News Segment

TED NUGENT CONCERT LAWSUIT TO GO TO TRIAL:

January 27, 2005

MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) – A lawsuit filed by rocker Ted Nugent against a summer festival that canceled a concert after he allegedly made racial comments on a Denver radio show will be allowed to go to trial.

Muskegon County Circuit Judge Timothy G. Hicks refused this week to toss out Nugent’s breach-of-contract claim against the Muskegon Summer Celebration.

The festival canceled Nugent’s June 2003 concert, worth $80,000 to the aging rocker, after he allegedly used slurs when referring to blacks and Asians. Nugent has vigorously denied making such remarks.

Nugent’s lawsuit, originally filed in federal court, claimed accusations made by festival officials and others, along with the concert’s cancellation, damaged Nugent’s reputation and career.

In September, Hicks ruled that festival officials did not defame Nugent’s character in the remarks they made and dismissed the musician’s defamation-of-character claim. The judge removed the festival’s officials from the suit last month.

Courtesy of www.ap.org