Musician By Night: Ted Nugent . . .

Monday, May 6, 2013

Ted Nugent . . .

Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent (pron.: /tɛd ˈnuːdʒɨnt/; born December 13, 1948) is an American rock musician from Detroit, Michigan. Nugent initially gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes before embarking on a solo career. His hits, mostly coming in the 1970s, such as "Stranglehold", "Cat Scratch Fever", "Wango Tango", and "Great White Buffalo", as well as his 1960s Amboy Dukes hit "Journey to the Center of the Mind", remain popular today, and are played on classic rock and less frequently active rock radio stations. He is also noted for his staunch conservative political views, his strong advocacy of hunting and gun ownership rights, which some have described as controversial.

Nugent was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marion Dorothy (née Johnson) and Warren Henry Nugent. Nugent's father was an Army staff sergeant, and he was raised in a very strict household. He moved to Palatine, Illinois, as a teenager, and has two brothers: John and Jeffrey, and a sister, Kathy. Raised Catholic, Nugent has mentioned his ties with the Christian faith many times during interviews, and has stated that he regularly attends church. He attended St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, IL and William Fremd High School in Palatine, Il.

Nugent has released more than 34 albums and has sold a career total of 30 million records. He was known throughout his early career in the 1970s for using Fender amps, a large part of his signature sound, and for playing the hollow-body Gibson Byrdland guitar.

Performing since 1958, Nugent has been touring annually since 1967, averaging more than 300 shows per year (1967–73), 200 per year (1974–80), 150 (1981–89), 127 concerts in 1990, 162 concerts in 1991, 150 concerts in 1993, 180 in 1994, 166 in 1995, 81 in 1996, Summer Blitz '97, '98, Rock Never Stops '99, 133 concerts with KISS 2K. Nugent's 2005 plans involved a tour with country music singer-songwriter Toby Keith, whom Nugent met in Iraq while they were both performing in USO-sponsored shows for the coalition troops. Nugent toured with local Detroit musician Alex Winston during the summers of 2007 and 2008.

On July 4, 2008, at the DTE Energy Music Theater in Clarkston, Michigan, Ted Nugent played his 6,000th concert. Derek St. Holmes (original singer for the Ted Nugent band), Johnny Bee Badanjek (drummer for Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels), and Nugent's guitar teacher from 1958 Joe Podorsek all jammed on stage with Nugent for various tunes.

Amboy Dukes

His first edition of The Amboy Dukes played at The Cellar, a teen dance club outside of Chicago in Arlington Heights, Illinois, starting in late 1965, while Nugent was a student at St. Viator High School. The Cellar's "house band" at the time had been the Shadows of Knight, although The Amboy Dukes eventually became a staple until the club's closing.

The Amboy Dukes' second single was "Journey to the Center of the Mind", which featured lyrics written by the Dukes' second guitarist Steve Farmer. Nugent, an ardent anti-drug campaigner, has always claimed that he had no idea that this song was about drug use. The Amboy Dukes (1967), Journey to the Center of the Mind (1968) and Migration (1969) — all recorded on the Mainstream label — sold moderately well. On April 5, 1968, Nugent along with a group of musicians paid tribute to Martin Luther King by having a folk, rock and blues jam session. Joni Mitchell played first, followed by Buddy Guy and Jimi Hendrix. Other musicians who participated were BB King and Al Kooper.

After settling down on a ranch in Michigan in 1973, Nugent signed a record deal with Frank Zappa's DiscReet Records label and recorded Call of the Wild. The following year, Tooth Fang & Claw (which contained the song "Great White Buffalo") established a fan base for Nugent and the other Amboy Dukes. Personnel changes nearly wrecked the band, which became known as Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes. Nugent reunited with the other members of The Amboy Dukes at the 2009 Detroit Music Awards, which took place April 17, 2009. The psychedelic band received a distinguished achievement honor at the event. The Dukes also played together at the ceremony, marking their first public performance in more than 30 years.

Solo career

Nugent dropped The Amboy Dukes band name for good in 1975, and signed to Epic Records. Derek St. Holmes (guitar, vocals), Rob Grange (bass) and Clifford Davies (drums) were the primary additional band members for his 1970s multi-platinum albums: Ted Nugent (1975), Free-for-All (1976) and Cat Scratch Fever (1977). These albums produced the popular radio anthems "Hey Baby", "Stranglehold", "Dog Eat Dog", and "Cat Scratch Fever".

