Detroit's Amboy Dukes are best remembered for their 1968 acid-rock classic "Journey to the Center of the Mind," as well as introducing the world to "the Motor City Madman", guitarist Ted Nugent.
Nugent was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1948 and started playing guitar at age nine. Early in 1960, he formed his first group, The Royal High Boys, and by 1962 had moved on to The Lourds. The Lourds won a Battle of the Bands contest, with fourteen year old Nugent doing a guitar solo on the judge's table. Soon, they were opening for The Supremes and The Beau Brummels. Much to his regret, Nugent's family moved to Chicago in 1965 where young Ted formed a new band. He had heard of a Detroit group who had just broken up called Amboy Dukes and started using the name for his new Chicago band. The Amboy Dukes was actually the name of a novel about gang members and their lifestyle. In later interviews, Nugent said that although many people have given him a copy of the book, he has never actually read it.
Nugent returned to southeastern Michigan in 1967, and assembled a new Dukes line-up including vocalist John Drake, a former band mate in the Lourds, as well as rhythm guitarist Steve Farmer, bassist Bill White, keyboardist Rick Lober and drummer Dave Palmer. The group quickly emerged as one of the hottest attractions in the Detroit. After a series of line-up shifts which saw White and Lober exit in favor of bassist Greg Arama and keyboardist Andy Solomon, in 1968 the Dukes released their album "Journey to the Center of the Mind" on the local Mainstream label. The title track, which Nugent wrote the music for Steve Farmer's lyrics, was released as a single and climbed the U.S. pop chart to number 16. Despite its apparent drug related theme, Nugent himself claims to have "never smoke a joint...never done a drug in my life. I thought 'Journey to the Center of the Mind' meant look inside yourself, use your head, and move forward in life".
By the time the Amboy Dukes recorded their follow-up L.P. in 1969, vocalist Rusty Day had replaced John Drake. "Migrations" failed to equal the success of its predecessor and a third effort, "Marriage on the Rocks" was issued later that same year. It was also a disappointment, and after 1971's "Survival of the Fittest", Nugent dismissed Day and Solomon as Dave Palmer left the group to accept an engineering job at Electric Lady Studios. Nugent would later explain, "There never really was a break-up of The Amboy Dukes. It just got to be such a revolving door mentality with the musicians. I was so upset internally with the amount of effort I was putting out with the constant human battering I was doing with the musicians. I was bailing them out of jail for breaking into a Coke machine or because they got caught with a joint. I felt like I was a babysitter. I also acted as a road manager. I used to book the band. I used to maintain all the equipment. I used to change the oil in the cars. I used to drive the truck and set it up. I handled all the hotels. I kept all the ledger books. I did everything. So for the first time in my life, I took a year off. It was too loony". As it turned out, Nugent took only three months off, but it changed his life. He went to Colorado to go deer hunting and found it to be of incredible therapeutic value.
Nugent's magnificent self-titled 1975 solo album set the stage for a spectacular career of hell raising guitar mayhem. A master guitarist, accomplished songwriter and wild showman, it was no surprise that the success of Ted Nugent led to a rapid fire succession of multi-Platinum albums including "Free For All" (featuring budding musical star Meat Loaf on several cuts), "Cat Scratch Fever", "Double Live Gonzo", "Weekend Warriors" and "State Of Shock".
On a couple of sad notes, Nugent's old friend from his Amboy Duke days, bassist Greg Arama was killed in a motorcycle accident on September 18th, 1979, at the age of 29. Vocalist Rusty Day was murdered by unknown assailants on June 3rd, 1982 at his home in Longwood, Florida at the age of 36.
By the time the Eighties arrived, Ted Nugent's commercial fortunes took a nose dive. But the ever resilient guitarist carried on, recording a string of new studio albums ("Scream Dream", "Intensities In 10 Cities", "Nugent", "Penetrator", "If You Can't Lick 'Em, Lick 'Em") and logging millions of miles on the Rock 'n' Roll highway.
The Nineties were kinder to Ted, with a major renaissance in the shape of a new supergroup, Damn Yankees, a band whose recruits included former Styx guitarist, Tommy Shaw, ex-Night Ranger bassist, Jack Blades and drummer Michael Cartellone. The group's self-titled 1990 debut was an instant success and included the #3 smash, "High Enough". Enjoying his newfound commercial success, Nugent was able to balance a blockbuster career with Damn Yankees and as a solo artist, while allowing ample time for his other great love, hunting, and what he celebrates as "The Great Spirit Of The Wild".
Into the 21st Century, after five decades of hard rockin', Ted Nugent remains a distinctive and uncompromising musician whose thirst for Rock 'n' Roll is unequalled. A world renowned hunter, NRA board member, New York Times best selling author, magazine publisher (Ted Nugent's Adventure Outdoors), award-winning writer for over forty publications, radio personality, and business entrepreneur, Ted Nugent still lives and dies for the raucous scream that is his sacred Rock 'n' Roll. A live 2001 album called "Full Bluntal Nugity" was supported by a 28 date tour with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Deep Purple. In January, 2004, Ted hopped on the reality TV bandwagon, hosting Surviving Ted: The Ted Commandments for VH1, where contestants attempt to live in survival mode on one of his ranches. Ted almost didn't survive himself, having an unfortunate accident with a chain saw during the making of the show. He required 40 stitches to close the wound.
