Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
It's The Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast special report. The Lapsed
Fan presents the Complete Hull Cogan, a real American story,
brought to you by.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Garage Pierre Well Boss. We I think are as well
acquainted as anyone could have expected us to be with
Terry Bola at this point, I mean more so than
I ever anticipated. To be honest with you, you're living
under a complete Hulk Cogan. Dude, if you're living under
a rock or you stuffed one up your nose as
a boy, you need to know that the last thing
(00:49):
we dropped on the feed is part of the complete
Hull Cogan journey. In interview with essentially Hulk Hogan slash
Terry Boley's best childhood friend, Vic Pettitt is the height
of achievement for us. And anyways, it's as lapsed as
it gets, and that nobody else is going to do
that short of, like, you know, a documentary that might
include snippets of him. But we cleared the decks where
we said, you know what, this has to happen if
(01:10):
we have even a centil of a chance of bringing
voices to the four that you know, with the exception
of some newspaper articles, over the year never in a
podcast format dedicated focused conversation with Vic Pettit about all
human members about Terry Boleya. We've got to do it,
and we're able to do it because the complete Hulk
Cogan comes with our win at the sales from you
and the Solar System and the financial support you put forward.
(01:32):
Able to find him wasn't free getting him. It's all
part of what we've been saying since day one on
that fucking cast. It's a virtuous circle. You put in,
you get out, and the complete hul Cogan Boss at
this rate is going to service the old lall testom.
You get in, we thrust in, we don't pull out.
Thank you very very much for that. So now that
we have this deeply textured understanding of who the boyhood
(01:55):
Terry Bolea was and who he wasn't as far as
Little League, All Star World Series exploits and such, so
funny to hear Vic just say no, oh my god,
just no, oh, I I listen any any any story
that he was able to debunk was just fucking spectacular.
(02:18):
And to confirm I also like to hear that, you
know what, maybe he was a he was a stand
up guy when it came to knocking a bully out
or something like that. And hey, I love the idea
that he like that, that he was you know, that
he was tied with his friend until the very end.
That was huge. I mean, you know, Yeah, he's like
(02:39):
headline in WrestleMania and Vic Pettitt's got the the Limo treatment.
He can go wherever he wants crazy. So yeah, Terry
remembers the uh, the homies from the old neighborhood. And
we're just getting started. We're just getting started here. The
complete whole code and the lapsed fans drop everything effort
to document all that is documentable about the life and
(02:59):
times of Terry Bull aka hul Cogan. And we're kind
of turning a page here because thus thus far it's
been about the birth of Terry Bolea. And that was
a purposeful title because there's the birth of Terry Boleya
and there's the birth of Hulcoke.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Isn't there?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
There Absolutely is, And the lines are blurred right around
the time period we're going to spend this next episode
focused on when Hulk Hogan transitions from Tampa Boy playing
the little League trying to find his way awkward, big head,
huge body, heavyweight, eating baby ruths playing Tonka trucks everything
we talked about, sticking rocks up his nose. Well, he's
(03:36):
eating baby Ruth. That is so dirty. It's his mom.
She wasn't a baby by then. I guess that's true.
Maybe that's what he called her to baby Ruth. Dude's
baby Ruth. That's like a that's probably what Kenny Wheeler's
(03:56):
dad call her Baby Ruth. Come in. Yeah, we're both
panamon We're both Panamanian. I am a real Panamanian. So
it starts to subtly happen because you know, you think
of hull cog and you think of him strumming a guitar.
Be it, oh, the Real American video with Deren Journ
(04:17):
eighty five, be it the Slamy Awards after hull Comedia
had truly began running wild, or even be it as
Hollywood Hulkogin and WCW turning the Big Gold Belt into
a guitar I tenure with Metallica. But we'll get to that.
But that's that little glimpse picking up a guitar. Is
that glimpse of showmanship that was deep in the spirit
(04:39):
of Terry Bolea that allowed Hulk Hogan to exist, and
it's taking up music in the seventies when he's still
in high school and getting involved in a series of
bands that achieved some level of renown as far as
we can tell, in the Tampa area, playing college campuses,
playing bars and clubs, playing frat parties and things like that,
(05:00):
that Terry Boleya starts to find hul Cogan in himself.
That's where he realizes that, you know, I actually there
is some pizazz to this big, awkward sob that's too
afraid to play football and Crank's home runs without even
trying at age twelve. That's where the transition lies. And
so this, ladies and gentlemen on the Complete hull Cogan
is part one of the birth of hul Cogin and
(05:23):
Tyler to the point, we must still start with Terry
Boleya if we're to begin to detect the origin, the birth,
the spawning of hul Cogin. And we're going to do
just that, and we're going to do it, I think, Boss,
you can say well lubricated, oh absolutely, because as you
know by now, the Complete hul Cocin to the point
(05:44):
earlier about putting the resources in so that we can
give you the results. Out is brought to you entirely
by our friends at Garage Beer. Why don't you take
a step for me? All right, let the listeners of
the lapsed Fan Solar system know what the missing if
they're not cracking open a real American beer. I mean,
I'll tell you the first Yes, number one, this is
(06:06):
a real American beer. This tastes this this to me
right now. You know, we talk about nostalgia, we talk
about sure, you know, we talk about how it used
to be better. Well, I want to say that this
kind of reminds me of like, you know, I can't
say I was I didn't drink beer in high school,
I'll say that, but it did remind me of kind
of like, you know, summer nights, hanging out with friends
(06:29):
and stuff, drinking soda. But nonetheless, like this just kind
of it brings to mind that just kind of hanging out. Yeah. Uh,
you know we're talking about bands, garage bands for that matter. Yeah,
garage bands, garage beer, garage bands, garage beer, garage podcast.
I think it just makes fucking sense. All right, This,
this is it, and it's fucking fantastic. It's crisp, it's cool,
(06:51):
it's amazing. Honestly, it's it's it's it's all I buy now,
no joke, not even fucking kidding. I'm glad I got
in my neighborhood. That's the fucking best part. Like I
actually found place that sells it, and I go there
for it. It's tremendous and edit Garage Beer, We're proud
to tell you not only does it have good taste,
they have good taste because they understand that the lapsed
fan sits at the center of what will endure in
(07:14):
pro wrestling podcasting for years and years and years to
come hashtag shelf life. And whenever it is that you
find yourself coming around to taking the complete Hulk Cogan
journey with us, do know that Garage Beer understands deeply
why you found yourself in that position and why you
so enjoy this steady, systematic march through everything there is
(07:34):
to say on audio format, including things that have never
been said that we're uniquely unable to on Earth, just
for you. With that wind at our sales, as I
talked about Garage Beer America's fastest growing light beer available
in all fifty US states. It's crisp, it's crushable, and boss,
it's brewed for good times. You're damn fucking right, no nonsense.
Four percent ABV lagger, just ninety five calories three grams
(07:57):
of carbs. Comes in two crowd favorite varieties, Classic in line,
I believe you have the classic, I do the Classic. Okay.
You go to their website find the locator. They were
early supporters of the cast, but when they were in
limited markets. When we did our live show in Philly,
that was like part of their market rollout in that
great American city. They were just on the cusp of
announcing the deals with the Kelsey brothers. And it's been
(08:17):
great to see what's been going on over there, and
it's been great to see that they respect that TLF
does it like no one else. And we continue to
pound the competition mercilessly. Mm hmm. Long may it continue
with garage in our hands. So we've mentioned vic pettit
it's available for you now. Check it out on both
the main feed and ad free on patreon dot com
Slash the Lapsed Fan. We're also offering the first UTC,
(08:41):
the first under the cinemat of the complete hul Covin era.
Tell them about goonies. Oh fuck yeah, listen. If you
don't know about goonies, go fuck yourself, all right, it's
a classic, correct, and it really it was. Listen, dude,
I can say I was one of those I've never
really seen it what people yep? Yeah, And now that
I've seen in it, you are correct. Go fuck yourself,
(09:01):
right it, Go fuck my prior self. Listen, because although
Hulk Hogan is not in it directly, there is no
better way to really start, you know, these scattered under
the cinemat episodes that are going to happen throughout the
complete Hull Cogan because it personifies nineteen eighty five and
(09:27):
the explosion of professional wrestling in the WWE onto the world. Yeah,
with Cindel Opera and the music video, it's precisely exactly
the cultural wave that Hulk in the WWF road. Yeah. Yeah,
and it's it just it felt like such an important,
an important place to start because it's a it's a
(09:52):
classic film again and and like we said on the episode,
it's nineteen eighty five, Like nineteen eighty five is almost
like it is this important year for pop culture in
so many ways, and not the least of which is
professional wrestling and Hulkgan and so it all just it
(10:12):
all seemed fitting and also a nice little segue, you know,
because it does deal with you know, pirates and skeletons
and a couple of little freaky moments here and there,
and it takes place during the fall that it made
perfect sense that we would segue right into scary movie
season correct. And it's going to be a good one,
Oh my god. I mean, like the jackal lantern for
your Patreon dollar. The seasonal tradition continues under the cinema.
(10:36):
I got, I got my fucking pumping pumpkin candle, you know,
flaring up right now. You've already had several PSLs. I
take it. Oh fuck yes, absolutely, even though it's kind
of an arm. You've had enough of those days. You've
been kissed by the coolness number one. Yes, the coolness.
There has been enough coolness in that it is definitely
qualifies as fall number two. The moment that that fucking
(10:57):
drink is available, it is fall. I don't fucking care
what the data is. You know, they're going to get
a CEO in the next five years. Who's going to
have the bread idea to have it on the menu
twelve months a year, you know that, right, And it's
going to ruin it. That's correct. We'll calling it now,
We'll ruin it. We'll calling it now. It's going to
be called everything else that's happened since we've been doing this. Yep,
it'll ruin it the moment that someone does that, all right,
(11:19):
it'll ruin the pumpkin spice Lotte. And I'll tell you what,
I won't do it for all year long. No, I can't.
I I I do enjoy, Okay, I know that it's
early for a lot of people, not for me, but
I do enjoy when pumpkin stuff starts coming up in July.
That makes me very happy. It reminds me of well,
(11:40):
it's yeah, goodness, it's a head, it's an exit. It's
a the promise of an eject button when it's like
four hundred degrees, yeah, exactly. And it's hilarious that it happens, like,
you know, three weeks after summer officially starts. It's kind
of fucking hilarious. Well yeah, I've heard people say, like
after July fourth, summer's over. I hate to tell you exactly.
It kind of is. I'll give it to July thirty first.
(12:02):
Once August hits, forget. I just want August be done with.
August is simply a transition month. It doesn't count for anything.
I'm sorry for all all August birthdays. I'm sorry, including
Terry Bolas, including Terry Bolayas. All right, it just does
not count. I'm trussed to say it. By the way,
after talking to Vic pettit is it Terry. Definitely. I'm
going to actually, i gotta say Bowlia from now on.
I'm gonna I'm going to I'm going classic Italian that bowlea.
(12:25):
I'm glad you said that because people were like, you
gotta do it. Terry Bolayas shirt. I'm like, dude, pro
Wrestling Tease dot Com, slash the lapsed fan. It's there,
all right. We got the Terry Terry Bolea Championship lanes.
We've got so much more color on Terry's bowling days
due to Vic, who not only was his childhood best friend,
but they were bowling partners as youths and made the
(12:47):
local papers for their exploits. Vic even went on to
be a professional bowler for years on the circuit highly
decorated in that in that field, tremendous stuff and so
Terry Bolaya's shirts available Alan Rules and tribute to Hulks
Lay Brother who we got some color on from VIC
as well, available at Pro Wrestling Teas and it's been
so great to see folks circle over to our Chopped
(13:07):
tea store where you can't get as everything on top
of T shirts such as you know, hoodies and track jackets.
And a big shout out to Chris poob subscriber that
is x C Chris on x who sent us some
great photos of him rocking that wonderful yellow and blue
John DuPont inspired fan track jack totally very DuPont inspired
(13:30):
courtesy of his I think he said his fiance or
his significant other. So big ups there for you know,
a birthday to remember courtesy of our many merchandise offerings.
That's how to show support to the cast and at
Patreon we continue to deliver because coming up. Look, if
w W HE and AW you are going to beat
each other's throats, then fine, we'll just keep cash and checks.
That's fine with us. And so the Wrestle Poloosa Live
(13:50):
call coming your way for your Patreon dollar because of course, boss,
we had to have a wrestle palooza. Everyone was screaming
for it, clamoring, I mean, what the fuck on to God? Like,
I mean, and and well, you know what the best
part is too, This is what I love about it
is that they also made such a big deal about
it being the fucking the first one on ESPN, but
(14:11):
it's gonna be on Peacock. I'm very confused right now.
I'm really confused about that whole link. I understand, like
they made a big fucking deal about dropping Peacock early,
but they're still gonna have this one on Peacock. Yeah,
I mean, I already got my ESPN. I mean, it's
just so fucking just, honest to god, it's just it's ruined, Okay,
it's something that had already been ruined. We already were lapsed. Yeah,
(14:33):
Like because they just couldn't leave it alone, Like why
couldn't Why did it have to be Like why couldn't
Peacock just kind of like have a link that goes
just to the network, Like why why couldn't just be
the same fucking thing. You know, it's just so stupid,
It's so so fucking stupid when Cornett and Brian last
(14:53):
were talking to the last show about the Ronda Rousing interview,
and they said about the lapsed fan, and Cornet goes,
who is this fan and why did he lapse? This
is the time code to give them right here, because
I don't want to live in a streaming paradise, Okay,
I don't want to live in a world where like,
all right, Netflix for this pea coffee. I mean, because
(15:15):
we all know it's headed towards cable. Again I read
by me it's there. Did we just get there? Like, okay,
I already there. I didn't cut the cord. I'm not
like a gen zer who thinks it's like a boomer
thing to have cable? Could we just like by the way,
by the way, also one thing too, by the way,
that reminds me of one thing. Back to Goony's for
a second. I declare that those born between I think
(15:37):
it was nineteen seventy six and nineteen eighty three are
the Gooney generation. Love it. I fucking stand by that.
I'm not a gen Z. I'm not a fucking millennial
matter whatever the fuck they say. I'm a goony, so
fuck you all. I'm a goony. I'm a that sounds
much cooler, much cooler than millennial. Hey, I stand by it.
(15:59):
I don't care. It's more relatable than a millennial. I don't.
I don't identify as a millennial. Pieces of shit. I
graduated in nineteen ninety nine. I'm not a fucking millennial.
All right, you're a millennial later, Oh my god, I
you know we're just we're not We're not gooning. Okay,
let's be clear about that, so you know it's all
(16:22):
it's all going to be to our benefit. Fine, if
we got to watch Wrestle POLSA, you don't have to.
If the live calls, the premium live calls will be
available on your Patreon. And look, if they're doing it
to fuck with AW, all that does is make us go, well,
if we're already doing this, if we're already sacrificing a Saturday,
why don't we give the people that still follow this
stuff what they so desperately want, which is us to
comment on AW. Because that's ninety percent of wrestling media nowadays,
(16:46):
is they want to say something about age. I know,
I know, it's kind of just I don't know, it's
off putting. It is not particularly interesting to me, but
we'll do it because that's what WW gets for going
head to head. Fine, uh, looking forward to that the
AE w all Out show in Toronto. Head to Head
there's gonna be in the afternoon, but expect your live
(17:07):
calls in and around whatever matches we do. We're not
gonna do the whole card, no, absolutely not, but expect
those to come after the Wrestle Paluza live call files.
I know people might get confused about that. Of course.
Wrestle Mamia also available under this Oh oh yes, yes, indeed,
get in touch with why on the Patreon Oh yeah,
under the paywall. That's what it is. We want to
(17:28):
get in touch with why. We feel necessary to turn
the whole show over to understanding hul Cogan. It's those
days watching with Mama in the room. Oh and that's
and let me tell you, like she's she's on fire.
Part of me is saying I got to find a
way to get her on the on the on on
the phone when we watch it. So I'm not gonna
be I'm not gonna be with her in person. I
kind of want it. I kind of want her to
(17:49):
be on a w stuff from now on. Well, you
know after that, no promises. We we prefer to deliver
our surprises than to make promises, that's for sure. I no,
I can't make promises on that. But you know, I
mean they're there there, there's so much you know, wrestle
mamia is is. It's on fire. Honestly, my mom is
just insane with all the with with all this ship. Well,
(18:10):
forget what just came out, something just came out. Well,
by the time you but time, by the time this drops,
it'll be uh well, it'll be uh money incorporated versus
the natural disasters. I don't remember which, Oh I know
what it's from. And that's that's the that's the Worcester show.
That's the Worster show that I was at. So yeah,
you get to dialogue with her about attending in person exactly.
She'll she'll she will, I will tell her, and she
(18:31):
will forget that I was there. Yeah, you'll be reminded
several times exactly. So that's just fucking awesome. Let's get
a little more complete, shall we, I think so when
we last left to you, I'm here for completion on
the complete hul Cogan Young ed Leslie, a Tampa boy
himself as Vic Petta talked to us about showing up
the Sportatorium on a Wednesday morning for Florida Championship Wrestling
(18:53):
used to tape it's weekend television in a small studio
setting with no air conditioning in Tampa, Florida. And don't
I think it's fair that there was a sportatorium in Tampa.
Is a huge problem. It's a big problem. Yeah. It
really aggravates me because that for so long I was like,
am I getting this confused? I swear the sportatorium was
in Dallas. No, there's only one sportatorium, So they should
change them. They should even in the history books, just
(19:14):
change the name and too this like this territory was
running when the sportatorium really meant something in Dallas. So
that's maybe the sport of Pleuxe or something like that
about that. Yeah, it's a sport of garden, fifteen seats
in it quite quite the toorium. But uh, ed Leslie
standing in line with the sister who he begged to
(19:35):
take him to the tapings, and he's looking out ahead,
and who does he see towering in line above everybody else?
A Terry Boleya that he remembered from high school as
a big baseball player who's now kind of involved in
music and suddenly has an aura of coolness about him,
at least through young ed Leslie's eyes, who was like
three years younger than Hulkogan. And you know, he introduces himself,
(19:55):
reminds him of who he is in line, and yeah,
Terry lets him know that he's he started to lift
and everything started to change. And so we're going to
walk back up to that line, not only the line
had Leslie stood in, but that line in the continuum
of Hulk Cogan's history. He's playing in a band at
nineteen and it's obvious he's hitting the gym instead of
just hitting a baseball. How did he go from the
(20:16):
Terry Bola that we've met this far in the journey
to this giant that ed Leslie came in touch? Question?
How about we start with Infinity's End. Excuse that's complicated,
isn't it. That's very complicated. Yes, So nineteen sixty nine
was the year and the band is called Infinity's End.
This Infinity's End, Yes, is essentially Terry Bolea's first band
(20:40):
that he ever played in. This is the one that
most of the chronology start with. He talks in his
books about there being a band before that that had
a name that never really played any clubs, didn't play
any paid gigs or anything like that. So it's you know,
it's kind of stressed stretching to say that that was
one of his bands as well. But for all intents
(21:02):
and purposes, it starts with Infinity's End. And we're very fortunate,
if you can check your email, boss, that the Bradenton
Harold out in Florida in the year nineteen and sixty
nine went ahead and wrote up an upcoming especially a
press release, but an upcoming gig that Infinity's End was
prepared to play. You've probably seen pictures of hul Kogan
(21:22):
from his days in music in Tampa. One is the
band Ruckus that we'll get to talking about, where he's
got the shoulder length blonde hair and looks sort of
like his future wife actually, But you've seen the other
one where he's got you know, it's a very seventies
leisure suit kind of top and him and his bandmates
are posing around you know, those Florida palm trees and
(21:45):
kind of like a staged photo shoot. Well, it was
the publicity for some of these first rounds of gigs
that Infinity's End would play, that those shots came from
because a key member of the band, his father was
essentially their manager and publicist as well. And so why
don't we acquaint folks if you could boss with oh, yes,
what a what it would have been like to be
living in Bradenton, Florida in nineteen sixty nine, July seventeenth,
(22:08):
to be exact, flipping the pages and laying eyes on
a picture of these high school kids in a band
including the future Hulk Hogan. Infinity's End is big sound.
One word describes the new look and sound of Infinity's End,
Big Yeah. The big look of this Tampa group means
five playing bass, guitar, trumpet, drums, lead guitar, organ, and
(22:30):
lead singer. The big look me look means light, black
means light. Oh means light black, strobe on the beat
and psychedelic slides. I don't the big I do not
understand the style of writing back then. Man, dude, this
is weird. It's like you're writing like you would talk
if you were high, you know, right, I mean yeah, man,
(22:52):
like the guy that introduces Forrest Gump. Washington Monument yeah,
on the mall, the National Mall. Yes, Forrest Gump, But
what's your name? Man's a real guy too. I can't
think he was looking. I'm sure he's a real guy.
I don't think that was I know, I can't, I know,
but I'm like, he's like, he's he's famous. He was
part of the you know he was you got arrested.
(23:14):
It's a big deal. But anyway, I can't think of
his name. The big sound means more music power with
bigger amps and the up to date songs of Iron, Butterfly, Fudge, Krea, Cree,
maybe Kree. I don't know. Abbe Hosmon by the way,
there it is Abbey Hoppin. Yes, th anti war activist.
I didn't know that he was lifted up. Yeah, yeah,
yeah yeah. Creden's clear Water along with current pop and
(23:37):
the rock generation favorites of the Rascals and others, and
all adds up to a big happening for all who
can make it to the Youth Center of Manatee County
this Saturday night at from eight to ten thirty pm.
Infinity's en includes Chet Yoakum lead singer, Mike Barris, bass guitar,
and trumpet, Terry Bowlia lead guitar are John Phillips drums
(24:01):
and Gary Barris organ and guitar. Gate fee, brother, we're
talking about gate fee right for the get go here. Yeah,
they're pretty good. They got a guy with advisor counting
the money, big fat sweaty oh fucking counting money with
a cigar, and and and and and uh, you know,
fucking stealing half their half their fucking gate gate fee
(24:26):
will be fifty cents for members and a dollar for
out of county guests of members, what about just regular people?
That's great question. Uh, seventh graders who have passed into
the eighth grade are eligible to attend the center, and
those who have not passed therefore are going to be exterminated,
and membership is offered to those students at a dollar.
(24:47):
All membership cards expire as of October. First. Dressed for
the evening will be casual, with no bare feet, short shorts, cutoffs,
mid drifts, or sea throughs being allowed nineteen sixty nine.
And most importantly, okay, this is this is and this
is very very important. Before the closion hour. Correct, you
(25:14):
can't leave, You're stuck. So if the building's on fire,
you can't get out if the building's on fire. That
just means Infinity's end kicked it into another gear. Oh my,
because as we know, boss, every new beginning comes from
some other Infinity's end. It's the complete old Coagan excellent.
(25:52):
So that's uh, that's what's happening. Kids, Come on down, Christ,
come on down, Come on down. Infinity's end. Big sound,
big time, big party, big happening. That's that's the old
George Carlic you wonderful? Why no, the big sound in
the big town tremendously. What a time to be alive,
(26:15):
What a time to be Terry Bowley? Do you see
do you see the pick there the picture of the article. Oh,
he looks like a fucking club let me know that, Okay,
Like you just can't with it. I mean he looks
like somebody I can't. I can't, fucking I mean he
kind of looks like Andy Kaufman in a way.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, well he parts his hair the same way. Yeah,
and like he's got he's also he's he's just tall.
He's skinny. He's a skinny motherfucker. Yeah that's the thing,
big ass head. You were so fat. You were real, No,
you real? You know he seriously was not fat. People
don't understand what fat is, honestly, Like they think is
like a ten year old and a twelve year old
(26:56):
but by the time school. But but even so, like
people like if you get a little billy like, no, sorry,
you're not fat, Like you're not fat. Okay, I'm fat, Okay,
I know what it is, all right, I've been feeling
my whole life. All right. He had a pot belly
because he couldn't stop toking. So much credit to Vic
Pettitt for going there. He's like absolutely absolutely, Oh you
(27:17):
carry it in a separate fanny pack. Let's fucking go.
Enough bullshit. You know he's gone. We mourn the loss.
Let's let's let's get down to what actually it was like,
you know exactly. Listen, I don't have time for other shit,
all right, I need I need to know what happened,
when it happened, how it happened, yes, and why it happened.
I would I would encourage you and anyone in the
(27:38):
Solar system who doesn't get an instant mental image when
I say this, to Google it as well. Relic rhymes
R E L I C rhymes. If you could just
do that for me, that relic rhymes yeah, that's uh,
that's what Terry looks like to me in this particular picture. Well,
I mean, yes, not without the Bob he doesn't have
(27:58):
the Bobby airtrack, but a lot of its accurate. Yes,
that's for sure. This guy was balding at nineteen. Yeah,
I mean he's got like as hard as there's somebody
who like, I can I know who this is, but
I cannot figure out who like the name. But yeah,
he's got you know, it's just he's got a part
and it's like long, it's almost like he's got almost
(28:19):
like a bowl cut going on a brother and then
alongside burns, and it looks like he's at like, you know,
almost like dark roots for some reason. So right, well, yeah,
it depends how far back you go as far as
dark roots. True, they're true. Their manager was the father
of the keyboard player Gary you mentioned Barriss, and their
costume designer was in fact Gary's mother. And I recall
(28:41):
that Terry Bullya played guitar and the Christian Youth ranch
band we talked about. He just started getting interested in
guitar and by the time his friends asked him to
accompany them Vic Pettit included he went with him to
the Christian youth ranch. There was a need for a guitarist,
and Terry Boleya knew, you know, rudimentary enough stuff to
play some Russians for them on the guitar. And yeah,
(29:04):
Vic Bettett has talked about every Saturday, in addition to
all of this, they'd watch Florida Championship Wrestling. According to
Hogan's book, we heard memories and recollections of Vick's father
taking them to the Fort Hesterley the sight of the
big regular Florida Championship Wrestling cards, and Polk recalls in
one of his books him and his buddies going outside
in the parking lot during shop class in high school
and pretending to ram each other's heads into a door
(29:26):
or fake body slam someone. Jesus, how do you fake
body slam someone? It already is fake. I mean maybe
you don't put the hand on the thigh. I don't know.
It's like when Triple H said this week in announcing
WrestleMania and Saudi Arabia that we're going to Saudi. Is
that them? Yeah, We're going to take a trip. TLF
Live show in Saudi, you imagine, Yeah, we'll do it.
(29:48):
We'll do it in one of three hundred thousand Lexus
dealerships that they have over there, in Mercedes and Bugatti
and blah blah blah. So yeah, I'm already looking. I'm
already trying to figure out how to like wear this
robe appropriately. It's at the house, but I don't know
how to wear it yet. I'm trying to figure it out.
So and I got a I got an old picnic
(30:11):
napkin here that I'm gonna trying to perfectly wrap around
my head perfect word. So when it comes to that,
you know that comment, Triple H basically said, we're a
movie about the sport, We're not the sport. I can't
with him saying that. Why isn't that accurate? I mean,
isn't it? No, Yes, it is, actually listen, it's completely accurate.
