I have had a long and enjoyable working relationship with the Bay Area band Night Ranger for some time now. They have hired me to work on several of their albums, and it has always been a great time. Jack Blades, the band's singer and bass player, has his hands in a bunch of things all the time, and due to my association with him with his main band, I have gotten to work on some of his other projects as well.

 

Jack was producing one of Ted Nugent's recent albums, and my good friend Chris Manning had been engineering it for several weeks. He had moved some projects back to accommodate this one, but it had gone over schedule and he needed to bail to get back to his already-delayed projects. I was called in to do a bunch of editing, cleanup tracks to prepare them to be mixed, record some harmony vocals, etc. I got a call from Jack saying I should come up to the ranch and meet Ted, before he left, so he could feel comfortable with me taking over the project….. that day. Needless to say, I was feeling a little…. intimidated… for the hour-long drive to Jack's place.

 

I get there and go into the main house, and there's Ted, sitting on a guest bed with a laptop. He had packed up and was heading out to the airport in two hours, so his guitar case full of CUSTOM MADE TED NUGENT ARROWS and a crossbow were sitting right there on the floor, in case he had to do some….. hunting?

 

Anyway, he comes off the bed and shakes my hand and says something about knowing that I am OK or whatever, we make some small talk, then he and Jack and I head to the barn where the studio is. I get a look at some of the tracks just to see what I am dealing with, Ted realizes he needs to lay down a quick little solo in one song- so he whips out his American Flag Les Paul, thank you very much- rips out a solo, then settles into the couch to shoot the shit with us for a bit.

 

Now, I had never met him before... but he was the topic of discussion a lot when I visit Sasha's uncle Al Schornberg, from Virginia. He used to work for Ted as a road manager or something similar when he was in the Amboy Dukes. These days, Al is a very successful entrepreneur with an award-winning wine business and a sweet-ass place on the Monticello Wine Trail near Charlottesville, but he is always saying how I have the best job in the world…. and I think he looks back on those days working with bands very fondly. So I mention his name to Ted and he says he definitely remembers Al and that he was a great guy…… and in the course of this little aside, Jack asks me how Sasha is doing- and Ted goes "wait, your wife's name is Sasha?? My daughter's name is Sasha!"

 

I reply that I knew this, because MY Sasha had a creepy male stalker following her around when she was a young teenager, and he gave her the Ted Nugent album with the song "Smile Sasha, Smile" on it, which Ted wrote for his baby when she was born…. and Jack goes "What song is this? I don't know about this song…."

 

Ted picks up an acoustic guitar and starts playing and singing this tender ballad (probably the only one like it in his entire repertoire)…… and next thing I know, he and Jack both have tears running down their faces……

 

…… then he put the guitar away and proceeded to be absolutely hilarious for another hour, a dude came to pick him up, and he was off. But not before he gave me a picture for MY Sasha, signed "Uncle Ted".

 

I can respect whatever anyone thinks of his opinions, music, practices, politics, etc….. but for me, all I know is…..those were two of the funniest and most surreal hours of my life. Thanks, Uncle Ted.