The Adam and Dr. Drew Show - #1969 Rich Man Mayhem

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Jason "Mayhem" Miller returns and the conversation takes a riveting turn as Mayhem recounts his notorious incidents, from manic episodes to his infamous church escapade, highlighting the extreme highs and lows of his journey. Tune in for an eye-opening and thought-provoking discussion that sheds light on the complexities of human behavior, the impact of societal structures, and the enduring quest for self-improvement. Leave us a voicemail: SpeakPipe.com/AdamandDrDrew OR Click the microphone at the top of the homepage, AdamandDrew.com

Recording live at Corolla one studios with Adam Corolla and board certified physician and addiction medicine specialist dr. Drew Pinsky you're listening to the Adam and dr. Drew show Dr. Board certified physician to express that mayhem Miller back. Oh, thanks for having me back, guys. By popular demand. We were talking about his childhood. It occurred to me that Adam doesn't know that you and I had a whole life together. We did.

I know, yeah, I mentioned that. One time on the ACS show, we're talking about, remember when we hung out with Pee Wee Herman? You remember that incident? Where was that? Man, it was like at some mansion and Tyrese was there High-fiving me and I don't know it was just a strange experience. It's a fever dream I think but you but you were living in a van. Oh, yes when I first met you

Do you know this whole story? Yeah, we know it was who was the co-host of Love Line at the time? Was it striker? No What's his name? Catharwood, I think. Mike Catharwood, yeah. Who likes grappling and stuff, likes fighting. He was just kind of getting into it at that time. It must have been early. I would have put you back in the Stryker era. And he lived outside of gym.

Yeah, I did. In a van. In a van, outside of gym. Yeah, I did Outside the gym. Yeah, I did that like for a good stretch That was my life was just living in in like I had a Honda Civic with no muffler at first But then I built my way up to a van down by the river. I had a van. I was into it I was like could go anywhere The world was my oyster and you could go in the gym and shower and do all that stuff in the gym. I mean, why do you need a shower

if you don't have anywhere to take chicks? You just shower after training, that's it. Brush your teeth in the parking lot. It wasn't that bad. But things didn't go so well. What? I don't remember what you're talking about. So many incidents have happened to me, Drew,

and a lot of head trauma, maybe you know about it. It's, uh, I'm not sure what you're referring to. See, you know, where do you come in here, Drew? Well, I was there with him during, I remember something sort of went south right around then I'm trying to remember the details. What? I had, what, what went south? I just remember being worried about you and you're calling me about stuff and I can't remember what the hell. Listen, man, I so many crazy women. I'm guessing it had something to do with crazy women. It had that and was there some substance involved or something? At one point, no during early, during the van days, no. It wasn't until I was rich man. Rich man mayhem. Once you're like rich guy, you can get a prescription medicines and then like UFC is pumping you full of them, give you a card to like,

to a card to call if you need more drugs. Yeah, you don't even have to go to the doctor. Yeah. So yeah, that, that things went south. Yeah. Things went bad. I was just a maniac for a while. Yeah. I think you were calling me then. Yes. No, yeah, that wasn't that. Ironically, I had owned a house at the time. And that was like, you lost that though, right? Yeah. I lost it to a crazy lawyer. I mean, I didn't even have to get divorced. And it just,

he still stole it. It was just a nightmare. Everything. I know. I know I'm being like vague right here, but it's just, I'm trying to like think of how to explain the whole story. So many- There's a lot. There's so much. It's so much there. After the UFC-

How'd you get out? How'd you get out? How about that? Oh, I like crash landed to Skid Row. Crash landed to Skid Row. So I remember that too. I went to, well, I tried to landed to skid your skid row Crash landed to skid row. I remember that I I went to Well, I tried to go to like a uh, kind of um treatment treatment. Why is skid row? Because there was like a treatment center that a nice lady Um had recommended to me. There's like hope house or something

