Ted Nugent is insane

April 20, 2005 12:49 AM

Is this a joke? I'm sorry, can you repeat that Mr. Nugent?
posted by shoppingforsanity (100 comments total)

A joke? Are you kidding? My brothers eat up this kind of bootstrappin' John Wayne talk. "Carjackers? Dead! Muggers? Dead! Shoplifters and Short-sheeters? Dead? Daughter sneaking in at 2 a.m. after making out with her boyfriend? Dead!"

"Oops."
posted by planetkyoto at 12:58 AM on April 20, 2005

wow. wtf.
posted by blacklite at 1:03 AM on April 20, 2005

Seems like a bad time to talk about adopting an extremist militia attitude with the 10 year anniversary of the OKC bombing and all.
posted by mathowie at 1:09 AM on April 20, 2005

I'm interested in knowing when it became so macho to be totally fucking scared out of your mind all the goddamn time.
posted by clockzero at 1:11 AM on April 20, 2005 [1 favorite]

shoppingforsanity, are you a member of the NRA? If not, please leave Metafilter immediately.
posted by fandango_matt at 1:11 AM on April 20, 2005

I'm with matt: this is an NRA-only thread. Others? Dead.
posted by squirrel at 1:15 AM on April 20, 2005

I think you're all missing the intellectual weight of Mr. Nugent's argument. Granted, it may not be masked in postmodern terms and deconstructed to make sure it falls within the right levels of statistical significance... but it sure does kill some niggers dead.
posted by trinarian at 1:28 AM on April 20, 2005

Well I don't know where they come from, but they sure do come.
I hope they comin' for me.
And I don't know how they do it, but they sure do it good.
I hope they doin' it for free.

they give me NRA fever, NRA fever.

the first time that i got one
i was just ten years old
i got it from the survivalist next door

it made me feel important, like a real big man.

i gots to get me some more.

they give me NRA fever, NRA fever.

i loves my bullets, i loves my triggers.
i loves to sh-sh-shoot.
you know you got it when you're going insane
it makes a grown man cryin' cryin'

don't you take my guns

wah-wah-wah

on preview: word trinarian
posted by three blind mice at 1:35 AM on April 20, 2005

Wait, the guy who wrote Wang Dang Sweet Poontang is a wackjob?
(Heh. I live in Michigan. We get all of the Nuge smeared on us all the time.)

I'd be amused if the Nuge got shot by someone who thought he was threatening them with a weapon and it turned out to be a false alarm. That'd crack my ass up.
posted by klangklangston at 2:03 AM on April 20, 2005

In other news, Governor Schwarzenegger says:

"Close the borders. Close the borders in California, and all across Mexico and the United States, because I think it is just unfair to have all of those people coming across, and to have the borders open the way it is, we in California have to still finish the border. That is the key thing -- to have borders and to keep the law, enforce the law."

Immigrants? Dead.

Freedom Nationalist extremism is on the march!
posted by fandango_matt at 2:17 AM on April 20, 2005

See also: Ted Nugent's reasoned and level-headed WSJ editorial on file-sharing, featuring the wonderful line "Bring it on, greaseballs!"
posted by Ljubljana at 2:20 AM on April 20, 2005

Wango tango, dudes! This guy just gets better with age, eh? Yee-fuckin'-hah!

...and if i hear one more time
about a fools right to his tools of rage
i'm gonna take all my friends
and i'm going to move to canada
and we're going to die of old age

ani
posted by LouReedsSon at 2:22 AM on April 20, 2005

The only way this could be any... weirder is if there was an available video. I bet it was far more surreal than the Starbucks execs who performed "We Built This Starbucks" as linked a little while ago.

This is so absurd that the only possible explanation is that Mr. Nugent is obviously a double-agent, secretly in the employ of the Legion of Dynamic Discord(Hail Eris!), and is deliberately discrediting the vast right-wing conspiracy of fundamentalist whackjobs and war-on-terror-chickenhawks by extending their rhetoric to ridiculous proportions at public events. Kind of like the Church of Euthanasia.

