By Chris Avena
Ted Nugent, a bonafide rock legend, who has carved a place in rock and roll history by selling over 40 million albums and still continues to set attendance records today. He is a staunch supporter of our first and second amendment rights. He works tirelessly to preserve our Outdoor heritage while legions of his fans know him as the Motor City Madman, many more just know him as Uncle Ted.
Chris: How are you doing, Ted?
Ted: Hey, Chris. Happy summertime 2021 in this crazy stupid bizarre goofball year. I'm having the time of my life. My dogs are happy, my wife is happy, my band is happy. And I might squirt through this technology and put a stain on your soul, Chris, because I'm wrapping up. God help us all. The greatest recording session of my life in the insanity of 2021 with Jason Harless on drums and Greg Smith on bass guitar, I got a team of insane, intense, gifted work ethic musical monsters, and we're recording the best songs in my life. So, I'm feeling so good. It's stupid.
Chris: When do we expect the new album?
Ted: I am hoping for the first song, a little love song called “Come and Take It”. It's kind of a battle cry that epitomizes the American Dream if you know what I'm talking about. I am hoping that the first song “Come and Take It”, which is--- man, if you want your white tails or your elk to start breeding early, just play my new music for them. The stimuli factor is - I don't even know if God has authorized it yet. But we're hoping sometime in the next couple months the first song “Come and Take It” will come out.
Chris: That's great. I'm looking forward to and I've seen you in concert several times going back to when you played with “Damn Yankees”.
Ted: Are my musicians the greatest musicians in the world? Am I the luckiest backstrap and bow hunting guitar player in the history of the world to have? Here we are celebrating the great spirit of the wild Outdoor lifestyle. I have bow hunted with Fred Bear, I went around the indie track with Parnelli Jones. I played bass guitar for Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry. Here it is in 2021 I'm married to Mrs. Nugent, the queen of the forest. So, what you've witnessed is that God has really blessed me. I think he rewarded me for staying clean and sober for 72 and a half years. But the musicians that you're talking about, if I wasn't in the Nugent band, I'd go see those guys because I've had the greatest musicians in the history of the world all the way since 1958, when I just talked to John Black my singer from 1958.
So yeah, what you’ve witnessed is the passion, the fire, the work ethic. I cannot overstate the work ethic of all these amazing musicians that I've been surrounded with. Because my dad forced a work ethic out of me that's called parenting, even though nowadays people's feelings would get hurt. But what you witnessed are guys that are so dedicated, so into the adventure of music inspired by those great black masters the Motown Funk Brothers and James Brown and Wilson Pickett, Chuck Berry and Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley and Little Richard, Good Lord. That spirit of defiance and uppity outrage that those artists created, they're still with the best musicians in the world and I happen to be surrounded by the best musicians in the world.
Chris: I have seen Bo Diddley in concert and what an amazing guitars.
Ted: I am 72 years old, but I still get goosebumps when I play. So yeah, that authenticity, that musical uninhibitedness, out of body I and Chris it's like bow hunting the mystical flight of the arrow. Aim small, miss small marksmanship. You know, we call the spirit of the wild the outdoor lifestyle. It really is the pursuit of samurai excellence and that's alive and well in anybody that's successful and happy whether you're a welder or a guitar player or a bow hunter or a teacher, or a dog trainer, which by the way, I'm all of those things.
But you've witnessed in my life these unbelievable monsters of music that have propelled my songs and my vision, even in 2021, even though the tour is cancelled, thanks to the Chinese communists in the White House. So, that spirit of the music that Little Richard invented and turned us on to, it's so alive and well. And you've witnessed it every concert, every song every year of my life, and I thank God every day.
Chris: You have always given your fans what they are looking for in every forum, whether it's music, your hunting shows, your speaking engagements, they always get what they came for.
Ted: That's how I was raised, you know, the most controversial word in the world right now. I think there's so many of them. Security, that's controversial. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the 10 commandments, the golden rule, that's all controversial. But the most controversial thing and we're paying for it with the manifestation of a cultural deprivation is discipline. What you're celebrating with me here and that I celebrate, not because of me or my music or my guitar playing, but the discipline of those people I've been surrounded with that my dad taught us. If you met my sons and daughters, my brother and my sister, my poor lost brother, John, we lost a couple years ago. That spirit of being the absolute best that you can be. My welder is the greatest welder in the world. My mechanic is the greatest mechanic in the world. I won't settle for anything less than that, certainly goes to the core of the musical monsters that I've been privileged to collaborate with.