Yeah, the rock goes there and help donates his time. Everybody was like, all right, you should go here and go. And the place closed at seven o'clock and I was there at like seven 15. And so that, and I was hung over and like hurting and I walked down like the, the, this place is like on a a hill it's like an old hospital of some sort and i walked down around the block to like look for a shelter someplace because i was just homeless no van anymore i would just walk down through there and saw like the dregs of society and you know i had been to prison before and never in that entire term of prison did i feel as nervous as i did in that 15 minute walk through skid row i was like dude this is how people live so i'm staying here yeah i know i

man i yeah i left i left that area and i said i gotta gotta go to treatment. Those people just need a job, Jason. What's the matter with you? No, listen, like, yeah. Here's the thing, right? It's because of my experiences going through substance abuse and going through the jail system. Everyone likes to go, oh, these homeless drug addicts, pieces of shit.

But if you look at the journey they have to take, essentially our system- To get out or to get down there? To get down there. What happens is, if you get in some scrape, some trouble, be it like in your youth or be it in your, I don't know, mid 30s, whatever, they jam you up in the jail system

and it's incentivized to keep you in there. It's incentivized to get all your family to pour all their money into feeding you in there because the food is garbage, so you have to buy snacks and this kind of thing. You have to pay for lawyers, you gotta pay for all this. It's essentially a homeless factory because it's not like it used to be, the old days of, oh, you go to jail,

then you go to prison, you do do your term you learn a trade or something Okay Like because you figure something out and they kick you out with two hundred fifty dollars of gate money and you could start a whole New life that money hasn't gone up since the 70s, right? So when you get out essentially you and your family are all tapped out Remember you told me about parking tickets when you were living in a poor, what the heck, living in a poor area, how they tax you like that? It's essentially that on a grander scale.

And then, you know, I went through a long time of going to jail and getting out and then going back to jail. Yeah, what I... Sorry, what I was saying, and for the 37th time, we can clean up the screen when there's stuff on it that we don't need from previous shows, and we can also get the clock going on that screen too.

So whatever you guys see back there, if you see what we see, check it. Check it in between things or something. Can you see what we see? Little housecleaning. Okay, take a take a check the screen There's no clock moving and then this has stuff from the past the check it do it true Too much. Well, well oil and she over here you see you guys. Okay I feel like just let's just do it then that'll be that But I will need the protocol of having to check it, you know

We need the list of check this before you do that. All right. Yes all things Automobiles in this city preys upon poor. So they will tow your... Since I've been rich, I've not so much as gotten a parking ticket and certainly never had anything towed. Towing is when you're poor, you get shit towed. They would go on... First off, you're in a Yeah, you get shit towed. They would go on sweet

First off you're in a garage you park in your your house's garage You'll never get towed but it's street parking and then it would they would sweep they would do sweeps and they would tow stuff and if your fucking bumper Was nine inches into the red you'd get a you'd get a ticket, you know, I mean they just I know I nine inches into the red, you'd get a ticket. You know, I mean, they just. I know. See, well, that's what I'm saying is. It's all based on poor people.

Everything to do with cars in this city. It's all the street sweeper comes by at seven in the morning, you don't have parking, you park on the street, you come home late at work, one side's got parking, you forget about it, you park there the street, you come home late at work, one side's got parking, you forget about it, you park there, you get a ticket. It's all just raising money on poor people. You don't get tickets when you're rich, you don't get your car stolen. By the way, you get your car stolen in this city because you parked it out on the street and

the guy jumps the car in Sunland, it'll have parking tickets on it. When you go pick it up and you're responsible for the parking tickets, they just prey on poor people. Yes. Well, I would extrapolate that data over to the jail system. It's the same thing.

