Nugent, Ted - Motor City Madman

By: Dominick A. Miserandino

I did something a bit wrong on this interview. Usually they love when we focus on the upcoming gig, album or newest release. I barely talked to Ted about his music, (then again Ted did most of the talking). I do however feel that this segment of the conversation reflects Ted- pure energy, pure opinion. Whether you agree with him, love him or hate him. He tells you what he thinks in a form of conscious thought and doesn't hold back.

Ted Nugent

DM) This is a perfect segue into my big question of the day.

TN) Well, I have the big answer for the day, so we deserve each other.

DM) At one point, I thought you were more known for your guitar work, but as of late, it seems you've become more known for your opinions...

TN) I don't think so. I think you haven't been keeping up. You're missing the big American dream. The big American dream is that not only did I invent the middle finger, but I perfect it on a nightly basis. My music, my attitude is unprecedented. Write it down Dominick, the energy level, the rock and roll, rhythm and blues I have on a nightly basis, dwarfs the motor city madman of yore. (laughs)

DM) Maybe I phrased my question badly. Half of the people I asked about you said, "He's a brilliant guitarist." But the other half said, "The man is nuts, clinically insane."

TD) I'm insane like Rosa Parks is insane. How dare she think that she can sit on that seat? It's policy don't you know. Let me adjust my bedding. See, I have some bedding on my head, and therefore don't think you're black A&* is allowed to sit on that seat. And like Rosa Parks, I merely, rip their heads off and poop down their neck with reality. That's why people think I'm crazy. Let me explain it to you Dominick. How old are you?

DM) 30.

TD) Then pay attention, I know you respect your elders. In a sea of absolutely regurgitated mass, pandemic of apath, when a person is, inactive and demanding in my participation in this experiment of self-government..., when you are as active and involved as I am, sheep-like and apathetic punks consider that kind of passion, that kind of assertiveness, that kind of truth mongering as maniacal. And that's an entitlement to their soullessness. I'm an activist. I demand to let my Senator, Congressmen, Governor, and President know what the Nugent family want and insist upon. And that I will wear these "incidental documents" known as the United States Constitution, The Bill of Rights, the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. How dare I! How dare I demand that they find their way into policy making. Those punks who think that I'm a maniac, don't even know who their senator is. Don't even know that the pimps and the whores and the welfare rats are well represented by Hillary and Jesse Jackson. Therefore their paychecks are being raped and pillaged while they go out buying six packs and renting bad videos. That's why I shock them, because I'm involved, because I control my life. I am my own boss. I call the shots. That's why the critics can't stand that, and I laugh at their imbecilic skulls, at their pathetic spinelessness. Drive safely.

DM) Okay. (stunned silence).

TN) All that guitar, is what comes out of my guitar on a nightly basis which is why white people cower and tremble in fear because I AM doing James Brown splits. I won Black Entertainer of the Year, I give it to myself every night. And the soul, the emotion, the drama, the vitality of my music, scares people who can't choose which fast-food poison they're going to indulge in today. Those who think I'm a maniac are scared because I'm involved and steer my life, and they can't. (Laughs maniacally).

DM) When did you come to the realization that you had the control over your life to this degree?

TN) Probably to this degree, not until I was into my early thirties. But to a noticeable and meaningful degree was probably the first hunting trip with my family where I didn't have to have my diapers changed. I guess somewhere in the neighborhood of two or three years of age, where I realized that I had to carry buckets of water, because we needed water, and I had to carry firewood because we needed it. I was disciplined. A ha! There's the word kids, I was DISCIPLINED to be aware and accountable for my cause, and the results and effect, and the environmentally pure function of consumption with consciousness. There's an age of consequence and an age of awareness that typically the psycho babblists say is somewhere around the age of seven, probably now it's the age of thirty because our education system is doing such a great job. Holocaust, what's that. Know what I'm saying'. Yeah, I can speak the language.

In a world of trendy disconnect, I have always defied. Hence my reverential adulation of the Rosa Parks and the Charlton Hestons of the world. Along with the success of my parent's discipline regime particularly, as it pertains to the environmentally, conversational lifestyle in the honorable, hunting, fishing, trapping methodologies, that demand that you wake up to your cause and effect.

The cultural war, exploded before me when Dan Rather on the CBS guns of autumn, initially manipulated in the pre-Blair. I realized that there was a cultural war of extreme dishonesty.

My involvement continues to explore as I see the pimps, the whores and the welfare rats continue to have policies designed for their benefit. It's a cultural war against people who are driven to be an asset to America and those who are committed to being a liability. The Jesse Jacksons, the Hillarys, and the Reverend "not so" Sharpton, that those of us on the other side need to fight that cultural dependency, as a badge of honor instead of the badge of embarrassment.

DM) Is there anyone you respect on the left?

TN) Ready for this. It's a qualified respect. I respect, Bill Maher, except that sometimes, the dope smoker rears it's ugly head and he abandons logic. Most obliviously, when he claims that somewhere between barbecues, and somehow mysteriously in between, people surviving on the protein of that precious morsel of flesh.. that somewhere in between those life and death realities, the animals have rights. (Laughs) Sure they do. Let me call Michael Jackson and his chimp and have him explain it to you. Somehow we need more gun control laws because in Washington D.C., where nobody is allowed to own or posses a gun, it's the murder capital. Wow, it's working there! Of course he would say, they're taking the guns from Virginia, well, why aren't they shooting themselves in Virginia. I respect activism to a degree that it is brought to a screeching halt when denial is so overt and inescapable. Michael Moore, Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy, Bill Maher and all can only be identified as addicted to the gesture of genuflection of the altar of the blinder, denial orgy, unprecedented since the emperor went around naked.

Talk to other readers about this story.