Ted Nugent: The Vile Phenomenon of Rock ‘N’ Roll’s Dreaded Bastard Son 

Ted Nugent: The Vile Phenomenon of Rock ‘N’ Roll’s Dreaded Bastard Son

 

After the too-soon passings of Scott Weiland, Lemmy, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, and Paul Kantner at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016, Ted Nugent – now a spry sixty-seven year old, remains one of a vanishing breed of the true all-time great rock stars. I would trade him for any one of those recently departed icons. Sadly that is not how death works.

 

But at first glance and first listen Detroit rocker Ted Nugent epitomized cool to me growing up. When I discovered rock ‘n’ roll, Nugent – the Motor City Madman was one of the musicians who lured me in. The more of his music I listened to the more I loved it and it made me want to hear other bands. In that way, the Nuge was like a gateway drug, though he would doubtless cringe at such a comparison.

 

An exceptional guitarist (probably never as great, even in his prime, as his boastful estimations) he complimented his inventive composing by surrounding himself with talented band-mates who came and went even as he made them better. I can’t help but remain a huge fan of the terrific music he created and the primal spirit with which he performed it live. His daring brand of rock ‘n’ roll theater complimented his sound and drew audiences in on his savage groove.

 

Though I roundly loathed a few of the saccharine power-ballads he did whilst with the super-group Damn Yankees much of his catalog is just too high in quality to be discounted. It wasn’t just his most well-known hits like ‘Stranglehold’ or ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ I liked. ‘Journey to the Center of the Mind’ recorded when he was with the Amboy Dukes, ‘Queen of the Forest’ off his debut solo album and ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ (American jingoism in the extreme but it still rocks) recorded when he was with Damn Yankees were also essential listening for me and remain so today.

 

The lyrical content of another favorite Nugent tune, ‘Little Miss Dangerous’, from his solo days in the 1980s now carries with it a deeply sinister aspect having learned what I know about him. But the downfall in my esteem of him was decidedly gradual. You don’t like to see your idols fail. If they show moments of weakness it is okay if it reflects a commonality of life experience you can relate to. Shocking monstrosity however can be profoundly jarring.

 

As I came to write about bands, various musician friends of mine, at different times, crudely expressed contempt for him. When I demanded justification they instantaneously provided multiple examples. The public record of his gaudy self-promotion and looney-tune opinions is damning and is now much easier to reference.

 

Information about Nugent’s eccentricity and volatility trickled out via the media and into my consciousness, my estimation of the man further declined. I couldn’t make excuses for him and couldn’t buy excuses others made for him. Over the decades the critical mass of details concerning this musician and his dealings tipped the scale further. A sinister image emerged as I looked in on the man’s legacy. My frequent reaction to various discoveries was ‘THIS guy did THAT?!’

 

The first thing Nugent ever did that made my eyes roll was his continued insistence that he didn’t know ‘Journey to the Center of the Mind’ (mostly written by Amboy Dukes band-mate Steve Farmer) was about drugs. I’ve always felt like Nugent was insulting people’s intelligence feigning ignorance (there were opium pipes on the album cover) about a song he had collaborated on which so obviously celebrated the use of hallucinogenics.

 

Nugent was a frequent house guest at the Hill Street house of members of legendary Detroit punk band MC5, an outfit well known for their prolific use of LSD, marijuana and heroin, around the same time ‘Journey to the Center of the Mind’ was still high on the charts. In an interview with Creem magazine he gave the following statement to journalist Jeffrey Morgan:

 

“I have never done a drug in my life. I have never smoked a joint in my life. I took two tokes off a joint with the MC5 and almost gagged and thought it was stupid. And that’s it. I took two tokes off a joint once. I snorted one line of cocaine. And one line of crystal methedrine before my draft physical – but God that was worth it because I wanted to see the look on the sergeant’s face. That’s it for drugs.”

 

So if you’re keeping score Nugent denied ever using drugs then admitted to doing drugs three times within the same statement. In February 1977, People magazine reported him as saying that he’d smoked “50 joints in the 1960s” and tried “two lines of cocaine.” He has since claimed to have been misquoted. Could Nugent be lying in a public statement? It happens. It wouldn’t be the first time a musician did that.

