Drummer Carmine Appice sat down with Rock History Book for a new interview and talked about his longtime friend Ted Nugent.
“[Ted Nugent is] a friend, a longtime friend, a great guitarist, a man of his own opinions, which I love about him,” Appice said of Nugent. “He don’t give a hell about nobody, but if he’s on your side, he’s on your side. So he’s on our side. I’ve known him since 1967 or eight. We did our first gig with Hendrix, him and Vanilla Fudge. Then later on, my manager started managing him so we got to see him more and more and we’ve been friends all through the years. I remember when I was playing with Rod [Stewart], we did American Music Awards and we did ‘Young Turks.'”
Appice also revealed Nugent’s offer to him — to call him if he decides to play ‘man’s rock’: “Rod’s music was getting a little wimpy, as Ted said so. He said, ‘When you’re done playing this wimpy rock and you want to play a man’s rock give me a call.’ So after I was done with Rod I called Ted and I went immediately into Ted’s band for a year. [I] did an album and toured with him and it was great a lot of fun.”
Nugent appeared as a guest on Cactus’ recent album ‘Temple Of Blues – Influences & Friends.’ The album was released on June 7 and guested other rockers as well. Even with Nugent’s controversial opinions, Appice thinks Nugent’s guitar talents are overlooked because of his political beliefs.
“He’s a really great guitar player, in my eyes. And people put him down for his politics,” he explained during another interview. “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, ‘F*ck Joe Biden.’ The whole audience was saying ‘F*ck Joe Biden.’ I said, ‘Wow.’ I said, ‘That’s ballsy.’ I mean, the guy’s got balls. I appreciate that.”
The recent Cactus album follows their 2021 release ‘Tightrope’ and features a bunch of guest stars. Those names include Joe Bonamassa, Dee Snider, Pat Travers, Warren Haynes, Vernon Reid, Steve Stevens, Nugent, and many more.
