Perry to Nugent: Rock on!

Remember last week, when rocker Ted Nugent made headlines by performing at Gov. Rick Perry's inaugural ball wearing a Confederate flag T-shirt and brandishing fake machine guns? Yeah, it still puts a smile on our faces, too. Anyway, we halfway expected some half-apologetic statement from Austin about the performance, but no — Perry loved the show, and so did the Nuge.

The Chronicle caught up with Nugent by phone yesterday and asked him about the performance; Nugent said Perry came up to him backstage after the show and complimented him on "the greatest rock and roll." Over the weekend, Nugent said Perry called him and encouraged him to "give 'em hell," the Chron reports — but there's a more detailed, and more blunt, account of the conversation courtesy of a classic interview Nugent gave the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

In an extended interview with the Star-Telegram, Nugent said Perry called him over the weekend to express his support for the guitarist and the Confederate symbol that was emblazoned on his T-shirt at the Jan. 16 event.

"(Perry) called me to tell me, when they attack me for wearing the rebel flag, 'be sure you tell them that I, as governor, support the waving of the rebel flag at the Laredo airport, alongside with the American, Texas and Mexican flags, and tell them to drop dead.'"

Robert Black, a spokesman for Perry, said the governor did indeed tell Nugent he could wear whatever he wanted, just as the Laredo airport could fly whatever flag it wanted (for the record, a Laredo city official couldn't verify whether there is a Confederate flag flying at the airport, according to the Star-Telegram). But Black said Perry didn't give Nugent the green light to tell detractors to drop dead, and he explained that Perry probably wouldn't choose to sport the Confederate flag himself. "You're not going to see Rick Perry on the jogging trail in a Confederate T-shirt," Black said. "He would consider that in poor taste."

As far as early reports that Nugent shouted remarks disparaging non-English speakers during the show, Nugent denies having done that. He said he has a clear audio recording proving that no such remarks were made and added that he took himself down a couple of notches for the show: "The good governor nor his staff never suggested one control factor. ... I censored myself at the inaugural bash because, indeed, it was an inaugural bash," he said.

The hard-rockin' Nugent and the magnificently coiffed Perry met when Nugent had brunch at the Governor's Mansion a few years ago, and they've been friends ever since. "He loved that during all my interviews, that I celebrate the importance of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, and yet I still play flame-throwing rock 'n' roll of total uninhibited defiance," Nugent explained. "He likes all that shit."

Update: Jay Root of the Star-Telegram, who interviewed the Nuge, shared a couple of audio clips from the interview with us — listen here and here.