This Past Weekend - #576 - Kevin Von Erich

Starting point is 00:00:00 Today's guest is a WWE Hall of Famer. He's a member of one of the greatest wrestling families of all time, the Von Erics. You may have seen their family story told recently in The Iron Claw. He's an inspiration. He's a motivation. He's pretty funny. And I just feel honored to be able to spend time with him today. Today's guest is Kevin Von Erick.

Starting point is 00:00:26 I'm feeling good. I feel like I could throw this off. Okay. down. If that's a good thing. Yeah, because you were always the barefoot guy. You were a barefoot guy, huh?

Starting point is 00:00:55 Yeah. I sure was. I always, I've got these really big toes, you know, and once you stub your toe on the mat a few times, it gets bigger. And so at first I just took my boots off

Starting point is 00:01:07 because it felt comfortable in the ring, you know. Just to move around better, I felt like I could fly. But with the boots, you know, they fill with sweat, you know, your socks absorb the sweat and all. They get heavy. I had some knee surgeries, too, you know, but I'll tell you, I'll go barefoot all I can.

Starting point is 00:01:25 Yeah? Yeah, that's good for you. It really is, you know. Yeah, well, I'm sure. I know you moved out to Kauai, was it, or Hawaii? Yeah, Kauai. It's the, it's the. That's the barefoot capital of America.

Starting point is 00:01:36 I'll bet it is. I'll bet it is. We all go barefoot out there. I say I'm always kind of crazy about that. But I just hate for my toes to touch each other, you know. I was always like that. I hated shoes when I was a little kid. I guess I got old enough to say no, and I just didn't wear them anymore.

Starting point is 00:01:54 Did you ever wear those toe separator things? You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Those are great. You know, I wear them in the river at home, you know, to walk in the river. But you can walk by a vine and they'll catch your toe, you know, it can trip you, you know. It's a little hazard for those things. Did you feel like a caveman kind of?

Starting point is 00:02:13 Yeah, yeah, the good kind of caveman. You know, I feel like, I mean, you're going to drag around pound by the hair, but... Yeah, no domestic disputes or anything. You know, because, like, you feel the ground, you feel the earth. It's just something about it. I didn't know there was anything to it, but Ross tells me, my son, Ross tells me that it's, there's an energy in the earth that your feet can pick that up, you know? And I think I'm, I think I've been digging that for a long time without even knowing that was a thing, you know.

Starting point is 00:02:41 but now I caveman it all the time out, Hawaii, that's the way to live. Yeah, I bet it's, well, it's called, yeah, right here it says it's grounding. Grounding, also known as earthing, is a wellness practice that involves direct contact with the earth's surface, like walking barefoot on grass or sand to potentially connect with the earth's natural electric charge. I think it makes sense because even if you look at a tree or a plant,

Starting point is 00:03:01 you don't see them wearing a shoes or nothing. Like, that would be crazy. If you saw a plant, like wearing shoes, you'd be like, oh, that guy's, that plant's out of his mind. Like plants, you know, I'm saying they're connected to the earth. So I think that makes good sense. Oh, I see you here. Probably kept you pretty locked in.

Starting point is 00:03:16 Your family lives, you live on your family's ranch, right? Or you live on a ranch here? We bought a ranch. We sold it. We had, I lived on my family ranch in Texas. We sold it about 20 years ago and moved out to Kauai and built a big place, you know. But we, but I wanted to give my wife that kind of house, you know. So everything was in the house was something that I really liked about room service or some hotel.

Starting point is 00:03:40 overseas, you know, I had a bathtub. You could do a cannonball in it, you know, splash it all over the wall, and it had a drain. It was just, every room had something like that. But it was, it's real expensive in Kauai. And I have a lot of kids, you know. And so they all go off to their house and no one wanted to just live in the big house. And so we happened to trade that to a guy that just happened to have 27 acres,

Starting point is 00:04:06 a waterfall on the land, a big, nice spring, and five houses. you know, for my sons. And so we traded that house for that 27 acres, and that's where we are. No way, just a even trade. Even trade, yeah. Dang, you don't see a lot of that anymore. No, no. I was glad the guy, I couldn't believe he did it, really.

Starting point is 00:04:26 Did you have one of those open back verandas or something it's called maybe in Hawaii? What's that back patio? You know what I'm talking about those porches and it's just so perfect? Yeah, they call it Lanai. Oh, God. Yeah, man. At my daughter's house there. When we stay with her,

Starting point is 00:04:40 She's got a bed set up for me out there. And so I sleep in the wind. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, dude. You're like that Legend of Zelda character. What's that little guy's name? Yeah, you're like Link from Zelda. That guy's always in the wind, man.

Starting point is 00:04:55 That guy's a real nature dog. Zelda? It's a character from a video game. So the ranch you have now, all your family can all live there. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that is, man.

Starting point is 00:05:07 I'm telling you, Theo, that's like, That's so important to me. You know, I had a lot of brothers. And man, I loved them so much. We're really close, super close. For sure. Well, I mean, I only knew so much, but, you know, I just saw you guys in the ring and stuff like that. And, you know, there's been a lot of documentaries and smaller documentaries.

Starting point is 00:05:24 There's been the Claw movie. So there's been a lot of, you know, references to you guys, for sure. Yeah. Your father was from Texas, and he, he was a wrestler. So I'm assuming that's where you guys all kind of got into it. Yeah, yeah. Just even knew about it. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:39 This is, you know, it's kind of an ugly turn. I don't want to bum me out, but my dad was living up in New York, and we were all living up there, and I was the baby, but my brother Jackie was like six years old. And he touched a house trailer, they had a short in it, and it killed him. It electrocuted him, knocked him out, and he hit a puddle of frozen. Water was frozen. He drowned under the ice, you know, and broke my dad's heart.

Starting point is 00:06:04 My mother, you know, it just killed him. You know, I can't imagine I have sons, you know. I tell you, I lost my brothers and that was hard, but I could not lose a son. Wow. I couldn't get up. I couldn't stand on my eye and legs, you know. Did they have to go to therapy and stuff like that when that first happened to your, because I guess that was your oldest brother?

Starting point is 00:06:24 Yeah. Did they have therapy back then and stuff like that? Or what did you? No, no. My dad was like a rock, though, you know. I couldn't believe he was, he just, he didn't want my mother to suffer so he wouldn't suffer around her, but I'm sure my mother suffered much. And also, when she got married, her little brother, David, died of a brain hemorrhage thing, you know, what he called it,

Starting point is 00:06:51 a tumor, a brain tumor. And so just like a year later, her son dies too. You know, it was just bang, bang, you know. I mean, and at those times, too, things, I think there was more probably tragedy at those times, you know, things were, you know, you'd have a lot of, people had a lot of children and a lot of them working farming and people would get injured a lot. There was just, I think it was a different time probably when it came to safety and stuff. You know, and they'd have loose wires. I mean, just things were just less regulated, you know. Yeah, that's right. It was. You know, the kind of stuff we did as kids, like, shoot, I can tell you a lot of times it looked you to be alive, you know. Oh, God. I've been lit up a couple of times. Damn.

Starting point is 00:07:32 I was walking by a damn crab restaurant and stepped on an outlet. But you did? Just took me down, brother. Yeah. You stepped on an outlet. Something. I don't know. Next thing you know, I just thought the earth was just sucking me into it.

Starting point is 00:07:46 How long were you out? I don't know. Probably 40 seconds maybe. Wow. Not long enough to give up, I guess. You didn't have like a experience beyond the door. I didn't get anything. I'm like, God's not giving me any previews or nothing, you know.

Starting point is 00:08:02 That might be a bad sign, brother. That's true. actually if you start seeing the light, I'm like, no, nah. So, yeah, so your family had that, so your parents had to deal with that so early, man. Yeah, I guess people suffered in silence more back then, huh? Yeah, people were tough, you know. They were. Well, I was just going to say, you know, that you brought up my movie.

Starting point is 00:08:22 And the movie was like, I heard a lot of people talk about. It was like. The Iron Claw movie? Yeah, you know, that my dad was really hard on us when the fact was, you know, that we were hard on each other. You know, we answered to each other. It was like a brother thing, really. And to tell the truth, the suicides and all, that was not because Fritz made us wrestle

Starting point is 00:08:44 or Fritz was a big monster or anything of that. That was shame. My brothers were ashamed with Carrie was, you know, when you're in the public eye, you really feel a lot of pressure. You really do. You know, we don't let those kids down. And when something happens, you know, you do feel like you really let them down. And you know, I don't know,

Starting point is 00:09:04 everybody's not like this. Sometimes you just can't forgive yourself. And like Carrie just couldn't let it go. And yeah, Carrie is one of your brothers. I know you had David, Carrie, Jack, Chris,

Starting point is 00:09:19 and Mike. And Mike. God, that's all the boy names they had at the time. Y'all couldn't have another brother because what were you going to do? I'd love to be a girl. I would have to have been a girl by defund. fault, man.

Starting point is 00:09:33 Oh, we wanted a girl so bad. Did y'all? Did your parents? My whole life, I never knew anything about girls, you know? Oh, yeah. I mean, uh... Y'all had enough beautiful hair in that family. She got an idea of how to use it.

Starting point is 00:09:43 Oh, figure that one. Golly, I know. What's with that? I never took care of myself. I never expected live past 50, you know? Oh, I bet. I was having fun my whole life, you know? Oh, I bet, but y'all had so much dang hair.

Starting point is 00:09:55 Y'all were very, very true. Y'all would have been considered trans, beautiful, tall, trans women these days. Y'all would have been because you guys were ahead of your time. Even like all the rock bands in back then had, remember, poised and all those bands, they had the big hair. That's the truth. Did you guys have hair dues? Y'all had some hair dues. Was that something like a pride?

Starting point is 00:10:16 Was that almost like a lion's mane type of thing amongst the guys in your household? What was that like for you guys? Because you guys had some great hair. No. You know, what, it was just laziness to tell the truth. I mean, you know, I cut it where to keep it out of my eyes, you know, but then I cut my own hair, you know, because I'm a hair. I can tell, dude, I cut my own shit. Yeah, well, I can't see the back, you know.

Starting point is 00:10:37 I don't have a mollip on purpose, you know. But I can cut this up here, you know. So your dad, I do want to know a little more about him. So you said that the film kind of portrayed him as being more of a stickler. But what was he like? Was he a businessman? Was he quiet? I mean, I guess he wasn't quiet because I could see like his wrestling persona,

Starting point is 00:11:00 but was his home persona? I guess what was he like as a father and what was he like as a businessman? But let me tell you, my dad was like a mountain of a man. He was, he was really a consider, he was full of love God, but I mean he was serious. And when he would, he wouldn't say anything. Like, you know before you go to sleep at night, you think, oh man, I wish I had said that. Wish I thought of that. Well, he thought of it right then.

Starting point is 00:11:25 And he would say it right then. At night, you mean? No, I mean like whenever. Oh, whenever he thought of it. came up, yeah, whenever he thought of it, it was just right there.

Starting point is 00:11:33 I thought, man, perfect answer. You know, but I mean, he was the president. Okay, you know,

Starting point is 00:11:37 that movie, the Iron Claw where Fritz says, the NWA always wanted to screw me, you know, kind of like, but the truth is, he was the NWA. He was the president,

Starting point is 00:11:47 you know, and he was the other wrestlers, I mean, world champions, I mean, when my dad came in the room, I mean, they were like rolling on their backs like dogs.

Starting point is 00:11:59 They respected him? Well, I mean, they, yeah. Are they feared? Because his business acumen or just? I think it was just business acumen. I really do. And the way he stated himself, he didn't ever pop off.

