Ted Nugent

Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent (born December 13, 1948) (aka The Nuge, "the Motor City Madman'", and "Uncle Ted") is a guitarist from Detroit, Michigan, originally gaining fame as a member of the Amboy Dukes, and recently gaining fame (and notoriety) for his support for hunting and conservative political views. Some of his best known songs include "Stranglehold," "Free For All," "Dog Eat Dog," "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang," "Cat Scratch Fever," "Motor City Madhouse," "Great White Buffalo," and "Wango Tango." Nugent gained acclaim for his raucous, intense live music, and still tours frequently today.

Amboy Dukes

The Amboy Dukes' second single was "Journey to the Center of the Mind", which Nugent, an ardent anti-drug campaigner, claimed he didn't know was about drug use. The Amboy Dukes (1967), Journey to the Center of the Mind (1968) and Migration (1969) sold moderately well. After settling down in a ranch in Michigan, in 1973 he signed a record deal with Frank Zappa's new record label DiscReet and recorded Call Of The Wild. The following year, Tooth Fang & Claw (Which contained the song "Great White Buffalo"), established a fan base for Nugent and the other Amboy Dukes. Personnel changes nearly wrecked the band, which became known as Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes. Though the group's studio recordings rarely sold well (and Nugent was upset he did not earn fair royalties with Frank Zappa), the band managed to keep a large following.

Solo career

Ted Nugent dropped the band name and signed to Epic Records in 1975, with Derek St. Holmes (guitar, vocals), Rob Grange (bass) and Cliff Davies (drums and producer, formerly from a prog-hard band called "If") as his back-up. Ted Nugent was his first solo release. The album was a smashing success among the heavy metal community, due mostly to Nugent's immense personality and aggressive guitar and vocals. Personal problems led to St. Holmes' departure from the band before the recording of Free For All (1976), with the then unknown Meat Loaf replacing him. St. Holmes returned for Cat Scratch Fever (1977); the album was another hit, as was the titular single. Nugent had begun dressing as a caveman for live shows, which were growing more and more extravagant. Double Live Gonzo (1978) furthered his fame, though financial problems began to mount.

Solo discography

Damn Yankees

During the 1980s, Nugent released a series of generally ignored albums. Near the end of the decade, however, Nugent formed a supergroup, Damn Yankees, with Jack Blades (bass, vocals, formerly of Night Ranger), Tommy Shaw (guitar, vocals, formerly of Styx) and Michael Cartellone (drums). Damn Yankees (1990) was a hit, selling 5 million albums, thanks in no small part to the smash hit power ballad "High Enough." The "High Enough" video featured Nugent in a priest's collar and later in a zebra-striped cape during the guitar solo.

Damn Yankees toured on the heels of the first Persian Gulf War, which Nugent endorsed by shooting flaming arrows at Saddam Hussein in effigy. Several police complaints and at least one arrest resulted from Nugent's actions. Nevertheless, they were a top concert attraction in the early '90s. However, another Damn Yankees release, 1992's Don't Tread On Me, was unable to sustain similar momentum.

Back to solo

Returning to his solo career, Nugent released Spirit of the Wild, his best-reviewed album in quite some time. A series of archival releases came out in the 1990s, keeping Nugent's name in the national consciousness; he also began hosting a radio show in Detroit and owns several hunting-related businesses. He also created and hosted an outdoors television show, also called Spirit of the Wild, on The Outdoor Channel. Nugent created and produced the Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild PBS video series.

Organization memberships

Beginning in the '90s Nugent has become quite popular for his conservative and libertarian beliefs and his anti-drug and anti-alcohol stances. In a 1977 interview with People magazine, Nugent admitted smoking "50 joints in the '60s" and having tried cocaine "once." He is a national spokesman for the DARE program, advocating the "natural highs" to be found in an outdoor lifestyle. He has also hosted the Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids, which combines a curriculum of hands-on hunting, conservation, archery and a strong anti-drug message aimed mainly at underprivileged inner-city children. He is also a spokesman for the National Field Archers Association, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

Although he holds libertarian beliefs on issues such as Second Amendment rights, Nugent has been outspoken in his contempt and violent attitude toward those who use drugs, illegal or otherwise, saying that his "level of awareness" is what compelled him to "turn down the drooling, puking, dying punks with their drugs and their alcohol and tobacco," and claiming to "have busted more hippies' noses than all the narcs in the free world. I hate drug abuse." (Source: National Review Online, May 17, 2002, transcript of interview with Larry Kudlow and Jim Cramer.)

Controversies

An avid hunter, Ted Nugent was a frequent visitor to Canada until the government of Ontario cancelled the spring black bear hunt in 1999. Upset that he could not participate in the hunt, Nugent vowed to never return to Canada. An outspoken advocate of hunting and gun ownership rights, Nugent has served since 1995 on the board of directors of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Nugent was a speaker at the NRA's 2005 National Convention in Houston. He received an enthusiastic reception from the delegates, telling them: "Remember the Alamo! Shoot 'em! To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em." (Source: "Ted Nugent to Fellow NRAers: Get Hardcore," Associated Press article, April 17, 2005)

Nugent and the animal rights movement have long had an adversarial relationship. In 2000, Nugent was jailed briefly following an incident outside a department store in San Francisco in which he allegedly spat on, threatened and physically assaulted several anti-fur demonstrators, a claim which Nugent denied and was later dismissed. Nugent has reported receiving death threats against himself and his family from animal rights activists. In Penn & Teller's Bullshit! episode about PETA, Nugent claims, "We've got reports and files with law enforcement across America where animal rights extremists are on record threatening to kill my children on the way to school because we eat pheasant".

According to a July 15, 1990 interview for the Detroit Free Press, Nugent described how he avoided the draft during the Vietnam War: He claims that 30 days before his Draft Board Physical, he stopped all forms of personal hygiene. The last ten days he ingested nothing but junk food and Pepsi, and a week before his physical he stopped using the bathroom altogether, virtually living inside pants caked with excrement and stained by his urine. That spectacle won Nugent a deferment, he says. His quote: “ but if I would have gone over there, I’d have been killed, or I’d have killed, , or I’d have killed all the Hippies in the foxholes… I would have killed everybody.”

Nugent fathered a child out of wedlock in 1995, with a Dover, New Hampshire woman, Karen Gutowski, with whom he had a "brief relationship" during his second marriage to Shemane Nugent. He and Gutowski came to an agreement on child support and visitation in late June. (Source: June 22, Laconia (N.H.) Citizen.) The newspaper reported that Nugent will pay Gutowski $3,500 monthly in child support, and she will have sole custody of their son, now 10. Terms of Nugent's visitation were not disclosed.

Gutowski later sued Nugent for more money. He was served with the lawsuit Sept. 5, 2004 when he played at the Meadowbrook Amphitheater in Gilford, N.H. with ZZ Top. (Source: June 22, Laconia (N.H.) Citizen).

Television and video

In 2004, Nugent was a guest on the VH1 program Forever Wild, hosted by Sebastian Bach (former lead vocalist for the band Skid Row); they did some shooting and walked around the Nuge's cabin in the woods.

Also in 2003, he served as host of a VH1 reality television program called Surviving Nugent in which city dwellers, such as model Tila Nguyen, moved to Nugent's China Spring, Texas expansive ranch in order to survive such "backwoods" activities as building an outhouse and skinning a boar. The success of the two hour show spawned a four part mini series in 2004 entitled Surviving Nugent: The Ted Commandments. During filming, Nugent injured himself with a chainsaw, requiring 44 stitches and a leg brace.

In 2004, Ted Nugent made a guest appearance on the cult television series on Adult Swim, Aqua Teen Hunger Force in the episode "Gee Whiz". The episode started with a rumor floating around about Jesus Christ's face appearing on the butt of a gun on a billboard. Because of standards and practices, the characters couldn't say "Jesus" or "Christ" so, while explaining who Jesus was through a series of euphamisms to the very dense character of Meatwad, Frylock finally described Jesus as looking like Ted Nugent which instantly registered who it was with Meatwad. Believing the rumor to be true, Master Shake and Meatwad began attempting to make offerings for things to the picture of Jesus. Frylock attempted to explain that it couldn't be Jesus on the butt of the gun and said that Jesus was a black man only for Meatwad to instantly fire back that Jesus looked just like Ted Nugent in his Bible. Meanwhile flaming arrows began to be fired at Shake when he would give an offering that wasn't good enough. Frylock later decided to take out the Bible and try to explain things to Meatwad that way only for Meatwad to reveal his pregnancy. After a series of misadventures with Meatwad's pregnancy, it was revealed he had really been infested with spiders while paying tribute to the image of Jesus on the side of the road. Leaving Meatwad behind, Master Shake and Frylock left the house and found Ted Nugent outside who revealed that it was, in actuality, his face that had been on the butt of the gun and that he had been the one that had been shooting the flaming arrows at Master Shake, most likely a reference to his shooting flaming arrows at the Saddam Hussein effigy on the Damn Yankees tour. After revealing this to the Aqua Teens, he shot their neighbor Carl with a flaming arrow. Carl, too starstruck to care, rambled on about having a Ted Nugent loincloth from the 80's that he still wore on laundry days but his movements to try to get the arrow out of his shoulder caused the arrow to randomly explode, killing Carl. Ted Nugent then disappeared as mysteriously as he had appeared.

In 2005 Mr. Nugent was also the host to a reality type show entitled Wanted: Ted or Alive where contestants had to compete for money as well as win opportunities to go hunting with 'Uncle Ted'. The contestants had to kill and clean their own food to survive.

Attracting attention for his outspoken statements on issues ranging from gun politics to biodiversity, Nugent has been a regular guest on such programs like Larry King, Howard Stern, and Politically Incorrect.

He is currently filming for VH1's Rockstar: Supergroup show, with Scott Ian (Anthrax, guitar), Evan Seinfeld (Biohazard, bass), Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row, vocals) and Jason Bonham (Bonham, UFO, Foreigner, drums). Captured on film by VHI was a rare Nugent duo with guitar phenom Joe Bonamassa at the Sand Dollar Blues Room for a 45 minute blues jam.

Deafness

Nugent is deaf in his left ear, but still has some hearing in his right ear. The hearing that still remains in his right ear is attributable to his using shell casings (which he often had in abundant supply) as ear plugs for his right ear (because the guitar amplifier was mostly to his right when he would perform).

Trivia

Nugent was a longtime resident of Concord, Michigan. However, in December 2004, he announced he would officially become a resident of Texas in 2005. He and his family moved to China Spring, Texas in mid-2003. Nugent continues to own his property in Concord.

To date, he has released over 31 recordings and sold over 35 million albums. He continues to advocate his views on personal freedom on the lecture circuit, and as Editor/Publisher of Adventure Outdoors magazine.

Nugent has written for more 20 publications, and is the author of The New York Times best-seller "God, Guns and Rock 'n' Roll" (July 2000), and "Kill It and Grill It" (2002), a cookbook co-authored with his wife, Shemane.

A recipient of numerous commendations from state police, sheriff departments, FBI, DEA, U.S. Army and police agencies nationwide, Nugent has been a sworn Michigan Deputy Sheriff since 1980, and was a guest speaker at International Law Enforcement Convention by invitation from Director of FBI William Webster, Attorney General Edwin Meese and President Ronald Reagan.

Henry Rollins has cited Nugent as an inspiration for the straight edge movement.[1]

Performing professionally since 1958, Nugent has been touring nonstop yearly since 1967, averaging more than 300 shows per year 67-73, 200 per year 74-80, 150 81-89, 127 concerts in 1990, 162 concerts in 1991, 150 concerts in 1993, 180 in 1994, 166 in 1995, 81 in 1996, Summer Blitz '97, '98, Rock Never Stops '99, 133 concerts on #1 Tour in the World with KISS 2K. His was the #1 grossing tour act in the world in 1977, 1978, and 1979. Nugent's 2005 plans include a tour with country music singer-songwriter Toby Keith, whom Nugent met in Iraq while they were both performing in USO-sponsored shows for the coalition troops.

Nugent is also known for his unabashed opinions on many subjects. Feminists: "What's a feminist anyways? A fat pig who doesn't get it often enough?" Gun control: "Only a coward supports gun control. You know how to stop carjacking? Shoot the carjacker. If someone is going to kill me for my Buick, I'm gonna shoot until I'm out of ammo — and then I'll call 911". Vegetarians: "Vegetarians are cool. All I eat are vegetarians — except for the occasional mountain lion steaks".

Ska band Goldfinger has recorded a song called "Fuck Ted Nugent" (sometimes abbreviated "F.T.N.") based on his treatment of animals. The song appears (among other places) on the band's 2002 album, Open Your Eyes.

In one episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, known as "Gee Whiz", locals believe to see the face of Jesus in a billboard, and mention how Jesus looks like Ted Nugent. Throughout the episode they think it's Jesus's face, but at the end they discover it was in fact Ted Nugent's face in the billboard, and he proceeds to shoot a flaming explosive arrow at Carl.

In July 2005, Nugent said he was "getting real close to deciding to run" for governor of Michigan. On August 4, 2005 CNN reported that Nugent had withdrawn from the race for 2006, but was keeping his options open for 2010. Nugent also was rumored to be under consideration by the Illinois Republican Party as its candidate in that state's 2004 Senate race. (Source: Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, July 15, 2004)

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