Bill Maher Says His Dinner With Trump Showed ‘Why The Democrats Are So Unpopular’
'I'm just telling you what I saw'
Why Kid Rock isn't terrified of AI music
Musicians, artists, and writers have notoriously been the group most against artificial intelligence taking over their line of work — but some of them are embracing it rather than fighting it.
And Kid Rock is one of them.
“Are you worried about art with AI?” Glenn Beck asks the country music star on “The Glenn Beck Program.”
“Not really, no. Everybody else is,” he responds.
“The way I look at it is, I looked at, like, Napster when that started, and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’” Kid Rock tells Glenn. “All the artists were up in arms, and the record companies wanted us to get behind, ‘They’re stealing, they’re pirating music.’”
“I could care less, I make all my money live,” he continues, noting that the technology behind AI is something he could use to his benefit.
“So I can give you some a capellas and my vocals, and you can model my voice, and then you can put it on your system, and however many people want to write songs for me with my voice can write them?” he asks, adding, “That’s kind of cool.”
“Let’s say I got a million people writing songs for me, if one of those people nails it, and they come up with this life-changing song, it’s great, I go play it live, I’m not seeing the evil in here yet,” he says.
Not only that, but because Kid Rock doesn’t believe there’s any chance of stopping it, there’s no reason to fight it either.
“We’re not going to stop it. I know that much. You are not going to stop it. So it’s like, let’s figure out how we use it as a new tool,” he adds.
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Inside Kid Rock's plan to put Bill Maher and Trump in the same room
In his recent exclusive sit-down interview with country-rap rocker and MAGA superfan Kid Rock, Glenn Beck heard some news that shocked him.
Kid Rock is taking liberal political commentator and television host Bill Maher to the White House to have dinner with President Trump.
— (@)
“I’m actually gonna try to unite this country, and I’m starting at the end of the month. I’m taking Bill Maher to the White House for dinner,” Rock told Glenn.
“This guy has done nothing but talk smack about the president since day one,” he added, acknowledging that part of Maher’s Trump antagonism is because “he’s a comedian.”
In reality, though, “he’s actually more reasonable than a lot of people on the right would think,” Rock said.
“What would it say to this country” to have two “very public figures … break bread, have some laughs, take a picture? ... Does that start to send a message to people?” he asked.
There’s always a chance that the public will see it as Maher “[looking] soft for going” or Trump coming across as “weak,” but even so, Rock thinks it’s a good place to start if we want to begin bridging the gap between the left and the right that’s grown so vast in recent years.
If the nation watches Maher and President Trump have dinner (and maybe even have a little fun while doing it), Rock thinks it might inspire someone to “call that family member that you got into it over politics with,” or make amends with “that person at the school that you don’t like to talk to any more.”
He hopes that such an unexpected event will help everybody “calm down a little bit.”
To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip above. To see Glenn’s full interview with Kid Rock, head over to BlazeTV.
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Kid Rock gets brutally honest with Glenn Beck about 'cowboy culture,' politics, and how to be an American 'bad***'
Music legend Kid Rock sat down with Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck this week in a wide-ranging interview that touches on everything from MAGA politics to rodeo clowns, Blaze News can report.
As might be expected, Rock, whose given name is Bob Ritchie, spent much of the time talking about the current political climate in America now that President Donald Trump is back in the Oval Office.
Rock told Beck that he has supported Trump, a well-known "business guy," from the moment he rode down the escalator to announce his candidacy for president in 2015.
"The America of business has sucked for decades and decades. It's like, let somebody who knows how to run a business get in there," Rock recalled thinking at the time. "So I endorsed him."
'I'm actually going to try to unite this country, and ... at the end of the month, I'm taking Bill Maher to the White House for dinner.'
Rock said he once considered himself socially liberal and fiscally conservative, but the transgenderism issue forced him out of that libertarian mindset. "I was like, these people are just nuts!" Rock said.
"I really don't care what anybody does," he reiterated. "I'm like, 'live and let live,' to a certain extent — but then it just got too nuts."
Though Rock views transgenderism as a mental illness, he said he will gladly engage in a political discussion with just about anyone, so long as they remain "reasonable." In fact, he's so determined to help Americans on the left and right find "common ground" that he even plans to introduce Trump to Bill Maher, a left-leaning pundit and fierce Trump critic.
"I'm actually going to try to unite this country, and ... at the end of the month, I'm taking Bill Maher to the White House for dinner," Rock told Beck.
"We just gotta start somewhere," Rock added, indicating that the meeting would be more about bringing people together than resolving political differences.
"We could just break bread, have some laughs, take a picture, and be like, 'Hey, you know, we don't agree on everything, but we got along,'" he explained.
As strange as the idea of Trump, Rock, and Maher gathered around the White House dinner table may seem, Rock hinted that Trump may have already agreed to it. According to Rock, Trump said, "Yeah, do it. Let's do it."
Neither the White House nor a representative for Maher responded to Blaze News' request for comment.
'There's something about the West that is American unlike any other place.'
Though Rock said he normally likes to keep his musical performances apolitical, he said he is so committed to Trump and the Trump agenda that he will host a series of concerts this summer that will basically be "MAGA rallies." He also expressed hope that Vice President JD Vance will succeed Trump in 2028.
However, Rock and Beck did not limit their discussion to politics. In fact, they spent much of their time discussing traditional American culture, especially the mysticism of the American West.
"There's something about the West that is American unlike any other place," asserted Beck, who grew up in Washington state.
Rock agreed, claiming that the rugged cowboy is a uniquely American figure. "It's kind of embedded in our culture, and America owns that, you know, cowboy culture," Rock replied.
"It's the greatest movies. It's the greatest tales, whether it's campfire sing-alongs or cowboys and Indians, whatever it is, it's just arguably tough — just the coolest American thing ever."
Raised in a rural area north of Detroit, Rock has apparently embraced the cowboy image. He has even joined forces with the Professional Bull Riders league to present Kid Rock's Rock N Rodeo, a "revolutionary new rodeo event during the PBR World Finals."
Rock and Beck both agreed that the rodeo lifestyle is "badass."
"It's one of the toughest sports," Rock said. "They're just tough people."
Beck admitted that he came to appreciate the toughness of rodeo personalities after he made the mistake of blithely likening himself to a rodeo clown:
"I remember I was on CNN, and I used to call myself a rodeo clown: 'I'm just a rodeo clown' — until ... the president of the Rodeo Clown Association wrote to me and said, 'Do you know what rodeo clowns do?' And I'm like, 'OK, you're right. You're right.' I mean, it is really badass."
In their nearly hour-long chat, Rock and Beck touched on other subjects, including Cybertrucks, Diddy, problems with Ticketmaster, and the ways that Gen X may save us all from the "pussification of America." Watch the full episode of "The Glenn Beck Program" podcast featuring Kid Rock by clicking here.
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Mel Gibson to sex traffickers: Come after my kids and 'I'd have to kill someone'
Mel Gibson at a Tuesday night event at President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago said he'd "have to kill someone" if any of his nine children got sex-trafficked.
The Hollywood actor-director spoke at the America’s Future Champions for America Celebration Gala, which the likes of Kid Rock and Tucker Carlson also attended.
'We’ll see how much this administration can claw back from the Philistines.'
Video of the "Lethal Weapon" franchise star speaking to the crowd shows him taking note of the “thinly veiled Marxism” America is enduring under President Joe Biden — as well as what he called a “four-year grace period” the country will enjoy under Trump's incoming administration.
"But we have to work hard," Gibson said before adding that "the president’s got a big job on his hands to turn this place around; a lot of damage was done. And they continue to start fires, just like around my house."
He also thanked retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who served in Trump’s first administration, for his work against sex trafficking, saying he's “exposing all these wolves in sheep’s clothing that prey upon our young.”
Then Gibson warned what he'd do if anything happened to his children.
“I mean, I got nine kids. ... If one of them got stolen or trafficked or something, I’d have to kill someone,” he stated matter-of-factly, after which the crowd erupted in applause. Gibson is one of several executive producers for 2023's "Sound of Freedom" movie about the battle against child sex trafficking.
In closing, Gibson — with a noticeable enthusiastic grit to his voice — stated that he hopes "in the next four years we can get back some of that precious commodity that this country has, that commodity called freedom, all right? We’ll see how much this administration can claw back from the Philistines.”
You can view Gibson's remarks here.
Gibson's faith — and endurance
Gibson — who directed and financed 2004's box-office behemoth "The Passion of the Christ" — has been open about his Catholicism.
In July he showed support for conservative Catholic Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, whom the Vatican excommunicated. Gibson praised Viganò for calling out "core problems" within the Catholic Church and, in Gibson's view, "the illegitimacy of [Pope] Francis." Gibson is a sedevacantist, or someone who believes the Holy See is vacant and the last legitimate pope was Pope Pius XII, who died in 1958. Sedevacantists reject the authority of the Second Vatican Council.
A fellow actor in 2021 urged Hollywood to "Cancel Mel Gibson" for being a "raging anti-Semite" — and promptly received a cyber spanking for dusting off "old news" and pushing "censorship."
It's pretty common knowledge that nearly 20 years ago, Gibson went on a drunken, anti-Semitic rant in the back of police car and then endured a huge tailspin. He and his longtime wife divorced, a subsequent relationship came unglued amid battery accusations, there was a child custody battle — and of course, Hollywood shunned him.
Gibson, of course, apologized for his words and worked on putting his life back together ever since. Of particular note is that he reportedly educated himself about the Holocaust and quietly conducted related endeavors, such as his philanthropic work to help Holocaust survivors in eight countries through the Survivor Mitzvah Project.
'Unless you are completely without sin'
In the spirit of digging up old news, way back in 2011, actor Robert Downey Jr. chided a star-studded audience on Gibson's behalf during a speech for an award that Downey specifically had Gibson present to him.
"I humbly ask that you join me, unless you are completely without sin — in which case you picked the wrong f***ing industry — in forgiving my friend his trespasses, offering him the same clean slate that you have me, and allowing him to continue his great and ongoing contribution to our collective art without shame," Downey said in regard to Gibson.
Before those pointed words, Downey revealed to listeners how Gibson had helped him — before Gibson's own downfall:
When I couldn't get sober, he told me not to give up hope, and he urged me to find my faith. It didn't have to be his or anyone else's as long as it was rooted in forgiveness. And I couldn't get hired, so he cast me in a lead of a movie that was actually developed for him. And he kept a roof over my head, and he kept food on the table. And most importantly he said that if I accepted responsibility for my wrongdoings, and if I embraced that part of my soul that was ugly — "hugging the cactus," he calls it — he said that if I hugged the cactus long enough I'd become a man of some humility, and that my life would take on a new meaning, and I did, and it worked. All he asked in return was that someday I'd help the next guy in some small way. It's reasonable to assume that at the time he didn't imagine that the next guy would be him or that someday was tonight!
Downey added that Gibson had "hugged the cactus long enough!" Check out the clip here.
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12 Things To Be Thankful For This Post-Election Thanksgiving
We certainly have an abundance of blessings to count following America’s latest political war, a cornucopia in the parlance of Thanksgiving.Blaze News original: 5 more popular musicians who are unapologetically conservative
As in Hollywood, the loudest voices in the music biz seem to come from the left.
Whether they're mindlessly progressive (Taylor Swift) or downright depraved (Diddy and his various "collaborators"), there are enough of them to drown out any right-leaning artists.
Unless, of course, you listen a little more carefully.
The musical mavericks below march to the beat of their own drum, harmonizing their traditional values with compelling storytelling and undeniable pop appeal.
They write songs that dare to promote such unfashionable virtues as patriotism, faith, and duty. They exhibit a very un-rock-star-like humility in celebrating our nation's blue-collar workers, law enforcement, and military.
The artists in our list below offer plenty of musical variety. But they have one thing in common: the courage and conviction to speak their minds and stand up for the country they — and millions of their fans — love.
Kid Rock
Kid Rock is no stranger to sparking controversies for unabashedly broadcasting his political views.
Born Robert James Ritchie, the Detroit native showed his support for last year's Bud Light boycott by blowing away cases of the popular brew after the brand partnered with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
In 2022, Ritchie declared that he would not be playing at any venues that had COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
As Blaze News previously reported, Kid Rock released a song titled "We the People," which skewered coronavirus mandates, President Joe Biden, Big Tech, and the mainstream media.
Among Ritchie's numerous songs celebrating all-American self-reliance and small-town values are "Born Free," "American Bad Ass," "Po-Dunk," "Warriors," "God Bless Saturday," "American Rock and Roll," "Amen," and "Don't Tell Me How to Live."
An outspoken supporter of the military, Ritchie has done extensive touring with the USO to entertain American troops.
He's also publicly endorsed several Republicans, including Sen. Mitt Romney, former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, Senate candidate John James, and former President Donald Trump,
Ritchie visited Trump at the White House in 2017 alongside fellow conservative musician Ted Nugent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
"We ended up becoming buddies," Ritchie told Tucker Carlson in 2022. "Spend a lot of time [together] at the golf course now. It's really weird to get phone calls from him and stuff. It's kind of mind-blowing."
When asked about hanging out with Trump, Ritchie responded, "Awesome. So much fun. He just knows how to have fun. Doesn't take it too seriously. He's engaging. He sits down, he just cuts it up. Just starts cutting it up. It's just how sharp he is. It's incredible," said Ritchie, whose new album, "Bad Reputation," dropped Monday.
Ritchie recently performed at the 2024 Republican National Convention.
The Republican rocker has a history of blasting liberals, including Oprah Winfrey and Joy Behar.
Jason Aldean
Jason Aldean is an extremely successful country music star. Of Aldean's 38 singles, 27 have reached #1 on either Billboard's Hot Country Songs or Country Airplay charts. Many of his songs highlight conservative principles, small-town values, the virtues of rural America, independence, self-reliance, and the importance of cultural heritage.
However, Aldean ignited a firestorm among liberals when he released his anti-riot anthem titled "Try That in a Small Town."
As Blaze News previously reported, a group of communists protested outside Aldean's concert by setting numerous American flags on fire while chanting anti-American phrases.
"Try That in a Small Town" skyrocketed to the top of the iTunes charts — surpassing Taylor Swift.
The music video for the anti-woke song was pulled from the country music channel CMT. The country music star responded to the backlash by declaring that cancel culture is "bulls**t."
Aldean spent New Year's Eve 2022 with former President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Aldean wrote on Instagram, "Well, this New Year's was the best of all time. I got to spend a couple days with the G.O.A.T…… this man is unbelievable and I wish you all could see what he does behind the scenes. #classact."
As Blaze News reported in 2021, Aldean made headlines when one of his toddlers wore a shirt mocking President Joe Biden. The country music singer responded to the backlash by proclaiming: "I will never apologize for my beliefs or my love for my family and country."
Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent has been a lightning-rod rocker for decades because of his unwavering opinions.
Nugent has been an ardent Second Amendment activist for decades. The rocker had been a board member of the National Rifle Association for 26 years until he resigned in 2021.
Nugent said of gun control in 2022, "And to those who think that we need more gun control, who could possibly be so heartless and stupid to think that someone committed to murdering innocent lives would give a rat's ass about another gun restriction, President Biden? How heartless. How soulless. How cruel. How dishonest."
Nugent added that gun-free zones are "the dream of evil people."
As Blaze News reported in 2017, the Motor City Madman ripped David Crosby after the longtime liberal rock 'n roller attacked Nugent for visiting Trump at the White House.
The "Cat Scratch Fever" singer has publicly endorsed many Republicans, including Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, and John McCain.
On the eve of the 2016 presidential election, Nugent entertained Republican supporters at a campaign rally for Trump.
Nugent has performed numerous times for U.S. military members at home and abroad, including in Iraq in 2014 with Toby Keith.
Nugent is an avid hunter and promotes responsible wildlife management.
Joe Perry
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has quietly but staunchly supported Republicans for some time now. Perry values gun rights, personal responsibility, limited government, and patriotism.
In 2012, Perry described himself as a "definite old-school Republican.”
“I was taught that you get what you put into it," Perry explained. "You can be anything you want to be if you work hard enough at it, and you can earn your place.”
Perry declared, “I’ve been a hard-core Republican my whole life. My mother and father drilled into me from the very start that if you work hard and be positive, you’ll get what you’re working for. I guess I’m living proof of that.”
Perry endorsed John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.
”I felt better about politics in general after meeting [McCain],” Perry told The Hill. “He’s a war hero, and they’re the most genuine heroes. Anyone who does what [soldiers in combat] do, they’re amazing heroes."
The "Dream On" rocker continued, “He has a great vibe, and he was really frank about the election and why he lost. And he still sticks to his guns, with no BS.”
Perry even contemplated running for political office, and his platform would be "taking on big business."
“Sure, if I ever find myself in that position, I could see changing things up a little," he said. "I’ve been playing rock and roll for a long time now, and if California can have actors for politicians, then maybe the rest of the country can have musicians.”
Perry is a committed advocate for the Second Amendment and gun rights.
The lead guitarist for one of America's most iconic rock bands has a tattoo of a gun with the saying "Molon labe" — an ancient Greek phrase that translates to "Come and take [them]." The saying is used to express a strong stance against gun control and the confiscation of firearms by the government.
Toby Keith
Toby Keith was a massive country music star who always took time to honor American military members.
Keith — who passed away in February 2024 at age 62 from stomach cancer — performed during 11 USO tours and visited U.S. troops overseas.
In 2006, Keith founded the Toby Keith Foundation to provide support for children with cancer.
In 2014, the Toby Keith Foundation launched the OK Kids Korral — "a cost-free, convenient and comfortable home for pediatric cancer patients receiving treatment at the Children’s Hospital at the University of Oklahoma Medical Center, Stephenson Cancer Center, and other nearby facilities."
The country music star has several songs that cherish conservative principles, patriotic themes, appreciation of those who serve in the military, devotion to faith, love of family, and small-town values. The songs include: "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)," "Made in America," "Beer for My Horses" (featuring Willie Nelson), "American Ride," "God Love Her," "If I Was Jesus," and "American Soldier."
Keith performed at former President Donald Trump's inauguration.
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Why Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan were perfect for Trump's RNC
On the final night of the Republican National Convention last week, aging pro wrestler Hulk Hogan took to the podium and performed his signature move of ripping off his tank top.
As he revealed the Trump/Vance tank top beneath, he exhorted the crowd, "Let Trumpamania run wild, brother!"
Millennials are the last generation to remember the glories of pre-digital life, the paradoxical freedom of having fewer choices. It's no wonder they feel nostalgic for the emo bands they used to love.
As with anything in Trump's orbit, liberals and conservatives saw this moment very differently.
For "The Daily Show," the appearance of the "washed-up fake wrestler" at the RNC was yet another indication of the irredeemable tackiness of Trump world and its inability to land anyone with the slightest cultural cachet. "I think Trump just locked up the vote of every teenager in 1992," quipped host Jordan Klepper.
Conservatives, of course, were in on the joke. The goofy, tongue-in-cheek nostalgia of having the Hulkster prepare the way for Trump's big, post-assassination-attempt comeback was the point. In the meme-sphere, Hogan killed it.
Klepper also mocked the performance by Kid Rock, who performed a Trumpified version of his almost 25-year-old hit "American Badass," complete with a chant echoing Trump's call to "fight!" as the Secret Service hustled him off the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally stage.
Again, Klepper's jabs didn't really land. Rock certainly wasn't selected with the approval of an outlet like "The Daily Show" in mind.
Still it's worth asking: why all the oldies acts?
Consider that both WWE and rap-rock peaked at the end of the 20th century, which was also more or less the the peak of the pre-internet, American monoculture. While neither Rock nor Hogan commands the attention he did in his prime, in today's fractured entertainment landscape, hardly anyone does.
The wrestler and the redneck are living embodiments of a different, more unifying sort of pop culture, before everything got so politicized. Trump himself used to enjoy this kind of apolitical fame. Most notably with his reality show but also with his many movie and TV cameos before that.
Like Trump, both Hogan and Rock exude a kind of cheerful vulgarity, one far removed from today's ideologically driven displays of "LGBT awareness" and the like.
Hogan is an especially potent symbol in this regard. He engaged in vice (making a sex tape with his friend and her wife) the old-fashioned way — in private. It was the left-leaning website Gawker that took it public, no doubt emboldened by Hogan's low status among media tastemakers. But then billionaire Peter Thiel took up Hogan's case and used it to put the sneering hipsters out of business.
Democrats might laugh at RNC geriatrics rallying around such celebrity dinosaurs, but what would it look like for the GOP to court younger generations, especially at a legacy-media-type event like the party convention? Gen Z has no mass culture; it's broken up into specialized "scenes" that are all online.
Millennials are the last generation to remember the glories of pre-digital life, the paradoxical freedom of having fewer choices. It's no wonder they feel nostalgic for the emo bands they used to love.
"I'm not supposed to be here tonight," said Trump as he took the stage to accept the nomination. It was a nice bit of serendipity that his opening acts also weren't supposed to be there, in a sense. But like Trump, and the many Trump supporters the culture has done its best to leave behind, they're survivors — relics of a time when shared cultural and commercial incentives brought Americans together.
Donald Trump Enters Fall Election With The Big Tent Republicans Failed To Build For Decades
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