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Issue 1297

50th ANNIVERSARY YEAR


October 5, 2017

The Coming
Superstorm
What Will
Happen
When a
Hurricane
Hits D.C.?
Fall Music
Preview
U2, Taylor
Swift,
Sam Smith
+ 12 MORE

Walter
Becker
1950-2017

The
Madness
of Donald
Trump
By Matt Taibbi
HBO NOW is only accessible through participating partners in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories. Certain restrictions apply. & 2017 Home Box Ofce, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

THE WORLD NEEDS HIM


NOW MORE THAN EVER.

SERIES RETURNS
OCT 1 AT 10PM
OR STREAM IT ON
All the
News
That Fits
BAPTIZED IN FIRE
Travis Scott at Bonnaroo,
June 11th. Page 40

F E AT UR E S RO CK & ROL L
26 40 11 17
What if D.C. Travis Scott Fall Album Preview Eric Wareheim
Is Next? Up close with the rapper U2s near-death experience, He built a comedy empire.
A major storm could paralyze whose shows are so wild Taylor Swifts dark turn, Why shouldnt he throw wild
the government. Why is the theyve landed him in jail. Sam Smiths emotional parties and eat cod sperm?
capital so unprepared? By Jonah Weiner return, and 12 more of the
seasons hottest releases. 21
By Justin Nobel
44 Season of the Weird
32 Trans and Homeless 15
Six new TV shows highlight
The Madness of On the street with Americas Steely Dans an oddball fall.
Donald Trump most vulnerable population. Quiet Hero
The presidency has pushed By L aur a Rena Murr ay Walter Becker was the wry
him to the edge, but is he perfectionist behind one of DEPA R T MEN TS
crazy enough to be removed rocks most idiosyncratic
FILMMAGIC

from office? ON THE COVER Illustration


bands even if he preferred Letters ........7 Records .... 53
of President Donald Trump by
By Matt Taibbi Victor Juhasz. to live in the shadows. Playlist ........8 Movies ...... 56

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6 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
Correspondence Love Letters
& Advice

Young Democrats
A Beach Boy Rolls On nice summary of progres-
sive activists [Rise of the
In RS 1295, managing editor Jason Fine proled the Beach Grassroots, RS 1295]. But we
Boys tormented genius, Brian Wilson, as he manages had lots of these independent
depression, heads out on tour and kicks ass at life groups in 2016. If the Demo-
[The Salvation of Brian Wilson]. Readers responded. cratic Party is not going to lead,
who is going to tie all of these
a f t e r s e e i ng w i l s on close moments revealed a groups into one cohesive move-
last year, I was so pumped fragile artist who, though ment at the local, state and na-
up I bought my daughter and (thankfully) much better tional levels? All these great
three of her friends tickets to than in earlier years, fights groups must act together.
an upcoming performance. I mental illness every day and ajspayd, via the Internet
didnt want her to miss this still worries whether people
icon. His musical contribu- like him. War of Waters
tions have meant so much in Steve Mullany, Nipomo, CA
Gadots Got It so many ways, its impos- while i wholeheartedly
sible to measure. support Roger Waters resis-
excellent article on gal Rick Wooliver tance to the Trump agenda,
Gadot [The Wonder of Gal Cincinnati his support of the Boycott, Di-
Gadot, RS 1295]. She has a vestment, Sanctions (BDS)
firm grasp on whats impor- please assure brian movement is totally misguid-
tant in life. She is the perfect Wilson his music has for ed [Roger Waters Fight, RS
embodiment of what Wonder over 50 years reached 1295]. One has to wonder why
Woman represents to us all. me on a spiritual level, Waters asks no accountability
Dave Kayajan eased my mind and of the Palestinian government,
Via the Internet made me feel love. Im pret- i wa s s t ruc k b y t h e which has rejected every olive
ty certain Im not alone. symbiosis of Glen Campbell branch Israel has offered dur-
i t h o r ou g h l y e n j o y e d Anthony M. Vertino and Brian Wilson the un- ing the past 20 years.
the Gadot cover story, espe- Via the Internet derlying sense of spirituali- Scott Benarde
cially the phrase her aura hov- ty in their work heightened West Palm Beach, FL
ers somewhere between Earth m y high school y e a rs by Glen subbing for Brian in
mother and glamazon. were brightened immeasur- the Beach Boys for several in addition to his opposi-
Kathy A. ably by young Brian Wilson months. What a blessing to tion to Trump, maybe Waters
Via the Internet and his band, so a little sad- still have Brian creating and can launch a campaign against
ness came to my heart as I performing! R.I.P., Glen. Kid Rock. It looks like we will
happy that when m y ex- read Fines gentle profile of Dana Duquet need all the help we can get.
cited young girls saw Wonder the 75-year-old genius. Up- Mount Kisco, NY Robert Ooms, Canton, MI
Woman on your cover, she was
fully clothed. Homme Rules
Shaun Reid
Alameda, CA
taibbi and countless oth-
ers are continually astounded
Goodbye, Cowboy g r e a t p i e c e o n joshua
by the antics of Trump. What legendary country music Homme [King of the Stone
The Hater-in-Chief they dont seem to do is put the singer Glen Campbell leaves a Age, RS 1295]. I could listen to
whole picture together: Donald musical legacy of numerous no- this guy talk for hours. His hon-
i a m i n full agr eemen t Trump is a total psychopath, table hits [Rhinestone Super- esty is priceless: That dumb-
with Matt Taibbi that Donald and everything he does and says star, RS 1295]. Upon the sad shit Robin Thicke. Love it.
Trump is an abomination of the is what psychopaths do. news of his death, this Rhine- Jim Davis, St. Louis
presidency [Why Trump Cant Dr. Richard Mitchell stone Cowboy will remain
Quit the Alt-Right, RS 1295]. Casa Grande, AZ Gentle on My Mind.
And its also true that Trump is JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater, FL Contact Us
never finished, never beaten. taibbi is one of the few LETTERS to ROLLING STONE , 1290 Avenue
In spite of his obvious racism great political writers who hit a i was a longhaired flow- of the Americas, New York, NY
10104-0298. Letters become the
and general meanness, his base home run every time. But I have er child of the Sixties, but to get property of ROLLING STONE and may
remains solidly in support of heard about Trumps doom be- above the fray, my go-to guy be edited for publication.
him, and Republican majorities fore. Hopefully, Taibbi is again was Campbell. Great tribute E-MAIL letters@rollingstone.com
have not yet abandoned him. 100 percent correct. (that picture would have made SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Go to
RollingStone.com/customerservice
Andy Paquet Carl Hokanson a great cover). Subscribe Renew Cancel Missing Issues
Uniontown, OH Acushnet, MA R.F. Ratcliff, via the Internet Give a Gift Pay Bill Change of Address

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 7
MY LIST

2. U2
1. Sam Smith Youre the Best
Too Good at Thing About Me
They call it punk Matt
Goodbyes
The U.K. soul crooners
Motown, euphoric on
the starlit surface but
crippled inside. Bono
Shultz
rst single in two years
proves no one this
sings about a rapture Five Songs That
so intense its sure to Inspired Me
side of Adele can top die, making for one of
him when it comes to U2s great ambivalent
afflicted majesty. Every The Cage the Elephant
anthems.
time you hurt me, the frontman is in the midst
less that I cry, he sings, of a tour during which
the band will open for the
trying to play it tough 3. SZA Rolling Stones in France.
over churchy R&B. Quicksand
But Smith doesnt
SZAs contribution to La Femme
really do stoic, the soundtrack from the Antitaxi
and his tearful excellent second season Some French friends
falsetto ache of HBOs Insecure is a turned me on to this.
gives this a slinky Eighties synth- It has some Kraftwerk
stark power. funk dream; she makes elements to it. Somehow
being scared of love it feels classic, but very
feel awesome. much in the future.

Serge Gainsbourg
4. St. Vincent 6. Gary
Lemon Incest
This song is superweird.
Los Ageless
Art-rock hero Annie Clarks Los
Clark Jr. The drum and synth
sounds are very 1980s,
Ageless (from her forthcoming LP Come and hes singing it with
Masseduction) is a great entrant into Together his daughter. Its really
the canon of songs about L.A. as a The Texan messed up.
gilded dead zone that keeps pulling blues-guitar
you in, driven home with scorched- god knocks
sunset synths and just the right
Os Mutantes
out a scorching Ave Lucifer
amount of tortured guitar static. version of the This is somewhere be-
Beatles clas- tween the Velvet Under-
sic its even ground, the Beatles and
better than moody Stones, but they
Aerosmiths. sing in Portuguese, so its
got a Latin air. CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: RUVEN AFANADOR; JOE SCARNICI/GETTY IMAGES;

Jorge Ben
Ponta de Lana
GABRIEL OLSEN/FILMMAGIC; DANNY COHEN; C FLANIGAN/WIREIMAGE

Africano
We listen to this on the
tour bus to wake up in
the morning. They play
7. ILoveMakonnen guitar like a drum, so
5. Courtney Barnett feat. Rae Sremmurd its very rhythmic.
and Kurt Vile Love
Over Everything Rae Sremmurd The Cramps
try Cali punk pop Human Fly
Two of indie rocks sharpest
on this breakup Im obsessed with this
songwriters are releasing a collabora-
jam with rapper since you can play it in the
tive album full of autumnal guitar
Makonnen. same playlist as Kendrick
prettiness and warm, wry lyrics.
Black Beatles? Lamars m.A.A.d City
Here they converse about quiet
How about and it works. Its very
mornings, songwriting and loss of
the Black punk, very raw.
hearing, trading verses and bent
riffs like back-porch buddies. Blink-182?

8 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017

Jim Beam Black Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 43% Alc./Vol. 2017 James B. Beam Distilling Co., Clermont, KY

R Y

O
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Awarded International Wine & Spirits

H I ST
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MA K E
Q&A ROBERT PLANT P. 19 | TV THE DEUCE CHANNELS NYS MEAN STREETS P. 20

FALL
ALBUWM
PREVIE

U2s
New
Fire
How a personal
crisis inspired their
intense new album
BY A NDY G R E E N E

U2 Songs of Experience
December 1st
The past three years have
tested U2 in different ways,
from the fierce backlash
they received for gifting
2014s Songs of Innocence
to every iTunes user to Bo-
nos devastating bicycle ac-
cident, which left him with
several fractured bones
and a shattered left arm.
But those setbacks didnt
compare to another crisis
Bono faced last year. He
had a brush with mortality,
says the Edge, choosing his
words carefully (the band BEAUTIFUL DAY
wont go into detail on the I wanted the
matter). He denitely had people around
me that I loved
a serious moment, which
ROSS STEWART

to know exactly
caused him to reect on a how I felt,
lot of things. [Cont. on 12] Bono says.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 11
R&R

U2 a specific purpose, says the


Edge, from Lillywhites feel for
[Cont. from 11] The episode navigating the bands arrange-
caused the band to rethink ments to Lees fascination with
Songs of Experience, a compan- hip-hop production. While the
ion to Songs of Innocence that huge team may suggest overkill,
they had already been working the band was actually trying its
on for more than two years. The best to capture the straightfor-
resulting LP features less of the ward energy of its live shows.
slick production that dened In- Bono remembers a key moment
nocence, in favor of a more clas- when U2 took a break from re-
sic formula: propulsive guitar Already cording and gathered at their
rockers and ballads that look rehearsal space and played the
inward. Says the Edge, In the sent songs live. We were able to
back of his mind he was think- strip them down to their bare
ing, If Im not around, what essentials without any studio
would I like to leave behind? I WILL
trickery to see what we really
Adds Bono, I wanted the people FOLLOW had, he says. We learned so
around me that I loved to know The Edge much about the songs, and that
exactly how I felt. So a lot of the onstage in helped with cohesiveness.
songs are kind of letters letters New Jersey Walking the line between
to [my wife] Ali, letters to my this year. vintage U2 and modern rock
sons and daughters. music was a big challenge. We
Bono cites another reason litical dystopia. (A big mouth have changed: Ive always be- need to make sure that we are
why the album was delayed: says the people, they dont want lieved in working across the part of a current conversation
politics. For the rst time in to be free for free, he howls.) aisle as an anti-poverty activist, in music culture in terms of pro-
many years, maybe in our life- Bono wrote the haunting Sum- but this isnt a matter of right duction and songwriting, me-
time, the moral arc of the uni- mer of Love, meanwhile, after or left. Theres a bully on the lodic structure, says the Edge.
verse, as Dr. King used to call it, watching a CNN report about bully pulpit, and silence is not Sometimes, the group would
was not bending in the direction a man in Aleppo, Syria, who an option. record vintage and modern ver-
of fairness, equality and justice maintained his garden in the U2 worked with a rotat- sions of the same song before
for all, he says. After Trumps middle of brutal war. Bono was ing crew of producers during making a decision. We dont
election in November, some really inspired by his deance, the three-year-plus process, want to be perceived as and
songs needed to be reworked. says the Edge. including Jacknife Lee, Andy we dont want to sound like a
The song The Blackout went While the group has avoided Barlow, Ryan Tedder, Jolyon veteran act out of touch with
from what Bono calls a tale of overt political statements in Thomas and Steve Lillywhite. where the culture is, says the
personal apocalypse . . . to po- recent years, Bono says things Each one was brought in for Edge. Its a balance.

Liam Gallagher
Taylor Swift As You Were October 6th

Im not saying my songs are


Reputation November 10th
better than Oasis songs, says
the bands former frontman,
FROM TOP: TAYLOR HILL/FILMMAGIC; JOHN SALANGSANG/INVISION/AP IMAGES

Falls most tightly guarded secret, Reputa- who steps out as a songwriter
tion, is described by a source as lyrically usually his estranged broth-
sharper and more emotionally complex er Noels gig with impressive
results on his solo debut. But
than 1989. Its rst singles are in the 1989
theyre definitely as loud as
mode of moody electro-pop, with the Jack them! Crafted with co-writers
Antonoff-produced blare of Look What like the ubiquitous Greg Kurst-
You Made Me Do and the peppier hip- in, the LP taps into the Oasis
hop jam . . . Ready for It? The artwork vein: tight rock tunes spiked
with psychedelia, and mam-
Swift in a Flashdance-style sweatshirt,
moth choruses from one of
gazing through headlines of her name rocks most casually charismat-
suggest shes again pondering the time- ic voices. I prefer straight out-
old mystery of, as she once sang, why and-out rock & roll numbers,
people throw rocks at things that shine. says Gallagher. Theres no one
doing it. And I certainly dont
wanna make a prog record.

12 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
FALL
ALBUM
PREVIEW

Beck
Colors October 13th A R C H I VA L S E T S
Beck was working on Colors
even before he released 2014s
stripped-down Morning Phase.
I suppose the record couldve
come out a year or two ago, he
says. But I wanted to take the
time to crystallize and distill
everything. Produced by Greg
Kurstin who was Becks tour-
ing keyboardist before he went
on to produce hits for Adele and
others the result is relentless-
ly upbeat, full of glossy anthems
like Seventh Heaven and the
falsetto-steeped Square One,
where Beck sings about heart-
break as a chance to reset. The
best songs make you glad to be
alive, he says.

Billy Corgan
Ogilala October 13th
Corgan was midway through Bob Dylan
recording a new Smashing Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 13, 1979-1981
Pumpkins LP when he decid- November 3rd
ed to abandon the project and
dramatically rethink his career.
My interest in working under Dylans Christian period (1979-81) re- of revelations: There are six vastly differ-
the name Smashing Pump- mains one of his most controversial ent versions of Slow Train, plus 14 unre-
kins is not as interesting to me and debated chapters. Whats often lost leased songs, such as Making a Liar Out
without the original people in- in those arguments is that it produced of Me, which has escaped bootleggers
volved, he says, possibly teas- some of his greatest concerts. Trouble No for more than 30 years. A one-hour lm
ing a reunion. Instead, he wrote More, an eight-CD set, proves that point, features footage from 1980 and a deep-
a series of stark songs and re- with live highlights from that time, when ly moving version of Pressing On. Says
corded them with producer Dylans band included legendary session Dylan scholar Clinton Heylin, Like the
Rick Rubin, using mostly gui- players like organist Spooner Oldham mid-1960s, he was at the absolute peak
tar, piano and strings. Corgan and drummer Jim Keltner. The set is full of his powers.
says, Rick Rubin has a special,
almost spectral-like quality of
getting to the heart of a song in and paved the way for stadium super-
a way thats really unique. stardom. They revisited Master of Pup-
pets for a set that includes 10 CDs, a
FROM TOP: GEORGE ROSE/GETTY IMAGES; KOH HASEBE/SHINKO MUSIC/GETTY IMAGES

Niall Horan coffee-table book and even a live cas-


sette. There are rare covers like a fu-
Flicker October 20th
rious version of Fangs hardcore classic
The blond heartthrob was the The Money Will Roll Right In and
folkie of One Direction, with a demos that reveal how the songs were
subtle delivery and a penchant written; Master of Puppets goes from
for playing acoustic guitar live. a James Heteld guitar riff to a 12-min-
His solo debut will build on ute epic. The band also decided to in-
that identity, inspired by Seven- clude a tape of bassist Cliff Burtons nal
ties California rock (hes called concert before a fatal tour-bus accident,
mentor Don Henley Dad). Metallica and a disc featuring replacement Jason
So far its working: The gui- Master of Puppets [Remastered Deluxe Newsteds first gig two months later.
tar-heavy single Slow Hands Box Set] November 10th Theres been some additional emotion
is a pop hit. Horan spent six with this reissue, says drummer Lars
months writing with a crew With thrashers like Battery and Dis- Ulrich. You pause and think of all the
that had previously crafted 1D posable Heroes, Metallicas 1986 clas- craziness, but also how fortunate we are
hits. I wanted this album to sic broke them out of the underground to still be out here doing it.
be completely personal, Horan
says, therefore, the best way

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 13
FALL
ALBUM
PREVIEW

Camila Cabello
The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving Release date TBD

Cabello was the breakout star of Fifth Harmony before she quit the group
last year, in part because she didnt like their creative process: A&R would
play you the songs youre going to cut that day, and then a vocal producer will
tell you what youre going to sing, she says. Its just not for me. Cabello in-
sisted on co-writing the songs on her debut, which she says combines main-
stream pop with her Latin roots. She drew heavily on relationship drama,
from a crushing breakup more than a year ago to an encounter with a fa-
mous boy I met at an after-Grammys party. She adds, I was using writ-
ing as therapy. The music went through a hell of a ride, because I did, too.

for me to get what I wanted out I had changed, she says. That recommends turning off the difference that I saw between
of the songs was to write them song is my baby of the record. news entirely. back in the day and those men
with friends. marching with torches was that
Morrissey Mavis Staples they showed their faces. . . . No
sheets. Her third LP with Jeff
Weezer Low in High School Nov. 17th If All I Was Was Black
Tweedy producing includes
Pacic Daydream Oct. 27th November 17th
The people and politicians We Go High, which quotes
Rivers Cuomo has always had everywhere are in a state of Staples says Trumps race-bait- Michelle Obamas 2016 DNC
an obsessive streak. But he took mutual contempt, says Mor- ing rhetoric got her thinking speech, while the funky throw-
it to another level on Weezers rissey, describing the heavy about how little has changed back Build a Bridge propos-
11th album, creating a software emotions behind his 11th solo since she traveled the country es a hopeful alternative to
script that sifted through his LP. Translate all of this into singing at Dr. Martin Luther Trumps border wall.
backlog of musical ideas and great music and life becomes King Jr.s speeches. It seems
paired them based on key and hopeful. He aims for optimism that theres suddenly been a Sam Smith
tempo. Then I can see which on All the Young People Must rebirth of bigotry and hate
Title and release date TBD
ideas most likely t with each Fall in Love, about seizing lifes its like Im reliving the Six-
other, says Cuomo. Its like col- small thrills during the Trump ties, she says, before bringing Smith had a tough time after
laborating with myself. Cuomo era, and Spent the Day in Bed up Charlottesville: The only 2014s Grammy-winning In the
and producer Butch Walk- Lonely Hour, which sold more
er crafted a series of songs far than 10 million copies world-
more modern-sounding than wide. I became very distant to
2016s White Album. Theres my family and friends, he said
a lot more atmospheric guitar
and effects on my vocals, says
Noel Gallagher recently. After a year off to re-
group, hes back with a gospel-
Cuomo. Id never done that be- Title and release date TBD steeped LP that reunites him
fore. Its very trippy. with producer Jimmy Napes
FROM TOP: KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY IMAGES; ROSS GILMORE/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES
(who co-wrote his megahit
Its unashamedly a fuckin pop album, says Gallagher of
Kelsea Ballerini Stay With Me), and recruits
his third LP with the High Flying Birds. Producer David new collaborators Timba land
Unapologetically Nov. 3rd Holmes, a Northern Irish electronic musician, and R&B hitmakers Stargate.
Ballerinis debut scored a Num- pushed Gallagher to put down his acoustic The single Too Good at Good-
ber One country hit (Peter and build tracks pulling generously from his byes is about a recent failed
Pan) and got Nashville won- relationship. This album is a
favorite songs; If Love Is the Law samples
dering if she was the country- selection of short stories from
pop heir to Taylor Swift. Shes Brian Eno, and Holy Mountain borrows the last two years of my life, he
trying not to get swept up in a hook from Sixties bubblegum group says. Ive poured every ounce
the hype; though Ballerini, 24, Ice Cream. Its all about beautiful of my heart into every song.
says she was pitched undeni- women, getting high, everything Fucking hope people like it.
able hits for her follow-up, she
the fuckin terrorists hate, Gal-
was intent on co-writing ev- reporting by Patrick
erything. She singles out High lagher says. I reckon if I went to Doyle, Andy Greene, Kory
School, a ballad she wrote after Syria and played it for ISIS, itd all Grow, Brian Hiatt, Dan
returning home to Knoxville, be fuckin over. I reckon itd even Hyman, Maura Johnston,
Tennessee, after leaving at 15. turn Trump around. Brittany Spanos, Christopher
It made me realize how much R. Weingarten

