| Real Name: | Theodore Anthony Nugent |
| Birthday: | December 13, 1948 |
| Net Worth: | $20 million |
| Height: | 185 cm |
| Occupation: | American Singer-Songwriter, Guitarist, Conservative Political Activist |
Ted Nugent is an American rock musician. He gained his fame as part of The Amboy Dukes. The band formed in 1963 played psychedelic rock and hard rock. But he had a successful solo career as well. Ted is a vocal conservative and often speaks to issues related to hunting and gun ownership. He is no stranger to controversy. What about Ted Nugent’s wealth?
Ted has a long and successful career behind him. He was part of The Amboy Dukes, but then reached success as a solo artist. And he hosted a couple of television shows. As of June 2020, Ted Nugent fortune is over $20 million. Let’s see how he got there.
Musical Career Ups and Downs
Their first lineup of The Amboy Dukes played at The Cellar. That was a dance club outside of Chicago. The band played there until the closing of the club.
Their second single was Journey to the Center of the Mind. Written by Steve Farmer, the guitarist of the band, the song focused on drug paraphernalia. Fun fact: Nugent is an ardent anti-drug campaigner. He had no idea at the time the song was about drug use. Remember, he was only a student at the time.
On April 5, 1968, Ted along with a group of musicians paid a tribute to Martin Luther King by having a folk, rock, and blues jam session. Joni Mitchell, Buddy Guy, Al Kooper, BB King, and Jimi Hendrix played at the session.
In 1973, Nugent settled down on a ranch in Michigan. He signed a record deal with Frank Zappa’s DiscReet Records label. He then recorded Call of the Wild, which was the beginning of his solo career.
Because of personnel changes, the band started to fall apart. In 1973, they performed under the name Ted Nugent & the Amboy Dukes. By 1975, Ted dropped the name Amboy Dukes from his stage name. He signed to Epic Records and released a couple of multi-platinum albums in the 1970s.
In those late 1970s years, Ted emerged as a guitar hero to hard rock fans. Many of them had no idea he played with the Amboy Dukes. On July 8, 1979, he performed Live at Hammersmith ’79 on the rock radio program King Biscuit Flower Hour. There is an album of the performance.
During the 1980s Nugent released a couple of solo albums. But they did not reach huge success. Yet, Ted emerged as a more prominent role as a lead vocalist. In 1989, he joined the supergroup Damn Yankees.
In 1995, Ted returned to his solo career by releasing the album Spirit of the Wild. It was his best-reviewed album in a while. And it also marked the return of Derek St. Holmes to Nugent’s studio band.
At this point, he started his broadcasting career as well. He hosted a radio show in Detroit on WWBR-FM and took ownership of several hunting-related businesses.
In 2010, he went on his Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead tour. In March 2011, he released a new song, titled I Still Believe. Fans could download for free through the newsletter on his website.
Other Ventures
In 2001, Nugent started his own outdoors television show on the Outdoor Channel. He named it Spirit of the Wild after his popular song. And the song was the theme music for the TV series. In the show, Ted took viewers on a variety of wild game hunts using his bow. During the show, Nugent taught and advised hunters on different topics. He also talked about politics.
In 2003, he hosted the VH1 reality television program, Surviving Nugent. The premise of the show was fun and entertaining. City dwellers moved to his ranch in Michigan and had to survive backwoods activities.
In 2008, he was a guest on the episode Southwest Road Trip Special with Anthony Bourdain. In the episode, he spoke against obesity and public health care.
This might come as a surprise, but Ted also tried an acting career. In 1986, he guest-starred in an episode of Miami Vice. His song Angry Young Man got featured in the episode.
In 2001, he played himself in the third-season episode of That ‘70s Show titled Backstage Pass. In 2007, he appeared in the music video for Rockstar by Nickelback.
Nugent began writing for various magazines in the late 1990s. So far, he has more than 20 written publications. Some of his works include Blood Trails: The Truth About Bowhunting (1991), New York Times Best Seller God, Guns, & Rock ‘n’ Roll (2000), Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto (2008), and more.
Net Worth
Ted Nugent wealth is over $20 million. Most of his money comes from music. But he also earned a lot of from his hunting shows and writing. So far, he released more than 30 albums. Nugent sold more than 30 million records to this date.
During his early career, he used Fender amps, a large part of his signature sound. He also played the hollow-body Gibson Byrdland guitar.
Personal Life
Ted is a big fan of Detroit sports. He supports the Red Wings in hockey, the Pistons in basketball, the Lions in football, and Tigers in baseball. In his Damn Yankees video for Come Again he wore a Bad Boys era Pistons shirt.
He suffers from hearing loss. In one interview in 2007, he said “the ear’s not too good, especially with background noise, but that’s a small price to pay. The journey was worth it”.
Nugent is often a topic of controversy because of his conservative political views. He is an advocate for hunting and gun ownership rights. Ted is even a board member of the National Rifle Association. He supports the Republican Party.
So far, two women accused him of having sexual relationships when they were younger than 18. In 1978, he dated Hawaii native Pele Massa. She was 17 at the time, and the sexual consent in Hawaii was 16. The two couldn’t get married, but he joined Massa’s parents and made himself her legal guardian. On the Joe Rogan Experience, he denied romantic relationships with underage girls.
He got married two times and has six children with four women. He fathered a boy before his first marriage in the late 1960s. He also fathered a girl and gave up both for adoption in infancy. There was no public knowledge of this fact until 2010.
He married his first wife Sandra Jezowski in 1970 and got divorced in 1979. They have two children together, a son and a daughter. Ted married his second wife Shemane Deziel in 1989. He has one child with her, a son.
Ted Nugent’s cash flow is over $20 million. He can afford the many child support bills for sure.
