Ted Nugent may be the last person you would expect to attend the State of the Union, but he's going to be there front and center when Obama delivers his big speech to the rest of the country. He called into the radio show this morning and discussed how he ended up being invited and why he ultimately decided to attend.
Nugent explained that he was asked to attend by Congressman Steve Stockman as a counter to all of the "props" that he believed President Obama was going to use as mascots for gun regulation.
"That's a simple explanation. It's much deeper than that. I believe as we the people, I have the right to be there and I think that I represent the logical productive, conscientious, law‑abiding Americans not just in the gun‑owning community but overall, and somebody's got to stand in opposition to President Obama. And I understand that I'm going to be right straight out in front of him."
Full Transcript of the interview is below:
GLENN: The one, the only Ted Nugent is on the phone and he's on his way. Are you in Washington yet? Are you going ‑‑ you're going today, Ted? Line 12, please. Somebody seize Line 12 for me. There you are. Ted?
NUGENT: Yeah, you got me?
GLENN: Yeah. Are you in Washington?
NUGENT: No, I ‑‑ Glenn, I decided I'd much rather go fishing. Would you go for me please?
GLENN: Nope. I will not.
NUGENT: No, I'm just about to leave Texas and I'm looking forward to a wonderful rendezvous with my fellow Americans.
GLENN: All right. Now, what are you wearing tonight?
NUGENT: Mrs. Nugent is so frustrated.
GLENN: I bet she is.
NUGENT: I don't own a tie. She doesn't know what the hell I'm going to wear. But I said, honey, it's going to be okay. I have clean camo I haven't dirtied up yet. There's no blood on it.
PAT: Camo?
GLENN: Ted, you can't wear camo. We want you to look like ‑‑ we want you to look respectful and still be you. Maybe a camo tie. Can we make ‑‑ can somebody make him a camo tie and get it to ‑‑ I mean, you ‑‑
NUGENT: I was going to run out and shoot a rattlesnake and wear it around my neck this morning.
GLENN: No, let's don't put that there.
NUGENT: No, you know, I'm sure Mrs. Nugent will pick out a nice clean shirt and nobody can see my jeans and I think I have a couple of jackets. I'll be fine. Don't you worry about my fashion statement.
GLENN: All right. You've got to ‑‑ when, you know, you're going into ‑‑ you're going into the lion's den. Dress like a lion.
NUGENT: And not only that, but it's a very important place ‑‑
GLENN: Hang on just a second. Hang on just a second. I'm talking to Ted Nugent. Don't actually dress like a lion. Because he's like ‑‑
PAT: I can see him wearing one as he walks in. I can see that.
GLENN: "I've got one down on the floor in my living room. I'll just ‑‑ I'll just put my hands and wear his claws like gloves."
NUGENT: Wouldn't that be great if I went out and shot a mountain lion today and slammed it on the railing right there in the room?
GLENN: Unbelievable.
NUGENT: Unbelievable.
GLENN: All right. Okay. So who invited you? Can you say?
NUGENT: Yes. Congressman Steve Stockman from here in Texas, and he articulated why I should be there and I concurred and here I go.
GLENN: And why did he say you should be there?
NUGENT: He says based on this president's performance and his masterful scam artist fraud delivery in the last State of the Union and every time he opens his mouth and how he will stack the audience with his props and maybe children who got hit in the head with a large capacity magazine or ‑‑ and he wanted someone there who has trounced the antigunners every time they dare debate me, and he wanted me to have a presence there to counter the president's props.
GLENN: All right. So I was ‑‑
NUGENT: That's a simple explanation. It's much deeper than that. I believe as we the people, I have the right to be there and I think that I represent the logical productive, conscientious, law‑abiding Americans not just in the gun‑owning community but overall, and somebody's got to stand in opposition to President Obama. And I understand that I'm going to be right straight out in front of him.
GLENN: I have to tell you ‑‑ that's fantastic. Did wear the lion. I think I am ‑‑ I would rather have you, quite honestly, Ted, I'd rather have you as a neighbor or a mayor than ‑‑ in the town that I lived in than almost anybody in Washington because I know you're going to be, "Hey, Glenn, leave Glenn alone. Leave all our neighbors alone. Just let us do what we do. And as long as we're not killing each other or, you know, robbing one another."
NUGENT: Or harming someone else.
GLENN: Right.
NUGENT: I've always said, Glenn, that the pursuit of happiness should be observed and adhered to that if you live upstream of someone, you can't do into the water what you wouldn't want them to do to you downstream. So your pursuit of happiness is limited by logic and goodwill and decency that whatever you choose to do, it doesn't harm others' pursuit of happiness.
GLENN: You know, I think Jesus might have said something similar to that without the ‑‑ without alluding to peeing in water.
NUGENT: Or maybe what someone does in the water.
GLENN: So now are you going to be on ‑‑ because afterwards is anybody going to be interviewing you? Because you know whoever he puts in the audience of little, you know, Sally No‑Face who had her face ripped off by, you know, a high‑capacity magazine, she's going to be on TV. Are ‑‑ is anybody lining anything up for you to be on the other side?
NUGENT: Well, number one, and you know this: Since the 1960s I don't believe a day has gone by in my life from my management or my booking agencies or my different associates where I haven't been requested to do some interviews, to do media. I've stood against the grain in the world of rock‑and‑roll and the world of politics, but I've never seen anything like this before. Since it was announced, I just said yes to Congressman Stockman yesterday about noon. I was picking my dog up from the vet. And already we were contacted by every imaginable media. I've already done dozens of interviews. The requests and demands on me prior to the State of the Union and following the State of the Union, there's no way I can do more than 1 or 2% of the requests that have come in. But I will take a deep breath and I will try to represent "we the people" accurately, honestly and in upbeat.
GLENN: And in a suit and tie or at least a jacket and tie.
NUGENT: I still don't understand the tie thing. Is that for people that drool? What is the tie?
GLENN: I don't know ‑‑ I can't explain the tie. Just wear a tie. You're at the ‑‑ you're at the State of the Union. Wear a tie.
NUGENT: I'll find something.
GLENN: All right. Thanks a lot, Ted.
NUGENT: All right. Well, God speed, Glenn.
GLENN: God bless. Bye‑bye.