14 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
WALTER BECKER 1950-2017

SHOW
BIZ KIDS
Becker
(left) and
Fagen, 1977

Steely Dans Quiet Hero


Walter Becker was a wry perfectionist behind one of rocks
most eccentric bands even if he preferred life in the shadows
BY DAV I D BROW N E

seclusion and rebirth he endured as an adult. Any kind of

F
or years, an yone who wanted to use
the bathroom while visiting Walter Beckers desire for validation or worldly applause was so well-hidden,
studio in the countryside of Maui was direct- if it was there at all, says producer and friend Larry Klein.
ed outside. There, on one of the walls of a prim- Becker had been battling health issues for more than a
itive, wood-slatted outhouse, theyd nd a gold- decade, though few friends knew the severity of his situa-
record plaque for Steely Dans Aja which, over tion. I understand Walter was ill, says Chevy Chase, who
time, began oxidizing and tarnishing in the ocean air. met Fagen and Becker during their Bard College days and
It was a prime example of the irreverence, unashiness stayed in touch, but I had no idea how sick. Even Beckers
and dark humor that Becker, who died at 67 on Septem- death remains a mystery; at press time, no cause had been
ber 3rd, displayed his whole life. There were few, if any, announced, but sources close to the Dan camp say he strug-
rock stars like him. He looked and acted like a droll col- gled with hepatitis C and may have succumbed to cancer.
lege professor, and in conversation he could expound on Born in New York in 1950, Becker was the product of
Samuel Becketts plays, delve into the details of the Man- a broken home. When his parents separated, his British
hattan Project or rattle off the names of sidemen on ob- mother moved back to England, and Becker was raised by
scure jazz records. his father and a grandmother. His father, who dealt in pa-
Becker was as much an architect of Steely Dans airtight per-shredding equipment, had a heart attack when Walter
sound and skewed sensibility as his friend, singer-keyboard- was 16 and later died from another one, on a business trip. I
ist Donald Fagen. The two co-wrote the Dans songs, over- reacted badly to it in a number of ways, Becker told Roll-
saw their legendarily persnickety recording sessions, and ing Stone in 2000, and nothing captured my imagination
shared a love of Beat writing, sci- and other topics that re- again for a while. His family situation was really rough,
sulted in the parade of freaks and geeks who inhabited their says Klein. That has a tendency to form a dark sense of
songs. A behind-the-scenes maestro, Becker often let oth- humor. Youre either going to laugh at it or cry all the time.
HENRY DILTZ

ers play his parts on record, and few fans knew the dramat- Thanks to a Queens neighbor, Becker was introduced to
ic arc of his life his painful childhood, and the addiction, guitar, and he took that interest with him when he enrolled

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 15
R&R
WALTER BECKER 1950-2017

at Bard. One day in 1967, Fagen recalls, he heard someone Gradually, Becker eased himself back into music. After
playing guitar with an authentic blues touch and feel, and a reconnecting with Fagen, Becker produced his partners
convincing vibrato. The students, who shared tastes in what 1993 solo album, Kamakiriad. That same year, the two res-
Fagen remembered as jazz, blues, all sorts of popular music, urrected Steely Dan for their rst tour in 19 years. On a new
Nabokov and . . . black humor, began jamming in bands, one creative roll, Becker in 1994 released his rst solo record,
of which included Chase, another Fagen classmate. 11 Tracks of Whack. If you listen close, you can hear Wal-
Fagen graduated from Bard, Becker dropped out, and ters contributions [to the Dan] his sense of humor and
both got jobs as staff writers at ABC Records. They soon choice of odd subject matter, says guitarist Dean Parks,
launched the band that would become Steely Dan, with who played in Steely Dan sessions. One of its songs, Girl-
guitarist Denny Dias. As the Dans music grew more sophis- friend, hinted at his early post-Dan life: Alone in my cave/
ticated and lyrically sub- Its cornakes and Cam-
versive, Becker and Fagen els/And the long, restless
quit touring and ditched shadows of my life.
the strict band for studio OLD W hen Becker a nd
SCHOOL
pros. The duo put musi- Fagen began work on
Becker
cians through grueling in 2015 2000s Two Against Na-
sessions, as Michael Mc- ture, Steely Dans rst LP
Donald learned when he in 20 years, their relation-
attempted to add back- ship picked up where it
up vocals to Doctor Wu left off. They would cri-
on the Dans 1975 album tique each others parts
Katy Lied. I just could on paper and clipboard;
not get it, McDonald says. Gaslighting Abbie took
And of course they made 26 straight eight-hour
no bones about it. A lot of days to nail. There was
it was in jest, but Walter some tension, says engi-
would say, Have you been neer Dave Russell, who
to the doctor lately? This ran Beckers studio. But
should be easy for you Walter respected Don-
whats the problem? They ald. It was Steely Dan. It
were harsh taskmasters had to sound good. To
not harsh, but they set the the shock of many, Two
bar high. He was an unbelievable guitarist, Against Nature won a
As an instrumentalist, but plenty of times he wouldnt play. Grammy for Album of the
Becker made invaluable Year, beating out Radio-
contributions, whether head, Eminem, Beck and
playing bass on each of Paul Simon.
the rst three albums or Becker and his wife,
ripping spiky guitar solos on FM (No Static at All), Bad Elinor, had a son, Kawai, and adopted a daughter, Sayan.
Sneakers and Black Friday. But he was just as content Their marriage ended in divorce in 1997, and Becker moved
to hire session pros to play his parts. He was an unbeliev- to New York to be with a girlfriend. Thanks to improved
able guitar player all the notes that came out were so un- sound systems, Becker began to relish live performance, and
usual, says engineer Elliot Scheiner. But plenty of times Steely Dan toured regularly for more than a decade. But the
he wouldnt play, and I never understood why. As Becker group made only one more album, 2003s Everything Must
explained, Donald and I had more of an idea that comes Go. Making a Steely Dan record had become kind of ago-
from an East Coast Brill Building tradition, of an almighty nizing for Walter, says Klein. He was craving to cut a re-
producer, when you had a Leiber and Stoller, or at its ex- cord where you could hear the blood in it.
treme a Phil Spector, who knew exactly what they wanted. Earlier this year, Becker was in a good mood backstage
Around the time of 1980s Gaucho, Beckers life began at a Dan show in California, but his health soon went down-
unraveling. He was hit by a taxi and was briey conned to hill, and Steely Dan began playing some shows without him.
a wheelchair. The punishing Gaucho sessions strained his A week before his death, Fagen visited his partner in the
relationship with Fagen, and Becker fell prey to a growing hospital to cheer him up an experience he described to
drug habit, reportedly heroin. In January 1980, his girl- his friend Pete Fogel the night before Becker died. He was
friend, Karen Stanley, overdosed and died in their New York composed, but you could tell he was sad, says Fogel, who
apartment. By the next year, hed lost his band as well. His encountered Fagen backstage. He reminisced about their
habits got the best of him by the end of the Seventies, Fagen years working together and how Walter was one of his good
wrote, and we lost touch for a while. friends. It was heartbreaking.
To refocus his life, Becker retreated to Hawaii, where For now, Steely Dan will continue; they return to tour-
SCOTT DUDELSON/FILMMAGIC

he met and later married a local yoga teacher. He bought ing on October 13th. Beckers legacy, the way he and Fagen
a farm on Maui and immersed himself in surng, tai chi, subverted pop norms, will also endure; unexpected converts
mountain biking and a healthy diet. He really seemed to include Mark Ronson and Beck. People can sort of listen to
embrace the spirit of being in a place like Hawaii, says Mc- it at whatever level, Becker once said of the Dans records.
Donald, who visited Becker there. I remember feeling that Its been universally agreed that our music is the best pos-
Walter had found some peace. sible Muzak rock Muzak to play in the supermarket.

16 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
Wareheim at
home in L.A.
in August

Sex, Drugs, Comedy


Eric Wareheim built an empire. So why shouldnt he throw
ass-themed parties, eat cod sperm, and share it all on Instagram?
BY JONA H W EINER
I know who strip started doing these hard- ucts like Old Spice and Totinos Pizza Rolls

A
fe w y e a r s ag o, er ic
Wareheim took a photo of core moves and kind of freaked him out. brands hoping to aim some of Tim and
his then-girlfriends naked How crazy do the parties get? There are Erics unhinged energies at a younger gen-
ass and sent it to an ice sculp- limits, Wareheim says. People hook up, eration of irony- and Internet-addled cus-
tor. Wareheim likes to throw but its not, like, an orgy. tomers. The duos newest series, a sort of
raucous house parties based on differ- You might know Wareheim for por- Twilight Zone homage called Bedtime Sto-
ent parts of anatomy, he says. I did one traying Aziz Ansaris big buddy Arnold on ries, returned to Adult Swim in September.
called Black Cock [black light and penis- Master of None the inventive, eight-time Whereas Heidecker is married with kids,
themed]. Another one was Laser Boobs. Emmy-nominated Netix comedy series, Wareheim is a bachelor and bon vivant to
The sculptor took Wareheims photo and several episodes of which Wareheim also a degree that hes only ramped up in recent
used it to carve an enormous ice butt, co-wrote and directed. But he rst made years. He hangs out not only with Ansari
which became the centerpiece of an ass- his name as half of the brilliantly bizarre but also with a crew of twentysomething
focused party called Snow Booty. The cult comedy duo Tim and Eric. After the artists, visiting beautiful locales with them
sculpture had a canal carved into it that success of the pairs Tim and Eric Awesome and posting about it on Instagram. Ill
served as a conduit for booze, with its lower Show, Great Job!, Wareheim was able to admit Im sort of addicted to that social-
opening at the butt hole. My girlfriend form a mini comedy empire with his part- media thing of Look at me! Im with hot
made booty juice tequila and grapefruit ner, Tim Heidecker, helping to foster idio- babes on a yacht! Wareheim says. Like
and we all did shots out of her ice ass, syncratic voices their production compa- Ansari, he is a globe-trotting gourmand,
Wareheim says. The party also featured a ny, Abso Lutely, is behind Comedy Bang! willing to try anything once. Ive eaten
snow machine and a white-apparel dress Bang! and the genius Nathan for You, cod sperm, he says. Ive eaten horse. Hes
code, though the latter was rendered moot among other series. Awesome Show also about to release Las Jaras, his own line of
when people stripped down and jumped allowed Wareheim to carve out a sideline natural wines produced in collaboration
into his pool. Clothes have a habit of com- directing psychotic, hallucinatory music with a Napa winemaker. At 41, in other
ing off at Wareheims parties: One time, he videos for cool acts (Major Lazer, Beach words, Wareheim is more successful than
hired a male stripper, and then these girls House) and devising commercials for prod- ever and enjoying the hell out of it.

Photograph by Koury A ngelo RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 17


R&R
He says hes nishing a screenplay for
SAY CHEESE a feature lm inspired by time he spent
Ansari and
recently as a single man in New York. He
Wareheim in
Master of None. emphasizes that it is not a comedy: Its
called Animals. Its inspired by me going
out on dates, doing stuff thats not in my
wheelhouse. Ive dated all kinds of people.
I dont know what to tell you without get-
ting too personal, but, like, Chloe and Carly
introduced me to a dominatrix friend of
theirs, and we went to a spanking party.
Id be writing on the Lower East Side and
Chloe would call me from Bushwick, like,
Some guys getting sted youve gotta get
over here. He recounts all this in reverent
tones, like hes describing a quasi-religious
awakening. Millennials just feel free, he
says. Like, theyre into polyamory: Lets
hang out, but I have a partner. In high
school I was such a prude. I was a product
of my parents: Get a girl, get married. So
to see young people who are so free? Its a
Do you want a barrel-aged negroni? really warm thing.
he asks. Its an early Friday evening and Wareheim leads me out to his pool and
Wareheim is at his airy midcentury mod- Wareheim attended a small cabana beside it. This is my Sev-
ern home, on an eastside Los Angeles hill- a spanking party: enties gold den, he says. Theres white
top. I bought this house, like, nine years Millennials feel free. carpeting and ample gold decor. On the
ago. It was a bit beyond my budget, but a adjoining patio, a bikini is slung across a
producer told me, Thatll just make you Theyre into polyamory. chair. The pool was my big splurge, he
hustle more, and he was right. Wareheims Its a really warm thing. says. We sit beside his hot tub, at a table
wearing a white button-down and yellow holding a little jar of weed and a plastic
corduroy short-shorts. An Instacart de- drinking straw shaped like a penis. I grew
livery woman is piling his foyer with bags ans (Michael Cera, Zach Galianakis) and up with nothing, Wareheim says. I was
of groceries. I do a lot of late-night order- transxing nonprofessionals (ventriloquist a voyeur of culture, because there wasnt
ing, he says, noting that when he made David Liebe Hart), all of them sporting much culture in Audubon, Pennsylvania.
this particular order, I was stoned and I wardrobes, hairdos and makeup straight The rst time I ate Thai food I was in col-
went crazy I ordered so many cookies. out of some ungodly 00s-era J.C. Penney lege, and I decided I wanted to travel the
He peers into a bag and laughs: I bought fever dream. Tim and Eric proved expert world and eat food. I found a way to do it:
a whole chicken?! He pours me the ne- at mining the American grotesque for a through TV and stuff. He sips his negroni.
groni, which has been sitting for the past new generation of comedy aficionados, Hanging out in Philly, I learned how to
60 days in a squat oak vessel perched atop scrambling the line between the absurd hustle. I used to photograph weddings to
his kitchen island. Aziz got this barrel for and the abject, the hilarious and the horri- pay my rent. But I was into music and art.
me after Season One its from a bourbon fying. When people hang out with me for A lot of comedians, comedy is their only
distillery in Kentucky. As Wareheim rubs the rst time, theyre like, Why arent you thing. Comedy wasnt my dream till Tim
an orange peel along the rim of my glass, I insane? Wareheim says. Their inuences and I showed people our shit and they
notice a vintage Rolex on his wrist: Aziz include not only alt-comedy heroes like Bob laughed.
got me this after Season Two, he says. Its Odenkirk and David Cross but also David Wareheim grabs a pair of swim shorts;
so nice, Im almost afraid to wear it. Lynch, Stanley Kubrick and the scatologi- hes going to Ansaris house later, and
Wareheim starts tossing spoiled food cal art star Paul McCarthy. We stumbled well probably get into the pool. First,
from his fridge into an enormous garbage into one of his gallery shows around the we drive to an Echo Park vegetarian gem
bag, making space. He slides the roast time we nished college, says Wareheim. called the Elf Cafe, where the staff all
chicken in. I was a vegetarian for seven It was all these animatronic people and know Wareheim. He orders two glasses
years, he says. He tosses some boxes of pigs fucking each other. We were like, You of Txakolina: Its this light, salty, mild-
frozen chicken nuggets into his freezer. can get paid to do this? ly effervescent white, he says. I observe
Being a pescetarian is my goal today. Fac- He takes me on a tour of his house. In that his oenophilia might surprise fans
tory-farmed meat is so . . . Trumpish. At the living room there are bright-colored of Awesome Show, which was ferociously
this point Ive traveled the world, eaten the paintings, photographs and sculptures unpretentious, and where, on those oc-
best steaks in Italy. . . . Now Im trying to get by young artists whom Wareheim has be- casions when food appeared onscreen, it
more woke about my consumption. friended, like Jen Stark, Samuel Borkson was in service of gross-out laughs. A lot
Tim and Eric native Pennsylvanians and Carly Mark. Carly does these Haribo- of comedians are dark, fucked-up people,
who met as lm students at Temple Uni- gummi-bear butt plugs, Wareheim says, Wareheim replies. Tim and I are dark
versity crafted a low- oddball universe pointing to one nearby. He identies Mark, and fucked up too, but we balance it with
inspired by the clammy, uncanny ambi- 29, and Chloe Wise, 26, who is one of the light. He sniffs the Txakolina and sighs
ence of late-night public-access TV: Awe- more prominent members of what is often with pleasure. For me, comedy and wine
some Shows hallmarks were violently bad called the post-Internet art scene, as my are the same thing. My house parties, too.
NETFLIX

sound editing, cheesy graphics, a cast that New York best friends. I hang out with Theyre all just different tools for bringing
comprised both big-name guest comedi- them. I dont hang out with comedians. people joy.

18 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
will. I keep my head down and dissolve

H
Q&A
old on a minute, the
little doggys about to run into books.
away, Robert Plant says You lived in Austin before returning to
as he puts the phone down the U.K. three years ago. What was that
at his home in England, on the Welsh time like?
border. After a vacation in Morocco, Wonderful. I was embraced by the
Plant sounds antsy as he prepares to community there and exposed to so
release his new album, Carry Fire. He many great musicians and played a
recorded it with a group of musicians lot of great gigs. Patty Griffin and I
under the name the Sensational Space started a band called Crown Vic. I
Shifters, many of whom he rst worked bought an old cop car and we drove to
with in 2002, and returned to in 2014 play a festival in Marfa, Texas, listen-
after projects with Alison Krauss and ing to all the appropriate music. But
the Band of Joy and, of course, a one- maybe I was a bit too old to make the
off Led Zeppelin reunion in 2007. Fea- move. It was with a very heavy heart I
turing a diverse crew of world musi- had to come back to Wales. It felt like
cians, the band blends Middle Eastern, a major defeat.
American and Celtic roots music. Its a So why did you leave?
little wild, a little bit crazy in concept, I missed my family, and I wanted
says Plant, 69, who plans to tour the some peace. Without being too cheesy,
world with the Space Shifters in 2018. I missed the misty mountains the wet
Weve got a kind of communal drift, Welsh climate. I like weather people
which has stayed with us no matter run away from.
what other projects we do. Its like a Whats your life like in Wales?
brotherhood, really. Ive got great friends and a really
good dog. I play tennis. I play soccer
Plenty of your Sixties contemporaries every Wednesday at 7 p.m. I play till
are still on the road, but most arent someone says, Go in goal it looks
regularly releasing new music. like youre gonna die. Then somebody
Anyone who gets tangled up in brings the debrillator quick.
music and performance wants to keep Last year, you spent two weeks with your
it going. But by which means do you do old bandmates to ght for the writing
it? Cramming the stuff into the suit- credits of Stairway to Heaven. Did it
case again and playing live? Or is it feel like old times?
creativity, another adventure, and try- [Laughs] Um, well, what was once
ing to impress people who often want a steady date becomes a cup of coffee.
to hear how it was rather than how it Thats basically how it turned out, a cup
is? Thats what Ive been trying to do. of coffee from time to time. But noth-
After we lost John [Bonham] in 1980, ing intimate.
I waited two albums before I went on Were coming up on the 10-year anniver-
tour, and when I did, I didnt play any sary of Zeppelins Celebration Day. How
Zeppelin stuff. do you look back on that night?
How did it feel touring without Zeppelin It was magnicent. We hit a home
for the rst time? run that night, which is something
Like my world had collapsed. But that we were really fearful of. There
what happened in the rst place when was probably more riding on that than
you didnt have a game? You had to we would care to believe. Our perfor-

Robert
go out and make one. So Ive shifted mance was crucial, but we could re-
around over the years. That way, I keep produce sound in a much more reliable
interested and excited in what I do. way, so we could be kickass, and sound
One new song repeats the line a wall kickass. Some of those horric gigs way

Plant
and not a fence, a direct quote from back were lacking in quality.
Trump. Gene Simmons recently said that rock
When he rst said that, I thought, is dead [see page 58]. Do you agree?
Oh, fancy that, where have we heard I havent any idea of where rock
that before? Everyone with a certain begins and ends. Did it begin with
neurosis has said [build a wall], from The frontman on Link Wray? Did it begin with Jackie
the rst caveman with a stick to the Brenstons Rocket 88? Did it end with
Great Wall of China and on and on. He his relationships with his Black Flag? I think its still here, its just
DAVID YELLEN/CORBIS/GETTY IMAGES

was only the most recent character to Led Zeppelin bandmates morphing. And long may it morph.
go to the same place. Almost every other rock star but you has
How do you view Trump? and his new musical written a memoir. Would you?
I got to a point where I could no lon- brotherhood Never. What I know between my
ger watch. The media makes it such a ears here is priceless. Its magnicent,
garish feast. I just decided that theres BY PAT R ICK D OY L E sometimes tearful, but mostly cheerful.
a process that will sort itself out and There have been highs and lows and a
rectify itself in due course. Which it lot of adventure, and I keep it hid.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 19
R&R Television

DIRTY FRANCO
The star gets
grimy in HBOs
new opus.

Sleaze and the City


In The Deuce, David Simon and George Pelecanos
masterfully re-create the mean streets of 1970s New York
BY ROB SH E F F I E L D

kers, New York, Simon goes into the inter- The Deuce digs into the dirty day-to-day

T
i m e s s qua r e , 1 97 1: all
around 42nd Street the Deuce connected stories, struggles and betrayals details of the Seventies sex trade: A tunnel
the streets are full of pimps and that make up an urban hothouse. But whore haggles over trips to Jersey (Hey,
hookers, triple-X theaters, drug The Deuce has a much wider reach I just had your cock in my mouth and
dealers, cops and johns and gangsters. The the Times Square environment gives youre gonna stand here and argue
obscenity laws are being relaxed, opening Simon a chance to strut his narrative with me about $10?), and a male
the way for the porn business to go main- stuff like he hasnt since The Wire. porn star who nishes too soon as-
stream massage parlors, private booths, After bingeing all eight episodes sures the director, Dont worry
youll want more, because theres Im good for it. (The direc-
THE DEUCE SUNDAYS, 9 P.M., HBO so much story, so many fascinating tor says with a sigh, Mankie-
characters and so many magnetic wicz never had to wait
sex shops. The cops let it all happen, as performances. James Franco plays STREET- around for a hard-on.)
long as they keep getting their cut. And ev- lowlife twins, who share custody WALKER Simon and Co. chronicle
erybody on the street has a tough story to of the same seedy mustache. The BLUES this bleak underworld
tell. One corner girl takes a look at a pair of smarter twin, Vincent, runs a Gyllenhaal with humor and empa-
has never
heels on another girl and asks, How do you 42nd Street bar, while his been thy that bring the rot-
walk all night in those things? The hook- loose-cannon brother, Frankie, better. ten old Big Apple to life
er shrugs. I used to be a ballerina, so Im just runs up gambling debts. in ways that Vinyl and
used to pain. This makes the other girls on They hook up with a mobster The Get Down failed to do. The superb
the sidewalk laugh. One of them heckles, whos got bigger plans for Times credits groove on Curtis Mayfields
Yeah, I think I saw you in The Nutcracker! Square the amazing Michael (Dont Worry) If Theres a Hell Below,
The Deuce is one of the most astounding Rispoli. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives Were All Going to Go, which sets the
PAUL SCHIRALDI/HBO, 2

things to hit TV all year, a triumph for the a bravura performance as Candy, the tone for The Deuce the way Tom Waits
crew from The Wire David Simon work- hooker who angles to break into some Way Down in the Hole set the tone for
ing with the crime novelist George Peleca- other racket the relatively safer world The Wire. But nobody on these streets
nos. Like The Wire in Baltimore, Treme in of blue movies, where, as she says, The is worried about a hell below, because
New Orleans and Show Me a Hero in Yon- cameras the john. theyre already living in it.

20 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
Season of the Weird
Six new shows, including Mike Judges history of country
music and an Ezra Koenig fantasia, lead off an oddball fall
BY ROB SH E F F I E L D

Mike Judge Presents: ON THE


Tales From the Tour Bus ROAD AGAIN
Cinemax Tales From
the Tour Bus
One of the falls most unlikely pleasures:
the new animated series from Mike Judge,
the legend behind Beavis & Butt-Head,
looting the historical vaults to celebrate the
legends of country music. Tales From the
Tour Bus goes deep on the most scandal-
ous outlaws in country lore hell-raising
renegade Waylon Jennings, rockabilly
reprobate Jerry Lee Lewis, rowdy Johnny
Paycheck (who was the only hell his mama
ever raised). Its cut with live-action perfor-
mance footage of the artists and is based
on interviews with fellow musicians and
friends, though you dont have to know
jack about Nashville history to enjoy it. The
most brilliant early episode is a two-parter, kid and Jude Law as his robot butler? Plus not-quite-comedy, starring MacFarlane
mourning the disastrous booze-soaked Jason Schwartzman and Susan Saran- as the captain of a starship that is most
marriage of George Jones and Tammy don? Nothing about Neo Yokio seems to denitely not the Enterprise, with Adri-
Wynette, which like most of the stories make sense yet everything about it turns anne Palicki as his second in command
on Tour Bus was as glorious in music as out twice as well as you might expect. Its who just happens to be his frown-happy
it was demented in real life. set in an otherworldly North American ex-wife. Giving The Orville a serious side
metropolis in the not-so-distant future, is just a catastrophic move, as is giving
with Smith as a morose young heir from an it an insanely long running time doing
elite family of magistocrats. He lives his this as a standard MacFarlane slapstick
posh yet tedious life of leisurely heartache goof would have at least made sense on its
not a million miles from the kind of guy own terms.
Koenig usually writes songs about.

Dynasty The CW
Pharoahs Everything from the Eighties spins back
big shot around, and the time is definitely right
to reboot the classic shoulder-pad soap
opera Dynasty. Josh Schwartz evokes
White Famous Showtime his old O.C. mojo, bringing back Melrose Robinson
The Hollywood shuffle gets a new spin from Places Grant Show as the patriarch Blake and Scott
producer Jamie Foxx and star Jay Pharoah: Carrington. Unreals Nathalie Kelley is get Ghosted.
the dilemma of a black comedian on the magnicently despicable as she walks in
come-up, angling for mainstream money the shoes of Joan Collins she rocks hair
without losing his edge. Chris Rock once that looks like its trying to bitch-slap her
Ghosted Fox
summed up the concept to Kevin Hart: Im own false eyelashes. Craig Robinson is a cop whos fallen on
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: CINEMAX; KEVIN ESTRADA/

actually famous, youre hard times; Adam Scott is a professor


FOX; NETFLIX; MICHAEL DESMOND/SHOWTIME

more black famous. . . . The Orville Fox whos torched his career with his belief
Im like Prince, youre like in alien abductions. Together, they get
Trey Songz. Seth MacFarlanes crush recruited into an X-Files-like government
on himself gets to third investigation to hunt down the supernat-
base on The Orville put- ural. Ghosted has promise, since Robin-
Neo Yokio Netix ting himself onscreen as son and Scott play off each other well,
An anime comedy from Neo the lead in a Star Trek though they havent quite found the right
Yokios
Vampire Weekends Ezra homage that adds up to vehicle for their combination lets just
other
Koenig? Starring Jaden world
about a 12th of a space- say that Hot Tub Time Machine 2 was most
Smith as a poor little rich ball. Its an hourlong certainly not it.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 21
th

ANNIVERSARY

FLASHBACK

Covering the Climate


Reporting on the worlds biggest environmental stories
from oil spills and nuclear waste to climate change
has long been a crucial part of the magazines mission
a blockade of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant near Los Angeles

I
n september 2015, i spent more than an hour in
an empty classroom in Alaska talking with President that resulted in the arrest of 1,850 people. In 1977, Howard Kohn
Barack Obama. We sat in blue plastic chairs, paper ice wrote The Case of Karen Silkwood, a 12,000-word investiga-
crystals made by elementary-school kids hanging from the tion into the mysterious death of a plutonium worker killed in a
ceiling above us, discussing melting glaciers, national se- car crash on her way to talk to a reporter and a union representa-
curity and the lobbying power of the fossil-fuel industry. It tive about safety lapses at her facility. Kohns story suggested Silk-
was, as far as I know, the only time a sitting president has talked wood, who believed she was being deliberately poisoned by pluto-
about climate change in nium contamination, may
such depth with a jour- have been murdered. The
nalist. And it didnt hap- allegation has never been
pen because the presi- proved, but Kohns story
dent wanted backstage helped make Silkwoods
passes to a Kendrick death emblematic of the
Lamar show. As one of corruption and ruth-
the presidents adv is- lessness of the nuclear-
ers told me earlier that power industry.
day, We have seen the In 1989, one of Amer-
impact of your work in icas worst environmen-
Rolling Stone, and its tal catastrophes oc-
been signicant. curred when the Exxon
Five decades ago, Valdez plowed into a
Roll ing Stone and en- reef in Alaskas Prince
vironmentalism were William Sound, ripping
forged in the same cruci- open the hull of the ship
ble. Rivers were burning, and dumping 11 million
the suburbs were sprawl- gallons of crude oil into
ing, the Vietnam War the pristine waters. Tom
was raging, hippies were Horton, a reporter for the
tripping (LSD made it POST-KATRINA Contributors Matt Taibbi (wearing bandanna), Sean Penn and Baltimore Sun, arrived a
possible to have a de- Douglas Brinkley (with pole) help an elderly man to safety, New Orleans, 2005. few weeks later to cover
cent conversation with a the spill for Rolling
tree, a pair of historians Stone. It was my rst
quipped) and the electric guitar was emerging as a revolutionary story for the magazine, Horton recalls. My editor just said, Go
force. The word environmentalist rst appeared in the maga- to Alaska and write what you think should be written so I did.
zine in December 1969, in a story about Internet pioneer Stew- Horton spent a month ying through the fog in bush planes to visit
art Brand, whose Whole Earth Catalog was written for people native Alaskan communities and riding in oil tankers through
CRAIG WARGA/NY DAILY NEWS ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES

Brand described as outlaws, dope ends, and . . . hope freaks. In Prince William Sound. Hortons epic 27,000-word story, Para-
other words, environmentalists. Caring about the planet is part dise Lost, captured the full tragedy of the Exxon Valdez, from
of the zeitgeist of our generation, part of where we came from, the still-inexplicable mistakes of the ships captain to the sorrow
says Rolling Stone founder and editor Jann Wenner. We un- of the Alaskan villagers whose lives were upended by the spill.
derstood from the beginning that social justice is deeply linked The most consequential environmental story of our time, of
with environmental justice. course, is climate change. Rolling Stone was on it early. In
Rolling Stones coverage acknowledged that building a bet- 1983, ve years before NASA scientist James Hansens famous
ter world would require waging war against corporate polluters congressional testimony that laid out the risks of rising CO2
and corrupt politicians. In the 1970s, one of the rst big ashpoints pollution, Tim Cahill wrote a startlingly prescient story about
was nukes. We covered protesters at the site of a proposed nucle- the dangers of melting ice and sea-level rise on a rapidly heat-
ar plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire, where demonstrators car- ing planet. By 1988, William Greider was already shaming Con-
ried signs with slogans like split wood, not atoms, as well as gress for failing to take action to slow the warming. As Greider

22 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
wrote, Nothing illustrates the ness of our predicament, you just
breakdown of American democra- need to do a little math. McKib-
cy more starkly than the refusal of ben reported that we can burn only
the political system to respond . . . to 565 gigatons of carbon if we want
an aroused publics concerns about to keep the Earths temperature
the environment. In 2003, Robert from rising more than two degrees
F. Kennedy Jr. slammed the abuses Celsius, the internationally recog-
and hypocrisy of George W. Bushs nized limit for dangerous climate
environmental record in Crimes change; however, the worlds prov-
Against Nature, which may be one en reserves of fossil fuels contain
of the most nuanced and passionate about 2,795 gigatons of carbon
takedowns of energy and environ- if we burn it all, well
mental policy weve ever published. 1 literally cook the
Mother Nature delivered her planet. That story
own warning about climate change was the foundation
in 2005, when Hurricane Ka- on which the di-
trina spun into New Orleans. Al
Down to Earth vestment movement
Gores post-storm story in Roll- (1) Goodells 2013 article was built, a move-
ing Stone previewed many ideas on the threat of sea-level ment thats now gone
he later expressed in his Acade- rise to Miami. (2) A 2015 past $5.5 trillion in
my Award-winning documentary, cover story with Obama endowments and
An Inconvenient Truth. It is now on how the world should portfolios divested
respond to a warming
clear that we face a deepening glob- planet. (3) In 2011, Gore
in part or in whole,
al climate crisis that requires us to wrote about fighting McKibben says.
act boldly, quickly and wisely, he climate deniers. The story of life
wrote. Global warming on our superheat-
is the name it was given ed planet grew more
a long time ago. But it urgent each year. In
should be understood 2009, and again in
for what it is: a plane- 2016, I interviewed
tary emergency that now Hansen, the godfa-
threatens human civiliza- 2 ther of climate sci-
tion on multiple fronts. ence, who laid out
Gore, who is a longtime a grim future in-
contributor to the maga- cluding a sea-level rise of more than 10 feet
zine, notes the challenge by 2100 if we did not dramatically reduce
of gaining coverage for carbon pollution. I traveled to Greenland to
the issue in an era when write about melting ice sheets; to Austra-
Big Carbon polluters ad- lia to chronicle drought, ooding and dying
vertising dollars are im- 3 coral reefs; to Beijing to cover a secret deal to
portant revenue streams bring China to the table in international cli-
for corporate media con- mate negotiations; and to Miami to witness
glomerates. He adds, By its very nature, the climate crisis touches the slow drowning of a great American city. And I was in Paris
nearly every part of our lives, so it is tting that an outlet known in December 2015, when virtually every nation voted to adopt an
for melding pop culture, politics and news should delve into the agreement to reduce carbon pollution. There are plenty of dev-
wide-ranging implications of climate change. Its critical to have ils in the details, I wrote, but the larger message was unambig-
independent voices like Rolling Stone to call climate deniers uous: After decades of arguing, ghting and betrayal, the peo-
to task and disseminate the facts about the climate crisis. ple of the world stood together and said goodbye to fossil fuels.
The 2008 election of Obama, who on the campaign trail re- President Trump, of course, proved me (and everyone in Paris)
peatedly brought up climate change, looked like a major victo- wrong. Were back in medieval times now, with a leader of the free
ry for the environmental movement. But during his rst term, world who openly disparages science and thinks the best way to
Obama kept his distance while a landmark bill that would have create energy is by burning black rocks. At Rolling Stone, we
put restrictions on carbon pollution died a slow death in Congress. have amped up the ght. In recent months, Tim Dickinson ex-
Our January 21st, 2010, cover summed it up in two words: you posed the campaign to kill rooftop solar power in Florida; Mc-
idiots! In the accompanying article, I wrote, Climate activists Kibben offered new strategies for resistance in the age of Trump;
like to talk about mobilizing all of Americas resources, as we did and I investigated EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, the fossil-
during World War II, to ght global warming. But as the failure fuel-industry stooge who masterminded Trumps decision to pull
to pass the climate bill reveals, it may be easier to defeat . . . Hit- out of the Paris deal. The environment really is a moral story,
ler than to overcome internal threats to our future as powerful Greider argues. At rst, only a few hippies and crackpots under-
as Big Coal and Big Oil. stood that. And it turned out some of the hippies and crackpots
Just how difficult the war had become was underscored in Bill knew what they were talking about. Still, despite all the progress
McKibbens 2012 story The Reckoning. When we think about over the past 50 years, the dream of a better world remains elu-
global warming at all, the arguments tend to be ideological, theo- sive. The ght is not nearly over, says Wenner. Right now, the
logical and economic, McKibben wrote. But to grasp the serious- stakes are higher than ever. JEFF GOODELL

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 23
CHIEF KEEF Look out,
Hamburg, Richards
said, wearing a shirt
championing Dartford,
LET IT LOOSE England, his hometown.
Ronnie Wood
played his rst
show after a
lung-cancer
scare. They
Stones Rip Europe
caught it early. The Stones returned to the road after a yearlong hiatus,
People have to delivering a surprising set list in Hamburg, Germany, including
get checked, Under My Thumb, Play With Fire and, for the rst time in over
he said. 40 years, 1973s stoner jam Dancing With Mr. D. Back on the
job! said Keith Richards. The band is also working on a new LP.

VICKY SELENA
BARCELONA
Selena Gomez
who just
announced she
received a kidney
transplant this
summer began
shooting Woody
Allens next lm,
to be released
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: AVALON.RED/PACIFICCOASTNEWS; KEITH RICHARDS/
TWITTER; SCOTT LEGATO/GETTY IMAGES; THEO WARGO/HAND IN HAND/GETTY

by Amazon.

RED ROCK
Kid Rock
teased a
Michigan
DIALED IN
IMAGES; STEVESANDS/NEWYORKNEWSWIRE/MEGA

Nicki Minaj elded Senate


calls in New York at run with an
the Hand in Hand inammatory
telethon, which speech in
raised $44 million for Grand Rapids.
hurricane survivors. Seems the
She was joined by government
Justin Bieber, Cher, wants to give
Leonardo DiCaprio everyone health
and many more. insurance, but
Had such a good wants us all to
time speaking to pay, he said.
people, she said.

24 O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
OUTLAWS AND
ANGELS Margo Price
visited Willie Nelsons
bus to listen to their
duet off her new
album, All American
Made. We [also]
smoked weed
and told
jokes,
she says.
DARK SIDE OF
THE MOORE
Roger Waters attended
Michael Moores one-man
Broadway show. Thank
you to the attack dog
Michael Moore for having
me, Waters said.

RIRI RIDER
Rihanna rode onto the
runway at her own fashion
show: I feel like the
coolest bitch on the
Cardi B
block now!
and Migos
Offset
checked
out Helmut
Lang.

FALL OUT
BEACH BOY
Pete Wentz
hit the waves
in Malibu ahead
of Fall Out Boys
next tour, which
starts October
20th. They
release their
new album,
Mania, in
January.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: MICAH NELSON; KATE IZOR; PACIFICCOASTNEWS; RICH
SCHULTZ/GETTY IMAGES; ZACH HILTY/BFA/REX SHUTTERSTOCK; SEAN ZANNI/
PATRICK MCMULLAN/GETTY IMAGES; ZACH HILTY/BFA/REX SHUTTERSTOCK

Fashion PITCH
PERFECT
Week Jack
Antonoff

Rocks threw out


the rst
pitch at a
Kanye may not have hosted
a Yeezy show at New Mets game
York Fashion Week, but in New York.
YACHT PARTY musicians took over, with Didnt fuck
Lil Yachty and Diplo surprise gigs by Future, it up, he
caught the Helmut Lang St. Vincent, Solange and noted.
show. Very cool to more. I wish some people
see top models in from the hood would be
action, Diplo said. able to attend fashion
shows, Cardi B has said.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
ROLLING STONE R EPORTS

What If D.C. Is Next?


oods were 1936, when the Potomac de-
A major hurricane could paralyze the stroyed every single bridge but one along a
government and jeopardize national 185-mile stretch, and 1942, when the river
inundated the National Mall.
security why is the capital so unprepared? For scientists like Resio, a big concern
is if a storm system in the mountains un-
folds just before a major hurricane hits
BY JUST IN NOBEL near the Outer Banks of North Carolina,
then tracks inland, pulling a small moun-
n august 25th, as hurricane harvey sl ammed

O
tain of water up the Chesapeake, then up
into the Texas coast, Don Resio, a 70-year-old Universi- the Potomac. This happened in the Chesa-
ty of North Florida meteorologist and a leading expert in peake-Potomac Hurricane of 1933, which
carried a deadly 11-foot storm surge; with
hurricane modeling, sat on his living-room couch with his Hurricane Hazel in 1954; Hurricane Con-
wife, Kathryn, and their cat Marley, switching between nie in 1955; and Hurricane Isabel, a Cate-
the Weather Channel, MSNBC and CNN. I knew it was gory 2 storm that hit in 2003 with a near-
going to be devastating, says Resio, but even he was surprised by the as- ly nine-foot surge that severed power at
two of Marylands largest sewage treat-
tounding 52 inches of rain recorded near Houston. Eleven days later, Hur- ment plants, sending 96 million gallons of
ricane Irma notched nearly unprecedented 185-miles-per-hour winds and sewage owing toward D.C. Isabel is a re-
then careened into Florida, ripping apart homes in the Keys and ood- minder, wrote David L. Johnson, then as-
sistant administrator for Weather Services,
ing downtown sections of Miami and Jack- The problem D.C. faces is largely one of in a government assessment of the storm,
sonville, which is not far from Resios home geography. Americas capital lies on the Po- that if the impact of a Category 2 hurri-
in the seaside community of Ponte Vedra. tomac, an extremely powerful river that cane can be so extensive, then the impact
Its not a good time, Resio says, to be liv- drops from 3,000-foot mountains to the of a major hurricane (Category 3 or higher)
ing near the coast. By the time Hurricane Atlantic Ocean. And like all big rivers, the could be devastating.
Jose moved within striking distance of Potomac produces major oods. In Septem- Resio estimates that there are better-
half the Eastern Seaboard, American cities ber 1996, Jeff Kelble, the president of the than-even odds that a one-two punch will
were seeming more and more like cursed Potomac Riverkeeper Network, watched descend on D.C. within the next 50 to 200
metropolises on the banks of a warming, a set of rapids known as Great Falls, locat- years. Though, like with many situations,
rising, increasingly wrathful ocean. The ed 17 miles outside D.C., rise in the wake of he says, when it hits, people will say it was
inevitable question becomes, where next? Hurricane Fran. The river took houses off the perfect storm. Floodwater coming
Resio and many other prominent experts their foundations and rammed them into down the Potomac from the mountains
believe one of the most vulnerable targets other houses, he says. Steep hills further would crash into water moving up the
is a city rarely associated with hurricanes: downstream funnel the Potomac through river with the storm surge from the ocean.
Washington, D.C. Little Falls; according to Dean Naujoks, This would set the stage for a dramatic
When the big storm hits D.C., the re- who works for Kelble, kayaking this stretch physics experiment that even the worlds
sulting disaster may not kill as many as at ood stage is like driving a car you most advanced meteorological computer
Katrina, or ood as much physical real just start accelerating. From the falls, a models have had trouble simulating. You
estate as Harvey, but the toll it takes on ooded Potomac could sprint, in a muddy end up with an interaction, says Ed Link,
American institutions will be unfathom- torrent of engorged fury, into D.C. Heavy a former chief scientic adviser with the
able. The storm will paralyze many of the rains over the headwaters of the Potomac U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It is one
agencies that operate and defend the na- released a deluge into the city 13 times be- plus one equals three.
tion, raising the specter of national-securi- tween 1877 and 1996. The most notable Part of the problem is the city could al-
ty threats. Imagine, says Gerald Galloway, ready be ooded: Persistent rainfall over
a disaster and national-security expert at downtown D.C. could send sheets of water
the University of Maryland who served Imagine the world waking into the Federal Triangle, a wedge between
38 years in the military, the world wak- Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues
ing up some morning to see an aerial pho- up one day to everything containing seven crucial federal buildings,
tograph of Washington, D.C., with every- from the Lincoln overwhelming the citys century-old sewer
thing from the Lincoln Memorial to the system and causing additional water to
grounds of the Capitol under water that Memorial to the grounds erupt out of storm drains. This happened
certainly does not speak well for the Unit- of the Capitol underwater. in 2006, ooding the subbasement of the
ed States preparedness. Internal Revenue Service headquarters

