Kid Rock Responds After His Bar Closes Amid Nashville Immigration Raids

Kid Rock's downtown Nashville bar closed for a night earlier this month, reportedly to avoid a potential ICE raid.

• On May 10, Kid Rock's Big A-- Honky Tonk Rock N' Roll Steakhouse closed at about 9:30PM.
• The Nashville Scene quotes an employee source who says a manager told anyone without legal status to go home, which ultimately cleared the kitchen.
• The business is owned by Steve Smith who, like Kid Rock, is a vocal supporter of and donor to President Donald Trump.

Related: 17 Things You Didn't Know About Kid Rock

The Saturday night shuttering came during a particularly busy night in downtown Nashville. The weekly newspaper shares that a similar warning from management was sent at the Diner and Honky Tonk Central. Smith owns Rippy's and Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Broadway, as well. All of these businesses have since resumed normal business hours.

Since taking office in January, President Trump has led a crack down on illegal immigration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Tennessee Highway Patrol coordinated to make nearly 500 traffic stops in Nashville by May 8, with more planned for the weekend that followed (per the Nashville Banner).

Nearly 200 people were arrested during the sting, with about half having pending or previous criminal charges brought against them. Thirty-one were removed from the United States previously and re-entered illegally.

The Nashville Scene article indicates that kitchens were short staffed before the management warning, and these shortages continued through Sunday in some cases.

No government organization has publicly accused the proprietors of any downtown Nashville business of hiring an illegal immigrant, knowingly or unknowingly.

On Monday, May 19, Kid Rock shared a message to X (formerly Twitter), distancing himself from day-to-day decisions.

"Clearly I do not have anything to do with day to day operations at my Honky Tonk," he wrote, before calling a Daily Mail post to X, "click bait."

"I 100% support getting illegal criminals out of our country no matter where they are. I also like President Trump want to speed up the process of getting GREAT immigrants into our country - LEGALLY!"

Kid Rock lives in Nashville. In fact, he built a replica White House just outside of downtown.

This article was updated to include Kid Rock's response to the news reports. A previous version referred to a message he sent regarding the president's executive order on live event ticket re-sales.