Leave it to Kid Rock to make a big stink about something in the name of “morals” only to keep profiting off of it. That’s what the musician is doing with Bud Light, which is still sold in his Nashville bar despite him previously proclaiming, and I quote, “Fuck Bud Light.”
The hysteria started after Bud Light befriended transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, partnering with the internet personality for a marketing campaign and sending her a few custom cans of beer featuring her likeness. Kid Rock, like many other conservatives with nothing better to do, then took to the internet to prove that he is way more “triggered” than liberals have ever been, posting a video in which he shoots at cases of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle.
Kid Rock was far from the only person upset with Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney. Travis Tritt took Anheuser-Busch products off his tour rider, while The Beach Boys’ Mike Love made a heavy handed comment about it before a recent performance of the “gender specific” song “Surfer Girl.” Unlike other conservative “boycotts,” this one has actually made a significant dent in sales; Bud Light was recently dethroned as America’s best-selling beer.
To determine if these high profile anti-Bud Light messages translated to the real world, CNN reporter Ryan Young traveled to country music capital and conservative hotbed Nashville — where Kid Rock happens to own a bar — to see how folks on the ground feel about Bud Light now.
While some individuals in the clip still refused to drink Bud Light in keeping with their transphobic politics, others, as one woman put it, didn’t “give a shit” at all about the controversy. Most interestingly, however, was that Young was able to purchase a Bud Light at Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse.
“It is not clear if the ban had been lifted or if there ever had been one to begin with,” Young reported of Rock’s supposed Bud Light boycott. Nothing like money to make a man go back on his word!
For the record, Garth Brooks’ own Nashville bar will open just down the road from Kid Rock’s, and the singer has gone on the record as a supporter of diversity and inclusivity (with no stupid stunts to boot).
Kid Rock declared a Bud Light boycott. Here’s what CNN saw at his bar. https://t.co/MnqcwDbTw4 pic.twitter.com/k6zDd8TVaK
— CNN (@CNN) July 12, 2023