Interview by Allan Vorda. Webwork by Duane Franklet. Look for the rare early photo of Ted in rabbit pelt loincloth! Photos courtesy of Ted Nugent Similar material published in Psychedelic Psounds: Interviews from A to Z from Borderline Press, UK.
Ted Nugent was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948 and started playing guitar at age nine. His first group was the Royal High Boys (1960-61) followed by a stint with the Lourds (1962-64). The Lourds won a Battle of the Bands contest---with fourteen year old Nugent doing a guitar solo on the judge's table!---whereupon they opened for the Supremes and Beau Brummels.
His next band, the Amboy Dukes, achieved national success with "Journey to the Center of the Mind" which reached #16 in 1968. The band (which eventually became Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes) underwent numerous personnel changes which was partly due to Nugent's anti-drug policy. The band achieved notoriety for their constant touring and Nugent's wild, frantic guitar playing. For example, during 1973-74 he staged a series of "duels" for the title of Greatest Axeman against the likes of Mike Pinera (Iron Butterfly), Wayne Kramer (MC5), and Frank Marino (Mahogany Rush).
Nugent's persistence finally paid off in 1975 after signing with Epic where he achieved platinum success with such LPs as Cat Scratch Fever, Double Live Gonzo, and Weekend Warriors. Nugent possesses incredible energy--there is no doubt about it.
Allan Vorda (AV) Ted Nugent (TN)
AV: I have some questions which should jar a few brain cells.
TN: I know my whole history!
AV: K.J. Knight was later a member of the Amboy Dukes and recorded a single called "Mo-Jo" for the Sound Patterns label. Were you involved with this single?
TN: Boy, it's interesting you're even aware of that! No, I wasn't. I think K.J. did that before he was a member of the Amboy Dukes and the Nightriders. I'm not familiar with what he may have done, but it may have been in a demo form.
AV: Rusty Day was later a member of the Amboy Dukes and in 1966 recorded a single called "I Gotta Move #1." Were you involved with this single?
TN: No, but I was involved with firing him because he insisted on doing LSD together as a band. After I fired him he was machine-gunned to death because of a bad drug deal. Fuck you, Rusty! How's that! Rusty, his son, and a neighbor's boy were all killed in Orlando. Damn shame.
AV: How did the Royal High Boys form and where did you get the name?
TN: It was a band I put together around 1959-60 when I was eleven or twelve years old. It was just me and a drummer named Tom Noel. The band was named after a shirt! There was a shirt back then called a High Boy that all the greasers wore. We wore them because they were cool and so we called ourselves the Royal High Boys. Then we ended up getting a bass player which because the nucleus of a band called the Lourds.
AV: What led to the formation of the Lourds, who was in the group, and how did you get the name?
TN: The group consisted of Tom Noel on drums, Pete Primm on bass, John Finley on rhythm guitar, John Drake on vocals, and myself on lead guitar. I was the youngest being around thirteen and everyone else about eighteen or so. We started the band around 1962 or 1963. The name was just a variation of Lords.
AV: Is it true you were only fourteen when the Lourds opened for the Supremes and the Beau Brummels at Cobo Hall in 1962?
TN: We won the Battle of the Bands from sixty other groups. We did "High Heel Sneakers" and "Shake a Tail Feather" and I helped win it by doing a guitar solo on the judge's table!
AV: The Lourds have three tracks on the compilation album Long Hot Summer (also known as Friday at the Cage A Go Go): covers of "Shake a Tail Feather," "Out of Sight," and "Good Lovin'." Discuss these tracks and how they came to be part of the album.
TN: My dad was transferred to Chicago in 1965. After the Lourds went to the moving van company and destroyed all the vans trying to keep me from moving that summer, my dad took me to the barber shop and made me get a G.I. haircut. He threatened to get rid of my guitars, but he knew it was hard on me and let it slide.
The very day I arrived in Chicago I began a regimen of practicing guitar and rehearsing for a band. We passed up the Shadows of Knight in Chicago and became the hottest act in the Illinois area.
AV: Is it true the name Amboy Dukes came in part from Amboy Street in Dearborn Heights, Michigan? Members of the group attended high school in Garden City less than a mile away.
