The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Tony Hawk - HoneyHawk

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

My HoneyDew this week is the G.O.A.T., pro skater Tony Hawk! Tony Highlights the Lowlights of success at an early age, the struggle to feed his family when sponsors dried up, and wondering if he would ever skate again after breaking his pelvis! SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE and watch full episodes of The Dew every toozdee! https://www.youtube.com/rsickler  SUBSCRIBE TO MY PATREON, The HoneyDew with Y’all, where I Highlight the Lowlights with Y’all! You now get audio and video of The HoneyDew a day early, ad-free at no additional cost! It’s only $5/month! Sign up for a year and get a month free! https://www.patreon.com/TheHoneyDew  SPONSORS: Upstart -Find out how Upstart can lower your monthly payments today when you go to https://www.Upstart.com/HONEYDEW. Use our URL to let them know we sent you! Athletic Greens -Get a FREE 1 year supply of Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs with your first purchase when you go to https://www.AthleticGreens.com/HONEYDEW  Raycon -Get 15% off your Raycon order at https://www.Raycon.com/HONEYDEW  Manscaped -Get 20% off and free shipping with the code HONEYDEW at https://www.Manscaped.com 

Vancouver. Unfortunately, I have to reschedule. There's a lot that goes on to getting in and out of our countries. And until that's a little easier, I'm going to have to postpone the Vancouver and the Edmonton shows. But Thursday, March 3rd, I will be at Zaney's for one night only. And Friday, March 4th and Saturday, March 5th, I'll be in Lexington. Get all your tickets at ryansickler.com. The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to The Honeydew, y'all. We're over here doing it in the Night Pants studios. I am Ryan Sickler, ryansickler.com. Ryan Sickler on all your social media. Look, I want to thank you for your support. The show continues to grow because of you, and I cannot thank you enough.

So if you're watching the show, please hit that subscribe button right there and subscribe. All right? It helps the show. It's a free way, and it really does mean a lot to us. The Patreon, again, another show that continues to grow. Every month, I think, man, I can't possibly hear some new shit, and you guys never let us down. The Patreon is called The Honeydew With Y'all. It's $5 a month.

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We've talked to the wildest people, wildest stories from people who have died, from people who have been abandoned and uh paralyzed in the wilderness people who just now meeting their biological parents i mean death uh what we had to i always say the girl with two pussies two pussies came back one pussy okay we're doing shit over here changing lives all right that's what's going on with the honeydew y'all now the night pants nation tour continues the roll uh get your tickets at ryan sickler.com march 3rd one night only i will be in zany's nashville march 4th and 5th i'm in lexington kentucky again all tickets are available at ryansickler.com. Now, you guys know what we do over here.

We highlight the lowlights. These are the stories behind the storytellers. Today's guest, I'm beyond excited and thrilled to have on here. First time on The Honeydew. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Tony Hawk. Welcome to The Honeydew, Tony Hawk. Thank you very much. Dude, 16-year-old me, 48-year-old me, all of me is freaking out right now.

I appreciate it. For real. Thank you. I'm going to say this to you. I said it to you before we began, but in the 10, 11 years I've been podcasting, you have been the most professional, easiest to deal with, kind. You've been like, hey, I can't do this, but I can do this. I'll let you know on this. We get people who come on and record and then want to cancel it, show up day of, cancel, never mind. Comedians are the biggest pain in the ass. And you are the one person, in my opinion,

who could act like a diva if you wanted to. You've earned the right, and you are the kindest, nicest person. So thank you, Tony Hawk, for being a breeze to deal with. I think it's, well, for one, it stems from being on the other side of it because now we are podcasting. I had a radio show on Sirius XM for 10 years. So, no, almost 15 years. But I know the other side of that. And so I know that it's so frustrating on the other side and it also just feels it feels insulting when people just go

ghost you. Ghost you, yes. Ghost you when you've and it wasn't easy I mean just in terms of the radio show a lot of times I was setting up interviews at the Sirius XM studios in LA I'd have to drive up here from San Diego and then someone's like I can't do it.

Yes. You're like, huh? I can't. Can't or won't. It's raining today. Like what? Yeah, I know. I fell down the fucking steps this morning.

I know that. Right. But, but at, you know, at the same time, this is what you get. I'm not, I'm not, you know, I'm not working through a bunch of agents and PR people. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. No agent, no PR person. You've been dealing with this, so thank you.

All right, so there's a million things I want to talk to you about. But before we do, please plug, promote everything you'd like. Oh, I'm never prepared for that. Well, you've got a great new podcast. Birdhouse Skateboards is my baby. We're 30 years old this year. So that's exciting. And we're still going strong.

We have a good team. Yeah, Hawk vs. Wolf is a podcast with Jason Ellis. We're having a blast doing that every week and getting really good guests. It's great. It really is great. I would say if I'm going to plug anything, it's weird to be plugging it,

but Sam Jones did a documentary about my career uh called until the wheels fall off and that is coming to hbo i think in april all right you haven't officially i've i've gotten i've gotten uh some dates but i don't know exactly which date is the real one yet but i I think it's in April. Dude, that's a great title. I'm fucking stoked for that. Thank you. Sam,

I think, I don't think I would have wanted to do it with anyone else, but Sam, because he really has a very soulful approach to it. Have you seen it? Did you see the final cut yet? I saw a very, very early rough cut. And the only reason I saw it was not to control the narrative of it,

but just to be more factual, you know to to be like a fact checker um and and to make sure that the footage is legit because there's a lot of footage out there from old skate parks and stuff and sometimes you don't know who shot it or who's in it so you got all that stuff over the years it or who's in it so you got all that stuff over the years um he found he did he found some nuggets yeah is he find any stuff where you're like holy shit where'd you get this absolutely yes hell yeah yeah what's that feel like it's weird because in the age of the new media it feels like everything has been uncovered or documented and so it's hard to believe that there's just stuff that's been sitting on a tape in a storage, you know,

that no one, that no one either, either they forgot about it or they didn't care. They don't care about it. And it's like, this stuff is golden. It's amazing. Well,

I know like, again, as a kid, like you, it's, I want to say this. People always say the Michael Jordan of. They even say, is Tony Hawk the Michael Jordan of skating?

But look, I'm sincere when I say this. I think we need to change that term to the Tony Hawk of. You're how old now? 53. You're 53. You're still out there skating against teenagers. You're still doing the damn thing. Michael Jordan, all respect to MJ, I haven't seen him do a fucking layup in the NBA.

