There was a point at which Kidrock went from being a musician to an icon to a one-man movement, and a friend of ours. That was the moment we want to sit down once again with him in studio and check in on how he's doing Changing America. Great to.

See you.

Great to see you. I remember sitting doing my text right before bed one night, and I read that Bud Light has decided to go tranny. That's distressing. The next day, 12 hours later, you released the video of you executing the Bud Light with the car being….

Fuck Bud Light and fuck Anheiser-Bush. Have a terrific day.

Then months later, Bud Light effectively apologizes, doesn't go out of business, closes two bottling plants. But it is terrible for the guys who work there, but then comes back and hands the U. F. C. $100 million basically to say, We're sorry, we will get better. That seems like a win to me.

I think it could be. I think they got some work still to get some of that base that they lost, I think to get them back, like I've said a few times I'd love to see them get triple fratty and hit it head-on, make light of the situation, self-deprecation. But at the end of the day, when you step back and look at it like, Yeah, they deserved a black eye and they got one. They made a mistake.

How did you know you moved so fast on that. I mean, a lot of things.

Going on. It was like a lot of people just pissed me off. I keep a lot of beer on the property, a lot of light beer. The Bud Light was one of them. I know who my consumers are. I was just doing a little marketing to my folks. That was spot on for me, but also a fun excuse to get my machine going out and have some fun, but also to make a statement like, hey, a lot of us aren't cool with this. I believe a lot of people fought and died for people's right to be whoever they want. But when you're that type of brand, you know who you consumers are? You know how this started, I think? I thought about it. They moved part of their corporate offices from St. Louis to New York City. Yeah, they did. Okay. Then they start hiring these Ivy League progressive people to work for them who don't know shit about working class people are middle America in this country.

Unhappy.

Women. Yeah. And so somebody was watching The Henhouse, they're riding high and mighty as number one, and a fox gets in. Yes, it was a mistake. So do I want to hold their head underwater and drown them because they made a mistake? No, I think they got the message. Hopefully other companies get it too. But at the end of the day, I don't think the punishment that they've been getting at this point fits the crime. I would like to see people get us back on board and become bigger because that's America I want to live in.

Well, it's better to improve than destroy. Yeah. That seems like a win. We're talking to this off camera and you said.

What would that say about us as like-minded people.

Who.

Were like, Hey, cut it out. What's the matter with you? If we brought them back up, that's the America I want to live in. It's not wrong with giving us spanking. The kid does something wrong. Maybe he's going to harm themselves, but you'll spank him for the rest of their life. If someone gets taught a lesson, they say we made a mistake. All right, man, let's move on. I mean, we've done it for a whole lot worse. What about Japan? Germany?

You drop two atom bombs on Japan, then you rebuild it, and then you become allies.

You can't say it enough. Who's getting hurt in all this boycots and stuff when people make mistakes? This cancel culture crap. It's a working class, people who don't have any dog in the fight. It's like, all right, we don't hurt these people. Message sent. All right, let's move on. Here's a bag of ice. Put it on that shiny. Let's talk about it.

I noticed that is not a Bud Light you're drinking. I saw that getting poured. Have you had one since this all started?

Dude, my whole life has become Bud Light. I got to stack to the CO because every one of my friends thinks it's a joke to bring me a 12 pack.

So you just got a.

Lot of free beer out of it. Yeah, or shove them in my golf bag. They pop up everywhere. It's become a fun thing for my friends to mess with me on. But I'll drink any cold, free beer. Let's put it that way.

That's your main criterion, cold, free.

Cold and free.

Trump. You've seen Trump a lot recently. How's he doing?

Tough as son of a bitch on the Earth. He's doing great. It's incredible. We just got to spend some time with him. Yeah. But you seem to be having more fun than anybody. I was having. I was having. You watched that video back, we're walking in the ring, and he was looking all tough. You're like, Ha-ha. Like, this is the greatest day of my life. I loved it. Which was, that was so much fun.

It was amazing.

