Watch This: Animated Video With Hunter S. Thompson Speaking About Hells Angels

This short video is an animated interview with Hunter S. Thompson, and comes from Studs Terkel Radio Archive. It originally aired on WFMT-FM in Chicago. Thompson speaks about the year he spent riding, living and drinking with the Oakland and San Francisco Chapters of Hells Angels, gathering material for Hell’s Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga. In the end, he wore out his welcome when he allegedly approached a member about beating his wife, and received a “stomping.”

On dirty bums:

“It takes a while to cultivate that kind of bitterness, where when somebody calls you ‘a dirty bum’ you don’t look in the mirror and think, ‘well maybe I should wash my face,’ you go out and rub scum on you and get dirtier. Then you go back in and punch him and break a bottle and stick it in his gut.”

On the Hells Angels uniform:

“Angels bring out this violence in other people because they are dressed adversely, bearded, long hair, earring in ear perhaps, a swastika helmet or a Confederate flag, which some of the locals would like very much. Something occurred to me. They bring something out.”

This interview is taken from Blank on Blank, a project meant to “preserve and re-imagine the American interview.” The website features rare interviews from famous speakers, each complete with an illustration to go along with the video. More interviews can be found here.