Have I mentioned recently how the ultimate compliment that you can possibly bestow upon someone is that they are down-to-earth?
Well in case I haven’t, it is.
The terms grounded and down-to-earth ultimately define a person’s reliability, honesty, trustworthiness, conscientiousness and overall integrity.
Since the modernization tsunami of the industrial revolution, as societies migrated en masse from rural lifestyles to metropolitan existence, the colloquialism is oftentimes used figuratively, but in its purest form, the phrase remains pragmatic and fully literal.
One can certainly be a certified lifetime city dweller and still be admired for being down-to-earth, but in my 70 years of life, liberty and intense global pursuit of gonzo happiness with one foot in the city and the other dancing the tooth, fang and claw nature boogie dance in the wilds beyond the pavement, the most down-to-earth individuals I have ever encountered literally had dirty hands and earthly remnants under their fingernails.
Farmers, ranchers, hunters, fishers, trappers, men and women of the earth. Solid.
I always said that if Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix would have been dedicated bowhunters, they and all of their dead, drunk, stoned peers would still be alive today.
Stealth and predator awareness are not available to comfortably numb guys.
Blood and guts and the reward of sacred flesh are the result of the purest ballet available in God’s miraculous creation, and hunters from time immemorial have been forced to either pay attention and kill dinner or perish.
Being down-to-earth was literally a do-or-die reality for our ancestors.
As spring burns into the summer months, the rituals of earthly contact are alive and well, even for a backstrap-addicted guitar player preparing for the most ferocious musical havoc of my life.
Arrowing my spring gobbler, whacking Texas hogs, yanking seafood from my favorite pond and preparing for a killer Ontario bear hunt are more than enough to remain one with the good Mother Earth, but putting more back in than we take out has always been the driving force for us real conservationist environmentalists, and firing up the food plot tractor party is my kind of party.
I remember back in the 1960s when there was no such phrase as “food plot.”
Nonetheless, my heart inspired my natural instinct to live out the full cycle of nature, all four seasons, and I started raking clearings in the north woods in the late spring and early fall, scattering 19-19-19 fertilizer and handfuls of wheat, oat and rye seed heather and yon.
As the little plots developed, I was rewarded with glowing green emerald islands in the big timber, and the wildlife went nuts for it — ate it up.
Farmer Nuge was born!
So, to keep my guitar playing fired up and down-to-earth, between tour rehearsals I tractor around my properties planting a variety of proven food plot seeds. There is no question that this widespread national craze has really benefited the health and overall condition of our deer herds and other wildlife that utilize our gifts of nourishment and fortification.
I love the stimulating aroma of freshly turned earth, and often make it a point to get down on my knees and grab a handful of that life-giving soil and give it a hearty snort.
I salute the farmers, ranchers, private-property owners and the growing army of hunting families that invest so much sweat equity and incredible financial resources to the food plot orgy raging across America.
On behalf of the healthiest deer population on planet earth, I thank you. You are truly down-to-earth.
Multi-platinum guitar legend TED NUGENT has a new full-length album THE MUSIC MADE ME DO IT, released on Friday, November 9, on Round Hill Records. The album is available now for order everywhere, and the title track “The Music Made Me Do It” is available to download and stream wherever music is sold.
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With more than 40 million albums sold, rock legend Ted Nugent is equally well known as the nation’s most outspoken proponent of our 1st and 2nd Amendment rights, conducting thousands of pro-gun, pro-freedom, pro-American interviews in major media worldwide. Nugent is a New York Times best-selling author whose works include Ted, White & Blue —The Nugent Manifesto; God, Guns & Rock ‘n’ Roll and Kill It & Grill It.This year, his award-winning Ted Nugent Spirit of the Wild TV show celebrates its 500th episode! For all things Nuge, visit www.tednugent.com
