Alan Simpson Interview (page: 4 / 9) Statesman and Advocate	Print Interview

Were there any books that were important to you when you were growing up?

Alan Simpson: Well, that's an interesting thing. Did you ever stop to think how many people you ask the question, "Was there ever a good book or a good movie that changed your life?" Without exception, they'll say yes. Then I always say, "Well, what do you think this other crap is doing on the other side of the spectrum? What do you think this crap where somebody's slicing the breast off this gal, or bending her over a car hood or just a continual series of expletives and four-letter words and bullshit, is doing on the other side?" Unless you don't believe that a good book can change your life, then what the hell do you think a bad one can do? Or if a great movie can change your life, how about one of those twisted ones? I mean just twisted, twisted stuff. Very interesting when you throw that back to people. I don't think they just turn it off. I say, "Forget it, pal. You plant those seeds..." Let me tell you, that's all I needed at my age. I was on federal probation. I was always hell-raising. That's all I needed, to come home and watch three hours of the horniest people in America on every soap opera in America. What do we think is happening? That's my personal view. And I'm not really a gong ringer or a ten-percenter.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I read -- I loved the series -- anything illustrated by N.C. Wyeth. You know, the Scribner's books, King Arthur, or the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Treasure Island, you know, Blind Pew and the Black Hand, I mean, that was big time stuff. I loved those books. Billy Whiskers. I was in the Kennedy Library and it showed the books of John Kennedy, and here's Billy Whiskers. I said, "Billy Whiskers?" I said, "My brother and I read every one of those." And the Oz books, the real Oz books -- the Gump and the Flying Couch. Oh hell, it was imagination, curiosity. I would hate to think -- and I don't think it's true -- that kids are growing up without imagination and curiosity. But I can see how imagination could be robbed from them, from the crap that comes into them electronically. It must just kind of get to be a sodden mass, where you can't sort it out. Virtual reality? What kind of a statement is that? Virtual war, virtual whatever -- stupefying. But, that's for that generation to sort it out.

In Cody, you grew up with some real American heroes.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Alan Simpson: I didn't grow up with them, but you can imagine living in the hometown of Buffalo Bill Cody, who laid out the town. Who brought the railroad to the town because of his friendship with Teddy Roosevelt. Who then got Roosevelt to establish the first national park, Yellowstone National Park, 1872. He was part of that. More the railroad than Buffalo Bill. First dam in 1915. First reclamation project in the United States, the Buffalo Bill Dam, still there, providing water from Cody to Montana. First national forest, Shoshone National Forest. First ranger station, Wapiti Ranger Station. And who did that? Buffalo Bill Cody, because of his relationship with Teddy Roosevelt and Owen Wister and Frederick Remington, they started our town. George T. Beck, a gentleman from Virginia, whose parents were with the first signers of the Constitution. Those are people who came West, and they started this town, 100 years ago, in '96. That's where I grew up. So Buffalo Bill's statue is out there -- heroic size, by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. And Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney came back to town and bought 40 acres, said, "Here." Gave it to us for a museum. So we built a museum in '59. And Sonny Whitney gave us 500 grand, and we added another wing in '69, another wing in '79. And it's one of the most amazing art complexes, about 250 million bucks worth of Frederick Remington, Charlie Russell, Albert Bierstadt, Robert Jacob Miller, George Catlin, Worthington Whittredge, Gifford. You name it. Wyeth, amazing. Two hundred fifty thousand people a year come see it in Cody, Wyoming. So it's an amazing community. It consists of a lot of amazing people. People come there to retire -- been successful. Bob Woodruff of Coca Cola, E. B. Robertson. Good Lord, you could go on and on, people who succeeded and came to this unique community.

You said you were a hell-raiser, but you weren't always a problem kid, were you?

Alan Simpson: No, indeed I was.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Whenever something happened, it seemed the cop car came to my house. And my mother was usually in shock, and the old man would just shake his head. And it was not very funny. That was only the second time I had seen the old man cry, when we shot up a bunch of mailboxes and we were on federal probation for two years. I had a parole officer. Not very pleasant. The old man, you know, the eternal parental lament, which is, "Where did we fail? You grew up, we love you. What the hell are you doing?" And my answer was, "I haven't the slightest..." I didn't answer. You know, you just did it. And then the teachers would say, "Oh Alan, what have you done?" And then they'd call me in and you'd sit there, and they were always the same, you know, and "I hope you'll never do this again." And I'd say, "I never will. Promise." And they'd say, "Oh, wonderful!" Then I'd go do it again. God, I loved it! It was terrible, diabolical. But that was me. That was the Al Simpson of 18, and that's not the Al Simpson of 24 or 40 or 50.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. That's the trouble with the country today. Score keepers, the media's a very critical part of this -- and it's intrusive -- that who you are at 18 should be of interest to someone when you're 60. The media loves this, and I begin to ask the media -- I always throw it back to them -- I say, "What the hell did you do when you were 18, while you're giving me this moral line of questions? What the hell did you do when you were 24? You ever screw up your life? Ever screwed up another life? Or you got dysfunctional kids? How's your first marriage? Or is this your fifth? Is this your trophy wife? What do I have to listen to from you?" I love to do that. And that's what's going to happen in America from now on. They aren't going to allow this, one segment of society to just sit around and ask intrusive questions which mean nothing, or try to destroy a person who's 50 because of something they did when they were 18, that they just found out about. "You smoked pot and we saw your hair hanging clear to your navel!" Yeah, I did that, but I didn't do that. But I did other things which were not good.

How did you feel after you shot up the mailboxes and were put on probation? Was that the worst thing you did?

Alan Simpson: Being on federal probation was not pleasant. But it was also kind of a badge of, you know? You were kind of a devil. You could gather a couple of bands of rebels with you.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I got in a fistfight with a cop down in Laramie and I ended up in the clink one night. That one was painful, because the president of the university called me and he said, "You were going to be awarded the -- one of the outstanding..." I don't know what the award was -- "...outstanding Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities, but you will not receive that because of your activity." And I said, "Well, that's all right." But boy, I thought, "God, I did that to myself." Nobody did that. It's called creeping maturity. So that was a painful one. When you know that whatever you're doing, you can't blame on your mother, or your father or your teacher, or the government. And now we have this culture of complaint, and how to escape any kind of responsibility by saying, "Well, my father took my fishing reel away from me and hit me in the mouth with it when I was six. And I killed my brother." Well have another drink, you idiot! A lot of that shuffling off of responsibility, and that's not a good thing.

So that was tough. Those were the worst things.

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