Theodore Anthony Nugent (/tɛd ˈnuːdʒɪnt/; born December 13, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, musician and activist. Nugent initially gained fame as the lead guitarist of the Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock and hard rock. After playing with the Amboy Dukes, he embarked on a solo career.
Nugent is also noted for conservative political views, his lifelong stance against drug and alcohol abuse and advocacy of hunting and gun ownership rights. He is a board member of the National Rifle Association and a strong supporter of the Republican Party.
Nugent was born the third of four siblings in Redford, Michigan, and raised in metropolitan Detroit, Michigan, the son of Marion Dorothy (née Johnson) and Warren Henry Nugent. His maternal grandparents were Swedish. He moved to Palatine, Illinois as a teenager, and has two brothers: John and Jeffrey, and a sister, Kathy. He attended William Fremd High School in Palatine, Illinois, then transferred after his freshman year to St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois.