When you buy a ticket for a Kid Rock concert, you know what you’re getting yourself into.
It’s not a calm night, where you can lounge in the lawn, leisurely sip a Bud Light Lime, and let the music gently fill your ears while carrying on a conversation with your friends. In fact, it’s the exact opposite.
In a world where some fans want artists to stay away from politics and create an atmosphere where the “real” world melts away, Kid Rock leans in hard and there’s no questioning which side of the political aisle his allegiances lie.
While Kid Rock was never one to shy away from politics, the Bud Light controversy last year thrust him into a new orbit of cultural figures. Some viewed him as a God-fearing Patriot and cheered him on while he shot up cases of Bud Light,while others placed him securely into the role of villain. And while he’s now called off his attack on the brand, some friendships he made during that time look like they’ll be staying with him for a long time, as we see in a video from the first weekend of Rock The Country in Gonzales, Louisiana.
Fans were wondering who the “huge surprise guest” would be that was listed on the festival’s flyer and it turned out to be none other than former Fox News primetime anchor Tucker Carlson, who got the crowd fired up while bringing Kid Rock to the stage.
He told the story of how Kid Rock asked him to introduce him while having dinner at his house two months ago and that he didn’t really know what he was going to say until he got to Gonzales and started meeting some of the people in attendance.
“I woke up this morning and I though “I got to go to Gonzales, Louisiana and open up for Kid Rock, what am I going to say?” And I had no idea until I got here and you know what changed my mind? …
I woke up this morning and I went on the internet. Familiar? And I read all these stories and I thought to myself “This is the most depressing thing that’s happened to me in a long time. This country is f*cked up. That’s what I thought. I did think that, which is a sad thing to think when you’re in bed…
And then I got here and I walked through the crowd and I thought “No, no its not.” The country they tell me about on the internet is f*cked up. The country that I experience when I walk through this crowd or when I wake up in my town of 100 people in a rural area is a beautiful country. Filled with beautiful people…
As I’m walking out this chick gets right in my face, she’s got two nose rings, a cross necklace, and a Trump bracelet. And she looks me right in the face and she goes “AHHH” and she said “I love you”. And I said “I love you too” and I meant it. And I thought that’s the America that I know.”
As you can hear in the video, the crowd was absolutely eating it up…
He then went on to introduce the man of the hour by saying that there’s no man that best sums up what America is better than Bobby Ritchie, AKA Kid Rock.
“If you could take one person out of this nation of 350 million people and present it to the rest of the world and say “What’s a real American look like?”… I would say that American would be both disobedient but decent. That American would both give you the finger and burst out laughing at the same time.”
When Kid Rock did make his way to the stage, he opened with “Devil Without A Cause”, which no doubt sent the crowd into a fever pitch.
Again, you know what you’re getting when you go to a Kid Rock show, but Tucker Carlson doing a stump speech for the merits of America is still a bit of a surprise.
It’s not the first time these two have done some work together. Kid Rock has appeared on Tucker’s new show, telling some wild stories like punching a strip club DJ over music choices and saying that country artists come up to him all the time saying they wish they could speak their minds like he does.
One thing is for sure. Kid Rock is never going to change and we should all be very grateful for someone like that.
