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KID ROCK – FREEDOM 250 TOUR

He hasn’t had a hit in eons.

Even for the show tonight, at the Dos Equis Pavilion, it’s a sea of blue dots on the Ticketmaster app. I’d put it at around 30% unsold.

Now it is an amphitheatre, with its attendant bonus charges…i.e. drinks/food/merch/parking, and it is run by Live Nation (but owned by the city of Dallas), so that means Live Nation may be able to eke out a profit. However…

Odds are not good.

But I will say, at amphitheatres, you must not overlook sponsorship deals/fees. The promoter guarantees a certain number of shows per year, upon which the sponsor makes his deal. So every show does not have to make a profit, the sponsorship fees can make up the difference.

But these are piss poor numbers.

But Kid Rock is a right wing icon you say…

Welcome to the modern era, where big time press is detached from the street. Kid Rock is in the national news on a consistent basis, more than almost everybody in the Spotify Top 50. His house is being buzzed in a flyby by the military, he’s going on an Apache helicopter with Pete Hegseth… But press doesn’t sell tickets. Yes, press might help with awareness, although most of that comes online on other sites, but it doesn’t get people excited to go. You either want to go or you don’t.

Yet half of nation is red, or close to it. But is that a reason to go to the show? This isn’t a political rally, it’s a concert…with some political verbiage.

But it’s not only the press that’s out of touch, it’s Kid Rock himself.

There’s unlimited money/adulation/perks from Republican insiders if you’re a right wing entertainer, because there are so few of them. Rock is in a bubble, he too has lost touch with the street.

And he hasn’t had a bonafide hit since 2008.

This ain’t the Eagles… “Peaceful Easy Feeling” may be forever, but “Bawitdaba”?

Live by the hit, die by the hit. Which is why so many of today’s Spotify Top 50 will be unable to sell many tickets when their chart numbers decline. But it’s even worse, the music doesn’t mean the same thing in the culture.

And don’t confuse Kid Rock with metal. Metal has a bedrock audience based on alienation, being the other, that no other mainstream music possesses. So hits are not as important, and the length of time since your last hit is not  as important.

POST MALONE/JELLY ROLL

Rocker goes country!

That’s not a new paradigm, but the difference is Post Malone does a good job of selling it live and on record, he delivers.

But the truth is before he switched genres all his numbers were going in the wrong direction, he hadn’t had recording success in eons.

But it feels like Post Malone is a superstar, because that’s the way the press treats him (assuming you’re paying attention to the press).

So Post’s previous audience, do they really want to go to this stadium show? It’s not their kind of music…or they fear the set list won’t be their kind of music.

As for the new audience, the country audience, Post does not have a string of country hits, he’s not fully accepted in Nashville.

So who wants to overpay for a stadium show?

Not many!

A stadium show is less about the music and more about a celebration. You just want to be there, feel the vibe. But this requires hard core fans. And if Post has any, that number is not large, and then you have the switching genre issue above.

As for Jelly Roll, who is also on the bill… He’s been everywhere, and has been very likable in interviews, but he’s still a novice act, without a string of hits. I don’t think sales have been hurt by his use of the n-word, but it’s head-scratching how his multiple use of this word has not hurt him in the way Morgan Wallen’s one utterance has.

So what we’ve got here is a sea of blue dots. There’s no way this show is making money, as a matter of fact, they just canceled a concert in Waco… He says it’s to finish new music, what a laugh. No one wants to buy tickets!

Well, some people do. But there are fixed costs and an advance and… I don’t know how much dough they’re guaranteeing Post, but there’s no way in hell they make money on so many of these shows. Deals are predicated on the promoter giving almost all of the face value of the ticket to the act and making their profit on the ancillaries, i.e. food and drink/merch and ticket fees. But for these shows, there are already tickets on sale for below face value!

And that’s the reason I’m writing this screed. We can debate all day long whether Live Nation guaranteed concerts with Ticketmaster deals, or the lack thereof if there was no deal, but there is this canard that if the two are just broken up, ticket prices will plummet. That they’re artificially high and the public is getting screwed.

