Sonny Barger and the Hells Angels: Five Ways the Outlaw Motorcycle Club Left Tire Tracks on Pop Culture
variety.comSteven Gaydos Executive VP of ContentWith the death this week of Ralph “Sonny” Barger, national president of famed motorcycle club the Hells Angels, a piece of vibrant American pop culture history recedes farther into the past.It’s hard to appreciate today, but when Barger founded the Oakland chapter in 1957, the mythology of the outlaw biker had already been emblazoned on the national consciousness through the Hells Angels’ impact on fashion, movies and music, as a symbol of rebellion.
Barger’s death on June 29 at the age of 83 made international headlines because of that reach.Barger was the face of the Hells Angels for decades, but the origin story of the Hells Angels began nearly a decade before when the club was founded in Fontana, Calif., in 1948.
The mythos of the rebel clad in black leather astride their prized “hogs,” as their often-chopped Harley-Davidson motorcycles are known, is now entrenched in the public’s imagination.
That legacy lives on every time a radio station or streamer plays Steppenwolf’s counterculture anthem “Born to Be Wild” and in every unspooling of landmark movies like 1969’s “Easy Rider” and the Maysles brothers’ 1970 concert film “Gimme Shelter.” Here’s a look at five ways the Hells Angels and its longtime leader left tire tracks on on pop culture.Hunter S.
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