I can’t remember the last time Kid Rock made an album worth a listen. Wait, scratch that statement. The answer to that question is “never,” right? He had that one song. It’s not important to this discussion, and I’m already being catty. Did his efforts to go country ever go anywhere? He sold a lot of records, so someone must be listening. Kid has always been a mess, gossipwise. He married Pamela Anderson for a brief period, and then he punched Tommy Lee at an awards show. So classy.
Kid has a new album, First Kiss, coming out in February. He kicked off promotion with an interview in The Guardian. Dude brags about being an ultra-rich rule breaker, and then some pompous and terrible stuff comes out of his mouth:
On the internet: “I don’t FaceTweet or whatever people do. I understand that I’m the old guy now. I turn on my computer and look at pr0n a little bit, see what’s going on in the news, but that’s about it. I’m comfortable with that.”
His politics: “I am definitely a Republican on fiscal issues and the military, but I lean to the middle on social issues. I am no fan of abortion, but it’s not up to a man to tell a woman what to do. As an ordained minister I don’t look forward to marrying gay people, but I’m not opposed to it.”
Why did he perform for Obama? “I played Barack Obama’s inauguration even though I didn’t vote for him. I didn’t agree with his policies, but there was an exciting sense of change in the air. That promise hasn’t been fulfilled — the country is more divided than ever.”
All his mad cash: “I’m not just wealthy, I’m loaded. I can say that because I’m not embarrassed — I’ve made a f***-ton of money, but I’ve never made a dishonest dollar. I try to do right by the people around me.”
His “redneck” cred: “I’m 43 and about to become a grandfather, but it keeps my redneck street cred up. I could be a great-great-great-grandfather by the time I’m 80. I am excited, but also nervous for my son. He was dropped on my doorstep at six months when I had no money and was trying to be a rock star. I didn’t have a clue.”
Guns, man: “I’m always buying more guns. I have everything from a Civil War cannon to an MP5 machine gun and old police guns. If someone invades your house, yeah, you can shoot them. I don’t think crazy people should have guns.”
He’ll never be PC: “Rap-rock was what people wanted at the time, and they still love those songs at shows. But it turned into a lot of bullsh*t and it turned out to be pretty gay … If someone says you can’t say ‘gay’ like that you tell them to go f*** themselves. You’re not going to get anything politically correct out of me.”
[From The Guardian]
I think Mr. Kid has confused political correctness with a lack of hate speech. This certainly isn’t the first time he’s talked smack about gay people, and it’s not the first time he dissed social media. He did both at once in a 2008 interview where he called Twitter “gay.” So much big thinking coming from Kid. So many guns. So much “get off my lawn.” How does this guy still have fans?
Photos courtesy of WENN
At least he’s consistent? LOL I mean really did you expect anything else from this guy?
Exactly.
“As an ordained minister I don’t look forward to marrying gay people, but I’m not opposed to it.”
I’m not a fan of his, but I’m also not convinced that this particular statement translates as hate speech. He sounds conflicted. It doesn’t come across as a glowing endorsement, certainly, but it doesn’t sound like he’s fighting against rights either.
I wouldn’t call that hate speech either. I read it as “I’m in favour of secular gay marriage as people outside my faith can make up their own minds. But I’m not in favour of it within my church, for which I officiate. I’ll do it if the law says I must.”
I mean, I don’t LIKE it. And I think most strands of most religions will eventually come around. Only the extreme fringes will hang on to the death. But it sounded like as reasonable an answer as you could expect from someone who doesn’t like the idea of gay marriage for religious reasons.
And you know – it’s better than having a bloody established church as in Britain, where the Anglican communion won’t accept gay marriage so had to have an exception written into law making it actually ILLEGAL to have a same-sex wedding in a CofE church, whatever the individual parish minister wants to accept.
So he doesn’t like gay marriage for religious reasons but the pr9n is fine. I think I missed that bit of Genesis where it said “and on the 7th day God created pr9nhub”
@Djinn What you know about PornHub huh…LOL.
As a former fan of Rock I tend to think that he’s one of those ordained ministers that chooses his beliefs buffett style. Gay marriage is not to his liking but pre marital sex and pr9n is ok.
