Overrated Players: Ted Nugent

Rock idols are flawed, but few are as just fucking warped as the Nuge.

A long time ago, when I was learning to play guitar, I listened to many different players as I was building a style. And if you listened to rock and roll in the late 70’s and early 80’s, an oft featured musician was Ted Nugent. His biggest success was with his band The Amboy Dukes, where he dropped some iconic riffs and solos. Later he was featured in Damn Yankees, a super group with Tommy Shaw (Styx), and Jack Blades (Night Ranger).

And if his story stopped there, he would have cemented himself in the lore of rock and roll.

But, as with Clapton, there was always a subtext of a shitty example of a human being under the hood. As long as he just stuck to music, it is possible to overlook a lot of sketchy things. Like his songs that reference intimate relations with teen aged girls. Eww, but also “Stranglehold” is a good riff and song. How did he go so far off the rails?

First, he was in the sweet spot for being drafted into the service during the Vietnam war. His (successful) bid to dodge the draft was essentially shitting himself¹. Eww to the max.

Second, the election of Barack Obama brought out the Detroit Redneck out of hibernation. The referring to Obama as a “subhuman mongrel” was one of the first overt manifestations of his stunning racist screeds:

In an interview with Guns.com (duh!), Teddy Bear referred to a politician of mixed-race heritage as a "subhuman mongrel." Naturally, that politician was the President. Now, if you're thinking that "subhuman mongrel" sounds like the kind of racist bullshit that the KKK would have to say about Barack, you'd be dead wrong. Even the Klan realizes that people might find that sort of language off-putting in 2014. You'd have to go back at least to the violent, vigilante Klan of the 1960s to the term "subhuman mongrel" used in public.

Third, the Trump era allowed Nugent to truly fly his freak flag. Trump and Nugent share many traits, like being a scumbag, and fantasizing about banging underaged girls (in the late 1970’s, Nugent aged 30, adopted a 17 year old woman because she wasn’t old enough to get married, and as her “guardian” had a “traditional” scuzzy relationship with her as defined in the shitty family handbook.

It really hurt my eyes searching for this pic.

Again, gross.

He often will carry a Class III firearm² on stage, he goes into liberal bashing whenever he gets in front of a microphone or camera, and the latest incident being the batshit insane response to the Bud Light ad campaign with trans influencer, Dylan Mulvaney is just the latest installment.

Nope, Ted Nugent wins the shitbird of the year award, and whenever a song of his rolls up on a playlist, I set a speed record to skip that track. His music is just tied to his really fucked up worldviews, and that can’t be separated.

Alas, the MAGA right loves him, and fellow Michigan “rocker” Kid Rock³, both of whom have gone completely bat-shit insane.

He is scum, and I can no longer listen to his music. YMMV.

1. From https://www.gawker.com/5983634/patriotic-american-ted-nugent-shit-his-pants-to-avoid-the-draft - apparently he prepped in rather disgusting detail to avoid the draft. Eww

2. That is a full auto machine gun

3. Another shitbird, who acts like he is totally ghetto and a denizen of the conservative ecosystem, even though he was born into a fabulously wealthy family

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