Elon Musk‘s biographer has revealed the billionaire’s father ‘instilled his drive’ – but also his ‘demons’.
Walter Isaacson, who spent two years observing the Twitter-turned-X Corp tsar day-to-day, has said the richest man in the world inherited many of his most distinctive traits from his 77-year-old father Errol Musk.
Isaacson will be releasing his Elon exposé in September, adding to the collection of big-name biographies he has previously penned – including on Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.
In a plug for his upcoming book, the writer said Musk, 52, told him ‘vivid and psychologically brutal tales’ about his past and explored ‘the scars they left’ – while his father also spent hours ‘giving his side forcefully’.
Isaacson compares Elon to his South African father – who the Tesla tsar considers to be ‘evil’ and a ‘terrible human being‘.
The richest man in the world inherited many of his most distinctive traits from his 77-year-old father, Errol Musk, according to his biographer Walter Isaacson
Elon Musk previously described his father as ‘evil’ and ‘a terrible human being’
Elon and his father have had a difficult relationship, including periods of estrangement. Pictured: a family photograph of Errol holding Elon as a baby
‘Elon Musk’s father instilled his drive but also his demons, beginning at an early age,’ he said.
The author added that Elon’s mother Maye, along with his wives Justine and Tallulah Riley and girlfriend Claire Boucher, all ‘give vivid examples of how Musk is still dealing with the traumas’ in his book.
Isaacson’s explosive Elon biography is due to be released in September 2023
The biography recounts how Musk was regularly beaten by bullies as a child growing up in South Africa, including on one occasion when he was pushed down concrete steps and repeatedly kicked in the face, leaving him in hospital for a week.
But it’s Amazon blurb says the physical scars from this trauma were ‘minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father – an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist’.
Musk ‘developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to adopt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive’, the description says.
The book chronicles his rise to fame through his SpaceX ventures, selling a million cars through Tesla, and becoming the richest man alive.
Isaacson shadowed Musk for years – attending his meetings and spending hours interviewing him along with his family, friends, co-workers and adversaries – to reveal the inside story on his life.
Isaacson has previously penned biographies on big names including Leonardo da Vinci, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger
Musk, 52, shares ‘vivid and psychologically brutal tales’ about his past in his upcoming biography – while his father also spent hours ‘giving his side forcefully’
Isaacson observed Musk’s day-to-day life for two years, including during his Twitter takeover when he fired more than half the workforce
He gave more details about Musk during a Twitter Spaces talk last month.
‘He is just brutal,’ said Isaacson, whose observation period of Musk included his Twitter takeover, when he fired more than half the workforce before it became X Corp.
‘The thing that I noticed is that once he finishes doing it — and it was never physical and it was almost done in a flat monotone — but he would just really attack people and then a few days later, if they absorbed the lesson, he’d forget about it.
‘It would be as if he went from becoming Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde and then didn’t even think that much or remember that much of how tough he had been on people,’ he explained.
Isaacson reportedly described a scene where the social media executive, who had a ‘real lack of empathy’ verbally attacked an employee for making a mistake, despite the fact that they had lost a child two weeks earlier.
The term ‘demon mode’ was coined by Musk’s girlfriend, the music artist Grimes, Isaacson told the Twitter Spaces event.
Isaacson compares Elon to his South African father – who the Tesla tsar considers to be ‘evil’ and a ‘terrible human being ‘
He claims she once told him that Musk could be ‘unpleasant’ when he was in that mood but that it ‘gets shit done.’
Musk previously described his father as ‘evil’ during an emotional interview with Rolling Stone in 2018, when the pair were estranged.
‘He was such a terrible human being, you have no idea,’ he said with tears running down his face.
‘My dad will have a carefully thought-out plan of evil. He will plan evil. Almost every crime you can possibly think of, he has done. Almost every evil thing you could possibly think of, he has done. It’s so terrible, you can’t believe it.’