Howard Stern is on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone, out now.
Here’s what the 65-year-old shock jock had to say…
On his recent tear about Wendy Williams and his decision to pull his comments from the rebroadcast: “I really got caught up in the moment. I didn’t think it was my finest hour. Some of my fans might think so. But I was reacting to someone who was accusing me of…I don’t even know. I just didn’t like her f–king attitude. But afterward, it just left me with a queasy feeling. I got kind of caught up in commenting on it. At the end of the day, do I really give a s–t that Wendy Williams was criticizing me? I kind of don’t. The idea of rebroadcasting it over and over again, it didn’t appeal to me.”
On his support for the LGBTQ community and erroneously thinking it might be possible to ‘cure’ people of being gay: “I’m a big proponent of gay people and gay people being treated fairly. I always liked that I was talking to a very macho male audience about ‘Hey, dudes. What do you care if some other guy wanted to blow a guy?’ Celebrate it. But, you know, back in the day I used to think, ‘Homosexuality might be something we can cure.’ What did I know? But so did the American Psychiatric Association up until the f–kin’ late Eighties.” [Editor’s note: This is a common misconception. The APA redefined homosexuality in 1973.]
On his old interview style and what he did wrong: “I was obsessive about the ratings. I wanted to continue being number one. I didn’t want to be the guy just spinning records. I wanted to be as big as the music I was playing. I wanted it to be about me. As the radio show grew and we were doing things that the government was freaking out about and religious groups were up my ass, I was really feeling pressure, like my career could be over any day. I had to entertain the audience and give them more and more. So on terrestrial radio, where you’re getting rated literally every minute, a guest would walk in and I say to myself, ‘I gotta get right to the f–king outrageous.’”
For more from Howard, head to RollingStone.com.