Was called be n word

Ted Nugent has recalled the «greatest compliment» he ever received in a new video posted to his Facebook page.

The story goes back to the very early days of his career, when Nugent and his band won a contest to open for the Supremes.

“I was a kid. Had no idea about the world of professionalism or music,» the rocker recalled. «But we were so dedicated to play like the Funk Brothers. Like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard. The authenticity of that black dynamic and emotion and defiance and celebration of ‘free, free at last.’”

The aforementioned Funk Brothers were a group of session musicians who played on many of the most famous Motown releases of the ’60s and ’70s. The band was on site the night Nugent opened for the Supremes and caught the future Motor City Madman during soundcheck.

“They’re watching us, kind of snickering. And the biggest, baddest, blackest Funk Brother of all stood up and started moseying over towards us,” Nugent remembered. “So we’re putting our guitars away, the Funk Brother, big ol’ black dude comes up, puts his hand on my shoulder and goes, ‘That was great stuff, boys. You keep playing guitar like that, you’re gonna be a n—— when you grow up.’”

Nugent called it “the greatest compliment in the world,” explaining that the term was meant in a positive way. “That word was perfect expression that we had soul. Perfect expression that a bunch of little white whipper-snappers at least put everything we had into being tight like the Funk Brothers, like James Brown.”

“To this day I use it as a badge of honor,” Nugent admitted, adding that he still uses the phrase before a performance. “Every night before we go on stage, we put our firsts together and push with everything we have… and we go ‘Nig-up! Nig-up! James Brown! Wilson Picket! Motown! Funk Brothers! Funk Brothers! Funk Brothers! And then we hit the stage, and there’s not a Caucasian to be found.”

Despite Nugent’s declared reverence for Black artists, the rocker has been accused of racism on several occasions. Venues cited a “history of racist and hate-filled remarks» upon canceling a handful of his concerts in 2014. More recently, the rocker claims to have lost a sponsor of his Spirit of the Wild television show due to past accusations of racism.

«Everybody who pays attention — not the ones who call me a racist, but the people who are actually honest and pay attention know that I have paid homage and reverence to the black heroes of music all my life, which means I’m the anti-racist,” Nugent insisted in the Facebook video. “So if you find somebody who calls Ted Nugent a racist, you are looking at a subhuman piece of shit who lives a lie.»

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The second time it happened to him, Head said, he was walking with a friend to get cookies Friday night when a red pickup truck slowed and young people screamed the n-word at him.

But Head is now the president of the students’ association at the University of Missouri.

So he knew what to do: Tell people.

They listened.

His social-media post had been shared well over 1,000 times within a few days, the Columbia Missourian newspaper spread it as well, and the responses were more than he could keep up with.

Many people thanked him for speaking out, with comments like, “Preach, baby, preach!”

Some debated it, too, saying there is reverse racism, excessive attention to perceived slights and so much policing of language that freedom of speech on campus is threatened. When the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote about it, some readers were dismissive, pointing out all the resources directed at black students and other minority groups on campus to support them, and saying things like, “Whiners.”

Head heard from university officials supporting him, he said, from professors who used his words to spark conversations in class, and, to his surprise, from well-known actor and activist Harry Belafonte.

University officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the campus police said that the incident was reported to have happened near campus, not on it. The Columbia Police Department does not have a report of that nature by Head, according to a spokesperson there.

Head thinks his account resonated so widely because “this story is not just something that happens here. It’s not a Mizzou issue. It’s a societal issue. And very few people are privileged to have the voice to speak up that people will listen to.”

People were startled that it happened to him — a well-known and popular student leader — and that he didn’t ignore it this time.

“This happened to me, but it happens all the time, not only here, but everywhere,” Head said.

There was more tension on campus in the past year, he said, since the police shooting at Ferguson, a couple of hours away, incited debate over race nationally. But he didn’t write just about race. He wrote about all sorts of discrimination he sees, diving into some of the most highly charged and controversial topics out there, such as campus sexual assault and gender identity.

There was record high turnout when he was elected president of the Missouri Students Association, he said, on a platform that called on “Mizzou to embrace students who are different. I think it was because the student body recognized that change needs to happen.”

One phrase in particular from his post kept getting echoed.

After he described hearing the racial slur screamed at him, he wrote, “I really just want to know why my simple existence is such a threat to society.”

He wrote that he had experienced moments like that multiple times at Mizzou, and went on to challenge those who had not:

He called on people to change the culture, suggested student groups and other ways to get involved — and ended with the n-word again. (He threw in another insult that has been thrown at him, too, for being gay.)

(This post has been updated to more accurately describe the Columbia Missourian, which is a local newspaper that is staffed by student reporters and professional editors; it is not the student newspaper for campus.)