Oh, it comes to, listen, I don't- You get jammed up and then you have no money at the end and then you're depressed. So what are you gonna do? You go to the liquor store get fucked up smart like to like satiate that? Traumatic experience that you just went through now. You're a bum now everybody hates you So you it gets in that cycle of addiction just suddenly and it's so hard to get out for me It was that wake-up call of like oh my god. This is where I'm headed. This is where I'm headed

It was just a-up call of like, oh my god, this is where I'm headed. This is where I'm headed. It was just a coincidence that I walked down that direction. Queen of Angels Hospital? Is that where that place was? I believe. Big old hospital on the side of the 101. Yes, sounds familiar. It's down there in Junkytown. It's like, you know, and the facility was super nice. It was like a very nice and well-oiled machine over there. But that down and well oiled machine over there but that down down the hill past McDonald's was all just oh man it was it was the jungle it was nightmare over there and

it kind of woke me up to go okay so this is the direction I'm going let me get his back on track and do whatever it takes and that's what I did you know I went into treatment learned about all the stuff that I remember you guys talk about at Loveline and go, oh, this is what it is. I get it. It's like a hard road to figure it out. And it's not, it's a constant, it's just a constant state of vigilance against what directed me over there in the first place. Like no roads back to Skid Row. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's sad, it's kind of ubiquitous now,

it's everywhere. I see it everywhere. It was, you know, it used to be Skid Row, now it's just sort of everywhere. Yeah, yeah. What I'm saying is, all right, so here's another thing, is that during this slip and slide, I like, at the beginning of it, I had a lot of money. I had plenty of money and like,

like was, still couldn't really figure out how to like fix this or get mental health care. I remember I went to the mental health place, now Orange County, I said, hey, I feel really wrong. I feel really messed up. I need to talk to someone. I need to do something. They said, do you want to kill yourself? I'm like, no. Like, do you want to kill anyone else?

I'm like, no. And like, okay, well, we don't really have anything for you. That's the big problem right now. Yeah. You're not allowed to bring people in unless. You can't just be crazy. in unless you can't just be crazy Like I can't just be losing your mind. So then you go back to the street. Yeah, that's what I mean And I was I tried to get help but like where is the help? You know, I mean, it's a that's behind a

Is behind a big paywall and it's not in the paywall the laws prevent them from dealing with you Unless you're gonna kill somebody unless you're going to kill yourself It's crazy. Yeah, and then the only see the only determination was oh, we're gonna Put you in a psychiatric hold if you're feeling but I'm doing I'm feeling that crazy I just need something to direct me up out of this and there was nothing I think back to those times and I'm shocked and I don't know you're smart I don't know what to do or what legislation needs to be passed or what.

I don't understand what there is to do. If you're going a little bit baddie, then they don't have really a treatment for you until you get busted. Then you get busted and then you're trapped in there and they have a nice lady talk to you once a week. And- Is Is it prison? Yes.

Yeah. And just she doesn't do much. You're already there in jail, so you can't hurt anybody, you can't hurt yourself really. So it's a strange... Yeah, it was a strange journey, you know? And not until I went to prison did I really get any type of meaningful treatment or... Because... Did you have to seek it or was it off the queue? Yeah, both. Both. It was like I went out of my way to seek it,

to try to grow as a person. I said, okay, I'm not coming out of this experience just buff. I wanna figure out some stuff about myself. And I did. I did a lot of work. Was that in Orange County or is that out here? No, that was Chino. I did two years at Chino. Did people know who you were in prison? Yeah, yeah.

Did they want to test you? Couple did. An idea. It's a very strange culture. Like we could devote a whole show to prison culture. It's a very strange culture. You like stick with your own kind. It's like a weird racist thing. And when white men are allowed to fight each other,

if you have a disagreement, so it worked out for my benefit in a way, because I didn't have to like be some strange, like, I don't know, I didn't have to really take orders because if we had a big problem, then we could fight one-on-one about it. It's very like juvenile. White men were allowed to fight?

Yeah. Black men weren't allowed to fight? I don't know exactly how it goes in their car, but no. It's like you have a big homie, and you have to talk to the big homie. I know. It's really strange. I know.

I feel weird talking about it a little bit. But yeah, everybody defers to the boss, the guy who has the keys in that area and you have to like do what's good for your car they call it you know like and the blacks have their own rules as they're pretty fragmented the Serenios have their own rules and then there's a sub there's Norteno's it's like the Mexicans from the north are Different than the ones from the south but they all kind of roll in the same car same thing And then you have the others is like like Asians and whatever hang out with the blacks

It's a very it's a bizarre world that whole adventure if you want to call it that hey It's Adam Kroll from the Adam Kroll Show. BetOnline is the world's most trusted betting platform and your number one source for online betting from the earliest odds to in-game live betting. BetOnline provides you with all the action and the ability to watch and bet on games as they happen with the largest selection of odds on everything from football, NBA, college basketball as well.

