Ted Nugent Forced Out Of August KISS Show In Houston
Ted Nugent , who is currently opening for KISS during the band’s farewell tour, will not perform at the tour’s Aug. 22 stop at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston. Venue officials had vowed to ban Nugent earlier this year after making controversial statements about Latino immigrants during a performance there, but later presented Nugent with rules he would have to follow in order to be allowed to perform at the upcoming show.
“We had expressed our position and what we would require,” said David Gottlieb, president and CEO of the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. “The matter has been discussed with Nugent’s management [by concert promoter SFX,] and he will not be appearing.”
Gottlieb would not provide any details about the stipulations the venue had asked Nugent to agree to.
In April, witnesses--including Gottlieb--said that Nugent launched into a profanity-laced diatribe about Latino Immigrants during his opening performance for KISS at the same venue.
"If you're not gonna speak English, get the f*** out of America," he reportedly told the crowd. He allegedly made similar comments during the tour’s previous stop in San Antonio, Texas.
Those comments drew the attention of the local League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which has reportedly worked with the group's national leaders to organize a boycott of Nugent's concerts and albums.
Monday's (7/17) announcement that Nugent had been dropped from the Aug. 22 bill came in sharp contrast to comments the rocker made in a July 16 Houston Chronicle article.
"I'm on the show. Period," Nugent told the newspaper via e-mail last week. "The crybabies lose. I win. Kapeesh [sic]?"
Throughout his career, Nugent has prided himself on being an outspoken conservative. The 51-year-old, long-haired guitarist and avid hunter is the founder of Ted Nugent United Sportsmen of America (TNUSA), and is a staunch supporter of gun-owners’ rights.
Nugent is currently touring with KISS in Canada, a country he reportedly said in 1999 that he would lead a U.S. boycott against in response to a bear-hunting ban enacted in Ontario.
"I am going to shut off the flow of American dollars into Canada, not just for bear hunting, for anything--and I can do it!" Nugent reportedly told the Edmonton Sun newspaper at the time.
He has since changed his tune. “I love Canada,” he recently told the newspaper while explaining his return to the country as part of the KISS tour.
KISS’ farewell tour is currently scheduled to run until Sept. 16, with both Nugent and Skid Row as opening acts.
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