“Always Will Be Proud”: When Brad Keselowski Took on Pop Icon Madonna to Defend His Hometown

Brad Keselowski is the calm and collected co-owner of RFK Racing today. But he wasn’t always this nonvolatile person. Just a decade ago, he was particularly known for his aggressiveness on the racetrack and his affinity for picking trouble with his fellow drivers. It was during this phase that he decided to go against THE Madonna to defend his hometown Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Keselowski and Madonna both grew up in this Detroit Suburb 25 years apart. The singer, however, did not have a blast in the neighborhood as the driver did.

In 2015, she spoke badly about the region to Howard Stern in an interview for SiriusXM and earned the wrath of many. She said, “I just didn’t fit in. I just felt like I was with rich people, and I wasn’t, and I felt out of place.”

Rochester Hills is an affluent neighborhood that even had Eminem live in it for a period but neither Keselowski nor Madonna lived in that part of the community.

When asked if she would ever want to go back, she responded, “I just didn’t want to go back. I can’t, no, I can’t be around basic, provincial-thinking people.” Hearing these comments, Keselowski couldn’t help but hit back at her on X.

He wrote that he could understand what it was like to live in a low-income area of a high-income neighborhood. He further sympathized with the feelings of inadequacy or resentment that Madonna might have and wrote that he could identify them when he went home as well.

However, he concluded, “Even if Madonna isn’t, I am and will always be proud to be from Rochester Hills, MI.” 

Nonetheless, even if Madonna isn’t, I am and always will be proud to be from Rochester Hills, MI.

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) March 13, 2015

Why Madonna isn’t fond of Rochester Hill, Michigan

She said in the interview that her family moved to Rochester Hills when she was in high school. “We were, a bit, living above our means… I felt very — because now I didn’t have a uniform — so I was aware that my clothes were not as cool as everybody else’s or as nice as everybody else’s,” she said.

She continued about the people who lived there, “I felt like they were members of country clubs and they had manicures and they wore nice clothes and I didn’t fit in. I felt like a country bumpkin. And I was resentful.” The singer later moved to New York, where she had even worse experiences. 

However, she chose not to move back home because she hated Rochester Hills even more. Her words were met with heavy backlash from people in the community.

The Mayor of Rochester Hills, Bryan Barnett, sent her an open letter defending his city and letting her know they didn’t need her stamp of approval. It wouldn’t be a surprise if it came to be revealed that Keselowski helped the mayor draft the letter.