Stern’s driving insecurities
Howard Stern says he owes his massive success to his obsessive need to please his mother.
Howard Stern is a great big, tangled ball of neuroses, said Neil Strauss in Rolling Stone. The shock jock, 57, says he owes his massive success to his obsessive need to please his mother. “The ability to interview people and read my subject comes from my mother being very demanding of me with one thing: that I should be able to read her mood and know what she wanted. I could look into my mother’s eyes and know everything. When she was sad, when she was angry.”
That relationship, he says, left him with a deeply neurotic need to please his audience. “There is a side of me that needs this connection desperately, and needs this acclaim and needs millions of people listening to me.’’ Success and praise just make it worse. “My OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder] kicks in and my neuroses, and I go, ‘Oh my God, these people think I’m so good, and I’m going to have to get on the air Monday, and I’m not going to be able to do that for them again. And they’re going to hate me.’”
Away from an audience, he’s withdrawn and guarded. “I barely know how to socialize,” he says. “I have a hard time having a conversation with anybody. I definitely want to connect, but I don’t want to connect fully. I can only get so messy with people.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Today's political cartoons - March 29, 2025
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - my way or Norway, running orders, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 tactically sound cartoons about the leaked Signal chat
Cartoons Artists take on the clown signal, baby steps, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Roast lamb shoulder with ginger and fresh turmeric recipe
The Week Recommends Succulent and tender and falls off the bone with ease
By The Week UK Published