Ahead of Sunday’s Turning Point USA halftime show, headliner Kid Rock is taking all the “hate” he’s encountered in stride — even invoking the words of late NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
The 55-year-old rapper was announced on Tuesday as the main attraction of the “All-American Halftime Show,” billed as the right-wing organization’s alternative to the official show during Super Bowl LX.
Amid the blowback surrounding the controversial outing, Kid Rock took to social media Thursday to share a motivational quote from the Los Angeles Lakers star, who died in a helicopter crash in early 2020.
“Learn to love the hate. Embrace it. Enjoy it. You earned it,” the quote reads. “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and everyone should have one about you. Haters are a good problem to have. Nobody hates the good ones. They hate the great ones.”
Turning Point USA was founded by slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk and is now run by his widow, Erika. The organization’s halftime show has been promoted as counter-programming to Reggaetón superstar Bad Bunny headlining the performance during Sunday’s eagerly anticipated matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots.
Country artists Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert and Gabby Barrett will share the stage with Kid Rock when the show airs on various right-wing networks and across TPUSA’s social media channels.
The “All-American Halftime Show” was first announced in October, days after President Trump trashed the NFL for its decision to book Bad Bunny — a Puerto Rican performer who sings in Spanish, advocates for the LGBTQ community and has publicly criticized the Trump administration’s ICE raids.
The rival performance has been touted as a celebration of “faith, family and freedom.”
Until recently, the website for Turning Point’s halftime show featured a form that encouraged visitors to select which genres of music they’d like to hear, including country, worship, Americana and “anything in English.”
The latter option was seemingly a dig at Bad Bunny, who will make history on Sunday as the first male Latin artist to ever lead the Super Bowl’s halftime show. He also made history last Sunday when his album “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos” became the first ever all-Spanish-language record to win Album of the Year at the Grammys.
