Village Voice | RS_News | June 27 2012

OPINION ~ Matt Taibbi, like many journalists, grew up idolizing Hunter S. Thompson. But Taibbi, unlike many journalists, got Hunter S. Thompson’s job.

The similarities between the two Rolling Stone scribes do not stop there, even though Taibbi himself argues he’s nothing like Thompson. Both made their name pointing out hypocrisies and flaws in the U.S. government. Both thrived (one still is) at a time of turmoil in our country’s history. Both even managed to love the same sport, the game of football. And now both have their name on the cover of the same book. Taibbi was given the responsibility of writing a new introduction to the 40th-anniversary edition of one of Thompson’s seminal works, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, which releases today.

In his introduction, Taibbi highlights the importance of Thompson’s writing, calling him the “most instantly trustworthy” American narrator since Mark Twain, and argues that the book still continues to define the way we think about the dramas of politics. Taibbi stopped by The Village Voice office (where he was a summer intern in 1987) to chat about Thompson’s influence, how Thompson lives up to his own cliche, and why Obama would disappoint Thompson, were Thompson still alive.

When did you first read Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72?

I remember my father [Emmy-winning journalist Mike Taibbi] telling me about when Thompson was writing the pieces in Rolling Stone at the time–not the book, but the monthly dispatches. It was such a unique thing because everybody was waiting for it at the end of every month. I didn’t read the book till I was pretty old. I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegaswhen I was in high school, and I probably read this when I was a senior in college.

Did you ever meet him?

No, but I talked to him on the phone once. That was close as I came. I was going to be hired by a publishing company to edit a compilation of gonzo journalism, and I was really broke at the time. So I sat down to really think about this project, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that gonzo journalism just means Hunter Thompson. There aren’t other examples of gonzo journalism. I tried to put something together, but then I called Thompson up and basically explained the dilemma: “I got stuck with this assignment, and what do you think of it, because if you’re not into it, I’m probably not into it.” And he goes [adopting a deep, gravelly voice], “That’s a shitty assignment. How badly do you need the money?” And I said, “Pretty badly.” And he said, “Well, I don’t envy you.” And that’s how he left it, so I decided not to do it.

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