New Stern Book Reveals A More Reflective Howard

After years of therapy, divorce and remarriage, and a brush with cancer, Howard Stern says he’s ashamed of how he behaved, in particular how he treated many of his radio show guests, reports Money.

“I was an absolute maniac,” Stern writes in his new book, Howard Stern Comes Again. “My narcissism was so strong that I was incapable of appreciating what somebody else might be feeling.”

Howard Stern says he cringes when thinking back to how he used to badger guests like Robin Williams and Gilda Radner with intimate questions that weren’t merely insulting, but they also made for bad radio. “I am the poster boy for doing everything offensive,” Stern told the New York Times magazine recently. “I wanted to be interesting and entertaining to that guy driving the car. But, you know, it’s painful for me to look back on my career, because a lot of that stuff I said I don’t know how much I believed.”

The new Howard Stern is far different than the shock jock who came to fame during his infamous 1990s heyday, when it seemed like he was routinely fined by the FCC for saying things that were allegedly racist, graphically sexual, or otherwise offensive.

At the grand age of 65, Howard Stern portrays himself as reflective and, perhaps most shocking of all, sensitive and kindhearted. America watched as Stern’s transformation seemed to be taking place live on TV. While still known mostly as a foul-mouthed radio host with a dirty mind, Howard Stern’s image was reborn as an encouraging and even lovable judge on the reality show “America’s Got Talent.”

Howard Stern gives no sign that he’s ready to retire, despite saying decades ago that he couldn’t wait to make enough money so he could quit the business.

His new book, which is part memoir and part a curated collection of his favorite interviews with people like Donald Trump (before the presidency), is a runaway bestseller. After adding up book royalties and his huge annual salary from SiriusXM radio, Howard Stern makes somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million a year. He owns a Manhattan penthouse complex worth over $20 million, along with an oceanfront Palm Beach mansion valued at nearly $60 million, and Howard Stern’s net worth has been estimated at well over $600 million too.