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As a university junior within the early Nineties Steven Grillo dreamed about touchdown an internship on Howard Stern’s radio present.
However as soon as he did the dream shortly grew to become a nightmare — with him being egged into humiliating himself, however giving him an irresistible style of fame.
Grillo says he by no means needed to be on the air and took the job with the intention of working behind the scenes. Nevertheless, he says Stern unexpectedly prayed on him, regardless of being a dyslexic faculty child.
“The place was a snake-pit; you never knew when you were going to be set up,” Grillo advised The Put up.
“I used to be at all times a nervous wreck and it obtained worse once they introduced me on the present.
“I’d have Robin [Quivers, co-host] cackling in my ear; somebody would be throwing balls of paper in my face … Then I would have Howard staring at me, with his piercing blue eyes darting all over the place, trying to make me look worse than I already did.”
Shock jock Stern was a special particular person again when Grillo, now 58, labored for him within the 90s on New York’s WXRK station.
Pre-woke, a long time earlier than he did softball interviews with Joe Biden, Stern’s politics leaned Republican.
“He definitely got George Pataki elected Governor [of New York in 1995] and he was a big [Rudy] Giuliani supporter,” mentioned Grillo. “It’s gross to see what he’s turned into. I think it’s quite pathetic, to be honest.”
Grillo is referring to Stern’s 180 by way of his political standing, “At some point, his brain flipped,” he mentioned. “I think it has to do with the people he associates with. He’s in the [left wing] herd, and he doesn’t want to upset them. Now he’s friends with all these A-listers, people like Jimmy Kimmel. If he goes up against them, he’s going to get kicked out of the club. He used to make fun of all those celebrities,” who Grillo counts as truthful recreation as a result of their public profiles.
Sarcastically, one particular person Stern didn’t thoughts going up towards was Donald Trump. “Trump and Howard were friends, they talked all the time,” mentioned Grillo. “Then Howard turned on his friend.”
Grillo – nicknamed Gorilla by Stern, which he hated – is aware of how that feels, describing how off the air, his boss was a very nice one who “hated” confrontation.
However as soon as they have been on the air, “he regularly broke my balls. I used to be at all times getting yelled at for not making ready his baked potato correctly, failing to get him his sizzling water when he wanted it.
“He made me wear a turban and an Indian outfit that looked like a diaper when I went to get his hot water [from a nearby coffee shop]. It was embarrassing.”
Grillo’s disillusionment grew as Stern pit him towards his 11-year-old daughter in a spelling bee, which he misplaced, and humiliated him, calling him “stupid.”
Nonetheless dwelling together with his mother and father on the time, his father didn’t like what he heard and screamed at him over permitting himself to be handled that approach.
Stern’s present within the 90s was no place for faint-of-heart listeners with a seemingly infinite parade of strippers and porn stars by way of the studio. Stern repeatedly offended and berated visitors, co-hosts, or anybody at hand.
His largest controversies included offending the Hispanic group by enjoying gunshots over singer Selena’s music after she was shot lifeless by a fan and describing pleasuring himself whereas wanting on the image of Aunt Jemima on a bottle of maple syrup.
Nonetheless, the pull of quasi-fame was robust and Grillo endured, as soon as even saving Stern’s life. Amongst his obligations have been to fulfill his boss in his limo when he arrived on the radio station at 5:00 a.m. and stroll him into the constructing.
On a type of mornings in 1995, mentioned Grillo, “I noticed a car parked in front of 600 Madison Avenue, where the radio station was. A guy was standing on the corner”
Grillo advised Stern’s driver to deliver the radio star to the rear of the constructing. The driving force complied and the man one way or the other obtained shut sufficient for Grillo to listen to him shouting, “Howard Stern, you motherf—er, I’m going to kill you.”
As Grillo remembers it, “I pushed Howard into the building before the guy could do anything. Security came out and the police were called. The guy was put into handcuffs. I saw his shotgun with 12 shells on top of the car,” fortunately no-one was harm.
Whereas Stern gave an on-air thanks — “It was a throw-away thanks,” insists Grillo — one factor he didn’t do, which he actually may have used, was throw him a couple of {dollars}.
Grillo – who this week self-published a memoir “Gorilla Parts,” written with Jason Huza – says he was employed as an intern throughout his junior yr of faculty and labored for six of eight years on the present as an unpaid intern, earlier than lastly making minimal wage.
He made ends meet by way of bartending and private appearances associated to the present, however issues got here to a head after he privately requested Stern for a pay rise and obtained a dressing down on air.
He was supplied a 30-cent per hour elevate however stop quickly after.
Grillo’s post-Stern life included a stretch working as Robert Iler’s stand-in on “The Sopranos” the place he scored a bit of little bit of HBO airtime, and he works as a stagehand and grip. He additionally has little regard for the previous boss who made him well-known for all of the mistaken causes. “How about this?” Grillo mentioned. “I didn’t even put Howard in the acknowledgements of the book.”
