Kid Rock doesn’t mind if you generate an AI song based on his music

Kid Rock recently participated in a challenge to use AI to produce a believable country music song, which was organized by the science and technology channel Core Memory (see below). As theprp reports, Core Memory invited Rock to act as a sort of judge, evaluating the outcome of those AI-powered initiatives. In the end, he described the finished track as “average.” However, Rock shared his opinions on AI in music throughout the next discussion. The topic is still a difficult one, even though AI-generated songs are becoming more and more popular on the internet and have recently started to appear on the charts.

But when asked what he felt of AI in music, Rock wasn’t at all against it. He even went so far as to say that he would be willing to play a popular Kid Rock song live if AI were to copy him. He did, however, have the wisdom to recognize that his willingness to use such technology would backfire and even be used against him because of his vocal conservative political beliefs.

The songwriters I I have, you know, a special place in my heart for them. Like, I don’t know how it works out for them. Like, there might have to be some legislation there or whatnot. And maybe for artists, too. I’m not against it, but I don’t think we need to be unreasonable about something we can’t stop. I mean, my attitude personally is, like, if a hundred thousand people want to be out there writing songs with my intellectual property, whatever, my voice — go for it. I hope somebody nails one. If you nail one, I’ll give you a piece of it. Because I get to go sing that live and we make the majority of our money live at the gate. Now what’s going to happen is the other half of the country that are writing songs, like you know, Kid Rock wants to blow Joe Biden, you know, stuff like that. And I’ll laugh at that too, there will probably be some funny stuff there.

Elaborating further, he stated:

[AI is] another tool. You can pound in a nail with a rock if you want. Go for it. Or you can get a nail gun. …Technology, you’re not going to stop it. So let’s figure out how to use it. Make life better. There’s going to be some adjustments. Yeah, industries are going to lose some workers and stuff, but they’ll come back in other spaces somewhere. It’s always worked out throughout time.

The employment of bots to scalp tickets is one aspect of AI in the concert business that Rock himself continues to criticize. Rock has collaborated closely with the Trump administration to write laws aimed at regulating the ticketing sector, including proposing the use of certain technologies to confirm an internet ticket buyer’s real identity. It’s true that Rock has a somewhat privileged perspective on AI in music. His legacy is already well-established, having achieved great success prior to the actual collapse of physical music sales. As a result, unlike some artists in the streaming era, he hasn’t had to deal with the emergence of AI directly.