It was during these three years that Nugent emerged as a guitar hero to hard rock fans, many of whom were unaware of his lengthy apprenticeship with The Amboy Dukes. This band lineup toured extensively, also releasing the multi-platinum live album Double Live Gonzo!, until its breakup in 1978 when St. Holmes and Grange departed. St. Holmes was replaced by Charlie Huhn and Grange by Dave Kiswiney. Davies left around 1982 after staying on to record Weekend Warriors (1978), State of Shock (1979), Scream Dream (1980) and Intensities in 10 Cities (1981).

On July 8, 1979, Ted was on the rock radio program King Biscuit Flower Hour. This was the original broadcast of Ted's performance of Live at Hammersmith '79 which had been recorded during the second set of a night at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1979. An album of this program was released in 1997.

During this era, Nugent was notable for his declarations that he did not drink alcoholic beverages or smoke tobacco or marijuana. In an interview for VH1's Behind The Music, Nugent said this was due to his father's having reprimanded him when he came home smelling of alcohol after a night of drinking. Nugent has been cited as an influence on the straight edge movement, which disavows drinking and recreational drug use.

Influences

Nugent has been praised for his playing style, and is cited as an influence by many other hard rock and heavy metal musicians. Nugent has cited his own musical influences as Vanilla Fudge, Jeff Beck, The Ventures, Wayne Cochran, Jimmy Page, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Yardbirds, Duane Eddy, Eric Clapton, Lonnie Mack, Steppenwolf, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, The Animals, Little Richard, Frank Zappa, and Muddy Waters.

Damn Yankees

During the period of 1982–89, Nugent released a series of moderately successful solo albums. In 1989, he formed the supergroup “Damn Yankees”, with Jack Blades (bass/vocals, formerly of Night Ranger), Tommy Shaw (guitar/vocals, formerly of Styx) and Michael Cartellone (drums). “Damn Yankees” (1990) was a hit, going multi-platinum in the U.S., thanks in no small part to the smash hit power ballad "High Enough". The video for this song featured Nugent in a priest's collar, and later in a zebra-striped cape during the guitar solo. It also saw the first appearance of his 'WhackMaster' hat.

Solo Career

Returning to a solo career, Nugent released Spirit of the Wild in 1995, his best-reviewed album in quite some time. The album also marked the return of Derek St. Holmes to Nugent's studio band. A series of archival releases also came out in the 1990s, keeping Nugent's name in the national consciousness. He also began hosting a radio show in Detroit on WWBR-FM ("102.7 The Bear, Detroit's Rock Animal") and took ownership in several hunting-related businesses. He created TV shows for several networks; Wanted: Ted or Alive on Versus, Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild on PBS and The Outdoor Channel, as well as Surviving Nugent and Supergroup-Damnocracy on VH1.

Ted Nugent appears on David Crowder Band's 2007 release, “Remedy”, playing guitar on the song "We Won't Be Quiet". He announced his "Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead" tour on April 21, 2010.

On March 14, 2011, Nugent released a new song, "I Still Believe", as a free download via his website to subscribers to his news letter. Nugent says of the song: "America is a target-rich environment for an independent man addicted to logic, truth and The American Way. 'I Still Believe' throttles the animal spirit of rugged individualism in pure MotorCity ultra high-energy rhythm and blues and rock and roll." In April 2011 Nugent announced that former frontman Derek St. Holmes would be joining his band for Nugent's “I Still Believe Tour”.

Ted Nugent, also known as “The Nuge” is a rock and hard-rock guitarist who produced his most popular work in the late 70’s. His popularity back in the 70’s and 80’s was amazing as the teens followed his music and his stage antics. He played that beautiful Gibson Byrdland guitar that by now is a vintage collectors model. Me being a guitarist myself, I pay particular attention to the guitars that these artist play so Nugent played a very unique guitar for playing hard-rock music.

Ted Nugent with his Gibson Byrdland guitar collection

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed my post covering a hard-rock artist (Ted Nugent) from the 70’s that made it somehow thru to the current music scene. I’ll be researching several more of these artists/bands before I go back to covering the southern country-blues music genre.