Kid Rock faced a grilling from Fox News over his apparent U-turn on Bud Light, after the rapper appeared on TV wearing a hat promoting the beer brand.
The star—real name Robert Ritchie—was one of several conservative celebrities to denounce Bud Light in April 2023 over its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The company sent the TikTok star a personalized crate of beer to celebrate her first year living as a woman, angering many Bud Light drinkers—including Ritchie and his fellow music stars Travis Tritt and John Rich.
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Ritchie responded to the partnership by shooting up a crate of the beverage with an assault rifle, declaring “F*** Bud Light.”
He also vowed not to sell the brand in his Honky Tonk steakhouse in Nashville, Tennessee, with many fans joining the boycott. By February 2022, Bud Light’s parent company—Anheuser-Busch InBev—was estimated to have lost of $1.4 billion as a result.
However, Ritchie’s attitude towards the brand appears to have softened, with the 53-year-old defending Bud Light during an appearance on the Ingraham Angle on Thursday.
“We’ve got bigger targets,” the hip hop star told host Laura Ingraham on Thursday. “I mean, when you look at Planet Fitness, what are they doing?”
Planet Fitness is currently facing a conservative boycott over its inclusion policy. The gym chain allows transgender individuals to use the locker room that corresponds with their gender identity, angering some users.
Ritchie said he has no desire to “put any targets on people’s backs,” before continuing to list brands he’s boycotted—including Target and Ben & Jerry’s.
“I talked to the dudes from Bud Light, or Anheuser-Busch,” he continued. “[They] messed up. It’s too bad they just won’t say it, like ‘Hey, we messed up a little bit,’ ya know, whatever. That’s not how they’re cut.”
The American Bad A** rapper said he doesn’t “want to hurt people’s jobs,” adding that there’s “there’s a whole lot more companies we should be going after.”
Ritchie took a similar stance during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity in November, in which the American Music Award winner explained he “didn’t want to be in the party of cancel cultures and boycotts.”
“[Boycotts] ultimately hurt working-class people,” he said.
“I know people that work there and it’s not so cool to be wearing around that blue shirt anymore, going places. This is why they have a problem right now, it’s like, I can let the thing go.”
In December, Ritchie confessed to drinking Bud Light again, telling Tucker Carlson: “They screwed up, they made a mistake. I’m over it. I’m not the type of person to kick a man when he’s down.”
However, Ritchie had already been spotted drinking the beverage at a Colt Ford show in August, with fans concerned that the musician had gone “woke.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.