Ted Nugent says Taylor Swift’s music is “all poppy nonsense” with “no fire” and “no sensuality”

Ted Nugent has hit out at Taylor Swift, dismissing her music as “all poppy nonsense” with “no fire” and “no sensuality”.

• READ MORE: ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ concert film review: this is cinema (Taylor’s version)

Nugent, who has been a musician since the 1970s and later became a right-wing commentator, was asked his opinions on modern music during an appearance on the The Joe Pags Show and his thoughts on Swift were particularly unsparing.

“So I’m afraid to say in this world that’s gone down the toilet in all aspects, I’m afraid the success of Taylor Swift, and God bless her work ethic, God bless her musical dreams, but that’s cartoon music,” Nugent said [via Blabbermouth]. “I mean, it doesn’t have any piss and vinegar. There’s no fire, there’s no sensuality in that. It’s all poppy nonsense as far as I’m concerned, and it’s the most popular stuff in the world, which is an indictment to the music industry and music fans.

“They’re not looking for that fire from a ZZ Top or from a Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels or from a Brownsville Station or an Amboy Dukes [Nugent’s own band from the ’60s]. And I miss that. Thank God I’m still around. We still deliver the fire that The Beatles did [at clubs] in Germany.”

In June, Nugent had also voiced his displeasure for Swift’s music – also labelling it ‘cartoon music’ – on an episode of The Nightly Nuge.

He said: “It sounds like if I bumped into a child’s cartoon show on a Saturday morning, I would probably hear the No. 1 country song or I would hear the No. 1 pop song, because it’s all formulated to give a certain vocal delivery and a certain chord change and a certain tempo that they examine so closely that it’s not organic and instinctive and sexy and unleashed and genuine and believable.”

Nugent has also made headlines for his bizarre calling of Bruce Springsteen for “supporting communists”, his labelling of  Neil Young as a “stoner birdbrain punk” for his dispute with Spotify and said Billie Joe Armstrong had “lost his soul” after the Green Day frontman claimed that he would be “renouncing” his US citizenship over the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade.

In an interview with NME last year, Joan Jett hit out at Nugent after he slammed a Rolling Stone countdown of the “100 Greatest Guitarists”, insisting that Joan Jett didn’t deserve to be on the list.

“Neither should he,” she said. “Is that his implication,” she asked, “that he should be on the list instead of me? Well, that’s just typical – it’s what I’ve dealt with my whole life, being written off. Ted Nugent has to live with being Ted Nugent. He has to be in that body, so that’s punishment enough.”

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ has become the first tour to gross $1billion (£796million), and is set to head over to the UK and Europe next year.

It was also made into a concert film, which has become the highest-grossing concert movie ever, earning $249million at the worldwide box office. It also landed a nomination at the 2024 Golden Globes for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement.