Howard Stern interviewed Bob Guccione Jr

Howard Stern interviewed Bob Guccione Jr. yesterday on his radio show.

Stern: "You look different. Why do you look different?"

Robin: "He's beginning to look more like his father."

Stern: You are beginning to look more like your father. I hate to tell you. He hates to hear that. Did you have your eyes done or something?"

BG: "I lost weight."

Stern: "Is that what it is? You look different to me. Anyway, Bob Guccione, Jr...how many brothers do you have?"

BG: "Seven.."

Stern: "Seven brothers..."

Guccione jokes that he invented a couple

Stern: By, the way, I'm a half-hour from going over to the Rosie O'Donnell Show to prove what a hypocrite she is. She sells guns through K-Mart. What is she yelling at Tom Selleck?"

BG: "Years ago I was supposed to debate Charlton Heston around the time of the song Cop Killer. He was the poster boy for the NRA. Heston never showed. He backed out of it five times in a row. They're all hypocrites."

Stern: "Even I'm a hypocrite. At least I admit it. We are all hypocrites. Not only am I hypocrite, I don't tell anybody how to live their life. I don't.

Robin: "This ias the fine thing about you. You know that you are a mess and you leave people alone.

Stern: "I'm a big mess, believe me, ask my wife. My wife tells me all the time what a mess I am. She says you're really f*****d up. First of all let's commend Bob Guccione, Jr. It is a great story. The reason in particular you didn't get along with your father, now, all the brothers don't get along with the father. His father told him at a young age that he would never be able to make a living outside of working for the Penthouse organization, true or false?"

BG: "True."

Stern: "That's true.

Robin: "You know what the beauty of it is? You don't need to..."

Stern: "I'd say, 'you're right dad.' So,listen Bob Jr. did go out. Your father did initially invest $500,000 in Spin Magazine, then almost tried to sabotage the magazine to prove himself right by taking control of the magazine and ending it.

Robin: "But how many fathers would give you $500,000 that they're going to help you blow?"

Stern: "$500,000 to Bob Sr. is $10,000 to anybody else."

Robin: "But that's not the point. Most people won't let you play around with $10,000."

BG: "Robin's right. In all fairness he backed the magazine. He didn't try to take it over. There came a point where we just didn't agree on the direction of the magazine. It didn't work as part of the company. It was too small."

Stern: "If your father had taken over, he would have folded the magazine."

BG: "It wouldn't have worked for me. It wouldn't have shown up on the radar. So we just separated."

Stern: "You paid your father back?...

BG: "No, we never..."

Stern: "You didn't? Forget it. You are an ingrate. I take it all back."

BG: "It was a little bit more complicated than that."

Stern: Anyway, he did sell the magazine recently, for like, $40-something million dollars?

BG: "43.."

Stern: "And you got $16 million of that, right? So you're a millionaire now, on your own. Kind of on your own."

Robin: You started a new magazine?"

BG: "I did indeed....Gear."

Stern: "Gear. It's a good magazine. I read it. I do like it. In fact, I like it better than Spin.

BG: "So do I, actually."

Robin: "Now he's going directly after his father."

Stern: "You got chicks in that magazine, right?"

BG: "Yep."

Stern: "Wait a second. Let me ask you something. Why is it that all of your brothers, not one of you three brothers can sit there and tolerate your father and just say..

Robin: "They can't be in the same room with him."

Stern: "If you guys were nice to your father, if he would support you the rest of your life, and you would inherit the entire Penthouse organization, why won't you do that?"

BG: "We would."

Stern: "You would? What about this other brother..."

BG: "There's one brother, probably the smart one, who waited quietly while the rest of us blew our inheritance. My brother Nicky still works for Penthouse."

Stern: "Nicky gets along with your father."

BG: "He married the recent Pet of the Year."

Stern: "Did he?"

BG: "Her name's Nicki, too."

Stern: "No kidding."

Robin: "Nicky married Nicki?"

Stern: "Nicky and Nicki, I'm sick. Do they at least have nicknames for each other so that it won't...? No kidding. So your brother's married to a Penthouse Pet of the Year."

BG: "A couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles I had dinner with a Pet of the Year from 20 years ago who's my age. I'm 43. She's 44. And we sat there and we had dinner like two nice middle-aged...and there's my youngest brother marrying the current Pet of the Year."

Stern: "He ought to look at the older pets and realize that his young pet is going to turn into that someday."

BG: "Liste. This woman at 44 is stunning."

Stern: "Is she? That's very rare. So were you able to read Playboy as a child?"

BG: "It was almost mandatory."

Stern: "Playboy? Why was it mandatory?"

BG: "My father wanted to know what I thought....we used to be very close."

Robin: "He gave you his name."

Stern: "He wants his name back, too. What about the brother who recently lost his apartment because your father gave it to him as a gift...I guess it's dangerous to be your father's son because he will take away the apartment."

