Ted Nugent

Ted Nugent 2004

Theodore Anthony “Ted” Nugent [ tɛd ˈnuːdʒɨnt ] (born December 13, 1948 in Detroit , Michigan), often called The Nuge and Motor City Madman , is an American rock musician and guitarist from the automobile metropolis Detroit. Its nickname Motor City Madman alludes to Detroit's reputation. Nugent became known as a member of the Amboy Dukes , who had the psychedelic hit Journey to the Center of the Mind in 1968 . In 1975 Nugent began a solo career and has sold over 35 million albums to date.

Nugent is socially controversial because of his views on patriotism , firearms , drugs , foreigners, and family roles .

Life

Nugent learned archery at the age of five , a hobby he still loves to this day. He has been playing the guitar since he was eight.

After the first bands that were influenced by British blues rock, including the Rolling Stones , he founded Amboy Dukes in 1965 . The band had up to six members (bass, drums, keyboards, vocals), the line-up kept changing until the end of the band. Next to Nugent, Steve Farmer was the most important member of the band as a songwriter and guitarist. In 1968 the band had a hit with Journey to the Center of the Mind , which went musically in the direction of psychedelic rock and, allegedly without Nugent's knowledge, was about drugs .

During this time, Nugent managed not to be called up for the Vietnam War by foregoing any hygiene before his draft and only ate fast food and cola .

After conflicts with the Amboy Dukes, Nugent began a successful solo career in 1975, which stagnated in the 1980s. Towards the end of the decade, he joined the Damn Yankees group , which sold five million albums between 1990 and 1993. With the 1995 following album Spirit of the Wild Nugent took up his solo career again.

In 1986 he made his acting debut in the episode "Absolut Miami" of the Miami Vice series on the side of the French actress Arielle Dombasle . He also worked with Bill Conti on the Nomads film music that year .

Nugent is considered an outstanding hard rock guitarist. His trademark for many years was a Gibson Byrdland type guitar . This is remarkable because, as a hollow jazz guitar, this model is very susceptible to feedback when played over an armada of Fender 75 amps, as was done by Nugent. Nugent has also played other guitars in recent years (e.g. Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion, Gibson Les Paul Model ) and is one of Paul Reed Smith's first and longstanding customers .

In the 1970s, he organized legendary guitar battles , including with Frank Marino from Mahogany Rush . He also worked as a presenter on radio and television. He created the reputation of an outdoor and hunting expert with permanent media presence. In 2004 he was injured with a chainsaw on his TV survival show and had to be sewn with 44 stitches.

Nugent runs an outdoor holiday camp for young people. He is also the editor of an outdoor magazine and writes regularly for a number of magazines. In 2000 he published the bestseller God, Guns and Rock 'n' Roll .

Music overview

The Amboy Dukes

The Amboy Dukes' music initially consisted of blues- influenced hard rock and was similar to the MC5, also from Detroit . Later the Amboy Dukes showed a turn to psychedelic rock . The self-titled debut album was released in 1967 on Bob Shads label Mainstream . A first hit was the Big Joe Williams cover version Baby Please Don't Go . The band had their greatest success in 1968 with the song Journey to the Center of the Mind .

By 1975 the Amboy Dukes released a total of seven albums. Nugent became the dominant figure of the Amboy Dukes over the course of this period. After keyboardist Andy Solomon left the Dukes as the last original member in 1971, Nugent put together a new line-up with bassist Rob Grange and drummer Vic Mastrianni under the name Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes , in which Nugent clearly set the tone. A special feature of this period is the album Survival Of The Fittest , which was recorded exclusively live and, apart from one title, only contains new songs. In addition, the entire B-side of the album is occupied by the 20-minute Prodigal Man . Due to numerous line-up changes, the psychedelic and blues-rock influences on this album had almost completely disappeared.

The 1973 album Call Of The Wild contained, in addition to the now typical hard rock songs, a cover version of Chuck Berry's Maybelline and on page 2 a short slow blues called Rot Glut . The biggest surprise, however, was the almost seven-minute atmospheric ballad Below The Belt , which even featured a flute . This piece was more reminiscent of the psychedelic early days of the Amboy Dukes.

On the 1974 Tooth, Fang & Claw , the standout tracks were the ten-minute instrumental Hibernation and The Great White Buffalo, which was very much dominated by Nugent's solo guitar . In the text, Nugent lamented the extermination of the buffalo by the whites, who thereby robbed the Indians of their livelihood.