You're still out there, and skating is a million more times dangerous than basketball. At any moment doing the shit you do, you could be paralyzed. Every single time that you're flipping. That's definitely a theme of this documentary that I was talking about. But hey, I'm just honored if anyone even speaks my name in the same sentence as Michael Jordan. Well, fuck that. Everybody from now on is the Tony Hawk of. You are the epitome of.

Also, Michael Jordan may have saved a league that already existed, but skateboarding was like – I was the kid that I was telling you I skated to your house. I wasn't rail sliding and fucking up and down on ramps. My buddy Matt Schilling's dad built a half pipe in his backyard and they all would drop it. And I just remember looking at it like, nah, I know. I'm not that graceful enough. And, you know, whenever your board would drop we would go to white marshmallow and it was the one place that had like a skate shop we would just stare at that because we couldn't afford that

board you know what i mean and we're looking at it and then our friends would start getting and everything we gotta cut grass we gotta sell our candy money i'm like oh my god so you you have so many accolades i looked some stuff, and there was some interesting stuff, and I want to ask you genuinely if it's true. I know I asked you this one already, but I read that you have a roller coaster named after you. I did, yes. You did. Where was this?

Six Flags. Out here? They had two of these roller coasters. One was in St. Louis, and I believe the other one is in San Antonio. Is there a San Antonio Six Flags? Probably. It's criminal that I don't know that, but. Is that, but are they still there? No. Well, here's, here's how it all played out. Six Flags wanted our tour. We did this Boom Boom Huck Jam tour, which was skateboarding, BMX and motocross as entertainment, as a show. And they wanted us to do this tour that we used to do in arenas

and bring it to their parks. I see. So we did this sort of scaled down version that we could do outdoors of the same show. And they said, well, in that same deal, we want to do a licensing thing with you to brand a ride because they just had this new ride that they were working on so it was all together and so it was called tony hawk's big spin and basically four people sat in a cart and and

the cart spun around as it went around the track it was super cool it was fun and i added my aesthetics to it graphics things they made the little cars look like skateboards oh that's cool it was cool yeah um i got to ride it my mom she passed away but but she was i think she was 80 when when we did that deal she came out to the grand opening and i rode it with her now she was 80 how awesome is that it was pretty cool that's badass um that's fucking badass and so then six flags went through a bunch of changes um i think they might have even were in in at risk of bankruptcy there was a lot of weird stuff going on so basically that ended our deal you know and um because that there was no more agreement between us they had to rebrand the roller coaster.

So I think those roller coasters are still there. I don't know what they're called now. It's just not the Tony Hawk experience or whatever. I'm sure if you scrape off some paint, you can see that the wheels are still there on the bottom. Still got those skateboard wheels. All right, here's another one I was interested about too. I read this, you struck out in

baseball and you had to be physically coaxed out of a ravine or something like that it's just like the cliche bad news bears scene yeah but what was that all about um were you just were you strong minded yeah that would be the that would be the um stubborn candy-coated term my mom would use probably. Stubborn, for sure. I think it was more that when I went to go play baseball, I didn't consider losing or the effects of losing because I just thought, oh, I'm going to go play baseball. I'm going to come up to bat and I'm going to hit a home run. Like there was no other option.

And then I struck out and I was like, what is this? No one prepared me for this scenario. I mean, I was eight or nine maybe. And then I just ran because I felt like I disappointed, well, my dad who was helping to coach the team, but I also felt like I just disappointed the whole team. And that shame was overwhelming. And I just went ahead and it was like,

you're not going to, you're not going to pull me back out. Cause I'm just going to screw it up for everyone again. It's really interesting. You say that you're right because you are only eight or nine and it's to be expected at some point, but no one can ever prepare you for what, what it's going to,

how your body's going to process failure. And yeah, yeah, that's interesting. So they had to get you. Did you finish the game or were you Yeah. Yeah, that's interesting. So they had to get you, did you finish the game, or were you like, nah, fuck that shit, dad? I think that, yeah, good question.

We're going to play with eight. I think that I was way more hesitant to swing after that, and it probably, I just got walked on the next at-bat. Were you good at sports? I was okay. I was just really small, so I was pretty good. And how tall are you right now? I'm six three, but, but when I was young, I was really small and super skinny. I mean, I was like the, you know, I was the typical like little kid, everyone's bullying

because I looked like I was two grades lower than I should be. I mean, I looked like, you know, I was two grades lower than I was in. And then I played baseball. I was shortstop. I did okay. Like I, you know, I would get on base and I'd make plays and stuff, but it wasn't outstanding. And then I played basketball

and I was pretty scrappy in basketball because I wasn't really afraid to get hurt. So I was a good player, but I wasn't tall enough to really make baskets that much. So I'd finally get, I'd get to the hoop and then I'd miss. I'm free and clear of everyone. I got the ball. I'm just like, ah. And so, but I did, I did pretty well. Like my second season of of playing basketball i made the whatever the our areas all stars um and then i was i was then baseball season come back in and i started skating around age 10 and as i started skating and really diving into what was possible and how to do things. And the professionals, it was like, this is it.

This is what I want to do. And I had to tell my dad that I don't want to play baseball anymore. The very season that they appointed him president of the Little League. No. Halfway through the season. Really? You're like, I'm out. I told him, yeah.

I'm pretty sure. And I You're like, I'm out. I told him, yeah. I'm pretty sure. And I know this might be, this might be my mind romanticizing it, but I'm pretty sure that I know that, that my mom came to pull me out of the skate park to go to baseball practice. So she came to pick me up. I was like, no,

I'm trying to, I'm trying to check. I'm trying to check. She's like, you've got to go baseball practice. And then I went reluctantly just super stewing the whole time. And then when I got to baseball practice, I decided right then and there that I was going to tell my dad,

I don't want to play anymore. I still have my knee pads on from the skate park. Yeah. Yeah. Walking up in defiance. And they're like, you're about to nominate him as president. You're like, they're about to nominate him as

president. You're like, oh, they did. He was, he was president, but still coaching our team.

But to his credit, he, he supported me and, and finished out the year as the little league president. Did he good for him?

He did one term, just one term. I'm at the skate park. Yeah. He has no kid play. He's probably the only president slash coach with no child. And he was older when I was born. So he was like grandpa at the field.

Oh, really? How old was he when he had you? He was 45. Okay. He's older than me. I was 41. I always think about that too. Like they're going to be like, hey, is that your grandpa at your graduation?