(30:32):
It's just it just goes against everything he was saying
twenty years ago. Yeah, mister, I don't even that's tough
enough because it exposes the business. Right, So what we're
talking about, mister c M. Punk doesn't know how to
wrestle a real match and only knows how to simulate matches.
What Rocky Rocky is a movie about something that's real, Right,
it can't be a fake movie about something that's already fake, Like,
(30:53):
I mean, right, I mean you can be. But I'm
really confused. It's very I mean, there's there's a lot
of metas shit going on there that I can't explain it. Know,
Dana's on the board, but uh yeah, so there there's Terry.
You know, as much as he's getting into music, pro
wrestling and Florida Championship Wrestling is still very much in
his peripheral and it's in his spirit. He's he's horsing
(31:14):
around with his friends, like in ways we can all
identify with as as boyhood wrestling fans, fake bodies, slamming
someone on the hood of a car, hamming it up
like they were really getting hurt. Selling. I'm sure Hulk
was very mindful of all his friends selling appropriately. I
mean didn't take kindly to any you know, to anyone
coming up behind him. I think we learned that with
(31:35):
the rock to the backstory. Dude, I mean, from day one,
from day one, he's upset about people coming up from behind. Okay, yes,
day one. So I'd like to now now turn to
Hulk Hogan's first book, the one that WW published, where
he will give us a little bit of a sense boss,
a little bit of a sense of how he became
(31:57):
a music man. So if you can warm up those
those Terry pipes for the Solar Sister, please uh convey
this to our listeners, all right. By the time I
got ninth grade, I was known for my guitar playing.
No known this community. People knew that Terry, though, he
(32:21):
says non, I mean that that's very vague and it
could be very you know, it could be misleading, could
be it is misleading. I got my first little band together.
We called it Infinity's End. First, you know, we were
just screwing around, but then we started. Then we started
getting dates to play at parties on the weekends, and
we were booked up almost almost all the time. A
(32:43):
keyboard player was a guy named Gary, whose father was
our manager. He drive us around in his station wagon
with the U haul trailer hooked up to it. I
remember we had to wear socks when we played, and
Gary's mum painted our blue jeans with black light with
black light paint. I do love there's the black lights.
What are he's talking about? From that article, right, they
would glow in the dark, apparently, when they would turn
(33:05):
the lights out in these stuffy clubs that they would play.
That's something to picture. I do love that we get
the stories from growing up. Hulk Hogan voice when you
read his stuff. Oh, highly appropriate. Listen, all of the sudden,
I was the odd man out brother, All of a sudden, dude.
I can't even know what's happening, all of a sudden, dude,
But black lights paint. So when the black lights came
(33:27):
up and for a book, all the paint would light up.
It seems like a pretty cool ideal of the time.
Absolutely for a bunch of kids. We did all right
for ourselves. You know, we played in Agata Davida. Tell
me about in Agata Davida. What do you know about it?
I know nothing in Gotadavida. Did you hear that? Yes?
(33:49):
Oh yes, all right. You picture Terry Blay in high
school with that hair playing the song w T L
(34:20):
so in a Godavita apparently is a slurve way of
saying in the Garden of Eden. That's why I always
I always knew it in the Garden of Eden, because
I'll tell you I always think of what what I what?
I always it always makes me think of the I
think it's Bart sells his Soul from The Simpsons where
(34:40):
Bart switches the their church and Bart switches the organ
music with this in the Garden of Eden, and then
priests go the pastor goes in the garden of eating
by I Ron Butterfly and and they play and everyone's singing.
It's fucking it's the most fucking funniest thing. It's great.
That's a very Simpsons thing. I love that. Yeah, oh yeah,
(35:02):
So that's the kind of music you need to picture
Hulk Hogan in high school playing before like you know,
a teen group or something like that. I just it
just puts that song. It's like a perfect time capsule
of like what the sound is that I would expect
to come out of people who look like this in photographs,
because I'm here to tell you and I'd love to
be proven wrong here. There there is no recordings of
(35:23):
Hulk Hogan playing music in his teenage years anywhere I
once found us. Unless some yeah, I want to say,
unless there's somebody who who who who has you know,
you know, tapings on who's there at the events or whatever.
One of his band members or something like that, who
is still alive with their area. I have to think
by now would come out with all the dogs that
have been done on him. Nothing. We don't know what
(35:44):
it sounded like to be in those clubs, and that's
a damn shame. I know, I know I would. I
want to hear it. I want to hear what people
I want to I want to hear the response to
Infinity's end. Yes, I want to hear, like Terry take
the mic between songs and how's everybody doing tonight? You know,
did that do everybody? How's everyone going? Brother? That's all
(36:05):
you see it? Yeah, he said, I wanted to And
they got a Vita Dudes and a Vita Loca. What
was uh uh? Yeah? What was Terry's first girlfriend? Miss leading?
That's right, misleading? And and there he was. And he
would talk later about you know that being his first
(36:26):
feeling that he had a little bit of showmanship in
him was the way he would warm up the crowd
on the mic despite not being the vocalist, and he
would he would play that role in certain bands as
the time washing and he got comfortable to be like,
you know, like I know how to rile up a crowd,
and that's that's sort of important for wrestling. Yeah, I'll
say that's very important things, would you know turn out
(36:47):
in the end? All right, then you gotta be one.
The title is famously a slurred version of in the
Garden Veden too. No, that's just that's just a note
of mine. So yeah, he says, And I got oh
and all old Stefan Wool songs. We knew everything that
was on the radio. And we had two guitar players,
(37:07):
a drummer, a bass player, and a keyboard player, which
was pretty intense for a ninth grade band. The music
remained an underlying theme for me. You know, I go
to high school, I started playing even even better bands,
and that became my job, my income. I didn't go
out after school and work in McDonald's or the hobby shop.
(37:27):
And the hobby shop. But okay, I mean it's like
talking about like a fucking like a like a like
a craft store or something. Is that somebody's talking about
hobby lobby A hobby lobby? Yeah, Like what the is
he talking about? Or something like that? You know how
many money by playing by playing music? And by the
time I was in eleventh or twelfth grade. You know
we're talking, you know, nineteen seventy or so. Remember I
(37:47):
was making like four hundred dollars a week, and that
was a lot of bread back then. Nowadays it would
be like a couple of grand For a while, you know,
I became the only person Robinson High School who had
gotten a brand new car on his own. What about
his other fucking bandmates? Did they not earn money? Did
he have a fucking section eleven h sub paragraphy back
(38:09):
then too? For his band? I mean, did he get
did he get like, you know, favorite nations, certain a
certain favorite nation, certain cut above everybody else? Did he when?
When when they sold T shirts? Did it ring up
Hulkogan or Terry Terry Bowlia? Is that what happened? Can
I can I put your little notepad to work? Can
you please get into process and infinities and T shirt? Oh? Fuck? Yes,
(38:33):
oh my god? Yes, absolutely, That's why I think that
people know they want it. Yeah, yeah, I've got a
new car, is owned. And before my senior year was over,
you had a second new car and add to the
first one, both of our sixty nine road Runners one
and automatic with a three eighty three engine and the
other a four speed. Dude tremendous. So he's he's all
(38:59):
about counting his money from yes, the day he was
ever given a red scent, this guy, and like he
talks about it later in life when doing interviews about
like who is the best wrestler, It's like, brother, it's
the bank account. You know. This guy, he's a math guy.
He always talks about them, a numbers guy. What that
means is the only thing that's real to him is
what how many zeros are on the check and what
(39:21):
it courts to add another zero. That's the only guiding
principle of Derry Boley's life as far as I can tell.
Bless the guy, but my god, like he remembers every
little paycheck, every little does Yes, listen, all right, they
got to they got to keep track. They got to
keep track. Otherwise who knows what the fuck is going
to go on? I remember Meltzer saying, not too long ago,
like one of the only times Hulk ever called him
(39:43):
was because he needed to nail down the by rate
to figure out how much he got fucked on the
Wrestling Landia nineteen payoff. Wow, he doesn't care about reaching
out to the enemy then, right, yeah, exactly. And that's it, man,
that that's his reality. Is like the life is a
game of who's got more money in the bank, And
as long as I have more money in the bank
than you, I'm winning. You know, That's that's Hull Cogan's America.
(40:06):
And and you know, not only that, they were pressuring
him to play football and of course well challenging him
to shoot as well. Brother, We're not going to pretend
that people started only challenging Hulk to shoot after he
became a pro wrestler. No, of course, before he even
considered being a wrestler in his own right, he was
running in the situations in Tampa where people wanted to
(40:28):
shoot on him. Here now is an excerpt boss from
his second book about that whole alternate narrative going on
in his high school years. Besides the music, let it
go fucking pay there it is. Pe was even worse
once I got to high school. Yes, right, p But
(40:50):
first of all, because my size, everybody wanted me to
play football. No, I actually played a little, but you
know when I put me out there on the varsity
team in tenth grade, I hated it so much. After
two games I quit. All the football players hated me
for that, so did the coach. You know, this big, mean,
three hundred pound guy named named coach Man. You know,
he never forgot it, and he never let me forget it.
(41:11):
I swear he added in me for the rest of
my high school years. Me with my hippie long hair.
Coach and the football players weren't the only ones who
hated me. The wrestlers say to me too. You'll believe
it or not, I want nothing to do with high
school wrestling. Coach Man never let me live that down.
Either may it was just my bad luck or maybe
it was coach Man's doing. But when I got to
my senior year, I got stuck in seventh grade, seventh
(41:32):
period pe class. You have the class with all the
jocks in it because at the end of the day,
so it's basically like an early start to football practice
and basketball practice and wrestling practice. You know, all the
jocks are just keep practicing after the bell ring, you know,
one day, and anything that happens after the bell rings
is yeah, dude, deep trouble. That is trouble after the
bell rings sotho that they put you know in there.
(41:53):
Oh yeah, question mark. They we're having a conversation. I
think like, oh yeah, I think I love about the book, Terry.
Is it really sounds like you talking? I can hear
your voice when I read it. Yeah, I feel like
we're having a conversation. You like you're actually you're listening
to me as I talked to you, even though you're
not listening at all, because it's a fucking written page.
You know. One day coach Man brought this kid, kid
(42:13):
and who had graduated the year before Steve Broadman. Steve
was the wrestling champion of all champions, he was a
hero of the all those guys in a heavyweight Just
teach me a lesson, coach Man said to me, and boy,
get your ass over here and put me into put
me on the matt. To Russell, Steve, you know, this
wasn't out in the gym. This was in the locker room.
(42:34):
I thought that he said it was in the mat.
He said it was on the mat. They have a
matt in the locker room. Maybe maybe they do, Maybe
they do. Maybe maybe they practiced in the locker mind
probably not, though you know you was scared, Yah should
ask uh? You know, who would have known? I uh
uh pett. But you know I was scared, Oh for sure,
(42:54):
man had brought him in there to kill me or
at least hurt me. Real pass so scared, so nervous. Rollers,
What get in here, boy, get your damn ash in here,
bull here you stick? You're fit is a bowling pin
(43:17):
Bowlea's wrong with you? You're that's right, you're fucking You're
probably dumb ash too, sitting there with your fucking ass
blonde hair and playing your goddamn music. Fuck you, you're
a piece of ship. You're a Hillsbury County bitch. Isn't
that nice? You know? That's the thing. Terry was surrounded
by nice teachers and coaches. That's one thing you got
(43:37):
to say. Of course, listen any any authority figure obviously
trying to fucking pull one over on. I wanted to run.
When he can't run. They want him to suffer, they
want him to shoot, They want him to job when
he when he won't job. The whole fucking thing. I
get it, I get it well, Terry. Terry was so
against jobbing then that he didn't even work. He was
in the band. He wouldn't he wouldn't do a job
(43:57):
at the hobby shop. Right, Jerry never did a job.
It's a fucking story of his life avoiding happen to
do an actual job. That's it. He does less jobs
than melms Era or mill blush or mill concealer. It's
(44:27):
the complete hull, Coke and Bitch, brought to you by
garage Beer. Oh god, I mean no, no, no, no longer.
I'll have a short. So I did ever I could
to end this thing fast. And won't you know what?
I pined him brother and the one two three brother
an amateur wrestling match. Dude to this big, lumbering, awkward
(44:49):
teenager who like has hardly an athletic bone in his
body when it comes to like not just swinging a
baseball bat, and he's like, oh and he's like pinning
this adult Like I just yeah, I imagine too that
he doesn't even like pin him for really like trips
and like, because he's so fucking big, he just falls
on the guy. You know, there's no yeah, there's no
legit pin here? Is he fucking stumbles? Did he try
(45:13):
to lift the coach and the coach fell on top
of him too? Right? Yeah, I'm I'm pinning coach Man's
number one guy right there, easy one two three brother
drop one two three, dude exactly was zero training I
just did out of pure fear. Paul Cogan operating out
(45:34):
of pure fear. I don't believe it sounds man boy
was man pissed. Coach threw his hat down. He was
mostly bald headed with these weird patched pair He had
something here, it is. This is how I know. This
is how I know. He's talking about the guy who's
portrayed in stories about growing up again. Who is he?
(45:54):
What was his name again? The guy who plays that role?
I can't remember. He's kind of that guy. I know,
I know, and I remember seeing it, but I can't
remember it was. You know, he has some disease. I
think it's called alopecia. Yes it is. I mean what
I love is he he he thinks you know, he
(46:15):
could have looked it up. He could have looked it
up before he fucking wrote this. Yeah, the author could
have too, by the way, you know, exactly like someone
could have just looked up and said, yeah, it's alopecia.
But he threw his hat down and threw his clipboard.
I mean, did he have no eyebrows too? Like that's
the whole thing. Like he hasn't like no hair, that's
the whole that's alopecia. Are we sure the coach man
wasn't Bobby Lashley? We're not. It could be because I
(46:38):
have never seen eyebrows on that man that didn't look
painted on. And he's been glistening bald since the moment.
That's true. Oh, he was just steaming all right, Try me,
coach man, Actually go down all fours in position, get
on top me, come out on this guy's like like
he is out, Get down, get up? What are the riskies?
(47:05):
Finally letting the bombs go, like, get down, all right,
Lieutenant Dan, shut the fuck up. So I got on
him and I hooked him right away, just pulled, just
pulled his arm out from order him. Took his weight
right with me. I'll chicken him. What's the only thing
(47:26):
that The other thing funnier than Hulk trying to shoot
is Hulk describing shooting. Pulled his arm so his weight
like he's a distribution of weight, like he's this guy
never wrestled the day in his life, and he's got
all these all those expotise in the physiology, like he
fucking knows anything like you know, he's conversant in Yeah,
exactly the metaphysics of it all. I'll put him right
(47:46):
right here right I pinned him too, rapped through him
for the whole PE class.
Speaker 5 (47:50):
God, down the ball, you hook my damn times.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
I can't wait for you to get to the description
of like the that's the outcome of all this. Everyone
started laughing and hollering except coach Man. Dude. I went
run for my life. I run round of the building,
and big coach Man changed me all the way down
the street in front of Robinson High School. Goddamn, I
got to.
Speaker 6 (48:22):
Kill such your goddamn off you son a bitch.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
Fuck you.
Speaker 6 (48:27):
You better ever come back.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
This goddamn school will kill you. There's your dark side recreation.
By the way, coach Man chasing Terry Blaya in a
fucking flower Power shirt down the street front of high school.
I was sure water kill me. And my parents went
and talked to percipal the next day and they let
me out of PE class for the rest of the year.
(48:48):
He didn't save brother, you added brother, which is great
because I couldn't necessarily have to look so I wasn't
in with the football players. Or the wrestlers are anny,
the jocks at all on All wrote the kind of
heat with everybody? Say what do you say against a
last sentence? Again, I had I had all kinds of
heat with everybody. That's how you described high school before
(49:10):
he even learned the wrestling carnate term heat. He had
heat with everybody, has fucking heat. He has heat everybody
in high school. Remember when I was saying, the birth
of Terry boleya begins to blend seamlessly into the birth
of Hulkgan. This is what I'm talking about, yea, Right,
Terry Blay is shooting in the high school locker room
and hooking and pinning and running, and he's got heat.
He's got heat before he even start foot in a
(49:31):
wrestling ring. Got heat with everybody. So this is this
is a nice opportunity to kind of just quickly sketch
in and color and you know, Hult growing up, Hulk
coming of age, a growing boy in that very modest
Port Tampa house south of Grandy? Is that what it
is not? South of Grandy? Yeah? Yeah, And and so
(49:51):
we start here. This is a clip from an A
and E biography special that was notn on Hulk. I
believe in two thousand he was still in WCW Yes.
So this one yes WW centric. There's no WDA footage
in it and things like that, but they tell a
lot about his boyhood and they interview Pete and Ruth Blea,
his parents. So we start with the story of Hulk
shooting with the high school coach has just recollected there
(50:12):
in his book, and then transitioned into what he ate
and how great he was musically inclined, So it's kind
of all here.
Speaker 7 (50:19):
But he went too far when he tested his skills
on the high school gym coach during class.
Speaker 3 (50:25):
He made me get down in the referee position on
all fours and he went ahead and hooked me. And
when he said go, I sat out real quick, chicken
in his arm and I tended him. He came up
out of his mind crazy, and I mean I just
remember running from my life around the lockers in the shower,
running from her to stay away from it.
Speaker 7 (50:46):
But Terry had interest beyond sports. He was a straight
A student and one of his greatest loves was music.
He taught himself guitar and bass guitar and formed a
popular rock band that played local dances.
Speaker 8 (50:59):
Almost every night.
Speaker 9 (51:02):
He came moment for breakfast, he'd have maybe ten eleven eggs,
and he'd had a three quarter pounds of ground sarloins
and a whole quart of orange juice. That was just breakfast.
Speaker 7 (51:13):
Terry was known at school as reserved, even shy, but
once in front of an audience with his band, he
came alive.
Speaker 9 (51:21):
When he played in the band, he was amongst four
or five guys playing, but some you know, the people
your voice got excited about. He was a big, so
big and playing that guitar and longbond hair, and then
he's like he always just created a lot of excitement.
Speaker 7 (51:37):
Showmanship was in his jeans. His mother, Ruth, had been
a musician and a professional dancer.
Speaker 4 (51:44):
He got his talent from his brother because she plays
the oregon and plays the piano and dancing. I felt
that that's where he got his talent.
Speaker 6 (52:00):
For me.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
Oh thank you Peter, Oh thank you Peter. The way
she added that I used to teach dancing. When he's
still talking, that's such a that's so interesting to me,
you know. Oh yes, Ruth was definitely the one that
would like like talk over Pete when he was in
company over, you know, because because you know what, he
just took too long. He took too long to get
to and he forgot this. You've got the details that
(52:21):
put her in the most positive life exactly. I want
you to know that Terry, Terry bought us Lincoln's Okay,
I know this looks like a humble house, but we
have a condo you don't know anything about, and it's
Clarence clear It's in Clarence clear Water, Revival, Florida. Well,
thank you, Pete.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
Man.
Speaker 2 (52:40):
She's she's a piece of word. Humble. Yeah, yeah, I
think I think Ruth is definitely. I think there's a
lot there. I think there's a lot there, especially when
later on is we'll get to who knows when? Uh,
when Hulk claims that Vince Senior wanted him to die
his heir ran and go as this Irish wrestler, he said,
despite not having a drop of Irish blood in me,
when his fucking mother is is moody and couldn't Oh
(53:02):
my god, tremendous, so so many there's only so many
ways we can get at what it was like to
experience Terry Bolea in his band days. But fortunately for
us and this is one of what will be many,
many big shout outs to the homie Matt, who has
been an indispensable partner in researching the history of Terry Boleya.
There's a Facebook group out there where people in and
(53:24):
around the Tampa area recall seeing hul Cogan Wow no
Shit in the bands of his youth. And it started
with a post by the aforementioned Gary Berry, who said,
who was talking about, you know, remembering the band you
just saw? Pardon me the picture of the band that
you just saw in that article, that publicity photo. He says,
the picture was actually taken on the corner of Barcelona
(53:46):
and Bayshore, behind what was at the time an old
gas station. Okay wow. And underneath this post, everyone's bringing
forward recollection of remembering seeing Terry Boleya play in various
bands when they were when they were kids back then.
One person remembers that they played at the nineteen seventy
six bi centennial dance for Plant High School. Somebody else
(54:09):
recalling in this thread he saw them at the Islands
Club nineteen seventy four to seventy five, big collar Island shirts,
Western style or Western style. Apparently they went with this
hippie look as well as country western, and as we'll
get into some of the venues that he was known
to play, and his bands did have kind of a
country western heritage, so it wouldn't surprise me if they sort
(54:29):
of cosplayed that way too at times to fit in
at the venue of choice. This This person writes, it's
long enough ago. I don't remember the name of the band,
and I think he was playing guitar, not bass. I
see the band name is Infinity's End. Can't quite remember
where the Islands Club was, but and Hult calls out
playing at the Islands Club in his earliest days in
this book. But I think we crossed over a bridge
from downtown Tampa. But when I look it up on
Google Earth, everything's changed so much. Nothing looks familiar. That's right,
(54:52):
and looks familiar I can associate with that. Someone else writes, yes,
they played at my high school dance. I went to
Tampa Catholic. Gary writes, my dad owned Downing Music Company
on wes Kennedy back in the sixties. Many the local
bands hung out there, so the guy that you know
sort of architected the band and his father were involved
in the music business. In terms of like selling music
(55:13):
and things like that, and music equipment, it appears, so
they go back and forth. Someone writes, I lived behind
him and could hear him practice? Can you imagine that?
You remember Hulko going to use here the sound of
his bass crashing through the walls, you know that. Has
you ever lived next to someone that's playing an instrument
like that? Yeah, yeah, yes, it's just speak to become
part of the ambiance, you know, and for that guy
(55:34):
to have gone to become a Hulk Hogan as something
else he put in the work. This person rights, always
practicing and so many other memories. That's the wrestling business,
right there, Always practicing absolutely first lead guitar, leader, bass guitar,
someone remembers. Someone else writes, I was in the band.
He switched to bass one practice because he couldn't play
fast enough for Roundabout By Yes, that song, he said,
(55:55):
David White, the bass player could so apparently, if this
guy's right, the reason Hulk went to bass, which was
his of course signature guitar, was because they came upon
a song that he couldn't keep up with on lead guitar.
Someone else writes, they played gigs at Shenanigans, North Nebraska Avenue.
Someone says, I used to watch him and his band
(56:15):
at Shenanigan, so apparently he was well known there. And
I can't imagine. I can't imagine Haul Cochan being involved
in a place called Shenanigan, all right, come on, I can't.
Someone even says that. Someone writes, that's a perfect place
for Hogan to play Shenanigans. Someone else writes, when he
was with the band Ruckus, they played at a club
in LUTs called Shenanigans Best Time, Best Times, Best of Times.
(56:38):
In the seventies, I had a friend that went on
a date with him. They went to the beach on
the causeway and she instead of them walking on the beach,
he carried her. Oh don't you enjoy that while it lasts,
because he won't carry many Back in the seventies, I
worked for an insurance company. This person writes agency rather
out of the West Shore mall called Brunners Insurance. He
would come in and get his insurance through us. He
(57:02):
was actually very shy. Who can believe that? And this
is a category of dynamic I really want to capture
on the complete Hull cogn This guy, this huge guy
walking into a grocery store or a bank. Yes, yes,
and just not even be not even really wanting to
draw attention to himself, but having no choice because of
his proportions, you know, and his and his hair and
(57:22):
everything and whatever. People recollect and we're going to try
to collect as many of these and convey them to
you over the course of the complete Hull Cogun as
we possibly can. You know it confronted Terry Boleya in
the wild, you know, doing errands. I'm so fascinated.
Speaker 1 (57:38):
Fan wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows the boys
(58:12):
need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan. He's the Lapsed
(58:47):
Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnio m JP Soro.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
You know he's got those those those sort of like
brown tinted sunglasses, you know the ones I'm talking about. Yes,
I do. And it's everyone's looking at him, and he
knows everyone's looking at him, but he's not going to
say something until someone says something. That's the terrible let
I want to know about yep, me too, someone else writes,
I saw him a couple of times at Shenanigan's. He
was the bass player. He was dating a fellow Tampa
(59:13):
Catholic alumn named Donna Herrick. Oh where's Donna? Ooh? Yes.
Someone else writes, I had the biggest crush on Donna
Herrick and I was queer. She was very groovy with
her yellow tinted aviators. Wow. Man, that puts you right there,
doesn't it. Yellow tinted aviators. That's the era we're talking
about here. Someone else writes, he lived across the street
from my aunt and uncle growing up, and according to them,
(59:34):
he wasn't a very good son. Wow, the stories they
have told me about him and the way he treated
his parents personally. I've only met him once. I've never
really been a fan of his or his daughter. Wow. Okay,
And in case you were questioning if this was actually Facebook,
that should confirm it for you. That's the most Facebook
comment I've ever read in my life. Everyone's saying they
(59:54):
see everyone's saying positive things about this person. But I'm
here to tell you, yes, God, yeah, exactly, that's such
good stuff. Maybe she was thinking about Alan. There's a
chance of that it's true. Someone else writs, they played
at our Hillsborough High Senior class prom in seventy two.
Great band, So yeah, proms, graduations. These kinds of things
is where they would get their their gigs. Someone else writes,
(01:00:16):
I saw Terry play in Ruckus and they really kicked it.
I thought they would go places, but at the time
there were too many great bands and not enough room
at the top for all of them. Terry really cranked
on the base. I was like wrestling right there. Yeah,
Terry cranked on the base and he cranked a rouskied
in the fucking locker room at Robinson High School. Someone
else rights saw him play at the Islands Club many times.
He was kind of quiet then, Yeah, that's definitely definitely
(01:00:38):
important to remember that he was actually, you know, quiet, Yes,
And at the end of the day. One day during
junior year, he writes, this friend of mine I'd known
since elementary school, Scott Thornton, asked me if I could
give him a ride to the gym. His card broken
down and I had nothing better to do, so I said, sure,
What do you mean? Car broke down there? Car broke down?
Speaker 9 (01:01:00):
Brother?
Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
How that what you never heard of that? Terry? Then
sometimes cars do that. I could use your help instead
of this interrogation. By the way, Well, well, brother, okay, brother,
So Why are you asking my help? Dude? How when
have I? Brother? Have I kind of right? Have all
showed you that I'm like capable of you know, car maintenance? Brother?
How do you know about that? Did it did it
(01:01:23):
breakdown or did it come breaking down? Are you breaking down? Brother?
Are you? Are you breaking down? It's gonna hurt me inside? Brother?
How are you telling me? Are you falling down? Dude?
Because they won't give you a breakfast at McDonald's. Right,
(01:01:43):
I want you to picture the book and the Terry
Boleta days, not the whole the fucking yeah with the
bowl cutt and hit yeah and just he's not even
a superstar yet, but he's still kind of concerned that
one's trying to pull a fast one on him, and
it's a problem. I bring a Pector's Jim because there
was a comment and the aforementioned Facebook thread. He was thin.