TN: The only origin I know of came from a group in Detroit called the Amboy Dukes who had just broken up. I think they were a R&B band. I thought it was a cool name and when I moved to Chicago I decided to use that name. Obviously, I learned much later there was a street gang in the 50s from Perth Amboy, New Jersey. There was a famous novel about the gang called The Amboy Dukes, but I've never read it even though many people have given me copies. It was a controversial novel of the time because it talked about gang rape. That's where the original Detroit Amboy Dukes got their name, but when I got it I thought it just another made-up name.
AV: Were you aware there was a group in England called the Amboy Dukes that in late 1967 recorded a cover of John Fred and the Playboy Band's "Judy in Disguise" on a compilation album for the British Polydor label?
TN: I had never heard their music, but I knew there was a black R&B band from England. I didn't think it was of any consequence.
AV: What involvement did the Amboy Dukes have with other bands on the Detroit scene such as the Unrelated Segments, Scot Richard Case, Tim Tam and the Turn-Ons, the Shy Guys, the Human Beinz, Bob Seger and the Last Herd (also known as Doug Brown's Omens), the Wanted, the Tidal Waves, the Southbound Freeway, the Pleasure Seekers, the Underdogs, etc?
TN: The Rationals and many others. All of us were part of the major musical force in Michigan. The Amboy Dukes were the first, because of my insanity on stage, to get a recording contract. I literally brought the Amboy Dukes to Detroit the summer of 1967 and by the fall we were the hottest ticket. We had no inhibitions, we let it rip, and we played with an unprecedented energy of R&B enthusiasm! And we still do.These are fascinating questions! Let's do one more and then go eat.
AV: How did the Amboy Dukes come to sign with the Mainstream label?
TN: A lot of young bands ask me what the trick is to success. There is no trick. If you've got the best seasoned firewood in an area where people need heat you're firewood is going to sell.
AV: That's a great metaphor!
TN: If you kick major quantities of ass on stage, play with uninhibited enthusiasm, practice,and believe in what you're doing --- not because you're competing --- but because you can't wait to practice, then you're going to succeed.
Everybody else in the rock and roll community was getting stoned and trying drugs. My drummer and I would stay up for four or five days straight. Ginger ale, young girls, and electricity! We would find music coming out of our instruments. I was only seventeen and had just gotten out of high school. That attitude prevailed and that's why Mainstream heard about the insane motherfuckers with this guitar player and they signed us.
Let's go eat!
(An hour and half later the troupe boards the bus to go eat at a sushi restaurant. Ted and I take a seat at a little dinner table and start the tape again.)
AV: Discuss the following tracks from the Amboy Dukes debut album: the cover of Them's "Baby Please Don't Go," "Down Philips Escalator," and "Good Natured Emma."
TN: The cover of "Baby Please Don't Go" was inspired by Them with Van Morrison and Paul Revere and the Raiders. It was just a classic rhythm and blues song. It has been my showpiece song since 1965. I say showpiece because that's the song that I just left town on the guitar. This was before there was feedback. I used to play a Birdland hollow-body guitar and this is where I won all these musical extravaganzas with the feedback and doom-and-destruction guitar sounds.
"Down Philips Escalator" was a dope-inspired song by my rhythm guitar player Steve Farmer. I don't know what the fuck he was talking about.
"Good Natured Emma" was a song named after my grandmother, Emma Nugent, which later became my daughter's middle name as Sasha Emma. It's just a wonderful woman's name I have always loved.
It was about a woman who lived in the woods and who was so beautiful that she didn't know the power of her sexuality. It goes like this: "Good natured Emma/Ieave your cracker barrels behind/Good natured Emma/there's more to the apple than the rind/I don't know how you can keep up your thing/The way that you do when it's not ours mine and yours/Sweet little Emma." The lyrics are kind of abstract, but I was only seventeen when I wrote it. It was about a girl who lived away from society but who was so beautiful that I needed to discover her. Kind of like Denise sitting over there. Denise embodies why I'm here. My music revolves around beautiful women and my idea of a beautiful woman is a dark-haired and dark-eyed exotic woman. That's my weakness.
