Posted by Bruce Sanborn on April 23, 2012 - 10:24am
One nickname for Ted Nugent is Tender Ted. It's meant as irony. No one in rock and roll is less tender than Ted Nugent. Johnny Lydon looks angelic by comparison. I have never met or worked with Ted but I know those who have. And at the end of the day, from his public actions to his private life, I have arrived at the conclusion that Ted Nugent is an asshole.
He's currently under fire for comments he made about President Obama, comments that coming from one out of the public eye would have landed him in jail. See, the Secret Service takes a dim view of anyone who threatens the life of the President, whoever the President is at the time. And this is exactly what Nugent has done. After a visit from agents of the Service, Ted has been remarkably subdued, describing their attentions as, "...a good, solid professional meeting." I'll bet. The comment that brought all this about was that if Obama were re-elected, he (Ted) would either be dead or in jail, implying that he would take the democratic process into his own hands. Yeah, right there you can conclude that he's a dick.
Nugent is also a coward, one of those bully types who talk big but can't back it up. His draft-dodging is legendary. To avoid the draft during the Vietnam era, he literally shit in his pants in the days leading up to the interview. When he got there he was so rank and foul the board sent him away as an undesireable. This is the story he told himself and I have no reason to doubt the man's word. At the same time, Ted has been a big advocate for war, loudly urging us along in Afghanistan and Iraq. The term for this is chickenhawk, one who is perfectly willing to let others head out and die but is unwilling to do so hmself.
Is all of this political posturing on my part simply because I don't agree with his politics? Could be. I'm far from objective on the matter so I'll leave it to you to decide. I didn't rail against Jackson Browne and Tom Petty when they were playing the No Nukes concerts. I didn't rail against Bruce Springsteen when he was campaigning for Obama. But I would also like to point out that in those cases these artists weren't threatening someone's life or cheering the deaths of others.
There's also been repercussions to Nugent's little tyrade. He had been booked to play a concert for the military at Fort Knox on June 23rd along with Styx and REO Speedwagon. Ted has been cancelled. The military leadership after learning of his comments dropped him from the show. See, the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. Probably not a good idea to threaten the boss of those employing you.
One also has to wonder why people, particularly those on the right, pay so much attention to and give such heft to a musician whose artistic peak was reached with the song, "Wango-Tango". Do they find some sort of deeply hidden intellectual insight spewing from this guy? Is there a brilliance to him that I'm just not finding? Or is it that he's simply feeding a rage that conservatives irrationally have toward Obama?
Regardless, Ted seems to have joined the ranks of those who have unwittingly destroyed their careers. His glory days are long over but, like Hank Williams Jr. last year, Nugent is destined to be relegated to playing no-star hotels and bars in Bull Head City and the like. The Motor-City Madman's mouth has finally written a check his ass can't cash.
B
TheBruceSanbornBand.com
He's currently under fire for comments he made about President Obama, comments that coming from one out of the public eye would have landed him in jail. See, the Secret Service takes a dim view of anyone who threatens the life of the President, whoever the President is at the time. And this is exactly what Nugent has done. After a visit from agents of the Service, Ted has been remarkably subdued, describing their attentions as, "...a good, solid professional meeting." I'll bet. The comment that brought all this about was that if Obama were re-elected, he (Ted) would either be dead or in jail, implying that he would take the democratic process into his own hands. Yeah, right there you can conclude that he's a dick.
Nugent is also a coward, one of those bully types who talk big but can't back it up. His draft-dodging is legendary. To avoid the draft during the Vietnam era, he literally shit in his pants in the days leading up to the interview. When he got there he was so rank and foul the board sent him away as an undesireable. This is the story he told himself and I have no reason to doubt the man's word. At the same time, Ted has been a big advocate for war, loudly urging us along in Afghanistan and Iraq. The term for this is chickenhawk, one who is perfectly willing to let others head out and die but is unwilling to do so hmself.
Is all of this political posturing on my part simply because I don't agree with his politics? Could be. I'm far from objective on the matter so I'll leave it to you to decide. I didn't rail against Jackson Browne and Tom Petty when they were playing the No Nukes concerts. I didn't rail against Bruce Springsteen when he was campaigning for Obama. But I would also like to point out that in those cases these artists weren't threatening someone's life or cheering the deaths of others.
There's also been repercussions to Nugent's little tyrade. He had been booked to play a concert for the military at Fort Knox on June 23rd along with Styx and REO Speedwagon. Ted has been cancelled. The military leadership after learning of his comments dropped him from the show. See, the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. Probably not a good idea to threaten the boss of those employing you.
One also has to wonder why people, particularly those on the right, pay so much attention to and give such heft to a musician whose artistic peak was reached with the song, "Wango-Tango". Do they find some sort of deeply hidden intellectual insight spewing from this guy? Is there a brilliance to him that I'm just not finding? Or is it that he's simply feeding a rage that conservatives irrationally have toward Obama?
Regardless, Ted seems to have joined the ranks of those who have unwittingly destroyed their careers. His glory days are long over but, like Hank Williams Jr. last year, Nugent is destined to be relegated to playing no-star hotels and bars in Bull Head City and the like. The Motor-City Madman's mouth has finally written a check his ass can't cash.
B
TheBruceSanbornBand.com
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