Ted Nugent 'Nuff Said

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network, brought to
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(01:27):
I'm the host of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll
also be your host into the world of hunting the
icon of the North American wilderness. Prepare. We'll talk about tactics,
gear conservation. We will also bring you into some of
the wildest country on the planet chasing bat. We've gone

(01:55):
and done it this time, folks. We've got Uncle Ted
Nugent on the podcast. We have a very interesting conversation
with him, replete with three separate impromptu serenades. Guitar serenades.
You're gonna have to check out. In the conversation, we
talk about the threats to modern hunting. We talk about

(02:17):
Ted's hunting roots. We talked about how he how he
stayed clean and sober for seventy two years. We talked
about Fred Bear. We talk about some poaching. We also
talk about high fence hunting. Interesting stuff. You're gonna enjoy
this podcast with Ted Nugent, and you gotta listen to
the very end to hear him sing Fred Bear. It's

(02:39):
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But it wasn't for that, I would not be I
consider a long drive to my fire tree standing well,
I'm here with Ted Nugent, Mr. Ted Nugent, and you
feel right at home, don't you do. It's almost like
opening day of deer season twenty four, seven, three, sixty
five and in my case seventy two. I have my

(06:21):
seventies second opening day this year. How lucky and prioritized
to my clay nucom excellent, excellent, well you wouldn't remember this,
but I didn't meet you in two thousand, just a
guy in a line. You came to Northwest Arkansas, and
um you did, uh you did like a hunter expo. Sure,
I just walked by in line and just shook your hands.

(06:44):
I remember your your good looks, but I did. You
were Clay nucom my spirit of the mystical Flight of
the Era Brothers. So you know I and you mentioned that,
and you can tell that I'm high energy and I'm
a happy guy and I'm really alive. It's because of
those kinds of connection. Is that I've been just humbled
and privileged to have where people share that spirit, that

(07:07):
God family, country, hunting, nature, conservation, and they really expressed that.
I'm sure that even in a moment hello handshake. I'm
sure that at an event, especially a hunting expo, I'm
sure that attitude and that connection, that brotherhood, even though
it might be a quick handshaker and autograph or hey,
here's a picture of my dear. Um, I tell you

(07:28):
I take all those two heart. And I've been clean
and sober for seventy two years. So my radar still
works and my memory still works, and mostly the result
of a quality of life clean and sober, is that
your spirit miss is very little. And so I I
have those connections in all fifty states, every Comedian province,

(07:50):
where in all my European travels, African travels, that human
connection what a blessing. Huh you know? Yeah? You uh,
So you're you're still traveling and turning. Yeah, well, you
know the Chinese this year, But yeah, I last year, Clay,

(08:11):
are you kidding me? The music made me do. It
was the name of my record, my tour with Jason
Heartless on drums. So you're still you're still writing music? Yeah,
I can't. I can't stop. Can't see these weapons of
mass construction. I I fondled my bow and arrow, my dogs,
my guitars, my trucks, and my beautiful wife. I I

(08:33):
embraced that essence of all those things that still at
my old age, it's still really turns me on. So yeah,
I played my guitar every day. I love it. I
went down to Texas Metal just wrench gods that create
these masterpiece trucks and stuff. And while I was there
for their TV show, I played the star Spangled banner

(08:54):
and some grinding animal breeding soundtrack MotorCity Licks and uh
so everybody. There's a great musical connection obviously, and I
still love that stuff, you know, does your So you're
very passionate about your music, but you're obviously very passionate
about your hunting. Where where where did those intersect? Or

(09:17):
which one would uh, which one has more influence inside
of your life? Well, they would be asking me which
which flag you want to cut off? You know, I
was born in Detroit And a lot of people don't
know this because they probably went to school in America.
Detroit was the arsenal of democracy. That would have you

(09:38):
heard that term? See you were you were anti educated
in America. A bunch of things you haven't heard about.
Detroit arsenal of democracy, that herculean work, ethic and patriotism
and drive of excellence and productivity. So you're an asset
to your family. Instead of making trucks and cars, Detroit
started making tanks and howitzers and Emma and bombs and jets.

(10:02):
So that spirit of victory over the evil Japanese Empire
and the Nazis? Can you imagine a more positive celebration
in a human experience the world was jeopardized? Life itself
in Detroit was a manufacturing powerhouse, so that work ethic
permeated everybody. I think, not just Detroit, but all across America,

(10:26):
but Detroit. It was so um universal, so ubiquitous, especially
with my mom and dad the discipline factor. But my
dad clay hands are in their hands. There's here's the
moment of infamy. My dad was already a follower of

(10:46):
Fred Bear and a bow hunter when I was born
in and Les Paul had just electrified the guitar a
few years earlier. And it was at that time that
Chuck Berry and Bow did the and Lonnie mc and
Dwaine Eddie started unleashing these noises, these intensities that had

(11:07):
never been accomplished on any other instrument. I fake a
keyboard thing. They wish they could bend to note like
we do. And so what an aura, What a firestorm
of inspiration, the mystical flight of the air which every kid,
of course, every child had a bone arrow, and the
red rider be begun. I actually have one right there,
my daisy. Red Rider b begun. So every kid and

(11:29):
every we all made sling shots, we all cut were
you you were in the city of Detroit, It wasn't
like rural. Your dad would go up north, and that's
a big thing in Michigan, go up north. So these
guys worked down in the cities in the southern part
of the state and then went up and hunted the north.
But unique to my birth in Detroit was Detroit proper.

(11:51):
You could see the skyline, but the Rouge River flowed
through the area, which is why Detroit and every major
city was founded. You needed waterway. Well that waterway still
winded through the entire area that even into the suburbs
and beyond. And it was a wildlife paradise. The pheasants,
the quail. There were no deer at all, but beavers

(12:11):
and coons and possums and muskrats and skunks and river
rats and in in squirrels and ducks and geese and
record just all this wild life that mesmerized me. And
with my homemade sling shot and some really good looking
marbles and pebbles, I learned the stocking, stealth excitement, and

(12:33):
especially with homemade bows and arrows. And I still have
my first nineteen fifty five you would long bow. I
still have it from were you naturally like a really
good shot? I mean like Mike I've got I've got
two boys, two girls, and a couple of them. You
can just tell are naturally more inclined to just pick
up a bow, you know, when they were four years

(12:53):
old and hit what they're aiming at. Were you pretty?
Were you natural? Clay? I wish I was still that natural.
I'm not kiding you. You should do an interview with
my cousin Mark Was. We were on a NonStop safari
from the time I had the socks of a Grand
Slam by the time I was eight um, And I'm

(13:14):
not kidding you her stories of Howard Hills shooting doves
and rabbits. I actually know that Doug Walker, who hunted
with Howard on the Islands of California, he would have
an arrow in his hand. Everything was back quiver. Fred
hadn't invented the boat quiver yet. And Doug Walker would
tell me how they would go for walks and if
he saw a sitting rabbit, Howard Hill wouldn't let him

(13:35):
shoot it. He'd take his first arrow and and get
it running and half drawn. Yes, and he and Doug
said he didn't ever remember him missing. So I don't
want to claim to be Howard Hill, and I wasn't
and I'm know Fred Bear, but as a kid, I
had such an zero baggage free spirit of han after

(14:01):
millions of arrows, if you got all the time, and
I shooted everything, I shooted a bug, I shooted an
ant mound. I would shoot uh. At Miller's feed Store
on Grand River in Detroit, after the hunting season, you
could buy port Orford cedar arrows with these beautiful natural
turkey feathers, you know, hard helical shield cut with a

(14:21):
big old hundred forty grain field tip ten cents up
piece clay. I would collect enough bottles and I'd cut
enough lawn where I could get three or four in
them babies, which back then it was a quiverful. And
I'm telling you, even when I break them, we'd we'd
lose the tip or we'd get that heat glue. But

(14:42):
I would just get my pocket knife and just whittle them,
and it didn't matter how long it was, because I
could just hit stuff at quarter draws. You'd learned this,
it is, it's an instinct. Shoot you shooting split fingers,
shooting split fingers, That's yeah, That's what my dad learned
from a lot of guys are shooting three under these days.
I did that a lot. And if you shoot compounds,

(15:04):
or I suppose under any circumstances that apache draw gives
you a rifle barrel, that's what they're doing. Great. Even
though there's a little bit of a gap. Um there,
you're almost rifle barrel. And I do teach people. I
taught a lot of people, introduced a lot of people,
and I give them a twenty five pound re curve
so it's mushy, so that this isn't an effort and

(15:28):
just point like at your finger. And of course they'll
always shoot high the first few times because they're not
doing a gap. They don't realize that the angles here here. Um.
But I've turned so many people on with a lightweight,
graceful non compound that they and I started him at
ten twelve feet at a big thing, so they learn

(15:48):
to every every step in life is an adjustment, so
your next step is a little more efficient this way.
I look at archery and the joy Sarah, Governor Palin,
all these young boys and girls, heroes of the military,
friends of my sons and daughters. Um, they're all for
every humans fascinated by projectiles and how that's how we survives. Yeah,

(16:11):
and once you put a bow in air on their hand,
they become hooked, but not not if they start with
a compound that they have to struggle it all with
and you don't give him a release in a loop
that you need to discover the primal archery. I think,
to discover your zen, your samurai, where am I going in?

(16:34):
And once they get that, then they can go ahead
and do whatever they want, and typically they do with
a compound. Because I admit, if I had to get
dinner with my recurves these days, we'd probably buy chicken often.
But with my compound, I should not only do I
shoot him in trouble, but I play it. I play
a Matt McPherson guitar. That right, Yeah, Look, mystical blood brothers,

(17:00):
the mystic did you so the mystical flight of the arrow? Ted,
You wouldn't know this, but so I was. I would
have been ten years old in about n and that's
probably about the time a lot of your hunting videos
and stuff were coming out, and we we grew up
watching Ted Niget hunting videos. We really did down to

(17:22):
earth video funny stuff. But the mystic fun yeah, it was. Well,
so I've heard you say this phrase for thirty five years.
The mystical flight of the arrow is that. Uh did
you come up with that? No? No, I didn't. Um
A lot of people attribute a lot of the things
I say is that's a clever statement, and they are clever,
but I didn't come up with it. For example, I've

(17:43):
always I've been cleaning sober my whole life, and I
keep emphasizing that because you'll never shoot as good of
an arrow if you're drunk or stone, or you get
chemicals of any kind case clothes, but because I have
influenced a lot of young people because of the intensity
of the music and the intensity of my fun factor,

(18:05):
which I'm sure you related to because I was having fun.
A lot of the guys play. Some of the most
dangerous bow hunters in the world are the dangerous bow
hunters because they're so low key that they don't have
this this spiritual erection when the beast drives, so a
lot of in Fred bears a perfect example, my hero.

