Scott Legato/Getty ImagesKid Rock has opened up about his Senate "campaign," which he revealed was a hoax during a radio interview last month. Speaking to Billboard, the musician calls the stunt "one of the dumber things I've ever done," but adds that the whole experience was a "riot."
"Man, some of the s*** that went on was unbelievable," says Rock. "It started to become real, which got a little scary; I mean I just don't understand who looks at Kid Rock and goes, 'Yeah, I see a senator there...' But it was still a lot of fun in a lot of ways."
Rock explains that he got the idea after seeing the reaction to reports that his name was floated as a possible candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in his hometown of Michigan during a Republican Party event earlier this year.
"The press started having their little laugh with it, like they always do," Rock says. "This time I thought, 'Y'know, I'm gonna f*** with them a little bit.' We said, 'All right, we're gonna run with this,' and of course I'm not running for Senate. We were leading everybody on."
Rock perpetuated the hoax with merch that read "Kid Rock for Senate" and by giving campaign-style speeches at his concerts. The story of course caught fire, to the point that the musician's own friends and family, who were in on the plan in the first place, questioned whether the campaign was actually real.
"People just took it seriously, and the climate was ripe, no doubt, with what happened with [Donald] Trump," says Rock. "I just saw an in and I said, 'I'm gonna f*** with motherf***ers.'"
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