Kid Rock is Trying to Make Rodeo Great Again

Million-dollar team rodeo to debut at AT&T Stadium on May 17, opening PBR World Finals weekend.

Dallas Cowboys

On Thursday morning, Kid Rock rode a horse across the home of the Dallas Cowboys to officially unveil his namesake rodeo that will take over cavernous AT&T Stadium on May 17.

His head-to-toe black outfit was punctuated by dazzling gold sequins, spelling out “COWBOY” across his back, a mash-up vision of the Electric Horseman, Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker, and the skinny Vegas Elvis.

But don’t get the wrong idea.

The content play tailor-made for social and entertainment media may have been staged for the cameras, but this was not the kind of lame brand licensing play that slaps a well-known name onto the latest fad to cash a paycheck.

Beyond Kid Rock’s flair for the dramatic is a hands-on collaborator with a deep and longstanding affection for Western sports and culture, rodeo fans, cowboys and cowgirls who get on horses and bulls, the early-rising straight talkers who raise and care for the animals, and America.

With his pioneering and timeless country rap hit “Cowboy” booming from the overhead speakers, Kid Rock’s brief trip across the grassless stadium floor on a six-year-old team roping stallion named Big Time was the opening salvo for a heart-and-soul endeavor, a labor of love, an out-of-the-comfort zone foray to create for rodeo something new that provides opportunities to athletes he respects while entertaining people he admires. 

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Robert James Richie grew up the son of a successful car dealer 40 miles north of Detroit in an American colonial house on six acres of land with a horse stable and apple orchard out back. He has since said we all have definitive moments in life. His came at about five years of age, riding a tractor with his brother, who fell off and would lose a leg. Little Bobby decided he’d live every moment of life to its fullest.

He wanted to be a rapper and a breakdancer. Adopting the Kid Rock persona while blurring lines between hip hop, country and rock, he shot to stardom in the 1990’s. He also began performing at the Houston Rodeo, Calgary Stampede, and Cheyenne Frontier Days and fell hard for the sport of rodeo. Away from the paid gigs, he started attending as a fan.

“It’s just something I enjoy doing,” he said. “I got into PBR, thinking, ‘This is crazy! These guys are jumping on bulls.’ I loved all things Western and cowboy.”

Equally compelling was the culture surrounding the events.

“It’s just good folks and good people I want to be around,” he said. “There’s an invocation. We stand up and take off our hats for the national anthem. Everyone’s welcome, and it’s a place for hard-working folks who love this country and want to watch top-notch entertainment worthy of their hard-earned dollar.”

When, after three decades as an individual sport, PBR was adding Teams competition, Kid Rock expressed interest in purchasing one of the eight founding teams.

But discussions with PBR CEO Sean Gleason kept returning to rodeo – steeped in tradition but languishing. At the same time, PBR – a standalone sport that peeled off from rodeo more than three decades ago – had exploded in popularity.

Over a few beers, they wondered: While everything Western booms, why should rodeo be left behind? Could a contemporary shakeup of rodeo help re-energize its growth?

Seeing the success of five-on-five bull riding games in a league quickly expanding to 10 teams in its third season, Gleason had mentally mapped the idea of a team rodeo: head-to-head, bracket-style showdowns triggering competitive drama and storylines. Kid Rock would bring the show-biz chops to amp rodeo into a sizzling entertainment experience.

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They agreed to partner on Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo – a million-dollar team-formatted rodeo infused with a Kid Rock performance on May 17 at AT&T Stadium to open PBR World Finals-Championship weekend May 18-19.

Between the rodeo and PBR’s individual title event, more than $4 million will be paid out to athletes, which Gleason says makes it the richest weekend in Western Sports.

The teams have unexpected creative names. Lest anyone think Misty Mountain Hop is inspired by a new craft brew, the roots of that team trace to Led Zeppelin’s fourth record. Kid Rock, who has said his favorite building in the world is the Motown Museum in Detroit, came up with the idea of naming the teams after songs he loved.

“If you want to increase rodeo’s appeal to a new generation of fans and make it a badass sport, you need a badass partner,” Gleason said. “We are considered to be pretty good marketers. Kid Rock is fantastic.”

Gleason said that the day he phoned six Western sports legends to see if they’d coach in a rockin’ million-dollar team rodeo – which they immediately agreed to – was when “I knew we were onto one of the most exciting things that could happen in rodeo.”

He didn’t know it at the time, but one of those newly minted coaches, Sid Steiner, a.k.a. Sid Rock, coach of the Jokers, had a connection to the rap-rock showman on the hook for bringing the sizzle to this steak.

If Kid Rock had chosen a career jumping off horses to wrestle steers, he’d probably look a lot like Sid Steiner, a trailblazing showman and the 2002 PRCA Steer Wrestling World Champion.

It turns out that Sid Rock, who sported long hair, had body piercings, and was often introduced by arena announcers as “The Wild Child of Rodeo,” got his nickname from listening to Kid Rock.

Sid had discovered Kid watching videos on MTV. He was drawn to the energy, the beat, the look.

He ran right to the local mall to pick up the “Devil Without a Cause” on CD.

“This was my foundation. It changed my world,” Steiner said. “And now, to share an event and a stage with Kid Rock is surreal.”

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To get involved with PBR, Kid Rock could have easily agreed to play concerts alongside bull riding or rodeo events. But he wants so much more as co-producer and co-creator of a rodeo league that grows into communal celebrations.

The long-term plan aims to bring Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo to other cities. Maybe other big acts can join the music infusion.

Kid Rock is consistently humble when making predictions about the team rodeo’s debut inside the NFL’s largest indoor stadium, only warning fans not to miss the opening and saying he hopes it all works out.

He may be a cowboy from Detroit, but his reputation as a “disruptor” qualifies him for putting a fresh stamp on rodeo with a productive kick in the butt to push it toward the mainstream, just as he’s done with genre-bending music formats.

“I’m invested in the long haul as a league owner,” Kid Rock said. “We want to create something special for hard-working people who love rodeo, music, and this country. I’m so proud and blessed. I don’t take this opportunity lightly.”

He came into the giant stadium he wants to fill dazzling on a horse, a fitting way to properly unveil a namesake rodeo with very big dreams.