Ted Nugent Q&A
Q. When did you know you had what it takes to be a standout musician?
A. The whole rock ’n’ roll thang and guitar band thang was all so new when I started in the 1950s that no one knew. We just jammed with pure abandon to emulate Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley and so many others that if you could deliver the spirit with the band,
nothing else mattered.
God knows I delivered and deliver
a mighty spirit!
Q. When did you know you
wanted to be a hunter?
A. I was born a hunter, into a hunting family and hunting culture. I knew from my very first years that the spirit of the wild was where I belong. My dad was already inspired by Fred Bear in Michigan and we never missed a bowhunting season.
I was imprinted from birth.
Q.Are there any similarities in preparing for a concert and preparing for a hunt?
A. Quality of life is all about preparedness, and killing food with the bow and arrow is approached as a life and death endeavor for sure. As is the gung-ho approach to my kind of killer rock ’n’ roll. When immersed in such a passionate pursuit, it is always about life and death and putting one’s heart and soul into being the absolute
best that you can be.
Q.What percentage of your time is devoted to music as opposed to hunting/shooting?
A. I live both to the fullest all year long. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t wail on my guitar(s) and shoot many guns and bows and arrows. I am thrilled by both and numerous other passions as well, like training, hanging out and hunting with my dogs, exploring, running my trapline, producing our Spirit of The Wild TV on Outdoor Channel, charity work with military and children’s charities, writing for numerous websites and magazines as well as my books, and of course guiding Mrs. Nugent
on her Zumba crusade!
Q. Do you know any other ardent hunters among rock ’n’ roll stars?
A. No.
Q.Which is worse for your ears: a rock concert or a day at the shooting range?
A. Both are very dangerous. I wear hearing protection for both nowadays.
Q. What did you compromise in your rock n’ roll life to become a national spokesman on hunting, shooting
and gun rights?
A. Nothing. My passionate American activism intensifies the music for sure.
Q.How have traditional sportsmen’s groups reacted or evolved
to your blunt style?
A. Some unsophisticated status quo Bubba groups are scared to death they are so entrenched in a backward compromise paradigm. Most, though, have awakened to the imperative of noncompromising truth and
logic demands.
Q.How well do your Kill It and Grill It cookbooks sell at concert sites?
A. We rarely sell my books at concerts.
Q. How do rock ’n’ roll fans respond to your hunting/shooting lifestyle?
A. My gregarious experience has been nothing but positive and glowing.
Q. If you are so passionate about conservative politics, why don’t you capitalize on your celebrity
to seek public office?
A. Believe me, nobody’s capitalized
on any resources as effectively as I have capitalized on my celebrity. I do thousands of interviews a year. … No one raises more hell and causes (politicians) more anguish than I do. So I do everything that I possibly can and then sleep for two hours a night. I think that’s more important than me actually running, but if that decision was ever made I would do so, but Mrs. Nugent would be in charge of that – and I would have to have October
and November off.
Q.What is your common ground with all hunters, and on what main issues
are you content to be divisive?
A. First of all, if you’re divisive with me, you’re wrong. … Divisiveness comes from ignorance, pettiness and mean spiritedness. If you don’t want to use an expandable broad head … which I don’t, by the way … then don’t. But don’t tell me I can’t, especially when the evidence is irrefutable: they work.
I would support everyone’s choice in a scientifically guided procedure and methodology for sustained yield, for maximum utility of a resource by maximum number of people to generate maximum dollars.
Q.If you had to choose venison for your last meal on earth,
how would you prepare it?
A. I get to do control work on various airports, and you haven’t eaten until you’ve tasted a freshly skinned fawn. That’s some good food. The cuter the critter, the sweeter the meat.
Q.From your perspective, what’s the biggest threat to sport hunting
as we know it?
A. The apathy of Americans overall
in failing to stand up for many things of critical quality of life. In every instance where animal rights goons have compromised hunting, fishing and trapping, gobs of tax dollars are wasted to have government paid hunters and trappers clean up the mess caused by such brain-dead denial.
Q. What should hunters
be doing about it?
A. Every American who believes
in freedom and nature should be a member of the NRA and their state sportsman’s organization and remain engaged to keep politicians
and policy makers honest.
Q.What sort of music goes through your head when you’re sitting
in a hunting blind?
A. Unidentifiable glorious music … My soul is cleansed on every hunt.
Q. How would you spend the time if you had one more week to live?
A. Doing what I’m doing: playing my music, rockin’ and rollin’, hunting, promoting the things we all believe in, crushing liberals, destroying animal rights people, eating backstraps and doing charity work for those most deserving. That’s what I do every week anyhow, so I wouldn’t change a thing.