26 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
tem is operated by the National
Park Service and consists of an
earthen berm that begins near
the Lincoln Memorial and runs
along the National Mall, passing
just below the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial and Constitution Gar-
dens to the Washington Monu-
ment. At 17th Street, a busy thor-
oughfare that cuts right through
the berm, a 140-foot-wide gap
marks the levee systems great-
est point of vulnerability. For the
city to be protected, this must be
manually patched.
In past oods, the hole in the
system was lled with sandbags,
a task that took 1,000 man-
hours. In 2007, the Army Corps
inspected the levee and gave the
entire system a failing grade.
This led FEMA to de-accredit
it, meaning much of downtown
D.C. was forced to pay into the
National Flood Insurance Pro-
gram. Three years ago, the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers un-
veiled a potential solution: a re-
movable ood wall comprising
eight steel posts and 27 alumi-
num panels that is stored in a
maintenance yard a 30-minute
drive from 17th Street.
Deploying the wall falls to
the National Park Services Di-
vision of Facility Management,
whose workers have practiced
setting up the barrier on just
three occasions, though never
at night, in the rain, or in the
face of an actual hurricane or
ood. The wall is stored in a Na-
tional Park Service maintenance
STORMING THE CAPITAL There are better-than-even odds of a major hurricane ooding D.C. in the next yard in northeast D.C., amid pic-
50 to 200 years, says one leading meteorologist. When it hits, people will say it was the perfect storm. nic tables and garbage bins. The
steel posts and aluminum pan-
with more than 20 feet of water and shut- rity and military experts, The continued els, along with several other items related
ting down the Department of Justice, the strength of the U.S. depends, in large part, to the walls installation, lie strapped to the
Department of Commerce, the National on having a cleareyed assessment of risks beds of two tractor-trailers, which Nation-
Archives and the National Gallery of Art. and threats to the nation, and address- al Park Service workers would steer down
Constitution Avenue, a vital D.C. artery ing them well before they manifest them- New York Avenue, around the Capitol and
PHOTOGRAPH IN ILLUSTRATION BY RYAN D. BUDHU

built on the path of an old creek, ooded selves. Washington, D.C., the capital of in toward 17th Street. A private compa-
nearly nine feet deep with enough hydro- what is, for the time being, the richest and ny has been contracted by the park service
static pressure to blast a hole through the most powerful nation on Earth, is patently to arrive on-site with a crane to lower the
foundation of EPA headquarters. unprepared for its pending disaster. steel posts into deep slots. A strip of rub-
And if the river blasted through D.C.s ber would be inserted as a seal between the
levee system, which has a slate of weak ashingtons defense be- ground and wall. The panels would then be
points, the entire area would essentially be-
come part of the Potomac. According to a
September 2016 report on sea-level rise by W gins with a little-known levee lowered into place between the posts. This
system. There probably work would likely take three hours, though
arent 10 people in Washing- there would still be one more step. Metal
the Center for Climate and Security, a non- ton, says Galloway, who even know this changes shape with temperature, and to
partisan policy institute composed of secu- levee exists. The Potomac Park Levee Sys- leave room for these mutations, an inch-

Illustration by John Bl ackford RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 27


ROLLING STONE R EPORTS

and-a-half-wide gap has been left between says Jim Ludlam, a civil engineer with ly make their best effort to be at 17th Street
the posts and the panels. To keep water the Army Corps Baltimore District, which to install it. The blame lies with the U.S.
from coming through, says Jeff Gowen, oversees D.C.s levees, Baltimore District Congress and the president of the United
acting chief of facility management at the feels the levee template meets its Vegeta- States. For example, the Army Corps of En-
National Park Service, a thick plastic sheet tion Free Zone requirements. gineers has detailed plans to raise the Po-
would have to be pulled over the entire There are yet more problems. Because tomac Park Levee at a pair of low points,
length of the wall a part of the process his it is a low-sloping earthen berm, rather says Ludlam. But congressional funding
team does not currently practice. To hold than a steep wall, the levee could actually to complete the plans and award a con-
the sheet down, sandbags would be stacked serve a bit like a ramp in a ood situation, tract for construction is not available.
along the bottom. says Resio. One of the really nasty things The budget that does exist for levee work
According to Resio and other disaster about having that slope is the waves arent would barely be enough to open a string of
experts, the list of things that could go forced to break, he says. They can just juice shops, let alone save the nation from
wrong is long: Once on-site at 17th Street, run up and over. A mathematical formula disaster. We receive slightly over $1 mil-
one of the 27 aluminum panels could refuse dictates how far a breaking wave will trav- lion for Dam and Safety, says Ren Senos,
to slide correctly into position; subsidence el up an incline. A two-foot wave on a low who works with the National Park Services
in the street could cause the slots to settle at slope can reach a height of over three feet; Dam-Levee Safety Program, and that mil-
different rates, and one or more of the posts a three-foot wave can stretch to ve feet. lion dollars has to stretch from Yosemite to
could no longer t; the plastic could rip. The Potomac in a hurricane could easi- the Washington Mall. Army Corps docu-
Think about a car, says Resio. Cars are ly have two-to-three-foot waves, meaning ments show that, for 2017, the money al-
very carefully engineered, located by Congress for up-
but things still break. We grading the Potomac Park
dont build levee-protection Levee System was: $0.
systems better than cars.
And thats provided work- the combined destruc-
ers can even get the wall to tive force of an overf low-
17th Street. A rain event ing river and a surging tidal
that hits the region a few system is tough to predict.
days prior to the approach- But Dean Naujoks at the Po-
ing hurricane what mete- tomac Riverkeeper has ex-
orologists call an anteced- perienced a watered-down
ent storm would mean the version of what might hap-
streets and subways could pen. In October 2015, Nau-
be ooded, preventing Na- joks was kayaking the Po-
tional Park Service staff tomac through D.C. as
from reaching the main- rainfall from a coastal low
tenance yard. Or, workers associated with Hurricane
could make it to the yard but Joaquin sent f loodwaters
be unable to haul the walls surging downriver. The
pieces to 17th Street because the route the water literally started coming in from all
BRICK IN THE WALL
tractor-trailers need to take is blocked by Testing the closure at 17th Street, which relies sides, says Naujoks, who became trapped
downed trees or power lines. Bureaucracy on a system of posts and panels. There are on an island in the middle of the Potomac.
can be an issue too. There are all sorts of all sort of stories, warns one expert, where a The water coming in from the tidal surge
interesting stories, says Galloway of urban ood comes and people cant nd the parts. basically created a plug. It was like a dam,
levee systems, where a ood comes and it just stopped the river, and the water had
people cant nd the parts. the levee, which is slated to protect the city nowhere to go but up. Naujoks strapped
The wall is not the only part of the Po- against a Potomac ood that rises 19 feet his kayak to a fence and hiked a quarter-
tomac Park Levee System with serious above sea level, would actually only be ca- mile in water knee-deep and swiftly ris-
problems. A pretty patch of trees along the pable of protecting the city against some- ing to a higher point, where his wife res-
north side of the National Mall is grow- thing more along the lines of a 15-foot ood. cued him.
ing around the earthen berm that serves There would also be debris in those If the removable ood wall makes it to
as the citys critical levee, a potential vio- waves, gigantic oak trees or one of the 17th Street, is installed correctly, the plas-
lation of Army Corps of Engineers guide- multiton sailboats docked nearby in the tic holds, the trees on the levee dont help
lines. Vegetation on a levee creates what Washington Channel. Windblown debris pipe water beneath it, waves dont run up
is called piping, says Resio. Roots of even can potentially fortify the levee, acting as and overtop it, and debris doesnt smash
a small tree or shrub can open a pathway a further barrier, but it can also help com- it open, a 17-foot ood on the Potomac
for water under a levee. Piping occurred in promise the structure and lead waves over a height reached by the river in 1936 and
BRITTANY BANGERT/U.S. ARMY

New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, the top. Breaching is fast, says Resio. A 1942 could still enter the city, because the
helping cause a catastrophic failure of the small breach can quickly become a 40-foot levee system is peppered with low points.
citys levee system and spawning a ood breach, then its over. In Constitution Gardens, near a conces-
that killed an estimated 700 people. In an But Gowens workers would not be to sion stand that sells jumbo pretzels, the
e-mail message, the Army Corps acknowl- blame. The plan is for the wall, and in a berm dips about two feet below its autho-
edged that there are smaller trees located storm the National Park Services Division rized level of protection; just north of the
directly over the berm. Still, at this time, of Facility Management crew would sure- Lincoln Memorial is another low point. In

28 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
a major ood, these gaps in the levee would Trump International Hotel; cross the Na- Scientists, the Navy Yard is located in a
need to be closed off with sandbags. (Ac- tional Mall; pour onto the lower grounds hot spot of elevated rates of sea-level rise.
cording to Gowen, in the wake of Harvey, of the Capitol; and begin rushing down Behm has been helping the Navy determine
the National Park Service realized D.C. 2nd and 3rd Streets Southwest, near how to oodproof a number of the Navy
did not have enough sandbags for the job, NASA headquarters. Not only would the Yards 200-plus buildings. Were looking
and has since developed a plan to incor- metro system be grounded, water may well at benets and costs, says Behm. Then
porate concrete Jersey barriers and plas- pool across the runways at Ronald Rea- results go back to the Department of the
tic sheeting as well.) There is a third gap gan Washington National Airport, and Navy, and they determine if they have the
in the levee system in southwestern D.C. most of D.C.s major highways would be at funding for implementation. I am guessing
that would act as a back door. Here water least partially underwater. People would it could take several years to go through
from the Potomac and the Anacostia, a be stranded on little islands, says Resio. their budget cycle.
large tributary that enters the main river When I asked the citys Department of Across the Anacostia River, Joint Base
in D.C., would start creeping north toward Energy and Environment which backup Anacostia-Bolling faces even more serious
the heart of the city. routes the city would use should the main challenges. Among other important enti-
Any breakdown in D.C.s ad hoc ood- ones become impassible, the query was ties, the base houses the Defense Intelli-
defense system would unload a sizable por- passed along to Washingtons Homeland gence Agency, the office of military intelli-
tion of the pent-up Potomac on downtown Security and Emergency Management gence for the secretary of defense and Joint
D.C. If the river broke through the levee Agency. Its HSEMAs position that this Chiefs of Staff. The facility is protected by a
system at 17th Street, or at the low points information is sensitive, external-affairs rutted and crumbling 80-year-old seawall
near the Lincoln Memorial or Constitution specialist Nicole Peckumn replied via e- and levee system that has been decertied
Gardens, a wall of water would spill down mail, meant to prevent or mitigate poten- by the Army Corps of Engineers. During a
Constitution Avenue and rush east into the tial acts of terrorism. 2012 inspection, engineers noted unwant-
Federal Triangle. At the National Archives, ed vegetation on the levees embankments,
the water would hit up against a pair of erosion, section loss and sliding along
ood walls installed after the 2006 inunda- landslide slopes, as well as a problem with
tion. Theyve been set to automatically rise
If you have to rely on culverts and discharge pipes. Each of these
when the citys storm drains ll, and may people to put barriers issues on its own would have caused the
well hold. Other Federal Triangle buildings in place, says an Army levee to fail inspection, which it did. Earli-
would not be so lucky. The General Services er this year, the Army Corps inspected the
Administration, which operates a number Corps ood-proong levee again, and nothing had changed.
of agency headquarters, has been working expert, there is always In a major ood, the bases levee system,
with a private company to design a ood- according to a recent report by the Ameri-
gate to protect a series of moats surround- the opportunity for can Society of Civil Engineers, would most
ing the IRS. But the congressional approv- something to go wrong. likely be overtopped or incur a oodwall
al required to deploy the gate has not been failure. D.C.s bureaucratic jumble appears
granted, according to GSA public-affairs to have contributed to the levees lack of at-
officer Renee Kelly. The substantial base- The U.S. military also has a monumen- tention. It is unclear under whose jurisdic-
ment and subbasement ooding that oc- tal presence in D.C., with an Army base, an tion this parcel falls, a 2008 National Cap-
curred at the IRS in 2006 and shut sections Air Force base, a Coast Guard installation, ital Planning Commission report stated,
of the building down for six months would a Marine barracks, two naval research referring to a section of the levee that runs
likely occur again. centers and a major Navy headquarters. under the Frederick Douglass Memorial
At vulnerable points along the depart- Although ood maps show the Pentagon Bridge, and which entity ultimately has re-
ments of Commerce and Justice, and the outside the ood zone, the map, says Gal- sponsibility for repairs and maintenance.
Environmental Protection Agency, GSA loway, shows that with the storm surge A variety of physical alternative work-
would have to deploy some 10,000 sand- the Pentagon parking lot will be under- spaces intend to keep the federal govern-
bags. At the National Gallery of Art, work- water, along with many of the roads that ment running in a natural disaster or na-
ers would have to be quick to install a chain come into it. For certain employees try- tional emergency. One is FEMAs Mount
of interlocking barriers to block the ood. ing to navigate ooded streets and reach Weather Emergency Operations Center,
But these laborious efforts are not the type the massive Department of Defense head- situated, according to a 2015 FEMA fact
that impress ood-risk experts. If you have quarters, he says, the Pentagon is right sheet, on 564 acres high in the Blue Ridge
to rely on people to put barriers in place, across the street from Arlington Cemetery, Mountains, approximately 64 miles west
says Randall Behm, the Army Corps lead and thats on a hill, so people could walk of Washington, D.C. The facility has offic-
engineer on nonstructural oodproong, through the cemetery. es, warehouse space, dormitories, a health
there is always the opportunity for some- On the other side of the river, the Wash- unit staffed by medical personnel, and a
thing to go wrong. Twelve feet of water, ington Navy Yard, the site of the Naval Sea cafe that seats more than 280 personnel,
the depth of the ow that could potential- Systems Command a complex of ship- all surrounded by 24-hour security. There
ly be coming down Constitution Avenue, yards and a warfare center was almost is a shuttle and courier service, but there is
would likely swipe anything not bolted entirely submerged in the 1942 Potomac also the problem of how to get there. We
down, smashing windows, pouring down Flood. Yet Behm, at the Army Corps, tells learned a great deal from Sandy, says Gal-
air-intake shafts and seeping in through me the facility has no formal levee system, loway, and one thing we learned was that
utility lines. just some small individual walls and a lit- the problems werent just in the buildings
The deluge would lap against the tle bit of an earthen berm. According to the problem was the employees couldnt
grounds of the White House and the a 2016 report by the Union of Concerned get to them to do their jobs.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 29
ROLLING STONE R EPORTS

Unlike the parade of recent storm trage- his drink. Because our baseline assump- would ensure protection against a one-in-
dies, the fallout in Washington, D.C., would tions have changed ergo, were screwed. 100,000-year ood. Over espressos, Peel-
be felt around the globe. It will be hard A report compiled in part by scientists en runs me through a slide show detailing
to play the role of leader of the free world at the National Oceanic and Atmospher- the elegantly conceived multibillion-dollar
with major federal agencies ooded, de- ic Administration, and published in 2013 structures that help protect his nations cit-
fense bases and parts of the intelligence in the Bulletin of the American Meteoro- ies. Building along waterways today is like
community waylaid, and the president and logical Society, included a study that found gambling, he says: How sustainable is it to
members of Congress unable to portray any that increases in sea-level rise related to cli- keep rebuilding something that keeps get-
semblance of normalcy. Anytime you have mate change have signicantly increased ting demolished?
multiple disasters and threats, says Gallo- the probability of a Sandy-level ood as Meanwhile, most residents of Washing-
way, you are creating a potential for confu- compared to 1950. In the future, the re- ton, D.C., and the American public at large,
sion and lack of coordination. The disaster searchers continue, rising seas will mean remain frightfully unaware of the risks
will not be the result of a lack of knowledge; that much weaker storms become Sandy- their capital city faces. Several D.C. agen-
rather a tangle of bureaucracy and a cul- level storms. Another paper, published in cies have teamed up to pursue a series of as-
ture of neglect will be what dooms Ameri- 2012 in the journal Nature Climate Change, sessments, including the formation in 2014
cas capital. The risks we faced 40 and 50 determined that by the end of the centu- of a multi-agency group called the D.C. Sil-
years ago are not the risks we face today, ry what is presently considered a 100-year ver Jackets, but without the help of feder-
says Resio. We have not seen anything yet. storm-surge ood in New York could ac- al money, little work on the ground has ac-
tually be occurring as frequently as once tually been done. It is unfathomable, says
every three years. The National Climate Judy Scott Feldman, who chairs the board

I
n june, at the clubhouse bar of
the Capital Yacht Club, a marina lo- for the National Mall Coalition, a nonprot
cated in D.C.s Washington Channel, that intends to provide an organized voice
I meet Rich McManus, a 64-year-old for the public and visionary planning
environmental engineer who lives with his
In Hurricane Sandy, on issues affecting D.C.s National Mall. In
partner, Karen, on a 38-foot sailboat called says one national-security 2013, after working with architects, nan-
Free Spirit. Having a boat as a house pro- expert, the problems ciers and scientists, the coalition put forth
vides McManus a connection to the sea on a plan for an underground parking garage
a coastline he is convinced is doomed. Mc- werent just the buildings that would sit like a bunker under the Na-
Manus worked on ood plans for upstate the problem was tional Mall. The facility would help allevi-
New York right out of college, and as he ate parking issues, generate revenue and,
navigates his evening cocktail he explains employees couldnt get most important, serve as a vast storage
to me the problems with our nations pres- to them to do their jobs. tank for oodwaters in the event of a major
ent methods of storm preparedness. storm. Similar systems are already in use
FEMA mandates that levees pro- in the Netherlands and other European
tect against a hundred-year ood. Coast- Assessment also warns of a potential in- countries. Feldman and her group have met
al communities behind these levees are crease in the likelihood of compound ex- with dozens of members of Congress on the
deemed safe enough by the U.S. govern- tremes, in which multiple events occur si- issue. But the effort has yet to gain signi-
ment to opt out of paying into the Nation- multaneously or in rapid sequence, as well cant traction. No government agency has
al Flood Insurance Program. Those outside as new types of storms. There is signicant authority on this issue, says Feldman. The
the leveed area are determined to be in a potential for our planetary experiment to idea is you plan beforehand. You dont wait
ood-hazard zone. The problem, says Mc- result in unanticipated surprises, the as- until its destroyed.
Manus, is 100-year-ood maps are com- sessment states, and a broad consensus In August, President Trump issued an
piled from data recorded over roughly the that the further and faster the Earth system executive order that rolled back regula-
past 100 years. And the weather patterns is pushed towards warming, the greater the tions intended to ensure the federal gov-
from the 1920s and the 1950s and the 1970s risk of such surprises. ernment factors in climate-change-related
that created the data points used to calcu- Other nations are well aware of this ood and sea-level-rise risks when building
late Americas ood risks have changed. changed risk regime, and are moving for- new infrastructure on the coast and after
According to a leaked draft of a 673-page ward with upgraded infrastructure. On a storms. That same month, Hurricane Har-
National Climate Assessment produced hilltop in northwestern D.C. is the Nether- vey made landfall, and the president visit-
by scientists from 13 federal agencies and lands Embassy, and a very different world. ed a Houston shelter to pass out prepared
presently awaiting President Trumps ap- The term once in a hundred years is rela- meals of hot dogs and potato chips. He was
proval (in late August, President Trump tive, Jan Peelen, an attach for infrastruc- in an optimistic, nearly exuberant mood,
disbanded the assessments federal advi- ture and the environment with the Neth- The New York Times reported. Mr. Trump
sory panel), the northeast region, which erlands, tells me inside the embassys sleek sympathized with residents, posed for self-
includes D.C., will see not only more rain connes, and its changing because of cli- ies and hoisted one young girl in pony tails
associated with hurricanes, but heavier ep- mate change. In Britain, the Thames Bar- in his arms. A week later, Hurricane Irma
isodes of rain in general. Meanwhile, seas rier, completed in 1982, presently protects skirted past Mar-a-Lago, the presidents
could well rise six feet or more by the end of London against a one-in-1,000-year ood, $175 million estate, located in Palm Beach
the century. In a world where storms have and the system is being assessed in light of on a barrier island that sits about seven
become stronger, seas higher and rainfall global climate change and rising seas. The feet above sea level, before drifting west-
more intense, what used to be a 100-year Dutch design levees and regulations to pro- ward instead. Sometimes it takes your
storm is no longer a 100-year storm. Ergo, tect their cities against a one-in-10,000- own home being destroyed, Resio says,
the model is invalid! McManus shouts over year ood, and are considering xes that before you start caring.

