Kid Rock reacted to Conan O’Brien’s Oscars joke about him and his involvement in the Turning Point USA alternative halftime show.
“I love a good joke, even when I am the butt of it, unfortunately this was not a very good one,” the country singer, 55, wrote via X on Monday, March 16.
Kid Rock then took the opportunity to promote his upcoming tour, which kicks off on Friday, May 1, in Dallas.
“Either way, if you want to see a REAL good show this spring / summer that celebrates America and 250 years of Freedom – make sure you buy your tickets from (ugh) Ticketmaster for my Freedom 250 tour – The Road To Nashville,” he continued. “There is a reason for this, TRUST ME!”
During the Oscars broadcast on Sunday, March 15, O’Brien, who hosted the awards show for the second time in a row, poked fun at Kid Rock while advising his viewers things might get political.
“I should warn you tonight could get political, OK?” O’Brien, 62, said in his monologue. “If that makes you uncomfortable there’s an alternate Oscars being hosted by Kid Rock. It’s at the Dave and Busters down the street, [and there are a] lot of tickets for that.”
O’Brien’s joke was referring to Kid Rock’s involvement in the alternative halftime show created by Turning Point USA to boycott Bad Bunny performing at Super Bowl LX last month. In addition to Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett took the stage. Ahead of the show, Kid Rock expressed his excitement to be heading the rival programming.
“We plan to play great songs for folks who love America,” the musician said in a statement ahead of the show. “We’re approaching this show like David and Goliath. Competing with the pro football machine and a global pop superstar is almost impossible … or is it?”
Bad Bunny’s halftime show averaged 128.2 million viewers, which became the fourth-most halftime show viewers in history. Other top-viewed performances include Kendrick Lamar in 2025, Michael Jackson in 1993 and Usher in 2024.
The Turning Point show had 6 million viewers during its live broadcast on YouTube but has since amassed 21 million viewers.
Following his performance, Kid Rock was accused of lip-synching during his song “Bawitdaba.” He denied the allegations, claiming that the sync was off while also confirming that the show was pretaped.
“I even told them when I saw the rough cut, I was like, ‘You guys got to work on that sync. It’s off,’” Kid Rock said during a February interview on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle. “So it was just a syncing issue that they had, and I know they tried to get it right. It was very difficult.”