AV: Explain "Why a Carrot is more Orange than an Orange?"
TN: That was another cosmic escapade by Steve Farmer. He did a lot of drugs, he was always dealing with the cosmic, and I don't know what he was talking about.
Do you want to know the most amazing thing in the world? When we put out Journey to the Center of the Mind in 1968 it had that pipe collection on the front cover and I didn't have the faintest idea what those pipes were all about! Everybody else was getting stoned and trying every drug known to mankind. I was meeting women, playing rock and roll, and meeting girls.
I didn't have the faintest idea about dope. I didn't know anything about this cosmic inner probe. I thought "Journey to the Center of the Mind" meant look inside yourself, use your head, and move forward in life.
AV: But you co-wrote the song.
TN: I wrote the music. He wrote all the lyrics.
AV: To set the record straight, for the umpteenth time, you don't do drugs, do you?
TN: I have never smoked a joint. I have never done a drug in my life. I'm the only human being who can make that statement.
I've never had a cigarette in my mouth. I don't drink. I had beers when I was fourteen or fifteen. I `ve never done a drug!
AV: Why not? If you're at an age when most teenagers are impressionable I can see you trying drugs and saying you don't like them, but why didn't you even try drugs?
TN: There were a lot of reasons, but the decision was very easy by the time I was in the Amboy Dukes. I watched incredible musicians fumble, drool, and not be able to tune their instruments. It was easier to say no than to say, "Hey, gosh, that's for me." I've also seen my fellow musicians die. It was so obvious. The same reason you don't run across certain highways during peak rush hours. I was first offered drugs by a beatnik in 1958 and he was slobbering. I just made a very simple conclusion early on. The man with a marijuana cigarette comes off as asshole next. Not me. I was therefore able to plunge into the depths of total irresponsibility with my music. Music over drugs was an easy choice for me.
AV: Discuss the Journey to the Center of the Mind album and how did you and Steve Farmer come to do the bulk of the writing?
TN: A lot of it was actual collaboration. A lot of it was Steve's attempt to become another Lennon-McCartney. Songs which we didn't even write together we put each of our names on. On the concept second side, with the exception of the title track, he took credit and did in fact write most of the lyrics. On "Journey to the Center of the Mind" he wrote the lyrics and arranged the vocal melody with Andy Solomon while I wrote the music.
I was an absolute maniac! I pIayed constantly on my guitar.
I just couldn't say enough on my guitar so I was always coming up with new passages and licks. Steve would work with me on some of the vocals but a lot of the songs such as "Good Natured Emma" were by me. A lot of songs have Steve's name on them, but I wrote them completely. "Dr. Slingshot," "Flight of the Bird," and "Surrender to Your Kings" were all by me. Then again, a lot of the songs Steve wrote he listed me as co-writer when there was no need. He was a real creative whiz of a musician, but he got so high it was like the Special Olympics of Communication.
AV: Why wasn't the single "You Talk Sunshine, I Breathe Fire" included on the album?
TN: I don't know. Mainstream Records didn't have much common sense. Great song!
AV: Why did John Drake leave the group after the Journey to the Center of the Mind album?
TN: I fired him because he wouldn't conform to rehearsal schedules or to vocal styles within the musical progress of the band. It was hard to fire him because John was an original member and a real figurehead in the Lourds. In fact, John Drake was the only member of the Lourds I brought to Chicago to join the Amboy Dukes right after he got out of the Army. He was also a kind of hero to me, but I had to get rid of him.
I did the same thing with Steve Farmer who was a brillant, creative individual, but who was so high and so irresponsible you couldn't get from point A to point B with him. Ideas alone will not sustain a band.
AV: How did Rusty Day (who later played in Cactus) come to be picked as a replacemment for John Drake.
TN: Rusty Day was a legend in Detroit. He was a 350 pound white soul singer for Rusty Day and the Midnighters. I had always admired his status and vocal capabilities. We auditioned him with a bunch of other singers and I thought he was perfect. He really did a good job although he never really tapped his potential. He could sing better than he showed on those records, but he was trying to abandon his R&B roots and was experimenting a bit. He ended up doing so many durgs I had to throw him out of the band as well.