30 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
The Governors Superstorm
Floridas Rick Scott is the
perfect example of how
U.S. leaders fail to meet the
challenge of our lifetime
B Y J E F F G O ODE L L

urricane irma cut a wide

H swath of devastation, but it also


created a new media star: Rick
Scott. During the deadly storm, the
64-year-old Florida governor was a
ubiquitous presence on cable TV, the
kind of high-profile make-or-break
moment that denes a political career
(see George W. Bush, Hurricane Ka-
trina). And so far, Scott has come out
looking like Gen. Patton standing tall
against Mother Nature.
Whoever designed the universe
must have a twisted sense of humor.
It would be hard to cast a more un-
likely hero than Scott for this cata- SHORTSIGHTED Scott has stripped climate-change language from state documents.
strophic event. In fact, Scotts triumph
is its own kind of catastrophe, one that conservation expert who served on the estate developers, to weaken Floridas
says a lot about why the politics of cli- commission, told the Washington Post, building codes, even though the legis-
mate change and disaster relief are so There is no state leadership on climate lation was opposed by Floridas emer-
screwed up in America. change in Florida, period. gency management director, as well
Politically, Scott is Trump without In 2014, after months of lobbying, as Craig Fugate, the former head of
the bluster and the golf clubs. On cli- a group of scientists scored a meeting FEMA under President Obama, who
mate change, Scott refuses to acknowl- with Scott, hoping to convince him that argued that by loosening the building
edge its existence. During his 2014 climate change was real and Florida codes in a hurricane-prone state like
campaign, whenever the subject came was in the crosshairs. He just sat there Florida, lawmakers are putting your
up, he would shrug and say, I am not and stared at us with lizard eyes, one state and your citizens at risk.
a scientist as if that absolved him of of the scientists at the meeting told me. Even if Al Gore had been governor
any responsibility for thinking about I dont think he heard a word we said. of Florida, Irma would have wreaked
the risk posed to millions of people in On the other hand, maybe he did. havoc in the state. But Scotts negli-
the state he proposed to run. The following year, the Florida Center gence was so extreme it was almost as
As governor, Scott has done every- for Investigative Reporting revealed if he were inviting a catastrophe. At the
thing he can to do nothing. He made that Scotts administration had com- very least, Scott gambled that if a big
sure the state of Florida contributed manded state employees not to use the storm wiped out Florida, voters would
zero dollars to Miami Beachs $400 terms global warming or climate be too distraught and overwhelmed to
million plan to improve storm drain- change in any state business. Scott hold him accountable. Scott bet his po-
age. He took more than $1 million from later denied it, but there was plenty of litical career on the fact that its better
JOHNNY MILANO/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX

Big Utilities, who tried to stop rooftop evidence it was true: An epidemiolo- to play the hero during a catastrophe
solar power in Florida, which could gist was forced to take the words cli- than to spend money and political cap-
help reduce carbon pollution. He effec- mate change out of a study done with ital trying to reduce the risk of a disas-
tively dismantled the Florida Energy the Department of Health; a univer- ter before it happens. And its a gamble
and Climate Commission, which had sity researcher was made to pull the that he appears to have won, at least
been assembled by Scotts predecessor, phrase from a report summary. Scott for now. But this is Florida. The wind
Charlie Crist, to help Florida officials supported Trumps decision to with- and water will be back and thanks to
think strategically about climate adap- draw from the Paris climate accord. He our superheated atmosphere, they will
tation. As Kathy Baughman McLeod, a also signed legislation, pushed by real- likely return with a vengeance.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 31
THE

MADNESS OF

DONALD
TRUMP
The pressures of the presidency have
pushed Trump to the edge, but is he crazy
enough to be removed from office?
By Matt Taibbi
v e n i ng , augus t 22 n d, 2017, a nign kind. That makeover was undone just as quickly

E
convention center in Phoenix. Its as it was done, leaving the Donald with the same old tie-
Donald Trumps true coming-out on-bulging-duodenum look from the campaign. He even
party as an insane person. It looks like sounds the same now, kicking off the event with a go-to
the same old Trump up there on the favorite: What a crowd! he shouts. (A week from now, he
stage: same boxy blue suit, same oblig- will shout, What a crowd, what a turnout! from atop a
atory f lag pin and tangerine comb- truck in Corpus Christi, Texas, on the occasion of a dead-
over, same too-long reddish power tie ly hurricane.) But the embattled president who takes the
swinging below his belt line like a locker-room abom- stage tonight is a different man from the barnstorming
ination. Earlier this year there were efforts to make revolutionary who ripped through the American politi-
Trump stop wearing his suit jackets open designer Jo- cal process a year ago. That Donald Trump enjoyed him-
seph Abboud said buttoning up was a very visible way self, to an obscene degree. Watching Trump lean over a
of showing he knows how serious the job is but Don- podium on the road to the presidency was like watching
ald Trump doesnt take advice, not even the gently be- a stud boar hump a hole in the wall. He said monstrous

I L L U S T R A T I O N B Y V I C T O R J U H A S Z

32
things and lied with stunning disinhibi- mutiny. Moreover, after shrugging off a Trump goes on, raging against very dis-
tion, and when the civilized world recoiled thousand other scandals, Trump seems honest media and trying to rekindle the
in horror, he seemed to take sadistic plea- paralyzed by the Nazi thing. He cant let it spirit of the campaign. He self-plagiarizes
sure in every minute win or lose, the run go. Say one nice thing about Nazis, and its a little, reviving the little Marco dig for
was pure glory for him, a Shermans March like people cant get over it. Unfair! little George Stephanopoulos.
of taboo politics and testosterone fury that He plunges into a 77-minute rant on The audience seems into it for a while.
would leave a mark on America forever. this subject, listing each offending news But it goes on too long. During the cam-
There was one more thing. Candidate outlet by name. In a nicely Freudian twist, paign, Trump was expert at keeping a hall
Trump may have been crazy, but it was he starts with The New York Times, which buzzed with resentment for an hour or so.
craziness that on some level was work- incidentally is the same paper that nearly But he hits weird notes now. He goes off on
ing. Even at his lowest and most irrational a century ago identied Fred Trump of a tangent about his enemies, its not clear
moments like his lunatic assault on the 175-24 Devonshire Road the presidents which ones. Theyre elite? he says. I went
family of fallen soldier Humayun Khan, in late father as a detainee from a 1927 Ku to better schools than they did. I was a bet-
which he raved to the grieving Gold Star Klux Klan rally in Queens. Back then, ter student than they were. I live in a bigger,
parents about how it was he, Trump, who native-born American Protestants were more beautiful apartment, and I live in the
had made a lot of sacrices you could railing against Roman Catholic police White House, too, which is really great.
argue, if you squinted really hard, that it essentially the dirty-immigrant Irish, last Polite applause.
was strategy, a kick to the base. centurys Mexicans. Not much changes in You know what? he goes on. I think
Or even if he wasnt doing these things this country. Maybe the father of the 2072 were the elites. Theyre not the elites.
on purpose, he must have been able to feel Republican nominee is here tonight in a No one is counting ngers, but you can
their impact, as the revolutionary force of MAGA hat. tell people are having trouble making the
his campaign demolished the 160-year-old That old family shame might be why math work. Were elite because you have a
Republican Party and barreled toward the the president, whos always denied Fred nice apartment? Campaign Trump bragged
gates of Barack Obamas White endlessly about his wealth I
House. have a Gucci store thats worth
Now, its different. Now, he just more than Romney was a classic
seems crazy. And its his own ad- line but back then he was selling
ministration that is crumbling,
not any system.
Trump seems paralyzed a vicarious fantasy. Trumps Fer-
rari-underpants lifestyle was the
After a disastrous and terrify-
ing August, which among other
by the Nazi thing. He silent-majority vision of how they
would all live once the winning
things saw him defend the very cant let it go. Say one started. But candidate Trump was
ne people among neo-Nazi pro-
testers in a Charlottesville, Vir- nice thing about Nazis, never dumb enough to try to tell
debt-ridden, angry crowds they
ginia, march, its Trumps mental
state not his alleged Russia ties,
and its like people cant were already living the dream.
At one point, Trump ends up
nor his failure to staff the govern-
ment or pass any major legisla-
get over it. Unfair! standing with a piece of paper in
hand, haranguing all with tran-
tion that has become the central scripts of his own remarks on
problem of his presidency. Charlottesville. To prove that hes
Is this man losing his mind? And if Trump was a Klansman (Never hap- been misquoted or misunderstood, he goes
so, what can be done about it? Weve had pened), is having such a hard time with through the whole story, from the begin-
some real zeros in the White House before, Charlottesville and race. He rails against ning. It gets quiet in the hall.
but weve never had a chief executive who the Times, which is, like, so bad, moves Its an agonizing parody of late-stage
barked at the moon or saw ghosts at least, on to the Washington Post, which I call a Lenny Bruce. The great Sixties comedians
not one who was so public about it. lobbying tool for Amazon and winds up act degenerated into tendentious solilo-
In Phoenix, which is technically a cam- with CNN, which is so bad and pathetic, quies about his legal situation (he had been
paign event, the idea seems to be to sur- and their ratings are going down. charged with obscenity). Bruce too stood
round the chief with an enthusiastic audi- CNNs ratings arent down. The net- onstage in his last years for interminable
ence to boost his spirits after the asco of works second-quarter prime-time viewers periods, court papers in hand, quoting
Charlottesville. Put him on the stump in just cracked a 1 million average, its most- himself to audiences bored to insanity by
the heart of MAGA country, let him feel watched second quarter ever, largely due to the spectacle.
that boar-with-a-boner high again. the blimp wreck of the Trump presidency. This is exactly Trump. Even his follow-
It doesnt work. The crowd is big and Its the one incontrovertible achievement ers are starting to look sideways at one
boisterous enough, maybe 10,000 Sher- of this administration. The network tweets another. In a sight rarely seen last year, a
iff Joe-lovin, Mexico-hatin Muricans, as much shortly after Trump says the line. trickle of supporters heads for the exits.
but Trump looks miserable. Hes not the The Phoenix audience doesnt care. CNN Then Trump cracks.
insurgent rebel anymore but a Caesar sucks! they chant. CNN sucks! The only people giving a platform to
surrounded by knives. Hes got a special I was late to the event and actually these hate groups is the media itself, and
prosecutor crawling up his backside, and standing outside the press pen, so when the fake news, he says, to tepid applause.
there are numerous prominent politicians, the crowd turns to scream and hiss at the He stops and points in accusing fashion
including at least two in his own party, media, Im on the angry-zombie side of the at the press riser.
who are questioning his sanity in public line. A man taps my shoulder. Oh, thats so funny, he says. Look back
amid growing whispers of constitutional Fuck those people! he shouts. there, the live red lights. Theyre turning
I smile, zip up my jacket to hide my those suckers off fast out there. Theyre
Matt Taibbis book about the Eric lanyard, then turn around to give him a turning those lights off fast.
Garner case, I Cant Breathe: A Killing thumbs up. The crowd escalates: We reporters had seen this act before.
on Bay Street, will be out in October. Tell the truth! Tell the truth! On October 10th of last year, in Wilkes-

34 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
leaves victims half-alive and crawling over
deserts and jungles, while we sit stuff-
ing ourselves on couches and blathering
about our American exceptionalism. We
dumped 20 million gallons of toxic herbi-
cide on Vietnam from the air, just to make
the shooting easier without all those trees,
an insane plan to win hearts and minds
that has left about a million still disabled
from defects and disease including about
100,000 children, even decades later, little
kids with misshapen heads, webbed hands
and fused eyelids writhing on cots, our real
American legacy, well out of view, of course.
Nowadays we use ying robots and mis-
siles to kill so many civilians and women
and children in places like Mosul and
Raqqa and Damadola, Pakistan, in our
countless ongoing undeclared wars that
the incidents scarcely make the news any-
more. Our next innovation is automation,
AI-powered drones that can identify and
shoot targets, so human beings dont have
to pull triggers and feel bad anymore. If
you want to look in our rearview, its lynch-
ings and race war and genocide
all the way back, from Hispaniola
Hate Speech to Jolo Island in the Philippines
to Mendocino County, California,
In August, an where we nearly wiped out the
embattled Trump Yuki people once upon a time.
gave a rambling This is who weve always been,
speech at a rally in
Barre, Pennsylvania, at one of the most [Hes saying] I dont a nation of madmen and socio-
Phoenix that sent
massive rallies of the campaign, Trump promote racism, thats the crowd to the paths, for whom murder is a line
accused CNN of shutting down the feed just the media trying to exits early. item, kept hidden via a long list
because he was criticizing their debate fuck with me, says Rich of semantic self-deceptions, from
coverage. In that case, a camera light re- Yukon, a biker from a manifest destiny to collateral
ally did f licker, but CNN was actually Tempe-based club called the Metalheads. damage. Were used to presidents being
turning the live feed on, not off. That was But he gets a little out of hand here and the soul of probity, kind Dads and strug-
possibly an honest mistake. Possibly also there, he says some shit. gling Atlases, humbled by the terrible re-
it was Trump just pulling the medias tail, After the event, Trump tweets, Beauti- sponsibility, proof to ourselves of our good-
tweaking us with a line of bull, as he had ful turnout of 15,000 in Phoenix tonight! ness. Now, the mask of respectability is
with countless other provocations. The Later, he reportedly fires the organizer gone, and we feel sorry for ourselves, be-
general consensus of attendant journal- of that same beautiful event, longtime cause the sickness is showing.
ists that night was that Trump was mess- aide and RNC contractor George Gigi- So much of the Trump phenomenon is
ing with us. cos, apparently for not delivering a ter- about history. Fueling the divide between
Phoenix is different. Trump seems to be- rifyingly massive enough crowd. Sources pro- and anti-Trump camps is exactly the
lieve what hes saying. He really thinks that told Bloomberg that Trump saw open oor fact that weve never had a real reckoning
not just CNN, but all of the networks are space in TV shots before he took the stage, with either our terrible past or our simi-
shutting down their feeds, overwhelmed and this put him in a foul mood from larly bloody present. The Trump movement
by the power of his words. Boy, those cam- which he never recovered. culturally represents an absolute denial of
eras are going off, he says, coming back to Trump has never had much use for facts, our sins from slavery on hence the intense
the subject. Oh, wow. Why dont you just or decorum, or empathy, or sexual discre- reaction to the removal of Confederate stat-
fold them up and take them home? Oh, tion, or any of the hundred other markers ues, the bizarre paranoia about the Wash-
those cameras are going off. Wow. Thats we normally look at to gauge mental well- ington Monument being next, and so on.
the one thing, theyre very nervous to have ness. But hes never been like this. This guy But #resistance is also a denial mechanism.
me on live television. . . . is lost, and as he ails for a clue, he keeps It makes Trump the root of all evil, and is
The president of the United States is struggling violently against the conven- powered by an intense desire to not have to
seeing things. He might as well be shooing tions of his own office. The presidency has look at the ugliness, to go back to the way
imaginary ants off his suit. His followers become a straitjacket. things were. We see this hideous clown in
still love him, but even theyre starting to the White House and feel our dignity out-
notice. They come for the old standards, e d e s e r v e t r u m p , raged, but when you really think about it,
RALPH FRESO/GETTY IMAGES

but this new Trump material gets mixed


reviews.
Outside, a fan gives the speech a half-
hearted thumbs up. I liked Lock her up,
the man says with a shrug. They did that
W though. God, do we de- what should Americas president look like?
serve him. We Americans Trump is no malfunction. Hes a perfect
have some good qualities, representation of who, as a country, we
too, dont get me wrong. But were also a are and always have been: an insane mon-
bloodthirsty Mr. Hyde nation that sub- ster. Frankly, were lucky hes not walking
for a little while. sists on massacres and slave labor and around using a childs femur as a toothpick.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 35
When its not trembling in terror, the rest
of the world must be laughing its ass off.
America, land of the mad pig president.
Shove that up your exceptionalism.

A
week in trump time is like
a century, and the week after the
Phoenix asco felt like a thou-
sand years. First, he slipped in
a prime-time pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpa-
io Trumps Ghost of Christmas Future,
an envelope-pushing birther and dement-
ed prairie fascist who looked destined to
spend his eighties in jail. Then, Trump
held a joint press conference with Finnish
President Sauli Niinist. The diminutive
Scandinavian stood trying not to reach
for his cyanide pill as Trump proudly ex-
plained to the press that hed timed the Ar-
paio pardon with coverage of Hurricane
Harvey for maximum ratings impact. The
poor Euro looked like a Belgian nun forced
to bunk up with Honey Boo Boo.
Trump spent much of the week express- Out of Touch
ing morbid excitement about Harvey, as
though the sheer size of the storm somehow After Hurricane Harvey,
reected upon him personally. HISTORIC Trump flew to a decimated
rainfall, he gushed. Then, he went to Texas Corpus Christi, Texas, and
and said a slew of inappropriate things, gave an awkward speech:
celebrating crowd turnout and continually What a crowd! What a
popping wood over the killer storms epic turnout! Trump boasted.
dimensions nobodys ever seen this much Facing criticism for not
expressing enough
water, he raved. He repeatedly forgot to
empathy, he returned to
express empathy for victims, but doled out the area, but his efforts at
a major attaboy to FEMA administrator offering aid were forced.
Brock Long, who really became famous on
television the past few days.
Then, Trump went somewhere, fell thought Trump was impeachable from Impeachment is going to be tough po-
asleep, woke up and decided rst thing to Day One thanks to ethical conicts and litical sledding in almost any case. Part
take a Twitter leak on nuclear belligerent other issues. But successful impeachment of Trumps purpose in going to Arizona
Kim Jong-Un, who just days before had would not only require signicant defec- was to start digging the grave of Repub-
shot missiles over northern Japan. The tions from a Republican-controlled Con- lican senator and open Trump antagonist
U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and gress, but proof of high crimes and misde- Jeff Flake, who is up for re-election in
paying them extortion money, for 25 years, meanors, so far elusive. 2018. Flake is polling far behind a Trump-
Trump wrote. Talking is not the answer! Theres a widespread misconception backed primary challenger, Dr. Kelli Ward,
After enough weeks and months of be- that impeachment is a purely political thrilling the mad regent. WEAK on bor-
havior like this, its become axiomatic in matter, that it can and should happen the ders, crime, and a non-factor in the Sen-
many circles that Trump simply must go, instant a two-thirds majority of the Senate ate, Trump tweeted of Flake. Hes toxic!
for whatever reason. Our desperation as a deems it necessary. Some of this has been In the wake of Charlottesville, Trump FROM TOP: SHEALAH CRAIGHEAD/THE WHITE HOUSE; WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

nation to get back to normal that is to fueled by social-media discussions quoting surrogates like longtime friend Roger
say, back to being able to pretend were a gures like Gerald Ford, who as a minority Stone argued that the president shouldnt
civilized people with justied hegemonic congressman once said, An impeachable back down at all to global outcries, but in-
authority has hit such a fever pitch that offense is whatever a majority of the House stead run back on offense by going after a
there is now real energy behind a pair of of Representatives considers it to be. scalp in his own party. By helping to blow
long-shot efforts to remove our mad king But many legal experts disagree. That up Flake, whose approval rating among
from the throne ahead of schedule. was the worst thing that Ford could have voters in his own state, according to one
The problem is that Trump might just said, says Jonathan Turley, law professor poll, is down to 18 percent, Trump can
live in an awful sweet spot a raving, dan- at George Washington University. While, demonstrate he still wields life-or-death
gerous embarrassment, about the worst supercially, impeachment is a political power over most GOP elected officials.
imaginable, but safe under the law absent decision, to get all the way to the nish line This will surely chill any effort to try to
new information. Depending on whom you the effort has to meet the legal standard of shorten Trumps term.
ask, we may have to break democratic rules high crimes and misdemeanors. Still, ve different investigations into
to be rid of him something weve never Merely being an inappropriate, racist, Trumps relationship with Russia are cur-
had a problem doing, of course, but this is unethical, sociopathic embarrassment, rently underway, and theres little question
no desert sideshow, this would be center even on the Trump level, doesnt neces- that the undisguisedly sweeping nature
stage with the whole world watching. sarily rate as an impeachable offense. The of the inquiry is freaking Trump out. It
Impeachment, now favored by upwards president must be caught committing a was not difficult to notice that a predawn
of 43 percent of voters, is one track. Many crime, and it must be serious. FBI raid on the home of former Trump

36 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
campaign manager Paul Manafort took tion of inability to discharge duties under A letter to Congress from this crew
place just before Trumps disastrous re- Section 4 of the 25th Amendment. would begin a process that would put Pence
sponse to the Charlottesville tragedy. If you This is a form of legalized mutiny that in the Oval Office as the acting president.
think special counsel Robert Mueller is in could theoretically take place if enough Under the 25th Amendment, incidental-
Trumps head, he probably is. people in Trumps orbit were to conclude ly, the president is never removed, but
Mueller, who is wielding the biggest he were mentally unt. (There is a congres- merely sidelined. Imagine still-technically-
pitchfork in this thing, is roaming promis- sional removal scenario under this provi- President Trumps serene, imperturbable
cuously into all sorts of areas of inquiry, sion, too, but its complex and even more of behavior as he watches his temporary
from Manaforts nances to the dismissal a long shot.) Theres buzz about this coup- replacement Pence in the White House.
of former FBI chief James Comey to God like scenario in both parties. Maryland A two-thirds majority in both houses of
knows what else. Mueller is exactly the Rep. Jamie Raskin has introduced a bill Congress would eventually be needed to
kind of person Trump doesnt need sniff- to set up an independent commission to secure the play.
ing his sheets: a graying, hatchet-faced gauge Trumps tness. Twenty-eight Dem- As with impeachment, there is a mis-
moralist who, while Trump was spending ocrats have since signed the resolution. conception that a Section 4 declaration
decades romping with models and party- In the Senate, Tennessees glad-handing, can be a purely political gambit. In fact,
ing with TV stars, was quietly building six-faced, wanna-be Napoleon, wheeler- the procedure specically cant be about
on a government salary a reputation for dealer Republican Bob Corker, who as re- politics. John Feerick, a Fordham law pro-
being incorruptible and having extraor- cently as June was seen golng with Trump fessor who helped work on the original
dinary integrity. As a former FBI chief, he and Peyton Manning, questioned Trumps bill with senators such as Indianas Birch
is a veteran of massive undertakings, hav- stability and competence in a statement Bayh and authored a book titled The 25th
ing led one of the biggest investigations in that was widely interpreted as a reference Amendment, goes out of his way to point
the bureaus history after 9/11. He can be to the 25th Amendment. This came after out the many things that do not qualify as
expected to have grand juries inability under this law. The
sprouting across the country list reads like Trumps rsum.
like mushrooms, and if theres The debates in Congress
evidence Trump so much as about the amendment, Feer-
farted across state lines once, it
will be in Muellers report.
Trumps brain is a denuded ick writes, make clear that in-
ability does not cover policy
And likely none of it would mush of paranoid, self- and political differences, un-
have happened had Trump popularity, poor judgment, in-
had enough self-control to let aggrandizing ctions he competence, laziness or im-
Comeys probably far narrow-
er probe run its course. It was couldnt part with even if peachable conduct. When
asked about the possibility of
remarkable to hear recently
deposed Trump adviser Steve
someone forced him to try. invoking the amendment today,
Feerick is wary. Its a very high
Bannon say this out loud. The bar that has to be satisfied,
alt-right guru told Charlie he says. Youre dealing with a
Rose that ring Comey was the biggest Democratic Sen. Jack Reed was captured president elected for four years.
mistake in modern political history, and on a hot mic saying to Republican Sen. It has to be very serious, agrees Turley,
we would not have the Mueller investi- Susan Collins, I think hes crazy. Collins who adds that an inability effort would
gation and the breadth that clearly Mr. replied, Im worried. probably require sworn statements from
Mueller is going for. Even some of the presidents chief foes psychiatric professionals.
But Muellers investigation would al- on the Russia front, including deep state The president, again, cannot be merely
most certainly have to be a direct hit to types like former director of national intel- a disordered, inappropriate, incompetent,
Trump to result in removal from office. ligence James Clapper, have pivoted to the destructive embarrassment. He has to be
And there have been ominous signs for untness theme. The day after Phoenix, genuinely unable to work. For Trump to
those who have hopes on this front. Sen. Clapper told CNN that Trumps speech was be impeachable, he probably has to be re-
Dianne Feinstein, ranking member on the the most disturbing thing hed ever seen sponsible for crimes. To be declared unt,
Judiciary Committee and senior member from a president. he probably has to be demonstrably insane.
on Intelligence, as plugged-in a politician But the 25th Amendment process, ad- He probably cant be both. Is he either?
as there is on the Democratic side, stunned opted in 1967, offers faint hope to anti- Unless the Russia investigation pans
a San Francisco audience at the end of Au- Trumpers. Its the new Hail Mary, says out, the question of whether Trump sur-
gust by saying that Trump is going to be the law professor Turley. It can be insti- vives to 2020 Vegas betting houses start-
president most likely for the rest of this gated in a few ways, none simple. The most ed putting the odds below 50 percent after
term. She suggested to cries of No! likely would involve Veep Mike Pence (ru- Charlottesville hangs on a single ques-
that Trump can be a good president. mored to be preparing a 2020 run) and the tion: Is Donald Trump insane?
bulk of Trumps Cabinet writing a letter to Its actually not easy to answer, even
ru mps c ata st rophic au- Congress asserting that Trump is unable conversationally. Is he crazy? On one level,