These two last Amboy Dukes albums were, despite occasional weaknesses, style-defining for the later Nugent solo albums.

The solo career

In 1975 Ted Nugent began his solo career. Rob Grange was still on board, Derek St. Holmes as singer and guitarist and Cliff Davies on drums complete the backing band, which remained stable until 1978.

With this line-up, the albums Ted Nugent , Free-for-All , Cat Scratch Fever and Double Live Gonzo were released every year . These albums are considered the "classic phase" of Ted Nugent. One of Nugent's most famous songs, Stranglehold from Nugent's solo debut, dates from this phase and achieved world fame.

After an internal dispute, Derek St. Holmes left Ted Nugent temporarily in 1976. This gave a young, unknown singer, Marvin Lee Aday , the chance to demonstrate his skills as a singer on Free-for-All . Aday later became much better known under the stage name Meat Loaf .

In 1976 Nugent gave a 45-minute concert in a small Cologne television studio. This appearance was broadcast as part of the well-known WDR broadcast Rockpalast .

Especially the live double album Double Live Gonzo , released in 1978, is a symbol of the sheer strength and joy of playing that Nugent has always radiated for his fans. Many songs that are known from the studio albums develop additional energy in the live versions. Numerous songs were lengthened enormously through improvisations and solo interludes and reached a maximum of four times their studio length on this live album.

The Descent, the Damn Yankees, and the restart

After 1978, Nugent's artistic creativity seemed to wane. A constantly changing cast and, in the eyes of many fans, too much ingratiating on trends, prevent consistent work. Through the use of a "sticky" perceived New Wave - Keyboards lost Nugent in the eyes of the fans his musical identity. In 1989 he put his solo career on hold and joined the Damn Yankees . Their music was in hair metal and resembled that of Bon Jovi . After two albums, they broke up in 1993.

1995 Nugent returned as a solo artist; he released an album that was supposed to build on the old days with the title Spirit of the Wild . The reviews were consistently positive. Two live albums followed in 1997 and 2001. Live At Hammersmith from 1997 contains old recordings from 1979 that Nugent's former label released on the occasion of his "rebirth". However, the album did not come close to Double Live Gonzo . Full Bluntal Nugity from 2001 documented Nugent's old strength in trio and even included a song for acoustic guitar with Fred Bear .

Craveman from 2002 was Nugent's next studio musical sign of life. On this album he also uses Nu Metal influences in some of the songs, lyrically and musically . Since then, Nugent has been touring repeatedly and giving concerts all over the world, including a. at the Sweden Rock -Festival 2006, of which there is now a concert recording on CD and DVD.

His most recent releases are the 2007 studio album Love Grenade and the DVD Motor City Mayhem , a concert recording of his alleged 6,000th concert, recorded on July 4th, 2008 at the DTE Energy Music Center in Detroit. In 2008, Ted Nugent starred in the American action slapstick Beer for My Horses as a wacky deputy.

Political controversy

Because of his political views, Nugent has come under repeated criticism since the early 1990s. He is considered a declared and active opponent of all luxury and intoxicants as well as drugs . Even with the Amboy Dukes, Nugent developed a strong rejection of drugs and called drug use "immoral". He was very consistent in this and occasionally fired drug-consuming band members. In the early 1990s, Nugent became the spokesman for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (DARE), an organization founded in 1983 to offer controversial drug prevention courses for high school students. More recently, he has verbally attacked other drug-using musicians such as Ozzy Osbourne or Dimebag Darrell .

However, Nugent received his greatest criticism for his attitude towards weapons, hunting and animal welfare. Nugent advocates more liberal gun laws and is a board member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). Allegedly he is said to own 350 firearms of all kinds. At the 2005 National Assembly of Delegates of the NRA in Houston , he made the following statement, which sums up the allegations against him:

“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! "

“Think of the Alamo ! Bang them off! To show you how radical I am - I want to see auto robbers dead. I want to see rapists dead. I want to see burglars dead. I want to see child molesters dead. I want to see criminals dead. No trial. No parole. No early discharge. I want to see her dead. Get yourself a weapon and if they attack you, shoot it! "

- Associated Press article , April 17, 2005

In connection with the Third Gulf War in 2003 , he expressed regret that the US had not used nuclear weapons against Iraq ("Our failure has been not to Nagasaki them.") Nugent's passion for hunting also made the person of Nugent controversial in public. After allegedly assaulting participants in an animal welfare organization who allegedly demonstrated against fur in 2000, he was briefly detained. According to its own information, Nugent received threatening letters from animal rights activists several times. He has also had the reputation of promoting a nature-loving existence as a hunter or gatherer since the 1970s and sometimes even appeared only wearing a Tarzan-style loincloth .

