I don’t think it’s especially confusing. I first read it when I was 13 and I did ok with it even then. It’s among the most popular works of fiction ever so I think it must have fairly broad appeal.

Definitely start with The Hobbit though, it gives very important background. The writing style in The Hobbit is much more aimed at children however. The LotR begins with a somewhat similar style and transitions through the first few chapters into a more mature and epic tone.

Some people struggle to stay interested through the first few chapters of the LotR, my advice if that happens to you is to just press on until the end of chapter 10, book 1 (“Strider”). That chapter is where the LotR really settles into the tone that characterizes the rest of the story.

There are quite a few mysterious references to things in the history of Middle Earth that you will not understand. Don’t worry about them; Tolkien intentionally scatters these “textual ruins” through the story. These are meant to make you feel like the story you are reading is set in a world with a real history, but you as the reader are not supposed to understand them. The mysteriousness of these references is the point. You can read The Silmarillion (and the wiki) afterwards to understand the what these textual ruins are about.