A Conversation with Ted Nugent – HuffPost 8.18.14

Mike Ragogna: Ted, how’re you doing?

Ted Nugent: I’m sixty-five point six years old, except for my knees and the government, my life is perfect! I just got back from defying gravity on all levels in Sweden with the world’s greatest dream band with Mick [Brown] and Greg [Smith] and Derek [St. Holmes]. Of course, Shutup & Jam! was augmented with other dream virtuosos … Sammy Mother F**king Hagar. Are you kidding me?! This new drum monster from Waco, Texas, who teaches music history at Baylor University, his name is John Kutz, my god, listen to what this guy did on his first ever recording. I literally get teary-eyed at sixty five point six as I’m about to take the stage in Sweden, as I’m in the middle of the stage in Sweden, as I’m getting off the stage in Sweden, as I’m about to record with these unbelievable gentlemen and gifted monsters of musical limitlessness, and as I share this with you after all these years of recording and doing this, I have a reasonable grasp of the English language but I am helpless to find adequate words to describe the dynamic, the emotion, the physics of spirituality that pummel my life on a daily basis that is epitomized by your statement that this is classic Ted Nugent stuff, because this is all offspring of Chuck and Bo and Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and of course Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed. It’s so powerful in my life and I know it’s powerful in other music lovers’ lives. I’m gaga over the whole thing. I’m so pleased to talk to you about it or anybody about it that loves music, so thank you.

MR: It’s classic Nugent, you’re very welcome. So where does all that passion onShutup & Jam! come from?

TN: I just went into a monologue for you, a generalization of my musical life and my daily life. I mean Mrs. Nugent is doing Zumba in front of me. I’m sorry, Michael, you just don’t know. I ran my dogs, we killed a squirrel this morning, I worked on one of my food plots and I cut the lawn and I shot some arrows and I played my guitar and now I’m talking to Michael Ragogna about the things that I love and how it all goes into the simple answer. Though it’s very complex, to where this album came from is an immeasurably positive life and an immeasurably positive lifestyle. Every year, you stop and think. Fifty some years of touring and making music, and 2013 was the greatest tour of my life. I almost hurt my mouth smiling so much. What Mick and Greg and Derek do to my music and what they bring spiritually and in talent and tightness and soulful energy and just positive spirit to my music every night.

MR: It’s always about the music, isn’t it.

TN: Michael, it is about the music. And you can’t write “Stranglehold” if you think getting high will enhance your musicality. Who would you want high in your life? Your pilot? Your Landscaper? Would you want your butcher high? That’s where my view came from, because I was disciplined to be accountable for my cause and effect, and if I’m going to eat food in the Nugent house and consume and be a member of the family … I was forced by a loving mom and dad through discipline, which happens to be Parenting 101, to be an asset to my family, which means I have to pay attention, mistakes will not be tolerated, accidents will not be tolerated, irresponsible behavior will not be tolerated. Growing up in an environment where if you’re going to make trash, you should probably take it out and then you should probably be aware of and responsible for where it goes and I learned about landfills and I learned about conservation. If you’re going to use wood products, you might want to plant some f**king trees, little things like that. When I ran into the hippies in my preteens–they weren’t hippies yet, they were still beatnicks — you remember Dobie Gillis and the Beatkniks? That was the first onslaught of booger-ridden, drooling, puking, pre-hippie beatniks. When I played a pool party for the University of Detroit with my band in ’59, I would see these beatniks. They actually had berets and goatees because I think Maynard G. Krebs was their hero. How could you not realize that if you’re going to play a really damn tight performance to Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry music that you can’t be drooling and puking? The stuff they were doing — the drinking, the drugs — would ruin your musicality, and I witnessed it throughout my life, the guys couldn’t even get to the f**king gig on time. They couldn’t tune their instruments because the dope was “expanding their consciousness.” I discovered that I don’t need to sit on the bench in the park that has a “wet paint” sign on it. I can watch other idiots standing up from sitting on that bench, see the paint stains on their ass and draw the conclusion that maybe I don’t need to actually experience that to discover whether the paint might be wet.

MR: But there are some people that need to do stupid things first hand to really “get it.”

TN: Yeah, and then they’re going to charge you and I to clean their painted pants.

MR: Oh, I’m not sure about that.

