By Mark Slavit
COLUMBIA -- The Motor City Madman has returned to the Heart of Missouri. Classic rocker and gun activist Ted Nugent played before a sell out crowd at Columbia’s Blue Note. KRCG’s Mark Slavit caught up with the rock legend on Wednesday where Nugent was signing autographs and promoting the right to bear arms.
Nugent doesn’t wear loincloths on stage anymore or swing from vines. That doesn’t mean he’s not as wild or outspoken as ever. Nugent stopped by Midway USA, a distributor of shooting and reloading supplies just west of Columbia. The rock legend is an avid hunter. He constantly promotes the right to bear arms.
“If you are smart enough to take off the hunting season, not just for meat and protein and family quality time, but ultimately, a spiritual battery re-charger,” says Nugent. “If [late Grateful Dead frontman] Jerry Garcia would have been a hunter, he still would be alive today. The hippies got high and the hippies are dead. I went huntin’ and I’m still Ted.”
Nugent signed autographs on some of his books for Midway USA employees. His fans call him Uncle Ted. Throughout his career, the Detroit native has been known as a gun-loving, meat-eating right-wing patriot who roars almost as loud as his guitar.
When you talk to Nugent, there’s no doubt who is in charge. He speaks fast, uses big words and doesn’t hold anything back, but most of his fans already know that. “The vast majority of Americans are one with the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, everything the National Rifle Association stands for and everything that the Nugent Family celebrates. When I’m able to do that on the major media, I don’t do it for Ted. I don’t do it for my immediate family. I do it for America.”
Nugent rose to fame in the 1970’s with his loud guitar and his pro-gun and anti-drug and alcohol messages. Uncle Ted is a little older these days, but that doesn’t stop him from shooting out his mouth, his guitar or his gun.
Nugent has appeared as an gun rights expert on numerous news programs.
