Interview with Johnny Fratto by Shabooty

Shabooty: Do you like being called a mobster, or being affiliated with the mafia life?
Johnny Fratto: It’s part of my heritage and part of my pedigree. It’s something that existed before I existed. I been around all of that and read about it before the time I was a little kid. I know guys that are “real guys”, I know guys that pretend to be real guys… it’s all the same: there’s good people and there’s bad people. I don’t believe it exists the way people believe it exists anymore. Maybe 25 years ago it was like that, but I think it’s still pretty much over. On a mob networking level, that doesn’t exist anymore. I am the Paris Hilton of the mafia, I haven’t done anything, yet somehow I seem to be the guy that’s always in the light.

How does a mob guy have such a good sense of humor?
Where I come from ya laugh to keep from crying. Along with all the good stuff, there was a lot of bad stuff. My father died when I was pretty young. I lost a brother in a plane crash with Rocky Marciano a year later. [When it comes to a sense of humor], everyone in my family has it in common. Gotta kinda laugh through all of this stuff, or you will go nuts.

How did you first get hooked up with The Howard Stern Show?
I had gone on the Howard Stern Show - it was kinda an accident. I was in NYC to unveil a motorcycle. [Beverly Hills Choppers] was doing a promotion with Warner Bros. KC [Armstrong - fmr. producer on the Howard Stern Show], was going to come on the show [while in NY doing work for BHC]. We pretty much on accident became guests on the Stern show, because KC wasn’t there.

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