I don’t care enough to answer every hater.
If I stopped to respond to every miserable blogger, failed cultural referee and bargain-bin music critic who used my name for clicks, I’d never have time to make music—or fulfill my duties as “The Mayor of Awesomeville.” 🕺
Most of it is background noise.
But every once in a while, it’s fun to pick one, drag the reporting into the daylight and watch the narrative fall apart under the weight of the facts it left out.
Today’s example: writer Alyssa Fields.
Her page:
https://t.co/IcXQLr8dmu
Let’s begin with Alyssa’s August 14 article, “The 10 biggest douchebags in country music”:
https://t.co/CcwDUjrWpG
Honestly? I think the list itself is funny.
I like just about every artist on it—a lot. Zach Bryan is the exception; he actually seems pretty douchey to me. But then again, I don’t know him.
It’s an opinion piece written to piss people off and generate clicks.
Mission accomplished.
No problem. All’s fair in love, war and cheap listicles.
But there’s an extra joke hiding inside this one: Alyssa’s supposedly fresh article looks an awful lot like a Phoenix New Times article published 12 years earlier—with the exact same title.
Here’s Mike Seely and Phoenix New Times Staff’s June 26, 2014 article, “The 10 Biggest Douchebags in Country Music”:
https://t.co/LzSx6l2Pkm
Same title? Maybe that’s just laziness.
But then compare the introductions.
The 2014 article describes country music using this sequence:
“Booze, chicks, jacked-up pickups, extreme redneck sports, spring break.”
Alyssa’s 2026 version describes it this way:
“Booze, women, jacked-up pickups, extreme redneck sports and spring break.”
She apparently changed “chicks” to “women,” added an “and” and called it a day.
Then there’s the closing joke.
The 2014 article says Keith Urban was “spared the guillotine” because he can “really shred on guitar.”
Alyssa’s 2026 article ends by saying Keith Urban was “spared the guillotine” because he can “really shred on a guitar.”
Same title.
Same highly specific string of examples.
Same “spared the guillotine” closing joke about the same artist for the same reason.
A fresh idea? Nope.
An original setup? Not exactly.
An original punchline? Apparently not.
Call it recycling. Call it imitation. I call it a rip-off with updated names. (FYI, All Summer Long is a masterpiece and not even close to this, but go ahead and show your ignorance in the comments haters)
Whatever label you prefer, it’s a long damn way from creative.
If you’re going to call ten people douchebags, the least you can do is come up with your own title, introduction and closing joke. (Or original production, lyrics and melody)
But seriously - Alyssa’s article about the DOJ’s fight against Live Nation and Ticketmaster is where the problem goes beyond unoriginal writing:
https://t.co/UNLvXnzvEF
The headline promises readers “what to know” about one of the most important legal battles in the live-music industry.
Apparently, readers needed to know about Taylor Swift, Pearl Jam, corporate press releases and personnel drama inside the DOJ—but not that I had testified before the United States Senate just five weeks earlier about this exact issue.
I didn’t show up to Congress merely to bitch and moan. I came prepared with specific solutions:
Artists should control who sells their tickets and how they are sold.
Resale markups should be capped.
Existing laws against bots, crooked brokers and speculative ticketing should be aggressively enforced.
You can read my actual Senate testimony here:
https://t.co/2Qe8ZuJux7
So why didn’t Alyssa Fields mention it?
Politics? Laziness? Bias?
I can’t read her mind—but I can read her article. The result is incomplete journalism that conveniently serves a very familiar narrative.
Taylor Swift says the ticketing system hurts fans? Important.
Pearl Jam said it 30 years ago? Historic.
Kid Rock sits before Congress, identifies the problems and proposes actual reforms? Suddenly the newsroom runs out of ink.
That isn’t “what to know.”
That’s what survived the writer’s political and cultural filter.
And this isn’t only about one writer. It’s part of a larger media pattern: They’ll cover an issue all day long when the people speaking fit their preferred narrative. The moment somebody outside their political tribe supports the same cause, relevant facts mysteriously disappear.
You don’t have to like me.
You don’t have to share my politics.
You don’t even have to admit you secretly know every damn word to “Bawitdaba.”
But journalism is supposed to function even when the subject doesn’t belong to your political tribe.
What makes my position especially inconvenient is that I’ve made millions of dollars working with Live Nation. Going after this system isn’t fashionable, easy or personally convenient.
It means biting a hand that has paid me because that hand was caught reaching into my fans’ pockets.
And I’m not only coming after Ticketmaster. I’m coming after every ticketing outfit that treats artists like inventory and fans like human ATMs.
Ticketmaster is simply the biggest hog at the trough.
Then the Live Nation trial pulled back the curtain.
Unsealed messages showed Live Nation ticketing employees mocking customers while discussing outrageous add-ons—including VIP parking priced as high as $250 in connection with Kid Rock shows:
https://t.co/EgzrhTP973
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino later called the language “disgusting” and said it wasn’t how the company operated:
https://t.co/Mi04ThOl0B
A jury ultimately found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster violated federal and state antitrust laws by eliminating competition and driving up costs for fans, artists and venues:
https://t.co/Dya2i1kmvI
Those aren’t Kid Rock talking points.
Those are internal messages, evidence presented in court and findings returned by a jury.
And to all the low-rent fortune-tellers who spent months claiming I couldn’t sell tickets and that the Freedom 250 Tour would play to empty seats: How did that prediction age?
The tour happened. The crowds came. We had sold-out and packed amphitheaters night after night.
Then something miraculous occurred: The same writers who couldn’t stop talking suddenly discovered silent mode.
No follow-ups. No corrections. No “maybe we got this wrong.”
Their keyboards must have suffered a mysterious mechanical failure when the turnstiles started clicking.
Funny how that works.
Hot takes don’t scan at the gate.
Tickets do.
So, Alyssa, disagree with me all you like. I’m from the school of sticks and stones. But your reporting still has to survive the facts.
If you promise readers “what to know,” have the guts to tell them what actually matters—even when the facts make somebody you dislike look informed, prepared and correct.
You don’t have to like Kid Rock.
But you do have to deal with the record.
And let’s face one more fact: Hack journalism doesn’t publish itself.
The writer owns the words.
The editor owns the decision to run them.
The outlet owns the standard—or lack of one—that lets the work through.
When sloppy, one-sided reporting keeps making it into print, the failure isn’t only personal.
It’s institutional.
Suck on that, haters.
Kid Rock wins again. 🎤 ⬇️
And before you comment, “Don’t waste your time on these haters,” understand this: I didn’t.
I had AI help me check the facts, create the links, check the grammar and handle the other tedious shit. As a songwriter, putting a few words together to rip someone—or the media—a new asshole is easy as pie for me!
As someone who’s been singing the National Anthem at rodeo events for over 20 years, I’ll just say….
There’s a way it was intended to be sung, without your own spin. This was 💯the way! Bravo!
🚨 BREAKING - TRUMP WINS: Supreme Court UPHOLDS President Trump’s order ensuring passports are based on biological sex.
Absurd this was ever in question.
Republicans are still trying to pass the SAVE Act—a bill that would make it harder to vote and disenfranchise millions of Americans. Join @RedistrictAct and tell your member of Congress to vote no: https://t.co/Cc4JHKr73Q