I'm like, you don't have to throw anybody under the bus.

All you have to do is say, while we want everyone to enjoy our beer we know who our consumer is and we got that one wrong we're going to double down we hear you are bad just say that everyone would have been like okay you still got to eat a little crow it's like it's like you know if you ever had infidelity in your life it's like you can't uh go to the person and just kind of sweep it under the rug and, you know,

buy them a new ring

or a car

and think it's going to go,

well, maybe a car.

A car might work out.

The guilt mobile.

You can't just sweep it

under the rug

and throw money at it

and think it's going to go away.

At some point,

you've got to be like,

look, I screwed up.

I got that one wrong.

And then you've probably

still got to eat some crow

for a while,

which I think they have.

You know, like I said,

it's like,

I don't want to be the face

of crushing working class

people's jobs. Not only their jobs, but their livelihoods.
Oh the face of crushing working class people's jobs.

Not only their jobs, but their livelihoods.

Oh, I agree.

Look at people's livelihoods that work for that company that are just like, Jesus, what happened?

I know.

It doesn't have any fight in it.

You know, I hate to see people losing their jobs at any level.

Two bottling plants closed.

That's shocking.

Because they screwed up.

They made a mistake.

All right.

I'm over it.

You know, like I said, I'm not the type of person to kick a man when he's down. I agree completely.
Completely. How'd you wind up with Dolly Parton? Um, you know, I've known her throughout the years here and there.
You know, I've been friendly with her. She's just one of the greatest people on earth.
Really? Oh, you've never met anybody so positive in your life. And, you know, speaking of Dolly, we'll get it.
She called me about doing the song. She'd wrote a song that she wanted to do with me, which ironically is about me cheating on her.
I'm like, huh? Had you ever cheated on her? No, I haven't had the opportunity. I have not been given that opportunity yet.
No, she's just the sweetest lady. You know, I just read something on her where I've never heard the word hate come out of her mouth.
She just doesn't exist with her she's just too sweet too great and I saw where she said I hate cancel culture I mean that should sum it up right there I think I think most people reasonable people you got your small percentage of extremists on both sides of this thing and they make the most noise they get the most headlines because you know they're the most polarizing get the most clicks and views I get it I played the game a little bit myself I'm guilty of it but um i headlines because, you know, they're the most polarized. They get the most clicks and views.
I get it. I played the game a little bit myself.
I'm guilty of it. But I think most people, you know, level-headed people with a shred of common sense are sick of all this stuff, this cancel culture and this.
You know, God forbid if you say something that's a little bit wrong or ruffles somebody's, you know, feathers, that you're going to lose your job or your social standing. You think it's going away? You think it's its peak.
I think it has. You know, it's going to be, it's going to be tough with this going into this election year.
Yeah. Cause it's going to get real polarizing again.
And I don't think that's a bad thing in politics. It always kind of is.
Yeah. But everything else, it's like all my friends who are Democrats, you know, in my business, I have a lot of them.
Yeah. I'm the one that's the diverse one.
Yeah. Like you the one that you want inclusion.
You know, they don't want to include people on their talk shows and all this stuff anymore. It's like, I'm the one that needs inclusion.
I'm the weird one here. I don't fit the narrative.
And in this place of all these Hollywood and entertainers and singers and stuff like that. It doesn't seem to bother you at all, though.
No. But has it affected your relationships?

I've never heard you say that it has.

No, I think maybe one relationship. That's about it.

But anyone I talk to,

I'll go for dinner. Hang with

the things differently. Like, we always find more

in common. I'll be like, I love Trump.

I can't stand a guy. I'll be like, cool.
You want to move on?

Talk about something else? Yeah.

We find some other things that aren't common.

So, I mean, Dolly Parton took some crap for working with you she doesn't seem to care no i think she handled it beautifully she's like i love everybody pretty simple answer i mean that's what i took away from it she said more than that but i took away she said she loved everybody i was really proud to call her a friend at that moment i think we need need more of that in this country, especially coming from people like me,

because I know sometimes I am the polarizing one.

I am the loudest voice in the room.

Well, you do have a machine gun.

Oh, yeah, but that's, why wouldn't you?

All right, that's not a way to agree.

Who are you going on tour with this summer?

Thank you for asking.

So me and Jason Aldean are doing...

What's he like?

Jason, great kid.

Known him for years, since he was first coming up great guy great Patriot talented singer musician so we're gonna do seven festivals I see a need when I partnered with these people premiere entertainment it's called rock the country rock the country calm see a need for a big portion of this country that's underserved entertainment-wise.

And that's pretty prevalent when you see the success of shows like Yellowstone and Duck Dynasty, things like that.

People are just starving for it.

