The Most Controversial Things Kid Rock Has Ever Done

Kid Rock released his first album in 1990, but it wouldn't be until a decade later that the Detroit rapper would hit it big with his 1998 release "Devil Without a Cause." That LP, his fourth, catapulted him to international success, spawning the hits "Bawitdaba" and "Cowboy," ultimately selling 11 million copies. And Kid Rock has proven to be no flash in the pan, with 25 million album sales under his belt as of 2013, per Yahoo! Entertainment. Through it all, controversy and Kid Rock have gone hand in hand, something he rarely sidestepped and often encouraged. 

Kid Rock once again made headlines in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, and cities throughout North America mandated the closure of bars and restaurants to mitigate the spread of the virus. According to Variety, when Nashville, Tenn. ordered all the city's eateries and watering holes shut down, Kid Rock's Nashville steakhouse was one of the spots to blatantly defy that order (the restaurant later reversed its decision and shut down).

This was just the latest in a string of controversies that have woven their way through Kid Rock's career. Read on for a look back at the most controversial things that Kid Rock has ever done.

By 2004, Kid Rock had grown popular enough to be invited to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, which also featured Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Nelly, P. Diddy, and Jessica Simpson. 

When he took to the stage, Kid Rock wore an American flag as a poncho. This did not go down well with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, with CBS News reporting that VFW commander in chief Edward Banas Senior slammed the poncho as being "in poor taste and extremely disrespectful." Georgia Sen. Zell Miller, a former Marine, was even more incensed by "seeing this ignoramus with his pointed head stuck up through the hole he had cut in the flag of the United States, yelling about having 'a bottle of Scotch and watching lots of crotch,'" as he described the performance in his book, "Zell Miller A Senator Speaks Out on Patriotism Values and Character." Miller further expressed his wish that Kid Rock be "tarred and feathered and ridden out of this country on a rail."

Luckily for Kid Rock, the furor over his stars-and-stripes sartorial choice was completely swept aside by the scandal unleashed by Jackson's notorious "wardrobe malfunction" and the ensuing "Nipplegate" backlash. 

Old Glory wasn't the only flag that created controversy for Kid Rock. In fact, he's been criticized repeatedly over the years for unfurling the Confederate flag during performances. Despite backlash and protests, he remained defiant. In 2008, Kid Rock told The Guardian he had no plans to stop waving the flag. "Sure, it's definitely got some scars, but I've never had an issue with it," he said. "To me it just represents pride in Southern rock' n' roll music, plus it just looks cool."

However, a survey undertaken by market research firm YouGov determined that 41 percent of Americans believe "the Confederate flag represents racism," which explains why protests erupted when the Detroit NAACP presented Kid Rock with an award. "You know what that flag stands for?" a protester told Associated Press. "It stands for hatred, bigotry, racism, murder..." According to Billboard, when Kid Rock accepted the award he said: "I've never flown that flag with any hate in my heart. Not one ounce."

In 2015, Kid Rock made his feelings about the backlash crystal clear when relayed the following statement to Fox News host Megyn Kelly: "Please tell the people who are protesting to kiss my ... ask me some questions"

The 2010s found Kid Rock becoming increasingly political, and his views leaned heavily to the right. In 2017, the rapper made a provocative statement when he took to Twitter and shared an image of a political yard sign reading "Kid Rock for US Senate." He then made an apparent announcement he was planning a political run. "I have had a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real," wrote the rapper (real name: Robert Ritchie) referencing the now-defunct kidrockforsenate.com site. "The answer is an absolute YES."

But was it? While visiting The Howard Stern Show he confessed the whole thing was a hoax. "F**k no, I'm not running for Senate. Are you kidding me?" he said, adding, "Who f**king couldn't figure that out? I'm releasing a new album. ... I'm going on tour too. Are you f**king sh**ing me?"

His admission resulted in a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission, which launched an investigation. The FEC ultimately concluded there was "no evidence" that Kid Rock took any official action after that initial tweet, and that "further pursuing this matter would have been an unwise use of commission resources."

Before Kid Rock's Senate run was revealed to be a PR stunt, he was introduced as "the next senator from the state of Michigan" when he took to the stage at a concert in his hometown of Detroit in September 2017. As Time reported, he then delivered a profanity-laced stump speech that laid out the bare bones of his decidedly un-PC platform. 

