He called Hunter’s name and he didn’t respond.“Knowing it was going to happen did not prepare me at all. There was also troublemaking, stealing from a liquor store on Frankfort Avenue and breaking into Highland Presbyterian Church.He’s also heard more about the notorious incident that propelled his father out of Louisville: Hunter was in a car with two friends in Cherokee Park one night. It would have been awful to know or suspect what he was going to do. We find out whether that rum-sodden 1950s atmosphere survives in the modern capital. And, moving to — I don’t know what you call this, the Midwest? “It’s a pretty liberal town. He drives past his grandmother’s home on Ransdell Avenue, where Hunter was raised by a strict father who was an insurance agent until he died when Hunter was 13, leaving his mother to work at the library and turn to heavy drinking.He talks with childhood friends of Hunter’s to hear about a youth, one of BB guns and bicycles and, later, movies at the Vogue, débutante balls and meetings of the elite Athenaeum Literary Society at Male High School. “Fear and Loathing” had come out and was selling well, so they went to Glenwood Springs and bought a brand new Datsun station wagon.
Thompson's ashes were fired from a tower in a memorial service at Thompson… While accounts differ, Juan believes Hunter wasn’t involved in the robbery. Toward the back of the book, Juan offers a loving portrait of his father. JUAN F. THOMPSON, the only son of gonzo author Hunter S. Thompson, is a computer guy who lives in Colorado. Featuring Phil Qualman, superintendent of Eagle...Copper Mountain Resort is hiring year-round Security Officers!
Old San Juan is the setting for Hunter S Thompson's The Rum Diary, now a film starring Johnny Depp. It’s not the West, for sure,” he said. Later, starting in college, Juan went on his own to Louisville a few times to get to know his grandmother.In 1996, Juan traveled to Louisville for a night of speeches honoring Thompson at the Memorial Auditorium, when former Mayor Harvey Sloan gave him the key to the city.
“Writing is hard. Juan’s son calls Hunter “Ace,” never grandpa.“When I was a baby, that’s how he referred to himself, and that’s what he wanted me to call him.
After so many years of not wanting anything to do with Hunter, they’re proud of him as a native son,” he said. Juan was about 13 and taught himself to drive in their circular driveway.Juan also paints a portrait of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s, as Aspen and Woody Creek transformed from a mix of ranchers and hippies into a wealthy enclave.Juan is not a writer by trade and did not try to mimic his father’s style. He first rose to prominence with the publication of Hell's Angels (1967), a book for which he spent a year living and riding with the Hells Angels motorcycle gang to write a first-hand account of the lives and experiences of its members.
Juan Thompson writes about it in his memoir, Stories I Tell Myself: Growing Up with Hunter S. Thompson: “I heard stories of [Hunter] driving a … “Louisville, of all places.”Once here, though, he decided to take a more active role in his father’s legacy to ensure his literary and cultural contributions are not subsumed by his one-dimensional, Raoul Duke caricature that dominates some portrayals of him, including the film version of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”Along with helping plan this week’s eighth GonzoFest at the Louisville Free Public Library, where Hunter’s mother Virginia worked and retired, he’s also helping develop ideas for possible exhibitions at the Speed Art Museum showcasing the original artwork by collaborator Ralph Steadman and a Frazier History Museum exhibit on Thompson’s 1970 “Freak Power” campaign for sheriff in Aspen.“When he died, I felt an obligation to carry his legacy onward, then realized, first of all that’s a huge burden I am not suited to try to carry and it’s also an arrogant thing to think you can shape someone’s legacy. He was awful to my mom.”Early chapters offer a bracing picture of a childhood filled with fighting and “verbal death matches” between Hunter and his first wife, Sandy, with Juan caught in the middle.“I hated him deeply and completely.
Juan joined actor Johnny Depp, singer Warren Zevon and others celebrating his writing legacy, but it would take many more years before Louisville’s GonzoFest, murals and other reminders gained steam for his name to come up among famous hometown residents like Muhammad Ali.“It makes sense to be doing this in Louisville, where there’s greater emphasis and pride. First the sheriff arrived and then the news trucks and the deputies keeping them away from the house.“To see the CNN banner rolling across the screen saying, ‘Hunter Thompson has taken his life,’ it was surreal,” Juan said.Juan wrote most of his book in 2006, the year after his father committed suicide. It sounded forced, somehow,” Juan said.Building fires and cleaning guns became their father-son rituals, extending from Juan’s childhood until Hunter’s final days.
It is not such a unique story, but it has some unique elements,” Juan said.He always called him Hunter, never dad. Instead, the couple was robbed.
Juan Thompson’s book tells the story of father and son, through 41 years together, and what it was like to be the son of fearless outlaw journalist and writer Hunter S. Thompson.
I also did not want this to become my whole identity,” he said.His role may have been made clearer after finally completing his 2016 book, “Stories I Tell Myself: Growing up with Hunter S. Thompson,” which took nearly a decade to write, as he bounced between anger and longing toward his father. Lots of people had it worse than I did. He’d spent decades trying to forge a relationship with a father who was often absent, cold or terrifying, despite moments of bonding while cleaning guns or riding motorcycles.