(18:27):
He was so easy going, and I talked with Chuck
Adams and it's almost like it's almost like they're flatlining
and Claude Pollington. I'm named. I could name a hundred
killer bow hunters that are not crazy and uppity and
energized like I am. So I've always celebrated that this

(18:47):
is my sacred temple. Now, when I was growing up,
that was a ubiquitous colloquialism. Have you ever heard that, ye,
my sacred temple? You know? Yes, So I've used phrases
like that, um in the Mystical Flight of the Arrow.
I think I might have got it from um a

(19:08):
fred bear tomb or one of his times around the campfire. Probably, Uh,
I'm thinking of there's a book Will Thompson. Is that
the name? Um? One of the original guys. You've heard
it somewhere. Yeah, I read everything you had with a

(19:29):
bow and arrow, that hunting deer and archery. So I
read all that stuff, and I picked up on Mystical
Flight of the arra. But I think it is a
historical colloquialism relative to our archery pursuits. Yeah, Ted, do
you remember your first big game animal? But I know
you do. What was it? Tell me that? Absolutely? As
a coal October night in nineteen seventy And I've been

(19:52):
hunting non stops since. I mean literally, Yeah, I would
have been that December, and I've been. I I think
I qualify as officially bow hunting since I was five

(20:12):
or six because I had my bow. I followed my
dad through the Manistee National Forest up north, and I
had a broadhead and I was shooting chipmunks and I
was looking for a deer. So I you know, I
would bow hunt um and I and not only didn't
I ever killed a deer. My dad never killed a deer.

(20:33):
We never killed a deer. We went every year, we
never killed nothing. I mean, I got the world slam us.
He could have been hunting with a firearm, yeah, and
I did. He chose to shoot, and we did for
gun hunt two November fift was just too powerful to ignore, okay.
So it was just in the bow season he was

(20:53):
and and so it was. It was October of seventy
and I hunted every day I could. I was on
tour NonStop. I did three hundred concerts a year, sometimes
three d fifty, so I'd have a week or two
to bow hunt. And I still didn't understand the rut. Yet.
We didn't know nothing. There was just no real knowledge

(21:15):
out there, especially pertaining to archery constrictions. So I never
killed nothing, but I kept going clay, I kept strategizing.
I was trying to figure them out. And this was
a time when white tails were just beginning to really
appear in southern Michigan where my original farm was. So

(21:35):
I had watched this dough and fauns, and I've seen
these bucks and there's I used to climb trees and
just hang on the limbs. I was a monkey, as
an absolute ape. I could climb any I was. I
was like Bruce Lee. I was so wiry. I was
climb these limbs. And I get up in a crotch
and stand there all day finding this dough. And two

(21:57):
fawns came out, and of course my heart's gone and
I'm going and your your goofball. You can shoot squirrels.
Pretend there's a squirrel there. That's a squirrel behind your
shoulder that I hit high, but I spined heer in
my second recurve. Yeah, recurve of sasheft of barrakodiak um

(22:18):
probably and you know, forty six pounds was shooting thirty
at the time. Micro Flight micro flight glass arrows. Micro
Flight tends with a rasor head with with the insert
and I knocked her down in him. I was out
of body, and my second earrow was perfect because now

(22:42):
I don't know the planets can align. And I called
upon that natural hand I guy that was shooting squirrels,
and I held that doze head in my hands and
I sat there out of body. And from then on
I've caught up because it's about spirit, emotion management, heart

(23:06):
rate management, and and directing your priorities to shoot a
good arrow, not the deer. Yeah, I mean some of
those psychological problems that's many of us encounter that manifest
horrifically and target manic. The guys that are a little
bit more relaxed, I really envy them because they might

(23:30):
not know that that. However, here's a great story you're
gonna love. So seventy s. I mean, I'd kill a
lot of deer by that. I started killing deer pretty regularly.
I'm in a tree up north in our Land and
near Irons, Michigan, and I got an eight arrow beer
bowl quiver and I was shooting aluminums. The still with

(23:52):
the hard helical shield cut real feathers right out of
the bear catalog. In fact, Fred gave them to me.
I was already connected to Fred by this and that
buck a buck came and of course I'm helpless, just
our wreck. I don't mean to you know, beef, you know,

(24:18):
too disrespectful, but that moment kind of prepared me for
nine eleven um. And I know that was a horrific
death and destruction moment that shattered all of us emotionally,
but I I, I don't mean to offend anyone, but
that moment was significant moment, significant moment. All story short,

(24:39):
I'm not going to repeat what happened. But eight arrows
later he was still walking away. I flinched so violently
and I had it, got the corner of the mouth
touched the same tooth we're getting, and motions of shots

(25:01):
into the air. I ran back to my cabin and
I called Fred as a wreck. I said, let me
tell you what it just happened to me. And he
laughed and it's not funny. And he goes, the same
thing happened to him in the nineteen fifties as a
as an n f A A field champion, and he

(25:23):
said he had the same thing happened to him and
he had to go through craid routine and he gave
me that routine ultra lightweight bow right next to the
damn and arrow length away from a paper plate with
a black spot in the middle of it. You, yes,
you come back to full draw, and you close your eyes,
and you let these guys work without this guy, because

(25:45):
this guy's reckon this guy. The eyeballs somehow inflame and
enraged the psyche. And and I haven't beat it, as
you know, nobody does, but I have it across. I
have managed it since that day. And I did go
to a compound shortly after. I thought that might help.

(26:06):
It didn't. Um But over the years I've gone through
that heartbreak and horror, and I've helped a lot of
people who have experienced that don't know what it is.
They have no idea why the hand is thrown violently
off target, or they can't even get it anywhere near

(26:27):
the target. It's it's it's a it's a of the
human spirit. But I have managed it. And I write
a lot of articles, and I've addressed this and deer
and deer hunting in a bunch of publications I write for.
And I'm convinced that too much draw weight will result

(26:50):
in target panic more often than not. And that's the
number one cause of attrition in our sport. It's why
the numbers of bow hunters if you take out crossbows,
which is fine, but it's not the mystical flight of
the arrow. As far as I press um, it's the
number one cause of attrition. Too much draw weight, the

(27:12):
discomfort and the damage done because of too much draw weight,
the alerting of the animal humping that too much draw weight,
and the the fanning of the target panic flames that
guys just hang them up on nails and they go
to the crossbow, and they keep telling me, I'd rather
bow hunt, but I can't draw the bow. Didn't get one.
You can draws. Jermaine kills everything with thirty five pounds.

(27:37):
Everything moved, not moose yet, but elk and kudu and
zebra and pace and her her arrow, uh four hundred
grain gold tip with a two blade, you know, like
a bare razor head a hundred grainer. I think it's
a steel force we use with Jermaine thirty five pounds,
six hundred plus pound orics in and out like butter. Yeah.

(28:01):
I don't don't know. Much more penetration you want? And
so the industry I think is really missing the lick
for recruitment and retention by relaxing, especially with the technology
of modern bows. Of her thirty five pound bows certainly
outperforms any sixty pounder of your I'm convinced to that.

(28:22):
So that's my spiel to get people to join joys
of bow hunting dead What like, what is your favorite
hunt anywhere in the world, anywhere in the country where?
What is your favorite what's your favorite thing to hunt?
It's so easy. The next one, Okay, I don't care

(28:44):
what it is, so you don't have the white tail
is is mystical, there's no question. Is so target rich
and I get the hunt every day. Don't hate me,
but everyday September, octover, November, December, generated February and pretty
much the rest of the year too. Um but I
I love stock and woodchucks in Michigan. I like walking

(29:05):
the fence roles just before dark and shooting cotton tails.
And it's thrilling to me because a small target, and
it really teaches you to pick a spot. And obviously
the white tail deer because I get so many tags
and I feed so many soup kitchens and homeless shelters,
and the joy of shopping for those two kitches and
homeless shelters really fires my spirit. And I've hunted elephant

(29:27):
and rhino and cape buffalo and lions and elk and
moose and caribou, and I've hunted. I haven't hunted the
sheep or the mountain goats and stuff yet. I'd love to,
but not with these knees um clay. My favorite hunt
is the next good arrow. Now I could tell you
stories about little boys and girls who their last request

(29:52):
in life is to go hunting with Ted Nugent. How
the hell I ever earned that, I don't know, But
for thirty plus years, families get ahold of us and
their little boy or little girls are gonna be dead soon,
and their last requesters to go to hunt with Ted Nugent.
They see Spirit of the Wild TV and or they
might see me doing an interview and talking about the

(30:14):
arrow and I'm funny and I'm I'm alive, and these
kids get it and I can't even I'm pretty good
with the English language, but I'm helpless to convey what
that campfire is like. And oftentimes we don't really kill anything,
though oftentimes we do, but that I get the kids
laughing and we take their mind off the chemo or

(30:37):
there the imminent and uh, those aren't even those aren't
even really hunts per se. But it's an experience that
came about via the hunting ethic, the hunting lifestyle. That

(30:57):
I stumble to Russ, what happened? You can you can sure?
And so those are favorite moments that are part of
my hunting life, that are a gift from God. And uh,
I don't know how I ever qualified for that, but
that they decided idea is all I need to know.
That's great. Let me ask you a question about, uh,

(31:21):
just kind of the North American hunting in general. So
we're you know, the it seems the real issue is
hunter recruitment. I think the stats say there's eleven point
five million hunters in the US today. Peak hunting numbers
were in the nineteen eighties around sixteen seventeen million, somewhere
in that range. Our population is increasing, so we continue

(31:45):
to become this smaller minority. What what would you say
are the key features of of our hunting culture persisting
tad because and it's and and we know that it's
so much more more than just our kids been able
to hunt or something. But I mean, you know, the
North American mole and wildlife conservation is the most successful

(32:09):
animal husbandry human endeavor of all times. So like there's
like our hunting is propping up, Saving wild places is
propping up. It's propping up quality air, soil, and water
is what it's propping up. So how do we so,
you know, because everybody knows. I mean, there's a lot
of narratives and a lot of them are good. And
I realized there's not one thing. But what what do

(32:31):
you see? What do you think when it is a
spicy cocktail of ingredients. So I'll start with number one
and again, I have a big mouth. I think the
Founding Fathers wanted all Americans to have a big mouth.
This is an experiment self government, the experiments over we
the people are supposed to be in charge, and some

(32:53):
people hate me because I am in charge because I'm
doing what the Founding Fathers wanted us to do. And
it's relating to the recruitment and retention and attrition in
the conservation world, license sales of family hours of recreation,
the gargantuan economy relative to it. It's it's it's it's

(33:16):
immeasurable way beyond any measurement. I've seen number one, the
criminal abuse of power and corruption in all bureaucracies that
it has weaseled its way into all game departments. I'm

(33:37):
sure as a publisher and an editor and a visible
promoter of this great sport, the greatest sport, I'm sure
you get communication from these are our fellow hunters, not
like I do. I don't care if it's a sushi
bar or the whole foods or rock and roll concert
or the gas station or a kid's school, every day

(34:01):
of my life for as far as back as I
can remember, at least fifty years, because in every interview
I've ever done as a rock and roller, I've always
mentioned the mystical flight of the arrow and how I
get high in nature, and backstraps and the challenge and
the excitement and the electricity of sneaking up on a
career with a sharp stick. I keep it entertaining, But

(34:21):
I don't mean to keep it entertaining. I just can't
help myself. That's so contagious that people that would have
never read Bear Hunting magazine don't even know there's an
outdoor life magazine, never even heard of fishing game, don't
even know what a backstrap is. They do now because
of me in a Rock and Roll interview, I always

(34:41):
turned it towards Hutton and the game laws are so
absurd and anti science, anti wildlife management that I am
bombarded constant lee with angry, frustrated people quitting because they

(35:05):
got a ticket for not having their boat case zipped
or for moving an apple closer to their tree stand. Clay,
No one's ever gonna come up and share that with you.
They shouldn't, no offense, But I am bombarded with this.
Deer are eating corn in every corn field on planet Earth.

