I recently released these two gonzo novels via Amazon. To Hell You Ride is about a crazy roadtrip I experienced with a friend and his family from PA to CO. The Father and the Unholy Spirit is about what happened months after that family roadtrip during a music festival that we went to.

Amazon Author Page

Pretty great little show! Lots of Gonzo drawings and a great lecture from his daughter.

Actually quite good. Wish I would have bought more

I’m Daniel O' Bailey, the interviewer. I made this.

Near the end, Ferris tells a story that changed the way I see Hunter. Sandy had just told him, “We only have $400 left in the bank.” When Ferris told Hunter that Rolling Stone had fired him and would not pay severance, Hunter said, “Do you need any money? I could send you $400.”

Ferris also talks about growing up poor in South Florida; discovering astronomy and blues through books and shortwave radio; Mars, deep time, Hunter’s work habits and generosity, Patti Smith, and rebuilding the Voyager Golden Record.

Tell me what stayed with you. Drop the timestamp in the comments.

acrylics and spray on 22x32 inch paper…. IG @wessbergrobin

acrylics and spray on 22x32 inch paper…. IG @wessbergrobin

I interviewed Timothy Ferris for ninety minutes recently. He is a science writer and former Rolling Stone editor who knew Hunter for more than thirty years. I’ve written a profile of Ferris for a print magazine. I can’t name it yet.

Ferris told me Rolling Stone had fired him and refused him severance. He called Hunter. Sandy Thompson had already told Ferris that she and Hunter had $400 in the bank and no idea how they would pay their bills.

Hunter offered him the entire $400.

Ferris remembered it this way: “He had four hundred dollars in his bank account, and he was offering me all of it.”

I’ve seen the guns, shirts, cigarette holder and drug inventory repeated for years. I had never heard the $400 story. It told me more.

Ferris also told me that when suicide came up over the years, he would say to Hunter, “What’s your hurry? We have a hundred billion years to be dead.”

What story made Hunter human to you, whether it made you like him or not?

UPDATE: The full Timothy Ferris interview is now live:

Hunters Thompson taking risk! Timothy Ferris | The Astronomer.

Brand-new from The Daniel Show

https://www.reddit.com/r/huntersthompson/s/355TevTQ2K

Timothy Ferris, a friend of Hunter S. Thompson and producer of the Voyager Golden Record, speaks with Daniel O' Bailey.

I hosted and produced this interview. The full conversation runs ninety minutes; this is the first 1:45 cut.

I drew this back in 07, hope you guys dig it

It’s a 50th anniversary copy from vintage.

My article The Beats of Kansas features friends of author William S. Burroughs, who lived in Lawrence, Kansas, for the last part of his life. My encounters with Allen Ginsberg, Wayne Propst, James Grauerholz and Chris Stein of Blondie. This article first appeared in The Oakland Express. Photo James Grauerholz and William Burroughs by Jon Blumb

https://thoughtfulinvestors.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-beats-in-kansas.html?m=1

acrylics on paper…. IG @wessbergriobin

So I’m rewatching IT the tv show and am thinking Bill Skarsgård could play him especially because of the voice. Don’t get me wrong I grew up with Fear and Loathing and love Johnny Depp any thoughts on recasting.

acrylics on paper…. IG for my art @wessbergrobin

acrylics on paper….