Kid Rock: ‘Fuck No, I’m Not Running for Senate’

After announcing he was considering a Senate run in 2018 and building an entire website devoted to the campaign, Kid Rock finally came clean about his foray into politics.

“Fuck no, I’m not running for Senate. Are you fucking kidding me?” the rocker said on The Howard Stern Show Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press reports. “Who couldn’t figure that out? I’m releasing a new album. I’m going on tour, too. Are you fucking shitting me?”

But before Tuesday, the musician seemed to take his long-shot bid for office pretty seriously. He’s blogged about the Federal Election Commission (FEC), publicly commented on his opponent, and even came up with a few kickass slogans—”Pimp of the Nation” and “Party to the People” are particularly strong. But as the devil without a cause told Stern Tuesday, the whole thing was just a “joke.”

“It’s the worst advice I ever gave myself, but it’s been the most creative thing I’ve ever done,” he told Stern. “And I’ve gotten to see everyone’s true colors.”

Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, never officially filed paperwork with the FEC, leading many to assume that his “campaign” was really just a PR stunt around his new album, which drops in November. Because he didn’t fill out the paperwork, a major Washington watchdog group had already accused the guy of illegal campaign activity, filing an ethics complaint alleging he had violated “campaign finance law 101.” Apparently all those “Kid Rock for US Senate” shirts, hats, bumper stickers, and yard signs were violating FEC rules, since Ritchie wasn’t technically a real candidate.

For now it looks like Kid Rock will leave politics behind and focus on his upcoming tour, though it would have been pretty amazing to see him face Eminem—another Michigan native—in a rap battle for a Senate seat.

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