Ted Nugent has responded to Pearl Jam‘s recent anti-gun cover of ‘Stranglehold’.
On Thursday (September 12), Pearl Jam performed in Baltimore’s CFG Bank Arena, and briefly covered Nugent’s 1975 track, with Eddie Vedder ad-libbing: “I don’t own a gun/ I don’t ever want to own a gun/ I don’t own a gun, never want to own a gun,” after guitarist Mike McCready played it’s iconic opening riff.
Vedder didn’t comment beyond that, instead opting to launch straight into ‘Even Flow’. However, Nugent caught wind of it and made his own statement on social media.
The gun rights advocate took to X/Twitter to write: “hey Eddie join me on my RAV [Real America’s Voice show] spirit campfire to discuss how your insane liberal policies have created an explosion in engineered violent recidivism while you fight to disarm helpless innocent citizens.”
hey Eddie join me on my RAV spirit campfire to discuss how your insane liberal policies have created an explosion in engineered violent recidivism while you fight to disarm helpless innocent citizens.https://t.co/OBjHpsWgru
— Ted Nugent (@TedNugent) September 13, 2024
In 2021 – despite homicides in the US rising by 30 per cent in 2020 over the previous year – the outspoken Nugent claimed America didn’t have a gun problem. At the time, he said the US was living in “engineered recidivism” due to a “failed court system” that too easily allows for criminals to be released.
“There isn’t a gun problem in America,” the songwriter, who is a member of the National Rifle Association, continued. “There is an intentional engineered recidivism problem in America. You wanna stop ninety-six per cent of the violent crimes. Don’t let ’em out.”
Pearl Jam, on the other hand, have been vocal about resisting increasing gun violence. in 2018, they debuted the new single ‘Can’t Deny Me’, and dedicated it to the Parkland students who had been campaigning for gun control since the fatal Florida shooting on February 14 that year.
Nugent would go on to say the Parkland shooting survivors were “pathetic” and had “no soul”.
Today we #wearorange on National Gun Violence Awareness Day to stand with the communities fighting against increasing gun violence. No one should live in fear of gun violence—in their schools, neighborhoods, or anywhere. Learn more about secure gun storage and be a part of the… pic.twitter.com/tjtwgjhHG6
— Pearl Jam (@PearlJam) June 2, 2023
More recently, Nugent and his son Rocco released a song about the attempted Donald Trump assassination, ‘Who Shot Trump’. The American musician – who is a high profile supporter of Trump and once claimed he was “sent here by God” – warned in it’s chorus that whoever shot the former US President “fucked up / When they shot Trump / They fucked up.”
He also hit out at Taylor Swift, whose music he said was “all poppy nonsense” with “no fire” and “no sensuality”, adding: “Thank God I’m still around. We still deliver the fire.”
