Artie Lange is speaking his mind about Howard Stern, and it appears that there’s some anger toward his former boss. After 10 years on the show Lange describes Stern as a completely different person, going as far as to think he’s been brainwashed. Lange vented on his Artie Quitter Podcast this week to talk about the dramatic shift Stern has taken from one of radio’s biggest rebels to a A-list celeb hob-knobber. Lange also revealed details about an unauthorized documentary being made about the radio host.
Lange stated, “Howard won’t talk to me… I think he lost his mind, if the stories I hear are accurate, I don’t know.”
Lange who hasn’t been on Stern’s show since leaving in 2009 for his well-documented drug problems stated that Stern is pretty much ignoring him and has since basically tried to erase any evidence of Lange’s tenure on the show. Going as far as to not accept advertising for Lange’s 2013 book, Crash & Burn.
Lange said that his biggest gripe about his radio idol is that he’s become what he used to make fun of. Stern thrived and built his empire on the counter culture and attacked the mainstream and is going no-holds-barred approach to radio and take on the FCC. Lange feels Stern’s full 180 is an insult to his longtime fans stating, “All those years, when we were laughing at the rebel, when we were laughing at Hunter S. Thompson, he was our guy, he was the Hunter S. Thompson of radio, all those years, we were the boobs!” adding, “He wanted to be at the table, he didn’t want to set the table on fire.”
“He sat down and said, ‘I’m one of you now.’ He’s being what he made fun of, he’s being phony.”
Lange cites the big change in Stern’s relationship with Marci Turk, an efficiency expert that bonded with Stern over a time-management system called, Getting Things Done. Lange claims she “basically wrote a book Howard liked.” Mentions of Turk aren’t allowed on the air which is stark contrast to the show’s steadfast policy that nothing off radio was off limits for the benefit of a good show. Lange states, “That was Howard’s biggest thing, you pull the curtain back on all the pretentious, pompous, phony bullsh*t. That was Howard, full disclosure, full f*cking transparency.” Now, according to Lange, Turk tells people they can’t even speak with Howard unless they get her permission first. Stating, “These are guys who worked with him for 20 years!” adding that he feels for Stern’s longtime and loyal producer Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate must feel “emasculated” and probably isn’t calling the shots any more.
Lange believes that Stern’s shift comes from “mastering” the shock jock genre of radio and now wants to add to his legacy as a premiere celebrity interviewer. Stern has fired back at critics and former employees for this before, taking to his show and saying that his decisions are his, he has no interest in repeating material he’s done in the past and that there will probably be people that will no longer be fans of the show.
Here’s Artie’s rant.
UPDATE: Yesterday Artie was on the Opie Radio show and talked more at length about the subject.
