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Moby Tells Us About the Time He "Knob-Touched" Donald Trump

His friends dared him

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Moby's the first to admit he's become a boring middle-aged man, a self-described "bald, alcoholic, postmodern Mr. Rogers," the antithesis of his suicidal and drug-addled past self as a famous underground techno artist.

"I know conventionally a vice is something like pornography addiction or smoking crack cocaine with strangers in hotel rooms — both of which vices I've had in the past," Moby said. But nowadays he's addicted to hanging out in his self-made backyard pine tree forest in LA, buying modern surrealist art (it helps him escape our current, "sometimes malignant reality") and laughing at other people stuck in bad traffic.

His current "anodyne" vices are a far cry from those of his younger days, which he chronicles in his new memoir, "Then It Fell Apart," going back to the day in May 1999 when he released "Play," the most successful electronic music album of all time.

Between stops on his four-week book tour, the 53-year-old vegan, producer, author, and activist stopped by to talk vices — and share a story from his "drug-addicted idiot" days that has particular resonance today: He was with some friends at a Staten Island party in 2001, and they dared him to rub his penis against another guest, Donald Trump.

"So I pulled my flaccid penis out of my pants and I knob-touched Donald Trump. So the only person I've ever knob-touched in my entire life is our utterly corrupt current president of the United States," said Moby. "If Donald Trump claims MeToo because of me, I have done my life's work."

This segment originally aired May 7, 2019, on VICE News Tonight on HBO.