(35:29):
Why can't they eat it closer to my tree stand? Yeah,
c w D so number one cause of attrition. People
quitting because they're being harassed by anti hunting game departments
forcing anti hunting laws on us. Right now, while you

(35:52):
and are sitting here, You and I can't hunt springtime
bears in Colorado. We can't use bait, and we can't
use pounds. Guess who can in My buddy Scott Young,
who's paid with our tax dollars through the U. S
d A, is slaughtering them as damage control because the
bureaucrats won't allow us to utilize them as an asset

(36:14):
in quality control. A lot of people watching or listening
right now, they don't even know what I'm talking about.
The government uses proven methodologies to bring balanced wildlife that
were forbidden to put are are you kidding me? People
are quitting because they didn't have their boat case zipped up.

(36:35):
Even though I forced a law that eliminated the boat
case law, but they were still enforcing it in Michigan
and we went thing you think people. Nope, not even close,
not even access to hunting grounds. And I know they
all play a part. Nothing is even close to the

(37:00):
harassment of of hunters by by cowboy game fish cops.
And I respect the ones who are respectable. In fact,
you should read the book I got. I got buddies
that are game wardens that are just there as piste

(37:20):
off as I am. They just throw their hands up
and go. So the guy had the deer and he
was gutting in hand, and put the tag on it,
and you're gonna confiscate his deer and and give him
a ticket. It's the dear season. That's a deer, that's
his dear license. It's the bow season. That's a bow.

(37:41):
He's hunting in a legal area. And you have you
ever heard one of those stories? Yeah, yeah, just people
getting I hear him all the time. Yea, look what
they did to me in Alaska. I've been hunting Alaska
since nine. I bought my bear tag. I bought it
in the area I'm hunting. I'm using the right weapon.

(38:01):
I'm using the during the right hours. I every game
law in the history of game law says upon taking
possession of the animal, you apply the tag every everyone
all my life. So I'm gonna when I take possession,
I'll put the tag on him. So I shot a
bear on TV, and you know when you want to
break a law in your shirt with fifty million viewers,

(38:23):
that's that's proves intent right there, doesn't it. So I'll
continue with my horror story. So sure enough, Jack Bouten
thug u s Attorney Jack Schmidt, because you went after
Ted Nuta when the Alaska Ficient game. We're not interested.
If there was anything that qualifies at the perfect honest mistake,
it was me. You put it on television and I

(38:49):
went and searched for three days, and then we finally
did a stop motion of the arrow and it didn't
penetrate it. Literally I caught it. It was a two
blade broadhead, and I caught a rib on the straight side.
It literally kicked up straight out of the air and
bounced clean off the rib. So we looked at it
and we went bears fine, I can go bear hunt

(39:10):
because I hadn't taken possession. So I had a tag
if and they went after me with a vengeance. They
spent millions of dollars analyzing all my TV shows to
prove that because there was a law that was initiated
that year on Prince of Wales is a draw blood? Yes, never,

(39:35):
how about this? The judge during the court hearing asked
Jack Schmidt, the the judge, and I know how the
courts work. This is precedent that when a judge says
what the judge said, I've been living in ketch can
all my life. I bear hunted all my life. When
was this law and enacted? Because I don't know anybody

(39:56):
that's ever heard of it? Grounds for smissal but no,
Barack Obama and Eric Holder went can't dismiss hurt nugent,
shut nugent up. So I had a Vendetta. Think yeah,

(40:16):
because I dare, I dare to demand constitutional adherents from
my president and Attorney general. And they couldn't debate me,
and they knew that I was right and they were
getting away with murder. So anyhow, that's number one. So
number one is the abusive power and scaring people away
because they're getting all these horrible fines. Check out what
they did to Chris Brackett. So he shoots a buck

(40:42):
and he wasn't sure the shot with a muzzler. You know,
Chris Brackett. Now you know the story. I think I do,
and you to know the whole story. So guess what
the Game Department in Indiana wants more dear killed. Guess
what the agriculture department wants more dear killed. Guess what
the Highway department wants more deer killed. Guess what the

(41:05):
Center for Disease Control or whatever it is in Indiana
they want more deer killed. We shoot one buck, So
we shot a buck. Then a giant showed up. Now
this was a mistake. Must apply the tag upon taking possession.
He didn't take possession, but he shot the bigger buck
and dad a TV show up. But he had only
had one tag, and they had one tag. They never
they never touched the first gear. They never even found

(41:28):
the first year. They did a cursory search, but because
they had the giant and he was gonna have his
cameraman tag it. Okay, so we're violating were that's pretty
that's a major violation though, or is it? Is it amazing?
Is it a major violation? Let me let me finish
in a state that wants more dear killed. Okay, you

(41:49):
know what, it is a major violation, and somebody that
has common sense, I'll tell you what the major violation is. Chris,
your jerk. You shouldn't have shot the other buck till
you did everything in your power to find that first one. Fine,
don't do it again. Donate the meat to the charity.

(42:11):
I'm sitting here right now defending him. I'm I'm telling
you that his crime was indefensible, but it wasn't murder.
He didn't. He didn't they were They ruined his life,
They bankrupted him, they went after him and try to
get him on that that insane Lacy Act felony for

(42:33):
shooting an extra dear in a state that while the
court case was going on for Chris Brackett, sharpshooters killed
thousands of them, and cars killed thousands more. So give
me a logical response to that. Why killing an extra
dear is a major offense. I'll tell you what a

(42:56):
major offensive. Armed robbery that's a major offense. Rape is
a major offense. Arson is a major offense. Shooting an
extra dear is petty. They want more dear. And if
I was the judge when Chris Brackett, you're a dirt
bag five dollars and I need to uh need that

(43:17):
venison I need and if you didn't get it, I
need some of your venison. But more importantly, Chris Brackett,
I would like to bring in the director of the
game department and ask him why can I only shoot
one deer while you're slaughtering him with my tax dollars
by the thousands, And then I would indict that guy
for being corrupt. You. I don't think we can overlook though,

(43:39):
that they were trying to. His motivation was his motivation, though,
which was different than yours, with the ruining your life
when being a prick is I'm just saying his motivation
was the perceived motivation, no doubt, and that he was
making a television show just and that was major, you know,

(44:00):
because the TV show has nothing to do with it.
Maybe shouldn't in the court of law, of course it
shouldn't it, just like it did with your thing though. Right, well,
I don't think my TV show had anything to do
it because my celebrity, in my voice is it eclipses
the TV impact. If I didn't have a spirit of
the wild TV show, I'd still be doing media like

(44:22):
the million people condemning the Democrats that side with Antifa.
So I don't need a TV show promoting oneting to
give me a voice, because I demand a voice because
I'm a free American. So you're right, but be careful,
Clay Nukem major offense? When did kill dear become a

(44:43):
major offense? I? I see, I see your point, I
really do, thank you. I see your point. But also
see inside the context of hunting, inside the see you
took it outside the context of honey, which bigger that's
fair to do? I mean a major fency. Yes, I'll
see what you're saying, but inside the inside the context
of hunting. Yeah, we've turned him down to sit touch here,

(45:07):
inside the context of hunting, that. I see that as
pretty significant, though, I mean because your your whole position,
and part of the reason I'm here is because I
respect you at the level that you have a value
system that you live by. I mean, you have a

(45:28):
value right, here's the he I mean, let's talk about
the value system specifically for a moment. Ethics are about
doing the right thing. Do you know that oftentime an
illegal act is the right thing? How About when I

(45:48):
see a deer bleeding to death stuck in a fence,
ted nugent is supposed to call a bureaucrat to put
this deer out of its misery, what in a couple
hours maybe tomorrow. It would be against the law for
me to dispatch that deer, which I've done many times,
because the law is immoral. And I think when you

(46:11):
take that kind of condemnation and ruin a person's life
over killing an extra dear and not tagging the right dear,
all right, it's a crime and it's unethical. Five fine.
That would have hurt him plenty, but not ruin his life.
The running of his life came from the social consequences

(46:33):
of that from network, those were not social consequences, though
we're those were jack booted bureaucrat. No, you can't find
me a human Stop hunting, stop doing your magazine. You
go out of crusade and find me a human being
that knows about Chris practice shooting an extra dear so
we can get that social comment. Nobody knows. I'm and

(46:56):
I'm again talking inside the hunting world, to be careful
your reputation, To be careful inside the hunting world. You'll
find people who hate me because I bait Fred Bear baited.
They hate me because I shoot a lot of deer.
I have to shoot a lot of deer. So in
our own hunting community you got some inbred cannibals that

(47:20):
are so elitist and judgmental, and they play no role
in any thought pattern or conduct of mind whatsoever. The
worst human beings in the world are people that turn
on their own And because I get to kill a
lot of deer legally and ethically and provide venison by

(47:41):
the tons to my fellow man, there are people in
our industry that absolutely curse me and they can kiss
my And in fact, I don't even need to kill
more deer this year, but I'm gonna just to piss
them off because they're so small minded. So I went
hunting too much. Nobody ever said, who says you hunt

(48:03):
too much? Well, I get these from different publishers and
people in the You know, they're really angry. I think
they think you're a game hog. Really, I shot four
d pigs from a helicopter one day with my machine gun,
and guess who thanked me. The game department, the le landowners,
the environmentalists, and the agriculture business shut up. We have

(48:24):
such ignorant, small minded duface is in our hunting community.
There's just a lunatic cringe. The vast majority here's one
wet with me. Go with me to the shot show
and just follow me around. Stay back about fifty ft
and follow me around. I have a love affair, a

(48:45):
blood brotherhood spirit connection on intellectual and decency and conservation
wise use levels with the maturity of sporting families in
this country that my haters hate me even more for.
It's it's unbelievable. So you know, I I don't think

(49:09):
my poop doesn't smell. In fact, I'm quite proud of
the aroma. But I know that my intellect and my
moral guide posts have forced me a lot with my
drill sergeant Dad to just conscientiously choose the right thing

(49:29):
to do. Yeah, and I have. And people will make
up that I'm a draft dodger, not never dodged anything,
that I'm a child molester. You look at the internet,
Huffington Post, Salon dot Org, Wikipedia. How about in New
York I was banned from saying thank you to the
NYPD last weekend because, according to the New York Times

(49:52):
and Governor Cuomo, I'm an anti Semite, I'm a racist,
and I'm a homophobe. Obviously you don't know my Jewish, Black,
or gay ends. I've been surrounded by every imaginable stripe
of mankind for fifty plus years, sixty years, and yet
there will level these horrific false accusations against me from

(50:14):
the left because I'm so effective at spotlighting their indecency
and criminal behavior, and from our own hunting community. I'm
guessing they're either stoned or drunk or just mentally ill.
Because if all these families have decided to fulfill their
dying sons and daughter's request with Ted Nugent, I'm I

(50:39):
have to be okay. They've they've they know everything that
my haters know, what what more stamp of approval, could
have man beg for then for a family in that
emotional trauma and heartbreak, to include the old guitar player.
What I must have done something right? Why why do you?