But the truth is no one puts a gun to a person’s head and tells them they must buy a ticket, that’s a personal choice. And until the on sale, there’s no guarantee the ticket sales will be good. It’s a bet. With a lot on the line, all the startup/production costs for the act, the guarantee by the promoter to the act, it’s a crapshoot. And for every high demand show with tickets resold at exorbitant prices online, we’ve got this tour, where they’re offering student discounts and… In other words, the prices are going DOWN!

It’s all the law of supply and demand. Prices can come down as well as go up. And when they’re up, that means demand outstrips supply… How come nobody not in the business can’t understand this?

What do Democrats stand for?

I was driving in my car, listening to CNN on the satellite, and there was a gentleman saying that all the protesters, those at the No Kings rallies, those at the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, were the same people…a small subset of the population made up of those on the extreme left who should be ignored, because they don’t represent America. As a matter of fact, he went on to say they were UNAMERICAN!

He was not being histrionic, nor was he exasperated, rather he was stating his message in a grandfatherly way, kind of like Ronald Reagan saying “there you go again…”

And I’m thinking of how the right has defined so many things in America.

California is a hellhole, so bad that you’d better not leave the house because of the homeless population, and there are trans kids all over the schools and taxes are too high and why would anybody live there?

But it’s not only California… The Republicans have had a years-long campaign of denigrating, of labeling negatively, unions, mail-in voting, welfare…never mind taxes. To the point where taxes are now anathema even on the left. What am I getting for my damn money! And I could do a better job of disbursing it. (This is the claim of the richest class…how did that work out with DOGE? Where cuts were made by AI, enforced by those wet behind the ears with no insight. This has been well-documented, but if you only follow the arguments on cable news, the argumentative sites you go to online, you may not know this.)

The enemy is the elite, the university, the takers… They’ve all been demonized to the point where unless you’re a member of these groups, you too believe it.

So what do the Democrats stand for?

WE’RE ANTI-TRUMP!

But that’s not enough, not if you want people to believe in you, there must be more. There used to be a party platform, those are now meaningless exercises. Furthermore, many old Democrats are disillusioned by the party and have now become independents.

Used to be clear prior to the nineties, you knew what Democrats stood for:

1. The working man (and woman!)

Not a hard concept. But so many of these people are now Republicans. Because they were overlooked by the Democrats. The party was run by economic grifters trying to get closer to the money. Can you say EPSTEIN? Irrelevant of whether they were on the right or left, what we learned was the rich want to hang with other people with status and benefit from those relationships and the entire enterprise is encased in a cone of silence. But if you’re a working person?

You have no access. Even worse, you have no access to the best educational institutions, because the elite has locked them up with not only legacies and donations, but enrichment programs and…

So who is looking out for you?

You could say George Soros, but the right has labeled him to the point where just uttering his name makes people wince, he’s toxic…the Democrats never rose to defend him, for fear the right’s labeling of him would rub off on them.

2. Unions

The right has completely changed the narrative, unions are evil. The tide turned with the air traffic controllers being excised by Reagan in the eighties. If anybody goes on strike… Oh, they’re overpaid and selfish. Yup, these teachers educating your kids. Meanwhile, the company has you on part time, oftentimes with split hours, so you get no benefits. As for health insurance, it’s got “Obama” in the name. Only it doesn’t! The right slapped the Affordable Care Act with the moniker Obamacare to ensure negative perception. But it’s even worse, there’s the code word “Democrat” party as opposed to “Democratic.” The only person I’ve seen stand up to this is Bill Maher, and he is anything but warm and fuzzy, and therefore not changing minds as much as elected officials who could blow back every time they hear this label. It’s like being called a pejorative on the schoolyard. You can either walk away or punch back. But the Democrats stand there and take it.

3.Social safety net

Are there some people breaking the rules, getting undeserved pay? Of course, hell, there are people in Congress, our President is breaking rules constantly. But the truth is the system works quite well. I don’t care who your parents are, whether they’re drug addicts or not working, children deserve to have food on their plate and a roof over their head. Just like we believe when you experience a national disaster, you can count on the government to come rescue you, to a degree anyway. But now even that is in question. And, if you don’t take care of those at the bottom, they undercut the entire society. They not only camp in your streets, they break into your home and… Even if your house is behind a gate and you fly private…do you want to live in constant fear, do you really want to be this isolated from the population?

