Fact Check: Breaking Down That Rumor About Jason Aldean/Kid Rock Tour Smashing Taylor Swift’s Attendance Record

On Jan. 6, 2024, Esspots.com published an article positing that ticket sales for Jason Aldean and Kid Rock’s joint concert tour had broken an attendance record previously held by pop legend Taylor Swift. “The success of the ‘You Can’t Cancel America Tour’ lies in its ability to resonate with a wide range of audiences,” the article claimed. But the story was a piece of fiction.

The article began:

Breaking: Kid Rock and Jason Aldean’s You Can’t Cancel America Tour Breaks Taylor Swift’s Attendance Record

In an unprecedented event in the world of live music, Kid Rock and Jason Aldean’s joint venture, the “You Can’t Cancel America Tour,” has shattered the concert attendance record previously held by pop sensation Taylor Swift. This groundbreaking achievement not only marks a new era in the live music industry but also highlights the evolving tastes and preferences of music enthusiasts across the United States.

The claim made its way to Facebook, where a post by account @SpaceX Fanclub received more than 27,000 reactions and 2,900 comments, as of this writing.

First, although Kid Rock and Aldean do have an anticipated tour together, it is not set to begin until April 2024. It is not titled “You Can’t Cancel America,” as the claim states; rather, the seven-stop tour will visit primarily small towns and is titled the “Rock the Country” tour, with dates extending through July 2024.

The claims made by Esspots.com have no basis in reality and there is no evidence to indicate that the pair’s attendance rates are projected to exceed those held by Swift.

Esspots.com describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature, as follows:

Welcome to Esspots.com, a website that specializes in satire, parody, and humor. Before you proceed to read our content, we would like to emphasize that nothing on this website is real. All of the articles, stories, and commentary found on Esspots.com are entirely fictitious and created for the purpose of entertainment only.

According to Newsweek, Swift currently holds the record for the most-attended concert by a female artist ever in the U.S., with a 69,000 strong crowd. While Swift has also broken the record previously held by Elton John for highest grossing tour in history with The Eras Tour, exceeding ticket sales of $1 billion to date, she does not hold the top spot for most-attended concert tour for anyone in the U.S., which the Esspots.com article vaguely claims. The highest attended concert in U.S. history was a 1977 show by The Grateful Dead, which drew 107,019 fans.

Outside of the U.S., the highest attended concert ever was in 1994: a free Rod Stewart concert in Brazil attended by approximately 4.2 million people, according to Guinness World Records. The title for the highest-selling tour in history, also according to Guinness World Records, belongs to Ed Sheeren for his “÷ [Divide] Tour,” which 8,882,182 people attended across six continents.

We’ve previously debunked other rumors regarding Kid Rock and Aldean, including that actor Mark Wahlberg would be joining them on tour.

For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.