it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff tiolis you can find our group on facebook we're also on twitter at pinball profile email us pinball profile at gmail.com and let us know who you'd like to hear from and please subscribe on itunes we've had a lot of people here on pinball profile, but no one has ever had a game made after them. That's the case with our next guest, the Motor City Madman, Ted Nugent. Ted, it's great to talk to you again. I bet it is. I'm a fun guy. If you're not having fun with me, you're weird. Happy summertime barbecue in the great winter water wonderland, Jeff. God bless America. I'm so glad you're able to do this tour you're on, especially after the reports of your death in a hunting accident were greatly exaggerated. You know what, Jeff, let me ask. Would that be that fake news we've heard so much about? Are Are you kidding me? I've got to tell you, I am so proud, and Michigan should be so proud of me, that the subhuman mongrels on the left and behind the wheels of the fake news in America, they actually hate me more than they hate President Donald Trump. So I must be a very, very special American. Well, there's something about Michigan and its music with you, Ted. First it was Motown, then rock with you, Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Grand Funk. Is there a better place for music? No, there really isn't. I travel all over the world, Jeff, and I've got to tell you, just the fact that I am the one and only Motor City Mad Pad, it really ignites music lovers' passion for real intense, ferocious soul music, American rhythm and blues and rock and roll. And they all know those bands you just mentioned, right up to today with Kid Rock, and certainly going back to the Grand Funk Railroads and everything, Motown, are you kidding me? And everybody knows about the MC5 and Bob Seger and the Last Heard and the Amboy Dukes and all these great, killer Michigan bands. And it really does have a life of its own. When we play over in Europe and Japan and Robert Englunds and Scotland and Ireland, they just want to witness what Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels taught us all. So there's a velocity and a ferocity to Michigan's love of music that manifests itself in the musicians that love the music just like all music fans do. It's just that we wanted to play it with that tightness, that authority. So I'm really, really proud to be a Michigan guy, and certainly from the once great Detroit that's getting great again. Thank God Almighty for that. But yeah, we're very proud of that. We project it accurately every night, I promise you that. You mentioned some legends. We lost one this year in Chuck Berry. Where would rock and roll be if he didn't grace us with his presence? You know, I played bass guitar for Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley back in 1969. And you're right. There was an imprint that those founding fathers created. Because Les Paul had just electrified the guitar just a few years before I was born, Jeff. And so Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley came along and literally perfected it. immediately they found that primal scream, that black authority of ripping off the shackles of slavery and celebrating with uninhibitedness and unrivaled enthusiasm the freedom that not just the Emancipation Proclamation brought about in good common sense and love for fellow man and honesty and civil rights, but the electric guitar. I mean, my God, you and I would not have the happiness in our lives if it wasn't for Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Every killer rock and roll band on the planet took that torch that we brought from Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. Remember the British Invasion, the Stones and the Beatles, their first records had Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Motown songs. So I was just blessed to be born at that time where that firestorm of musical authority touched me and touched my guitar So thank God for that huh Ted over the past decade there been this resurgence a widespread love of a great part of Americana, pinball machines. The first rock pinball machine I remember is Nugent. How did this come about with you being on a pinball machine? I don't know. I think the world heard my music and they were so confused of what to do with the energy that they knew that somehow they had to legally find a way to play with my balls every night. I think that was the motivation. I don't know. You know, you look at the cover of Weekend Warriors, or you look at all the covers of my albums over the years, and I mean, come on, if that's not the Detroit middle finger of love, I don't know what is. And that intensity, that, and again, I mentioned Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. These guys really showed me what to do at the Walt Lake Casino in 1960, 1961, when my band, The Lures, opened up for him, along with Martha and the Vandellas. How cool was that concert, huh? But that love of the music, I deliver it so thoroughly. Have you noticed that? I deliver the intensity of real American soulful rhythm and blues and rock and roll music with such an energy for us, because of the great musicians that I've always been surrounded by, that I think somebody just figured they better make a pinball machine to try to capture whatever the