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Ted Nugent is unlike most of the other aging rock stars crisscrossing the country, living off of the residue of glory days long past. Between his various TV programs on VH-1, his frequent appearances on cable news programs discussing issues ranging from guns to hunting to illegal immigration, Ted Nugent is not some washed-up has been seeking one last hurrah on the gravy train. His libertarian leanings and quick-witted thoughts very often bring comments by the water cooler the day after his latest media appearance. And of course, the music…
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While Uncle Ted’s new album, Love Grenade, wasn’t supposed to make its debut until Tuesday, I managed to score a copy today. I’m happy to report, like his last studio effort, Craveman, it doesn’t disappoint. It’s classic Ted– Indians, buffalo, guns, sex, and with a song titled Funk U, the usual in your face wordplay he’s become well known for through the years. Peppered throughout is a fair dose of red-blooded pro-Americanism, as one would expect from the Nuge. Oh, and there’s a blistering remake of the Amboy Dukes tune from back in ’68 that helped launch his career: "Journey to the Center of Your Mind" (a song most people recognize, but fail to associate it with Ted). All of it is encased within a screeming dose of Ted Nugent guitar playing as hot and fresh as ever.
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I’m sitting here listening with the intention of declaring my favorite track from the disc. A sign of a good album is when it becomes difficult to do so, followed by picking one, and then deciding that not really, it’s another, and so on. That being said, my favorite tune, AT THE MOMENT, is "Eagle Brother".
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Now, the video. As you probably know, Ted Nugent was in the news in the past few weeks thanks to a video recorded at an over-21 concert in California that made the rounds of the Internet and all of the cable news shows. Featuring a rant (well-known to long-time Ted fans) against the list of those he views as the current crop of "gun grabber" politicos, including Arnold, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, the clips of Ted doing what Ted does enraged some folks while delighting others. Click here to read my post on the matter and to view the video.
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GraniteGrok has tracked down the person who shot the now famous video, and he agreed to answer a few questions for us…
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Turns out, there was some minor controversy surrounding the video, as the link provided up at Drudge was to an account that had lifted it from the original uploader and placed it up on Liveleak(the Brit’s answer to YouTube). The person shooting the film and originally posting it was Kevin Carroll (AKA Kevedogedog) of Paradise, California, who was kind enough to answer a few questions for our readers here at the ‘Grok…
GG: All right… now I’m confused– I see that the Ted video that Drudge linked to was posted by somebody else, claiming to be the original poster, yet you have seemingly more video– although I can’t access "Mike’s" account to see. I see that you have posted these videos 6 days ago on YouTube..KC: Yeah I was the first, like I said I still have the video clips in my camera and the movie was lifted (or uploaded) by the ‘mike guy’ if you look at it again, Liveleak did post a comment above the video clip stating that is was from 8-22-07 in Oroville [CA].GG: I’ll take your word you shot the video. Unfortunately, I can’t ask you about what it was like getting linked to Drudge, because he didn’t link to your Liveleak account..KC: No problem about Drudge, the sites I see on Google that have a Youtube logo are all me. My favorite posting online is the Rolling Stone.com. Who knows maybe some magazines will print it too! Make me a star ..lol.GG: Your YouTube profile says you’re 42– just slightly younger than me. Is that correct?.KC: 43 last month class of 1982..GG: That puts you right around the start of high school during Ted’s heyday, the late 70’s. Did you see him back then?.KC: Yes I saw him with Humble Pie in 1981 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. It was the Wango Tango tour– He had the loin cloth thing going on!.[Doug note: I saw him on this tour too– which was actually the Scream Dream tour– at the Providence Civic Center. The cover photo for the live album, Intensities in 10 Cities was taken at that show. Ted leaped backwards into the crowd, which caught him and briefly tossed him around, never dropping him. Four of my high school classmates are in that picture… ].….
..GG: Do you recall what he was like?.KC: High energy rock and roll. great guitar riffs and lots of pretty girls! The crowd was really into it..GG: Have you seen him since then, other than this August?.KC: The concert last week was my 5th time seeing Mr Ted Nugent live, saw Damn Yankees tour, and a few summers ago sat in 3rd row for Ted and ZZ Top in Marysville, Ca. [Doug note: I saw this tour too, right here in Gilford, NH back in 2003].GG: What camera did you shoot the video with?.KC: Kodak Easy Share (I will keep the clip in there forever).GG: How much footage total did you shoot?.KC: Just about 5 minutes, I didnt want to tape his show or complete songs, but I thought his speeches where great– a great part of the energy of the show. 7 clips total. I only uploaded the original video to Youtube because I thought it was so interesting..GG: Has anyone asked you to share the footage, and has anyone, other than me, contacted you about the video?.KC: Yes I have done several Internet and phone interviews for my local paper and MSNBC when I told them of the error in the location. [ed. note: the "imposter" uploader cited the wrong location of the concert].GG: What was the general reaction of the crowd to Ted’s "speech"?.KC: They loved it! Lots of cheers and clapping, some people stopped clapping a bit when he really got going, but most everyone liked it, no one walked out..GG: Were there any obviously unhappy people?.KC: Not at all.GG: Was the show what you expected?.KC: Better– Everytime I see Ted, I never know what to expect. I was really happy and pumped up when I left the show..GG: Are you pro gun?.KC: I own guns, but im not a hunter, I fish and hike in the rural area where I live..GG: Do you describe yourself as: Conservative? Liberal? Apolitical?.KC: More liberal but not a totallay to the left, I vote for who I thnk will do the best job. My wife is the political one in our house..GG: What video program did you use to clip the film?.KC: Quicktime
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GG: Do you have any idea how many times it has been viewed?
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KC: 1,500,000 that I know of
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GG: Do you know how the other Liveleak poster could have gotten your video?
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KC: I have learned a bit about internet uploading and using other peoples videos, you can pretty much download any video you see on line, then upload it and say it was yours. Like ‘mike’ did on Liveleak (before last Thursday I had never even been to or seen Liveleak). Once it’s in cyberspace it’s out of my control. I guess I should have made a intro for it or something.
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GG: Did you know you would cause a stir when you posted this?
.KC: Never in my wildest Internet dreams! I only hope Uncle Ted will call me or email and not be mad.
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GG: Do you think it’s right that some guy named "Mike", unavailable to reach, should take credit for your video? (Make sure you superimpose some identifyer next time)
.KC: Its not right, but it looks like that’s how it is. I emailed a few people who where posting it under their names– Most either said ‘so what’ or ‘screw you’ or didn’t reply at all.GG: Back to the music… How was Ted’s playing? Did he play a lot of old stuff (ie Ted Nugent, Cat Scratch, Free for All)? How did the new music sound? I thought his last studio album, Craveman, was awesome!
.KC: Mostly the classics- He started right on time and nonstop for 2+ hours; great new song–‘Girl Scout Cookie’ and topped it with Wango Tango and Stranglehold. You cant lose! Well worth the ticket price and I bought his new one ‘Love Grenade’ and it rocks.
.GG: Did you feel he should have played more music and done less political stuff?
.KC: No , I think Ted is Ted and he can’t stop. It’s all part of the rock show and the political stuff was just more pointed becuse it was a California show and a show in an Indian casino, so it was all over 21 in the crowd.
.GG: Thanks for your time answering these. I will take what you say and write up a post for the blog.
.KC: My pleasure send me a link when it’s up, and thank you for taking the time to find the person who actually made the story pop!The interview was conducted on August 29/30. In addition to this post here on the ‘Grok, a local CA news site, Chico News, did a brief story about Kevin and his video (scroll down about halfway). He sent this followup note today:KC: Hey Doug hope you’re having a great weekend. Just a quick note. I got Liveleak.com to update the original page you saw (the guy’s name is ‘mike’– his posting has over 720k views). It now says it was shot in Oroville, Ca by Kevin Carroll 8-22.I replied and asked Kevin how he got the Liveleak people to do that. He sent me this just a few minutes ago:KC: I emailed Liveleak.com like 10 times, putting the correct path to my original and first posting on Youtube. I think they did the math. I have had several website .webmasters email me saying they too have corrected the info, No luck with Fox or Headlinenews..
Anyway, thanks again for your interest. The story already got me some Oakland Raiders opening day seats from a friend I haven’t seen for a while but saw the story in the Chico news and Review and called me– So hey, I kind of got paid.We do thank him for sharing these thoughts with us here at the ‘Grok. It must be pretty cool to flip on the TV for a week to find everyone talking about a video that you shot. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt Ted, either. He couldn’t have bought this kind of publicity a week before his new album release..Here’s a few lines from the song Stand, from Love Grenade:[chorus]I don’t need nobody to hold my hand,don’t need nobody, I can standmake my own way in a rock-n-rollband, kiss my f*n @ssI’m an American.Don’t need no hippies to take mygun, don’t need no commies, noMao Tse Tungrugged independence is a lotta fun,I laugh so hard when I see em run.[repeat chorus].Don’t ya think I’m taxed enuff? nowit’s time to call your bluffpimps & whores & welfare brats,too much government way too fat,STAND!!!
