“I keep my mouth shut now. I’ve turned into a professional coward.” - Hunter S. Thompson in 1967 As told to Studs Terkel (****** Hear more from this rare interview: ****** In the 1960s, Hunter S. Thompson spent more than a year living and drinking with members of the Hell’s Angels motorcycle club, riding up and down the California coast. What he saw alongside this group of renegades on Harleys, these hairy outlaws who rampaged and faced charges of attempted murder, r, assault and battery, and destruction of property along the way--all of this became the heart of Thompson’s first book: Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga. Shortly after the book came out, Thompson sat down for a radio interview with the one and only Studs Terkel. CHOICE QUOTES “I can't remember ever winning a fight.” "I used to take it out at night on the Coast Highway, just drunk out of my mind, ride it for 20 and 30 miles in just short pants and a t-shirt. It's a beautiful feeling.” “ I tried to keep my eyes on him because I didn't want to have my skull fractured.” “They want to get back at the people who put them in this terrible, this dead end, tunnel.” “ The people who are most affected by this technological obsolescence are the ones least capable of understanding the reason for it, so the venom builds up much quicker. It feeds on their ignorance.” Get more on Thompson and the Hell’s Angels, gonzo journalism, the full, unedited interview and GIFs from the episode: ****** Subscribe for new episodes every other Tuesday (it's free): ****** Executive Producer: David Gerlach Animator: Patrick Smith Audio Producer: Amy Drozdowska Music You Heard via APM @0:10 “Come and Get It” Wayne Murray, Paul Rawson @1:50 “Four By Nine (Bed Version)” Brad Lindsay, David Cowan, Drew Allsbrook @ 3:00 “Another Man’s Treasure” Steven M. Stern, Matt Naylor @ 4:25 “Unfiltered” Wayne Murray, Paul Rawson ****** More Blank on Blank episodes: ****** BB King on The Blues ****** Elliott Smith on Freaks ****** Robin Williams on Masks ****** Wayne Coyne on Living with Death ****** Maya Angelou on Con Men ****** Bette Davis on The Sexes ****** Michael Jackson on Godliness ****** Jimi Hendrix on The Experience ****** Meryl Streep on Beauty ****** Philip Seymour Hoffman on Happiness ****** David Bowie on Stardust ****** Gene Wilder on The Truth ****** John Lennon on Love ****** Johnny Cash on The Gospel ****** Heath Ledger on Role Playing ****** Tupac on Life and Death ****** Kurt Cobain on Identity ****** Janis Joplin on Rejection ******