Book Review - Howard Stern Comes Again

Drop Howard Stern’s name into conversation with the uninitiated and the result will invariably be the same - “Isn’t he the guy who loves (strippers/fart jokes/phony phone calls?)” Stern built a brand and a career perfecting the art of being a radio shock jock. His genius was not in monetizing male sexual fantasies about threesomes and porn stars, but blurring the lines between “reality” and reality. Stern himself was always a paradox. His on-air obsession with sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll was contrasted by a life lived in the suburbs of Long Island with his wife and three kids. He was fascinated with the celebrity lifestyle but lived a hermetic existence complete with a germ phobia. He released a movie that was as much autobiographical as a love letter to his wife only to get divorced not long after its release. A brief oat sowing year aside, Stern has been married or in a committed relationship with one of two women his entire adult life.

Well into his fourth decade of broadcasting, Howard is back with Howard Stern Comes Again, a door stop of a book whose objective is not merely to chronicle the extensive list of guests Howard has interviewed, but rather, at 550 pages, is an effort to reposition his place in the entertainment universe. Comes Again is as much about Stern’s gifts as an interviewer (an ability he believes was greatly improved through years of psychotherapy) as it is a flex on the sheer volume of his work – a demand that he be taken seriously not just as an essential figure in the history of radio, but in the history of show business, to be considered in the same breath as people like Johnny Carson and David Letterman (Howard would blanch at putting Jay Leno in that group).

And to do this, Howard has opened the archive. Madonna. Paul McCartney. Larry David. Steve Martin. Chris Rock. Steven Colbert. Jay-Z. Lady Gaga. Billy Joel. Gwyneth Paltrow. Bill Murray and yes, even Donald Trump (but more on him later). The sheer scope of Comes Again is massive, akin to a 30-CD boxed set of greatest hits and studio outtakes. The book’s ambition is so broad, A-list celebrities like Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Quentin Tarantino, among MANY others, are relegated to fragmented blurbs within larger chapters about relationships, money and fame, and religion and spirituality. 

As he has gotten on in years, Howard’s show has become a safe space for performers who want to share details of their personal lives knowing that Howard will respect a line if it is drawn. To his credit, Stern acknowledges the value that concession has provided. Whereas early in his career, he squandered rare chances to interview famous people like John Kennedy, Jr., as Howard evolved as a person and a performer, he recognized that blunt force and confrontation were not the way to a guest’s heart. The evolution was such that someone like Michael J. Fox not only felt comfortable coming on the show, but was willing to make light of how Parkinson’s turned his hand into an involuntary vibrator when he masturbates. In other interviews, celebrities speak about their mental health challenges (Lena Dunham), drug use (Drew Barrymore), addiction (Slash), recovery (Marilyn Manson), relapse (Scott Weiland), and yes, even their sex lives (basically, everyone), but Howard handles these topics not as opportunities for ridicule or shaming, but as part of the human condition, the struggle all of us go through.

Stern is also a student of entertainment history. He wants to understand how artists ply their craft, so his questions probe how stand ups write their jokes, how actors pick and choose roles, and how they continued to push forward even when it looked like success would never arrive. Howard also delves into backstories with commendable research that shows he has taken the time to prepare beforehand. In doing so, he employs tactics well known to lawyers. He repeats back answers and builds on those statements to form his follow-up questions. He is attuned to small admissions and keeps digging until he gets to a bigger truth. He engages in what we like to call active listening. He is present in the conversation.

Something else that is present is the shadow of Donald Trump, whose two-decade history with the show is feathered throughout the book. On one level, this thread can be seen as a way for Howard to say: “He was who you thought he was – bombastic, self-aggrandizing, and thin-skinned – and I saw it long before anyone else” (a chapter on an abortive attempt to get Hillary Clinton to appear on the Stern Show in 2016 is a historical curiosity, an interesting “what if” Howard naturally believes would have moved the needle, but is impossible to prove). Like Trump, Stern is a master marketer, but whereas Trump leaned into braggadocio that did not hold up under scrutiny, Stern’s self-appellation as the King of All Media at least has some merit. While he will never be an EGOT winner, Stern’s media success has included books, music (soundtrack), television, and movies in addition to his reign atop broadcast and now satellite radio. It is as impressive a career as one could imagine, except that because it was built on prurience, Stern never felt like he got his due. Comes Again is his way of laying out the case for his greatness.

I also appreciated Howard’s narration, included as prologue to each of the interviews, along with a lengthy introduction; however, Howard inadvertently tagged one of my few criticisms of the book. As he describes, one of the things he did not like about terrestrial radio was the limited amount of time he had with his guests, that the radio station’s need to air commercials stunted the flow of conversation. On Sirius, Howard often goes on for an hour or more with a guest. It is hypnotic and deeply enjoyable, yet for Comes Again he takes those marathon sessions and reduces them down into the bite size form he railed against. It is almost as if he is trying to create the perfect interview – one that has the uninhibited language and content of satellite radio but the brevity of his terrestrial radio days.

In this way, the book feels both bloated and incomplete. Bloated because there is just so much content to get through. It feels like Howard is hitting you over the head, ordering you to acknowledge his manifest skill through the sheer expansiveness of his celebrity guest Rolodex. But the book also feels incomplete because within the interviews are no cues advising the reader where the conversation has been edited. Comes Again would have been better served by narrowing its interview selections but lengthening each one. Howard has often said he tries to keep things moving because he fears the audience is getting bored, but as someone who has sat in rapt attention for long periods of time, a lot of that immersive experience is lost in the book. It is the interviewing equivalent of the three-minute radio edit of Stairway to Heaven or Light My Fire.

Comes Again also feels like a valedictory. Howard’s contract with Sirius is up at the end of 2020 and while Stern has treated every approaching renewal deadline as an opportunity to muse about retirement, this time it may happen. Howard will turn 67 just after the end of his current deal and has nothing left to accomplish in the business. In an interview with Jerry Seinfeld included in the book, the two talk about going out on top, of leaving on a high note and with the audience wanting more. It was in the context of Seinfeld’s decision to turn down more than $100 million for a tenth season of his eponymous TV show, but the same could apply to Stern too. He dominated terrestrial radio, made a successful transition to satellite, has wealth, happiness, and a fan base that stretches from people collecting Social Security to teenagers who were born after 9/11. What more is there to prove?  

So, is Comes Again a testament to Howard’s evolution from the emcee of Butt Bongo Fiesta to an empathetic shoulder-to-cry-on for celebrities or a cynical ploy to renounce the behavior that made him rich and famous in favor of being portrayed as a wizened elder statesman of show business? As with everything in Howard’s world, the truth likely lies somewhere in between. The point, as it has always has been, is that people keep listening.

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