The attorney for Steve Smith, the owner of Tootsies Orchid Lounge and the majority funder of the Nashville Christmas Parade, said his client may take legal action over Kid Rock being booted as grand marshal of Saturday’s event.
Smith and Tootsies donates $250,000 to the annual parade efforts, Bryan Lewis said during a Friday night press conference, which he believes makes his client the “majority stockholder” of the event. Despite that status, Lewis says parade producer Tennessee Holiday Productions, which booted Rock from the honorary post after he called “The View” co-host Joy Behar a “bitch,” did not consult Smith in the decision.
Rock was replaced in the role by James Shaw Jr., an electrical engineer hailed as a hero after disarming a rifle-wielding gunman during a mass shooting at a local Waffle House earlier this year.
“Kid Rock intends to show up tomorrow for the parade and be the grand marshal,” Lewis told reporters Friday night.
It appears that Rock did show up at the event but was not reinstated as grand marshal. The musician, whose real name is Robert Ritchie, posted the following Saturday morning on his Facebook page:
Well folks, it is official…My parade has been rained on!
But in the end, it is not about me. It is about the kids and the wonderful work they do at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.
Either way, myself, family and especially my granddaughter, are gonna enjoy today.
Sending well wishes for a break in the rain and a successful parade.
I love Nashville and the people she holds.
But remember…Rock n Roll Never Forgets!!
“We are doing our due diligence and looking into legal options as well… if Kid Rock is excluded from this,” Lewis had said last night, noting that the courthouse does not reopen until Monday morning.
Lewis said that Rock’s manager had reached out to Behar’s manager on Friday and offered to make her co-grand marshal of the Nashville parade. TheWrap emailed her management company and agents to ask if Behar had received such a request, but we did not immediately hear back.
Watch Lewis’ press conference via the video above.
During an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” on Friday, Kid Rock told co-host Steve Doocy, “People need to calm down, get a little less politically correct and I would say, you know, love everybody. Except, screw that Joy Behar bitch.”
Doocy quickly moved into damage control, chiding the musician and apologizing to viewers on air. “You cannot say that. We apologize for that,” he said.
“I mean, ‘lady,’” Rock added, and later clarified in the segment that he was “joking.”