What to Know
Kid Rock broke his silence on social media Thursday on the heels of he and Turning Point USA taking heat for the lyrics to his song “Cool, Daddy Cool.” Rock is scheduled to headline TPUSA’s Super Bowl LX “All-American Halftime Show” on Sunday in what is being billed as a Christian and family friendly alternative to the NFL’s halftime show featuring Bad Bunny.
JD Vance shared a TPUSA post on X about the show and wrote, “Fantastic lineup for the TPUSA halftime show, including the great Bob Ritchie AKA KID ROCK.”
The lineup for the show — Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice and Gabby Barrett are scheduled to join Rock on the bill — has been widely trolled outside of the MAGA world, but things went to another level after folks remembered the singer’s 2001 song.
What’s the issue with “Cool, Daddy Cool”?
Well, the lyrics are something else, but Verse 3 is the real problem for Rock. “Young ladies, young ladies, I like ‘em underage,” Rock sings on the track. “See some say that’s statutory.”
His sidekick at the time, the late Joe-C then chimes in, “But I say it’s mandatory.” It has not been pretty for Rock since Parker Molloy reshared Vance’s post and shared the lyrics to X and wrote, “Maybe he’ll play this one!”
Rock’s response? Well, he didn’t directly address the controversy, but he did post a meme on X claiming to show a Kobe Bryant quote that was titled, “Mamba Mentality.”
“Learn to love the hate,” it read. “Embrace it. Enjoy it. You earned it. 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.”
Many of the responses were not kind to the singer.
“Son, WHAT?!” John Rocha replied on X. “You ain’t no Kobe Bryant. He’d laugh you out the room for his quote like this. That quote was meant to be used by the top dogs NOT the lap dogs. GTFOH.”
“Kid’s built his career on appropriating songs from legendary artists,” The Joeys account on X wrote. “Not surprised to see him appropriating a quote from a legendary athlete.”
“PEDO MENTALITY,” the Art Vandelay account replied while sharing Verse 3 to “Cool, Daddy Cool.”
“You can still take this down,” Chris O replied. “You know you did this as rage bait. I’m pretty sure Kobe would not be on your side.”
There were plenty more comments like that and you can see them all as well as Rock’s post here.
Outside of Molloy’s comments plenty of folks shared the lyrics to the song while taking shots at the timing and fit.
“Very on brand decision to go with Kid Rock,” Tom Levy wrote on X. “Hoping he plays ‘Cool Daddy, Cool.’”
“Do you think Kid Rock is going to perform his classic song ‘Cool, Daddy Cool’?” Damin Toell replied to Vance. “Maybe they can get Ted Nugent to come out and do a molestation medley.”
Brian Linder; pennlive.com; (TNS) | ©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit pennlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
