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Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson
Bristling with inspired observations and wild anecdotes, this first collection offers a unique insight into the voice and mind of the inimitable Hunter S. Thompson, as recorded in the pages of Playboy, The Paris Review, Esquire, and elsewhere.Fearless and unsparing, the interviews detail some of the most storied episodes of Thompson's a savage beating at the hands of the Hells Angels, talking football with Nixon on the 1972 Campaign Trail (“the only time in 20 years of listening to the treacherous bastard that I knew he wasn't lying”), and his unlikely run for sheriff of Aspen. Elsewhere, passionate tirades about journalism, culture, guns, drugs, and the law showcase Thompson's voice at its fiercest.
Arranged chronologically, and prefaced with Anita Thompson's moving account of her husband's last years, the interviews present Hunter in all his fractured brilliance and provide an exceptional portrait of his times.
Arranged chronologically, and prefaced with Anita Thompson's moving account of her husband's last years, the interviews present Hunter in all his fractured brilliance and provide an exceptional portrait of his times.
736 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 6, 2009
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About the author
Hunter S. Thompson
113 books11k followersHunter 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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
April 27, 2012
This should have been five stars, for reasons I'll explain, and which already have been detailed by more able writers (http://exiledonline.com/how-christoph...). Any book of interviews is going to be a mixed bag, but thank God the interviewee is a wily one here. The book spans 1967 through 2005, beginning with the press junket the Good Doctor got for "Hells Angels," and ending with perhaps the most moving, best-conceived interview of the book, conducted by Playboy's Tim Mohr shortly before Thompson's death. Let's be honest - in-between, many of these interviews are interchangable, a whole lot of them congealing into one unappetizing jelly. Often Thompson is barely humoring the interviewer; in several he is watching sports or a movie during the interview. Many of the questions - "what's your favorite drug," "what is gonzo" - are asked literally dozens of times; it's a wonder Thompson didn't shoot himself sooner.
With that said, it is thus a comprehensive record, and even the most grasping interviews in the volume can provide some illumination into a writer who remains congenitally underrated where it matters, and unfairly captive to his larger-than-life image (which, to be fair, as he admits, he bears responsibility for fostering. The Hells Angels interviews reveal HST a slightly uneasy sort, especially a bizarre Canadian TV appearance in which Skip Workman, a thuggish member of the Berdoo chapter, rides his Harley into the studio for his first post-stomping meeting with Hunter. The early eighties transcriptions of HST's college lectures reveal, sadly, a guy who has stopped writing and is making an ass of himself before crowds for obscene amounts of money. From there on out, they are largely legacy pieces. But a few of the interviews so outstanding as to deserve distinction:
-May 1980, David Felton, Rolling Stone - this reads like a bucket of cold water being dumped on your crotch. Sandwiched between largely laudatory pieces, Felton excoriates post-campaign, post-Vegas HST for his ongoing failure to produce writing, for his obsession with money, and for his college appearances. The two recount an anecdote in which Felton heckled HST at one such appearance, for making an ass of himself for cash - to which, from quite a distance, HST beaned him with an ice cube. Good shot aside, Felton seems right, and has the credentials - he was Hunter's editor on Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone. He knew him before he was Raoul. And his vocal disappointment in a man he clearly admires and respects is fascinating.
-Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire, 1994 - HST's favorite hero of literature is Count Dracula. What a great answer.
-Rolling Stone, 1996 P.J. O'Rourke interview - O'Rourke, present-day fascism aside, clearly gets Thompson in a way most of the interviewers did not. Enjoyable.
-Puritan Magazine, 1998, Phoebe Legere - bizarre interview by a lady known as the 'female Frank Zappa' who HST was apparently fucking at the time. Very weird.
-Esquire, 1998 - memorable for excerpt of his funeral address for Allen Ginsberg, in which he calls him a "bull-fruit"
-Paris Review - Good interview with Doug Brinkley. Excellent answer to somewhat Pollyanna-ish question about how "drugs affect writers": "They lie." Many good writers loved drugs.
-George Magazine, 2001 - interesting for the insights interviewer John Perra draws from HST shortly before 9/11. A gentle interview - much more discussion of family, a rare subject.
-CNBC, Tim Russert, February 2003 - HST calls the Iraq War play-by-play, a month before it starts. In contrast, Russert comes off as the shameless warpig he was. Prescient.
