Ted Nugent has long been known as the Motor City Madman, a title that he earned thanks to his penchant for wild live performances.
In his younger years, the guitarist was known for jumping off of speakers and hanging from the rafters during his shows. In a recent interview with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk, Nugent looked back on his outlandish onstage antics, specifically the stunts that could have gotten him killed.
“I mean, the running, the athleticism, the ramp — we created the whole ramp thing onstage because I was so hyper, so driven by the rhythms that my incredible band provided that you can’t stand there and play,” the guitarist recalled, before naming a memorable near-death experience. “Coming down out of the ceiling at Cobo Hall in the ‘80s, my hair got caught in the pulley 140 feet up in the air. And I had to literally violently yank out that big shard of hair from the pulley or I’d have plummeted to the ground and died.”
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Another one of Nugent’s life-risking moves? Mounting a 1,000-pound wild animal onstage.
“Riding the buffalo onstage at the House of Blues in Chicago, where we’re going up the elevator where the buffalo’s horns were up against my ass,” the rocker continued. “And if he would sneeze, I’d have been fixed for life.”
“I should have died, oh, maybe 30, 40 times,” the guitarist estimated. “But luckily I was really healthy and athletic.”
Nugent likened his extreme performance style to a racecar driver pushing to “dangerous near-death limits to come in first. … I couldn’t have told you that was my approach back then, but that was my approach back then.”
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A chance encounter with a buffalo farmer led Nugent to study the impressive beasts. He slowly learned how to earn the animal’s trust and eventually trained one to ride onstage.
“I know some people don’t think you should domesticate wild animals, but we do, we can, we do,” Nugent noted. “And if it’s done with reverence and done with respect and taking real genuine care of these animals, then there’s a place for that.”
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Of course, practicing on a farm and getting out on a stage in front of an audience were two very different things. Nugent admitted he was worried the buffalo would “kill me or the first four rows” if it got spooked by the noise or lighting. “But luckily I had spent so much time riding him that he came to accept me and even accept the chaos and the outrage of a rock ‘n’ roll concert. And people would witness me come out riding Chief onstage.”
Riding a buffalo would become something of a calling card for Nugent, who repeated the act many times throughout his career. As for what happened to his very first onstage buffalo, the avid hunter was direct: “I do believe that we sauteed some of him on my barbecue.”
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