He railed against tax dollars being used to help "some deadbeat" or a single mother who keeps "having kid after f**king kid." He also blasted Colin Kaepernick-inspired take-a-knee protests before asking "why these days is everything so gay?" On the topic of transgender rights, he declared that "whatever you have between your legs should determine the bathroom that you use." He also addressed accusations he was a racist, which had been fueled by his love of the Confederate flag. "I love black people. And I love white people, too," he said. "But neither as much as I love red, white, and blue."

Kid Rock's rant resulted in backlash, with News One Now reporting the National Action Network called for his upcoming concerts in Detroit to be cancelled. 

In January 2018, the National Hockey League announced that Kid Rock would be the performer at that year's NHL All-Star Game. As Sporting News reported, the announcement was instantly greeted by concerns over his alleged "racism, sexism and homophobia," along with his continued use of the Confederate flag as a stage prop and his opposition to controversial NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick protesting police violence against African-Americans by taking a knee while the National Anthem was played before football games.

Twitter unleashed a tsunami of outrage. "WTF are you doing @NHL?" one X comment read, while another wrote, "This is unbelievably out of touch. Why not somebody uncontroversial and broadly appealing, like anyone else?"

According to ESPN, the NHL was "aware" of the opposition to featuring Kid Rock at the All-Star game, but stood by its decision. As NHL exec Steve Mayer explained, the league selected Kid Rock simply because he was a longtime hockey fan. "It's all about the entertainment at the end of the day for us, and this selection was purely based on that, and the fact that Kid Rock is a hockey lover," he said.

After years of keeping her political views to herself, Taylor Swift took to Instagram to publicly throw her support behind two Democratic congressional candidates during the 2018 midterm elections. A subsequent Vogue cover story focused on her decision to finally share her political opinions with fans. The day after the Vogue story was published, Kid Rock felt the need to throw in his two cents in a scorched-earth post. "Taylor Swift wants to be a Democrat because she wants to be in movies... period," he wrote, before making a crude reference to Swift performing a sexual act. "Oldest move in the book. Good luck girl," he continued. 

Swifties came after Kid Rock with the kind of white-hot fury that can only be mustered by a hormonal teenager. They were joined in their outrage by some celebrities who were also appalled by the insulting, sexist remarks. "You're pathetic," responded Chrissy Teigen. "She should be a real American like you," comedian Patton Oswalt sarcastically sniped, referencing Kid Rock's upscale upbringing, "growing up on a six-acre estate complete with tennis court and horse paddock, and then bravely adopting a faux 'redneck s**tkicker' cosplay persona."

Kid Rock eventually expanded his horizons from the world of music into the hospitality industry. After the 2017 opening of his Kid Rock's Made in Detroit bar in the Michigan city's Little Caesars Arena, he launched Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock n' Roll Steakhouse in Nashville, Tenn. He had an interesting idea when it came to signage, reported ABC News: a 20-foot-high neon sign featuring a giant guitar, with its curvy base designed to resemble a female derriere.

According to the Tennessean, Nashville's Metro Council ultimately approved the sign in a 27-3 vote, with dissenters expressing concerns over the butt-shaped marquee. "We've worked very hard as a city to become somewhere that is a tourist destination, an 'It City,' somewhere that is family friendly," said Councilwoman Kathleen Murphy.

Murphy was concerned not only about the sign itself, but for the precedent it could set. "This one I feel crosses the line between good taste, family-friendliness, and I think what we would like Nashville to portray to people who come to visit us," she added. "If we allow this, what is going to come next? I think we can all use our imaginations here."

Kid Rock was in a celebratory mood while attending the opening of his new Nashville, Tenn. eatery, Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N' Roll Steakhouse. Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy was on hand to get a few comments — and hoo boy, did he have a few. Sipping what seemed to be an adult beverage from a styrofoam cup, Kid Rock told Doocy, "I would say, love everybody ... except I'd say screw that Joy Behar b***h," he said, causing Doocy to immediately apologize to viewers for the rapper's salty language. Kid Rock clarified, but didn't back down. "I did apologize for the language," he told Fox News viewers, "not the sentiment."

The following day, Behar — a standup comic before joining "The View" — responded to the insult in her own inimitable way during a broadcast of the daytime talk show. "This b***h and these b***hes will be happy to have you on the show and have a beer," she said.

