Musical heroes (antidote to the Eagles)

[Highlander]

Doubly cool...

iirc he toured with Grinderswitch in the package that came over with Sea Level headlining and Dixie Dregs in the middle, but 18 rows back is as close as I got...

[gweimer]

Gary... there's more to the story than that iirc... you have some good tales...

Only met him (briefly) once and he lived up to his larger-than-life persona...

Not a whole lot more, but I'll tell it.  My first band included a drummer who was hyper and a notorious story teller.  Among his stories was the fact that Ted Nugent was his cousin.  Over the course of a whole year, Mark told us about 3-4 times that Ted would "be at practice with us next week".  We finally just wrote it off.  The final time, we had moved practice to my house for a change.  There was a knock on the back door.  My mother came into the kitchen, "I....think....it's for you", followed by Mark and Ted, with Byrd in hand.  Ted watched us do our best Grand Funk, Humble Pie and Black Sabbath, and then wanted us to jam with him.  I had never done that, so Ted showed me how to do a blues progression. I held his Byrd.  If you breath on the strings, they make contact.  Say what you will about his playing, but he is not sloppy.  Everything he plays is intentional.  There's no margin for error.
His cousin, Mark, ended up working with Butch Vig at smart studios, and generally doesn't acknowledge that his cousin is famous.

[Highlander]

V

[westen44]

Wow, that is truly an amusing story.   

[nofi]

i think its more amusing that super patriot ted was a pants crapping draft dodger during vietnam. i never tire of posting that.

[OldManC]

Ted's pant filling draft story came from a piece in High Times, a mag he would have disdained even in the late 70's when he did the interview. I read a quote just recently where Nugent says the rest of his band were busting up the whole time because his story kept getting wilder and wilder and the guy from High Times just ate it up. Snopes has a pretty good piece on this one, which mentions the interview in question. They also have a copy of Nugent's Selective Service record, which explains his deferments.


http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/nugent.asp

A copy of Ted Nugent's Selective Service classification record (http://graphics2.snopes.com/politics/graphics/nugent.jpg) documents elements of both versions of the story:  He was classified 1-S (high school student deferment) in 1967 and 2-S (college student deferment) in 1968; then after being reclassified 1-A (available for military service) in 1969 he was rejected as a result of a physical examination and given a 1-Y classification.  (The 1-Y classification denoted persons "qualified for service only in time of war or national emergency" and was generally assigned to registrants who had exhibited medical conditions that were limiting but not disabling). After the 1-Y classification was eliminated at the end of 1971, Nugent was reclassified as 4-F.

So, Ted Nugent did have a student deferment for part of the time he was eligible for the draft, but he did also fail a physical examination and receive a medical exemption.  Without more details about the results of that physical examination, however, we can't ascertain how much it may match or depart from the account Nugent gave to High Times back in 1977.

[uwe]

If nothing else, Nugent is underrated as a guitarist. He has tone and a hunch where to put the note.

[nofi]

the pants thing is well documented in more places than the high times interview. plus his student deferrment also has him gigging 300 nights a year at the same time he's in school! his words. don't know why the republicans have such a hard on for this guy. maybe he's the 47% solution. i read a viet nam vet 's statement that he considers nugent an insult to the people who actually served over there. i'll stand with what this vet said.

what do you family values folks think of ted 'adapting' his then girl friend/ concubine at age 16. (her age).

[uwe]

Seems like good rock'n'roll tradition to me. Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry ...

I didn't say Gary Glitter!

[gweimer]

Ted can't find a headline as a musician anymore, so he's finding a way to stay in the spotlight as a troublemaker.

[TBird1958]

Bombast in the key of A 

[Pilgrim]

Bombast in the key of A 

A is for automatic weapons....

[OldManC]

Seems like good rock'n'roll tradition to me. Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry ...

And probably 75% of touring bands in the 70's. I doubt ID's were being checked backstage at Zep, Aerosmith, Van Halen, and other shows.

don't know why the republicans have such a hard on for this guy. maybe he's the 47% solution.

i read a viet nam vet 's statement that he considers nugent an insult to the people who actually served over there. i'll stand with what this vet said.

what do you family values folks think of ted 'adapting' his then girl friend/ concubine at age 16. (her age).

If I couldn't separate my feelings about people's politics from my appreciation of their art or abilities I'd be stuck listening to three bands and watching one movie and two TV shows per year. Luckily, I can think beyond those terms.

I can think of plenty of people who did far more to insult the military and Viet Nam vets in particular (hell, one of them is not only a vet but is now Secretary of State). I have no hard on for any man, for or against. I have better things to do with my time (though if I swung that way I guess one for wouldn't be a bad thing.

Ted's relationship with and then guardianship of his young girlfriend (who was 17 when they met) in the 70's was definitely out of the ordinary, but seeing as her parents signed off on it (and it was, presumably, legal) I'm not sure why I'm supposed to have a problem with it now. It's not something I would choose to do but again, that doesn't mean I can't still love Double Live Gonzo. It's not like she was 13 and he drugged and raped her (on more than one occasion). Of course if he did he might have won an Oscar and been loved by all of Hollywood.

[uwe]

Let's not quarrel about Uncle Ted's mind. He has gifted hands. God didn't give him much else.

And unless one of us was today were in the unfortunate position to make the same choice (to go or not go to Vietnam), I don't think it's really apt to criticize the one or the other decision. In hindsight, the consensus of us all is most likely that Nam wasn't a very good idea and that the US has fought worthier wars. More successful ones too. But nobody is perfect as they say.

Besides you now have a Secretary of State who turned from Nam war hero to anti-Vietnam war activist, so you have the best of both worlds!   All is well and you guys are doing brisk business with your former arch-enemy who was allegedly set to entrap Southeast Asia in the shackles of communism. History is all about irony, liebe Amerikaner. Blame the French. 

[dadagoboi]

And probably 75% of touring bands in the 70's. I doubt ID's were being checked backstage at Zep, Aerosmith, Van Halen, and other shows.

If I couldn't separate my feelings about people's politics from my appreciation of their art or abilities I'd be stuck listening to three bands and watching one movie and two TV shows per year. Luckily, I can think beyond those terms.

Apparently you're not willing to make the same exception for Polanski as you are for Nugent, though you probably know little about the facts in either case.

I wasn't aware that actually joining and serving in the military was worse than dodging the VN draft and later sending off people to die in US misadventures.  Of course what do I know?  I dodged the draft, sympathised with VVAW guys and feel the same way about the military now as I did then.  I do love the gung ho guys who never served but have no problem sending other chumps to die and then turn their backs on them when they come.  Guess that's libertarianism as practiced to the Ayn Rand maximum, except of course for that atheist thing.

As some say, let's keep politics out of this.  There's enough in the real world.