Ted Nugent

Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent, born December 13, 1948) is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a solo career. He is noted for his conservative political views and his defense of hunting and gun ownership rights.


Nugent was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marion Dorothy (née Johnson) and Warren Henry Nugent. He moved to Palatine, Illinois as a teenager, and has two brothers: John and Jeffrey. 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.
Career


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.


Nugent starred in his own outdoors television show named after his popular song "Spirit of the Wild". The song was the theme music to the TV series in which Nugent took viewers on a variety of wild game hunts using his bow. In the series he teaches and advises hunters and "hands-on" conservationists around the world on the different aspects of hunting and politics, and informs the public on the importance of getting children away from the TV and video games and getting them out beyond the pavement in order to better their lives.
In 2003, he was host of the VH1 reality television program Surviving Nugent in which city dwellers such as model Tila Tequila moved to Nugent's Michigan ranch in order to survive such "backwoods" activities as building an outhouse and skinning a boar. The success of the two-hour show spawned a four-part miniseries in 2004 entitled Surviving Nugent: The Ted Commandments. This time it was filmed on Nugent's ranch in China Spring, Texas. During filming, Nugent injured himself with a chainsaw, requiring 44 stitches and a leg brace.
In 2003, Nugent also guested on the VH1 program Forever Wild, hosted by Sebastian Bach (former lead vocalist for the band Skid Row). They shot some firearms and walked around Nugent's cabin in the woods. Two years later he hosted a reality-type show, Wanted: Ted or Alive on OLN (now the sports channel 'Versus') where contestants competed for money as well as for opportunities to go hunting with "Uncle Ted." The contestants had to kill and clean their own food to survive.
In 2006, he appeared on VH1's reality show SuperGroup, with Scott Ian (Anthrax, guitar), Evan Seinfeld (Biohazard, bass), Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row, vocals) and Jason Bonham (Bonham, UFO, Foreigner, drums). The name of the supergroup was originally FIST but later was changed to Damnocracy. Bach had lobbied for the name Savage Animal. Captured on film by VH1 was a rare Nugent duet with guitarist Joe Bonamassa at the Sand Dollar Blues Room for a 45-minute blues jam. He starred in another reality show for CMT in August 2009. The show, entitled Runnin' Wild ... From Ted Nugent, featured Nugent instructing competitors in the art of survival; the competitors had to use those skills in challenges in which they were hunted down by Nugent.


In the late 1990s, Nugent began writing for various magazines. He has written for more than 20 publications and is the author of New York Times Best Seller God, Guns and Rock 'n' Roll (July 2000), Kill It and Grill It (2002) (co-authored with his wife, Shemane), BloodTrails II: The Truth About Bowhunting (2004), and "Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto" (2008).
In 1996 Nugent joined the WWBR-FM air staff. The Ted Nugent Morning Show on 102.7 FM in Detroit was a success. He and co-host Steve Black (now host of the syndicated radio show Chop Shop and Chop Shop Classic) often shocked Detroit with their opinions.
Nugent is a fan of the Detroit Pistons. He wore a Pistons shirt in the Damn Yankees music video for "Come Again". He is also a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and attends many games with his children and grandchildren.
Family
He has had two wives and has eight children, including three out of wedlock in two liaisons almost 30 years apart. In the late 1960s, prior to his first marriage, Nugent fathered a boy, Ted (Mann) and a girl, whom he gave up for adoption in infancy. This did not become public knowledge until 2010. The siblings were adopted separately and had no contact with one another. The son learned the identity of his birth father in 2010 through the daughter's quest to make contact with him and their birth parents. According to a news report, Nugent over the years had discussed the existence of these children with his other children.
In 2005 Nugent was involved in a legal battle for not paying enough child support for a child he had out of wedlock in 1995. It was finally resolved when Nugent was ordered to pay $3,500 in child support.
He was married to his first wife, Sandra Jezowski, from 1970 to 1979. They had three children, son Theodore Tobias "Toby" Nugent, and daughters Sasha and Starr Nugent. Sandra died in a car crash in 1982. His second marriage was to Shemane Deziel, whom he met while a guest on Detroit's WLLZ-FM, where she was a member of the news staff. They married on January 21, 1989. Together they have two children, son Rocco Winchester Nugent, and daughter Chantal Nugent.

In 1978, Nugent began a relationship with seventeen-year-old Hawaii native Pele Massa. Due to the age difference they could not marry so Nugent joined Massa's parents in signing documents to make himself her legal guardian, an arrangement that Spin magazine ranked in October 2000 as #63 on their list of the "100 Sleaziest Moments in Rock".