(51:02):
Uh you? And this is just an honest question I
would ask if if these we weren't in this format,
why why do you want to focus on those that
are against you? So I don't never do I'm responding
to something I don't. If you follow my average day,
I've been maybe during and and I'm very active. I

(51:23):
do media all the time, and I have my own
Tenutian spirit campfire right for all these publications positive positive, positive,
positive positive celebration, good good, good fun, fun, fun, conservation, conservation.
I hate you because you hunt over bait eat me.
Just for that, I'm mean to hunt over bait even more,
fred Bare hunt and over bait of American hunting families

(51:46):
in the Midwest, hunt over and attracting. So that guy
doesn't hate me. He hates all those families. Beautiful. That's
all we need to know. That's an official dirt bag
right there. He let me let me. By the way,
by the way, I'm focusing on it now because I
mentioned that it's the harassment that is the core of

(52:08):
attrition people quitting because of the Yeah, that was the
original question, wasn't But the factors that are hurting us
as and and access to hunting land is one of them,
but not not crucial because everybody's got an uncle or
everybody's got a buddy, and there's plenty of state land,
and I know it's a consideration in some instance, and
the cost is going up. So these are all things.

(52:30):
But this thing that we just focused on just a
moment ago is the inbreeding and cannibalism and the hate
by a lunatic fringe in our sport. I can't believe
you had a sight on your your muzzleloader. I can't
believe you use the scope, but I'm not supposed to
be really accurate. When I killed the day Air with this,
you've seen it. So that is that is an element

(52:52):
that we can crush by identifying their indecency and ostracizing them.
So that so there's your You just tell about your strategy.
So you think that we need to call out those people,
because what you're saying is we need unity inside this
port and I don't want to no batter Ever since

(53:16):
is the right thing to do to call those guys
out as crazy? Does that not make it more divisive? Ted? Oh,
I like division, you know the division. I like. I
like the division between families that go shopping in Seattle
and the people who are burning down Seattle. That's a
good division. I like the division between the guy who
goes to the bank and withdraws from his own account

(53:37):
versus the bank robber. Division is good. So we have
to so you think unity will come inside the hunting world,
And that's what we're talking about through calling out these
guys that would be anti hunt. I can't believe you
use training wheels. If you're a real hunter, you use

(53:58):
a longbow. Yeah. And and I'm all for teasing, and
I'm all for cute little you know, uh, back and forth.
But these guys are just nasty. And again, it's a
limitedringe that's in every every aspect of life. Though, no
doubt there's people that are that are that are like that.
You know where it's not. I I raised professionally for

(54:19):
twelve years with Parnelli Jones and Mickey Thompson and Ivan Stewart.
It didn't exist. The guy that raced for Ford never
said a bad thing about the Chevy guys who was
a camaraderie. I'm in the music. How do how do
we utify people? Though? Like, I hear what you're saying
about Uh, I mean I understand your philosophy there about
like uh calling out the bad guys. It's a proven methodology.

(54:41):
Actually you should come up. I I've I've sold out
all my hunts again this year. I have twelve to
twenty people at my um hog operation in Michigan every
weekend September, October November. The greatest human beings on the planet.
They support any individual choice, methodology, weapon system people. You know.

(55:02):
Yeah again haters and the squawkers are a thin lunatic fringe.
But we really are united, except that you have some
of these judgmental people find their way into the outdoor
writing community. Now there's less of it than there was
for a while, and never forget outdoor life. I was

(55:23):
telling us that we shouldn't wear a cameo in public
and avoid the hunting issue. How do you promote something
that is coming under attack if you hide from it? No,
And I always wrote, and I got condemned by some
of those writers were cameo all the time, have that
deer in the back of the truck and open the
door for the lady, help her with the groceries, tip
your hat and say hello and show them that you're
good people. Just like what do they call it? The uh?

(55:46):
The cameo are our Vada when the hurricanes hit? Who
do you think saved all those people from the floods?
Duck hunters, big truck deer hunters. That that's how you
and they're all cameo and they even you know, a
our fifteens come and get it. So I CBS didn't
know the guy had the T shirt on and anti
hunting CBS actually showed a promotional gun ownership. So be outspoken,

(56:12):
be courteous and friendly, and be sure they know you're
a hunter. Where that and r a hat to counter
the lives about guns. You know, maybe some of the
roots of this philosophy would have subconsciously come from stuff
I've heard you say over the years, But I you know,
I think that any dedication to craft, dedication to something

(56:34):
that takes as much energy effort as hunting does to
be successful, makes you a better human. Question. You know
a lot of guys talk about like limiting factors inside
there hunting, like, how can I be more successful? And
what I always say is that the way you could
be a more successful hunter is to be a better
human outside of hunting. If your family is in order,

(56:56):
if your finances are in order, that's why. If your
life is in order, then you're to have more time
to unite here. So I always take hunting as a
position of you know, hunting is not salvation. I mean
it's not. It's it's you know, we might be dedicated
to something else that could do a similar thing, maybe
not as fun, not as good, but dedication two craft

(57:19):
gives you the opportunity can make you a better human.
And that's that's what I say to these to our
to our hunters. That's pursuit of excellence, good, better neighborliness,
positive spirit, generosity, caring, not being judgmental. If you don't,
I've never said, well, you're not as good as I
am if you don't hunt. Not everybody's a hunter, Not

(57:42):
everybody's a wool rancher. I'm glad you do it because
I like my wool clothing, but I don't have a sheepherd.
It's about excellence, samurai life, liberty, pursuit of happiness in
your given calling. And you're absolutely right. That's why I
mentioned my campfires. And I've been doing this since the
late sixties. Sharing campfires. Boy, you could become you know, jaded.

(58:09):
On the positive side, you could become convinced that the
world is perfect if you just came to my camp
fires every weekend in Michigan and Texas. These are the
greatest people, entrepreneurs and work ethic and fun and positive energy.
And we talk about charities, and we talk about guidance
and schools and and challenging elected employees to adhere to

(58:33):
their constitutional oath. I'm telling you I am not the
weird guy. I am that rancher, I'm that hardware store operator.
I'm I'm just happened to be the guitar player, and
I promote the things that turned me on the most.
But I also promote my welding buddies and the mechanics
and the plumbers and the teachers and the cops. So

(58:55):
you're absolutely right. You find a person who's really a
dedicated hunter. Doesn't mean they have to kill a deer
every year or a big bucker, or focus on trophies.
Even though a good Woodchuck is a trophy to me.
But you'll find that the that the inescapable discipline of stealth, marksmanship,

(59:17):
mystical flight of the arrow zen that as they as
they pursue and discover upgrades incrementally in those pursuits. They're
going to be a better teacher, They're going to be
a better father, a better husband, a better brother. I'm
convinced to this um so I call it the spirit

(59:37):
of the wild, and I think we can go back
to the Aborigines, the Native America with Coach He's and
crazy horse and city and bull and the oneness with
the great spirit that they always referenced and the lyrics
to my Great White Buffalo that came from divine intervention
on a jam session. I didn't know that the legend
of the Great White Buffalo, but I sang it lick

(59:59):
for lick spontaneously. I made him up, made the lyrics came.
I think because of the spirit that I've discovered and
that I've been saturated with from learning to get close
to that quail on the Rouge River in Detroit in
n There it's not just physical, it really is spiritual.

(01:00:25):
Let me let me go back to something that I
wanted to that's related to this very much, so that
I've always wanted to. Well, I've wanted to talk to
you about this. Where did you so? I've heard you
say you were clean and sober for all these years,
where it takes a lot of identity to be able

(01:00:46):
to be in the places you were in, the culture
that you were in and not fall into that. Where
did that come from? Ted? I mean, and I know
you could. I mean, like, where did the strength to
be opposite positional to the time come from? Just listen,
just this is an official performance, and I'll keep it

(01:01:07):
down so you can hear everything. But have you ever
heard my song? I just want to go hunting? I
don't know. I don't think I have what you're about
to And I'll keep it down so that the lyrics
are forceful. I was always different. Nobody understood. I didn't

(01:01:44):
play follow the leader. I was always in the woods
where they hadn't invented peer pressure. Yet it seems I
stood alone. My daddy had a vision, love family and
the home. Well, some punks used to laugh at me.

(01:02:05):
They said, how can you rock and not get high?
I just stood my ground, and then I watched those
punks falling die because I just want to go hunt.
A little goose bunks makes me feel so good. I
just want to go hunting. Try to find me in

(01:02:26):
the woods. Things get a little crazy in this day
and age. The concrete jungle warfare got everybody in a rage. Well,
I shore like my rocking danger, and I crave my
rocking roll. But when I get my limit, I know

(01:02:52):
where to go. I just jump into four wheel drive
and I lord up. The dogs in the family leave
because I'm gonna feel a live with the wild life
where I can't breathe, because I just want to go hunting.
It makes me feel so good. I just gotta go hunting.

(01:03:16):
Try to find me in the woods. Yeah, I'm sitting away.
I'm looking for a new sunrise. I got to feel
okay because it's times like this makes me healthy and wild.

(01:03:43):
God told me in the Bible, he said, go ahead,
wag him tied. So I'll take my kids hunting. So
I don't gotta hunt for my kids. We like to
jump in the four wheel drive. We gotta bloat up
the dogs and the family. I gotta I gotta feel

(01:04:03):
alive with the wild life where I can't breathe because
I just want to go on. It makes me feel
so good. I'm gonna always go hunting, and I'll always
be in the woods because I'm slipping away. I gotta

(01:04:25):
get get anyway farther way every day. I gotta feel
alive in my way because I'm slipping away. That answers

(01:04:46):
the question do you see the goose bumps? I could
have literally cried as I was singing, that is that yours?
That your life? The punks used to laugh at me
because I wouldn't get high. You can't rock like dad
and not get high. So I watched those punks fall
in die, all of them, and the ones that didn't

(01:05:08):
I can't talk. And they made fun of me because
I'd promote hunting. I had a cowardy murders Bambi. Oh yeah,
let's reduce precious living, breathing wildlife to a cartoon level.
Smoke some more dope. You gotta be kidding me. It
took a lot of took a lot of internal forges.
Did your were your siblings like that? Dad? Yeah? In

(01:05:32):
different ways? And let me expound in that briefly. Because
my dad was a drill sergeant World War Two. God
bless war and Henry nugent and he was already both
hunt What was your father's name, Yeah, Warren Henry nugent
Um was a drill sergeant in the U. S. Army
Cavalry in World War Two and Korea. And he brought
home his riding crop, the same riding croppy train horses

(01:05:53):
with and my brother's sister and I just lost my
brother John, and January. It's a great, great guy. If
we are all around the campfire, we'd have you roaring
with laughter of stories of my day. The youngest know
as the second oldest brother Jeff is two years older
than I am, and then me and then my brother

(01:06:13):
John would have been. And my sister Cathey was up
North Michigan, right up where we started hunting Um, but
he was already a bow hunter, and the discipline factor
we hated him. We were controlled unnecessarily and fearful of discipline.