hell this Nugent guy is doing out there because the imagery is the only imagery, I think, in rock and roll that really matches the intensity of the music. So I thought that was kind of cool. Well, I have a picture of you actually playing the Nugent game back when it came out with Gary Stern, and I'll post it on our website and Facebook page. How many people can say they've had a pinball machine made after them? I don't know, but I've seen a bunch of them. I've signed a bunch of them across the land. I think there were a few thousand of them made. You know, I'm not only one of the rare guitar players that have a pinball machine made after him, but I'm also the only guitar player on the planet that actually has my pinball that is owned by my taxidermist and my butcher. I may be the only guitar player that actually has a taxidermist and a butcher. How cool is that? Very cool, Ted. I know you're always outdoors and on tour, but do you have a Nugent pinball machine at home? Do I have one? No, I don't have one at home, but again, right down the road, my buddy Mark Ditzel, who moved here from Maryland, he's got a Ted Nugent pinball machine. And my mom and dad had one for a long time, and then upon their death, I think part of the estate, my brothers and sisters and I, we sold a bunch of that stuff, so somebody got that pinball machine. Well, I'm sure you're an excellent player because you've got an excellent shot. You'd be fantastic. I remember seeing you at Damn Yankees, and during the show, you shot a moving Saddam Hussein target with a crossbow. Actually, that was just a compound bow, but yeah, I like to shoot varmints. I'm a big varmint hunter. Well, I know you're not big on playing games, whether it's pinball or not, but your likeness on Guitar Hero, where you're riding a great white buffalo, you're a wanted man in games, at least for your music. You know, I saw that I worked with that company to create that. Again, that's fun stuff. If you're going to play rock and roll, I've always believed, and the American Dream, if you're going to pursue the American Dream with the vim and vigor and piss and vinegar that I do, which everybody I know does, there's no limit to how you can enjoy those wild ideas. So a lot of wild ideas have come my way over the years. And I get a kick out of that. It always boils down to the music. Yeah, shooting a bow and arrow at a great white buffalo image on stage, or Saddam Hussein, or any other dirt rag that I feel like shooting, that's exciting, that's intense. And all the greatest artists in the world, certainly the Stones have always had some killer imagery on stage, and we all love Kiss for that kind of explosive dynamic that they bring to the visuals, but it always boils down to the music. You've appeared on so many TV shows of your own as a guest, but you know, you can take some credit too, Ted, for shaping the career of an Academy Award winner. I heard Matthew McConaughey say in an interview for the first time ever, he appeared on screen, it was a scene in Dazed and Confused, and it was improvised. Your song Stranglehold was in the background, and his character got into the groove and said that line, All right, all right, all right. A great scene Do you like how your music is portrayed when you hear it on films You know I gotta tell you I very demanding about that because again it is all about the music and I very very proud and protective of my creations I mean I wrote all these songs and they're my babies. They're sacred. The way they come across, and the performance, and the arrangement, and the recording, the dynamics of how we record our songs, That's a sacred piece of art that I have created. I don't like it messed with. But I got to tell you, Mark Wahlberg has used Stranglehold in four of his different movies, Rockstar, and probably the ultimate use on screen of any song ever, if I may, is how Mark Wahlberg and the producers used Stranglehold on the movie Invincible. You watch how they edited that and utilized the dynamics and the groove and the sexuality of that song and the defiance factor, that Michigan middle finger of standing up for what you believe in and never giving up, never backing down, never giving in. I think the way that they used Stranglehold on the movie Invincible was exactly the visual that does go with that song. And I got to tell you, too, here's one that a lot of people don't know, Jeff. Remember that incredible imagery of Kirk Gibson stumbling and limping out of the dugout during that World Series game. 1988. And he was screaming and arguing with his manager, Lasorda. And he wanted to get in and pinch hit, even though he was crippled up with an injury. If you look closely, you'll see earphones around Kirk Gibson's neck. And he called me. You know what he was listening to when he demanded to hit that winning hit? The Nuge. He was listening to Stranglehold. I have got thousands and thousands. I'd welcome you, Jeff, and everybody to come to my Facebook. I have tens of millions of Facebookers around the world, and you should see the humbling and inspiring communication I get from heroes of the United States military, how they listen to Stranglehold before they go into battle. I am moved beyond words that my sense of standing up for my kind of music in a world, in an industry that told me that long guitar solos were no good and feedback guitars