BetOnline has NHL, MMA, and championship boxing all your betting needs in one place. Head to BetOnline today to get in on the action with America's most trusted site for online Wagering so have some fun make these games and these events in these combat sports a little more interesting With bet online bet online the game starts here So there would be I mean, it's a little bit of a syndicate and there's a boss and there's black lieutenants and stuff. There's a hierarchy. And you couldn't really get out of line if you were a lower guy because the system, the boss man.

I mean, same with the mafia. You just can't do what you want. And I'm not trying to make it like I was the big boss there. I went along. I went along to get along, you know, I don't you know, I didn't make waves. I like did that's fine This is what we're doing. This is what we got to do. And that's it. It's it's strange How were there guy how many guys there or what percentage of guys did you feel were innocent? I Mean, yeah here and there. Yeah, here. Definitely. It definitely felt like they felt like they did

something, right? Yeah. But you know, it's like one of those things where, like, if you get caught, most of the guys are in there, they're in a lifestyle. Like it's it's they've been like maybe their dad is was in prison. Like it was like, generational. Yeah, just the way things are for them. Some guys have been just brainwashed by an institution like juvenile detention and just keep in there. Some guys had a long drawn out story

about how they didn't do it or whatever, and then you're kind of, all right, maybe, whatever. But usually you don't even talk about those things. Like it's just, you know, and then you're kind of, all right, maybe, whatever. But usually you don't even talk about those things. Like, it's just, you're doing your time, you're going through it. That's how it is. Like, you know, we're here. Like, what's the point in telling you about why I'm here? Did your prison have the group where they would put the non-troublemakers in a certain yard? I worked my way up to that. Like Like I worked my way up to dog trainer,

like a service dog trainer. Straight up, yeah. I was able to live in kind of a section, an honor dorm, and yeah, near the end of my sentence was like me training labradoodles. What was the training to do? end of my sentence was like me training labradoodles. What was the training to do? Simple basic obedience commands to like heal next to you and jump up on a box to, you know, for grooming or whatever.

And, you know, you had to like, I taught a lot of- For what people? For blind people? For disabled? For military veterans. Like, guys with some PTSD issues, this kind of thing. So that was a great program. Yeah, there's a lot, man.

I'm kind of getting weird thinking about this now that I haven't really talked about it. I know, huh? It was very interesting journey, that's for sure. And it woke me up to a lot of things about myself, you know, and about society in general. I like realized that, oh man, like this is why people are like this. And then I realized, I didn't realize about the jail, the way jail is, where it's nothing. You do nothing. All you do is it's just a holding, it's a warehouse for men.

So you just- It's like high school. Yeah, it's worse. You just become, you become worse. Like they kept throwing me in a box and like abusing me, like basically torturing me and then wondering, wait, why is he acting crazy? We don't understand why he's crazy right now. Well, cause you put me in an echoey box

for months by myself. I was separated, like total sep is what they call it. Total sep, where you're separated out from other inmates and just had no face-to-face interaction with anybody for months at a time. They changed that later, but it's still a damage was done. I was really messed up from that because it's weird to not talk to people face-to-face or be able to communicate naturally. You have to yell through a vent all the time.

That's how you talk to them. All your interactions are screaming through a door with and with maniacs too. Like I was there with like the who's who of criminals. Like it was a very strange. Yeah. Like I got to cut a guy's dick off. That guy was next door. Yeah. That guy was next door. And some other dude shot his dad. Big high profile thing. shut his dad shut. A guy Cameron who like killed his family with a barbecue fork. Yeah, yeah, it was, it was, it was. Well, they call it solitary confinement. That's not solitary. That's total set. Like solitary is you did something wrong and they put you in a box with no windows. This is different. This is like high profile where they, you're a high profile inmate.