AV: The Amboy Dukes' Migration album contains a flawlessly identical cover of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers' "I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent" with lead vocals by Andy Solomon. What prompted the band to include such an inspiring piece amongst an album full of guerilla rock?
TN: Andy Solomon was a big Frankie Lymon fan. I thought it was great, especially the way it went into "Good Natured Emma," and the way Greg Arama sang the jazzy bass lines and playing little games at the end. I think it shows how creative the Amboy Dukes were. There were a lot of great ideas in that band with incredible musicians. Greg Arama, for example, listen to his bass part on "Journey to the Center of the Mind." Unbelievable! Then heroin took over and I had to get rid of him. He ended up driving off a cliff in California.
AV: Discuss the single "For His Namesake" and why the song was abridged from the album version for single release?
TN: Steve and I wrote the song. I arranged a lot of the music, but it was mostly his song. He even wrote out, interestingly enough for the first time, my guitar leads. I had just gotten a Les Paul and Steve came up with some of these guitar licks. I was against it at first, but after playing it I stuck with them because they were so natural. The song was another showcase for Steve's creativity.
It was made shorter for the single because that was the way it was in those days. Songs were edited to get playing time.
AV: Discuss the track "Loaded for Bear" from Migration and why all the Detroit-area high schools are mentioned in the fade.
TN: "Loaded for Bear" was a typical Ted Nugent private life meets rock and roll life since I do love to hunt. I've drawn a lot of analogies between my hunting life and my rock and roll maneuvers because there are a lot of parallels there.
At the end of the song we were just dicking around because nothing is sacred. We had an idea so we just called off all of our high school names a la American Bandstand. I said why not and so we did it.
AV: Discuss the Migration album in general.
TN: That album was a joy for me and the song "Migration" to this day is one of my favorites even though it is an instrumental. A big part of our show at that time was my instrumental work because I was a real creative son-of-a-bitch on guitar. The album remains my favorite Amboy Dukes' album by far. There was some great stuff on it, it was a lot of fun recording, and we were progressing as a band. That album was probably indicative of where the band could have gone from the Journey LP to the Migration LP. The progress of the band was short- stopped by drugs.
AV: The next Amboy Dukes LP was Marriage On The Rocks --- Rock Bottom. The album included "The Inexhaustible Quest for the Cosmic Cabbage" which comes off as a tribute of sorts to surf rock.
TN: That song was Andy Solomon's creative little baby. He was deep into jazz and historical rock and roll. I loved my fellow musicians and when they had an idea I was always for it --- to a degree. I think sometimes if Andy had had his way the album would have been filled with these jazzy cosmic cabbage or quasi-Mother of Invention-type songs. Andy was real creative as you can see in all the different types of passages. It was also interesting to learn and play it.
AV: Why the massive personnel changes in the Amboy Dukes in 1969-71?
TN: Basically it was due to drugs and attitude. I wanted to play. I didn't care if we could only play 500 seat clubs just so long as we could play. Tonight I had a choice. I could either come to the Summit and open for Kiss or I couldn't come. There is no choice! I'm a musician and I want to play. I didn't start playing the guitar to fill out the Astrodome. I didn't have any visions of the peak of my career in the late 70s being the #1 grossing band in North America for three years. I didn't have that in mind when I started playing guitar. I started playing guitar because I loved the sounds it made and I still do. A lot of our band members became frustrated because we weren't making much progress and we played a lot of gigs. We would play up to 200 gigs a year back then. I loved it, but if they started dragging their ass then they were out. Let me put it to you like this: "The road I chose is a bitch now/You can't turn me around/If a house gets in my way/I'll just burn it down/Remember the night that you left me/You put me in my place/I've got you in stranglehold/And I crushed your face."That's the attitude of my life! Or, like I say on my most recent LP: "The Harder They Come, The Harder I Get." Don't fuck with me. I'm moving this way. I'm rocking. That is what I do.
AV: Perhaps you can expand on that point. In a late 1987 interview that appeared in Ducks Unlimited you stated: "Life is finite. I want to comprehend and absorb every inch of the journey."