Starting point is 00:12:11 He didn't ever brag. He always had the accurate thing to say that not too much emotion at all, just business. And people respected that. I think in the wrestling business, we have a lot of personalities, you know, the big egos. And sometimes these guys don't want to do something, you know. And, but my dad had. the respect. And it made a great business. It's just, I think you have to have that in. You know, man, you can talk me out of anything, you know. Oh, is that all the money you have?

Starting point is 00:12:42 Well, I'll take less. You know, I'm, I know why I'm like that. We're not like my dad at all. He was, he was. He was. He was. Yeah. And what was he like with your mom? Like, do you have a nice memory of them being together, like some, like a moment that you remember that was, that meant something to you? Yeah. I guess so. One time I was in the den, and my mom and dad were kind of whispering, and they disappeared. And my brothers were really going. So they went into the little study there, I guess, to talk.

Starting point is 00:13:15 And I thought, they've been in there a long time. And so I took the little coat hanger and straightened it out, you know, pushed it in the door and opened it up. You know, they were at it. And I'm like, oh, man. The way, I said, so as a little boy, I thought, why are they so mad? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:13:32 Where are they so mad about? You know, they were, they were having fun. It sounded like a two out of three falls, huh? Well, I just felt like I need to go in there, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:43 break this up, whatever it is, you know, and it was, that was kind of one of those moments. Break us up. You bring a whistle in there? That's hilarious.

Starting point is 00:13:54 Drake. She needs there. That's really something you remember that? Yeah. I don't remember that. I'm trying to think of that beautiful moment. That's what came out. So everybody was wrestling, huh?

Starting point is 00:14:05 Good well. Wow. Did you feel like you had to be a wrestler in your family? Like, was it? Well, you know, the truth of it is, my dad didn't wish to wrestle, you know. In fact, you know, he was so, his finger was stuck, you know, and his hands didn't move right. Oh, yeah. He probably walked around like a damn crossing guard.

Starting point is 00:14:28 Oh, God, he was. in his lower back and knees. And so, you know, I actually said to my sons, you don't want to do this. I brought me, you know. Here we're in Hawaii, and I can't even run on the beach. And I was a high hurler, you know. I used to high jump over my head, you know,

Starting point is 00:14:45 and I love to move. But a day comes, you know, where you traded that, traded that way, you know. So I told my boys, you don't want this, you know, you really don't. But you can't tell them that. You know, they were just like I was. I wanted to do what my dad did. I thought he was great.

Starting point is 00:15:02 So did my brothers, you know. We thought everything he did was great, we thought. And that's why I wanted to do like that. I'm sure my sons are thinking the same stuff, you know. Well, I think there's nothing more, there's something inside of a son you just want to make your dad proud. You know, you want him to look at you and, yeah, just feel a sense of pride. That goes deep. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:25 I mean, I think it's probably the deepest thing that there is. Me too. I really, I don't think there's anything less. I mean, you ask anybody, do you feel like your dad's proud of you? It's like that, you know, it really takes them to a place when they're thinking about that or answering that, you know? Yeah. Were there's, was people using steroids and stuff back then? I used steroids in high school.

Starting point is 00:15:44 Was it a thing when you guys were growing up or no? Yeah, it was. It sure was. They, you know, it was, I didn't really ever want to really get into that, you know, and, uh, because we had naturally good bodies, but my brother Kerry was a bodybuilder. You know, he'd peel the skin off the chicken and eat the rice with no soy sauce on it.

Starting point is 00:16:08 Yeah. I'd never do that, man. I mean, I eat Twinkies, chocolate milk, five or six glasses today, really. I love chocolate milk sugar. My favorite food is sugar. Oh, I'll eat damn two grams of sugar, dude. Me too, man.

Starting point is 00:16:21 I mean, if it tastes good, then my body must want it. Yeah, because when I was growing up, yeah, he's so fit, huh? Yeah. He was probably the most romantically fit of you guys, huh? He was, man. He just as a little kid. He was the girls all loved him.

Starting point is 00:16:36 The teachers loved him. Damn straight man loved him. He was. I mean, you got to look, if you can go further enough past women where you get straight men to love you, you could have straight, I mean, this is, you know, in rural areas, you could have men that are, we're like, no gays, but then they'll go and watch it and then just adorn this gentleman. I mean, you know, those are the times kind of. But, yeah, Barry, he was, he was super fit. Did, um, we don't see that picture.

Starting point is 00:17:06 I remember he was a little boy. He was so cute. But he said, uh, we went in the barn one day. There's a big old wasp in there. And red wasp, you know, how they stuck the ceiling up there. And so, you know, they're in the barn. We're all alone. And so, uh, so we, uh, you know, those things that you should, uh, gift wraps, the long tubes,

Starting point is 00:17:26 they come in the Christmas present. Yeah. So we lit one up and said, Kerry, hold it under those red ants. But remember to hold your breath because they can't sting you if you're holding your breath. You know, so don't breathe. And so we light it up and we're watching him go in there, you know.

Starting point is 00:17:44 And they drop all on him and he runs out crying. And we said, stupid, we told you not to let to breathe. And he said, it's hard to hold your breath when you're crying. Dude, that is a great, it is hard to hold your breath when you're crying. Yeah, yeah, he was right. My favorite, when we were kids, we used to pick on each other at dinner so bad. And the best part was to get somebody to cry when they had a mouth full of food, right? Because they couldn't swallow because they were crying so hard.

Starting point is 00:18:11 So the food just got, it would be like, it just got stuck in the mouth, you know? That shit was so fun, dude. Having siblings was so much fun, huh? Did you guys do like Halloween and stuff together? any, like, did y'all do that? Yeah, yeah. You mean go out and throw eggs at people and stuff? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:28 And we did all that. And, uh, and what was like birthday parties and stuff like at your house? Because with so many kids, would you guys combine some of them? Or you did everybody got there. Well, we had a lot of boys, you know, a lot of us in her house. And I remember like, uh, ladies saying, oh, it smells like boy in here. And, you know, because we smell, they smell like boys, I guess. But, but, uh, but I do remember that it was,

Starting point is 00:18:53 really hard for mom to get babysitters because like we would uh we were really hard on them you know just playing on with them and stuff you know we'd kind of make a joke out of it and they'd be crying and they're never going to watch these kids again i was climbing the walls and stuff like that oh you need abdul of a butcher to be your babysitter i feel like probably so you need somebody big um at that time in wrestling where steroids like a popular thing like i remember when i was in high school we would people use like test 200 but even growing up like in Texas was it did people even know that storage were bad for you or was it just like a a medicine that was like kind of common in wrestling do you feel like well uh doctors would give it to you I mean uh I didn't I had trouble gaining weight when

Starting point is 00:19:38 I was like uh well my whole life I've had trouble gaining weight but uh and so I took diana ball when I was in high school but I took one a day for like uh weeks and then lay off for two weeks and then take it again for two weeks and lay off for two weeks. And that was what kind of, that was of a little boy pill. That's what that was for little boys that weren't getting puberty. And then back then, like you say, there weren't all these rules and all. Terrorism weren't necessarily a dirty word. But doctors did give them to people like after surgery and things like that to improve their appetite and things.

Starting point is 00:20:16 And it makes a difference. But if you don't lift weights, if you really have a. strict regimen, then it's just going to give you pimples on your back and make your hair fall out and your breath stink and all that stuff, you know. Yeah, it's, yeah, if you're not, yeah, if you're just shooting steroids and then just watching, you know, I dream of Jeannie or shit like that, yeah, your life's going to fall apart. Yeah, look, look those guys that, get the injections to make their muscles look big. Can you believe, have you seen some of these guys with these, they don't even work out.

Starting point is 00:20:48 Uh-uh. They go in, they get silicone injections for muscles. You know, I got to tell you, Theo, muscles are nothing. You know, it's all of it. You want to know you're in wrestling, I would lift weights because I wanted to be a better wrestler. I want my kickout.

Starting point is 00:21:04 I would push my man off. I want to be able to bench, you know, a lot because it's important. But, I mean, it's, to look pretty in the mirror, I mean, that's just a few shades short of, fruity, if you ask me, you know. Oh, yeah. I mean, look at this guy.

Starting point is 00:21:22 That's the stuff. That's what I'm talking about. What the hell is that? No, I don't mean. The guy looks like he's stealing from Target. Really? What is that guy doing? What is that guy doing?

Starting point is 00:21:37 Yeah. Oh, my God. That guy looks like a little. Oh, God. And I'm going to take that joke out. That was, that's offensive. I just wanted to make you guys laugh. Um, which, uh, yeah, we used to use them.

Starting point is 00:21:55 I'm trying to think we, and we used to me. I just like, we got in and we were weightlifting pretty heavy. And it was fun using them because it definitely made things easier. You know, that was fun. And I felt, you felt way more invigorated, you know, for sure. What kind of did you do? We were doing like test 200 and then people would, some people would do Deannaball. I never got that.

Starting point is 00:22:15 We just would go on spring break and get test 200 or some people worked on farms and we get test 200 from them. you know testosterone or something yeah well some of that stuff i mean i have to say that some of that stuff the guys you could see uh veterinary use only on the box you know i mean equine this and all and oh some of you'd open up and it'd be like yeah even when you took the top off you're like shit that ain't for us that's what it was it really yeah i was never uh into that because you really can kill yourself with it you know it's like it messes your whole body up you know was it

Starting point is 00:22:50 popular in the sport when you got into. I'm just trying to wonder what the times were like and how men felt like they had to. See, oh, man. Well, and you guys were, because your family was in, your family was in good shape overall. But some of the shapes in wrestling weren't, it wasn't as much about the shape.

Starting point is 00:23:09 You know, there was a lot of guys out there that were just big, tough guys. Well, we wanted to put the best show on television we could do. And if that meant, take steroids too, we didn't care. I mean, priority one was our body. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:24 I mean, was our, was delivering that punishment. You know, we move quick and explode. Have you ever, you've seen our wrestling. Oh,

Starting point is 00:23:32 man, Kerry was so, it's unbelievable watching him. Well, we just, that's the thing. We wanted to, and that was the attitude back then.

Starting point is 00:23:39 If, if the guys were wrestled are going to do steroids, well, then it's only fair that we do them too. Now, we didn't,

Starting point is 00:23:45 don't get me wrong. It's like, it's not like we were really into it. Kerry went down to the University of Houston and was still in the discus for Coach Telez down there, a view of age. And the stuff he learned down there was all this like expert stuff about weight lifting and weight events and all, you know, they would take a cigarette and puff a cigarette

Starting point is 00:24:07 right before they'd throw. And yeah, something in the nicotine would kick the muscles in, you know, kick your body. It would give them just a little edge, just a little more. Or they drink ice cold water before you have a go max on your bench. It helps just a little bit. You hear that coach Hester? Kurt Hester. He's a speed and strength coached him.

Starting point is 00:24:28 I think he coaches the University of Houston now. But I'm going to make sure you hear that. I'm realizing that anywhere worth going is worth going in good boots. Find your perfect pair with Tocovas. That's what I'm wearing. I like these wide toe they got on them, baby. You know, I have something. Now, I like the wide toe, but sometimes I'll wear that little pointy toe, that little bird foot, you know.

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Starting point is 00:27:22 Didn't Johnson cancel the Olympics? 80. It was the 80. No, wait. Yeah, 1980. That's what it was. The president canceled the Olympics, right? We didn't go?

Starting point is 00:27:31 No, it was that thing. I believe that was a, there was an airliner flying over Korea and a Russian shot it down. It was over a sensitive area. and I believe it was Jimmy Carter. Oh, Jimmy Carter. Yeah, yeah. And we didn't do the Olympics that year. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:48 But he would have competed. Kerry would have competed? Well, you know, I think he would have, but I'm not really sure what, because they would have had to have the, I think he went to Champagne for those. Nationals. Yeah, nationals. But I don't think he went to the other. They even took it that far. I'm not sure.

