Speaker 1: This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast
Speaker 1: more what You Hear weekday afternoons on the Drive.
Speaker 2: Bill O'Reilly has done it again with his partner Martin
Speaker 2: Duggard and the new books in his Killing series, which
Speaker 2: is Killing the Legends The Lethal Danger of Celebrity.
Speaker 3: Bill.
Speaker 2: Who are the three legends you look at in this book?
Speaker 3: So we're worried about Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Muhammad
Speaker 3: Ali Lee. The reason is that these three men changed
Speaker 3: American culture. So Elvis Preslee comes on the scene in
Speaker 3: the nineteen fifties, poor Mississippi truck driver, unbelievable talent, and
Speaker 3: in the space of six minutes on The Sullivan Show,
Speaker 3: he changes a culture of conformity which we had in
Speaker 3: the United States after World War Two into rock rebellion, boom,
Speaker 3: everything up. One man did it, one man, and it's
Speaker 3: an amazing historical story. Then, of course, the Beatles come
Speaker 3: in in sixty four and they bring in sex, drugs,
Speaker 3: rock and roll, which we have now. I mean, we're
Speaker 3: still living in that culture. And Muhammad Ali is the
Speaker 3: culture of descent. He refuses to go into the armed
Speaker 3: forces during the Vietnam War, that raises the protests everywhere.
Speaker 3: And so these three guys, they influenced the American culture
Speaker 3: to an extent that I couldn't find any other people
Speaker 3: who did as much as they did to change our culture.
Speaker 2: Bill O'Reilly, Killing the Legends, The Lethal Danger of Celebrity. Uniquely,
Speaker 2: each of these legends also burned out in a very
Speaker 2: similar way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were all betrayed. They all couldn't handle their fame.
Speaker 3: They got crushed by it, which is not unusually. Once
Speaker 3: you become a superstar, your whole life changes. People want
Speaker 3: stuff from you, some people threaten you. John Lennon's assassinated,
Speaker 3: and you have to be a strong person with a
Speaker 3: strong supports system to cope with that. And these guys
Speaker 3: didn't have that, none of them, and so they found
Speaker 3: themselves drowning, and their celebrity actually killed them.
Speaker 2: Bill O'Reilly, he's talking about Killing the Legends. The book
Speaker 2: is out now, The Lethal Danger of Celebrity. I love
Speaker 2: the Killing series, Bill, because you and Martin Duggart get
Speaker 2: into the details of perspective. You're not guilty of presentism,
Speaker 2: and you know what I mean by that a lot
Speaker 2: of people have been talking about it lately.
Speaker 3: We try to give people if you read all twelve
Speaker 3: Killing books Lee and we have them all bundled on
Speaker 3: Bill O'Reilly dot com for Christmas, which is phenomenal gift
Speaker 3: if you're a reader and you want to know about
Speaker 3: your country. What we try to do we take all
Speaker 3: politics out, all of the nonsense has spin. It just
Speaker 3: here's what happened. So whether it be killing the mob,
Speaker 3: organized crime, killing the killers, terrorists, killing the legends, how
Speaker 3: the culture changes, killing Crazy Horse, the Indian Wars, whatever,
Speaker 3: maybe here's what happens, and we do it in an
Speaker 3: entertaining way. So it's not like you're bored and you're
Speaker 3: got or I have to read this now. It's like
Speaker 3: you want to read it. We're keeping you up at night.
Speaker 3: And that's why this is the most successful nonfiction book
Speaker 3: series in history. And we're you know, very proud of
Speaker 3: Killing the Legends, and we hope people check it out
Speaker 3: for Christmas.
Speaker 2: Bill O'Reilly Killing the Legends The Lethal Danger of celebrity.
Speaker 2: What do you think these three legends have taught modern
Speaker 2: celebrities about how it is to handle celebrity.
