By Jeb Wright
Ted Nugent will soon play
his 6000th concert. He also has released a new
live album titled Sweden Rocks, that features the
attitude and excellence his concerts are famous for. Nugent
remains outspoken on issues of second amendment rights and
politics yet he never has slowed down, sold out or turned
down the volume on his Gibson guitar. The only thing faster
than his fingers on his fret board is the amount of words
that come out of his mouth when he feels energized in an
interview. Luckily, this is one of those interviews.
During our
conversation, we discussed robbing soup kitchens, Iron
Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, Gun Free Zones and the upcoming
Presidential election. Somewhere in there we also talked
about Uncle Ted’s latest studio album Love Grenade.
Ted opens up about his rise to fame and how he lost
everything when he took his eyes off his business affairs
during a nasty divorce and how he got it all back.
Ted uses language that
some may find offensive so, you have been warned. What
follows is a most candid interview with one or rock’s
loudest, in-yer-face, outspoken warriors. Whether Ted is
loading a gun, cleaning crap out of the horse stall, meeting
with Presidential candidates or simply standing center stage
playing the lick to "Great White Buffalo" one thing is
certain: He is 100% genuine and real.
I have always
respected Nugent’s honesty and been driven by his musical
ferocity. His views may be radical but, then again, so is
his music. Rock n’ Roll needs Ted Nugent. So does America.
His views are revered by some and repulsed by others but his
voice is always heard. He makes strong arguments for his
beliefs and he passionately lives to accomplish his goals.
He makes mistakes, admits them and moves on. He aphorizes to
no one and carries his attitude, and his weapons, with him
everywhere he goes. This interview will make you laugh, make
you think and possibly even make you angry – which just the
way Nugent would want it to be.
It should be noted
that days after this interview was conducted the original
drummer for Ted’s band, Cliff Davies, committed suicide. Ted
had not spoken with Cliff in years but compliments him in
this interview. Oddly enough, the original Nugent band
featuring Davies along with Rob De La Grange and Derek St.
Holmes has recently recorded a live concert playing the
classic Nugent songs from the 1970's. This had given hope to
a reunion that will now never happen.
Jeb: In 2008 you will
play your 6000th concert.
Ted: Isn’t that
adorable? I am sure it will be outrageous. I have to take a
moment to salute Mick Brown on drums and Greg Smith on bass,
who have been with me the last couple of years. It is not
only the sixth thousandth concert, I am sure it will be the
number one most enjoyable concert of my life. It is
indescribable – I am pretty good at describing things but I
stammer at coming up with adequate superlatives as to what
it is like to play with this caliber of musicians. I am on a
sexual guitar orgy – but nobody gets hurt so it is all good.
Jeb: What keeps you
inspired after six thousand shows?
Ted: God gave me this
gift of life and, dammit, I am going to use it to the best
of my ability. I am sitting here in my underwear in a
beautiful hand tuned log cabin in a magnificent Michigan
swamp. The snowflakes outside are about the size of a
child’s fist. The dusk is here; the darkness is coming on.
Just as I was dialing your number I counted 61 white-tailed
deer. I am looking at them right now. As I was looking at
them and I was dialing the last digits of your phone number,
a little white tailed rabbit scampered right from underneath
my porch to go join the deer at these custom feeders I had
put in just for the wildlife.
Mr. Jeb, you may be
one of the rare individuals, if not the only individual who
can help convey the spirituality of my natural life, my life
as part of nature’s blessing. This is my hands on, earthly
spirituality that describes, not just my bow hunting, as
today I ran a trap line and I got a fox and a couple of
raccoons. The relationship I have with the good Mother Earth
is beyond stimulating. It is one of the last things left for
environmental monitoring and environmental upgrade and
environmental dedication and honesty. A lot of people say,
"You don’t need to trap the poor little raccoons but I am
telling you that if I didn’t trap them we would have rabies
and mange. We have talked about this before. If I don’t kill
the deer and eat the deer then the deer will get diseases
and die.
I was watching the
news last night – I came in from doing my hunting and my
land management – I planted a couple of trees last night, I
hope it is not too early. I saw the news as I was cooking up
these magnificent venison back straps along with some
organic potatoes and tomatoes. I put a couple of shards of
sugar beets in as well. I am making this magnificent meal
and I see on TV where a homeless shelter in Lansing was
broken into and their freezers and refrigerators were raped
and pillaged and they stole all of their meat. The lady from
the homeless shelter was on TV going, "The most important
thing we offer to the needy and the homeless is the
nutrition and protein from good meat but it is all gone
now."