TN: Well, I am sure about that! Look at the Welfare, look at the socialism, look at the safety net. When you vote for the DREAM Act, Geraldo, and then you feign shock that there are tens of thousands of people coming across the border because the message has been sent, “Yeah, come on, go ahead, break the law, invade our country. We’ll feed, clothe, and house you, and then you can vote for the people who invited you. We’ll feed, clothe, and house you and you don’t have to be a productive member of society, you can be a bloodsucker.” You don’t see that parallel?

MR: Honestly? I think there is a value to at least considering the other perspective. Like if I were in another culture, wouldn’t I have other life views or another view of the world than I do now?

TN: Well, that’s nice that you would have another view, but I don’t really have a “view.” I have a lifetime accumulation of lessons. It’s not my view that the bench paint is wet. That’s not my f**king view. It’s not my view that dope destroys everybody in and around the users. That’s not a view. That’s a conclusion. So that’s why I say, “Hey Michael, shut the f**k up and jam!” Of course, we can’t all agree that killer music is killer music, but those that really love music and love the pursuit and accomplishments of excellence do love killer soulful music. That’s why I’m going on my fifty-something year touring. I’ll be performing my six-thousand, five-hundredth concert this year and that’s why you love Shutup & Jam!, because you’re so positive. If you’re not having fun with Ted Nugent, you’re weird! Don’t you think? Have you ever been to one of my concerts?

MR: No, sadly.

TN: See, you haven’t lived! The energy is so positive it’s unbelievable. It’s like we’re at the Concord Bridge with M16s!

MR: That reminds me, what’s the story behind “Semper Fi”?

TN: It has more to do with what you mistakenly called “life views” instead of “life conclusions.” The cute thing about my record — as if there’s not unlimited cuteness from all my records — one of the dynamic cutenesses of my records is called Shutup & Jam!. But I don’t all the time. I shut up and jam when I f**kin’ feel like it and when I don’t feel like it, I actually revert to my number one duty as a human being and that is to be a “We The People” participant in this sacred experiment of self-government and demand accountability from my employees in government. Wow, what a concept.

MR: Ted, I need to ask you my traditional question. What advice do you have for new artists?

TN: It’s really simple. I’ve written the answer to that question, and I’ve answered that question certainly thousands and thousands of times, but it cannot be repeated often enough. You have to be clean and sober. You have to treat your sacred temple with ultimate reverence. You have to eat smart, rest smart, exercise smart, and apply that excellence of management of your physics of spirituality to the instrument of your choice and the music of your choice. I understand, I’ve seen these journalists completely go berserk with that statement. They go, “Oh yeah, Jimi Hendrix didn’t make any new music when he didn’t do any drugs!” I’ve acknowledged that a gazillion times over, but I would ask the question, “Geez, wouldn’t it be awesome to see what Jimi would have done later and how he would have continued to progress in his musical expression?” So the argument that the drugs were on the positive side of his quality of life is nothing short of pathetic. I guess you would have to be on drugs to think that. But my point is that being clean and sober and surrounding yourself with excellent people of integrity, honesty, dedication, a work ethic, it really isn’t rocket science. It’s really Quality Of Life 101. You demand to be in the asset column of your life, your family’s life, your community’s life, your fellow musicians’ life. You get to rehearsal early, you take good care of yourself so that your energy and your creativity is optimized and you put your heart and soul into every collaboration, every lick. That really identifies, Michael, what Shutup & Jam! is. Someday, a journalist has got to witness a recording session with me and my boys. I don’t care how many tailgate parties you’ve been to or whatever you love in life the most. If you think you’ve been to the mountaintop of those things you love the most in life, you can’t imagine the spirit, the positive attitude and energy and the laughter and the intensity of getting the songs tight and genuine and heartfelt. It’s really very, very inspiring. That’s why I’m giving a tip of the hat and I’ve mentioned every musician’s name including Michael Lutz. Everybody involved with this record came in salivating with unbridled animal anticipation for what can only be considered an animal breeding orgy of music. We love these licks, we love these songs and no matter what historical musical reference I made … You know how Howlin’ Wolf did that one thing? You remember how “Wang Dang Doodle” really got disjointed but it remained tight? We’ve got to get that on this song. I’m gonna try a blues version of “Never Stop Believing.” Because it’s so emotional, only blues can adequately deliver what I’m feeling. I offered it to be sung by other people and Sammy Hagar literally scolded me and said, “No f**king way, you need to sing this. You’re singing your ass off. This is your statement, if you let anybody else sing this song I’m going to kick your ass.”