TN: You are born and you die. You want to get in as many licks as you can. You want to make as many friends as you can. You want to do all the things to put smiles on your face. You want to share as many experiences as you can. You should get away with as little sleep as possible.
AV: What about the points on the other side? Do you believe in anything else after this life?
TN: No. You become worm meat. I'd like my son to use my body for bear bait. Kill a big old black bear when he comes in to eat my bones.
AV: Discuss the live Survival of the Fittest album. Why does the title track begin with the intro to "Journey to the Center of the Mind"? Also discuss the live rendition of "Prodigal Man"
on that album.
TN: The songs for Survival of the Fittest came from a night of instrumental jamming in the basement of the band's house. We started with the "Journey to the Center of the Mind" lick because it was the ultimate way to start a live show because of the rhythm of the guitar. First of all, people thought we were going to play "Journey" and they got all excited because of the rhythm. Then all of a sudden it stops and I go into this rhino's butt-fucking in the night sound with that Birdland guitar and it was shattering!
AV: You have a way with words.
TN: I have a way with rhinos! Anyway, it was all designed for impact. It's expected of me as a player, but I'm also a fan and I crave certain sounds so I'm out there to satisfy myself. So if I satisfy myself, or at least prick my own imagination, then anybody who likes to rock out is going to have a wonderful time.
"Prodigal Man" was the showcase song for all my musicians to do their solos because my musicians were so good: Rob Ruzga, the bass player, was not that hot and K.J. Knight was into funk. But where Dave Palmer's drumming was explosive, K.J.'s was funky; and where Greg Arama's bass playing was overtly creative, Rob Ruzga could just basically do a little funk move. It's funny we are discussing this because I just talked to Rob last week for the first time in almost twenty years.
I suppose if you want to get into the psychoanalysis of why I wrote "Prodigal Man," it was based on the Biblical account of a kid who takes off, screws up, and then goes home. I always figured I was just opposite. I left but I didn't screw up. I always played it straight and I would make any parent proud of the way I conducted myself. When I went home I was welcomed. I could say to my dad, "See, you didn't have to come and drag me out of the gutter with a needle in my arm. I'm cool whether I have a G.I. haircut or as some heathen who comes swinging through your window on a rope. This is Ted --- nothing more, nothing less. The lyrics go like this: "Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers/Listen to your kin/Don't reject him/Must respect him/He'll be back again." Whoa! I wrote that song twenty-one years ago.
AV: It's almost like Dylan's "Baby Blue" about the kid reappearing at your doorstep.
TN: I don't know anything about Bob.
AV: Do you remember playing live in the gym of Crestwood High School in Dearborn Heights, Michigan in May 1971 during the Survival of the Fittest Tour? Also, did K.J. Knight work out as new lead vocalist?
TN: Yes. That was right after David Palmer decided to take a gig as engineer at Electric Lady Studios. I had taken on K.J. Knight, but only as a drummer at that time. I had fired Rusy Day and Andy Solomon was taking care of the vocals. I also started doing some vocals for the first time.
Yes, I remember that gig. I wore a black fringe suit and played a black Birdland.
AV: Did you have your bow and arrow?
TN: I used my bow and arrow to shoot skulls off the amps. You weren't there were you?
AV: No.
TN: It was wild!
AV: Discuss the break-up of the Amboy Dukes.
TN: There never really was a break-up of the Amboy Dukes. It just got to be such a revolving door mentality with the musicians.
I also took a break in 1973 due to "ass attacks." I was so upset internally with the amount of effort I was putting out with the constant human battering I was doing with the musicians. I was bailing K.J. out of jail in Montgomery, Alabama for breaking into a Coke machine. Or getting someone else out of jail because he got caught with a joint. I felt like I was a fucking babysitter! I also acted as a road manager. I used to book the band. I used to maintain all the equipment.
I used to change the oil in the cars. I used to drive the truck and set it up. I handled all the hotels. I kept all the ledger books. I did everything. The result was I started to get muscle contractions in my ass. It would literally put me on the floor even on stage. So for the first time in my life I took a year off. It was too loony.
As it turned out I only took three months off, but it changed my life. I went to Colorado to go mule deer hunting. I found this incredible therapeutic value to that one trip. I decided that no matter what I would take a little trip to get away from the rock and roll world. I've been doing it ever since.
