Did Kid Rock Lip Sync During The Turning Point USA Halftime Show? Singer Releases Video Explaining Audio Issues

Turning Point USA

Performed it live, just some technical difficulties.

Kid Rock is explaining the audio issues that led to allegations of lip syncing during his performance of “Bawitdaba” during the Turning Point USA All-American Halftime Show on Sunday.

The rocker opened his set at the alternate Super Bowl halftime show with a performance of the 1999 single from his Devil Without A Cause album, and viewers immediately noticed that there appeared to be a delay between the audio and the singer’s performance.

Naturally, that led many (especially those who were already looking to mock the alternate Super Bowl halftime show in the first place) to call out Kid Rock for lip syncing:

But according to the rocker, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, he was in fact performing live – but technical difficulties in getting the audio and video synced up made it look like he wasn’t.

In a lengthy video posted to social media, Kid Rock attempted to explain what really happened:

“We’re here to address the fake news media and all the trolls that are piling on trying to say I was lip syncing on the Turning Point USA halftime to Bawitdaba.”

According to the singer, he immediately noticed the sync between the audio and video was off when he saw the first cut of the pre-recorded show:

“They sent me a first cut, you know, we taped it. And then they sent me a first cut and my comment was, ‘The sync is off.’ They were trying to line up. First off, if we would have done it, if we would have recorded it and then played like we were singing it, lip synced it, it would have been pie. It would have been pie to line up. It was very difficult for them because somebody clearly wasn’t super familiar with the song.”

Rock called the song “chaos” and admits that it would be difficult for somebody who wasn’t familiar with the song to sync up, because he exchanges lines with his DJ throughout the entire song so Kid Rock can catch his breath:

“It’s extremely difficult for them to line up the sync. Could have been done if we had more time. I’m confident they could have got it right. I only got to see one edit. I didn’t think it was the end of the world. I saw what it was doing. The mic’s coming down. The sync was off. Because when we’re rapping it, that song takes so much energy. …

So he’s filling in those words for me so I can [breathe], bang my head, keep going and carrying on. Now when I’m doing that, you see me, I’m all over the stage, I’m flipping the mic, I’m down here, I’m over here, back. Boom. I know these guys had a difficult time getting that synced together. So I have nothing but good things to say, not only about Turning Point, but the production team that they work with on this and other events they’ve done. Top notch. First class all the way. Nobody’s perfect, gets it right every time.”

He goes on to send a message to the “haters and trolls” (which was just a middle finger), and even defended Super Bowl halftime performer Bad Bunny from unfair treatment that he received leading up to his performance:

“The problem is people amplify this all over the internet. And I know most people don’t even care, but there’s certain people that just keep repeating it so people think it’s a fact.

And this goes on on both sides. They did it to Bad Bunny, in his defense, when they were saying he said you have four months to learn Spanish. He was on Saturday Night Live. I think he was joking. But they do it far too often, especially in the fake news media, the left-wingers.”

So there you have it: According to Kid Rock, he was, in fact, performing live during the show. And after 25 years of performing “Bawitdaba” live, chances are he’s got it down and wouldn’t need to lip sync in the first place.