Front page	From the Event Guide archive! This article refers to an event which took place on, or until, 07 June 2006 Music Interview - Ted Nugent From His Dead Hand   When confronted with the prospect of conducting an interview with a celebrity with whom you are largely unfamiliar, one has to go that extra research mile to acquaint oneself with their triumphs and tragedies in short order. So it was that I found myself engaged in the rather odd activity of keying the words Ted and Nugent into a search engine just hours before speaking to their owner in Texas via telephone. What my search uncovered engendered a sensation somewhere between trepidation and elation, and I began to offer up thanks for the few thousands of miles that separated me from The Motor City Madman.  For the benefit of those not versed in the ways of The Nuge, what follows is a potted history of this singular guitar hero. Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1948, his early success with The Amboy Dukes in the late 60s didn’t last, and he had gone sole by the seventies, signing with Epic to highly successful effect. There followed a string of hits, including ‘Cat Scratch Fever.’ Things remained turned up to eleven until the extended hangover that was the eighties hit hard, as it did with many 70s axe-men, but The Nuge staved off the rot by forming a super group – Damn Yankees – who later toured on the heels of Desert Storm, a show that featured Ted shooting flaming arrows at an effigy of Saddam Hussein.  You see, Ted is quite right wing. In fact, he is so far to the right that he has almost turned the corner back into left again. But not quite. Having served on the board of directors of the NRA since 1995, he is a staunch advocate of gun-ownership, believing it a god-given right, deriding all who would suggest otherwise. To his credit, he is hugely anti drug and tobacco, but his stance on crime is somewhat more problematic – instant death for all who transgress, no trial, just a bullet.  But it is outdoor pursuits that really set his amp reverberating, the natural high of being in the wild with God’s beautiful creatures – and then killing them. Indeed, hunting and ‘the outdoor way of life’ appears to have overtaken rock music on The Nuge’s pleasure list and, to be fair to the man, he is deeply immersed in all things conservatory and educational on this subject, a nature Kamp for Kids (his K, not mine) has even been inaugurated in his name.  When I spoke with him, Nugent stock was pretty high, coasting on the back of a spate of recent hit TV reality shows with titles as deliciously silly as, ‘Surviving Nugent,’ ‘Wanted: Ted or Alive,’ and my personal favourite, ‘The Ted Commandments.’ And contrary to what the facts might tell, I found him an intelligent, lucid, articulate and wonderfully entertaining fellow. Words by David O’Mahony.   So, how are you?  I’m great, just come in from a hog and turkey hunt with great warrior heroes of America (marines, I believe), and I’m just giddy with excitement at going over to Ireland for the first time. I come from German/Irish stock, and it is to my shame that I have yet to make the trip.   What can Irish audiences expect from the gig on June 7th?  It’s going to be fucking wild; a Thor thunder-god of rock rhythm and blues outrage, I can guarantee people brains will be shattered. There is a ferocious intensity to my music that certainly belies my 57 limping years; I tell ya, if a 27 year-old Ted Nugent showed up now, I could kick his ass.   You’ve been touring now for the best part of 40 years, to what do you attribute your stamina?  Being clean and sober for 57 years, simple as that.   How does Europe compare to that states?  It’s certainly a little bit cuter. I play 100 concerts a year in the states, so peoples skulls have been fortified by my music, though they still flinch and dance naked at every Nugent get-down. In Europe there is a fascination and a suspicion because they only get to see me on occasion. I believe there is an inclination for foreigners to be suspicious of Americans anyhow, and I really am the baddest American motherfucker that ever lived and my music really stinks of that, of a raw, pure, black rhythm and blues spirit, of tooth-fang-and-claw nature upheaval. My music forces you to ask yourself, am I really the best that I can be, or am I just a lazy fat lump of shit? Ultimately, if you’re not having fun at a Ted Nugent concert, you’re mentally ill. And the girls just can’t stand it!   How do you keep the show fresh?  