Fame in the modern era is an unnatural state of being, Bill O’Reilly, host of No Spin News and author of Killing the Legends: The Lethal Danger of Celebrity, said on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily.
O’Reilly reflected on the theme of his latest book, Killing the Legends, in which he cautioned against the potential danger and lethality of celebrity with case studies of figures such as Muhammad Ali, John Lennon, and Elvis Presley.
BURBANK, CALIFORNIA — Rock and roll musician Elvis Presley performing on the Elvis comeback TV special on June 27, 1968. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
“I got a list of people who went down, and it is just harrowing,” O’Reilly said. “Even the people who don’t destroy themselves in public and private, they’re a mess. It’s not a natural state for people to be famous.”
Aggressive surveillance of famous people is dangerous, O’Reilly held.
He continued, “When you leave your house in America now, and you’re a famous person, there’s a camera on you every second — people following you around, they’re trying to record you, the emotional weight of that — never are you relaxed in public.”
O’Reilly warned of parasitic persons preying on celebrities.
He said, “In private, people want stuff from you — primarily money — and so the human being who’s a celebrity is getting whacked every two minutes from every side, and then they have to perform.”
“Excess kills,” he remarked. “That’s what killed Elvis. Physical excess killed Ali. Lennon became a heroin addict.”
10/1/1975, Manila, the Philippines: Champion Muhammad Ali (white trunks) lands a right on Joe Frazier’s head during the second round. Ali held his title 10/1 defeating Frazier by TKO in the 14th round. (Bettmann / Contributor / via Getty)
He went on, “It’s excess in the sense that when you’re at that level, you can have anything you want. You get into a phony world where you snap your fingers, things appear. You lose sight of a lot of sensitivities — particularly to other people — and you go into this world of, ‘Well, it’s all about me. I want this now,’ and that runs you down.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” he said of those aspiring for fame.
O’Reilly highlighted Oprah Winfrey as an example of a celebrity who carefully navigates the potential pitfalls of celebrity.
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is seen after attending a funeral mass for Mattie Stepanek June 28, 2004 outside the St. Catherine Laboure Catholic Church in Wheaton, Maryland. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“Some people survive it,” he concluded. “Oprah is a good example. [She is] somebody who was able to build a structure around her that was not self-destructive or allow people in to hurt her. A very shrewd woman [who] did it methodically.”
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.