T gust, which saw his approval


ratings drop to a preposterous
35 percent, was marked by two
devastating unforced errors: his Phoe-
nix speech and the similarly id-exposing
to perform his duties. Presumably such
an effort would also include the coterie
of missile-lobbing uniform fetishists sur-
rounding Trump, people like John Kelly,
H.R. McMaster and James Mattis. These
of course he is, hell yes. Trump has been
mad as a sack of bees since he launched
his campaign. Put simply, Trump believes
things that arent there. He made it to the
White House in a delusional bubble of his
Trump Tower presser about those very half-bright military men, upon whom so own creation, and his brain is clearly a
ne people among the Nazis. The press much of Washington has pinned hopes as denuded mush of paranoid, self-aggran-
narrative since those incidents has been the axis of adults in Trumps loony-bin dizing ctions he probably couldnt part
focused far less on impeachability than on administration, would likely have to defy with even if some brave confederate were
the other road to early removal: a declara- their commander in chief. to force him to try.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 37
People pay the most attention to Trumps kopf, Coretta Scott King, Gloria Steinem, found a way around both problems. The
political deceptions: that 3 million illegal Pope Francis and, apparently, Cory Book- Goldwater Rule he just ignores, because,
voters lost him the popular vote, that Hill- ers mother, Carolyn. he argues, the graveness of the Trump
ary Clinton wants to release the violent The presidents ludicrous grandiosity threat renders it quaint. Lots of his col-
criminals from jail, that Ted Cruzs father was a running joke throughout the cam- leagues seem to agree, as Gartner has
was linked to the JFK assassination, and paign season, but having a personality managed to gather more than 62,000 sig-
so on. We are the highest-taxed nation in disorder is not a disqualifying feature in natures from self-described mental-health
the world was a notable recent whopper. a president. Even his most vocal critics professionals attesting that Trump mani-
But those lies may be strategic, and in the mental-health community concede fests a serious mental illness that renders
Trump probably isnt married to them that being a narcissist, even a very sick one, him psychologically incapable of compe-
anyway, given that he doesnt appear to does not make him unt for office. tently discharging the duties of president
have real beliefs. Trump picks his political As someone whos studied Trump, as of the United States.
positions like ties: whatevers on the rack. someone whos met Trump, whos interact- Gartners argument is relatively simple.
Under duress, and with no way to escape, ed with him socially, I can say with abso- Add paranoia, sadism and antisocial be-
he will sometimes cop to being full of it, lute condence that he suffers from severe havior to narcissistic personality disor-
like the time he nally admitted, Obama personality disorders, perhaps a cluster der and you have a new diagnosis: ma-
was born in the United States, after ve of disorders, says Ben Michaelis, a New lignant narcissism. Trump, he says, is
years of bleating the opposite. no paranoid schizophrenic who
But sit him in front of a doctor walks the streets claiming to be
and see what happens when you the Son of God no one so grossly
ask: Who had the larger inaugural ill could be elected. However, the
crowd, him or Obama? Or: Would presidents increasing tendency to
he ever admit the Boy Scouts never obsess over persecution theories
called to tell him his speech was and not just parrot meaning-
the greatest ever? Trump might less stupidities like the inaugural-
struggle here. Its the countless crowd story but seemingly believe
little fairy tales he tells himself them shows that hes crossing a
about his power and infallibility meaningful diagnostic line into
to which he clings like a dope end psychotic delusions, common
to a $10 bill. among malignant narcissists.
Everyone with half a brain and Were not talking about a
a recent copy of the DSM (the Di- gross psychotic disorder, Gartner
agnostic and Statistical Manual of says. Were talking about a way
Mental Disorders, used by shrinks in which people with severe per-
everywhere) knew the diagnosis sonality disorders can regress to
on Trump the instant he joined the what they call transient psychotic
race. Trump ts the clinical deni- states. He adds, Its a more subtle
tion of a narcissistic personality so kind of psychosis, but it goes over
completely that it will be a shock if the boundary into psychosis.
future psychiatrists dont rename The term malignant narcissist
the disorder after him. is said to have been invented by
Grandiosity, a tendency to exag- Holocaust survivor Erich Fromm,
gerate achievements, a preoccupa- who used it to explain Hitler. Its
tion with fantasies of unlimited now become a catchword on the
success, power, brilliance, beauty Internet to describe Trump, and
or ideal love, a belief in ones spe- almost inevitably in much the
cialness (which can only be understood by TWEETER IN CHIEF same way that language from the Steele
other special people), a need for excessive Trump doesnt read, and gets most of his dossier bled from the Internet to pop cul-
admiration and a sense of entitlement news from the Internet and TV, a habit that ture to the rhetoric of elected officials
sound like anyone you know? can cause cognitive decline. it has begun to be circulated within the
Trumps rapidly expanding list of things Democratic Party. California Rep. Jackie
at which hes either a supreme expert or York-based psychologist who has run into Speier actually used the term to describe
the Earths best living practitioner would Trump over the years. But to get a sense of Trump after Charlottesville, in an inter-
shame even great historical blowhards like outright psychotic behavior . . . theres some view in which she also called him un-
Stalin or Mobutu Sese Seko. possibility, but you really need to examine hinged and unt.
As the worlds greatest person at re- him in a clinical setting. But this all has the feel of a duel between
stricting immigration, who is good at war This holdup that merely being disor- court experts. If the argument comes down
and knows more about ISIS than the gen- dered isnt enough to justify removal, partic- to whether Trump is a garden-variety nar-
erals, and who is the least racist person ularly when so many people endorsed these cissist or a malignant narcissist, the from-
with the best temperament who knows characteristics with a vote has been one afar diagnosis may not cut it as an excuse
more about renewables than any human logistical problem stopping the untness to sideline an elected president.
being on Earth, insists nobody reads the Hail Mary. Another has been the Amer- Nor should it, says Turley, who believes
Bible more than me, and even knows more ican Psychiatric Associations so-called Trumps opponents are playing with re.
BENJAMIN RASMUSSEN

about New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker than Goldwater Rule, an ethical dictum that He particularly points the nger at Demo-
[Booker] knows himself, Trump by his discourages mental-health professionals crats, whom he calls constitutional short-
own description is not a splenetic right- from diagnosing public gures from afar. sellers. During the eight years of Obama,
wing basket case at all, but just a cleverly John Gartner, a psychologist who Turley says, Democrats continually boost-
disguised cross of God, Norman Schwarz- trained residents at Johns Hopkins, has ed executive power, only to regret it once

38 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
Trump was elected. Now, he says, toying This is a huge part of the problem of and ill-tting jeans. If there are protesters
with scenarios like a 25th Amendment ploy trying to gauge whether or not Trump is anywhere in the area, theyre likely very far
could come back to bite them. mentally unt for office. It isnt just that away, probably surrounded by .30-caliber
Theyre doing this without thinking of 63 million people specifically endorsed machine guns.
the long-term implications, he says. It his nuttiest behaviors with a vote. Its also Every Trump event is must-see TV now,
could be their president the next time. that maintaining modern American media because no one ever knows when hes going
habits can make most anyone seem like a to go on one of his unscripted ape-rants. It
rump wasnt always crazy. victim of organic brain damage. doesnt happen today. Today we get Clonaz-

T He wasnt even always obnox-


ious. Many Americans dont re-
member, but the Donald Trump
who appeared on TV regularly in the
Eighties and Nineties was often engag-
In a kind of awful satire of the cur-
rent American experience, part of what
got Trump elected is the camaraderie he
shared with other reality-averse Ameri-
cans who similarly chose to live in castles
epam Trump, Prozac Trump. He stands in
front of a big ag, perches between his two
teleprompters and reads prepared remarks
virtually from beginning to end a relative
rarity for this president, who hates scripts
ing, self-deprecating, spoke in complete of self-aggrandizement, denial and blame- as much as he hates buttoned suit jackets.
sentences and (verbally, anyway) usually shifting, a journalistic product we offer to Trump reading a speech always looks like
lived up to his expensive schooling. Hed just about everyone these days. a hostage. In stark contrast to the vibrant
say things like, These are the only casinos Trump is almost certainly worse than rage of Phoenix, in Missouri he slowly spits
in the United States that are so rated, and most of his voters. Hes likely more gran- out each lifeless clich like its a dead bird.
use words and phrases like a somewhat diose, less empathetic and less capable of In difficult times such as these, he says,
impersonal life and money isnt a totally handling criticism. But his phobias about we see the true character of the Ameri-
essential ingredient. science or history or inconvenient facts, can people: their strength, their love and
The difference today is striking. Trump along with his countless conspiratorial ha- their resolve. We see friend helping friend,
has not only completely lost his neighbor helping neighbor, and
sense of humor, particularly stranger helping stranger. . . .
about himself, but hes a lin- Jeez, moans a reporter in
gual mess. In his current dread the press section, smacking a
of polysyllables his favorite
words include I, Trump,
Part of what got Trump forehead.
Trump goes on to insinuate
very, money and China
he makes George W. Bush
elected is the camaraderie to the crowd that the states
Democratic senator is holding
sound like Vladimir Nabokov. he shared with Americans back much-needed tax reform.
On the page, transcripts of his
speaking appearances often who chose to live in castles And your senator, Claire
McCaskill, she must do this for
look like complete gibberish.
When I did this now I said,
of self-aggrandizement, you, he says robotically. And
if she doesnt do it for you, you
I probably, maybe will confuse
people, maybe Ill expand that,
denial and blame-shifting. have to vote her out of office.
Muted cheers. After the
he said to Lester Holt in May, event, the crowd les out in a
you know, Ill lengthen the patriotic mumble. A musta-
time because it should be over with, in my treds and prejudices, are things he shares chioed man who identifies himself only
opinion. with millions of people. They voted for as Chuck Chuck says the lifeless speech
The difference even since last year is this, which creates as confounding and doesnt bother him.
hard to miss, and why not? The presidency ridiculous a conundrum as has ever been He told us about Claire McCaskill, that
severely ages and stresses even healthy observed in an industrial democracy. Can was good enough, he says.
people. From Obama to Bush to Jimmy a country be declared unt? A week or so later, Trump will strike a
Carter, presidents on their last day of of- deal to raise the debt ceiling with Nancy Pe-
ce often look like med-school cadavers. u e sday, august 30 t h, losi and Chuck Schumer that leaves mem-
President Trump already looks older, has
a lower frustration threshold and seems
only to have two moods, rage and sullen
resignation (a.k.a. pre-rage).
He also can barely speak anymore, but
T Springfield, Missouri. Fresh
off his no more talking tweet
about North Korea that again
puts the world on nuke alert, Trump ies
to this sleepy little Ozark hub for a bit of
bers of both parties stunned. His would-be
enemies in The New York Times publish the
breathless analysis they never gave to Ber-
nie Sanders: bound to no party, trump
upends 150 years of two-party rule.
without a close-up examination its impos- image rehab. The play is transparent: Un- This is the paradox of Trump. He is
sible to say if this is a neurological problem spool plans for a monster corporate tax damaged, unwell and delusional, but at
or just being typically American. As the giveaway to pull nervous rank-and-le Re- critical moments hes able to approximate a
psychologist Michaelis puts it, one major publicans back toward the rubber room of functioning human being just long enough
cause for loss of cognitive function is giv- Trumps presidency, and grope a promi- to survive. He is the worst-case scenario:
ing up reading in favor of TV or the Inter- nent piece of Americana the birthplace embarrassing, mentally disorganized and
net, which is basically most people in this of Route 66 for the benet of a voter base completely inappropriate, but perhaps not
country these days. that may have been confused by the previ- all the way insane. Maybe crimes will soon
In someone of his economic back- ous weeks Howard Beale act. be discovered and hell be impeached, or
ground and age, [the decline] is somewhat The speech is to be delivered at the maybe hell run naked down Pennsylva-
uncommon, he says. Then again, its a Loren Cook Company, a maker of many nia Avenue this fall, or nuke someone, and
trend. People of my generation got more in- things, including laboratory exhaust sys- be declared unt. Until then, hes just the
formation from TV than books, and people tems, which seems ominous somehow. president we deserve, dragging our name
of the next generation get more informa- The giant warehouse slowly lls with the down where it belongs. He is miserable,
tion from the Internet, and that exercises usual crowd of elderly f lag-wavers and so are we, and were stuck with each other.
less of your cognitive reserve. squirrelly white dudes with bad facial hair Karma really is a bitch.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 39
Travis Scott has
two platinum
albums, and hes
known for
shows so wild
theyve gotten
him arrested.
Now, hes got
much bigger
things in mind

By Jonah
Weiner

T
r avis scott bursts into his dressing room on a scooter, tr ailing
assorted entourage and radiating the rich aroma of good weed. He makes for a ca-
tering table lined with Fruit Roll-Ups, Honey Buns, Lucky Charms and for good
measure two bottles of Don Julio 1942 tequila. Hes at the Oracle Arena in Oak-
land, about to face a sold-out crowd. Lets get this bitch turnt! he yells at no one in partic-
ular, letting the scooter fall to the carpet. Scotts manager, David Stromberg, brings Scotts
attention to a dry-erase board, tucked behind a curtain, where a basketball play has been di-
agrammed in marker. Oracle is home to the Golden State Warriors, and Stromberg says that

40
Travis
Scott

the Cleveland Cavaliers used this space as co-produced songs not only with West but he had commissioned for his live shows,
their locker room during the nals in June. also Rihanna (whom hes also rumored to which looks a bit like a Henson creation,
The diagram, titled BRON ISO, contains have dated) and Madonna. His albums and which he rides above the stage, wings
LeBron James-centric directives such as Rodeo and Birds in the Trap Sing Mc- beating. Man, I got a ying bird out here!
KYRIE PASS IT and JR GET THE Knight mix pop impulses honeyed, hyp- he says. Name someone thats 25 doing
FUCK OUT THE WAY. This is, like, the notic hooks with irregular structures that shit.
last thing Tyronn Lue wrote, Stromberg and droning ows that verge on avant- Theres something childlike about Scott.
says, referring to the Cavs coach. Scott, garde. Both are platinum, and theyve both The Rodeo album art and the music video
taking it in, laughs hard. Get the fuck out produced platinum singles, like the nar- for his single 90210 featured a pose-
the way! he cries. cotic Antidote and the Lamar-assisted able Travis Scott action gure. (In an un-
Hes winding down a 20-show tour Goosebumps. childlike detail, it engages in some graphic
opening for Kendrick Lamar. Originally Scott has also become known for a live action-figure boning before the videos
from Houston, Scott rolled into the Bay show so raucous that if you believe law through.) You can buy the action gure
Area early this morning, following a show enforcement, anyway its literally crimi- yourself, although the original run sold
in Vancouver. He spent all of today holed nal. He was arrested this past May, after out, which means shelling out hundreds
up on his bus, he tells me, working on new a show in Rogers, Arkansas, on charges of dollars for one on eBay.
tracks that might wind up on his next of inciting a riot for encouraging fans to Scott says he was inspired to make the
album: Just chillin, recording. Formulat- rush the stage. Police say that several peo- animatronic bird after he paid a visit to
ing a story, the picture Im trying to paint. ple were injured, among them a security Legoland in San Diego. Hes a big theme-
Its fun making music on the road I got guard and a cop. (Scott, who pleaded not park fan, to the extent that hes also
a whole studio bus. He plops down on guilty, faced similar charges in 2015 fol- been to the Denmark Legoland and titled
a couch, gets lost in his phone. The en- lowing a concert in Chicago.) Shortly be- his next album AstroWorld after a now-
ergys been a little strange show-to-show fore the Arkansas show, Scott encouraged defunct park he used to visit in Texas. It
on this tour, Stromberg says. I mean, a fan at a New York concert to jump down had a Dungeon Drop, Greezed Lightnin,
Travis brings the energy, but theres been from a second-oor balcony, before order- Superman, he recalls. It was a way of
seating at every show. He wants to get his ing audience members to form a human life fantasies, imagination. AstroWorld
fans onstage and get them to stage-dive net to catch him. A different fan fell from doesnt have a conrmed release date yet,
but theres chairs. He theorizes that its a the third-story balcony and reportedly but Scott says that whenever the accom-
numbers thing I think you wound up with a broken leg, panying tour happens, he wants his con-
can sell more tickets when but charges werent led. certs to double as bona-de amusement
you do seats than when you When I ask Scott if the Ar- parks, with rides encircling him as he
do general admission. Scott I dont kansas incident has changed performs. I dont know why it hasnt been
says, I cant speak to that, his behavior onstage, he an- done already I think people just dont do
but confirms that he pre- do many swers without a moments shit. Who makes stages these days that
fers the unmanaged vibe of
drugs. thought. It hasnt, he says. are cool?

S
a big, chair-free pit, where People gotta understand,
crowds can more readily cut My brain sometimes shit gets out of c o t t wa s b or n j a c q u e s
loose: Pffft, he says. Im control. Im not trying to Webster his stage name was
never doing a tour with seats would cause no harm I just per- inspired by an uncle and grew
again. Travis fans are a lit- form. He thinks for a sec- up in Missouri City, a middle-
tle younger, Stromberg con- explode. ond, then muses about a po- class Houston suburb. His fa-
tinues. Kendricks are a little
older, and theyre here for
Im my tential solution: getting even
more popular than he al-
ther was an entrepreneur, his mother an
Apple employee. When Scott was three
he throws up air quotes own drug. ready is. I think I just gotta years old, his dad bought him his own
real hip-hop. get into bigger spaces, have drum kit, which he played, as well as the
Stromberg is drawing a If someone more space to get it in. Try piano, before quitting the latter, deciding
distinction between Lamars
dense, classicist virtuosity
licked my to prevent some of that shit.
I just wanna bring the stage
that it couldnt help him get girls, where-
as drum skills, which translated to beat-
and what Scott does best,
which is different: deliver
blood, its to, like, the masses. I feel I
have a show for the masses.
making, would. As he puts it, I was try-
ing to fuck bitches, make beats, get fresh.
simple, beguiling phrases like liquid Its probably at a point now In high school, Scott acted in a local
about partying and drugs in where your uncle might know theater troupe. I was a thespian, bruh,
an Auto-Tuned singsong over MDMA. Travis, you know? he recalls. I was in this play Kiss Me,
hard-edged, low-lit beats. Its On one hand, Scott has Kate you heard of that? I did Oliver! I
PREVIOUS PAGE: AHMED KLINK/@ SUNDAY AFTERNOON

a style you hear everywhere taken such troubles as a pub- love that type of shit. I love drama. Scotts
in hip-hop these days, from Migos to Fu- licity opportunity. After the Arkansas ar- current DJ, Chase B, tells me they have
ture. Its also a style that Scott whose rest, he sold fans a limited-edition T-shirt been friends since we were nine, adding
debut mixtape, Owl Pharaoh, came out printed with his mug shot and the slogan that Scott was a supercreative kid. When
in 2013, the same year he worked behind free the r age. (Scott likes the word he acted in plays, he would always be the
the scenes with Kanye West on Yeezus rage, whether hes describing a cathar- lead that charisma was already showing
helped pioneer. tic onstage outlet or calling his devotees through.
Scott has been on a roll ever since. Hes ragers.) But theres an element of the Today, Scott directs his own music vid-
dating Kylie Jenner. He has co-written or negative attention that he doesnt like, too. eos, a predilection he ties to a lifelong love
I wanna be recognized for some of the of auteurs like John Hughes, Quentin Tar-
Contributing editor Jonah Weiner good shit I do, he says. Such as, he goes antino and Robert Rodriguez. My favor-
wrote about Khalid in August. on, the enormous animatronic eagle that ite movie was The Breakfast Club, Scott

42 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017
1 2 chugs it. Stromberg pops
his head in the doorway to
announce a visitor. Jack
Dorsey, the CEO of Twit-
ter, would like to say hi.
Dorsey, dressed in a Bie-
berish ensemble of skin-
ny jeans and extra-long
T-shirt, enters. I didnt
think Id ever meet you,
Scott tells him.
Thanks for your music
and for using Twitter,
Free the Rage says Dorsey.
What you got going on
(1) Scotts mug shot from
his arrest in May. (2) tonight? Scott asks.
Onstage this year. This, Dorsey replies.
Sometimes shit gets out of Nigga, Kendrick be
control, he says. (3) With going brazy, Scott ob-
girlfriend Kylie Jenner. serves.
. . . Yes, Dorsey tenta-
tively agrees.
A f ter Dorsey leaves
with some complimentary
merch, Scott FaceTimes
Jenner. The two have kept
the details of their rela-
tionship under wraps, but
butteries seem to be part
of it: They both got match-
ing butterf ly tattoos; his
ne we s t si ng le , w h ic h
makes numerous seem-
ing allusions to Jenner, is
called Butterf ly Effect;
and he recently bought
her a reported $60,000
diamond chain, shaped
like the insect, for her
birthday.
see pictures in your head? I be having that Her face pops up on his iPhone screen,
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ROGERS POLICE DEPARTMENT; JOSH BRASTED/WIREIMAGE; BOB LEVEY/GETTY IMAGES

all day. Its like a museum. Thats why I nestled into a pillow. I just got offstage,
dont do too many drugs, because my brain he tells her. I miss you. I love you.
3 would explode. Im my own drug. If I bleed How was it? she asks. Good. Im tired.
and someone licked my blood, its like liq- I smoked a lot of weed.
says. You ever seen Spy Kids? Nigga, that uid MDMA know what Im saying? Members of Scotts entourage start
shit is crazy. When it came to music, his You get a sense of what hes talking loudly poking fun at Stromberg appar-
early hip-hop inuences were ashy New about when he takes the Oracle stage to- ently there was some sort of pushup chal-
Yorkers like Mase and Camron. They gave night, mounting his eagle and soaring lenge earlier, and some of the guys have
way to Kid Cudi and West, who pushed high above the crowd, and shrieking, My jokes about his abilities. The clowning
contemporary hip-hops emotive and me- name is Travis Scott, and I like to fucking distracts Scott, who puts Jenner on mute
lodic quotients into overdrive and eventu- rage! Stromberg, standing beside me in so he can more fully partake. Did you
ally inspired Scott to bring grit, pain and the center of the oor, says that in their put me on mute? she asks. Nah, I didnt
darkness to his own music. (He also lists ideal version of the show the bird would put you on mute it was just a sound
Portishead, Bjrk, Coldplay and the Sex be ying directly over the crowd, though delay, he says, chuckling. Someone lik-
Pistols among his favorite acts.) the insurance logistics have proved insur- ens Strombergs pushup style, absurdly,
Describing a category-busting creative mountable. Still, Scott likes pushing up to that of Mr. Potato Head, at which point
ambition today, Scott says he wants to try against the constraints hes been given: Scott cracks up, falls to the oor, drops
his hand at architecture. He has a dream Security, we not stopping the fans from the phone, keeps laughing and then
of studying it at Harvard. Which archi- having fun tonight! Scott bellows. Its seemingly forgets about the call. A minute
tects does he admire? I honestly check time to stand on top of these motherfuck- later, he stuffs the phone into his pocket.
for no one, he says. Im a master of my ing chairs! I can see that Jenner is still connected.
own imagination. I go off my own shit. Im Back in his dressing room some 45 min- He directs his crew to the tour bus. Its a
not into deep study all that, like, read- utes later, he tears his sweaty T-shirt off nine-hour drive to Las Vegas, site of to-
ing? Thats how shit ends up looking like and stalks the oor, revved up. He walks morrows show. Lets roll out! Scott cries,
someone elses shit. He smiles. You ever over to a fridge, cracks a Powerade and and theyre gone.