Or maybe he is sincere. I guess it doesn't matter in the end, because his actions will have the same effect as if he were a double agent in the employ of Universal Chaos.
posted by archae at 2:23 AM on April 20, 2005

Why is it that you're either a maniacal gun-toting wackjob, or a bleeding-heart pacifist wackjob? Dualism sucks.
posted by nightchrome at 2:40 AM on April 20, 2005

Well, that's it, I'm sold. Where do I get my fully automatic assault rifle? Oh, and anyone I perceive as being a criminal can be shot, right? Jaywalkers, litterers, liars, wrong-god-worshippers, adulterers, etc?

This guy's views on punishment makes many Islamic nations seem downright liberal.
posted by Saydur at 2:55 AM on April 20, 2005

Talkin' outta turn? Dead!
Lookin' out the window? Dead!
Starin' at my sandals? Dead!
Paddlin' the school canoe? Oh you better believe you're dead!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:16 AM on April 20, 2005

The same morning the Nuge was saying this, I was having a conversation with a coworker about the lousy neighborhood I live in. He thinks I ought to be carrying a gun instead of the pepper spray I've got on my key ring, and he scoffed when I explained that with a gun, if you miss your target, the bullet can keep going, possibly through a nearby apartment window where it hits somebody's sleeping child or something -- I don't want the potential responsibility for stray rounds causing such disasters.
posted by alumshubby at 3:17 AM on April 20, 2005

...not to mention the dangers of carrying a .357 on a keyring.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:25 AM on April 20, 2005

From that WSJ article to which Ljubljana linked:

"Mr. Nugent is a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. SpitFire Records will soon release his latest album, Full Bluntal Nugity."

Ha.
posted by fandango_matt at 3:32 AM on April 20, 2005

What is up with that insane racism site (VDare)? I run into it every few years and it makes my stomach churn. Will someone put that site into context for me so I A) don't have to dredge through it myself and B) can stop feeling so frightened by it? If you say it's run by the American Nazi Party or the Klan or the Project for a New American Century or whatever, I can respond "oh THOSE jackasses, I already knew about them" and go back to ignoring it.

PS The nuge should bowhunt a conscience. I bet he could bag a big'n.
posted by damehex at 3:48 AM on April 20, 2005

I'm interested in knowing when it became so macho to be totally fucking scared out of your mind all the goddamn time.

Clockzero nailed it.
posted by moonbird at 3:51 AM on April 20, 2005

He wants rapists and child molesters dead? I know from watching his Behind The Music that his longtime girlfriend was a minor when they first hooked up, and that he had a penchant for underage poon.

Statutory rapists? Dead!
posted by Devils Slide at 4:00 AM on April 20, 2005

This guy reminds me of your president with his "I'm just a simple man. I don't know any of yall's fancy lawyer talk about them human rights 'n' stuff, but I sure as hell know what's right. And anyone who disagrees with me? Dead."
posted by sveskemus at 4:02 AM on April 20, 2005

Damn Yankees sucked.
posted by Tommy Gnosis at 4:39 AM on April 20, 2005

Who woulda thunk that the whackmaster is a nutjob? When I got the Nugent box set as a gift a few years ago I was torn - lots of songs were essential to my teen years and still sound great, but I didn't want to be responsible for putting anymore money in his pocket. And now somehow he manages to get even more nutty.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 5:03 AM on April 20, 2005

A wang dang wanna cheap applause.
posted by psmealey at 5:07 AM on April 20, 2005

Ted Nugent is the consummate entertainer; he gives what his audience wants.

This is the man who went to his draft physical strung out on amphetamines, unwashed for days, and had intentionally shit himself to got a 4-F (from a Guitar Player interview). Also, in the mid-80s in a Guitar FTPM interview, he ragged on the practice of religion in America.

Like any good entertainer, Ted will change his spots as required.
posted by mischief at 5:18 AM on April 20, 2005

Dear Ted Nugent,

Along with all your other music, I'm going to download and distribute your most recent album to the entire world for free.

Bring it on, greaseball!

Love, The Internet
posted by fandango_matt at 5:18 AM on April 20, 2005

Gonzo Jihad!
posted by foodeater at 5:21 AM on April 20, 2005

Didn't Ted Nugent marry a really young teen at some point?
posted by ph00dz at 5:36 AM on April 20, 2005

When I lived in Windsor I listened to the Detroit stations. Nugent was often a guest DJ at WRIF. At the time he was an unabashed atheist, very pro gun and very anti-government. He was also a complete racist asshole too but I liked his music when I was a teenager. This part of the message is on track with what he said a couple decades ago (fuck, I'm old, I never thought of my teenage years as being a couple decades ago).

