What’s Kid Rock Doing Marshaling a Nashville Parade Anyway?
Kid Rock is the wet cigarette of music.
It’s not that the guy hasn’t accidentally stumbled into a few good songs over the years, and give the dude credit for name dropping country legends upon occasion back in his heyday and helping to make them cool again. He also took Hellbound Glory out on tour with him once, so there’s that. But even if you’re a fan of his, you have to recognize he’s a total scuzzball. He might be your scuzzball, but he’s a scuzzball nonetheless. That’s why you love him.
Shortly after being cleared by the Federal Elections Commission for any wrongdoing for his dumbass fake Senate election run that the idiot media was gullible enough to believe, Kid Rock went on Fox & Friends Friday morning (11-30) and had the audacity to call Joy Behar of The View a “bitch.” The context of the conversation had to do with PC culture, and the pervasiveness of the use of accusations of racism and homophobia against individuals simply if someone disagrees with them.
Generally speaking, Kid Rock is probably right on that point. PC culture has completely run amuck, and makes Tipper Gore’s PMRC and the Satanism scare of the 80’s look sedate. But Kid Rock’s also a pretty terrible point man against PC culture since he’s been a historic perpetrator of misogyny and cultural appropriation throughout his career. It’s sort of like Shania Twain out there flapping her gums about ageism affecting country radio. Of course there’s ageism on country radio, but there may not be any bigger benefactor of ageism in the history of country music than Shania Twain back in the day, putting dozens of country legends out to pasture with her pop country and leopard print. Now that her overproduced music isn’t getting played, all of a sudden she’s chosen to be a spokesperson. Please.
But I digress. After Kid Rock called Joy Behar a “bitch” on live television, he was removed as the grand marshal of the 65th Nashville Christmas Parade on Saturday (12-1). The mayor and city council members said they wouldn’t participate in the parade if Kid Rock continued as grand marshal, and he was edged out. There’s a lot of minutiae behind the story (that means trivial details, Kid Rock fans), like who actually sponsors the parade. It is done to benefit the Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, and there are a few big money backers, including a guy named Steve Smith, who owns Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and other Nashville properties. He’s how Kid Rock got the spot in the first place. Now Steve Smith is threatening to sue the other sponsors.
But the big question is, why in the hell is Kid Rock being chosen as the grand marshal of a Nashville parade in the first place? What true ties does he have to Nashville, or to 2018, aside from having a stabbin’ cabin in the area to have extra-marital sex and smoke pot in? Nashville is full of celebrities who have specific ties to the city, and you choose Kid Rock? He was replaced by James Shaw, Jr., who was the guy who wrestled the gun away from a mass shooter at a Nashville Waffle House earlier this year, saving scores of lives. Now that is someone you should have as the grand marshal for a local parade, not some sponger who wants to be considered country now that the rock format has been killed off, partially due to rock rappers like Kid Rock. There was really an initial discussion between Kid Rock and James Shaw Jr., and Kid Rock won?
Kid Rock has been trying to grime his way into the Music City culture and Southern mindset for going on 20 years now, and making him the grand marshal of the local parade would have only helped to unjustly cement that. From playing loose with the idea that he was an illegitimate son of Hank Jr., to forcing himself on the bus of Hank Williams III with Pamela Anderson in tow to get in the face of Hank3 and tell him how he needs to be a better son, to releasing his last record Sweet Southern Sugar, and the single “Tennessee Mountain Top,” this guys got more Southern envy than a Saskatchewan snowbird.
Kid Rock is from Michigan, and no offense to that because The Hand has it’s own things to be proud of. To act like somehow Nashville owes anything to Kid Rock is ridiculous. We knew it was a bad sign when right beside the photos of Hank Williams Jr., Kris Kristofferson and others on the famous front of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Kid Rock’s mug mysteriously appeared a few years ago. Then he somehow got a star on the Music City Walk of Fame. Nashville is right to resist Kid Rock’s name becoming synonymous with the city. Why isn’t Kid Rock trying to embed himself in Detroit’s music legacy and culture, which is quite strong, and is in need to advocacy and pride?
