Ted Nugent Addresses His Controversial Comments About Taylor Hawkins’ Death

During the recent episode of The Nightly Nuge, Ted Nugent talked about Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins‘ tragic passing once again. The rocker stated that his comments could not be labeled as hate speech since he was trying to be empathetic.

The rock scene was devastated by the news of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins’ tragic death on March 25, 2022, during the band’s tour in Bogotá, Colombia. It has been almost two weeks since his passing, but the cause of death hasn’t been revealed yet. Considering the toxicology report, the investigators suspect that drugs might have played a role in his death, but there is still no clear information.

Following his unexpected passing, many musicians paid tribute to Hawkins with emotional statements. During a live stream on YouTube, Ted Nugent also said that he loves Hawkins’ wife and daughter more than the late drummer did. He assumed that his substance abuse caused Hawkins’ death, although it is not certain yet. Thus, for Nugent, he could have survived if he had never used drugs.

Ted Nugent faced a serious backlash after his statements on Hawkins. His words were even regarded as hate speech by some. He addressed these criticisms and stressed that he felt highly emotional over his passing, so he wanted to show love and empathy for his fans and those around him. For Nugent, it was a love speech rather than a hate speech. His comments were sincere and honest, so they had nothing to do with speaking ill of a late musician.

Ted Nugent’s words on his controversial comments about Taylor Hawkins’ death:

“When the great drummer, and I understand he was a great, fun guy and a loving husband and a loving father, Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters, died, we did a tribute to him here on The Nightly Nuge. I played a very emotional love song that had come out of me for my brother John when I lost him, showing great compassion, showing great empathy for the band, for his family, for his fans, showing nothing but love but identifying the intentional abuse of substances as being selfish.

Well, the tsunami of attacks against me for being compassionate and empathetic and supportive and identifying a booger in someone’s nose was labeled as ‘hate speech.’ It’s unbelievable. If that speech wasn’t a love speech, I don’t know what would be a love speech.” But love speech sincerely and genuinely critiquing or even identifying something you disagree with or that is glaringly dangerous and irresponsible as hate speech, that’s a manifestation of total cultural abandonment of the goodwill and decency and genuine support for your fellow man that you and I were raised in.

So everybody out there, speak your mind, be a critical thinker, articulate yourself honestly, and if they call it ‘hate speech,’ they’re the haters. Those who accuse us of hate speech are the real haters. I couldn’t be more confident of that.”

You can watch his statements on The Nightly Nuge below.