Chris: I want to talk about one thing for a minute. You mentioned Fred Bear earlier. What kind of impact did Fred Bear have on your life?
Ted: How about the fact that my dad--there it is right there. Here is a bow from not that long ago. But here's one from 1976. I didn't put these here for you to see, Chris. I'm surrounded by these bows everywhere in my life. I've got so many bows. How about this? Here's the bow that when I was born in 1948, Chris, this is the bow that my dad hunted with Fred Bear when he was just introducing or reintroducing that spirit of oneness with nature. That is the bow hunting lifestyle. This is his bow from the 1940s, Chris. I've got so many old bows.
Chris: Your dad was friends with Fred Bear before he was Fred Bear.
Ted: Yeah, nobody really understood the impact a great man would have but you asked me what it meant to me. Certainly, my dad was already a bow hunter when I was born in 1948. As I was growing up, every kid back then made bows and arrows out of reeds and strings and down by the Rouge River outside of Detroit. That's where I was raised. There was wildlife paradise called Skunk Hollow. I was always mystified. I got a bow probably when I was two or three, just like my grandkids and like my kids. Every kid was fascinated. Well, I think every human is exposed to archery, the oneness, the mystical flight of one's vision and focus discipline.
But then by the time I was five or six, I mean so young. We would go north every year through Grayling, Michigan, and this was pre-Bear archery. There was a little shack, Chris. I might get emotional here. There was a little shack in Grayling. It's kind of an off yellow color cinder block shack that had a hand carved Bear archery over the door. I think the Bear archery wood carving was actually made by Nels Grumley. Nels Grumley, he was Fred's original boyer that created their long bows before they invented the marriage of glass and wood in the lamination process. But anyhow, I get ahead of myself because it's so exciting to me. But I would meet Fred every year from 5,6,7 years old. When I was eight or nine years old, I was so nuts about bows and arrows. And my Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun doing English Sparrow patrol in the garage. I made my own slingshots. I think every kid did back then.
But by the time I realized, wait a minute, we stop at this little shack in Grayling every year on our way to the North Country. Never killed a deer, very rarely saw one. But when I met this Fred Bear, he was a kind and funny and gentle and he had all these bows and arrows on the walls. Back then if I had two or three arrows, that would be considered an arsenal. But Fred had hundreds of arrows, and I eventually met George Nichols, at Jackson archery, who made all of Fred's arrows. So, I'm in the vortex, I'm in the eye of this new bow hunting storm. And then I see Fred on the cover of True Magazine or on American Sportsman with Curt Gowdy.
And I'm thinking, wait a minute, this is that guy. This is the bow hunting guy. So, then I became just an appreciative of this kind gentleman with lots of bows and arrows to realize that this was my Chuck Berry of archery. This is my Chuck Berry of the bow hunting lifestyle. We became friends and I hunted with him right up until October of 1987, the fall before he passed in April of 1988. I got to tell you, the kindness, the smarts, he was a funny guy. He was a cocky guy. He never showed that much in public. But around the Grouse Haven campfire and his annual hunt up there, Rose City, Michigan but, it's at the age of 72. I'm remembering all these details, because I can see it and feel it right now talking to you. He was just such a kind man. Whenever you had an archery shortcoming, or maybe a glitch or a failure in your form, he would tweak that.
The reason that I am still eating backstraps every year is probably because of the guidance of Fred Bear who was the master of stealth, archery reform, and the mystical flight of the arrow. I was a nutcase. Have you noticed this, Chris? But I had to harness that uppity-ness. Because stealth and archery samurai, you can't be uppity, you have to have breathing, you have to be focused. It has to be out of body, subconscious zen oneness with the wind. I think Fred taught me that, which is why my bowhunting love accelerated every year to the point where it will be in 2021. Chris, I really have to take a deep breath. I shoot my Matthews every day. I shoot my old bear recurves every day. And my excitement explaining this to you. If I was that excitable when I shot my bow and arrow, I'd have to buy chicken because you couldn't shoot good if you're this excitable. You have to come down to earth to really slow down, have a natural, subconscious form. And the world has to go away. (Matthews Bow)
When you get there, you know what I'm talking about. But it has been quite a journey for a goofy guitar player that still plays rock just outrageous rhythm and blues and rock and roll. But I've managed to attain that balance, which is why I can't form sentences. I have to tell you, I'm going to emphasize this, because I've been clean and sober my entire life, or I wouldn't be able to do this.
