"The model for Sin can be seen in Virus..."

1984–1989

The rediscovered “Interzone” manuscript becomes a book

In 1984 the “archivist of the Beat Generation,” Bill Morgan, finds among Ginsberg's papers in Columbia University's Butler Library a 1958 version of “Interzone” edited by Burroughs, Kerouac and Ansen, forgotten for a quarter of a century. After five years of work on the text, Viking Press publishes the complete “Interzone” with additional materials in 1989.

1989

A part in Gus Van Sant's “Drugstore Cowboy”

In 1989 Burroughs appears in a cameo with Matt Dillon in Gus Van Sant's film “Drugstore Cowboy.”

1990

The play “The Black Rider” in Hamburg

In 1990 the play “The Black Rider,” created by Burroughs with Tom Waits and the director Robert Wilson, opens at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg to critical acclaim and is later performed across Europe and the US. The same year his spoken-word album “Dead City Radio” is released, with backing from the band Sonic Youth.

1991

Cronenberg's film “Naked Lunch”

In 1991 David Cronenberg's film of “Naked Lunch,” starring Peter Weller, is released; because of the Persian Gulf war that broke out in August 1990, it was shot not in Tangier but in studios in Toronto. Burroughs is pleased: in his words, Cronenberg did everything very well.

1992

A recording with Kurt Cobain

In 1992 Burroughs records “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him” with Kurt Cobain, based on a recording of his short story “The Junky's Christmas” that he sent Cobain.