Nugent sitting down with Secret Service
Rocker and gun rights champion Ted Nugent says he will meet with the Secret Service today to explain his remarks about what he called Barack Obama’s “evil, America-hating administration” – comments some critics interpreted as a threat against the president. “The conclusion will be obvious that I threatened no one,” Nugent told radio interviewer Glenn Beck on Wednesday.
The controversy erupted after the self-styled “Motor City Madman” made an impassioned plea for support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during the National Rifle Association meeting in St. Louis last weekend. “We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November,” Nugent said of the Obama administration.
He also included a cryptic pronouncement: “If Barack Obama becomes the next president in November, again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.”
New listeners, old bonus for Stern
Howard Stern’s hopes for a $300 million payday from Sirius XM Radio Inc. have been dashed by a judge. His show’s Twitter feed said the shock jock was “really bummed” by the decision and plans to appeal.
Stern sued last March, arguing that he was entitled to a huge stock-based bonus in his contract because the number of Sirius subscribers exceeded the company’s internal forecasts. But his initial job contract was signed in October 2004, well before Sirius acquired XM in July 2008.
New York state court judge Barbara Kapnick ruled this week that Stern couldn’t count XM’s nearly 10 million subscribers in calculating his bonus, saying that the language of his contract was clear and unambiguous.
Dad gave Van Halen shot of courage
Eddie Van Halen puts some of the blame on his father for his long struggle with alcohol. In the May issue of Esquire, the Van Halen guitarist said “the whole alcoholism thing” developed when he asked his dad how to combat his nerves when playing music in front of people. His father gave him a shot of vodka and a cigarette to ease his nerves, and that started Van Halen on a near lifetime of drinking.
The 57-year-old Van Halen also talked about the struggle to get clean, pulling his son Wolfgang out of school at 15 to join the band, and his relationship with ex-wife Valerie Bertinelli. The issue hits newsstands on April 24.
The birthday bunch
Actor Hugh O’Brian is 87. Actor Tim Curry is 66. Pop singer Mark “Flo” Volman (The Turtles) is 65. Actress Ashley Judd is 44. Actor James Franco is 34. Actress Kate Hudson is 33. Actor Hayden Christensen is 31.