Pearl Jam cover Ted Nugent's Stranglehold but give the lyrics an anti-gun update. Ted Nugent, as you might imagine, is not happy about it

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Left-leaning Pearl Jam won't be surprised that right winger Ted Nugent doesn't love their take on his song

Lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam performs live on stage
(Image credit: Photo by Jim Bennett/Getty Images)

Pearl Jam performed a cover version of Ted Nugent's classic track Stranglehold but gave it an anti-gun theme by changing the lyrics.

During their show at the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 12, the band launched into Nugent's song with frontman Eddie Vedder updating the lyrics to: "I don’t own a gun, I don’t ever want to own a gun, I don’t own a gun, never want to own a gun."

After Vedder briefly addressed the crowd, Pearl Jam played their own classic song Even Flow. Fan-filmed footage can be viewed below.

The grunge heroes have been outspoken on their left-leaning poltical views throughout their career, while Nugent is an unapologetic conservative with strong views on gun ownership and other matters traditionally championed by the right and far right.

Not surprisingly, the Donald Trump-supporting Nugent did not take Pearl Jam's version of his song very well. He has accused Pearl Jam of having "insane liberal policies" and invited Vedder to join him on his RAV (Real America's Voice) right-wing talk show for a showdown.

Nugent says on X: "Hey Eddie, join me on my RAV Spirit Campfire to discuss how your insane liberal policies have created an explosion in engineered violent recidivism while you fight to disarm helpless innocent citizens."

With tensions running high in the United States in the week of a Presidential Debate between Trump and his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris, Pearl Jam would have been fully aware that their stunt would get a rise out of Nugent.

The rocker has never been shy about airing his views and has often sparked ire from more liberally-minded artists.

But not all liberals dislike Nugent.

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello once described Nugent as his friend, despite the pair holding vastly different political views.

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Stef Lach

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.