Howard Stern is a changed man. That’s the gist of his promotional tour for his third book, Howard Stern Comes Again. That’s just one of a few surprises about the man whose name is synonymous with boundary-pushing interviews.
Another surprise is the subject of what Stern considers his best interview, ever: Conan O’Brien.
The redheaded late-night legend and Stern have some things in common, sure – both tall, do a similar job for a living, same generation – but that was no guarantee Stern’s interview of O’Brien would be great. Apparently, it was.
From HowardStern. com:
The late-night host joined Howard live on the air from Los Angeles and shared his own take on his 2015 Stern Show interview.
“I think it’s a mistake … I think you’re gonna regret this,” Conan joked.
All kidding aside, Conan told Howard he felt a similar connection to him following their sit-down together even after leaving the Stern Show studio.
“Then, I was in New York and I was walking around and people were coming up to me on the street and telling me how much that meant to them,” Conan told Howard. «I never stop hearing about that interview. »
Something apparently just clicked.
Conan O’Brien
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stern also revealed some surprising insight into his own life and the work he did prior to moving to satellite radio in 2004.
Stern can’t read his first two best-selling books,Private Parts (1993) and Miss America (’95), without cringing at his own narcissism, and he insists nearly every one of the interviews he conducted during his pre-satellite radio days makes him sick.
«I was so completely fucked up back then,» he says, his head shaking with disgust on this morning in early April. «I didn’t know what was up and what was down, and there was no room for anybody else on the planet. » His more recent metamorphosis, the result of age, a healthy marriage and intensive therapy, has revealed sensitivities he didn’t know he had. It’s also sharpened his skills as an interviewer.
It’s fascinating to think that the man whose career was built on his unapologetic approach to provoking both his audience and interview subjects has arrived at a place in life where he’s feeling regrets and distaste at his behavior when he was younger.
Does this mean we’ll truly never see Fartman again?
That’s okay, if the answer is yes. We’ll have this book, which is a compendium of Stern’s greatest interviews as well as personal and autobiographical anecdotes.
Howard Stern Comes Again is available for pre-order now and will hit bookshelves May 14, 2019.