Going back to your question about the Amboy Dukes breaking up, I've always been relatively patient; but I do have a breaking side. I'll bail you out or I'll set up the equipment because you're high, but after a while I become a terror. There was a time when people would offer me drugs and I would trash them!
I would give them a fucking hook and break their fucking face and pound them out of the room in a bloody heap! I took their offering me a drug just like they were waving a gun in my face.
AV: How do your kids, Toby and Sasha, relate to you regarding your convictions?
TN: You have to realize they watched their mother conduct a life style revolving around getting high after our divorce. She died in a car accident a few years ago, but she was living a life of getting high. The kids watched it and it broke their hearts. It doesn't take but a fool to see the evil, nasty, heartbreak, pain, and agony that surrounds people that are high.
AV: You had an interesting relationship after your divorce.
TN: I wrote the divorce agreement and it was accepted in West Palm Beach. It stated the children would keep the 1400 acre farm in Michigan. The mother could stay and visit for a month while I was on tour. When I came back she would leave so there wouldn't be this vicious routine of bouncing the children from environment to environment. The children could retain a consistent habitat. If the parents couldn't get along then they should be the ones who should rotate. It was a wonderful concept---I think it should be a law.
AV: It appears you have an astute awareness about the meaning of life.
TN: I have aspired in my life to keep my antenna out at full length at all times. I don't want to miss anything.
AV: Has your antenna gotten bigger?
TN: Yes. This may sound like I'm really hot shit, but I really think I'm hot shit. My sense of awareness is impeccable.
AV: I think you're pretty amazing for a forty year old man. You were leaping up to the top of a pyramid stage and then jumping down ten to fifteen feet and all the time you were playing the guitar. You must be in better shape than 99% of the kids in the audience.
TN: I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago so I went to see a specialist. He said that after looking at the X-rays that I have the bone strength and muscle tone of a twenty year old athlete at the peak of his career. I'll be forty this year, but I think it is quite simple. I watch what I eat, I don't do drugs, I've never had a cigarette, and I don't drink. (Well, I did have two Coronas in Poukeepsie.) I take care of myself. What I do on stage is incredible exercise and I do that at least 100 days a year. I'm conscientious about my life because I love me, but I know Sasha and Toby, whom I love even more than myself, won't get diddley out of life from me unless I'm at prime operating condition.
AV: Are you in contact with any of the other members of the Amboy Dukes? Also how do you view the records of the Amboy Dukes in retrospect?
TN: I'm real proud of everything I did with the Amboy Dukes. It wasn't musically sound, because we were overtly uninhibited and in an experimental mood.
The first Amboy Dukes album was recorded in one night. One night on a four track recorder! And I think it is brilliant! The next album was done on an eight track in about five nights. Migration was done in a few weeks on an eight track with no effects except for a little over-dubbing. I'm damn proud of the Amboy Dukes.
As far as keeping in touch with the musicians, I keep in touch with drummer Dave Palmer on occasion. He's had a bit of a roller coaster ride. Arama is dead. Rusty Day is dead. John Drake is a car salesman in Detroit and I keep in touch with him.
Steve Farmer is planting trees somewhere in Oregon. Andy Solomon is doing commercials in Philadelphia and I see him when I visit the area. Bill White, a bass player on the first album, trains dogs in Detroit. Robby La Grange was in the group for a short time and is selling real estate in San Diego. Rick Loeber, a keyboard player, is still around.
When we played our New Year's Eve show in Detroit this year, I had no plans to do this, but at the third encore I dedicated the next song to John Drake, Andy Solomon, Rick Loeber, Steve Farmer, Greg Arama, and Dave Palmer. We played "Journey to the Center of the Mind" and it was incredible! Note for fucking note. It will be on a feature length video this summer.
AV: Many people cite Nugent as an example of what went wrong with rock in the 70s: self-indulgent, monotonous, etc. How do you react to those charges?
TN: Basically,, those critics are so out of touch it's comical. Self-indulgent is why we're doing it---to indulge our senses, to indulge our thoughts, and to apply our ideas to this audio excursion. I don't know what they're talking about. I think they're assholes. I think they are totally out of touch with themselves and certainly with music.