I think the hate speech part is supposed to be where he calls something “gay” in a derogatory sense and then says that he’s allowed because being PC is bullsh–.
Also, unrelatedly, that’s a hard looking 43 he’s got going on…
Yes and yes.
Is “gay” being used as a synonym for “bad” stateside, like it is here in the UK? I had to lecture the Sixlets to keep the heck away from that usage when they brought it home from school:
“But Mum, it doesn’t mean gay LIKE THAT; it means gay like rubbish, or useless.We wouldn’t say it if meant gay PEOPLE.”
“Yes, but LIKE THAT, is where the rubbish or useless meaning came from, and lots of people are going to think you don’t like gay people if you say it, so you mustn’t say it. Find another word for rubbish, like, you know, rubbish.”
Yes, gay is being used as a synonym for “bad” in this instance. It’s still common usage in the States as is “retarded” in the same context. Both are unacceptable to me, personally. I don’t know if it’s bad enough to be considered “hate speech” though.
The word “gay” has evolved a lot over the years. It used to mean “happy” and was a perfectly legitimate girl’s name. Then it meant “homosexual”. Now it’s used to mean “lame” or “stupid” and I’m sure it’ll change some more coming up here.
You may not agree with it, but that’s how the word is being used.
@ Wren
Yes. You’re right. Language evolves. Some senses drop out of usage and new senses come on stream. But there are long, long periods of crossover. English is a fabulously rich language; there are many words you can choose for almost any meaning. And, as a mother trying to bring up children who don’t go around with size twelve boots on, causing unwitting offence through sheer ignorance, I think it’s a good idea for me to educate them on language, the history of some terms, and the (negative) meanings some words may have for others. You know?
BendyWindy, there’s a pretty widespread campaign to end the usage of the word “r****ed,” I think it might have begun with Eunice Shiver and the Special Olympics. My sons’ schools have periodically promoted awareness of how hurtful it is to use “the R word.” And I hear “gay” being used in the old negative context very occasionally among my sons’ friends, but it’s pretty rare, much more rare than when I was a kid/teen. Gives me a bit of hope that people are evolving, at least in this regard.
What Sixer said.
Yeah I’m not getting the hate either. People are entitled to their own opinions.
I agree. I think he’s addressing the tension that people feel between civil marriage and religious marriage. He seems ambivalent about it, which while I might disagree, I can at least respect. I support access to civil marriage equality and at the same time can believe that individual churches should be free to make their own choices. The problem is that the whole idea of marriage is so strongly tied to religion, many people don’t know they have a choice.
Isn’t it sort of like people who, for religious reasons, would never get an abortion themselves or help anybody else get one, but who don’t want to see it outlawed? Those people are generally counted among the pro-choice, so I don’t really see the “hate” going on here. I can get that some people will never be comfortable with gay topics on a personal level, but the relevant question is whether they try to block those rights for everyone. If they don’t, I personally leave them be.
Ehhh, but then he uses “gay” as a derogatory adjective. I don’t think he’s Santorum, but I understand why people are upset.
Exactly. You never see people using the term ‘straight’ or ‘heterosexual’ to mean stupid, garbage, lame, or something else negative. By using one sexual identity as an insult but not the other, you’re saying that gays are less than and that straights are superior based on their sexual orientation.
I agree. He doesn’t have to like it. I married my husband in Jamaica, and I am Jewish. When the minister got there I asked him to leave any religious wording out and he told me if he had known that, he wouldn’t have agreed to marry us. I was not insulted at all, it’s his opinion. I was grateful he went ahead and did it and was nice about it.
I despise the term “hate speech”. It is so Orwellian in its subjectiveness. You gotta give him this: the dude is honest. How many “ordained ministers” do you know that will publicly admit they wach p0rn?
Anyone can be an ordained minister. You just register online, pay a fee, and get a fancy certificate.
I mean, are there a lot of Christians who are looking to get married by Kid Rock, much less any gay Christians who want him to marry them?
I think he can relax about that whole thing.
Yes. I’ve been to numerous weddings where a close friend of the couple was ordained just so he/she could conduct the ceremony.