Starting point is 00:28:07 I'm not sure how it went. Which one of you guys was kind of the. leader of you guys as brothers. And I know sometimes it goes by age, right? Because there's always a... I was the big brother, you know, and no doubt about that. But my brother, Dave, had a real responsibility streak. He was just...

Starting point is 00:28:24 My dad would come to himself. Okay, I want this fence to be... I want it to go down there 200 yards, and I want a good post, or I want a double-fenced, and I want... And I want everything just right, and he told Dave. And so Dave would tell me and Kerry what to do. He's the foreman.

Starting point is 00:28:38 Yeah, he's the foreman. Yeah. And so it kind of worked. We're in wrestling too. And he was good on the microphone too. Oh, yeah. It's important. You've got to be good on the mic.

Starting point is 00:28:48 Was there a time where all of you guys were wrestling at the same time? Yeah, just briefly. It was. Man, that was so much fun too. Because we never got to go to Japan together. Dave and I went Japan together. Carrie and I went Japan. Never together, though.

Starting point is 00:29:03 But when we could all three to be together, just when we first started out, you know, for that first year, we could, all three of us could go to towns. We got so much fun, man. We always would stop. We'd scuba dive all the way there. You know, if there's clear water, if it's just a river or something, we'd dive in and swim.

Starting point is 00:29:21 It was just, oh, along the way? Just, yeah, we'd had fun all day. And we wouldn't even go to the dressing room. We'd get dressed out in the woods where the swimming hole was, and we'd get our and rest and stuff on. Go right to the show, get in the rain, come back out into our stuff, you know. We had it down. We had fun.

Starting point is 00:29:38 And you got a leach in your tights, brother. Hey, don't call it that. Were you all, do you all train together at home at a certain place? Like, what was that kind of? Yeah, we had a gym outside the house on an adjacent property. And I'm probably the cause of all the pressure because I would put up Vincent Barthi posters all the time for myself. You know, I wanted to be the best I could be.

Starting point is 00:30:07 And that was what it was like to live. my own back then it was like we lifted weights or three times a week but we ran we swam everything was about getting better because i wanted to play in the nfl and uh carry uh well carry well carry just wanted to wrestle but uh and dave wanted to wrestle but i was i was a football player and uh and so that's what it was all about is just do your best to quiters never quit winners never quit, Quinter's never win. You know, that kind of stuff on, I had posters everywhere on the gym, and we'd spot each other and push each other and call each other's sissies if we couldn't do it,

Starting point is 00:30:47 you know, and I mean, we would spit on each other. You know, we were savages, and we wanted to get good as we could be. And when we, we wrestled, it was hard, you know, we were rough because we, anything worth doing is worth doing right. Yeah. We wanted to be a successful mom's not dad for us, but it would meant just, go all out, you know, completely commit. And that means every day, on Wednesdays we run 500 meter, one lap around the tracks, 400 meter.

Starting point is 00:31:19 We'd run five 400s on Wednesdays, we time them. And Kerry and I were both high jumpers, Kerry high jump too. And we could bench, Carrie and I figured as long as we could bench twice our weight and high jump over our heads, then we would, we'll always be in shape. And, well, yeah, for knee surgeries and I can't do that again, but that was the theory we wanted to go with. And Dave was the same. Dave didn't work out in the gym as hard as we did, you know, but Kerry and I did. Everything we did was too exhaustion. And when we're kind of nauseated, when you think you're about to throw up, now you've done enough.

Starting point is 00:31:55 Dang. We really did, man. It was all the way. I quit way before that, I realized. Yeah. Well, everybody does, man. If you want to look different, you have to do it. Everybody else doesn't do, you know.

Starting point is 00:32:06 And I mean, fight through that. And did, were all your brothers kind of subscribed to that same mentality? Or did some of them come along just because that, with that mentality, just because they were your brothers? No. Does it make any sense? Yeah, yeah. I guess, yeah, nobody was just along for the ride. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:32:24 I think they were all pretty much just wanted to be like, me, Dave and Curry wanted to be like dad. But, you know, things got kind of different when we were in, when we were kids. when I was in junior in high school, sophomore in high school, my mom and dad were going to get a divorce, you know, and my dad was going to move out. That's my freshman year is what it was. And I came into the kitchen one day, my mom and dad are talking, and dad said,

Starting point is 00:32:52 Kev, I'm going to move to Dallas and just get an apartment, and y'all are going to stay here, and it's going to be just great. Y'all go to school and come see me on the weekends. And so, are you all talking about a divorce? And he said, yeah, son, we were. He's trying to describe it to you without saying. Yeah, I said, well, I want to go with you, Dad. And Dave heard me, Kerry came and said, we do too, Dad.

Starting point is 00:33:15 We want to go with you. And so my mom's going to be there alone, it looks like, you know. And I guess they, but I was the mediator with that, you know, and they kind of worked it out. But with the deaths, you know, my mother was kind of damaged inside. It made her like she was suffering so much. You know, with Dave, she was tough. I mean, like her own little brother and Jackie,

Starting point is 00:33:39 but then with Dave, she toughed it out, you know. But then baby Mike, he was the baby of our family, you know. Chris was even younger, but Mike was the, we'd been traveling around and we weren't home that much, so when Mike was the baby, you know. Traveling with wrestling? You guys had been traveling with wrestling. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:33:57 See, David, the movie doesn't have the suit, but Dave and Kerry were both married, you know, And Carrie had, Dave had a daughter, died of crib death, but Carrie had two daughters. And Holly and Lacey and a beautiful sweet daughter. They spend every Christmas with us. And we told you, I got the big house for all to have our Christmases. Because family is just like we were saying. There's nothing more important than family to me, for any thinking man.

Starting point is 00:34:28 And then again, there's the being. wrestlers and our brothers, I mean, my dad's a bad guy, you know, and they're booing him. It kind of makes you feel like it's us against the world, you know? These people are booing my dad. If they hate him, then we hate them too, you know? What was that about? So they, because at what point did they, did the, what the audience turned on your father? Or just part of the?

Starting point is 00:34:52 No, he was like the perfect bad guy. He was a Nazi. And after my brother, Jackie died, and they're up in New York, he was like, his wrestling changed. He was different. He was a, he was wild inside. And I think it was like he wanted to just take it out on people. And it showed in the ring.

Starting point is 00:35:12 Theo, when people would, when the wresters would come out of the dressing room, getting their cars, the fans would stand around and boo, you know, from a distance. But when my dad came out, they'd get in his car, silence. They were like, fear. It was like fear. He might run over here. Yeah. Oh, it was such an exciting time back then

Starting point is 00:35:34 When wrestlers would come into the ring I mean, there was just God, I remember being a kid And we would lose our fucking minds And just beat the shit out of our sister The second the fucking wrestling program came on We would beat the shit out of our sister Oh man

Starting point is 00:35:49 For no fucking reason. I guess she was She just couldn't get used to the schedule And no premise stay away at that Time of day or something. Oh, if it was more than an hour broadcast. She knew she was in for it. I'll tell you that.

Starting point is 00:36:05 You hear a lot of stories about how wrestling was like, you know, we had to wrestle one night and then the next night you had to wrestle again. And did you go on road trips like that where it was like a few days at a time? Was it weeks and months? I mean, what was it really like back then? You know, in 1984, I wrestle 386 times. God. And that's, a lot of those

Starting point is 00:36:23 were triple shots, double shots on on Sundays. You know, we'd wrestle TV shows or we'd riff a We do two or three times. But after the started to be the deaths, you know, then I would have to, my dad had it work. Dave could sell out a building. Carrie could sell out a building. I could sell out.

Starting point is 00:36:44 But Mike was not quite there, you know. And so when Dave died, either Carrie or me had to fill his slot, you know, work another town. And that was hard. But then Carrie with the foot, now I've got two slots. to fill, you know. And so I was resting three times a day, almost a couple times a week, but I was resting every day. Was it an option to take, take those some of the slots off the schedule, or did you guys feel like as a family, we have to fill this?

Starting point is 00:37:14 Did you feel like your dad was like, we have to fill this? Or it was just, that's what you did? Well, I got to tell you, we, you know, after the desk, we were down, you know, and we sure didn't feel like getting back in that ring, but, you know, you have to. because after death there's all the publicity. And Dad's saying, you know, it's been a week. It's been two weeks or whatever. But, I mean, there are times when we said, Dad, I can't do it yet.

Starting point is 00:37:39 Can't do it. You know, but he did want us to get in that ring. But it was a family business. I don't hold it against him. I understand. But it was brutal to make yourself do that. I mean, what's on your mind is love and brotherhood and seeing him again in heaven.

Starting point is 00:37:58 but you want to project, I'm going to kick that guy's ass. You know, it's kind of you're torn, you know. A lot of life's like that, huh? Yeah, yeah. It's like having two feelings at the same time. It's like, especially with death, because it's like somebody's gone,

Starting point is 00:38:15 but they're the one that's gone, but you're the one that hurts, and you don't even know what they're feeling like. And you almost don't want to, like, mourn too much because it's like, are you just using the mourning for yourself? It's like all that kind of stuff has always hit me. I know.

Starting point is 00:38:31 You wake up in the morning and there's nothing else. You can't think about anything else. Man, I'm old enough. I can tell you a little something now. I never wanted to endorse marijuana or put it over because, you know, I had a position. You know what? When I would wake up in the morning, I could not think of anything else. That's all I thought about.

Starting point is 00:38:53 And if I smoked a joint, I could daydream. I could think of something else, you know. And I had to, I was grateful for that stuff. I mean, it helped me. Well, I'm sure especially out in, uh, Kauai, it was probably, Oh, shoot, yeah. I was helping everybody. Well, so I had my knee replaced, you know, and, uh, it didn't go very well.

Starting point is 00:39:14 It's kind of, I rehabbed it too quick. See in college, when you have a new surgery, you, you fight like hell to get it back, you know. And, uh, well, I got out there and I got a news replacement, but I'm a senior citizen. And so instead, I shouldn't have rehabed it like that. You know, I was doing flips off the cliff with the boys and it knocked something. I smelled glue on my breath. I thought, oh, that can't be good because they used glue in there. Really?

Starting point is 00:39:40 Yeah. And you think some of it came up your bloodstream? You could taste it a little bit? I tasted it. Yeah, I tasted it. That's bad. Anyway, so. Damn, they're using damn glue?

Starting point is 00:39:49 Well, yeah, they do. They use glue. Well, shit. We could use glue. I mean, they had power tools. Really, I mean, working on you, they got a drill the whole deal, you know, they hide it from you. Yeah, yeah, with that anesthesia, dude. They just bring in a couple of Cubs Scouts in there, and they're doing damn woodwork on you in there.

Starting point is 00:40:10 Playing. With wrestling, did you have to be as tough at the wrestling part as you did at the partying part? Like, there seemed to be this thing when I look back on, like, wrestling and a lot of the stories, especially coming up out of like the 70s, 80s, 90s. where not only did you have to prove yourself in the ring that you were the toughest guy, that you were able to do the matches, but then you had to prove yourself again, like at the drinking table.

Starting point is 00:40:39 Was that part of the culture as much as... Oh, man, that was the easy part for us because none of us really liked taste of booze, you know. I mean, I'll have a drink or even two, but I'm done. I can't drink six of anything, you know. And a lot of people can, but I think that, was a big thing for us. We never did get that big stomach, I guess, that a lot of my friends, you know, love that beer. All my teammates, you know, my wrestling colleagues, love beer,

Starting point is 00:41:09 but I never did get into it, and I'm glad I didn't, because it's taken its toll on a lot of good men. Yeah. But I'll tell you this, after those knee surgeries, I had to take three oxycontinent day. Yeah. Shoot. One in the morning, one at one at noon, or one at one o'clock, and then one at sundown. because they had time release in them, you know, and it working worked great. It didn't make you goofy or anything, but I could ride a bike, you know, and stuff. And I could, it kind of hurt worse later,

Starting point is 00:41:39 but with the pain pill, take another dang pill. Oh, yeah, I feel like a damn care bear if I take one of them. Yeah. Well, then COVID came, and I went to get my medicine, because we never left our ranch,

Starting point is 00:41:51 except for go to the doctor, you know. I mean, we had everything there. In Hawaii? Yeah, in Hawaii. I grew four different types of all the, and we trade them with our neighbors. We have turkey. We raised sheep.