I'm like, no, you little fucking asshole. Yeah. I'm her dad. Yeah, and then people always thought my siblings were my parents. Oh, really? Yeah. All right. We're going to go through a couple more of these,

and then we're going to go talk about how it all got started. All right. By the way, IQ of 144. I don't know if that's still valid, but – Well, you had it at one point. I had a good run with it. Numbers are numbers, bro. St I don't know if that's still valid, but I had a good run with it. Numbers are numbers, bro. Those stats don't lie. Alright, 1999. First

skateboard. Your first person to land a 900, right? Yeah. And in 2011, you did it again at 43? 2018? At 43? Yeah. Okay, that's Google.

And then- This is math. But didn't you do it again at 48? Oh, at 43. Yes, you're right. Sorry, I thought you were jumping to that one. Yes. So you've done three of those? No, I've done a-

A bunch. A bunch, yeah. But the last one- I did it actually on that Huck Jam tour. I did it almost every other night. Are you serious? For like 30 shows, yeah. It's hard because the trick is really,

what's really dangerous, but it's also kind of, it has to happen organically. It's hard for me to plan it. And so in those tours, when things were, when I felt like I was on point, I felt like I was loose,

I would just try to do it and then I would see it through. You were never like, okay, I'm going to go do this now and skate with the intention. I would just try to do it, and then I would see it through. You were never like, okay, I'm going to go do this now and skate with the intention. If I set out to do it, it was much harder to get there, and sometimes not at all. And at 48 is the last time you did that? Yeah, it was because I was— I'm 48 right now.

Listen, man, I hold on the rail going down the stairs, okay? For real. 48. Michael Jordan's not out there playing basketball at 40 fucking eight. You're doing a 900 at 48. That's two and a half turns, right? Is my math correct? Yes.

On a skateboard that you land, that you land, and at 48 years old. Dude, you're fucking amazing. That's amazing. Thank you. And then, okay, also, you skated at the white house. Um, I did. I, uh, I got invited, uh, it was during the Obama administration. I got invited to be there for a father's day event where they were trying to, uh, advocate for fathers being present and being involved in their kids' lives. And they had a bunch of different athletes

and TV personalities, musicians and stuff that were fathers. And they were all sort of, they were visiting the White House. They had a big event and then they would fan out to different charity projects around DC to go visit and talk to people. But I went and I brought my skateboard because everywhere I go, if I don't have my skateboard, people say,

where's your skateboard? It's just, they just expect. And like, just do they expect Tom Brady? Just football. Yeah. It's,

it's, it's just this thing that they expect me or that like, did you skate here? And so I went country. And so I did, I just brought it. Cause I just thought I'm not going to be caught at the White House with my skateboard.

And then at some point. But did you have the thought before? I didn't think of that before. Never. And then at some point, I was looking around and no one's around. I mean, I know they're watching you, obviously. There's cameras everywhere right now.

But I had a dude that was sort of my escort tour guide through, you know, or just making sure everything is cool. And I was like, can you shoot a photo of me if I skate down? He's like, I can't, I can't do that. And this other athlete came up, I think it was a basketball player came up behind him. And I was like, dude, shoot this photo

and just skated down the hall and he shot it. And then I put it out there and caused a stir. You've done more for your sport than any other athlete has done for their sport. I don't know if that's doing something for the sport, but I was celebrating. I mean, for me, I was celebrating why I got there. Sure. And just the idea that I rode a skateboard and that brought me to an invitation to the White House.

Like, that's amazing. Isn't it? And people, you know, there was all this weird there haters were like you're disrespecting our house and it was like i've rolled just wait a few more years guys just wait a few more years if you think this is disrespecting the white i wasn't doing not a spins on george washington's bust or anything No one's storming anything. Settle down, guys. If you have multiple credit card balances each month and you're only paying the minimums, barely making a dent in your credit card debt, it can be discouraging. Upstart can help you pay off your existing debt quickly so you can feel like you're finally

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taking ownership of their daily health and focusing on the nutritional products they really need in the simplest manner possible. To make it easy. Athletic Greens is going to give you an immune supporting free one year supply of vitamin D and five free travel packs with your first purchase. If you visit athleticgreens.com slash honeydew today, again, simply visit athleticgreens.com slash honeydew to take control of your health and give AG1 a try now let's get back to the dude man skate i mean how old do you feel on a given day like where are you when you're on your board does it do you transport to a time do you feel ageless do you feel like like because i still feel like i don't know i feel like 25 26 but the rest of my body's like bullshit. I feel the same mentally for sure. I mean, I've learned a lot and learned how to process things better, but physically it just, things get tight.

That's what I noticed. But I've never taken a big break from skateboarding. So I feel like that's my secret is that I'm always sort of i'm always in the in the mode and i can just go like i went to my ramp yesterday drop in and i know i've got this warm-up routine that i can do and that sort of tests how i'm feeling that day and what maybe i need to work on but there are days when i get there and i my body's just really stiff and i push through it but i can feel it for sure.

And my neck is like, I've had so many whiplashes through the years, my neck's super stiff. And so that's the thing people notice usually physically, like what's wrong with your neck? Like what's not wrong with my neck? Yeah, what is not wrong with my neck? 40 years of, we call it chicken neck.

This is when you come down the ramp but you're kind of in the backseat and then you end up shooting out the flat and then you get this sort of click in your neck and you know it's going to be a bad day the next day what

alright let's go let's do this this is what I want to do I wanted to just do some of the stuff off the top let's go back to the beginning because obviously this road hasn't always been a smooth path. It's not for anyone, especially someone at your level. There's all the bumps and bruises in between. So I want to talk about you say at 10, you quit baseball basically to start skating. That's where it really. Yeah.

Right now, though, what do you do physically to maintain your health? That's it. There's no yoga. No. What do you do to stay stretched and loose? Skate. That's it. Yeah. That's it. I love that. Yeah. I mean, I know there is a part of me that thinks with the stiffness, I could benefit from doing this yoga and stuff like that. I've just never had the patience to get to get to do go do something else um i do have uh i get body work done on my neck mostly um by a guy who does chiropractic and also does sort of um asian medicine and stuff and and he's helped me immensely over the last five years you do the y strap or the yank your neck out like rock them sock them robots none of that stuff oh

it's so good no he does that he mostly just works on on right here and and acupuncture and um like yesterday i went to him in the morning went to my ramp learn new trick so yeah i mean i guess there's nothing that could really prepare you for the crash of a an epic skateboard fall like that like what could you really be doing that like oh this works um yeah i guess i don't i never anticipate falling um i know the i know the possibility is always there and i've learned to take falls obviously and and sometimes i've learned to to fall safer than than people would expect from great heights, if that makes sense. Yeah, that's the other thing I was telling Elle. It's like not only do you guys have to learn your trick,

but you have to learn how to crash. I was at X Games a few years back in Minneapolis, and I'm watching these guys literally fly, and they know they're not going to make it, so they'll bail the board. But then they gracefully hit their knees and slide. I'm like, you have to learn how to do that. That's the key, yeah. Yeah, you have to learn how to make a mistake.