So we wanted to go out and give, you know, hardworking people that love this country a music festival.

Something for them.

Like, you know, come show your patriotism, just like they do at my shows, but do with a force of people.

You know, we got different lineups, and there are seven small towns. What are they? It's places like Ocala, Florida, Mobile, Alabama, Rome, Georgia.
There's Kentucky and Carolina. Rock and roll has not been too kind to my memory.
That's pretty good, actually. Yeah, it's not bad.
But there's seven of them, Rocket Country, and then, you know, we have people like Miranda Lambard on certain shows, Hank Williams Jr., Leonard Skinner, Bradley Gilbert, Travis Tritt, Nelly, Big and Rich, Regretchen Wilson, just, you know, a whole cast of characters, which, like I said, just trying to provide something for, you know, these smaller towns where we have a lot more freedom to do things that we might not be able to do in the bigger cities and especially to work with the local people there whether it could be the police firefighters the city councils whatever we had all those people actually to my house in nashville just all get on the same page because we want to make this experience great for these people and i was and we came up with the idea let's have people that want to come from these towns from these states some were senators some were police chiefs council mayors. Let's have them up and break bread and just talk to them, try to get on the same page so we can try to create a great experience for people.
Make no mistake, we would like to make some money out of this endeavor. But, you know, we want it to be a win-win.
We want the cities to win, you know, try to give back and do something good there. Well, that's going to sell out.
I mean. The pre-sales went on sale today.
So seven shows. Does that wear you out? We're also doing, first, I did another business deal with the PBR, who does the rodeo.
Yeah. Professional bull riders, and we're doing Kid Rock's Rockin' Rodeo at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, where we're going to have rodeo teams compete against each other, and then I'm going to do music.
We're still figuring it out. But I want to make it more creative than some of the rodeos we played in the past.
Where the rodeo happens and then you play the show. Yeah.
I'd like to kick the show off. And I got horses ripping around with American flags.
You know, play something in the middle. And like, I mean, I'd like to put like midgets on mini bowls.
Yes. You know, we'll see what happens.
Is that allowed in Dallas now? Everything's allowed in Texas.

That's true.

So that's what we're doing. We're going to play Sturgis

again this year, which I've played off and on for the last

20-some years, and that's my year.

I think it's nine shows.

That's amazing.

Work less, make more.

So the rodeo, have you ever

been on any of the...

Have you ridden?

We have horses. You're not getting on a bull? No.
Getting on a bull, not jumping out of a plane. I'm not going up in the F-16.
I'm good. I'll be right here when you do that.
You've had enough risk? Yeah. I've made it this far.
I mean, just like big picture, you've not changed your views throughout all this last six years you've been really direct have you lost anything I mean it's it's kind of an amazing story it's kind of funny I always joke I'm like I'll do or say something it's a little outrageous you know it's people's panties in a bunch and some level and somehow they give me more money for it So you've never You can't Probably the only person who hasn't Changed his views I'm open to changing my views I don't know it all I don't claim to I'm not the Pied Piper You don't seem to be moderating your views on anything You just say what you think And if I get something wrong i'm cool enough to go back and be like yeah i had that one wrong i remember when it's happened but i'm not bigger than that but you know it was i've been the same way since i was young and since my we'll call my first successful you know devil without a cause cd came out and i was running my mouth there's metal fingers on the cd i haven't changed times have changed you know now you're not allowed to say that or do this. You have to be politically correct.
Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, that ain't no fun.
So if you just ignore it, it just doesn't affect you? Is that the lesson? You know, I live by my main motto, which a good friend of mine, Rev Run, one of my heroes in music, told me years ago from Run DMC, go where you're celebrated, not tolerated. Yeah.
And that's what I do. That's where I choose to spend my time.
And thank God I've always been so big about family and friends because it's the oldest cliche. At the end of the day, that's what's really there for you.
I'm blessed every day to have the greatest family and the greatest friends on earth. And I'm glad that I really didn't let all this madness get in the way of that.
I've always tried to be there and take care of them, and they've been there for me. And really, that's what it is.
And I met some of them, and I think that's right, but I judge a man by his dogs. Probably can't tell from this camera shot, but you brought a couple of your boykins here.
Dixie! Can we meet? You've got two Spaniels here.

Can you introduce one of them?

This is Delta.

I'm here by you.

Okay.

Dixie, come here.

Dixie, come here.

Dixie's a little one.

Come here.

Come here, Dixie.

So these are Boykins.

She's a little one.

Hey.

She's a little one.

How old is Dixie? She's old now.

