All good things must come to an end. Also, all terrible things must come to end. Objectively, Kid Rock’s puzzling Senatorial campaign falls in the latter camp, but at least it’s finally over (we hope). On Tuesday morning, the Michigan Senate hopeful and Pimp of the Nation took to SiriusXM’s Howard Stern and clarified his political intentions, noting that his recent campaigning was a joke and promotional tactic for his upcoming album, Sweet Southern Sugar.
Kid Rock Might Be Running For U.S. Senate Because Everything Is Terrible
Back in July, Kid Rock announced a potential bid for Michigan’s Senate with the hilarious website, www.kidrockforsenate.com, which didn’t have much on it except for a gift shop for campaign gear, an unsettling picture of Kid Rock with a taxidermied deer, and a GIF with some shitty turns of phrase around the double meaning of the word “party.” At the time, Consequence of Sound looked into the website and saw that it was hosted on Warner Bros.’ website, meaning it was most likely that “the rocker [was] parlaying recent speculation into a marketing opportunity for a new music project.”
Pimp Of The Nation: Watch Kid Rock’s Ridiculous Senate Campaign Speech
Now, months later, after Rock has collected an unknown but probably stupid amount of money from fans stoked to see him in office, the wannabe cowboy formally confirmed that his senatorial campaign was a joke. Despite being a marketing ploy for his new album, Rock’s fake campaign did gain a lot of attention, earning actual endorsements from the White House, bigoted melting cheese curd Steve Bannon, and former New York Governor George Pataki. However, Rock definitively told Stern, “Fuck no I’m not running for Senate. Are you fucking kidding me? Who fucking couldn’t figure that out?” He continued to say that announcing the run was “the worst advice that I ever gave myself, but it’s been the most creative thing I’ve ever done, and I got to see everyone’s true colors.”
However, while Rock says that it’s clear that his political campaign was a joke, legally, the waters were muddied when he began collecting money for campaign gear and directly stated that he was running for Senate (so pretty much immediately). As it turns out, you can’t pretend to campaign for political office ironically. As noted in an article by Vanity Fair, Paul S. Ryan, vice president for policy and litigation at the nonpartisan political watchdog organization, Common Cause, explained, “Regardless of whether Kid Rock says he’s only exploring candidacy, he’s selling ‘Kid Rock for Senate’ merchandise and is a candidate under the law. This is campaign finance law 101.”
During Rock’s interview with Stern, he also shed some light on how the idea for him to pretend to run for office came to be, noting that a fan told him to run earlier this year. With the idea incepted into his mind, he elaborated on what came after, noting he thought, “fuck it, let’s get some signs made… we start going with it. Everyone gets their panties in a bunch. I have people who work for me, they’re on the in, I’m like, ‘fuck no we’re not doing it, but let’s roll with it for a little while. This is awesome.'”
[H/T Billboard]