Backlash to Kid Rock's comments was so severe, reported Rolling Stone, that he wound up being booted as Grand Marshal of Nashville's 2018 Christmas Parade.

A few months after the approval of his sign, Kid Rock jumped onstage at his Nashville, Tenn. restaurant and went off on — you guessed it! — a profanity-laden rant. Unfortunately for him, those remarks were captured on video and wound up in the hands of TMZ. In between f-bombs, Kid Rock trashed Oprah Winfrey, Joy Behar, and Kathie Lee Gifford, telling anyone who thought he was a racist to "f**k off." 

With one audience member telling NBC News that Kid Rock appeared to be "blackout drunk," the rapper's tirade was interrupted when a member of the restaurant's team escorted him offstage. He later offered a somewhat nonsensical explanation on X, claiming he was asked to do Winfrey's show years earlier, but balked when "her people" asked him "to write down five reasons why I loved her and her show."

There was fallout. Days after the video leaked, reported the Detroit Free Press, the company that owned the Detroit arena housing his Made in Detroit bar announced Kid Rock had "voluntarily decided not to renew" the agreement, and the bar would shut down. The company would seek a new establishment that "aligns with our community and company values." Kid Rock commented on the closure in a Facebook post that boasted his many charitable donations to Detroit organizations and undying affinity for his hometown and its residents. However, the rapper also stated that he "learned long ago, go where you're celebrated, not tolerated." 

On the same day of the announcement that Kid Rock's Made in Detroit restaurant would be shutting down, the establishment settled a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by a former employee. According to the Detroit Metro Times, Carinne Silverman-Maddox, who claimed to be the restaurant's only black bartender, filed a federal lawsuit against Made in Detroit. She alleged she was fired for wearing her hair in "a curly afro, instead of straightening it or putting it up like her Caucasian coworkers."

While the terms of the settlement were not made public, the lawsuit claims that Silverman-Maddox was "abruptly suspended... for allegedly over-pouring a single drink." Following her suspension, Silverman-Maddox alleged she was removed from the bar's schedule and eventually denied access to the schedule entirely. When her attorney informed the bar that she had retained a civil rights attorney, she was then officially fired.

Detroit Free Press first covered the lawsuit, Kid Rock, who wasn't named in the suit, responded by blasting the newspaper on X. "More bad journalism," he snarked. "Another attempt to get cheap clicks and views. Only minor investigating instead of immediate reporting would reveal the correct facts."

San Diego's SeaWorld was once considered a family-friendly destination where children could get up close and personal with creatures that call the ocean home. By 2014, however, the park had become a hotbed of controversy after the release of the documentary Blackfish, focusing on a 2010 incident in which a SeaWorld trainer was killed by an orca. The film questioned how humane it was to keep orcas and dolphins in captivity.

Kid Rock stepped into the controversy when he and country singer Alan Jackson were booked to perform at SeaWorld's "Bands, Brew & BBQ" concert series. As CNN reported, other acts booked by SeaWorld pulled out to avoid getting sucked into the whole mess — but not Kid Rock. A petition was launched urging Kid Rock and Jackson to cancel.

Ultimately, both artists ignored the backlash and performed as scheduled, unlike performers Trace Adkins, Trisha Yearwood, Willie Nelson, Barenaked Ladies, Martina McBride, Cheap Trick and Heart, all of whom had cancelled their SeaWorld shows due to the controversy. "What they do is slavery, plain and simple," Heart singer Ann Wilson told Rolling Stone, revealing the band made the decision after watching "Blackfish."

If animal lovers were disappointed in Kid Rock for performing at SeaWorld after numerous other artists cancelled their concerts there, a photo shared on social media only amped up the anger. It all started when Kid Rock's fellow Detroit rocker — and fellow hunting enthusiast — Ted Nugent posted a photo on Facebook of Kid Rock proudly holding up the dead carcass of a mountain lion he had killed during a hunt.

In the photo's caption, Nugent praised Kid Rock "for saving all those muledeer elk & livestock by whacking this magnificent mountain lion." Nugent also correctly predicted he and Kid Rock would be criticized by "braindead squawkers already with their obscene denial that killing lions is wrong." While Nugent's Facebook followers predictably offered support and accolades, anti-hunting commenters also chimed in, sparking a spirited pro-and-con debate over the merits of killing animals for sport.