Some of his more notorious rants involved saying he sawed down a shotgun and kept it ready for the cops if they dared to pull him over for speeding. He's referred to people from the Middle East as towel heads way before it became popular with the LGFB crowd. Given Metro Detroit's large Arab community that went down as well as you'd expect.

As for the NRA, well, it started out with good intentions but it seems to have been stolen by the GOP. I took a couple of handgun courses last may that were put on by the NRA. It was amusing that they'd accuse those filthy liberals of misusing statistics (which is often true) in one breath then in the next breath abuse them to prove their point.

For instance, anti-gun people often talk about the large number of young people killed by handguns. The NRA folks pointed out that the majority of these young people are actually gang members. That seemed possible to me though they didn't offer any statistics to back it up. But then they used the same type of statistics to defend why you need a handgun to protect yourself, why it should be carried, and why it should be loaded and why safeties are unsafe.

The NRA tries to develop cowardice in people and they do a good job of it. Amazingly everybody teaching this course had some example of where a bad guy had followed them and encouraged the class to come up with stories where their lives were endangered. Most of the class did.

I live in a sleepy little midwestern town. Bad things sometimes happen but fairly rarely and it seemed statistically improbable that 8 out of 10 students had these problems and especially of the type they described. The stories didn't really make sense. Some Evil Person was following you in their car for miles and they stopped after you exited the highway? Some Evil Person was obviously measuring you up for a robbery in a Border's so you quickly left - and nobody else got mugged?
posted by substrate at 5:45 AM on April 20, 2005

phoodz, yeah, Nugent married a 17 year old.
posted by substrate at 5:45 AM on April 20, 2005

In one chapter of William Vollmann's seven-volume Rising Up and Rising Down, Vollmann recounts an interview he did with Ted Nugent--it's one of the funniest (if somewhat frightening) things I've read in some time. I don't know if that chapter made it into the one-volume abridged edition--a shame if it didn't, though.
posted by Prospero at 5:49 AM on April 20, 2005

The second-weirdest thing that Nugent has done lately (the weirdest being that speech) is to move to Crawford, TX so that he could be closer to President Bush when Bush is at his ranch.
posted by wadefranklin at 5:58 AM on April 20, 2005

Remember the Alamo! Shoot 'em! To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead.

WAS IT OVER WHEN THE GERMANS BOMBED PEARL HARBOR?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 6:15 AM on April 20, 2005

I love the way these gun nuts (who are basically scared people, as clockzero points out) will scream and froth about any perceived attack on the second amendment yet they have very little trouble ignoring much of the rest of the constitution - particularly those bits that have to do with other people's freedoms and rights. They're extremely unamerican in this behaviour, and should be reminded of it every time they go off on one of these demented, compensatory fear/rage/frustration fits.
posted by Decani at 6:18 AM on April 20, 2005

As insane as he is, there's more than a handful of districts where the Nuge could be elected to Congress. Watch for it.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:19 AM on April 20, 2005

When I first read this, I thought this was a Mike Moore kind of guy going to the NRA to make fun of them. Truth is stranger than fiction. Oh well...
posted by joaovc at 6:20 AM on April 20, 2005

The second-weirdest thing that Nugent has done lately (the weirdest being that speech) is to move to Crawford, TX so that he could be closer to President Bush when Bush is at his ranch.

There was also a secondary reason for the Nuge clan moving to Croawford. They lived in a house of skank.

WRIF is the only station that plays Deadly Tedly in town these days. It is like they entered into some unholy contract between the station, Ted, and Bob Ritchie (aka Kid Rock).
posted by Armen Tanzarian at 6:26 AM on April 20, 2005

Gonzo Jihad!
posted by foodeater at 8:21 AM EST

Yes!!
Bring it on Nuge!
I'm ready for you and I'm really looking forward to it.
You ain't gonna know what hit you when you go down.
Down like the cowardly scumbag you and your other small penised friends are.
I will smear your blood on my face and scream at the moon.
Talk's cheap, be a real man and come after me Nuge, you over the hill piece of crap. I'll shoot back.
I'm all the things you hate fear most.

Let the Jihad commence!
[heh, sound just like 'em, don't I?]
posted by nofundy at 6:34 AM on April 20, 2005

WRIF is the only station that plays Deadly Tedly in town these days.