And while we’re on the subject of misappropriated culture, while running Kid Rock out of town, let’s do the same to his business partner Steve Smith, who has taken the critical cultural institution that is Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, and turned it into a karaoke bar. Tootsie’s the Applebee’s of classic rock these days, nothing more than a receptacle for frat boys to throw up in, and for tourists to listen to Foreigner cover bands. This is the place Kris Kristofferson penned some of his greatest songs, and Willie Nelson once sold Patsy Cline’s husband on the idea of cutting “Crazy.” Now you’d almost rather go into the Blake Shelton-themed bar because at least it’s authentic to itself. Almost, that is. Plus, their jalapeno poppers are better.
And why does Kid Rock care so much about helming a damn parade anyway? The Kid Rock I know would give a middle finger salute to the Sesame Street float, then vandalize a Waffle House before taking a swan dive into a bunch of trailer park meth whores. Again, if you love Kid Rock, that’s why. Oh, but Kid Rock wanted his granddaughter to see him as grand marshal? (Yes, Kid Rock is a grandfather). Well how would he like it if someone called his granddaughter the b-word? But it’s not like Joy Behar doesn’t come with her own dubious amount of politically incorrect baggage, uttering numerous dumb things over the years, yet nobody’s out there trying to deplatform her. We should be able to go back to a time when we all understood that humans are flawed, and our emotions get the best of us upon occasion and we all say stupid things.
I can overlook Kid Rock—and Joy Behar for that matter—for saying stupid things, because they’re entertainers who’ve built their careers around being edgy. But Kid Rock still has no business marshaling a Nashville parade.
Seriously Kid Rock, just go away. Or at least back to Michigan where you belong.
December 3, 2018 @ 12:43 pm
I’m old enough to remember when Kid Rock wanted to be a Rapper.
December 3, 2018 @ 1:12 pm
“I like AC/DC and ZZ Top
Bocephus, Beasties, and the Kings of Rock
Skynyrd, Seger, Limp, Korn, the Stones
David Allen Coe, and No Show Jones”
The man has a wide variety of musical inspiration.
December 4, 2018 @ 7:03 am
He is a genuinely talented musician who has never been shy about appreciating different music. But, yes, a scuzzball. (And a Michigander.)
December 4, 2018 @ 7:42 am
I can agree with this. (Outing myself as a Michigander)
December 4, 2018 @ 2:13 pm
“Genuinely talented?” Last time I heard from this guy he was rapping over Metallica riffs. What happened, did he learn to play an instrument or something?
December 4, 2018 @ 3:05 pm
He plays the piano, among other instruments.
December 5, 2018 @ 8:19 am
I think Kid Rock is awful, personally, but he does play a handful of instruments.
December 4, 2018 @ 9:31 am
I have seen him in concert lots of times he is a heck of a singer musican and all around guy he doesnt or hasnt done anything any wilder than the rest leave him alone
December 4, 2018 @ 4:59 pm
The club he owns on Broadway across from the Luke Bryan one is basically unmarked. There’s an 8×11 sheet of computer paper taped next to the door that says, “Kid Rock’s Honky Tonk.” The inside looks like 3 floors of empty seasonal mall stores in the off-season. Like a place Uncle Jessie fron full House would be looking at with a real estate agent to rehab and turn into the Smash Club. I guess having a stake in a downtown business makes the parade thing more understandable, but as a civic matter, he should not be head of the parade because his “honky tonk” looks like a going out of business sale for bar and restaurant equipment.
December 3, 2018 @ 12:53 pm
So is Kid Rock gonna marshall the parade or not? It still seems unsettled…
December 3, 2018 @ 1:05 pm
No, he didn’t. It happened Saturday.
December 3, 2018 @ 8:48 pm
They got the Waffle House shooting hero to be the GM.
December 3, 2018 @ 1:03 pm
Glad you didn’t mention da U.P. in connection with Kid Rock. The trolls can keep him.
December 3, 2018 @ 1:10 pm
It’s one state.
He’s from Michigan, which includes the mitten, UP and even the parts of the state that have Packer fans
December 4, 2018 @ 10:40 am
Um, yes. I wouldn’t know, having only lived there the first ~40 years of my life.
December 4, 2018 @ 10:45 am
Come back, we miss you <3
December 4, 2018 @ 11:55 am
Sorry, married up and moved out! Promise I’ll visit, though.
December 3, 2018 @ 1:11 pm
Love the pasties in the U.P.
