Posted on 01/19/2007 9:17:46 AM PST by RDTF
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Hours after Gov. Rick Perry kicked off his second full term in office, Ted Nugent helped him celebrate at a black-tie gala, but not all attendees were pleased by the rocker's performance.
Using machine guns as props, Nugent, 58, appeared onstage as the final act of the inaugural ball wearing a cutoff T-shirt emblazoned with the Confederate flag and shouting offensive remarks about non-English speakers, according to people who were in attendance.
Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, downplayed the Tuesday-night incident.
"Ted Nugent is a good friend of the governor's. He asked him if he would play at the inaugural. He didn't put any stipulation of what he would play," Black said.
Others said the appearance was inappropriate.
"I think it was a horrible choice," GOP strategist Royal Masset said. "I hope nobody approved it."
Nugent, a hunting and gun-rights advocate, couldn't be reached for comment Thursday because he was hunting, a spokeswoman said.
The guitarist -- known as the "Motor City Madman" -- lived in Michigan most of his life before moving to Crawford in 2003. He is famed for his 1977 hit "Cat Scratch Fever."
News of Nugent's appearance at the ball drew criticism from civil rights leaders.
"Whenever someone sports the Confederate battle flag, many Texans will be offended, and rightly so, because of what it symbolizes: the enslavement of African-Americans and more recently the symbol of hate groups and terrorists," said Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
No, in an 1860s era northern flag. Nobody's complaining about Nugent wearing contemporary southern slogans. Please read a little slower.
Nugent/Santorum 08!
Since it was located south of the Mason-Dixon line and had representation in the confederate government. It's as southern as the grits and fried okra they serve there. I guess in your world, Mark Twain and John Ashcroft are a couple of yankees, and wearing a southern flag from 140 years ago is comparable to wearing a northern flag from modern times.
Boy, you guys are a couple of jokers tonight.
>> Both Grant's and Sherman's HQ flags were variations on the then-current US flag. <<
Geesh, read what you wrote. I don't see any rock musicians running around wearing the "then-current" American flag from Grant's era. I see them wearing the NOW current flag. And if "the Nug" had a NOW current texas flag, nobody would care either. Bet there were plenty of lone-star flags and texas longhorn flags at the gala.
> but I always found Nugent to be lame and obnoxious, simply because he's a one-note, single issue "guns are kewl" sorta guy.
I enjoy his stuff, but to each his own. He wouldn't be the first "single issues" musician: Dave Matthews bangs on about the environment, Bono about world debt, Geldoff about famine...
These "do-good" causes, while there isn't anything wrong with them in very small doses, become saccharine quickly, then stale, then so syrupy-sweet that they rot your teeth.
And their musicians sometimes suddenly discover a talent for being very generous with other people's money, and they learn how to be first-class scolds as a result.
By way of contrast, a nite out with machine guns, screaming guitars and Nuge seems pleasant enough once in a while.
ROFL
LOL......... or the other way around.
I think Nugent's antics are hurting 2nd amendment rigths more than helping, like Barbara Steisand, Dixie Chicks, or any other rock musician who can't exercise self-control on stage when they have the urge to say something.
> And I'm sure you know lots of rock musicians who parade around at formal events, or hell, any concert, in the north dressed in that attire.
I think the argument is even simpler than North vs South vs Texas -- which entirely misses the point anyway.
Rockers like to be outrageous -- what a surprise. Nuge is a rocker. He did something "outrageous" and brought machine guns and the Stars and Bars to a black tie event, and behaved outrageously. What a surprise! People felt outraged and surprised as a result...
Mission Accomplished -- he did what rockers do. There is nothing unpredictable about this: it is a formula as old as Rock & Roll.
Beyond the fact that Nugent's stunts caused outrage, for reasons everybody can understand (or even predict) exactly why this thread has become a history lesson on the American Civil War is entirely beyond me.
> True, Bono drones on endlessly about world poverty, but I think he's more likeable because he isn't over the top at performances and knows how to express his views in a positive and intelligent manner.
To each his own. His lot recently performed in Auckland and was predictably sold out. That said, I didn't go because I don't like his music. And he comes across as an intolerable arrogant bore whenever he opines on anything other than music.
We used to make fun of U2 by intentionally facing away from the camera, all of us in different directions, during a typical group pic, such as a wedding.
Insufferably pious, that lot. Glad to have Kiwis onboard: FR slows down when the non-Westcoasters start turning in.
He's right. Let the Democrats display the rebel flag. They're the party of rebellion and segregation. We (the GOP) are the party of Lincoln. In official events we haave no histgorical reason to associate with the flag of the Democrat losers.
Would you like to see the Confederate Flag Banned?
see 116
" I see them wearing the NOW current flag. "
How many times are you going to post the same thing?
The only difference is a few stars.
I am reminded after Hurricane Katrina, a bunch of celebrities gave a benefit in NYC with the putative purpose of raising money for the victims. Someone (IIRC Bette Midler?) took the opportunity to high-five herself & everyone she knew for their total contempt for President Bush. Fine & dandy, it's a free country & all that. But if in the process of her smug, obscenity-laden ad hominem against GW & "rich republicans" she only served the purpose of alienating huge swaths of the very income group at the time who actually had the discretionary funds available to financially contribute to the very cause she was supposedly shilling for & deliberately turned them off from donating to the people in such dire need for whom she supposedly had so much sanctimonious concern, what in heaven's name was she even doing there?
Because, as the world discovered, as usual, it was all about HER & her obsessive need to callously wrest away the spotlight, no matter how cruelly, from everybody else - even away from the poor folks who at that time were enduring hell on earth! She obviously didn't give one whit about raising the most money she could for the ostensible beneficiaries of the concert itself.
It's certainly no better when 'our guys' do it than when 'theirs' do it. (I actually think it's worse: our "side" is supposed to be smarter!) If any of these guys really, truly care about the cause they're espousing, they'll forego the self-stroking to get the actual results they purport to want. They'll put efficacy over ego & won't sabotage their own side in order to feed their own vanity.
PS) You were pretty dead-on yourself on this thread about the triumvirate on guitar's Mt Olympus (SRV, EPC & Carlos Santana)!;-)
As would I.
But I, and the country, apparantly could care less every Colombus Day when millions of Americans proudly display Italian flags, or on Cinqo de Mayo when millions display Mexican flags.
My point is that I am sick of PC hypocricy which hates and shuns the Confederate flag as if it is the flag of the devil itself.
And many openly opposed the idea of slavery.
But when the time came, they joined the militias of their individual states out of a noble sense of honor, Southern honor.
And on the flip side, millions of people represended by Old Glory (the Stars and Stripes) adamantly agreed with slavery, but simply could not accept the south tearing away from the Union.
Several counties in my home state of Pennsylvania fought on the Confederate side, as did ?? was it Ohio??
Anyway,
Thanks for the very thoughtful analysis. Regardless of how ideologically committed a person is it no excuse for boorish, moronic behavior. Nugent's antics, like most celebrity gushers, looks more like neurosis than thought.
Notes on the guitarists of Olympus.
Whenever I have this discussion someone usually is outraged I haven't included Hendrix and ascribes it to my politics. Frankly, Hendrix doesn't belong in the group because he really wasn't all THAT good. Hendrix while significantly better than Nugent, was still more showman than great guitarist.
Now that we got the triumvirate of Guitar Gods established and a Triune is not allowed. You gotta pick between the three...who's it gonna be?
I have seen all three in concert and while all three are jaw dropping guitarists....one....well...you decide.
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