Kid Rock has been spotted drinking Bud Light at a concert, mere months after the musician shot up cases of the beer with an assault rifle in his transphobic rant against influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
In photos obtained by TMZ on Thursday (17 August), Kid Rock was pictured drinking a can of Bud Light beer at a Colt Ford concert in Nashville, Tennessee. In April, the rocker-rapper posted a video of himself shooting three cases of the Anheuser-Busch beer with an AR-15 gun, as he declared: “F*** Bud Light and f*** Anheuser-Busch” while wearing a MAGA hat.
The video came in response to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s sponsorship with the beer company, who sent her a can of Bud Light with her face on it to promote Bud Light’s March Madness contest. The partnership instantly received backlash from conservative politicians and celebrities, while others called for a boycott of the beer company.
It didn’t take long for social media users to criticise Kid Rock - whose real name is Robert James Ritchie - as a “hypocrite” for drinking Bud Light after voicing his outrage over the brand just four months ago.
“Who would have guessed that he’s a massive hypocrite??” one person tweeted in response to the photos.
“I am shocked to learn that Kid Rock is actually not super principled,” another person wrote.
“Kid Rock has gone woke,” a third user tweeted, as someone else replied: “Shut down the internet. It’s not getting funnier than this.”
This isn’t the first time Kid Rock has been called out online since posting his anti-trans video back in April. Shortly after, an old photo surfaced of the “Devil Without a Cause” singer drinking a Bud Light next to legendary drag queen, Wanda.
“Kid Rock chilling with legendary drag queen Wanda in 2003, drinking Bud Light, when he was vaguely relevant and didn’t need to shoot beer cans to prove he is a complete and utter t***,” one person tweeted at the time.
“There is always receipts! Here we have Kid Rock enjoying a bud light next to a drag queen. It didn’t bother him back then,” added former West Virginia senator Richard N Ojeda. “Yeah that’s right… he’s now trying to stay relevant so he spews fake outrage. But if it didn’t bother him then, it doesn’t really bother him now.”
Meanwhile, SiriusXM host Howard Stern condemned Kid Rock’s transphobic rant, as he explained his confusion as to why “someone would care so much” about Mulvaney’s partnership with the Anheuser-Busch brand.
“I wish I could call Kid Rock and have him come on the show and just tell me: ‘Why are you so upset about this? How is it hurtful?’ I don’t know why he got so upset,” he said on The Howard Stern Show. “Kid Rock, I know him. He’s got a great life. He transitioned from some kid in Michigan to a rock superstar! I’m really dumbfounded by why someone would care so much that they would blow up a can of Bud Light and say: ‘F*** Anheuser-Busch.’ I don’t get it.”
Anheuser-Busch, the producer of Budweiser beers, issued a statement at the time in response to the conservative boycott, saying that it “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people”.
“We have thousands of partners, millions of fans and a proud history supporting our communities, military, first responders, sports fans and hard-working Americans everywhere,” said CEO Brendan Whitworth. “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
