When the story came out about Kid Rock getting caught up in a fight between members of his entourage and a guy harassing them at a Waffle House in Atlanta, it sounded like he was just at the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time or something. Despite Rock’s history of being an abusive bully who is all too willing to come to blows over any perceived argument, I honestly thought he wasn’t that involved in the fight. It turns out that I was wrong, according to at least one witness who says that Rock started the fight when a guy annoyed him off by talking smack to a woman he was with. Just like with Tommy Lee at the VMAs, it was Rock who threw the first punch:

After a performance at a club called The Tabernacle, Kid and his buddies strolled into the breakfast eatery in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood at 5 a.m. on Oct. 21, when restaurant patron Harlen DeJon Akins made a comment to a female member of the group.

Kid, 36, argued with Akins, 39, and before long the rocker was throwing punches. But Kid was on the losing end of the brawl – and he would have been pummeled if his buddies hadn’t jumped in to save him, say eyewitnesses.

“Kid started the whole thing,” one witness told The Enquirer. “He threw the first punch and kept swinging, but Akins was whipping him bad until Rock’s buddies piled in.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 5, 2007]

It sounded like the witness may have been biased toward the other side, though, as they are quoted as saying that he was a “wussy” and “a little punk” and that “if his buddies hadn’t saved him, Akins would have wiped the floor with him.”

It’s true that Rock did start the fight, no matter how biased the Enquirer’s source may be. They say that a police spokeswoman confirmed that Rock threw the first punch. The guy Rock was fighting with may be charged with second degree criminal damage, which is a felony, for breaking the window of the restaurant during the fight.

Meanwhile Kid Rock has caught a break for his fight with Tommy Lee at the VMAs. Cops have decided not to charge him with battery, and Tommy Lee may have had something to do with it. He requested that no charges were brought against Rock. TMZ notes that he could still be charged with misdemeanor battery for the Waffle House beat-down.

Kid Rock is shown performing on 10/18/07. Thanks to PRPhotos.