Howard Stern Show: Lance Armstrong Dishes On Doping Scandal, Sheryl Crow, Oprah

The Howard Stern Show is well-known for its raw and revealing interviews, and Monday’s visit with disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong did not disappoint. Stern asked the tough questions, and Armstrong was candid in sharing his thoughts about a number of compelling topics.

Armstrong discussed his use of PEDs (performance enhancing drugs) with Stern, which after winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999-2005, led to Armstrong being stripped of his Tour de France titles in 2012, as described by the New York Times. One of Armstrong’s biggest challenges was reconciling his public admission of cheating with his children.

“That’s not a one-time conversation. The older kids were old enough to kind of live it with me and there was that conversation and there was therapy.”

Armstrong went on to explain that his younger children are now old enough to understand what happened in his past, and they are hearing more and more from peers about their father’s missteps. Armstrong called repairing his relationship with his children “a process.”

Lance Armstrong and singer Sheryl Crow were once considered a power couple, but once Armstrong’s public scandal hit, things went downhill quickly (per Billboard Magazine). Despite their very public breakup, Armstrong maintains that Crow was a good and supportive partner during their time together.

“It was a good ride. She’s a great lady. Obviously it didn’t work out, but I think and I hope she’s happy,” Armstrong shared with Stern.

“I’m happy. It’s tough to pull it off. I mean, how many (celebrity) couples have been able to pull it off?”

When Lance Armstrong decided to do a sit-down television interview to clear the air regarding his illegal doping activities, he chose TV personality Oprah Winfrey to conduct the interview. In retrospect, Armstrong feels that he did the interview too soon after his admission of drug use to further his cycling career. He also thinks that he shared too much “shocking information” in that initial interview.

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Lance Armstrong already knew and trusted Oprah, which is why he chose to talk to her publicly about his checkered past. According to USA Today, Armstrong was very open and honest when Oprah asked him some probing questions about the coverup he engaged in once allegations of PED use came to light.

“(The coverup was) a mythic, perfect story, but it was one big lie. I will spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologize to people.”

Howard Stern discussed a few other saucy items with Lance Armstrong on Stern’s national radio program. Armstrong divulged that he hated cycling for three or four years after the scandal broke, because of its role in the hardship that came out of his wrongdoing with performance enhancing drugs. Armstrong also told Stern that he never knew his biological father, and now that his father has passed away, he doesn’t know how that situation will impact him as he gets older.

On the Howard Stern Show, one can always count on Howard to ask his guests some embarrassing questions, and this interview was no different. Never shying away from scatological humor, Stern asked Armstrong how he urinated during cycling competitions that kept him on a bike for hours at a time.

Armstrong revealed that all professional racers know how to urinate off to the side while riding, and it is usually done when there are no spectators around. He stated that your cycling teammates push you from behind so you can continue racing while “doing your business.”

Howard Stern knows what people truly want to know about celebrities, even if some of those things are very personal, cringe-inducing or irreverent. Stern was able to get Lance Armstrong to talk about some sensitive subjects when it came to his rise and fall as a cyclist, his romance with Sheryl Crow and his heavily-publicized interview with Oprah Winfrey, among other things. Stern may be getting up in years, but he still knows how to encourage his guests to open up about their personal and professional lives in a way that few other media personalities can.

[Featured Image by Brett Davis/AP Images]