4. Taxes

Our nation runs on them, but they’re a dirty word. Even worse, the richer you are the less you proportionately pay, if you pay at all. As for corporations, many don’t even pay taxes, irrelevant of the statutory rate. But they’ve convinced us of the trickle down theory. Yeah, like if you caddy for a fat cat in your town he’ll tip you…exactly how much? It’s a pittance compared to the bank account of the player, even of the price it costs to get out on the course and play!

Where is the campaign stating that taxes pay for road upkeep, the police and fire departments, national defense… Does the public really want those to be kneecapped?

5. Reasonability

The Democratic party is supposed to be a big tent, but the end result has become no one can say no to anybody. Trans good, but tell me again why we should have trans women in women’s sports? How this even became an issue… There are very few of these people anyway. But come on, I’m not tall enough to play in the NBA, I don’t ask for a waiver. I didn’t go to medical school, I can’t practice medicine. Even Martina Navratilova came out against trans women in women’s tennis. But those who’ve never even played the game know better. It’s a matter of principle. Really? And if you don’t agree with this you’re excoriated, said to be unenlightened. Yes, I’ll say that trans women should be able to use the women’s bathroom, but… The most salient point here is the right has made a major issue out of something quite minor. Where are the elected officials on the left stating how few people are actually involved? Rather they just take the line that it should be allowed. People are reasonable, if you reason with them.

6. We’re all in it together

Ain’t that a laugh. The wealthy elite want nothing to do with the great unwashed, they have contempt for them. And the working and underclasses know this, which is one of the reasons they voted for Trump. It’s not about the issues so much as it is a matter of principle. I don’t care if you’re the smartest kid in the class, I can even handle you being rich, but if you’re lording it over me, being an a**hole, I’m against you in principle.

7. The rich don’t rule

Look at all those tech titans who used to be Democrats who are now Trumpers. Because their wallet comes first, not the public. To let these people make policy for the nation is anathema.

8. Public school

We should all start out equally, on the same foot. And we should fund our institutions accordingly. But the right calls them “government schools” and goes on and on how bad they are and wans government money for their private schools, which in many cases are anything but neutral. I won’t say they’re madrassas, but so many are religious and…

9. Sacrifice for the greater good

Today everybody is out for themselves, as for the rest of the people…SCREW ‘EM! You’re dumb if you don’t bend the rules. I’m out for myself and if in the process you’re hurt, or you fall behind, it’s your own damn fault. The right has convinced so many that it’s the poor’s fault that they’re economically challenged. I won’t even bother to refute this, it’s self-evident it is wrong, but many regular people now believe this.

10. We’re all in it together.

Income inequality is the scourge of our nation. And rather than hide with their riches, the wealthy say THEY EARNED IT! Exactly how? By creating a product that the public or government buys? Without a customer, without the population at large, you’re dead on arrival, you’ve got nothing.

Meanwhile, those “in power” on the left tell us their hands are tied and to trust the system. Yeah, the same system that is not giving me my FEMA money, the same one that took away my benefit so I can no longer afford health insurance? Go to the ER…yeah, like the public doesn’t pay anyway.

As for elections… Believe in the same process that Trump denied in 2020 and is still denying, never mind pardoning the January 6th protesters?

The left says “watcha gonna do…” And then does nothing. The right turns over the table with impunity.

Never mind the left being the party of science, of innovation, it’s the right that wants to return to the past. But we’ve got old officials who don’t understand the new technology and it’s laughable. It’s the Democrats who should kick the oldsters aside and let the youngsters in. We live in a completely changed world and in Congress they act like it’s 1926. Or maybe even 1826.

So you stand for something, or you stand for nothing.

Religion had it right, with the Ten Commandments.

And then you had the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

We know what the Republicans stand for, but the Democrats? It’s amorphous at best.

This is not rocket science. You could come up with a platform and hammer it. But that would mean you might piss off some people in your own party by speaking the truth. You might antagonize lobbyists. Elected officials are the absolute worst…they’re supposed to represent their constituencies, but it’s been proven time and again that they’re only out for themselves.