-Freezerbox.com, Adam Bulger, 2004 - HST shuts down a dickhead interviewer. Very entertaining.
-"Post Cards From The Proud Highway" Playboy 2005, Tim Mohr - perhaps the most moving interview of the book, done shortly before HST's suicide at the age of 67. Mohr gets out of the way, throws out a few topics, distills a week at Owl Farm, and leaves behind a beautiful coda.
If only the editing had been as brilliant as that which animated Mohr's piece as the concluding interview. For you see, Anita Thompson, the widow, chose pigfucking Chris "I'm dead now" Hitchens to write the introduction, an execrable piece of shit that seeks to acquit the limey defilement of his cuplability for Iraq, and subtly twist the knife in HST, who he not-so-subtly tries to paint as dotty post-9/11. The only useful purpose of the intro is to set HST in stark relief from the vile humanity of most of his peers.
With that said, it is thus a comprehensive record, and even the most grasping interviews in the volume can provide some illumination into a writer who remains congenitally underrated where it matters, and unfairly captive to his larger-than-life image (which, to be fair, as he admits, he bears responsibility for fostering. The Hells Angels interviews reveal HST a slightly uneasy sort, especially a bizarre Canadian TV appearance in which Skip Workman, a thuggish member of the Berdoo chapter, rides his Harley into the studio for his first post-stomping meeting with Hunter. The early eighties transcriptions of HST's college lectures reveal, sadly, a guy who has stopped writing and is making an ass of himself before crowds for obscene amounts of money. From there on out, they are largely legacy pieces. But a few of the interviews so outstanding as to deserve distinction:
-May 1980, David Felton, Rolling Stone - this reads like a bucket of cold water being dumped on your crotch. Sandwiched between largely laudatory pieces, Felton excoriates post-campaign, post-Vegas HST for his ongoing failure to produce writing, for his obsession with money, and for his college appearances. The two recount an anecdote in which Felton heckled HST at one such appearance, for making an ass of himself for cash - to which, from quite a distance, HST beaned him with an ice cube. Good shot aside, Felton seems right, and has the credentials - he was Hunter's editor on Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone. He knew him before he was Raoul. And his vocal disappointment in a man he clearly admires and respects is fascinating.
-Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire, 1994 - HST's favorite hero of literature is Count Dracula. What a great answer.
-Rolling Stone, 1996 P.J. O'Rourke interview - O'Rourke, present-day fascism aside, clearly gets Thompson in a way most of the interviewers did not. Enjoyable.
-Puritan Magazine, 1998, Phoebe Legere - bizarre interview by a lady known as the 'female Frank Zappa' who HST was apparently fucking at the time. Very weird.
-Esquire, 1998 - memorable for excerpt of his funeral address for Allen Ginsberg, in which he calls him a "bull-fruit"
-Paris Review - Good interview with Doug Brinkley. Excellent answer to somewhat Pollyanna-ish question about how "drugs affect writers": "They lie." Many good writers loved drugs.
-George Magazine, 2001 - interesting for the insights interviewer John Perra draws from HST shortly before 9/11. A gentle interview - much more discussion of family, a rare subject.
-CNBC, Tim Russert, February 2003 - HST calls the Iraq War play-by-play, a month before it starts. In contrast, Russert comes off as the shameless warpig he was. Prescient.
-Freezerbox.com, Adam Bulger, 2004 - HST shuts down a dickhead interviewer. Very entertaining.
-"Post Cards From The Proud Highway" Playboy 2005, Tim Mohr - perhaps the most moving interview of the book, done shortly before HST's suicide at the age of 67. Mohr gets out of the way, throws out a few topics, distills a week at Owl Farm, and leaves behind a beautiful coda.
If only the editing had been as brilliant as that which animated Mohr's piece as the concluding interview. For you see, Anita Thompson, the widow, chose pigfucking Chris "I'm dead now" Hitchens to write the introduction, an execrable piece of shit that seeks to acquit the limey defilement of his cuplability for Iraq, and subtly twist the knife in HST, who he not-so-subtly tries to paint as dotty post-9/11. The only useful purpose of the intro is to set HST in stark relief from the vile humanity of most of his peers.
December 17, 2012
I've never been drawn into the cult of Hunter Thompson: I've been aware of him, in a rough "he wrote that and that" kind of way, without being intimately familiar with the building blocks of his reputation. From that point of view, this chronologically-arranged collection of interviews certainly helped me to pin down the significant events in the creation of the myth surrounding him. However, the more I read, the more I felt seeds of suspicion begin to burrow: those famous incidents-- his time with the Hell's Angels, talking football with Nixon, on the trail with successive Presidential candidates in the 70s-- get trotted out again, and again, and again, at every opportunity, and each time they sound a little more misty-eyed, a little more lacking in centrality: despite himself, Thompson ends up sounding like one of those old-time war veterans who reveal just how peripheral they were to the main thrust of events-- the stores clerk whose anecdotes place him on the shores at Omaha Beach, but show that he arrived long after the fighting had moved on.
And there's another accidental revelation in placing so much of Thompson's direct interactions with interviewers in so enclosed a space: the sudden understanding, halfway through, that the man himself is something of an intellectual coward. Time and again he launches into an outrageous exclamation, only to duck and weave away from it when challenged in any sort of meaningful way. This is especially apparent in transcripts of talks he gives to gatherings of students, which more often than not degenerate into pantomime performances where he pretends not to hear questions, accuses his inquisitor of stupidity or misunderstanding, and otherwise bends himself in knots trying to avoid justifying his statements. Not, perhaps, quite so noticeable at the live event, but clear as crystal when laid out in type.
None of it makes Thompson any less fascinating a study: if anything, this lifelong adherence to weasel logic and continued refusal to accept responsibility for his statements enhances the interest in his character, because it quickly becomes apparent that Thompson has a couple of golden moments early in his career and is able to parlay them into a long, slow, gently declining reputation that sustains him far longer than it might otherwise have done. And the ways in which he manages to sustain his time in the limelight through increasingly shrill and desperate proclamations makes for compulsive reading, until the inevitable relief when reaching the end of the book and having it, finally, all end.
And there's another accidental revelation in placing so much of Thompson's direct interactions with interviewers in so enclosed a space: the sudden understanding, halfway through, that the man himself is something of an intellectual coward. Time and again he launches into an outrageous exclamation, only to duck and weave away from it when challenged in any sort of meaningful way. This is especially apparent in transcripts of talks he gives to gatherings of students, which more often than not degenerate into pantomime performances where he pretends not to hear questions, accuses his inquisitor of stupidity or misunderstanding, and otherwise bends himself in knots trying to avoid justifying his statements. Not, perhaps, quite so noticeable at the live event, but clear as crystal when laid out in type.
None of it makes Thompson any less fascinating a study: if anything, this lifelong adherence to weasel logic and continued refusal to accept responsibility for his statements enhances the interest in his character, because it quickly becomes apparent that Thompson has a couple of golden moments early in his career and is able to parlay them into a long, slow, gently declining reputation that sustains him far longer than it might otherwise have done. And the ways in which he manages to sustain his time in the limelight through increasingly shrill and desperate proclamations makes for compulsive reading, until the inevitable relief when reaching the end of the book and having it, finally, all end.
September 1, 2022
Sometimes you need wisdom. Ancient. Gonzo. Whatever . . . It's better when it often gets funny and weird, covers a fat chunk of history, and in a format that sometimes lets the real human being out from behind the carefully crafted public persona. Love the way he keeps not recommending what works for him. Ain't it the truth?
May 7, 2015
Greetings from the afterlife. Here I am, fulfilling a lifelong dream, interviewing one of my all-time life idols. He is one the most accomplished proponents of counterculture, one of the fines journalist, writers and outlaw thinkers to grace the world. He is the great and the dead, self-proclaimed Doctor of Divinity, Hunter S Thompson.
Hunter S Thompson: Yeah, hi.
Me: Hunter, what made an ordinary hick-boy from Kentucky such a perceptive mind who prophesied so accurately on the second half of the 20th century?
HST: Drugs. A lot of them. And plenty of alcohol. Also, not believing every little shit the world tries to ram down your throat.
Me: I consider myself to be an ordinary writer, with a potential to be perhaps a little better. I also don’t mind experimenting with drugs. Would they help me be a better writer? Please say yes.
HST: I don’t know you enough, but as Faulkner said, ‘Write! If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window’. Still, I definitely advocating trying drugs; it makes the journey fun.
