ROANOKE, Va. – After we reported Tuesday night that Ted Nugent's management made the decision to not allow guns into his show in Roanoke, the rocker blasted 10 News on his Facebook page.
Dear God in heaven & damn the fakenews lying bastards! I gave the direct order tonight that guns were absolutely welcome...
Posted by Ted Nugent on Tuesday, July 17, 2018
In light of Mr. Nugent's comments, we stand by our reporting of the facts.
To provide more transparency in this situation, we wanted to give people the opportunity to see the entire interview with Berglund Center General Manager Robyn Schon, who was quoted in Tuesday's story.
Below is the transcript of that interview:
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “You’ve got a concert here tonight, a lot of great people coming out. Originally you were going to request that people don’t conceal carry or open carry and ask people to take it back to their car, but you could not stop them from doing that. Why the change of heart all of a sudden?
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “Well we have to take direction from the show and because we are a public building we can not deny someone their rights to carry a firearm in the commonwealth. However when it comes as a directive from the people who are leasing the facility we’re within the rights of the constitution to deny them access. It didn’t come down to something so serious as we had any concerns because most everybody knows people here have a great respect for their firearms, however in the interest in public safety and to make sure people have a really great time we just remove means and opportunity and that’s really it at the end of the day. Ted probably felt more comfortable if his audience did not have firearms in there. He’s just trying to put on a good show and entertain people.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “And was this a decision that literally came down in the last thirty minutes, or when did it happen?”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “It happened about five minutes before we opened doors clearly because we had a security meeting before we opened doors and the subject came up and we said yes people will be bringing firearms in, uh no, our our agreement says no. It’s a sub agreement between the promoter and the agent which represents Ted Nugent. We were not privy to that information until right before doors. Everybody has played nice, we’ve been down the rows of people prior to everyone getting to the door so that we don’t inconvenience them and just ask them politely if they had a gun just to take it back to their vehicles. We had two people that had firearms and were compliant, happy to do it and everybody else is just waiting to get in and get the show started.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “So it was Ted’s promotion, the promo folks, that was the sub contract between Ted’s camp and his promotion folks?”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “Our contract is with the promoter out of Nashville, the promoter out of Nashville has an agreement with the artist and so the artist agreement is where the information is regarding his preferences. We get the rider the one that says no green m&m’s kind of thing, they had a rider that had a different little bit of language in it that was overlooked because it’s kind of boilerplate, status quo, it is the same for every show that we’ve ever had. But given the little bit of controversy surrounding this one I’m sure somebody took a little bit of a deeper look.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “So I just want to make sure I’m understanding, so it came from the promotion folks not from Ted’s camp itself. Promotions folks or Ted’s folks?
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “Ted’s folks.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “So it was a rider between Ted’s folks...”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “Yes, it’s artist management as to why…”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “I want to make sure if I say Ted Nugent’s management decided that this was not going to be a thing I want to make sure that I wasn’t incorrect because it was actually Ted Nugent’s hired promoter that decided what it was, it’s Ted Nugent’s management.”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “Right I can assure you he has not had a change of heart in his thoughts and his feelings about firearms, he has had some concern given the things that have happened in nightclubs like the Pulse and in Manchester, his security people are taking extra precautions, they are not novices they are very seasoned people and we like to take direction from them because of their experience in the business. They’re out there with these artists all the time and they know it better than we do.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “So is Ted, you say he, is he directly involved in this?”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “No, it’s his managers. Ted’s people. Ted’s got people.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “And you requested the extra police presence just as precautionary measures.”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “We just want to make sure everyone gets in and gets out safely but more than that we obviously want them to enjoy the show and we appreciate them choosing to spend their money at Berglund Center. This is what keeps us busy when we present an opportunity for people to have a diverse line up of events from which to choose, we have a lot of competition out there with people and other business where they can spend that money, we want them to spend that money with us and I think we owe it to our customers to ensure that they have a safe and secure environment when they spend their money with us.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “Is there anything else you want to tell me?
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “Tickets are still available up until 9 p.m. tonight.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “What capacity are we at right now?”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “We’re a little over half full.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “And how many seats are total?”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “About 2,000 for this show.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “So we’re about over a thousand?”
Robyn Schon/Berglund Center General Manager: “Yeah, about a thousand.”
Shayne Dwyer/WSLS 10 Reporter: “Cool. Thank you very much.”