Sonny Barger learned to speak through a tube nearly 20 years
ago. His three-packs-a-day nicotine habit left him with throat
cancer; he was forced have his vocal cords surgically removed.
The resulting voice that rasps through the phone line is raw
and slightly unsettling--fitting for the man who founded the
most notorious motorcycle club in history.
Barger, the 62-year-old original Hell's Angel, achieved
notoriety in the 1960s as the brains behind the renegade
biker club, thanks in part to the raucous chronicles of
Hunter S. Thompson. For 30 years Barger served as Hell's
Angels Oakland chapter president. Today he lives and rides
in Cave Creek, Ariz., just down the road from where he once
spent time in the federal pokey. Barger has been arrested
21 times and spent more than 13 years in a variety of prisons,
most recently for plotting to blow up the clubhouse of the
rival biker club, The Outlaws.
Now he's a best-selling author. The publication of his
new autobiographical work, Hell's Angel: The Life and
Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angel Motorcycle Club,
co-authored by Keith and Kent Zimmerman, has put Barger
back on center stage. It has also forced him to put 23,000
miles on his new 2000 Road King, traveling Europe and the
States, pitching his book and clearing up misconceptions
about the Angels. Writer Ben Jacklet caught up with Barger
from a small motel in North Dakota.
WW: How was the run out from Minnesota?
Sonny Barger: So far it's been pretty good. We're about
50 miles from the Montana border and it's raining. Sitting
in a motel room. Pretty evening. We had an easy day. We
only made it about 500 miles.
Why are Harley Davidsons
so expensive?
Because everybody's buying them. They just went up so much
in the past few years. I read in the paper a few years ago
where a representative from Harley Davidson said, 'Enough
Harleys are too many.'
You've done some serious image work for that company
over the years. You would think they would owe you some
marketing royalties.
They don't even buy me a bike. Although I ride Harleys
and I work on them, I've never said anything good about
them.
Have you ever been tempted to take a new BMW out on
a run, or one of those Honda crotch rockets?
Yeah, I've been tempted, but I've never done it. I just
don't think I could put up with the flak I'd get from everybody.
What's the essential quality that every Angel has?
Loyalty to each other.
Do you think the average American enjoys more or less
freedom today than when you formed the Hell's Angels?
Less. People are giving up their freedom for safety. They're
letting more and more suppressive laws come into effect,
thinking it's going to make them safe. Like giving up all
their gun rights in all the states because they think criminals
aren't going to have guns. Criminals can have guns any time
they want them. It's the law-abiding people that can't.
Has your personal patriotism diminished in the last
30 years?
I don't think so.
Even in light of the time you've spent in prison and
the covert acts that law enforcement used against the Angels?
It's a good country, it's just that people are letting
the police departments and law enforcement get away with
too many things. Someday it's going to turn around and backfire.
If you could vote in 2000, who would you support for
president?
The Libertarian Party. They're the only people that really
give a damn about what's going on.
Law enforcement officials often refer to the Angels
as an organized crime group that runs guns and runs drugs.
What do you say to that?
I'd say that's baloney and they know it. Look at how many
methamphetamine labs have been busted up in California.
None of them have belonged to the Angels. It's just a play.
Whoever they want to blame, they blame.
Tell me this: the Hell's Angels,
is that a racist club?
Not to my knowledge.
A lot of people consider the group to be racist, or
misogynist, or fascist, or ultra-violent, or homophobic.
Is there any truth to this characterization?
I've never heard anybody say that.
Probably because no one would say it to your face.
Well then it probably isn't true.
Why come out with your book
at this time?
The club asked me to do it. In 1990 when I was in prison,
they asked me if I would start working on my life story
and a movie. After two writers and two agents, I finally
got a third agent and a third set of writers, and we got
the book going. What you see now is 10 years of my life.
I never wanted to write a book but the club asked me to
do it so it's done.
If you could pick the ultimate ride to do tomorrow,
what would it be?
Geez, I don't know. A ride anywhere is good. Probably one
of the better rides that I've had in my life was in Switzerland,
when we rode up into the Alps. We rode up so high we actually
rode into the clouds. It was really nice. There was a couple
hundred of us and it was a really good trip. But anywhere
is good.
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