 

Absurd attempts to avoid contradicting his later statements as an early advocate of the Straight Edge movement – i.e. rock musicians (mainly punk but others too) who refrain from alcohol and drug use, created confusion. By giving a mixed message about NEVER doing drugs even after having been quoted in interviews multiple times as having done drugs he couldn’t offer the public the kind of consistency he should have.

 

I, and many others wondered why Nugent was taking the prohibition side in the drug war particularly since many of us don’t believe his denials about using. Nugent’s anti-drug stance might have credibility if he properly owned up to past use and he could then still preach by speaking from experience. By offering different versions of the truth in interviews he nullified his standing as a moral authority. “If there is one thing I am, it’s always right,” he has famously said.

 

His 1980s MTV public service announcement for the well-intentioned but mostly laughable Rock Against Drugs (RAD…which it was anything but) rang hollow to me though his spot was nowhere near as frightening as Gene Simmons’s spot or as limp and facile as Lou Reed’s (Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols made the only effective ad spot of that entire campaign).
Sanctimonious and pedantic proselytizing is far from incongruous with rock ‘n’ roll particularly since the late 1960s. The liberal left of rock are not shy about trying to use their notoriety to influence the way people live their lives and who they vote for in increasingly contrived and tedious ways.

 

Even the most well-intentioned, reasonable and humane stands on issues like human rights, world peace, poverty and the environment can go over poorly when the ill-informed pontificate merely because having an audience presents the opportunity. A cheap, cheese-ball sermon followed by polite applause morphing into awkward silence up until the opening chords of the next tune on the set-list still happen at far too many concerts.

 

Such a fully as insipid pursuit from an organization like Straight Edge or RAD actually appeared to be the natural element of those who hated modern popular music and were waging a culture war against it. Many if not most within those puritanical elements that burned records and protested outside concert halls against rock ‘n’ roll from its inception more than likely found Nugent’s music as nauseating as any rock act. They deserved no accommodation.

 

But so what if Nugent had conservative leanings to peddle, right? Other rock musicians (Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, Kid Rock, Dave Mustaine, Dee Snider, etc) did and do too. He could have his say about his pet cause and I could choose to agree or disagree with it, donate or not donate, boycott or not boycott just as I did with any celebrity cause.

 

The charitable plight to preserve the endangered blue-bellied Kazakhstani dingleberry may be of utmost urgency to a much-loved celebrity but even the most dedicated fan will tune out that which doesn’t personally resonate. Of course it is a little more difficult to tune it out when a celebrity campaigns for the right of any misanthrope to buy a military-style assault rifle of the same kind used to commit mass murder and in fact argues that more guns will stop such tragedies.

 

Nugent also hunts animals (he estimates he has killed thousands) which, though legal, earns him the ire of animal rights activists including many death threats (which are illegal). He not only has continued hunting he has made videos of it and TV reality shows featuring it. He takes enormous pride in it and doesn’t care what people think. Owner of an estimated 550 guns he has frequently invited outraged people who want to take him out to try.

 

A lot of people across the world hunt. As for rock musicians who hunt, it is more common than you might think. Aerosmith’s Joe Perry is a deer hunter. Avril Lavigne is known to love hunting for recreation having started when she was a kid. James Hetfield of Metallica is an avid hunter and gun collector. Kid Rock, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, and Steve Winwood are known hunters.

 

If Nugent is just old-fashioned or if he might be carrying some of the tenets of the Catholic faith he was brought up in or the hard lessons imparted to him by his military drill instructor father (a man the Nuge has claimed brandished a riding crop for corporal punishment) and hunted as a form of recreation he grew up with, it is perhaps easier for some to understand if not accept. But that is really a smokescreen put on by he and his apologists.

 

Many of Nugent’s strongest leanings go beyond what could really be classified as conservative. In fact his overall mindset is that of a potentially dangerous right-wing extremist and has even been called, accurately in my opinion, psychotic. But to be more precise his statements and actions betray a way of thinking that is gravely solipsistic. I truly believe that Ted Nugent can’t distinguish between his own needs and those of most of the rest of humanity.