But how come I know all of the above and those in control of the Democratic party do not?

Because they’ve got their heads so far up their a**es that they’re out of touch. They’re just hoping that Trump alienates the public so much that they’ll gain some power. This is like trying to win a boxing match without throwing a punch. It’s fruitless.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/magazine/greatest-american-songwriters-alive.html

Chris Willman wrote the definitive piece on this in “Variety”: 

“Where in the Actual Hell Is Randy Newman? And Other Questions Raised by the New York Times’ Greatest Living American Songwriters List”

https://variety.com/2026/music/columns/new-york-times-greatest-songwriters-list-missing-randy-newman-1236733511/

Now I’ve known Chris for a long time. He takes his music seriously and is especially knowledgeable about country for a guy who started out in rock. I’d describe his personality as mild. But not this piece, he’s positively OUTRAGED!

About six weeks ago my shrink asked me about a piece I wrote that resonated with my audience, that he himself had read. He asked me what made it different. I thought about it for a while and then I said it was WARM!

Hmm…

Ever since then I’ve been trying to replicate that tone.

No, let me put it differently. I’m known for being angry, outraged. And why am I so pissed-off?

Well, some would say I’m frustrated with my position in the game. That I wish I had more status or more money or more power…

Others would just say it’s my raw personality.

I’d add in my father… He was always cutting through the B.S., he would not accept anything at face value. And the only person who can go from zero to one hundred as fast is my older sister.

And…

I was talking to a musician the other day, he couldn’t say anything negative about anybody, for fear he’d lose out on a future job.

Then there are those who repeat misinformation, or need to believe they’re always right, unable to admit they might be wrong. This makes it hard to learn, but their main goal is to fit into their designated group, and to do that you cannot rock the boat. That is not me, I’m more of a lone wolf, once again at this late date I can see I’m the son of my father.

So a few days back I saw the “30 Greatest Living American Songwriters” article in the “New York Times” app. I wasn’t expecting much, then again, it is the “New York Times.” The same “Times” that is bending over backwards to be pro-Palestinian, even though its majordomo is Jewish. And the anti-tech spin, the denigration of social media, the playing to its educated, upper middle class audience drives me wild. It’s self-reinforcing delusion.

And when it comes to music…

I know some of these writers, one especially, is a self-satisfied overeducated hip-hop fan. Funny how it’s the white men who are all in on hip-hop, busy analyzing it and boosting it in a way that those in the culture, those who make it, do not. Are they drawn to the edgy danger, that is so far from their roots, that they would never truly get close to? I don’t know, but I expected to see a number of hip-hop writers. Then again, when I think of songwriters… Lyrics are important, but if you’re sampling or someone else is creating the beats are you truly a songwriter? I mean you’re a lyricists…but I don’t want to get too deep into the weeds here.

But this is the “New York Times.”

Now a year ago, the paper published a list of the “100 Best Movies of the 21st Century”: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/movies/best-movies-21st-century.html

Notice what they did here, they did not say the 100 best movies of ALL TIME, but just those of the past 25 years. And how many of those can compete with “Citizen Kane” and “Gone With the Wind,” never mind “The Godfather.” Close to none, I’d say.

So, if the “Times” had done a similar article about the best 21st century songwriters, I would have expected a lot of the entries on this list, a lot of less than greats. Because I won’t say that we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969, but I will say maybe since 1999.

But NO! They had to include the whole kit and kaboodle, the only caveat being that the songwriter still be alive.

So I peruse the list for the one and only, probably America’s greatest living songwriter, Paul Simon, and he is there, thank god. But I will say that the list of his five essential songs is almost laughable. Is there anybody, I dear say ANYBODY, who thinks “Bernadette” and “The Sacred Harp” are amongst Paul’s greatest? Ever hear of “Mrs. Robinson”? How about “America” or even “Sound of Silence”? Never mind “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” Simon wrote those Simon & Garfunkel songs. And I could name a bunch of solo songs better than those two, if not the whole five!

Which begs two questions… Are the people making this list truly familiar with Simon’s work? And, are they just trying to appear hip, in classic rock scribe fashion, showing that the reader’s taste sucks and their obscure choices are better?

