The legendary Hell’s Angels patriarch, who helped found the motorcycle clubalmost 50 years ago, has battled cancer and heart disease as fiercely as thelaw, but has no intention of allowing age to mellow him — or giving up thefree-wheeling lifestyle he loves.
“I’m not going to change. I’m not going to slow down. Riding a motorcycle isjust about the most fun thing in the universe,” 64-year-old Barger toldReuters during a visit to a Hell’s Angels clubhouse in London’s East End.
“Hell, most guys would love to retire to have this kind of life so I don’tneed to retire. Plus I just bought a new bike last week.”
The grizzled, tattooed Californian is the kind of rough, tough, unrepentanthard man that country and western songs are written about.
His reputation as grand-daddy of the world’s 50,000 Hell’s Angels has spreadfar beyond the biker community, attracting both hero-worshippers anddetractors on the way.
ROLLING STONES
Barger said he was constantly being asked to tell his stories about theAngels’ history, particularly during the 1950s and 60s when theirhell-raising exploits shocked “straight America” and branded them asoutlaws.
“But probably the question that I get asked the most is what happened atAltamont,” he said in reference to an infamous Rolling Stones concert nearSan Francisco in 1969 when the Angels’ provided security in return for a fewkegs of beer.
During the concert, which started after the crowd was kept waiting forhours,a fight broke out and an Angel stabbed a man to death. The band decided topull the plug.
“Keith Richards told me the band wasn’t going to play anymore until westopped the violence. I stood next to him and stuck my pistol in his sideandtold him to start playing his guitar or he was dead. He played.”
The writer Hunter S. Thompson was among those celebrities who sought him outin the 60s, intrigued by the bikers’ outlaw life.
Thompson hung out with Barger’s Oakland chapter before writing abest-sellingbook about the Angels — which Barger still angrily dismisses as an”inaccurate piece of junk.”
“A lot of the myths about the Hell’s Angels came from that book and stayedaround for years,” he said.
“(Thompson) was a pain in the butt. He ended up getting beaten up and sentdown the road.”
Barger makes no concession to age or illness, brushing off cancer and aheartattack with a wave of his hand.
His leathery tanned skin is testament to the 40,000 miles (64,370 km) heputson the clock of his Harley Davidson Road King every year and the time spentoutdoors working on his small Arizona property.
Reared by his older sister after his mother ran off with a bus driver andhisfather drowned his sorrows in drink, Barger joined the U.S. army at 16 afterforging his birth certificate.
“I learned things in the army that I found interesting. Like how to takeweapons apart.”
He was kicked out with an honourable discharge in 1956 when his deceptionwasdiscovered and soon developed a hankering for another type of uniform –thatof the wild leather-jacketed bikers who were just beginning to band togetherin clubs.
One such fledging group was the Oakland Hell’s Angels. Barger swiftly becameleader of the pack and helped oversee the formation of independent chaptersaround the U.S and abroad.
LEADER OF THE PACK
He is now regarded as the unofficial leader of the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club worldwide and wears his distinctive Death’s Head patch on his leatherjacket with pride.
“We’re stronger, we’re bigger than ever and I can see another 50 yearscoming.
“The motorcycles are the best thing about the club. But the brotherhood is agreat thing too. We take care of each other.”
Barger’s autobiography was an international best seller when it waspublishedin 2000 and launched him into a new globetrotting career as a celebrityauthor, signing books and making personal appearances.
A second book, of biker stories, was published this year and two more are inthe pipeline. A movie about his life is in the works and Sonny BargerPremiumLager is on liquor store shelves.
Courteous and polite in person, it is easy to forget that the “loveablerogue” — as one fan described him — is a criminal with a long record forviolent assaults, kidnapping, firearms offences and conspiracy.
But Barger shrugs off any questions about his past and says he has only oneregret in a life filled with battles, jail, drugs and divorce.
“If I had to do it all again, I probably wouldn’t smoke,” he said with ashort laugh, speaking through a hole in his windpipe after his larynx wasremoved during cancer surgery 20 years ago.
“People have misconceptions about things they don’t know about and a lot ofpeople don’t know a lot about us. The biggest misconception is that we are acriminal organization.”
Barger said the club had a strong code of honour and its members abided bystrict rules, which he was reluctant to reveal.
But his book lists them as including no stealing from other members, nomessing around with another member’s “old lady,” no spiking the club’salcohol with dope and, more tellingly, no throwing ammunition onto livebonfires.
Barger’s stories do little to quash any prejudices about the Angels. Hisbooks are packed with tales of battles with the law, murders, violentassaults, drugs, booze and general mayhem.
One story recounts the theft of his beloved hand built bike “Sweet Cocaine”in 1968. The culprits, prospects for a rival club, were rounded up andpunished.
“One at a time we bull-whipped them and beat them with spiked dog collarsandbroke their fingers with hammers.
“Moral of the story — don’t get caught stealing a Hell’s Angels bike,especially if he is the president.”