Due to his passion for hunting, the US punk band Goldfinger dedicated the song FTN (stands for "Fuck Ted Nugent") to him. In the song, the band criticized Ted Nugent's love of the hunt and rodeo, and he was also criticized as a leading member of the NRA. Text excerpt: “ He thinks he'll get the girls by killing little squirrels ” (German : “ He thinks he'll get the girls by killing little squirrels . ”)

Nugent takes conservative views and disseminates them openly. He emphasizes the classic distribution of roles in the family and is considered a downright family man. He sees himself as a patriot who likes to hang up a US flag at his own concerts, openly supports the Republican Party and lives near George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford , Texas . He takes in young soldiers who were wounded in Iraq on his estate . He would like to give them the opportunity to relax on his extensive grounds. He sees this as a service to his country. He was sharply attacked by parts of the American press when it became known that he had avoided serving in Vietnam . In this context he was referred to as a draft dodger ("slacker"). In some newspaper interviews he made controversial statements. An interview with the Independent stated that Nugent loathed homosexuality and called him a " law-and-order fanatic." In a radio interview in 1992 he also announced his contempt for foreigners:

“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 donuts; 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. "

“Foreigners are assholes; Foreigners are scum; I do not like her; I don't want her in this country; I don't want them to sell me donuts; I don't want them to fill my tank; I don't want them to make themselves comfortable in my slipstream! Okay? That much is clear - I mean that seriously! "

- WRIF-FM radio station , Detroit, with Ted Nugent as guest DJ on November 19, 1992

All in all, Nugent has therefore been heavily criticized for several years, especially in Europe. The German magazine Rock Hard even listed him in the category Tragic Heroes of Rock 'n' Roll in 2005 , alongside numerous deceased musicians such as John Lennon and Bon Scott . It was commented that Nugent was a "tragic figure" because he mutated into a fascist gun fanatic and racist. And THAT is always more tragic than if he had drunk himself to death openly and honestly.

Speaking at a meeting of the NRA on April 14, 2012, Nugent said:

"If Obama is re-elected in November, I'll either be dead or in jail at the same time, 2013 ... You just can't get everyone to clean their house in this disgusting, evil, America-hating government. (...) Our President , Attorney General , our Vice President , Hillary Clinton , they are criminals, they are criminals. (...) It is not the enemy that ruined America. It is the do-gooders who bowed down and let the enemy in. If the coyote is in your living room pissing on your couch, that's not the coyote's fault. It's your fault you didn't shoot him. (...) We are Americans because we defied the king. We did not negotiate and compromise with the king. We stood up to the emperors. We are patriots. We are Braveheart . We have to go to this battlefield and cut off their heads in November. Any questions?"

The Secret Service then started an investigation into threats to the president, which ended with what Nugent said was a "friendly" meeting on April 19, 2012. He said afterwards: “No matter how much imagination I have threatened anyone with death or alluded to violence or slaughter. Metaphors don't need to be explained to educated people. ”In 2013, Nugent labeled President Obama a subhuman mongrel (“ inhuman ”or“ subhuman bastard ”).

On April 20, 2017, Nugent was invited to a four-hour visit to the White House by Donald Trump with the mediation of and together with the politician Sarah Palin .

Discography

see main article: Damn Yankees

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		UK	US
1975	Ted Nugent	UK56 (1 week) UK	US28 (62 weeks) US	First published: September 1975
1976	Free-for-all	UK33 (2 weeks) UK	US24 (32 weeks) US	First published: September 1976
1977	Cat scratch fever	UK28 (5 weeks) UK	US17 (39 weeks) US	First published: May 1977
1978	Weekend Warriors	-	US24 (20 weeks) US	First published: September 1978
1979	State of Shock	-	US18 (18 weeks) US	First published: May 1979
1980	Scream Dream	UK37 (3 weeks) UK	US13 (18 weeks) US	First published: May 1980
1982	Nugent	-	US51 (14 weeks) US	First published: July 1982
1984	Penetrator	-	US56 (15 weeks) US	First published: January 1984
1986	Little Miss Dangerous	-	US76 (14 weeks) US	First published: March 1986
1988	If You Can't Lick 'Em ... Lick' Em	-	US112 (7 weeks) US	First published: February 1988
1995	Spirit of the Wild	-	US86 (4 weeks) US	First published: May 1995
2007	Love Grenade	-	US186 (1 week) US	First published: September 2007
2014	Shut Up & Jam	-	US102 (1 week) US	First published: July 2014

