Fact check: False claim Kid Rock tweeted about COVID-19 ‘tyranny’

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·2 min read
1
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The claim: Image shows a Kid Rock tweet about COVID-19 restrictions

A Feb. 27 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a screenshot of a purported tweet from musician Kid Rock.

“Some people wouldn’t recognize tyranny if it slapped a mask on their face, made them stand 6 feet apart, and forced them to take a vaccine for a virus with a 99.8% survival rate,” reads the purported tweet.

Various iterations of the post have accumulated thousands of interactions on social media.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: False

There is no evidence Kid Rock sent such a tweet. The Twitter handle featured in the image does not match any of his verified social media accounts. The same statement has been circulating online since at least late 2021.

Post not from Kid Rock’s social media accounts

The tweet featured in the image comes from an account with the handle @KidRockOfficial, but none of Kid Rock’s social media accounts use that handle or appear to have posted the statement. The musician’s verified accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all use handles without the word “official” in them.

The only post found on the @KidRockOfficial Twitter account came in 2011 and is different from the post in the image.

Fact check: False claim that Zelenkyy bought parents multimillion-dollar house

Similar statements about tyranny and masks have been circulating online since at least the middle of 2021. In many cases, the statements are unattributed.

Kid Rock has been critical of masking and COVID-19 vaccine mandates, vowing in 2022 not to play shows in any venues requiring such protective measures. The musician, born Robert Ritchie, released a song titled “We the People” in January 2022 that lambasted public health mandates.

"Wear your mask, take your pills, now a whole generation’s mentally ill," he sings in the song.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment.

PolitiFact also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: No, image does not show Kid Rock tweet on masks, vaccines