This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear weekday afternoons on the Drive.
Bill O'Reilly has done it again with his partner Martin Duggard and the new books in his Killing series, which is Killing the Legends The Lethal Danger of Celebrity.
Bill.
Who are the three legends you look at in this book?
So we're worried about Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Muhammad Ali Lee. The reason is that these three men changed American culture. So Elvis Preslee comes on the scene in the nineteen fifties, poor Mississippi truck driver, unbelievable talent, and in the space of six minutes on The Sullivan Show, he changes a culture of conformity which we had in the United States after World War Two into rock rebellion, boom, everything up. One man did it, one man, and it's
an amazing historical story. Then, of course, the Beatles come in in sixty four and they bring in sex, drugs, rock and roll, which we have now. I mean, we're still living in that culture. And Muhammad Ali is the culture of descent. He refuses to go into the armed forces during the Vietnam War, that raises the protests everywhere. And so these three guys, they influenced the American culture to an extent that I couldn't find any other people who did as much as they did to change our culture.
Bill O'Reilly, Killing the Legends, The Lethal Danger of Celebrity. Uniquely, each of these legends also burned out in a very similar way.
Yeah, they were all betrayed. They all couldn't handle their fame. They got crushed by it, which is not unusually. Once you become a superstar, your whole life changes. People want stuff from you, some people threaten you. John Lennon's assassinated, and you have to be a strong person with a strong supports system to cope with that. And these guys didn't have that, none of them, and so they found themselves drowning, and their celebrity actually killed them.
Bill O'Reilly, he's talking about Killing the Legends. The book is out now, The Lethal Danger of Celebrity. I love the Killing series, Bill, because you and Martin Duggart get into the details of perspective. You're not guilty of presentism, and you know what I mean by that a lot of people have been talking about it lately.
We try to give people if you read all twelve Killing books Lee and we have them all bundled on Bill O'Reilly dot com for Christmas, which is phenomenal gift if you're a reader and you want to know about your country. What we try to do we take all politics out, all of the nonsense has spin. It just
here's what happened. So whether it be killing the mob, organized crime, killing the killers, terrorists, killing the legends, how the culture changes, killing Crazy Horse, the Indian Wars, whatever, maybe here's what happens, and we do it in an entertaining way. So it's not like you're bored and you're got or I have to read this now. It's like you want to read it. We're keeping you up at night. And that's why this is the most successful nonfiction book
series in history. And we're you know, very proud of Killing the Legends, and we hope people check it out for Christmas.
Bill O'Reilly Killing the Legends The Lethal Danger of celebrity. What do you think these three legends have taught modern celebrities about how it is to handle celebrity.
Well, it's going on. I mean, the amount of people who have just been destroyed by celebrity. I mean, you know, the list is just endless, beginning with Marilyn Monroe and then you know, all the way up to Nirvana, the guy out in Seattle. I mean, it's just it's so many. And you have a situation in America now where you've got a lot of crazy people. Look at the Nancy Pelosi break into San Francisco. I mean, you've got a
lot of crazy people. And if you're famous, you really have to be aware of everything you do, everywhere you go. You've got to protect yourself.
Bill O'Reilly killing the legends the lethal danger of celebrity. And I want to touch again on the details, right down to things that never occurred to people. For instance, how Muhammad Ali's body needed such special care after he died because of his faith.
Yeah, I mean we get into all of those details. I think people like those when they're reading a book. So Mohammed Ali, he became an adherent to the Nation of Islam. That's Lewis Farakahn. Now, so that gives you some idea of how militant de group was. I met him, and he never came I never got the feeling that
he hated white people or anything like that. But when he gave his whole life over to the Nation of Islam, they exploited him, just like Tom Parker exploited Elvis, took a lot of his money, but he always you know, he didn't rebel. He stayed there till the end. And then when he died in Phoenix, Arizona, but he died along. He died long before that by being in the ring so long, by you know, the black militants wanting him to fight because of money. He destroyed his brain, and
that is the theme. It's it's heartbreaking to really because this guy was such an amazing athlete, but that's what happened to him.
I agree with you too about the Beatles, sex, drugs, and rock and roll culture, because I've often looked back on rock and roll history and seen there was a drastic change between nineteen fifty four and nineteen fifty nine in American music, and another drastic change between nineteen fifty nine and nineteen sixty four. But I haven't seen a huge drastic change in music since then.
Well, rap and all of that. I think that I don't call that music so much. Maybe I'm, you know, out of it. I'm an old guy now, but that changed a lot of the culture because it became more crass with the wording and the themes of some of these songs, particularly speaking to poor minority children. And you know that. Look, the Beatles tremendous music. They freaked out at the end. They all got involved with drugs. But Lenin actually became a heroin and that's what broke up
the Beatles. Very few people know that we go through it and Killing the Legends, but their music was good and I didn't think it was harmful, even though they were doing Lucy and the Sky with diamonds and all that LSD. I thought generally speaking it was okay. But now in that music industry there's a lot of garbage. It's no doubt about it.
Bill O'Reilly along with Martin Duggart, his research partner, writing Killing the Legends, The Lethal Danger of Celebrity available everywhere. And if I don't get a chance to tell you happy holidays, Bill.
O'Reilly, thank you, it's always a pleasure to talk with you. We really appreciate you having us in.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast, And remember to Listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation