He roared into Harris Park last night with his guitar ablazing like the guns he loves and his mouth spewing non-stop music and talk of hunting with his Canadian buddies.

Motorcity Madman Ted Nugent made his second appearance in a year at Rock the Park, the fifth multi-day music mania fundraiser, and the fans still couldn't get enough of him.

"You think you're ready for Uncle Ted don't ya," he said as he opened the show before 8,000.

But can anybody truly be ready for a Nugent concert?

Energized from a two-week tour of Europe -- with stops in London, England, Sweden, Germany, Spain and Holland, Nugent played his guitar with verve.

It would have been better, though, to hear his guitar licks, at a reduced volume, as the nuances aren't appreciated as much in the blaring blast of sound.

But that sound reaches his fans on a primal level where mind and soul meet.

For those of us looking in from the outside, we wonder at the connection this crazed aging rocker at 59 is able to make with the fans.

He recently wrote on his website about his concert in Zaragoza, Spain when he performed hit song Wango Tango: " . . . We had the crowd dancing like they were born again -- arms up and fists clenched, grinding to the Motown pummel. I could not have been happier."

He appeared happy last night. "Thank you for inviting us back up here. The sky is good, the air is good. It's Canada."

Not long after, the skies opened and it poured.

"A little bit of rain never hurt anyone. It just means you need more ammo for the ducks," he said.

Performing into his fifth decade, The Nuge saved his 6,000 concert for July 4 in his hometown Detroit as part of his Rolling Thunder tour.

His London stop during this Summer of Ted is his 6,012th.

But those 6,000-plus concerts are catching up to his voice. Too many Cat Scratch Fevers have left a scratchy voice and he relied on bass player Greg Smith to help with the vocals as he belted through Wang Dang, Dog Eat Dog and Fred Bear.

Nugent is proving to be a multi-media star as he prepares to enter his 60s, though, turning to acting and writing.

There's his movie, with Toby Keith and Willie Nelson called Beer for My Horses, set for release; his book, Ted, White and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto about how to fix America; his DVD and CD called Sweden Rocks, about the 2006 Sweden Rock Festival where he performed.

So if you missed Uncle Ted last night, you'll still be able to catch him somewhere.

Great White, an L.A. rock band, opened for Nugent with a solid set that included Once Bitten, Twice Shy, which earned them a Grammy nomination in 1989.

Unfortunately, Great White is best known as the band performing when a tragic fire killed 100 people and injured 200 more in West Warwick, Rhode Island in 2003.

The band's lead guitarist, Ty Longley, perished in the fire, as did the show's emcee, DJ Mike Gonsalves.

Also on the bill was London band Diamond Dust, which opened Rock the Park after winning the Rock Star Fantasy contest, a free online competition determined by fan voting.

Rock the Park raises funds for London's Bethanys Hope Foundation. About $680,000 has been raised in the first four years of concerts. The foundation works to find a cure for leukodystrophy (MLD), a rare inherited disorder.