How John Steinbeck Inspired Bill Hicks

Like all devoted followers of Hicks, I'm constantly on the lookout for titbits of information that’ll help shed light on the man behind the stand up. To date, Love All The People – a comprehensive collection of Bill Hicks’ letters, lyrics and stand up routines – is the closest I’ve come to viewing the world through his eyes.

After I’d watched his entire DVD collection, listened to all his albums and trawled Youtube for obscure interviews and club performances, I stopped looking. Surely there was nothing left to discover. And then along came American – The Bill Hicks Story.

It's worth buying the DVD for the bonus content alone. The extensive interviews with Bill's family and friends are both sweet and insightful. Did you know, for example, that Bill's last ever written words were inspired by John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath? No, me niether.

It's Bill's favourite book. Compelled by a voyeurisitc urge to crawl inside Bill's brain, I too read the book. I wanted to see if I could locate the exact passage that Bill Hicks fell in love with.

And, by golly, I think I found it…

I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.
Bill Hicks' last written words

I'll be ever'where - wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there ... I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an' - I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build - why, I'll be there.
Tom Joad - The Grapes Of Wrath