I love spending time with him, getting to know him since he became President the first few months, having dinner at the White House with him, and from there on, we've just really hit it off. I can relate to in a lot of ways as somebody who might speak out of turn a little bit and say what's on his mind. But I think if you look at his track record and who he is as a whole, there's a lot more good there than anything. I could go both ways, I always say with me, you can go on the internet and you can make me out to be some crazy wild party animal who just has his middle fingers in the air and doesn't care, or he can be someone who has a single father who loves his family, loves his country, does a lot of philanthropy. It's all there for the taking. I try to see the good in people. I haven't always executed that correctly or on the spot. But whatever it is, when I give it, it's 100 % real.

Well, so without betraying the details of your conversations, you've been with Trump a bunch of times since he got indicted and the world has crashed in around him. How does he seem?

Can't tell.

Really?

No. I mean, we're golfing and we're hanging out in different scenarios here and there. His spirits are always up, and he's always talking about this country. He's always talking about this country and how he wants to win for it. He likes to win at anything. Yeah, that's true. Anything. When we're golfing, I won 100 bucks from him to USC. I don't think he was too happy about it.

What did you bet on?

We were betting on fights. We're just picking guys to make it more interesting. And man, somebody that's in that office, in any office that wants to win for this country, I'm in. I've never seen anybody who wants to win for this country like that. I don't think we'll ever see anything like it in our lifetime. To me, he's the greatest present we've had.

And he's unaffected in your experience by everything that's happening.

Is he pissed off?

Sure. Yeah, but he doesn't seem.

Broken at all. I don't want to speak out of school, but who's not going to hem and haul a little bit about the people that are doing this to you? These people in New York. It's a freaking joke. I mean, one Google search on Zillow, property in Palm Beach, there's like a couple acres that comes up on the water. It's 200 million dollars. They're like, Marlago is only worth 17 million. It's like, well, you are a stupid son of a bitch if you say that. He takes loans from the bank, whatever, he pays them all back. Everybody makes money. There's no crime here. Anybody who can't see their fucking with them. It's just blinded. I know the guy speaks out of turn a little bit, says some things. I can relate.

I.

Do it myself quite often because I just say what's on my mind, and I can get that, but I don't know how you look at his track record and what he did and how he had this country fired on all cylinders when he was in office. Everybody working. Our military is the strongest. He's leading with strength and borders under control, just energy independent. You could go on and on. I don't get it. I understand because it seems like it's a lot of women in my life and stuff. They're like, I don't like the way he talks. I'd say, Come on. You're not putting them in the office to hear them talk nice. How many years have we had of that? It seems like everybody, because everything is very polarized. I get it. Speaking of butt light, it's like I wish those guys could take this opportunity. Maybe they could start a little civil discourse with the negative that's happening to them. Maybe they could figure out a way with that beard to maybe bring people together a little bit. I don't know. I don't think they're going to hire me as the head of their marketing.

Anytime soon.

They probably should. I like my.

Day job. By the way, did they ever call you after you opened up on them with a machine gun?

No, there's been some distributors who claim they know the people at the top and this and that and the other. I said, Man, I'll sit down with anybody anytime. We actually got to talk to the CEO, me and Trump, the other day at the U. S. Fight. I was there. You're standing in my mind. I recognized you were there. I was like, It's funny. I was sitting there with Trump, and I'm like, Hey, that dude behind us is the CEO of Anheuser-Bush. He's like, Why don't give him some shit? I'm like, Dude. Trump's like, Let's go. Actually, it was a really pointy conversation. That dude, his name is Brendan, he's in the CIA. He was a Marine. He says when he got the videos of me shooting up to Cannes, he was hunting in Texas. I'm like, You sound like somebody I'd be friends with. How did you guys get this so wrong? I hate speaking out of term when I have conversations with people, but I don't think I wouldn't mind this. I was like, When you did that morning show, were you coached? He was like, I was. I was like, Fire that fucking person.

I was like, It's terrible. I was like, They asked you at one point, if you had the chance to send that can again, would you send it? You go off in this week and supporting the ABCDL GBQ for 25 years. I'm like, What are you doing? I'm like, You don't have to throw anybody under the bus. All I have to do is say, While we want everyone to enjoy our beer, we know who our consumer is, and we got that one wrong. We're going to double down. We hear you are bad. Just say that. Everyone would have been like, Okay, you still got to eat a little crow. It's like if you ever had infidelity in your life. It's like you can't go to the person and just sweep it under the rug and buy them a new ring or a car and think it's going to go, Well, maybe a car. A car.