Only thing that comes close is the Kolaches in West, TX.
December 3, 2018 @ 9:20 pm
Caldwell is my family’s traditional stop for kolaches
December 4, 2018 @ 10:49 am
Pasties are even better with venison… from your own freezer.
December 4, 2018 @ 2:52 pm
Weikels FTW
December 3, 2018 @ 1:03 pm
Amen, Trigger!
December 3, 2018 @ 1:35 pm
His son I believe graduated already but he went to Belmont. Most likely why he was spending a lot of time there. Hazel smith wrote about it in a column years ago.
December 3, 2018 @ 2:58 pm
Doesn’t he also own a bar on Broadway? Maybe it gets lost in the shuffle of all the other artist-owned bars popping up on Broadway the last couple years, but I thought he had some business connection to Nashville as well as whatever tenuous personal connection he might have.
December 4, 2018 @ 5:05 pm
Yeah he has a bar down on lower Broadway. Interesting place haha. Not country at all. Like at all. But it’s an enjoyable spot for tourists
December 3, 2018 @ 1:54 pm
Not very gentlemanly perhaps, but it’s no worse than calling a man an a-hole. We all know those male insults don’t sound right applied to a woman, so how are you going to insult her? I swear, 99% of the people I hear use that word are women.
December 3, 2018 @ 1:56 pm
Well, he did say, “I want to be a cowboy.”
December 3, 2018 @ 2:30 pm
His being named Marshall may have more to do with the monstrous bar bearing his name that just opened on Broadway.
December 3, 2018 @ 2:47 pm
You should have left this alone… IMO Have you ever met him? He actually said what a ton of people have thought and said themselves about Joy Behar for a few years now. She is horrid. He didn’t ask to be GM but he was excited for it for his granddaughter to be in the parade because she was excited. I’m sure he was upset because it broke her heart.
December 3, 2018 @ 2:55 pm
Yeah, poor her….likely to retire into a fat pot of cash whenever Mr. Ritchie leaves this earthly plane. I’m sure probably never having to work a crappy job for one day of her life (so long as Bob/relatives don’t waste the cash), will serve as ointment for that particular wound.
You may not like Joy Behar, hell I don’t either, but actions have consequences. For instance, if you want to serve as Grand Marshal for a parade, you probably don’t want to make controversial statements on the eve of said parade. Especially in these polarized, hyper-sensitive times. That should serve as a good lesson for his heart-broken granddaughter, actions and words have consequences.
December 3, 2018 @ 7:10 pm
I agree with what KR said about Behar, but this article is right on.
December 4, 2018 @ 8:53 am
A good lesson for those who like to hide behind free speech whenever they get in trouble for acting like imbeciles. You can say whatever you want but be ready to face the consequences when you do.
December 5, 2018 @ 7:44 pm
I didn’t recall hearing KR hide behind free speech.
December 3, 2018 @ 2:49 pm
teech a yankee to drive point kid rocks car north
December 3, 2018 @ 3:20 pm
I dunno Trig, I was born and raised in a mobile home on the fringes of Appalachia. Kid Rock is all we have. I celebrate the man’s entire catalog. Except “Picture”, ‘F that song.
December 3, 2018 @ 3:20 pm
Michigan doesn’t want him. He grew up on a horse farm outside Detroit where his dad owned four car dealerships. Almost everyone here considers him a fake and a bad joke, but he knows how to play the business/publicity game. He shows up at the worst times and in the worst places, like a human avatar for herpes.
December 3, 2018 @ 3:59 pm
Brilliant!
He is the P.T. Barnum of our day.
If not for the publicity stunts–Tommy Lee fight, Waffle House fight, etc.–no media outlet would ever mention him.
His music had its time. He was … something … once. But that day has passed and he no longer matters. Yet he keeps his name in the public’s narrative. Congrats, sir.
December 3, 2018 @ 4:33 pm
Kid Rock sighting!
https://youtu.be/pdebiKg8Pw8
December 3, 2018 @ 5:05 pm
When I think of a Christmas parade, I think of parents taking their kids to see floats and Santa Claus. A few months back, I read he was going to be the Grand Marshal. The first thing I thought was “That is not someone I would want representing my company.” Have we sunk so low as a society that this is who we want representing us as a city?
