The Deer Made Me Do It

July 17, 2019 | « back

By: Ted Nugent

As your read these glowing words of spirit, attitude, independence and freedom, I am settling into the concrete hell warzone of California, about to assault the rock-n-roll stage for my 6721st concert.

Oh the humanity!

The title of my most recent record is The Music Made Me Do It, and this 2019 tour, 65 years later after my first musical performance at the age of 5 for a family gathering in Detroit, is titled “The Music Made Me Do It-Again!

I’ve come up with some clever wordsmithing over the years for tour titles, “Intensities In 10 Cities” comes to mind, but this year it is both literal and simple, because my American Dream has been powerfully fortified by my intense love of American rock-n-roll, and nothing, I mean nothing could ever get in my way.

The music really did make me do it, and it still does.

As always, my tours consist of nonstop travel, averaging six firebreathing concerts each week in six different cities, six different airports, six different hotels and a multitude of media interviews every day.

From the very beginning, the media was fascinated with my energy level and intense passion for the music, and they have always been intrigued by how I consistently weave in my love of the great outdoors and hunting lifestyle into all my interviews.

Being the only celebrity in the history of planet earth that has gone out of my way my entire life to promote and celebrate, never defend, hunting, fishing, trapping, conservation and 2ndAmendment rights, I witnessed the birth of the despicable scourge of political correctness and the viciousness with which it was unleashed.

I’ve stood my ground unflinchingly and brought about much pain and suffering in the liberal animal rights, anti-hunting subculture just by sharing truth, logic, commonsense, science and wildlife biology 101 with the masses.

I’m not about to lie and backdown to idiots just to sell more records or concert tickets, and I have paid dearly for doing so.

Tough.

As I said good-bye to my beloved dogs, Happy, Sadie and Coco and turned out of my sacred swamp wildlife paradise bordered driveway for the airport, I also said good-bye to a brace of rooster, pheasants, a hen with a brood of chicks, about six rabbits, a mink and two otters.

The sightings of wildlife gave me indefatigable hope and inspiration to give the best tour of my life and anxiously return home for the fall hunting season.

But as I turned off the drive, it was the sight of a young whitetail buck and a big doe with three fawns on a fresh trail I had just brush-hogged that made me stop my truck, turn and gaze, and with a beaming smile across my predator face, I realized right then and there, that like the musical force that keeps me rocking like an animal every summer of my life, it is the mesmerizing presence and image of the mighty whitetail deer than calls me back to the swamps, marshes, forests and fields every fall, eager to play my hand at out-witting this incredible creature.

There is no doubt that the deer makes me do it, and I look forward to the upcoming season with more excitement and eagerness than in all my 70 years.

Those of us smart enough to remain in touch with our most pure and primal instincts as hunter/providers are fortunate beyond measure. Don’t you just really feel sorry for the nonhunters out there that have no idea that such passions, thrills, excitement and happiness exist?

And as much as we love going after squirrels, rabbits, birds, waterfowl and all the wonderful big game that abounds in North America today, you must admit it is indeed the deer that gets our motor runnin’!

Our minds are clearly imprinted with the beautiful images of every deer we have ever been blessed to have encountered. We remember their size, gender, mood, alertness, habits, color, condition and actions.

We remember vividly the ones that got away and the small percentage that we lucked into and killed.

We recall the disastrous heartbreak of deer lost and the Herculean effort we put forth to mitigate such mistakes from ever happening again.

We love the deer as the ultimate symbol of wildness and freedom.

We cherish their miraculous elusiveness and frustrating escape capabilities.

We love their beauty and we love their delicious flesh.

If nature heals, then surely deer inspire.

The deer made me do. Counting the days. How about you?

Meet me at HunterNation.org to enter the sweepstakes to hunt with me this fall. Big fun!