www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20080918/ENTERTAINMENT/809179977/1016&parentprofile=1058&title=Q&A%20with%20Ted%20Nugent

Q&A with Ted Nugent

Ted Nugent is a rock star, author, actor and representative of the NRA.

Nadine Joy

What can fans expect at your two Reno shows?

Simply the tightest, sexiest, most intense high-energy R&B and R&R rock-out in the history of mankind. Oh yeah, and wall-to-wall machine guns to accompany the ultimate love songs. Plus I will teach all white folk to dance properly.

What music do you listen to nowadays?

James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Wayne Cochran and the CC Ryders, Jr. Walker and the Allstars, Jeff Beck, TRUTH, early Kinks, SRV, early Stones and Beatles, Yardbirds, Kid Rock, ZZ Top, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, and my stuff.

Please tell us about your new book, "Ted White and Blue."

A blow-by-blow celebration how logic, truth, honesty, intelligence, soulful prioritization, Herculean work ethic, excellence, goodwill and decency have guided my amazing American dream to sheer perfection for 60 years of clean and sober intensity. If I can do it, anybody can.

You recently played at the American Rib Festival. What are your favorite things to barbecue, and could you share any cooking tips?

My favorite food is pure, natural, wild organic wild game of every description. As a lifelong hunter, I know for certain that intelligent, responsible quality control of my family's food is the ultimate path to ultimate health. There is no bad wild game. Clean, cold and grilled over natural coals is it!

You like to kill your own food and not waste any part of the animal. Do you consider yourself a sustainability icon?

I am an average American hunter who cherishes the gift of perfect, renewable natural protein as the best, most delicious, healthiest food on earth. I am a simple-reasoning, conscientious predator, like all my hunting buddies are. Sustain yield hands-on conservation is indeed perfect.

Your show on the Outdoor channel "Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild" has been a big success. Here in Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada, we've experienced a new phenomenon. People with cell phones seem to be getting lost more often,. Do you have any thoughts on this

The hunting lifestyle is all about a higher level of awareness. This spirit of the wild respect is critical in wilderness settings to actual survival. God bless those seeking and discovering this healing through nature's primal scream should take the extra time to refamiliarize themselves with that rugged individual self-sufficiency awareness before they leave the pavement. Modern technology can help, but nothing can prepare us better for our sacred wild time better than the Zen of our aboriginal being.

Your answer might seem obvious, but maybe not. Here goes: Is the Second Amendment the most important in our Constitution?

Clearly the manifestation of freedom is the God-given right to autonomy and individual independence. The right to defend ourselves and our loved ones is literally a life-and-death line drawn in the sand. Our founding fathers knew this, and so do I. And so do you.

Your shows where you hold up a gun and tell Hillary Clinton to suck on it are well-publicized. Doesn't that make your recent comments in the Waco Tribune-Herald self-serving? In the column you asked Barack Obama: Do you believe that we need to pay for you

My God-given individual right to self-defense defines "self-serving" in its most obvious and righteous way. One statement was entertainment outrage on a wildly irreverent, outrageous over-the-top rock ‘n' roll stage. The other was a fact-filled, genuine and sincere question. I don't know anyone who confused Sam Kinison's stage show with his non-entertainment serious relationships and life. I know such mentally deranged people exist, I just don't personally know any.

As a 14-year member of the NRA board of directors, do your associates ever ask you to tone down your opinions?

My NRA blood brothers are much too intelligent and sophisticated to fail to differentiate between the rock ‘n' roll stage and the legitimate political debate.

How did you like the movie "Beer for My Horses?"

I prefer the treatment I wrote titled "Crack For My Donkeys" but "Beer for My Horses" was much fun nonethteless. Toby Keith, Rodney Carrington, Willie Nelson and the entire cast and crew were consummate professionals and a sheer joy to work with. I loved every minute of it. I consider a shooting Mexican drug runners in the ass with flaming arrows one of life's greatest pleasures.