COMING BACK STRONG
His new podcast, The Forward, is showing previously unseen sides of Lance Armstrong, writes John Whitney
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain,” a line from Batman film The Dark Knight, and one which could apply to Lance Armstrong, professional cycling’s ultimate big bad. Then I listened to his new show, The Forward podcast, and you know what? I’m starting to quite like the guy.
The first show appeared in June, with each episode an hour or so chat with a guest. So far they’ve been a curious mix of either famous and semi-famous friends and acquaintances or those he’s run into near his summer home in Aspen, Colorado - sometimes literally in the case of British singer Seal, whom he met on a bike path.
The chats with his friends, such as Rage Against The Machine bassist Tim Commerford, are revealing and fun - the musician is a fanatical mountain biker and sometime riding partner of Armstrong. Weirdly compelling, though, are the episodes where, with delicious irony, he turns journalist, talking to strangers and probing their back stories. His technique needs work (though he’s the first to admit it); he often interrupts his subjects, and darts around between topics. He meets his match in boxing promoter Bob Arum, who’s not afraid to call out Armstrong when he hasn’t listened to his answers (“you missed the point, Lance”).
Hints of the Armstrong we know are still there. He’ll occasionally turn conversation onto himself, railing at those responsible for his own downfall, a familiar motif to seasoned Armstrong watchers, apparently forgetting that he was, in fact, guilty. And the interview with Seal is notable for what appears to be the singer’s belief that it’s still 1999, such is his ignorance of Armstrong’s history, and Armstrong’s reluctance to set him straight. A recent show featured Ben Foster, who played him in last year’s film The Program, with the pair going for a drinking session in Santa Fe the night before – “probably a night we should have had two years ago”. Like a lot of the shows, at times the lines of who’s interviewing who are blurred but it’s undoubtedly a must-listen, touching on drugs, lawsuits and what’s next in a life that’s rarely dull. Recent events have depicted Armstrong as a sort of maniacal Bond villain but the show illustrates he is just a bloke, albeit a flawed one. At one point Commerford tells him, he could be “less accessible, and you would deal with less, but you’re not, you’re out there, with your family, and you’re loud… You’re gonna be noticed.” The same could be said for his wider visibility and perhaps the reason for this podcast. Despite his disgrace, he didn’t go quietly. This podcast might be part public life reintegration, part catharsis amid the storm he’s faced (and facing). What it does show is that his friends have stuck by him and he perhaps isn’t the monster we thought.
At times the lines of who’s interviewing who are blurred but it’s undoubtedly a must-listen