I lgot angry. I like
anger because it is a good emotion. You should be angry at
evil so that you eliminate it or upgrade those responsible
for it or eliminate them. I am angry that a fellow American
would rob a soup kitchen. Is that we are doing now, robbing
from charity? I am livid with anger. I was still angry but I
dialed the phone. I called up my staff, Linda Peterson and
my butcher Jason Peek – who happens to be a killer guitar
player in a band called Kung Fu Diesel. He is like a young
Ted, a guitar playing butcher. We trucked up about four
times the amount that they got stolen from them. We gave
them the gift of venison which is the healthiest food you
can eat. I eat it and I am very healthy. Part of the answer
to your question is that I am really healthy as I near age
60 because I eat venison. I don’t just have a relationship
with my own sacred temple and my families, where my
parenting, my husbandry, my environmentalism, my activism
and my American neighborliness is all determined in it’s
optimum capabilities because I am conscience enough to
sustain myself. Along with that, because of that connection
with that renewable resource that I hands on manage, kill,
trap, gut, skin, butcher and eat, I saw the perfect response
to this terrible crime of stealing from soup kitchens. I
knew they could benefit from the same wonderful proteins
that the Nugent family lives on.
I see bad and ugly but
I do everything I can to make it good. When you live as
intensely as I do – don’t try it at home because you can
hurt yourself, I am a professional. When you live as
intensive and connected as I do and pay attention – and I
don’t mean paying attention where you go, ‘Gosh I hate it
when they steal from the soup kitchen.’ I didn’t just say I
hated it; I fixed it. I reacted. That aliveness is why my
guitar playing is so fucking sexy. It is why I set
attendance records in 2007 and it is why I can’t wait to
play my six thousandth concert in 2008.
What is the ultimate
compliment you can give someone? I think that it is saying
that someone is grounded. When you say that about someone
that means that person is sensible, logical, conscientious
and would give you the shirt off his back. It means he
doesn’t pollute and he doesn’t do negative things and he
doesn’t hurt people and instead he helps people and helps
the environment. I am grounded because I get my dinner from
the fucking ground and I am on the ground getting it. That
primal scream from my Aboriginal lifestyle in 2008 is why my
Love Grenade guitar licks sound like a 18-year old
with his first hard on. There is no baggage or presumption.
I identify the bad and the ugly so my fellow good Americans
will help fight it to help maximize the good. The good will
only be maximized as we identify and rid ourselves of the
bad and ugly. That is a long answer to a simple question.
Jeb: I heard you
actually spoke with your first guitar teacher.
Ted: I recently talked
to my guitar teacher from 1957. His name is Joe Podorsec. He
came to two sold out shows at Pine Knob last year – fifty
fucking years later. My enthusiasm and purity of love for
the music is as pure now as it was in 1957 when I walked
onto the stage on the Michigan State Fairgrounds – it is
fucking unbelievable.
Those are good
descriptions of what it is like but there are other things
going on as well. Why am I like this? Why did my Dad
discipline me? Why did I learn about the combination of
ultimate crowbar, gung-ho discipline and ultimate love? I am
a product of that but it ultimately emanates from the
grounded priorities of being a hunter, a fisherman and a
trapper. For me it is so simple it is stupid. There are
still people who think they have to get drunk and high to
make really good music. No, you have to get drunk and high
so you can puke, drool and die. The bottom line is with all
that explanation you have, I am a lucky motherfucker. I got
guidance from people who really loved me and I was smart
enough to pay attention to it.
Jeb: You brought up
anger being a good emotion and I think Americans should be
angry right now over what we are facing for our choices from
President but I am afraid that the overwhelming emotion
right now is not anger but instead apathy. On the Republican
side I am not sure the best man is going to be running and
the Democratic side is like something you would read in a
fiction book.
Ted: The scary part is
what you just said. You have to smack your head and ask
yourself if we are being punked. Is the media punking us
with Hillary and Obama? The presidential nominees in the
Democratic party are actually quoting Karl Marx. Is this a
bad joke? The horror of it is that the word that you said in
your question/statement is the most horrific condition of
mankind and we in America are more guilty of it than anyone.
We haven’t got tyrants, dictators, kings, emperors and
furors here like they do in the rest of the world. We have
an elected body of employees that serve We the People yet
apathy is destroying the American dream. The people that
vote for Hillary and Obama literally think that the harder
you work the more you owe them. They think, "We need to take
those profits." What? You mean like Castro and Chavez? We
are being punked because this can’t be real. It is like you
said, is this a fantasy?
John McCain is a good
man but he has made some numbnut mistakes regarding taxes,
freedom of speech and border security – he had blown it as
good as any idiot could on those. However, I am scheduled to
meet with the great Vietnam war hero and Governor Rick Perry
in the next couple of weeks and I believe that John McCain
is knowledgeable and sincere. I believe that those three
mistakes – I could probably name another thirty that he is
guilty of – are a direct result of the apathy of him not
being pressured by his employers, who happen to be We the
People.
