Kid Rock is being honored this year by the Detroit branch of the civil rights organization the NAACP.  They say Kid has done a lot to revitalize his hometown, opening businesses and promoting Detroit however he can.  So why will a big portion of people be boycotting the awards dinner where Kid will be honored?  Because Kid Rock likes to use the confederate flag as a symbol at this shows and on his merchandise, and to some people that symbolizes the exact opposite of civil rights.  In fact, one activist calls that flag a “slap in the face” to anyone involved in that movement.  Now, I don’t feel like Kid Rock is a racist at all.  But when he argues “Why should someone be able to own any image and say what it is?”  I have to disagree…sometimes a symbol is a really powerful thing for certain groups of people, even if to you it represents something else.  But Kid Rock being who he is, he’s not about to back down and stop using that flag, which is, of course, his choice.  I don’t think it stops people from coming to his shows, but it will definitely stop some people from coming to see him get a civil rights honor.

…unless you’re expecting him to use polite language and repress his feelings.  He recently posted an obscenity-laced message to his fans on his website after receiving complaints about a show in Arkansas.  With 6 inches of snow on the ground, it was a no-win sitch:  If he cancelled the show, people who drove in from far away would be mad, and if he did the show people who couldn’t make it would be mad.  He decided to do the show, and then had this to say to the angry, complaining fans who couldn’t get there: 

“If you bought tix to tonight’s show and can’t make it, YOU WILL BE GETTING A REFUND, STRAIGHT OUT OF MY POCKET. I’ve never ripped any of my fans off, EVER!!! I have also NEVER missed a show. I know there are people who drove here from Memphis and Oklahoma, been in their cars all day driving and dealing with this s—-y weather, the same as me and my band have the WHOLE TOUR. You so called ‘fans’ on my website bitching and moaning and saying I’m greedy, can GO F— YOURSELVES, plain and simple. Throw out my CDs and lose my number. I don’t want drama kings and queens like y’all anywhere around myself, band, crew, family or my fans.”

Offensive, yes, but if you’re not into salty language then you’re probably better off not liking Kid Rock.  I kind of admire the fact that instead of grovelling to the whiners, he’s suggesting quite forcefully that they get out of his life!