In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, Ted Nugent was asked what he thought of some of the cover versions of his songs by other artists. Not surprisingly, The Nuge likes none of them and—this is where it gets rich—he had some "advice," you could say, for future artists looking to cover his stuff.
"I've heard the versions of 'Cat Scratch Fever', and I love Pantera and I love Lemmy (Motörhead) and I love The Ramones, but God, are they terminally Caucasian or what?" Nugent remarked. He continued by saying "There's a real Motown soulfulness to what me and my boys deliver; there's a grunt and a grind."
Yeah, so that happened: A self-proclaimed narcissist and easily the whitest man in America, if not the entire world, felt entitled enough to suggest the greatest metal and punk bands ever needed to shake their groove thangs much harder if they really wanted to wang-dang doodle the right way.
Ted's arbitrary ramble also included this declaration: "I love musicians who put their heart and soul into stuff" (like only Ted can, we assume), repeating again that he loved Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth—like a person who says, "I'm not a racist, I have plenty of black friends"—before simply concluding that "When I listen to music, I wanna hear a groove."
The Nuge then rattled off 7 or 8 rhythm pairings that he deemed funky enough—naturally, all were musicians who have played with him. But of course, we all know this isn't about music for Ted.
"When I heard Pantera's version of 'Cat Scratch Fever,' I thanked them, but I think they're angry at me because I called them Caucasian, which I think is a racial slur somewhere." Such a charmer that Ted Nugent, isn't he? If blue-eyed "grunt and grind" is your thing, The Nuge has a new album, Detroit Muscle, available now.