Me: In fact, when I was 16 years old and still deciding what I wanted to be, I had a notion deep in my heart that drove me to be a journalist. However, my father - as a failed businessman who wanted to live his life vicariously through his only son - pushed me to do a business degree. 15 years on and my only professional experience is restricted to the world of marketing, albeit I am considered to be a more eloquent and intelligent version of the typical 'corporate whore'. People call me a wordsmith, and less kindly ‘the king of bullshit’. My passion, however, lies in literature and writing. I feel like a king among fools.
HST: How do you think I felt?
Me: I actually think you that were a seer; someone who knew what was going on years before it landed. Some of the things you say, like labeling the war on terror World War III is just one example of how you effortlessly articulate the deepest thoughts in my head. For example, what you said about 9/11 is spot on.
HST: You mean that there’s a very slim chance that something of that magnitude could have planned by a bunch of Arabs sitting around a campfire in Afghanistan? Of course! I stick by that.
Me: You’d be happy to know that Bush Jr. – and no-one could have put it more simply and powerfully than you when you called him the ‘goofy child-president’ – is no longer in power.
HST: Yes I know, I’ve been following everything through the celestial newswire; nothing escapes me. Hurray for Obama. It’s just a case of the emperor’s new clothes though. Remember how everyone thought Clinton was so charming?
Me: In the scheme of things though, who do you think has been the worst president the US ever had?
HST: Not just the US, but one of the world's worst. Without a doubt, that little fart, daddy’s boy George W Bush, coming from a long-list of freedom suppressing CIA and Nazi sympathisers. Have you read ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’?
Me: Not yet. But now that you’ve mentioned it, I’ve moved it to the top of my reading list.
HST: Read it and you’ll see clear parallels between Bush’s reign and Hitler.
Me: You’ve been a pessimist struggling with existentialist angst since you were arrested as a mere 9 year old for a simple act of frustration against injustice. You’ve been wrongly arrested for rape, had your house raided by police, among many, many other things in a most complete life that you've lived. You’ve seen the world go to the dogs, from the promise of the early 60’s (before Kennedy was assassinated), to the Fear and Loathing and spiritual barrenness of the 21st century. How come you didn’t commit suicide way before 2005?
HST: Once that idiot Bush got re-elected, I knew the Fourth Reich was here to stay, and I decided it was time to leave earthly matters behind. I tried desperately, but I couldn’t make a difference in this lifetime.
Me: You said that you’re a big believer in karma. When we speak of Hindu philosophy, we can’t avoid the concept of rebirth. What do you think you’ll come back as?
HST: Myself. I still have work to be done. Richard Nixon would come back as a sewer rat though.
Me: Is the American Dream officially dead?
HST: I said this many times before; the American Dream committed suicide years ago.
Me: What do you see in store for the rest of the 21st century?
HST: Exactly what you would expect from a generation of swine.
Me: OK. We’re going to turn away from politics (kind of). Did you not think it was fundamentally wrong to own guns?
HST: Is it worse for me to own guns and shoot game in my own backyard, or is it worse for glorified savages in suits to order bombs to be dropped around the most destitute villages in the world, and kill innocent women and children?
Me: OK. Point taken. Having thoroughly researched the Hell’s Angels for your book called, um, ‘Hell’s Angels’, what do you think of the modern portrayals of biker clubs, such as on TV’s Sons of Anarchy’?
HST: Absolute garbage. There’s no way a motorcycle club could have ties with the IRA. There’s no way a motorcycle club would even consider fraternizing with blacks. And there’s no way a motorcycle club would allow a woman to have anything to do with their business. So, yeah, it’s a crock of shit on multiple levels. As I said, don’t believe everything they feed you.
Me: Given that you grew up on a diet of The Doors, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan (among mothers), what do you make of minions like Kanye West thinking they are authoritative enough to have a say on who deserves awards for their music and who doesn't?
HST: Both you and I know that we don’t have enough time in the world to try and answer that question.
Me: I actually just finished reading Ancient Gonzo Wisdom (the version published by Picador), and I’ve found that I’m not the only one who, when looking at your face on the cover page, sees a striking resemblance to the Dalai Lama. Is this deliberate, or just a trick of the mind?
HST: I believe in subjective thought. Take it how you will.
Me: Thanks Hunter. Before I let you go back to nirvana, I have to say that you are the prophet of my soul. Even your wife Anita said you have the ‘soul of a teenage girl trapped in the body of an elderly dope fiend’. It’s not to say that either you or I or spoilt litte girls, but it suggests very correctly how sensitive, passionate and emotional we are about the things we stand for, and how deeply we loathe injustice.
HST: Shut up and pour me a glass of Wild Turkey.
Me: And just one last question: how would you define Gonzo Journalism?
HST: Put down that bottle and get off my property before I turn my .17 on you.
That is it folks. I’ll leave you with the words of PJ Rourke, who sums up the Doctor perfectly:
‘Read Beckett, Sartre, Camus, Genet and Kafka and you’ll say: “Life is absurd, the world is meaningless, and all of creation is insane”.
Read Hunter S Thompson and you’ll say: “Life is absurd, the world is meaningless, and all of creation is insane-cool!”’
Hunter S Thompson: Yeah, hi.
Me: Hunter, what made an ordinary hick-boy from Kentucky such a perceptive mind who prophesied so accurately on the second half of the 20th century?
HST: Drugs. A lot of them. And plenty of alcohol. Also, not believing every little shit the world tries to ram down your throat.
Me: I consider myself to be an ordinary writer, with a potential to be perhaps a little better. I also don’t mind experimenting with drugs. Would they help me be a better writer? Please say yes.
HST: I don’t know you enough, but as Faulkner said, ‘Write! If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window’. Still, I definitely advocating trying drugs; it makes the journey fun.
Me: In fact, when I was 16 years old and still deciding what I wanted to be, I had a notion deep in my heart that drove me to be a journalist. However, my father - as a failed businessman who wanted to live his life vicariously through his only son - pushed me to do a business degree. 15 years on and my only professional experience is restricted to the world of marketing, albeit I am considered to be a more eloquent and intelligent version of the typical 'corporate whore'. People call me a wordsmith, and less kindly ‘the king of bullshit’. My passion, however, lies in literature and writing. I feel like a king among fools.
HST: How do you think I felt?
Me: I actually think you that were a seer; someone who knew what was going on years before it landed. Some of the things you say, like labeling the war on terror World War III is just one example of how you effortlessly articulate the deepest thoughts in my head. For example, what you said about 9/11 is spot on.
HST: You mean that there’s a very slim chance that something of that magnitude could have planned by a bunch of Arabs sitting around a campfire in Afghanistan? Of course! I stick by that.
Me: You’d be happy to know that Bush Jr. – and no-one could have put it more simply and powerfully than you when you called him the ‘goofy child-president’ – is no longer in power.
HST: Yes I know, I’ve been following everything through the celestial newswire; nothing escapes me. Hurray for Obama. It’s just a case of the emperor’s new clothes though. Remember how everyone thought Clinton was so charming?
Me: In the scheme of things though, who do you think has been the worst president the US ever had?
HST: Not just the US, but one of the world's worst. Without a doubt, that little fart, daddy’s boy George W Bush, coming from a long-list of freedom suppressing CIA and Nazi sympathisers. Have you read ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’?
Me: Not yet. But now that you’ve mentioned it, I’ve moved it to the top of my reading list.
HST: Read it and you’ll see clear parallels between Bush’s reign and Hitler.
Me: You’ve been a pessimist struggling with existentialist angst since you were arrested as a mere 9 year old for a simple act of frustration against injustice. You’ve been wrongly arrested for rape, had your house raided by police, among many, many other things in a most complete life that you've lived. You’ve seen the world go to the dogs, from the promise of the early 60’s (before Kennedy was assassinated), to the Fear and Loathing and spiritual barrenness of the 21st century. How come you didn’t commit suicide way before 2005?
HST: Once that idiot Bush got re-elected, I knew the Fourth Reich was here to stay, and I decided it was time to leave earthly matters behind. I tried desperately, but I couldn’t make a difference in this lifetime.
Me: You said that you’re a big believer in karma. When we speak of Hindu philosophy, we can’t avoid the concept of rebirth. What do you think you’ll come back as?
HST: Myself. I still have work to be done. Richard Nixon would come back as a sewer rat though.
Me: Is the American Dream officially dead?
HST: I said this many times before; the American Dream committed suicide years ago.
Me: What do you see in store for the rest of the 21st century?
HST: Exactly what you would expect from a generation of swine.
Me: OK. We’re going to turn away from politics (kind of). Did you not think it was fundamentally wrong to own guns?
HST: Is it worse for me to own guns and shoot game in my own backyard, or is it worse for glorified savages in suits to order bombs to be dropped around the most destitute villages in the world, and kill innocent women and children?