Chris: That's rare that somebody can actually say that. Especially in Rock n’ Roll
Ted: Well, you know, how lucky because if anybody should have been a rebel and started abusing himself with the hippies and all the so-called peer pressure. If I'm really, really good at one thing, it's being cocky. If you are offering me something, anything, I'm going to be suspicious. I'm going to have critical thinking. I'm going to go well, let's see Jimi is offer me drugs and he's drooling. I told Jimi Hendrix he's going to die. Bon Scott made fun of me because I would not drink his Jack Daniels. I told him, “Bon you got this gift. You're gonna die.” Bon’s the lead singer of AC DC. I said, “No, I don't want your beer. I don't want your dope.” By the way, you're drooling and you're gonna die. John Belushi kind of scoffed. It was like an out-take from Scarface. He had this pile of cocaine and it all over his face. He goes, “Come on man. Motor City Mad Man, come on.”
I said, “Dammit, John. What are you doing?” I told all these guys this was going to kill them and it did. Now Keith Richards not withstanding. Keith Richards, we went out in Manhattan in New York City back in 1979’. This guy was a walking depository of chemical warfare. He did so many drugs. He was a stumbling mumble, a nice man. You can't be a good man if you're stoned. Now that will piss some people off but ask me if I give a damn. You can't be the best that you can be drunk or stoned. Keith Richards has not died yet. And I'm glad he hasn’t. I wish none of those other guys any harm. But clean and sober. Come on, man. That's the only way to thank God for this gift, his precious gift of life, especially as a bow hunter. Because if you're drunk or stoned, you're not going to have a meaningful bow hunt in the outdoors ever. Your radar is not working.
I'm lucky that I defied the substance abuse insanity all through my life. And I think it's partially because my dad disciplined me and threatened me with a beating. I never got one, but boy, I got close a few times. So that discipline, combined with my appreciation of Fred Bear's guidance, and the difficulty of being a good archer, that's tough. That's hard. That takes a lot of discipline. So, that discipline, thank God Almighty, Chris. That I use that discipline to turn down the beatniks and the hippies with their substance abuse in their suicide. So here it is 2021. I would love to see what John Belushi and Jimi Hendrix and Bon Scott would be doing today, but they got high and they're all dead. I went hunting and I'm still Ted.
Chris: What does hunting mean to you?
Ted: Freedom, definitive, aliveness. It's the manifestation of a physical and spiritual declaration of independence. I can sustain myself. I can defend myself. I can read my world closely in a fire situational awareness. I've been a cop. I've been a deputy Sheriff since 1984. So, I have to drag it to train with the navy seals in the Delta Force. I’ve trained with the Green Berets and the Army Rangers. When I qualified as a sheriff deputy, that archery discipline is what I believe the ultimate impetus for situational awareness and what they call Tachypsychia when you have to hit a perpetrator center mass, and the whole world becomes a tractor beam.
I think when we are bow hunting, you better have the whole world as a tractor beam to that whitetails pump station because it's so stimulating. It's so excitable, that it takes all of your control factors. But hunting to me is the activity, the conservation responsibility to balance herds to utilize God's natural renewable resources, while balancing the herds to be stimulated by the challenge and the fun of getting the perfect natural protein to feed your family and your friends as well as charities. While learning what a smart step brings rewards, and a clumsy step should bring punishment. In other words, if you conscientiously step in the forest, or more importantly, conscientiously don't step. The best way to hunt is don't go anywhere. Get in the heart of habitat and stop and stay there as long as possible.
A smart move in the outdoors can be rewarded with a songbird close by, or maybe a shot at a deer or an elk. A fumbling step, the punishment is that you don't see jack squat and you don't have a fulfilling experience. So that inescapable cause and effect of hunting accountability, conscientious decision making, that plays the ultimate role in all choices in life. I believe in parenting, private property rights, freedom fighting. You know what I mean. If you’re a hunter, and I find this I share hundreds of campfires every year, Chris. I book all these hunts on our sunrise acres in our spirit wild ranch, and I donate a lot of hunts to charities. The people that share these campfires with me are just the best people in the world. They're honest, they're smart, they're funny, they're cocky. They're independent. They are critical thinkers. If you tell them to wear a mask, you have to convince them that it makes sense, or we won't wear a mask or that kind of stuff.
Chris: While the masses are out gathering toilet paper, we were out gathering venison.