Starting point is 00:42:04 We have tilapia, a fish full of thousands of fish. And every kind of fruit you could think of, you know, we had a reason to go. The boys are sparing fish and throwing the net and catching crabs. And so it was a great way to live, you know. So we just didn't really leave. But COVID came. And so I go to get my medicine and it's like twice as much.

Starting point is 00:42:26 I was already paying $900. bucks a month for it. It's $1,800. And I said, well, I'm quitting this stuff. And so I quit, but man, I got these flu symptoms like, you know, I felt like I was weird. And I fought through it, you know, but Ross got me the stuff called cratum. It's a leaf on my tree. And we grow the tree out there. You can crumble it up or it comes up, you put it in a powder, put it in a pill.

Starting point is 00:42:55 And I was able to kick that oxycontin. 10 days. I wouldn't even want another one. By using cratum, you were able to get it? Cratum. Cratum did that, yeah. And then were you able to get off the cratum? That was easy to quit Cratum. I never liked that stuff.

Starting point is 00:43:08 It smelled like, hey, anyway, you know, but it was easy to get off of it. But so, you know, I decided, I told you when it came on, I wanted my life to kind of help someone, all that suffering, you want to know, get something good. Yeah. You know, and if anyone is suffering from any kind of, of addiction like the opioids and all bear that in mind they're creating places all around i'm not

Starting point is 00:43:32 saying i'm not getting any money for it i'm just saying it sure helped me and if you're an addict and it was bothering you i mean i i couldn't i couldn't believe i was addicted to this stuff i mean i wanted to quit and i got sick i thought shit never going to let something happens like this to me again how bad did the octa did it did octet like feeling like you had to take oxycons get well um i never kind of let it get at that point you're supposed to take it at one o'clock, which I get in the morning and night before you go to bed. And so that's what it always did. Yeah. And you don't walk around high. You just don't hurt, you know, because it's got the pain relief, the time release in it, you know, but. But that cratom was helpful, huh? Oh, yeah. Wow.

Starting point is 00:44:11 Yeah, I have a friend who got addicted to cratum. So I think there's probably, there can be a slope there, but I certainly could see how it could be used to help people get off of OxyCon. Yeah, it's illegal in some countries. Cratom is? Cratom is. It must be illegal. Addictive. Was addiction ever part of the, any of your brother's issues or no? Did addiction run in you guys family? It runs in my family. Well, you know, I don't think it does. My brother, Kerry, you know, was, he went to the Betty Ford Clinic and all these places,

Starting point is 00:44:45 but he was never addicted to anything. He just liked all of it. I mean, he'd do cocaine one day. He'd do pain pills the next day. He'd do acids. I mean, mushrooms. It was something different all the time. I'm like, carry water, you know, and I'm not saying I'm so good.

Starting point is 00:45:01 No, but it sounds like it sounds like he was addicted. He was addicted to the feeling. Ah, to the feeling. Mm-hmm. I see what you're saying. Just getting out of his skin, you know. Oh, yeah. God, that's a steel cage match.

Starting point is 00:45:14 I don't want to be in my own skin. Yeah, I know, man. But, you know, that's life. You've got to fight through that crap, man. Yeah. You just fight through it. Well, yeah, because to me, it sounds like he might have had him. He could have had addiction problems.

Starting point is 00:45:27 Like, if they had looked at it. by today's standards. You know, I think things were definitely looked at differently then. Yeah, yeah. Might as well, because if you can't stop, then what do you call it, you know? Yeah. Because he, I know he wanted to stop because it was, because he had those beautiful daughters.

Starting point is 00:45:41 He loved them so much, you know. Holly and what was the other one? Holly and Lacey. Lacey lives out in L.A., and Holly is out there in East Texas now. And hopefully they'll be with me soon because, you know, I've been going back to Hawaii every few months, every month, you know. But I haven't been back in a couple of months now.

Starting point is 00:45:59 And, man, it is hurting me because Benji, my little treasures out there. Jill's, Jill has four. She has a boy and three daughters. And who's Benji? Benji is the six-year-old. And we're like this. We grow everything together. Oh, that's a grandchild?

Starting point is 00:46:14 Yeah, yeah. Oh, got it. I've got a lot of grandchildren. Oh, he does. Son Marshall has given me two. Okay. Well, he can get more out of them. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:46:21 I sure can. Fire him up. Huh? And then Kristen has given me plenty. But that boy, and I being five, you know, four, three that age, you're just with me all the time. Oh, it's fun. And now Marshall has given me a grandson,

Starting point is 00:46:39 and he's just about to turn five. And we're like that. I mean, it's either monster trucks or we're turning over rocks. We're just throwing rocks and catching snakes and bugs and lizards and all. And it's just fun all the time, you know, but it's like. Yeah, I could see that for sure. You remind me also, I mean, if you were my grandfather or something, that would be awesome. And you remind me of Tommy Lee, actually, about probably, like, does anybody ever tell you that?

Starting point is 00:47:07 Who's Tommy Lee? Tommy Lee from Motley Crew. Oh, that band came to Sportatorium. A bunch of nice guys. I know those guys. Of course you do, dude. That's you, dude. That's why you know him.

Starting point is 00:47:19 But Tommy's a great guy. Tommy's great. You guys just remind the way you guys talk and stuff Does that make any sense to you, Nick? Tommy's the greatest dude, man. He's nice. Just the way you guys sound and stuff like that.

Starting point is 00:47:31 He's a super guy. Yeah, they're good, man. Did you ever fight somebody high? Could people fight high in the ring? Did people ever fight high in the ring? I don't think so. I mean, not on purpose. Right.

Starting point is 00:47:44 You know, but I couldn't remember though. Oh, colleague. Yeah. Oh, we did before. There was this stuff called GHB, and it's this super drug. But they sold it in like athletic stores, you know, and sporting goods source because it was like a fat burner. And so we're going to this town and Kerry is going there. He told us, told us not take too much of it, but by the time we say, you'll probably go to sleep in the car.

Starting point is 00:48:16 But the time we get there, you know, your body's going to be burning your fat off, you know. So we took that crab and Godly shoot. I don't know how we got through that night. It was terrible. Are you to zombies? Yeah. Yeah, we were. Like we were just sitting on the dozing off.

Starting point is 00:48:33 Right in the match time and it would be just one of the brothers trying to wake you up, you know, shut up, you know. And it was terrible, terrible. That stuff was something. Yeah, I could just imagine what that's like at that time. You're almost like anything to kind of get an edge. everybody's testing out the cool stuff or I know where the new thing is. I guess that's always been a part of that bodybuilding world too, I think. You know, when you're big in a bodybuilding, a lot of those things kind of come along.

Starting point is 00:49:00 Like, you know, there's different creatines. There's different uppers. There's like these testosterone revigorators or whatever. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes it comes in like a huge set of balls, the powder or whatever. Like, what the hell is this? But yeah, there's all types of, um, that, that bodybuilding's always been on the, edge of like using

Starting point is 00:49:20 competitive. Yeah. Using us and finding an, uh, uh, an advantage. Yeah. You know, that's some, once two guys are going to look at looking at the mirror with each other and yeah. I got better things to do. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:49:35 At a certain point, I think so. Um, it's interesting that you refer to other wrestlers as like a team or you refer it as your team or something. Um, is that how you guys thought of y'all's wrestling organization as a team? Yeah, it was a family business, and it was like a team. It was like, you know, we never were jealous of each other, you know, as the real truth to it is, you know, when my dad and I flip, when Kerry and me flipped the coin for the world title,

Starting point is 00:50:06 well, the truth to it was that I said I'd have a family and I'm married and I have children, you know, and Kerry wanted to be the world champion. But to be the world champion, it's a special kind of wrestler to do this. that and not a carry. You need somebody that makes the other guy look good. That's really what it's all about, you know. And Dave could have done that, but, and I think Kerry May, I couldn't have done it, though.

Starting point is 00:50:33 I've been a baby faced my whole life, you know, I, I kissed the babies and, you know, do all that stuff, but the real difficult work in wrestling, the hard stuff is to be healed. That's the creative stuff, you know. And for our listeners that don't know what a heel is. Well, he was the heavy, the bad guy, you know, the bruiser brodies and the Kamala's and the King Kong Bundys, you know. Why is that the tougher spot to be? Well, because you're limited for a good guy, what you can do, you know, but a bad guy, you can do anything, and he better do it, too, because it's all about, you know, it's like you're slaying a dragon, you know. There's the guy, the knight in shining armor and there's a big ugly dragon.

Starting point is 00:51:17 You know, when I first went out to Atlanta on WTBS out there, I was 19 years old and, you know, handsome kid, you know, and the hero. And here comes the big monster to wrestle me. It's just Terry Gordy. Yeah. Big monster. And Bam. And I found out talking to him, he was 16.

Starting point is 00:51:42 Oh, my. He was a teenager all that time. He is. Y'all are being damn sad. sex traffic, do you know? That's crazy, dude. That's hilarious. You're both scared of each other.

Starting point is 00:51:54 You're both having to finish schoolwork. Well, that's it. You know, you want each... Bring that picture him up. I'm sorry to interrupt you, Kevin. Bring that picture him up. Look at that fella, dude. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:52:06 That's wild, huh? Yeah, he was something else. You would have loved him. Yeah. I'm telling you, Michael Hayes, he's a character, buddy Calvert, but that guy was 100%. He would fight to the death, but he had a heart for little kids and for girls, and he was just nice. He was such a good guy, man, but he was a battleship, too.

Starting point is 00:52:31 Did he pass away? Yeah, yeah. What happened to him? Oh, shoot. He was, he overdid it on the plane. He OD'd on a plane, and they had to restart him. Shoot. And then something, I believe that his blood will stay away from his brain too long,

Starting point is 00:52:53 and it starved his brain. And he had some damage. When he came out of that, then I talked to him, and he just, Kiv, hurt myself, brother. I said, no, Terry, you're fine. He goes, no, I'm not fine, Kiv. So he could have, he could talk to me, but he was real slow. He didn't have any of this hand-eye kind of coordination.

Starting point is 00:53:16 So it cost him something. No, dang. But then I'd always heard that he fell off the jetway, getting on a plane one time, too. I think you did. He fell off the jetway, drunk, landed on his head, and got back up and gone on the plane and made the show. Yeah. So I thought that was why he was like that. But he said, no, something else.

Starting point is 00:53:38 You know, it was, yeah. So many guys went through so much, man. Terry Funk, he's still alive, I believe, isn't he? Man, I hope so. but I hadn't heard the bad news if he had. I know, he says you passed away in August. I love that guy and Dory too, so I hope that I. Terry Funk was, man, he was incredible to watch, wasn't he?

Starting point is 00:54:00 He sure was. He taught me so much to me, my brother Dave and I were 19, 18 years old, and we're the bad guys in Amarillo wrestling Dory and Terry, who are the great good guys, you know, they loved them. And Dory Funk as well? And Dory, their brothers. And their dad was Dory Funk Senior. Okay.

Starting point is 00:54:21 Super badass. Well, these two were in the ring. And Dave and I, we're just learning, you know, we're just learning about this. Dave, pretty good, he goes, I didn't know what to do, really. And so we're in the ring. And Dory's telling us everything. He goes, spit on me, kid. I said, sir?