Then he started training at Hector's Jim Mike Graham trained
(01:02:05):
there too, So sure enough, here's Scott Thornton who asks
Hulk Terry to give him a ride to the gym
because his car had broken down. Hulk agrees and they
drive to Hector's gym on Platt Street, in Tampa, and
according to Hulk's recollection, as he got out of the car,
Scott said to Hulk, why don't you come in? Hmm,
And that's where it started. That's where Hulk first laid
(01:02:26):
eyes on a laid eyes. I mean, I don't know
about that, but the first time he considered himself a
candidate for the bodybuilding lifestyle. And Boss just conveyed to
you their passage from his second book where he kind
of describes the psychology of entering that gym for the
first time. I wasn't himself going every day. It took
about a year, I guess, before I noticed that I'd
(01:02:47):
put on some muscle on where the fat used to be.
It may not seem like much, but that little physical
change filled a void in me feel better about myself?
Can you? Can you read that sentence one more time? Yes,
it may all seem like much, but a little physical
change filled a void in me. The void. Let's talk
(01:03:08):
about the void of the void. The void is The
void is everything. Yep, you need to fill the void.
Void is everything. I think that's going to be the
key finding at the end of this whole thing. Yes, yes,
the voids, It's true. It's true, you know, if you
if you don't, if you don't find something to fill
the void, well, and if you don't correctly identify the void. Yeah,
(01:03:34):
well that's most importantly, most importantly. Also, yeah, what number one,
you identify that you have a void? Yep? Number two?
What is it? And what is it? For real? What
is it for real? What? What? What fear does it
betray in you that you consider it avoid? What do
(01:03:55):
you actually what do you feel you're actually missing? What
do you think it'll give you to fill the voice?
Because that's the difference, Honest to god. There are people
who know they have avoid, but they don't know really
why right and what it is and therefore right and
therefore they're not sure. They throw a ton of darts
(01:04:16):
against the wall to try to fill it, and nothing
does the trick because they're not diagnosing off right. And
a lot of a lot of times that deals with
you know what you know, all that you know? It
can lead to a million different things, you know, addiction,
all sorts of shit. It can lead. It can lead
you to be worried that people try to screw you
every day of your life for the rest of your life. Yeah,
(01:04:38):
can lead you to, you know, be a pro wrestler
to feel like you're constantly being cheated out of money
or potentially being cheated out of money. Avoid my wallet, brother,
That's what the void is, dude, fill that void. The
only void he knows about is writing void on the
check suite. Got a goot that director's pozzle set. Brother.
(01:05:01):
I know about void, brother, but where is his brother? No,
that's attacked him null and look. I can see it
in ninety two smoothly. It's definitely a fucking it's a
hard team. For sure. They would have called if money
(01:05:22):
Ink fell on hard times, they would have called it
null and volle. Oh my god, that would have been
a great if. If they had decided that, that would
have been fucking hilarious. Destitute. The million dollar man has
nothing in his account and he's he's he's debt, he's
debt ridden, and he's siphoning money from a nonprofit. Oh
wait a minute, let me stop right there. I'll started
(01:05:44):
to feel better about myself. I'll take my shirt off
of the beach. I sold that big head. I was
starting to go balled at eighteen or nineteen, but going
by gym was like a buffer you'll help me, help
me get me confidence to forget all that. And I
actually talked to an attractive girl now and then you'll
look him back. And now that confidence, that buffer, a
little extra icing layer on on safety did a lot
(01:06:05):
more than helped me talk to girls. He gave me
the extra push, brother, m I'm gonna push. I wonder
he loved the gym right, gave him an extra push push, brother,
that would helped me accomplish everything I wanted in life.
Love that. And there is the root of the triumph
and the tragedy of Hulk Hogan is that he associates
(01:06:26):
to the gym with getting him everything he wants, and
when the gym gets him the opposite of what he wants,
like all fucked up and uh, you know, on the
witness stand for a still trial and having in the
prosecutors having the leverage to force him to testify against Vince,
because as Hulk himself ended up saying in the Vince documentary,
(01:06:47):
they had enough on him to bring charges against him
for dealing in steroids that there's the flip side of
that coin, you know. So, but this is I think
such an important moment because you know, I think Hulk.
Basically he spent his whole life trying to make the
rest of his body as big as his fucking head.
I think that's pretty much what this is about. Yes,
that's pretty much what this is about. And this is
(01:07:08):
where it started, that chance moment where his friend had
a broken down car on his way to the gym,
And it all started at Hector's gym. And we turned
out to Ed Leslie's book, his contemporary in Tampa, who
remembers this timeframe in a similar way. One day, at
Leslie writes, I ran into Mike Graham at Hector's Jim.
Mike was the son of wrestling promoter Eddie Graham. Of
course he went to high school with me back in
(01:07:29):
the day. He remembered me, even though he was a
few years older. I was still a big wrestling fan
and wanted to talk with him, so I brought up
the only link I could think maybe keep him talking.
Did you know a guy named Terry BOULEYA? I asked,
trying to make small talk. Wasn't he in your class?
He goes to this gym too, Did you know him?
People here think you should be a wrestler. Yeah, I
didn't really hang out with him, though, Mike said he
was in my seventh period gym class along with all
(01:07:50):
the high school football players. Terry was good, but he
did his own thing. I guess what was that. Like,
he just beat everyone's ass because the teachers didn't give
a shit. They didn't bother to teach a regular class.
At the end of the day, it was anything goes.
Terry didn't know his own strength and like clotheslined and
steamrolled right through everyone. Mike Graham's memories of Terry Buley
in high school. Mister scaredy cat who didn't want any
(01:08:11):
confrontation or any trouble is breaking bully's noses the hook
and teaching teachers Jim coaches in the fucking locker room,
and clotheslining and body slining people. I'm surprised he didn't
play football, then, Ed said to Mike, apparely all the
jocks hated him. Mike says, yes, they felt he was
a traitor to his school and a waste. He could
have played some great football, but he was too lazy.
(01:08:33):
He only wanted to play music after school, not sports.
He was right, that says, Terry's focus was rock and roll.
He kept up with his love of music too after
he got out of school. When he returned from college,
he formed his own band, Ruckus. They were now playing
a few times a week at some clubs around Tampa.
They played a lot of hard rock covers like Aerosmith
and Tower of Power and Ol Cogan has to do
something with the Power of Power. Yes, yes, a Tower
(01:08:54):
of Power, brother brother too sweet to be sour ha
ha yes, and I see no problem. I see this
being totally acceptable and what it means to be built
up quite a following. I could tell right away by
his tone that he was not too keen on Terry.
That is to say, Mike Graham was not too keen
on Terry. So I dropped the subject dead rights. That
(01:09:15):
subject was not getting me over with him, and actually
was getting me heat. After Mike Graham left, one of
the guys at the gym named Scott had heard us talking. Oh,
he's just jealous. What do you mean, he just wishes
he was as big as Terry as all. Scott said,
he's got a little big man syndrome. I laughed. Everyone
said that about Mike Graham, So that's yes, that's a
fair shot. Because Mike Graham's a bitch. Well, he just
you know, he did the Napoleon thing like he would like,
(01:09:37):
I'll stab you, motherfucker because he was short. You know
how that goes. I knew that. I remember he was.
He told the story in a shoot interview one time
that when the Radical has left WCW and he was
in the front office with Kevin Sullivan and stuff, he
like basically threatened to like stab Chris Manoir if they
went over there. Didn't do anything, of course, but yeah,
he was definitely one of those guys like you think
(01:09:57):
I'm short, motherfuckers. I didn't say anything about that. Why
did you bring it up first? You know? The rest
in peace, by the way, is Mike went on to
take his own life. I laughed. I knew the type
all too well. At writes, I didn't know you were
rid of the wrestling, Scott said, a lot of the
wrestlers have been stopping by the Imperial Room after the
show where Ruckus is playing too. Scott and I at
Leslie Wright's decided to go over to the Imperial Room.
(01:10:21):
We've gone over to the Imperial Room. To be clear,
I don't want to creat toy unnecessary alarm. What was
the Imperial Room. It's not only an important part of
Terry Bulay's story, it is important part of Tampa music
at the time. This is from the Tampa Tribune, June tenth,
nineteen seventy three. The article is entitled Life at the
(01:10:42):
Country Clubs, and it's an article that really tells us
a lot about where the Imperial Room fit at the
time that hul Cochan was taking its stage. Country music
in Tampa up is as strong as a Prospector's Long John's,
just as it is over the rest of America these days.
Not that Tampa is any newcomer to the national country
music marketplace. Mel Tillis hails from these parts. As to
(01:11:03):
singer Bobby Lord and Fort Homer Hesterly Armory was one
of Elvis's early strongholds. I did not know that, okay.
I could not only see Dusty Rhodes and Eddie Graham
at the h the Fort hester LEI you could see
Elvis Presley there as well at one point. Wow, so
Presley's manager of the legendary Colonel Tom Parker, was once
(01:11:23):
a dog catcher on the city payroll. I don't know
that Tom Parker, of course, the Colonel Rob Parker inspiration
right there, right, of course, of course a meager tampa
for I mean in a way, but not completely right.
I mean, yeah, the real colonel had Where was he from?
He was from someplace in Memphis, right, No, the real
(01:11:47):
he hold on he was from Yeah, from the Netherlands. Right, Oh,
I see what you mean. Yeah, okay, yeah, he's really
from someplace, not Thentalie. Colonel Rob Parker is fucking you know,
not even close to being close. Yeah, a meager tampa
beginning for a man who has guided what must rate
(01:12:07):
is the most successful American performer's career to a point
where he recently offered to flip a silver dollar with
a Midwestern promoter who felt that the fifty thousand dollars
price he demanded for Elvis was too high. This is, obviously,
before Elvis is passing heads. Parker is said to have
told the promoter, and you get Elvis for a free performance, tails, buddy,
and you ONEI fifty grand. The promoter departed to produce
high school proms. Local concert halls and our Florida State
(01:12:29):
Fair stage have presented the top country singers on the
Nashville scene for years. But country music is more than
sitting in the fiftieth row of a concert hall, or
a seat under the pigeons in the fairgrounds grandstand. Country
music is people, and country music is at home and
an eyeball to eyeball smoke filled bar, as Merle Haggard sings.
The country music clubs of Middle America are the minor
leagues of country music. There was a little of the
I'll make You a Starboy commercial overnight success these days
(01:12:51):
in country music there never has been. Singers work with
the people and before the people, constantly, night after night,
year after year, getting themselves their styles and songs both
polished and hopefully ready for the big time. Those years
of traveling on the road are important to the act, certainly,
but this is the time the fans are met, the
first loyalties formed. Boss. They're describing country music in the
seventies or professional wrestling in the cu I means it
(01:13:12):
could be either one. It's the same thing. It's crazy,
and the hustle that most of the bands were on
in this imperial room that Terry Bolea played is very
very similar to the hustle that he would be on
as a pro wrestler all those early years. Yeah, just
as Sure as Johnny has cash, the country music fan
has loyalty. This article reads, they'll go to a nightclub
where a favorite is appearing time and time again. You
(01:13:32):
tell me right, time after time, bring presents, bake brownies
for the fellas in the band, just like the old
ladies with bake brownies for the baby faces. Sure be
there to buy that good old boy a beer when
he gets off stage and sometimes when he's on. Country
music and booze go together like strawberries and rhubarb. Country
singers sing about it, audiences drink it while they listen
to the music, and the promoters and the clubs pay
for the singers with the revenue from the sales of liquor. Yes,
(01:13:54):
in fact, I think Imperial Room was named after an
imperial liquors business that was prominent in tamp I think
that was related because I saw like a newspaper ad
that promoted the Imperial Room, and it was it was
part and parcel of this ad for Imperial liquors. So
I think that's what that's about. And the singer's ability
to entertain an audience of folks on the town makes
the artists go through a training period that makes Paris
Island boot Camp look like a wallflower's convention in Ruskin. Certainly,
(01:14:16):
there are a few singers in the business who have
risen to the stardom class without playing the clubs. Sonny
James is a country star who will not play in
places where liquor is sold. With this kind of training,
there's no room for a singer who's afraid of people
in this business. Coming up through the ranks, building a
legion of fans, and learning to handle the pressures of
always being in the limelight give the country singer who's
made the successful ascension to the top of the heap
a durability seldom seen in the pop field. Those who
(01:14:39):
can't cope with the rigors of the business last about
as long as an El Dorado and a one cent sale.
As a result of this period of time spent on
the road and dot records, Tommy Overstreet worked nearly twenty
years before being voted the most Promising male vocalist of
nineteen seventy by the country music industry. The stars are
much more approachable than in any other entertainment field. It's
like he's describing pro wrestling. It really Freddie Hart over Street,
(01:15:02):
Sonny James and a score of named country stars are
as approachable as insurance salesmen to their fans. They often
visit those small country music clubs in the cities where
they're playing large package shows after the concerts have closed down,
Unlike the rock stars who disappear sometimes before the audience
has even left its seat at the end of a show,
and the local bastion for the up and coming and
sometimes even the gone and went who haven't had a
(01:15:22):
hit record in a few months country singers is what's
the local bastion for these musicians. The Imperial Room Lounge,
North Armenia, near Hillsboro Avenue. This is the Tampa club
where many, indeed most of the greats and country music
have played during those years when they were on the road.
(01:15:43):
The dressing room walls are covered with autographed eight by
ten theatrical glossies of past and present country stars. George
Jones and Tammy Wynette look like a couple of teenagers.
Charlie Pride and Merle Haggard almost have a brand new
look about them. The Imperial Room is a rectangular box
like structure that has assigned maker's delight. It's a one
building times square outside, where seven different large Neon banners
(01:16:05):
proclaim that this is indeed the Imperial Room Lounge where
live Nashville country music rules supreme. This is the largest
and plushiest country music club in the area, and, according
to most of the Nashville travelers, one of the better
clubs to work in the entire country. It's sports. Two
well used dance floors. I want you to picture Hulkogan
(01:16:27):
on the stage with it. Pictures two well used dance floors,
one near the stage for the funsters and one near
the back for the lovers. Three working bars on the weekends.
He knows about working bars. I'll tell you that working bars.
Rick Flair knows about working bars as well the tabs
(01:16:47):
that he's left behind unpaid on the weekends. A small,
equipment packed stage, and nearly four hundred chairs, all of
which support a warm body. Especially on weekends, there is
a constant musical parade of Nashville singers who breathe through
the Imperial Room doors to entertained, usually those who have
several hit records under their guitar straps. Every month or
six weeks, owner Doc Castanella trots in a name like
Tommy Overstreet or Buddy Allen to test the seams of
(01:17:09):
the club. Castiliana is a wiry, middle aged promoter of
country music. This is very similar, by the way, to
the Sportatorium. I remember when we were doing the lamentable
tragedy of World Class looking into the history of that building,
and it did start with a guy who was half
country music, kind of like music hall promoter and pro
wrestling promoter. There was a strong and that was the same.
(01:17:30):
I think the Crockets did a similar mix of music
in wrestling and boxing. There spent a lot of other
territories that have had that combination, so I think that
this is I think this is a part of a
category and not something that was unique at all to
the Imperial Room having this this combination of wrestling being
similar in promotional presentation to country music, especially down South.
(01:17:54):
Of course, so he owns the smaller does Castiana? The
guy who runs this Imperial Lounge smaller Tammy's Lounge, another
country music club in Riverview. He's a permanent weekend fixed
or at the club, often getting on stage to sing
an occasional song or two, and is constantly the brunt
of the usual Italian jokes, none of which I'm sure
we're directed at Terry Boulett. None and good nature jabs
(01:18:14):
at his hairline, which has receded nearly to the back
collar of his shirt, and that triggers Hulk for sure
to describe it that way. He is an enthusiastic supporter
of country music, who made the switch from pop entrepreneur
to country nearly a decade ago, and who has also
tried his hand at record production. Two of his efforts,
recorded at the Imperial Room are on sale at the
package store next to the lounge. The audiences at the
club proved to be an interesting lot, many cases as
(01:18:37):
colorful as the entertainers. There is no set mold for
the country audiences of Tampa these days, and a look
around will prove that to be true. There are as
many young people there on any given night as older ones.
There are as many ties as open shirts, and as
many longer hair styles as there are cowboy hats. Few
were jeans, and ladies dress runs the course from the
white boots and hairspray syndrome to pants suit outfits. One
(01:18:59):
thing is always the same there the continual give and
take between the audience and the performers. Again, this closeness
between the audience and performers in the country field is
the same force that keeps the flow of communications running
back and forth between stage and floor with the ease
of a ping pong ball. The better the entertainer, the
smoother the exchanges, and in most cases the funnier. And
one reason that the Imperial Room is so successful then
(01:19:20):
the audience is so loyal. Is another phenomenon to the
country field. The house band, in this case called with
blinding originality Docs band band leader Captain Lewis Sidekicks, Jim
Faircloth on guitar and Kenny Dmiria on drums hold forth
with female vocalists Pat duncan and Linda mcpag. The house
band plays an important role in the country music club
of today. Theirs is the responsibility of giving the musical
(01:19:42):
support to ninety percent of the artists booked at the club,
and with the diversity and style prevalent on the scene today,
it's a task few can handle with the expertise of
these musicians. Apart from the obvious duties of playing behind
the stars, the house band is the foundation from which
the regular patron's interest in the club is built. It's
one thing to come into a strange town and play
your music to a completely new crowd and then move
along to another a week later. Brother, but a group
(01:20:03):
on But a group on stage for the same basic
audience week after week. Must come up get a group
on brother, group on what? You get a group on
stage brother, the same basic audience. Again. This is the
old you know argument for the territories. You had to
perform for the same islands week after week, so you
(01:20:23):
had to learn to vary your match and style enough
that you had a deep reservoir of instincts instead of
just a script memorized. Of course, must come up with
fresh material, constant continuously, and be able to continually be entertaining.
Here's where Docs Band proves why the Imperial Room is
considered a good time club by those who work there.
Their brand of country music is cut from the mold
that is the trademark of the so called new breed
(01:20:43):
of country musicians. They play the familiar pop tunes of
the top thirty country charts and answer to audience requests,
but they also take the best in the new country
oriented pop groups like The Birds and Commander Cody and
his Lost Planet Airmen and sneak them in on the audiences.
We play songs that we like too. That should be
Commander Cody, dades you like that, I should be it. No,
I don't like it, but it should be it anyway.
(01:21:05):
Oh well, we'll never see him again, Commander Cody. It's
like this fucking seven year old Halloween costume. We play
songs Commander Codin's that we like to, explained Lewis, which
also explains what the band enjoys its music so much.
The way we present it to them is different. I'm
the only cat in town who plays horns on country music,
he said. Lewis blows Boots Randolph like saxophone, Floyd Kramer
(01:21:28):
like piano, clarinet and organ, and with his feet, as
if he weren't already busy enough, he plays the bass
on the organ, pedals horn in country music. He said.
It's up to date, but it's not hard rock. People
thirty and over can come in and listen to it
and not be blasted out. People like the music because
it's easy going about his audience. As Lewis said, you
didn't have as many educated people listening ten years ago.
Country music's changed gotten better, using better arrangements. Look at
(01:21:49):
the writers, Christofferson mac Davis. Almost every song they write
has covered rather recorded as a country song. If it's
a good song, people like it. Doc's band has been
invited to play the prestigious ux Lewis Club in Nashville
this summer, and we'll head north for a week starring
appearance at the club, probably in late July. They also
host a television show weekly from the Imperial Room, taped
on Thursday night. So there was a TV show that
(01:22:11):
you could watch in Tampa that was taped at the
Imperial Room. That is wild. And the fact that that's
the case, and yet we don't have any footage of
Terry Boleya performing on stage is it outrageous to me?
This has to exist somewhere that we know. I'm sure
the Netflix crew is knocking on the doors of anyone
who has archival you know, Tampa area news station footage
(01:22:31):
or whatever television station this show aired on. It sounds
like a public access deal almost yeah, yeah, yeah, But
that's that's the money. That's where you can find them
on Thursday nights at the club, adding yet another dimension
to the added exposure of country music is enjoying in
the Tampa area though the Imperial Room. Though the Imperial
Room is one of many such clubs spread throughout the
heartland of America, it is by no means typical. What
(01:22:53):
is typical, however, is the role it in clubs of
similar format play and the grooming of country stars, and
in the education of the country. Addis alliance of tomorrow,
with the increased amount of plastic being cranked out for
public consumption in a host of areas, It's one reason
why many of the so called educated, as well as
the folks already attuned to the steel guitar, are turning
to country music in places like the Imperial Room for
(01:23:13):
some honest foot stomping music. So just picture it, Just
picture the audience is here in many cases, he writes,
as colorful as the entertainers before. Terry Bolea young people,
older ones, some in tie, some in open shirts, some
with longer hair and cowboy hats, some in jeans, some
in pants, suits, some in white boots. I need to see, like,
(01:23:36):
I need a need to. I need to like bear
witness to this. Yeah, I do, I do, because it'll
tell us so much about like the kind of world.
Terry Bolea grew up, grew up in you know, because
we didn't write, we did't grew up in this era.
We've seen it represented a million different ways on film.
I think of almost famous that film, you know, sure, sure,
(01:23:56):
of course, the whole time period and uh and so yeah,
this is this is the best we're going to be
able to do. Is apparently, is just to describe the
Imperial Room, which is a place where Hulk played in
some of his most prominent bands, and in fact the
place where people involved in the Florida area wrestling scene,
some of the biggest luminaries in Florida Championship Wrestling would
stop by for a drink. And you know, if you're
Dusty Rhoads, you're taking in country music, someone tells you
(01:24:19):
the Imperial Rooms where the country scene is at, it
makes a ton of sense that they end up there.
Can you imagine him fucking just dancing around like a
fucking more run I just pickture, I'm coming to the
cowboy hat, the jeans with a big belt buckle at
just feeling like the coolest guy in the world, of course,
and up there on stage, who's that big motherfucker, thy
goddamn daddy. So back to that aforementioned Facebook group. Reflecting
(01:24:40):
on Terry Play's music days, another contributor rights, he played
guitar and later swap places with the bass player who
also played guitar. Someone says, my brother was the one
on the far right with his shirt open. These people
remember all of this, all of these times. He also
played in a band with my brother. Someone writes, I
can't remember the name of the band right now. That
was so long ago. He writes this, I think it's bullshit,
(01:25:02):
but my brother and husband went over to see him wrestle.
The first night he wrestled, he was in a mask,
so nobody knew he was. But I think he went
in as the undertaker. Oh, of course obviously. So I
don't think that's right. Jesus. The person rights, when I
was sixteen and first sneaking in bars, he was playing
the Junkyard Lounge with Ruckus. He was just that big
old bass player that's in quotes, by the way, that
(01:25:24):
big old bass player, a big old bassa. The first
time Terry Boley achieved any renown was as that big
old bass player back then, and all the old wrestling
grates from championship wrestling from Florida would hang out there
as well as, of course the Imperial Room. Someone else rights.
I used to see his band play all the time
at Dino's Islands Club and the Performing Arts Center. Someone
(01:25:44):
else rights more like polyester. I don't think anybody could
afford silk, because they were talking about it, the silk
shirt he was wearing in the publicity film. I remember
those days. Someone else rights. Terry was two grades ahead
of me at Robinson. He made his bass guitar look
small in his hands. Someone else writes saw them at
Tom Sawyer's off Hillsborough Avenue. Wasn't he considered for Megadeath
(01:26:06):
or Metallica or something like that? Someone else writes, damn right,
shut down immediately. Someone else writes, picture from the nineteenth
Do you believe? We believe everything you read Jesus Christ. Yeah,
that's where it gets all bad. Yeah, let me guess
you also support and then they bring up politics, and
you know how that goes. Oh my god, it's so
(01:26:28):
fucking looking at the book, the immediate judgment. It's like
so unnecessary looking at your photo history. Yeah yeah, oh god,
So that picture you saw and that they saw here
on the Facebook. Thing with them opposing in from those
palm trees. A contributor says that picture is actually from
the nineteen seventy one Robinson High School yearbook. We went
together to have our pictures taken. Someone else asked, did
(01:26:49):
he call everyone brother back then? Too? Well, we confirmed
with Vic Pettitt that he did not, So that's good. Yeah,
that's right. Someone else writes, hah No. But he sometimes
came up with nicknames for his friends. He called me GB.
This is Gary Barris who he talked about, who's in
the band? Yo? Yo? GB? What's It's a hard time
picturing him without brother but with that voice still. I
(01:27:13):
know you did such a good job trying to get
Vic to imitate him, but he couldn't do it. It's
like I need to know what his voice sounds like,
I need it so bad. I mean, it was like
it was so it was someone that really got to me.
Like when we were doing the interview, I was like, well, wait,
we don't even know what he fucking sounded like. Imagine
Hulk Hogan as a seven year old, like when they
first met, what was that voice? Oh my god, even
(01:27:35):
in his teenage years, like when it first starts getting
based in his voice. It can't because he's up Booze
clar Bro. You know he's not doing the whole like
Kfe Carnie talk yet either. Amazing. Someone else writes, I
was just curious. I I've always liked him. He was
always seemed like a genuine guy. Enjoyed reading all of this,
and it's it goes on and on. Someone writes, Ah,
the jam best time of my life. Some people remember
(01:27:58):
these these some people remember who been playing in the
band and being in those crowds is the best time
of their life. That's that's that's a wild wild thing.
It was a great time, someone else writes. Someone else writes,
poor guys actually lived in their band Van. According to
my ex fiance brother, band Van Dude? What band Van Vader?
(01:28:19):
I mean what, big brother? What you try? You can
lead a horse to water?
Speaker 10 (01:28:25):
Brother?
Speaker 2 (01:28:25):
Now you're asking me to drink? Dude, dude, you I
mean Bandvan? Brother? How do you even know? We had
a what is it? How do you huh? What do
you know? Who even? Brother? You're talking to the billy managered?
(01:28:46):
What's going on? Brother? I gotta know, dude, brother, you
you can talking about gossam in fifty's end, dude, maybe
someone else writes Sue. She writes, he was never good looking. Yeah, no,
(01:29:08):
wonder he fucking felt so good so like in his
own head back then, this woman still can't let up
that she didn't think he was good looking. I remember
anyone asking you, by the way, But yeah, right, I
must have been Tampa back then, you know what I'm saying. Yeah,
So here's a bit born from Terry's second book about
this whole crazy era in his life. There you go, boss,
(01:29:29):
all right? Where it all came from? I did already? Well,
you know, we always had a piano. Uh oh, well,
it's not that hard. We always had a piano. We
always had a piano in that tiny house of ours,
(01:29:49):
and my mom was always playing. So I developed an
ear for music without even trying for something. I'm sure
you deveilt a lot of things out even trying. Yeah, yeah, uh.
You developed a main events style without even trying help them,
a mall food court concept without microwaves, a little hamburgers
without even trying it. Developed a way to try to
(01:30:11):
go mainstream without even trying, right, developed the way to
create a genre of action adventure companies that make money
that all made money. Even though they didn't do very well,
they all made money, you know. For some reason, Right
before junior high, I suddenly got really interested in guitar,
and I remember I asked my parents if i'll take lessons,
even though we didn't have much money. My parents were
(01:30:32):
always real supportive and stuff like that, so they hooked
me up with a teacher, and as soon as I
showed some talent, my dad bought me my first guitar.
