I was thumbing through a recent issue of Rolling Stone Magazine and saw an interview with Howard Stern, the famous radio host. Most of Rolling Stone is lost on me because the modern performers are unknown to me. For instance, I read an article about Rihanna that was very interesting, though I couldn't tell you a single song that she does. Occasionally they will have an article on John Lennon or Elton John that is really interesting because it is more in my time frame.
I was familiar with Howard because I saw the movie about his life. He is an interesting guy and Neil Strauss did an excellent job on this article. The article taught me a lot about this complex and fragile person.
For instance, Howard's show would lead you to believe the worst of him. It would not make you think that he was faithful to his wife for 25 years, would it? I fear the public persona of many people differs from reality. Let's face it, who among us would want to spend the night in a creepy old mansion with Steven King? Yet he is most certainly just a regular guy if you forget about a few hundred million dollars.
It was amusing to read the article and see Howard turning aside questions he would scarcely allow his guests to have turned aside. He doesn't like questions about his divorce or family and I certainly understand that. It is like this: "Don't touch me there, even though I like to touch people everywhere".
I was surprised to hear that he doesn't do drugs because he is so hyper and intense. I was surprised that he grew up as the only white guy in his neighborhood and had a miserable time surviving the fights and abuse. He remarked that there are many times he would rather have a chess master as a guest but that his clientele are not into the mundane. He seemed to believe that much of his show was an outlet to talk about the things which he could not do (at that time ) as a faithful husband. He lived a life that he controlled very strictly.
Speaking of control, he talked about Charlie Sheen. How he and Charlie were alike in some ways and different in others. He thought that he could have produced Charlie's live shows and helped them tremendously. I can't say how on the blog, obviously.
I think that you would probably find the article interesting. I suppose that the main thing I took away from reading this interview was that apart from $400,000,000, Howard Stern is not so different from me.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
I was familiar with Howard because I saw the movie about his life. He is an interesting guy and Neil Strauss did an excellent job on this article. The article taught me a lot about this complex and fragile person.
For instance, Howard's show would lead you to believe the worst of him. It would not make you think that he was faithful to his wife for 25 years, would it? I fear the public persona of many people differs from reality. Let's face it, who among us would want to spend the night in a creepy old mansion with Steven King? Yet he is most certainly just a regular guy if you forget about a few hundred million dollars.
It was amusing to read the article and see Howard turning aside questions he would scarcely allow his guests to have turned aside. He doesn't like questions about his divorce or family and I certainly understand that. It is like this: "Don't touch me there, even though I like to touch people everywhere".
I was surprised to hear that he doesn't do drugs because he is so hyper and intense. I was surprised that he grew up as the only white guy in his neighborhood and had a miserable time surviving the fights and abuse. He remarked that there are many times he would rather have a chess master as a guest but that his clientele are not into the mundane. He seemed to believe that much of his show was an outlet to talk about the things which he could not do (at that time ) as a faithful husband. He lived a life that he controlled very strictly.
Speaking of control, he talked about Charlie Sheen. How he and Charlie were alike in some ways and different in others. He thought that he could have produced Charlie's live shows and helped them tremendously. I can't say how on the blog, obviously.
I think that you would probably find the article interesting. I suppose that the main thing I took away from reading this interview was that apart from $400,000,000, Howard Stern is not so different from me.
From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
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