Waffle House Hero Replaces Kid Rock As Grand Marshal Of Nashville Christmas Parade

As our sister site The A.V. Club reported over the weekend, Kid Rock was ousted as the grand marshal of the Nashville Christmas Parade on Friday "after talking shit about The View star" Joy Behar during an interview with Fox & Friends (direct quote: "Screw that Joy Behar bitch.") But as Nashville NewsChannel 5 noted, no one knew until the parade started who Rock's replacement would be. The parade organizers chose an excellent one: James Shaw Jr., who wrestled a gun away from a shooter in a Nashville Waffle House earlier this year (while unarmed), then raised $200,000 for the shooting victims. That's a swap akin to trading a tuxedo T-shirt for a James Bond tuxedo.

The change in marshals didn't seem to affect many of the rainy-day parade-goers Channel 5 talked to, who primarily seemed to be there for the music and to "just come out and be happy," as one described. Shaw definitely seems happy in his canopied parade car, sheltered from the rain. Channel 5 also got some footage of Kid Rock, sipping a beer as he watched with friends from a parade-adjacent window at his own Big Ass Honky Tonk And Rock 'N' Roll Steakhouse in town.