And not a cheap department store guitar either. It was
a guild and it cost me like three or four
Hey you talking about the screen actors guild. Huh, my
union and it costs like three or four hundred bucks.
(01:30:54):
You're looking back on it now, you have no idea
how they afforded it. It was a real nice electric
and I certainly got every pennies worth out of it.
The music just made sense to me for some reason.
I was always real good at math, and music was
kind of like math to me. I was always real
good at math, and music was kind of like math
to me. Okay, So I picked it up pretty quick,
(01:31:17):
and I had several guitar teachers, and before long I
started playing in bands. Most people, like you know, they're
not good at math when they're into music. I know
I was probably, I mean I get that, you know,
going in the progression that you go, because if you're
playing covers, I can see it being a math exercise, right,
You're like memorizing how to replicate something instead of creating
(01:31:39):
something of your own, you know, right, right, And that's
that's all Cogan by the way, I mean, from the
Billy Graham rap to the the body of Billy Graham
and the Dusty Rhodes rap. He Wholk is nothing if
not an amalgamation of like seven or eight wrestlers, you know,
I know it's so true, none of which he invented.
I mean, brother, he didn't in nothing, No pythons. It's
(01:32:03):
all from others. It's all, I mean, expertly observed. You know,
he observed all those people well enough to really internalize
how to be them in kind of like this melded
package that was it was never too much of one wrestler.
He it was like La Night, like he's a little
too much like the rock. You know, you can tell
like he's he it's seventy thirty rock instead of fifty
(01:32:26):
to fifty or you know, thirty three and a third
of three wrestlers right well with hull Key, you know,
he found out how other things worked, he observed what
made them work, and then he you know, as long
as he was in full control, he could figure out
how to make it work for himself as well. That's
pretty wild. There's the math of it, and now you
know there's all this about music in high school and math.
(01:32:50):
You say, what about bond issuance, Terry? What about the
issuance of municipal bonds to fund improvements in the school
you went to? Is there any chance, nts that the
Tampa Tribune in nineteen seventy approached you on campus and
asked you for your personal opinion on the bond issue?
James Bondishoe, Seniors at Robinson High will graduate before their
(01:33:12):
school gets the gymnasium and teaching auditorium proposed under the
nineteen point one million dollar bond issue, but they're pulling
for it anyway and afraid it might not pass. A
lot of people are confused. A lot like my parents,
don't understand what this bond issue is about, said Cheryl Kissling, seventeen.
People who don't have firm ideas are more likely to
vote against it. They're afraid it's going to increase their taxes.
(01:33:33):
I'd like to see everyone vote for it. She added.
It's going to affect more than Robinson students, said Larry
Mason sixteen. But right here it does get cold in
the winter for a guy out on the courts. That's
where physical education classes are held now in the open air.
When it rains, classes are crammed quote into the small
pe building, added Mason. Would that be the Pea building
where Hulkogan had a shoot match with the cob So
(01:33:56):
those environs that he was describing running for his life
through the shower in locker room to avoid coach Man.
There was a proposal to go out to Bond to
completely refurbish all of those facilities at hol Coven's High
School by the time he left. And here's the money quote,
why don't they include the gym and everything Robinson built?
Eleven years ago? Asked Terry Bulaya seventeen Terry for an
(01:34:21):
article about the Bondihuans, and he goes on here to
talk about his very first band. Now we mentioned it,
we mentioned that it existed, but we haven't give you
the name yet, and we're about to give you the
name this again, Boss, if you can carry forward. Also
from Hulk's second book, Okay, what was his very first
(01:34:45):
band called? Okay, I've heard first band was called the
Plastic Pleasure Palace Verse sixty is right? I guess I
don't know pleasure Plastic Pleasure Palace, I gay, I guess
it's sixties. We also call ourselves Dildo p Fast Palace,
(01:35:09):
micro Plastics Bonanza, and we never played anywhere, but it
was good practice. We had a drummer named Chet and
a guitarist named Danny. Danny and I both had such
big egos that neither one of us wanted to give
up the guitar to play bass, so the band was
just two guitars and drums. We were the greatest garage
(01:35:31):
band that never got out of the garage. It brought
you by garage beer, by the way, right, exactly, damn right.
It was a few months after joining up with those guys,
I stepped out on my own and joined a real
band with real gigs. He Infinity's had looked like a
professional group, but we were all just a bunch of kids,
and I was still in junior high school. I know
(01:35:52):
he changes when he was in this band a million times.
He's a freshman, then he's a junior, then he's a senior,
then he's in junior high It's fucking crazy. Still, we
were a pretty slick When was that? When was that
fucking article from sixty nine? Graduated in seventy one, graduate
high school. So he's so we know it's a sophomore thing.
Well that's assuming that's the first ever. No, I guess
(01:36:14):
that's just because that article got published doesn't mean they
didn't exist before. It's a good point. I mean, I guess, yeah,
that's a good point, you know. Uh, Still, we were
a pretty slick organization. A keyboard player was named Gary Barris,
and his father, Bob Barris, would drive us around, you know,
the station wagon with a trailer off the back. You
had a haul or equipment. Missus Barres used to paint
(01:36:34):
peace signs and daisies on our pants with black light
paint that would glow on stage. Is She also made
us wear socks. Fuck socks, brother, it doesn't say that,
you know, wear socks with our penny loafers. And if
we didn't, and if we didn't, we get fine. Five
dollars what by who? The band? Apparently apparently Yeah, the parents.
(01:36:56):
Oh my god, that's ridiculous. It was a big deal
to her for some reason. I think you don't you
don't wear anyway, Uh to a point about skimming some
off the top, right, yeah, yeah, with these two kayzy penalties,
he can I remember. Mister Barriss was a real stiff
kind of guy. Brother, the one's fucking going stuff on me, dude,
(01:37:17):
I'll tell you that, and took the whole thing real seriously.
Whatever the gig was, you know, we would play forty minutes,
then take a twenty minute break, and we couldn't be late,
we couldn't break too early. He kind of took some
of the fun out of it, and with all that
discipline the thing. But the thing was, we were junior
hot kids and we're actually making money at this. On weekends,
(01:37:38):
we played at the local rec centers and a lot
of high school dances, and we'd drive up to Gainesville
or wherever to play for turnity parties at colleges. Yeah,
I'm sure they were fucking playing fraternity parties in junior high.
I'm sure that went overwall. We even had gigs in
the clubs attached to some of the big daddy liquor
(01:37:59):
stores down here. Okay, so Imperial liquor stores. But maybe
I'm wrong. I mean either way, like you know, again,
you're not I don't think you're playing fucking in liquor
stores and shit, it's a curious thing. It's like these
these guys can't drink, but they're the entertainment in a
place that fifty percent of the reason people show up
is to drink, right, I mean that's just I mean,
(01:38:21):
maybe it is. Maybe maybe when it comes to like
to talent and stuff like that. You know, go play
a club that normally anyone under eighteen or even the
drinking age can't go into, you can do that, but
you can perform for whatever reason. Maybe maybe that is true.
I don't know. I never did the club scene. It
was just a real big deal. I don't remember what
(01:38:42):
those gigs paid, but I do know I thought I
was making one hundred bucks a week. But I whew,
that wasn't a while. We play a private party or
from corporate gig and I'm pulling like five hundred dollars.
You know, it wasn't much Like, it wasn't much up
to you split it up all up and took out
the expenses, but it was still good money. In junior high,
I guess was around this time when I first started
to notice that my family didn't have as much money
(01:39:03):
as some other families. Even my friend Vic Pettitt. His
parents had a big color TV in their living room
and always seemed to be getting new cars every every
few years. Other kids seemed to have cooler clothes or
newer clothes than I ever did. They certainly had more clothes.
I remember wearing the same pair of pants to school
over and over. I mean it was because I was
(01:39:24):
a teenager now and hyper aware of pure acceptance, but
it was really starting to bother me thinking that other
kids would notice. So I have an extra money coming
in from the band was a godsend. Allowed me to
go out and buy a new shirt or a new
pair of pants to help me feel like I fit
in a little better. You know, yes, I do. I
totally understand that. You know, it's so annoying. I loved
(01:39:50):
having the freedom to do that with my own money
instead of having to ask my parents for something. Brother,
Oh there's more. Don't get me wrong. Don't get the wrong.
Impression I was turned into some cool rocker dude because
I was in a band playing gigs so young. It's
kind of like how I wasn't a jock, even though
I could play baseball and Infinity's in with such a
bunch of nerds. We were these totally nerdy guys in
(01:40:13):
our black live pants and penny loafers, doing synchronized dance
moves with our guitars while we played Iron, Butterfly and
Steppenwolf songs. We were like a live jukebox if people
loved the music, but we didn't get any attention from
young girls, so that whole notion of sex, drugs, and
rock and roll didn't really exist for me. If we
looked like hippie, if it looked like hippies with our
(01:40:35):
long hair, trust me, we were hippies who didn't smoke
pot I didn't. I didn't so much as see a
joint back then. I don't even think I saw one
on high school. It was obvious. I was oblivious to
that stuff. Even with my older brother Alan, I didn't
understand what he was into at the time. I just
thought he was crazy. The only joint, the only joint,
This guy know anything about back then was a burger
(01:40:56):
joint or the joint that his brother would in that night, whatever, right,
I didn't understand what what he was into it now,
I just thought it was great. Years would go by
before I realized what kind of drugs he was taking.
I'm sure everybody else was doing it, but I didn't
know anything about drugs. I don't know anything about sex either. Brother,
(01:41:17):
So he's uh, he's a nerd, but I don't know.
I don't know what to put my cock, Dude, I said,
this fucking thing hanging out with whom my life brother,
I don't know what to do with it, where to
put it? Uh? So he's a nerd? Does this? Does
this track? Yes? I mean it definitely based on what
he looked like. For sure, he definitely seems like a nerd,
no question. He's a he's a you know, you know
(01:41:39):
there's always there's always like a big you know, kind
of a weird, big, tough but not so tough nerd.
You know, who could be like him? I can, I
can totally see that, right, And like he's while he's
got the size that allows him to exert himself physically,
at his heart, he's not really the kind of person
that wants to use that to his advantage. He'd rather
(01:42:00):
avoid situations where that's called for. I think it makes
a lot of sense. You know, Hul Hogan was a nerd.
I mean you always say that about Triple Ah. He's
a nerd, Like that's what you have to remember about him.
And I always like, what are you talking about? But
now I kind of get it. Like talk about a
starter kit for going all in on bodybuilding, you feel
like a nerd? Yes, you know it starts exactly. I mean,
(01:42:22):
because you want to be different. And you know, whenever
people hear about that, Hulk Cogan was all these groovy
rock bands and in his teenage years, in his twenties,
it's like, yeah, he was. He was not mister confidence.
He was almost like it was almost like a way
for him to be a wallflower. Was he was. He
was part of the entertainment, but he wasn't in the party.
You know, he wasn't amongst the kids having sex and
doing drugs. He was he was only there because he
(01:42:45):
could provide the soundtrack. And it didn't you know, Ed
Leslie saw a cool guy up there. Some other guys
may have seen a cool guy up there, but Hulk
Cogan felt like he was just a nerd trying to
find a place in the scene. In the fact that
he played guitar was was his entree into the scene,
but he was never of the scene, which I think
is really something that tells you a lot about kind
(01:43:05):
of how Hulk ended up moving through the world, if
that's kind of what he remembers and what he's trying
to the reputation he's trying to shake. So we've mentioned
a lot of different band names over the course of
this episode, and I know it can get very confusing,
and thanks again to the help of Matt, we've tried
to create a compendium of every band Terry Bolea was in. Now,
this might not be totally accurate in terms of the
member of each band, but we're doing our square best.
(01:43:26):
There was, of course, Infinity's end. We mentioned the Pleasure
Plastic Palace, whatever they'd call that one. To his point,
that wasn't one that ever did any live performances, so
it barely counts, but he does remember it. That would
have come first, then Infinity's end in and around sixty
nine lead vocals chet Yocum, lead guitar Terry Boulaya guitar
and orgon, Gary Bearress basin trump, and Mike Bearris drums,
John Phillips. He was also in a band called Magic
(01:43:48):
from nineteen seventy two to nineteen seventy three, as best
we can tell, and this is in his short term
stint at the University of South Florida. He also went
to Hillsborough Community College, I believe, where he studied like
business and something else. It didn't go anywhere. Terry Bolay
does not have a college degree and he only had
a very cursory experience. He'd be the some college guy
(01:44:09):
on a job application. But Magic was a band that
existed when he was on campus. Corner what we could
find lead vocals Mike Flowers on guitar, Frank Gregorio and
Stephen Griggs on bass, Terry Bowlea on orgon, David White
and on drums Mark curR. Then there was a band
called Coco Ko Ceo that we see him associated with
in and around nineteen seventy three to seventy four. Lead
(01:44:30):
vocals Anthony Barcello, who someone he calls out in his
book has helping him get a job down the docks
as well, So that kind of Barcella on guitar, Robin
Sibukaku I think or Sibukou on bass, Terry Bolea on oregon,
David White and on drums Mark Cure Bandit was another
band that Hulk Ogan was associated with in and around
nineteen seventy five lead vocals. There was again Anthony Barcello guitar,
(01:44:53):
Gary Devrained on bass, Terry Boleya on saxophone and keyboards,
Mark Kutash on trumpet, Jeff Southworth on drums, Don Orr
and then there was Ruckus in and around nineteen seventy
six to seventy eight, and Ruckus is most well known
for a couple of reasons. One, it's the band that
has the publicity photo where Hulk has the shoulder length
blonde hair and looks like a woman. It looks like
Shaer basically If Share, If Share was built like Joni Louer,
(01:45:16):
you know. And that was the band that he was
playing in when wrestlers began to come to his gigs
and people involved in the Florida office would start to
come in and around his gigs and notice him as
a potential prospect for the wrestling world. So that's why
Rucus I think stands out more than all of his
other bands because it's the one that provides that that
(01:45:36):
bridge into him becoming a professional wrestler. And in that band,
the lead vocals and rhythm guitar were Anthony Barcelo once
again guitar and backing vocals Gary Dvrened on bass, Terry
Bolea keyboard, Stan Chapman drums, Larry Stovell. Magic became Coco,
and bandit became Ruckus. Okay, so these these are well
different names, not always as you could tell by the lineups.
They are necessarily different people. They would just renamed themselves,
(01:46:00):
but it Beers. That's that's the progression. Matt tells us
that vocalist Anthony Burcella was remembered very fondly in the
local Facebook groups down there. Was apparently a big talent,
and Terry met him while working construction, according to one
of the pieces, and we're gonna waiting to get into
that here in a bit. He also says Robin Subacow,
(01:46:20):
Coco's guitarist, has quite a resume and his and he's
currently listed as an independent entertainment professional. Oh jesus, you know,
Oh my god, there's that. That's so he's always my
fucking favorite. So he's a pro wrestler essentially. Yeah. So
so he's unemployed too. Oh my god, he's a he's
an entertainment professional, and that he professional. He professionalizes an
(01:46:44):
entertainment when he's got some extra time. I just that
that ship. I just can't. I can't with that ship.
So another excerpt here from the book for you, my
question for you, Terry, if you can pull it up? Boss?
Was the rock and roll thing a perfect fit at
the end of the day, was it? Well, you know,
the rock and roll thing wasn't a perfect fit though,
(01:47:05):
Even though I love music. Barmy was getting sick of
tired of going down to the same clubs every weekend,
playing the same songs and going through the same routines,
which is kind of ironic given how he would go
through the same fucking match over and over again. I know, well,
that's right. As a fan of math and all that shit, like, right,
you should be you should love routines like routines should
(01:47:27):
be fucking would get you off, brother, Well, that is
how he did his h absolutely, how he did his
wrestling matches like I'm like a math equation. Absolutely, yeah, exactly,
they were down to a fucking there was a science.
You know, same club were playing the same song, all
the same. I wanted to break into the big time.
You know, after three years of the same club, you
(01:47:49):
might get a two hundred dollars raise, I mean a raise. No, No,
you negotiate your fee. That's what it is. You don't
get a raise. You're not on a salary at the club.
I'm so true. Yeah, and I split between five guys, brother,
you split five, Well you already met Paul White when
(01:48:12):
we got down. I want to go down with a
giant brother of five guys, more like splitting it with
with twenty five guys. Due, absolutely, it just wasn't enough
for me. ALUs The thing about working with those bands
was it seemed like as soon as we would would
get a break or a chance to start making real
big money, the guys will start bitching out having to
work too much, or one guy would would go off
and get married, and then we wouldn't want to travel.
(01:48:34):
It was like banging my head against a wall sometimes,
like no one was willing to have about steel chair instead,
like no one was willing to give it there all
to get to get to that next level. For the trouble.
Get to the next level, dude, he's already starting the
bullshit he want he wants to leave the band. And guys, dude,
you know, brother, we had brother. You know we're talking
(01:48:58):
about iNFiNiT his end. Do we gotta ta if it's
to that next level? You know, I'm talking brother, This
thing we're doing, dude, we're gonna kind of get to
that next level, brother. Like I always said, all the
u to get to the next level, they all said
they dreamed about getting to you know, you know, I
get it. I totally get it. I certainly couldn't be
a soul act. I couldn't sing worth a damn, and
(01:49:21):
I didn't have that that leading man look. I also
hooked up with a couple of other bands my junior
and senior year. These bands with guys in their twenties
who were playing the really hot clubs in the area
and making some real dough. Then dawn on me. Here
I was in my teens, and I could make more
money playing music two nights a week than my dad
made working all week in the sun. Go a doing
(01:49:43):
that math. That's a huge wake up call for me.
My parents had never had any new cars, this is
book two. By the way, I didn't say that. He
made a note of that in area. Oh yeah, this
is book two. Uh you call all of a sudden,
my senior year of high school, I could go out
and buy a new charger for like three grand. They
(01:50:05):
actually living in a hotel part of my senior year
for free. It was. Oh, it was part of the
deal with this band that played on the Islands Club,
you know where I was playing all these new dance
music and to wear the platform shoes and the whole deal.
It was the nineteen seventies man, and we had to
look the part you're playing music clearly meant that you
could avoid working a real Jobingo, there it is. Yeah,
(01:50:27):
I've been waiting for it. There it is. That's it.
That's it. That's why the people are in the business anyway,
is because they have such a phobia of being perceived
as just a working stiff. Oh dude, I mean that.
That's that's all entertainment jobs there. You know, you don't
want to work a real job. You don't want to
go in office day to day. I get it, I
get it. The wrestlers have the added disadvantage. Most of them,
(01:50:47):
especially they're like college athletes of feeling like alpha's before then,
So it's even more demoralizing, even more humility to be
a nobody because they felt like a somebody because they
were jacked and were athletic because they fucking because they
fucking peaked in high school, right, And wrestling allows you
to end those years. Yep, exactly because you know, you know,
so many people You're right, they think that they can.
(01:51:08):
I think they're going to be those star athletes when
really they're not. They just don't happen. And even if
they're not professional, they're not about to give up, you know.
They're like Jerry O'Connell and can hardly wait. Yes, they're
not about to give up the trappings of being an athlete,
even if it's clearly not going to happen for them.
And wrestling is a great way to kind of still
feel somewhat like a jock, you know, especially back then
(01:51:30):
in the seventies and eighties. Yep, for sure, uh real t,
but also meant you could avoid the real world in
general by saying that late and going to bed whenever
one else gets up to go to work. I love
the escape. I love the escape as part of the
reason wrestling would eventually appeal to me. I just wanted
(01:51:51):
to do anything to avoid that boring routine. Non five
you know, Oh I know, Terry, Yeah, I guess brother,
amazing a feel you, dude. So to the point about Bandit,
here's an article that appeared in a local newspaper in
nineteen seventy five. It's a review of Bandit and what
(01:52:11):
they were putting out by Linn O'Malley. The understatement of
the day would be to say, there are a lot
of rock groups playing around this area. There are, however,
rock groups and then rock groups. Every now and then
you come across a group, usually young enough in the
business to still be enthused about their music, who have
that certain spark. Their music is the kind that makes
you want to get up and dance, even though you've
(01:52:33):
heard those same songs one hundred times. Thus, fellow rock
fans describes Bandit now performing on Lake Parker and Lakeland,
calling themselves a funky horn group. Oh my god, these
six young men, they range in age from twenty one
to twenty six, are putting out some of the best
rock music you can find around this area. So you know,
(01:52:56):
let's not pretend that Hulk like played for bands that
like no one ever knew about, or no one took
seriously or just worked these like these discount gigs. They
were written up in the local press. Is like pretty good,
you know, I'm gonna take a look our attentive picture
of Hulk now towering in what looks a little bit
like the look he would bring into the earliest days. Oh,
there we go. What do you see? Yep, yep, I mean,
(01:53:19):
I see. He's got the he's got the shoulder lank hair,
he's got the fucking he's got the stash, he's working,
the mustache, got the fou man shoes, tinted shades, tinted shades.
You know. Looks like that Paul Cogan that went into
Continental and Georgia before he went to New York. Very
very close, very close. Uh. Anthony Barcello, the lead singer,
(01:53:39):
and Terry boleya bass guitarist, were construction workers a couple
of years ago who decided they were happier making music
than buildings. After several internal changes, the group is now
composed of don Or drums, Gary Devdrend guitar, Mark Kutash
sacks and keyboards, and Jeff Southworth trumpet, everyone but Kutash
takes his turn at the mic. Bandit is based in
Tampa and has been working with the Jean Martin Agency there.
(01:54:01):
So they were even involved with an agency which I
did not know. So for the group so far, the
group rather has stayed in Florida, but plans to travel
out of state after the first of the year. They
are also popular for one night's stands in colleges and benefits. Okay, well, brother,
the guys enjoy the music they're putting out. This piece
reads and include a lot of average white band and
(01:54:21):
tower of power music along with some rock and roll
Bandit will be at the x y Z through the fifteenth.
They will be returning for Christmas week, so there they
are making local headlines. Are bandits That's Wild nineteen and
seventy five. Further, another thing he was involved in was
(01:54:42):
I mentioned. I think Magic was the name of the
band there was banded of course, here's one you got
to see. I don't know what the idea was here
for this bandit publicity photo, but Hulk is dressed in
a white leader leezer suit with the platform shoes and
they all decided wouldn't it be nice if we all had, right, fols,
take a look at that? What the fun will share these?
(01:55:03):
And if we forget to, please remind us on our
social media accounts, our ex account. Look, I mean, also, okay, okay,
there's a real problem someone shooting brother. First of all,
some of the shooting, dude you got also number one,
he looks like fucking Michael Hayes. That already is at
that's a big problem right there. Also he's got fucking
(01:55:24):
doctor Death Steve Williams next to him right there, like
what terry funk? They're sitting down, yes, after business, I know,
look at that. I mean, this is this is not okay.
They're also like they're not flower Power anymore. They're like
trying to be aggressive. No, they're but they're like but
they're not. They're like disco a graphic. Yeah, because they
(01:55:47):
wearing platform shoes, for god's sake, platform shoes, the fucking
collar over the lapel. Look, I mean they they they
like like, did you ever watched you ever see the
Begs music video for Staying a Little? They ever see it? Yeah,
It's like you know, they're they're in this fucking tough city,
but they look like fucking pussies. No, that's this, that's
(01:56:08):
this right here, Like you know, they they trying to
look like tough people, they're fucking pussy. How do these
disco guys dressing like that in the hood not get
their ass be every day? Because everyone in the hood
was dressed that way too, is why I know it's true.
It's true. No, they have nostalgia for that, for those
lapels in the inner cities, just like they would in
any you know, suburb or whatever whatever the contrast would be.
(01:56:28):
That was the way everyone looked that. They didn't say,
you know, that's our shaft looked right. I mean, yep,
it's amazing, but you're right, it makes some look like
it's clowns now, you know, seriously, I mean they look
at Hogan there, he looks like a complete goofball with
that fucking rifle. Like Jesus, I gotta get also the
guy with a Tommy gun there too, the guy on
the right with his hand on his hip there with
(01:56:50):
the fucking platform shoes, or just must get the story
behind the rifle idea, Like why is this? I know,
I need I need to know what the fucking deal
was with this? And like what what the fuck. Yeah,
it was. It was a time where like the idea
of the publicity photo was like kind of still an art,
you know. It's like, how can we take a picture
of people that will be I think, like incongruous enough.
(01:57:14):
We're like, but what is this? Like, who are these guys?
They're just holding guitars. They're like trying to say something
with the the ambiance of the picture. You know. That's
how they got noticed. You couldn't just upload a clip
to TikTok, and people took in your image as well
as your sound. They had to take in your image
separate from your sound, and so these kind of photo
shoots happened as a result. It's some unlike that that
(01:57:37):
famous four Horseman photo shoot from the late eighties where
they're all in tuxes. Yeah, you know. This one here
is the Ruckus days after they had become Ruckus. This
is from Friday, March fifth of nineteen and seventy six,
from the same newspaper Lounge Review. Ruckus will be playing
the XYZ Memorial Boulevard for two weeks. The band plays funky,
disco oriented rock. They play loud. They I really thought
(01:58:01):
you were going to say something else. There. I mean,
I'd say, I thought you're going to say disco orient
wit home say it again, what was the disco funky
disco oriented rock? I thought you were going to say
funky disco oriental rock. That's what you were going to say.
He hasn't for a moment. He has not met Matt
Suita yet. Huh he is he has not quite yet apologize.
(01:58:27):
I apologize using the word oriental. I know that's not
he is not quite nomenclature, you know, not yet yet. However,
that's honestly what I thought you were going to read like.
That's what I was like. This is the weirdest music
I've ever heard. However, looking at these pictures, they may
very well have been an itchy band, not each bond,
(01:58:48):
but they are ichi band.
Speaker 1 (01:58:50):
The Last Band. Wrestling podcast, The wrestling podcast that knows
(01:59:23):
the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan Apps
(02:00:00):
to Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and Carn JP Soorro.
Speaker 2 (02:00:05):
The group has been together for three months, but all
are old friends from the Tampa area. They organized from
the remains of two fairly popular Hillsboro groups. Anthony Barcelo
handles vocals and plays rhythm guitar. His phrasing is sharp,
his tonality is reasonably good, and he is able to
sing varied styles. Harmony is tight. Anthony usually sings bottom
with Gary Devrned on top. The combination is greater than
(02:00:28):
the sun of its parts. Two plus two equals five,
which is the goal of serious harmonists. Both parts are
distinct and clear. Gary also plays guitar. He is a
good technician. Ben Strings often uses entire fretboard. Fairly fast,
extremely accurate, and perhaps the most important of all, works
empathetically with team members. What is this a fucking job review?
Is this a quarterly performance review? Or is this a
(02:00:51):
music criticism? Terry Boleya ready for this? Terry Boleya looks
a lot like Charles Atlas. Wow, Terry has the distinction
of being the biggest, strongest looking bass man that I
can think of at this moment. His fender, which is
a very long guitar. I mean, I guess they're talking
just about his physiquecause, I mean it doesn't really look
(02:01:11):
like Charles Alas at all. But yes, they are talking
about his his essence, if not his exact, very similitude.
That there's a college word for you. There we go.
His fender, which is a very large guitar, appears to
be a toy in his grip. His ideas are interesting,
His fingers are dextrous. There's your first, there's your first.
