Kid Rock doesn’t want to see ticket prices surge all summer long.
The outspoken rock musician encouraged U.S. lawmakers to create legislation that would put a 10 percent cap on ticket resale prices during a Senate subcommittee hearing on Jan. 28.
“No artist should be forced to sell their tickets without a say in who sells them and how they are sold,” the five-time Grammy-nominated artist said during the hearing held by the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy on Wednesday.
“What other business in America doesn’t control or at least have a say in their own inventory?”
Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, said that fans shouldn’t have to max out credit cards or miss a mortgage payment to buy an expensive resale ticket to see their favorite artist.
The musician sided with a bipartisan group of senators, led by Chairwoman Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who highlighted problems with bots and third parties scooping up tickets before fans can purchase them.
The ticketing issue has caused fans to spend hundreds—sometimes thousands—of dollars to buy tickets on resale websites just to see their favorite artist perform.
“The biggest problem I see, as an artist, is getting the tickets at the prices I set into the hands of the fans,” Rock said.
The “All Summer Long” singer, who owns a live music venue in downtown Nashville, added that even though he’s a capitalist who prefers deregulation, it’s time for the government to act.
“There’s no way around this but to put a price cap on this,” Rock added.
Rock noted that European countries such as the United Kingdom have taken similar action.
In November 2025, the United Kingdom announced plans to ban the resale of live event tickets for higher than their original cost.
The “Picture” vocalist even joked during Wednesday’s hearing that ticketing businesses would have gotten away with high resale fees if they had paid the artist a percentage of funds made in the secondary market, which does not happen.
Other live music executives who were questioned on Wednesday’s panel included Dan Wall, Live Nation executive vice president, corporate and regulatory affairs; Ticket Policy Forum Executive Director Brian Berry; and event promoter David Weingarden.
One of the topics the panel seemingly agreed on was supporting a ban on speculative ticketing, which happens when a reseller lists tickets for sale before they actually own them.
Rock, who was the only artist questioned on Wednesday, added that blocking speculative ticketing doesn’t solve the issue of sky-high resale prices, which benefits neither the artists nor the fans.
The lawsuit alleged that Ticketmaster and Live Nation allowed brokers to evade security measures, thereby obtaining tickets and reselling them at inflated prices for massive profits.
Wall said his company contested allegations in the case and also denied accusations that Live Nation Entertainment was a monopoly.
“We are near the end of the road in the anti-trust case and the math has been done, and if you just look at the addressable market for large venues, the economists [are] putting our market share under 50 percent so that’s not a monopoly share,” Wall said.
