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Ted Nugent Offends at Texas Governor's Ball

Like so many of us, Texas Governor Rick Perry needs to keep his rowdy friends away from his workplace. Right-wing rocker Ted Nugent alienated attendees at the Republican governor's inaugural ball by appearing on stage in a T-shirt lovingly adorned with the Confederate flag, and then embarking on an angry monologue about people who don't speak English. The famed firearm aficionado also carried machine gun "props" on stage with him.

"I think it was a horrible choice," GOP strategist Royal Masset said of Nugent's appearance. "I hope nobody approved it."

Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, was quick to say that the governor had given The Nuge free reign. "Ted Nugent is a good friend of the governor's," Black said. "He asked him if he would play at the inaugural. He didn't put any stipulation of what he would play."

Civil rights groups were quick to denounce the man who once gave America a case of "Cat Scratch Fever." "Whenever someone sports the Confederate battle flag, many Texans will be offended, and rightly so, because of what it symbolizes," said Gary Bledsoe, the president of the NAACP in Texas.

"It's a sign of the times for the Republican Party," said Democratic State Rep. Joaquin Castro. "It's a divisive party."

Nugent is no stranger to controversy; indeed, he seems to revel in it, having inflamed audiences in the past with pearls of wisdom like, "Apartheid isn't that cut and dry. All men are not created equal."

This time around, Nugent couldn't be reached for immediate comment because he was -- naturally -- off on a hunting trip.

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
01.19.07