Ted Nugent to be at Dodge County Fair

By Diane Graff of the Daily Times staff
Thursday, March 20, 2008 1:56 PM CDT

BEAVER DAM - Hard rocker Ted Nugent will be making his third appearance at the Dodge County Fairgrounds this summer.

He is set to perform one show at 8 p.m. Aug. 15 on the main grandstand of the fairgrounds east of Beaver Dam.

“I am looking forward to Ted coming to Dodge County,” Dodge County Fair Board secretary/treasurer Sharon Keil said this morning. The fair board confirmed his contract late last week. “He is an easy act to work with,” she added.

Nugent appeared on the same stage in 1993 in his band Damn Yankees. He was back on the same stage 10 years ago in 1998.

“Ted Nugent was on stage the night we had the power outage,” Keil recalled. “He held the crowd quiet until we got things going. He told the people to hold on and the people held tight.

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“He did well for us and as far as attendance, we got good attendance out of him,” the secretary said.

The fair board decided to contract with Nugent due to his routing, Keil said. “We had a couple of other offers that did not work out,” she said. “We were looking for someone who would be in the area and that travel would work for them,” she added.

After his show in Dodge County, Nugent will continue on to Michigan.

Nugent is known as a guitar wildman along with his non-musical endeavors such as his conservative beliefs, pro-gun advocacy and appreciation of hunting animals.

Nugent formed his first band in the 1960s, drawing inspiration from such British blues-rockers as the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds.

While none of his releases in the 1970s stormed up the charts, he was known for his guitar duels on-stage.

In 1977, Nugent and his band was one of the top rock bands in the nation with the album Cat Scratch Fever which spawned the hit single title track.

At the end of the 1980s Nugent joined the rock group Damn Yankees and in 1992 had an album Don't Tread. Shortly after the bands appearance at the Dodge County Fair, the group split and Nugent returned to a solo career.

In addition to music, Nugent got involved in politics, has issued his own hunting camp and issues instructional videotapes. He owns a hunting supply store and has been appointed to the board of directors of the National Rifle Association. He writes columns regularly for several magazines and sells his own beef jerky. In 2001 he wrote his own autobiography, “God, Guns & Rock n' Roll.”

The other three evenings of entertainment include country/western music which were announced following the fair board's annual meeting in February.

Jason Aldean will kick off the fair's evening performances on Wednesday, Aug. 13, with Miranda Lambert on Thursday, Aug. 14 and Craig Morgan on Saturday, Aug. 16. Each will present one evening show in front of the grandstand.

The popular demolition derby will head Sunday's afternoon and evening entertainment, with horse, tractor and four-wheelers truck pulls also slated during the fair's five-day run.