These days, Ted Nugent is known for the wild things that come out of his mouth, but earlier in his career the guitarist was known for the wild stunts he performed onstage. And during a recent interview, the Motor City Madman recalled a couple of the "30, 40 times" he should have died.
“I mean, the running, the athleticism, the ramp — we created the whole ramp thing onstage because I was so hyper, so driven by the rhythms that my incredible band provided that you can't stand there and play,” he reminisced before giving some examples of near-death experiences. “Coming down out of the ceiling at Cobo Hall in the ‘80s, my hair got caught in the pulley 140 feet up in the air. And I had to literally violently yank out that big shard of hair from the pulley or I'd have plummeted to the ground and died.”
There was also the time he rode a wild animal during a concert. "Riding the buffalo onstage at the House of Blues in Chicago, where we're going up the elevator where the buffalo's horns were up against my ass,” he noted. “And if he would sneeze, I'd have been fixed for life.”
“I should have died, oh, maybe 30, 40 times," Nugent admitted. "But luckily I was really healthy and athletic.”
During the same interview, the 76-year-old rocker went off on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for inducting artists from other genres, accusing the institution of "pissing on the face of" rock greats.
“It says ROCK and Roll Hall of Fame. And they basically pissed on Chuck Berry's grave, the way I look at it," he said. When asked specifically about Chubby Checker, one of the genre's pioneers, being nominated this year the guitarist upped the ante.
“Chubby Checker, if he's not in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but Grandmaster Flash [is]... I'm not knocking Grandmaster Flash. Maybe I am. But there's a bunch of people that are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that is just sacrilege. It's just rude. It's dishonest," Nugent declared. "It's pissing in the face of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and Little Richard and all these magnificent, real rock and roll masters.”
“I'm referencing the difference between REAL rock and rollers and people who are in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that have nothing to do with rock and roll, whether it's Madonna or Grandmaster Flash,” he clarified before calling some of the Rock Hall's decisions "inexcusable."
Despite a pretty impressive career, Nugent has never been nominated for the Rock Hall even though he's been eligible since 2000. In 2022, he called the snub "literally disrespectful."
Checker joins Oasis, OutKast, Billy Idol, Cyndi Lauper, Maná, Phish, Joe Cocker, The White Stripes, Bad Company, The Black Crowes, Joy Division/New Order, and Soundgarden on the 2025 ballot.