• by Tanya Gazdik , April 30, 2025

Detroit doesn't want him, so Kid Rock is taking his next restaurant concept to Nashville. 

“Five years after the closure of his Detroit eatery, Kid Rock is expanding his restaurant business — and with a chip on his shoulder,” reports the Detroit Free Press. 

The musician has announced the opening of The Detroit Cowboy, a Nashville fine-dining establishment serving steaks and seafood. The restaurant will open May 5 in Music City’s downtown district.

“Go where you're celebrated, not tolerated,” reads the restaurant’s website tagline.

"It restates a phrase Kid Rock used during a testy response in December 2019, when Ilitch Holdings announced the end of its licensing deal for Rock’s Made in Detroit restaurant at Little Caesars Arena,” according to the Detroit Free Press. “For two years, the LCA diner had been subject to protests by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, which redoubled its efforts following the musician’s onstage tirade against Oprah Winfrey.”

Kid Rock promoted the Detroit Cowboy on Instagram Tuesday, according to The Detroit News. 

"A small group of very bad people thought they cancelled me and my restaurant in Detroit in 2020 ... all you dumbasses did was hurt the city I LOVE.”

The backlash against the rocker followed a profanity-laced video of the star, published by TMZ ranting about Oprah Winfrey at a Nashville event. 

Kid Rock, whose birth name is Robert James Ritchie, has a love-hate relationship with the residents of Detroit, where he wasn’t actually born. 

He was born in Romeo, a far northern suburb about 40 miles from the city limits. His family owned multiple car dealerships and he was raised in a large home on extensive property, which included an apple orchard and barnyard for their horses. 

The Detroit News published an editorial in 2019 verbalizing what many Detroit residents were thinking about the musician. 

“Detroit is a city striving toward unity and inclusiveness,” according to the editorial. “It doesn't need public representatives who are determined to pull people apart.

“In his Facebook tantrum, Rock declared himself done with Detroit. Well, here's some news, Kid Rock. If you're going to be a drunken, racist jerk, Detroit is done with you.”