Ted Nugent Uncensored: Western Shooting Journal interviews the Nuge about guns, hunting and rock’n’roll

This interview appeared in the December 2013 issue of Western Shooting Journal. If you enjoyed it, why not subscribe? Until the end of December we are offering 66% off the cover price, 12 issues a year for only $19.95. SUBSCRIBE NOW. Or, get the digital version for only $1.89/mth. SUBSCRIBE DIGITAL.

I was fortunate recently to have a chance to interview Ted Nugent, the American rock ‘n’ roll, sporting and political activist icon. “The Nuge” has sold more than 40 million albums of classic rock and performed more than 6,500 concerts, singing and playing guitar.

Nugent was named favorite Hunting Personality by the readers of Outdoors Magazine. He has been inducted into the National Bowhunters Hall of Fame. He hosted his own television show, the award-winning Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild.

He is one of the most outspoken defenders of the Second Amendment in the world, serving on the NRA’s board of directors since 1995. He always receives the most votes of any board member.

The “Motor City Madman” is a tireless worker helping the downtrodden and other good causes. Along with his wife Shemane, he regularly hosts hunts for sick and terminally ill children with Hunt of a Lifetime, Hunt for a Cure, and via his own Kamp for Kids. He’s worked with Freedom’s Angels Foundation which benefits our troops, and has been a national spokesman for D.A.R.E., Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Pass It On Outdoor Mentors Program.

RACHEL ALEXANDER Did you grow up shooting and hunting?

TED NUGENT Very much so. Born in Detroit in 1948, my dad, a WWII warrior and shootist, was already an ardent follower of the great Fred Bear, and was one of a handful of diehards giving this renewed bowhunting challenge a shot. I literally never put down my slingshots, bows and arrows, Daisy Red Ryder BB gun or guitar from the time I could walk. How lucky can a guy get? Never missed a season in 65 years!

R.A. What influenced you into becoming such a staunch defender of the Second Amendment?

T.N. I started butting heads with the mindless, soulless rock-n-roll hippie “journalists” who were so stoned and braindead as to attack me during interviews for being a hunter and gun guy. At first, I just figured it to be a fluke, but quickly came to realize it was the beginning of the toxic culture war that represented a nasty anti-American movement that was everything wrong with mankind, where right is wrong, up is down, unarmed helplessness is somehow desirable and animals can mysteriously have rights. I trounced them then, and I trounce them now.  The anti-gun and anti-hunting movements are pure evil.

R.A. I read your columns on WorldNetDaily. How do you find the time to do everything you do?! (I suppose not drinking saves a lot of time) Do you need very little sleep?

T.N. My smartest move in life (other than marrying Shemane!) was to surround myself with hardcore ass-kickers, people who always put their heart and soul into being the absolute best that they can be, so everything that appears to be my doing is actually quite a team effort of super hardworking professionals. Plus being clean and sober my entire 65 years gives me a lot of energy, spirit and attitude to accomplish great things. And believe me, I need a good solid eight hours of sleep each night to maintain my energized pace each day.

R.A. Have you written any songs about guns or the Second Amendment, in addition to I am the NRA?

T.N. On my killer Spirit of the Wild CD, I have a great song titled I Shoot Back, but I have written many songs about the purity of hunting. Fred Bear, Migration, Hibernation, Tooth, Fang and Claw, Livin’ in the Woods, Loaded for Bear, Dr. Slingshot, Workin’ Hard, Playin’ Hard, Geronimo and Me, At Home There, and many others.

R.A. What kind of hunting have you done and do you enjoy?

T.N. I do it all and love it all, but bowhunting is my out-of-control passion. I literally hunt at least 300 days a year, from smallgame to varmints to big game around the world. I truly enjoy long-range rifle and handgun hunting as well. I run a year round trapline and believe that trapping is the ultimate wildlife awareness and most beneficial conservation practice.

R.A. What are your favorite guns?

T.N. All my 100s and 100s of guns are all my favorite guns, but my daily carry is a Glock Model 20 10mm. I suppose my ultimate favorite firearm is my fully auto M4 machinegun. Hunting hogs from helicopters with that baby is indescribable joy and excitement.

R.A. You’ve written  the New York Times best seller God, Guns and Rock’n’Roll (July 2000), Kill it and Grill it (2002) (co-authored with your wife, Shemane), Bloodtrails II: The Truth About Bowhunting (2004), and Ted, White and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto (2008). Can you tell the readers a little bit about these and what they might find interesting in them?

T.N. I wrote those books, like I write my many articles in numerous sporting publications and conservative websites and blogs, as a celebration of self-evident truth, logic and common sense that ultimately provides the recipe for the proven American Dream quality of life. Everything I write and everything I stand for is the anti-venom to the vile self-inflicted scourge of political correctness and the Saul Alinsky/Joseph Goebbells propaganda ministry running amok in media, government, academia and the slovenly hellzone of liberals and most Democrats in the world today. I live and celebrate a common-sense lifestyle that is most common and sensible.