BG: "We talked about it in early years. I never will and never have gone into the family dynamics, except to say that it's a typical Sicilian father headbanging-thing."

Stern: "You hate him."

BG: "No I don't."

Stern: "You do. You hate him."

Robin: "Do you talk to him?"

Stern: "Never. They haven't talked. Isn't it true the last time you spoke to your father is when he tried to take the magazine out of your hands?"

BG: "The last time we spoke was in 1986. It's very sad."

Robin: "Why can't you pick up the phone and call. You don't even need him anymore."

Stern: Why? Because it's pride."

BG: "No..no...no, actually, I've called several times."

Robin: "And he won't talk to you?"

BG: "He's not ready, no."

Robin: "Camp out on his doorway." Stern: "You're not going to cry are you?"

BG: "I might."

Stern: "Really?"

BG: "I'm not going to cry. But to tell you the truth, I did in the old days, of course cry. It's very sad when a father and son...at this age..he's now 68...I'm 43. I hope I have a lot more time on the planet. I hope he does. But we've both lost a thread of my life."

Stern: "I spoke to your father recently, and I said to him, I want to be your son. I will be a better son to you in your old age than those ingrates that you have. And I will inherit your empire and run it. I'm a great pornographer."

BG: "I sent him a letter saying, in effect, you agitated both my brothers and I do get away from..."

Stern: "I'm the one who started it all..exactly what is everyone so pissed off about? If you can just figure it out. You've been in therapy, I'm sure."

BG: "That's probably part of the problem. I probably should start...maybe we need a Rosie O'Donnell or go to the yellow pages and find a therapist....so this is like therapy."

Stern: "But you come here once every blue moon. So wait a second. You're telling me that none of the brothers, except for your older brother, can figure out how to stay close to your father. And, in fact, your older brother probably will inherit the motherlode which is almost, I don't even know what your father's fortune is, but it's huge."

Robin: "Nicky's the oldest brother?"

BG: "He's the youngest. I'm the oldest."

Stern: "I didn't realize. I apologize for not being completely well-versed in the whole family. It's amazing. It really is your father's problem, though, right? It's not unconditional love with him."

Robin: Wait a minute. Tony, he accused of trying to take money from him."

Stern: "That's a good one. He lost an apartment."

Robin: "He kicked him out...

BG: "Tony didn't steal any money.."

Stern: "Are you close to Tony? I imagine you two must have some close bond...you must badmouth the old man all the time."

BG: "No we don't. We really don't....absolutely not."

Robin: "Do you talk to Nicky?"

BG: "Absolutely. Sure.

Stern: "So now you're on your own. You're making your own bread. Did you put up your own money for Gear Magazine? How much money did you put up?"

BG: "Over four million to date."

Stern: "Really?"

BG: "I really believe it's a great magazine."

Stern: "So you put up four million of your own. Because you believe in this magazine. You don't believe that Spin was a great, lucky break and you think lightning can hit twice."

BG: "The thing that gets me out of bed every morning is the fear that what you just said is right."

Stern: "So when you were a kid growing up you read Playboy. At what age did your father start letting you read Penthouse magazine?"

BG: "That was absolutely mandatory at nine."

Stern: "Nine?"

BG: "I'm the only boy in the world punished for not reading Penthouse."

Stern: "Were you able to go to your father and say I love the way these women look, can I have sex with some of these women? Do you ever ask your father for that?"

BG: "Three weeks ago I thought of that."

Stern: "Isn't it true your father was the first one to get you laid?"

BG: "No..no...no."

Stern: "That's not true? Were you allowed to go to the shoots at a young age?

BG: "I never saw a shoot. None of us were allowed to date pets including my brother who somehow circumvented that. We all sort of cheated once in awhile. My father was very smart. He knew we were young and impressionable...and started getting interested in girls...he was careful that we weren't exposed."

Stern: "But the girls did hang around the house?"

BG: No, not really. They did later on when I was older and he had the big house.."

Stern: "Because your mom and your dad divorced when you were young, so then you would go visit your dad, I guess, sometimes...how often did you see your dad?"

BG: "Twice...three times a week."

Stern: "So you saw him a lot. You slept over and everything? So you spent time with him? And there would be Penthouse Pets hanging around the house?"

BG: "No...no...no.."

Stern: "Never."

BG: "He had a one little bedroom apartment in London. Don't forget my parents split when I was nine, although he made me look at Penthouse, he did so as a father proud of his work. Of course none of it had any hormonal reaction on me until I was 12. Then I started to assess what was going on."

Stern: "But no Penthouse Pets hanging around?"

BG: "No."

Stern: That sucks. You can leave now. There's really nothing to say."

BG: "I was a deprived child."

Robin: "It happens Hef's been much more successful with his kids, than Gooch has been with his kids."

