TED NUGENT On His Classic Song ‘Stranglehold’: ‘It’s More Powerful Today Than It Was When It Was Released In 1975’

In a new interview with Roc Doc’s Podcast, Ted Nugent spoke about how he came up with his iconic rock anthem “Stranglehold”, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, boy, what a series of events. And it really is a magic moment in time where the planets aligned. I had Rob Grange, probably the greatest bass player that ever lived. I really mean that. I mean, the way he focused on the pulse and the spirit of the songs that I was creating, how he performed the soulfulness of the bass rhythm. And then with Cliff Davies on drums, just an absolute savant as a musical force. And Derek St. Holmes, probably the greatest voice and in guitar player that people are still able to watch and celebrate his performances to this day. But those were the bandmates at my side.”He continued: “It goes all the way back to 1968, when I got on stage with Steve ‘Muruga’ Booker and John Sauter at a church after playing with the AMBOY DUKES at the Grande Ballroom [in Detroit]. And Steve Booker invited me to jam. So I grabbed my [Gibson] Byrdland [guitar]. There was a Fender twin amp there, which was the Holy Grail of my guitar tone. And I plugged in. We were just teenagers. And when you do a jam session, it’s no holds barred — there’s no rules, there’s no parameters, there’s no no control at all. You just unleash, especially when you’re surrounded with a guy like John Sauter on bass and Steve Booker on drums. It has been the story of my whole life, that caliber of musicianship. And so I started that lick. And somehow I had one of those little cassette recording units and I never did this, but I pushed the ‘record’ button at that gig — it was about midnight, one o’clock in the morning after the Grande — and I started that riff, which is a basically a bastardized Bo Diddley lick, with a little bit more grunt and grind and groove and, dare I say, sexuality. And so that jam session, I just started mouthing lyrics, probably singing about girls or maybe deer hunting. I don’t know what I was singing about. But that lick stuck with me. And so as I went on with the AMBOY DUKES, we started using that as an encore at our concerts, and it morphed into this pattern, this development, where I went down to F sharp, and then when you have Cliff and Derek and Rob, we went into the studio.”Ted added: “I could go on and on about this, but Epic Records and my production team, they all said, ‘We don’t think we need to record ‘Stranglehold’ for your solo album, because it’s just a jam session and it doesn’t have a chorus.’ You’ve gotta be kidding me! I had a bumper crop of middle fingers that year, so I whipped out a basket full of ’em, and I said, ‘You guys have gotta be kidding me. We play this song every night in various forms as an ongoing, developing, adventurous jam session and the people love this groove, this grind. They, the people, including my people, my band, we love this. It doesn’t need a chorus. It doesn’t need the rules of music. In fact, I like it better ’cause it breaks the rules of pop music.’ So they kind of shrugged their shoulders, and we went in and jammed it. And it was a take one, with Cliff and Rob nailing the groove. And that guitar solo that’s on there was only supposed to be a guide to show where the dynamics went up and down and development built into the Bolero… I don’t know where that came from, but it’s musical history. And then when Derek did the vocal on it, I said, ‘Who cares that it doesn’t have a chorus? Listen to this son of a bitch. This is a monster, fun song.’ And so that’s the history of ‘Stranglehold’. And that spirit that Derek and Cliff and Rob — and Tom Werman and Tony Reale, my production team — they loved the essence of that music. It doesn’t have to have a chorus. It doesn’t have to have a bridge. It doesn’t have to have a verse. It doesn’t have to have anything except what we believe in our hearts should be in a musical statement. And so to this day, that song means a lot to a lot of people. And I give all the credit to Tom Werman, Tony Reale, who was the engineer, Derek, Cliff and Rob. That was a moment in time that was unique to that age, our age, our musical experience, our love of musical adventure, and to this day — it’s more powerful today than it was when it was released in 1975, surely.”Ted will celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Stranglehold” with several exclusive “SpeakEzy Rockout” gigs this spring and summer. The dates will take place less than two years after Ted completed his “Adios Mofo ’23” farewell tour, which saw him backed by his most recent solo band consisting of drummer Jason Hartless and bassist Johnny “Big” Schoen.Nugent’s self-titled debut album in 1975 was certified double platinum in the United States, while “Free-for-All”, “Cat Scratch Fever”, “Weekend Warriors” and “State Of Shock” all reached the Top 30 on the Billboard 200 chart.Nugent has reportedly sold over 40 million albums and was named Detroit’s greatest guitar player of all time by readers of MLive.The conservative rocker, who been eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a solo artist since 2000, has enjoyed a remarkably successful and eventful musical career over the past five decades, but his music is increasingly overshadowed by his political outbursts.Nugent’s latest album, “Detroit Muscle”, was released in April 2022 via Pavement Music. The follow-up to 2018’s “The Music Made Me Do It” was recorded with Ted’s previous touring band, which included bassist Greg Smith and Hartless.[embedded content]