R.A. Many of our readers probably live really tame lives. What are some of the craziest experiences you’ve ever had, whether performing live music or arguing politics?

T.N. That is actually a real shame, for the way I see it, a “tame” life is an inconsequential life that has opened the doors for the curse of Obama and his gang of America-hating punks ruining this country. An experiment in self-government was supposed to include all citizens who give a damn, and to not be engaged is contrary to our Founding Fathers vision of never bending over to kings and emperors and dictators and despots and anti-freedom punks. With all due respect, there is nothing wrong with a well-balanced life including “tame” of relaxing periods, but the clear and present duty of all real Americans is to remain engaged with the political process to demand accountability from our elected official employees. I have been engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemies of America here at home forever, and there is never a dull moment. One would only have to Google my name to witness the beauty of my going “Piers Morgan” on mongrels wherever they dare confront me or deny the American Way.

R.A. Any interesting encounters with leftists or protesters?

T.N. Constantly. See above. I arrested Bhaskar Sinha, an animal rights felon terrorist in San  Francisco, years ago by lifting him off the ground in a half-nelson and turning him over to the authorities after he and a gang of stinky hippie PETA punks threatened my wife’s life. He cooked in a cage for a few days and we went about our ways.

R.A. What is your favorite part about being in the music industry?

T.N. The music. The primal dynamo of creating throttling soundtracks to a dynamic independent life is better than life itself. When one is raised on the hyper outrage of Bo Diddly, Chuck Berry and Little Richard musical mayhem, the nonstop pursuit of your own version of this incredible music with the world’s greatest musicians is indescribably thrilling. We rock like crazed animals on tour every summer and it is way too much fun.

R.A. What are your favorite bands to listen to?

T.N. My band is the best in the world, but I also love the music of James Brown, Wilson Picket, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddly, Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Stones, Yardbirds, Who, Kinks, Montrose, Blackfoot,  Aerosmith, Van Halen, Bad Company, Metallica, Sammy Hagar, Chili Peppers, Green Day, Mitch Ryder, Kid Rock, Bruno Mars, and many others.

R.A. You’re one of few “clean” musicians in the industry, how do you withstand the pressure?

T.N. I laugh in the face of the so-called pressure. The lie of peer pressure is funny and rather pathetic unless you are a soulless sheep. I have no peers and am impervious to any pressure (except of course certain beautiful pressure from Mrs. Nugent). Turning down drugs and alcohol is like turning down the offer to stab myself in the eye with an icepick. No thank you. Only morons need apply.

R.A. What can be done about the situation in Detroit, where you were born? (I suppose we could ask Worldnetdaily to reprint your latest article!)

T.N. You should run that article, but suffice it to say, my beloved birth city of Detroit went from being the finest city on the planet to an embarrassing joke at the hands of liberal Democrats and the subhumans stupid enough to fall for their scam. It is a very sad and tragic story, but even worse is the fact that we now have a president and gang of liberal monsters in our fractured government doing their damndest to force America to follow the very same suicidal path of Detroit. This era of America will go down in history as the dumbest society in the history of mankind. It breaks my heart.

R.A. You’re been outspoken against obesity. How do you stay so thin, and what advice can you give folks? Listen to Michelle Obama?

T.N. The epidemic of blubber and resultant diseases in America today is merely the physical manifestation of a society that has lost their soul. How anyone can take this precious gift of life from God and intentionally choose to overdose our sacred temples with such massive amounts of nasty garbage is inexplicable on any and all levels. Who doesn’t know that you cannot eat like a pig and sit around and grow blubber? What kind of rotten parent allows their own children to grow blubber? It is a sin and a crime against humanity. The Nugents eat smart and stay physically fit because we know it is the most basic, accountable quality of life responsibility. And no, I don’t need any advice from the gangsters in the White House.

R.A. Getting any closer to running for office?

T.N. God knows I should, but at this time the Nugent family jury is still out.

R.A. Any future plans to share with our readers?

T.N. My future is blindingly bright. I have killer music to record, nonstop phenomenal hunting all the time, my incredible wife, kids, grandkids – extended family time together is always very special. We are involved in every imaginable military and children’s charity out there and that is always extremely gratifying. My simple daily life continues to drive liberal America haters berserk and cause massive consternation, pain, anguish and confusion in their lives, and that alone is too beautiful for words. My American Dream throttles on rather nicely, thank you. I would invite everyone to visit us at tednugent.com, be sure you and everyone you know are up to date NRA members, turn up the “We the people” heat on your elected officials and everyone in your lives that you know need a serious kick in the ass, and demand positive upgrade everywhere, with everyone, everyday. If we are to save the only experiment in self-government, it will be up to those of us who know how important it is to work relentlessly to bring Her back to that shining city on the hill. Freedom ain’t free, and we damn well better give it all we got to save America.