Whenever a politician
makes a mistake it is not really their fault, it is our
fault. Would we let the employees operate our dry cleaning
facility with dirty hands? The boss would say, "This is a
cleaning operation. We need to start by being clean
ourselves so go wash your fucking hands." But if the boss
doesn’t tell him that and the person is not responsible then
customers are going to be getting clothes that are supposed
to be clean that are dirty. I would say that is not really
the employee’s fault; I would say it is the employer’s
fault. My point about apathy is that until We the People of
this country start communicating, at least as much as this
guitar player does, — there is not a Senator, Congressman,
Governor or State Rep in this nation that doesn’t know what
Ted Nugent believes in. I have either talked to them all
directly or I have talked to their Chief of Staff or their
representatives. If you overtax hardworking people then it
rewards laziness. You redistribute hardworking peoples
earnings to those who are going, "Maybe I don’t even have to
get up because I am getting a check anyway. I think I’ll
sleep in."
Jeb: Obama is living a
charmed life because Hillary is so distasteful that the
media makes him look like Superman. My daughter is a huge
Obama supporter.
Ted: God bless your
daughter because she is young and ignorant. She is not
ignorant like dumb but she is just inexperienced. If you
take one hundred teenagers and ask them what Imo Jima was or
what happened at Pearl Harbor, they don’t have the faintest
idea. They have no idea what Auschwitz was. If you are
ignorant as to why we had to crush the Nazis and why we had
to crush the imperial monsters of Japan – if you don’t know
that then the next Fuhrer is going to get you while you are
sleeping. Iran? War is not the answer — no war is the
fucking answer. When you see evil, you wage war against it.
What do you do, offer them a cup of tea? They will take it
and then they will kill you.
Jeb: You can’t expect
people who are not rational to act rational.
Ted: Bingo. I know
this is a rock n’ roll interview but you know what? You can
hear how somewhat informed I am. I am not the master of
history and social condition but I can keep up with about
anybody on how we got here today and that is why my guitar
is so passionate. Where do you think the blues came from?
They came from the dreams of freedom and the hatred of
slavery. It didn’t come from peace and love and smoking
dope. It came from wanting to break off shackles to be the
best you can be and to be autonomous.
Jeb: What is going to
happen if a Democrats wins?
Ted: If the congress
fails to hear from the American citizenry more than they
currently do then it will be another USS Cole or another
Beruit or another 9/11. We will have the front of
pacification of either Hillary or Obama to the terrorists.
They will go, "They just elected these numbnuts who believe
in peace and love." They both want to give $4,000 to each
family for education. What happened to earning your way?
America has lost it’s soul. They will know it is time to get
us.
If either Hillary or
Obama do get in – which I do not believe is going to happen
– it will cause such an uprising in this country that our
congress will hear from the American people with an
unprecedented bravery and activism that it might be the kind
of wake up call we need. Even John McCain’s conduct in the
past will see him get hammered. When I say hammered, I mean
polite, yet firm, communication from We the People.
In order to better
education we have thrown unlimited money at it and people
graduate that can’t talk. Now that we know that throwing
money at it actually causes their speech to get worse, let’s
start demanding teaching. Let’s start demanding excellence
from the educational system. We don’t need more bought and
paid for waste of money but instead we need a spiritual
obligation to the duty of education. I could go on about
court reform, tax reform and even highway repair reform.
They fix roads that don’t need it because they happen to
have the money on hand and then when they have a road that
does need it they don’t fix them because they just spent ten
times what they needed on a road that didn’t fucking need
repairs. I am not just pulling this out of my ass, the
studies have been proven. It all comes down to apathy – that
Senator just did something stupid because his constituents
didn’t tell him what they wanted – this is why when I am on
stage fire comes off my fret board and out of my ass.
Jeb: Back in the day
you never brought politics up during your concerts. Why do
you do it now?
Ted: I think that it
has gotten so bad that it would be irresponsible of me to
not at least make note that there is a hole in the dam. We
could party and all get high but that hole is going to get
bigger and we are all going to drowned. The quality of a
real party – I am not talking about getting ripped and
drinking and driving and killing people – that is not a
party where I come from. A party where I come from has
campfires and people who generally have a connection with
each other. They are people who want to be the best that
they can be and will help their neighbor and discuss
important issues. They may have a few beers – I don’t drink
beer but some of my buddies around the campfire do. We hoot
and holler and play a few songs and there is a lot of
laughter but we also discuss important issues so before we
go to sleep we can plan that next day to pursue some of the
upgrades we have identified at that campfire — that is a
party to me. Even though my concerts are a party of a lot of
laughter and a bunch of throttling, ferocious rhythm and
blues rock n’ roll, I would be irresponsible if I didn’t at
least share my observations. It comes off as entertainment,
i.e., Obama sucking my machine gun. If you are going to make
a political statement at a rock n’ roll concert then I think
that was it. The universal — not mostly and not a high
percentage –- the universal response was howling laughter.
What entertainer doesn’t want gut wrenching laughter at any
type of event? God knows my audience does.