BG: "I interviewed Hugh Hefner for the first issue of Gear. In doing my research, I discovered he has a son which almost no one knows about called David who's exactly my age..one month older than I am."

Stern: "David Hefner...what's his story?"

BG: "I asked Hef about David Hefner, and Hef was very sort of moved because he realized that not only was I a Guccione, like a Capulet-Montague's meeting, but also he related to the fact that I was exactly the same age as his son. It helped open him up a lot. There was a sadness there. That relationship is reconciled. I know it's reconciled. But for years there was no relationship. I think it's hard for guys like Hefner..it was for Timothy Leary who I was very close to."

Stern: "You were close to Timothy Leary. That was your friend."

BG: "He was like, at the end, a surrogate father, and I was like a surrogate son because he didn't speak to his son.."

Stern: "What's with all these guys who can't speak to their sons."

BG: "I'm renting myself out as a middle-aged son."

Stern: "You're looking for a father, aren't you?"

BG: "I am actually. That's why I'm here. I figure you can put me up for adoption."

Stern:" I'll be your father."

BG: "I'll be the first person adopted on radio."

Stern: "Give me four million dollars. So you're telling me you were friends with Timothy Leary. You're also friends with John Cougar Mellencamp, is that right. What do you do, hang out at his house?"

BG: "He lives in Bloomington, Indiana."

Stern: "So you don't go there a lot, but he's a close friend of yours. And Timothy Leary was a close friend. Weren't you in fact there when he died?"

BG: "I was the last person he spoke to."

Stern: "No kidding."

BG: "When I came into the room he was surrounded by all his friends and, of course, the acolytes. He was gone, basically. He hadn't spoken for hours. And everyone said keep quiet don't wake him, we want him to go, wishing him to leave. He was very, very ill at that point and very weak...and couldn't process food for days. He was going and I walked in and tiptoed around very quietly. He looked up and he saw me and beamed, 'yeah, yeah, yeah.' He took my hand in a very, very strong grip. It surprised me for a man who must have weighed 70 pounds, and he said, "yeah, yeah, yeah,' and he looked so happy, we laughed..and he died a few hours later."

Stern: "So his last words were yeah yeah yeah, but he recognized you....so you killed him. So you decided to start Gear Magazine because you're going to do it, again. You're going to go out there and make a great magazine. And the philsophy is what? It's not nude women in Gear?"

BG: "No.."

Stern: "Bikini women?"

BG: "It's dressed women. It's sexy women."

Robin: "Those clothes will come off, soon."

Stern: "Oh, they will."

BG: "Of course, we'd love it...but we can't"

Robin: "You can't? Why not?"

BG: "You won't get the advertising. Look at Penthouse and Playboy with much larger circulation, they get almost no advertising."

Stern: "Wo bangs those women, do you?"

BG: "That was not the question I was expecting. You got to be careful, now, because you had all those sexual harassment suits."

Robin: "What happened with that?"

Stern: "He got off, right?"

vRobin: "You settled one, didn't you?"

BG: "We refused to settle."

Robin: "Is that right?"

Stern: "There was a big article in the paper."

BG: "It went on appeal last week."

Stern: "You spent $1.8 million fighting a $175,000 judgment against you, and you won."

Robin: "What did they accuse you of?"

BG: "I could have settled that three years ago for $300,000. On principle I said no. Because my lawyer took a lot of money then. I can make money again. I can go sell more ads, more copies of Gear and start more magazines, but you can't violate your own self-belief. If you believe you are innocent, and I knew I was innocent, and even the plaintiff never accused me, personally, just my company. So I fought it all the way. I knew it was a nuisance suit designed to pay them off, and the lawyer who was a real shyster could then claim she was an expert in the field and look who she nailed. So I wouldn't let it happen. It cost the other side, and we estimated their bills, it was over a million dollars they lost. Good."

Stern: "What were you accused of doing, fondling? This guy does get a lot of sex, I know. I went to dinner with him, and he had a young girl, I don't know how old. She was hot. And she was making out with you the entire time. And I'm sitting there with my wife, let's face it, my wife and I have known each other for a long time, we're past the stage of sitting there and making out at a table, I'd like to be there again making out at a table, but when you're married twenty-something years...I'm like honey, pull up your dress, so I can get my hand in your pants. I've been in those pants way too often. Tell you what, I want you to spread your legs and take your panties off at this table...I was sitting there wondering if my wife thinks I'm a dick because Bob was making out, but it was really a horrible dinner because I think the whole dinner was designed for Bob to show me that he could make out with chicks. He was rubbing my face in it the whole time. She was hot..she was really good looking."

Robin: "He's never been married."

Stern: "You have?"

BG: "A long time ago."

Stern: "How long were you married for? Did you have kids? Did you ignore your kids like your father ignored you?"

BG: "I don't. I want kids."