Never one to shy from sharing his thoughts, legendary guitarist Ted Nugent gave his take on the “current state of music in America” on his YouTube show, “The Nightly Nuge.”
Needless to say, Ted isn’t much of a fan.
“The reason we love Aerosmith and AC/DC and ZZ Top and Heart and Journey and Cheap Trick and Foreigner and so many bands I could name… I cannot overstate the incredible animal work ethic that we put forth to practice and practice and practice, because the music makes us do it,” he continued.
“Now, we’ve still got some bands that are doing it, like Greta Van Fleet out of Grand Rapids, Michigan here. There are some bands out there — certainly the Foo Fighters with the great Dave Grohl; they still play fire-breathing real soulful tight music. But I’m afraid it’ll never be like it was with The Stones and The Beatles and The Who and The Kinks and Led Zeppelin and what Van Halen created and what the Ted Nugent band and Ronnie Montrose and what Sammy Hagar still does — so many people out there still doing it. But I’m afraid that most of the successful music today — some of it is mind-boggling.”
Then Nugent shared his opinion of pop megastar Taylor Swift.
“I don’t know this gal’s name with the long legs, but she gets a thousand bucks a ticket or whatever it is … Yeah, Taylor Swift. But that music, to me, sounds like cartoon music. It sounds like if I bumped into a child’s cartoon show on a Saturday morning, I would probably hear the No. 1 country song or I would hear the No. 1 pop song, because it’s all formulated to give a certain vocal delivery and a certain chord change and a certain tempo that they examine so closely that it’s not organic and instinctive and sexy and unleashed and genuine and believable.”
“I liked it when we were in the experimental stage of trying to duplicate what Chuck Berry had invented, what Little Richard had invented,” Nugent said.
“There’s some great, great musical moments still happening — but not the unlimited flurry of incredible music in the late ’50s and the ’60s and into the ’70s. And even the Poisons and the Warrant and — I can’t think of all those… Ratt and some of the big hair bands, they played really good — they were great musicians. But there will never be a 1966 ever again, because it was so raw and primal. Now it’s predictable, and I’m afraid it’s mostly cookie-cutter stuff. Now, only the guilty need to feel guilty, ’cause there’s some great artists out there that are making some wonderful music. But it’s just not as raw and primal as my original inspirations, and I cling to that.”