They put you in like a box and like, you can like look through and try to watch the TV. It's just a nightmare, you know? It's like just enough stimulation to like, make you not, you know, dead, but not enough stimulation to really be human. It's very you know I would call it and I get it I get it these are some bad guys in there that

have allegedly did some bad things and you know and my crimes were not quite as serious as stabbing somebody who did death of the barbecue fork. But to put me in there and then expect me not to be crazy is kind of weird. Like I think that looking back, there's a reason why I was crazy. They keep you in there because you're high profile. But eventually, they've got to figure out what to do with you. Well, yeah, eventually.

So why don't they figure that out? That's what I'm saying. The way the system works is exactly that. It's incentivized for them to take a long time for you to buy commissary and they just, you know, drag the court process out, out, out. Because guys in there were like, I can't wait to get to prison. I'm like, what? And like, before I went there, I didn't understand why you could say that like dude. I want to go to prison They're like dude prisons way better time goes way faster than this I'm like, oh my I can't believe what this guy's saying But I totally got it because you live a shitty life, but it's a life in prison Oh, you're not in prison at this time. I'm talking about jail is like SEP is in jail. Yeah. Yeah prison you're with normal people

Well prison they had normal ish they they bring in prison. They they they ask you at the beginning Uh, do you want to go? Um, um pc that's for like I don't know like, uh, if you have gang ties, but you like are testified against the gang If you have gang ties, but you are testified against the gang, you have enemies. So your PC, your protective custody, put you somewhere else. Or you go to a normal yard. And I was like, all right, no, I'm going to normal yard.

But in California, they do a strange new different thing where they put, they call yeah, they, no, they put, they call it a 50-50 yard. It's half us normal guys and then half protective custody and you don't know who's who once you get in there. So the weird climactic thing is we get off the bus and there's a divider between the PC and us and then they just take the divider away.

And at that moment, guys just beat the hell out of other guys, it was like a big like, whoa, like right next to me. Yeah, it was crazy. And then, yeah, guys were like, finding out, you get their paperwork on guys and see who's a child molester, he'll get smashed, who's a snitch, he gets smashed.

It was just a constant state of violence, senseless violence, nonstop. And yeah, I don't know. I have a lot to say about it, actually. I think they could fix it, but what incentive? I think it would be way better for society if you didn't have this weird jail system that just locks you up and just makes you sit there

and do nothing but watch Jenny, what was it? Kelly Clarkson, watch Kelly Clarkson every day and just your brain turn to mush Ellen dancing every day. Just wanna, yeah. She's such a dear. I know, she's the best. She's a dear. So, you know, it was like that.

And so, and then, then okay and then it's done and they let you out like they just let you out and you're to the street and with what no money. From jail? Yes and you haven't done anything. No from prison. No well see in the jail and the jail part yeah they'll just let me out like God. But you're saying jail we're doing a jail and prison. I'm doing jail and I'm I know I'm jumping back and forth. I thought you went from jail. We're doing a jail and prison. It'll be like jail and prison. I'm doing jail and I'm jumping back and forth. I thought you went from jail to prison. Yes.

Except sometimes you got out from jail. Sometimes you just get out from jail because it will be a petty tick-tack charge. But once you're in the system, you can't bail out. There's no, you know, you're guilty until proven innocent. Once you have like probation or parole or anything like this, they just, you get arrested and you're just in there. You can't get out. There's no bail. There's nothing like that. So now you're stuck in there for until the case is resolved and then you get out and then you, now you've got nothing. Like that's why there's all these homeless

people. They're not coming in from Nebraska. They're just, they're here and they get caught up in the system, chewed up, chewed up, kicked out, no money. And now you have the record and you have to do something criminal to make money. So it's, it's happening, you know, I don't know, it's hard to have empathy, I know for criminals, but for me, I get why they have become this. It's like once you're in there in that system But isn't it sort of like I get why this dog is biting people But once the dog is biting people you have to do something with that dog Yeah But if you see make it illegal to put the dog in a box and poke it right with the stick

Well, then we'll stop having so many dogs biting people Yeah What is the church incident that I've been asked to bring up? Naked in the church. Naked? Naked in the church. One of the most famous mayhem incidents, I believe. I get asked about that once a week.

