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Here’s some news that genuinely shocked me: Kid Rock already had another gig lined up before Turning Point USA signed him to be the headliner of their “alternative” All-American White halftime show. Though to be fair, this wasn’t another instance of Kid Rock being asked to perform, but rather a tour he’s bringing to the masses messes. Kid’s “Rock the Country” tour was supposed to be a “festival for the people” set to begin May 1. Just as a reminder, the “country” he claims to be rocking has 50 states, yet the tour was only set to hold eight shows in eight towns. Except wait, it’s already down to seven towns after Anderson, South Carolina canceled on their hosting duties. You see, of the artists set for this tour, Ludacris, already backed out in mid-January due to backlash from his fans. Now, given the past week of everyone remembering Kid’s penchant for liking underage girls (lyrically, at least) and cozying up to fascism, bands Creed and Shinedown have also peaced out.
Less than a month ago, Creed and Shinedown appeared on a poster for the MAGA-coded event, consisting of “eight massive shows” taking place in “eight small towns.”
But as of Saturday, neither band was listed on the lineup on the official website, which now advertises just seven shows in seven towns, beginning May 1 in Bellville, Texas and ending Sept. 12 in Hamburg, N.Y.
Rapper Ludacris had already dropped out of his July 25-26 slot in Anderson, S.C. well before Friday, when Shinedown announced on Instagram that they’d be canceling their appearance.
“Our band’s purpose is to unite, not divide. With that in mind, we have made the decision that we will not be playing the Rock the Country Festival,” they wrote. “We know this decision will create differences of opinion. But we do not want to participate in something we believe will create further division.”
Shinedown drummer Barry Kerch told “The Vinyl Road” podcast in January that the band only learned of the “political leaning” of the event after they signed on to play, and for which they faced “tons” of backlash.
Creed does not appear to have publicly remarked on dropping out as a featured act for the Anderson show.
The cancellations went even further when officials in Anderson said the city would no longer host the festival, according to NBC affiliate WYFF.
Among the many still slated to perform in the other cities are stars such as Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton, Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert, Brantley Gilbert and Nelly.
…Also this week, an X account that goes by the handle The Democrats highlighted Rock’s 2001 appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” during which he made remarks about then-14-year-old Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
“Why is every guy in America waiting for these chicks to turn 18?” he asked at the time. “If there’s grass on the field, play ball!”
Well, that SNL quote of Kid Rock’s is an extra helping of revolting dressed in illegal with a side of WTF?! Last week I called him a “tall drink of scuzz” and he really is living down to that title. Heading into the weekend, Kid didn’t seem rattled by the extensive collective throwing up over his character. By contrast, he tweeted a lengthy Kobe Bryant quote about learning to love the hate that ended with, “They hate the great ones.” I’m now waiting for the word “great” to file suit. Obviously I didn’t watch the fake halftime show, but some poor guy at The Hollywood Reporter was given the onerous task — he literally titled his article “I Watched Turning Point USA’s Kid Rock Halftime Show So You Don’t Have To” — and the most shocking detail I read was that Kid came out… in shorts! I thought they were touting themselves as the family friendly option?? The THR article also totally roasted Kid for doing very little live singing, lol. TP USA claims they scored 5 million viewers. Sure. Personally, I’d sooner believe they had to pay people to be there, as California Governor Gavin Newsom’s fantastic Twitter team joked on Sunday.
Photos via Instagram and credit: Getty Images
Special Guest Appearance — Chelcie Lynn
Gavin Adcock? Colt Ford?
It’s like these names are from an AI name generator. WhoTF is Chelcie Lynn??
She’s a comedian who goes by “Trailer Trash Tammy”. It’s very based comedy. It’s funny for a half minute and then it gets stale really quick.
Ew, I’m side-eying those country stars still performing with him. Well, Jason aldean and Jelly Roll is to be expected. No idea why I expected more from Blake and Miranda, my bad.
I’m very surprised by Miranda. Blake? I don’t think of him as political. Sure, you know where he leans, but he’s not political. He very much loves to perform. He went to the State dinner with Gwen, where she performed for the President and the First Lady, when Barack was president, and he mingled with everybody, and I believe he came on did one song with Gwen.
