> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.urgentmatter.press/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Ralph Steadman ends his tour in Colorado, where regulators once banned his beer labels - URL: https://www.urgentmatter.press/ralph-steadman-ends-tour-colorado-where-regulators-once-banned-his-beer-labels/ - Published: 2026-08-19T00:18:08.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-19T00:18:08.000Z - Description: The 90-year-old artist answered Urgent Matter's questions by email as "And Another Thing" opens its final stop at Colorado State University. - Author: Adam Schrader - Tags: Shows and Exhibitions, #public-access A retrospective of the British artist Ralph Steadman, best known for his long collaboration with Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, opens August 26 at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art at Colorado State University, the final stop on a national tour and the show’s only Colorado appearance. The show, “Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing,” gathers 149 original works spanning more than six decades, along with sketchbooks, children’s books, magazines, photographs and handwritten notes. A life-size bronze of Thompson, *Vintage Dr. Gonzo* by Jud Bergeron, tours with the show. “Colorado is a wonderful place — so beautiful and majestic. No wonder Hunter moved there,” Steadman said. “I am grateful I got to explore it so often over the years.” The show’s previous stop at the Torrance Art Museum in California was [co-sponsored by Flying Dog](https://www.torranceartmuseum.com/ralph-steadman?ref=urgentmatter.press), the brewery whose Steadman-drawn labels Colorado regulators pulled from shelves in the 1990s. A press release for the Colorado show also listed Flying Dog as a co-sponsor, but the museum’s website lists a different brewery, Odell, which is partnering with Steadman on a new beer timed to the exhibition. [Add Urgent Matter on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=urgentmatter.press&ref=urgentmatter.press) Steadman's beer labels for Flying Dog were not merely illustrations on controversial products. They became the subject of First Amendment litigation in multiple states. Steadman, 90, answered wide-ranging questions from Urgent Matter by email before the exhibition’s opening. Asked what he made of the show landing in the state that once banned his work, he pointed to the passage of time. “I think it just shows that time moves on and perspectives change,” Steadman said. The exhibition, which runs through December 13, includes two of his Flying Dog works chosen by his daughter, Sadie Williams, director of the Ralph Steadman Art Collection—who co-curated the show. “They are not there as social commentary. They are simply art,” Steadman said. He said Williams picked them as strong pieces representing a collaboration that began more than 30 years ago. ## From Gonzo figure to free-speech advocate George Stranahan and Richard McIntyre, who opened Flying Dog as an Aspen brewpub in 1990, are said to have come up with the idea for it with their Woody Creek neighbor Thompson — and Steadman was tapped for the labels, the [Aspen Daily News](https://www.aspendailynews.com/archives/article%5Fa26c1ca6-e8a2-5dc9-8a6e-beab43a1ddeb-7b32c396?ref=urgentmatter.press) reported. The trouble started in 1995\. While drawing the first "Road Dog" label, Steadman splashed the line "Good Beer, No Shit" across the back, an echo of a Celtic saying Thompson had used to mark the release of the brewery's first beer with Steadman's art, court documents show. The Colorado Liquor Enforcement Division halted production and banned the label. Regulators said the slogan did not meet federal standards barring "obscene or indecent" labels. ## Sign up for Urgent Matter This article is provided free with the support of paying subscribers. Not ready for a paid subscription? Sign up for a free account today. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Flying Dog kept selling the beer with the line changed to “Good Beer, No Censorship” and, with the American Civil Liberties Union, challenged Colorado’s decision. The state eventually dropped its label-approval system, clearing the way for the original label to return. The brewery went back to court in June 2001 when the ACLU sued over a revised state statute barring bar owners from allowing profanity that "might lead to an altercation." Colorado settled that October, rewriting the rule to bar disorderly conduct instead and agreeing to pay the ACLU's legal fees, the Aspen Daily News reported. "I take very seriously the responsibility to defend our rights against bullying bureaucrats," Stranahan, Flying Dog's majority shareholder, said in a news release at the time announcing the settlement. The fights followed the brewery out of Colorado. Arkansas refused to allow the sale of "In Heat Wheat" in 2007 over both its name and its label image. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/2026/08/ELKO-Fear---Loathing-copy--1-.jpg) Ralph Steadman, **Fear and Loathing in Elko for Rolling Stone Magazine,* 1991, ink on paper. Photo courtesy of Ralph Steadman In 2009, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission rejected Flying Dog's application to sell “Raging Bitch,” a Belgian-style IPA whose label was drawn by Steadman, finding the name and label “detrimental to public health, safety and welfare.” Flying Dog sued the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, and the case eventually went to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals—which ruled in the brewery’s favor on its First Amendment claim. Flying Dog used the damages it was awarded to start the 1st Amendment Society, which promotes free speech, the arts and journalism, court documents show. Steadman later joined the fight over offensive expression at the U.S. Supreme Court, signing a [friend-of-the-court brief](https://www.cato.org/publications/legal-briefs/lee-v-tam?ref=urgentmatter.press) in *Lee v. Tam*, the case over whether an Asian-American band called The Slants could register its name as a trademark. The brief — filed by the Cato Institute "and a Basket of Deplorable People and Organizations," its actual title, alongside signers including satirist P.J. O'Rourke and former ACLU president Nadine Strossen — urged the justices to strike down a part of federal trademark law that let the government refuse names it deemed disparaging. Steadman's "Raging Bitch" label appears in it as an example. Free speech and expression "are as fundamental to our being as the alphabet itself," Steadman said in the filing. The [Court struck down the provision](https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/15-1293?ref=urgentmatter.press) in June 2017, ruling unanimously that it violated the First Amendment. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/2026/08/Early-works---Large-General-2---The-Workhouse225372--1-.jpg) Ralph Steadman, **The Workhouse,* ca. 1965, pen, ink and whiteout on paper, 48 x 36 cm. Photo courtesy of Ralph Steadman But Steadman told Urgent Matter he followed the cases only from a distance. “I wasn’t directly involved. Jim Caruso, CEO at the time, would call me and update me, but I didn’t do anything specific,” Steadman said. “Jim saw Flying Dog as more than just a craft brewery — it could be a platform, and I think it inspired a lot of creativity in the beer world.” Steadman said he is working with Odell Brewing in Fort Collins on a small-batch honey ale dedicated to the exhibition, set for release September 18\. The museum’s [event page](https://artmuseum.colostate.edu/events/ralph-steadman-and-another-thing/?ref=urgentmatter.press) lists the honey ale as “A bee called Barbara.” “It’s funny that you are focused on Flying Dog as we are collaborating with a small brewery in Fort Collins called Odell Brewery,” Steadman said. ## Ink, mistakes and A.I. As an artist, Steadman is known for his splatter-ink drawing style which can now be mimicked with artificial intelligence image generators prompted to work “in the style of Ralph Steadman.” Asked how he felt about people using A.I. to copy his drawing style, Steadman said the tools leave out the artist. “If it’s necessary, but I don’t like how it cuts the creative person out of the equation. I don’t think you should move entirely away from wet ink and real-life experience,” Steadman said. “Life cannot be only experienced from inside a computer. I hope that artists continue to connect with real life and represent that. Literally get their hands dirty.” Steadman said he has always worked that way — straight in with ink, no pencil roughs first. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/2026/08/Civilized-Society.png) Ralph Steadman, **Product of a Civilized Society*, 1987, Ink on paper. Photo courtesy of Ralph Steadman “There is no such thing as a mistake, a mistake is only the opportunity to do something else,” Steadman said, quoting the line he gives people who ask whether he fears ruining a drawing. He left school at 16 and said he hoped students who see his work now touring university museums leave excited by what a mark on paper can do. He credited a teacher, Leslie Richardson, for his own start. “I wasn’t too keen on scholarship. I was more interested in life, living it, and art,” Steadman said. ## Fear and Loathing in Colorado Colorado was not the tour’s planned finale. Earlier listings had the exhibition running the West Coast into fall 2027\. Urgent Matter [previously reported](https://www.urgentmatter.press/fear-and-loathing-on-the-gonzo-art-trail-ralph-steadman-show-opens-torrance/) on its stop at the Torrance Art Museum in March. Williams said an East Coast venue that was to close the tour fell through. “The last venue, which was on the East Coast, did not complete renovation in time and was cancelled due to that reason,” Williams said. She said the collection makes decisions to protect the works, which are on paper and vulnerable over long stretches on the road. “We’re excited that the tour will end in Colorado, due to all of the time spent there with Hunter,” Williams said. It is the second version of the show to travel. Steadman said an earlier retrospective toured from 2017 through 2021 before the pandemic forced the cancellation of its last two venues. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/3c/26/3c26cf7a-2384-4a8d-82e1-f44702177698/content/images/2026/08/RalphSteadman-20231004-27-7488--1-.jpg) The 90-year-old artist answered Urgent Matter's questions by email as "And Another Thing" opens its final stop at Colorado State University. Photo courtesy of Ralph Steadman “When United Therapeutics offered to sponsor another exhibition, Sadie put together a completely different retrospective, bigger and better,” Steadman said. He credited the collection’s U.S. coordinator, Andrea Harris, with managing logistics and designing each installation. The London Cartoon Museum mounted a 50-year Steadman retrospective in 2013 that drew 93,850 visitors and included 108 of his original works, the Colorado museum’s website notes. Now that the show will end its tour, the nonagenarian was asked what’s next for him. He deferred: “Not sure what comes next — ask Sadie, she always has a project or two on the go.” Steadman said he would not travel to the opening. “It would be too much for me now — I am 90 after all,” he said. He last returned to Colorado in 2016, he said, on a family trip that took in Thompson’s old haunts — the Woody Creek Tavern, Owl Farm, brunch in Basalt, dinner in Aspen — and left the group with altitude sickness. Steadman said he attended Thompson’s 2005 memorial, where the writer’s ashes were fired from a cannon, and that he had been taken years earlier to help design it. “I had gone years before to an undertaker with him, with this drawing of what he wanted: a cannon in the shape of the fist to shoot his ashes over the mountains at Owl Farm,” Steadman said. “But when I drew it, he admonished me, ‘Two thumbs, Ralph, two thumbs!’” Thompson, Steadman said, “told me he would feel real trapped in this life if he didn’t know he could leave it at any moment.” “I knew he would do it, I just didn’t know when,” Steadman said. Asked for a Thompson question no one had thought to put to him, Steadman supplied both the question and the answer. “How often did he change his underpants? About once a fortnight,” he said, chuckling. *Urgent Matter is reader-supported. 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