Is she 10? That's amazing. She's a little one.
Hey. She's a little one.
How old is Dixie? She's old now. Is she 10? That's amazing.
She's 10. Do you go everywhere with him? My fiancee, Audrey, goes everywhere with him.
Are you bringing him on tour? No. Select cities, maybe.
They don't like the tour. Pyro freaks them out a little bit.
Well, not Delta. She's trained on birds, so she doesn't mind.
Yeah, I can tell. They're amazing, amazing bird dogs.
If you were to sort of, since you're pretty good at calling stuff, the next year, like a year from now, will be November 2024. What will things look like? I don't know.
I hope they look like, you know, Trump's back in office. And I would love that we control, you know, Congress.
And that would be a perfect case scenario for me, but that's so difficult for me.

You know, I know what I support and my views, but I'm really not Nostradamus when it comes to politics or anything.

I don't want to act like I know it all.

You know, I do study it.

I probably watch a little more news than I should.

I got my views, but, you know, it's going to be interesting.

I just don't see how, like, you know, everyone's talking about, like,

they can't run Biden against Trump.

It's impossible.

Of course.

And if, God forbid, something did go wrong here in Biden,

it would be for no other reason than just people's hatred for Trump.

Yeah.

You know?

Like, why don't people just talk about policies?

You know, I don't need my president to be a saint.

Let's get the job done. We haven't had any of those, I don't think.
No. No, I don't think so.
I don't know. But you said that if you were Bud Light, you would run a campaign bringing people together over your product.
Maybe they should make a blue hat that says, make Bud Light great again. No, good point.
But do you, I mean, do you see like the division getting better or worse? I honestly, I would, I would hope that it gets a little better. Yeah.
I see that with my friends. Like I said, I haven't, I don't go around bragging about it.
I probably got the most diverse band out there. Yeah.
We have white people, hillbillies. We have black people.
We have gay people.

We got it all.

Females, men.

I know she put white people and hillbillies in two different categories.

Go ahead.

But, you know, I see it just with my band where we all get along.

We all joke about each other's backgrounds, our colors, our sexual preferences.

Like, we just give each other shit all the time.

And we get along. We're like family.
We're not one of these bands that just sit at each other's throats, fight. We all love each other and always have.
We accept that we're all different and we're all just cool. And so I keep saying this.
It's like, no one cares if you're gay anymore. We all got gay family members, friends, coworkers.
It's like, just shut up about it. Like, I'm not going to like, oh, you're gay? I'm not going to clap louder for you.
All right? for you all right just be cool be gay shut up it's fine like you know no one cares you know the transgender thing is just a weird one i don't you know it's like leave our kids out of it number one but i you know to me it looks like a mental illness yeah you know that that's what i see but at the same time like that's that's who you want to be a lot of people fought and died for it go for it we can exist in, you know, that's what I see. But at the same time, like, that's who you want to be.
A lot of people fought and died for it. Go for it.
We can exist in, you know, the same public spaces. So be it, you know.
You're not going to be my first call to take out for a night out on the town, probably. But I'm probably not yours.
It's fine. Yeah, that's okay.
And if you're different and you're weird, make no mistake, you get treated differently. When I was young, I had my hair up to here.
I had my pants sagging, running around, you know, talking junk, you know. People gave me crap all the time, you know, but I was trying to be seen.
If you want to be seen and you're going to go out and be different like that and dye your hair blue and put a bunch of nose rings on yourself, people are going to look at you differently. Some people are going to tease you a little bit.
You know, whatever happened to sticks and stones? Yeah. You know, everyone know everyone's like he teased me I'm gonna cancel you and sue you and I'm gonna tell on you it's like we're racing it I've are my life we're raising like a complete you know generation of fucking pussies yeah but that can't go on forever right now the pendulum always swings I, you know, at 52 years old, I've seen that in life.
The pendulum swings. Yeah.
So last question before we go, get a cigar with your friend John Daly. If you were to give advice to, you know, a 22-year-old trying to enter the public sphere right now, what would it be? What sphere? Entertainment-wise? Either one.
You know, you're the guy who wants people to look at you okay as you well number one work your ass off and be good at what you do yeah best at it and that takes a lot of time you know it's mean 15 years you know in the trenches riding around in vans with a u-haul trailers playing every little gig for for 50 people, this, that, and the other. You know, it's the old cliche that 10,000 hours.
I think it's 20,000. Yeah.
Work your butt off and try to be the best at what you do. Study your craft.
Be knowledgeable about it. Be knowledgeable about it.
Surround yourself with good people. Don't hang out with knuckleheads.
That doesn't leave too many good spots.

No, it doesn't.

So, you know.

So, work hard.

Don't hang out with shitheads.

Yeah, and be good at what you do.

Be the best at what you do.

Bobby, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Tucker.

Good to see you, man.

Pleasure.

I'm coming this summer.