Alaska

Alaska

One of my best Nuge encounters took place in 2015. It started when I was transferring some ancient 4 track recordings I had made in my early days to digital. I stumbled on an old 4 track recording I had put together regarding a song called Alaska. Alaska was a song Ted Nugent wrote many years ago and never released. Remember, this was the early 80s, no internet. I had obtained a recording of Ted playing the song Alaska on an acoustic guitar on a radio interview sometime around 1981-82 I’d say.

Ted’s version contained an acoustic intro, verse, chorus and another intro verse, chorus and that was the extent of the song. Desperate for new Nuge material as I likely was, I had decided to complete this song on my own, hence the 4 track recording I stumbled upon.

Squeamishly, I listened to this old recording and ended up thinking, geez, that ain’t so bad! I thought what the hell, I’ll just forward it to TedQuarters and see what happens. Later that day I’m out on a job site and my cell phone rings “Private” is on the screen. It’s not the IRS because they will never call so this time “I got the feelin’” Juices once again surging and SureasShit if it ain’t The Nuge himself! Steve? This is Ted Nugent! He always has a killer opening line but I’m lucky I can remember as much as I do. I’m floating in a higher place when Ted calls.

Ted said “I just wanna congratulate you on that recording of Alaska”! “Where in the hell did you EVER get a hold of that song?” He told me I nailed the feeling of the song as he had originally intended. He went on to say he had only played that song once, live with Carmine Appice on the drums and it was never recorded. I said ah, but once it was. I reminded him of that interview in the 1980s.

This particular encounter in many ways, at least to date, maybe of all time, was perhaps the most special of all. I have to remind myself from time to time that this was the only encounter that was about something I had done. It doesn’t get any better than kudos from Ted Nugent for my musical effort.