To be fair, Armen, WRIF is also about the only old-style rock station in town these days. (Although I haven't listened to WCSX lately, but it wouldn't surprise me if they played some 'Nuge, too). I doubt it's political ideology as much as lack of proper format -- not too many stations play the music of washed-up rock legends.

That said, Ted Nugent is a nut, but first and foremost he's a showboat who does what he does and says what he says to get as much attention as possible. He would be amused by this thread.
posted by pardonyou? at 6:39 AM on April 20, 2005

Ted was a lot more fun back when his music could back up his wild man persona. Now he's just a side show.

But just for the solo 16-year old Ted did on "Journey To The Center Of The Mind," he'll always have a small place in the rock and roll pantheon. Well, that and "Wango Tango."
posted by jonmc at 6:43 AM on April 20, 2005

devilslide is so right. maybe "nuge" will follow his own justice and blow his own brains out(don't worry about the clean-up, ted has very little brain matter. i had to sit thru one of his shows(only because he was 'an opening band') and hear stupid statements like "this song will make a faggot want pussy" and some stupid campfire shit, which he probably had to borrow from Kiss(the headliner). he's an a-class hypocrite and a one trick pony act.
posted by joemeek at 6:44 AM on April 20, 2005

Why is it that you're either a maniacal gun-toting wackjob, or a bleeding-heart pacifist wackjob? Dualism sucks.

Excellent question, yup no middle ground anymore it seems, you're either with us or against us as Pres Bush informed the rest of the planet after 911. So hey, gotta define the 'us' part. Clearly. Extremely. At max volume. One gets up every morning and wonders what particular variety of extremist will make the news first. No shortage of volunteers out there. Maybe we need to start teaching kids to actually think in school. You know, look at both sides of a question, all that.
posted by scheptech at 6:49 AM on April 20, 2005

Pardonyou? - True enough. WRIF and CSX have the "Washed up rock legends" market locked up. I just can't imagine that stations outside of Detroit and Michigan play Nugent with the frequency that he is played here. Why do we have to be disproportionately subjected to this nutjob? It is as if Ted is reminding us that "when Ted isn't on the radio, everyone should be asking 'where's Ted?'"
posted by Armen Tanzarian at 6:53 AM on April 20, 2005

Oh yeah, Heston and Nugent will lead the NRA to the promised land of 454 Casull's in every nightstand and lots of dead children shot by their pals while playing.

Nugent's an egomaniac who loves the wild man press and he was preaching to the choir. Gun nuts love nothing better than a more famous gun nut validating their fetishism. The only thing better is hot chicks shooting guns in bikinis or while naked. Oooh yeah!

On Preview: I'm a gun owning Democrat. I don't pop wood when I think about my guns. The only thing extreme about me is how much I dislike being lumped in with the dumbshits who stroke their guns reflexively like they were they're own dicks.
posted by fenriq at 6:54 AM on April 20, 2005

The second-weirdest thing that Nugent has done lately (the weirdest being that speech) is to move to Crawford, TX so that he could be closer to President Bush when Bush is at his ranch.

Nuge's wife tans at a salon owned by one of my friends in Waco. The Bush twins stopped by once as well. Sadly, he's useless with webcams.
posted by Cyrano at 6:56 AM on April 20, 2005

When will we learn to ignore the trolls?
posted by a_day_late at 6:57 AM on April 20, 2005

maybe "nuge" will follow his own justice and blow his own brains out

He'd have to use armor-piercing ammunition..
posted by c13 at 7:00 AM on April 20, 2005

The only thing better is hot chicks shooting guns in bikinis or while naked.

The Cramps would agree with you. As would I, come to think of it.....

Ted used to have a sense of humor, and while I don't agree with him on much (although I'm non-gun owning supporter of the second amendment), I kind of liked his "kiss my ass if you don't like it" attitude, the same way I appreciated Morton Downey Jr. Sadly, he's become just another wind up outrage toy.

Terrible Ted, we hardly knew ye.

