Magic Johnson’s 1998 late-night talk show The Magic Hour had a vocal critic in shock jock Howard Stern, who regularly mocked Johnson’s hosting abilities. In an attempt to boost ratings, Stern was booked as a guest on the talk show so that Johnson could confront him. While being interviewed by The Magic Hour host, Stern’s answers were widely inappropriate and pushed the limits even for him.
While promoting an April 22 release of his new docuseries They Call Me Magic on Apple TV+, which covers his life and career, including the time he spent as The Magic Hour host, Johnson spoke to Variety about Stern’s appearance on the program. Since the talk show was not well-received by critics and viewers, the show’s producers decided to book Stern to boost ratings, presenting the interview as an opportunity for Magic Johnson to confront him. However, now the former NBA star admits he never wanted to do the interview.
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“I wanted to say something and hit him at the same time — on-air. I was mad when they booked him, but there’s nothing you can do. When people look for ratings, this is what happens. I’ve never put myself — or HIV and AIDS, or my race — in that position again, ever again.”
Howard Stern’s Controversial Interview on The Magic Hour
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As reported by Variety, for people who didn’t watch the 1998 episode of The Magic Hour, here’s a primer on what was said that night. It began simply enough: “Let’s get right to it,” Johnson said in the interview after Stern came out on stage. “Why have you been talking about me so much, man?”
“The thing you need to work on, in my estimation, is that you’ve gotta stop trying to talk like the white man,” Stern answered. “Everybody’s anti-Ebonics. I say, let it fly! What you need to do, ‘my brotha,’ is to really get down with it. You talk Ebonics all you want.”
Stern continued on, “Listen, you’re a Black man. I grew up in a Black neighborhood. I’m Blacker than you are, trust me. I’m the Blackest Black man you’ll ever meet. And I’m telling you right now, when I lived in Roosevelt, Long Island, which is a Black ghetto, everybody talked like this,” he said, before impersonating how he thought Black people spoke. “I was a big marble mouth, but it was fascinating because I was one of the people. Why does everybody have to understand every word you say? Who cares what you got to say? No difference what you say.”
But Stern didn’t stop with the comments about Johnson’s race and hosting abilities. Instead, he pressed forward and changed the subject to Johnson’s HIV status, which the basketball player disclosed when he retired from the NBA in 1991. Stern said, “You had the life I wanted.” Then, he continued, prodding Johnson about his sexual history before his HIV diagnosis. “These were white chicks? Black chicks? What do we got? What did you prefer? You would have sex with everybody? At least you had fun getting AIDS.”
When Johnson corrected Stern, saying that he had HIV, not AIDS, and that “nobody has fun” contracting it, Stern replied with, “Believe me, brother, you did. It sounds like fun to me.”