Jeb: I have to ask you
about campus and high school shootings. These are getting
way too commonplace in America. Here is my question to you:
Since this is not an isolated event and is growing, why not
institute a waiting period for the purchase of guns?
Ted: First off that is
so tragic. I want to address that point. When a child drowns
in someone’s swimming pool people start demanding
legislation that everyone needs to have a locked gate around
their pool. Even if you did that then the drownings won’t go
down because the law was made out of hysteria.
Here is the only thing
you need to know about guns and innocent deaths: Everyone of
those mass slaughters took place in one of Ted Kennedy’s
forced Gun Free Zone conditions. Now that we know that the
top number of dead, innocent people happened across the
board in a condition that the liberals have forced into
those geographies called Gun Free Zones, how can a person
want more Gun Free Zones? Those massacres have never
happened in the Salt Lake City Mall where the cop shot the
bad guy or in Omaha where the cop shot the bad guy. They
were off duty cops so they were basically just guys with
guns. There was a seminar recently in Israel where a guy
shot like nine people and was getting ready to unload on a
bunch of others but a student pulled a gun and shot him.
These are not Ted’s facts, there are globally refutable
facts. Every mass slaughter has happened in a Gun Free Zone.
Every mass slaughter that has been stopped has been stopped
by a person who had a gun who shot that person.
Those facts spell out
a recipe to me. The recipe is what I have always lobbied
for. When you pass a law guaranteeing the unarmed
helplessness of innocents then the bad guys who don’t give a
shit about laws can now reap their evil with impunity. I
find that a soulless, inhumane condition. I find it an
anti-human condition because we know the ingredient
necessary to maximize the number of dead innocents and that
condition is a Gun Free Zone. From this guy’s perspective,
what we need to ban are Gun Free Zones.
Everywhere I go I am
armed. I promise you that if I am in a mall where a guy is
going to start shooting people then that guy is going to get
shot. If you have a guy bent on evil – and by the way there
are people bent on evil – we know they exist and we know
they are going to try it again. Do you want them to try it
in a Gun Free Zone or do want them to try it where they have
concealed weapon permits? I know what I want.
We had sincere,
emotional and painful but also pragmatic conversations with
our children on what they are to do when they hear shots and
what to do when they see a shooter. In none of the incidents
on campus have they ever discussed this. If a guy has a
shotgun you are going to hide under a table? Huh? Talk to
your kids and tell them what guns do. Tell them to identify
exits and tell them how never to go into a dead end. Tell
them how to get out of a line of fire. With my kids I go one
step further and I teach them what kind of guns they have
and I teach them to take cover and shoot the motherfucker. I
was doing an interview with a Kalamazoo rock station the
other day and the lady deejay says, "Are you telling me that
I don’t have the right to take my children to places where
there are no guns? Did I tell you that I had a gun shoved in
my face one night with my little child with me and now I
have to live with that?" I said, "Why didn’t you shoot him?"
She said, "I don’t have a gun." I told her, "Well, I want to
thank you for nothing because now that guy, who is an evil
human being, who you could have stopped, is still out there.
His next victim would like to thank you for not doing
anything." How is that for a perspective that Dan Rather
will never share with anyone?
I want bad guys dead.
Look at that brave Jewish professor, a survivor of the
Holocaust, who put his body against the door at Virginia
Tech. You wouldn’t have wanted him to have a forty-five in
his belt? The motherfucker knew what to do in order to save
the students but he was unarmed because he was in a Gun Free
Zone. That is the kind of guy I want to have a gun, if he
wants to have one. I am not saying you have to have a gun
but there are enough people in this country who still have a
warrior burning in their soul; they won’t accept
helplessness. If you are unarmed then you are helpless, pal.
All you can do is run and hope you get away. I don’t even
know what that thought is like. I want to take cover and
make him dead. I don’t want bad guys shooting guns at
people; I want them dead. I want that guy who confronted
that female disc jockey dead. I guarantee that he has done
it again because she didn’t stop him.
Jeb: It is almost
human nature to think that the answer lies in keeping bad
guys from getting guns in the first place.
Ted: We can’t. We have
done everything possible. What else can you do? Did you know
that Illinois is a Gun Free Zone? The whole State is a Gun
Free Zone because there is not such a thing as a concealed
weapon in Illinois. Why shouldn’t the guy go into that Lane
Bryant’s store and do that? He wasn’t using tactics. He
wasn’t smart or trained; he didn’t have to be. He knew for a
fact that he wouldn’t be resisted. In interviews with the
bad guys who survive they all say, "I knew that no one would
have a gun in the mall so I just slowly, nonchalantly walked
around loading my gun." I want to find a guy in a mall
slowly walking around, nonchalantly shooting people – that
would be my favorite target. "Hey asshole" BANG. I love it
when the end of the story is the bad guy being dead.
