As Super Bowl XL wrapped up its second quarter with Bad Bunny in the wings, millions clicked over to a very different sort of halftime show.
Kid Rock, sporting trimmed hair for the first time in three decades, capped a 35-minute set that aired Sunday night (Feb. 8) with one of his own signature hits and a country cover song — part of a protest show on football’s biggest night.
The Michigan rap-rock-country star and devoted MAGA man was joined by veteran country singers Brantley Gilbert and Lee Brice, along with “American Idol” alum Gabby Barrett, for “The All-American Halftime Show.”
Coordinated by Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the political action group founded by slain conservative leader Charlie Kirk, the event was touted as a meat-and-potatoes alternative to the official entertainment happening at Levi’s Stadium for a national NBC audience.
Kid Rock, who turned 55 last month, hit the stage in a fur coat and denim shorts for a performance of his dependable 1999 showstopper “Bawitdaba” before returning in a blue Detroit cap for a rendition of the Cody Johnson country hit “’Til I Can’t” — a song he embraced last fall with an added verse honoring the late Kirk.
Indeed, Sunday’s red-white-and-blue show was as much a Kirk tribute as a concert: TPUSA’s Jack Posobiec kicked off the proceedings with a shoutout to the organization’s founder, who was assassinated during a public event in September, while Brice introduced a new song, “Country Nowadays,” with his own salute to Kirk.
Tight edits and quick outfit changes suggested “The All-American Halftime Show” was prerecorded. Artists performed on a sleek stage surrounded by a couple of hundred cheering fans.
Total viewership metrics weren’t available Sunday night, including the number of people who watched the TPUSA show on several cable networks airing it. That data likely will be available in coming days.
But based on online streaming tallies noted by the Detroit Free Press, “The All-American Halftime Show” drew at least 6.4 million watchers across YouTube and Rumble as it unfolded just after 8:10 p.m. Sunday. (The show had been scheduled to also run on the social media platform X, but TPUSA announced shortly before game time it could not stream there because of licensing restrictions.)
Gilbert, wearing a shirt emblazoned with “God Family Country,” led the music with a set of blue-collar country that included “Dirt Road Anthem,” his hit composition for Jason Aldean.
Barrett’s two-song contribution included her debut single and biggest hit, “I Hope,” while Brice clocked in with a three-song set that launched with 2014’s “Drinking Class.”
“The All-American Halftime Show” ran simultaneously with Bad Bunny’s 14-song Super Bowl set, which featured appearances from Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
Super Bowl counterprogramming has been around for decades, with networks offering everything from “Beavis and Butt-head” premieres to the Lingerie Bowl as competing halftime fare.
But Sunday’s TPUSA show came amid a more pointed, highly charged context: an America riven by political differences and an incendiary social media atmosphere.
From the moment Bad Bunny was unveiled in September as Super Bowl halftime headliner, there were complaints about the NFL’s selection of the Puerto Rican artist, who has offered critiques of current immigration policies and whose body of work is largely sung in Spanish. The Super Bowl is an American cultural fixture, naysayers argued, and Bad Bunny was a middle finger to a core football fan base.
Among those critics was President Donald Trump himself, who called the Bad Bunny choice “absolutely ridiculous.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week Trump would be tuning into the Kid Rock set.
The president may have wound up monitoring multiple screens, based on a Truth Social post Sunday night reacting to Bad Bunny’s set:
“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 and bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kid Rock, with new haircut, draws 6M+ for alternative halftime show
Reporting by Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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