Ted Nugent unleashed in Daytona Beach: What you need to know
After nearly 60 years as a torchbearer for bombastic, tinnitus-inducing, guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll, Motor City Madman Ted Nugent will launch his farewell tour with a slate of Florida shows that include a Saturday stop at the Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach.
The “Adios Mofos ’23!” tour was announced by Nugent in April with typically over-the-top flare in a video on his YouTube channel.
“This is adios, mofo; this is my last tour,” the Nuge confirmed, offering the following immodest appraisal of the impact of his performances over a career now in its sixth decade:
“The American Dream has a soundtrack,” he said. “I have created the most fun, titillating, sensually stimulating soundtrack in the history of the world.”
At age 74, he promises more of the same from the farewell shows.
“This will be the greatest, the most intense, tightest, most dynamic, most outrageously fun tour of my life, but adios mofo,” he said, capping the pitch with a quote from Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry that a “man has to know his limitations.”
Here’s what you need to know about Nugent’s career, farewell tour and future plans:
Why did Ted Nugent decide to stop touring?
In his YouTube video, Nugent told fans that he’s tired of the rigors of the road.
“Hotels are jail,” he said, “a hotel room is jail for me. My dogs won’t allow me to not spend the day with them, so Happy, Sadie and Coco will go on the road with me this year. But the logistics are just too complicated when you have dogs and grandkids and kids and so many other things.”
For Nugent, the rock ‘n’ roll road started in the early 1960s as a member of the psychedelic-hard rock outfit the Amboy Dukes, best known for its lone hit “Journey to the Center of the Mind.” By the mid-1970s Nugent had emerged as a successful solo act, releasing the multi-platinum albums “Ted Nugent” (1975), “Free-for-All” (1976) and “Cat Scratch Fever: (1977).
His most recent album is 2022’s “Detroit Muscle.”
Does this mean no more new music from Ted Nugent?
Just because he’s not on the road, Nugent won’t stop releasing new music, he said.
“I’ll always play music,” he said. “I’ve got new records I’m going to make. I can’t wait to unleash some of these new songs. I’ve got an instrumental called “Butterfingers” that is just greasy. You can’t eat barbecue ever again adequately without the song “Butterfingers” playing loud next to your brisket.”
For Nugent, politics lately overshadow the music
In a polarized political landscape, Nugent’s outspoken conservative political views and advocacy for hunter’s rights and gun rights have put him into the spotlight more often than his music in recent years.
A supporter of former President Donald Trump, Nugent targeted former President Barack Obama in statements that led to his investigation by the Secret Service after some of his statements were perceived as potentially threatening. Other views also sometimes have been condemned as racist.
In May, a concert scheduled for this month on the farewell tour at Avondale Brewing Co. in Birmingham, Alabama, was canceled after thousands protested on social media, according to the news site, AL.com.
In his tour announcement, Nugent expressed no intention to dial back his rhetoric.
“I’m a political firestorm because I believe in the experiment of self-government,” he said. “That’s how you live the American Dream, by demanding constitutional accountability from our elected employees.
“Well, that’s radical. You’re damn right it’s radical. I’m radical. My music is radical; my attitude is radical; my middle-finger is radical; my guitar tone is radical.”
If you go
Ted Nugent will perform with opening act Hillbilly Vegas at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 15 at Peabody Auditorium, 600 Auditorium Blvd., Daytona Beach. Tickets range from $29.50-$49.50 at Ticketmaster.com or call the Peabody box office at 386-671-3462.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ted Nugent farewell tour hits Daytona Beach: What's on his mind?