Me: OK. Point taken. Having thoroughly researched the Hell’s Angels for your book called, um, ‘Hell’s Angels’, what do you think of the modern portrayals of biker clubs, such as on TV’s Sons of Anarchy’?
HST: Absolute garbage. There’s no way a motorcycle club could have ties with the IRA. There’s no way a motorcycle club would even consider fraternizing with blacks. And there’s no way a motorcycle club would allow a woman to have anything to do with their business. So, yeah, it’s a crock of shit on multiple levels. As I said, don’t believe everything they feed you.
Me: Given that you grew up on a diet of The Doors, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan (among mothers), what do you make of minions like Kanye West thinking they are authoritative enough to have a say on who deserves awards for their music and who doesn't?
HST: Both you and I know that we don’t have enough time in the world to try and answer that question.
Me: I actually just finished reading Ancient Gonzo Wisdom (the version published by Picador), and I’ve found that I’m not the only one who, when looking at your face on the cover page, sees a striking resemblance to the Dalai Lama. Is this deliberate, or just a trick of the mind?
HST: I believe in subjective thought. Take it how you will.
Me: Thanks Hunter. Before I let you go back to nirvana, I have to say that you are the prophet of my soul. Even your wife Anita said you have the ‘soul of a teenage girl trapped in the body of an elderly dope fiend’. It’s not to say that either you or I or spoilt litte girls, but it suggests very correctly how sensitive, passionate and emotional we are about the things we stand for, and how deeply we loathe injustice.
HST: Shut up and pour me a glass of Wild Turkey.
Me: And just one last question: how would you define Gonzo Journalism?
HST: Put down that bottle and get off my property before I turn my .17 on you.
That is it folks. I’ll leave you with the words of PJ Rourke, who sums up the Doctor perfectly:
‘Read Beckett, Sartre, Camus, Genet and Kafka and you’ll say: “Life is absurd, the world is meaningless, and all of creation is insane”.
Read Hunter S Thompson and you’ll say: “Life is absurd, the world is meaningless, and all of creation is insane-cool!”’
February 21, 2023
The holy fool who’d often speak truth others couldn’t, and often pushed over that line. From the interviews here, Thompson spent the first half of his life turning himself into a story, twenty years selling the story and the rest of his life trying to avoid becoming the cliche of his own legend. Could probably have done with editing to remove the repetitions of everyone asking him what gonzo was or his talking football with Nixon anecdote, but for all his drunken, drug addled reputation he’s admirably consistent on his near-libertarian principles and sharp on the character of Presidents (albeit there’s far too little on Reagan here, though you can deduce his views fairly easily).
The overall impression is of the kind of carney you need to be to be an American success story, whip smart but often overly willing to play the fool for a few bucks.
The overall impression is of the kind of carney you need to be to be an American success story, whip smart but often overly willing to play the fool for a few bucks.
September 20, 2015
"Res ipsa loquitur."
July 3, 2018
I liked it but I didn't really really like it. It seemed like a bid to cash in on the ticket by offering a ride that was already over.
So many repeated questions. I felt HST's annoyance and read it all the way through rising as each interviewer asked many of the same things. It got tedious to read. It would have leaped if it had been shortened to each question and pertinent answers given. I know that wouldn't have been his style but I grew weary of reading this book earlier than half way through. I'll have to take a break before I read any of his writings again.
So many repeated questions. I felt HST's annoyance and read it all the way through rising as each interviewer asked many of the same things. It got tedious to read. It would have leaped if it had been shortened to each question and pertinent answers given. I know that wouldn't have been his style but I grew weary of reading this book earlier than half way through. I'll have to take a break before I read any of his writings again.
May 17, 2021
This was a little too deep of a dive into HST, even as into him as I am. It was the same stock-interview questions over and over and over. Pretty much just a collection of all his interviews on tour promoting his books. Every now and then there was some insight, but it wasn’t worth the work of sifting through a bunch of interviewers who didn’t know what to ask.
July 5, 2018
This book is, indeed, filled with "gonzo wisdom" but it's also very repetitive and poorly edited. I was a bit disappointed, although doubtless it's invaluable if you're looking for something purely for research purposes and not just to read for pleasure.
November 29, 2023
As interesting as these interviews are, they are nowhere near as fascinating as reading his actual books, whether they be his novels or his shorter articles.
