Songfacts®:

• Subtitled "The American Hunter's Theme Song," this is a tribute song Nugent wrote for his hero. Fred Bear (1902-'88) was a famous American bow hunter, a passion Nugent developed, and which led him to write a cook book Kill It & Grill It... with his second wife, Shemane. Bear was the founder of Bear Archery.
  
  Nugent says the song is the most meaningful one he's ever written and usually plays it at his concerts.
• "Fred Bear" has a memorable riff, and at the end of the track the voice of the original Fred Bear can be heard:
  
  "If some of our teenage thrill seekers really want to go out and get a thrill, let them go up into the northwest and let them tangle with a grizzly bear or polar bear or brown bear and get that effect that will cleanse the soul."
• Nugent sold "Fred Bear" by mail order on cassette with a live version of another of his hunting songs, "Great White Buffalo," on the flip side. He later included it on his 1995 album Spirit Of The Wild.
• In 1989, the same year this song was released, Nugent launched Ted Nugent's World Bowhunters magazine and expanded his outdoors empire, which included guided hunting trips, video tapes, and even retail stores. He was also working with Jack Blades and Tommy Shaw in the group Damn Yankees. They released their debut album in 1990.