It was less than four months ago that Kid Rock got so worked up about Bud Light teaming with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney for its Bud Light Easy Carry Contest during the NCAA’s March Madness that the “Don’t Tell Me How To Live” singer tried to destroy 12-packs of Bud Light with a semi-automatic rifle as he yelled, “F–k Bud Light and f–k Anheuser-Busch.”
What a difference a few months make.
In July, CNN reported that despite his apparent animus for the world’s largest beer company, Rock, 52 — who didn’t specifically mention Mulvaney (or the word “trans”) in his video, or call for a boycott of products from Bud Light parent company AB Inbev — was still selling Bud Light at his Nashville restaurant; Newsweek additionally reported at the time that Rock’s restaurant/bar was selling Bud Light during the June 9-12 Country Music Association Festival and that a Twitter user told the magazine that a waitress at the bar said “they actually stopped selling it for a week right after [Rock’s video], then started selling it again.”
And over the weekend the rapper-turned-country rocker was pictured enjoying a tall cool Bud Light at Colt Ford show in Nashville according to TMZ, which caused a torrent of comments on Twitter (now X) about the apparent hypocrisy from the “Devil Without a Cause” star. “Damn, never thought I’d have to give Kid Rock the Bud Light treatment but here we are,” wrote one commenter. “Just shot up all my Kid Rock vinyl and CDs. I loved Kid Rock, but I hope Kid Woke goes broke.”
Another, Fred Guttenberg — father of murdered Parkland High School student Jaime Guttenberg and gun control advocate — had equally harsh words for Rock, writing, “It’s just hard to keep a good beer down and I LOVE BUD LIGHT!!! Apparently, so does @KidRock. To all of you hypocritical lunatics who actually started this bulls–t attack on my favorite beer, cheers to you.”
Billboard has not been able to confirm the veracity of the pictures of Rock drinking the Bud Light at press time and a spokesperson for the singer had not returned a request for comment.
At the time of CNN’s report, it was unclear if the band on Bud Light at Rock’s Music City establishment had been lifted, or if one had ever been put in place, but at the time of the Mulvaney controversy Rock appeared happy to jump on the bandwagon of ban-calling against Bud Light.
While country singer John Rich pledged at the time to pull Bud Light from his Nashville bar Redneck Riviera and Travis Tritt said he would remove the formerly best-selling brew in the nation from his tour rider in the midst of the transphobic backlash against the Mulvaney promotional stunt, Rock never specifically said he’d stop selling it at his Broadway district spot.
In the original Mulvaney clip from April, she revealed that the company helped her celebrate her “365th day of womanhood” with “possibly the best gift ever” — a commemorative can of Bud Light with Mulvaney’s face on the side that was not commercially available, but instead meant as a personalized one-off souvenir.
Check out some of the comments about Rock’s Bud Light moment.