 

To offer context it should be noted that Nugent, at some point within the the past 30 years began cultivating a following amongst the political far-right in the United States and specifically in the ranks of the GOP (Republican Party). I cannot determine whether he was angling to either manoevre his fan following into a bloc of political support for a genuine run for office or perhaps merely attempting to gain prominence within Republican circles by luring his fans into the tent.

 

He has publicly threatened to stand as a candidate for governor of Michigan after Jesse “The Body” Ventura had served as governor of Minnesota and Arnold Schwarzenegger had been elected governor of California. My guess would be seeing Ventura and Schwarzenegger’s example prompted him to naively think he could capitalize upon his celebrity to achieve statewide office as they did.

 

Did it any point occur to him that perhaps his past personal conduct might be held against him if he were to seek a mandate from voters who don’t necessarily see their own collective good coming out of his electoral success? Does he perhaps believe that the more extreme his public policy statements are that they will overshadow the rough edges of a sexually prolific and downright perverse personal life which is well-publicized? How about his glaring hypocrisy?

 

In the late 1970s Ted Nugent regaled High Times magazine and by extension his fans when he confessed he had done drugs and defecated in his pants before taking his physical examination at a U.S. army induction center to avoid having to serve in the Vietnam War. This was documented in an infamous 1977 interview.

 

He is quoted in the article thusly about his time at the center where he took his draft physical: “they made everybody take off their pants, and I did, and this sergeant says, ‘Oh my God, put those back on! You fucking swine, you!’ … I had poop on my hand and my arm. The guy almost puked. I was so proud … And in the mail I got this big juicy 4-F. They’d call dead people before they’d call my ass. But you know the funny thing about it? I’d make an incredible army man. I’d be a colonel before you knew what hit you, and I’d have the baddest bunch of motherfuckin’ killers you’d ever seen in my platoon. But I just wasn’t into it. I was too busy doin’ my own thing, you know.”

 

Nugent later claimed to have lied about this to High Times and said he got a student deferment. In fact he got two student deferments – One in 1967 so that he could complete high school and another in 1968 after he enrolled in community college. By 1969 however, he had no known grounds for student deferment. I suspect that this resulted in the draft physical Nugent described to High Times. Afterward Nugent was classified 1-Y which was changed to 4-F in 1971.

 

One of his other characteristically scatter-brained, violence-tinged statements about Vietnam remains vexing: “if I would have gone over there, I’d have been killed, or I’d have killed all the Hippies in the foxholes. I would have killed everybody.” What to make of such statements?

 

The military service dodge revelation about the avid hunter and now board member of the National Rifle Association suggests that while Nugent doesn’t mind shooting and actually enjoys killing he prefers targets that won’t shoot back. But his sabre-rattling paradoxically persists with heightened vigor. Is he over-compensating now because he missed his chance to join the My-Lai massacre?

 

Continual support for military incursions by the United States suggest an appreciation for wars he is too old to fight in. “War is good when good survives and evil is crushed. If you don’t crush evil then evil will get you.” Nugent has said perhaps thinking that his appearances on USO tours (concerts staged overseas for the American armed forces) give him credibility as a military strategist.

 

Campaigning for family-values politicians like Greg Abbott (who calls Nugent his ‘blood brother’) and Steve Stockman suggests either a complete lack of self-awareness or a galling arrogance that entitles Nugent to discount his own past actions as though they never happened. Nugent has long looked to extend his dwindling fame and capitalize upon it via controversial forays in to national politics. His hypocrisy is left open for public consumption.

 

When he stated “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.” Nugent was unequivocal evidently seeing no criminality in any of his own activities.

 

In 1978 Nugent, then twenty-nine, pursued a relationship with Pele Massa – a seventeen year old girl. Her parents assisted, making Nugent her legal guardian and he was able to evade statutory rape charges.

 

Again other rock musicians have done similar things. Twenty-four year old Elvis Presley dated fourteen year old Priscilla Beaulieu. Jerry Lee Lewis married thirteen year old cousin, Myra Brown. Chuck Berry was convicted of taking a minor (a fourteen year old) across state lines for sexual purposes. But just because something has precedence within one’s peer group does not make it in any way acceptable nor should it.