When people want to learn how to skate vert ramps, that's usually the first thing I'm showing them is how to take a knee slide because that is what's going to get them out of a situation safely. And that's not the same, you know, skating has all kinds of disciplines and styles. And so street skating isn't of that nature

where you're not gonna be sliding on your knees, jumping down 10 stairs. But in the case of ramps and pools and stuff, that is the way. And so that's what we, you know, it's kind of strange. It's something that happened organically through the years. We were trying to figure out who was the first person to knee slide.

Oh, really? Yeah, that's a tough one because knee pads went from volleyball pads, and then they got a little bit more padded and a little bit more advanced. But it wasn't until someone put a plastic cap on it that we realized, oh, we can just slide on our knees. Yeah. Yeah. I've read before that playing in the NFL is equivalent to like a car wreck a week. I've read somewhere that rodeo cowboys, their, their average career between injuries is maybe eight weeks before they're, you know, popping arm or whatever. Like how, how often, what's the

longest time from an injury you've ever taken off from skating? Uh, about two months. I broke my pelvis and that was, I mean, if you want to talk about low lights, that was probably one of the lowest times of not my career, but, but my, my life and my motivation, because that seemed like it could have been a career ender how were you um good question uh i think i was 38 and where were you 36 um i was at bob burnquist's ramp shooting an episode of wild boys oh okay um and i'm on the show? So this is... Yeah. Did this make the episode? Well, we had all the skating done before I got hurt, for the most part, for what they needed.

So it's in the... The episode is done, like we're in it, and you wouldn't know any better if you watched it. But thankfully, Jeff Tremaine, who's the director of Jackass and, and Wild Boys and, and, uh, he, he locked the footage away and didn't ever even really acknowledge it. That was for my benefit. Um, and then it wasn't until years later when I had finally recovered and MTV was doing Scarred, the show Scarred was like, what's your worst injury? And they hit me up and I said, they said, what's your worst injury and they hit me up and i said they said what's your worst injury well it was shooting for you guys no shit and they didn't even know right and i said well you got to talk to tremaine and tremaine gave it to him so it's there but um basically we had just come off i mean it was like two days after our huck jam tour that we did 30

shows across the country um on our ramp we had we had one of those big air mega ramps, jumps in the show. We had a loop in the show every night, right? We were doing this. And Bob told me, hey, the wild boy is going to come to my house because they have a, I think it was an orangutan that skates. And so they're going to bring the orangutan and he's going to skate my ramp. And want they want me to dress up in a monkey suit and we'll skate

with the orangutan and i was like that sounds awesome because i've been on tour for five weeks i'll bring my kids they can see the monkey you know the primate and uh that's super cool right and so i brought my kids i brought my friend too because my kids were really young then um they were like six and four maybe and i knew i was going to be skating so we did the thing the ragtag it was amazing um i mean he really did like he really skated yeah he didn't like it if you got ahead of him though because he got ahead of him he would jump off and come out after you for real when did you realize i? I saw that happen to Bob. Because Bob was skating with it first and he got ahead.

And I was like, oh. I thought, fuck him with an aragatai. I'm standing back with that one. Hell yeah. That'll rip your arms off. So then we dress up in our monkey suits and we do a routine, like a doubles routine that we had done in all the nights of the Huck Jam. And then at some point, Bob has this loop at his house.

His loop is super rickety. It's old, it's outdoors, it's wood. It's not the quality of the one that we were doing on the tour, but in our excitement, we said, monkey loop, let's do the loop. Yeah, woo. And so we go over to his loop

and I should have known right at this moment, but Bob dropped in and went around and fell. He didn't fall hard, but he fell on his way out. That's Bob's own personal loop that he can't make in this moment. Yeah. Right. And we've been doing, like I said, we've been doing it on our show every night. And so I'm thinking, you know, just adjust for it. I went around and fell on the way out too, because it was so, it was so weathered that it was slow. And the first rule of doing loops is do not pump your legs all the way through. That's, that's it.

Like if anyone listening want to do a loop, here's the secret. You hold it for a half a pump because it's not a trick. It's actually a ride. A momentum thing. Is that? It's like, you know, when you ride a roller coaster and you go all the way around, you never know the moment you're exactly upside down. You know what I mean?

Because there's so much inertia that's holding you to the track. It's like that, but you have to have the perfect amount of speed and the perfect amount of pressure on your legs, pushing the board into the wall. If you let your legs extend, you got nowhere to go and you come off. So you're always going down, you're pressing in. You're always pressing in like sort of halfway,

but you need the right amount of speed to do that. Bob's starting ramp was not steep enough to get that amount of speed with how weathered the ramp was. That's the key. So in my infinite wisdom, my next turn, I dropped in and I pumped going into the loop full extension of my legs. And that's it.

That's the kiss of death. So I'm spinning in the air as I'm going upward. So I actually spun up to the top and then kept spinning and landed on the ground. You broke your pelvis in a gorilla suit? Yeah. Broke my pelvis, right in this thumb. The orangutan escaped by you and gave you the finger.

Like, that's what you get. I don't remember much after that i was i was out cold you really knocked you out yeah i was out cold fractured my skull right here oh holy shit yeah um and fractured my skull fractured my thumb broke my pelvis i woke up like i've had concussions in the past. So I know, you know, I sort of know the feeling and the protocol of it. I came to, even though I was probably talking and whatnot, but I came to like fully mentally

when they were putting me in the ambulance because it hurts so much as they move me in my hip that that's kind of what shocked me awake. And I said, oh, something is wrong with my hip. And they said, oh, we'll x-ray it. You know, they were just kind of playing it down. And I remember saying, where are my kids? And they said, oh, your friend already took them home.

And luckily they were on the other side of the ramp. They didn't see me fall. Good, yeah. They just knew something had happened. So he took them home. And basically I spent about six weeks just sitting in bed. Because it wasn't like they needed to fuse it together or anything. It was still in line.

