Ted Nugent on the Origins of Stranglehold

I can accomplish all things getting drunk without getting drunk. If you want crazy and stupid and out of control, all I have to do is go crazy, stupid and out of control. I don't need any impetus. I don't need any outside influences. The great Apache chief said, God has already given you everything you need. And I believe that wildness, uninhibitedness, absolute gonzo misbehavior, whatever you need to do is already in here. You just need to know how to unleash it. For example, recently I do all these interviews. I have a new record coming out called Detroit Muscle, which is, I sent you a bunch. How many records have you had? 40 million I've sold, but I think 20 some, 30 albums maybe? That's pretty incredible. Yeah. I started in 67, not when I was 67. Do you know how many fighters come out to Stranglehold, by the way? Of course I do. Well, what a lick, shall I? Yeah, please do. I mean- There's so many fighters come out to that song because like for a jujitsu guy, that is the song. And military guys going into battle. Hit man. Look at this shit. Look at this shit. Look at your goosebumps. Those are real. Look at that hair standing up on end. It really is happening. After a thousand years of that shit. A thousand years and you still get fired up. What a great lick though. It's a great fucking song. That all comes from Bo Diddley. When you first get a guitar when I was like seven years old, of course, who doesn't feel- That is such a natural rhythm. I just had the phone with Billy Gibbons and he said that a fetus at conception, if that Bo Diddley lick is happening- Start moving his little toes. It will dance. So my point is that this right hand, if I jacked off, I'd pull my dick clean off because his right hand- You jacked off with your left hand? No, never mind. I signed so many autographs on all these hats every day and all these flags and I play my guitar every day and I started with his god, Bo Diddley. You hear all the conch. What is- That whole- I learned that, not just Bo Diddley, but a guy named Jimmy McCarty. Know the name. Jimmy McCarty. 1960, my band The Lourdes opened up for Billy Lee and the Riviera's, Martha and the Vandalas, and Gene Pitney, who had a hit song called Town Without Pity. This history. So I opened up, I was 12, going on 12, my band The Lourdes opened up Billy Lee and the Riviera- So you were opening up for them? Yeah, when I was 14, I opened up for the Supremes and the Bo Brumbles at Cobo Hall because my band The Lourdes won the Michigan Battle of the Bands because we were bad motherfuckers for white boys, I'm telling you. 14? Yes, it was awesome. So anyhow, going back to Wall Lake Casino, Novi, Michigan, Wall Lake, Michigan, Billy Lee and the Riviera's, it was Billy Lee Vice destroyed 10 tambourines per song. Every song had three forehead vein popping crescendos. Johnny Benangik, 15 years old on Ludwig Drums, played it. Nobody played bass drums like that. There's this kid, rotten like some kind of industrial beast. And then Earl Elliott on a Rickenbacker bass through an Ampeg B-15. Joe Kubrick on a Gibson 335 Cherry through a Fender Twin amp and his long legged motherfucker on a Gibson Birdland and a Fender Twin Reverb. Jimmy McCarty and they started a song called Jenny Take a Ride. I was already into the Bo Diddley chukka chukka stuff, but when he started Jenny Take a Ride, only I can do this. Only I can replicate what Jimmy did that night. And it went like this. Get it. Oh, see. See, see, right. Come on, see, baby. What you have done now? Oh, see, see, see, right. Come on, see, baby. What you have done now? Oh, see, see, see, see, right. Come on, see, baby. What you have done now? Oh, see, see, see, see, see, right. Come on, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see, see..... See, see, see, see go. fl Go ball ball loop you going to the definition of mur. Come on. dis right hand. Well, I'm done! Get the fuck out of here! Do you feel that? Yes, yes! What the fuck kind of music is that? It's amazing music. So I saw this birdland. Nobody played a birdland. It's a jazz guitar. It's made for playing things like... ...which is cool. Great tone, huh? Great rich bell kind of tone. But when Jimmy played it... Fuck! So that imprinted Gibson Birdland, Fender Twin. Gibson Birdland, Fender Twin. Right hand, Bow Diddley on Stair. Holy fuck! So eventually I had to get a Gibson Birdland. And the way I play comes from the Bow Diddley Chuck Berry. And if you Chuck Berry, I'm in the home. Now Chuck didn't play it like that because my right hand was playing all the counter rhythms. And so that's where the whole... Cat scratch fever. The whole... The new record's got a song called Detroit Muscle. I don't write songs. I ejaculate them. I just pick up my guitar and go... The whole... It's just made me play. So Chuck Berry, Bow Diddley, Little Richard, Jimmy McCarty... Millie Lee and the Riviara's, by the way, changed their name years later to Mitch Ryder in the Detroit Wheels. I talked to Mitch on Thanksgiving. I still keep in touch with these fucking guys 60 years later. So the new record is the continuation of... Use the word primal. Primal is my life. Whether it's with a sharp sticker or guitar or chainsaw. Primal is pure. And I think that feel to table is a return to primal. I think you discovering that you need to go vegan or a hunter. You made the primal decision. I think primal is the answer to every problem mankind has subjected to. Getting back to toothfang and claw, the earth, accountability, your step. Did the step that you take benefit the world or did it harm the world? Both literally and figuratively. So that's how I've conducted my life.