Hunter S. Thompson interviews Keith Richards
“The Hollywood film business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There is also a negative side.”
Thompson ran for Mayor of Aspen in 1976 and garnered 49% of the vote. His campaign was based on two ideas: If elected, he would dig up all the concrete and cement in the city. And the only illegal activity would be if someone sold bad drugs in which case they were to be put into a public stockade.
When I lived there in 1978, Thompson hosted a debate during the election for sheriff in which the question he proposed the town to consider was: “Should the sheriff’s nuts be ripped off with a plastic spoon?”
Hugely eccentric, but one helluva writer! Here’s a quote from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”:
If the current polls are reliable… Nixon will be re-elected by a huge majority of Americans who feel he is not only more honest and more trustworthy than George McGovern, but also more likely to end the war in Vietnam. The polls also indicate that Nixon will get a comfortable majority of the Youth Vote. And that he might carry all fifty states… This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it — that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable. The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his mistakes… understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon. McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose… Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?
“September,” from FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL ’72 (Warner Books, 1973), pp 413–414
Any other Thompson anecdotes or quotes, please post in comments.