I have thought this
stuff through. I am not just pulling it out of my ass. I
have talked with most of the cops and studied all the
official reports from most of these shootings. All of my
training comes to fruition in all of these reports. The guy
was absolutely susceptible to an average citizen with a gun
on them. There are more concealed weapons permits in North
America than there has been in any society anywhere. In
those places you don’t see any mall shootings. It’s so
simple that it is insane. "We need to ban water because too
many people are using it." You can’t ban water and you can’t
ban guns.
Jeb: You make a strong
argument, Ted.
Ted: I have to tell
you a story. I did an interview for the BBC with Bruce
Dickinson from Iron Maiden. He is a real hippy, dippy
liberal guy. He did an interview with me where he tried to
make fun, if not downright condemn, my involvement with the
NRA. I just happened on the way into the BBC building that
day – I was armed by the way – to pick up a copy of the
London Times fresh off the rack right there in the lobby
because I saw the headlines and obviously Bruce didn’t.
Bruce goes, "We don’t have any of those kind of shootings
here." I said, "English people just seem to like English
people better than Americans like Americans." That is true!
Why does an American rob a soup kitchen? Why do they rape
and kill each other? Canadians don’t do any of that stuff as
much as we do and neither do the English. Everyone who is
raped and murdered in America is raped and murdered by an
American.
Bruce kept going on
and on about guns and I finally said, "Bruce, what you are
telling me is that if we adopted gun laws like England then
there wouldn’t be any shootings? You think banning guns
works?" I was just giving him rope. He agreed with me and I
said, "Have you read the London Times today?" He said, "No,
I haven’t read it yet." There are about a billion listeners
on the BBC worldwide. I said, "Remember Bruce Dickinson
believes gun banning is the answer. Let me read the
headlines of the London Times this morning: ‘Three killed in
drive by shooting in Nottingham.’" I go, "Did you get that
Bruce? Do you need me to print that out for you? Can you
grasp my accent?" Right under that story I read to Bruce the
headline, "‘Gay lovers quarrel ends with decapitation by
Samurai sword.’ What do we do Bruce? Do we ban knives? Don’t
you see that if people would just stop being evil towards
each other then you could ban all the guns you want."
Guns are banned in
prisons in America yet there are two or three shooting in
prison each year. I am not talking about the guards, I am
talking about prisoners making their own guns and shooting
each other. Where can you ban them more than prison? What
you are doing when you ban guns is guaranteeing that law
abiding citizens are sitting ducks. You can’t want that. You
don’t know the difference between a nice guy like me, who
has never been arrested for anything and is responsible and
a guy who is on parole for the fiftieth time for stabbing or
shooing people? If you can’t tell that he shouldn’t be out
of prison in the first place and that I shouldn’t be
helpless – you don’t see that? I need to do everything I can
that to keep your stupidity from affecting anyone’s policy.
If it does then there are a whole lot of innocent people,
who are going to be dead.
Anyone who attempts to
argue with me about the right to self defense – that is
really what the issue is. I have not only the right to
defend myself, I have a moral, intellectual an spiritual
obligation to never, ever, be helpless. The Founding Fathers
even wrote that down. I will not be tread on. You will not
rob me. You will not hurt me. You will not rape me. I will
shoot you fucking dead – that is a great attitude for good
rock n’ roll licks. "Stranglehold" comes from that fucking
place, motherfucker. "Raw Dogs & War Hogs" comes from that
place. You listen to "Geronimo & Me" on Love Grenade
and you hear it. Just listen to the lick on the song "Love
Grenade." You listen to that and you know that ain’t no
pussy writing that lick – that is a lick from a motherfucker
who will shoot you dead if you fuck with me. But if you are
a nice guy then I will do everything but blow you!
Jeb: I love hearing
your take on this kind of stuff but the people at Eagle Rock
Entertainment are going to kill me if we don’t talk about
Love Grenade.
Ted: I am so proud of
that. You listen to that opening guitar lick and there is no
question who the fuck that is. The "Girl Scout Cookies" lick
is a masterpiece. If there was a music industry like back
when there was a music industry... It used to be the people
in the music stores loved the music. The people who promoted
the concerts loved the music and the disc jockeys loved the
music. The bands loved the music and the people loved the
music. People celebrated the music like "Walk This Way" and
"Cat Scratch Fever" and "You’ve Got Another Thing Coming" –
they liked that spirit. You can’t find a disc jockey, a
promoter and a record store in a town that have any idea
what the other guy is thinking. Music doesn’t bond like it
did then. I think guys who made music in the 70's and 80's
spoiled people because the music was so good. I think we
burned everybody out. I don’t know what the fuck to think
anymore.
Jeb: You remade the
Amboy Dukes classic "Journey to the Center of the Mind."
Ted: I love the song.