So they just let it heal. I let it heal and then played a lot of video games during that time. Are you good at your video game? Yeah. Are you good at your game? Are you? Yeah. But we were between games at the time so i played um gun okay did you ever play that game i haven't no loosely based on deadwood i love deadwood yeah really cool game and i you're a deadwood fan yeah oh that's shakespeare on television man i was so bummed when they took

deadwood i know i love deadwood uh my brother actually got to uh work on that a little bit oh really yeah with david milch um because he's a writer so uh but but in that time and i know i i gave you the long version of how i got hurt in that time was when i really had to dig deep because I felt like I lost my identity. Everything I, all my success, my, everything I did was based on my physical act of skating up to that point in

my life. And that was just taken away of my own doing, but gone. And I didn't know if I could make it back a hundred percent. I had no idea. I had no idea if I would even be able to drop in a ramp again. Is that where your mind's going? You're worried if you're ever going to be able to skate again,

drop in again, like what happens to your career? It was more evident when I finally was starting to move around and get up because that's when shit got real because I couldn't put any weight on my leg and I was trying to pretend that I'm just gonna push through this. And there's a point where you're a skater, you kind of learn to live with injuries

or some sort of issue where you compensate for it, but you figure it out. This was not of that nature. This was like, I physically can't walk. Or if I'm walking after 10 minutes, I'm severely limping. And so that's when it was like,

how am I ever gonna skate again? And we had an exhibition scheduled for two months out in Orlando. And I just made that my goal. Damn. I'm gonna skate. And I just made that my goal. Damn. I'm going to, I'm going to skate two months. It was,

it was three months after my injury, but, but once I started walking, it was like, what was the full extent of your injuries? Broken pelvis? Anything else? Did you have any?

No, that was it. Obviously. Concussion. Yeah. You said it cracked, it cracked you here too? Yeah.

Fractured skull. Fractured skull. Jesus. And you're going to try to do this in two months. Yeah, I mean, three months from the injury. And so, but that was the goal and that's what I needed. And I needed something to motivate me because otherwise it was going to be a really slow process

and I didn't know what my inspiration was going to be. But at the same time, I didn't know how I was going to be. But at the same time, I didn't know how I was going to be performing at this exhibition because that was a scary thought. So little by little, I started skating again. I got kind of my basic trick set back.

I didn't have my pump, which is basically how you get the speed through the transition, through the radius of the ramp. I couldn't connect with that the way I used to. So I just sort of resigned to, I'm only going to be able to go this high. Gotcha. Maybe forever. I don't know.

Because I just can't push through and get the speed. And ended up doing the demo. I mean, I think I did okay. I really couldn't tell you. It was all sort of, it feels like a dream now. But after that, that's when I really started working at getting my skillset back. And it took me about a year.

A year. Because it wasn't just the tricks, it was the confidence. That's what I wanted to ask you like the anxiety of like can i do this you question everything right it was like every everything that i used to ever before no not to that level i'm sure not at all not at all even when you first started i mean well hell you're 10 then you don't give a fuck you're bulletproof at 10 we were when we were doing the show just weeks prior when we were doing the huck jam shows the loop was like a 10 we were when we were doing the show just weeks prior when we were doing the

shows the loop was like a toy we were just met you know i would be doing like kickflips and shove it's on the deck and then drop into a loop and go into a routine and it was it was like none of that we just i never considered that it was going to be devastating or could be devastating um and then when it was it was like what be devastating or could be devastating. And then when it was, it was like, what have you been doing all this time? Yeah, tell me about that. How's that change you? Yeah, it was like, are you out of your mind?

Like this stuff is all dangerous. I mean, that's where my mind started to go. And then as I started to develop my skills again, that started to fade. But there were a couple of times that because I was the, the side of my pelvis that I broke was, is my right leg and that's my front leg. So when I would be skating, I'd be favoring my back leg unknowingly. And quite a few times I ended up just falling backwards. One time I got another concussion because of that. Another time my tail of my skateboard broke off

as I was going through the flat. Because you're leaning that far. Because I was leaning that far and I didn't realize it. And so I had to try to figure out how to compensate for that as well. And everything was just, you know, my world was rocked and my confidence was changed, but I finally got through it like a year later and started figuring out new tricks and sort of all that time was – it was formative, but it started to fade. Yeah.

What about the anxiety for the Wild Boys crew and stuff? Are they like, oh my god we might have just ruined tony yeah the next time i saw them the next time i saw them they still so go after that i mean definitely steve-o and pawneus and and tremaine were were really freaked out um and after that every time i would do something with Jackass, they were throwing me the tamest things that they had. Like they would send me a list of things. I was like, you guys, do you want me to even stand on a skateboard?

Put one foot next to it, just wait. Yeah. It was all, like, I could just tell that the stuff they were giving me was sort of the safer versions. But at the same time, I love those guys and it's always just so fun to be around them. I'm in the

intro to the new Jackass Forever. And I got hurt doing it. You did? Well, I mean, I didn't get hurt hurt, but I left with a bloody hip. I was going to say, you're not leaving a jackass set without something. Right. Alright, we did jump around a little bit. I was going to say, you're not leaving a jackass set without something. Right. All right,

we did jump around a little bit. Let's go back to the beginning. So at 10, you start skating. Your dad says he supports it, does his one year in the president

of the Little League. And now what? You're just off and running from 10? Is that it? Do you play other sports or are you just all in on skating? No, all in on skateboarding.

I would go whenever i could get a ride to the skate park uh san diego that the the park was about 15 minutes from our house and little did i know that as i dove into skateboarding skateboarding was dying as an industry quickly and all the parks were closing so i just got lucky that one of the last ones was in San Diego. And that was my home away from home. Like that's where I found, that's where I found my, my crew. That's where if you, if it wasn't at school, that's where you found me. And it was just this band of misfits and everyone found skateboarding. And so we all found each other and and it was so fun and

i could never figure out why kids my age didn't like it i think it was just more that that there was a stigma that it was it was a fad it was a toy and grow up right and i'm 12. Like, I'm still a kid, but there are guys at the skate park that are 18. And I'm looking up to them because some of them are pro. Not that it meant that they were making a living at it, but they had that stature and they had the skills. So I wanted to emulate them, but it was, it just, there was no future in it.