Starting point is 00:54:40 He said, spit on me. So I spit on me. And so Dave unloads on Terry. too. The crowd went wild. They hated our guts. So they beat us, you know, when I get on the mic and I say, you're in trouble now. I'm going to get my daddy.

Starting point is 00:54:57 And so then they food me good, you know. And so I love being a heel, but I just wasn't good at like, you know, like Dave was. Irving Cury. So that was the real. So that was something that was tough to be a heel. Yeah. It's a lot harder. You have to have some creativity about it, you know.

Starting point is 00:55:14 Yeah. And then you've got to have a problem. personality that we're, I mean, that, that you're projecting. It's got to come from in here, you know. Right. And you can't get upset if people don't like you because you're almost the guy that people don't like. Well, Dave and I come back from the ring in Florida one time in this cow, and Dave's a bad guy, and so I'm a heel too. And so this guy steps up. You remember people would dip skull and they spit in those cups. So we slosh that stuff on us, you know, and I thought, well, you know, we've been making, we've been begging them to hate our guts. Finally, we're there.

Starting point is 00:55:47 And I look, and Dave's running up in the bleachers after the guy. Kicked us up in his stands and all. So I said, Dave, we worked our butts off to make him hate us. He goes, Dave was just, you know, you couldn't talk to him. He was so mad. Here's a dirty little secret. The insurance company would rather keep under reps. Insurance company's profit by holding onto money for as long as possible.

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Starting point is 00:58:31 That's better-h-el-p, betterhelp.com slash Theo. Carrie, do you think he was the most athletic? Yeah, Kerry was a really good athlete. He was? He was just everything he, he says, it just came easy to him. In fact, when I watched him play his senior year in high school, it looked like a play football. It looked like Terry Gordy playing against a bunch of peewee guys.

Starting point is 00:58:59 You know, he was that big. And I sound like I'm exaggerating, but he carried the ball five times and he scored five touchdowns. And the coach took him off offense, just said he wanted to save him for defense, but he was great on offense. He was a good linebacker, too, but he was really a good runningback. I've never seen anybody just run through people like that. Dang. But he didn't like football. The Texas, University of Texas offered him a scholarship. He didn't want to go. He didn't want to play football. He wanted to do track. Yeah. No, he wanted to do track. And Dave, the same way basketball.

Starting point is 00:59:32 Dave loved basketball. I love football, you know. But we go to North Texas and Dave, because it has a scholarship, we're both there, you know. And so I look up on that hill one day, and it's a real hot day, and I hear a pop. And I saw it hits the ground. So I look up there, and I can see through the dust. Dave's big old frame getting up off of that ground. He's playing wide receiver, and we had some defensive backs. We're killers, you know.

Starting point is 01:00:00 And so Dave gets up, and I see the coach is parked over there watching practice, and he walks out to Dave, and he tells Dave, we're practicing in that air condescending. gym out there and when we get thirsty we get a drink of water it's not like this out here and so Dave quit and went to play basketball at north Texas and I played football but that we all each hour sports Dave was a basketball player I ran I played football and I carry was discous you know and your other brother's Mike and Chris were you guys a little bit disconnected for them because of age or yeah that was it because by then we were wrestling and we weren't home very much right and Mike was the big brother to Chris got it yeah so that's almost like a

Starting point is 01:00:42 It was almost like a second installment of children in a way. Yeah, it was. Yeah, I saw that match with Carrie and Rick Flair. There's one match I remember it was during the daytime, right?

Starting point is 01:00:55 And I think it was in 84 maybe. Yeah. Is it? Daytime, it was 84. This was after David had passed away. Right. Were you at this match? Oh, yeah.

Starting point is 01:01:07 I wrestle on this card too. Because he looks so much more athletic. and no judgment to Rick Flair. I mean, their age difference and maybe huge here. But did he ever have to slow down with other wrestlers to make it look more real? Does it make any sense?

Starting point is 01:01:22 Well, I suppose, but yeah, you know, it's all about, it's, he had such charisma, you know, his charisma was really his thing. I mean, he had a great body and a beautiful build, and I'm going to tell you, Tony Atlas and I were bench pressing,

Starting point is 01:01:40 and I had a good bench press. I could pitch 45 pounds. But my brother and Tony were benching 520, both of them. And I mean, reping it, you know. And I've never seen anybody as strong as Kerry was. I mean, Kerry, for his size, had the most power of ever. And he seemed to be able to bring up. And he was agile, too.

Starting point is 01:02:04 I mean, I told him you could a high jumper, a really good high jumper. What was it like when Flair came to town? That must have been a ride, huh? He's quite a character. Yeah, he was. He's something else. He's something else, man. You got a show with him, right?

Starting point is 01:02:16 And the best time. Because he's just, he's got stories and he likes to, you know, it's fun. He's all fun all the time. And it's no other side to it really. No. It kind of isn't. He is a real gentleman. He's got a great voice.

Starting point is 01:02:32 You know, when you hear his voice, you think that should be a radio man. Yeah. You know, he really does sound good. But when he comes to your town, he's going to give an interview that's going to rile. I don't care who you are. and make you furious, and you're going to come down and see him get his butt kicked. And so you've got to have that. You know, that's Rick.

Starting point is 01:02:52 Now, Harley Race and the other champions, the, throwing a blank, but I mean the briskos. And they were great, but they said something else they brought to the table. Harley was, you know, he had his rep with all of his different holes and moves. But Rick, what an interview he gives. got the experience too, you know. He's something else. And he's got a good head for for when to do what he does. But you see what I mean? That was a guy like me really wouldn't fit the bill like Rick would. And he's going to bump all night. He doesn't ever get tired. You know, he's going to have, he's going to be dragging out to an hour.

Starting point is 01:03:32 He's going to try to. Yeah, just magnetic, man. That was a magnetic time. He is, man. What was one of the most traumatic things that happened to one of your brothers in their life while they were alive? Was there anything that kind of started, changed their life a little bit that we didn't really see as much? Well, probably so, yeah. My little brother Mike, you know, with the toxic shock syndrome, he had, we were wrestling in Tel Aviv. And we're going to do some shows in Lebanon, too. And so Mike saw wrestling the guy, but his shoulder had been dislocated.

Starting point is 01:04:11 And he popped it back in the dress room, got back out there in the ring. and it popped out again, and it really popped out bad this time. So we flew him back to Texas to get surgery, and with the incision, it got toxic shock syndrome. It's a tampon thing that ladies get, but they had such a huge incision where the arm was, or the shoulder was that they had shaft gauze in there. Oh, and some of it got left in?

Starting point is 01:04:42 I think that might. It didn't get left in, but it got the left in, but it got septic or something, maybe. But whatever it was, his fever went up to so high, 106, 100. I even heard 107, but that, it didn't kill him, though. In fact, the doctor came down. I say, Tim, you wouldn't believe it, the hospital was filled with fans.

Starting point is 01:05:05 You know, they wanted to offer their kidneys or their liver to Mike, you know, such love, you know, but the doc's still. told us that he's just, his fever is too high. He's not, he's not going to come back, and he's not going to make it through the night. And so rather than go up and say good night, like you told him to, like you told us too, then we had, my parents were down in this waiting room

Starting point is 01:05:29 at the hospital up here at Baylor, and we had Gary Holder was that we had a chaplain that would go with our, it's just shows, you know, big shows. And he gave us a prayer where he talked about. He said, God, You say anything we ask in Jesus' name, then you will do it. So we're asking you to stand on your word, and he slammed that Bible down on the desk. Man, I wanted to hide my head.

Starting point is 01:05:56 I thought he went too far, you know. But it was just a few seconds later, the door opened up, and he said, the fever's broken. There's hope. And we ran up to see Mike. Just like that. It was. And David Manning was right there. My dad was there.

Starting point is 01:06:14 My mom, Carrie saw it. It was a miracle. It was really a miracle. Beautiful, but I don't want to get an argument with people in it, but I would love, like I told you, I'd like my life to have an experience that people could benefit from, you know. If you're somebody that's like maybe I was at a time,

Starting point is 01:06:36 like life is overwhelming. And you know what? It's like when you overcome something, you're so much a better man than you were before. It's like when you're pushed to your limit and you have to adjust or die, you get stronger, you get stronger and go out. And I would just say to anybody that's out there lost,

Starting point is 01:06:56 if you want to feel like you'll never be afraid of man or beast again, you will not be afraid of dying if you know where you're going to go when you die. And, I mean, I know where I'm going to go. And I have no fear. I mean, it's a great life. Did you have a religion instilled in you when you were growing up? Did you have like... No, that's the thing.

Starting point is 01:07:16 We went to church on Easter, you know, I remember, but this is a pretty odd story. But I spent the night with a, my dad's real estate partner was a doctor, and I spent the night with them one night, and the next day was Sunday, and they took me to church with them. And so I went to church, and so the only reason I went, Because if you spend the night, you're going to sleep with the dog, and I love their dog, you know. Oh, yeah, dude. I've stayed over places just to be by the animals.

Starting point is 01:07:45 Well, we go to church and these men surround me and ask me if I want to accept Jesus. And so I knew that song, Jesus loves me, you know. And I'd been to wrestling before, and I'd seen people poke the finger and stuff. And I knew that was bad, you know, when I thought, I don't want to be bad. I want to be good, you know. So I want to be. on that side, you know, because I've kind of seen a little of those words, you know. Yeah, you weren't a good

Starting point is 01:08:11 heel. Yeah. No. This was this was choosing not to be a heel. Yeah. For eternity, I mean. Well, you know, now that I understand what was going on, because I was just

Starting point is 01:08:25 a little boy, you know. So I said the prayer, you know, and they asked me if I believe Jesus died. You know, I did. And I felt something move in my, something weird in my chest. And I thought somebody, there were men standing behind me. I thought they did something to me like, but I actually felt something move inside me.

Starting point is 01:08:43 And I think it was that little bit of evidence gave me a lot of courage. And I know God was with me. I know he was. And that night, I got out of my bed and I went on, and I looked on my porch. I was just looking at the outside the stars. And I'm a little boy. I could have imagined it,

Starting point is 01:09:02 but I could have sworn a son, angel, fly across the field with a horn in his mouth, like it was blown horn. I didn't hear any sound. It looked just like a Christmas ornament, so a Christmas tree. But in my mind, this was my best day of my life,

Starting point is 01:09:15 and I've been born to call it now, and I've never been afraid of anything since then. Amen. Yeah, it's interesting. I think people get, sometimes people get scared to share, like, their testimonies or moments that they've had where they've just felt like something stronger than them

Starting point is 01:09:29 took care of them. Yeah. You know? Yeah, I remember a feeling one time where I was just broken down, man. really banged up about a relationship and just not sure what I wanted to do with my life. I'd moved back in with my step parents.

Starting point is 01:09:43 And, man, I remember one time I was just, just on my knees bawling. And I felt something to come around my heart, man. I can't even explain it. Just like this warm thing. I mean, I'd never felt where my heart was. I mean, I'd put my hand on it, hoping for the best when I was pledging allegiance.

Starting point is 01:10:01 He was knocking on the door, you know. But I mean, you're a little boy, you're beautiful. And you're all alone suffering like that. God, that was God Theo. Yeah. He came to you. You know, we got one lifetime to learn it, you know, that there is such a thing. I mean, let me tell you, there is a devil.

Starting point is 01:10:21 And people want to say there's no such thing, but there is, boy, I can tell you a really weird story, but it's 100% true. Yeah. I mean, your life's full of craziest stories ever. Listen to this one. Okay, so I'm going to wrestle big daddy, but, you know. King Kong Bundy and the, uh, Sport and the, Will Rogers Call Seum in Fort Worth. So on the way of the ring, Kerry said, Kev, come here. I said, what, carry?