(02:01:35):
As far as I can tell, public review of Terry
blea right there, dexterous. We don't brother dext like x
Colm five like I mean, I'm I'm wondering about a
lot of things here. The bass sound was muddy. Many
basement cringe at the suggestion turn up the trouble or
flip the bright. On the other hand, many don't. I
(02:01:56):
normally subscribe to the cringe school of thought. I hate
tiny bass, he says, rather tiney bass. The room's acoustics
are dead. A little trouble, little treble would help. Larry
Stowhall is percussionist. Drums are important in Ruckus's brand of rock.
Larry is precise and generally handles his instrument well. Dan
Chapman is in charge of keyboards. Dan has been knowledge,
(02:02:17):
knowledge has keen knowledge. Excuse me of rock keyboard principle.
His rifts opened with promise, but sometimes closed with default.
I have the feeling Dan is capable of playing much
better than he did the night I reviewed the group.
He played much louder than optimum and lost his train
of thought frequently, but his ideas were bold. It takes
longer for a keyboard musician to adopt to a group style.
(02:02:38):
The group has been playing together for only three months.
The group claims to own forty thousand dollars worth of equipment.
I wonder who in the band gave them that figure. Boss,
I wonder who's penciling out the exact accounting on the deal.
Big expensive equipment is a must for the big time. However,
it complicates volume. Tone mix mix was off. Some members
were too loud, others too soft. Instrument's were not tonally separated.
(02:03:01):
The band is flashy. Hit movement was plentiful. Their clothes
were made but the famous tailors Michael and Tony of Tampa,
and they outfit many of the nation's top acts that
I did not know. Ruckus is a good band, highly
recommended for disco rock fans. When they sell their first album,
you will be able to say I saw those fellows
at a local bar. They never got around to selling
(02:03:24):
that first album, otherwise we would have gladly played it
by now. Oh man, it's out there, it'll come out.
We're trying to put it out into the universe. But
as we stand here today, we still are deprived of
hearing what Terry bullays. Songs and sounds look like. You've
seen Ruckus before. The photos are easy to find online.
(02:03:46):
You just saw the bandit one. But here boss, in
case you little needle, little reminder, and if the people
at home are otherwise disposed and can only listen and
not look up the image, please tell them what it
is you see here in this Ruckus publicity shot. Oh boy,
I'm sure you've seen this with a Ruckus. Uh Jesus
fucking what what's the deal? I mean, I don't know
(02:04:10):
why you always act like it's such a big deal
on seven you know, it's just totally normal. I'm just
you know, that's nothing like like I caught you doing something. Nothing,
I didn't do anything. What No, it wasn't that. So okay.
So first you get Hogan. Hogan's in the back, of course,
not surprising. I mean, look, there is nobody standing behind him. Okay.
(02:04:34):
In fact, let me look here. I'm curious here and
not in a single one not look, I mean, yes,
he's not in the in the back back. But in
the bandit one, Hogan can clearly see everyone around him
like there's nobody there in uh and in the same thing.
In the other one, he is in the back. He
is always in the back. I mean he's wearing a bandanas.
(02:04:55):
The first time you've seen the bandana. Look, it looks
like he's fucking wearing wrestling and and uh in an
elbow pad. Oh wow, yeah, you're right. It kind of
looks like, you know, it looks like he's got like rip,
he's got the the like rip. He's got the armbands
that Beefcake would have, you know, that go all the
way up past the elbow, right right, kind of show
off the the the top of the biceps a little bit.
(02:05:17):
I mean, look at this one. This is I mean, god,
this guy couldn't be more out of the potential getting
rolled up position Like it's exactly where you would stand,
I know, I know, I mean you the the hold
on here. The wall is white, his blazer is white.
(02:05:37):
It's as if he blints into the wall exactly. But
with ruckus here we get on the left, We've got
I mean, this guy is a creepy motherfucker. He's just
wearing white white pants above his belly buttons. So it's
like fucking Fred Merch. I love luc all right, and
he's got this this kind of red robe seventy type thing.
(02:06:00):
I mean, he it seriously is it's like insane orange. Yeah,
you know, I mean it's such a weird aesthetic. Yeah,
it's such a it really is. Like I never uh,
there are a lot of things in the seventies that
that I that I that I actually like and I
(02:06:21):
think you're fine, but like there's there's there's so many
wardrobes that built around not wearing any shirt at all, right, weird, like, right,
let me maximized chest hair exposure. Let me maximize the
amount that people see my stomach. It's just it's different,
very different. And next to him, we get this Tom
Selleck looking motherfucker with a like stars on his shoulders,
(02:06:41):
like he's David von Eric with a white jacket chest
hair that just fucking let's go, I mean, let's go.
You gotta you get a carpet cleaner for that, and
like jim pants. And then in front of Hogan is
with like fucking actor Kevin Cory fucking good Fellas there
and wearing he's got he's got fucking those leopard shoes,
(02:07:04):
leopard print shoes on the bottom there, or cheetah print
something like that. And then I mean, the other guy
just doesn't care. Fucking uh, I don't know who. He
looks like somebody if I can't fucking put my finger
on it. But he's just like looking off the off
of the side. He's got a little bit of a belly,
and he's wearing that. Must be the guy. The reviewer
(02:07:26):
was like, he gave up in the middle of the show.
Must be that, yeah, right, And he's wearing like one
of the fucking rock shirts from nineteen ninety nine. And uh,
and then these these slacks with a million buttons on
the crotch there. That sucks. You have to take a leak,
no consideration for none function, just just form, you know none.
(02:07:48):
Then he just like does not give a fuck. Amazing,
that's funny. This is the raw material from which came. Yeah, yeah,
that's fucking crazy. So he jumped around a lot in
terms of timeline all the way through the mid seventies.
But to set to reseet, I mean, Hulkogan graduated from
Robinson High School. Terry Bolaya did in nineteen seventy one.
This is the same high school as we talked with
(02:08:08):
Vic Pettit about that a dirty dick Slater went to,
and Mike Graham and the future skinner Steve Kern all
out of that high school. And he's making plenty of
money before he graduates, he writes in his first book,
even with the car payments, I was pocketing a ton
of money when I started playing regularly with really good
local bands at a place called the Islands Club on
Davis Island. I moved out of my parents' house. That
(02:08:29):
was part way through my senior year of high school.
So Hulk moved out of that Tampa house with Ruth
and Pete before he was even graduating in high school. Yeah, yeah,
and I never moved back though. There were times when
I had a little lot less money than I did
in high school, and at those times, free room and
board suddenly sounded pretty damn good to me. The Islands
Club attracted a lot of good looking women who were
too old for me, and also attracked a lot of
athletes from the University of Tampa. We were just talking
about this guy on the Goonies under the cinemat Boss.
(02:08:52):
I remember John Matusac. Yep, yes, and he came of
something else too, Ji Pettit brot him up. Yeah, right, exactly,
It's right exactly. That was wild because we spent time
during the goonies. Like, John Matusac has to have something
to do with wrestling. There's no way this fucking guy
has nothing. Indeed, he was a Hulk, knew one before
(02:09:13):
he ever became a pro wrestler. Yep, yeah, I remember
John Matusac, who wound up playing for the Oakland Raiders,
would come by a lot. The same with Paul Orndorf,
another tremendous athlete at the university. So yeah, of course,
Paul and Droff was a big football stand out at
the University of Tampa and would go on, you know, Hulk,
Hogan's future Mega drawing opponent in New York would come
and see him when he was playing music at the
(02:09:35):
Islands Club. He wouldn't come specifically to see him, but
Hulk would be performing music when paulo en Dorff came through,
when Pauloendorff was famous for something other than being a
professional wrestler, when he was famous as a big football star,
and then something weird happened. Hogan writes, wrestlers started showing up.
These guys I had watched and idolized all my life
started coming to the Islands Club instead of them entertaining me.
(02:09:57):
I mean, by the way he says all his life now,
I didn't get the vibe that he watched wrestling all
his life from from victory boyhood, I would say when
they were like seven eight, I mean, I guess, but
it didn't seem like they were like that even back then.
I mean the way he said it, it kind of
seemed like they were a little bit older. Yeah, he
didn't give an exact year, obviously, but I don't know.
(02:10:19):
It just felt a little like it wasn't. It wasn't
like he makes it sound like they're fucking hardcore fans
and these are these are their fucking heroes. I think
it's right. I think it's less the question of how
long he was a fan and more a question of
how big was wrestling apart of the things he loved.
And it was right. It wasn't the biggest thing. It
was one of six things that were probably all equally weighted,
(02:10:42):
including music. Yeah, eating fucking chocolate again. I got again.
I got the vibe because because mainly because he didn't
really talk about it that much, and maybe because we
didn't ask him, but like the amount of stuff that
he talked about, it just seemed like he just they
weren't like they went and they enjoyed it. That something
they didn't enjoy it and they didn't like it, but
(02:11:02):
it wasn't a priority. Well he didn't. And I don't
even know if he liked it as much as something else.
I think he might have liked it less. Well, I
think Vic was less enthusiastic about it. Like because we
asked him, who are the big stars you saw in Tampa?
He doesn't remember anybody. He mentioned Haystacks Caloon, which is
like right, right, that's like a decade before. And not
to say he didn't see the guy, but it's like
you don't remember Dusty Rhodes or Billy Graham or Eddie Grahm.
(02:11:22):
He remembered the Grams, but more because they were Tampa
legends in the community rather than their you know, televised
wrestling exploits and things like that. So yes, instead of
entertaining me, I was the one entertaining them. Hogan writes, like,
I say it was weird, that's funny. That just fucking
makes me laugh that that brother, instead of entertainment, I
(02:11:45):
was entertained them. He could picture his face too, like
in a podcast set and like with a mic in
his face, like I was entertained that all of a sudden,
this weird thing what happened? It's not like this kind
of switch going on? Boy? And know what I'm saying,
like kind of like whoa, you know, dude, like you know,
I'm a I'm I'm in the ring right now there
in the audience cheer. He's gesturing with the hands. He's
got a bracelet on the skin under the bicep is
(02:12:08):
sagging a little, but he's got his muscle shirt on
stone right exactly the sleeves. You still hear a little
bit of clink and clink from jewelry when he moves around.
Look like kind of has that look on his in
his eyes at all times, like is the sky buying
what I'm selling?
Speaker 8 (02:12:22):
You know?
Speaker 2 (02:12:23):
And I fucking red fucking bloodshot as they have been silent,
things up and down depending on like what he thinks
the interviewers looking for, you know, does he get humble bumble?
What hogan?
Speaker 9 (02:12:36):
What?
Speaker 2 (02:12:36):
What truth? Is he going to share exactly what are
they looking for? And how can I, like I always
say about him, how can I perform for the camera
that's in front of me. And it doesn't matter if
that camera is beaming out to the world or if
that camera is someone's private close circuit television camera. If
there was one thing I thought I knew for sure
before I graduated from high school, he further writes, it
(02:12:58):
was this, I did want to die a Port Tampa death. Mmm.
She'd ask Vic that when you went to his service,
did you feel like it? Ultimately he died of Port Tampa.
The whole idea of staying in Port Tampa, your whole
life working construction, working on the docks, roasting in the
sun all day until they put you in a grave,
just didn't appeal to me. And so he moves forward.
(02:13:20):
We mentioned the band Magic, on which she played bass
through to like seventy three. A sudden, Halt's story begins
to intersect with that of a musician who was on
television a lot back in those days. Her name was
Genie Conroy. I don't know if you've ever heard of
this woman before. Nope, But what Hogan is going to
the Christian youth rant. He remembers being introduced to the
Genie Conroy Show. She was like a local celebrity who
(02:13:41):
had a summer replacement TV show, he writes on the air,
and one of the ways she capitalized in her name
recognition was to put together a fourteen piece show band
and play at dinner clubs. They needed a bass player,
and by that time I'd switched over to playing fretless
bass more than guitar. The old ego had in my
first band slipped away and I found that act. She
has an al show I know called Genie. Well the
specific album I'm talking about, Genie Conroy sings Christmas at
(02:14:04):
Waterville Valley, New Hampshire from I'm almost positive she's from
New Hampshire. She Wow. There are clips out there and
I'll play some. It isn't of this exact moment, but
there are clips out there of her televised she kind
of did like Genie sings at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Sure, she's
definitely New England and she's got people in some of
these television scenes who have strong Boston accents. Wow. And
(02:14:27):
I noticed it right away. But apparently she was a
big deal in Tampa and on Tampa television and playing
in Tampa clubs. It's kind of like, you know, like
around Christmas time, there'll be like a half hour special
if someone just singing the hit right, the hits, you know,
right right, ye oh yeah, that's what I know. Those
that those are the glory days, and they were that
that was acceptable entertainment that people would, you know, eat
a TV dinner and watch his Innocent enough time not
(02:14:50):
only not only acceptable, but that it was it was
it was anticipating, It's what was expected of television. It's like,
this is great, Like look at this woman, she's singing
ten songs for us, and it's right, it's enough, and
we're able to do it in the comfort of our
own home. I know that, right. The novelty of being
able to do that without having to go to the
concert hall was still so very much alive that it
(02:15:11):
was like, it was great, it was a treat. It's
you know, but that on TV now people are like, WHOA,
why would I watch that? I know, I know it's
it's I mean again, I I I we've we've we've
talked about it a lot. How you know, we're still
at the I'm still trying to grapple with the idea
(02:15:32):
when I first even thought of it, the idea that
we're still at the infancy stage of screen entertainment. You know,
that it's only been around for one hundred years, that
people are the the idea, the feeling of of of
(02:15:54):
or the understanding of like that that very brief period,
that very very brief period of time where it was
a novelty too to not have to go to a concert,
to like to feel like that was a that was
a thing to do, to stay home and watch this show.
(02:16:19):
Is it's gonna be so far forgotten in a hundred years,
it's gonna be it's gonna be such like a blink
in the history of television and screen entertainment. It's like
the tiniest, the tiniest blaze in two generations, our kids kids.
(02:16:43):
It's not gonna matter. Like that's the thing, Like, at
some point it's not going to matter. And that's the
sad part is that at some point it's just not
going to be an important part of the history of
screen entertainment. Nobody's going to remember appointments, no one's going
to care, you know, because it just didn't last long enough.
Just the same thing as the local celect brities, you know,
like a chili billy cardilly. You know, it's just like
(02:17:05):
that era is just in the grand scheme of it all.
It's not gonna matter in the history of it all. Yeah,
you know, in two hundred years, no one's gonna like
who cares? And yet it's probably some of the most
important shit we're already seeing it. It doesn't it doesn't
even register that people would care about the big screen
(02:17:25):
as much as the small screen. People don't even get
that by the big screen, No, don't me in a
movie theater. I mean the television in your house. They
don't get it. They don't get why that would be
something that you built your day around watching something on.
That thing would kind of be something that the culture
anchored to and look forward to and felt like was
a luxury. Now it's like, why would I watch I'll
watch it on this whenever I want, And I won't
(02:17:47):
watch it because I make a point to watch it.
I won't make it because I won't watch it because
this is one I watch it. I'll watch it because
the algorithm showed it to me at at this given time.
You know, I'm opening I'm opening TikTok. I'm opening YouTube,
I'm opening snapchat, whatever the case may be, so that
it can tell me what to watch, not because I'm
going to it with intentionality, right right right, Even the
Netflix recommendation engine and the Amazon Prime recommendation it's all
(02:18:10):
tell me what to watch. I've got tent, I've got
two hours. I don't have two hours that I set
aside so I could do this. It still exists in sports,
but I'm talking about generalized entertainment like this. It just
and now we just there's right, I didn't make time
for television. I just have time. Thumbs down, right, thumbs down.
Inferior experience leads to the ripping of the social fabric. Yep,
(02:18:33):
we had it. We had it, and we convinced ourselves
that on demand was better, and we were all wrong
for a for a bl blip for exactly and to
your point, in two generations, no one's even gonna remember
that short period of time where we can describe this feeling. No,
but it's like no one's no one's even going to
include it in the history of insignificant. It's that it's
(02:18:56):
going to be that insignificant. Like we we still don't
a time where you know, there are people who live
through it and so we can remember it. But like
our generation, that's it. The Gooney generation were the last ones.
No serious fine for you to kind of understand what
the you know, the idea of the of like the
local celebrity or this this kind of the importance of
(02:19:20):
of like a Christmas show being a novelty. You know,
we're it, we're it. After that, it's gone so true,
you know, it's just it's dead and then and then
when we when we all die, then it's then again.
It's just it's going to be a race from the
history books. No one's going to give us you because
it didn't matter. It was too small of a time.
(02:19:40):
It'll it'll it's too small. It'll be one of just
many things that you can be a kind of sure
of because YouTube has it all, but that it'll it'll
be something you know about and it's your little hobby
and obsession. It's not the you're never but you're never
gonna understand it because I understand it right, and it
never won't be. It's it's like I look at this
generation now, these kids in it, It's like they don't
(02:20:02):
you know, every generation seems to want to recapture the
style of the generation before it and reconstitute. Right, the
two thousands kids got into the nineties, the nineties kids
got into the eighties, eighties, seventies, et cetera. But then
what started to happen around like the twenty ten and
the twenties was YouTube came out, and as everyone was
able to look at what it used to be like
to watch television at that time, to see commercials of
(02:20:23):
that time, to see people dressing up and making music
in those times, is they're able to now be nostalgic
for any number of decades. So this this generation was
dressed like the fifties. And I'm going to interrupt you
for four and a second because you know what, I
got into a weird rabbit hole the other day, And
actually it's funny. I'm still looking for this one particular
commercial I got into. I fell down the rabbit hole
(02:20:46):
of personal injury law. Oh those are from the nineties,
great from the nineties, and I'm still trying to find
one that I cannot find. There's probably more local than
you fucking find it, I know, I know, like I
keep looking for it, and it's the it's the uh
uh uh. It was for Fine Stegning, for Lizzie. Sure,
(02:21:07):
I'll never forget it, but it was this. It was
this redhaired guy with curly hair and a mustache, and
he'd walk from the shadows with some kind of weird
thing and he like kept walking towards you and and
uh uh, it's as easy as picking up the phone.
Speaker 3 (02:21:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (02:21:23):
And he took the phone up and he goes, you
can count on it, you know. So it ends and
it's like I can't find that commercial. I cannot find
that commercial anywhere. And it drives me crazy because I'm like,
I want, I can remember that commercial so badly, and
I know, and I know having done I mean, honestly,
I learned more about it doing cinemat than anywhere else.
(02:21:43):
The idea that they would hire these guys to just
have these generic commercials that actually say nothing about the
actual law firm until they put the graphic out it.
They don't mention it. They're just generic personal injury law commercials.
And I am fast stated by that, and they and
I just fell on this rabbit hole, just like my god,
(02:22:03):
like watching all the like Jim sockle Off and all
these fucking I mean his was specific because he was
from the area, but it was just like oh man,
like yeah, yeah. It was this time when they allowed
law services to be advertised in television, but lawyers hadn't
come up with the expectation of being able to perform
their own television ads. Like car dealers and these other industries,
(02:22:24):
furniture salesmen, they know if they're going to be successful,
they have to train themselves to be camera friendly because
they've got to do their own ads and become personalities
that are warmly received and understood in their markets. Lawyers,
once television advertising was allowed for their stuff, much like
prescription drugs, it's like, well, we've got to use b
roll like we have. We don't our lawyers don't necessarily
know how to cut a commercial. But now, like Morgan
(02:22:45):
and Morgan, the whole, the whole enterprise is understanding advertising,
you know, and getting your your face out there nationally
on billboards and on television. But yeah, there was that
time where a lot of the personal entry firm commercials
where the in Tampa's they were in Seattle as they
were in California, except at the end when the voiceover
guy would mention a local firm and flash a local
(02:23:07):
telephone number on your screen. And to your point, like
and to my point, we're now in a place in
media and technology where a kid who was born two
years ago, well a kid who was born fifteen years ago,
could go on YouTube and spend enough time to recreate
the exact same feeling we remember having. Now, let me
(02:23:30):
put it this way, not recreate the feeling that that
was inurately put it, Not recreate the feeling, but see
what we saw, right, every other generation had to vaguely
remember what it was we saw, and those were our
cultural touch points. We get together with people and say, hey,
you grew up in this area. Remember these commercials, remember
this jingle. But it wasn't something we could ever hope
to find again. It's not something we could ever pull
(02:23:52):
up and remember, Oh, actually this is the exact song.
Listen to the no. But now that that's there, right right,
every generation just going to pick choose which decade they
want to be nostalgic for, which decade they want to
dress like, which decade they want their music to sound like.
And so what we get is this huge mishmash. I
saw it on the VMAs. This year, which I always
try to watch to get to stay up to date
(02:24:13):
on like what what's like pop and it's it is.
It's like there was a whole commercial I think it
was for Burger King or was it Taco Bell or something.
It was like because all these commercials are trying to
play like Jen Alpha and they're like, we know that
you sometimes you want a seventies vibe, sometimes you want
it in nineties vibe. Wow. Yeah, And it's like, this
is so weird that like these generations now have sixty
(02:24:34):
years to pick from one of the only one we
could be nostalgic for was the one that we got
a taste of in the recesses of our memory well
and mat and then also you know, because of our parents, right,
you know, we stuff laying around a bit because yeah, exactly,
but not you know now you can now it's everything's
lying around, you know, and you can probably find home
(02:24:56):
videos that to pick the exact scenes we remembered ly exactly.
I just found the commercial. I can't believe it, trying
to find that. I've had hours from the commercial and
then I just fucking found I'm gonna send it to
you because it's just like it just This commercial is
just fucking I saw this every fucking day when I
was a kid. I remember that, guy, Yeah, I did
remember that guy. Chances are you don't need an attorney
(02:25:17):
right now, but what if you suddenly do need wind?
Do need? What if you need something? Here? You bet
an accident, You've been in an accident, I'm a job,
are in your car. That's when you need to know
you can count on someone someone do settle things for
you properly, fairly. How do you find that someone? It's
easy as picking up the phone. You can count on
(02:25:41):
its fucking go if you're in Jared called it loves
is a fine signing for Lizzie. See we just did it.
We just did exactly so someone who's twelve could have
done what you just did. Yeah, right, and and remember
the commercial just as much as you do. It's but
not nearly, but again, not have any sort of anection
to it like this. This, I just this commercial was
(02:26:03):
on the air all the time when I was a kid,
and now there's all the time that now there are
no commercials that are on the air all the time
because you get a different ad, and you get a
different ad, and you get a different ad based on
your demographics. Dude, I'm watching the watching peacock when we
watch the fucking Live you know, or the main of
Saturday's main event, I guess really is what they do that,
(02:26:24):
but still like what it's it's it's it's ridiculous, ridiculous,
so bizarre. So Genie Conroy is one of these TV singers, okay,
that we're talking about, and at one point she starts
touring around the tamp area needed a bass player. Terry
gets involved and this is an actual bona fide television
(02:26:45):
production that he's involved in for the first time, you
could say Terry Bullay is on a television set. Her
band had a horn section. He remembers that played all
the tower power stuff. We also played themes from Oklahoma
and this fluffed up music for the senior crowd. Terry writes,
I just did it because it was good money. We
got paid big block bucks to play that stuff. So
here's a taste of of the aforementioned Jennie Conroy. Hi,
(02:27:45):
it's Jennie. The whole cast is on the way to
South Seast plantation.
Speaker 5 (02:27:49):
Captain is to stay around for a lot of fun.
Speaker 10 (02:27:54):
The Genie Conroy Show always brought to the Bible. People
are purely supreme, where some are fun bigins with Greek folks.
Purity Supreme.
Speaker 2 (02:28:01):
Hope you enjoined the Night's family specialty and they wish purity.
Oh my God, hopes you enjoy tonight Purity Supreme. What
do you know about it? Oh dude, I haven't thought
about fucking Purity Supreme in in decades. I don't know it.
Tell me what it is. It was just a market
that that, yeah, I used to I used to know
(02:28:25):
it because my my aunt, my aunt Martha, it was nearby,
uh you know where she lived in Mathuleen. There was one.
I think it was in Salem. I think it was
one in Salem, Massachuset Salem, New Hampshire on sale Jesus Salem,
New Hampshire, which is like ten minutes away from Mathullen.
And if I was staying, whether I would go to
Purity of Supreme and get whatever we needed whatever she
could take the bolets out of New Hampshire. But yeah, right,
(02:28:47):
Hampshire will follow. Damn right, Holy shit, that's it. These
companies would sponsor an evening for the family on television. Yep,
they were, they were, They were acquired by Stopping Shop
in ninety five. Oh there he go. Okay, so that's
what happened. So they became Stopping Shop rolled up at Yeah, brother,
I mean, that's fucking great. Just that the whole idea
(02:29:09):
of that being the sh and that people would joyfully
tune in to music that sounded like that, that they
were so not full of their own shit that like
that n A. Lloyd almost cheesy, joyful music or something
people are like, I enjoy this. They weren't afraid to
enjoy something like that, you know. Yep. God, So that's
that's an entree for Hogan. Another thing that should exist
(02:29:30):
on tape somewhere is him playing on the set of
the Genie Conroy show that no one seems to have,
although as you just heard, samples of the show do
survive on YouTube. Here's an article from the Tampa Times
in nineteen seventy three describing the whole television production element
to what Genie Conroy was doing. The White Sandy Beach
of Tampa Bay is providing the background for two local
television shows hoping for national syndication this fall. Sun Coast
(02:29:54):
Productions Incorporated has chosen Apollo Beach as its home base
and primary taping side of a weekly family entertainment show
which hel Cogan would go to star in in the eighties,
and a morning astrology talk show. The new company is
using Bay Area people and producing the show and its casting.
John Conroy's executive producer and president of Sun Coast Productions.
Already being produced is The Genie Conroy Show, a thirty
(02:30:16):
minute musical variety show that will feature music from modern
rock to the golden melodies of the twenties and thirties.
According to Conroy, featured in the show with Missus Conroy,
wife of the executive producer, That's Always the Way will
be the Sunshine Singers, a group of area youngsters in
the three to eleven years old category, and Magic, a
three member rock group from Davis Islands. The set is
(02:30:37):
an improvised section of beach on the south side of
Apollo Beach. The land was donated by Franderson product Properties,
developers of Apollo Beach. Conroy's at A building will be
added to the area for base operations in about two
weeks and that within one year more than one hundred
persons will be employed there in production, office and stage positions.
Presently there are more than forty persons with the company.
The Genie Conroy Show has been sold to more than
(02:30:58):
twenty two stations in Florida, and Conroy said negotiations are
underway with National Television Networks for a spot on nationwide
television next fall. Apparently they pulled this off because there's
no way that Purity Supreme, a New England supermarket chain,
is the presenting sponsor of the Florida version of this show. No,
not at all, Not at all, because they weren't Why
(02:31:19):
would they be, I mean, they're not there. They were
only in New England and the Massachusetts New Hampshire, Maine, Connecticut.
According to the Wikipedia, Genie Conroy, star of the Variety Show,
studied music and drama at Barry College in Miami Shores
and received her master's degree in music from Miami University.