And I wasn't, didn't think I was choosing a future. This is fucking just insane to me. There's no future in it and i wasn't didn't think i was choosing a future this is fucking just insane to me there's no future in this sport and then i'm sitting here and talking to the future you're the future i thank god you fucking quit little league bro thank fucking god you quit little league the hardest thing for me the hardest thing for me during that time was that because I was so small and skinny and I kindtown z boys it was all about style right and flow and aerials and i was like this little pixie kid just like reaching down and trying to maneuver my giant board under my feet and so i was very much extra like outcast from this outcast society like we're all we're all these weirdos that skate and then i'm the weirdo in the weird crowd because like that kid like you're the comedians dude i'm telling you the honeydew bro the the theater kids

the theater kids don't want to hang out with us that's why i try to tell comedians all the time like once you're like oh we're the weirdos you once you realize like it it's us then you're fucking good right when you get around these people, you're like, oh, okay, this feels right. Yeah. These lunatics feel right. Yeah. Yeah. But that was very isolating.

That was hard, especially at a young age. But luckily I found a couple of friends that kind of had the same vibe and were the same age and felt like they were intimidated by the other guys as well. So we found each other and and we just went with it i couldn't it was none of that was going to make me give it up it brought me too much for my sense of self my sense of self and my confidence and my identity it was like that was it i i wanted to skateboard forever a lot of people didn't even make resolutions this year, and you know what? I get it. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't still find a way to shake

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Get 20% off and free shipping with the code HONEYDOO at manscaped.com. That's 20% off and free shipping with the code HONEYDOO at manscaped.com. The power of attraction is now in a bottle thanks to Manscaped. Now, let's get back to the do. All right, so how quickly do you start um seeing a change in your life like what age are you approached by sponsors and and all that like when's it really start to shift around age 12 right when i turned 12 uh there was an event in in my home park at oasis skate park and And the Dogtown team manager at the time was,

uh, brought, um, a couple of the Dogtown pros and she, my dad offered all of them to stay at our house. Cause we live nearby and they, there was no, but like, you know, as a kid, I don't know anything about the, anything, understand this. There's no budget. They, you know, they're, they're barely scraping by as a skateboard company. And so he invites them to stay at our house, like with their dog. And, and I was like, this is awesome. Like pro skaters stay at my house. And then she, uh, her name is Denise. She, um, gave me one of Mike Smith. Mike Smith was the pro for Dogtown, one of his old skateboards. And she's like, well, thanks a lot for letting us stay. You know, I think you have a lot of potential.

Here's Mike's old skateboard. And that was my first sponsored deck. Wow. So I was loosely on Dogtown for that. No shit. All right. Yeah. And then eventually I started to come into my own.

That's what they say, hip-pocketed by Dogtown. Pretty much, yeah. Yeah. Flow. I was on Dogtown Flow. Flow, all right. I mean, that was it. There was four people on the team, but.

Whatever. But then I started to come into my own and learn some tricks. And then they started to give me more support in the form of skateboards on a regular basis. in the form of skateboards on a regular basis. And then I started to sort of rise in the ranks. And then at some point I wasn't hearing from Dogtown. We were unable to get skateboards. We would go straight to the board pressing company because it was in San Diego, luckily.

And so we would go get skateboards off the press that had no graphics. And I would just cover it with Dogtown stickers. That was like And so we would go get skateboards off the press that had no graphics. And I would just cover it with Dogtown stickers. That was like, those are my sponsor, skateboards. And then at some point we couldn't get those. And it was like, I didn't understand what was happening. Not long after that, Stacy Peralta called me, long distance, long distance.

Yeah, I remember long distance. Stacy Peralta's calling long distance. And right. Yeah, that was a big deal. long distance. Stacy Brown is calling long distance. Right? Yeah, that was a big deal. And then he called and he said, hey, Tony, I heard that, I heard Dogtown went out of business. It's news to me,

but now I understand why I'm not getting any skateboards. And he said, we'd like you to come up to Marina, Marina Del Rey. I live in San Diego. Marina Del Rey was the hub of Dogtown Z-Boys, punk rock music.

Like that was the, that was it. That was the epicenter of skateboarding. And you had to be hardcore to be accepted there. He's like, I want you to come up to Marina and talk about riding for Palo Peralta, the Bones Brigade. Damn. And I was And I was scared because I didn't think I was at that level.

And I didn't think they would accept me. I mean, I was excited to have Stacy's approval, but that was huge. You know, that's like, hey, I know you've been playing with your friends on the playground, but we want you to play for the Bulls. Yeah, right.

You know, just skip all these steps. Because I believe in you. Yeah, holy shit. And so I went up there and it felt kind of like a tryout. And I learned, the Marina had a famous keyhole and I jumped the gap of the keyhole,

which was only reserved for a few select pros, like the only people that could do that. And I think that when Stacy saw me really going for it like that, he's like, okay, well, we got you. And so then I was on Paul Peralta and just doing everything I can to earn the validation of the other guys on the team. And how old are you when you get your first board? When do you start talking to your board?

So, so then I'm, I'm 12. I'm running for Palo Peralta. I rise very quickly through the amateur ranks. And how are you doing that? By winning contests? Winning contests.

Yeah. And learning how to skate other terrain. I was really good in my home park but then i had to i had to figure out how to skate other terrain because every park was so different and they're all i mean if you look at back of them now they're all built really badly yeah compared to how parks are now right they were built by pool manufacturers and you were just lucky if the transitions were really smooth uh marina was great um del mar was terrible but but i think that that became my home park have you ever skated the cove sure you have yeah no shit yeah that's why i take my stepson back in the day i'm just curious

the cove is like decades past yeah stuff we were dealing with. And even that, even the cove is old now. It is definitely old now. They have done nothing to it over there. Yeah. But so I learned to skate other terrain. I ended up winning the amateur series by the time I was 14. And the only, the sort of unspoken progression from that is you're going to turn pro. And a couple of the guys that I was skating with at the time had already moved up to the pro ranks

and they weren't even really winning the amateur events like I was. So if I was going to stay as an amateur, it was just more like, dude, come on. Like you got to step up. And so one event, I was filling out the entry. I mean, this is how I turned pro. I was filling out the entry I mean this is how I turn pro I'm filling out the entry form to the Whittier Turkey Shoot

that's what it's called so it's like Thanksgiving 1982 I'm 14 and you fill out your name, your address, your sponsors and then there's a box that says amateur and a box that says pro and I'm looking at it and Stacy's looking over my shoulders i'm filling it out and i was like

what do i do he goes you know it's whatever you feel man and then i just ticked pro he's like all right there it is that was it i was pro at the turkey bowl at the at the turkey shoot turkey shoot turkey and i'm getting fourth place. First pro contest. Which felt amazing. I was out of the money though. 150 bucks first place, 100 second, 50 third.

