Ted Nugent concert canceled in Alabama rescheduled in Mississippi: ‘You can’t cancel me’

Remember the Ted Nugent concert that was canceled at Avondale Brewing Co. in Birmingham? It’s been rescheduled at a venue in Brandon, Mississippi.

Nugent, 74, a hard rock veteran and political provocateur, is set to play Tuesday, July 18, at City Hall Live, 1000 Municipal Drive in Brandon. The 2,000-capacity venue is a “newly converted auditorium space within the Brandon Municipal Complex,” according to its website.

Tickets for Nugent’s 7:30 p.m. show are on sale via Ticketmaster, priced at $23-$47.50 for standard seats, $100-$182.50 VIP. VIP tickets appear to be in the first five rows of the venue, according to the Ticketmaster listing.

“You see that smile on my face? You can’t cancel me,” Nugent said in a “Nightly Nuge” video posted May 12 on social media. The rocker addressed the backlash in Birmingham in a 10:37 video on YouTube, calling the folks who opposed him a “lunatic fringe.”

(You can watch a slightly shorter version of Nugent’s video in the Instagram post below.)

Nugent is the only act booked at City Hall Live right now, but previous dates have included an appearance by Brian Kilmeade of “Fox & Friends,” an ABBA tribute concert, children’s touring shows such as “Peppa Pig’s Adventure” and concerts by Aaron Lewis and Brit Floyd.

Nugent was set to play on July 18 at Avondale Brewing, as part of a farewell trek called “Adios MOFO ‘23: The Final Tour.” But the Birmingham venue decided to nix Nugent’s show before tickets went on sale, prompted by a strong backlash on social media.

Detractors cited their opposition to Nugent’s far right-wing political views — which the rocker himself has proudly called “radical” — and said they wouldn’t support Avondale Brewing Co. in the future if Nugent performed there. They slammed the rocker as homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic, an intolerant hate-monger and more.

About 1,000 comments were posted on Avondale Brewing’s Facebook page, a few days after the show was announced by promoter Red Mountain Entertainment, and most of them were bluntly negative. More than 150 comments on the venue’s Instagram page followed suit. A Reddit post denouncing the show inspired more than 200 comments, as well.

Avondale Brewing cited the backlash as the reason for the cancellation, via a post on Instagram Stories. The post said: “We have heard the concerns of the Avondale community, which is so important to us, and in conjunction with our partners, have taken the necessary steps to to cancel the Ted Nugent concert scheduled for July 18.”

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Nugent responded to the cancellation that week on his social media accounts, calling his detractors “liars & haters drunk on stupid incapable to debate me.” Nugent’s supporters then launched a social media wave of their own, posting hundreds of comments on the rocker’s Facebook page and Twitter feed, praising him and bashing Avondale Brewing.

Nugent had mentioned the Mississippi date on Facebook, shortly after the Birmingham show was canceled. However, it took about two weeks for the venue to confirm the show online, and for tickets to go on sale via Ticketmaster. As of Monday afternoon, seats remained available for about half of the house at City Hall Live, mostly at the back and sides of the venue.

In his May 12 video about the controversy, Nugent called the folks who opposed the Birmingham show “just the lunatic fringe, some serpents, you know, they slithered out from underneath the rock, I think six or seven of them.” He also refuted the comments detractors had made, saying they were “100 percent false.”

The July 18 concert in Birmingham was the only Alabama date announced for Nugent’s farewell tour. In a video announcing the tour, Nugent proclaimed himself a “political firestorm” and added that “my music is radical; my attitude is radical, my middle finger is radical; my guitar tone is radical.”

MORE: Ted Nugent responds to cancellation of Alabama show: ‘liars & haters drunk on stupid’

Nugent, a longtime outdoorsman, is an outspoken advocate for hunting and gun ownership rights. He’s also known as a staunch conservative and supporter of former President Donald Trump — one of the few music celebrities to openly support Trump during his campaign and afterward.

Nugent has expressed strong views about issues ranging from the Black Lives Matter movement to gender-affirming care to the coronavirus pandemic. After dismissing the virus and declining to take the vaccine, the rocker said he tested positive for COVID in 2021. (“I thought I was dying,” Nugent said.)

Nugent is vehemently opposed to President Joe Biden and his administration, calling the president a “soulless zombie” and comparing him to Adolf Hitler. He shares his views with about 3.7 million followers on Facebook, 660,000 followers on Twitter and 474,000 followers on Instagram. Nugent also has a YouTube channel with about 40,000 subscribers.

The guitarist and singer — a Michigan native also known as “Uncle Ted,” “The Nuge” and “the Motor City Madman” — is no stranger to Alabama, and has performed here several times over the years.

Nugent performed at Birmingham’s Iron City in 2017, for example, and has appeared at venues such as Oak Mountain Amphitheatre in Pelham. During his ‘70s heyday, Nugent headlined at least three times at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, according to data provided by the venue. Most recently, he performed in August 2022 at Mars Music Hall in Huntsville.

Previous shows in in the state haven’t inspired passionate dissent on social media, but this time evidently was different.