Carmine Appice Defends Ted Nugent: “The Guy’s Got Balls”

The easiest articles to write at MetalSucks are when Ted Nugent is quoted saying something unfathomably stupid. It happens fairly often and the jokes absolutely write themselves because Nugent is basically a parody of himself at this point. Recently, legendary proto-metal drummer Carmine Appice made the claim that metal actually started with Metallica, which was so far off base it almost reached Nugent-levels of absurdity. But having these two in the same news story? It’s like you got your chocolate in my peanut butter and vice versa.

In a recent interview with the podcast Brutally Delicious (which was transcribed by Blabbermouth), Appice talked about working with Nugent for his guest appearance on the new Cactus album Temple of Blues: Influences & Friends and, inexplicably, Appice had nothing but positive things to say about The Nuge:

“He’s a really great guitar player, in my eyes. And people put him down for his politics. But you know what? He’s very vocal about it, and I kind of agree with him. To be that vocal… It’s America. To be able to have your freedom to say whatever you want and do whatever you want. And his audience is right with him. I mean, I saw him play a gig [where he changed the lyrics to his song ‘Come And Take It’ to reflect his disdain for the current U.S. president]. It was, like, ‘Fuck Joe Biden.’ The whole audience was saying ‘Fuck Joe Biden.’ I said, ‘Wow.’ I said, ‘That’s ballsy.’ I mean, the guy’s got balls. I appreciate that.”

I mean, I always assumed Nugent had balls; they’re right next to where he keeps his head. But I don’t see how exactly saying “Fuck” a president who is unpopular with both the right and left is particularly ballsy. Especially considering the kind of person who would show up to a Nugent show, that sounds like preaching to the choir. I think Appice has a skewed idea of what “ballsy” means.