—Susie interviews Juan Thompson on the life of being son of Hunter Thompson
I was a friend of Hunter’s, for two reasons. We were both fucked over by our publisher, Simon and Schuster — haha. Not unusual in the publishing world. Hunter’s first call to me on that occasion, “I will not be their Judas Goat.”
Secondly, we knew each other because he was the “Night Manager” of the Mitchell Brothers’ O’Farrell Theater, when I was one of the lesbians in the dancer locker room. Hunter managed nothing, but he played pool and was quite the charming Kentucky gentlemen
As the decades went on, we corresponded in his typical witches’ dawn phone calls. I always, ALWAYS appreciated our talks about our children. He loved his son Juan so dearly. An extraordinary life story.
Hunter and I talked, more than once, about elective suicide. The pain he was in, the lack of mobility. I told him about legends in my life, like Sally Binford, who chose checking out..
I knew it was coming, like everyone close to him.
I hope you’ll understand, listening to this conversation with Juan . His memoir, Stories I Tell Myself, is beautiful.