We play it most nights. We were in the studio with Jack
Blades. I was playing with Tommy Clufetos and Barry Sparks
in the studios – I surround myself with virtuosos. Every
time I grab a guitar, fire flies. You should conduct an
interview with Tommy Clufetos and Jack Blades – they will
tell you that every time I touch a guitar a grind happens, a
magical guitar masterpiece just blows up. When I tune my
guitar, I always play licks to tune it – my old stuff. I
play "Cat Scratch Fever" or "Motor City Madhouse" to get
tuned up and one day I just started playing "Journey to the
Center of the Mind" as we were getting ready to record a
song for Love Grenade. Barry and Tommy just kicked
right in and it sounded like the Amboy Dukes back in 1968.
Jack goes, "That sounds fucking great. We should record
that." I said, "You’re goddamn right we should record that"
so we did.
Jeb: I love "Spirit of
the Buffalo."
Ted: What a great
fucking lick. It says everything in Uncle Ted’s life.
Jeb: "Geronimo & Me"
is kind of a cool thing as well.
Ted: It is like "Baby
Please Don’t Go" meets "Motor City Madhouse" meets "Tooth
Fang & Claw." It is a celebration of the aboriginal
lifestyle. The real Native American pulse is a driving force
in my life. I have a great relationship with the Indians in
my life. I hang with the aboriginal people in the places I
travel. I hunt with the villagers of Africa and I hunt with
the different tribes in America and I find it really moving.
I wrote the lyrics at my anger over the abuse of the Red Man
in America. I wrote "You cannot put me on a reservation/My
Spirit is a beast you cannot kill. Trail of tears, evil
manipulation/You will never stop my honor or my will." That
is a fucking Red Man on a mountain on horseback ready to
charge up your ass. I love that spirit.
Jeb: How long does it
take you to come up with a song like that?
Ted: It comes the
minute I pick up my guitar; it just fucking roars. Grinding
grooving patterns erupt every time I pick up the guitar; I
just love it.
Jeb: I was in 7th
grade in 1978 and I went to a birthday party. It was boring
but this girl had a sister who was in high school and she
decided she was going to get things going. I had never heard
of Ted Nugent at that time. She put on "Wang Dang Sweet
Poontang" from Double Live Gonzo and I went into a
trance. I was hooked and have been with you the rest of my
life. I rode my bike to a record store the next day and
bought the album. Then, each week I would mow a lawn or get
my allowance and then ride my bike back and buy another Ted
Nugent album.
Ted: Fuck you, man
[laughter]. Isn’t that neat? Those licks and those patterns,
when you are clean and sober, your brain and soul work good.
Your spirit and soul start working together and they are all
connected. I am moved by the original Chuck Berry patterns
and the Beatles "Ticket to Ride" and the Stones "19th
Nervous Breakdown." I played all those lines and I loved
anything that had a guitar line as the main part of the
song. I also loved "Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag." I was more
moved by Curtis Mayfield’s sax lines and Junior Walker’s sax
lines then I was by just the guitar lines of the day.
If you listen to
"Lovejacker" on Spirit of the Wild – what a lick that
is. I don’t even know where that lick came from. I am driven
way beyond musicality. I don’t know why it works but it
works. It is basically a bastardized horn section played on
guitar. I am unlimited on my approach on the guitar.
I will be in the
studio in a couple of weeks with Tommy Clufetos and Marco
Mendoza working on Guitar Hero IV. Guitar Hero IV will be
all Ted Nugent and it will be a stone cold mother. I wrote a
bunch of new Nugent licks.
Jeb: When did you know
that you had to leave the Amboy Dukes in order to fulfill
your creative vision?
Ted: Unfortunately a
lot of my fellow musicians were getting stoned and their
recommendations for the Amboy Dukes music I was convinced
were watered down. They watered down the authenticity of our
heroes like Sam & Dave, James Brown and Wilson Pickett – the
whole Motown theme as seen through the eyes of white guys
who didn’t want to admit they were white. We played
aggressively and were inspired by the Motown Review. When
they played, they played with fire. Mitch Ryder & the
Detroit Wheels played with so much fire that it was
mind-boggling.
It turned me on and I
wanted to be like that but my fellow Amboy Dukes thought,
"No, we need to add an arpeggio there and we need more
harmonies. I think we should have a real pretty ballad." I
went, "Not with me in the fucking band. I don’t want to play
that shit." Now you have to admit that in the Amboy Dukes I
did venture into different things and I am glad that I did
because the band had a lot of great musicians.
Jeb: Joe Vitale was in
the band for a while.
Ted: Joe was on the
road with me in 1972 and 1973 and he is a bad motherfucker.
He is another example of the world class musicians that I
have always had. Joe Vitale? Get the fuck out of here; that
guy is a monster. That inspiration drove and taught me to
veto the pussy ideas.
Jeb: During your most
popular era you actually went through a horrible divorce and
you got taken advantage of by your management.
Ted: I lost
everything. During the divorce I let my guard down because I
was fighting for my kids. My attorney, the management and
the accountants all fucked me in the ass. I lost all of my
millions. I was in debt by 1980. I owed the IRS about three
million bucks.