Starting point is 01:10:44 He said, I was dad on the phone. Mike's just been in a terrible car wreck. He's, he's dying now. Dad said, don't try to get there fast because he'll be dead before we get there anyway. And I said, what? And so I ran to the ring. I said, ring the bell. They rang the bell.

Starting point is 01:11:00 I grabbed Bundy's leg, schoolboy, and one, two, three ran to the back, carrying a hauled out to the hospital. still on our rustling stuff. And so we get there and there's cops everywhere and they're standing by the doors and I run right into when I bust open and there's this black lady out there and she's said, my baby, my baby. And when I crash those doors open,

Starting point is 01:11:22 there's a little black kid laying there dead and blood and stuff. So I go out, the other door, open the door. And there's my, hey, Cuff, he was fine, just fine. And so I'm like, I'm numb, you know. And so I knew my parents were on the way down here. And so I go outside and I see them walking down the ramp and I said, he's okay. And my dad just about fell down.

Starting point is 01:11:47 My mom fell down. Well, so I'm going to get my car to come home. And Abilene is west, but Denton is north. Well, for some reason, I went west. And I went almost to Abilene, Eastland. I was so out of it, just driving. And by the time I got home, I was so sleepy. His son had already come up, him been waiting for me.

Starting point is 01:12:09 And so I was going to take my bulldog down to the lake and wash him. I had to cast you a soap, you know, okay for the environment. No, I'm so much of my dog. And, oh, sorry, I'm sorry. Maybe it's concussions, but before that, I said, God, thank you for giving me my brother back. Let me fight the devil. I said, Satan, I want to, I'll fight you. I'll fight you.

Starting point is 01:12:32 and said, let me fight him, God. It was stupid, a stupid boy. And so I go to the lake, I'm washing my dog, and Theo, I swear this happened. So my dog, everything's real still. And I'm feeling weird a little bit. And I look and I see there's a bush here and some more bushes here and a hill here.

Starting point is 01:12:56 And I see these little black things taking position against me and advancing on me. like I could smell blood. I could smoke death. And I said, get in the car, Pam. And I put my back to the car. And I was like this.

Starting point is 01:13:11 And I would see him going from trees. They're getting these positions. And I was ready. And next thing I know, I'm out. I'm having a seizure in my car. And so Pam screaming and crying. And these fishermen have run up to help. And I must have hit one or kicked one or something.

Starting point is 01:13:30 But a girl ran up and said, I know his parents. I'll get them. And an ambulance came and all that. But I know it's because I'm a man. And I challenge the devil. And we have Jesus in us that fights the devil. We don't have anything to do with the devil.

Starting point is 01:13:47 And so that was my lesson that I learned. But I know that happened. And it's just in me like written on my heart. And with a nail, you know. Look, it's a testimony, man. Yeah. I thank you for sharing that. Yeah, I think sometimes we don't think that the devil

Starting point is 01:14:01 is real and that's a that is the devil's way to trick us i believe that you know if you don't think that evil's real then it's how quick you don't know how close it is to you either you know you don't know how intertwined it could be in your own veins if you don't even believe it's real that's a pretty masterful trick yeah and we think with a man's mind and they the devil is an angel's mind you know i mean it's way smarter than we are we could never devil's the devil's the devil is a thug you know that is a truth man thank you for sharing that i've had friends share some really uh some strong testimonial, some moments where they just felt that, you know? I mean, there has been moments in my life where, yeah, I just felt you just get that

Starting point is 01:14:39 feeling. You never get overcome with that feeling. You're just so thankful that God has been with you. Yeah. Man, because you thought you did it yourself and you realized you didn't, that God was there with you, man, when I've had that feeling come over me, God. I mean, it just, it'll, you just, you almost feel like you thaw out some, you know, like you thaw out.

Starting point is 01:14:59 And then we get to a position where we were something. bad comes along. Oh, no, God, don't let this happen. You know, and he saves us again. I'm like, oh, well, I forgot the other times too, you know. And, you know, I'll forget. I'll forget pretty quick. You're the little southern boy. I know what kind of, you caught copperheads and water moxons and stuff like that I'm sure.

Starting point is 01:15:18 Oh, I definitely, I got electrocuted a bunch. I was definitely beaten a lot. Yeah, we got bit by things, attack. I got attacked by a bunch of stray animals. I grew up in the stray animal belt. Really? So they had just. What kind of stray animals?

Starting point is 01:15:30 Oh, anything. Brother, snakes, raccoons, birds, dogs. Man. They, uh, I don't even know. Just, they had dogs wearing jewelry. All kind of shit was out there looking for us. Man, that's, you got a good memory. It was dangerous out there.

Starting point is 01:15:48 Well, um, you know, I used to get, I got chased by a goose when I was a little kid. By ghost? A goose. Oh, a goose, yeah. I'd rather a damn ghost. Gooses are dangerous, dude. Well, they can bite, you know. But for a little kid.

Starting point is 01:16:01 scary. They don't care and they're violent. And dude, a goose will come at you to just be one of them. Some animals will have five or six some raccoons are like that, you know? Ants are like that. You know, they won't come at you just one.

Starting point is 01:16:15 But a goose, that thing will roll up on you solo. That's pretty savage when you think of it. Is that you? That's a ghost is thinking ramble. That's crazy. Oh, what were your parents' lives like? What was like, are your parents, either of your parents still alive? No.

Starting point is 01:16:34 Okay. Are they buried in the same place? Yeah, they are. Yeah, we had my mother, you know, when we moved out, I couldn't move to Kauai without taking my mom with me. Oh, so you took your mom with you? Yeah. Oh, dude.

Starting point is 01:16:48 And she lived in the house with us too. Does she love it there? You know, my dad used to wrestle in Japan a lot, and so we would meet him in Hawaii. And I didn't realize it, but Hawaii reminded her of her sons. and she didn't want to go anywhere. She wanted to stay in her room and she wanted to grow her flowers. And that was it.

Starting point is 01:17:07 She just, she did love it. She loves her flowers, you know, but it was like, it reminded her too much of that. But she, and she passed away up in our guest room upstairs. But all my granddaughters and my son's wives standing around her singing hymns when she passed away and feel before she died,

Starting point is 01:17:31 She was a super good woman. She was so sweet and thoughtful to everyone. When she'd come to school, I'll be so proud of her, you know, because all the kids would like her. But when she was laying in that bed and she breathed her last breath, even as she, like that, her hand went up like that. And I could just pitch and touching Jesus' hands and going to heaven, you know. She was probably ready to go see her son.

Starting point is 01:17:55 Oh, I know she was. You know, my dad, I was to tell you all this person. and all stuff, buddy, but... Well, I could match you if you need, but we've heard my stories a lot. No, I just can't imagine. I bet she was ready to go see her sons, you know? He was.

Starting point is 01:18:10 I bet she'd been gone away from them long enough. And you know, my dad, too. Because really, when you think about it, my dad lost more than my mom. My dad lost his sons, but he didn't, he didn't ever show it. I mean, but he hurt. He was hurting, but he was like...

Starting point is 01:18:27 It was just that he... At his ladder, in the final days, he was so torn up inside. I think when he saw me, it would remind him of all the sons he lost. And he pulled that 44 out one day. And he pointed his head, like, I'm just going to shoot myself. No, don't do it, Dad. And he pointed the gun at me. And I said, he said, you're afraid to die, aren't your son?

Starting point is 01:18:55 He said, you'd have the guts. You'd do it, too, if you had the guts. And I said, Dad, it doesn't take guts to live. I mean, it takes guts to kill yourself, Dad. It take guts to stay alive on this earth. And he was hurting so much. He would just go, oh, God. He'd rub his face to go, oh, God.

Starting point is 01:19:15 And when he, I'd hear that, I actually wanted him to die. I wanted him to pass away. He was just miserable. And I know that when he died, he was right there with things. They've carried Mike. It was beautiful. But my dad had gotten away. He said, look, son, if you kick an old dog enough times, he's going to bite you.

Starting point is 01:19:40 And that's how I am with God right now. He's kicked me too many times. And so I said, Dad, it's going to be, you're going to be so surprised, but I couldn't convince him of it, you know. But. Yeah, I can't imagine what it's like to be kind of the soul. the surviving son. Did you feel chosen or did you feel deserted? Does that question make any sense?

Starting point is 01:20:05 Sure. It's funny to say that. Yeah, because I felt chosen in the way that my dad gave me a tape recorder back when I was in fifth grade. It was a bell and how, you know, and you could talk into it. I couldn't believe I could hear my voice. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:20:22 You know, and so I thought I love my dad so much. I filled the tape. Okay, one day dad's going to die and I'm going to talk and here I am alive while he's still alive and so I'm going to say something to make me feel better. I'm sorry, Cove. Sorry, but I just feel like him up with that.

Starting point is 01:20:40 Oh, as if you were impersonating your dad? Yeah, yeah, like I can comfort myself later. Went out of a world. No, dude, that's really interesting though. That's so interesting. But I remember saying, Dave and Kerry, we loved each other so much. I thought, I can't bear to lose them.

Starting point is 01:20:56 I could not bear it. And I thought, but they love me that way. And so I said this, even in a prayer, I said, God, if one of us has to stand back, if one of us has to be the only one, let it be me. Wow. Because I'm hard and I'm strong inside. Lord God made me that way. But I didn't know it would ever happen, but I did say it, you know.

Starting point is 01:21:21 You know, I used to have, I mean, this is like silly, but like, so when I was growing up, I didn't have any, like, whenever my dad died, I didn't have any things. of his, right? I didn't have like a shirt or like a button or just anything to remember him by, you know? And so I used to write postcards to my kids, right? Whenever I was on the road, just traveling over the years doing comedy, I would write postcards to my kids. I don't have any kids yet. But I would send them postcards just so in the future they would be able to see that I was thinking of them, right? Yeah. Like I just wanted to, I wanted to prove, I would say, That's so smart, bro. But right, but I just think it's the same type of thing. It's like you're just

Starting point is 01:21:55 trying to like, I don't know, you're always thinking of like, how do I make sure that every, that somebody knew I cared or that somebody knew somebody else cared. I'm going to die someday. Yes. I'm going to die someday. It's just stuff like that is interesting. I think a lot of people do little things like that. But that's interesting because you could have felt like you were deserted. But to end up feeling that you were chosen, that's pretty powerful. Well, I don't think I'd say that we're chosen more like I'd say that I, I would, not want to put them through that. Ah. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:22:29 Like you were the one that could handle it. Then I think I would not want them to go through it. Yeah. I would rather me go through it than they did. And I think that's sweet of me. God might have gave me some credit for that, you know, because it's all about this, we're in a struggle, you know. It's like we're not on this earth to laugh it up and have fun. We have tests, real test, and life is hard.

Starting point is 01:22:52 And that kind of stuff that kicks you in the nuts is what we're not. is what makes you stronger. It makes you more strong. And without that, you can't give advice to people about things. You haven't been around. But once you've had it and suffered yourself, now you can say, listen up. With that said, and I agree. You know, I was just thinking about that the other day.

Starting point is 01:23:13 It's like, I've always had this outlook. And they kind of don't teach you that when you're a kid as much. And they really shouldn't when you're a young child. But I think they should teach you at some point that life is a test, that it is full of a lot of tests. and it's not all just going to be like this perfect thing or everything might not work out the way you think it. You know, you never really kind of get that education maybe or maybe some parents do give it to their kids. But with what you said a second ago, if you had to share something with somebody who had lost a sibling or who had dealt with, you know, some grief from loss, something that you've learned because, I mean, you're like almost the Neil Armstrong of loss.

