Town Will Literally Pay Ted Nugent Thousands of Dollars Not to Perform

The city of Longview, Texas is going to pay idiot crazy person and “rocker” Ted Nugent $16,250 to not perform a concert.

According to the Longview Journal, the city wants to distance itself from Nugent following a string of really terrible things he said and during a round of ill-fated campaigning for gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott. In case you don’t remember or have chosen to block this particular grossness from your brain, Nugent called President Barack Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” Before you roll your eyes and call us over-sensitive, even Texas Governor Rick-Freaking-Perry and Ted “The moon might be as intimidating as Obamacare” Cruz denounced Nugent’s bullshit as way over the line.

Before all of that, Nugent was being considered as the headliner for the city’s Fourth of July celebration. Had he continued to stay on the bill, the event would have become the Worst Fucking Fourth of July Concert Event EVER. It’s a shame city residents will have to miss out on being part of that.

The city [ended] contract negotiations with rocker Ted Nugent, who was under consideration as the headliner for the city’s Fourth of July celebration. The payoff came as Nugent’s earlier incendiary comments and song lyrics became an issue during a campaign swing with Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott.

City spokesman Shawn Hara said the campaign-trail controversy was just one of several factors that led to the city pulling the plug. “(There were) a variety of reasons. Cost, structure, is it the right musical act for this type of event — a city-sponsored, family-oriented overall event,” Hara said. “They decided no, we don’t want to move forward, it is not the right act for this. At that point we decided to end discussions.”

[….]

Breaking the verbal agreement required paying Nugent half his guaranteed performance fee of about $32,000.

Of course some local Republicans have incredibly stupid things to say about the move.

“We have paid $16,000 to Ted Nugent for political correctness,” said Keith Rothra, outgoing chairman of the Gregg County Republican Party. If by “political correctness” you mean “sparing our good citizens the torture of listening to an idiot play terrible music and babble faux-patriotic bullshit,” then yes, that’s what happened.

By the way, Longview is a fucking awesome town in Texas. I almost lived there once, except the paper cited in this article did not hire me (or even respond to my pleas for a job). I am not bitter; they are lovely people. Also, there is a barbecue place in Longview that I swear might actually change your life.