AV: You also recorded the Manfred Mann/Love classic (written by Burt Bachrach-Hal David) "My Little Red Book." What inspired you to cover this?
TN: That was a song I did with bands in the 60s. It has always been one of my favorites. I was just fooling around with it when I was recording Little Miss Dangerous and everyone thought it sounded great. So we put it on the record.
I don't know if you were listening before we went on stage, but they played Wilson Pickett's "Midnight Hour" which I did for the Little Miss Dangerous LP. Unfortunately, it never made it to the album.
AV: Your career has been like a roller coaster. In fact, The Rock and Roll Encyclopedia refers to Ted Nugent as a man who was "nothing if not persistent" and who "was simply not going to go away." How do you respond to this heavy-handed compliment?
TN: I love it. What they attribute to tenacity will just fade away. I just love what I do. You saw me on stage tonight. What I do defies comprehension. I just can't answer whether or not I'll ever run out of energy.
AV: Discuss "Stranglehold" which ranks up there as one of the great guitar solo classics.
TN: Yeah! That's an interesting recording because it was a bit of a battle to get the band to record it since it was basically a jam. It was just a great lick that continues to pound.
The guitar solo was a "take one" situation where I didn't have anything planned. I just started playing. I switched from rhythm guitar to lead guitar during the recording just to show everybody some ideas I had. It turned out to be such a nice pattern that we electronically enhanced the guitar tone to make it sound like a lead tone. It was just one of those spontaneous moves. It's one of my favorites.
AV: What about "Wango Tango" and such lyrics as the auto-erotic metaphor "Pretend your face is a Maserati"?
TN: That was also spontaneous. I had no plans for a big rap in the middle of the song.
The lyrics say: "I'm gonna show you a brand new dance/You put a right ankle out/And put the left ankle out/You get her belly propped down/And her butt propped up." Then I say: "You pretend your face is a Maserati/Oh, my God, it looks like there's a garage up ahead. The damn thing is open/Get it in there."
AV: Does "Wango Tango" have anything to do with the World Penetration Tour?
TN: It has a lot to do with the World Penetration mentality.
AV: How deep did the World Penetration Tour go?
TN: It's an eternal abyss! Sex is the single most powerful motivation in all my music and all good music. I'm rivetted.
AV: "Cat Scratch Fever" was the single that propelled Ted Nugent back into the limelight.
TN: It was just an infectuous lick. My wife at the time had opened an old antique medical journal which talked about "Cat Scratch Fever" and somehow I put the lick and that phrase together. The song, once again, is about girls.
AV: What about your appearance on Miami Vice and the song "Little Miss Dangerous"?
TN: That came about when I was recording the Little Miss Dangerous album. I thought there was a street sassiness to the music. My kids and I had watched Miami Vice a few times and I thought they utilized a music track with the spirit of the program in a fashion that was more reverant to rock and roll than anything I had ever seen. So I called Miami Vice myself and told them I thought some of my songs were perfect for their TV show. I sent them a tape of "Pain Killer," "Little Miss Dangerous," and "Angry Young Man." They decided to use the last two songs, but they also thought the title of "Little Miss Dangerous" would be perfect for an episode. The director found out they were going to use my music and thought I would be great in the lead male role. I read the part, got the job, and it was fun.
AV: You are famous for some off-the-wall comments. For example, in the Chicago Tribune (5/18/86) you stated: "I think the stuff I do could cure AIDS." Where do you come up with these comments?
TN: I get overwhelmed by my own shit. Not literally, mind you, but the stuff I do is because I'm driven to do it. Once I start I'm really digging it. When I'm making a record in a studio, since it is all new and sounding great, then I am absolutely mesmerized by the whole process. I tend to put things into cocky little superlatives. It just comes out.
AV: Discuss the If You Can't Lick `Em. . .Lick `Em album which includes the beautiful atypical Nugent ballad "Spread Your Wings.
TN: "Spread Your Wings" is the type of playing I do a lot in my jamming situations but very seldom on record. That lick for "Spread Your Wings" I've been playing since 1968.