(01:06:36):
A beautiful parenting system, by the way. But he also
took me hunting every year and taught me those disciplines
slow stealth, quiet shadows, which I wasn't real good at
because you, as you've noticed, I'm a bit uppity. Not
exactly the personality conducive to sneaky bow hunting techniques, but

(01:07:00):
I've adapted over the years. Um. And then of course
they would just my dad would threaten us touch liquor tobacco.
You know, they're both drank and smoked. Go figure. Um.
So if anybody was in the vortex of rebellion, it
would have been me because I was already rocking my

(01:07:22):
balls off and he hated that, playing a little Richard stuff,
and he wanted to play Lawrence Welcome music Stare, What
a what a fascinating journey. So so I would have
been inclined to smoke and drink, and especially in that
era where it was ubiquitous, you couldn't get away from it.
I'm surprised I didn't get stone just on their second
hand dope. But I realized, luckily my dad's discipline I

(01:07:48):
would have dismissed and rebelled against. Except by that age
I was twelve or thirteen. I'm struggling to play Killer
Chuck Barry Bow did the rock and roll. And I
saw these great musicians much better than me. I watched
them drink and lose their musical touch. I watched them

(01:08:11):
get high, and they were always late and they forgot
the arrangements. So now my dad's discipline now had a
pragmatic indicator that if I really love the music, which
I really loved them, that's a great lick. And that's
a great lick. It's a rock and lick on acoustic
guitar by Matt McPherson. Um So I was. I never

(01:08:35):
wanted to be a rock star. I never wanted to
make plant of albums. I never I just want to
make music. The music drove me. You know they say
that guys getting in it for the chicks. I adapted
to that later, but I bought just making music. Um So,
now I'm seeing that my dad's discipline of clean and
sober would benefit my musical prowess. And when do you

(01:08:57):
think he came to that? Mean you had to have
been a little had some age on you to understand that.
I mean you, because you said early teens. And then
by the time that they're beating X turned into hippies
and just began this huge, slobbering, drooling, stumbling, puking, gaggy
death march. I'm going and they were calling you the party,

(01:09:20):
and I'm going, it's not a party. You're dying you're puking,
you're stumbling, you're bumping into people. That's not a parties
around a campfire with some killer music and some chicks
where you're cognizant of the chicks. If you're comfortably numb,
you're your your a liability you can't do in your
late You know, the song goes like this your dirt bag.

(01:09:43):
There's a win went through so many musicians, so you know,
all this makes sense as a recipe to what made
me what I am. But also, Clay, come on, let's
admit it. I am a defiant, cocky son of a boot.
And if you want to convince me of anything to
try this doper, this cocaine, you're gonna have to penetrate

(01:10:05):
my intellectual shield that it's going to be was not
to do it when everybody else was done. Yes, I
rebelled against the inescapable stupidity of the drooling and puking
and dying Clay did. I turned down Jimmy Hendricks dope

(01:10:25):
and I said no, and it's gonna kill you. Come on, man,
Jimmy Hendrix tried to right this close you and me,
Keith Moon of the who not Keith, You got buggers
coming out of your nose. You you just think, no,
it's gonna kill you. I said the words it's gonna

(01:10:47):
kill you. Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, Bond, Scott A C
D C. John Belushi, Sam Kenderson. Luckily Sam sobered up
and then he unfortunately died in a car wreckt Over
over again, John Entwhistle of the who I go, No,
I don't know, I know it's gonna kill you. And

(01:11:08):
a bunch of guys you've never heard of that were
just geniuses, Oh my God gifted musical forces. And they
thought they had to just like punks used to laugh
at me, said how can your rock? And they felt,
how can you rock? And knocket high? They think they
had to do that to rock out? No, no, no, no,
no no, and get and guess who all the good clean,

(01:11:29):
pretty girls want clean and sober guys, you jerks um.
So there was. You know, the God rewarded me in
different ways. But so that song articulates the clear and
present system of decision making. And again it goes back
to the discipline. You had to do the right thing.
My dad. Knock your block off, Remember the term knock

(01:11:50):
your block off. You really would knock your block off,
it's awesome. And if you can meet all my sons
and daughters and all my grandkids, that Poppy I'm a
I'm I got, I got eleven of them, and when
I show up, all of a sudden things get a
little bit more organized. And even though they all shooting

(01:12:10):
hunt and they love off roading with Poppy, and they
love wrestling and I you know there's a woodchuck in
their garden, they know who to call. So so it's
really served me well. But the song says it all.
They hadn't invented peer pressure yet, seems I stood alone
when my daddy had a vision, love, family and a home. Well,

(01:12:31):
how on hip is that? How cool am I? How
how prioritized? How smart was I? Yeah? Do you know
any other musicians that were in your that would have
been a peer of yours that took on that stance? Well,
first of there there's different categories of peers. I've been
surrounded by the world's greatest virtuous was all my life.

(01:12:52):
I mean, my musicians in all my different bands, the
best that ever walked the earth. And when you're when
they're not in my band, typically September through Marsh, it
is because I'm not available. Um. They worked with the
greatest artists on the planet. UM. But as far as
peer on a on a human, spiritual, freeman American level, UM,

(01:13:18):
I would say some great great guys, a lot of
straight guys. My band Jason Heartlet was twenty year oldrummer
from Detroit, Clean and Sober Monster. Greg Smith my longtime
bass player from Pennsylvania, Clean and Sober Monster. I could
name so many my Damn Yankees buddies. I'm sure they
had some history of this stuff. They'll probably Michael Cardiloni
didn't because he was so young when he joined the

(01:13:39):
Damn Yankees. UM. So there's a lot of clean and
sober guys out there now, and a lot of them
saved their lives by by stopping in time to retain
some brain matter, and many didn't. But I think of
Gene Simmons of Kiss, he's been cleaning sober all his life. UM.
I'm hard us to think of someone else. Maybe Ricky

(01:14:02):
Medlock of Blackfoot and Leonard Skinners. I think I had
him on my spirit campfire recently, and if he hasn't
been cleaning sober all his life, he is so upbeat
and so tuned in and as an Indian, as a
Native American. He and I really have a bond. And
I would venture to say that Ricky Medlock has never
been started or drunk because he's just too tuned in.

(01:14:24):
He doesn't miss nothing. In other words, I test my
friends by just flicking a pick in the air, and
the ones that catch it I feel. Hey. So, okay,
now I've heard you talk about your guitar playing like
it's a beast. Okay, okay, we're not on the air,
and you're not talking about yourself. You're outside of your body.

(01:14:45):
Often when I played my guitar, I am, by the way,
I swear to God, I'm a fan of the music.
Honest question, and I know you're gonna give me an
honest answer. How good of a guitar player are you?
I mean, I'm I mean, I know, I know I'm
as good. I'm as good as anybody that's ever walked

(01:15:07):
the earth. I don't care who you mentioned. I know
him all, I probably played with them all, and I'm
I've got no reason to not believe you. There. The
songs I've written are monstrosity soundtracks. Two people's lives I
have who are some of the other great guitar players.
There's so many. I mean my my guitar player, Derek
Saint Holmes for so many years, Ricky Medlock, Billy Gibbons. Uh,

(01:15:33):
Tommy Shaw. They never mentioned Tommy Shaw. He's a monster. Um.
Certainly Eddie van Halen and certainly Clapton and Page and
back and Brian may and um, Sammy Hagers and monster
Sammy's guitar player, Vick Johnson's a monster. Um. Ronnie Montrose
was a monster. Of course, you go back to Dick
Dale and Lonnie Mack and Dwayne Eddie and Chuck Berry

(01:15:55):
and Bow Diddley. Um. Obviously Jimmy Hendrix was an earth mover. Uh,
there's so many monster uh. Rich who plays with Toby
Keith as a monster on guitar? Uh. Some of these
country guys, though their tone is horrible and they don't
put them up in the mix where they belong. Brad
Paisley and the funny haircut from Australia. Um, I can't

(01:16:20):
think of his name right now, but they're monsters. Shmayne
knows who they are. Um, and I apologize for not
knowing his name. Uh. So there's guitars are such a
sensual individual expression. I mean, this is I want you
to play Fred bare Force. I will, But this is
my electric guitar. This is my Gibson Birdland. How long

(01:16:42):
have you had this guitar? Um for? Probably it looks
pushing fifty years. It looks like it's been played a little.
And if you offered me three hundred thousand dollars, I
would have to turn you down, which I already have
on numerous occasions. But this is a this is a
really unique Truman that uh was made as a jazz

(01:17:03):
guitar in Kalamazoo, Michigan. What kind of guitar is this?
This is a Gibson Birdland B y R D L

(01:17:24):
A N D. It's a hollow body that has the
greatest tone in the world. Listen, listen how smooth you
can make it sound, and then you can make it
sound really nasty. Um probably looked too loud for your equivactor.

(01:17:49):
It does this. It talks to me. It talks to me. Oh,

(01:18:26):
here we go. There it is I'm looking for a

(01:20:19):
flag to salute. Look around, there's a whole bunch of
military flags that have flown over battlefield. There we go.

(01:20:41):
Bright On mystical flight of the guitar. Um. That was beautiful.
It's such a such an independently expressive instrument because you
can bend notes and go where there're semi tones where
no other instruments can go, especially with a bird land.
I've cultivated the feedback sonics, the overtones, the the the

(01:21:01):
unbelievable unlimited voice of noise, and I've actually whooped it
into melodies and patterns because it's so noisy, and you
stand in front of an apple, it's just feedback and
eat your face, which is a challenge every night. But yeah,
guitars and bows and arrows, man. Yeah, it's been a beautiful,
beautiful thing. Well, hey, we'll end here with a little

(01:21:24):
talk about bears. Tell me, tell me, tell me where
you're You're a lifelong bear hunter all my life. Yeah,
back in Michigan, you could, uh didn't even need a tag.
You can hunt bears during the deer season. Um. And
I think at one time, when they first made him
a big game man, we could buy a tag over
the counter for five bucks. You're going back up there

(01:21:46):
this fall, Clay after seventeen years, and this is a
this hearkens back to my condemnation of overreaching bureaucrats again
up in the Lake County north of Baldwin, where we
have our property and my sister lives, bears are dangerously
overpopulated the nuisance bear complaints, putting them in the liability

(01:22:08):
column instead of the asset column. We're supposed to have
sound science. In fact, the law in Michigan, I hope
it is everywhere, is that wildlife has to be managed
based on sound science. There is no sound science to
be found in Michigan. You want your heartbroke. There are
so many sand hill cranes, Ribby's in the sky. Follow
me on this. I talked a moment ago about immoral

(01:22:28):
laws some human beings. I'm giving them the benefit of
the doubt. We're in a room in Lansing, Michigan, who
have credentials in wildlife management, Natural Resource Commission, Department Natural Resources.
These human beings were in a room and agreed that
after years of intense and increasing complaints by the agricultural
community that the sand hill cranes were destroying millions of

(01:22:51):
dollars worth of crops each year, that they decided you
can shoot a ribby in the sky on site, but
it's you're forbidden to consume them. Mm hmm. It's a disaster.
That is a disaster when human beings with wildlife credentials

(01:23:16):
can even think in those immoral terms and then make
such an immoral decrease. So let's go back to bears.
So for over a dozen years the bear population has
been expanding, hallelujah. And we have forensic evidence up in
the UH the I believe it's called the Turtle Club
areas like acres historical going back to the early nineteen

(01:23:41):
club where they's just have been ravaged by bears. There's
bears everywhere and they can't draw a tag. I think
they a lot on this is they a lot three
tags a year. Well, they went and they did studies.
They put the barbed wire in the bait, and they
got the hair, and they did forensic studies and everything
they want. You know, there's there's not thirty two bears
in the place. There's three bears on the place, three

(01:24:03):
tags only. So in my area, on my property, I've
been begging nobody can have a bird in the up. No,
I'm up in this northern UH the Lower Peninsula up
near the Manistee National Forest Factory. Were in the Manistee
National Forest. So kids are being chased home from bus stops.
You see bears daylight hours. They're not afraid of humans

(01:24:25):
at all. They follow your truck into the cabin. Um
just just inescapable, unambiguous indicators of dangerous overpopulations. And so
I finally drew a tag after seventeen years. And even
though I'm just identifying the bad and the ugly part, now,
the good part is that I can't wait. It's like,

(01:24:46):
is there something special about hunting anyway? Um, whether successful
or not? And then there's really something special about being successful,
the venison, the spirit, the sense of accomplishment. But when
you I've lived a life like I have, and I've changed,
you know, farmland from hayfields to towering forests that I've

(01:25:07):
had I planted myself, and you kill a deer out
of a forest that you planted, it's one of the
greatest joys of life. Almost on a parallel with welcoming
a child into your family at birth, you know, not
quite but close. Well, for all my life I've known

(01:25:27):
the bears have been exploding up there, And so I
drew a tag, and I'm so excited to go out
there and start my baiting legally on August and my
tag is good for September, and I suspect yeah, so
I'm heading up there soon. So with with the population

(01:25:48):
of bears up there, I have a funny feeling I
can be real patient and wait for a big old
bore and I'm planting on it. And my bait system
is so proven with the bacon and the syrup and
the dog food and the marshmallows and the beaver. I
got a bunch of beaver carcasses. So I expect to
be surrounded by bears. Of course, I have the eternal optimists.

