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Kid Rock gives wonderful tribute to his mom before introducing Trump

August 28, 2024 | | Print Article

Music icon Kid Rock gave a wonderful tribute to his mom before introducing former President Donald Trump in Detroit, Michigan.

Rock, whose given name is Robert James Ritchie, recounted the story of how he came to perform for American troops. He credited his mom, whom he affectionately referred to as “Mama Rock,” with the decision.

Watch:

“To those of you serving, or who have served, I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say thank you for your service,” he opened, to cheers from the audience. “I’d just like to talk for two seconds about my service and there’s a point to this so if it sounds like a little toot of my own horn or a pat on my back, there’s a point to this.”

“Probably some of the most rewarding things I’ve done in my life and career have been being able to perform for our troops all over the world,” he continued, listing off countries from Kosovo to England, as well as across the United States. “But how did that start? I wanted to tell you a little story of how that started. Many moons ago, some of you younger ones maybe weren’t even walking yet, there was a horrible terrorist attack in Yemen on one of our ships called the USS Cole where 17 sailors lost their lives. And as they’re getting towed out of that harbor, you can imagine their brothers and sisters, people serving with them were pretty upset, pretty pissed off. But the upper brass said they can play patriotic music while they’re getting pulled out of there and one of those wise guys put on a little song by myself called ‘American Badass’.”

Ritchies recalls how he got “chills” seeing the photos of the surviving servicemen with “F Yemen” painted on their chests, with middle fingers in the air.

“But more importantly, my mother, who’s with me today, just celebrated her 80th birthday, it was her – who I might note that her father, my grandfather, and my uncle, her brother, served in WWII and Vietnam – she said you know, you should do something to help out with them,” the rocker said. “And this was kind of before all the crazy wars and everything in the Middle East broke out and I said ‘You know what you’re right.’ I was raised to be very patriotic and love my country.”

“And so it just happened that we were playing in Virginia where we have a big presence of our military and the Navy and I was able to play a show there and donate that money to the families of those 17 sailors who lost their lives,” he added. “And that was because of one reason, because of my mom, Susan Ritchie. So how about some applause for Mama Rock who’s here tonight.”

“She’s a little shy,” Rock chuckled, looking off to the side of the stage. “Probably back there cutting it up with the president.”

X users commented on the tale, with many sharing their own stories of meeting the “American Badass”:

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