Being clean and sober allows me to deliver the ultimate electronic blitzkrieg of music and also balance that with the last of the primal scream, hunting-with-a-sharp-stick lifestyles. I obtain all of my family’s food and clothing with the bow-and-arrow. I become the perfect predator that God made me. My consumerism is more responsible, it is proper and pure, and when I want an animal I don’t hire somebody with an assembly line and a disconnected knife to kill it for me, I do it myself. I know the protein I get for my family is perfectly respected, and consumed.   This approach to life must feed into your music?  Are you kidding? My music is a direct result of the intense, honest, raw, unapologetic life that I lead. The music that erupts from my ass every day blows my own mind. My training with the military is so zen and out of body that there is nothing more in body than the music. My god, I get a boner when I play! I go from the ultimate spirituality to the ultimate physicality. They things I do in life everyday, I just don’t think the average earthling has the capability of grasping. How’s this for an example – one week ago today I took part in a federal task force - I’m a fucking cop, by the way, the man who wrote ‘Wang Dang Sweet Poon Tang’ has a badge - so the federal task force put together a raid and I was invited to take part. We went through the night arresting fugitive felons – murderers, rapists, car-jackers, and child molesters – and I was there, gun drawn and adrenalin pumping beyond what any average citizen can ever know they are capable of. I went from that to putting on a barbecue for the families of dead soldiers. Then I went with the heads of wildlife agencies to talk about the importance of getting kids off the streets and away from the video games and into that higher level of the shooting sports and outdoor conservation. Your readers will look at this and think that I’m a liar, or they will stare in confusion, such is the dynamic diversity with which I live my life. I write for over forty publications, I mean get the fuck outa here! The stuff I do every day, I gotta check my ass to make sure there’s not balls of fire coming out of it!   You’re so dedicated to this way of life, what do you say to your critics, to those who decry gun ownership?  Well, I get such total gratification that I inspire them to speak up; the statements my enemies make clearly indicate just how right I am. The people who condemn me for being on the board of directors of the NRA, are literally condemning the basic right of self-defence. How could a decent person ever recommend a law that only the decent people will be helpless? Gun control is about guaranteeing that good people will be helpless! Who could condone such a thing? This is perfect (he shouts), just keep talking! Michael Moore, keep talking! The more these assholes keep talking, the more people will buy guns and shoot bad guys. Good people should buy guns and when they are about to be car-jacked SHOOT THE MOTHERFUCKER! ANY QUESTIONS? This confidence, this absolute certainty of what I believe in is what makes the music so much fucking fun.   You have recently become involved with reality TV shows, how did that happen?  Well, I am such a defiant son of a bitch, I have thrived for 40 plus years in a world of entertainment that hates everything I stand for. Why? Because I’m right and they’re wrong. I still sell out tours; I set attendance records in 2005 again, because I connect with people of intellect, people of honesty. And finally, even the hippies at VH1 realised that if they want ratings – i.e. money – they have to do something where they let Ted Nugent run wild, because I’m so fucking successful. All the people who condemn me, call me a loser and a fucking idiot for advocating a life of hunting, trapping, skinning, gutting and barbecuing, well, those shows were number one on 14 networks. How about a big handsome dose of fuck you! If you were born in an era where the entire mantra of society was the hiring out of the dirty work, the cattle in the morning the knifing etc, after a while the insulation it produces is dire, and after a while you can sit down to a chicken dinner and pretend that nothing died. The denial factor is absolutely soulless. Anyone who criticises hunting has no soul.   The continued success must be a vindication for you?  It’s like being a Jewish bagel operator at Nuremburg, shooting every Nazi who walks by and shoving his swastika up his ass. In the final analysis Ted Nugent has always been right, I’m right right now, I was right in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and I’ll be right tomorrow, and anyone who doesn’t get that is fucking retarded.   Ted Nugent plays Vicar Street, on Dublin’s Thomas Street, on Wednesday 7th June. www.tednugent.com / www.vicarstreet.com / www.ticketmaster.ie