(01:26:08):
I'm sure I'll get skunked for a few days, but
I expect great, great things that can't wait. That's excellent.
You know we uh, we have a all end with this,
and you can you can tell me what you think.
The We have a phrase that we're using called guard
the Gate ted, which basically bear hunting in all its forms, baiting, hounds,

(01:26:33):
spot and stop. You know we I love every one
of them, and I love them equally, and they're all
equally important exactly for management tools. And so I believe
that in the broader spectrum of North American hunting, bear
hunting and predator hunting specifically is important because it is

(01:26:54):
the entry point for the anti hunting community to come
into ourselves. Was proven in the trapp fiasco of the
of the nineteen sixties when they would manufacture photos of
a dead raccoon they find on the road that's half
you know, deteriorated. Then they clamp a foothold trap on
it and claim that trapping is cruel. And because the

(01:27:15):
trappers were isolated, that's that cannibalism and in breeding men
talk about. Nobody from the hunting or the gun industry
came to the defense of the trappers. I immediately training
the National Trappers Lal, and you'll notice, Clay Nuclem that
you in my thousands upon thousands of interviews promoting conservation,
I and I think I alone, have always said hunting, fishing,

(01:27:35):
and trapping critical management tools for healthy balance. If you
want quality wildlife and quality air, soil and water production
from a balanced managed habitat, so trapping is critical because
it's it's the number one your entry level for the
the dishonesty and the anti nature, anti hunting people. You're

(01:27:55):
absolutely correct well, and and so inside the hunting space,
what we're doing a Baronning magazine is trying to educate
people that aren't bear hunters, that don't understand some of
the management tools that we use, like dogs, like bait,
like we need those and to bring unity so that
we can have those guys that love hunting, that love

(01:28:16):
North American hunting come to our aid as the anti
hunting community tries to incrementally knock off pieces, I mean,
just like they do in Michigan, just like they do
anywhere there's a hound season. And so we have this
hashtag guard the Gate, which guard the Gate means that
we have to unify. Like so even if you're not

(01:28:36):
at the whole point is even if you're not a
bear hunter, Like there's guys that will never that will
never hunt a bear over bait, they'll never hunt with dogs.
But if they love North American hunting, if they love conservation,
they need to come in and to at least give
vocal support and not tear down things that maybe they
don't understand. So anyway, guard the Gate. You know, we're

(01:28:57):
trying to We're trying to recruit the help through education,
Like because man, we we nerd out about biting bears.
We nerd out about hounds, and we're introducing it to
a bunch of people that would hunters that would have
no exposure to it not understand it and think that
it was negative. And it's working. It's working well that

(01:29:19):
you've witnessed. And if there's a battle cry, guard the gate. Hello,
that's what I've been doing my whole life. And I
I saw right away because I've always trapped. I always
ran a trap line. I'm not a professional trapper, but
I started with you know, muskrats and beavers and coons
and possums and skunks, and I fascinated when you approach

(01:29:39):
that trap to just said it right, what do you got?
It's it's one of the greatest hunting, wildlife management, exciting
fun techniques that you can indulge in. So yes, uh,
I would like to think that in my experience, I'm
sure I'm sure yours reflects this. That most hunters that
don't hunt over bait for anything, whether there's lions or

(01:29:59):
bears or do or ducks. By the way, when you
hunt over bait with ducks, the government allows you to
hunt a flooded cornfield, but don't spill a colonel. That's
like that kind of things they've talking about. It's not
can I shoot six ducks or can't I just shut
up and leave me alone. Anyhow, bear hunting hounds and
bait and expanded opportunities are one of my main battle cries.

(01:30:23):
Because I don't know if you follow me closely or not.
But you know why there's a bear season in New Jersey.
You know who lobbied the legislator and the Game department,
Your old buddy, Ted Nugent. I. I did that with
a bunch of New Jersey buddies of mine. And again,
what was the biggest voice against US hunters that think
it's unfair to anybody can put out a door and

(01:30:44):
shot the bear. Well, show me now that but you
can't even use the donor I can't. You can't now
because we kept pushing so and then the Pennsylvania the
one day bear season I just hammered and hammered against.
That's not a hunting trip. That's I don't know what
that is, but it's not a hunt. Um so yes, absolutely,

(01:31:05):
And where I promise you this, wherever a stupid hunting
law has been gotten rid of or a better law
has gone in, I have a footprint there, I all
fifty states, every Canadian province up in Scotland hunting the
Red Stagg in Inverness. So yes, I've always been a fighter,

(01:31:27):
not just an advocate. I don't not like, I don't
mention his name. One of the biggest powerful celebrities on
planet Earth lives to hunt. Not a word out of
him because well, I'm on it shows me hunting. Sometimes
that's not it Isn't that good enough? Man? People in
your Hollywood community hate what we do, and you have

(01:31:49):
an opportunity to educate him. Tell them how fulfilling and
how important it isn't balancing the hers so they're an
asset instead of a liability thanks to the U. S
d A and they the game departments. So yes, um
hounds in bait. The Colorado thing is California just vulgar
the anti hunting laws and what's worst of them all,

(01:32:11):
Just like Jack Schmidt, there's a whole bunch of game
wardens and game agencies out there that qualify as no
soul and no conscious because they enforced laws that they
know are against nature. You can't not hunt bears in
California over hounds in bait, but then authorized tax dollars
to go for a guy to clean up your mess
for you because you didn't add adequately harvested reno Lake Taho.

(01:32:35):
You're aware of all these frontline battles, so I raised
hell all I can. And then they go at Nugent's
a coward, he's up in a tree, and or he's
got the hounds. Anybody can shoot a bear over hound.
I'll give you five years, five years from now, you
come back and tell me how many bears you hunted
over house. Nothing to you. Clime the mountain, climb the
mountain and said, breast stroke through that, Marsh. I know, uh, Ted.

(01:33:01):
I appreciate your appreciate your boldness. I appreciate the strength
of identity that you have. I've always appreciated people that
knew who they were, that had a super strong internal constitution,
conscience and uh and uh and then that's that's what
I've always valued about you and your your Yeah, I

(01:33:22):
can't thank you enough for for us come over here
to the culture. War started against hunting and then came
well and and part of that was anti trapping, and
they succeeded and within a year they had to hire
people to go to kill the beavers that were flooding
all the driveways and all the golf courses. But nobody
promoted that didn't hear the story and outdoor lay for
field or stream or sports the field. He didn't hear

(01:33:45):
at the Pope and Young banquet, or at the Boone
and Crockett banquet, or the Ducks and a limited banquet,
or the finals or anybody they were. There's a lot
of inbreeding going on where it. As long as I
get my dollar for the ducks, I don't want to
get involved with that. Gun rights, well then you're not
my friend. And you can't duck hunt without guns. And
why do we have a three shell limit that was
implemented in seven during the dust ball? Why can't I

(01:34:07):
shoot two pheasants but have five shells, but six ducks
don't have three shells? Well, we don't want skybusting with
the sky busting with three shells. See if there's a
lot of these issues that are are so called leadership
is scared to death to address because they might be
called an ethico WHOA why would you need more than

(01:34:27):
three shells? Are you a game hog? If you can't
CounterPunch that nonsense, then you're not the leader of anything.
And so I've seen the failure of our own guys
step forward with all these regulations that have destroyed the
hunting culture. And I'm telling you the heartbreaking stories I

(01:34:47):
hear all the time. I was busted because I forgot
to put my plug in the gun. I only had
three ducks. Mr game Warden, is this about wildlife management?
He shut three ducks, He had a shell out of
his gun. There was a law in nineteen thirty seven.
I want instead of giving him a ticket, go to

(01:35:07):
your boss and say change the law. I need to
shoot six ducks and I might only go a couple
of weekends a year. Leave me alone. Let me spend
the money on food, lodging, hotels, grocery supplies, tax nermus ice,
gas licenses, shotgun shell Let me spend my money instead

(01:35:29):
of going no, you're you're had. I snuck a fourth
shell in your gun? What is that? And I know
you thought that Chris Brackett example, that was a major offense.
I want you to learn it's not a major offense.
I can I started giving you a list of major
offenses and shooting in a duck with four shells in

(01:35:50):
your gun ain't one of turned it into that they
brainwashed us that that shooting a I don't know you.
In Pennsylvania, it's a felony to illegally shoot a deer,
the same as molesting a child who doesn't see the difference.

(01:36:12):
And plus what what is the everybody in Pennsylvania want
more deer killed. I'm with you. So that is a
bold leap out of the status quo mentality that we're
scared of our own shadow or your own ethical news
on ethical uses bait. He's on ethical. He killed more

(01:36:33):
deer than I did last year. Shut the I'm ethical.
I'm doing the good thing. Everything I do is based
on science. I know my habitat carrying capacity. I know
many fonds there are. I know mo much land I got.
I know what happens in January and February. I need
to kill some deer. Shut up and have a backstrap

(01:36:53):
right on. So thank you for pursuing this. I appreciate
it because I I think getting the word, getting a
sensible word, questioning status quo, questioning tradition because the tradition
has been bastardized. It isn't the tradition I was raised with.
November fifteenth, I got a license. I got a tag,

(01:37:15):
and I got it. Not six leave me alone? Shoot
a deer? Is it over eight corns? It is over
the spilled where the combine turned? Or did I put
the apples there? They eat apples. If I move the apples,
it doesn't cause disease. It's apples. But it's against the law. Yeah,

(01:37:36):
it's nuts. So I can tell you stories about kids
that quit the sport because they got caught moving apples.
What is that? What is that? So thank you for
what you do. God, bless the mighty spirit of the bear.
And I will hunt forever. I just want to go
hunt and it makes me feel so good. I just

(01:37:57):
want to go hunt and try to find me in
the woods. Baby. That's right, thanks to Ton teds Wild
because that's where the bears. That's the and you know,
the ultimate what I've turned most heads with. I don't
know if you heard my Joe Rogan three and a
half hour podcast, world record, world record podcast. Um, you know,
because he's gotten into hunting recently, and uh he's talking

(01:38:19):
about the vegans and they you know, they have a
they have a foundation of there. As long as they
don't eat meating, I won't no, they don't. And I
explained to him, and here you could see him for
his brow and tilt his head. As I'm explained, I go,
you know how you get to a food, don't you?
You know why crows and seagulls follow the tractor, don't you.
The farmer's killing everything. He's dismembering everything, every shrew, every vol,