Almost. All you get is fourth. I got fourth. Yeah. But that was, I mean, that was a good introduction and also it wasn't at my home park.

So I felt pretty good about it. So, look, I know that the skater, the punk rock world. All of this, you're a kid. You have no idea about business. And all of this is sort of new, too. Like skating, you said it was pretty much dead, and now it's coming back in this way where you're involved in it. Are you just doing what the fuck feels good and right? Or are you early on starting to have a business mind

about the sport as well? No, I had no business. Nothing, just being... I just wanted to learn tricks. That's all I cared about. And even if I was winning an event, or even if I went to an event, I did well. The next day I was at the park trying to learn a new trick.

Right. In fact, if anything, the competitions were stifling went to an event i did well the next day i was at the park trying to learn a new trick right that was in fact in fact if anything this the competitions were stifling because i had to be conservative in my skating because you had to stay on and then once i was released from that i could go try whatever i wanted and bail all day and figure out some new moves got it all right so what age then do you really start to see things shift big time? I would say when I was about 16, 17, we started making significant money for anyone or anyone our age. So as a dad, you look at your kids when they are 16 or 17, can you imagine them being in,

right? Even having to deal with any of this stuff you had to deal with. Isn't that crazy? It's crazy. you're a child but also but there was no no one had been through that we didn't have anyone to emulate or to to learn from stacy was was helping us with that but all of a sudden we were just none of us like like the bones brigade especially cab mcgill lance mountain tommy guerrero uh rodney mullen none of us got into skateboarding to be rich or famous right and suddenly we are in a sense rich and famous and it's like we didn't ask for this we just want to skate and it was weird to have people ask if your autograph or you know showing up to your hotel. And it was just like, what, what is this? And so when people get into other sports or entertainment industries,

that's sometimes the goal, many times that's the goal, right? And so when they get it, they're, they're all about it. We weren't all about it. We were just awkward. So that was a weird thing to figure out. Stacey definitely helped me with it because there would be kids standing there at an event, staring at me, holding a skateboard with my name on it. And I don't know what to do.

What do you want from me? I'm awkward in my own skin. I'm only 17. I'm trying to figure out like how to talk to girls. I got, I don't know. And so finally he's like, hey man, just go talk to them. Like they're excited to see you. He came to see you.

You just go, you know. They know who you are. Yeah, like break out of your own comfort zone and go. And that helped me a lot. And I think I learned it even more so having my own kids and seeing them interact with people that they look up to and knowing how it can affect them either positively or negatively. And,

and, and also having my own interactions with pros growing up that, you know, I had one pro spit on me. No. Yeah. And then I had, and then I had another one,

like hand me a sticker. Can I fucking spit on you? Yeah. Yeah. That's, those are in the days of punk rock. And like I said, I was a scrappy little kid and it was like, I mean mean you want to say who it was it's it's it's well known it's well known and

i don't like you know he's falling on hard times and i don't want to i'm not trying to like i don't i don't harbor that it's just it's something that i lived through but also it's the 70s like we were bullied you know know what I mean? We didn't know that at the time or have resources for it. We just got picked on. Well, so I want to ask you that because skating is definitely punk rock. And how do you, as Tony Hawk, juggle, you know, once you become Tony Hawk, now you're probably a sellout. Now you're not cool. Tony Hawk, now you're probably a sellout.

Now you're not cool. And now you got to keep proving yourself to the young punk rock generation the entire time, which you fucking definitely have. But how does it shift from being one of us to now you're not one of them in their eyes? Like, what is that like? It's, well, I think that because I grew up with all of that flack and all the haters, so to speak, once I got to a point where, yes, I kind of went through a few phases of success. So in the 80s, there was this high success until around 1989, and then it was all faded away. We weren't getting offers from non-endemic sponsors. So I wasn't getting offers from McDonald's or Jeep or whatever it was

because that skateboarding hadn't broken that glass ceiling yet. But once it came back around in the late nineties, that's when things got really big and serious and there were big sponsor dollars happening. So I already had lived a life where people were like, people were giving me a hard time for my style. Cause they're like, he's just a robot.

He does circus tricks. He spins his board, whatever. And that's fine if that's how you see me. But, but that was my motivation. But at some point I learned sort of all the other elements of, of what to do on a skateboard where they couldn't really say those things anymore. You know, it was, that was sort of my reply to them. It was like, well, okay, I can do this too, but I choose to focus on tricks. And then when, when things came back around in the nineties and

there were big sponsorships, people were like, oh, you sell out. And I was like, dude, I'm doing this for all the same reasons. I did it for no money five years ago. Right. Forever. Forever. Yeah.

I mean, I did it, you know, I was trying to raise a family. Thank you. Pay paycheck to paycheck, doing demos in parking lots three a day for a hundred bucks. Risking my neck. Yeah. Literally.

And whatever. And I don't, I'm not trying to, I'm not, I'm not trying to just highlight that, but that's the reality of it. And so when we came back around and was like, hey,

McDonald's wants to pay you. Hell yeah. I was eating McDonald's back then. Eating it now. Yeah. Hell yeah. You know, like I lived on Subway like I lived on Subway

I lived on Subway for two summers yeah for real I know and now I'm getting deals with Subway it's amazing and so it's not I haven't I haven't traded my values in for the success

it's just who I am and so at some point that's how I got through's it's just who i am and and so at some point that was that's how i got through it it's just like well i know what the reasons are i know what my beliefs are and this is who i am and and if you don't like it if you think that's a sellout then that's on you and maybe if you had the success and you got offered a deal from subway you could turn it down yeah i'm trying to feed my family yeah trying to pay literally and ride my skateboard because this is what the like all of this is incidental that's riding my skateboard that's it it's hard for other people to understand that when you're in it like all this is cool yeah but it starts and ends right

in those slow days i was i was doing all jobs Yeah, talk to me about, you said the sponsorships went away. You said 89, it got a little slow. I'd say 91 was sort of when everything dropped out. So what does Tony Hawk, if you're not skating, what do you do to bring in money? I had a, well, I borrowed money from my parents. You really did? Yeah. I borrowed, I think i borrowed four thousand dollars

from them to buy an editing bay and the editing bay i bought i bought on at a consignment shop that was already outdated by the time i bought it but it's all i could afford right so i bought and and video nerds will like this i bought three three-quarter tape decks so that i could have an A&B. I used to be a PA. So I got an A&B source going into a final output. And then I had a video toaster

and the video toaster was one of the first consumer video editing gears. Not editing, just effects. And so I started doing that and I started making, I became an editor for hire for other skate companies,

so I actually did, I put together a few skate videos during that time, but as it came to be, the decks I bought were terrible, and they kept eating tapes, and there was a moment where, all I'm trying to do is get this thousand dollars I got offered to edit this video.