AV: You are a noted hunter. For example, you took down two Cape Buffaloes in the Sudan in 1978 with a bow and arrow. On the back side of the Lick `Em LP is a hunting cap which states: I Hunt White Tails Year Round. Aren't white tails only in season around November to January? I would say you're going beyond the limits of the law.
TN: If a girl keeps her tan, then there's no bag limit!
As far as obeying laws, I will obey laws until it is just stupid. I will not drive 55 or 65. I've got too many places
to go. Fuck you! You can print that!
Actually, I thought the bag limit was the speed limit.
AV: In the Chicago Tribune article you stated: "I get pissed off when I see these talentless little bastards being revered like some kind of gods of the external world. It makes me nauseous." You then make references to Michael Jackson and Boy George. Please discuss the current state of rock.
TN: Somebody misquoted me on that. As much as I hate Michael Jackson, he is an incredible talent. I just think as a human being he is a waste! You just don't change your cheeks, your chin, your nose, your eyes, your hair, and wear enough make-up so that even the black people don't even claim you! You don't pretend. This is what you're born with. This is you. If you change it then what are you? He is a great talent and makes incredible music, but I didn't mean to refer to him as talentless.
Boy George, on the other hand, I would like to pistol-whip for about an hour. He's just a bad human being. Even though he came out originally against drugs, how many dicks did he suck? I just don't like those kind of people. They're sick!
The state of rock, as always, is diverse. Some of the best rock and roll is out right now. Bon Jovi deserves what he is getting because he makes incredible rhythm and blues based rock and roll. When I jam with them it's like jamming with veterans from a blues band. They've got an incredible touch.
Motley Crue's Girls Girls Girls LP showed them at their finest. Whitesnake's album is a fantastic soulful album. ZZ Top's stuff is fantastic as is Cinderella's debut album. Aerosmith's latest album is the best they've ever made.
I'll tell you what I hate about music right now. There are so many bands who look like they all trade clothes for the photo sessions and they all wear the same wigs. They're just clones of each other. There is no creativity. It's all the same guitar break and tone. All the same screechy-type vocals.
I'm opening for Kiss, but I've never liked Kiss. There is no soul there at all. What they do is cartoon pop music. What they do is the best in that field. Some of their songs, like "Crazy Crazy Nights," are great. They have their moments. I can stick my head out of the dressing room and stomach them for a few moments.
AV: Who are some of the great unrecognized bands?
TN: Fever Tree! The feedback of their guitar player (Michael Knust) is incredible. Randy California, Michael Knust, and I were the only ones who had that feedback style.
MC5 is another group, if they weren't such fucking hippies and managed by such fucking hippies, who could have been a monster Rolling Stones-type force.
AV: What does the future hold for Ted Nugent?
TN: The future basically holds from what I get off on: rock and roll, hunting, off-road racing, and all the things I love to do.
AV: What is the status of Red Meat?
TN: Red Meat is an idea for a restaurant. When I was out in Los Angeles I couldn't find a decent steak. I had to go out in the desert on the weekend and kill my own. It's something I'm thinking about.
AV: Any final comments?
TN: I don't know why people are so quick to criticize what I do and applaud other people's jokes. I see all this coverage for people who finally get over their heroin addiction, or finally quit drinking, or get a light sentence for murder, or the Born Again Christian ploy. Those dirty, lying bastards---I'd like to shoot them! And those evangelists are unbelievable---and people are buying that shit! Did I miss something?
There's not a dishonest fiber in my body. Anybody who has been to one of my shows knows that I believe in what I do and I dedicate myself to that.
AV: Finally, is there some unknown detail you have never revealed before in an interview?
TN: Believe me, everything that has transpired in my life has been related to an interview. I've been interviewed to death! I still get a kick out of it. If people have questions, I've got answers.
AV: Hopefully, I haven't asked the same banal or inane questions.
TN: You have but it is no problem because the questions are always asked in different ways. A lot of these questions are unique and have never been asked. Questions about "Good Natured Emma" and the high schools mentioned in "Loaded for Bear" are unprecedented! It's been fun.
Interview Notes
The interview took place on 2/24/1988 in Houston where Ted Nugent opened for Kiss at the Summit.
