Iowa deer hunters will hear words of inspiration from a legendary rock guitarist and bow-hunting enthusiast at a weekend convention in Des Moines.

Ted Nugent says more young people need to take up the discipline of archery and hunting. “It really will turn into a positive peer pressure to turn down the drugs and the alcohol, the tobacco, the fast food, the gangs, the crime that is really plaguing the youngsters of America.”

Nugent, who’s sold more than 30-million albums, says he abstains from tobacco, alcohol and all other drugs and contrasts himself with another rock star. “Ozzy (Osbourne) got high and Ozzy’s brain is dead. I went huntin’ and I’m still Ted. The choice is so simple, it’s stupid.”

The fifty-four-year-old Nugent favors opening states like Iowa to more young hunters, more women hunters and more out-of-state hunters, especially with the bounding numbers of deer. He says non-residents will bring a lot of money into Iowa while reducing the deer herd. He says if a guitar player can figure it out, then anyone else should be able to.

Nugent fondly recalls deer hunting in Iowa with then-Governor Branstad and says he’s considering a run himself for Governor of Michigan. Nugent says fast food is evil while venison is the best food on earth.

He says “The pandemic of obesity and the outrageous unacceptable disease rate and health-related problems due to just foolish diets in America is really an indictment to the soullessness of a gluttonous lifestyle we’ve got to remedy in this country.”