Jury Awards Nuge $100K

A Michigan jury ruled that a music festival must pay $100,000 in damages to Ted Nugent.

The guitarist-singer, who had a 1977 hit, “Cat Scratch Fever,” had sued the Muskegon Summer Celebration over the cancellation of his June 2003 concert.

Nugent said a festival news release at the time of the cancellation wrongly accused him of making racist remarks.

On Thursday, the jury found that festival organizers breached their contract with Nugent and awarded him $80,000 in damages, as well as another $20,000 for lost proceeds from the sale of merchandise.

Nugent’s concert was canceled after he used a slur offensive to blacks during a live interview on a Denver radio station in May 2003.

During the trial, Nugent testified that he had used the word while quoting a black Motown musician’s compliment to then-teen Nugent in reference to his guitar skills.

Nugent, a 56-year-old Detroit native, now lives in Crawford, Texas.

–Associated Press