MR: I imagine you’ve taken your own advice from Day One.

TN: I really have. I compromised a bunch of times, but I’ve got to tell you, I wrote a piece for WND. I hope you read my stuff at WND.com, newsmax.com … you should even read my stuff at deeranddeerhunting.com because I weave in a lot of politics to wildlife management and the hunting lifestyle. All that goes into my music because I have been taught to and learned to celebrate my independence, my decision-making process, my confidence of what Bo and Chuck and Little Richard and all the gods that invented this music taught me. Nobody can argue against it. You can’t possibly have a better idea than Chuck Berry on how a song should flow. Of course, you accumulate every musical celebration of every one of Chuck’s children — I don’t care if it’s Bob Seger or Kid Rock or Jack White or Eminem or Bruno Mars or the Chili Peppers or Christina Aguilera or James Brown. No matter what it is, it’s all derivative of the original bluesy, soulful celebrations of getting away from slavery to the uninhibitedness of what freedom can bring, et cetera, et cetera. When you surround yourself with people like that and you can actually capture it in song, again, I am stymied to find a word to adequately describe the joys of making music like this with these people and I really believe that there’s a whole bunch of us out there that really like it. I don’t know how success is measured these days with the digital thievery that exists out there, but I’m hoping that a lot of people get to hear this music because I’m so proud to represent it.

MR: When you get right down to it, music is pretty universal. It’s at the heart of people’s feelings, right?

TN: No question. It’s become an accurate colloquialism that music is the universal communication. That’s why songs like “Fred Bear” have so touched people, and songs like “Stranglehold” are played when people are going into battle, when Kirk Gibson is about to go up to bat with a leg injury in the bottom of the ninth … That’s why they’ve played “Stranglehold” when the Blackhawks come out on the ice every day for the last thirty-six years. I have an unbelievable relationship with the warrior spirit of rugged individualism and attitude. I think this record really, really conveys that and I’m glad your opening statement indicated you felt that, too.

MR: Classic Nugent.

TN: I think so. Bottom line is I didn’t invent the middle finger but I have perfected it.

MR: [laughs] Ted, one of my other favorite lines that you’ve ever said is, “My guitar does not gently weep.”

TN: No, my guitar does not gently weep, it beats your face, get over it. What the f**k!

MR: By the way, I came in on Nugent music with “Cat Scratch Fever” and went back for Amboy Dukes.

TN: What a groove. We are the groove gods, there’s no doubt about it.

MR: “Cat Scratch Fever” is a true rock anthem. Virtually everyone knows that song and kids learn it when they pick up a guitar. How do you feel about being its creator?

TN: I think it was ultimately stated when Ritchie Blackmore called and said he was angry because he hears more people saying that “Cat Scratch Fever” was the ultimate intro guitar lick than “Smoke On The Water.” I think it’s a photo finish myself. When you pursue it relentlessly like I do … I played some licks this morning, Michael. I’ve got a whole other record already prepared, I’ve got just grinding, grooving, rhythmical, pulsating, nasty, sexy licks and grooves and patterns and guitar theme lines already prepared. It’s a matter of time. If you write a lot, you’re going to end up writing something pretty good at some point and if you play the guitar every day, a percentage of your licks have got to be decent. Ultimately, I think if you play like I do, you’ll come up with these magical patterns like “Fear Itself” or “Never Stop Believing” or “Do-Rags and a .45.” Are you kidding me?! Not to mention “Cat Scratch” and “Wang Dang” and “Wango Tango.” Listen to the Craveman record. The guitar lick on the song “Crave” is undeniably my greatest series of guitar licks I’ve ever written. It just never ends.

If you play as much as I do, you’re going to bump into monster guitar licks. Again, that goes back to being clean and sober so that your brain is cleansed so that you’re open and uninhibited and even irreverent in your indefatigable pursuit of grinding licks and eventually, your fingers will collide with the right pattern on the fret board and magic happens. I’m not exaggerating. If you ask my band mates, every time I pick up the guitar, Michael, people think, “Oh, Nugent brags. He thinks he’s the greatest.” Shut the f**k up, I’m way beyond the thinking stage. Every time I pick up my guitar, killer f**king patterns erupt. Every f**king time. I had a hundred songs forShutup & Jam! but eventually, I just said, “Hey, shut up and jam. Just play these fifteen.” I’m a lucky man. But again, that’s because I’m clean and sober. I live a positive life surrounded by the greatest family, the most gorgeous, dangerous wife you could ever dream of, the greatest musicians, the greatest team. Everybody around me is a monster of productivity, love and positive energy. You can’t go wrong.

MR: Sounds beautiful.

TN: It is beautiful!

MR: You know what else is beautiful? Your friendship with Sammy Hagar after all these years.

TN: Absolutely! We first met in ’74 maybe, Montrose opened up for us on the West Coast and I remember that Ronnie [Montrose] and Sammy and Denny Carmassi and Chuck were all on the side of the stage watching like children. Wait a minute, they were children! We were all children! [laughs] But they loved that Motor City high-energy exaltation of what the founding black creators showed all of us. Everything Montrose comes from Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters, and so does mine. But I think mine’s just a little bit more intense, although I don’t think anybody will ever beat “Bad Motor Scooter”s or “Rock Candy.” My point is we all come from that same black rhythm and blues school of guitar jamming, so that bond was irrepressible and it remains that way today.

MR: About your duet “She’s Gone,” you mentioned that Sammy originally didn’t want to sing on one of the tracks you wanted him on because you sang your ass off on it. But he did eventually come and join you on this one.

TN: I insisted because I love Sammy and I love his fire and his passion and his talents. But when you combine all that together, I was reluctant to do a duet. I wanted him to sing the whole thing, but this is one of those moments when I did agree with my team, including Sammy and my musicians and Michael Lutz. They said, “No, no, no.” Sammy said, “I don’t even need to sing this one.” When I send someone something to do, I always sing it the way I would sing it, whether we go back to the original “Stranglehold,” or “Just What The Doctor Ordered,” or how Derek delivered incredibly on “Everything Matters,” Sammy said, “I’m not singing this, you sing that mother**ker, you’re singing your ass off!” We actually traded off on the verses and I love it.

MR: Like most classic rockers, you’re one of the torch bearers of the musical style that started with Chuck Berry. Where do you think it’s going now? Are you seeing any rock out there now that people should be paying attention to?

TN: Well, Michael, that’s a heartbreaker. I’m afraid that the digital age has technically facilitated, encouraged and rewarded the thievery of incredible musical investment–because it takes a lot of money invested to make a record. If a bunch of people get it for nothing … The orchard operator isn’t going to continue bringing apples to the fruit stand if everyone just takes them and nobody pays for the fertilizer or the pesticides or the herbicides or the people that bring them to the fruit stand, so you’re going to run out of apples eventually if everybody thinks they can get them for nothing. I’m afraid that’s what’s happened to music. It has discouraged and literally shut down youthful, adventurous creativity, where they’ve gotten the message that, “Well, I’m going to have to waste years and years and years of my life perfecting my art that I’m going to have to find a whole bunch of money to make a record and then get nothing? Really? I don’t get paid for all that elbow grease and all that sweat investment? Really? F**k you, I’m going to get a different gig.” There are amazing, mind-dazzling virtuosos out there that we’ll never hear from.

MR: This is an odd way for me to put it, but is it a matter of the technology needing to die for a little bit to reel things back in a little?

TN: I don’t know the answer. I don’t see an answer. There’s a Jack White out there and he’s overcoming it, and of course, country music, which is basically seventies rock. They’ve overcome that. Their fan base will still buy their product more than steal it. There are some monsters out there. I don’t even know a lot of the big, multi-million sellers. I know that Eminem still does that with a different genre all together, so there are still your top, top echelon that continue to sell. Thank God that Cheap Trick and Aerosmith and ZZ Top and Ted Nugent and Foreigner and Styx and REO and Journey and Heart and everybody else can still keep performing because we’ve established that we can put on a monstrous, valuable performance every night. But those that didn’t establish that when we were able to sell product in an industry that loved the music, everyone from the guy that pressed the record to the guy who owned the plant … I know that for a fact because I met all those guys in the sixties and seventies. The guy that ran the record store loved the music, the guy that was the distributor loved the music, they A&R guy and the president of the label loved the f**king music. The guy that folded the cardboard for the album covers loved the f**king music, and that’s gone! It’s literally gone! I don’t know what the answer is. We’re still going to get some killer Chili Pepper music with the unbelievable God of Thunder Drummer from Detroit. There’s still great music out there, but boy, it ain’t like the heyday of the sixties and seventies when everybody just cherished the musical expression. I think Shutup & Jam! might be able to overcome some of that, but time will tell.