(01:38:42):
every go for, every song bird, every quail, every pheasant,
every egg, every turtle, every mouse, He's killed them all.
They're the birds are following to eat the dismembered animals
that he's slaughtered by the trillions for your salad. And
then you have a glass of wine and an animal
rights protest. Have you ever met a vineyard operator? You

(01:39:03):
know what they kill to save those grapes. Everything. They
have a poison drip for coons and possums and skunks
and golfers and squirrels. They have a poison drip. You know.
I heard Shane Mahoney say that if everyone in the
United States went vegan, they would have to turn a

(01:39:28):
piece of ground the size of Canada into agriculture in
order to feel that, and and how much wildlife with
that can kill everything that's dared to enter it, and
if they don't get it with the disk and the plow,
they come back a week later with man Santo and
anything that might have slithered back on three legs is

(01:39:48):
gonna be poisoned to death for your tofu salad. And
Joe actually said, he goes, I never thought of it
that way. Wait, that's why I'm here. And by the way,
the sunami on my Facebook and through my office of
people that went I used to hate you because you
were coward and killed innocent animals. I listened to Joe

(01:40:12):
Rogan and you completely woke me up. Change my mind
because I can't deny it. I can't deny the disc
didn't dismember anything. I can't deny that plow didn't dismember anything.
I can't deny that man Sano didn't poison anything. Duh.
So I think I really believe I've been I'm on
a mission of God. I see political correctness and the

(01:40:35):
denial of the urbanization of wild ground and the denial
that it creates and nurtures. And I've been a I've
been a big giant rock of reality and people suit
that Gary getting splashed with inescapable truisms science. So I'll

(01:41:00):
stand here, but I'm a I'm a keeper of the gate,
keeper of the gate. Thank you, and thank you for
making this long trip. But yeah, you gotta hear Fred Bearer.
That's right, don't you. Yeah, you've got the energy for it.
In the time you think, all right, the song, what
year do you write this? Well? What a story? So

(01:41:22):
I met Fred about nineteen fifty four, nineteen fifty five
on our angel trip nor Yeah, you were just six
seven years old. And he wasn't anybody. He just had
a little shock, said bar archery over the top. Literally,
it was kind of a yellowish cinder block shock. The
buildings still up there, I don't think so, huh. And

(01:41:44):
it wasn't greatly And my dad, you know, it's just
just like, yeah, we'll stop at the Fred Bear shack.
And we stopped and meet this tall, lanky guy. Every year.
What what a story? And if I was already a
bow and arrow maniac kid, and my whole life was
bows and arrows and guitars every day down to the river,
shooting critters and shooting stumps and clumps of dirt and

(01:42:08):
going to Miller's feed store and smelling the grain and
the beautiful new artistic recurves on the wall over the years.
And then I started realizing, I'm stopping at this place,
and that's Fred Barry. He's on the cover of True
magazine with a grizzly bear. Wow, it's quite a bow.
And he has like the Chuck Berry of archery man.
So I started becoming a little giddy, and I couldn't

(01:42:30):
wait to get up there. And Fred was so kind,
such a gentleman, such a loving, funny guy. And we'd
go to the grailing restaurant. He'd ordered cherry pie and
chocolate milk, and I'd have cherry pie chocolate milk and
were able to you know, I was too young to
really engage in any meaningful dialogue, but I was. And
then eventually my dad, who ended up working for a

(01:42:51):
sweetish steel company, you know, worked with Fred because we
stopped you they were friends, and my dad ended up
in a way working for Bear Archery Produce. Seen the
Cold Road blue tempered spring steel that went into the
bare bleeder blade of the razorhead. What a great thing, huh,
What a great connection. So I couldn't wait to go
north to see Fred more than even bow hunting, and

(01:43:16):
I was not a very good bow hunter when it
came to deer, but I was pretty deadly on the
river rats. And so eventually when I moved to Chicago,
uh my dad was transferred in sixty five, so st
and sixty six in Chicago. I graduated six or seven,
came right back to Michigan with the amboy Dukes, and
I went up to Grain and now it's not a shock.

(01:43:37):
It's the biggest archery company on the planet, this huge museum,
and I couldn't wait to get back up that. I
reintroduced myself and I'm a long haired rock and roller now.
And Fred was a little office, you know, because there's
a perceived image that's looking right behind you. Look at that.
Where do we go runner? Oh wow, he's right on
the right in the porch, right on the porch. And
uh so I had to kind of reconvinced Fred that

(01:43:59):
I was okay, because he thought rocket roll dope and
drugs and goofballs. But he told me in a subsequent
meeting that all his buddy says, no, no, no, This
nugent guy shoots his bow and arrow on stage and
he's always raving about clean and sober, and he's pro
law enforcement. When the hippies want to off the pigs,
he goes, you gotta this guy's all right. And he
always promotes the mystical flight of the arrow. He talks

(01:44:21):
about it in Rocket Roll interviews. And so Fred mentioned
that he heard that long story short. So I hunt
with him every year, couldn't wait to get up there
to Rose City at Grouse Haven, and uh in sixty
and eight seven I was up there with him and
all his reps were there, the bar archery people, and
we went for walks when everybody else went hunt and

(01:44:43):
Fred didn't hunt those last couple of years. Um. And
he had the oxygen bottle with him everywhere, and we
went for walks down the lane at Grouse Haven. We're
just talking and talking, and he shared with me Clay
that he said, you know, I go to all these
sporting events and they all know that. Uh, you know,
I started bar archery in Michigan, and anybody under forty,

(01:45:03):
all they want to know is if I know Ted Doogon,
Because I had trying to brought visibility to bone arrow
with flaming arrows on stage. Crazy antics and stuff. But
you're gonna promote something, That's how you do it, I think,
And and then always talking about my hunting trips and
backstraps and and so he said, you just keep what

(01:45:23):
you're doing. And he says, I've also heard the critics.
People thought you made a mistake by saying whack him
and stack them. But what does that mean, kill him
and butcher them? Or semantics? He goes to young people,
that turns them on. It shows that you're having fun.
What's wrong with whack and stack? How about if I
just harvest in skin? What what the hell's the difference?

(01:45:44):
But you you go ahead and be uh, you go
ahead and be uh um uh Wayne Newton, I'll be
Chuck berry um. And so we spent that last October
together for about a week, and then the next spring
he died and I went out to do my chores
one day, and we're all shattered at his death. It

(01:46:08):
was just it was just unbelievable because he made such
an imprint on everybody. He's a great, great man. Did
you ever meet him? Well, you're going to meet him
right now. And so I went out to do my chores.
I had my dog, biscuits, my Irish setters porch. I

(01:46:29):
went and I grabbed the guitar, and I just I
didn't know. I had no idea, I wasn't thinking of Fred.
I just sat down, I went I always played killer
licks when I picked up the guitar, but I never
played one like this before. There I was back in

(01:46:51):
a while again, and I felt right at home where
I belong. And I had that feeling coming over me again,
just like it happened so many times before, so many times.

(01:47:27):
The spirit of the woods, he is like an old
good friend, makes me feel warm and good inside. I
know his name. It's good to see him again because

(01:47:47):
in the wind he's still a live talking about Fred Bear.
Walk with me down the trails again and take me back,
take me back. I've a long Fred Bear. I'm glad

(01:48:08):
to have you with my side, my friend, and I
will join you on the big hunt before too long.
M h. And it was kind of dark, another misty dusk,

(01:48:40):
and it came from a tangle down below. And I tried.
I tried to remember everything he taught me so well.
I had to decide which way to go. Was I

(01:49:01):
alone or in a hunter's dream? The moment of truth
is here, and now I felt his touch, I felt
his guide in hand, and the buckar was mine for

(01:49:22):
evermore because of Fred Bear. I still walk down those
trails again. He takes me back, takes me back. I
be long, fred Fred Bear. I'm glad to have you
in beside, my friend, and I will join you on

(01:49:47):
the big hunt before too long. And we're not alone

(01:50:33):
when we're in the great outdoors. We got his spirit,
we got his soul, and he GUIDs my steps. Guid's
my arrows home. The restless spirit for ever roams, and

(01:50:56):
it roams with Fred Bear. When I walk down those
trails again, he takes me back, takes me back. I belong,
fred Bear. I'm glad to have you with my side,
my friend, and I will join you on the big

(01:51:19):
hunt before too long. Because in the wind, he's still
alive in the wind, He's still alive in the wind.

(01:51:40):
I can hear. I hear Fred Bear. I hear you,
fred Hey, fred Let's go hunt, buddy, Calm, you go
up that ridge. I'll go down to the swamp. Baby,

(01:52:01):
give that book right on. I this bump, I sang it.

(01:52:47):
I sang it. Then I had to go back and
remember what I sang. And I never played any of
that great lick So that's that spirit of the wild
I do believe and that song you you you can
only imagine what people have said about this song, feuding

(01:53:11):
families that heard it in different parts of the country
that got back together. Chris Campbell of the United States
Navy Seals, whose last request was for me to play
it at his funeral, and I was all set to
go do it at the request of Marcus the trial,
Barack Obama told me I couldn't come. M and thousands

(01:53:37):
of people, especially these kids. If you go to my face,
you gotta go to my faith. You want to know
what the hunting world thinks. You want to know what
the non hunting world thinks. My Facebook. It's the only
place you're gonna find out. Yeah, three and a half
three point seven million. I just did an interview I
had before November. I had between eighteen million and thirty

(01:53:58):
six million Facebook reach every day, thirty six million after
the election, three point seven Google Boys, Zuckerburger's sensors, Marxists.
But still with all those three point seven go to
my Facebook and listen to the wonderfully supportive comments. I

(01:54:18):
don't hunt, but I think it's great. I wish I
could get some venit. You know, I'm a hunter, but
I never bow hunter? How do I do? What kind
of what do I get? It's unbelievable. It's to me,
it's like, yeah, baby, recruit retain. You know there's a
there's a verse in that song where it says, I'll
join you in the big hunt before too long. Verse.

(01:54:39):
Does a seventy two year old Ted Nugent think about
think about death very rarely, only in perspective of my family,
because my kids the showering me with love, and every
year I see an increase in showering of love because
they know that there's a lot of guys my age dying.
But I'm so focused on living and I take really

(01:55:00):
good care of myself. But you never know. Lightning can
strike in any various fashion, whether it's Chinese communist viruses
or some dirtbag drunk driver that's been let out after
twenty times. Um though I'll probably Dodgeman then shoot him.
Uh so. So I I'm well aware of mortality because
I think it's a pistor because we're building a house,

(01:55:22):
so I have at least I'm seventy two. I want
to live to at least be a hundred, so I
got like twenty five more opening days to go. Because
I'm managing my deer, and every year I pass up
these button bucks, and because I have so much unlimited
time to hunt, I can pass up three year old
one thirties not easy for an old Detroit bow hunter.
But since I have so many opportunities, I wait for

(01:55:43):
older deer. Most of the time I might see a
squirrely one that's young that I think is an inferior genetic.
We're talking open ground, not just my my, my exotic
wildlife ranch. Here. By the way, I gotta comment on that,
because that's the that's the impetus of a lot of
hate out there. H Fence hunting facts, A guy who

(01:56:04):
lives this stuff and understands Manistee National Force, the Sudan Wild,
Kansas Wild, California Wild, South Dakota Wild, Nebraska Wild, Texas,
South Texas. Have you ever hunted white tailed deer in
South Texas? Dumbest creatures that walk the earth. And if
you really get frustrated and get skunk too often, find
a place in South Texas and spillshop corn and you

(01:56:26):
can probably kill him with a spoon. Maybe I'm exaggerating
a little bit, but my point being is that the
Illinois deer our hunt our way dumber than the deer
I was raised on. The Michigan deer are maniac radar freaks.
There'll there'll be half a mile away, and a cardinal

(01:56:46):
will cause them to spook. I mean, not a bishop
for a cardinal talk about a red bird. My point is,
here's the facts of life. I kept journals for years.
High fence deer hunting or exotic hunting. The fence plays
zero role in killing an animal. Zero. My experiences bow

(01:57:13):
hunting in the Manistee National Force Acre Martian, Michigan, no fences.
It's the exact same thing as spirit wild ramps. Three acres,
high fence, right place, right time, wind, sun patterning, some feed,
some food plots and some corn and stuff like that.

(01:57:33):
On occasion. If it didn't fulfill me, I wouldn't do it.
I hunted the Sudan no fences. I had a Zimbabwe,
no fence, of South Africa, Olympopo, no fences. I hunted
Rix and Gemsbach there and I hunt him here, zero difference.
Either they show up or they don't. Either they turn

(01:57:55):
broadside within thirty yards or they don't. It's not like
the you corner them. I'm telling you high fence hunting.
I suppose there might be some words a canned hunt
where they raise In fact, I I hunted a breeder operation.
Did you see the spirit of the wild last couple
of weeks where Shamaine and I were invited to this

(01:58:16):
breeder operation with these guys that were these these genetic
freak free uttertage, funny dear like props of a horror movie.
Now am I a purest? Yeah? That's my guitar, that's
my amp, and these are my fingers, that's my grip
hand on the bow, this is my drawing hand, and
this is where I need to put that arrow. That's pure.

(01:58:38):
I don't care if it's my old longbow or if
it's my state of the art Matthews hand draw aim release,
pure pure archery, my bow hunting, a spirit wild ranch
for these gems back and oh a Dad and black

(01:58:59):
buck and axis and fallow and psycha and white tails
and turkeys and hogs, no difference. What's so ever? Then
outside the fence, In fact that my journal proved that
my house, my my no fence hunting was way more
productive than my high fence hunting. There's a you gotta

(01:59:25):
walk further to your stag because they're here TODAYMN truck.
My point, I went to a breeder operation. This old
guy loves what I do. Is thanks for standing up
for our constitutional law and order. I raised giant white tails.
Would like to come and hunt the place I went? Well,
I do not, don't really want to hunt the place
if they're pen raised animals, but I'd love to see it.
Even though I'm a purist. I would rather shoot a

(01:59:45):
wild ten inch three by three than a guy that
raised the three because it doesn't seem like deer hunting
to me. It looks like a deer. Well those two things.
People would get confused. I'd hear half fence and think
that's what they think, but that's not what is. But
we did go there, so he's gotten. He's got. You
gotta think six d acres. But a lot of them
are breeding pets. But it's a fascinating agriculture. Pursuits the

(02:00:09):
fastest growing agricroach in the world, and again they're learning
that yeah is this. It's cute and different and exciting
to see that much horn show up like the stags
in New Zealand that they raised for just here mass
But I had to tell you. We went there and
I did a show. I wish you would have seen
it because I articulated, you know, I have a buddy

(02:00:30):
of mine he uh had he's been genetically modifying large
mouth bass for a long time and the state buys
him from him down Florida and Texas and a bunch
of other places. And he asked, would you like to
catch a ten pound bass? On? Yeah, I've never caught
a ten pouty yet, let's go do it. So I
had to get the right lure and I threw it
in there and I caught him, and I just kind
of fishing the barrel because it's they feed him and

(02:00:52):
they're genetically modified. But it was huge and might pull
bet over. It was exciting, and he invited me to
catch the ten pound bass. So maybe it's a little
more exciting to catch a you know, a hand sized
blue gill out of my natural lake in Michigan. But
I had fun catching that genetically modified basht It was
huge and look at that bucket mouth and net belly
hanging there. Well, I thought, alright, a guy does the

(02:01:14):
same thing with the white tailed deer. Yeah, let's let's
go do that. So Chamaine and I climbed in the
tree and we put out the feet that they're used to.
We waited and we waited. It's like we waited on
the swamp and we waited nothing. Well, maybe tomorrow, so
we went back the next day. We did this. We
had to get the wind, didn't what the sun on

(02:01:35):
our face, which Texas hunters need to learn. Don't look
in the east in the morning, don't look in the
west in the afternoon. Just a little tip from look
of that. Anyhow, my point is we both shot atrocities,
just three D plus ech things. But I've shot dear
quicker and easier on the open ground. So be as

(02:02:00):
it's easy in South Texas or in Illinois, and next
to the game preserving the first preserve, you're not allowed
to hunt. They take our tax dollars and shoot the deer.
Welcome to Illinois, Welcome to America. But I hunt him
in there and relaxed. I still got to still use
the wind, still use the sun, and I still have
the camera, and I still to make sure I got
my stilo waker all of pure here's the word pure

(02:02:23):
deer hunting at my buddy's place in Illinois. Dumb deer?
Did I like it? I could use a dumb deer
every once in a while. So that contentious debate is
the the The anti high fence guys are presumptuous and

(02:02:46):
everyone every time they go add it's fishing a barrel,
and I go, really, share with me your last high
fence experience. Well I've never done it. Well, then shut up.
You don't like you don't like posta, but you've never
had it, Then you don't know if you like it
or not. You don't you don't qualify as an argument.
So high fence originated in South Africa because the animals

(02:03:10):
would migrate to agriculture and the agriculture concerns would slaughter
them to safety agriculture. So some guys wanted kudu and
game's bocket and yalla and wildebees and the zebras and stuff,
so they put up high fence so they wouldn't migrate
and get slaughtered. And then they obviously expanded in populations.
Phenomenal miracle. They have babies every year, so you have
to harvest the surplus. I e. Basic science science, wildlife management.

(02:03:32):
But when you've got escape habitat, whether that habit that
escape is limited by the highways in Columbus, Ohio, or
the parking lot of the school in Columbus, Ohio, or
this cul de Sac neighborhood. And you've got a little
patch of woods in Columbus, Ohio, two hundred inch deer

(02:03:53):
killers there's no fence. But all those can control factors
are fences, not your point. And the the easiest deer
on the planet ourselves. So should I not hunt there
because they're easy? You know? I think, I think that
what you're tapping into, I see, I see your point.

(02:04:14):
I think what people don't like is the guy that's
that kills a big deer in high fence, that puts
the book or something right. Yeah, I mean that that's
that's obviously what what gets them in trouble, or the
or the or the guy that doesn't do any other
type of hunting. And quite honestly, the guy that's in

(02:04:34):
a high fence. And these deer are acclimated to human activity.
Though I stopped myself already, I got buddies over in Uvaldi.
Were these wild deer no fences, They come up and
eat off the porch, right, So that's not fair. I'd
like to feed the deer. What's not fair about feeding
the deer? Why? I'm not going to shoot the deer

(02:04:55):
from the porch. And if you did, I think you'd
be a dirt bag. But if that big giant deer
that you've waited for five years to shoot shows up
at your stand, there's no fence, but it was really
easy and and sometimes they don't show up. My point
is is that ex deer hunting happens in no fence

(02:05:15):
areas ex deer hunting exactly the same happens in my
high fence hunting. I get skunked plenty. They don't show up,
they don't turn broadside plenty. I touched the stand with
my my limb and I spook them before ABC low fens,

(02:05:39):
ABC high fence. Now, if if you've got a guy
that I guarantee as soon as they use the G word,
I don't go until I talked to some of my
guys in South. If you gotta seat South Texas no fences,
they're just crazy relaxed. You can burp and fart and
sneeze and drop your ball in there you're looking at

(02:06:01):
I'm eating this corn. Don't disturb me. So to each
his own. And so that's why that's why they can
wait for the point of what you're saying is is unity,
just like any point picking on those guys if they're
not breaking laws. If they're not, what what business do
we have That same squawking takes place with guys. That's

(02:06:23):
why they get not allowed to use a scope on
your muzzleloader in Colorado. So you want to minimize my
accuracy this law is well, it's it's uh what they
called it, not antiques, but of it. Uh, this is
the traditional style whatever traditional fire. This modern muzzleloaders your

(02:06:43):
three yards like a three hundred weather be what does
the scope? And they're gonna with or without a scope.
So when it comes to those kinds of decisions, do
you want most accuracy or less accuracy? Who would vote
for less accuracy? And it goes to the crossbow debate. Well, again,

(02:07:07):
the resource dictates, not the methodology until the methodology interferes
with the productivity of the core resource. If if crossbows
killed too many deer, then back them off. But until
they do, shut up. But again with my crossbow friends,

(02:07:30):
I love crossbows not as much as vertical bows, but
a lot most of that, A lot most of them
go to that because they're shooting too much draw weight.
They're hurting their shoulders as they get older, and more
than that, they're spooking the game as they struggle to
pull that bowl back. I can tell you about how
Pete Shepley came to Texas in the seventies and was

(02:07:52):
shooting the overdraw. I don't know if you remember. The
over draws is a terrible contraption and unless you were
the world's greatest archer, you couldn't possibly draw on that
arrow off that eighty five pounds like people shooting. So
Pete was shooting eighty five pounds and that little black,
new brand new carbon Aro technology off of twenty in
jarrow offa overdraw those Texas well, Hell, there's some bit

(02:08:14):
doing for hundred For a second, I'm getting one of
the what do you got there, Pete? I'm getting just
like you. Yea. They struggled and they hung it up
on powerma remember the powermags that bow that hundred pounds
powermag Crazy enough, Howard Hill used to shoot two of

(02:08:36):
his long but both of them at a hundred pounds
and go back together. But anyhow, so there's a lot
of um minutia in our hunting world that the judgmentalists
and they're just squawkers amongst us. That's where unity hits
a roadblock. So crossbow have a great do you have

(02:08:59):
a license the deer season, I love you, compound you
long od sage, orange cedar, arrow, self bow at laddle,
the swing shots that shoot arrows, the new rifles that
shoot arrow I don't think you'd be able to use
those during the archery season. Everything goes bags. Gunpowder you
can use that, even the arrigas. I don't think an

(02:09:20):
air gun arrow shooters should be used during the archery season.
Understand you know. But but again, if the consensus is
that it makes me want to go hunting and buy
a license and invest in conservation, then I'd probably air
on the side of choice. So the Unification battle cry

(02:09:41):
guarding the gate is It's been my lifetime for at
least sixty some years, and I will keep it up.
Unity uh, supporting of individual choices and increasing opportunities hounds
bait spring season in Michigan. We could have over the
counter text for at least two years without even touching

(02:10:02):
the resource um and the money that I generate would
be insane good for everybody, and there's a bunch of
states like that. So that's what I keep focusing on. Utility, family,
hours of recreation, and revenues generated. I don't think there's
anything else with the resource productivity dictating the above that

(02:10:26):
makes sense. It's sounds science, not just a guitar player.
I never went to college. I was too busy learning stuff,
and that's what I've learned thanks to all right you
back at joh

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