*pours beer, cranks "Free For All," in elegy*

Oh yeah, Heston and Nugent

I had a close encounter with Mr. Heston about a decade ago. After that day, I fully understand the man's desire to arm himself.
posted by jonmc at 7:05 AM on April 20, 2005

I'm sorry, but all that macho posturing by Nugent just HAS to originate some some deep-seated insecurity about his own sexuality. Kinda like frat guys who feel that they HAVE to say "fags" instead of "gays".
posted by clevershark at 7:10 AM on April 20, 2005

Well, Ted did appear on the Freddie Mercury tribute album (he did a nice duet with His Majesty Lemmy on "Tie Your Mother Down"), and I'm sure he was aware of Freddie's sexuality, so he can't be that homophobic.
posted by jonmc at 7:14 AM on April 20, 2005

Why do we have to be disproportionately subjected to this nutjob?

A fine question, although he can be amusing in that train wreck way. You never really know what unbelievably stupid thing he's going to say next, and look forward to the inevitable shitstorm (at least I do). Do you listen to Drew & Mike? They used to have him on quite a bit, but I haven't heard much about 'Nuge from them lately -- they were even fairly critical of his stupid racial remarks on a Denver radio station. I sense a falling out, though I'm sure Arthur P. and Doug Podell are still tight with the 'Nuge.
posted by pardonyou? at 7:17 AM on April 20, 2005

"I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. ... Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em."

I wonder how many members of the audience have been attacked by child molesters or burglars. My guess is not many. I agree with clockzero said above. I occasionally argue back and forth with my dad on this, since he is a proud NRA member that keeps a gun by his bedside just in case a burglar breaks into the house, even though he lives in a rural area with a very low crime rate.

I mean, I like shooting and all, but to my mind the NRA is about way more than just protecting peoples' right to bear arms -- it's becoming more and more a front organization for jingoism and ultra-nationalism, and it's using scare tactics to try and get is't members to toe the line. It's just not healthy.
posted by moonbiter at 7:20 AM on April 20, 2005

although he can be amusing in that train wreck way. Probably the only way he is amusing, as other here have made note.

A little off topic, but I think the Doc o' Rock and Ted are dating.

Also, I have noticed a lack of Ted-ness with Drew and Mike. Then again, they go through down periods with their "regulars" (D-Mac, Drapes, Kid Rock, Mr. Methane....)
posted by Armen Tanzarian at 7:23 AM on April 20, 2005

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.

I want this guy dead! I want his family dead! I want his house burned to the ground! I want to go there in the middle of the night and piss on his ashes!
posted by kirkaracha at 7:29 AM on April 20, 2005

A little off topic, but I think the Doc o' Rock and Ted are dating.

posted by Armen Tanzarian at 10:23 AM EST on April 20

I'm lost... who's the Doc o' Rock?
posted by BoringPostcards at 7:30 AM on April 20, 2005

I'm lost... who's the Doc o' Rock?

Doc of Rock = Doug Podell, Mid day host on WRIF.
posted by Armen Tanzarian at 7:33 AM on April 20, 2005

Seems like a bad time to talk about adopting an extremist militia attitude with the 10 year anniversary of the OKC bombing and all.

Or a FPP on April 20th, Hitler's Birthday and the anniversary of Columbine.
posted by Pollomacho at 7:37 AM on April 20, 2005

The only thing that sells better than sex is fear.
posted by nixerman at 7:49 AM on April 20, 2005

Late-thread kudos to ClockZero. Quote of the fucking day.

Perhaps we can get Nugent, Kid Rock, and The Ultimate Warrior to go on tour together. We'll call it Wackjobapalooza.
posted by fungible at 7:54 AM on April 20, 2005

I wonder how many members of the audience have been attacked by child molesters or burglars.

I wonder how many secretly wish they had. Seriously. I often perceive this undercurrent of wanting to prove themselves, like the guy in a war zone disappointed that he never got to kill an enemy soldier. Except of course, that they're not in a war zone.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 8:18 AM on April 20, 2005

Whenever Ted Nugent bubbles up to the top of a news cycle, I remember some footage of him I once saw wherein he was writhing around onstage, wearing a furry diaper, and fake-sobbing "I can't eat all the pussy in the world!"

The man is clearly a deep thinker whose opinions on the issues of the day must be weighed carefully.
posted by COBRA! at 8:22 AM on April 20, 2005

Nugent said "...and when they attack you, shoot 'em." I.e. in self-defense. So when Theodore says "I want child molesters dead" what Teddyboy means is that we should give little kids guns so they can protect themselves. Imagine a well-armed first-grade classsroom.