She has sung with the Miami Opera and Symphony and
has appeared in productions by Rogers and Hammerstein, in addition
(02:31:41):
to a number of movies. All three members of Magic
are students at the University of South Florida and have
been playing for dances and shows in the Tampa area
for almost seven years. Do you know, wait you say
she was in movies. Genie Comra was in movies. It
says that she appeared in productions by Rogers and Hammerstein
in addition to a number of movies. Yes, this may
be a way to cinemat the fuck out of the
Who knows. I'm wondering, like, you know, like does she
(02:32:03):
count because she was worked with hul Kokeey. I'm about
to say what I think is Yes, I absolutely think so.
I think she qualifies for this very reason because, as
the next paragraph states, Mark Cure is the drummer, Terry
Bowley plays the bass guitar, and David White plays all
keyboard instruments and as the lead singer. A pilot version
of the Genie Conroy Show was aired Christmas Eve in
(02:32:23):
the Bay Area last year on w FLA TV Channel eight.
A premier showing is scheduled from a twenty seventh, but
the exact time and place have not been determined yet.
Conroy said the second show, Teresa's Garden, is to be
started in about three weeks, and Conroy said it will
be the first daily talk show dealing strictly with astrology
ever produced. Missus Teresa Maddox Apollo Beach Resident is the
star of the show. She is the owner of the
(02:32:44):
Maddox Private Schools and Brandon and Apollo beach Y had
that one, and I'm sure didn't go quite as far
as the Genie Conroy show, but there you go. The
Hulkster kind of stumbles into something that's television adjacent, and
I'm sure he's closely studying the economics of syndicate a television. Oh,
I'm sure. Let's know all about how does it work? Jenny?
Like a moment here, what do you what do you
(02:33:08):
get for syndication? Dude? What's going on? Brother? Talk to
me about money? How can I get your money? Brother?
How can I how can I understand what's flowing through
this place? Like in my in my rightful percentage of it? Yeah,
I just want to understand how you know the kind
of the the cash flow, dude, Like, what's what's the
dizz brother? What's the dis behind Matt geene izy geene
(02:33:34):
i Isy? Are you not geneuzy because an Roy? Cause
Arni Jeannie? Brother? Are you are you not willing to
tell me the budget of the show? Like is this
like are you trying to withhold you? Brother? I'm just
(02:33:56):
kind of just curious, dude, are you kind of curse
to me that I probably before been agree to do
the show, And now I'm getting vibes that like you
don't really want to hear these questions. It's all of
a sudden, it's like, you know, kind of like you know, well,
it's like a hide the ball here. But one thing
I understand about me, you know, even though I'm a
you know, hippie musician or whatever, brother, I'm a numbers guy.
I'm a math guy. I'm also a legal connoisseurer. I'm
(02:34:19):
good at counting things, especially other people's money, brother, And
I'm counting your money in my head right now and
it's not penciling now to Terry boy, I'm telling you know,
I'm also a very good accounting of three right, exactly right.
And I know i'm making for shoot for damn sure
that my shoulders wrong. And I don't think you want
to know much about that, Genie, So let's put that aside.
(02:34:40):
So what I want to know, dude, but I don't understand, brother,
is kind of like I want to I want to
kind of dial exactly exactly. Finally somebody said it. Finally
someone's gonna stand up for the members of magic, because like, brother,
you're kind of like keeping the secret as the how
much money is being spent? And then I'm warning brother,
(02:35:02):
thirty music and how much money is spent? How do
I know how much money I'm taking in? You know,
I just want to make things square. You know, it
is a reasonable question. I think at this point we've
developed enough of a working relationship that I'm within my
rights to ask about the finances. Brother, I do believe.
I mean, I think it's only fair that I get
(02:35:23):
a certain percentage of whatever. Like are you hiding all
of you? Are you hiding? Are you? Are you hiding
the ball? Like I you know, Brother, I'm I'm I'm
tired of playing skin the chicken. We all know what.
We all know what that euphemism I just invented means.
(02:35:48):
You just you just caused a big problem that will
derail this whole thing. Brother, I'm tired of play to
give the chicken. Dude, I'm tired of playing you know,
hose the hose the potato. All right, fine, you want it.
(02:36:15):
We were playing bury the receipt, dude, small smother the subtotal? Dude?
Are we camouflaging the credit card? Brother. Are we plucking
the flamingo? Dude? I mean we milk, milking the cactus,
buttering the walrus? Iron the are we? Brother? Are we
(02:36:35):
playing paint the window, dust the volcano? Brother? I mean,
what's going on here? Are we trying to reset the sundial? Dude?
I mean, brother, we kind of dial the sun dial
in dude. Brother, all right, dude, I I just I
just want to. I just want to. I just want
to get a straight We're trying to iron the moonlight here, dude.
(02:36:57):
I'm not trying to tune the jellyfish, wax the onion. Brother,
I mean these are we're gonna We're trying to trying to,
you know, spind the wheel on the grass.
Speaker 1 (02:37:12):
M.
Speaker 2 (02:37:14):
Polish the tumbleweed. I mean we're talking, brother, We're trying
to like mail the twig. And with that show found
itself a new house band. Because this guy is not
only accusing me of hiding money from him, which he
has no right to, he is absolutely bombarding me with
(02:37:35):
what appears to be speaking in tongues as he tries
to find every euphemism possible for not paying him what
he's owed. And if I'm being frank, he's freaking me
the funk out and he's looking at her through those
tinted air air My god. Oh yeah. Ators yeah, the aviators.
(02:37:57):
But they you know, they go from like up top
there they're like something less, but on the bottom the
kind of you know, they fade and it looks like
a like a bourbon has been has been gently massaged
into the lad good yep, oh Jesus Christ. So he
does a stint as well at Hillsbury Community College. He writes,
(02:38:19):
When I graduated from Robinson High School in nineteen seventy one,
I moved out to North Tampa and enrolled at Hllsborough
Community College. I was the first bolet to ever go
to college, which was a big deal, even though it
was only a two year school. I picked up a
liberal arts degree, so I stand correct that he did
actually get a degree in one of the two schools
he went to. He got a liberal arts degree, which
basically meant, he writes, I avoided making any kind of
a decision about what I was going to do with
my wife. From there, I went to the University of
(02:38:40):
South Florida and majored in business with a minor in music,
while still playing gigs on the weekends. Business got to
be too hard, so I switched to a major mass
communications but that didn't stick either. I probably quit four
or five times to travel around with these different rock
and roll bands until I finally just didn't go back.
So I never received a real degree of any kind.
And consider his a liberal arts degree real degree. So,
(02:39:04):
I mean that seems weird, but Okay, he's floundering. He's
moving around. He's trying to find his place in the world.
He's trying to straddle that line between the sort of
blue collar life that Tampa allowed him and this open
ended kind of mix of music and showmanship and business
(02:39:24):
and marketing. He's he's basically going to become a pro wrestler.
What I'm trying to say. Yeah, So in seventy four,
he writes Anthony Barcello, one of the lead singers in
one of the seven or eight bands I was in,
helped me out. His dad boss was in the laborers union.
Oh boy, so it's time to get a little too
close to the real workers out there. Terry Bulay is
(02:39:48):
going to dip his toe into that world. He tried
to avoid that Tampa Bacon in the Sun. Work with
your hands earn a decent living lifestyle. So let's go
to his book, his second book here, and have you
conveyed to the people how this all went for Terry
is he struggles to find his identity. Anthony Barcelo, you
want to lead singers in one of the seven or
(02:40:10):
eight bands I was in? I don't know, it's just
the way he says that he knows it. He knows.
It got to a point where he was just doing
it because he was making money. Like he didn't you
know what I mean, It didn't matter what it was
called or anything like that. Yeah, you know, it helped
me out. His dad was in the labors Union, and
he got my name in the books. Every time I
(02:40:32):
I'd get sick and sick of a band. But the
guys were a bitching and complaining, I'd go, I'd go
back and put my name on those books as a
way to change gears and make money at the first.
At first, they sent me out on construction jobs or
poor and concrete. I can picture them in that fucking
hard hat video. I know I thought the same thing.
Ye the pile driver, it's pile driver. Yeah, yeah, you know,
(02:40:56):
college construction jobs or poor in concrete or help intellectual worker.
They one day they send me out to the docks
to help load and unload the ships. I took to
that real quick. I was good at anything to do
with math. It is there, it is how many how
many fucking times does he say that? How many fucking
times does he does? He say that in in in
(02:41:17):
his books. I know constantly and figuring out how to
load those ships the right way was all about math
in balance. It was important too if you got a
big ship going to Singapore or Tokyo, know that ship
wasn't that your ship wasn't loaded correctly. You could sink
it no joke. And they threw me down on the
hole and I worked real hard to the point where
(02:41:39):
they invited me to join the long Shoresman Union long
Shoreman's Union. I was the first white guy ever to
get into the long Shoreman's Union. And that's confirmed by
Vic Pettitt. I thought that was a tall tale, and
he's like trying to, you know, make himself seem like
the fish out of water. But Vic said that, and
he said it's true, not the first, but that there
was it was mostly black folks working in that job. Interesting, okay,
(02:42:00):
and the more I work, the better. I got to
figure out how to load these ships with these big
containers meat and fertilizer or whatever the product of the
day was. What's the product of the day? Brother? What
we got? Dude? What's the product? Brother? What do we?
Speaker 3 (02:42:14):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (02:42:14):
You know, what are we shipping out? We meet fertilizer?
You know, just random ship? My ship, take hulk Hogan ship.
Speaker 10 (02:42:23):
Brother.
Speaker 2 (02:42:24):
All right, we're opening the docks. Boys, come on in.
I got your assignments here. Well, brother, what's what's new
import today? Dude? What's the product? That's cocaine? Hope? What else?
Two things? It's Tampa. Product of the day, dude, what's
the product of the day? He said. He says it like,
(02:42:47):
I'm so sick of you lying to me. What's the
product of the day? What? What are you gonna pretend
in those shipping containers instead of drugs and human beings?
I know what's going on, brother, I get where dude.
I get the human trafficking thing going on? Brother, So
why don't we just fucking say the product of the
day is humans? I just fucking spell it out, brother.
They're bringing in the we think I am. They're bringing
(02:43:08):
in the bananas from Honduras. Again, we know what that means,
packed like a sardine can. Brother, Oh god, I'm just
I'd always do just the right way. So they kept
me on these twelve the fotun hour shifts for about
six months until I was so good that they invited
me to join this this this Steve Adoors, Steve Dor. Yeah,
(02:43:29):
that's like Steve the Boss. Okay, Steve Doors Union. You
know that was a really big deal. Steve Doors were
the guys on the deck of the ship telling everybody
where to put the load. He did the same thing
with Buba. Yeah, rather Clem was the one that told
him to put the she was so she was the
Steve Doors. Okay. So there I was a big man
(02:43:54):
in charge up on deck, roasting in the hot sun.
Brother as So you know why that's so poetic, Like,
you don't have to go back too far in history
to put yourself into time where being tan was not
(02:44:16):
a symbol of luxury or wealth or good health. It
was a sign that you were a peasant and your
ass couldn't get out of the sun because you had
to work with your hands and sweat and die. Okay,
out there in the heat, and if you didn't have
a tan, that meant you were upper crust, you were indoors,
you were cool and comfortable, and you didn't have to
labor like that flipping around. And here's Terry on both
(02:44:40):
sides of that. For one, he's baking the sun, which
is a sign that he's working some job that but
he also has to be tan to be a superstar. Yep, yep.
Hulk Hogan is a referendum on the history of tanning
in America. He's like, he's like he's the like the
measuring stick of that. You know, you can follow back
(02:45:01):
when it was. It was when he was a peasant
and versus when he was a super star, and both
require you to be tanned. But do your tan signify
something completely different on both sides. But he was an
expert in tanning. I forget who it was when he passed.
Was doing you know, recollections on like why he was
such a big deal, and I kind of recall it
as being someone who he wasn't really great friends with,
(02:45:22):
but he gave him credit. The guy was always tanned.
To him. That was like a sign of professionalism, Like
it was a sign that like the guy was so
committed to the gimmick that he knew that he couldn't
even leave the house and be Hulkogan unless he was
super tan. And that is such a that's so American,
that idea, you know, yeah, totally that that being tan
(02:45:42):
means you're glamorous, you know, because it's like I think
Americans look at that and they see somebody who is
lounging at the beach all day, not someone who can't
get out of the sun because that's the job they're
stuck with kind of thing. Well, then then it becomes
then someone who someone who's in the job all day.
If you have a farmer's tan, then we know where
you're at. Right. If you call it a farmer's tan, yeah,
(02:46:04):
that's you know, if you've got your arms are tanned,
but your fucking body is pasty white, then well, okay,
so you're not really you're not making or someone you
can make a good point because he's in a right
because if you enter a world where you walk around
in public without your shirt on, that's not something that
people would have had the luxury of seeing to call
you a peasant or not. They just made the judgment
(02:46:25):
based on your face, your neck your arms. You know
there would be no reason to see you walking around
without a shirt on. Yep, yep. But these guys are
purposely trying to tan every last into their body because
it sells, and they're right, and they're right, fucking crazy
roast in the hot sun. Body just kept picturing that
Port Tampa death. I didn't want to live and die
(02:46:47):
on those docks. I want something different from my life.
I was still young, you know I couldn't give in yet.
I knew I had to walk away. Your music wasn't perfect,
but at least I was having fun looking out on
a crowd full of beautiful girls. I sweating it up
on a container ship all day. Had I landed one
of those other jobs I applied for, who knows what happened.
(02:47:07):
If somebody called me back and hired me a Tampa
Electric and all those all these friends started congratulating me
on landing a great job. I'd probably still be working
there today. I might even be retired by now. I'm
sure is he retired anyway? Well, I'll tell you all
you need to know about how he never he never
considered the bank account closed, you know, right, I'm sure
(02:47:31):
you know I'm sure I would have made a linesman
with my my own crew of foreman like my dad.
I would have grown my go tee. I'm sure I
would have lifted weights and taken steroids. Had been a
legend to my own mind, standing on the side of
the road all buffing down with my hard hat on,
posing as everybody drove by. Want to be values, you know, Jesus,
(02:47:58):
everyone wanted me to be dude. So I mean, he
talks about what if this, what if that? You know,
what if I got that job at the White Company,
and then what if what if Metallica called him back?
Speaker 11 (02:48:14):
Right, maybe this is old news, but you played bass
and you how did you audition for Metallica?
Speaker 2 (02:48:19):
I didn't.
Speaker 8 (02:48:21):
I heard they needed a bass player, and I was
coming off a role from being hearing not hearing back
from the Rolling Stones, because I was I was on
a laughing celebrity, like a charity, you know how they
had the Grammys and all these stuff. They had something
in England like but it was a comedy show and
so I was presenting.
Speaker 2 (02:48:37):
With Jerry Hall.
Speaker 8 (02:48:39):
I said, hey, man, I heard your old man needs
a bass player. I played for ten years, and you
know I was pretty good locally, you know, back in
the day. And so I gave him my name a number,
and she hit me up for merchandise. I said, oh this,
I'm gonna get a chance here. So I said, oh
the ww merchandise to Jerry Hall and so I've never
heard a word from it. And on that same note,
(02:48:59):
Metallica to a bass player, and oh my god, would
I love to be a Metallica. So I put the
word out everywhere I wanted to get an audition to
be a Metallica. That never heard from them either.
Speaker 2 (02:49:08):
What year is this? This is you already big? You're famous?
Speaker 8 (02:49:11):
Well, I quit playing music when I started wrestling in
seventy seven, you know.
Speaker 2 (02:49:16):
Uh huh.
Speaker 7 (02:49:17):
And this was his whole code. And he still wants
to be a Rocks.
Speaker 1 (02:49:22):
Everyone wants to be a goddamn rock star.
Speaker 8 (02:49:24):
Can you imagine being exactly are you kidding me?
Speaker 11 (02:49:28):
Yes, he might be a little inappropriate, though, since you
hadn't played bass in ten years to say to the Stones,
I'm ready for the job.
Speaker 2 (02:49:36):
Progression those songs probably three chord progressions was Jim Norton.
He was on a radio in of you doing it,
so that's like that's his thing. God, bless Hulk Man.
He's not saying Jim Norton is annoying Ship. I'm just
just telling you who that was. I can't hand his
(02:49:56):
fucking face. Smack him fucking on the side. Note, Yeah, who,
for no reason was the voice of the UFC podcast.
I thought that was funny all of a sudden. So
so Hogan, you know, he's not saying that he met
with Metallica, and he's not saying that he appeared before.
(02:50:19):
He's saying the thing that can't be disproven, that he
he put out there that he would like to be.
I put out there a lot of things, you know.
I put out there that I would like to have
sixteen different video game systems when I was ten years old.
I didn't get any of them. But I put out
(02:50:39):
there when I went to when I went to the diner,
when I with my dad when I was a kid,
that I wanted cornby Pash. I didn't get it, but
I took a step in the direction of getting Therefore
it almost happened. Right Therefore it you know. Yeah, and
so he and that's the story of Hulk, Like we
go back to him conflating and Savage's story of you know,
(02:51:02):
being recruited by the Cincinnati Reds, with him being recruited
by the Cincinnati Reds, conflating some of his Little league
exploits with those of kids who went further than he
did in the Little League, and just kind of co
opting those for himself, mentioning, you know, one hundred and
fifty thousand people the Buddhakan in the same breath as
he's describing his own accomplishments as a draw in professional wrestling.
(02:51:25):
And so here's another example, you know, like he's found
a way to associate himself with Metallica and the Rolling Stones,
these little tiny anecdotes, and maybe he made a good
faith effort. Same thing with the George Foreman Grill, same
thing with all these things. And that's if we are
to understand Hulk Hogan here on the Birth of hul Cogan,
(02:51:46):
we must understand this part of the way his brain works.
In a separate interview with the Son, Hogan went further,
claiming he'd been friends with the drummer of Metallica, Lars Ulrich,
which means he met him once probably and was asked
to join the band in its early days. So he
went even further than he did in that interview. I
think that Jim Norton interview came after the initial attempted
(02:52:07):
him to you know, socialize this idea that he was
close to Metallica, and he starts dialing back the degree
to which you know he claims to Actually I've got
claiming he had asked to join the band in its
early day. He was asked to join the band in
its early days. Metallica, however, remembers it differently. All Rich
Flatley denied the story they asked him was going to
(02:52:31):
be in Metallica. No, Well, to your point, here's James Hetfield,
the big front man of Metallica that everybody knows. I
think he's on Metal Injection here. Yes, he is Metal Injection,
which is a hard rock podcast, heavy metal podcast, and
he's asked directly. He's handed actually a photoshopped image of
(02:52:51):
Metallica with Hulk Hogan on it as if he's a
member of the band. And this is James Hetfield's response
to the idea that Hulk Cogan ever came close to
joining Metallica.
Speaker 7 (02:53:03):
Okay, you know this guy.
Speaker 10 (02:53:06):
His version of history.
Speaker 7 (02:53:10):
I don't know his version of history. I don't remember him.
But anyway, Uh, yeah, Whule Cogan.
Speaker 10 (02:53:17):
Yeah, he talks a lot about it of the time,
but what what is it?
Speaker 7 (02:53:21):
He he was in the band for a minute.
Speaker 10 (02:53:23):
No, but he tried to be in the band.
Speaker 9 (02:53:25):
I think he's saying that he was in the additions when.
Speaker 10 (02:53:28):
You really yeah, huh, definitely not.
Speaker 7 (02:53:32):
But anyway, it's a good fit.
Speaker 3 (02:53:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 10 (02:53:38):
He makes us look very small, Okay.
Speaker 2 (02:53:45):
I mean, could it be more dismissing? What are you doing?
What the this guy was the biggest wrestler ever and
he's like putting himself in these situations where people were
biggert stars than him. Have to like laugh at him
like some kind of you know, snake oil salesman. Basically, yeah, right,
It's like, dude, you actually accomplished an incredible amount and
(02:54:07):
you're legitimate, bona fide celebrity. Why do you also And
Jim Norton is kind of getting at this, why do
you also have to be considered someone that was almost
in Metallica? And what are you doing to yourself?
Speaker 10 (02:54:17):
Why?
Speaker 2 (02:54:17):
Like because you need because you know what, they're the
void people to avoid him. He needs exactly the void.
Why the void? The void? The void? The void became
I think we're getting there. Maybe, Yeah, the void became attention. Wow,
people talking about him and if people if he could
say something that was a little bit out lammish, But
(02:54:38):
is it necessarily like you know, you can't necessarily find
out if it's not true or not. And you know, hey,
you know, brother, all these metallicized and you know they're
kind of old my age, brother, they don't remember everything, dude, right,
you know, I don't expect them to remember it. They're
a huge deal, but it happened. You know, people people
are in the band, Brother, they're not gonna remember. But dude,
for someone like me, brother, it was kind of like,
you know, a Joe Schmoe kind of guy. You're all
(02:55:00):
a big deal with me brother, be considered an almost
get into Metallica and riff with him for a couple hours, dude,
jam session, Dude. You know he's a big fucking deal, brother,
you know. And that's it, like the idea. But then
so he comes up with this idea of something that
isn't necessarily completely true. You know, he can just kind
(02:55:20):
of throw something out there and then all of a
sudden people are going to talk about it, and then
he's still relevant. People are talking about it. Even if
he comes across like a fucking idiot, people are still
talking about him. And that's the void right there. The
void becomes relevancy in any fashion. And it's the sad thing,
because you know, being relevant for any for for anything
(02:55:43):
is is. I don't know, man, I think that's that's
if you're so desperate to be relevant for that. I
don't know, man, there's just something greater missing. Obviously, Obviously
there's something greater internally. That's been the tragedy of all
Coop that he should be the one wrestler who doesn't
need any more aphorisms, he doesn't need any more plouts
(02:56:06):
or trinkets or ata boys, or he should be the
one that models the behavior. If you become the absolute
biggest deal in pro wrestling, you can absolutely retire, rest
on your laurels and have right off in the sunset
on what you earn by sacrificing your body. Instead, he
spent you know, his twilight, just chasing another opportunity to
(02:56:29):
be in front of a camera, right and to make
another million and feel like he stole it. You know,
that's the rush for him, He said, They like kleptomaniacs.
They almost feel like every dollar they make they kind
of hustled out of you, and that they didn't really
earn it, but they put it in their pocket and
they get another market to give them money. You know,
it's the same thing we leverage him and go to
these conventions and give him fifty dollars to talk. I
(02:56:51):
feel like they just got something over on somebody, you know, right,
and it's like, no, really, I gave it to you. Yeah,
you should have more than enough to need renaissenter of money,
right or you know what I mean that this fucking
fly by night, uh, you know marketing scheme, these you know,
(02:57:12):
these health products and these these loan loan programs that
you're selling just so unflattering, so awful. And if he
didn't get that, just that cocker settlement, man, I'm telling you,
it would have been even uglier. He would have been
involved in so much more cheesy and stupid and borderline
fraudulent shit. You know, companies that would have paid them
(02:57:33):
to fix their name it. Oh yeah, I mean he
would have been it would have been it would have
been like Rick Flair in those fucking car commercials. Yep,
there wouldn't have been a multi level marketing scheme that
he wouldn't like endorse like he'd be there for one
after the other after the other. So w into a
little under the cinematic exercise. One of the things that's
so great is you find these q and as that
are relevant to the movie that happened over the years. Yes,
(02:57:58):
this is part of our trial of his life heritage
as well. So in two thousand and now, let me
actually get the exact date here. This was Vice that
did this interview with him in twenty fourteen. They basically
just wanted to sit down with Hulk specifically about his
music career. They didn't want to really talk about his
wrestling exploits or anything else. It was just like, you know,
(02:58:19):
people that follow us like music, and we're gonna talk
to hul Cogan about his music career only. So this
is really a nice focused piece that we can convey
here on the complete Hulkoguin that tells you not only
what hul Cogin did in music, but what he wanted
people to think he did in music as well. It
starts this way and then we'll go to the q
and A Long before hul Cogan tore both of his
(02:58:40):
biceps body slamming under the giant. I thought it was
his back. Oh my god, in front of ninety three
thousand at WrestleMania three. So already after a great start.
He was a music kid who dropped out of college
to play in front of a few hundred rowdy drunks
every night. He might have been returning to music stage
this Tuesday to play with Bait, to play bass with
One Direction. Yes. At some point Hulk started talking about
himself association with One Direction, and he was subsequently asked
(02:59:04):
about that. I think by the full Send podcast nationala
he had never even heard who they were, after volunteering
the idea that he was involved with them just a
few years prior. Hulk's last band Ruckus is where he
first discovered his love of entertaining crowds. Recordings of his
earlier projects either don't exist or have disappeared from the
public side, but what we do have access to was
Hulk Hogan and the wrestling boot bands. Hulk Rules nineteen
(02:59:25):
ninety five, the commercially successful but critical flop of a
children's album that was written by the Haultzner and his friends.
Speaker 1 (02:59:31):
Give Me the La Fan Wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast
(03:00:04):
that knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan.
(03:00:40):
He's the Lapsed Fan Wrestling podcast with Jack and Carnio m.
Speaker 2 (03:00:45):
JP sorow Noisy. I think Noisy is the name of
the the part of the Vice website that would write
about music. Covered it first a few years ago, growing
up watching Hollywood Holk Cove and spray paint n w
O on the backs of his fallen comm opponents in
w W who left a lasting impact on me. But
when you combine that image with the wrestling boot band
and the Hulkster hanging with one direction, I'm left with
(03:01:07):
a variety of questions. Whose idea was it to have
Hulk Hogan rapped to kids about not taking drugs? Will
we ever see Hulk back in the recording studio? And
most importantly, how did that awesome bleached blonde and jet
blackbeard become a thing. To find out, I sat down
face to face with the immortal Hulk Hogan and the
belly of Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California, where WrestleMania
(03:01:29):
thirty one will be held next year. It was also
on the publicity tour for this WrestleMania that he told
the Tall Tales about being recruited by the Cincinnati Reds
and other Major League Baseball clubs. Oh so he was off.
He was off the chain in twenty fourteen. Man, he
was going for it all. He was volunteering anything. I
just don't like seriously, So here we go. You will
(03:01:50):
be Hulk Hogan. Of course, before you rise to fame
in the wrestling world, you had a passion for music.
Can you talk about the early days when you played
bass in a rock and roll band called Ruckus? Oh god, well,
well that was my last band. I've been on the
road for I've been on the road for ten years
(03:02:10):
and I was a studio What the fuck is like?
What the fuck did where did this come from? Driving
around playing clubs? I mean, sure, I've been on the
road for ten years and I was a studio musician
in Atlanta. I was a century artist. I started out
playing guitar in junior high school because I was I
wasn't a big sports guy, even though I played football
(03:02:31):
and I occasionally and I played Baseball World Series and
broke all records and have a plaque with my name
on it for hitting the most home runs and intra bass.