Ted: This is how I have always gotten high for all my life. I see it as fortifying my children. I have wonderful sons and daughters, and lots of grandkids. My wife, Shemane never hunted. She never touched a bow or a gun until she met me. But I fixed that within hours. Now she understands real independence, real self-sufficiency, and it's minimized by the hunting lifestyle. It is not just about killing stuff. It's about knowing how the world works, so that if you really put your heart and soul into it, God will reward you with the gift of a broadside shot or a Mallard with its orange legs down or its wings set here. Conscientious, intelligent lessons of cause and effect have its rewards. If you don't learn those lessons, there will be various punishments, and I think rightly so.
Chris: You donate a lot of your time to various causes. You have the Hunt of a Lifetime at your camp, the Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids. You have kids at the camp and Hunt of a Lifetime and a couple other organizations like that. Now, you just became the national spokesperson for Hunter Nation.
Ted: Life is a whirlwind. I think we can both genuflect at the altar of the greatest philosopher of all times, that would be Dirty Harry. When Dirty Harry said, “A good man knows his limitations.” Well, I'm a hyper flame throwing vapor trail, scorch master energy wise, even as old as I am. I literally have to get up in the morning and stretch and tell myself to shut up and slow down. Now when I'm making my music, I don't shut up and I don't slow down. Because you want to use that tsunami of energy and velocity and intensity and defiance to make killer music. But all other aspects of my life I forced myself and I learned this as early as my 20s. That's a miracle. That you have to be cognizant of the world around you.
Even though our heartbreaking corrupt criminal government punks have engineered recidivism and welfare dependency, my band, my crew, my family, my hunting buddies, everybody in my life, my neighbors, everybody I know. We aspire to independence, rugged individualism, and self-sufficiency. When you do that, you can identify your fellow man who stumbles. We all stumble. But like the man in the arena, you get yourself back up, you dust yourself off and get back in the fight. People who care, which is everybody I just described, we see kids who have a terminal illness. They didn't do anything wrong. Maybe society and their parents did with the chemical bombardment.
Get the scented crap out of your homes, get the poisoning chemicals out of your kid's diet. Get the chemicals and poisons out of their shampoo, in their soap, in their air fresheners. Get the poison and the chemicals out of their fire-retardant mattresses and pillows. That might be the most important thing I share with you today. Look what you're bringing into your home. Can you pronounce the contents? If you can't pronounce it and you don't recognize it, don't buy it and don't subject your children to it. Now I'm not a chemist. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a health expert. I'm not a scientist. But come on. You plug in a chemical air freshener so that the chemicals heat up and you get to breathe the heated vapors of chemicals in your home.
Chris, we take these 6-7-year-old little boys and girls, some young kids of every imaginable age, including old guys. Got this cancer, got that cancer. Look at what's in your home, look at what's in your food. What are you doing? My point is, when you see this, people who care which again is everybody I know. You want to help them. When Make a Wish Foundation lost their soul, and wouldn't honor a dying boy's last request to go hunting. The Hunt of a Lifetime right out of Pennsylvania created Hunt of A Lifetime. I can't remember everybody's name, but just good caring people again, loving people. We filled the gap of this politically correct lie that this beautiful, wholesome connection with God's creation, hunting, fishing and trapping. A kid is dying and all he wants to do is participate in God's miraculous creation. Those punk’s tell him no? Oh, Chris. No wonder the Democrats bailout arsonists. Anyhow, I see I'm getting all these licks in because it’s all connected.
Chris: We work with Hunter of A Lifetime as well. But I actually guided a hunt for a similar organization. I didn't really hunt myself, but it was the most gratifying hunt that I have ever been on.
Ted: Yes, absolutely. People ask me what's your favorite hunt. The hunt with a six-year-old little boy dying of leukemia. Maybe you make them laugh around the campfire. He catches a couple fish, maybe gets to shoot a critter. Maybe not. Some have, some haven’t. And then a few months later, he's dead. And you hold back the tears around the campfire. My point being is that like you and again, like everybody I know I'm your average guy. Because I have this celebrity thing, I'm contacted every day for this kind of stuff. And my son Toby and I and my buddy Bob in Spirit Wild Ranch, we have an assembly line every day, where I'm signing stuff, signing these “come and take it” flags and hats and 8 x10 photos and to go to raise funds for some World War II vet that they're not taking care of or a little boy or girl that has a tumor.
My point being is, how do you know? Who doesn't do this? I don't know anybody that doesn't do this. I just do it a lot because I have a big mouth, which is what the founding fathers wanted all of us to be. They wanted all of us to raise hell like I do. I'm not the extremists. The people who defy me and go against me, they're the evil extremists. I'm a good extremist. I am extremely good. So, the different charities that were involved with us, just sent out an autographed guitar today with one of my Ted Nugent coins. Actually, see all these coins behind me for a military charity and we do a bunch of events.
I've been invited again by Delta Force to celebrate September 11 with them in Fayetteville, North Carolina. So, I'm not bragging but I am proud that people who want someone in need to get help, they know who to call. They probably call a hunter. So, I do represent a lot of charities and we're involved with a lot of charities, too many. I'll tell you one right now that's a lifesaver besides the Ted Nugent Kamp for Kids, nonprofit 501C3 strictly volunteer, www.hunternation.org a great organization. Another one I hope people will write down www.fullcircleprogram.com . A bunch of young Americans who have stumbled into addiction and substance abuse where they saved their lives because of loving family and friends. At fullcircleprogram.com they're reaching out to fellow young Americans and helping guide them out of the scourge of substance abuse in their saving lives.
That's one of many charities we work with. And Pope and Young do great work, SCI, Wild Turkey Federation, Whitetails Unlimited, Ruffed Grouse Society, Trout Unlimited, Quail Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Boone and Crockett. A lot of people in the world have never heard of these organizations because they just have no idea how to relate to the public, which is a real shame. But they all do great charity work with young people, military, law enforcement, and just fellow Americans who need help. I think the hunting families of America are always the first and the most generous. You should see the donations from some of my really, really rich hunting buddies, Governor Kristi Noem, right there with Ron DeSantis, the two greatest governors in America. She held a conservation fundraiser in South Dakota, and I donated an autographed AR guitar, and a one-day pheasant hunt with the great Governor Kristi Noem.
One of my really, really loving fellow hunters in America paid $80,000 for an autographed guitar and a one-day hunt with Governor Noem and myself. So that's an example of how caring, how loving, how giving, how successful, how disciplined, how heroic, the average hunting family is in this country and I salute and love them all.
Chris: Back in the 80s, I saw a bad company at Jones Beach, which was a disappointment because they had some pretender and not Paul Rodgers singing, but the saving grace was they were touring with Damn Yankees
Ted: That was Brian Howe. Brian Howe is a great singer and he sang in my Penetrator album before we replaced the great vocalist with Bad Company. But he just died here last year, Brian had a stroke. He was a good man. He was no Paul Rodgers; I admit but he was a very talented and a good and very giving man. He did a lot of youth charities and law enforcement charities. But Brian Howe, yes, he sang some of the Bad Company classics, which are monumental. They're pillars of rock'n'roll history. But I tell you, Chris, nobody wants to follow my band. Especially when you got Tommy Shaw, Jack blades and Michael Cartellone only playing that route about outrageous grooving. Almost James Brown, Little Richard cranking rock and roll. So, I love Bad Company, good friends of mine, but we kicked their ass every night.
Chris: At the end of the show, they wheeled out a big wooden cutout of Saddam Hussein. You came out with a bow and you shot him.
Ted: How beautiful was the reaction from a rock and roll audience with the mythical flight of the Arrow demonstration in such a scenario. If that's not the greatest archery demonstration in the history of the world, I don't know what is. I mean, I love guys that can shoot aspirins out of the air. And I love guys that can do all these trick shots. But until you've sent a broadhead, typically a flaming broad hit into the chest of Saddam Hussein and other devils in a rock and roll concert, I'm sorry, none of those other actual demonstrations even come close.
Chris: Have you always been political?
Ted: Well, yeah, I didn't know it. Because I've always celebrated and demanded freedom. Which is why I turned down all the beatniks and the hippies with their life destroying substance abuse. I didn't realize-- Let's put it this way. Functionality-wise, I represented the American dream. I was a We The People. I didn't experiment in self-government because I never heard that term until I was in my mid-20s. I'd never heard of it. I'd never heard of Vietnam. I had no idea what communism was when I graduated from the anti-education system of America. I just knew that my music demanded focus, work ethic, and good choices to maximize the tightness of the band and the fire of the musical delivery.
By the way, from the 1960s on, I was always approached by heroes of the military. Because they'd hear my interviews raving about aim small, miss small, right to keep and bear arms, which I was the only rocker that ever brought that up. And I didn't even let the anti-gunners get a word in edgewise. And if they did, I made them look like idiots, which is really easy. But all these military guys who took an oath to the constitution that I didn't really know I was promoting. I knew I was promoting my right to carry a gun. I don't need a piece of paper for that. I don't need a piece of paper to say what I believe. I don't need a piece of paper to choose my religion. I don't need a piece of paper for a jack squat.
