Ted Nugent – HuffPost 8.18.14

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

Ted Nugent: 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.