Ted Nugent has fired back at accusations of racism, saying that he is “the anti-racist” who has “paid homage and reverence to the black heroes of music” his entire life.
The outspoken conservative rocker made his comments just days after he revealed he recently lost a major sponsor of his award-winning “Spirit Of The Wild” television show over allegations of racism.
In a Facebook Live video on Saturday (March 20), Ted said: “Everybody who pays attention — not the ones who call me a racist, but the people who are actually honest and pay attention know that I have paid homage and reverence to the black heroes of music all my life, which means I’m the anti-racist. So if you find somebody who calls Ted Nugent a racist, you are looking at a subhuman piece of shit who lives a lie.”
He added: “I’m a living, walking, breathing passionate music lover that was in the eye of the music storm at the most important time in the history of music, coming right out of the electrification of the guitar by Les Paul. And how Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and THE VENTURES and Duane Eddy and Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley took that black music, and we celebrated it in song.”
A board member of the National Rifle Association, Nugent has been accused of using racist language for decades, including in a 1990 Detroit Free Press interview where he defended the institution of apartheid in South Africa by stating “apartheid isn’t that cut-and-dry. All men are not created equal.”
Back in 2014, Nugent called then-U.S. president Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel” in an interview with Guns.com. He later apologized “for using the street fight terminology of subhuman mongrel.” But he maintained that Obama was a “liar” violating the Constitution.
In his 2016 memoir, “18 And Life On Skid Row”, former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach wrote about how Nugent, whom he considered to be one of his musical idols, allegedly went on a racist tirade on the set of the VH1 reality show “SuperGroup”, causing Sebastian to step into the role of unlikely hero to the African-American crew by walking out and going to the producer, refusing to continue working with the Nuge.
The following year, Nugent slammed Bach for his comments, saying: “He falls in the ‘inconsequential’ column. It’s true — the guy smokes so much dope. People like Sebastian Bach will literally listen to me praise Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and Little Richard and James Brown and Wilson Pickett, they’ll listen to me praise these black artists and literally call it racist. I mean, how much dope do you have to smoke to be that stupid?”
He continued: “Literally, I’m the one during that TV show that pounded home that we cannot lose touch with our black founding fathers, that if you don’t have that groove of the black artists, if you don’t have the Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and Little Richard and James Brown groove, your music is worthless. That’s what I drove home. And he would call that being a racist? This is funnier than Richard Pryor‘s afro catching fire. I mean, how stupid can you get?”
“SuperGroup” followed five well-known hard rock and heavy metal musicians — Bach, Nugent, ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian, ex-BIOHAZARD bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld and drummer Jason Bonham (LED ZEPPELIN, BONHAM, UFO, FOREIGNER) — over a twelve-day period during which they lived together in a Las Vegas mansion in order to create, plan and perform a live show together.
In a 2012 interview with Metal-Rules.com, Bach stated about Nugent: “To be honest with you, I think that Ted‘s political beliefs and social opinions overshadow how great a guitar player he is. More people know Ted for his outrageous views and political viewpoints. His music is so great, but a lot of people are disgusted by him. They don’t like guns. People don’t like racism, but he says some things that are from the ’50s. People don’t think like that anymore; it’s not acceptable. It’s a shame because I love his music and he is funny as hell. He is so abrasive with his beliefs, it takes the fun out of it.”
Nugent told Radio.com in 2014 that Bach was “incredibly gifted” and “a gentleman for the most part,” but he called the former SKID ROW singer “weak.” Nugent explained: “[Sebastian] doesn’t understand the concept of the [body as a] Sacred Temple. He doesn’t understand accountability. He doesn’t understand — clearly — how his indulgences and his poisons ruin his life. And his relationships, and his marriage. And his musical capabilities. I love the guy and if he’s watching this, I love you, but when you’re the drunk Sebastian Bach, you’re nowhere near the Sebastian Bach that you are when you’re clean and sober. Case closed. That isn’t a Ted Nugent opinion, that’s scientific truism.”
In 2019, Nugent defended Donald Trump after the then-U.S. president was accused of making racist remarks about Democratic congresswomen from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.