When I found out that carrying a gun around the country and around the world, I carried a gun everywhere. It was illegal everywhere. I go, “Well, how can somebody tell me I can't defend myself? Who is this guy?” And then these military guys, especially the US Marines. They explained to me what happened at the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. That the US Marine warriors were put in charge of security. Now I'm just a guitar player, but I know what security is. I know if a fireman is supposed to put out the fire, he better have some water. You don't send a fireman to a fire without water.
Well, our criminal corrupt oath violating the US government sent Marines on the steps of the US Embassy in Tehran with M16’s and no bullets, which is why they were taken hostage. Because they put them in charge of security and then didn't allow them to perform their training and their responsibility to secure our embassy. And I went, “Huh? What?” I said, “That's what happened.? You guys obeyed the order to be in charge of security without bullets? And then you were taken hostage by a budget, dopey subhuman mongers and Tehran, Iran, really? So, I started going, “Wow, where else does this corruption exist?” And I studied Vietnam and I went, “Holy Garden Heaven, what evil our government perpetrated.?”
So, I started getting into it. And because I was always surrounded, you know, I go hunting. In fact, there was a US Army guy. I don't think he was 20 years old. He was dying of leukemia. And he wanted to go hunting with me before he died. So, I stopped everything. I took him hunting, and then he died. Again, the conversations he and I had, I couldn't believe that our government could be that dishonest, that corrupt, that oath-violating. These military heroes died for their oath to the constitution. And then the people that send them into dangerous conditions violate the very oath that they're giving their lives up to defend. I went, “This is horrible.”
So, I started raising more hell. When I woke up, I found out what the Trail of Tears was. I found out what the Ghost Dance was, I found out what Manifest Destiny was. I found out what the Bataan Death March was. I found out what Auschwitz was. And I went, “Boy, can humans be jerks and evil and dishonest and corrupt or what?” So, I've been raising hell. Now we're living in 2021 where the criminality, the corruption, the dishonesty, the abuse of power, by this government in the United States of America, it's heartbreaking. So I'm raising more hell thank God for Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity. Thank God for Candace Owens. And thank God for Colonel Allen Weston, Texas. Thank God for Jeff Landry, the Attorney General of Louisiana, Kristi, Noem, South Dakota, Ron DeSantis of Florida. There's a small army of real constitutionalists out there, and I work with them daily. Because if you believe a word from our government, you are an idiot.
Chris: Any plans to run for office?
Ted: I think I'm already in the most important office in the history of the human experiment. That is a We The People hellraiser. I would run for office, but you watch the Cavanaugh hearings?
Chris: Yep.
Ted: If Ted Nugent ran for office, it would make the Cavanaugh hearings look like a child's playground around a maypole. I would welcome the lies and the hate, I welcome it. Because it's a softball to me. All you have to do is watch any of my interviews, and realize that nobody, anywhere, anytime can debate me. Because I am a servant of truth, logic and common sense. That being stated, my wife would not survive the hate and the viciousness. And I love my wife Shemane so much. That is my priorities, our God, family, country, freedom, constitution, bill, rights, ten commandments, Golden Rule, law and order.
Chris, I'm on the phone constantly with Republicans from all 50 states and trying to guide them through the quagmire of the canceled culture, political correctness, the evil from the media, from the critical race theory. It's racism. It's the definition of racism. Black Lives Matter is the definition of racism and terrorism. It's unbelievable. So, I'm performing my most important duties. I go to bed every night with a smile on my face, having taken on the devil in our government, media, academia in Hollywood, and stomping cockroaches to the best of my abilities.
So, at this time, I have no plans to run for an official office. But I think the most official office, the most important office in the history of the world, are American citizens calling their mayor, their senator, their congressmen, their governor every damn day and saying we support President Trump, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. We know that Antifa and Black Lives Matter are terrorist organizations. There's footage of them burning down Portland and Seattle and Atlanta and New York. There's footage of them beating people up and smashing their heads with boards. And there's the evidence that the Democrat Party bails out arsonists and felons.