And yes ITA that gay couples aren’t going to be beating down his door to have him marry them, lol.
I know a couple handfuls if women in their 40s that LUUUUUV Kid Rock. I don’t get it. But I live in Michigan, so maybe it’s a ‘hometown boy’ thing?
Jesus, yes. I’m in Michigan too and a friend from Oregon came to visit and I will never forget, we were in my car, in the middle of Detroit because she wanted to go do some touristy thing that I don’t remember now,when Kid Rock came on the radio. She looked at me, with a no shit look on her face and was like ‘Is he seriously still popular here?’ Well. Yeah, kinda. Lol. Lets just say I don’t go a day where I don’t hear him on the radio at least once or twice.
He’s like a white, dirtier and (possibly) dumber version of Snoop Dog, or should I say Snoop Lion? Only with this one the misogyny is tuned down a hair but the queerphobia is amped up to the ying yang. Rocket to the sun for both I say.
Completely unrelated but does anyone really know wtf we’re supposed to call him now? I was watching the high school All-American game the other day with my husband and they were talking to him about his son being a USC football prospect (I think it was USC anyway) and I was like ‘he’s not wearing his rasta gear so are we supposed to call him Snoop Dogg again, or did his son ban him from wearing that godawful outfit?’
I have no idea…maybe he is experiencing an early onset midlife crisis???
They/she doesn’t?
What?
While he is entitled to his personal feelings, it doesn’t change the fact he’s still a douchebag.
Yep.
Oddly enough I’d feel uncomfortable using gay as a synonym for bad in front of a gay person. I’d feel parochial and inconsiderate hmmm. Better rethink me logic that gay just means weird without sexual orientation. Hmmmm.
I agree he hasn’t made any worthwhile music in a good while, but 1999’s ‘Devil Without A Cause’ was fantastic. Too bad he couldn’t sustain that level of creativity, but he’s done a slew of good work for Detroit area charities. His use of the word “gay”, in that context, has nothing to do with homosexuals. He made rapper-rock popular, and then everyone started doing it, and it lost it’s punch. You may not agree with him using it as a synonym for ridiculous or silly, but that’s how he’s using it. It’s a common usage of the word among adolescent boys, which may explain a lot of things!
Unless you’re using the word gay to describe the state of being happy, or a homosexual person – it IS derogatory. Ignorant aholes can donate to charity too, you know.
An ordained minister who watches internet pr0n. That’s all.
“If someone invades your house, yeah, you can shoot them. I don’t think crazy people should have guns.”
That just sounds so funny to someone in a country with few guns! It’s like, who are you saying the crazy person actually IS?!
PS: I thought he was about 80 already.
Yeah, I decided not to ‘go there’ for the obvious consequences of dah cray that will ensue.
Truly, I had to read it a couple of times because my immediate assumption was that he was saying the crazy person in the second sentence was the one in the first sentence. But it seemed odd he would say that! Cognitive dissonance between countries!
Cognitive dissonance abounds on this subject. After the toddler shot and killed his mom in Target, having retrieved the firearm from her open purse, right next to him, the family’s first statement was, paraphrased, that she was a responsible gun owner.
It’s just a visceral topic for you guys, isn’t it? And so all the debates are undertaken with universally blocked ears. We’re the same about the EU. You can say what you like in a conversation about it, but the people who disagree with you will never hear a word of it.
Oh don’t get me started, I literally start to shake when a “discussion” about guns is even in the early stages of brewing. I’ll share this little tidbit: I was at a national park and the rangers had posed a question along the lines of “what does the Second Amendment mean to you in the 21st century?” and left a book for people to write comments. I wrote something about how the Founding Fathers probably could never have conceived of the caliber of weaponry available today and that the notion of having a “well regulated militia” was pretty well covered now by our actual military. I then kept walking around the display and shortly after saw some people looking at the book where I’d just written. They made some derogatory comments and ripped a page out. I went back to see which page they’d torn out…yup, mine. Only in America, sigh.