were no good and what the hell does a song stranglehold have to say they told me i shouldn't record it that it was not cool and it wasn't hip and it wasn't going to be a hit and i demanded to play it because it i that's what i feel and to have heroes of the military use my songs to to to pump up their warrior spirit as they put their lives on the line to go in battle for freedom Jeff, you wonder why I'm like this? That's the kind of enthusiasm that I have been given by the greatest people in the world, the heroes of the U.S. military. Ted, you work so much with the military and children's groups, and Ted Quarters has been very kind with donations and autographs for charity that I've run. Thank you for that. But you do get some strange requests. Didn't a fan ask you to sign his arm with a Bowie knife some 40 years ago? Yes, a fan did ask me to sign my name in his arm with a Bowie knife. And like many of those kinds of requests, I politely declined. I mean, I'll sign a lot of stuff. In fact, just recently, and I've got to tell you, it's not just the Nugent family. Everybody I know, when a military or law enforcement or children's charity, and a lot of conservation charities, Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, National Wild Turkey Federation, White Tails Unlimited, whenever a conservation, children's, or military or law enforcement charity charity needs help. Everybody I know, Jeff, they give and give and give. And on numerous occasions, on two different occasions last year, I signed 2,600 guitars, 2,600 guitars in one day for the National Ripple Association, Children's Leukemia Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, St. Jude's, whole bunch of children charities and military charities and then after that i signed 3 000 guitars for fundraisers but i you know I just signed the guitars That was a little bit of work on my part But the people that donated money to these charities to own one of my autographed guitars, they were the real giving people. Those were the generous people. So we've raised tens of millions of dollars because American families are generous and everybody who cares always gives and they give back and and i'm that makes me proud to be an american probably more than anything ted i waited till the end of the interview to tell you this because i didn't want you to judge me but i know you won't anyway i've never gone hunting in my life the closest i've ever come is playing big buck hunter but i'm also not a hypocrite i love fishing and i am very thankful for all the farmers and providers that work their butts off so we can enjoy life. And one of my favorite quotes from Fred Baer is, a hunt based only on trophies taken falls short of what the ultimate goal should be. So true. Well, that's why Fred touched so many people very deeply. A great, great man. But what Fred reflected, just like when I speak with you here today and when the president invited me to the White House, the president, Donald Trump, invited Shemaine and I to the White House because we represent you. We represent working hard, playing hard Americans. And when I do interviews, I do thousands of interviews a year, and I write for dozens of publications, and I'm on stage hundreds of times a year, and I do everything I can to get truth, logic, common sense, goodwill, and decency across. That's what Fred Bear encapsulated. So what Fred Bear said reflects exactly what the hunting families of this country believe in. The real trophy of the hunt is the spiritual cleansing, the healing powers of nature, being a natural, honest participant in God's tooth, fang, and claw creation of renewable, valuable, renewable resource management. So the ultimate trophy will be found on a grill around a campfire by millions and millions of American families and hunting families all across the world where that pure, natural, renewable, organic protein of venison and wild game literally feeds billions and billions of people around the world every year because it's renewable. And that's why our Spirit of the Wild TV show on Outdoor Channel, Jeff, has been number one for 28 years because what I just said is not a Ted Nugent hunch. that's truth logic common sense science and nature so what fred bear represented is you can feel it in the song i wrote with great love and admiration and heartbreak after the great fred bear passed away in 1988 and that's why that song means so much to so many because the hunting lifestyle benefits everybody because, Jeff, quality of life comes from quality air, soil, and water, which comes from wildlife habitat, which is managed, renewed, rehabilitated, and safeguarded by money from hunting, fishing, and trapping families. So that's the big answer to your identification of what Fred Bear said. You have to hunt every year to keep wildlife healthy and balanced. And that's what Fred Bear represented. And that's what I carry on, not in just his song, but in everything I do in life. There you have it. The Red and Ted Roadshow here on Pinball Profile. Ted, thank you very much for coming on the program. Yeah, Jeff, back at you, man. Always good talking to you. God bless you, Jeff. God bless Michigan. God bless America. You can find our group on Facebook. We're also on Twitter at Pinball Profile. Email us pinballprofile at gmail.com and please subscribe on iTunes. I'm Jeff Teolas. It's alright. Yeah.