While many artists in the music industry are scrambling to protect their voices and likenesses from the rise of Artificial Intelligence, Kid Rock is taking a decidedly different approach: he is welcoming the technology with open arms.
In a recent appearance on the science and technology channel “Core Memory,” the diamond-certified rap-rocker was asked to judge an AI-generated country song. While he deemed the specific track in question merely “average,” the experiment prompted Rock to share a surprisingly open-minded philosophy regarding the use of his “intellectual property” by fans and tech enthusiasts.
Unlike peers who fear displacement, Rock views AI as a potential source of new material for his live shows, which he identifies as his primary revenue stream.
“I mean, my attitude personally is, like, if a hundred thousand people want to be out there writing songs with my intellectual property, whatever, my voice — go for it,” Rock stated (via theprp). “I hope somebody nails one. If you nail one, I’ll give you a piece of it. Because I get to go sing that live and we make the majority of our money live at the gate.”
Rock frames the controversial technology not as a threat, but as an inevitability that artists must adapt to, using a construction analogy to make his point.
“[AI is] another tool. You can pound in a nail with a rock if you want. Go for it. Or you can get a nail gun,” he explained. “Technology, you’re not going to stop it. So let’s figure out how to use it. Make life better. There’s going to be some adjustments. Yeah, industries are going to lose some workers and stuff, but they’ll come back in other spaces somewhere. It’s always worked out throughout time.”
However, the musician is not naive to the potential for abuse. He acknowledged that opening the floodgates to AI voice cloning will almost certainly result in political parodies weaponized against his well-known conservative stances.
“Now what’s going to happen is the other half of the country that are writing songs, like you know, Kid Rock wants to bl*w Joe Biden, you know, stuff like that,” he joked. “And I’ll laugh at that too, there will probably be some funny stuff there.”
Despite his personal willingness to share his voice, Rock did express concern for professional songwriters, admitting that legislation might be necessary to protect their livelihoods in this new landscape.
“The songwriters I have, you know, a special place in my heart for them. Like, I don’t know how it works out for them… I’m not against it, but I don’t think we need to be unreasonable about something we can’t stop.”
While Rock is open to AI in the creative process, he remains staunchly opposed to automation in other areas of the business, specifically the use of bots in ticket scalping—a practice he has actively lobbied against in Washington.
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