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Theodore "Ted" Nugent (born December 13, 1948) (aka "The Nuge", "Uncle Ted", "Sweaty Teddy", "Theodocious Atrocious" and "The Motor City Madman") is a hard rock 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) -- all recorded on the Mainstream™ label -- 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 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 during the recording of Free For All (1976), with the then unknown Meat Loaf replacing him on five songs. 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.

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, 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 currently hosts an outdoors television show, also called Spirit of the Wild, on The Outdoor Channel. "SOTW" is one of The Outdoor Channel's most popular programs and is a multi-recipient of the network's Golden Moose Award. Nugent created and produced the Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild PBS video series too.

Organization memberships

Since the early '90s Nugent has become both popular and criticized for his conservative beliefs and his anti-drug and anti-alcohol stances. 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 for drug abuse and drug abusers, stating 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," 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 and the owner of 350 guns himself, 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 with Jerry Heikella 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".

Nugent's views translate to his politics, and according to an interview in Independent the "law and order fanatic" "thinks homosexuality is an abomination" and is an outspoken supporter of the Republican Party and the United States military. As a reward for entertaining U.S. troops in Iraq in 2004, he visited Saddam Hussein's war room. "It was a glorious moment. It looked like something out of Star Wars. I saw his gold toilet. I shat in his bidet." Nugent lives near President George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas and said he caught Bush's attention at his private inauguration party in 2000. "When he noticed me, he was surrounded by these huge bankrollers from his campaign. He literally swept past all of them and said, 'Laura! Look who's here! 'Its Ted! Then he hugged me and took me by the shoulders. He said, 'Just keep doing what you're doing. Don't think that we don't know what you're up to out here. Stay on course.'" Yet Nugent does not find Bush conservative enough, thinking the president should take more forceful action on Iraq. "Our failure has been not to Nagasaki them," he said.

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. The 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 September 5, 2004 when he played at the Meadowbrook Amphitheater in Gilford, N.H. with ZZ Top. (Source: June 22, The Citzen).

In the December 15, 1990 issue of the Detroit Free Press Magazine, Nugent was quoted as saying that 30 days before his draft board physical, he stopped all forms of personal hygiene. The last 10 days, he ingested nothing but Vienna sausages and Pepsi; and a week before his physical, he stopped using bathrooms altogether, virtually living inside pants caked with his own excrement, stained by his urine. That spectacle won Nugent a deferment, he says. "... but if I would have gone over there, I'd have been killed, or I'd have killed, or I'd killed all the hippies in the foxholes...I would have killed everybody." In a 2006 interview published in the Online Independent UK, Nugent denies ever saying (or doing) that. According to Nugent, he enrolled at Oakland Community College and took a student deferment. *

'Uncle Ted' also had a well-known predilection for underage girls, even going so far as becoming the legal guardian to a 17 year old Hawaiian girl in 1978, so he could continue to 'date' her with impunity.

Ted is also known for his outspoken view on foreigners, saying that: "Foreigners are assholes; foreigners are scum; I don’t like ‘em; I don’t want ‘em in this country; I don’t want ‘em selling me doughnuts; I don’t want ‘em pumping my gas; I don’t want ‘em downwind of my life-OK? So anyhow-and I’m dead serious…” (WRIF-FM, Detroit, Ted Nugent as guest deejay, November 19, 1992).

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 Tequila, moved to Nugent's Michigan 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. This time it was filmed on Ted's ranch in China Spring, Texas. 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".

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 appearing on VH1's reality show SuperGroup, with Scott Ian (Anthrax, guitar), Evan Seinfeld (Biohazard, bass), Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row, vocals) and Jason Bonham (Bonham, UFO, Foreigner, drums). The name of the supergroup was originally FIST but later it was changed to Damnocracy. Captured on film by VH1 was a rare Nugent duo with guitar phenom Joe Bonamassa at the Sand Dollar Blues Room for a 45 minute blues jam.

Guitars

Ted Nugent is famous for playing the semi-hollow Gibson Byrdland. Gibson has even developed a model named for him.

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 than 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.

  • 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". He has also stated that smokers should have their health plans revoked.

  • Ska/Punk band Goldfinger has recorded a song called "FTN" (abbreviating Fuck Ted Nugent) 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)

  • Nugent made a guest appearance in an episode of That 70's Show called "Backstage Pass", where Fez makes t-shirts to sell at a Ted Nugent concert that were misspelled "Tad Nugent".

  • In the film Ocean's Eleven, Danny Ocean makes a crack at Rusty's outrageously colored shirt, remarking: "Ted Nugent called; he wants his shirt back."

  • Nugent once autographed a fan's arm with a bowie knife after the fan had requested it.

Solo discography

See also

Newspaper articles

  • Details extensively Nugent's colorful life and political aspirations.

External links

1948 births | Living people | A Nightmare on Elm Street actors | American guitarists | American hunters | People from Detroit | Gun politics | Miami Vice actors | Musical activists | People from Michigan | Michigan musicians | List of teetotalers

Ted Nugent | Ted Nugent | Ted Nugent | Ted Nugent | Ted Nugent

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Ted Nugent".

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