Nugent Wins Court Case

Veteran rocker Ted Nugent was awarded $100,000 on Thursday by a Michigan jury, which ruled that organizers of the Muskegon Summer Celebration were in breach of contract when they cancelled his June 2003 concert.

Organizers of the event claimed Nugent made racist remarks during a Denver radio interview in May of the same year. Nugent, however, testified that he used the offensive slur while recalling a compliment paid to him by an African-American Motown musician in reference to his guitar skills. Despite his win, Nugent still feels like damage has been done. "It was heartbreaking," he tells Rolling Stone. "I won, but I didn't win anything. [The jury] threw out the defamation-of-character thing, and that to me is what it was all about. I was called a racist because I was quoting one of the Funk Brothers, who I identified in the quote as my revered hero."

Nugent says this incident is not over. "When I get accused of such a horrible thing, I get really fucking angry," he says. "I went to court and sued them and won, but I'm not done yet. We killed the beast with the smallest gun they allowed us. We're gonna go back, get a bigger gun, and kill them all --figuratively speaking."

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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