Spike Magazine

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splattering attempt to capture the feeling I have at that
particular time.
I like the gonzo logo that HST used for his Sheriff
of Aspen campaign.
That red fist – by the way it’s got 2 thumbs and 4
fingers. Have you noticed? Hunter always said to me
‘2 thumbs Ralph, don’t forget 2 thumbs!’ It’s the idea
of a freak isn’t it? Anyone with 2 thumbs is obviously
a freak or a monkey of some kind, a gorilla. And the
flower in the middle of the palm, the green flower is a
peyote drug plant.
Have you taken much peyote in your time?
No. Hunter was the one who enjoyed all that shit.
I’ve taken coca leaves, I’m very fond of coca leaves
but I can’t get them in England. I tried them in Peru,
between Cusco and Machu Picchu is a little stop off on
the train called Olan Taytambo, and there they sell it
to you with wood ash and you roll the leaf around the
wood ash like rolling a joint or a cigarette. You put it
down the side of your gums and just leave it there and
you don’t suffer from mountain sickness, anxiety or
anything at such a height which is 13-15,000 feet above
sea level. I’ve got a wonderful book which is probably
100 years old called The Divine Plant of the Inca (W.
Golden Mortimer, 1901) and it’s all about the coca leaf.
Tell me about when you ended up screwed and
shoeless in New York City on one of your first assignments
with HST…
BUY Ralph Steadman books online from and
‘The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved’
was how it all started, the meeting with Hunter for the
first time … There’s innocence and experience meeting
for the first time! The shoeless episode was the second
trip where we went to Rhode Island to cover the Americas
Cup and I was shoeless and luckily I’d kept my
ticket and passport home.
I had my ticket back to New York from Rhode Island
(Boston Airport) and then I got a cab and got to 42nd
Street where the bar was thankfully still open, the
magazine (Scanlan’s Monthly) had closed and I was in
a terrible state and coming down from psilocybin. A
drug trip, which was the one and only trip I ever had
and that was when I said, ‘Right, drugs are out entirely.’
I enjoy a drink. And I was palpitating, so I borrowed a
quarter from the Irish barman, cos I had no money in
New York, nothing in a hell of a city! I phoned a lady
friend called Vendetoce who I knew from the Bologna
Bookfair. I made the call and she said “I’m just going
out.’ I said ‘Please, don’t go out, stay there till I get
there, please!’ She could tell I was losing my voice and
she did stay in.
When I arrived I was purple with palpitations and
she got a doctor right away and he gave me a librium
injection that put me out for about 24 hours. The irony
of all this was that before this happened I put her in
hospital with a fracture in Italy when we went into a
ditch via my car. Imagine how mad she was to speak
492
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