Kid Rock Owns The Sledgehammer That Was Used To Break Into Osama Bin Laden’s Bedroom

That’s gotta look pretty cool sitting on the mantle.

If you’re not familiar with Rob O’Neill, you should be. The Navy SEAL, American hero and general badass is famous for being the man who shot Osama Bin Laden back in May of 2011 after a 10-year manhunt following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Over the years, O’Neill has given his account of the night he killed the world’s most wanted terrorist:

“In the bedroom was Osama Bin Laden, a matter of feet in front of me.

And he had his hands on his wife’s shoulders. He was not surrendering. He was sort of moving, and just based on the level of threat of him not surrendering and the likelihood of him having a vest, I engaged him.

I shot him twice in the head. He fell in the floor. I shot him one more time and I killed him.”

Obviously the accounts of the raid have been told over and over in the nearly 14 years since Bin Laden was killed. But very few people can say they own a piece of one of the most famous military operations in our country’s history – and Kid Rock is one of them.

The country rocker recently appeared on the Club Random podcast with Bill Maher, where he stunned the host and comedian by revealing the special piece of memorabilia that was gifted to him by O’Neill:

“He gave me the sledgehammer that went through Bin Laden’s fucking bedroom.”

Maher was shocked as Kid Rock told the story about how he traded the handwritten lyrics to his song “Born Free” for a piece of American history:

“We played the bigger dick game, we were walking through my house having a few drinks. 

If I write a poignant song…I’ll frame those lyrics… And we’re walking through my house years ago when I had my house in Michigan and I’m like, ‘You know what dude? You should have these.’ Gave ’em to him. 

He’s like, ‘I’m giving you something. I’m giving you the sledgehammer I went through Bin Laden’s house with.’

I’m like, ‘You’re going to give me a piece of American history for that shitty song?'”

True story. @KidRock https://t.co/3hbwjSUzKf

— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) March 11, 2025

Well Kid Rock clearly didn’t feel that his gift was enough, so he walked O’Neill out to his car barn and offered him any car in his collection, which the rocker says included “some pretty high dollar shit” including one of the first Cadillac V-16 Cabriolets from 1930, which he estimates is worth “probably 800 grand.”

But O’Neill had his eye on something else in Kid Rock’s collection:

“I got this fucking shitty ass limo from the 1970s that Ryan from West Coast Customs did an incredible job on, made into some American Badass shit. It’s got logos on it, it’s triple black, got TVs and smoke suckers in the back. Rob’s like, ‘I want that limo.’ 

I’m like, ‘Don’t take that fucking limo. Grab something else.’ I couldn’t talk him out of it. And it’s still sitting in my garage to this day. It’s his limo.”

I mean, I’m sure it’s a nice limo, but can anything really compete with something that was used during the Bin Laden raid?

As far as the sledgehammer, Kid Rock says that he’s been “selfish” with it but that he hopes to display it someday in a museum or in an upcoming restaurant that he’s opening up in Nashville.

Personally I think he should display it in his downtown bar. Imagine getting drunk and being able to get your picture with the sledgehammer used in the Bin Laden raid? That’s America, baby.