That's what, that will pay the mortgage and they'll get me by another month. And I'm in my, I converted one part of the garage to a little editing base. So I'd walk through like all of our shit and then just like sit there through the night doing stuff. And I just had a few things to cut and the tape just locked up through like all of our shit and then just like sit there through the night doing stuff.

And I just had a few things to cut and the tape just locked up and broke the tape. And then the machine froze and I'm lost. It's done. Like this- There's no digital backup. There's no digital backup. This is physical tape.

And I had taped the tape back together a few times like i wasn't above that that has worked for me in the past this machine is frozen up it's not working anymore and i just saw everything ending right then and i just laid i just put my head down on the desk started bawling did you really yeah because i was like was like, I don't know what to do. This was my only link to making a living right now. And it's done. I ended up, I'm living in Fall, I don't even know where Fallbrook is. But Fallbrook was, I moved there

so that I could have room to build ramps. My ramps are all falling apart because I can't afford to keep them up. We can barely afford to live there now I've got two mortgages I'm renting the other place I call the consignment shop when they opened at 9am

they're in Burbank and I said oh this tape thing froze up and he's like well come up here we'll reset it I go can you just tell me how to reset it he's like no you gotta come up here they think I'm in LA so I drive like three hours to this consignment shop in Burbank

who they don't give a fuck about me. Like they're, they're just annoyed that I'm even calling them about, I mean, they don't, they're not giving any warranties out. Right, yeah, they're a consignment shop. You know what I mean? They're just like, oh, there's some dude that bought. So I come in, the guy pulls two screws off the back,

opens it up, hits a reset button. Six hour round trip for that. But I was back in business. Holy shit. That was the easiest thing. I'll never forget looking at him. I was like,

you could have told me how to do that. He goes, yeah, but we don't want people taking these apart. I'm like, you don't, these aren't even under your warranty. You don't sell just these. There's a couch over there, motherfucker. This thing was used when I bought it.

But then I learned how to reset the tape or reset the player. Drobac did the thing, but then realized quickly that. How long are you editing how long is this little um it was off and on for about a year damn that's a that's a long time to be out of what you'd love and your passion i was still skating i mean i was i was not making money i was hustling sometimes i would be hired as a consultant sometimes for shoots because because at this point i'm 24 that's supposedly too old to be skating for a living. Is that right? That's where that's the number.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, at that time. And so, but my name was out there. So for instance, I want to say it was a Mountain Dew commercial and they said, Hey, we want to hire you to Mountain Dew commercial. They said, hey, we want to hire you to get other skaters and to maybe build a ramp for this shoot. Like, yes, please. Okay, we'll pay you 500 bucks. Okay. And give you $100 to build a little jump ramp

for this thing. I'm like, awesome. So I built a jump ramp, borrowed someone's truck, drove it to Hollywood. It actually flew out of the, this is not a joke. We built the jump ramp, barely put in this guy's truck that luckily I got to borrow. And the wind caught it.

It blew up, crashed, broke one piece of it completely off. And I was like, dude. So managed to put it back in, get it to the set and put like a sheet of metal over where it was missing and it worked. And that was my 500 bucks. It was just stuff like that. Like it was, you know, it was very much paycheck to paycheck,

but I wanted to be in skateboarding. So I was doing everything I could to just be, make myself out there to get work. I read a lot, and people say this too, a big part of success is staying in the game. And you, even though you weren't in it, you still managed to stay in and stay present and stay in that game even though you're over here trying to edit and do everything you can to pay bills and shit so i i think that is i really believe that's a huge part of it because at any moment you could have stepped out and that's it oh sure that's it yeah and and it's funny because looking back at those times yeah they were trying

but i don't think of them as like the most depressing it was just more that that these were the things i was going to go through and these were my learning phases and uh i learned a lot doing that and when do you see it shift and start to rise again uh after the probably after like the second X games, around 96. Yeah. Because skateboarding was kind of back on the radar or back in the collective consciousness of, of mainstream media. And it had gone through a whole revolution in those dark years of street skating and tricks. And, you know,

people didn't realize what was possible on a skateboard. And they saw the X games like, what is going on here? Yeah, seriously. People are, this is acrobatic and this is crazy. And this is like magicians. And then kids took to it because they're like, these guys are risking their lives and they love it.

And they're doing it for no money. And these basketball players won't even give us the time of day. And it was just, I feel like, and they identify with that so greatly that kids just boom yeah that was it how old were you when you had your first board first pro model yeah 14 what's that like to ride your first pro model uh 14 ninth grade yeah it's weird it's weird. What's it like? It's putting extra pressure on yourself that you better deserve it.

I remember all, yeah. I mean, your boards. And how many different boards have you had over the years? How many different versions? Tons. Tons, yeah. Would you have a favorite to ride still? My current shape, I've been riding for probably like 10 years yeah the same one yeah yeah so as a dad now like do all of your

kids skate they do yeah they do yeah my daughter is she's shied away from it in recent years but um all the all the boys, yeah. All right. So here's what – I mean, you've done so many things, TV, movies, all of it. Like, I know you have to get out of here, and I want to respect your time and everything, so I'm going to ask you this last question here. After everything we've talked about today, the things you've been through, the fears, the insecurities, the anxiety, 14 is your own – I mean, it's insane to have your own board so what advice would you tell 16 year old tony hall uh what advice um work on your relationships

i mean that was definitely the biggest challenge in my life and something that I had to come to terms with in a very serious way about 10 years ago and try to figure out why I couldn't make relationships work, more intimacy issues. I did a lot of work on it and leaned into getting help. I think I would tell myself, my 16-year-old self, go get help. That's great. That's great advice. Dude, thank you. This is a dream come true thank you for doing this um again if you'd like to promote anything definitely hawk versus wolf your documentary coming up um yeah that's it's kind of where we're at i'm gonna i don't know if people are listening in europe but i'll be uh i'm doing a European speaking tour in July and early August. What does that entail?

I'm going to venues and just sort of telling my story. I've done a lot of speaking gigs through the years, usually for conferences or corporate events, but this is just mine only. So I'll be telling stories and just sort of my career arc and funny anecdotes. And I promise I'm funny. This has been great, man. Thank you.

Thank you so much, for real. As always, Ryan Sickler on all social media, ryansickler.com. We'll talk to you all next week. Thank you.