Nugent was back in the news again in April, 2012 when he pleaded guilty to a federal wildlife violation after he failed to track down and kill a black bear he wounded with bow and arrow in Alaska during filming of his reality TV show, Ted Nugent, Spirit of the Wild. He was tagged with a $10,000 fine and was required to film a public service announcement about responsible hunting. In late December of that year, The Discovery Channel announced that Ted's show American Guns would not be renewed and reruns would not be shown. A Discovery spokesperson said that the right-wing rocker would not be back on the channel.
In January, 2014, Nugent was asked in an interview with Guns.com about the 2016 presidential race. In his answer, he referred to President Barack Obama as a "subhuman mongrel", a term that he later apologized for. June of that year brought news that Nugent's first new album in seven years, "ShutUp&Jam!" was set for release on July 8th. The effort was co-produced by Michael Lutz of the band Brownsville Station with an appearance on two songs by drummer Johnny "Bee" Badanjek of Mitch Ryder And The Detroit Wheels. Longtime Nugent vocalist Derek St. Holmes sings "Everything Matters" while Sammy Hagar guests on "She's Gone". Meanwhile, Nugent and his band were gearing up for a U.S. tour slated to run from July 3 in Wichita Falls to August 16 in Fort Worth. For the Summer of 2016, Ted and the boys were booked to appear at several shows across America. In mid-February, 2017, Nugent told the press that he was considering seeking the Republican nomination for Senate from Michigan in 2018. In the meantime, he was slated for a series of Summer appearances throughout the United States.
2018 brought an unfortunate war of words with survivors of the February 14th school shooting in Parkland, Florida. After the students publicly protested gun violence, Ted responded by saying, "The lies from these poor, mushy-brained children who have been fed lies and parrot the lies, they are actually committing spiritual suicide, because everything they recommend will cause more death and mayhem, guaranteed." Despite any controversy, Nugent was scheduled to be back on the road with his The Music Made Me Do It tour that Summer. That trek would support a new album by the same name, scheduled for release on November 9th.
For 2019, Ted set thirteen new U.S. dates for his the Music Made Me Do It Again! tour, which was scheduled to run from the end of July through the end of August. In a somewhat surprising twist, Nugent led the Billboard Top Facebook Live Videos chart that November with a three-minute clip that showed him signing a long line of red "Re-Elect That Motherfucker" hats, intended to look like President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" hats. The clip had over one million views in the first seven days after being uploaded. In mid-February, 2020 he announced that he and bassist Greg Smith, along with drummer Jason Hartless would kick off a fifteen date Summer tour on July 24 and wrap up on August 23. Those plans were put on hold due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus.
Fans were shocked and saddened to learn that Amboy Dukes singer and guitarist Steve Farmer had passed away on April 7th, 2020 at the age of 71. Farmer, who was living alone at his home in Redford, Michigan, was found dead by Police after a neighbor reported the musician had not been seen for a couple of days. An online obituary stated that he had continued to write music over the years and had seemed in good health shortly before his death.
Happier news came in late July of that year when Ted Nugent topped Billboard's Top Facebook Live Videos chart. That chart showed a monthly look at the widest-reaching and most-reacted-to videos posted by musicians on Facebook Live. Rankings are determined by a formula that blends reactions, comments, shares and first-seven-days views. Ted's clip was uploaded June 26, and showed him touching on a number of topics, including his Spirit Campfire podcast, the upcoming U.S. presidential election and more.
Ted was back in the news again in late December when he posted a Facebook video where he ranted against COVID-19 and its vaccine, saying that both were not real. His remarks came at a time when the U.S. had over twenty million cases and 346,000 deaths from the disease. Those words came back to haunt him in mid-April, 2021 when he took to a Facebook Live broadcast to announce that he had contracted the coronavirus. "I thought I was dying," he said. He added that he could hardly crawl out of bed, and that the agony of the disease finally prompted him to get tested for it. Despite the positive test, Nugent continued to cast doubt on the pandemic while pushing pro-Trump conspiracy theories.
2022 allowed Ted to get back on the road with a tour he called "Detroit Muscle". In April, 2023, the Motor City Mad Man announced that his upcoming tour, called "Adios Mofo", would be his last. Revealing his decision on his YouTube channel and on social media, he said, "Now, I'll always play music. I've got new records I'm gonna make. I can't wait to unleash some of these new songs. The musical dream will continue, but I'm not going on tour anymore because hotels are jail. A hotel room is jail for me."
More bad press came on May 4th, 2023 when Nugent had a scheduled concert in Birmingham, Alabama canceled after thousands of Facebook and Instagram users denounced his past social comments and political beliefs. In response to Red Mountain Entertainment's decision to pull the plug on the show, Ted responded on his own Facebook page, saying, "Liars & haters drunk on stupid incapable to debate me." He would later state on his Nightly Nuge show that he had booked another gig for more money across the border in Mississippi less than an hour after the Birmingham show was called off.