Starting point is 01:23:52 I mean, you've had, you've endured a lot in your life, you know, and watched and watched other loved ones endure a lot, you know? What have you kind of learned that you feel like you could share, if anything? Well, thank you for giving that opportunity because that's what I want to do, us to try to make it positive for somebody, buddy. But, you know, it's tough because I want to tell people like when somebody dies, it's going to get better, but it doesn't get better, man. You don't even get used to it. It's just keep tolerating it, and you just somehow it gets a little better someday. But there's no good word to say to them. But when somebody's really busted up, you know, when you overcome that and are able to maintain through that,

Starting point is 01:24:46 well, then it's now you've achieved. through a struggle. You've achieved over an obstruction. You've gone over a hurdle, you know, and it's like now you can say you won. Now you can say you won something because without a fight, there can't be a winner. There can't be a champion. There can't be a success unless there's that adversity, you know? And so God wouldn't put you through that unless you're going to benefit. You've got a great mind. You're intelligent. God can tell you. Oh, thanks, man. Life is, he's knocking on your door, too, my friend.

Starting point is 01:25:26 You too, I feel like you and me are probably pretty similar in some ways. You feel that? Sure do. I do, too. Do you, was, how therapeutic was having your own family for you? Everything, man. That was what did it, is what saved me, because, man, when you can have anything you want, You know, and your brother's going to have anything they want.

Starting point is 01:25:52 And they come over and let's go do this. Let's go do this. It's like, what a life. I mean, it's a whole lot. But I don't mean to bum me out, man. I don't want to start bombing out. I don't feel like you're bumming me out at all. Really? No, I was just thinking like, well, I was going to ask you what's something that you admire

Starting point is 01:26:11 about each one of your children. And then I was going to ask you what's something that you, maybe like something funny or something silly that you kind of admire or maybe miss. something goofy or something about each one of your brothers, maybe. Just like a nice, like a band they like to listen to, just something like that. Oh, yeah. Well, we love good music.

Starting point is 01:26:32 I can tell you. I've never told anybody by this story. But we had like a tree house, but it was built on stilts, a little room on stilts, my dad brought us. And so we had a cut, my mother was a third oldest, but she had an older sister. And so her older sister came over and she had two sons and they were, they could pick on us, you know. And so we were hiding up there and they were trying to get it. We'd pull the rope up. We'd let them go and we had rocks.

Starting point is 01:27:02 We're throwing rocks out of them. And so it got really bloody, you know, we're chunking rocks and hitting each other. And, you know, and so I think I'll let one go and hit one of the guys right in the head, you know. And my cousin would have kicked my ass if he could have caught me, you know. but so he runs in the house to tell on me, so we'll get in trouble, you know. And so me, Dave, and Kerry, come down from the tree house, you know,

Starting point is 01:27:28 we're watching out, they're not going to ambush us and beat us up on the house, you know. But they run to the house to tell on us, you know, so we run up there. And so the guy's bleeding. My cousin's bleeding. My cousin Steve bleeding all over the fleece.

Starting point is 01:27:42 And Dad said, what the hell happened? And I was about to fill something dead. Curie said, Dad, he got a little reasonably cut his head. And my dad started cracking up laughing, you know. And so Dave and I kind of go with the story, you know, and I think he started laughing and just let it go. But I think back on that, Kerry was such a cute little kid, you know. He was lying about it, huh?

Starting point is 01:28:09 He did. He was that way. He was quick, huh? Another time we were riding in the car. and my friend had a BB gun. So we were riding all the BB gun and shooting signs and warning lights and stuff, you know. So we drive by pickup and he shoots the windshield. Of your own vehicle?

Starting point is 01:28:29 No, no, it was a friend of ours. A friend of ours, an old man that had a ranch just south of us. And so shot out. He blew it out? The cops were going to get us, you know, and we're running from them and all. And got in such trouble. So we're answering for it all. We got away.

Starting point is 01:28:48 And so they weren't sure that we were the ones, you know. And so the cops were all talking to us. And my dad was there, and I hear my dad say, my sons won't lie to me. So I'll ask him, my sons will not lie to me. And so he calls Kerry over there. And Kerry had already lied to him, you know. And so I heard dad say that. He said, come here, Kiff.

Starting point is 01:29:11 And I went, Kerry's over there. We're going with the lie, you know. but I'm busted. And so I'm going to sit. I can't get the word to carry. I get it to Dave. Dave can't get it, Kerry. And I said, yes, sir, Dad, we did it.

Starting point is 01:29:24 We all did it. And that's it. Carrie, come here, son. Carrie, look me in the eye. I want you to tell me the truth. Did you do it? He said, no, sorry, God. I swear.

Starting point is 01:29:39 Oh, man. So Kerry could lie. Gary could lie. Somebody's got. Got a lie, man. And what about Chris? What was something that was fun or just neat about him? What was something he liked to do?

Starting point is 01:29:53 Well, he loved Indian stuff, you know, and he had a, so he had, he stacked the rocks and all and Indian stuff. He knew all about Chief Bowls and the Wonka Tonka, I don't know. Wamp them, something like that, he knew a lot of Native American lore. Yeah, he loved all that stuff. And so where they lived, they had all. era heads and spearheads. He found that stuff all the time. So that's what he was really doing. But he was a great artist. He could draw anything, you know. And so I thought that, but he was,

Starting point is 01:30:26 he had asthma. And so because he had to take medicine, it made his bones brittle. And he, he just wasn't going to get big and strong. You know, it just didn't, when he worked out, it didn't really do anything. We all the bigness, too. If he was the last one, y'all didn't leave any bigness for it. That's what I thought. I thought maybe we took all the big because. You took all of them. Man, he wanted to be, I could have cared less, but he wanted to be big so bad.

Starting point is 01:30:52 And what about Mike? What was something that Mike liked to do? What kind of music did he listen to? Oh, he liked Metallica and ACDC. Did y'all ever go to any concerts together? Oh, always. A lot of concerts together, yeah. What was when y'all went to?

Starting point is 01:31:10 Zizi Top. Love them. But those are powerful. Yeah. And then... Isn't that ACDC? We went to Falkout concert, and I think the band that warmed up for him was the...

Starting point is 01:31:22 I am just a cowboy. Road Runes Trail. What's the story nights? Campfire lights. What was that song? Ten Lizzie. Thin Lizzie. Thin Lizzie.

Starting point is 01:31:33 What is it? Thin Lizzie's? Yeah, that was a great concert. Cowboy song about Thin Lizzie. I haven't heard that. I've got to listen to that one. Oh, that's a great song. And that was going to be Dave's song.

Starting point is 01:31:44 See, I picked the music. But with Kerry picked his song. For the walkout music? I always did the music. And I picked that song for Dave, but he said, no, cuff. I'm a cowboy. And he picked, when I die, I may not go to Texas. It was nothing.

Starting point is 01:32:00 You want music. A Tanya Tucker? Yeah, but I mean. But it was terrible for Go to the Ring to it. I'm sure it was, dude. You want to sound like an interesting sound in a crescendo, and you'll kick the door off in the lights and all. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:32:14 Yeah. So you don't want something like that. And he's blasting some damn Shania Twain or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's different level, man. Okay. And so, and Jack had passed away before you. What about Kerry?

Starting point is 01:32:27 What's something you remember about him that you like? You like. Shoot. Carrie was just. Were you all the closest probably? Well, me, Dave, and Kerry were real close. And then Mike was our baby, you know, so we were really close. But, you know, Chris was a little bit.

Starting point is 01:32:43 I told you about the divorce thing when I was a kid. One thing my mother insisted on my dad was that my dad not disciplined Mike and Chris like he did me, Dave and Kerry. Because he used a leather strap on us, you know. But, I mean, we're boys, you know. It was kind of common back then. It was, yeah. And my principal beat me in office one time, a couple times, I think. It's back when your principal could spanky, you know.

Starting point is 01:33:07 Yeah, I've been beating there too. I mean, you know, we had it coming. Yeah, we had a comment. Did we? I don't know. Well, you know, if we got away with it, and we just done it again, you know. Look, he got me. I got over on him more times than he got over on me. I'll tell you that, Mr. Brady.

Starting point is 01:33:24 Yeah, I think, same with mine. I had a principal like that. He'd come down in the office, and he'd open your classroom door and said, Who parked on my grass? You know, if any car was touching grass, it was his grass, and you had to move it. You know, he was really obnox.

Starting point is 01:33:42 guy. Did you guys finish high school, you and your brothers? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we did. We, uh, of course, I hated school. I hated it. I don't know if you did or not. Oh, if I could wrestle good? I wouldn't

Starting point is 01:33:56 like damn spelling. Well, I wasn't wrestling then, you know, I was a little kid. I had to do my homework and all that stuff, but I had to listen to all that junk in class and about Susie has two dresses and, you know, all that crap. I, I couldn't stand it. I was bored to death. And I just, and I, I, I, And I'm not a very good parent. I told you, when I see little boys, I say, I hate it in school. I wouldn't, I don't blame it for not wanting to go.

Starting point is 01:34:20 There's a lot better stuff to do. You got a dog, you got a baby gun, and that's all you need, you know. When you think back, what about your own parenting? So you have four children? Yeah. Okay. And what are they like? You have two boys and two girls?

Starting point is 01:34:37 Yeah, two boys and two girls. Well, my oldest two are daughters, Kristen and Jill. And Kristen is always been my soft spot. I love her so much, and she's brilliant. She does everything for us. You know, she's so, she's so, and she's such a good foster mom. In Hawaii, she'd take the kids for the police. What do you call the idea, the, when the parent, when the, CPS, she would get those kids.

Starting point is 01:35:12 And then for foster parents, they loved her there and said so many people that loved her in Hawaii, so many kids. And then there's my daughter Jill. Well, she was way more like me. She's like she can swim endlessly. I've swam out to reefs before that were way too far for anybody without a boat. She'll swim out there without flippers and go down and dive with lobsters with me. And grab them with their hands, too.

Starting point is 01:35:40 I mean, I'm using gloves. but she's just, she's something else. She can run like a deer. She, and she loves her, and her sons are all athletic. I could go overboard talking about her. She's such an athlete. And then there's Ross and Marsh. And Ross and Marshall got into wrestling.

Starting point is 01:35:59 Yeah. Were you scared when they got into wrestling, or did you have any thoughts about it, or that's just what they wanted to do? Well, not with Ross. I knew Ross is, he's been a ass kicker his whole life. and he fights easily, you know, and that's not usually, there's not much for a man that was doing today's world except wrestling,

Starting point is 01:36:19 and so where else is going to be good? But Marshall, I did worry about him because Marshall is a super athlete. He went out to Hawaii, and he was the quarterback, and he was throwing the bombs. The newspapers were just, people would just want a picture of how far he could throw the football. He was just a great athlete, but I worried about him, getting that sun's, that heat stroke out there, you know, because he had a heat issue one time. So that's the only time I've ever been worried of them, because they're both like bulls.

Starting point is 01:36:50 You know, they're strong and healthy. And I wouldn't worry about it. Either way, they, with their wrestling now, too, they know what they need to know. It's, I believe that the wrestling business is about to really explode because it was just like this when my brothers and I got started. And when this COVID got in, they had to wrestle in empty buildings. I don't think I could have ever done that. Yeah. But it made it where the fact,

Starting point is 01:37:16 the people really have not seen them explode yet. They've, they've worked for a little, they went to Japan and wrestled and they worked for a little operation in MLW. And now they're worth AEW. Oh, really? AEW's been popping off.