On the other hand, for a radical extremist -- or a conscienceless nutjob -- an elementary-school kid would make a great gunsel: kids that age can't even be tried as juveniles so they get to shoot people with legal impunity, and it should be easy to protect yourself from being turned in for instigation by making a kid keep a secret -- child molesters do that every day. You could even make the kid an instant TV hero: just teach the kid to say, when s/he does a Squeaky Fromme, "I thought the President was going to molest me so I defended myself." (No I am not seriously suggesting that anybody should do this.)

As for gun possession, I live in a medium-sized city with a respectable but not super-duper crime rate where gun ownership must be very common, given all the police reports about people's guns being stolen from their unlocked cars overnight. (And please don't do THAT either.)

By the way, it's interesting that Nugent's home and family were mold-infested in 2003, the year I walked out twenty minutes into a free concert because he would not stop his pro-war howling. It seems Nuge thinks the US should destroy the world in order to liberate it. So he evaded the draft in the 'Nam years too? How bloody typical. "I'm not gonna try it, YOU try it!"
posted by davy at 8:29 AM on April 20, 2005

Hey Devils Slide, you mean Nugent's underage girlfriends like this one? A quote: "I have personally witnessed Ted taking under-age girls into his hotel room for sex while on tour on many occassions. He had sex with me the day I met him, I was 15."
posted by davy at 8:43 AM on April 20, 2005

I believe people should be able to own guns, but the NRA membership roles always seem comprised of people who live in suburbs or beyond where there's little crime and little poverty. The people I know who live in the higher crime areas (I live in a more middleish crime place) don't own guns for fear they'll get stolen, or cause a confrontation to escalate.
posted by drezdn at 8:49 AM on April 20, 2005

Charlie Daniels was the MC for this grand meeting.
Reckon he sold any copies of his book?
Did his songwriter die?
Did he and Nuge play a duet?

"if you win you get this shiny Bushmaster made of steel but if you lose the Devil grabs your heel ..."
posted by nofundy at 9:02 AM on April 20, 2005

Y'know I'll give the Nuge this: He has good taste in Gibson guitars. And he's not bad on the six strings. I believe his chemical dependence is natural.

But his comments made me think "It's okay Ted. Your Dad loves ya. It's okay." Oh, and also that only women should be allowed to have guns.
posted by petebest at 9:03 AM on April 20, 2005

Whackin' em and stackin' em!

I hate Ted Nugent with my soul.
Free For All is a jam, though. Am I the only one amused by the fact that this heroic figure was driven from his home by mold? What a badass!
I know, I know. Mold can be deadly. But still, it makes me giggle. A threat that does not respond to brute force. Must have been very hard for him to deal with.
posted by apis mellifera at 9:13 AM on April 20, 2005

Charlie Daniels was the MC for this grand meeting.

Eh, Charlie's OK. The lyrics to "Uneasy Rider," and "Long Haired Country Boy" reveal that at one point he was one of the good guys, perhaps even the mythical missing link between the hippies and the rednecks. Plus he's played with Dylan. And "Trudy" is still one of the best southern boogie songs ever. So he's built enough enough karma points for me to forgive some of his later embarassments.

Wonder what changes a guy like that. And to give Ted his due, he was right-wing nutjob before it was "cool."
posted by jonmc at 9:13 AM on April 20, 2005

And to give Ted his due, he was right-wing nutjob before it was "cool."

Also an environmentalist.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 9:19 AM on April 20, 2005

Ah, the Nuge. Uncle Tedly. I grew up in Sarnia, Ontario, about an hour north of Detroit and well within range of its major radio stations, so I'm familiar with this guy's antics. I believe that during Gulf War I, a staple of his live act was to shoot a flaming arrow into a fake buffalo with a picture of Saddam affixed to its rump. Woooo!!!!

Personally, my favourite Ted Nugent moment came in 1994, when he offered to buy a white buffalo sacred to Native Americans for placement on his private hunting ranch. A class act all the way.

...perhaps even the mythical missing link between the hippies and the rednecks

Isn't that Willie Nelson's job?
posted by The Card Cheat at 9:24 AM on April 20, 2005

Doug Podell is still on the radio in Deetriot?

................


