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Management at three Nashville restaurants, including Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse, asked employees without legal citizenship status to leave the premises Saturday night to avoid potential raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, the Nashville Scene reports.
Some workers were reluctant to return Sunday out of fear for being arrested, the publication reports.
In a tweet following the report, Kid Rock, a Michigan native, clarified that he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the restaurant that bears his name. Operations are led by majority owner Steve Smith, a Donald Trump supporter who also owns the other two restaurants involved.
Kid Rock reportedly holds a minority interest in the restaurant with his name, which opened in 2018.
"Clearly I do not have anything to do with day-to-day operations at my Honky Tonk — but it’s good clickbait, I get it," Kid Rock wrote on X. "That being said, I 100% support getting illegal criminals out of our country, no matter where they are. I also, like President Trump, want to speed up the process of getting GREAT immigrants into our country — LEGALLY!
"It's that simple, folks. But the below is not a juicy enough headline to get clicks and views... in this day and age, the truth often is not."
An unnamed employee at one of Smith’s restaurants told the Nashville Scene:
“We were already understaffed because of the ICE raids throughout the weekend. Then, around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, our manager came back and told anyone without legal status to go home. Events at the Ryman, Ascend, and the Savannah Bananas’ baseball game all let out, and it was crazy busy. But there was no one in the kitchen to cook the food.”