Speaker 3: Well, it's going on. I mean, the amount of people
Speaker 3: who have just been destroyed by celebrity. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: the list is just endless, beginning with Marilyn Monroe and
Speaker 3: then you know, all the way up to Nirvana, the
Speaker 3: guy out in Seattle. I mean, it's just it's so many.
Speaker 3: And you have a situation in America now where you've
Speaker 3: got a lot of crazy people. Look at the Nancy
Speaker 3: Pelosi break into San Francisco. I mean, you've got a
Speaker 3: lot of crazy people. And if you're famous, you really
Speaker 3: have to be aware of everything you do, everywhere you go.
Speaker 3: You've got to protect yourself.
Speaker 2: Bill O'Reilly killing the legends the lethal danger of celebrity.
Speaker 2: And I want to touch again on the details, right
Speaker 2: down to things that never occurred to people. For instance,
Speaker 2: how Muhammad Ali's body needed such special care after he
Speaker 2: died because of his faith.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we get into all of those details.
Speaker 3: I think people like those when they're reading a book.
Speaker 3: So Mohammed Ali, he became an adherent to the Nation
Speaker 3: of Islam. That's Lewis Farakahn. Now, so that gives you
Speaker 3: some idea of how militant de group was. I met him,
Speaker 3: and he never came I never got the feeling that
Speaker 3: he hated white people or anything like that. But when
Speaker 3: he gave his whole life over to the Nation of Islam,
Speaker 3: they exploited him, just like Tom Parker exploited Elvis, took
Speaker 3: a lot of his money, but he always you know,
Speaker 3: he didn't rebel. He stayed there till the end. And
Speaker 3: then when he died in Phoenix, Arizona, but he died along.
Speaker 3: He died long before that by being in the ring
Speaker 3: so long, by you know, the black militants wanting him
Speaker 3: to fight because of money. He destroyed his brain, and
Speaker 3: that is the theme. It's it's heartbreaking to really because
Speaker 3: this guy was such an amazing athlete, but that's what
Speaker 3: happened to him.
Speaker 2: I agree with you too about the Beatles, sex, drugs,
Speaker 2: and rock and roll culture, because I've often looked back
Speaker 2: on rock and roll history and seen there was a
Speaker 2: drastic change between nineteen fifty four and nineteen fifty nine
Speaker 2: in American music, and another drastic change between nineteen fifty
Speaker 2: nine and nineteen sixty four. But I haven't seen a
Speaker 2: huge drastic change in music since then.
Speaker 3: Well, rap and all of that. I think that I
Speaker 3: don't call that music so much. Maybe I'm, you know,
Speaker 3: out of it. I'm an old guy now, but that
Speaker 3: changed a lot of the culture because it became more
Speaker 3: crass with the wording and the themes of some of
Speaker 3: these songs, particularly speaking to poor minority children. And you
Speaker 3: know that. Look, the Beatles tremendous music. They freaked out
Speaker 3: at the end. They all got involved with drugs. But
Speaker 3: Lenin actually became a heroin and that's what broke up
Speaker 3: the Beatles. Very few people know that we go through
Speaker 3: it and Killing the Legends, but their music was good
Speaker 3: and I didn't think it was harmful, even though they
Speaker 3: were doing Lucy and the Sky with diamonds and all
Speaker 3: that LSD. I thought generally speaking it was okay. But
Speaker 3: now in that music industry there's a lot of garbage.
Speaker 3: It's no doubt about it.
Speaker 2: Bill O'Reilly along with Martin Duggart, his research partner, writing
Speaker 2: Killing the Legends, The Lethal Danger of Celebrity available everywhere.
Speaker 2: And if I don't get a chance to tell you
Speaker 2: happy holidays, Bill.
Speaker 3: O'Reilly, thank you, it's always a pleasure to talk with you.
Speaker 3: We really appreciate you having us in.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews the Lee
Speaker 1: Matthews Podcast, And remember to Listen to The Drive Live
Speaker 1: weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation