Ralph Steadman on art, poetry, Hunter S. Thomson’s Mean Streak

Illustration for “The Kentucky Derby is decadent and corrupt”, 1970

Print on paper, 27 x 21 cm

Well, apparently I wasn’t the guy I was supposed to meet (Hunter S. Thompson) at the Kentucky Derby at all. It was supposed to be Pat Oliphant. I had never heard of Hunter Thompson, but I remember when we met, he said to me, “What’s that funny growth on your chin, Ralph?” I had a little beard at the time. I told him it was a beard, and he said, “Well, I wouldn’t leave it there. You look like a matted geek with filiform warts. I’d take it off if I were you.”

He was a year younger than me. He was the strangest person. He literally said, “I would feel really trapped in this life, Ralph, if I didn’t know that I could commit suicide at any time,” which of course he knew. And that possibility that he would do it at some point remained for years.

Anyway, (the Kentucky Derby task) was a strange exercise or training for me because I had never met anyone like him. I noticed right away that he was different. He just said things that were oddly focused. And his use of language was pretty good. So I thought he was somebody interesting that I could get along well with. And that’s how it worked.

I was always doing little sketches in a notebook or sketchbook, and he liked to see what we were doing. That was something that fascinated him too. I didn’t write words. I made doodles, notes, things like that.

There were a lot of people there trying to sell you horse tips. He wanted me to stay away from it.