Kid Rock has outlined the new arrangement he has struck with Live Nation/Ticketmaster for his upcoming ‘The Freedom 250 Tour‘. The divisive rap-rock country star has been championing legislation against the ticketing giant and the practice of ticket scalping/bots and inflated ticket prices in general for sometime now. Back in December of 2024 he met with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin laying the framework for the Trump administration’s plans to tackle the matter.
As Rock put it at the time, he intended to, “help fix the fiasco of buying concert tickets. Gonna open a can of whoop ass on the bots, scalpers, venues, ticketing companies, managers and artists alike who rip off and deceive the public with the horse sh*t that has gone on for decades and only gotten worse.”
March of 2025 saw Rock stand beside his longtime friend, U.S. President Donald J. Trump, in the Oval Office as the latter signed an new executive order that looked to investigate ‘price-gouging’ and the lack of ‘price transparency at all stages of the ticket purchasing process’ in regards to ticketing for live events.
By September of last year, the FTC utilized their findings to file suit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster, alleging the companies had engaged in, ‘deceptive pricing tactics and earned hundreds of millions selling tickets acquired illegally by brokers, costing consumers billions of dollars in inflated prices and additional fees.’
Speaking of that suit in October of last year, Rock stated on social media:
“What [Trump] did was he ordered the FTC & the Department of Justice to go investigate and see what the hell is going on with ticketing. Well, guess what? They investigated and what happened? They filed a f*cking lawsuit against Ticketmaster, because clearly they found out that those motherf*ckers are crooks, and they’ve been crooks for decades. F*cking over the public. F*cking over artists.”
Last month, Rock testified in front of a Senate Commerce Committee via a hearing on concert ticket fees. During that testimony, he in part said:
“I would employ Congress to subpoena the contracts and deals between the artists / promoters / buildings / ticketing companies/ agencies and vendors because as I understand it, you will find mountains of fraud and abuse.
My position and solutions are as follows:
1: Artists should control who sells their tickets and HOW.
2: Resale ticket price caps work and protect real fans.
3: The Bots Act should be enforced, brokers and bad actors must be stopped and all should face serious penalties and consequences
All-in pricing is great but it doesn’t fix the system. Outlawing speculative ticketing is obvious. The problem is that ticketing lobbyists push these reforms as cover—while fighting to keep tickets in an ‘open market’ that lets them exploit fans under the guise of capitalism. Don’t be fooled by these tactics.”
Yesterday, taking to social media, Rock outlined his newly struck arrangement with Ticketmaster for his upcoming tour, which aims to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary. Rock provided the following bullet points on the matter via his social media:
- Kid Rock‘s Freedom 250 Tour is using Ticketmaster‘s Face Value Exchange to keep tickets in the hands of real fans — not scalpers.
- Tickets can only be resold for the original price paid, including fees and taxes. No markups.
- If you cant make the show, the only place to resell is on Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster does not charge any fees to resell or to purchase resold tickets.
- Ticket transfer is turned off in most places — that’s how we stop tickets from being flipped on other sites for profit.
- If you’re bringing friends, you’ll enter the show together with your group.
- Face Value Exchange makes sure every resale ticket is 100% legit and gets fans through the door.
- If you buy on any other site, there is no guarantee you’ll get in the door – and most likely you won’t.
- Some states, like Illinois, don’t allow artists like me to restrict resale, so transfer has to stay on — but Ticketmaster will still keep prices at face value on its site.
- This isn’t perfect, but it’s a real step to shut down scalpers and protect fans. No extra cost to fans — same tickets, same prices, just fairer access.
- Bottom line: buy tickets, go to the show, and if plans change, sell them the right way so another fan gets in.
Dates for Kid Rock‘s aforementioned ‘Freedom 250 Tour‘ include:
05/01 Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion (feat. Brantley Gilbert & Them Dirty Roses)
05/08 Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek (feat. Brantley Gilbert & Them Dirty Roses)
05/09 Charlotte, NC – Truliant Amphitheater (feat. Brantley Gilbert & Them Dirty Roses)
05/15 St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre (feat. Parker McCollum)
05/16 Tinley Park, IL – Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre (feat. Parker McCollum)
05/30 Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre (feat. Big & Rich & Them Dirty Roses)
With Jon Pardi:
06/05 Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
06/06 Mansfield, MA – Xfinity Center
06/19 Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center
06/20 Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake
