Ted Nugent has gotten his fair share of criticism for political statements he has made, but this time he lost an appearance because of it.
The city of Longview, TX was planning on bringing Nugent in for a July 4 concert until he called President Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” The comment caused city leaders to decide they didn’t want Nugent to perform. Unfortunately, very bad timing cost the city of Longview $16,000.
The Longview News-Journal dug deep into the Nugent story and found that the decision to go after the singer for their festival started in January and by early-February they were in formal negotiations. The paper was able to obtain over 250 pages of e-mails over the situation and the way it played out looks like a matter of really bad timing.
E-mails show that at 3:27 PM on February 24, a confirmation letter was received by the city from the promoters that Nugent was officially booked. Simultaneously, discussions appear to have been occurring over Nugent’s political rhetoric with the result being an e-mail from Dixie Golden, the city’s Activity Complex Manager, time stamped at 3:48 PM, saying “As a result of the comments made by Ted Nugent last week, the City Manager’s office has instructed me to cancel the concert with Ted Nugent.”
Twenty-one minutes made the difference between dropping the negotiations and the city being on the hook for a $16,000 cancellation fee. In essence, even when Mr. Nugent loses, he wins.
It was almost a month before the news made it to the general public who packed the city council chambers on March 27 demanding answers including why the city was even considering Nugent for a family event like July 4. The News-Journal’s investigation found e-mails that showed that people within the city were award of Ted’s possible inappropriate nature and forged ahead anyway.
In the end, nobody was fired over the incident but there were reprimands and demotions within City Hall.
Listen to Ted Nugent radio at iHeartRadio
Read more at VVNMusic.com
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