Jeb: When you got
divorced did you keep the kids in the house and then you and
your ex-wife moved in and out?
Ted: I wrote the
custodial agreement in an ultraconservative court system in
Palm Beach, Florida. They tried to paint me as the Motor
City Madman, a womanizing maniac, vulgar, disgusting rock
dog. I am all of those things when it comes time to rock
out. I convinced the court, the judge and the child welfare
officers that I was a damn good father and that I was a
better parent than the mother was. I convinced them that we
would spend 50/50 time with the children but they would live
in a consistent domicile so that their environment was
consistent — they didn’t do anything wrong. If you were to
meet Sasha and Toby today then you would see that they are
well-grounded Americans.
Jeb: I think less
people would get divorced if living arrangements were a pain
in their ass instead of a pain in their kids ass.
Ted: That’s right. The
ones who perpetrated the disruption are the ones who should
be disrupted – not the fucking kids. People going through
divorce are often abused by the court system and they forget
about the kids as they are just fighting for their own
survival. There is always one person – usually the woman –
who is looking for everything. Do I have to go any further
than Paul McCartney’s ex-cunt? Goddamn, if that is not
vicious and evil then I don’t know what is. When I was going
into battle for my kids I found out how unjust the fucking
divorce court system was and I rolled up my sleeves and
said, "Let’s rock."
Jeb: You go through a
divorce and you get ripped off...
Ted: They were mixing
Double Live Gonzo at the time and we were going in to
record Weekend Warriors.
Jeb: You worked your
ass off to get to where you were – it is rock n’ roll but it
is work...
Ted: It is a lot of
work.
Jeb: A weaker man may
have crumbled.
Ted: Oh I was hurt. I
was destitute. I was really hurt. I went, "This isn’t fair.
I didn’t do anything wrong. Do I deserve to be broke because
these motherfuckers spent all of my money?" I could have
just put it in a bag under my mattress and I would have been
better off then putting it in these thieves hands. I rolled
my sleeves up and went out and worked harder and I made it
all back and got rid of those pricks in the meantime.
I really owe huge debt
of gratitude to my manager Doug Banker who came on the scene
at that time and showed me the huge, deceitful waste that
the accounts and attorneys were doing with my money. Doug
was the whistle blower and he helped me get things
straightened out. He is a great man and he is still with me
today. We have never had a contract, just a handshake.
Jeb: I love an album
that was not the biggest seller. I love 1982's Nugent
album. I think that is so underrated. I wonder if you feel
that is underrated as well?
Ted: Isn’t that a
great record? Dave Kiswiney, Carmine Appice and Derek St.
Holmes – what a great fucking band that was. "No No No,"
"Bound & Gagged" and "Habitual Offender" are great, great
songs. "Tailgunner" is great as well. Those are those guitar
licks I was talking about. They are incredible, signature
guitar theme lines – I love that stuff. I love the cover
too. Did you ever look close and see the brass knuckles I am
holding?
Jeb: We have to talk
about VH1's Supergroup.
Ted: That was cute.
Jeb: I would call you
and Jason Bonham the real deal but the rest of them...
Ted: Scott Ian is the
real deal. I didn’t know anything about him because I don’t
care for that real Caucasian music. Evan Seinfeld – I don’t
care for that heavy metal stuff. Both Evan and Scott turned
out to be good guys. Sebastian [Bach] is a good man but he
was totally in a tailspin. He finally hit rock bottom a few
months ago and his family forced him into rehab. He called
crying his eyes out apologizing to me. I wish him godspeed
and I hope he is well on his way to recovery.
Jeb: I thought it was
a cool show but I thought you were hands and feet above the
talent level.
Ted: This is not a
knock to those guys but rather a testament to my incredible
musicians that God blesses me with every year: None of them
would qualify to be in my band. Well, I suppose Jason could
be but Jason is not as good a drummer as Tommy Clufetos or
Mick Brown are. He is not as good a drummer as Tommy
Aldridge either. My musician roster is the best that has
ever lived. Right now my music has never been more
throttling in all my fifty years.
Jeb: Did you know the
rest of the Nugent band, Derek St. Holmes, Cliff Davies and
Rob De La Grange, actually got together and played a gig?
Ted: They actually
called and asked my permission. I told them that they didn’t
need my fucking permission. Here is a point: I love them all
madly and I always salute them. They are perfect examples of
what I have been blessed with. Those records mean what they
mean because of Derek, Rob and Cliff – there is no question
about it. However, a point to ponder, they quit because I
was "holding them back." If I was holding them back then
once I let them out of my grip wouldn’t they have
accelerated beyond me? Maybe you can point to anything that
any of them have done. They do nothing. I set attendance
records in 2007 at the Oregon State Fair, the Alaska State
Fair and the Washington State Fair. I set attendance records
at the Rib Fest in Chicago – 42,000 people.
Jeb: Is it safe to say
you will never play with the original guys again?
Ted: I would love to
but it would be all nostalgia. We have looked into it and
there is not a promoter in this country that puts one dime
of value on Derek, Rob and Cliff doing anything with me. We
have asked for years and been told that it doesn’t mean
anything. Here is another reality – you can tell that I am
still as energized as a fucking teenager. Those guys grew
up. I have grown up but I didn’t let the music mellow. When
you grow up you tend to have your music mellow but I don’t
want my music to mellow. If you play mellow then you can’t
be in my fucking band. I have a musical responsibility. My
music deserves animals on drums, guitar and bass.
I talk to Derek all
the time. He is one of the greatest vocalist and guitarists
that has ever lived. He came up last year and we played "Hey
Baby," "Stranglehold," Motor City Madhouse" and "Cat Scratch
Fever" and it was awesome and the place went wild. But you
know what? It didn’t pay anything extra. I loved having him
there and the people loved it but the promoter doesn’t care.
It is a big problem.
Fifty fucking years
later I am still traveling with a full headline production.
I have a road manager, stage manager, sound man and lights.
I have a professional headlining machine on the road with
buses and trucks but I am not making the money that
Aerosmith makes. I am working frantically to pay for all
this world class talent I have around me. I still make
unbelievable money but before we play the first note on the
first stage it costs me over $300,000 just to fucking
rehearse and get everything ready to go. Quite honestly, if
you are coming on the Ted Nugent team then your presence
needs to bring an income. I am not going out for charity.
Derek and I have been
talking a lot lately about getting together and writing some
songs. I would love to have him sing on my next record. He
is busy and I am busy and I wish all of them nothing but the
best. Rob came to a show but he didn’t get up and play. I
have not seen him play in twenty-five years. My music is
just too sacred to just experiment with a guy I have not
seen in a long time. Derek got up and jammed. I have not
seen Cliff in years. They are good men and they are talented
but I don’t think they are quite the animals that my music
deserves. You have to put a crowbar in your teeth and play
"Wango Tango." If you don’t bite that crowbar in half then
you are not my musician.
Jeb: Is the old legend
false that you didn’t bring Charlie Huhn to the Cal Jam show
and then fire Derek?
Ted: They had already
given their notice. We knew when we went onstage that this
was their last concert.
Jeb: I didn’t know
that. I always thought that was shitty of you to fire Derek
and then introduce him to his replacement.
Ted: The shitty thing
that those guys did that night was that they were not into
the performance and you can tell. The music is supposed to
drive you. I suppose you really can’t give your heart and
soul to the music you are making if you don’t like the
people you are collaborating with and I don’t think those
guys liked me. I am not the easiest guy in the world to get
along with. I am not a party guy. I am not going to hang out
with you and we are not going to go do stuff together. I
like to rock my balls off and I put my heart and soul into
every minute of it but when I am not rocking I like to be
with my family.
If a guy is looking to
be posing and hanging out and going to this big event or
that big event then I am not the guy to be in a band with.
If an event or a club owner wants Ted Nugent to show up at
his event then they roll the red carpet out for Ted Nugent
and not Derek, Rob or Cliff. It is not fair but it is how it
works. I think they were pissed off because they were in the
biggest band in the world and they were not going to any of
these red carpet events. I was invited to them but I wasn’t
going to them and they wanted to go but nobody invited them.
Jeb: Tell me about The
Ted Nugent Search and Win on your website.
Ted: If you use the
Ted Nugent search engine on my website then you are
automatically entered into a drawing to win a hunting trip
with me or concert tickets and passes throughout the year.
Every time you use it then you qualify for the drawing at
the end of the year.
Jeb: Last one: As guys
out there, we have to do the Wayne’s World "We’re not
worthy" to you for getting your hot seventeen-year-old
girlfriend’s parents to give you permission to be her legal
guardian and take her on the road with you.
Ted: I am glad you
asked because that never happened. I don’t know where that
came from. Her name is Pele. She was 17 but that was the
legal age in California. I never met her dad – I don’t think
she ever met her dad. I met her mom and got to know her and
she gave me her blessing to have Pele move in with me – I
think I was only 30 at the time. We were in love and she was
my girlfriend for nine years.
Jeb: She was the
Little Miss Dangerous girl wasn’t she?
Ted: Goddamn right!
Every fucking day. I love my girls. Shemane is my wife and I
am monogamous as an idiot. I love her with my heart and
soul. I sowed my wild seeds and things are good.
Jeb: This is really
the last one and then I will let you go watch your deer and
put some pants on...
Ted: There ya go!
Jeb: Who is behind you
on the Cat Scratch Fever album cover?
Ted: That is a model
who had beautiful hands. I didn’t know who she was or
anything but she just reached around and scratched me. I
thought that was adorable.
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