Longview, Texas, officials have paid out $16,250 to rocker and conservative Ted Nugent to cancel his performance at the city's Fourth of July celebration.
The
News-Journal newspaper reported over the weekend the payoff came in the wake of the singer's slur about President Obama while campaigning for Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott.
But spokesman Shawn Hara said other factors also led to the city's decision to end contract talks with the rocker known as the Motor City Madman.
"[There were] a variety of reasons," Hara said. "Cost, structure, is it the right musical act for this type of event — a city-sponsored, family-oriented overall event. They decided no, we don't want to move forward, it is not the right act for this. At that point we decided to end discussions.”
The end didn't come easy.
"We had, basically, a dispute amongst ourselves, the promoter working with us, and a booking agency about where were we in all these discussions," Hara said. "Their basic claim was ... 'You can't just simply walk away.'"
Officials reached a deal to pay Nugent half his guaranteed performance fee of $32,000, the newspaper reported.
Keith Rothra, outgoing chairman of the Gregg County Republican Party, was miffed.
"We have paid $16,000 to Ted Nugent for political correctness,"he told the newspaper. "It's directly related to the state level stuff.”
Nugent made a vile reference to President Obama during a
January interview with Guns.com, calling him a "subhuman mongrel." Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Rick Perry, both potential candidates for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, disavowed the slur, but Abbott has declined to back away from his decision to campaign with the rocker, the newspaper reported.
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