Kid Rock has insisted that he wasn’t lip-syncing when he performed at the ‘All-American Halftime Show’, but was rather “out of sync” with the DJ.
The performance took place on Sunday night (February 8), as an alternative to the Super Bowl LX halftime show, which was headlined by Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny, and featured appearances from Pedro Pascal, Cardi B, Jessica Alba, Karol G, Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
Dubbed the ‘All-American Halftime Show’, the event was organised by Turning Point USA – the non-profit founded by the late Charlie Kirk, and saw performances from Kid Rock and country artists Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert and Gabby Barrett.
While some were supportive of the live show, filling the YouTube comment section with emojis of the American flag, others including country stars Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves were among those taking a swipe at the gig, and celebrating the performance from Bad Bunny instead.
One of the main talking points on the night came during Kid Rock’s time on stage, when he broke out a rendition of ‘Bawitdaba’ and appeared to be lip-synching as his mouth movements were massively out of sync with what was being heard on the broadcast.
no way man kid rock is so good at singing he doesn’t even need to use the mic or speak into it for his lyrics pic.twitter.com/HTZQXSexCz
— sad.Ops™ 🫥 (@saddotops) February 9, 2026
Now, though, the singer and rapper has addressed the discussion, and claimed that he wasn’t lip-synching at the event, and it was instead due to a prediction issue.
Speaking on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle last night (Monday February 10), he seemed to suggest to host Laura Ingraham that the performance wasn’t live – claiming that he saw a “rough cut” of the footage before it aired and noticed the issues with the synchronisation then.
“My DJ, who actually raps that song with me, was not lit up,” he said. “I’m jumping around the stage like a rabid monkey, rapping my song, and I’m taking breaths, and my DJ is filling in the other parts of it — I even told them when I saw the rough cut, I was like, You guys got to work on that sync. It’s off.”
“So it was just a syncing issue that they had, and I know they tried to get it right. It was very difficult,” he added.
He also said that he was planning on addressing the rumours once and for all by flying to Nashville with his DJ and performing the same song again “in my living room”, so he can “post it tomorrow to show people exactly how this works.”
“I’ll answer all the haters tomorrow and we’ll put them back in the — and shut up and go back to trying to report the fake news,” he added.
Kid Rock: If it would have been lip syncing… it would have been super easy to sync it up if it was prerecorded pic.twitter.com/LyWnGFJVHe
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 10, 2026
Ahead of the ‘All-American Halftime Show’, Kid Rock defended his decision to take part, saying that he did so for the parts of the country who felt “underserved entertainment-wise” by this year’s Super Bowl Halftime show.
“None of us are approaching this with any hate in our hearts at all. It’s just a love for our base and love for music, our country,” he said. “We’re just [going to] go play for our base. People who love America, love football, love Jesus… It’s pretty much that simple. And, of course, the media and the haters are going to try to detract from it.”
The day before the halftime show, it was also reported that Kid Rock’s ‘Rock The Country’ festival would no longer be taking place in South Carolina due to Shinedown pulling out of the line-up.
The travelling country festival announced shows for a total of eight cities this summer, with Kid Rock headlining five of the shows and acting as the face of the entire series. Shinedown indicated that the event’s association with Kid Rock – one of the most outspoken supporters of MAGA and Donald Trump in the music industry – had informed their decision to withdraw.
“We have one BOSS, and it is everyone in the audience. Our band’s purpose is to unite, not divide. With that in mind, we have made the decision that we will not be playing the Rock The Country Festival,” their statement read.