Might work out. The guilt mobile.

You can't just sweep it under the rug, throw money at it, I think it's going to go away. At some point, you got to be like, Look, I screwed up. I got that one wrong. Then you probably still got to eat some crow for a while, which I think they have. Like I said, I don't want to be the face of crushing working class people's jobs. Not only the jobs, but their livelihoods. I agree. They know their people's livelihoods and work for that company that are just like, Jesus, what happened? I know. It didn't have any fighting. I hate to see people losing their jobs at any level.

Two bottling plants closed.

That's shocking. Because they screwed up. They made a mistake.

All.

Right, I'm over it. Like I said, I'm not the type of person to kick a man when he's down.

I agree completely. Completely. How did you wind up with Dolly Parton?

I've known her throughout the years here and there. I've been friendly with her. She's just one of the greatest people on Earth. Really? You've never met anybody so positive in your life. Speaking of Dolly, she called me about doing the song. She'd wrote a song that she wanted to do with me, which ironically is about me cheating on her. I'm like, Huh?

Had you ever cheated on her?

No, I haven't had the opportunity. I have not been given that opportunity yet. No, she's just the sweetest lady. I just read something on her where I've never heard the word hate come out of her mouth. She just doesn't exist with her. She's just too sweet, too great. I saw where she said, I hate cancel culture. That should sum it up right there. I think most people, reasonable people, you got your small percentage of extremists on both sides of this thing, and they make the most noise, and they get the most headlines because they're the most polarizing, they get the most clicks and views. I get it. I played the game a little bit myself. I'm guilty of it. But I think most people, level-headed people with the shred of common sense are sick of all this stuff, this cancel culture and this... God forbid if you say something that's a little bit wrong or ruffle somebody's feathers, that you're going to lose your job or your social standing or the standing.

Do you think it's going away? Do you think it's reached its peak?

I think it has. It's going to be tough with this going into this election year because it's going to get real polarizing again. I don't think that's a bad thing in politics. It always is. But everything else, it's like all my friends who are Democrats and my business, I have a lot of them. I'm the one that's the diverse one. You're the one that you want inclusion. They don't want to include me people on their talk shows and all this stuff anymore. I'm the one that needs inclusion. I'm the weird one here. I don't fit the narrative and in this place of all these Hollywood and entertainers and singers and stuff.

Like that. It doesn't seem to bother you at all, though. No. But has it affected your relationships? I never heard you.

Say that it has. No, I think maybe one relationship, that's about it. But anyone I talk to, I'd go over for dinner, hang with the things differently. We always find more in common. I'll be like, I love Trump. I'll be like, I can't stand the guy. Cool. You want to move on? You're talking about something else? Yeah. We find some other things that are in common.

Dolly Parton took some crap for working with you. She doesn't seem to care.

No, I think she handled it beautifully. She's like, I love everybody. Pretty simple answer. I mean, that's what I took away from it. She said more than that, but I took away. She said she loved everybody. I was really proud to call her a friend at that moment. I think we need more of that in this country, especially coming from people like me, because I know sometimes I am the polarizing one. I am the loudest voice in.

The room. Well, you do a machine gun.

Oh, yeah, why wouldn't you?

That's definitely great. Who are you going on tour with this summer.

Thank you for asking. So me and Jason Alden are doing... What's he like? Jason, great kid. Known him for years. Since he was first coming up. Great guy, great patriot, talented singer, musician. We're going to do seven festivals. I see a need when I partner with these people, Premier Entertainment. It's called rockthecountry. Com. I see a need for a big portion of this country that's underserved entertainment-wise, and that's pretty prevalent when you see the success of shows like Yellowstone and Duck dynasty, things like that. People are just starving for it. So we wanted to go out and give hardworking people that love this country a music festival, something for them. Like, come show your patriotism just like they do at my shows, but do with the force of people. We got different lineups and there are seven small towns. What are they? It's places like Ocala, Florida, Mobile, Alabama, Rome, Georgia, there's Kentucky and Carolina. Rock and roll has not been too kind to my memory.

