Kid Rock Breaks With Trump Administration, Criticizes Justice Department Settlement With Live Nation

Molly Riley/White House Photo/Alamy Live News

Live Nation got a sweetheart deal…and Kid Rock isn’t a fan.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice abruptly reached a settlement with Live Nation in a landmark lawsuit filed by the government against the music industry giant that sought to break up their merger with Ticketmaster, among other things, amid accusations that the company has operated as an illegal monopoly.

The lawsuit was filed by the Biden administration back in 2024, and at the time Attorney General Merrick Garland laid out the case for breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster:

“We allege that Live Nation does not maintain its dominance in the entertainment industry by staying ahead of its competition on the merits. We allege that Live Nation controls the live entertainment industry in the United States because it is breaking the law…

We are here because that conduct, as we allege, is anti-competitive and illegal.

It is time for fans and artists to stop paying the price for Live Nation’s monopoly. It is time to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster.”

Of course we all know that Ticketmaster, which merged with Live Nation in 2010, controls the majority of tickets for live events. They do this through exclusivity contracts with venues that force them to use their platform to sell tickets, and in recent years have sought to grow their influence in the secondary (resale) ticket market by keeping tickets on their own resale platform to shut out competitors like StubHub and many others.

But Live Nation also maintains its dominance through ownership of many venues, including nearly 78% of the country’s large outdoor amphitheaters, as well as through exclusivity contracts with non-Live Nation owned venues. These long-term contracts lock venues into using Ticketmaster and effectively shut out any competition they may face. And because Live Nation ALSO owns artist management and promotion companies, they’re able to blacklist venues that don’t use Live Nation and shut them out of the marketplace.

(We’ve outlined before exactly how much control Live Nation has over pretty much every level of the live music industry, from venues and tickets to artist management and promotion, so if you want to read more about that you can find it here).

It’s a domination that has served Live Nation well: In 2025, the company reported revenue of $25.2 BILLION, a nearly 10% year-over-year growth from 2024, with $3.1 billion of that coming from Ticketmaster.

You can see why the Justice Department suspected they may be illegally operating as a monopoly. Just an inkling.

Several states agreed with the DOJ and joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs, and the case finally went to trial earlier this month. But just days into the trial, it was announced that the Justice Department and Live Nation had agreed to a settlement that would avoid reversing the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster.

The settlement allows the merger to continue (for now), but will force the company to pay a reported $280 million in damages to states participating in the settlement. And Ticketmaster will be forced to open part of its ticketing platform to rival companies, which will allow third-party ticket sellers to list tickets directly through Ticketmaster’s platform.

It will also reportedly put an end to long-term exclusivity contracts that Live Nation has used to lock down venues, now limiting these contracts to just four years while also allowing venues to allocate a portion of their ticket sales to other platforms.

The biggest development, though, is that Live Nation will also be forced to at least partially unwind exclusive agreements for 13 of its amphitheaters. These 13 venues have exclusive booking arrangements with Live Nation, but under the settlement agreement these contracts will now be non-exclusive and will allow other promoters to book events at these venues.

Well the settlement apparently came as a surprise to not only the judge but to many of the states who had joined the Department of Justice in the lawsuit. Several state attorneys general expressed their disappointment with the settlement and announced that they would move forward with the lawsuit, while fans who are frustrated with the ticket buying process also felt that Live Nation got a sweetheart deal and was allowed to continue without any real consequence.

And it wasn’t just fans who were disappointed: Even one of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters was disappointed in the settlement agreed to by his Justice Department.

Kid Rock has been a vocal proponent of breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster, meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi last year to discuss the issues surrounding the ticketing process and appearing with President Trump in the Oval Office as the president signed an executive order aimed at reducing ticket prices.

He also appeared at a hearing recently in the Senate, where he called the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster a failed experiment:

“Should Ticketmaster and Live Nation be broken up? Probably. Would that alone fix things? I’m not sure it would.

But I am sure of this: No artist should be forced to sell their tickets without a say in who sells them and how they are sold.”

And after the settlement, Kid Rock expressed his disappointment that a jury wouldn’t have the opportunity to decide the case in an interview with The New York Times:

“I don’t understand why they would negotiate a settlement. Why not just let it see its course? Let’s see what 12 people decide.”

It may be surprising to hear Kid Rock break with the Trump administration, but this is an issue that he’s advocated on for a while, so he’s no doubt disappointed to see the Justice Department back down before the trial really even got going. And it no doubt put more salt in the wound when, after the settlement, it was revealed that Live Nation employees had exchanged messages mocking fans and bragging about “robbing them blind.”

But despite the Justice Department backing out of the case, the trial has continued as the states pursue their case against Live Nation – so it’s still entirely possible that the company doesn’t get off as easy as they hoped they would.