Farewell Hunter

by Ralph Steadman

Long-time friend Ralph Steadman is the satirical cartoonist who illustrated several of Hunter S. Thompson’s books, including “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” This remembrance originally appeared in the British newspaper The Independent.

“I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn’t know I could commit suicide at any time,” he told me many years ago, and I knew he meant it. It wasn’t a case of if but when. He didn’t reckon he would make it beyond 30, anyway, so he lived it all in the fast lane. There were no first, second, third and top gears in a car — just overdrive. He was in a hurry. Drive your stake into a darkened heart in a red Mercedes Benz. The blackness hides a speeding tramp. The savage beast pretends. But never mind the nights, my love, because they never really happened anyway. So we wrote in a Beverly Hills house one drunken night. I wrote the stanzas — he wrote the chorus. Don’t write, Ralph, he said. You’ll bring shame on your family.

“Those Weird and Twisted Nights.” That was the song.