That's pretty good, actually.

It's not bad. But there's seven of them, Rocket Country, and then we have people like Miranda Lambert on certain shows. Hank Williams Jr, Leonard Skinner, Bradley Gilbert, Travis Tret, Nelly, Bigin' Rich with Gretchen Wilson, just a whole cast of characters. Like I said, just trying to provide something for these smaller towns where we have a lot more freedom to do things that we might not be able to do in the bigger cities, and especially to work with the local people there, whether it could be the police, firefighters, the city councils, whatever. We had all those people actually to my house in Nashville just to all get on the same page because we want to make this experience great for these people. We came up with the idea, let's have people that want to come from these towns, from these states. Some were senators, some were police chiefs, like I said, city council mayors. Let's have them up and break bread, and just talk to them, try to get on the same page so we can try to create a great experience for people. Make no mistake, we would like to make some money out of this endeavor.

But we want it to be a win-win. We want the cities to win, try to give back and do something.

Good there. Well, that's going to sell out.

The presales went on sale today.

So seven shows. Does that wear you out?

We're also doing... First, I did another business deal with the PBR who does the rodeo, professional bull riders. We're doing Kid Rock's Rock & rodeo at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, where we're going to have rodeo teams compete against each other, and then I'm going to do music. We're still figuring out, but I want to make it more creative than some of the rodeos we played in the past, where the rodeo happens and then you play the show. I'd like to kick the show off and I got horses ripping around with American flags, play something in the middle. I'd like to put midgets on mini-bowls. Yes. We'll see.

What happens. Is that allowed in Dallas now?

Everything's allowed in Texas. That's true. That's what we're doing. We're going to play Sturgis again this year, which I've played off and on for the last 20-some years, and that's my year. I think it's nine shows.

That's amazing.

Work less, make more. Work less.

Make more. The rodeo, have you ever been on any of the… Have you ridden?

I mean, we have horses.

You're not getting on a bowl? No.

I'm not cutting on a bull and I'm jumping out of a plane. I'm not going up in the F-16. I'm good. I'll be right here when you need to.

You've had enough risk?

Yeah, I've made it this far.

I mean, just like big picture, you've not changed your views throughout all this last six years. You've been really direct. Have you lost anything? I mean, it's an.

Amazing story. It's funny. I'm just joking. I'm like, I'll do or say something that's a little outrageous. It's people's panties at a bunch at some level, and somehow they give me more money for it.

You've never, you can't say… I mean, you're probably the only person who hasn't changed his views and hasn't been crushed.

I'm open to changing my views. I don't know at all. I don't claim to. I'm not the pieed piper.

You don't seem to be moderating your views on anything. You just say what you think.

I say what I think, yeah. If I get something wrong, I'm cool enough to go back and be like, Yeah, I had that one wrong. I don't remember what has happened, but I'm not bigger than that. I've been the same way since I was young and since what caught my first successful Devil Without a Cause CD came out. I was running my mouth. There's middle fingers on the CD. I haven't changed. Times have changed. The times have changed a lot. Now you're not allowed to say that or do this. You have to be politically correct and blah, blah, blah. I'm like, That ain't no fun.

So if you just ignore it, it just doesn't affect you. Is that the lesson?

I live by my main motto, which a good friend of mine, excuse me, Rev Run, one of my heroes in music, told me years ago from Run-D-M-C, Go where you're celebrated, not tolerated. That's what I do. That's where I choose to spend my time. Thank God I've always been so big about family and friends because it's the oldest cliché. At the end of the day, that's what's really there for you. I'm blessed every day to have the greatest family and the greatest friends on Earth. I'm glad that I've really didn't let all this madness get in the way of that. I've always tried to be there and take care of them, and they've been there for me.

I met some of them, and I think that's right, but I judge a man by his dogs. I probably can't tell from this camera shop, but you brought a couple of your boykins here. Dixie. Can we meet? You've got two Spaniels here. Can you introduce one of them?

This is Delta down here by you.

Okay. Dixie, come here. Dixie, come here.

Dixie is a little boykins. Come here, Dixie.

So these are boykins.

She's a little one. Hey, she's a little one.

How old is Dixie?

I think he's old now. She's 10.