Live albums and compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		UK	US
1978	Double Live Gonzo!	UK47 (3 weeks) UK	US13 (22 weeks) US	First published: January 1978
1981	Intensities in 10 cities	UK75 (1 week) UK	US51 (10 weeks) US	First published: March 1981
	Great Gonzos !: The Best of	-	US140 (8 weeks) US	First published: November 1981
2010	Happy Defiance Day Everyday	-	US61 (1 week) US	First published: July 2010

Other albums:

• 1981: Cape Cod
• 1993: Out of Control
• 1996: Motor City Madness
• 1996: Over The Top
• 1997: Live at Hammersmith '79
• 1998: great hits
• 2001: Full Bluntal Nugity
• 2001: Noble Savage
• 2002: The Ultimate
• 2002: Craveman
• 2002: Take Two
• 2003: Take No Prisoners
• 2004: Decades of Destruction
• 2005: Extended Versions
• 2008: Sweden Rocks
• 2009: Motor City Mayhem
• 2009: Playlist: The Very Best of
• 2013: Ultralive ballistic rock

Singles

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		US
1976	Hey baby Ted Nugent	US72 (5 weeks) US	First published: January 1976
	Dog Eat Dog Free-for-All	US91 (2 weeks) US	First published: November 1976
1977	Cat Scratch Fever Cat Scratch Fever	US30 (11 weeks) US	First published: May 1977
	Home Bound Cat Scratch Fever	US70 (4 weeks) US	First published: December 1977
1978	Yank Me, Crank Me Double Live Gonzo!	US58 (7 weeks) US	First published: March 1978
	Need You Bad Weekend Warriors	US84 (2 weeks) US	First published: December 1978
1980	Wango Tango Scream Dream	US86 (4 weeks) US	First published: July 1980

Trivia

In the tenth episode of the 23rd season of The Simpsons, "The Intoxication of Power," Ted Nugent is parodied throughout the episode and even proposed as a Republican candidate for president by Homer Simpson, on his television show "We Need Eggs".

In the 24th episode of the third season of the sitcom The Wild Seventies , the protagonists attend a Ted Nugent concert at which Hyde and Fez want to sell counterfeit T-shirts. However, Fez has written "Tad" instead of "Ted" on the T-shirts, which is why the shirts are unusable.

Web links

Commons : Ted Nugent  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of Ted Nugent
• Hooked On Music
• Nuge Commando Europe fansite

Individual evidence

1. ↑ motherjones.com
2. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/ted-nugent-off-his-rocker-479556.html ( Memento from November 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Anthony Bourdain - A Matter of Taste Season 4 Episode 15 "US Southwest"
4. ↑ huffingtonpost.com
5. ↑ Rock Hard , No. 214, February 2005
6. ↑ Kia Makarechi: Ted Nugent For Mitt Romney: Rocker Stumps For GOP Candidate At NRA Convention . The Huffington Post , April 16-17, 2012.
7. ^ John Glastetter: Nugent Compared Obama and Democrats to a Coyote that Needs to Be Shot . on Right Wing Watch , with embedded video of Nugent's performance .
8. ↑ Uwe Schmitt: US rockers call for the murder of Obama . Welt Online , August 24, 2012.
9. ↑ Ted Nugent Remarks On Obama Draw Secret Service Scrutiny . The Huffington Post , April 17, 2012.
10. ↑ Michael A. Memoli: Nugent: Secret Service satisfied comments did not threaten Obama . In: Los Angeles Times , April 19, 2012.
11. ^ Morgan Whitaker: Ted Nugent calls Obama 'subhuman mongrel' . msnbc.com , January 22nd and 30th, 2014.
12. ^ 4 Hours at the White House With Ted Nugent, Sarah Palin and Kid Rock . The New York Times , April 20, 2017.
13. ↑ ^{a b c} Chart sources: UK US1 US2