July 13, 2024
Great insight
March 30, 2022
If you like Hunter S. Thompson, you'll like this.
October 29, 2019
I remember being in the middle of my thesis research when Thompson killed himself, setting the internet on fire full of memorials, tributes, and a resurgence of interviews reposted. I tried to capture them all and read as much as I could - what I would've given for this amazing collection back then!
So god bless Anita for pulling this together (with great context in footnotes throughout) and publishing this collection of interviews for his legacy.
And in true Gonzo fashion, it is uneven at times, contradictory often, and off the wall - but in certain lucid and sober moments, Thompson shows why his legacy will prevail as no one said it like him.
The interviews are thankfully published in chronological order, so we get to relive the trajectory of his career and see his persona emerge, solidify, trap him, and then pave the way into nostalgia. He could be so witty when talking about himself, writing, his outrageous stories, and always politics. And it's the political stuff that's so interesting - as the outrage and predictions he made during Nixon/Regan/Clinton/Bush could have been said today in 2019!
Thompson has always seen this coming and that's what makes me miss having him around now the most - he'd have so much to say and so much of that would be about having been right all along and seen everything coming.
This book made me laugh, cringe, and learn. I'm grateful that Anita included interviews where HST was off and unintelligible and rambling. And also interviews where the interviewer was ill-prepared, or too prepared, or incapable of keeping up with their subject. And yet certain interviews shine through - brilliant and blazing and worth reading again and again.
The book made me feel closer to and appreciate the Good Doctor even more than ever. Read it. (And hey, skip certain interviews if you don't like them - it's the whole collection that is worth it.)
So god bless Anita for pulling this together (with great context in footnotes throughout) and publishing this collection of interviews for his legacy.
And in true Gonzo fashion, it is uneven at times, contradictory often, and off the wall - but in certain lucid and sober moments, Thompson shows why his legacy will prevail as no one said it like him.
The interviews are thankfully published in chronological order, so we get to relive the trajectory of his career and see his persona emerge, solidify, trap him, and then pave the way into nostalgia. He could be so witty when talking about himself, writing, his outrageous stories, and always politics. And it's the political stuff that's so interesting - as the outrage and predictions he made during Nixon/Regan/Clinton/Bush could have been said today in 2019!
Thompson has always seen this coming and that's what makes me miss having him around now the most - he'd have so much to say and so much of that would be about having been right all along and seen everything coming.
This book made me laugh, cringe, and learn. I'm grateful that Anita included interviews where HST was off and unintelligible and rambling. And also interviews where the interviewer was ill-prepared, or too prepared, or incapable of keeping up with their subject. And yet certain interviews shine through - brilliant and blazing and worth reading again and again.
The book made me feel closer to and appreciate the Good Doctor even more than ever. Read it. (And hey, skip certain interviews if you don't like them - it's the whole collection that is worth it.)
May 28, 2012
I'm of mixed opinion on this book. The book exclusively covers Hunter's appearance in the media -- television and the published word -- as the subject of interviews chronologically. Because like today, most media appearances were timed to releases of his own books or otherwise, you will frequently find interviews here that happen around the same time, meaning that the questions and his answers, repeat quite a bit. While that repetition means, I've got a solid understanding of Hunter's time line now, it made the book difficult to read cover-to-cover, as it felt like you were reading the same ideas over and over again. Nevertheless, there's some great stuff in here too: like how Hunter's answers change over the 30-40 years of questions, how his perception of himself (road man for the lords of karma) differs from his public image, how frustrated he was consistently by Trudeau's Hunter character in Doonesbury, and his complicated relationship to Gonzo, a term adopted by Hunter to describe his unique contribution to journalism. I recommend this one for serious Hunter fans only. It's best read in short segments -- the natural breaks in the work as you move from interview to interview -- lends itself to this approach, perhaps interspersed with a collection of his writings, like the Great Shark Hunt.
March 12, 2025
Bristling with inspired observations and wild anecdotes, this first collection offers a unique insight into the voice and mind of the inimitable Hunter S. Thompson, as recorded in the pages of Playboy, The Paris Review, Esquire, and elsewhere.Fearless and unsparing, the interviews detail some of the most storied episodes of Thompson's a savage beating at the hands of the Hells Angels, talking football with Nixon on the 1972 Campaign Trail (“the only time in 20 years of listening to the treacherous bastard that I knew he wasn't lying”), and his unlikely run for sheriff of Aspen. Elsewhere, passionate tirades about journalism, culture, guns, drugs, and the law showcase Thompson's voice at its fiercest.