The organizers of this parade must have had no knowledge of his profane language at his concerts. This has nothing to do with what he called Joy Behar. It has to do that he is a risk to drop an f-bomb anytime he is handed a microphone. I have to question if people that thought it was so horrible that his appearance was cancelled would have felt comfortable playing his CD in front of their pre-teen kids.
Make no mistake, I am not a prude. But for God sake, there is a musician on every street in Nashville that would have been a less controversial pick than Kid Rock. The organizers ended up having to answer to people on both sides of the issue, a problem they wouldn’t have had if common sense would have been used in picking the Grand Marshal.
For his fans, keep rallying behind him, eat at his Lower Broadway restaurant and attend his concerts. For those who think it was a bad choice, stay away. Instead of these two simple choices, Nashville is in national headlines, looking like a dumb-ass city that can’t make up their mind.
December 3, 2018 @ 5:39 pm
Yes. This is not about taking the side in some political fight between Joy Behar and Kid Rock. This isn’t even about Kid Rock’s music. If you like Kid Rock, more power to you. But how in the hell did anyone think it was a good idea to make him a Grand Marshal of a Christmas parade, and over a guy who saved lives in a mass shooting, who would (and did) have universal acceptance by everyone as a hero? Without the expletive on live TV (which proves your point of him being a loose canon), how did it even get that far?
December 4, 2018 @ 6:31 pm
LOL it’s such a bizarre, out of left field choice. Grand opening of a bar, grand opening of a strip club, grand opening of a second-rate roadside casino, grand opening of a new brothel, Hell’s Angels 4th Of July Pig Roast…all perfectly appropriate venues for Kid Rock. But a Christmas parade? Imagine the confusion young children would feel upon seeing the strange, seedy, unkempt man waving at the crowd like some sort of hobo parade float hijacker, then imagine having to explain to those children who Kid Rock is and why he’s famous. “Wait, you mean he was BETTER when he used to have a foul-mouthed little person on stage with him?????”. Glad I don’t have any kids, I’ll tell you what.
“Silent night, holy night, got a fifth o’ JD and I’m feelin’ alright, got my Santa slacks jacked and Santa’s elves are stacked (cue the strippers)”…no, KR and Christmas go together like summer bro-country festivals and non-alcoholic beer. And speaking for myself, I can’t imagine anything less consequential than a “feud” between KR and a daytime TV talk show host nor am I surprised that KR would immediately drag said feud into his foul-mouthed brash n’ bold gutter. It’s almost sort of endearing in a sad disgusting way.
December 3, 2018 @ 5:52 pm
I think the clown in the sequined suit was a more egregious affront.
And
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EegtgP3EmKU
December 4, 2018 @ 8:23 am
Good gosh – that’s an insult to Charlie Daniels. 10 seconds in was all I could stand.
December 3, 2018 @ 6:15 pm
Just another illustration of how off the rails our concept of ” talent” is …especially by Nashville’s new ‘ standards ” . All the talented music people on the planet …all the incredibly talented iconic country folks in Nashville and Kid Rock was the best they could come up with ?
What a joke ….
December 3, 2018 @ 6:21 pm
”Seriously Kid Rock, just go away.”
yeah ….that’s what I meant to say, Trigger . I’m just happy not to be his granddaughter .
December 3, 2018 @ 8:28 pm
Kid Rock is about as “country” as a pastrami sandwich on rye. There are few musical experiences as disappointing as hearing the opening bars of “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Sad But True” or “Werewolves Of London” and instead getting KR’s sad-sack-sorry versions, complete with his mutterings about smoking weed, getting laid and his designer slacks. He was the rock star voted Most In Need Of A Good Soaping And Hosing Off for the last ten years running but his management team feels he’d be unrecognizable without the scuzz.
Seriously though, I have a friend who has a ticket hook-up and he’ll attend pretty much any concert no matter who’s playing. He’s walked out of exactly two shows out of many hundreds and one of those shows was Kid Rock. His words: “it quickly became genuinely embarrassing to be there”.
December 4, 2018 @ 6:33 am
Not that there’s anything wrong with a nice pastrami on rye, but point taken.