 

These disgusting arrangements are far too common in rock ‘n’ roll history but Nugent appeared to brag about being a repeat offender in an April 1998 “Behind the Music” documentary by VH1.

 

The lyrics to his song Jailbait eerily also seem to celebrate such predatory acts:

“Well, I don’t care if you’re just 13

You look too good to be true

I just know that you’re probably clean…

Jailbait you look fine, fine, fine…

It’s quite alright, I asked your mama

Wait a minute, officer

Don’t put those handcuffs on me

Put them on her, and I’ll share her with you”

 

Song lyrics are obviously not to be taken literally. The song ‘Jailbait’ doesn’t make Nugent a pedophile any more than ‘Space Oddity’ or ‘Rocket Man’ made David Bowie and Elton John astronauts. But when it appears to play in with a pattern of admitted real life activity perceptions begin to cement.

 

His own view of himself was once expressed thusly to CBS This Morning in May 2012: “I’m an extremely loving, passionate man, and people who investigate me honestly, without the baggage of political correctness, ascertain the conclusion that I’m a damned nice guy, and if you can find a screening process more powerful than that, I’ll suck your dick. Or I’ll fuck you, how’s that sound?”

 

Perceptions got even worse when, according to a New York Post article rocker Courtney Love claimed on the Howard Stern Show in March 2004, to have performed oral sex on Nugent when she was only twelve years old when Nugent would have been twenty-eight. Nugent hasn’t vigorously denied this most serious of allegations. He merely claims he doesn’t remember. For her part, Love (who emerged from that experience to become far from well-adjusted in adulthood) is not known to have lodged a criminal complaint.

 

What then to think when giving his bizarre take on the Sandy Hook school massacre, Ted Nugent said: “We live in an embarrassing, politically correct culture that … condemns and mocks traditional societal values and customs at every opportunity … Traditional family values have been under siege for decades by our culture of contempt. In the absence of a solid family, the whole thing slowly unravels and rots.”

 

Kids are killed by gunfire and self-appointed expert on family values with a shady history of drug use, sex with underage girls, multiple broken marriages and illegitimate children makes a statement with such galling sophistry. Evidently he doesn’t appreciate the value of holding his fire.

 

Nugent even runs a hunting camp for kids and once boasted about his mentorship of youth thusly: “I’m so much fun. Every kid wishes I was their grandpa! I’m the Motor City Madgramps.” Would you want him around your daughter? Would you trust him to mentor and educate her?

 

The Republican Party and its media arm FOX News have given Nugent a free pass on all of that, on siring multiple children out of wedlock and on his military service fudge all to allow him a platform to spout nonsense which echoes theirs. In return he has backed their candidates ranging from powerful ‘moderates’ (a relative and highly subjective term for anyone in the GOP these days) like Bob Dole and Mitt Romney.

 

But Nugent prefers, and is preferred by, the most strident and outlandish of GOP candidates to associate himself with. He is used by them to attempt to make right-wing extremism appear less stodgy and even hip to aging rock fans looking for a trace of someone they can identify with before backing an objectionable, and constitutionally questionable legislative agenda.

 

Evangelical religious fanatic and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee calls Nugent “A patriot and friend”. FOX News talking head Sean Hannity has also called Nugent a friend and refused to disavow him. Paragon of virtue and wisdom Sarah Palin says that if a candidate “is good enough for Ted Nugent, he is good enough for me!”

 

No surprise then that both Palin and the Nuge are backing Donald Trump for president in 2016, as are other such fine examples of sound judgement, political acumen and tasteful decorum as Stephen Baldwin, Hulk Hogan, Lou Ferrigno, Jesse “The Body” Ventura, Mike Tyson, Dennis Rodman, Tila Tequila, and Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty.

 

In an astonishingly witless non-articulation of Trump’s vague excuse for a policy platform Nugent said of a Trump presidency: “He would kick ass and take names, and that’s what America needs right now.” He went further stating “Donald Trump is as close to Ted Nugent as you’re going to get in politics,” on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show”.

 

The Republican Party as it exists today has fallen under the influence of religious fundamentalists, National Rifle Association members and flaky conspiracy theorists. Because of that an individual with media attention and a loyal following can occupy a place of influence by voicing the extreme right’s message in statements which are increasingly more outrageous and irresponsible, i.e. things Nugent has been saying for years.