Arranged chronologically, and prefaced with Anita Thompson's moving account of her husband's last years, the interviews present Hunter in all his fractured brilliance and provide an exceptional portrait of his times.
Arranged chronologically, and prefaced with Anita Thompson's moving account of her husband's last years, the interviews present Hunter in all his fractured brilliance and provide an exceptional portrait of his times.
July 12, 2014
Obviously there's a fair amount of repetition as well as some contradiction given how many interviews are contained here and how much chronological ground they cover (Hell's Angels-era until pretty near the end). Likewise, this is more or less only going to appeal to the thoroughly converted. Those two things said, there's a lot of gold in here for those who are interested, in terms of insight into both Thompson as a person and politics and journalism, as well as plenty of moments of great hilarity.
He sure didn't like Doonsbury...
He sure didn't like Doonsbury...
October 9, 2009
Thompson's shining Gonzo Intellect is displayed here with humor and insight. Thompson was a seer, a visionary, an immovable force of which our culture will have to contend with for decades to come. His interviews read like his prose - evidence that what you read in print was the Good Doctor himself without pretense, without a mask. The earth's axis has shifted since his departure and we are all at a loss with his absence.
September 9, 2009
A must read for all serious followers/admirers/fans of the Great Doctor. A collection of interviews ranging from TV spots in the late 60s to online Q&A's from the year of his suicide, 2005. His wit and extremely insightful look at the world are laid bare here. Yet another great monument to one of the most original and incredible voices in the world of written words.
December 9, 2009
OK, so I'm a Thomson fanboy and not likely to render a harsh verdict on a collection of interviews with the Man Himself. That said, a lot of these are genuinely inciteful, especially when he's able to slip out of the persona he crafted for himself but which eventually came to aggravate him so thoroughly.
February 11, 2010
A lot of interesting interviews with HST over the years. Granted, I'd read most of them from the past 10, but it's nice to get them in one collection. And it has an intro by Christopher Hitchens. Double bonus!
Also, probably unintentionally, it showcases the decline in the art of the interview over the years (by journalists, not HST). Some absolutely ridiculous, yes/no questions.
Also, probably unintentionally, it showcases the decline in the art of the interview over the years (by journalists, not HST). Some absolutely ridiculous, yes/no questions.
Read
August 6, 2011interviews with dr gonzo himself, from all through his life and times. full of crazy antics and rambling intellect, any thompson fan would know what to expect. one negative is that the book can get a bit repetitive after awhile, as many interviews cover the same questions and stories. but interesting nevertheless...
July 2, 2016
A great collection of HST interviews. Having them in written form is often helpful as it is difficult to understand him when he speaks for me. In reading these interviews, the story of a man with no filter and no limits emerges. He is intelligent, playful, and sometimes downright mean. Love him or not, there's never going to be anyone quite like him ever again.
November 9, 2012
An essential for anyone studying the work of Hunter S. Thompson. Although some of his stories are conflicting, that is to be expected of the man infamous for sensationalising his every move. Having so many interviews allows the researcher to really get to know what to believe and how Thompson wanted to portray himself as a writer. A nessesity for Thompson studies.
July 26, 2012
I find it hard to read books of purely interviews, but there was some very interesting stuff from the man himself in there. A lot of it is the same information over and over because the interviewers asked the same questions. Interesting but I ended up skipping a bunch of the middle.
July 3, 2014
3 1/2 stars. A nice collection of interviews. Some of it was a bit repetitive, especially near the end, but it was still pretty entertaining and insightful. It would be a good book for anyone who needed help deciphering the meaning behind the fear and loathing.
July 23, 2016
A fantastic collection. There's a lot of repeated content, but this book provides an excellent insight into the workings of Thompson's mind. If you're a fan, you probably already own this, but it is a welcome addition to any collection of his writing.
Read
August 20, 2009Not interested in reading the "wisdom" of an egomaniac (his words not mine)...I put it down.
October 15, 2009
Great new arrangement of interviews and commentary by the late doctor. A seemingly nonstop collection of "Man, I wish I'd said or wrote that!" moments.
April 2, 2010
HST is fun and spot on as usual, but it gets sort of repetitious.
September 19, 2011
Some good interviews here, especially the one with PJ O'Rourke.
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