MR: And Detroit is truly where it all starts for you.

TN: Absolutely, no doubt, yeah.

MR: You have the drummer from Mitch Ryder’s band. To me, when it comes to rock, Detroit can have that badass, middle finger attitude, the kind you brought up earlier.

TN: It’s not necessarily a hateful middle finger, it’s like letting your freak flag fly. Bruno Mars has got it, his amazing band has got it, even Justin Timberlake has got it and his amazing band has got it. It’s still alive and well. Again, I’ll reference Chad Smith and the Chili Peppers, they’ve still got it to some degree. Even the Green Day goofballs have still got it. I think when you witness Journey on stage, a bunch of us old guys have still got it. Dave Grohl can’t really be considered new but he’s a little newer than I am and he’s still got it in his amazing bands. It’s still available if you want to track it down and find it, but it’s not like a tsunami like it was in the sixties and seventies. Then there are guys that are just rogue warriors like Joe Bonamassa, or this incredible guitar player from Texas here, Chris Duarte. There are so many guys that just keep plugging away. They’re not making a lot of money, but they play and play and play and play and play and that is still always going to work. I still believe today that if a punk-ass kid, twelve years old, did exactly in 2014 what Ted Nugent did in 1959, he could still not only make a living at it but make a good living and the ultimate soulful gratification of the masses celebrating his musical art and statement if he learned to play grooves and loved the grind and the tightness of the band and remembered the authority that brings Bruno Mars such success–that James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Motown Funk Brother touch. All that original stuff that I was inspired by in 1958, 1959 when I opened up for Billy Lee & The Rivieras at the Walled Lake Casino with my band The Lourds, when we became the number one band in the Michigan Battle Of The Bands because those guys in Billy Lee & The Rivieras — who turned into Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels — were sons of Chuck Berry and James Brown and they worked up eight crescendos per song. Every song was an encore! I learned that kind of fighting intensity, and to this day, I might be the only one that really delivers that level of intensity on stage. I get that from everybody. Go to my Facebook and you see people that saw me last year and saw me with the Amboy Dukes in 1967 and they say, “My God, if the twenty-year-old Ted Nugent showed up tonight, you would have stomped his ass into the dirt.” Which is going to be another song I’m writing, called “If the twenty-year-old Ted Nugent showed up I’d stomp his ass into the dirt.”

MR: [laughs] Ted, a lot of people don’t remember you participated in the tribute to Martin Luther King with Joni Mitchell and other artists, and you just referenced a lot of R&B music that influenced you. Isn’t music the ultimate ambassador that can bring everybody with different views together?

TN: I would hope so, and I have seen it happen. Here’s a good example, and I express this often. Number one, Bono, the guy from U2, finally admitted a couple years ago that the only way to help needy people in poverty is through entrepreneurial capitalism, so that people can pursue their dreams, make as much money as possible and history has shown that those people that do make as much money as possible are the only source of assistance to people who haven’t made enough money. Hello, Bono, very nice! Hello! And then, of course, there’s my very good political friend, Tom Morello. He claims to be this ultra-left socialist politico, and he’s a dear friend of mine. In fact, Shutup & Jam! was somewhat inspired by Tom because we have these wonderful conversations about guitars and music and we sometimes get into political conversations until he runs into the Ted Nugent brick wall of facts and self-evident truth and historical evidence and then, because I don’t want to embarrass him any further, I just say, “Well, let’s just shut up and jam!” I can get along just fine with him, no fisticuffs, no screaming, purely gentlemanly and civil. Just shut up and jam! Like Paul McCartney… He attacked me for eating venison, claimed I didn’t have any good musical ideas and I was a bad human being for slaughtering innocent animals and when he was done with that, the interviewer in Detroit asked me what I thought of that and I said, “I don’t think much of that, all I want to say to Paul McCartney is thank you for the incredible music that has enriched mankind’s lives.” I just want to salute Paul McCartney for sharing his musical genius with the world. My life wouldn’t be anywhere near as wonderful as it is without Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s Beatle music, so I don’t really give a s**t what you had for dinner, Paul, just shut the f**k up and jam!

Transcribed by The Masked Marauder