And this tour could have just been Rock the Country as a title, and it just would have been a country-leaning music festival. It’s the logo the poster has at the top that shows Kid Rock is making it political: A Festival for the People. Then he has the Bald Eagle flying carrying the American flag, which is him saying: We are the true patriotic Americans. This music is for you. I mean, that’s the subtext.
I wouldn’t want to be associated with Kid Rock if I were Miranda. I guess she could just look at it as a music festival. But it’s not. It’s a Kid Rock Festival with an agenda, even if others don’t come out and perform in any political way.
I mean, the dumb-ass, Kid Rock. All music festivals are for the people, people who love music and are going to a specific festival because they like the acts or most of the acts. But he has to go and make the poster MAGA, “Music for the people.” The right kind of people. I have no doubt he will be spewing his MAGA-ness on stage.
“Blake? I don’t think of him as political. Sure, you know where he leans, but he’s not political.”
Uh, he is now. If he performs at this crap show, then he is political. Plus, at this point, when Americans are being gunned down in the street, if you LEAN right, you are very much a problem.
@FYI Yep. What’s that quote about a nazi bar? “If you let nazis sit at your bar, you have a nazi bar.” This “innocent music festival” is most definitely a nazi bar.
No surprises re Blake and Miranda for me; always thought they were MAGAts. (And now, there’s no denying Gwen Stefani, too, as most couples are politically aligned.) Nelly disgusts me. Poor greed over principles.
I’m not surprised they’re maga but I did think they tried to be more covert about it. People are real emboldened as they perform with the racist president’s little pet, Kid Rock.
I didn’t expect more from Blake, but I did expect more from Miranda, and am disappointed to see her on the lineup. I named her Mutt Nation charity on this site when we talked about getting pets out of wildfire danger. Sigh.
And who is actually left from Lynyrd Skynyrd that has ownership of their name? My goodness the original band would never have agreed to this. Fly your free bird out of this “festival”.
I expected more from Miranda, also, and was shocked at her linking herself to MAGA weirdo Kid Rock.
“A Drag Tribute to Miranda Lambert Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of her debut album Kerosene.” Her gay brother put on the tribute at his favorite gay bar in Austin. He’s been running her fansite since he was 13.
“I never thought I would hear drag and Miranda Lambert in the same sentence, but here we are. But one thing that the performers and fans didn’t expect? Miranda herself showed up.
Dressed casually and surrounded by her crew, including her husband Brendan McLaughlin and her openly gay brother Luke, she watched the show unfold-and at one point, grabbed the mic to tell everyone just how much it meant to her.
She told the crowd, while holding back tears: “This is the best night ever. Thank you to the girls, the gays, the theys — for 20 years. Thank you, Luke-y-my brother. I’m gonna cry! Thank you all so much for all the support. I love y’all. This was, like, the best thing ever. I love you! Okay- shoot tequila! Have fun!”
Not surprised by Blake Shelton or Miranda lambert at all. As for Gwen Stefani, she takes on the personality of every man she’s with. She has none of her own. For all of her success and talent, she’s kind of a pick me.
I saw at it’s high only 4 million were watching. And I assume that was some journalists who had to watch it. LOL. Bad Bunny had the highest watched Half Time show ever at this point. Suck it MAGA.
I like how he has a loooong list of artists playing, but at the bottom ‘in fine print’ it says, lineups vary by city. Yeah, we see what you did there. Shady marketing.
Just a note, the Puppy Bowl got twice the viewers that Turning Point did: 12.6 million compared to 6.1. Go dogs.
Kristi Noem was wisely kept away from the Puppy Bowl, I see.
I saw a clip of his performance and nearly died of Fremdschaemen, being utterly humiliated on his behalf. The lip syncing was atrocious, half the time he was lurching around and the mic was at his side while he was supposed to be singing.
Not just shorts but JORTS, literally cut off jeans.
At the last minute they were whining that they couldn’t get licensing. LOL!! A) I do believe that whatever permissions they tried to get, they were told HELL TO THE NO!! B) I also believe they saw the MASSIVE flop coming and tried to mitigate. No one wants to see that man who looks like a dehydrated hot dog, he looks like he smells like a dirty water dog.