Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
For his forthcoming “The Freedom 250 Tour,” Kid Rock has detailed the new deal he has made with Live Nation/Ticketmaster, as per theprp. The controversial rap-rock country music artist has long supported legislation to combat the ticketing behemoth, ticket scalping, bots, and exorbitant ticket prices in general. He first met with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in December 2024 to start establishing the foundation for the Trump administration’s strategies to address the issue. He intended to:
help fix the fiasco of buying concert tickets. Gonna open a can of whoop ass on the bots, scalpers, venues, ticketing companies, managers and artists alike who rip off and deceive the public with the horse sh*t that has gone on for decades and only gotten worse.
In March 2025, Rock was in the Oval Office with his longtime friend, U.S. President Donald J. Trump, as he signed a new executive order targeting “price-gouging” and “price transparency at all stages of the ticket purchasing process” in relation to live event ticketing. According to the FTC’s findings, Live Nation and Ticketmaster were sued by the agency in September of last year for allegedly using “deceptive pricing tactics and earning hundreds of millions selling tickets acquired illegally by brokers, costing consumers billions of dollars in inflated prices and additional fees.” Rock said this on social media in October of last year, in reference to the suit.
What [Trump] did was he ordered the FTC & the Department of Justice to go investigate and see what the hell is going on with ticketing. Well, guess what? They investigated and what happened? They filed a f*cking lawsuit against Ticketmaster, because clearly they found out that those motherf*ckers are crooks, and they’ve been crooks for decades. F*cking over the public. F*cking over artists.
During a hearing on concert ticket costs last month, Rock provided testimony before a Senate Commerce Committee.
I would employ Congress to subpoena the contracts and deals between the artists / promoters / buildings / ticketing companies/ agencies and vendors because as I understand it, you will find mountains of fraud and abuse.
My position and solutions are as follows:
1: Artists should control who sells their tickets and HOW.
2: Resale ticket price caps work and protect real fans.
3: The Bots Act should be enforced, brokers and bad actors must be stopped and all should face serious penalties and consequences
All-in pricing is great but it doesn’t fix the system. Outlawing speculative ticketing is obvious. The problem is that ticketing lobbyists push these reforms as cover—while fighting to keep tickets in an ‘open market’ that lets them exploit fans under the guise of capitalism. Don’t be fooled by these tactics.
Rock announced his new deal with Ticketmaster for his next tour, which will commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, on social media yesterday. Rock addressed the issue on social media with the following bullet points.
Upcoming shows:
