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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 18, 2014)
Street roots 10 July 18, 2014 the whole thing of having me around, actually, seeing my discomfort as We were doing these crazy things. He could be a son of a bitch. He kept a myna bird called Edward, and he’d bang the cage and shout, “Edward! There is no bird God, that will save you, Edward!” And I felt like Edward in the cage sometimes (laughs). ? A.E'. Ever fear for your safety in his Left, Ralph Steadman in his studio. Above, a special illustration Steadman Penned for the Big Issue! ., U.K., part of the International Network o f Street Papers. A t right, Steadman poses w itkacior Johnny Depp who portrayed R.S.: Oh no. It never crossed my mind that he was vicious or sadistic. Not at all. He was just letting the wild side of himself loose. It was mischief-making and taking risks. Gonzo journalism was submersing yourself in the story, becoming the story, and maybe learning something about yourself in the process. P H O T O BY C H A R L IE PA U L A.F.: You’ve said Hunter brought put your wild side... BY A D A M FORREST C O N T R IB U T IN G W R ITER brand new work for our latest cover. alph Steadman was born in « Adam Forrest: How are you Ralph? Merseyside in 1936 and grew up in North Wales. He found his calling in a Ralph Steadm an: Well, everything feels tiny advert for a Percy V Bradshaw very biblical this morning, with all this rain. illustration course: “You too can learn to We have a Noah in the family — my draw and earn £££s”. In the 1960s his work grandson. And now I’m talking to an Adam. appeared in Punch and Private Eye, but it It’s all very Old Testament was meeting writer Hunter S. Thompson while covering the 1970 Kentucky Derby A.F.: What did Hunter S. Thompson think that would change his life. The duo’s of the house, of the area in Kent? I think he journalistic adventures, a freewheeling blend called it “Steadman's Castle.” of fact and fiction known as Gonzo journalism, influenced a generation of R.S.: Yes, I think he liked it. He came writers and satirists. through the back door first, hit his head Warren Hinckle III, the editor who first because he was so tall, and muttered “Ah, put them together, thought Steadman’s servants quarters.” We went to the local pub drawings were “evil-minded, twisted”. And and he stared at the optics as the first in a new documentary film on his work, measure of Chivas Regal whisky was featuring Steadman fan Johnny Depp, poured. He said, “What’s that? A sample? Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner says Pour a few more of those...” “Ralph was willing to go to extremes that Hunter was not... in terms of the mental, A.F.: I wondered if he ever complimented moral, philosophical.” you on your work? Was he ever... nice? Today, the man whose ferocious depictions of the American psyche made R.S.: Ha! He’d call my drawing “filthy him a hero of the counter-culture, looks and -scribbling.” He did say how much he liked sounds as gentle as a Welsh choir-boy. The the illustrations for “Fear and Loathing-in Big Issue spoke to Steadman, now 78, at his Las Vegas” (the 1972 book Thompson wrote house in the tiny Kent village of Loose, about a drug-fueled road trip). I didn’t shortly after he finished off his brilliant, realize it at the time, but I think he adored R R.S.: Yes, he brought out the part of me that was... not a boy scout. Not a mean side, just the naughty, risk-taking side. There was - plenty of booze. But the only pill I ever took was when we did a story on the America’s Cup, the yacht race. He’d been gobbling pills and I was suffering from sea sickness. So he gave me a pill and it turned out to be a hallucinogenic. Anyway, he’d brought along spray paint cans and in my drug- induced stupor I suggested we spray “Fuck the Pope” on the side of the boat. But we didn’t get the chance because the click-click- click of the spray can alerted the guard on the jetty. So Hunter cried, “We’ve been caught. We must flee!” And he fell backwards into the boat (laughs).,. But my drawings didn’t need drugs. Ink was the drug for me. A.F.: Itwas obviously the Perfect collaboration. Do you feel lucky to have found him? R.S.: Until America, my work lacked that bite. There was a wildness missing. They were wonderful times, in America with Hunter. He was the one person, in America I had to meet, was destined to meet. A.F.: Johnny Depp is a big fan and appears in the new documentary about you. What was it about Hunter that so fascinated him? R.S.: Well, I met Johnny in the 1990s when he got to know Hunter. I think he brought John Cusack to Hunter’s place at Owl Farm. We got friendly, and when he came to England he was growing his hair a Steadman’s friend and journalist HunterS. Thompson.
