In an interview with Eddie Trunk, the singer and guitarist Derek St. Holmes talked about being shot twice by Ted Nugent.
Read the interview below:
How many times have you been in and out of Nugent’s band?
“Oh, gosh… 50? It’s kind of like the Cosa Nostra. [Laughs]” It’s like ‘Godfather 3.’ ‘Once I think I’m out, they pull me back in.’ “I think I’m out and all of the sudden I get a call. But yeah, I’m probably the longest standing still alive.” [Laughs] He hasn’t shot you yet. “He had shot me twice. That’s whole another story.”
Have you been shot by Nugent?
“He shot me in the leg. We’re out shotgun hunting in winter and he shot me in the leg.
“And then we’re – in the ’80s – one of his… He’s shooting at a target and it ricochets back and hits me in the arm. And I was like, ‘Holy shit, this guy’s dangerous.’ But yeah, it’s pretty wild.”
So you’ve actually lived to tell about being in Nugent’s band twice.
“I’ve survived two shootings. It’s good. [Laughs]”
When you first met Nugent, how was that? When was that?
“That was… gosh… ’72, maybe? And we were just a young three-piece rock ‘n’ roll band out of Detroit.”
What was that band called?
“That was called Scott. We used to just play our own music. I didn’t play other people’s stuff, I just wrote my own songs.
“But his ex-tour manager said, ‘You guys should open up for some of Ted’s shows. There’s not gonna be any money in it, but I think it would be good exposure.’
“So we did. I opened up maybe three or four shows, and before you know it, Ted’s showing up at shows.”
Were you the singer in that band?
“I was singer/guitar player. It was basically a Cream kind of thing, a Jimi Hendrix kind of thing. Not as good as Jimi Hendrix, but you know what I mean.
“So he would see me play. And every time I look over, he’s on the side of the stage checking me out. And it took a long time, he wasn’t crazy about getting another guitar player I think. So it took a while. It took him until 1974.
“He said, ‘Hey, want to come out and rehearse a little bit? Want to see how it goes?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll drive up.’ So I drive up, I play with him for 20 minutes in the basement of this farmhouse on 100 acres in the middle of nowhere.
“And after 20 minutes, he stops playing, everybody stops, he looks at me and goes, ‘How many Marshalls do you want?’ And I thought, ‘Does that mean I’m hired?’. I said, ‘I’ll take two.’ That was it.
“Then he said, ‘We’re gonna go out on tour next week, just do a couple of shows. Do you wanna go?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll go.’ So I went and we didn’t come home for like three or four weeks. He lied to me. [Laughs]
“We went out and we rocked it. And we never stopped playing. We probably used to do 330 shows per year.”
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