Ted Nugent discussed The Who’s Keith Moon and Jimi Hendrix trying to offer him drugs and having meltdowns in a new YouTube stream.
Ted said most of his influences “got high — right in front of me. And I admired the living shit out of ’em,” he said. “The MC5, they were all stumbling, puking, stupid drunk and stoned, and I admired them beyond description. But then it caught up with them, and I said, ‘Oh.’ Thank God I didn’t go, ‘Hey, they’re smoking a lot of hashish, and they’re just kicking out the jams. Maybe I’ll try the hashish.’ And luckily, I didn’t. Luckily, I watched them blow up.
I watched the drugs and alcohol destroy the energy that I admired, destroy the groove that I admired. And to this day, Wayne Kramer is a dear friend of mine. Wayne, I love you, buddy. And he knows I love him. And we have great conversations. And he’s probably polar opposite of my ideologies. But not really, because he has a work ethic, and he’s a family guy, he’s a loving guy, he’s a productive guy, he’s a conscientious guy, he’s a caring guy. But I think to this day, he thinks that dope is essential… I don’t wanna presume — I had a conversation with him not that long ago where we disagreed on the use of marijuana and other intoxicants, or whatever category you wanna put ’em in.
“The point is that lucky me, I could differentiate between the delivery of the things I admired versus the occasional and, more often than not, conduct of those that I admired.”
“Jimi Hendrix offered me his drugs, and I said no. John Belushi offered me his drugs; I said no. Keith Moon offered me his drugs and alcohol, and I said no. Bon Scott offered me his drugs and alcohol, and I said no. I said no to everybody.”
