Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 5, 1991 TAG: 9102050319
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
He sauntered in 45 minutes late with a drink in one hand and a woman by his side. He leaned over the microphone in his camouflage clothes and started ranting and rambling with that his cigarette-soaked, gravelly voice.
Then he went for the unexpected: He pulled out a Bible and started reading from the book of Revelations.
The talk drew an estimated 2,000 people, a diverse crowd that spanned the gamut from graying Rockbridge County hippies to W&L preppies.
And the Bible? That drew some stares, as in: Could it be? The Doctor of Gonzo, the man who just recently beat charges of drug possession and sexual assault, finds Revelations good reading?
Well, it turns out, he's read a lot from Revelations lately - enough to draw parallels between the end of the world and the Persian Gulf war, between stars falling on the Earth in Revelations and Scud missiles falling on Israel in the evening news.
"There are people who believe this is the end, and I may be one of them," Thompson said, holding the Bible in one hand and an unlit cigarette in the other.
"The question is, are we prepared for Armageddon? I am. I've been waiting for a long time."
Thompson drew intermittent laughs and cheers throughout his talk, which wasn't so much a speech as it was a question-and-rant kind of dialogue between the journalist and his audience.
In fact, you could say that listening to the lecture was a lot like reading from one of Thompson's books or essays: It takes a while to get to the point of it, but once you're there, it's worth a laugh.
Thompson touched on some of his favorite old targets - Richard Nixon, the Democratic party, laws that prohibit drug use. But he managed to come up with some new inductees into his own personal Swine Hall of Fame.
On Saddam Hussein: Pure swine. "I thought at first he was a flake, but this is like the Ayatollah."
On the war in the Persian Gulf: "There are easier ways to get by in this world than to jump into Muslim wars.
"Saddam Hussein ever giving up this war is the equivalent of people thinking I'd stop drinking and turn into Jerry Falwell."
On press coverage of the war: Thinks the Cable News Network's Peter Arnett is the ultimate war correspondent; particularly admires the newfangled "four-line phone" with which he transmits his stories from Baghdad.
Besides Arnett, Thompson said, there is no true press coverage of the war, just military-swine-censored propaganda.
"People ask me why I'm not covering the war," added Thompson, who drank his way through the fall of Saigon as a Rolling Stone reporter in 1975.
"I have no ambition of spending the next six years in a tent with no beer, in a country where they put you in jail if you speak to a woman."
Asked how he feels about his persona being featured in the "Doonesbury" comic strip and in the movie "Where the Buffalo Roam," Thompson said it is embarrassing.
"NBC is starting a sit-com this fall on on what happens when I become the mayor of Aspen. . . . I'm planning a massive lawsuit against them."
Nursing a scotch-on-the-rocks throughout his talk, the eccentric uncle of New Journalism ended his two-hour session just the way you'd expect:
He autographed books for his fans - dousing each with a splash from his Chivas bottle.
\ Note: This story ran in the State, Bedford/Franklin and New River Valley editions on Wednesday, February 6, 1991.
by CNB