Ted Nugent remains one of the most complicated, polarizing figures in rock. He apologized for calling President Barack Obama a "subhuman mongrel," even while denying that the term was racist. Nugent now says that he will "stop calling people names," but he's still characterizing the president as a "liar."

Nugent, appearing on CNN's "OutFront" with Erin Burnett, said: "Instead of using terms like 'subhuman mongrel,' I'm going to get right to the meat of the matter where our president is a liar. He lies about you can keep your doctor period. Over and over again he lies about Benghazi. He's lying about the IRS. So I won't call him names anymore. I'm going to get right down to the nitty gritty and identify the criminal behavior by the people abusing power in the United States government."

Last month, Nugent unleashed a torrent of criticism at Obama that only began with the "subhuman mongrel" tag. Nugent also dubbed Obama "communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured" and a "gangster."

That led to criticism from across the political spectrum, in particular after Nugent made subsequent campaign appearances on behalf of Texas gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott. At first, Nugent unleashed an epic 44-tweet rant in defense of his comments. But, Nuge being Nuge, he's now telling Burnett: "They think I'll be more effective if I back off that Detroit street fighter rock 'n' roll stage rhetoric. I'm here to tell you I'm going to do that."

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