I was also into bowling for a while, and it
was a champion there and all over the newspapers. And
I was in new music. I had long hair, so
I started out playing guitar. And as things go, as
music kid, you start playing in bands. Is that what
(03:02:52):
happens when your music kid, you start playing bands? I
think that just happened. That's a fair stick. Yeah, sure,
I guess I missed out on that. I guess because
I played trumpet, played in a band. It just wasn't
a touring band. Oh, school band, I guess the school band. Sure,
Area Christmas played Tube of Christmas a few times. All
of a sudden, I got in a really good band
playing guitar. But then this different, really good guitar player
(03:03:14):
came along, and this guy was really great. So I
had a choice leave the band or start playing bass.
So I chose to become a pretty darn good bass player.
You know, when I was in high school, there were
like five or six good bands, and I got all
the good people out of those bands and got into
one band called Ruckus Rockus Brother. I got the lead
guitar player from Todd Rudgren's band. I can't remember some
(03:03:36):
of the songs he did, like Hello, it's making notices
that I don't seem to know who Todd Rudgrean is. Oh,
they were famous back in the eighties. But Ruckus kicked ass.
Oh yeah, they were fairs back in the eighties. Here
you know, brother, but Ruckus kicked ass. You know that
was the last band I was in rus shows. Like
I read in your book that wrestlers would come to
see some of the gigs. Yeah, I was a huge
(03:03:58):
wrestling fan as a kid. I was to death one
because back in the day, wrestlers were very protective and
if you call wrestling fake, they'd punch you in the face. Yeah,
I've heard Fit Finley, a wrestler in those days made
a habit out of breaking people's pinky fingers. Those days
made a habit out of breaking people's pinky fingers for
(03:04:19):
saying that wrestling was fake. Yeah, or if you want
to trial for wrestling, they had hurt you real bad,
like they did me on my first day of training.
They broke my leg. They like a bunch of fucking
foonds came over and broke and his fucking with a
capital T. Those guys from the docks, you better watch
out for by the way, yeah right, exactly. You know,
(03:04:41):
back in the day, there were no lawyers, no, none
at all, No lawyers, he says, no lawsuits ever, not
about the lawyer that helped you with that mysterious civil
forfeiture in fucking nineteen fifty eight. Whatever. It was, exactly right.
And obviously no cell phone, so no one could take pictures,
so wrestlers could do whatever they wanted. So growing up,
(03:05:03):
even in high school, I was scared of death of them.
But all of a sudden, I started playing this kick
ass rock and roll band, and a couple of wrestlers
came into the show that a couple of nights later,
even more came in because they had told each other,
you know, that there was this kick ass band, and
because there was a kick ass band, there was all
this hot ass running around, you know, all of a sudden,
before I knew it, there was a bunch of wrestlers
(03:05:24):
our gigs. You know, these are regional wrestlers who would
wrestle in Tampa, Miami, Orlando, and Tallahassee. So they'd come
back to Tampa every night where we'd be playing at
three am in the morning. You know, we'd play in
North Tampa then go over to Clearwater Beach and play
skips on the beach. So I finally got enough guts
to start talking to Oliver Humperdink, who was managing superstar
Billy Graham, and I told him I want to try
(03:05:46):
out to be a wrestler. He was like, yeah, sure,
come on down, You'll give you a tryout. Crack broke
my leg. Did Ruckus ever play out of town? We
did pretty much local, even though he was driving around
for ten years. But what did you just say, Like,
he's on the road for ten years, yet he's a
local it We're pretty much local because a couple of
guys got more married. We went up to Atlanta a
(03:06:08):
few times and played in some Stone Pony club. We
never really went on the road with the band. Oh
my god, he just fucking said it. He just fucking
said he was on the I guess. So the one
reason I ended up choosing wrestling over music was because
we had a chance to go on the road. I mean,
(03:06:30):
even an a I would be confused. I mean seriously, yeah,
It's like, hey, I explained Hulkgan's were they were they
or were they not on the road? Right? Can you
can you decide for if hul Cogan's band was on
the road or not on the road please now you know, uh,
God for two for opening for two bands, Mothers find
(03:06:51):
Us out of Atlanta and a band called Blackfoot. You know,
two of our guys went and oh, you know, we
don't want to go on that road. My wife just
had a baby. And I kind of pushed me over
the edge because we had a chance to be a
national act. Oh that little review we read was definitely, Uh,
it's a spark and anything's possible, all right, anything, but
I can I can see Hulks settling for a version
(03:07:12):
of events where I could have been rather than I
found out. I couldn't be yes for sure. And our
band was so tight, you know, the whole building would
move when we played. So it was kind of like, man,
we got our we got our act together here and
these guys don't want to rock. That really moved me
the direction of wrestling. It's funny because he went onto
rock and wrestling that's right, how and then you would wrestle,
(03:07:34):
and then you'd wrestle the rock. If these guys don't
want to rock, I'll go and work the rock. I'll
wrestle the rock, dude, we'll go first. You want to
I'll tell you what. These guys don't want to rock.
I want to do rock and wrestling, and then I'm
gonna wrestle the rock. How about that? And then we'll
(03:07:55):
know what's up and then we're going. Then we'll and
then we'll fight. Sarakainslaughter because of what's happening in a rock.
How did you first meet your bandmates? I don't remember
how I met most of them. I remember I was
in a band called Coco and Anthony Barcelo, you know,
Rux's lead singer came over to audition after coco singer
(03:08:18):
quit or something. That's how I met him. So I
don't remember how I met most of them, but we
met it. We had a drummer who almost made it
to the very end, who I went to first grade
all the way through high school with. But the rest
of the guys were just studio musicians that I had
met on the music. So what did R sound like?
We did a lot of rock and roll covers and
a couple original songs, not very many, but many, you know,
(03:08:38):
maybe like five four or five originals. You know. We
were out there playing for money to get out, to
get on our feet and get ready to do what
we needed to do. And we weren't together so long
that we weren't together so long that there wasn't too
much original stuff. I owned a copy of Hult Cocin
and the Wrestling boot Band, the Holtster Size and face burns.
Can you tell me how that whole thing came together?
(03:08:58):
What was the creative process? Like, did Hulk Cogan and
the Wrestling boot Man ever play shows? No, we didn't know. Hey,
there's hey, there's your producers behind me to his longtime
manager w W legend Jimmy Hart, who bounces up from
his seat excitedly, how you doing, baby, Jimmy Hard? How
(03:09:20):
are you doing?
Speaker 4 (03:09:20):
Maybe?
Speaker 2 (03:09:20):
Good to see you, Good to see you. That's freaking good. Well,
we're gonna need a Jimmy Hart if we're gonna do this.
I know. It's seriously how that happened? Jo Hulk was
talking about going into doing an album. It was really
his idea. Did this start? Did this start with the
leader of the gang? I am no, we had the
Wrestling boot Man out first, baby. Oh okay, I don't remember.
(03:09:42):
I don't Sawhn Cowell was the one who helped us.
So what happened was a gentleman approached us about maybe
Hulk doing an album because Hupe played bass and I
played in a rock group probably before you were born,
called the Gentries. So we kind of all put something
together Hulkman in the studio, and we got two great
money deals off it. Really Hulpe played bass on it,
and we had our friend Jim Maguire there. How can
everybody else just chipped in, sat around for a few
weeks and we wrote ten songs. All of a sudden
(03:10:04):
we got a major record deal on Select Records, and
the next thing you know, we're over in eure Up
and knocking on a few doors with the album. A
Hulk was doing a big promotional thing for one of
his movies at the time. Then we had a magic
phone call from the Say and our guy Simon Cowell,
who'd never heard of us before, who we'd never heard
of before. Baby. He brought us in and said, I
love this album, but it's already out. I've got another
idea for Hulk, and it was old Gary Glitter song,
the leader of the Gang I am he goes. Let
(03:10:25):
me tell you something. It's going to be number one
and we go yeah, right, but then it was number
one for five weeks over there, so it just really
turned out awesome. Your cover of the Gary Glitter song
Leader of the Gang I Am with comedy metal band
Green Jelly was a top forty hit on the UK charts.
What was it like working with Simon Cowell? Terry, Oh,
he was cool and just unbelievably nice and friendly, and
he really he kind of like parlayed that into some
(03:10:46):
of the wrestling albums and how's how he became. That's
why we came over here to the United States. He
did a couple of albums for the WWE that wentn't platinum.
It it was because a physic man working with him.
They ended up coming to the States. It's kind of
weird that Simon Cowell got his break in the United
States because of wrestler what's insane. That's weird that he
was He has w w F albums in his discography. Dude,
I run into him at some launch party. Is that
(03:11:07):
it is that true? Yeah? I've heard. I've heard Simon
Kala do interviews where he credits the w w F
Slamjam album is what really broke him into the United
Stoke kidding, Wow, Okay, very good, I'm thinking dude. I
ran into him with some launch party about three years ago,
and I actually didn't recognize him. The launch was for
some docu soap about my life called Fine and Hulkog
(03:11:28):
and I want rod by him and said, hey, you
know you don't say and he said, hey, you don't.
You don't say hello to your friends? And I went,
oh my god, I'm so sorry, and I gave him
a big hug. He's just so cool and very different
from the character he plays on TV. Do you think
you later used anything you learned? What would you know
about that, Darry? Yeah? Also everyone's playing a character. Yeah,
(03:11:50):
exactly exactly, he's telling on himself. Do you think you
later used anything you learned playing rock and roll in
the ring? Oh? Yeah, Broler, Because I definitely not a
good singer. If there was a hook that we all
needed to sing along with it was in my range,
then I could step up and handle that. But I
wasn't a good singer. You know. What did happen though,
was that in between songs, I found myself being the
(03:12:12):
one talking to the crowd, making eye contact. You're keeping
those you know, keeping things going and moving things long,
just kind of being on the stage or not in
front of so many people, especially between eleven pm and
three am when the place would be packed. I mean,
alcohol made the place crazier. I found out that I
was really good working with the crowd. It really helped
me when I when I went into the in the
(03:12:33):
wrestling arena, and instead of being afraid of looking at
the crowd, I knew nobody was going to kill me
or scare me off. It really did help it playing
music on stage all those years. You know. One of
the things me, Oh, well, one of the things about
rock and roll is that you've got to have style.
One of my favorite wrestling style choices of yours back
in the NWL was your classic bleached blonde and jet
black beard. Can you tell me how that started? Oh
(03:12:57):
my gosh. Now, I was just trying to find something
different than would really stand out.
Speaker 3 (03:13:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:13:01):
I did a couple of movies where I had shaved
the whole mustache off, like Assault on Devil's No, no,
he didn't shove the mustache off for that well. No
more importantly, he hadn't made it yet. He hadn't made
it made it at it hadn't come out, and I
hadn't even mustache. He's shaved them ninety five. Yes he
(03:13:25):
did do that, but he hadn't made this movie like
he's talking about. I done this for exactly like Assault
the Devil's Island, given the idea for the black beard one.
Speaker 3 (03:13:37):
For a year.
Speaker 2 (03:13:38):
No when then when that came back right and had
a such a different look. So instead of bleaching my
mustache like I normally do, one night I took I
took Ladies eyeliner and drew a beard on my face
like you know, like how a kid would play. Then
I colored it with black eyeliner and said, that's it
because it just looks so darn cool. I grew my
(03:13:58):
hair out on my face to the point where it
was a pain of the ass to put the eyeliner
on there. And if I were to wrestle somebody and
they would grab me in a headlock, he'd get all
over their arms and stuff. So I went to that
black just for men's stuff. This last for like five
or six days before you see a couple of gray
hairs popping out and I have to color it again.
Every hotel room I was in would turn into a disaster.
(03:14:20):
I'd have that black crap on my fingers, and I'd
go to the building at night and have my fingers
would be dyed black because I wasn't putting it on.
I wasn't good putting it on. But then that's how
it all started. I just drew down my face and
it looked cool. A little while ago, there was a
variety of stories in the media about your interest in
joining Metallica and the Rolling Stones. Can you tell me
about that. I bought wrestle so long, and I got
(03:14:43):
to the point where with no Stone Cold Rock or
Triple h around, I was the only guy for a
long time, So what if he wanted to do well?
I think he's saying before Stone Cold Rock and Triple
h Oh oh oh oh, it makes it seem like
it's after they retired, right right. I was the only
guy for a long time, so I had to be everywhere.
He would wrestle at one o'clock in the Philadelphia Spectrum
(03:15:06):
and that I would be in Madison Square Garden. Next
day at one o'clock, I'd be in the Boston Gardens
and catch a plane and fly into wrestle Los Angeles.
Format never happened. Once, not one. Then then I had
to drive to fucking Minnesota from Los Angeles to be
in a match four hours later. Dude, I would have
to parachute out of the plane in Saint Louis. Get
(03:15:26):
the pinfall go. Sometimes I had to wrestle in two
places at the same time. Brother, Sometimes I'm sometimes I'm
on the same card in Japan as I am doing
down in Florida. Brother, it's crazy, dude. I'd brawled the
back in the middle of one of my matches. Get
in a helicopter. They would take me six states over.
I'd do a brawl, go to the back, and then
I go back to the other match.
Speaker 9 (03:15:49):
You go back.
Speaker 2 (03:15:49):
That's what he would do in a helicopter. Fucking shit,
it's good stuff. Bough. Oh you should you know. I
didn't really get tired, but I was like, man, I'm
killing myself, So I really got tired. Okay, Now I
always love still have music. I was in the UK
for some award show and Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger's old lady,
(03:16:12):
was walking out with me to present this award. I
heard her talking on the phone to Mike about, oh,
you got to find a new you know, find a
bass player, and you go, you only got two different choices.
I said, what if had already told me that her
kids are big fans and she wanted merchandise. I was like,
all right, looks real, real her in dude. I was like, look,
I used to play bass. You know, I know all
the Rolling Stones songs. Tell Mick if you guys need
(03:16:34):
a bass player for the Rolling Stones. I swear to God,
I could show up. I could rehearse one day and
play everything that they play. So please tell Mick. Please
tell Mick I got Home Center all the merchandise. Never
cut her word back, right, So then I heard Metallica
needed a bass player, and brother I was writing letters,
made a tape myself playing and send it to their management.
Made a tapet's find it, made a tape himself. I
(03:16:57):
know I need that tape, right, kept making calls, trying
to get through. I tried for two weeks and never
heard a word back from them either. You know, I
want to quit wrestling to play the Rolling Stones from
Metallica like that. You know. I was hoping for a
call from from them, but never got one. All the
haters were like, you know you never wanted it from Metallica.
Of course I didn't. I tried the whole coaching story.
(03:17:17):
Of course I didn't, but I tried. Yes, talk recently
about your training and hoping for a return to the ring,
but I want to know, will we ever see you
return to making music? That was a really possible. You know,
that's really possible because Brook has always been there and
doing stuff. So sometimes I'll lay down a scrash track,
(03:17:39):
but actually that's I recently got a call about this band,
you know, One Direction. The MEBC wants me to interview them.
NBC wants then MEC wants me to interview them. I
said fine, But all of a sudden their management called
and said, would you bring them on stage? I said sure,
(03:18:00):
and then they said, you know, we should play a
song with them. I said, well, here's the deal, so
that that's the same thing as maybe joining One Direction. Yeah,
right right, I'll interview them, and if you want me
to be them on stage, I will. And if there's
a song that has a standard chre progression, because I
don't know any of their music that I could, you
know here the quick it'd be fun Sogan in one Direction. Yeah,
(03:18:21):
I will see what happens. Dude, No, I'll embarrassed to
say I don't know their music. You know, that's all right.
You know it's better that you know that. That's all right.
It's better that you know the Rolling Stone song instead
of one directions. Okay, but they're they're a really hot band, right,
you know, a boy band. They're a boy band for
younger people. I appreciate the interview. Oh, thank you, my brother,
much love, much respect. Okay, cuts it off right away. Yeah,
(03:18:44):
you damn right. It's like, you know, it's like, I, okay,
I can, I can. I can handle Metallica, I can
handle the Rolling Stones. I can't handle fucking one direction.
You're done, right, You're done. I'm done with this interview,
all right, you fucking clown. So yeah, Hope doesn't give
up when people actually go to large erl Rich and
James Hedfield and ask them if he's ever if they
ever remember anything about Hulk Cogan wanting to be in Metallica,
(03:19:06):
and they say no, here, here he is one of
his final appearances, actually podcast appearances on the full Sen
podcast about this, and they're the hosts are clearly having
a bit of fun.
Speaker 8 (03:19:15):
Once I got back to Connecticut, when I was living
up there after I've been fired and I came back
to work in eighty four. Down the street from me,
Cindy Opera lived, so I reeled her and Dave Wolfin.
I said, let's recut some music because I knew Rick
Diringer rock and roll hoo Chiku. You guys don't even
know I heard the name.
Speaker 2 (03:19:31):
I heard the name.
Speaker 8 (03:19:32):
Okay, well, he wrote, he did real American my theme song.
Then I got Cindy Opera and Rick Darrenser. We recut
the End of a Thousand Dances, recut a couple of
songs rock and roll, hoo Chiku and I can't remember
something else, and brought Simon Kali over to produce it
and went platinum.
Speaker 2 (03:19:48):
Bang.
Speaker 8 (03:19:49):
So then we decided let's do another wrestling album, Paul
pial Driver, and brought Simon kal over Boom produced it
went platinum. He never left, and Simon stayed here because
he started working with the ww Fast forward. I go
to an awards show in the UK and who am
I presenting? With a lady named Jerry Hall who was
living with Mick Jagger at the time. So the bass
(03:20:11):
player just quit. I said, oh my god, I quit wrestling,
heartbeat being the Rolling Stones.
Speaker 2 (03:20:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (03:20:18):
So she asked me for a bunch of merchandise for kids,
you know, And I said, oh, yeah, I can send
you whatever you want. And so there was Miami. I said, oh,
by the way, I used to play bass. Could I
send your husband a tape? You know, I'd love to
be in their own stonech school. Yeah, I send me
the tape, sent the tape, never heard a word. Okay, Wow,
fast forward. Metallica needs a bass player, right, Holy smokes, Metallica.
(03:20:42):
I could be in Metallica. Did an audition tape, put
a tape together, send it to the band. Never heard
a word from.
Speaker 3 (03:20:49):
But that was it.
Speaker 2 (03:20:50):
They don't even respond.
Speaker 8 (03:20:51):
No, dude, I was hault Cogan too, man.
Speaker 2 (03:20:53):
I was a champion of the world. They didn't even
call me back. The Stones are the biggest band in
the world at that point for sure, right, Yeah, the
bar is pretty high. How shoot for the as? Were
you talented enough to do? What you think? Do you
think they saw it? I don't know.
Speaker 8 (03:21:09):
I know anything the Stones played. I could play, yeah, Metallica,
I could play almost everything that played. But the new
bass player they have, shoot, brocun't even lace his boots up.
He is so fucking good.
Speaker 2 (03:21:23):
Damn, I'm surprised you never met.
Speaker 8 (03:21:24):
Them, never met him, never heard back from any of them.
Speaker 2 (03:21:28):
Didn't didn't One Direction ask you to do a song
or something.
Speaker 8 (03:21:31):
I don't remember.
Speaker 7 (03:21:32):
Here we go.
Speaker 8 (03:21:33):
I saw, I saw like NBCNBC trying they wanted they
wanted you to play like bass for One Direction.
Speaker 2 (03:21:39):
Don't remember.
Speaker 7 (03:21:39):
Do you know who those guys are?
Speaker 2 (03:21:41):
Would you? Maybe they sent you a tape and you
just didn't even get it. That's probably why they broke up.
They're just having a great time with him. Okay, So
when did this? I'm trying to I keep thinking that
(03:22:02):
I've got the timeline right as to when this fucking this, this,
these auditions, these things happen. But then it seems like
it happened, like when did this supposedly happen the Rolling
Stones Metallica? Thing, like, when did this happen? Well, he's saying,
I think that he mentioned that to Jerry Hall in
like the early nineties when he was considering being done
(03:22:23):
with wrestling. There was a point in time when the
Rolling Stones lost their bass guitarist. Let me see, when
did Rolling Stones lose their bassist and it was like
a big story out there nineteen ninety three. Okay, so
he's he's kind of thinking, like, oh my god, wrestling right,
approaching the rear, he's done right, right, right right, And
he claims the Metallica thing happened a few years later
(03:22:47):
after that, when I don't know. Yeah, wow, let's see,
when did the Metallica need a bassist? No, no, no, no,
well it says Jason Newstead left in two thousand and one.
That would be pretty hilarious if in two thousand and
one Hulk thought he had a chance of being in Metallica.
(03:23:08):
He was an old fart. Oh my god. But to
his point, he thinks like being hul Cogan would get
him a callback, And it's like, no, the fact that
your Hull cogn means you're not going to get a
call back because we don't Why would we want a
huge superstar. Listen, listen, you could be the greatest fucking
base partato in the world. I don't want to be
associated with a fake wrestler. He asked all these questions
about music. You know, we've talked so much about math. Yes,
(03:23:32):
what about banking? Oh my god. According to Hulk Cogan
in his first book, he embarked on a very short
lived banking career in Tampa, and it proved faithful because,
according to this tall tale that he spends, it was
the information about pay that he was privileged to by
(03:23:55):
virtue of working at a bank, that is to say,
the pay of wrestlers on the Florida circuit that he
decided to fully split with his music ambitions once and
for all. So I was looking at doing some wrestling,
I was playing music and clubs, I was going to school,
and at the same time I was pursuing this one
other possibility, banking, of all things. Earlier in the book,
(03:24:16):
he remembered someone by the name of Lilah Silverwood, who
he said was president of Atlantic Bank on Dale Marbury
Street in Tampa Maybury Street, and she'd also been his
babysitter when he was younger, and he says that he
remembers going to her for a car loan when he
was way too young to qualify for one, but she
figured out a way to co sign it for him
so that he could get a car, and he ended
up getting a great credit rating as a result and
(03:24:40):
another car as well. So he's got this relationship with
this former babysitter who's now a hot shot at a
Tampa bank, and when he's feeling his way around in
the dark after high school for what he's going to
do with his life playing in clubs, he decides to
give this a bit of a try. And he had
that kind of short lived interest in I think it
was minoring or whatever it was we said in business
(03:25:01):
and his short lived college career. He says. Lilah Silverwood,
the lady who'd been my babysitter, worked into land at
bank in Tampa. She knew I was scrambling trying to
find some direction in life, trying to find one direction
perhaps I don't know, so she gave me a job
at the bank. Of course, in my heart, I don't
want to work a real job because I'd been spoiled
by making more money than any of my peers at
(03:25:22):
a very early age. But Lylah told me I was
going to be swiftly promoted to the top position in
the bank's loan department, so I figured it was worth
checking out. I went through the training program and everything,
making three dollars and seventy five cents an hour, but
there would be a better salary in store for me
down the road, and I was thinking this would be
a nice, secure way to make a living. It's part
of my training at the bank. I had to look
(03:25:42):
up a bunch of files. Some of them were about wrestlers,
guys that I knew, and when I looked into their files,
I saw that even back in nineteen seventy one, there
were guys making twelve thousand, fifteen thousand dollars a week.
Here I was excited about a job. I'm making three
dollars and seventy five cents an hour, and these guys
were making that much money every couple of seconds. That
(03:26:05):
pushed me over the edge. When I saw what these
guys were making, it pushed me to go hard after
this wrestling thing. So that's it. There's nothing else to
talk about. So I never did become a loan officer.
I went to the training for a few days and
got to know too much. Soon after that, I hit
on a hard lead with the wrestling. I've been talking
to the wrestlers and made friends with a few of
them and found out there was a bar where they
(03:26:26):
were to go after they wrestled on Tuesday nights. It
was called the Imperial Room. So I made up my
business to go to the Imperial Room after the matches
on Tuesday nights. See this is different. Ed Leslie remembers
them playing as ruckus at the Imperial Room right and
wrestler's going. Others say it was some of the other
bars that he mentioned, not the exclusion of the Imperial Room,
but they remember other bars as being the place wrestlers
(03:26:46):
went and would have seen Terry P. Befform here. He
says he actually went to the Imperial Room after the
matches on the with the express intent of meeting wrestlers,
not because he was playing a gig. So it's very
confusing to me, very confusing, but suffice to say, the
wrestlers on the Florida Circuit remember seeing him without him
seeking them out, and then him approaching them as a
result of them happening to be in the club he
(03:27:08):
was performing at him walking amongst the other patrons and
trying to introduce himself. I would have a drink. There
were the wrestlers, the ones who were friendly enough to
talk to me. Some of them were still playing games
with me, saying get out of here, kid, that type
of thing. So Hulkogin is claiming that the reason he
really gave up music, it was not just because the
other reasons he's given, which is, you know, other people
(03:27:28):
in the band weren't taking it seriously enough and I
don't know, wanted to be home with their kids. Perish
the thought, but that he actually took a peek at
the confidential banking files of wrestlers who banked there in
the area and found out how much they were making,
I mean, makes sense to me. He sounds to me
like a hulcogin story of like he knows he left.
(03:27:51):
He left the bands for reasons that aren't necessarily flattering
to him, and so he's basically dreaming up a circumstance
that can't be disproven. Where in his short lived time
considering and flirting with the idea of becoming a loan officer,
he actually saw the bank files and the bank accounts
of some of the rest such what, I've never heard
of anything so ridiculous in my life, And I mean,
(03:28:14):
that's that's fucking that's a movie plot, it really is.
You know, I'm looking through these files, like, what are
you talking to the files? You fucking Jesus Christ, No,
you did. Meltzer and nails it you never had. One
of the best things Meltser ever did was a review
of Hulk's first book and The Observer, where he just
calls him out one at a time, and this is
one he says, if you're looking for fiction, it starts early.
(03:28:35):
He claimed to have worked at a bank in Tampa
and looked up the files of some of the wrestlers
that he knew and found out they were making twelve
thousand and fifteen thousand per week in nineteen seventy one.
Dave writes, keep in mind that in nineteen seventy one,
with the exception of the World champions, nobody in the
business was making one hundred and fifty grand a year,
and anyone earning more than fifty grand was considered at
the time to be a superstar. So this idea that
anyone was making twelve to fifteen times fifty two, which
(03:28:56):
I mean, it's also like thinking about you know, you know,
back then there was a significant amount of money, you know,
fifty thousand dollars. I thought that you can live off
of that. You know, this is like it's just fucking
like he's insane. It's insane. It's almost like he knows
how much people are making, and he's manufacturing a reason
for knowing that. But again, Hult's business. A big part
(03:29:17):
of Holt's business, his whole life, no matter what he
was doing, high school music, wrestling, is counting other people's money.
How much? How much are they making? Oily? You know,
like he wants to know how much they're making how much?
Mind exactly because he wants to. When Hogan first told
that same story in the eighties, Meltzer wrote about why
he became a wrestler. He had it as two grand
to three grand a week and it was ridiculous even then.
Well he's ingesting for inflation, I'm sure, so apparently there's
(03:29:40):
an I I wasn't able to find this earlier versions
of Hogan telling this story about the bank. I also
can't find any trace whatsoever of this Lilahs silver Wood
ever existing. But you know, I'm sure she did. There
are mentions if someone buy that name in Tampa newspapers
in the sixties, but certainly you would think is the
president of a bank in a major city like Tampa,
her name would have ended up in the papers, like
I don't know once, but I don't see anything like that.
