Hunter S. Thompson: The Playboy Interview (Singles Classic)

50 Years of the Playboy Interview

by Hunter S. Thompson

In mid-1962, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner was given a partial transcript of an interview with Miles Davis. It covered jazz, of course, but it also included Davis’s ruminations on race, politics and culture. Fascinated, Hef sent the writer—future Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Alex Haley, an unknown at the time—back to glean even more opinion and insight from Davis. The resulting exchange, published in the September 1962 issue, became the first official Playboy Interview and kicked off a remarkable run of public inquisition that continues today—and that has featured just about every cultural titan of the last half century.
To celebrate the Interview’s 50th anniversary, the editors of Playboy have culled 50 of its most (in)famous Interviews and will publish them over the course of 50 weekdays (from September 4, 2012 to November 12, 2012) via Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform. Here is the interview with the journalist Hunter S. Thompson from the November 1974 issue.

Genres: Nonfiction

27 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author, widely regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism alongside Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He gained prominence with Hell's Angels, living among the motorcycle club to provide a first-hand account of their lives, and later wrote the unconventional article "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," which established his signature Gonzo journalism style, in which the writer becomes central to the narrative. He is best known for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, serialized in Rolling Stone, exploring the failure of the 1960s counterculture, adapted for film in 1980 and 1998. Thompson ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, on the Freak Power ticket and became known for his intense disdain for Richard Nixon, covering George McGovern's 1972 campaign for Rolling Stone in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72. His output declined in the mid-1970s due to fame and substance abuse, though he continued writing sporadically for outlets including Rolling Stone, Playboy, Esquire, and ESPN.com, with much of his work collected in The Gonzo Papers. Thompson was known for lifelong alcohol and drug use, love of firearms, and contempt for authority, often noting that such vices "worked for him." He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Virginia Davison Ray, a librarian, and Jack Robert Thompson, an insurance adjuster, and grew up in the Cherokee Triangle neighborhood. After his father’s death, his mother raised him and his two brothers. An athletic youth, he co-founded the Hawks Athletic Club, attended several schools including Louisville Male High School, and became a member of the Athenaeum Literary Association, contributing to its yearbook until expelled for criminal activity. He enlisted in the Air Force, studying electronics and becoming sports editor of the Command Courier, then worked briefly for Time and local newspapers before moving to Puerto Rico to write for El Sportivo and the San Juan Star. He traveled to South America for the National Observer, then lived in Big Sur, where he worked as a caretaker and security guard and published his first magazine feature and short story. Thompson married Sandra Dawn Conklin, with whom he had a son, Juan, and continued writing, experimenting with dextroamphetamine and later cocaine. His reporting on the Hell's Angels and coverage of the 1968 Democratic National Convention shaped his political outlook. After Hell's Angels, he published for national magazines and critiqued the hippie movement, then moved to Woody Creek, Colorado, establishing his home Owl Farm. In 1970, he pioneered Gonzo journalism with his Kentucky Derby article, later collaborating with illustrator Ralph Steadman, and began writing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, combining fiction and reportage. His coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign broke traditional boundaries of political reporting. Thompson struggled with fame and substance abuse, missing assignments such as the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974, and retreated to Owl Farm, continuing to write sporadically. He produced The Gonzo Papers, contributed to The San Francisco Examiner, and published memoir Kingdom of Fear in 2003. He married Anita Bejmuk in 2003, and in 2005 took his own life at Owl Farm. Thompson’s Gonzo style blurred fiction and nonfiction, placing himself at the center of his narratives, often creating a mythic persona, Raoul Duke. His political beliefs included support for drug legalization, firearm rights, civil liberties, and skepticism of official narratives, and he engaged in advocacy through the Fourth Amendment Foundation and NORML. Posthumously, scholarships in his name support journalism students and veterans. Thompson remains a cult figure, celebrated for his audacious, immersive writing, fearless social critique, and enduring influence o

Reviews

[Arthur Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

READ IT HERE

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

"So I sat there with a beer and did my own surgery, using the dome light and the rearview mirror, trying to remember what my nose had looked like."