Starting point is 01:37:33 Oh, yeah. I keep hearing about it all the time now. Yeah, they're going to, they're really going to be special, I believe. And will they tag team? They've done both. They work tag teams right now, though. I mean, it's a lot of, you know,

Starting point is 01:37:45 there's a tag teams that's such an interesting, exciting match, you know, because the guys don't have time to get a hold. But they can do either one. They can wrestle single. They can work a tag. But probably they'll work a tag team. As a matter of fact, I don't want to talk out of school,

Starting point is 01:38:03 but we have a neighbor in Bernie, and it's Bill Goldberg, the guy that wrestled at WW. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's a Texas boy, I think, isn't he, or Oklahoma? Bill Goldberg, yeah, I think Sharmulka, where's you from Norman? No. Did you ever fight Rocky Johnson?

Starting point is 01:38:25 I was too young, but my first black and white pictures that was trying to flex, you know, and I've never, I didn't know, you know, I didn't expect to have muscles, but that's Rocky. And so Rockies was really good at flexing. And so Rocky taught me everything about flixing, you know. He was standing right behind the cumberman doing this and doing all these things. Whatever Rocky did, I did for the picture, you know. So you learned a little from him then. And Rocky's son is the Rock, you know.

Starting point is 01:38:55 Oh, yeah, Dwayne Johnson. And so we would like, that's actually the picture. That's hilarious, dude. But Little Rock was there. Oh, was he? Yeah. Yeah, he's a little boy. I mean, he was the cutest little kid.

Starting point is 01:39:10 People say that Rocky is a very nice guy. He's still alive? I don't know. I don't about that, but Rock was a great guy, too. I mean, he was a little younger than us, you know, so we'd wrestle him. And like his, we'd frustrate him to see if he'd have the courage to pep up with it, and he would too. Dwayne John, the Rock? He would fight.

Starting point is 01:39:34 He would want to fight. He would bite you. He was a beautiful little kid. Y'all might have put the, y'all might have excited. I might have put that fire in him, man. What about bruiser Brody? Remember him? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:39:48 He was something else. Smart guy. On his wake-out workout routine, he would just put on leather gloves and lay into that heavy bag. And it thickened his chest. And, I mean, he did bench presses too, but he had an awesome bench press. But also his body was built so powerfully because he had it. I think he worked. out different. He did a lot of strikes, you know, and that thickens joints and all. It made you have

Starting point is 01:40:13 kind of that raw strength, you know, and he'd had that. But if you want to talk about Puerto Rico, well, I could tell you too that. What happened? Well, he was killed in Puerto Rico, you know. Oh, he was killed in Puerto Rico? Yeah. I didn't know that. Well, gosh, I never told this story, but I could tell you this one, too, that he was, Brody got, was real temperamental, and he would get pissed off really easy. Well, the Puerto Rico wrestling office owed him about 80 grand. And so my dad was president of the alliance back then. And so we worked out a payout schedule where they'd pay him a little each show. But Brody got that show and he wouldn't work for him because they owed him that money. And so Dad worked out where he would come back. And boy, when they came back, they sold

Starting point is 01:41:02 out San Juan. And it was a great crowd where Brody wanted his money. that night because he saw that they had it. But, you know, there are other things that they've, you know, and that's all that started. That's all that started. So he wanted his money and wasn't to be. And so he kicked the guy's ass, you know. And the guy's a little invader, you know, forgot his name.

Starting point is 01:41:33 But, man, this is an ugly story, too. but the guy who, and so they got in a fight and the guy Brody beat him up and he knifed him in the shower. But this is the kind of guy, I mean, the guy that did it, just about a week before that, his little daughter drowned in his swimming pool.

Starting point is 01:41:54 So he's on edge, you know, and so I can't really, I know him both, you know, and they're both men that want to earn their living, you know, and it's sad. Oh, that's him, Jose Gonzalez. Yeah. Yeah, life is, you know, like I say, we suffer, we find the beautiful moments in between those ugly ones, you know,

Starting point is 01:42:20 and it's got good and bad. Yeah, I'm trying to think if there was something else that, you talked about using medicinal marijuana. How did you get into that? And then how did it help you, do you feel like? Well, if you want to talk about it. If you don't want to, that's fine. Yeah, I did.

Starting point is 01:42:39 Well, I have a lot of knee surgeries too. And you can take a pain pill, but if you do, then it's going to take an edge off of it. And so you'll want to take more. And if you do, you're going to get in a problem. And so I didn't want pain pills. So I wanted a natural pain relief, and so I tried cannabis, and I liked it.

Starting point is 01:43:04 And it was just good all around for me. It was good. And so I actually grow it out in Kauai. And so that's how I have have it. I'm so grateful for it too. I mean, I hope they don't make it illegal again because it was like a wonder drug to me. It really was. Did you ever get involved in any other type of plant medicine or anything like that out there?

Starting point is 01:43:31 I know there's like ayahuasca ceremonies and stuff like that. We've done, I've done that before. And a lot of our listeners have, I think have considered it or tried it. Yeah, there's a stuff called, oh, it's the name of that, Ka, Kif. No. Kava. Kava. Yeah, Kava roots good for you.

Starting point is 01:43:54 I say good for you. I read about the contraindications on that. And it's kind of, it can make. your skin like have, what do you call those things? Shingles. Scales or whatever? Scales like, yeah.

Starting point is 01:44:09 Damn. Make a damn dragon out of it. I guess that's if you do too much of it or something. I tried it. It's not bad for you. But have you ever done like ayahuasca or like a plant medicine ceremony where they put you under? Yeah.

Starting point is 01:44:22 Ayahuasca. Oh. It's like a medicine that you take and you kind of sit in a group of the shaman and it's usually it's like a two-day ceremony. and you kind of go through these bouts of like, it's kind of like an emotional journey that you go on. It's really fascinating. Like a sweat lodge kind of thing, maybe?

Starting point is 01:44:40 Wow. Really, really fascinating if you ever get curious about it. I got a friend in Israel that writes comedy shows, that writes soap operas, and he does that. He goes to Africa and South America and finds indigenous people and does stuff like that with him. And he does, I mean, he's a wealthy guy.

Starting point is 01:44:59 Yeah, it's Aaron Rogers. We know who it is. What's your physical routine like today for yourself, Kevin? Physical routine? Yeah, do you have like a daily routine? Yeah. Well, Solomon comes in my bedroom about 845 or 9 o'clock. That's your grandson?

Starting point is 01:45:19 Uh-huh. And we go either catch lizards or snakes or frogs. We've caught four rattlesnakes on our ranch. Hell you. Last year, and we caught king snakes. and turtles, sea turtles, soft-shell turtles, you name it. That little boy and I have so much fun together. And he's the, I love him to death.

Starting point is 01:45:45 Does you remind you any one of your brothers in particular at all or no? Yeah, he reminds me of Marshall and Ross. It's like I'm able to be dad again, you know. It's like, well, I enjoyed being their father. so much. I really love my sons and my daughters, but having Solomon again is just like having Marshall again, you know, and he got Ross in him too, though. It's beautiful. For anybody that's wondering, Kevin von Erick, I consider myself the luckiest guy in the world. I mean, I know for that movie coming out, you may not believe it, but I am happy all day, every day. And I mean, I look

Starting point is 01:46:23 forward to tomorrow. And I couldn't ask for a better way things turned out. And to, to The bitch about my brother's dying too young. The truth is we had a great time. We had a great time a long time. Hell yeah. We're still talking about how good the time was. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Starting point is 01:46:39 So I'm not, I can't call it a bad day. Is there any message you think that your father or brothers felt like that you think that they would want to have given what they didn't get a chance to? Is there ever anything like that? Yeah. I want to tell you something. Now, we watch my dad Russell when we're little boys. and we had an idea to make a wrestling show that would be different.

Starting point is 01:47:01 It would be two different, two hot cameras the whole time, so nothing's going to look bad on television. It was just the best camera shot. It would have done some extra time to editing, but, you know, we wanted wrestling to be, instead of the 20-and-30-minute matches, one-hour time limits, we thought 20 minutes was plenty of time for a match to just and pick up the pace, you know, and just make it more intense.

Starting point is 01:47:31 And I think our shows were like that. I'm proud of them. I'm proud of all of our shows. And my brothers, and especially Dave and I, and Dad, had a great idea one time. And it was going to be to put our new style of wrestling on the show. And it was great. We had a great TV rating, and Vince offered us a big part of his half of it. company up there to come in with him.

Starting point is 01:47:57 And I sat there with my dad and said, nope, what's in it for us? And you never disagree with family in a business meeting. But I was thinking he's got everything we need, everything we need. But dad wouldn't go, wouldn't go with him. To partner with WWE, you mean? Yeah. Wow.

Starting point is 01:48:19 And they're going to let Dad keep San Antonio in Dallas, too. But who knows, huh? Yeah. Who knows what would have happened? Yeah. Because there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, you know, but I mean, we would have been ready. We'd have jumped all over that because we're little boys that had seen it for a whole life, and we just knew how to make it better.

Starting point is 01:48:41 We'd watch the NFL, you know, in the slow motion, the collisions and all. And concerts with the lasers and all the music, the way it fills you out of your chair, you know. we had it. We had, how we wanted to do it. So, you know, that didn't come about,

Starting point is 01:49:01 but we had a great time aiming at it. Yeah, and who knows? Maybe things would have been different, you know? Yeah. I mean, you guys,

Starting point is 01:49:08 yeah, I mean, I just, yeah, I mean, on behalf of like, yeah, any kid that was like me, I mean, the second you guys

Starting point is 01:49:14 put the name on the screen or it's just, man, it was awesome, dude. You felt like everything was possible.

Starting point is 01:49:22 You could fucking rip the drywall to the living room. You could fucking do whatever you wanted to do. You knew mom was coming home in an hour and a half, but you had a 90 minutes till she got there where you were free as a bird, boy. I'd break every damn chair we had and then spend the next two hours

Starting point is 01:49:37 gluing them bitches back together for dinner, dude. You would have loved to stiff in the business. I know you'd have liked it. You would have loved it. Well, Kevin, man, thanks so much, dude. Got a show tonight. Yeah, we got a show tonight. I'd love to take you to dinner, but you're busy.

Starting point is 01:49:51 Yeah, tonight I'll be busy, but you know what? I think I'm going to be down to Austin in September. Oh, you are? Shoot, call me up, man. I'll show you Texas. When I am, I'll come out and see the ranch, man. Do it. That would be cool.

Starting point is 01:50:07 That would be, man. What plants do you guys have out there? What plants? Yeah, do you plan any avocados or anything like that here in Texas or no? Oh, no, no. It won't grow in the subtropics, but I say that. I went to Israel. you know, it's on the 33rd degree

Starting point is 01:50:23 from the equator. I mean, that's way far north. They have mangoes there, papayas. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, they can't grow that in Texas. Yeah, you can't grow that in Texas, huh? But you can grow a batch of von Erick's, dude, that are pretty damn impressive. I'll say that.

Starting point is 01:50:41 Sure can. Kevin, thanks so much for your time, man. Just thanks for you and your family. Just all the enjoyment and excitement and invigoration and possibility over the I think it's inspired a lot of people and it was so much fun as a kid. Just fucking, when you guys came on the screen

Starting point is 01:50:58 just getting to be Yvonne Eric for a few minutes. It was fun, man. It was a lot of fun. I'll think about it. And, you know, when you get some stress built up, you know, you can just get in the ring and kick ass. That's a motto for life, guys. Those days are gone.

Starting point is 01:51:15 But they're pretty close in our minds, you know. Yep, right there. You can still feel them right on the edge of your skin sometimes. Dang right. Dude, I'll beat the shout of somebody in the lobby here if we need to. Well, let's find a quiet spot, and I'll take it down somewhere, and we can make a little news. Kevin, my dear, thanks so much, man. My pleasure, buddy.

Starting point is 01:51:35 Now, I'm just floating on the breeze, and I feel I'm falling like these leaves. I must be cornerstone. Each that ground, I'll share this piece of mind I found I can feel it.

This Past Weekend - #576 - Kevin Von Erich

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