Chris: Crime is up 86%, at least depending on the cities. If you look at where the crime is happening, the people who are involved in the shootings and what not, 86% of them either have been in prison or have a record with a gang related or drug related crime. And the shootings are within those communities. Now, you see my esteemed governor, you know, Andrew Cuomo, your favorite. I've heard you speak about him. He's coming out and basically flip flopping. He has declared it a disaster emergency. COVID is over. So, he needs a new emergency to dispatch another $138 million at his disposal and puts him back in the position of being King Cuomo. And he's basically flip flopping on it and relabeling the underlying issue.
Ted: Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio, Governor Murphy, New Jersey. Certainly California, Illinois and Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Chicago
Chris: Relabeling the disaster to fit his narrative.
Ted: Governor Cuomo and all the democrats have engineered this hell storm. It’s their dream, their dream. If you look at all the blue smudges, there's no blue states. There's only blue democrat run cities. They are all the epicenters of violent, dangerous crime, homelessness, feces, needles, and here's the clincher. Chris, here's a term I want you to start using every day because it's inexplicable. It is explicable, it's explainable, engineered recidivism. All these monsters have been caught. They've been caught with smoking guns. And the mayor of Chicago, the attorneys, the judges, they keep letting out gangbangers and rapists and murderers and carjackers and child molesters, letting them out, but they're going to arrest an off-duty cop for carrying a gun.
It's literally Planet of the Cuckoo's Nest. The answer is so simple. It's the definition of insanity. When someone shoots at someone in a violent crime, put them in a cage and never let them out. You know what that would do? This is the FBI Uniform Crime report statistics. It's more than 86%. Over 96% of violent crime is perpetrated and committed by people that were already in a cage for the very crime and parole boards, early release, plea bargain, numb nut judges and numb nut States Attorneys let the devils out to continue to rape and murder and molest and trafficking children so that it's engineered recidivism. Here's what I want. I don't believe in repeat offenders. I believe in dead offenders. When the lady is about to be raped, be sure you have a pistol on you. Shoot the rapist. If some punk who lets out again to car jack you tries to carjack you, shoot the carjacker six times in the middle. People go, “Well, violence isn't the answer.” Yes, it is. At Concord Bridge, violence was the answer to stop evil so that good can thrive. Here's my favorite battle cry. I came up with some great battle cries. Number one. It's all engineered recidivism. Here's my story in life. You Pearl Harbor, me, I Nagasaki, you cage close.
Chris: Now, lastly, you work with the sheriff's department, the FBI, police, and you've gone on raids with them. Now, when they go on a raid and they arrest somebody, has anybody ever said, “Hey, Ted, I'm being arrested by Ted Nugent.”
Ted: Chris, I got some great stories. I’ve been invited to participate in the Falcon raids in Texas. That's federal and local cops organized nationally by the great heroes of the US Marshal service. I had great commandos, some good guys from the FBI, there still are some good guys in the FBI. There's some good guys in the DEA. There's some real warriors in the ATF, believe it or not, even though that complete bureaucracy is embarrassing. So, I had these real commandos at my side and we're going door to door in Waco, Texas, starting around 10:30 at night, going all the way till about 10:30 in the morning. And we're going after murderers. We’re going after rapists and people that have stabbed people but they missed the artery so they let them out to practice anatomical stabbing, I guess.
The adrenaline that you know, when there's a big buck coming or even a nice dough, or maybe a pheasant cackles at your feet, there's an adrenaline that we all feel in the great outdoors. Chris, believe me when I tell you. When I get ready to go on stage and unleash my music, there's an adrenaline factor and when Shemane gets out of the shower, I sneak a peek. There's an adrenaline factor that is the epitome of adrenaline. None of that holds a candle to when you're kicking down the door of a guy who's murdered people. And you've trained and you've got your finger on the trigger, the safety is off. And you actually have taken up the slack because this guy murders and all your training and all your Tachypsychia and all your situational awareness training and optimizing. It's literally out of body.
So, we're kicking down doors and arresting these maggots and they were just devils and it drains man. It drains more than a two-year rock'n'roll tour six nights a week. But at the end of the raids, we served a warrant on these shambles of a house on the outskirts of Waco Texas. There's these meth toothless dirtbags. It's like, like they went to the Michael Moore School of anti-hygiene, which he's a professor in, by the way. So they are just disheveled jerks. They are all snotty and drooly and stinky and sweaty and clammy and greasy hair like they fix the rear axle on a bronco with their head. So we are handcuffing them and I've got a US Marshal vest on and I got my Sheriff hat on. And we pull these guys out to the curb and the sun is starting to beat down in Texas and these guys are all disoriented, really pathetic people. You're spitting in the face of God going I know you gave me the gift of life but I'm going to abuse it again today which is just inexcusable, man.
