President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday aiming to crack down on ticket prices.
Standing beside the president in the Oval Office was Kid Rock, who performed at several of his rallies last year and explained what the order aims to do.
Kid Rock, whose given name is Robert James Ritchie, said he has been pushing for the move for years because he wants to sell tickets at an affordable price but cannot because of aggressive practices in the resale market.
“Anyone who has bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years, no matter your politics, knows it’s a conundrum,” Kid Rock said. “You buy a ticket for $100, by the time you check out it’s $170, you don’t know what you’re getting charged for.”
Kid Rock in the Oval Office with Pres. Trump … now LIVE on C-SPAN pic.twitter.com/J93vlWwVrN
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) March 31, 2025
But what really irks the performer is “bots” that he said buy tickets en masse and then resell them online at a significant markup.
“Sometimes it’s for a 400% or 500% markup,” Kid Rock said. “I would rather be a hero to working-class people and have them be able to come attend my shows and give them a fair ticket price. I can’t control that right now, so hopefully this is a first step to be able to make that happen.”
Kid Rock said he’d like to see legislation passed to cap the resale market but thanked Trump for making the executive order happen at “lightning speed” in the meantime.
Trump joked that he calls Kid Rock “Bob,” referencing his legal first name, but agreed that it’s time to crack down on price gouging at concerts.
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“I think Bob is more interested in the fans and the people that are having to pay crazy prices than he is the artists,” Trump said. “Maybe the artists a little bit, but the fans a lot. I’ve spoken to him over the years about it and it bothers him. It bothers a lot of other artists too.”
The executive order charges the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice to step up enforcement of existing laws against price gouging.
