Kid Rock Wants Bud Light to Thrive Again

Musician Kid Rock appeared to change his stance on Bud Light after they partnered with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney and said that he hopes the brand thrives once again.

Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, recently sat down with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to speak about the boycott of Bud Light and its parent company Anheuser-Busch saying, "At the end of the day when you step back and look at it, like 'yeah, they deserved a black eye and they got one,' they made a mistake." Newsweek reached out to Anheuser-Busch via email for comment.

"Yes, it was a mistake, so, do I want to hold their head under water and drown them because they made a mistake, no, I think they got the message," Rock said. "Hopefully other companies get it too but you know, at the end of the day, I don't think the punishment that they've been getting at this point fits the crime. I would like to see people get us back on board and become bigger because that's the America that I want to live in.

"If we brought them back up, that's kinda the America I want to live in. There's nothing wrong with giving a spanking...you don't spank them for the rest of their life," Rock added.

In April, Rock was one of the first prominent figures to call for a boycott of Bud Light after the beer brand partnered with Mulvaney. In a video posted to social media, Rock was seen shooting cans of the beer and saying, "F*** Bud Light and f*** Anheuser-Busch."

The video prompted many other conservatives to criticize Bud Light over the partnership and dozens boycotted the beer brand. In July, Anson Frericks, the former president of operations for Anheuser-Busch, told Newsweek that the Bud Light boycott hurt the brand due to the fact that it is an easily accessible product.

"Everywhere you have Bud Light, you also have Miller Lite and Coors Light...it's incredibly easy for consumers to switch. There's no real switching cost that's out there," Frericks said.

Rock also noted in his interview that he has continued to receive free cases of Bud Light from some friends saying that while it initially started as a joke, he will continue to drink it.

"They screwed up, they made a mistake. I'm over it," Rock said regarding Bud Light. "I'm not the type of person to kick a man when he's down."

Rock made similar remarks about Bud Light during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity last month.

"As a God-fearing man, as a Christian, I have to believe in forgiveness," he said. "They made a mistake, all right. What do you want, hold their head under water and drown them and kill people's jobs? I don't want to do that...But I hope—at the same time, I don't want to be their biggest cheerleader. I want them to show me something to get me back as a consumer, as a drinker."