(03:30:03):
But it's bi centennial time seventy six, and for hulk Boss,
as he puts it, this whole pattern of moving between
rock and roll and hard labor was getting pretty old. Yeah,
and he decided things started to click with Ruckus. All
the elements had come together. They had good local musicians
(03:30:26):
working in the group and kick ass guitarist heart Throb
leads singer, top notch equipment, big gigs, sounding good, even
some original songs. The crowd seemed to love more. People
started coming to see them. Word spread everywhere, including that
review a piece we read that Ruckus was this whole
butt the next big thing, but certainly had promise, and
(03:30:47):
he got that knack for interacting with the audience. That
meant that he mentioned that kind of was the raw
material that he used to become a successful pro wrestler.
He'd step up to the mic, how's everyone doing tonight?
We're Ruckus and we're gonna be rocking you straight through
it to midnight, that kind of thing. He would say, Brother,
who's here to cause a rocket? D I could kind
of read their mood, and if we were having a lung,
(03:31:07):
he'd come up with something crazy. Hey, it's time for
a beer. Chugging contest. Well, I kind of knew how
to read the right I was able to manipulate the crowd,
pickle you're away to, kind of ah those highs and
loves again, whatever it took to get everyone involved and
having a great time. I had zero stage fright and
actually enjoyed that part of the show as much as
(03:31:28):
any of the music we played, if not more. He'll
never forget one night in seventy six when when I
looked out from the stage and I saw this towering
blonde guy walk into the crowd. Who is it, boss? Uh,
It's gotta be Billy, your superstar, Billy Graham, one of
the top wrestlers from New York, This massive figure I've
been watching on TV for years. I can remember the
(03:31:50):
first time I saw him on TV, climbing up to
the second turn buckle and facing the crowd with his
arms up and those massive twenty two inch biceps. He
looked inhuman. I remember thinking I want to be just
like that guy someday. He looked like this golden god,
you know. And here he was in the club listening
to my band. He had his manager with him too,
who I also recognized. This red haired humpty dumpty looking
guy named Sir Oliver Humperdink. It's no mystery boss that
(03:32:13):
Holt goes over to New York and becomes the man
and runs everything and hires everyone, and suddenly how Oliver
Humperdink has a job at WWF. It's serious, right, His
name is the biggest WTF In the original Wrestlemandian interim game,
ay is he he's managed. He's mentioned as the manager
(03:32:33):
of Bam Bam Bigelow. Of course you can't see him,
but when no, he doesn't on the game, but he's
mentioned in it. I don't remember that. I remember who
the fuck? I mean, I mean, even when you see him,
who the fuck is that?
Speaker 8 (03:32:47):
Right?
Speaker 2 (03:32:47):
Even further, why like why is that piece of show?
God fucking just the worst. We'll get to this eventually,
but he does want you to know that Oliver Humperdink,
that guy in that state would wear loafers with no
socks in the Tampa heat, and the stink was on
a different level. Listen, I mean you look at him,
(03:33:08):
you look at that, you look at his physique, all right,
all right, the guy, the guy walks around with just
a layer of sweat like he's got you know, it's
his ozone layer. Disgusting. It's just sweat around him all
the time. Film yep. Oh, and it catches beads on
(03:33:29):
the fucking hairs all over. It does smell good.
Speaker 1 (03:33:31):
No.
Speaker 2 (03:33:31):
Does he shower daily?
Speaker 9 (03:33:33):
No?
Speaker 2 (03:33:33):
No, if you catch him in between show, no, if
you catch him in between showers, like, oh, forget it.
I mean, look, look, the only the only time it's
it's even, it's even close to right, is at like
ten in the morning after he showered and he's eating
(03:33:54):
breakfast after that. Forget it, You're done. It's just it's
just gonna be uh the blend of flop a flop
sweat potpourri, the blend right, the sweat and and b
oh and onions fun and his oh and his body
here is like twisted like it's been you know what
(03:34:16):
I mean, Like it's like it's moist, it's.
Speaker 12 (03:34:17):
Moist, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know it's it's it's swirly
yeah right right, all right, And there's just always a
scent of onions after breakfasts.
Speaker 2 (03:34:28):
Not fair, all right, ash ash alone, right right, It's
like you can smell salt meat and onions on them
at all times. He smells. He smells like the food
compartment of the mayflower. Yeah, he just just it's like
(03:34:53):
it's like he put on food perfume. If on. That's next,
by the way, I mean everything, all these cosmetics now,
and these lotions, they all are apple crumble and pear
prey lane and fucking you know, don't don't you want
to smell like pecan pie. I know NeXT's gonna be
(03:35:14):
fuckingburger fucking oh my god, disgusting secret sauce indeeds, fucking
Pepperoni pizza scent fantastic. Well, when that day comes, we
will be able to officially say that Sir Oliver Humperdink
(03:35:35):
grew up in the wrong era. That would have been
one free to that guy.
Speaker 4 (03:35:40):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (03:35:41):
So if it's seventy six that Hulk places on the
day when he laid eyes on Superstar Billy Graham walking
through the club where he was performing, presumably in Ruckus,
then this would have been the time that Superstar Billy
Graham was tearing up Florida vis a vie. The biggest
baby face to ever come through the territory the American Dream,
Dusty Rhodes himself, who undoubtedly inspired Hulk's rap to an
(03:36:02):
equal degree, if not his look as superstar Billy Graham did.
It makes a ton of sense that this would have
been one of the top feuds in the territory when
Hulk was really coming of age and paying even closer attention,
not just as a wide eyed kid go into the matches,
but as someone who's becoming an adult and who's thinking
about could I actually do this to actually what I
might actually have a place in the wrestling business now.
(03:36:22):
Billy Graham had met Dusty Roads back in the AWA
when they were both working for verne Gania in Minneapolis
in the early seventies. In fact, back when Dusty Roads
was teaming with Dick Murdoch and Vern turned Billy Graham
face by teaming him with Dusty Roads, just like kind
of like Vince turned Hulk baby by teaming him with
Bob Ecklind when he came in in nineteen eighty four.
Sort of like you know, you come in and you
associate yourself with a superstar that you help out, right,
(03:36:46):
you come to the rescue of then you become the
torch passed and the torch has passed to you. And
Hulk was kind of turned in the same way in
the AWA because remember Verne brought him in as a
heel originally managed by Jimmy Valliant, which of course we'll
get to. And it's so great to have that feeling
as we go through this where it's like we'll get there,
we'll get there. There's nothing we won't get to when
(03:37:06):
we march through it chronologically. Aw a day's Memphis days,
Continental Days, Georgia days, Japan Folks, It's it's going to be.
It's all there. Like I know, we're spending a lot
of time setting the table and in a sort of
a research heavy archives have heavy look right now, but
once we get to the era when Hogan's on video,
this ship is going to be like so much fun.
(03:37:29):
Oh my god. Yeah, I mean this is all this
is important. This is important because it is right. It's
I you know, I don't even know how it plays out,
but I know that this is the way. This is
going to set up everything that we that we will
discover and everything that we know and everything that we
thought we exactly thought we knew. And when we lay
(03:37:49):
eyes on Hull Cogan with a microphone in front of
his face on the set of a studio wrestling show.
When we lay eyes on Hull Cogan body slamming Andre
the Giant at the Omni in Atlanta, seven years before
he did it in Detroit, we're going to see flashes
and we're going to be able to see so much
more in Hulk Hogan because we're spending so much time
talking about the birth of Terry Bolea and the birth
(03:38:11):
of Hulco. We're gonna have a sense of rocket right.
We're gonna see Ruckus when we look at him, just
as much as we're going to see, you know, the
nineteen eighties pop culture icon, and I think that's that's
a very very good thing. So Dusty Roads and Billy
Graham had a significant history and by the time nineteen
seventy six y world around, Man, are they hitting a
different gear because it's hopefully well understood by now that
(03:38:33):
Eddie Graham and Vince McMahon Senior had a very good
working relationship. Of course, the New York Florida connection is
strong in so many ways in terms of you know,
people in New York vacationing and summering in Florida. There's
New Yorkers all over Florida, and in fact, the WWWF
television would be piped down there and vice versa, so
you didn't have to You're able to see a championship
wrestling from Florida as a New York wrestling fan if
(03:38:55):
you were able to go. So there's a lot of
talent exchange. And this goes all the way back to
Eddie Graham being ahead for Vince Senior in the fifties,
teaming with Jerry Graham. It's at a time when the
territory was kind of tag team based with you know,
the likes of Antony Arroca and Spirous Arion and others
in the main event picture at the Garden before the
rise of Brunoso Martino in the mid sixties early to
(03:39:17):
mid sixties. So there is a very strong connection between
those two territories. And so when something took off and
was drawing like Gangbusters in Florida, Vince Mcmahonsenior would bring
it up to the Garden. And when Superstar Billy Graham
was made WWWF champion, what better opportunity to bring Dusty Rhodes,
the guy who dominated Florida, up to New York than
to feud with Superstar Graham. And this is the program
(03:39:39):
that Cody Rhoades would recall when talking about how it
was his destiny to fulfill the missed chance that Dusty
had to become WWF champion in Madison Square Garden. When
he talks about closing that loop, he's talking about this
superstar Billy Graham program in this era, this seventy six,
seventy seven, seventy eight time frame, and to get a
little flavor, because there's not really a lot that survives
or anything that I was able to find that survives
(03:40:01):
of Dusty and Billy Graham going back and forth on
Florida television with promos. Here is a pair of promos
from WWWF television when Billy Graham and Dusty Rhodes were
set to go to the Boston Garden and have fucking
given to another match in their series. And these are
the promos, and this is the tone, and this is
the essence that an impressionable, precocious Terry Bolea was absorbing
(03:40:23):
about what pro wrestling was and could be.
Speaker 6 (03:40:25):
Author Right now, let's bring on the reigning Worldwide Rustling
Federation Heavyweight Champion, the man who when he probably got
back to the dressing room in Boston went because mister.
Speaker 7 (03:40:35):
Graham, you almost lost.
Speaker 2 (03:40:37):
I was sweating. As matter of fact, I was, as
you know, very good and well.
Speaker 6 (03:40:41):
I was carried back to the locker room. The man
literally buddly, physically and maliciously and viciously threw me over
the top rope against the plexed glass use of the
hock imagine and rub through practicing my fleen, and I
was caredly physically drugged back to the locker room, and
(03:41:02):
the belt was drugged behind me by the skin of
my feet. I held on to this belt unaware that
the American Dream was so vicious, unaware.
Speaker 7 (03:41:12):
That he meant business.
Speaker 6 (03:41:14):
But now now that I know he.
Speaker 5 (03:41:16):
Means business, I'm gonna be on the defense.
Speaker 2 (03:41:19):
That the Grand was a couple of my plan.
Speaker 6 (03:41:20):
Rightman, was defense, defense, defense, That's right, defense all the way.
Speaker 5 (03:41:27):
The Superstar and Eye are no aware of the viciousness
that lies between the evil heart of Dusty rods Well,
American Dream, You're going to be in for quite a
surprise in thoughts then, because the Superstar and Eye do
have the new strategy, and you, son of a plumber,
gone down the drain, little tidy bowl man.
Speaker 1 (03:41:49):
The Grand wasn't in wrestling along with Superstar Billy Graham
right now.
Speaker 5 (03:41:52):
We did indeed make reference to the rank number one
contender earlier.
Speaker 8 (03:41:56):
Let's bring on the son of a plumber.
Speaker 2 (03:41:58):
Let's bring on a man who's dream.
Speaker 6 (03:42:00):
Appears to unquestionably be on the proper path to come true.
I just was rapping before I come up here to
probably one of the greatest athletes in our country today bought.
Speaker 2 (03:42:12):
Blackfoot and he told me, say, you know, he say,
if they got a.
Speaker 6 (03:42:17):
Good defense, he said, you got the counter with a
good offense. And it's very true, because the American dream
is offenses. There, you know, I'm minded that way. I'm
gared the offense just then, I'm glared to move, and
I'm gared to jabbing. I'm gard to move, and I'm
glared to take down. I'm good to taking superstars Billy
(03:42:39):
Philly Graham's big twenty two inch arm in my hands
and rip it up on it, and he be talking
about I was hurt. You know what was hurt about
Superstar Billy Graham.
Speaker 7 (03:42:49):
His feelings were hurt.
Speaker 2 (03:42:50):
His feelings were hurt, becausing when.
Speaker 4 (03:42:52):
They went home.
Speaker 6 (03:42:53):
He is here whoever he was with, say ball, you
ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Speaker 1 (03:42:58):
I was letting that man up bone you like.
Speaker 6 (03:43:00):
That, and then it beat you half a dead. The
weaver went out and got loaded on milk and everything
was boom messed up.
Speaker 1 (03:43:07):
He didn't know what it was going on, what it
was doing.
Speaker 6 (03:43:09):
The whole down was elected five. This don't happen full
Doug Graham. We'll find the end of a rainbow.
Speaker 7 (03:43:17):
The dream will win involved.
Speaker 2 (03:43:21):
So dream. That's why I mean that. That's seventies wrestling
right there. Yea, and just go, just sell the match,
be be your gimmick and go and yep, yeah please.
I mean Hulk never tried to do like the the
accent like that, but a lot of the words if
you break him down, they're in They're in a lot
(03:43:42):
of Hulk's promos, and that's what he's absorbing. Very true,
very true. You get that perspective from the other side.
We go to Billy Graham's book and he remembers seventy
six when Hulk says he saw Billy Graham in the
club for the first time. On November twenty second, nineteen
seventy six, Dusty he wrote, did the for me in
West Palm Beach, relinquishing his Florida Heavyweight Championship. Eddie had
(03:44:04):
given us a brilliant finish. Dusty submitted to my full nelson,
then collapsed on the mat, adding it another dimension to
our feud. So these are the things Hulk would be singing.
Presumably inspired by Wahoo McDaniel, I designed my very own
Indian strap with a motif reminiscent of the Navajo and
Apoche symbols i'd seen in Arizona. This was never newer,
rather than Wahoo's strip of leather, but I stained it
to create an older, warned appearance. Dusty and I hot
(03:44:26):
shot it all over the Sunshine State, flogging each other
with the Indian strap, as well as in bull rope,
cage and lumberjack matches in Tampa. In Tampa, fans were
told that I was putting up my limo against Dusty's pickup,
and we parked the vehicles grilled to grill in the
parking lot to lend authenticity Like that one. There was
a fan at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory that night
who i'd noticed before. Terry Boleya was a tall, skinny
(03:44:51):
blonde guy who dressed in black leather and boots like
a rocker from the ring. I'd see his big head
hovering above the rest of the crowd, about ten rows
back while everyone else was He sat there, transfixed, never darting,
his eyes, dissecting my every move in facial gesture. His
gaze was so piercing that occasionally I find myself looking
back at him. One night at the Imperial Room, the
(03:45:12):
nightclub where the boys hung out in Tampa, Terry approached me.
I was seated, and he was standing towering over me.
Like Jesse, Terry wanted to become a wrestler, but he
felt like the local promoter in this case, Eddie Graham
was shutting him out. Terry was frustrated, but not discouraged.
I'm not taking no for an answer, he vowed. It
was the first of many encounters. Another time, Terry confessed
(03:45:33):
that he felt too thin for the square circle and
asked Steve Strong and me about the types of steroids.
Oh boy, yeah, we used Come on, we're not on anything,
Strong answered, looking the shooture icon shed in the eye Terry.
Terry acknowledged the rib with a nod and a grin.
(03:45:53):
Roller over to Ed Leslie's book. That means I know
what you're saying means I'd pick up what you're throwing down. Dude, Yeah, yeah, dude,
ed Leslie. The Imperial Room was a happening place. It
was packed with ladies and loud music. I got in
with a fake ID that Nat helped me get somewhere.
(03:46:14):
I grabbed something to drink. The band was rocking. I
saw Terry up on stage, pounding away in his bass guitar.
He had a really neat style playing on a bass
with no frets on it. Everything was really everything was
very slide and slap and fun to watch. Scott patted
me on the shoulder and pointed at the door. There
by the bouncer. I saw a familiar bearded face with
long locks of red flowing hair. He made his way
(03:46:34):
through the sea of humanity and mosied up belly to
the bar. Shit, there is that manager, Oliver Humperdink. Next
thing you knew, joel Ado was walking in. Then the
brisk Goes, and then even Dusty Rhodes. Eventually the club
was full of wrestlers. I felt like a kid again.
During the band's break, I rushed over to Terry to
tell him about the wrestler's brother. Now was your chance?
I said, Usually the wrestlers put on a show for us,
(03:46:54):
but tonight they are here for yours. You should go
up and tell them you want to wrestle. This is,
by the way, ed Leslie taking credit for giving Hulk
the idea to approach these wrestlers in the Imperial Room.
You're right, he said. He rolled up his sleeves and
walked over to Bob Rupe, who was hanging out drinking
with Bob Orton at a table. Hey, Bob, do you
like the music? Bob nodded, but didn't say much. I
just wanted to let you know I'm also a big
fan of you guys, and I would love to be
(03:47:16):
a wrestler myself. One day, Rupe and Orton looked him
up and down and nodded. I saw them talk for
a few minutes. The next thing you know, Terry was
taking down a number. The band played another set, and
then Terry went up to get a drink at the bar.
There was Mike Graham. They both walked out of the
bar for a bit, and then Terry came back in elated.
I rushed over to see what had happened. So what happened, man?
(03:47:37):
I asked brother Bob rup hooked me up with Mike,
and Mike is gonna set me up with Hero Matsuda. Wow,
there it is. I'm going to go and train with
him tomorrow. After my talk with Mike at the gym,
I was surprised that he was going to help Terry out.
It sounded to me like they had heat, but I
figured they must have worked through it. That's awesome man, congratulations.
(03:47:59):
And meanwhile in the Imperial Room in the crowd that night,
it was Jack and Jerry Briscoe.
Speaker 10 (03:48:06):
Every Tuesday night. You know, when you go to the ring,
you know, you kind of goo b ount the audience.
You look around, you see if if you see familiar
faces to kind of give them a nod and all
that stuff. But we kept sending this young guy, that big,
big young guy sitting about ten roads back right in
the middle of the of the of the aisle, and uh,
(03:48:27):
he sent the same place every Tuesday night. He had
long bleached blond hair. Of course, everybody knows where I'm.
Speaker 3 (03:48:32):
Going with that.
Speaker 2 (03:48:33):
It was Terry Bowlet.
Speaker 10 (03:48:36):
So every Tuesday night we'd send We would save them
on Wednesdaymorrow Wednesday morning for TVs or anything like that.
But every Tuday night at the Army, we would see
this guy. So we started to ask the question. I mean,
we were stockholders in the Florida Championship rest. We're always
on the look for, you know, for young, young, uh
(03:48:56):
looking talent, so you.
Speaker 2 (03:48:58):
Know, we we got real carry.
Speaker 10 (03:49:00):
And so on one Tuesday night, we see this young
lady that that Jack and I knew that worked at
a bar, and she was a bartender at a at
a local colleague bar. So we asked her, Hey, who
is that big bodheaded guy out there that we see
you talking to him? Oh, that's Terry. He works in
a rock and roll band. I'm sure we're like to
(03:49:21):
meet one.
Speaker 2 (03:49:22):
Is he playing?
Speaker 10 (03:49:22):
What are he playing next Thursday night? You know at
the bar called rock Is out by the campus out there.
So Jack and I just happened to be in a
little spots show. I can't remember one spots show, but
we got back in Tampa earlier, and of course we're
two rastlers. That's hot summer night here in Florida. Let's
go get a beer, so went away, Let's go, let's
go out there. We're what I can't remember the young
(03:49:44):
lady's name, but go out is that big guy rock
and road guy playing. We called him the rock and
road guy back in those things, so of course we
will know all. So that's hill Man. But so we
walk in this bar, colleague bar, and all these college
kids around and everything in the great atmosphere. We look
up on stage and there's Terry up there with that
(03:50:06):
little bass guitar. Now Terry at that time and he
was he was over three hundred pounds and then you know,
of course six foot sick whatever. He he's a big guy.
And he's standing there in average rock and roll guys
about five foot six, and he about one hundred and
sixty pounds. Here's Terry. Look it looks like he's holding
a tooth pick, you know, playing that basicitar, and he
(03:50:29):
just everybody else looks like like hornswoggle compared to pair
to him. So we wait. We talked to the to
the young lady, and during break time sent us up
a little meeting we're like to talk to. So that's
really how it all start. Of course, break time coming
and we went to er, I know who you guys are,
I think for coming out blah blah ah, that's uff.
(03:50:51):
Hey y, yeah, we hear you're interested in me coming
to rest He said, yeah, I'd love to be one.
So he said, I've always watched wrestling, you know, I
know I'm aware of the Graham's and all that stuff.
Never met anybody like that, but okay, well, well let
us try to set it set to well. Uh called
and he told added what we're doing, and he gave
(03:51:12):
us some blast. He go ahead, and he was always
looking for talent. And so we contacted Hero.
Speaker 2 (03:51:17):
Hero.
Speaker 10 (03:51:17):
We got the big guy coming down. We won't see
what he's got.
Speaker 2 (03:51:21):
Hero, we got this big guy coming in. We want
to see what he's got. You might be wondering, might
be wondering what did happen as ed Leslie described in
the moment between he's seeing Hulk Hogan and the Imperial
Lounge encouraging him to talk to these wrestlers who were
turned out that evening, Hulk leaving the facility and then
returning all bullish on his chances of becoming a pro wrestler.
(03:51:43):
And how, if at all, does that intersect and interact
with the story we just heard Jerry brisco tell, who was,
of course, as you mentioned, not only a wrestler in
the area, but a stockholder in the company and so
very much tied into talent recruitment and anybody who looked
like they might have some bucks off, spark in them
and trying to recruit them into the wrestling world. According
(03:52:04):
to Hulk Hogan and his second book, what happened in
the interim between him leaving and coming back to the
Imperial Room, HM was a meeting with Mike Graham, and
it looked like this. Although he places it in a
different place in time, I think these two stories are
related to the same thing. In nineteen seventy six, Hulk writes,
I started going down to the Fort Homer Hestually Armory
for the matches every Tuesday night. I'd hang around the
(03:52:26):
backstage door afterward like some groupie, just to see everyone.
Then every Wednesday, they'd take matches during the day at
the Sportatorium and I'd show up there. I got to
be real friendly with this guy, Charlie Lay, who was
like seventy an old wrestler himself, who worked at the
front desk and always let me in. I had no
idea how obnoxious I was. I have fans now who
come up to me all the time and say, hey, Hogan,
I've been working out for three years. I want to
get into the ring. Look at me, I could be
(03:52:46):
the next Hulk Cogan. I just roll my eyes and
can't wait to get away from some of these people.
You know in the business, we call these guys marks.
They're pretty much looked at his fools. You can put
a beating on if you're so inclined. And here I
was showing up saying I was going to be the
next superstar Billy Graham. Every single day. I didn't feel
like a mark though. Like I said, I was following
my gut. I knew I wasn't necessarily the toughest guy
in the building. But I knew that if I had
(03:53:07):
to do smoke and mirrors, showmanship, calculating and planning. There's
that word boss math calculating, yep, and there is math.
If it had anything to do with strategy, I could
be really good at it. I could see that wrestling
was as much show business as anything else. I didn't
even know what the word entertainment meant back then, but
it turns out I had innate understanding of what it
means to entertain You didn't know the word entertainment and
(03:53:28):
you went to college and many ways in many ways.
I understood the meaning of that word better than a
lot of people who'd been in the wrestling entertainment business
their entire lives. Only no one believed me. After weeks
of not shutting up telling everyone in town that I
was going to be a wrestler, Mike Graham finally pulled
me aside. I knew Mike and high school and never
(03:53:49):
liked the guy. He was older and didn't think much
of me. He made that clear from day one. His father,
Ready Graham, was a wrestling promoter, and by this time
Mike liked to think of himself as a bona fide wrestler.
He was all muscled up and thought he was big
news on the wad wrestling scene. So we're outside of
the Sportatorium on this roasting hot day and Mike Graham
takes me to his van. So Hulk remembers this as
being a Wednesday at the Sportatorium, not at the Imperial Room.
(03:54:10):
But I think Brutus kind of remembers this story and
puts it in the Imperial Room. That's happening. Okay, Well,
who do we believe? Who do we believe? That's the question.
I don't think who's telling the truth. You stumped me.
You know why, because you will not find and he
did plenty of shoot interviews Mike Graham recounting this story
(03:54:30):
once anywhere. Yes, he will not find this, but so
did it ever happen? It must be one hundred and
twenty degrees in that van. He sits me on the
floor and he's sitting on the hump between the front
seats talking down to me. So you want to be
a wrestler, he says, you've been telling everyone you want
to be a wrestler. Well, I'll tell you right now.
The first thing you ought to know is that you
shouldn't be telling people you want to be a wrestler.
(03:54:52):
Mike made it. Kulk tells the story elsewhere in his book,
which we'll mention next time, where he get to see
Oliver Humperdink and gets to know him and thinks hanging
around Humperdink. He gets to see Oliver Humperdink and then
walks out the door says, you know what this is
lot for me? He thinks hanging around Humperdink is going
to make him the connect. But the problem is people
(03:55:13):
didn't really like Humperdink, so being around him was not
going to connect him to the actual power brokers in
Florida that would make the connection. Now, this whole thing
that they didn't want him there and they were trying
to like scare him off, is the completely antithetical to
the fact that Jerry Briscoe says that he just saw
Hogan on the stage and wanted to recruit him into
the business. And he's a fucking shareholder in the office.
(03:55:37):
So what's what's it going to be. Is it going
to be Hulk is begging to get into the business
and they keep saying no. Or is it going to
be someone saw money in him and shepherd him into
the business after learning he had a centil of enthusiasm
for it. I think, I know it's one I side on,
but here's the yawn. It's being spun. Hogan writes, Mike
made it perfectly clear that no one talked about the
secrets of wrestling. If somebody said wrestling was fake, you
get punched out. That's no exaggeration. You have to remember
(03:55:59):
it was the nineteen seven who was barbaric. There were
no lawyers, no PC police. They got no lawyers, no
no lawyers, no PC police, no no laws for that matter.
What is the fucking wild West? What is this fucking
you know?
Speaker 4 (03:56:12):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (03:56:12):
Once upon a time in the West, Jesus Christ. Once
upon a time in West Tampa. There wasn't anybody suing anybody.
So if you said to a wrestler after a match, hey,
that was a great show, the wrestler would just flatten you,
push you in the hospital if you could. I'm listening
to this guy who never thought much of me and
who I still didn't like, and he's taken this authoritative tone.
He's lecturing me like he's my dad or something. Then
(03:56:34):
something surprising happened. Wait, brother, are you my dad? Who's
my dad?
Speaker 4 (03:56:40):
What?
Speaker 2 (03:56:42):
Dad? That's Mike trying to find Eddie. Then something surprising happened.
Instead of sending me away, Mike invited me to come
back and get some training. I'm gonna set you up
with a guy named Hero Matsuda. Mike said, be here
(03:57:06):
tomorrow next time. On the complete Hull cogin Hero Matsuda,
Who's the true Hero the role he played in the
transition from Terry Boleya to Hull Cokain Nelson as a.
Speaker 1 (03:57:22):
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