So, we got them cuffed the curb. They are just a human train wreck and they are making funny noises and stinky and the one guy looks over and he elbows his buddy and he says, “That's Ted F’n Nugent.” My fellow law enforcement heroes got such a kick out of that. I felt like giving him one more boot to the ass, but you can't do that. But it was a funny moment where they were big fans. They were slurring that “Stranglehold is my favorite song.” That is a damn shame because they should have listened to the lyrics because it is a song about standing up for what you believe in. If that's what you believe in, you're going in a cage, you're dirt ball.
So yeah, there have been some funny moments. But for the most part, those law enforcement activities are anything but funny. They're embarrassingly dangerous, because they're engineered by a failed court system. Why are we going after a guy that molested a child? Who let him out?
Chris: Well, you know, they’re always talking about black people who have been murdered by police. What about last year there were 368 officers killed in the line of duty? Why haven't we talked about that? This year alone 120 officers were killed in the line of duty. Why haven’t we talked about that?
Ted: The engineered recidivism and the soulless mongers out there are waging war on cops, and they're waging war on, quite honestly, on white people. Every day, every hour in Chicago, somebody's getting shot. Do you know who is getting shot? A black guy. Do you know who is shooting them? A black guy. Remember, I hate to reference color. But if you want to save lives, because all lives matter. I never referenced color. But if there was a Dalmatian that had been biting children in the neighborhood, I'm probably going to mention that it has black and white spots. In other words, when you want to save people from evil, you have to give a good description of the evil perpetrator.
If we really want to save black lives in Chicago, because those are the ones that are getting slaughtered every day, you have to identify that it's black guys, that the mayor and the prosecuting attorney keeps unleashing into these neighborhoods. So, then our government says the number one threat in America is white supremacy is the recipe for Black Death. You know how many white supremacists killed black people in Chicago this year? Zero.
Chris: Here is a funny statistic. In 2020, the state with the most “new” first-time gun owners is Illinois.
Ted: Yep. And most of them are Democrats.
Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable.
Ted: Well, all I can say is that the most important thing we can do here, Chris, number one, thank you for having me on the American Outdoor News. Because I think every day in my life it is American Outdoor news because I promote conservation hunting, fishing, trapping, resource stewardship, land management, the cleansing of air, soil and water through wildlife habitat optimization. Even the guitar player figured that out by the time I was seven. But the most important thing we can do, and I hope you do it on every show, and thank you for having me on here because you represent the spirit of true conservation, resource stewardship, and ultimately, environmentalism.
If you want to clean the environment, the air, soil, and water is only going to be as healthy as the wildlife habitat that produces it. So, activism, my friends, please, if you're not pushing the things you believe in to your elected employees, the enemy of everything you believe in would like to thank you. Please, everybody go to www.hunternation.org . There are still eight states where you're not allowed to hunt on Sunday. Are you kidding me? There are so many anti-hunting, anti-science, anti-freedom, hunting, fishing and trapping regulations as to be just a disaster. Go to www.hunternation.org . We have to be a voice, a force for science-based conservation regulations. In New York. You have to use hounds and bait to hunt bears, if you want to responsibly manage bears. What man can tell you, you can't put corn or relocate apples so that you can accomplish what the DNR wants, what the highway department wants, what the insurance industry wants, what the agriculture industry wants, and what the conservation world wants. Kill deer. If it means putting a tree stand closer to the apples, what man can tell you? I'm sorry. I'm going fine you for that.
You go to hunter nation. If you want proper science-based wildlife management regulations, which are not the norm across the nation, please go to hunternation.org. And please, the New York Gun Safety Act. Are you kidding me? The governor, the mayor, anybody that supports it has violated their constitutional oath. Keep, means it's mine. You can't have it. Bear, only means one thing. I got a couple of guns on me right now and they're loaded. No man can tell me there's an area where I don't have a second amendment. I do not need paperwork. I don't need licenses or permits for my first amendment anywhere. I sure as hell don't need paperwork for any of my God given individual rights as guaranteed by the sacred documents of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. Please tell your mayor, your senator, your congressman, your governor that. Please tell them every day.
God bless America. God bless the US military and their families, law enforcement, firefighters and the first responders and those who fight for them. We the People.
Chris: I appreciate your time, Ted. Thank you so much for coming on. And I look forward to seeing you this year.