Kid Rock Responds To Conan O'Brien's Joke About Him At The Oscars & Further Rails Against Ticketmaster & Live Nation

Conservative rap-rock/country star Kid Rock has issued a response to the recent zing he faced during the Oscars awards ceremony this past Sunday, March 15th. Oscars host Conan O’Brien took a jab at Rock that was related to ‘The All-American Halftime Show‘ Kid Rock headlined this past February. That concert was presented by Turning Point USA and was delivered as conservative-friendly counterprogramming to the Bad Bunny-headlined official halftime show at this year’s ‘Super Bowl‘ game.

Kid Rock‘s set at that event drew headlines for allegations of lip syncing, which Kid Rock later set out to disprove. During the Oscars ceremony last weekend, Conan O’Brien took a shot at Rock and the aforementioned event, stating:

“I should warn you, tonight could get political, ok? And if that makes you uncomfortable, there’s an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock. It’s at the Dave & Buster’s down the street. There’s a lot of tickets for that.”

Rock responded to the joke on social media yesterday, March 16th, offering:

“I love a good joke, even when I am the butt of it, unfortunately this was not a very good one. Either way, if you want to see a REAL good show this spring / summer that celebrates America and 250 years of Freedom – make sure you buy your tickets from (ugh) Ticketmaster for my Freedom 250 tour – The Road To Nashville. There is a reason for this, TRUST ME!”

Kid Rock‘s noted disdain for Ticketmaster above follows his apparent disapproval of the recent settlement reached with the ticketing giant and its parent company Live Nation. Those companies settled an antitrust lawsuit brought against it by the U.S. Department Of Justice and number of states earlier this month.

Kid Rock had consulted with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in the months leading up to the suit and was also present at the White House amid the Trump administration’s investigation into price-gouging and more allegedly being conducted by the companies.

Ultimately, despite his noted disagreements and concerns over the company, Kid Rock partnered with the ticketing giant for his upcoming U.S. touring, via a new arrangement he had struck. However, Rock himself soon faced accusations of price-gouging himself, amid controversy over offering $5,000 tickets for special seating on that trek.

The U.S. Department Of Justice settled with Live Nation/Ticketmaster on March 09th, with the outcome of that suit having been decried by many as having little effect on the issues it set out to tackle. Per that settlement, Live Nation & Ticketmaster were issued various restrictions, including allowing rival ticket sellers access to its platforms at Live Nation-backed venues, divesting from a number of booking agreements at select venues, establishing a $280 million settlement fund for states involved with the lawsuit, invoking a fee cap of 15% for ticketing at Live Nation-backed venues, among other terms

While the Department Of Justice withdrew from the case after reaching the settlement, a number of states will continue on with the legal proceedings. Since the word of the initial settlement came out, reporting from The New York Times came out alleging that employees of Live Nation had openly mocked ‘stupid’ fans and joked about the money they were making by enacting exorbitant pricing tactics related to a past Kid Rock show.

Kid Rock was incensed by the matter, taking to X over the weekend stating:

“DOES ANYONE CARE ABOUT THIS BUT ME? THESE MOTHERFUCKERS HAVE BEEN RAPING HARD WORKING AMERICANS FOR DECADES…AND LAUGHING ABOUT IT WHILE THEY DO IT. THIS IS WHAT THE FUCK I HAVE BEEN SCREAMING ABOUT FOR YEARS. ITS EVEN WORSE IN SPORTS. MUCH OF CORPORATE AMERICA NEEDS TO HAVE THEIR PANTS PULLED DOWN AND HAVE THEIR ASSES WHOOPED. PUBLICLY. I DON’T TYPE THIS AS A MAGA GUY OR A CONSERVATIVE. I SPEAK MY TRUTH AS AN AMERICAN WHO LOVES THIS COUNTRY. GOD IS MY WITNESS.”

Appearing recently on Fox & Friends, Rock further took Live Nation & Ticketmaster to task, stating [transcribed by theprp.com]:

“Name me one other business that doesn’t control their inventory, let’s start there. And then come to find out the other day these people were exposed. Not only exposed for what they’ve been doing years — which I said — there’s a lot of corruption and fraud going on, that I employed congress to go subpoena contracts between buildings, artists, managers, everybody. Now it comes out verbatim that the DOJ released, they’re screwing my fans.

Like, let me just preface this by saying the trolls and media, they can come after me all they want, I could care less. Sticks and stones. You come after my fans, who are arguably, outside of our military, the best this country has to offer. Hardworking people who just want to have fun and they’re laughing about screwing them over? Charging them $250 to park. Doing this stupid platinum ticketing thing where they’re raping ’em for $1200 a ticket, so I can make a couple more extra bucks? I mean this is a joke. And people are pissed off about it. And I’m just, I don’t know, I’m doing what I can. I’m sorry, I’m fired up this morning.”