There's still radio in Deetriot?
posted by foodeater at 9:27 AM on April 20, 2005

Isn't that Willie Nelson's job?

and Ronnie Van Zant's.
posted by jonmc at 9:39 AM on April 20, 2005

Didn't Teddy start getting afraid after Patti Smith threatened him in a Detroit radio station back in the 70s???
posted by foodeater at 9:41 AM on April 20, 2005

This seems like as good a time as any to recommend that everyone find a copy of Wally Pleasant's "The Day Ted Nugent Killed All the Animals."
posted by aaronetc at 9:42 AM on April 20, 2005

Wang dang dead orangutan.
posted by apis mellifera at 10:10 AM on April 20, 2005

To address some of the comments about old Ted doing this for publicity - you are probably right. But that's not the point. The point is that people cheered these comments and I'm sure quite a few of those people took him seriously. THAT is scary. But it still doesn't make me want to buy a gun and live in fear. I'm not anti-gun, I just don't have any need for one. And neither to a lot of the people who own and worship them (as many people have pointed out up there - they WISH something bad would happen so that they could have an excuse to use their guns - and pretty soon, with more speeches like this, and with the passing of more laws like this Florida law, they will be making up excuses as to why they NEEDED to use their awesome guns).

America has a violence fetish and it's getting worse...
posted by shoppingforsanity at 10:14 AM on April 20, 2005

Ted Nugent and Dennis Miller - I actually liked these guys at different points in my life.
posted by davebush at 10:15 AM on April 20, 2005

After I read the article, I was getting all indignant and huffy and then I read this comment:

I'm with matt: this is an NRA-only thread. Others? Dead.

and it made me laugh aloud.

Thanks for putting things into perspective.
posted by Specklet at 10:16 AM on April 20, 2005

Anyone house-hunting around Detroit?


http://detroit.craigslist.org/rnr/65955511.html

"The owner—let’s call him “Ned Tugent”-- met us at the door. Ned was wearing an American flag t-shirt. Okay, coincidence, I thought. Ned had wild hair that stuck out in all directions and he looked sort of greasy, but maybe he had just gotten home from work. Who knows? “I’ll just stay out of your way!” he told us cheerfully."
posted by deathofme at 10:28 AM on April 20, 2005

Gee Whiz!
posted by davros42 at 10:40 AM on April 20, 2005

Courtney Love has been on Howard Stern's radio show numerous times talking about how she got it on backstage with Sir Nuge when she was 14 or 15. Cause and effect? You decide.
posted by haqspan at 10:46 AM on April 20, 2005

Ya know, if I was paranoid about the gummint coming to take all the guns, I would think twice about joining a group like the NRA that exists for the sole purpose of keeping lists of gun owners.
posted by warbaby at 11:14 AM on April 20, 2005

Fuck, i thought this asshole was already dead. Die, already!!!
posted by gorgor_balabala at 11:15 AM on April 20, 2005

"America has a violence fetish and it's getting worse..."

America has always had a violence fetish, and I doubt it has wavered one way or the other.
posted by mischief at 11:24 AM on April 20, 2005

Ted Nugent interview in Grand Royal Magazine. Possibly one of the greatest interviews ever conducted.
posted by fungible at 11:37 AM on April 20, 2005

Ya know, if I was paranoid about the gummint coming to take all the guns, I would think twice about joining a group like the NRA that exists for the sole purpose of keeping lists of gun owners.

Now there's a database I wouldn't mind getting stolen by identity thieves. And if they do it right, they'll never ever be within firing range of their victims.

Of course, I feel a certain moral superiority to you all, having always considered the Nuge's music nothing more than stupid noise. And proper enforcement of child molestation laws in the '70s would've have saved us all a lot of trouble.

As for Charlie Daniels, I briefly had a job at a Country radio station and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" was one of the two or three songs that allowed me to keep my sanity; but I always suspected he was the kind who'd support "Civil War II: the Rematch", so I am not surprised.

I never had a musician as a role model (something about musical talent seems to work against proper development in other areas), but Nugent? No real talent, just a cynical skill for appealing to the immature.
posted by wendell at 11:54 AM on April 20, 2005

"No real talent..."

Oh, he has plenty of talent in terms of playing guitar. It's his 'skill' as a lyricist that is suspect. To tell him to just shut up and play his guitar though is a problem, because while his rhythm guitar parts and solos in songs with vocals are near the top of the hard rock heap, his instrumentals for the most part suck.
posted by mischief at 12:13 PM on April 20, 2005

What was that about The Nuge's deep-seated insecurities? Pshaw. Here he is, with his arms around Truman Capote and Andy Warhol.
posted by fandango_matt at 12:27 PM on April 20, 2005

you know, people probably wouldn't give into this fear-mongering if the good old "liberal" media weren't telling them constantly about dead bodies, muggings and rapes on the 6 o'clock news

i actually respect ted's views on hunting and gun ownership, but i wish to god he'd try acting like a normal human being when he talks about it ... but he's hardly unique ... there's a lot of michigan rednecks who talk the same way

i used to hear tedly on q106 in lansing ... he's quite outrageous ... but that's rock and roll

and at least in outstate michigan, i hear his songs on the radio all the time
posted by pyramid termite at 12:34 PM on April 20, 2005

fungible -- I dunno. In that interview, Ted actually comes off better than the interviewer. I liked this exchange:

Grand Royal: You let your accountants and all your flunkies--
Ted: THEY'RE NOT FLUNKIES!
GR: --take care of business for you.
Ted: Of course they do! BECAUSE I'VE GOT FUCKIN' KIDS, BOB!
GR: YOU'VE GOTTA BE ON TOP OF THAT SHIT!
Ted: YOU'RE A WEENIE! YOU'VE GOT NO FUCKIN' LIFE, YOU'VE GOT ALL KINDS OF TIME COS YOU GOT TWO THINGS TO TAKE CARE OF. I'VE GOT A HUNDRED THINGS TO TAKE CARE OF. IF I WAS A LUMP OF SHIT LIKE YOU AND ALL I HAD TO DO WAS GET UP IN THE MORNING, DO FUCKIN' LAME INTERVIEWS AND THEN TRY TO GET PUSSY AND FAIL MISERABLY, THEN I WOULDN'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANYBODY ELSE WORKING FOR ME EITHER! BUT I'M A FUCKIN' MEGA-EMPIRE AND BECAUSE I HAVE SO MANY UNBRIDLED CREATIVE JUICES [hushed], it can't be done all by myself. I've gotta have a team, and if some of my team get out of hand, yeah, but you know, I'm 45 years old now which answers the question.

He does have a way of sticking his foot in his mouth, down his throat, and into his stomach, however:

GR: He happens to be a Native American, Ted.
Ted: Fuckin'-A, man, then you know what the word "blood-brother" means.
GR: Ughh, here we go...
Ted: Then you know what the word "spiritual" means, dontcha?
GR Photographer: Hell yeah.
Ted: Yeah, before bingo and whiskey, you guys were all right...

Class act.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 12:45 PM on April 20, 2005

wow, fungible, that interview rocks the house. Always wanted to see someone meet Nugent blow for blow.
posted by bullitt 5 at 1:06 PM on April 20, 2005

Now THAT is an awesome interview fungible. It made my day.

America has always had a violence fetish, and I doubt it has wavered one way or the other.

mischief I pretty much agree, but to me it just seems like it's getting worse under the surface, bubbling and about to burst. But I'm probably just being paranoid....
posted by shoppingforsanity at 1:29 PM on April 20, 2005

"I'm probably just being paranoid"

Get thee a gun! ;-P
posted by mischief at 2:32 PM on April 20, 2005

Here he is, with his arms around Truman Capote and Andy Warhol.

Oh, that's so sweet. Say, do you happen to have that one of Hitler smiling at a sweet little tousle-headed girl, too?
posted by Decani at 5:03 PM on April 20, 2005

Happy to be of service. I miss Grand Royal, that was a cool mag.
posted by fungible at 7:41 PM on April 20, 2005

Good work digging that up davy. I remember his Polynesian gf saying in the Behind The Music interview that she was way too young when she met him, and that in retrospect it wasn't a wise choice being with Ted and she wouldn't have made the same choice had she been an adult.

haqspan, I'm pretty sure Courtney Love admitted she was joking when she said that. She was just trying to retaliate for all the things the bucktoothed deer slayer had said about her. At least I think she said she was joking.
posted by Devils Slide at 8:31 PM on April 20, 2005

The only thing that sells better than sex is fear.

yeah...*sigh*
posted by nightchrome at 9:19 PM on April 20, 2005

--fucking bomb abortion clinics--

They do... NO! WAIT!

It's like a Bugs Bunny-Elmer Fudd routine. Thanks.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:22 PM on April 21, 2005