The NHL created a whole lot of backlash Tuesday with its announcement of Kid Rock as the featured 2nd intermission performer at the upcoming All-Star Game on Feb. 18.
Kid Rock, or Robert James Ritchie, has earned five Grammy nominations and sold over 25 million albums in the U.S., and he does have a new album to promote (Sweet Southern Sugar, released in November). But Ritchie has also garnered a lot of political attention with his endorsement of Donald Trump, his right-wing speeches at concerts, and even his brief flirtation with running for a U.S. Senate seat.
Beyond that, his highest-profile musical successes are a while back; 2010’s Born Free was his last album to go platinum, and his two latest albums haven’t even gone gold yet. So there’s been substantial criticism of this move both from political and relevance angles.
Here’s some of it:
https://twitter.com/goalietandem/status/953422137058054144
https://twitter.com/hemjhaveri/status/953421677945376768
Kid Rock, noted racist, performs at event in which one of the teams is captained by the NHL's only ever minority superstar, who gets pelted with racist tweets every time he wins a playoff series.
Gee, why can't the NHL expand its viewership?
— Zach (@ZWal93) January 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/sung_minkim/status/953426774305726465
https://twitter.com/Crawf33/status/953417060641468416
I've never seen @NHL fans more united than they are right now in hating the announcement that Kid Rock is playing the #NHLAllStar game.
— @alishagrauso.bsky.social (@AlishaGrauso) January 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/StrikeTwiceWoTB/status/953421447606820865
NBCSN had Ritchie on Tuesday night for the official announcement, and that was an interesting interview. First, here’s their announcement, with Jeremy Roenick saying “Can’t get a better guy” and Ritchie playing up his Detroit roots:
Roenick then talked about his friendship with Ritchie, saying “When I talk to people about you, I say, ‘Kid Rock is the most talented musician, I think ever, on the planet, because you can put any instrument in your hand or on your mouth and you can play anything and rock a house and sing any kind of genre.” Ritchie replied with a self-deprecating “Jack of all trades, master of none.”
He then followed that up by talking about working hard the way athletes do:
Ritchie later talked about how he hasn’t done TV for a while, because “It’s a turnoff with all the politics that go into it, what you can and can’t do.” He said the NHL was open to “trying to make this special”:
He went on to talk about how he hopes this leads to other entertainers being given more free reign:
So, this will certainly be an interesting move. The NHL’s taken a lot of Twitter heat over it, but they obviously feel Ritchie’s a valuable get for them. We’ll see how his performance goes and what kind of reaction it generates.