Aaron Foster

Aaron FosterWhat is your idea of perfect happiness? Sean Penn referred to it as “entertainment,” but I call it happiness:  A couple of hookers and an 8 ball.

What is your greatest fear? Italian professional cyclist and all around colorful guy Claudio Chiappucci once said: “My biggest fear is that they will confuse me with another racer.”  I know exactly what he meant.

Which historical figure do you most identify with? Pete Best.  Missed it by *that* much.

What is the trait you deplore most in yourself? Stubbornness.

What is the trait you deplore most in others? Stubbornness.  See how that works?

What is your greatest extravagance? I’m writing a memoir of my time in Hollywood called The Lost Decade: How Ten Years of Chasing Tail Cost Me My Dreams, so you do the math.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? “No.”  I’m not saying I should be one of those dudes who decides to say “yes” to everything and hijinks and hilarity ensue, but I’d probably benefit from upping my average a bit.

What is your greatest regret? Not punching Tom Davis in the face when I was in high school.  Why?  He knows.  He frickin’ knows.

What or who is the greatest love of your life? The bicycle.  She’s an iron (ok, carbon fiber) mistress.  Which must make me a Mormon because I have seven of ‘em.

When and where were you happiest? September 16, 1985- Concord, CA.   First encounter with liquid courage and I finally told Dana Fairbanks how I felt.  It’s been downhill ever since.

Which talent would you most like to have? The piano, man.  The goddamned piano.

What is your current state of mind? Well, currently I am on a plane coming into Reno and we are experiencing an absurd amount of turbulence, so at the moment I’m straight up terrified.  But hey, one way or another, it will all be over in a few minutes, right?

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I’d like to have the confidence of two drinks while sober.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? I’ve been lucky enough to have made a very nice living as an artist for the last ten years www.aaronfoster.com and I’m pretty proud of that.  However, the two accomplishments at the top of my list are playing “Mental Patient #6” in the Jim Carey tour-de-force The Number 23  and “Airline Passenger #9” in what was truly Billy Bob Thornton’s best work, School for Scoundrels.

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing/ what do you think it would be? At this point the amount of work I’d have to do to come back as anything good and decent is probably out of the question so it’s a good thing I’m an atheist.  That being said, I’d probably get stuck doing extra work on the Twilight series for eternity.

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be? Anything at all?  How about the Highlander?  Immortal.  Rich.  Nice hair.  What more could you want?

What is your most treasured possession? The bicycle.  Always the bicycle.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? An unfulfilled life.  Wasted talent.  Working in an office.

Where would you like to live? I bought some land in the Sierras a few years back.  My plan is to build an off the grid house there, offer it as a vacation rental and just hit the trail with my backpack whenever it’s occupied.  True freedom may only come with the last breath before dying, but that would be pretty close.

What is your favorite occupation? I’ve been lucky to have been self employed in one capacity or another the last 15 years and I plan to continue that path.   It almost doesn’t matter what the gig is, if you’re your own boss, it’s all good.  The risks are bigger but so are the rewards and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What do you value most in your friends? Punctuality.

What is your favorite hero of fiction? Howard Roark from The Fountainhead is certainly one of them.  Ayn Rand was batshit nuts but I still love that dude, even if it is a very lonely way to live.  Henry Lightcap from A Fool’s Progress is pretty great in a sort of anti-hero kind of way.   Ignatius J. Reilly is a goddamn beautiful creature.

Who are your heroes in real life? Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon.   Those guys handled their careers like the Honey Badger handles pretty much everything it encounters.

How would you like to die? Just like Agent Dana Scully from the X Files.

What is your motto? I wanted to be Atticus Finch.  Turns out, I’m Boo Radley.