@Sixer, it’s a topic I try to avoid at all costs but I live in an area with stricter laws. Two years ago, when my area was in lockdown while they searched for marathon bomber Dhjokar Tsarnaev, some politician in another state mouthed off that we “liberals must wish we all had AK47s now.” Not a smart thing to do when the targets of your ridicule number over a million people, all sitting at home for the day. I took great delight in helping crash his state’s servers by bombarding him with emails. His governor issued an apology for his idiocy.
Oh, guys, It’s so dispiriting when everything gets so extreme and polarised, isn’t it?
Sixer, it is indeed.
I’m late to this conversation because I wrote a long reply, pretty much in the spirit of Esmom’s and Kiddo’s about how crazy our gun laws are and how we have become so divided over something that seems so simple to me. But I deleted it because I was rambling and getting so angry and name-calling. I used to be in support of people who wanted to collect guns or who wanted to hunt and who were responsible. My father was a responsible gun owner – locked cabinet with bullets in different locked cabinet, etc., but gun owners have become so selfish and self-centered that they don’t want to allow any controls or restrictions of their “rights.” Now, I’m in favor of taking them all away. No hunting, no collecting, no guns in your house, no guns period. You don’t deserve them, I don’t think that was ever the intention of the people who crafted the constitution, and I hope your worst fears come true about gun regulation. See, I just can’t be nice about this, and I know I’m not helping.
Well, GNAT, here’s the thing. However passionate you get about an issue, you always LISTEN to others. So you’re always cool in my book, even when I disagree with you (which I don’t here).
It’s funny, because I was always rabidly anti-gun. I think most people in British cities are. But moving to a rural area with farmers and shotguns has tempered me somewhat – so now I’m just rabidly HAND gun. (We don’t really have an issue here with the automatic nutsoid killeverythinginsight weapons. Only the worst of the worst criminals have those.)
I guess I’m part of the minority where I live, because I’ve never seen any irresponsible gun owners. Hunting is big where I live, and a lot of teenagers take classes in gun safety,etc, and everyone I know locks up their guns/puts them where no one under 5 ft could reach them i.e. I know a few people who keep a locked handgun case thing on top of their fridge……I’ve never known anyone to just leave their guns laying around…..my grandfather kept his locked up pretty tight.
Thanks, Sixer. I try to listen, but I sometimes have to try again. I really don’t know what is going to happen about our gun laws here. Probably nothing, if the past is any guide. It’s sad. The thing that makes me saddest IS the attitude of responsible gun owners. (And I agree VC that there are many). They don’t want any regulation that would curb their own “rights” and maybe cull out some of the nut jobs. They don’t want to regulate automatic weapons because they fear it will trickle down to shotguns. That’s why I’ve turned against them. If they were willing to be inconvenienced so that everyone could be safer, I’d feel differently, but they have proven time and again that their only concern is their own pleasure.
I can understand weapons for the purpose of hunting and self-protection in areas where you are likely to be stalked by a mountain lion (cousin is a forest ranger) but the ideas of unlimited access and carrying for protection on public transportation or in a restaurant disturbs me. I don’t want to be caught in your crossfire, thank you. We have to pass tests to drive cars; I think the same should apply to guns but I know that is the minority view here
The thing that makes me despair is that a reasonable conversation can’t be had on the topic. Like when I wrote my comments in the book I tried to be measured and rational yet the first thing someone did was to literally dismiss it by ripping it up.
I can’t describe the rage I felt when I first heard the news about the Newtown shootings, it almost felt like an out of body experience, because I just knew the NRA and their ilk would only double down on their propaganda. And while I try to be sympathetic to hunters and responsible gun owners, to circle back to Lilacflowers and Kiddo’s comments, why did a mom with a toddler and several other kids think it was a good idea to bring a loaded gun to shop at Target and leave her baby unattended with it in reach of him?
He is truly one of the ugliest celebrities out there. Take away the hair, hat and glasses and he looks like something that crawled out of a swamp.
Exactly. if he wasn’t a celebrity, he wouldn’t have any woman come within 10 feet of him. On the other hand, his father is wealthy so he probably would be working for his dad and living off any family money even if he wasn’t famous.
WHAT?
I love how he’s all rock ‘n roll, bull shit, hard core, pr0nn – shock value, shock value, I’m so cool, shock value AND THEN when homosexual marriage comes up he’s an “ordained minister” who uses that to express his discomfort. Except that it isn’t truly just a religious discomfort or he would feel the need to use “gay” as a derogatory term. He is an ass.
I don’t think I want to know why that first picture is redacted.
HA! I do, but I’m masochistic that way…
I’m from Detroit. Kid Rock is a hometown hero. He promotes Detroit non-stop and gives a lot of money to the cities’ charities.
Kid Rock has also given money to veterans and their families. He does do good things with his money.
I can honestly say that I’ve never heard a Kid Rock song……
Is it sad that I was expecting a lot worse? I was preparing myself for some duck dynasty level bigotry.
Lol. It was still pretty bad, though.
I just came here to laugh at him. He’s always been a joke. Is he trying to be Ted Nugent?
I’m no Kid Rock fan but he is nowhere near as bad as Nugent, who is truly repulsive. Or Kid Rock is better at keeping his true feelings hidden.
I didn’t get surveyed for that…but I would agree with the 4 out of 5.
That fifth one, though…she’s a b*tch. (oh, my apologies to the fifth…you edited an excuse before I posted).
Psst, she REALLY is a bitch, but so are the other 4.
I am only vaguely aware of him, but I had no idea he was that conservative. As to what he said, yeah whatever. He’s a minister, he’s conflicted. At least he appears to consider the issues rather than rant and rave about them.
“yawn’….Kid who???? soooooooo irrelevant! Please go climb back under your, um, “rock”…
Haha.
Shots fired and all that.
Whatever. Wake me up when something interesting happens.
*rolls over to cuddle with Dessert Hardy*
Oh, Our Lady Of Muumuus has arrived. We were looking for your expert opinion on a muumuu yesterday.
He sells records because there are people who still think like he does. Unfortunately, many are on my Facebook friends list. I’ve decided this year to attempt to stop arguing with them by giving my real life examples, and just post things on my own wall. lol
He’s had several major hits in country music – a song with Sheryl Crow called “Picture” that’s actually quite good, and a Warren Zevon/Lynyrd Skynyrd ripoff called “All Summer Long” that is an abomination. I am not surprised that he’s so paranoid and politically behind the times. He’s like a less talented, more outspoken Eminem.
What?? I missed out on Muumuu analysis?
Well, just know that all your opinions re: muumuus are null and avoid, unless of course my muumuu expertise correlates.
This one Tried it and Fail, huh?!
On To the Topic: Guess what Kid Rock No one likes your greasy looking unwashed “redneck Cred” self, sweets… and Probably Gay couples would presumably have more taste than want you to “perform” their weddings
Some days I wonder why it seems the dumbest people have the most $$
“It’s not up to a man to tell a woman what to do”. It’s the second time in the day I read about someone I don’t like saying something that’s absolutely on point. I hate this!!!
I wait in hope (vain ? )for the day when it’s just “marriage”.
seems we have a long way to go.
He was a main performer at an annual event I used to shoot. I refused to take any photos of him because I can’t stand him. Luckily I wasn’t covering his performance so my editor just laughed about it. My husband knows I can’t stand him and so always pointed him out when we were working just to annoy me (in his joky/smart ass manner…”look there’s your best friend!”) I don’t recall his having a large crowd while he performed so I didn’t understand why he was hired each year.
He’s ignorant, but some of his music is really very good. If by ‘that one song’ you mean Only God Knows Why, American Bada*s, or Picture… comeon, any of those was more of a contribution to songwriting than 99% of people make in a lifetime.
Someone saying “That’s so gay” just sounds like a junior high boy to me.
People need to stop shoving their views down peoples throat. I am very accepting of gays, but my husband hates them. His choice, no worries. Freedom of choices go both ways, literally.
I live in Omaha. Sometimes he comes out here for the College World Series, and by all accounts (several of my friends and coworkers have met him), he’s a super friendly, generous, open dude. So a lot of people around here appreciate him. I don’t think he sounds that terrible. Maybe a little conflicted.