The Detroit Free Press is reporting that they are being denied press and photo credentials for Thursday’s Kid Rock concert due to the performer’s “unhappiness with a newspaper column” that was critical of the musician.
The concert is also the grand opening of the taxpayer-subsidized Little Caesars Arena.
According to the newspaper, Kid Rock’s publicist, Kirt Webster, said the denial of press credentials is in response to a column written by Free Press Editorial Page Editor Stephen Henderson. The column was critical of the venue’s decision to celebrate its opening with the “controversial artist.”
When asked for a statement, Webster replied, “You guys wrote a f-cked up story and allowed it to be published. You want a quote, there it is,” reports the Detroit Free Press.
In the column, Henderson wrote that the decision to have Kid Rock open the arena was a “middle finger to Detroiters,” reports Free Press. The author continued by saying Kid Rock got rich off cultural appropriation of black music. On top of that, he used to “wrap his brand in the Confederate flag” and has repeatedly denounced efforts of African Americans pushing back against inequality in America, according to Free Press.
The paper makes it a habit to buy tickets to concerts, but credentials are a different story. Credentials allow journalists to bring the necessary equipment into the arena, like cameras or computers, so they can file stories.
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