Dec 8, 2020
The Nuge. Uncle Ted. Great Gonzo. The Motor City Madman. Today Dave
and Sam are discussing the rock legend, Ted Nugent, in honor
of his upcoming birthday.
The list of conservative rock-and-rollers is pretty short. But even
if you were only going to have just one, Ted Nugent would do the
trick.
Ted Nugent goes by many names, but he was born with the unassuming
moniker Theodore Anthony Nugent in 1948, the third of four kids in
Redford, MI. Part of a military family, Nugent’s father was a
career sergeant in the army. For his part, though, Nugent was of
draft age during the Vietnam War, he flunked his physical and was
declared unfit for military service. Today, however, he is a member
of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Felony Task Force.
Nugent began his rock-and-roll career with the Amboy Dukes, one of
the premiere psychedelic rock bands of the era. They replaced the
equally legendary Shadows of Knight as the house band at The
Cellar, a teen rock club in the Chicago suburb of Arlington
Heights, IL. Their breakout hit was
“Journey
to the Center of the Mind,” a song that is clearly about LSD use –
but not to Uncle Ted, who is one of the most notoriously sober
rockers in history. In fact, he was cited by Minor Threat’s Ian
MacKaye, and others of the early hardcore scene, as one of the
biggest inspirations for the straight-edge movement.
Indeed, The Nuge claims and proudly owns his role as the
inspiration for this movement. In a
VICE
interview he said that he will work with anyone who is anywhere on
the political spectrum
(citing
Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello as both a friend and a
collaborator), but that he’s reticent to work with anyone who does
drugs of any kind because he believes that it robs them of
focus.
You can read the full article “Ted
Nugent: The Forgotten History of the Conservative Rock-and-Roller
and Gun Advocate” at Ammo.com.
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