



John Hinckley Letter to Radio Station

Nov. 1982



Copy of letter written by John Hinckley to the "Morning Zoo" radio DJs at KZEW in Dallas, TX.



Dated Nov. 1982, John mentions his love of new wave music, especially DEVO. He says "I co-wrote a song on their new album. The song is My Desire and I want you to play it 58 times each day."



DEVO used portions of a letter that John Hinckley wrote to Jodie Foster as lyrics to the song "I Desire" from the "Oh, No! It's DEVO" album. Warner Bros was not happy when they found out they'd have to pay Hinckley for his lyrics.



From RollingStone.com:



“I Desire”

Devo | 1982



Adapting poetry written by a near-assassinator of a U.S. president is not exactly a common songwriting practice. But that is exactly what Devo did on "I Desire," when they incorporated into the song several verses penned by John Hinckley Jr. -- notorious for stalking Jodie Foster and shooting Ronald Reagan in 1981. As Mark Mothersbaugh recalled, "[Hinckley] let us take a poem that he had written, and we used it for the lyrics and turned it into a love song. It was not the best career move you could make. We had the FBI calling up and threatening us."