Joe Rogan & Henry Rollins on Ted Nugent

We were just talking about a show that you got you and Ted Nugent apparently someone did someone did you pitch it who pitched the show? It was an idea that my manager Heidi and I came up with well mostly Heidi it was like it was called basically Henry and you put me and someone I might have some disagreements with or a few agreements with and we just go somewhere and we weigh in with a camera following us and we're thinking what it'll be like a six-part miniseries like you know me and plus six interesting people and one of the names that came up was Ted Nugent because I I'm a fan of his music I think he's one of the best guitar players I've ever seen yet he and I would probably disagree on one or a few topics and so we actually pitched pitched it to Ted who said he loved the idea but he said I gotta go I'm busy with it he had a ton of tour dates I think he's on now but he said I want to talk to Henry to thank him for thinking of me okay and so Ted called like on my phone in the office I guess he got my number from the powers that be and suddenly it's it's Ted on my phone I'm at my desk like okay this is surreal and we talked for a few minutes and he said uh you know what you think I'm a bad guy I'm like no I just some of the things you say I just I kind of takes my breath away and then we quickly got on the topic of music he said you like all that old Detroit music I go yeah man I mean you Mitch Ryder the Stooges MC5 I mean it's kind of the best is some of the best music I've ever heard I mean as far as I asked him I go what is it is something in the water what is it with you Michigan guys and guitar tone like no one gets tone like you Ron Ashton Stooges Fred Sonic Smith MC5 I go you guys I mean you're so good and he said you gotta we gotta hang out sometime and we'll just talk about music I want I'll do that with you so I'll be taking notes and he's just telling me you know like yeah I used to hang out at the MC5 house and go see the Stooges I'm like you're killing me because this is like you know I that would have been heaven for me to see those bands like back in 1969 or whatever did you when did you know him did you know him back in the day or did you only as a punter I would go see him like in high school in the 1870s you know Carter administration I'd go see him at play in my local arena in Washington DC in a place called the Capitol Center in Largo Maryland and he was as good as rock and roll gets I mean it was I saw the the double live gonzo lineup and like forget it it was like two and a half hours of just getting beat up by music it was fantastic and to this day it's still a high watermark as far as gigs and in the 90s I met him on politically incorrect Bill Maher and I said hey man I'm a big fan and he gave me a bow hunting catalog I'm like well thanks you know for his whack master right yeah you get the croquet mallet and the and the bow anyway I kept it I'm a fan and then I met him years later and I did his radio show like st. Patrick's Day 1997 to crassly promote my next record and I said we met years ago and and we got to talking for like a couple of hours and we it was just about music and I played him some of my new record which he really liked and he between the commercial breaks he was like playing riffs for me we had a little headphone amp and he was sitting across from me on a stool playing I'm like this is pretty cool and so that's the kind of relationship I have with him where I you know you read some of the things he says you're like okay that's really hard to take and but those records they're just so good to me and I saw him play in 2000 opening for kiss 2001 somewhere in there and he was great great the tone the playing just fantastic and so he's just an interesting bunch of guys a bunch of guys you know what I mean cuz like he can finish a sentence he's not he's not he's not stupid he's hilarious he has a steel trap memory but then he'll just say that you know the Obama's a subhuman mongrel like man you don't need to talk like that right because there's people you will inspire to punch some black guy in the parking lot for no reason like something bad can happen if you talk like that to the millions of people who love you like someone will get that message and they'll go south with it and when you're in that position I don't believe in self-censorship but I think you should be careful of what you say I think there's some merit in having some control of yourself and so I don't completely understand the guy this currency and outrageousness that's what it is and you cash in by being the guy that says things you can't I can't believe what he just said and then you become the guy that goes places that says things that no one can believe that you're saying you know I I know that there's some people that's how they get their next book deal or whatever yeah for myself I would never want to trade in that because my reality coming up through punk rock and all of that is very very immediate in that I don't say anything about anybody without expecting them to hear it and with me turning the next corner like going to my car in your parking lot yeah and having that person waiting for me at the car saying hey you said this and having the meal to hold it up on a tablet and say and so I watch what I say because in my mind I answer I will have to answer to all of it and so I would never say something where someone going really well today's the day we're gonna see who can kick who says ass because you know men have this wrong idea that they can't be beat are you kidding yeah anyone can get knocked on their ass you think you're tough there's always you know you're in the business of tough guys there's always a tougher guy around the corner but more than that it's like you don't most of the conflict that you get in when you're talking shit about somebody like someone like you or I can do an interview and talk shit about someone and then go public and you don't think twice about it but then now it extends to social media because anybody could do it at any time and it just seems so easy to do but I always try to think if that person was in front of me how exactly and if I would if I would say fuck this guy like when he's in front of me then this is a real problem with this person's a real bad but I would always wait until I was in front of that person and I have waited I've bided my time with people I don't like and you get into a conversation and all I have said you know very calmly I think you're a ridiculous person I think you're a standing walking talking billboard for cowardice sometimes people need to hear that too because sometimes people don't hear that they don't hear that from someone I'm not trying to help the guy yeah but I waited yeah until I was there the only people I'll rip on are politicians like some member of Congress I think is just an active waste of food that'll say anywhere hoping it'll bring him to me so I can say it to his or her face but for the most part the way I was brought up in the world of music and the street is if you say something that guy will be lining you up for a broken jaw so you better mean it but maybe just wait until you guys are in a room and see what you really want to say because sniping from a windowless room from somewhere or being a keyboard activist that's not that doesn't mean much to me yeah I think you know Ted is the spokesperson for the right in in that he's this contrast in so many ways he's this wild and it used to be long hair he doesn't have long hair anymore but long-haired guitar player from Michigan I mean he's Ted Nugent he should be this he should be a drug user or something right he should be on tour all the time but he's the opposite it was like doesn't do any drugs doesn't drink and he's super right-wing and he supports you know the Second Amendment and guns and he there's he's in this group of any has some very strong beliefs that he really does hold in that group but then comes the outrageous stuff that he says and you would get a mischaracterization of him because of some of the things he says but if you meet him like in person person to person he's a great guy yeah I talked to him all the time that's only been my experience with his great guy is I've had really cool conversations with him yeah and I'm a hyper fan of the records I mean it's gospel to me that those records are in my DNA yeah I don't think I'm with you and that I don't know what fuels those statements you know I'm not here to rip on him I just honestly do not I can't reconcile the conversations I had we super friendly and happy that you're a fan of the guy and and then you you watch some things he says you know on some stage somewhere you're like wow that's that's just bummed out my whole evening like that's like yeah okay like that's you that's the First Amendment go do your thing but like wow that's this