That's amazing. He's 10. Do you go everywhere with them?

My fiancé, Audrey, goes everywhere with them.

Are you bringing them on tour?

No. Select cities, maybe.

They don't like the tour.

I roll freaks them out a little bit. Well, not Delta. She's trained on birds, so she.

Doesn't mind to make sure I can tell. They're amazing bird dogs. If you were to, since you're pretty good at Colin stuff, the next year, a year from now will be November 2024. What will things look like? I don't know.

I hope they look like Trump's back in office. I would love that we control Congress. That'd be a perfect case scenario for me, but that's so difficult for me. I know what I support and my views, but I'm really not an Astrodomas when it comes to politics or anything. I don't want to act like I know it all. I do study it. I probably watch a little more news than I should. I got my views, but it's going to be interesting. I just don't see how... I can never what's talking about like, You can't run Biden against Trump. It's impossible. Of course. And if God forbid something did go wrong in Biden, well, it would be for no other reason than just people's hatred for Trump. Why aren't people just thinking about policies? I don't need my president to be a saint. Let's get.

The job done. We haven't had any of those, I don't think.

No, I don't think so. I don't know.

But you said that if you were Bud Light, you would run a campaign bringing people together over your product.

Maybe they should make a blue hat that says, Make Bud Light great again.

No, good point. But do you see the division getting better or worse?

Itruly honestly, I would hope that it gets a little better. I see that with my friends, like I said, I don't go around bragging about it. I probably got the most diverse band out there. We have white people, hillbillies. We have black people, we have gay people. We got it all, females, men.

I know she put white people and hillbillies in two different categories.

But I see it just with my band, we all get along, we all joke about each other's backgrounds, our colors, our sexual preferences. We just give each other shit all the time, and we get along. We're like family. We're not one of these bands that just sit each other's throats, fight. We all love each other and always have. We accept that we're all different, and we're all just cool. That's why I keep saying this. It's like, No one cares if you're gay anymore. We're all going to have gay family members, friends, coworkers. It's like, just shut up about it. I'm not going to like, Oh, you're gay? I'm not going to clap louder for you. All right? Just be cool. Be gay. Shut up. It's fine. No one cares. I'm yours. The transgender thing is just a weird one. It's like, leave our kids out of it, number one. But to me, it looks like a mental illness. That's what I see. But at the same time, that's who you want to be. A lot of people fought and died for it. Go for it. We can exist in the same public spaces, so be it.

You're not going to be my first call to take out for a night out on the town probably, but I'm probably not yours. It's fine. Yeah, that's okay. If you're different and you're weird, make no mistake, you get treated differently. When I was young, I had my hair up to here. I had my pants sagging, running around talking junk. People gave me crap all the time, but I was trying to be seen. They said, If you want to be seen and you're going to go out and be different like that and dye your hair blue and put a bunch of nose rings or something, people are going to look at you differently. Some people are going to tease you a little bit. Whatever happened to sticks and stones. Everyone's like, He teased me. I'm going to cancel you and sue you, and I'm going to tell on you. It's like we're raising a... Pardon me, we're raising like a complete generation of fucking pussies.

But that can't go on forever, right?

No, the pendulum always swings. I've seen that. At 52 years old, I've seen that in life. The pendulum swings.

Yeah. Last question before we go get a cigar with your friend John Daly. If you were to give advice to a 22-year-old trying to enter the public sphere right now, what would it be?

What sphere?

Entertainment-wise? Either one. You're the guy who wants people to look at you. Okay, as you.

Work-well, number one, work your ass off and be good at what you do. Be the best at it. That takes a lot of time. It took me 15 years in the trenches, riding around in vans with U-haul trailers, playing every little gig for 50 people, this, that, and the other. It's the old... Let me say it, 10,000 hours. I think it's 20,000.

Work.

Your butt off and try to be the best of what you do. Study your craft, be knowledgeable about it. Surround yourself with good people. Don't hang out with knuckleheads. That doesn't lead to many good spots.

No, it doesn't.

So.

Work hard. Don't hang out with shitheads.

Yeah, and be good at what you do. Be the best at what you do.

Bobby, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Turner.

Good to see you, man. Pleasure. I'm coming this summer.