O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017 RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 43
TEEN, TRANS
AND HOMELESS
ON THE STREETS OF NEW YORK WITH
AMERICAS MOST VULNERABLE POPULATION
BY LAURA RENA MURRAY // PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEVIN YALKIN
Rolling Stone | 45
ONE SUMMER
ing a man who advertised his ama-
teur porn business online. Justice
says her father had been imprisoned
for rape. I always knew he was a

EVENING, IN NEW
bad man because I was always vis-
iting him in prison, she says. Her
mother, who spent more time par-

YORKS WEST
tying and doing drugs than look-
ing after Justice and her sister, lost
custody of them when Justice was
four years old, though they remain

VILLAGE, JUSTICE
in touch, Justice says. Im her fa-
vorite. She understands me, and I
understand her.

AND SOPHIE
That rst brief stint in New York,
four days in which she was lmed
having sex, was enough to inspire
her return on a Greyhound bus with
only a suitcase. When she told the
peer into passing cars, searching out men who might offer a bed for the night and Port Authority police she was home-
some cash for sex. A black Lexus stops at the curb, and Sophie leans into the less, they sent her to an organization
that offered a ticket back to North
window. She wears her curly hair pulled back at the nape of her neck, and slopes
Carolina. Instead, Justice scanned
her shoulders in the hope of making her lanky frame appear more petite. Two pearl Grindr, a dating app, for a solu-
bracelets slide down her right forearm, and her chipped mauve nail polish matches tion. A man in his sixties brought
the leggings under her short black halter dress. The driver, a familiar client, is an her home. She brief ly stayed at a
mens shelter, but says both another
resident and a staff member tried
older man wearing a baseball hat. where to eat, shower and sleep each to rape her on separate occasions.
He asks to see Sophies penis for 10 night. You cant go to school smelly I liked that there wasnt staff up
bucks. She turns him down, hoping and drawing attention, she says. I your ass, but your safetys at risk,
hell offer more. Justice tells Sophie would take cat baths at Starbucks. she says. I Googled shelters for gay
the same man was looking for her Now, at 21, shes hoping to build a people and found Sylvias Place, an
the previous night. He circles the civil-rights career, either as a lawyer LGBTQ-specic emergency shelter.
block three more times but they ig- or a social worker. The next morning, Justice is slender with angular
nore him. Hes playing with me too in fact, she has an interview for an facial features and a cleft chin. She
much, Sophie says. eight-week internship at the Ameri- wears a stonewashed jean jacket and
In the Dominican Republic, can Civil Liberties Union. I know holds her new blond wig in place
where Sophie was born, her moth- Im going to be a very successful per- with a crystal headband. Her nails,
er struggled with addiction and son, she says. I want [my father] to freshly painted a hot pink, match her
sent Sophie to live with her grand- learn he lost something. lip gloss. A few months earlier, she
mother in New York when she was Sophies friend Justice is a mem- married a friend that she met at Syl-
six months old. Her grandmother, ber of the Lumbee tribe in North vias Place to get extra benets. They
who was able to send the family Carolina. She rst traveled to New presently have a private room in a
money, food and clothing, Sophie York when she was 19, accompany- family shelter and are on a waiting
says, by pimping out undocumented
girls, was nearly beaten to death by
two men when Sophie was in the
fourth grade. Both her grandmoth-
er and her father hit her, she says,
and sometimes locked her out of the
house. It was more hatred than dis-
On the Margins cipline, she recalls. My dad would
Previous spread: beat me in the shower with a belt
Justice (left) and punch me in the face, calling me
with Scarlet a faggot. Then hed turn around and
in New Yorks say, I love you. How can you treat
West Village.
Right: Justice me like this if you love me?
leaving the She began living on the streets at
subway station 16, attending school whenever pos-
at Christopher sible, but more often worrying about
Street. Far
right: Sophie
in her housing
placement, a This story was reported with
studio apartment support from the CUNY Graduate
in the Bronx. School of Journalism.

46 | R ol l i n g S t o n e
list for Section 8 rental assistance.
I like it because you can stay in the
room all day, Justice says of their
current placement. You get your
own bathroom and refrigerator, so I
can make my own food.
She slips out of her ats and into
a pair of stilettos, as Sophie moves
toward the curb. Most nights, So-
phie either sleeps on a train, with
a customer or with a 55-year-old
man in Washington Heights. Hes
been my sugar daddy since I was a
butch queen, she says. He always
said if I had any friends whod want
to make some money and get their
dick sucked that I should bring them
over. She calls herself a hopeless
romantic I want to be with a guy
who wants to know what my favor-
ite color is, she says but for now,
she has found a routine on the stroll.
If they pay me, she says, at least I
wont feel used.
A skinny blond man, smoking a
glass pipe cupped in his palm, slows
to talk to her.
How are you doing tonight? So-
phie says.
Im a straight guy, he says, but
your kinds been discriminated
against so much, especially as trans
girls of color. Want to walk with me
for 10 minutes? Sophie tells him
hes sweet and that shell be around
all night if he wants to ag her down
later. But what if some other guy
snatches you up rst? he asks. She
doesnt reply, turning in the other di-
rection. Shes hoping to earn enough
money to rent a hotel room on 27th
Street and sleep for a few hours be-
fore her interview with the ACLU at
9:30 a.m. She migrates to the corner,
her left hip thrust toward a line of
cars waiting for the light to change.

THERE ARE NOW more than


350,000 transgender people under
the age of 25 in the United States,
the majority in the largest cities of
New York, California, Florida and
Texas and an estimated 20 percent
of them lack secure housing, though Overall, about a third of the na- Lost in Smoke Seventy percent of them report being
many service providers believe that tions 1.4 million transgender people Justice, who has harassed or physically and sexually
gure is low. Craig Hughes of the report experiencing homelessness at been homeless assaulted in a shelter. City shelters
Coalition for Homeless Youth notes some point in their lives. On aver- for more than have always been unsafe, says Kate
two years,
that the federal denition of home- age, transgender kids are 13 years smokes meth in Barnhart, director of the New Alter-
lessness does not include those who old when they rst nd themselves a subway-station natives drop-in program, especially
trade sex for shelter; instead, they on the streets of New York, a city service room. for LGBT people. With so few hous-
are considered unstably housed. with only about 400 beds for an esti- ing options, prostitution is often the
There are thousands who go un- mated 4,000 homeless youths. Even easiest way to access a bed. With-
counted, Hughes says. They are still, for many transgender teens, in 48 hours of being on the streets,
disconnected from services, sleep on shelter is a misnomer. They often youth will be solicited, says Cole Gi-
multiple couches a month and spend lose beds for minor infractions and annone, a director at the Ali Forney
some nights trading sex for shelter. are left without recourse for appeal. Center, a drop-in shelter for LGBTQ

48 | R ol l i n g S t o n e
youths. Sophie, who is saving up for
transition surgery, says she doesnt
mind the work but resents the stig-
ma. I hate the stereotype that were
all crackheads, she says. I have a lot
more falling and getting up to do.
Even in the shelter system, young
people rarely have a chance to stabi-
lize their lives. At a dinner for home-
less LGBTQ youths at St. Lukes
Church in the West Village, two
trans girls walk in with obvious inju-
ries. One of them, Elii, a 24-year-old
from Queens, keeps her left arm hid-
den in a gray hoodie that is covered
in blood. Two nights earlier, her boy-
friend stabbed her in the hand and
left bicep during a drunken ght;
her left earlobe still sports stitches
from when he previously cracked her
head open with a wooden board. Elii
recently lost her bed at a youth shel-
ter. I was written up for going to the
bathroom at night because I wasnt
fully dressed, she says. I was in my
long T-shirt and underwear.
Many youth shelters are time-lim-
ited available for only 30 to 60 days
and often have age restrictions.
Eliis friend Aurora limped in that
night wearing tattered shnet stock- Life on Skid Row minute you have a criminal record, her: clothes, makeup and testoster-
ings and a pair of busted ats, her Aurora began good luck with stabilizing your life. one blockers. A friend on the street
feet covered in raw blisters. A rash living on the There is also a range of needs spe- gave her a first dose of hormones
from dry shaving with disposable street at 14, cic to transgender people: regular for free. Im tired of shaving, she
razors has broken out on her skin. cycling between access to health care for hormones tells Sophie over the stub of a blunt
shelter beds and
Look at my arms, she says. I look sleeping on the and surgery; gender markers on IDs; one day.
diseased. She has been living on pavement. and access to gender-appropriate The pair are sitting outside the
the street since the age of 14, cycling bathrooms. Police routinely assume Hetrick-Matin Institute (HMI), a
between shelter beds and sleeping they are prostitutes, and others on nonprot for LGBTQ youths, when
on pavement. In a week, when she the street regard them especial- another friend, Scarlet, joins them
turns 21, she will age out of her cur- ly those who dont pass as easy on the bench. Scarlet tells them she
rent shelter. Theyre gonna bake me targets of violence. And then there was arrested at a shelter for ghting
a cake and kick me out, she says. are countless moments of judgment, with the security guard. She had ar-
The Federal Runaway and Home- when members of the public, in myr- rived past curfew and lost her bed.
less Youth Act earmarks funds for iad ways, suggest their lives arent as I was sleep-deprived and messed
services to kids up to 25 years old, SOPHIE IS worthy. With so many cards stacked everything up, she says. She spent
so states and municipalities choose SAVING UP against them poverty, racism, sex- six days locked up at Rikers Island,
whether to turn away those older FOR HER ism and homo- and transphobia housed with the adult male popula-
than 21. Arbitrary age limits dont TRANSITION. they are, in many ways, Americas tion. Sophie falls silent, sucking her
work, notes Beth Hofmeister, a SHE DOESNT most vulnerable population. thumb; in 2015, she spent more than
staff attorney at the Legal Aid So- nine months locked up for stealing
ciety. Especially for kids whove
MIND SEX ITS A LOT HARDER to be trans UPS packages from doorways, and
gone through trauma. Even a week WORK BUT when you dont pass as the gender says she had been placed on suicide
of street homelessness affects you. RESENTS with which you identify. The girls watch after an officer assaulted her.
Out on the streets, many trans THE STIGMA. critique friends for failing to pass (Trans women are ve times more
teens build criminal records for I HATE THE as cisgendered when ones gender likely to be sexually assaulted by
low-level offenses: jumping subway STEREOTYPE identity corresponds to his or her sex prison staff than other inmates, and
turnstiles and drinking, urinating, THAT WERE at birth and remind one another nine times more likely to be sexually
defecating or re-tucking their gen- ALL CRACK- to act like women. They get peeved assaulted by other inmates.)
itals in public. Those records be-
come further barriers to accessing
HEADS, SHE when one of them is clocked as
male or re-tucks her genitals in view
At HMI, Sophie and Scarlet are
looking forward to taking a shower.
SAYS. I HAVE
LAURA RENA MURRAY

the resources they need to escape of the others. You have to come cor- Sophie hasnt bathed for at least ve
homelessness. Law enforcement A LOT MORE rect, Justice says. As of last summer, days; for Scarlet, its been more than
sees these kids as criminals, says FALLING she had been presenting as female a week. After getting out of Rik-
Meredith Dank, a researcher at John AND GETTING for only a few weeks, but was learn- ers, she hooked up with a guy on
Jay College in New York. And the UP TO DO. ing to pass with the tools available to Grindr who offered her meth in ex-

R ol l i n g S t o n e | 49
change for sex. He was HIV-positive. paperwork, trans girls like Scarlet AFTER cara. Take off that makeup. Quinn
I knew he was poz and detectable, and Justice often start their transi- has asked him about his HIV sta-
but I stopped caring because I just tions unsupervised, on the street.
GETTING tus. He said he was negative, even
wanted the drugs, she says. Im an Scarlet was adopted from Russia OUT OF JAIL, though his ex was positive, she says.
addict. Drugs make me feel better. when she was two and later fostered SCARLET He said he was tested three months
Takes away my hunger. Makes me by lesbian parents in Wisconsin. HOOKED UP ago. Scarlet calls his ex-girlfriend
feel thin. They had unprotected sex, After graduating high school, she WITH A dirty, but Quinn admits her own
and afterward, Scarlet says, he gave bounced between jobs at designer- GUY WHO ex was positive too.
me a handful of Truvada which clothing and jewelry stores before OFFERED In New York, one in two trans
can reduce the risk of contracting enrolling in beauty school, but says METH FOR girls contracts HIV before she turns
HIV to try and appease his guilt her mothers asked her to leave home SEX. HE 24, the highest rate of infection of
for having sex with me. when her drinking grew out of con- any demographic, according to the
For Scarlet, peeling out and pre- trol. She used her last paycheck from
WAS HIV- citys 2014 HIV Surveillance Re-
senting as male in Rikers had been Nordstrom to move to New York. POSITIVE. port. The numbers are shocking,
a painful concession. Ive seen girls She tried to adapt to sleeping on I KNEW says Jason Walker of VOCAL-NY,
peel out just to feel safe for a little the subway, learning quickly that HE WAS a local HIV/AIDS awareness group.
while, Scarlet says. I had to live some trains were safer than others. DETECTABLE, Young people who have been dis-
as a man for six days because I was Sometimes she woke to discover her BUT I JUST placed from home are using their
scared. But the counselor at HMI is purse had been stolen, or a man was WANTED bodies to access housing. Its diffi-
more concerned about her exposure rubbing her leg. Once, she was jolted THE DRUGS, cult for a young person to negotiate
to HIV. All she heard was HIV,
Scarlet says. I was disappointed
from sleep as a man punched her in SHE SAYS. what safe sex should look like.
When Quinn came out at 16, her
the face, already mugging her. She
because I thought she would under- wound up on suicide watch at Mount mother kicked her out of the house.
stand what I was going through psy- Sinai twice that December, using the A photography teacher at her high
chologically. She also hasnt been hospital as a shelter to rest for the school in Charlottesville, Virgin-
able to get her hormone shots. My mandatory 72-hour watch. I just ia, took her in, allowing Quinn to
facial hair is growing back and my needed a bed, she says. I did what graduate and enroll in college. By
boobs are shrinking, she says. Am I had to do to sleep for Christmas. sophomore year, she had landed an
I really a woman? That rst winter, she met Elii and internship and moved into an apart-
In the U.S., 41 percent of trans Quinn, a former fashion-design ment with her boyfriend. Her tu-
people start hormone therapy be- student prone to lengthy political ition was $26,000, and nancial aid
tween the ages of 18 and 24, a pro- rants. They invited her to sleep in didnt cover half of that, so Quinn
cess that on the street can be spo- an abandoned car in Queens, where sold Ecstasy on the side. She was
radic and dangerous. Theyre not the girls would huddle under mul- arrested for offering 200 pills to an
necessarily getting hormones that tiple blankets with their coats on undercover cop the rst semester of
were made in this country or that are and drink Four Lokos. Around that her senior year.
appropriate, says Ronica Mukerjee, time, Scarlet took unprescribed hor- After 18 months in prison, she
a faculty member at the Yale School mones for the first time. She was stayed at Sylvias Place intermittent-
of Nursing. For example, many of thrilled with the change, though ly until she aged out. She turned to
Mukerjees patients have used birth the process turned out to be slower hookup apps to nd places to sleep.
control as a substitute for hormone than she expected. Accessing health Sexual intimacy was usually expect-
treatment, she says, which can insurance became her top priority. ed, and negotiating safety compli-
cause cardiovascular complications. It was something to hold on to, she cated. You always tell them youre
Likewise, without access to surgery, says. I have to take my transition trans, never assume they know, she
many of them get silicone injections, seriously so other people will take says. Im just looking out for my
a life-threatening procedure often it seriously too. At the moment, safety. These boys be erce.
performed by unlicensed practitio- Scarlet is able to get hormones from Tonight, none of the guys on Grin-
ners, colloquially called pumpers, a community health center. New dr look good Too many butch
Train Dreams
to modify trans womens bodies by Yorks Medicaid program started queens and transvestites, Quinn
Scarlet (left) and
adding curves. Just as dangerous, covering gender-reassignment sur- Quinn catching says so they decide to relocate
though, is the inability to pass as geries for transgender patients in some rest on downtown. At 42nd Street, a man
their preferred gender, which is asso- 2015, becoming the ninth state to do the subway. They smoking a K2 blunt shares the rest
ciated with higher rates of violence. so. Scarlet is hoping to get surgery spent one winter with them. Synthetic marijuana is
Many trans girls receive medical within the next year. I need New sleeping in an now mostly illegal, but the previous
treatment, including hormone ther- York to give me my vagina, she says. abandoned car summer, the girls say, K2 was plen-
in Queens.
apy, under Medicaid, the health care Then I can leave. tiful. Lexington Avenue used to be
program for indigent Americans ex- Sidewalk Stories known as K Alley. Its the drug of
panded under the Affordable Care ONE RAINY EVENING, Scarlet and Scarlet and the future, Quinn says. You can be
Act. But accessing health care, like Quinn sit on the steps of a stage in Justice on a walking down the street and it trans-
housing, can be a daunting process, a park in Harlem, scrolling through discarded couch ports you to a different plane.
often requiring, at the very least, Grindr and smoking a joint. Quinn in the West Happily buzzed, they contin-
correct gender markers on identi- tells Scarlet about her latest ro- Village. I need ue to the nearest pharmacy, where
New York to
cation documents. Medical settings mance, an artist in the Bronx. Hes they split up, wandering through
give me my
are pretty unfriendly to people who in his thirties and deals meth. He vagina, Scarlet the aisles. Quinn steals eye shadow
are homeless and transgender, says thinks Im beautiful, Quinn says. says. Then and lip pencils, Scarlet an expensive
Mukerjee. Lacking the appropriate He always says, Wipe off your mas- I can leave. bottle of contact-lens solution and a

50 | R ol l i n g S t o n e
Thats so disrespectful, Quinn
says. You need to remember her
name. I just said it. Whats her
name?
He raises his eyebrows at Scarlet,
who moves her hand down to his
thigh. I need a bed, Scarlet tells
him. Not an alley or a phone booth
or a bathroom. He leans in, whis-
pering so Quinn cant hear. Scarlet
jerks back. A port-a-potty? Are you
fucking kidding me? Does this look
like a port-a-potty mouth? Quinn
rolls her eyes and stands to leave. Its
3:30 a.m. Weve got to go, she tells
Scarlet. I still havent made no coin.

