Tim Robbins

The Hollywood actor/director channels gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.

- Katie Labovitz

TIM ROBBINS, appearing in The Town Hall’s May 5 concert performance of American author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson’s iconic article, “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” didn’t just grow up reading Thompson’s works—he lived them for a while.

Like many of the baby-boom generation, actor/writer/director/musician Robbins took the words of Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72” to heart. “I loved him as a writer,” Robbins says. “We would test the limits of appropriate behavior in Las Vegas, let’s put it that way. And it was definitely inspired by Hunter.”