All told, Nugent's post of Kid Rock and his dead feline trophy generated more than 6,700 comments.

When retired NBA great Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter were killed in a tragic helicopter crash in January 2020, numerous sports and entertainment figures paid their respects and offered condolences on social media. 

Kid Rock was among them. However, his tribute accompanied a photo on Instagram, featuring himself and Donald Trump Jr. on a hunting trip in Texas as they proudly posed with the deer they had just killed. In the caption, Kid Rock wrote that he had taken a helicopter and experienced a "very dark/eerie feeling," and revealed the gun he used during the hut had been nicknamed "The Black Mamba" — the same nickname that Bryant had given himself.

The Twittersphere was not impressed. "Huh. Who knew that Kobe Bryant's death was really about Kid Rock?" posted one X user, while yet another described Kid Rock's post as "absolutely tasteless." Yet another Twitter user summed up the prevailing sentiment by posting, "Interesting how he turned this tragedy into being about him. He does have something in common with the Trumps: narcissism." Ouch. 

In 2001, Kid Rock began dating Pamela Anderson. They became engaged in 2002, reported Us Weekly, only to break up in 2003. They reconnected in 2006 and got married in the French Riviera that same year. The marriage ended quickly, however, with Anderson filing for divorce 17 days later. 

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen may have shed some light on the reason behind the marriage's brevity. Speaking with the Daily Beast's Last Laugh podcast about his 2006 film Borat, he revealed a scene featuring his Kazakhstani journalist character throwing Anderson over his shoulder and accidentally injuring her jaw. "She lost two things," he said. "One, she lost a tiny bit of bone from her jaw and secondly, she lost a husband."

He was apparently referencing a 2006 report in the New York Post (via CBS News), in which a source alleged Kid Rock attended a "Borat" screening and became incensed with the way Anderson was portrayed. Kid Rock, said the source, "started screaming at Pam, saying she had humiliated herself and telling her, 'You're nothing but a wh**e! You're a s**t! How could you do that movie?'" Cohen confirmed that through a text exchange, Anderson told him "the movie" was the reason for her quickie divorce. 

In April 2023, Bud Light partnered with transgender actor and activist Dylan Mulvaney on an advertising campaign to promote special beer cans featuring the TikTok influencer's likeness. While the beer brand was lauded for being an ally to the trans community, teaming up with Mulvaney also sparked a vicious anti-trans backlash that led to a boycott. 

Among the louder voices entering the fray belonged to Kid Rock. He expressed his outrage in particularly violent fashion, blasting a few cases of Bud Light with an automatic weapon (with a video of the incident posted on social media). To make sure his point came across, he punctuated his message by brandishing his middle finger while declaring, "F*** Bud Light, and f*** Anheuser-Busch. Have a terrific day." In a subsequent appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience," he explained his motivation for the gunfire, insisting he'd just become fed up with companies that "were okay with this transgender thing ..."

Later that year, Kid Rock was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, one of many Fox News hosts who were fired. During that appearance, the singer revealed that he was no longer boycotting Bud Light because he felt that he'd made his point. "So, do I want to hold their head underwater and drown them because they made a mistake? No, I think they got the message," he said, as reported by CNN.

Celebrity tantrums are not only unbecoming, but in the age of social media, they can spiral into embarrassing incidents that go viral. Such was the case when Kid Rock took to the stage of Jon Bon Jovi's Nashville bar, JBJ, in February 2025. While veteran Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan was celebrating his 63rd birthday by performing with a band, Kid Rock joined him for a performance of the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic, "Proud Mary."

In a video filmed from the audience (and then posted on TikTok), Kid Rock can be seen clapping his hands together, indicating the crowd should follow suit. Only a few members of the audience do, and he quickly grew annoyed, instructing the band to stop playing. "If you ain't gonna clap, we ain't gonna sing," he scolded the audience. "That's how it's gonna work."

The band started back up, and he continued the performance, clapping instructively so the crowd could follow along. He kept singing — but not for long. After less than a minute, he determined that the crowd was not clapping as enthusiastically as he expected and became downright petulant by storming off the stage. "You know what? F*** y'all," he declared before his exit. "You ain't gonna clap, I'm going."

Fox News has experienced its fair share of scandals, and Kid Rock generated one of his own while appearing on Jesse Watters' show in 2025 when he weighed in on declining birthrates among Americans. While trends such as fewer teen pregnancies and more women delaying having children explain this phenomenon, Kid Rock offered his own theory. "It just hit me right now," he opined, "because who's gonna sleep with these ugly a**, broke, crazy, deranged, TDS [Trump derangement syndrome] liberal women?" he joked. Pointing to an onscreen image of protesters at an anti-Trump rally, he added, "I mean, you look at these rallies, it's like a bunch of women that no guy wants to sleep with, and a bunch of dudes that want to sleep with each other."

When contacted by Newsweek for clarification of his remarks, he issued a statement via email. "Thank you for allowing me to clarify my statement," he wrote. "I meant to say super duper ugly liberal women."

His comments stirred up backlash, and among those to fire back was Stella Parton, the sister of country music legend Dolly Parton. "Liberal women don't sleep with stinky, nasty, dirty, poor hygienic, man babies who whine and disrespect them," she posted. "They marry and sleep with real men!" 

During Kid Rock's appearance on Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime," Kid Rock also decided to pick a fight with a far more successful, more beloved, and more iconic musician: Bruce Springsteen. Kid Rock's ire was raised by some remarks that The Boss made during a concert in the U.K., in which Springsteen lamented that his beloved country was "currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration." 

While Springsteen's words were met with thunderous applause at that concert, that was not the case when the clip was shown on Fox News during Kid Rock's interview segment. Responding to what Springsteen had said, Kid Rock dismissed Springsteen as being inferior to Bob Seger and blasted him as a hypocrite. "I mean, Bruce Springsteen is another of these liberals who has mountains of money, that so desperately wants to keep his good standing in the eyes of Hollywood and the elite, but plays like this working-class guy," said Rock (who, ironically, comes from a wealthy family, while Springsteen does not)

Kid Rock took another shot at Springsteen in a different interview aired on the network, speaking with Fox News' Steve Doocy. "To be in Europe talking junk about our president ... what a punk move," he complained (via Fox News).

Given America's polarized political spectrum, Kid Rock's full-throated support of Donald Trump's MAGA movement was embraced by some of his fans, while alienating others. That latter group, however, has tended to show its displeasure by protesting his concerts.

Back in 2017, Kid Rock was chosen as the first act to perform at Detroit's newest venue, Little Caesars Arena. Not everyone was happy with that decision, and about 200 angry protestors made their opinions known before the show. "We have come to today to send a message to Little Caesars. We have come today to send a message to Kid Rock. We will not be disrespected!" said Charles Williams II of the National Action Network, which led the protest (as reported by Fox 2 Detroit).

Years later, protestors continued to flock to Kid Rock's shows due to his alignment with MAGA. In 2025, a protest erupted at Kid Rock's tour opener in Omaha, Nebraska. "I think this is a great, we have a right to protest, peaceful protest, and it's very important to do something about it," anti-MAGA protestor John Thomas told Omaha's KMTV News. Proving that was not an isolated incident, a similar protest greeted Kid Rock when that tour made it to Minneapolis.

For years, Kid Rock has demonstrated his knack for being a provocateur, but the shoe was on the other foot in August 2025, thanks to a scathing social media post issued by California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. Newsom, a vocal opponent of President Donald Trump and all things MAGA, used the account of his press office to post an AI-generated image of Kid Rock, mocked up as Uncle Sam in a parody of the iconic WWI recruitment poster. The image was emblazoned with the words, "Kid Rock wants you to support Gavin Newsom." Newsom wrote, simply, "I ACCEPT!" 

Newsom's post was not random. At the time, he'd been issuing a series of tweets mimicking Trump's distinctive social media style, even copying Trump by ending his missives with the all-caps phrase, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER." Newsom's tweet mocked a similar post that Trump had issued the previous year, when he accepted the faux support of a bogus AI-generated image of Taylor Swift, also decked out like Uncle Sam and declaring her support for Trump.

Kid Rock was clearly annoyed and issued a terse statement. Reposting Newsom's post, he added his own two cents. "The only support Gavin Newscum will ever get out of me is from DEEZ NUTZ," he wrote. As of late August, Kid Rock's tweet has been viewed 6.8 million times; Newsom's original tweet, on the other hand, had racked up 12.5 million views.