There was a time when Howard Stern fought with everyone in Hollywood. There was rarely a day when he didn't call some A-lister a "fake" or a "phony". Part of this was out of a Holden Caufield-Esque insecurity and another part of it was pointing out things that so few had the courage to publicly do. The result was that the everyman, the blue-collar workers, and everyone who felt like they were on the outside looking in, related to Howard. They saw him as their voice. And this is why so many felt betrayed by him cozying up to the likes of Ellen DeGeneres and even his old enemy Rosie O'Donnell. In the 1990s, Howard betrayed them on national radio for hypocritical and snobbish behavior and by the late 2000s, he was breaking bread with them.
This is why many of his old fans have abandoned or 'hate-listen' to his SiriusXM satellite radio program. They think he's gone "Hollywood" and is too "politically correct". But the truth is... there's a reason why Howard is suddenly friends with many of the people he attacked on-air as well as many Hollywood-types in general. While some fans will forever prefer to hate Howard for his evolutions, perhaps others will see that there's a lot more to this than meets the eye...
Howard Thinks He Was Once A 'Maniac' And Now He's Changed
Howard Stern's career was the most important thing in his life. But Howard is no longer that man. His career is still his everything, but his relationships (particularly the one he has with his wife, Beth) top it. Thanks to this refocus, encouraged by decades of psychotherapy, meditation, and Beth, Howard's personal life and creative life just aren't the same as they were in the 1990s.
This is something that Howard has spoken about quite a lot over the past few years and especially in his 2019 book of interviews, "Howard Stern Comes Again". His evolution has angered many of his fans who wish that he would once again go for the most outlandish and culturally inappropriate comedy bits as well as scream and yell about how hypocritical Hollywood is. There's no doubt there's a yearning for this with the political-correctness pendulum swinging so far to the extreme left in an attempt to move away from how far to the right it has been for centuries. But Howard's evolution has less to do with the culture wars than it does overcoming his own demons.
Everything Howard did in his career was to be seen. To be so great that even his biggest enemies couldn't deny the power of what he had. And he accomplished that. But he did so by angering equally as many people as he entertained, making some major enemies, causing his first wife, Allison, to leave him, and generally making himself more miserable. Howard has spoken about how he did everything to be seen by his parents, particularly his dad, as a child. Being successful in his career was an extension of that. But once he came to terms with this truth, he could put it aside. He could stop being such a maniac and evolve.
The change from terrestrial radio to satellite also inspired the change as what once made Howard famous would soon become old. In terrestrial radio it was fun to be cured, outlandish, and anger the censors... because they were there and they represented an establishment that so many of his listeners hated. But on satellite, that establishment let him say and do basically whatever he wanted. Therefore, being crazy was boring. And this is one of the reasons he softened on celebrities.
The Real Reason Howard Has So Many Celebrity Friends
During a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, Howard was asked about his newly acquired famous friends. Back in 2011, it was even more relevant to a portion of Howard's fanbase as it seemed out of place given how long he'd been railing against the powerful elites that used to keep people like Howard down.
"I have [become friends with many of my famous guests]. That’s a conscious decision on my part," Howard said during the interview. "I notice when I’m able to break through my fear and hesitancy and create some friendships, it really feels good. I missed a lot of that by not fully being human. It’s hard because I’m the first one to tend to shut down. I’m the type of guy who will invite you to my home and then all of a sudden I’ll be angry you’re at my house, like, 'When can I be by myself?'"
While so many of Howard's fans in the '80s and '90s loved that he could be absolutely nasty to those at the top, the truth is that he always wanted to be accepted by them. This is true for almost every person on Earth, whether they are conscious of it or not. We all want to be accepted by those who seemingly shut the door on us. This desire, fueled by the lack of affection he received from his dad growing up, mixed with the desire to be the best in the business made Howard who he was. But it was a brutal experience for him.
"I had to do whatever I had to do to make a living, and I would tear the f***ing head off of anyone who got in my way. And now I’m more comfortable with my place and what I’ve done. I don’t feel as threatened by anybody else. I have a really nice friendship with Jimmy Kimmel. Years ago, I could have had a friendship with anybody in show business, and I didn’t, because everyone was a competitor. Someone would say something about me, and rather than consider it, I would just blow up and start screaming, which to me is boring. Now that I look back on it, I wouldn’t approach it that way. I would really stop, take a breath and go, 'OK, what are they saying? Is there any truth to it? And why am I afraid to respond to it?' Now I’d be more likely to really deal with it in a more honest way. That’s more interesting radio than the knee-jerk I’m gonna scream and yell and just fight."
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