There are few musical experiences as disappointing as hearing the opening bars of “Sweet Home Alabama”, “Sad But True” or “Werewolves Of London” and instead getting KR’s sad-sack-sorry versions…
So true and have experienced that disappointment recently. Also, realizing that the version of Drift Away that you’re hearing is Uncle Kracker’s cover and not the Dobie Gray classic original.
December 4, 2018 @ 5:53 pm
KR is possibly the only musical artist ever who was actually BETTER as a “rap-rocker”, which is a really bold statement when you think about it. KR’s music is the embodiment of summertime’s seedy underbelly…pit stained Luke Bryan T-shirts, half-empty lite beer cans full of cigarette butts, party guests urinating behind the tool shed and your passed-out sister-in-law’s blackened sticky bare feet. He’s like Ted Nugent without the understated class and dignity, not to mention the discography. It’s the musical equivalent of discount store brand orange soda in cheap paper cups, being spilled by a slow-witted toddler.
December 4, 2018 @ 4:03 am
Steve Smith, owner of Tootsies and about 5 other downtown bars, including majority partner in Kid Rock’s bar, paid $250,000 with the stipulation that Kid Rock was Grand Marshall.
He backed down wanting his $250,000 after sobering up. Something like that might shine a light in any other questionable business practices.
There was a NewsChannel5 story about Smith’s past quite a few years ago. Something about being “connected” or run out of a bigger city. Then there’s the stories on how, in the late 80s-early 90s, he and associates squatted on Tootsies through a night with a gun in the table to gain majority ownership. Possibly rumors but things to consider.
Dick
December 4, 2018 @ 4:20 am
“PC culture” another one of those bullshit terms that makes me want to throw up. In my experience those crying loudest about “PC gone mad” are the ones who come over the most “PC” when its an issue they care about.
December 4, 2018 @ 8:44 am
Ain’t that the truth. I’ve never seen people who love to call other people snowflakes and pussies throw down boycotts so fast when they’re thin skins are offended.
December 4, 2018 @ 6:11 pm
And how has “PC snowflake culture” affected a guy like KR anyhow? Has “PC culture” somehow affected his very successful and lucrative career in any sort of negative way? Has someone infringed upon his “right” to be a greasy annoying living white-trash cliche? Of course there are folks who take “PC” too far; this is the USA, you name it and there’s someone somewhere taking it too far. But, much like with juggalos, acoustic black metal fans and people who learn to speak Klingon, you politely ignore them and go about your business.
December 4, 2018 @ 4:21 am
As for Kid Rock, he always was a giant little talent douche
December 4, 2018 @ 5:17 am
To sum up the entire article; Kid Rock is no longer Grand Marshall, but Joy Behar remains a bitch.
December 4, 2018 @ 6:38 am
I laughed myself silly upon reading your comments on Tootsies! A receptacle for frat boys to throw up in! Hilarious. And , so true. I once tried to check it out and the line was out the door, the wait insufferable and AC/DC was blasting from the rooftop bar. The twenty somethings were super obnoxious and the crowd was most certainly not there to see a songwriters museum. They were scenesters, there to send selfies to their bros. Tootsies may have been the place, but not now.
As for Kid Rawk, he’s king of the trailer park! The irony of the waffle house hero replacing him hit me. Kid was involved in a skirmish at Waffle House some years ago at 2 am or something. I think he was stoned as well. Priceless.
December 4, 2018 @ 7:50 am
“To sum up the entire article; Kid Rock is no longer Grand Marshall, but Joy Behar remains a bitch.”
Yes, that says it all.
December 4, 2018 @ 7:51 am
Also, wasn’t the Mayor busted cheating on her husband with some security guard in a cemetery (or something like that)…seems to be coming from an odd position, refusing to be part of a parade with Kid Rock and all.
December 4, 2018 @ 8:22 am
That was the previous mayor. She also embezzled money to pay for trips with said security detail. She resigned.
December 4, 2018 @ 8:50 am
Whomever took Steve Smith’s money to put Kid Rock on a float has some explaining to do. I can see why they wanted him gone but I can also see why Steve Smith wants to sue. The $250 000 wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart it was to promote their business.
December 4, 2018 @ 8:58 am
Kid Rock did not, in fact, stomp all over our test of time.
December 4, 2018 @ 10:56 am
“Kid Rock is the wet cigarette of music.”