A decent interview with Hunter from 1974, about twenty pages long. I guess you could say that he was in a somewhat contrarian mood- but then again, when wasn't he? Craig Vitter notes in the beginning that the interview took place over the course of months in a few different locations; forgetting this fact as I read, I instead imagined the entire thing unfolding on a cloudless day, on a beach in Miami. In any case, Thompson tells Vitter about introducing himself to the Hell's Angels, introducing Ken Kesey to the Angels, writing about the Angels, getting stomped by the Angels, writing the second half of his book about the Angels in four days in a hotel room fueled by hamburgers from the McDonald's across the street, deciding to run for sheriff of Aspen after going to see The Battle of Algiers, drinking in the Watergate bar on the night of the break-in, whether or not he feels bad about convincing people that Ed "The Man from Maine" Muskie was flown an emergency delivery of the esoteric psychoactive substance Ibogaine from Brazil during Muskie's primary campaign, whether Nixon was some weird aberration or a natural reflection of the country, and whether or not Ford will be difficult to beat in '76. Here are a few exchanges I particularly enjoyed:

CV: How did you first meet the Angels?
HST: I just went out there and said, "Look, you guys don't know me, I don't know you, I heard some bad things about you, are they true?"

CV: Do you believe religious things about drugs?
HST: No, I never have. That's my main argument with the drug culture. I've never believed in that guru trip...you know, God, nirvana...I like to just gobble the stuff and see what happens, take my chances, just stomp on my own accelerator.

CV: Your journalistic style has been attacked by some critics- most notably, the Columbia Journalism Review- as partly commentary, partly fantasy, and partly the ravings of someone too long into drugs.
HST: Well, fuck the Columbia Journalism Review. They don't pay my rent...actually, it's kind of a compliment when people like that devote so much energy to attacking you.

CV: Who are the Hell's Angels, what kind of people?
HST: They're rejects, losers- but losers who turned mean and vengeful instead of just giving up, and there are more Hell's Angels than anybody can count. But most of them don't wear any colors. They're people who got moved out- you know, musical chairs- and they lost. Some people just lie down when they lose; these fuckers come back and tear up the whole game. I was a Hell's Angel in my head for a long time.

[Richard Schwindt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess to being fascinated by Hunter Thompson. He palpated my liver once (I know, that's strange) but his antic personality and crazy addictions obscured much of his brilliance, more so as he aged and descended into alcoholism. Playboy interviews are a unique phenomenon (I missed them when I was young - the pictures were distracting) and they brought out an interesting side to those who were interviewed. In this case the reporter, despite the well known difficulties of nailing Thompson down long enough to do an interview, elicited a thoughtful and wise side to his subject that was later obscured by the challenges of "being Hunter Thompson". Definitely worth a read if you are interested in a flavor of the time and some insights that stand up well today.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best story involving Thompson I've ever read.

[David Keep · Rating 5 out of 5]

The good stuff

When politics gets weird and dirty - which is frequent - I find myself wishing Thompson were here to give his opinion. This interview shows why

[RK Byers · Rating 5 out of 5]

always a joy to read Dr. Gonzo in his original voice.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, not great.

I sinusitis was not expecting so much to be focused on politics. There's nothing raw &or gripping about them a'tall..

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I was convinced I was finished, I’d blown my mind, couldn’t work. So finally I just started jerking pages out of my notebook and numbering them and sending them to the printer. I was sure it was the last article I was ever going to do for anybody. Then when it came out, there were massive numbers of letters, phone calls, congratulations, people calling it a 'great breakthrough in journalism.'

"And I thought, 'Holy shit, if I can write like this and get away with it, why should I keep trying to write like The New York Times?' It was like falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool full of mermaids."

[cisco pike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gonzo 1.0

Hunter Thompson was a true American original. His early writing about riding with the Angels in California was powerful and gritty. His Fear and Loathing was perhaps the high water mark of the era. If you read late into the night about what was and what might have been, read this early interview with Dr. Gonzo

[Alex Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fear and Loathing with a Centerfold!

Excellent interview in the classic Hunter S Thompson fashion. If your an HST fan then this is a must read! The interviewer claims it took months with Thompson to complete this interview? He must be a glutton for punishment or just really likes hanging out with Hunter.

[Ex2bot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting Interview! (3.5 Stars)

This gives a good picture of both Thompson and the political climate of the era, just after Nixon stepped down. Definitely read "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas" if you haven't already to get a better idea of just how manic and funny his writing style was.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent interview of Thompson, done right on the heels of Nixon's resignation and the publication of bis book on the 1972 Presidential campaign. Earthy and honest, and definitely a recommended read!

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting guy.......