 

Donald Trump – a man who seemingly never met a self-serving falsehood he didn’t like has shown this to be a shortcut towards power bypassing such onerous and tedious requirements as legislative experience. It is no coincidence Nugent and Palin are humping Trump’s leg or that other garish celebrities are jumping on the Trump bandwagon. They see opportunity in reality show-style governance. Nugent has evidently bought in completely.

 

His own indecorous missives against the liberal establshment are packed with the venom of the severe frustration of an individual who refuses to even begin to try grasp ideas even remotely contrary to his own. But liberals are not his only target. Here is a Greatest Hits collection of Ted Nugent’s most controversial quotes:

 

“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….”

 

“Apartheid isn’t that cut-and-dry. All men are not created equal.”

 

On South African Blacks; “They still put bones in their noses, they still walk around naked, they wipe their butts with their hands … These are different people. You give ’em toothpaste, they fucking eat it.”

 

On rap artists performing on MTV; “MTV is a liberal lump of hippy snot. They are embarrassing. Those big uneducated greasy black mongrels on there, they call themselves rap artists.”

 

“You probably can’t use the term ‘toxic cunt’ in your magazine, but that’s what she is. Her very existence insults the spirit of individualism in this country. This bitch (Hillary Clinton) is nothing but a two-bit whore for Fidel Castro.”

 

On stage he declared that Hillary Clinton (whom he has called a “worthless bitch”) and Barack Obama (whom he has called a “chimpanzee”, a “dumb motherfucker” and a “communist nurtured subhuman mongrel” who was re-elected “to destroy America.” by “subhuman varmint[s]”) could “Suck his cock”.

 

On Trayvon Martin who he claims attacked George Zimmerman; “Is it the same mindless tendency to violence we see in black communities across America, most heartbreakingly in Chicago pretty much every day of the week? Where does this come from? And why is it so prevalent?”

 

On an encounter with a Hare Krishna; “In my mind, I’m going, ‘Why can’t I just shoot this guy in the spine right now, shoot him in the spine, explain the facts of life to him.”

 

To a British journalist for London’s the Independent who asked him whether or not deer are his friends; “I don’t think they’re capable of either of those thoughts, you Limey asshole. They’re only interested in three things: The best place to eat, having sex and how quickly they can run away. Much like the French,” Nugent said.

“I think that Barack Hussein Obama should be put in jail. It is clear that Barack Hussein Obama is a communist. Mao Tse Tung lives and his name is Barack Hussein Obama. This country should be ashamed. I wanna throw up,” he said, adding “Obama, he’s a piece of shit. I told him to suck on my machine gun.”

 

“If it was up to me, if you uttered the word ‘gun control,’ we’d put you in jail.”

 

In April 2012, he was quoted at the National Rifle Association convention in St.Louis as having said “If Barack Obama becomes president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year. Why are you laughing? You think that’s funny. That’s not funny at all. I’m serious as a heart attack.” The statement prompted the U.S. secret service to meet with Nugent to discuss the remarks.

 

“I’m not in the leftist controlled Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because of my political views, primarily my lifelong militant support of the NRA, the Second Amendment, and my belief that the only good bad guy is a dead bad guy.”

 

“There are hundreds of millions of gun owners in this country, and not one of them will have an accident today. The only misuse of guns comes in environments where there are drugs, alcohol, bad parents, and undisciplined children. Period.”

 

“Every study on crime and or firearms proves time and time again, that 99.99999% of American gun owners do not commit crimes or use our firearms in any dangerous or improper way.”

 

“Where you have the most armed citizens in America, you have the lowest violent crime rate. Where you have the worst gun control, you have the highest crime rate.”

 

“The way that you eliminate bad and ugly is either through activism and policy making that never tolerates evil — instead of the liberal politically correct policy of accepting evil and accepting other points of views that destroy lives. We the thoughtful, productive people of American have got to take our freedom back.”

 

“The war is coming to the streets of America and if you are not keeping and bearing and practicing with your arms then you will be helpless and you will be the victim of evil.”