And, in Willman’s article, you’ll see that they solicited the opinions of performers. But that’s a completely different ball of wax. Critics are their own special category, and if you’re deferring to the people who make the music, you’ve got no self-respect. And it’s not like there’s a mathematical formula that created the final list… No, it was adjusted by the writers/critics. About as transparent as the legendary Grammy nominations decided by secret committees.

But who the f*ck cares.

I don’t.

But Willman’s piece… I mean if this guy can be outraged…

Is this clickbait?

No, the “Times’ doesn’t specialize in this. The “Times” believes it’s the definitive statement, but in this case it absolutely is not.

And then you’ve got the “Washington Post.” I want to cancel my subscription, but I don’t want to cut off a news source that fills me in here and there. But the editorials have done a 180, it’s now a right wing viewpoint. Bezos and the rest of these billionaires, like Sergey Brin, even Tim Cook, just want to kiss Trump’s ass.

And the “Wall Street Journal”‘s editorial/opinion pages have always skewed right, there’s very little there with a contrary opinion. But at least it doesn’t affect the reporting. And then there was this piece in the “Journal,” the antithesis of the left wing Jonathan Haidt/anti-social media mind-set of the “Times” and its readers:

“The Timeless Fear of Corrupting the Youth – From Socrates to social media, society has always worried about protecting the young. But the latest ruling about Meta and YouTube overlooks the upsides of free speech.”

https://www.wsj.com/politics/social-media-freedom-speech-meta-youtube-ruling-32aaee3b

I hate when the left runs on emotions instead of facts.

Just like I hate it when the left is driven by the most extreme viewpoints of those in the party. That’s right, they’re anti-Israel. But as a Jew, one must ask, how much of this is based on raw antisemitism? They killed 30,000 dissidents in Iran, hung people, and there are crickets on campus. But when the Jews, god forbid, that powerful state the size of New Jersey, kills anybody? It’s a shonda!

Sure, Netanyahu is no picnic, but a Jew can’t even say anything out loud in support of Israel, you know to keep it to yourself. In a world that “is run by Jews.” Really?

So, there’s no there there, no center of authority.

And let’s not even address Fox News, never mind Trump himself.

It’s a veritable circus in D.C. Melania criticizing Kimmel for a joke and… Did she ever read any of Trump’s posts, reveling in the death of his enemies?

So what’s a poor boy to do?

Definitely not play in a rock and roll band. These are no longer outsiders, thinking for themselves, unafraid to stand up to groupthink. No, they’re part of the group! They’re sellouts, brands, in it for the money. At least Frank Zappa joked about this.

So we live in a world of constant outrage. With everybody defending their position, whether right or wrong.

I mean Chris Willman’s pissed that Randy Newman was excluded from this list. I’ll throw a spanner in the works, how about Don Henley? He and his compatriots own the biggest selling album of all time. But Don is not warm and fuzzy and critics, even the Dude, hate the Eagles, but come on…

I could list plenty more, but I won’t.

I mean this is not the 1800s, all these record stills exist, are easily playable on streaming services, so just because they’re old they should be overlooked, so the “Times” can look hip?

Everybody’s worried about their image, the perception… Truth takes a back seat.

You can complain all day, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Trump does what he wants, testing limits all the time, and the Democrats keep saying their hands are tied. Ain’t that laughable.

I guess John Lennon had it right back in 1970:

“I just believe in me, Yoko and me, and that’s reality”

Because:

“The dream is over”

We used to depend upon culture to inform the public, move the discussion forward, but certainly in music that power has been abdicated.

Hell, I’m quoting a song from “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band,” not quite a commercial stiff, but far from a raging success. That was George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass.” Or Stephen Stills’s solo debut. And where in the hell is he on this list? “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” is better than anything most of the people on it have ever written.

But he’s old, and we know the youth must be lionized. And money eclipses everything.

Although it didn’t used to.

Get it right, and it’s for the ages.

Play the game, play to the audience, and it’s a momentary success.

Then again, no one is playing the long game anymore. Because everybody is questioning whether the game will even continue.

Or to paraphrase George Carlin, another seer from the past, SAVE YOURSELF!

Good luck with that.