GREAT LINE, TRIGGER.
December 4, 2018 @ 12:25 pm
Honestly, this write up has all the signs of someone that is just as liberal as ole Joy herself, while pretending to be just a good ole southern country boy…. If I had to guess, I’d say someone that may very well live in the south, but is in fact from a very liberal minded city. With that said, Kid Rick imo, still has more in common with the true country roots of the south than this particular liberal minded writer. Nice try though…
December 4, 2018 @ 5:41 pm
Wait, who’s pretending to be a good ole southern country boy?
I’m from south of Dallas, which is the city that killed Kennedy. Does that earn me any cred in your book?
Seriously, I wish you could have a conversation with all those folks calling me a sexist/racist/bigot on Twitter.
December 5, 2018 @ 8:51 am
My politics are moderate left when compared to the whole country and I’d say more to the left when compared to the SCM community in general. The notion of you being a liberal make me think of that Steve Earle line “I know Obama’s not a socialist because I haven’t seen him at any of the meetings.” But you’re not a fire breathing right winger and so I guess that makes you a liberal to some on the extreme right. And your nuanced and maybe sometimes moderately right leaning views and I’d say occasional passionate hot takes can be cherry picked by take-no prisoners culture warriors on the hard left to paint you as a “sexist/racist/bigot.” Such are the times.
December 5, 2018 @ 7:17 am
Well I think I’d rather eat the barrel
Of a double-barrel loaded shotgun
Than to hear that shit they call pop-country music
On ninety-eight-point-one
Just so you know, so it’s set in stone
Kid Rock don’t come from where I come from:
Yeah, it’s true, he’s a Yank, he ain’t no son of Hank:
And if you thought so, well goddamn, you’re fuckin’ dumb
— Hank3
December 4, 2018 @ 2:12 pm
Kid Rock is more of an actor than a musician. His roles include privileged white kid from upper middle class family, clean cut hip-hop wannabe, rap rocker, southern rocker, and now country singer. He just chases the trends. Fully expect him to attempt a country-pop crossover collaboration with someone like Ariana Grande soon.
December 5, 2018 @ 9:33 am
Caveat up front: I don’t give a single solitary shit about Kid Rock or Nashville. Also, I love this site and fully agree with the vast majority of the positions taken by the author. Most of the artists I treasure we’re discovered through album reviews published here. That being said..
Everytime I read the words “cultural appropriation” on this site I cringe. Cultural appropriation is barely, if at all, a real thing. Anybody as intelligent as Trigger should know that practically every good thing we have in life was borrowed from other cultures, regardless of which culture you’re from or referring to. Honestly, I just expect better.
December 5, 2018 @ 11:51 am
“Cultural appropriation” has in my opinion become appropriated and overused by some folks to go way overboard about things such as Halloween costumes or folks celebrating parts of other people’s culture with perhaps what they wear, or the art they have in their house, etc., and thus it has become a “dog whistle” topic that I agree can get completely out of hand.
However Kid Rock would be the perfect example of overboard cultural appropriation. Here’s a guy who made a career out of being a rock rapper, then comes down to Nashville, puts out a song and a single specifically touting his “Southern” this and that, plays fast and loose with the idea that he’s a son of Hank Jr., then wants to be the Grand Marshal of a Nashville parade above a local hero. When outside culture is supplanting or overriding native culture—like Kid Rock is doing here—that is when cultural appropriation becomes a problem.
I hope this makes sense.
December 7, 2018 @ 6:58 pm
It does.
December 5, 2018 @ 3:28 pm
Keep doing your thing Kid, and calling Joy Behar what she is. Sold more albums than most, so he is doing something right. As for the parade, nation is full of whiners, just prove this point even more. Along with some of the keyboard tough guys on this page.
December 6, 2018 @ 4:53 pm
Joy Behar a bitch? I think he’s on to something..
December 7, 2018 @ 8:34 am
Whats did Saskatchewan do to you Trigger? Harsh comment! haha
December 7, 2018 @ 6:54 pm
If I had to choose between Kid Rock and Nashville, it would be no choice at all.
I like Kid Rock a hell of a lot more than Nashville.
Nashville is about money and little else.
I liked it a lot more 30 years ago when it was scruffy, but authentic.