Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - He Was Eaten By His Own Pet Tiger On Stage - The Siegfried & Roy story

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy, got bit by his own tiger while performing on stage in Las Vegas.

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No, not this king of tigers, this king of tigers. His name's Roy. And Roy's story starts a long time ago when he's 12. And the poor little guy, he's growing up in a really chaotic household with an alcoholic father. And unfortunately, he's neglected and he never feels a sense of family with his parents. But one day, all that changes when Roy goes to the local zoo. And there he meets this cheetah named Chico. And Roy loves Chico.

He's never seen a cat like that before, and he feels like they have a special connection. And eventually, he even gets a side job at that zoo so that he can help care for Chico. Then, at some point, he ends up becoming Chico's owner. He allegedly straight up stole him from the zoo, I guess. Regardless, he now owns Chico. And because Roy has always been neglected by his parents, Chico becomes the family he's never had. So I guess you could say that Chico saved Roy by. just being there for him. And this is an actual picture of the two of them. Now, not too long after

this, Roy's around 13 years old, he runs away from home and he gets a job as a bellhop on a cruise ship. And that is when he meets this guy, Sigfried. And Sigfried's around 18 years old and he works on the ship as an entertainer, as a magician. And so he and Roy, they're both teenagers and they become friends. However, Roy isn't really all that impressed with Sigfried's magic tricks. He's like, cool, you can pull a rabbit out of a hat. But why not a cheetah? And Sigreets's like, where the fuck am I going to get a cheetah? And Roy's like, say less.

And so Roy takes him to his cabin and there, inside, he's been low-key hiding a whole ass cheetah the whole time. Roy had apparently snuck him on board. Anyway, so the two of them, they put this act together for the passengers on the cruise ship doing magic shows that now involve this cheetah. And this act is blowing everyone away. They're so impressed with this magic exotic cat. And thus, the famous duo, Sigfried and Roy, is born. And now eventually, they decide to take this show on the road. And they do some shows locally, and then they tour places in Europe,

and they start to find some success. And over time, their act keeps growing. And they keep adding more and more big cats as the show gets more and more popular. And 20 years go by. it's now 1989. And by this point, Sigfried and Roy have started

doing shows at venues in Las Vegas. And these Vegas shows have gotten so popular, the owner of a bunch of local hotel casinos offers them

a $57 million contract to perform at his brand new hotel, the Mirage. And so they get a huge budget, and they're finally putting on this big budget production

and boom, it's a massive hit. And Sigfried and Roy become icons. Everyone around this time has heard of them, even people who've never been to Vegas had heard of them. And suddenly, during this time, they're the highest paid entertainers in Las Vegas history. So what do they do with this crazy amount of money they now have? Well, first, they build a big-ass dream home,

where they live with over 50 of their exotic animals, lions, jaguars, panthers, a freaking elephant, and over 30 tigers. 30 tigers. And of course, at this point, she could, unfortunately is no longer with them because, you know, Cheetahs don't live nearly as long as we do, but clearly Roy is still into big cats. And here is some footage of him riding a tiger in his backyard, and he swims with them in his lake-sized swimming pool, and he gives them their own air-conditioned rooms to live in. Roy even sleeps with a big cat in his bed every night. Bro is living the dream. Like here he is with millions of dollars hanging around with huge exotic cats who would never in a million years want to hurt him.

Until. Here's the thing about tigers specifically. I know when you look at a tiger, you're like, ah, he's so cute, just I want to hug the kitty. He's such a good kidder. However, at the end of the day, there's still 500 pound apex predators. And on a normal day, they typically attack and kill their prey with a single bite of the neck, which severs the prey's arteries and then the tiger carries them off. to eat them for dinner. So like, we're easy prey for them. Just keep that in mind.

So anyway, one night, shit gets real for Roy, because it's 2003, and he's 59 years old at this point, and he and Sigfried are still selling out shows in Vegas, still making millions of dollars a year. But on this night, they're performing with this guy, Montecore. And Montecore, he's a white tiger, he's one of the many big cats who lives in Roy's house with him. He's also seven feet tall and 400 pounds. And so they start this show that night, and just like every night, 1,500 people in the audience are watching. And Roy, he walks out on stage, and he's with Montecor. This is Montecor, and tonight is his first appearance in front of the audience. He says it's Montecor's first time on stage, but it's not.

That's just something they always tell the audience. It's like part of the show. Anyway, then Roy puts a microphone up to Montecor's mouth, so the audience can hear him growl. Now, for some reason, tonight, Montecor is. is a bit irritable. And about a beat later, when Roy reaches down again, Montecor snaps, and he nips at Roy's hand. And Roy says, no, no, no, and he taps him on the head

with the soft tip of the microphone. But then, Roy backs away a little. But then, how? Montecourt leaps at him, knocking him to the floor, and snap, he sinks his huge teeth into Roy's neck, slicing his vertebrae and severing an artery that cuts off blood to his brain, and Roy suffers a massive stroke on stage. And keep in mind, there's 15.

1,500 people in the audience watching this like, uh, is this part of the show? But then, just like tigers do to their prey in the wild, Montecor drags Roy off stage by the neck. And so all the people there are horrified, and the stage is covered in blood, and one of the stage hands yells, cat loose! And all the cast members start to panic,

and the cat handlers leap into action, and they run to save Roy's life, and it takes four grown men to get Montecor to finally let go of him. Then, minutes later, Roy's in the back of him. in the back of an ambulance being rushed to the hospital. And at this point, he's barely conscious. But he loves big cats and he still loves Montecor.

And he knows they'll want to put him down for this attack. So he decides to use whatever strength he has left to try and save him. The same way Chico had saved him all those years ago by being his only family. And so Roy looks at everyone and he says, Montecore's a great cat. Make sure no harm.

comes to Montecor, then he passes out. Now, miraculously, Roy survives. However, he suffered three strokes, and he ends up with half his body paralyzed. And from there, his entire life's work is over. And the Sigfried and Roy show closes for good. And the duo never does their full Las Vegas show again. Until about six years later in 2009. It's at this point that after many years of rehabilitation and physical therapy, Roy musters up the strength for a charity benefit, and he and Sigfried do one final show together. And Montecor is there to perform as well, as Roy never allowed him to be put down. He saved him. When I hug the kiddie, he's such a good kidder!