Oh, really? Kind of, yeah. Look, when I was rich guy mayhem, on payroll, I had a woman who created research chemicals for me. One of these research chemicals sent me on a manic episode so crazy that I looked back later I had run 42 miles. In what period of time? It was like four days. Wow. Yeah. I ran that far. I ran to LA. I ran that far, ran to LA, I ran back. I was within one mile of my house in Orange County and like, I was so happy to be home, kick my shoes off, put a robe on. I like had a pool party in the back of the house, spray painted on my fence, was cracking up, having a high five, all this is the best time ever. And then I woke up in a church a mile from my house,

realizing that this is not a pool party. This is the church down the street. Am I really here? Wow. Yeah. I thought all that was happening in my head., I was totally like I'd been up for seven days like dancing and crazy I like had sex with chick like somewhere. I just was doing very high-risk behavior like Gnarly I had a good shit manic so manic and I finally crashed at the try heard the police radios And I put it together. The wait a minute, this is not my house. I'm not, where am I?

And I just, it was like the Incredible Hulk coming down, you know, in his shrink ripped pants. That's what I was, yeah. And I was like, what the hell's going on here? And then they just, they asked me, what's your name? And I just said, mayhem. And they took me to jail and like put me on a psych hold and I was fine.

I didn't wanna talk to them. I felt like, what? Anything you can say will be ruled again. And then right, that right there would have been a good time for some intervention. Were you by yourself in the church? Yeah. I thought other people were there.

I really did. Like that's how extreme these chemicals are. I did, I just really went outside of the realm of... That's where mania goes, though. You were on a manic episode, then finally it goes full psychosis. There we go, yeah. That's a good way to describe it.

Because at the beginning of it, I was fun and hilarious. I was just... Hypo mania. Yeah, I was so cracking everybody up, I was like yeah I was so like cracking everybody up and I literally did have a pool party and everybody was having fun and it was a great time and then I left my own pool party. Started running.

Started running forever and until I ran one pair of shoes out and bought some new shoes and ran more. I just couldn't help and this is after like UFC like denied my claim for a knee surgery. So I was running with no ACL on one side and was just like running into the dirt. I was like, fine, I only have this body for a little while longer. Like I'm just gonna use it to the max, you know?

Cause I was like top level, like strong. And I just decided, all right, I'm just going to go on this run forever. Have this maniac party in that man. I did. And I paid for it because after that, wow, like everybody turned a back on me, said I was crazy. I said, oh damn, man, I just lost all my friends. It was a really, that downturn right there.

The church incident was like, I don't know, this is a good time for somebody to get in my face and go, hey, what are you doing? But my manager, who had been with me for years, just evaporated, you know, just didn't, you know, just, I was like, damn, all this time we've been working together, you just ditch out of me right here? I mean, and I get it too too extreme way too extreme

but maybe they were trying to get you treatment and you were resisting it not here ever what do you mean not once not once I remember having those conversations you did see I forgot chances are somebody brought it up yeah maybe, maybe Dr. Drew did. Okay, douche, you got me there right there, Drew. Maybe, maybe. Well, we'll have to continue. But you're not ready until you're ready. I understand that.

You're right, you're right, you're right. We'll have to continue with Mayhem and subsequent episodes because there's so many stories to tell. They cannot be contained in a 30-minute podcast Mayhem you want to tell people to eat some of your manuka honey? Oh yeah, samumanuka.com backslash mayhem Yeah, it's good stuff. It is good stuff. I have it also You can go to amcrow.com for all the live shows drew

Subscribe on rumble ask dr. Drew till next time am, Adam Kroger, Dr. Sam. Mahala. or you're in the mood to solve a little crime before bedtime with NCIS or Tracker. Or curl up with a surefire hit like Forrest Gump. Run Forrest! Pluto TV has thousands of movies and shows all for free.