SOPHIE LANDS THE internship


at the ACLU. She earns $10 an hour,
20 hours each week plus monthly
subway cards but hasnt told her
supervisors that shes homeless. I
worked so hard to get in the door,
she says. I want to work. I want to
make my own money. Most nights,
she is still picking up dates. Accord-
ing to a recent study, about 80 per-
cent of homeless youths would quit
selling sexual favors if they had other
options. Young people are savvy
and can navigate resources, but they
cant afford housing because theyre
getting paid crappy wages, says Gi-
annone, of the Ali Forney Center.
Over Labor Day weekend, So-
phies nances are particularly tight.
The night before, a date offered her
$60 and bought a 20-piece chick-
en nuggets to share on the subway
back to his house in the Bronx. So-
phie was looking forward to getting
some sleep, but after sex, he refused
to pay the rst time shes gotten
tricked, she claims. She slept in a
park instead. Tonight, Christopher
Street in the Village is slow. Sophie
stows her bag in a newspaper vend-
ing machine, and soon spots a man
sprawled on the sidewalk in front
of the entrance to the PATH train.
gemstone clip that she slips through At another pharmacy, Quinn and Thats my coin, she mutters, run-
her topknot. They return the loot at Scarlet pay for energy drinks, fruit ning to him. Baby, get up!
another location for a gift card worth salad and seedless red grapes with Im dead, the man slurs.
$58 and head to Penn Station. At a the gift card, while their new com- No, you aint, Sophie says as she
water fountain near the police stand, panion sways by the doorway, de- pulls him upright into her embrace.
Scarlet recognizes a man stumbling vouring a dripping lamb gyro. Quinn A couple pause to ask whats going
toward them. You got anything to leads the way to a small park, where on. He just needs some TLC, So-
smoke? Scarlet asks. they settle on a bench, surrounded phie tells them. The couple ask the
Yeah, he replies. I got some- by ve sleeping bodies. The man rolls drunk man for his address, promis-
thin. As they ride the escalator out a blunt while Scarlet rubs his back. ing to take him home. As they each
of the station, Quinn locks eyes with Whats her name? Quinn asks the take one of his arms and guide him
the man, telling him, You know man. Shes not just a sex object. into the station, Sophie shouts over
we arent going to be doing nothing Recalling his last encounter with her shoulder, Cockblocker!
with you, right? No expectations. Scarlet, the man says, She sucked By midnight, Sophie drags an index
He nods as Scarlet slips her arm my dick so hard she had me wanting nger across her eyelids; her make-
through his. to marry her. up is irritating her [Cont. on 57]

R ol l i n g S t o n e | 51
2017 Verve Label Group/Decca Music Group
Reviews
Feels like I just woke up.
Like all this time Ive been asleep.
Even though its not who I am,
Im not afraid of who I used to be.
Miley C y rus, Younger Now

Nashville
Rebels
Try a
Little
Sincerity
Miley Cyrus and
Shania Twain reinvent
themselves by going
back to their roots

Shania Twain
Now Mercury Nashville
HHH
Miley Cyrus
Younger Now RCA
HHH
BY ROB SHEFFIELD
Theres always been something
contentious about the borders
of country music, borders that
Shania Twain and Miley Cyrus
have spent their very differ-
ent careers exploring. In the
Nineties is this country or is
it disco? culture wars, Twain
scandalized Nashville with her
glam-rock ash and mirror-ball
glitz, just a few years after Cyrus
dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, came out
of nowhere with the ass-wig-
gling dance-craze blockbuster
Achy Breaky Heart. Cyrus, of
course, grew up playing Han-
nah Montana, before turning
into Americas favorite shock-
pop diva. On their new records,
both Cyrus and Twain aim to
get back to their roots, however
unrootsy these roots might be.
The New Improved Miley of
2017 is as far from We Cant
Stop and Bangerz as that Miley

Illustration by Yuta Onoda RollingStone.com | R ol l i n g S t o n e | 53


Reviews
was from Hannah Montana.
Younger Now plays down her
whimsical and outrageous
quirks for a sincerity-intensive
move into the country-pop ma-
turity of Malibu. Still only 24, Macklemore
shes out to rebrand herself as a Gemini Bendo
twerk-free Nashville adult. HHH
Cyrus ace in the hole has The thrift-shopping, deep-
always been the dusky down- thinking MC has a good time
home ache in her voice, which
shes carried with her through Macklemores rst post-fame
all her incarnations. All over LP minus longtime partner
Younger Now, she revives her Ryan Lewis finds the Seattle
Southern accent, demonstrat- MC unburdened by stardom or
ing her country bona des by the social concern that turns his
including a voicemail from her woke anthems into online re-
godmom, Dolly Parton, to cue storms Im a motherfuckin
their Monkees-esque duet, icon/Boots made of python, he
Rainbowland. The songs are raps on Willy Wonka, a creep-
short on personality compared ing track with Offset of Migos.
with her other albums. But the Partying tunes like the funky
attention-getter is the nale, Glory days: Firebreather sometimes feel
Inspired, where she writes a Flowers like not much more than a rich
folksy ballad to express some of white guy bragging. But Mack-
her fears about climate change: lemores trademark awkward
Im writing down my dreams/
All Id like to see/Starting with
the bees. In this context, its re-
The Killers humanity comes through on
Good Old Days, a reection
on aging (with Kesha), and
freshing to hear from the Old
Weird Miley again.
Now is Twains rst album in
Proudly Cheesy Church, a thank-you letter to
making it thats warm, vivid,
earnest and earned. JON DOLAN
15 years. Since her 2002 Up!,
shes endured a high-prole di-
vorce from her producer, Mutt
Eighties Binge
Lange, a two-year Las Vegas On their rst LP in ve years, the nostalgia-
residency and a sorely under-
rated reality show on the Oprah
loving Vegas rockers are cockier than ever
Winfrey Network, Why Not? The Killers Wonderful Wonderful Island HHH Ringo Starr
With Shania Twain. From the Give More Love UME
opening seconds of Swingin The title of the Killers rst LP in ve years is HHH
With My Eyes Closed, its clear sly, with its echo of the wunnerful, wunner- Rocks most beloved drummer
Twains up to her old genre- ful signature of iconic champagne music looks back with humor and grace
trashing tricks the quasi- accordionist Lawrence Welk, another shame-
metal guitar twang and We less crowd-pleaser critics loved to shade. But Jah bless Richard Starkey,
Will Rock You stomp of Any what do we know? The Killers have made a huge career rocks mischievously minimalist
Man of Mine meet a reggae as bombastic rock magpies working the border between id and Eternal-Optimist Emer-
skank, and for good measure amboyant earnestness and full-on camp, strategically itus, forever stripping things
she urges us all to throw our declining full residency in either locale. Whats great about back to their playfully swinging
sts in the air like we just dont Wonderful Wonderful, though, is that they seem in on the 4/4 peace-n-love-loving core.
care. As youd expect, Now is full joke, doubling down on their hugeness fetish while wink- His umpteenth solo set is a well-
of midlife personal statements, winking their way to the bank. timed all-star candygram. Paul
along the lines of Poor Me and As always, they bite from the best. The gooly self- McCartney kicks in bass lines
Roll Me on the River, with aggrandizing The Man rides Kool and the Gangs Spirit and Beatles screams on the hi-
an emphasis on post-divorce of the Boogie groove while frontman Brandon Flowers de- larious war cry Were on the
piano ballads. (As she sings on clares himself a household name. Out of My Mind is Road Again, while King of the
Lifes About to Get Good, I an Eighties meta-hit that never was, with Flowers plead- Kingdom is a giddily genteel
wasnt just broken, I was shat- ing, Take the needle off the record, I cant stand another reggae invitation to sing prais-
tered. . . ./I couldnt move on, chorus! while name-dropping Bruce Springsteen and Paul es for Haile Selassie. Ringo caps
and I think you were attered.) McCartney (a heavy name to drop, he stage-whispers). The it all with re-imagined faves, in-
ROB LOUD/WIREIMAGE

But like Cyrus, Twain is taking anti-Trump gestures in Run for Cover are welcome, but cluding a charming Dont Pass
inspiration from the expansively the less-arch bits grate, perhaps knowingly. The U2-Spring- Me By that ends with a reprise
chaotic sound of contemporary steen-New Order triangulation Life to Come is exasper- of Octopuss Garden a place
country a sound she helped atingly solemn until Flowers urges, Drop-kick the shame! he knows many of us would love
shape in the rst place. Hell, he sure has, and its served him well. WILL HERMES to be alongside him. W.H.

54 HHHHH Classic | HHHH Excellent | HHH Good | HH Fair | H Poor Ratings are supervised by the editors of R OLLING S TONE .
Foos Crushing
Love Songs
Dave Grohl and Co. bring the heartfelt thunder
with help from some very special friends
Foo Fighters Concrete and Gold RCA/Roswell HHH
I feel an earthquake coming on, Dave Grohl sings
on Dirty Water, a moment of fragile guitar po-
etry from Foo Fighters ninth album. Of course,
keeping things steady amid chaos has been one of
Grohls signature themes since the Foos were born
from the wreckage of Nirvana a couple of forevers ago. Musical-
ly and emotionally, Concrete and Gold is their most balanced re-
cord yet from stadium-punk dive bombers like Run and La
Dee Da to the acoustic soul that opens T-Shirt, in which Grohl
gets his Nina Simone on, singing, I dont wanna be king/I just
wanna sing a love song. Sunday Rain is a guitar weeper so late-
Beatles great it even has Paul McCartney playing drums on it.
Adele co-writer Greg Kurstins production adds big-studio
texture without diluting the bands raw tumult; even Justin Tim-
berlakes appearance as a backing vocalist on the space-truckin
Make It Right is subtle rather than ostentatious. The highlight
is The Sky Is a Neighborhood, a hulking dream-metal anthem:
Trouble to the right and left, Grohl sings, driving into the dark-
ness with a Bic lighter raised to the heavens. JON DOLAN

Leon Russell Moses Sumney


On a Distant Shore Palmetto Aromanticism Jagjaguwar
HHHH HHH
The soul-rock singers powerful Avant-garde R&B singers
posthumous goodbye spaced-out make-out jams

On the growing list of fare- Moses Sumneys avant-soul


well albums by dying rock- falsetto is a striking instru-
ers, Leon Russells contribu- ment raw, sumptuous, airy
tion recorded months before and cutting all at once. The
his November 2016 passing L.A.-based Sumney writes
may be the most uninching minimal, spacey songs that
yet. Sounds like a funeral for can suggest Al Green via Nick
some person here/And I might Drake or Joni Mitchell. My
be the one, he bemoans; else- wings are made of plastic, he
where he dwells on loneliness sings against languid jazz gui-
and lost lovers. Paradoxical- tar and late-summer strings on
ly, though, the soul-rock icon Plastic, summing up his mu-
hasnt sounded so alive in years. sics fragile sensuality. Even
From the swampy choogle of when his voice tilts at ecsta-
Love This Way to the sup- sy, cuts like Make Out in My
per-club orchestration of On Car and Stoicism are more
the Waterfront to the Cotton about the thrill of waiting than
Club jazz of Easy to Love, he the ease of release, perfect for
poignantly circles his musical a guy who sucks you in with a
bases one last time. DAVID BROWNE tune called Indulge Me. J.D.

55
Movies
By Peter Travers

Spy Games
Original Dream Team for Fun
Battle of the Sexes
Emma Stone, Steve Carell
Kingsman:
Directed by Jonathan Dayton
The Golden Circle
and Valerie Faris Colin Firth, Taron Egerton
HHH Directed by Matthew Vaughn
HHH
what does a movie about
a 1973 tennis match between powering by like a james
Billie Jean King and Bobby Bond caper on laughing gas,
Riggs have to say to millen- this sequel to Kingsman: The
nials when the war between Secret Service is energized by
womens libbers and male nonstop action and giggles.
chauvinist pigs ended last Kudos to director Matthew
century? Ha! Picture Hillary Vaughn, who reacted to criti-
Clinton and Donald Trump cism of the first film for being
swinging rackets, and youll Stone gratuitously violent and politi-
get my point. Starring a top- and Carell cally reactionary by laying both
form Emma Stone as King bring their on even more. Adapted from
A game.
and a perceptively f lamboy- Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons
ant Steve Carell as Riggs, Bat- comic-book series, The Golden
tle of the Sexes is not an overt- We meet King at her peak. when he goaded King into a
ly political movie. Its a blast of But shes pissed that women match. He exaggerated his sex-
knockout fun about two tennis arent getting the same money ism to promote himself. Far
champs going to extremes to as men. Her husband, Larry worse are the tennis officials
make a point. But in speaking (Austin Stowell), supports her who believed this crap for real.
to the marginalized, it speaks goals, but King, 29, is barely The shit hit the fan at the
bluntly to the here and now. dealing with her attraction to Houston Astrodome in a TV
Working from a crafty script hairdresser Marilyn Barnett (a event that reached 90 million.
by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog terric Andrea Riseborough). Riggs arrived in a chariot, and Egerton,
Firth
Millionaire), directors Jona- Coming out could cost King King wore ostrich feathers.
than Dayton and Valerie Faris sponsorships, and her career. Riggs played to stay relevant;
(Little Miss Sunshine) ener- As Riggs, Carell turns a King swallowed her pride to Circle still concerns those Brit
gize an obligatory, sometimes clownish fame whore into a crusade for women. Laugh all agents whose cover is the ele-
clumsy setup that involves complicated man. Riggs was you want at Battle of the Sexes, gant facade of Kingsman, a tai-
constant volleying between 55 and way past his prime as but its a joke you still cant lor shop on Savile Row.
two stories. a former Wimbledon winner laugh off. The hugely appealing Taron
Egerton is back as Gary Eggsy
Unwin, the London street kid
recruited into service by spiffy

Forget Rosemary, Its J.Laws Baby Colin Firth, playing 007-ish


agent Harry Hart. But wait
didnt Harry die in the rst
Mother! Rosemarys Baby lm? Dont be a dick. The movie
Jennifer Lawrence when the wife be- grossed $414 million world-
FROM TOP: MELINDA SUE GORDON/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX; GILES

Directed by Darren Aronofsky


comes pregnant. wide, so logic is out the window.
HHH Aronofsky takes The plot? The tailor shop is
KEYTE/TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX; PARAMOUNT PICTURES

aim at the ego of blown to bits by a supervillain


be warned: darren aro- the artist, him- (a deliciously demented Juli-
nofsky (Black Swan) is a cin- self included, who anne Moore). So Kingsman
ematic virtuoso on a mission holds his work joins forces with Statesman, its
to provoke. Mother! radiates above all. Mother- whiskey-fronted U.S. counter-
the vibe of something dan- Bardem, hood and Mother part, run by Jeff Bridges with
gerous if you get too close. Lawrence Earth be damned. assists from Channing Tatum,
Jennifer Lawrence stars as Love it or loathe Halle Berry and a crazed cameo
the young wife of a famous doctor (Ed Harris) and his it theres probably no in- by Elton John. Even when the
poet (Javier Bardem). They pushy wife (an award-caliber between this hallucinatory movie goes off the rails, as it
live in a country house like Michelle Pfeif fer), followed powder keg is a visionary art- inevitably does, it rises again
Adam and Eve in a new Eden. by the poets rabid cult. Its a ists cry from his own corrupt with more wowzer stunts and
Then two visitors arrive, a biblical allegory with hints of heart. Boom! insane fun.

56 | R ol l i n g S t o n e HHHH Classic | HHH Excellent | HHH Good | HH Fair | H Poor O c t o b e r 5 , 2 017


TEEN, TRANS AND HOMELESS her supervisor at the ACLU, saying she few at night, so I had to learn how to sell
cant make it to work. They were OK with my body during the day, she says and
[Cont. from 51] corneas, and she blinks to it, she says. But my supervisor said to give spends most of her time at the mens shel-
soothe her red and watery eyes. She settles her at least two days notice next time. She ter presenting as male, for safety reasons.
on a stoop to smoke the rest of a saved said shes trying to teach me responsibility. They think Im a weak bitch, she says of
blunt and then retreats toward the subway the other residents. I love to ght!
station, stopping to buy a pack of white- n the face of incalculable odds, Sophie has had more luck than the oth-
chocolate Reeses before jumping the turn-
stile. Its 12:45 a.m. and Sophie gures she
can sleep until 6 a.m., then try to pull a
I these girls spend each day striving to
retain a sense of dignity, to feel loved, to
nd a place to belong, to survive. But most
ers. In August, she moved into a support-
ive-housing placement. To qualify, I had
to be chronically homeless for more than
date before heading to her internship. She of them have struggled to make progress. A two years, have a history of substance abuse
can pick up a $2 breakfast on the way with year later, Elii is locked up for stealing, Au- or incarceration, Sophie says. I had all
the $7 left in her wallet. rora is still sleeping on the sidewalk, and three. Her apartment building includes
On the train, she chooses a corner seat, Quinn is spending most nights in a park on a gym, garden and community room, but
across from the conductor booth. A man 34th Street after a winter living with her Sophie spends most days inside her stu-
sitting at the opposite end of an otherwise boyfriend and getting high every day. If I dio, cooking and searching for company
empty car stares at her while she stretches want to ourish, I cant be there, she says. online. She can do in-calls from Grindr
out across several seats, dressed in a light- Scarlet has since overdosed on heroin twice now, which feels safer than soliciting on the
pink dress with a short white sweatshirt and planned to commit suicide on her 25th street. Despite her initial hopes, she wasnt
and white Toms with a lace-pattern over- birthday because my life sucked. Instead, offered a job at the ACLU, and now wants
lay. When the train pauses midtunnel, the she made it through detox and managed to to nd work at a law rm or in the shelter
man lights a cigarette. Sophie wakes from get a bed in a womens shelter. She now lls system. She started taking hormones eight
the cold and slips on a black dress that she her days with group therapy but still strug- months ago, and has gotten her name up-
borrowed from a friend for the office. gles with sobriety. I want a job right now, dated on all of her documents except her
She re-emerges from the Christopher to be more productive and be less bored, passport. But shes still trying to get used
Street station at 3:40 a.m., hoping to catch she says. The universe will deliver. to living alone. Ive been living in facilities
the early-bird special. She passes between Justice led for divorce from her hus- with other people for a while now, whether
groups of people strolling or stumbling to- band because his drinking grew out of it was jail, the shelters or treatment, she
ward the pier and eventually nds a date hand, and is staying at an adult mens shel- says. The loneliness is hard. I dont want to
around 6 a.m., allowing her to get some ter (her ID still has a male gender marker). die and have nobody to bury me. As a trans
rest and make some money. Sophie texts She works at a peep show I have a cur- woman, I think about these things.

57

Who says being an


The Complete Issue. airhead is a bad thing?
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liberator.com
THE
LAST
WORD

Gene Simmons
The Kiss bassist on Albert Einstein, what he learned from
his mom, and what he wants on his tombstone
Whats the best advice you ever received? America invented light. The Internet, fast food, rock & roll, jeans
The wisest person I ever met continues to be my mother. She I mean, the culture of the world is America.
survived a Nazi concentration camp at 14 when her whole family Whats the most indulgent purchase you ever made?
was killed. Her perspective on life is, Every day above ground is Never really made one. I live in what most people consider a
a good day, so reach for the stars. As long as theres nobody try- rich house, but its also an investment. I have one truck; thats
ing to kill you, what have you got to lose? what I drive. I wear jeans until they peel off me. I dont have a
Shes taught me that success is temporary. When I showed her eet of luxury cars. Its not about making a lot of money. I do have
the rst $10 million check I earned, she said, Thats wonderful a fair amount, but when youre an athlete, you compete against
now what are you gonna do? Shes right. Use it or lose it. I learned yourself, against everybody else to try to get the high scores.
that work ethic from my mother. Money is just high scores that just hold up.
How do you teach your kids to have that kind of drive? Do you stand by your statement a couple of years ago that rock
For one thing, theyve never had an allow- is dead?
ance. Also, youre not allowed to get high or Im going to ask you: From 1988 until today, whos the new
get drunk or smoke cigarettes. If you want Beatles?
to, I want to have a discussion tell me I think groups like Pearl Jam and Radiohead....
before, dont tell me after. If you trans- Hold on. Youre talking to a big fan. If Thom Yorke
gress, if you go against my command- walked down the street in Pasadena, what would
ments, you will nd yourself in a des- happen?
ert camp digging holes, written out of A lot of people would be thrilled to see him.
the estate and the will. Youre delusional. Prince was a star. You could see
Youve been with your partner, Shan- him coming a mile away. Look, the system is bro-
non Tweed, for more than 30 years. ken. New rock bands are like babies. You need to
Whats your secret to a long relation- give them a chance to come up with their better
ship? stuff so that they start with Love Me Do and
My advice to women is dump your end up writing A Day in the Life. But if they
boyfriends. Go for more mature guys, had to work for a living, which is whats going
maybe who made their fortune and on today, its not going to happen. Yeah, rock
who have gotten their wandering is dead. Not that it cant come back to life, but
out of their system most of it, any- the business is dead. If the business is dead,
way. The wandering will never leave, rock is dead.
by the way. Besides your mother, who is your hero?
So whats made you stay with Albert Einstein. He did badly in school,
Shannon for all this time? and he was a Lothario who kept being
She is better than I am. She attracted to all women despite the fact
stuck by my side for 29 years, that he had kids and family. And hes
raised two kids, Nick and Sophie, a singularity. He had an extraordinary
who are extraordinary, and despite facility to think thoughts human be-
all the wanderings, she never left. ings had never thought before. Without
And then I had a come-to-Jesus mo- Einstein, the Japanese and the Germans
ment am I gonna die alone sur- would have won in World War II.
rounded by strippers, or do I die sur- Do you think President Trump is doing a
rounded by my loved ones? So I decided to good job?
marry her. In fact, I remarried her a year or Not yet.
two later. Until youre 60, sow your wild oats, Explain.
and dont ask anybodys permission. Well, I think you gotta get rid of all the ISIS
Whats your favorite city in the world? guys. North Korea is a big problem. If he and
Ive been all over the world, but the Gods Rex Tillerson can gure it out, that would be
honest truth is that Id rather be in no place a feather in his cap. Russia and China are all
but America any city. Theres a cer- bluster.
tain freedom of thought here. You How do you want to be remembered?
want to y through the air? Sorry, I honestly dont care about that. Ive had
bitch, that was invented in Ameri- such a wonderful life and continue every day
ca. If you dont like nighttime, well, to do amazing things. I dont have a woulda,
coulda, shoulda I dont have re-
The Vault, featuring more than grets. I know what itll say on
150 of Simmons unreleased solo my tombstone: thank you and
recordings, is due out later this year. good night. INTERVIEW BY ANDY GREENE

58 | R ol l i n g S t o n e | RollingStone.com Illustration by Mark Summers

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