Country rapper Kid Rock, hardly a stranger to controversy, has again found himself on the wrong side of a viral video clip.
This time, the performer was seen hurling homophobic slurs at fans who were taking phone videos during a recent performance, TMZ reports.
While he was performing at FishLipz Bar & Grill in Smithville, Tennessee, fans in the audience used smartphones to record some of the set—you know, like everyone has been doing for the last ten years or so.
Kid Rock apparently chose that night to spew all of his disgust for fans' concert filming habits. And whether he liked it or not, someone filmed the entire thing.
After looking directly into the camera, flashing a middle finger, and screaming "F'k your iPhone, yeah," Kid Rock sang an off-color suggestion:
"You can post this, you can post this, you can post this d*ck right now!"
He then opted for outright homophobia:
"You f'kin fa***ts, with your phones out."
You can see video here:
People were hardly surprised when they heard why Kid Rock was grabbing headlines again.
The sarcastic commentary was in full force online.
Y\u2019all really surprised Kid Rock a red neck trump supporter said a homophobic slurpic.twitter.com/lQePBvAnFG— RY (@RY) 1623105503
BREAKING: We have removed Kid Rock from the list of keynote speakers at pride— Samantha Ruddy (@Samantha Ruddy) 1623117490
You can say Kid Rock shouldn't use ignorant bigoted homophobic slurs, but Kid would never let his fans down like that.— John Fugelsang (@John Fugelsang) 1623126122
When I heard Kid Rock made a homophobic comment, I got so mad I drove 12 hours to my parents house, went in the attic, found Kid Rock\u2019s latest cassette, and threw it out.— Tony Posnanski (@Tony Posnanski) 1623108952
there goes the squeaky-clean image kid rock has worked so hard to maintainhttps://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1402300903131172870\u00a0\u2026— Nick Whalen (@Nick Whalen) 1623170031
It doesn't take much digging to understand people's total lack of surprise.
The last few years have seen Kid Rock firing off multiple hate-filled rants.
While clearly drunk during a 2019 performance, Kid Rock leaned into a profanity-laced verbal attack on Oprah Winfrey. That ended with him being showered with boos and escorted off his own stage by security.
And even further back than that, in 2017, Kid Rock launched an ill-prepared bid to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate. His announcement included a pointed attack on the LGBTQ+ community.
"And why these days is everything so gay? Gay rights. Transgender this and that. I say let gay folks get married if they want and I'm not even close to a death trap".
"But things shouldn't be this complicated. And, no, you don't get to choose, because whatever you have between your legs should determine the bathroom that you use."
Of course, that campaign fizzled out rather quickly.
But even though the campaign speeches are no more, it's clear Kid Rock doesn't mind voicing intolerance and bigotry whenever he's behind a microphone.