Hulk Hogan: From Rock Star Dreams to Wrestling Icon :: Ep 51 Try That in a Small Town Podcast
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and connect. Ready to elevate your business? Book a tour today at eSpaces.com. Same thing happened with Metallica. That's what I was going to ask. Bro, and everybody says Hulk lied. He tried out, said he tried out for the Stones and Metallica, but he's a liar. Well, with Metallica, it's the same thing. I saw they needed a bass player. I put a tape together and sent it to him. Never heard a word.

They didn't even like respond at all? No, no, no, nothing. I had seen Rocky 1 and he was like 700 feet tall in the American public, in the public side. And I was with my girlfriend at the time and said, man, if I could just be in one of those movies, just sweeping the floor as a janitor, I'd love to be in the movie, you know? So they told me no music.

So I went to the sound guy, I said, "The hell with this." I had a tiger cranking. I gave him 500 bucks. When that music started, that "donk, donk, donk, donk," the roof of the place blew off. And then I told Vince, "Man, I've been selling merchandise."

T-shirts and headbands and hats and koozies and wristbands and making a ton of money doing it because nobody else is. And man, Vince picked up on it real quick. The Try That in a Small Town Podcast begins now. All right. Welcome back to the Patriot Mobile Studios. This is the Try That in a Small Town Podcast.

I got Tully right here. I got Kalo right there. I got Thrash over there. Tonight, dudes, this is going to be something. This is going to be something. We got one of the most iconic figures in wrestling history. How in hell did we get him on here? I don't know. He's a WWE Hall of Famer, a global superstar.

welcome hulk hogan i don't know how iconic it's gonna be it's gonna be crazy i can tell you that much oh my god dang a flex right off the bat too amazing you guys so much when you're 71 brother you gotta throw up there whenever you can oh wow oh you are not 71 you don't 72 in august god you look amazing

Well, I've been getting a lot of mileage on me, bro. Hey, for some reason, you know, when I was introducing you, we talk a lot about nicknames on this podcast. I have no idea why.

And I think, you know, the world knows you as Hulk Hogan. Friends and family know you as Terry Bley. And I think we want to get to maybe why and when and where the name Hulk Hogan came up with. But I really want to know, did you fight under any other names before that? Did you have any names that didn't stick? Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Well, when I first started.

I played music for 10 years. Yeah. And when I got done doing the circuits, this six days a week, you know, from nine to two in the morning, the 45 minute sets with a 15 minute break. So when I got done doing the same clubs over and over and over the stone pony and the, you know, all the ones through Atlanta and all those clubs and back to Florida, uh,

We were making a little bit of money, but nothing really big. We had a chance to go on the road and open for some national acts. And the lead singer got his girlfriend pregnant. The other guy, the keyboard player, got his wife pregnant, and they didn't want to go. Country music. Yeah, so I'd been training with weights a little bit, and I just got pissed.

And I just put my base down. I said, guys, I'm quitting and I'm going to be the greatest professional wrestler ever. And they all, all the guys in the band just fell on the ground laughing. Right. Cause I was just a big fan. But when I started, I already had a good look cause I'd been putting the weights, those plastic weights on the back of the big U-Haul that we bought, you know? So the first thing would come off before the Ampeg and the acoustics and all the Marshall equipment would be all my weights, you know? And so I was lifting the hotel rooms and stuff. So when I first started, uh,

It was a rough start, but when I finally had a match, they put a mask on me. They called me the super destroyer because they were going to beat me all over. That's called a jobber where they give you like 25 bucks to lose every night. And they figured until I learned the craft, they wanted to protect my face so people wouldn't recognize me as the guy that lost every night. And so then I went on to be Terry Boulder after I quit and went back and worked on the docks for a while.

I went on to be Terry Boulder and then quit again. Went back up to Atlanta and this promoter who was a little light in his loafers, he named me Sterling Golden, you know. So I was Sterling Golden for a while. Then I quit again. Went back and worked on the docks. And I was wrestling 13 times a week for like 150 bucks, you know.

And I was making a lot more than that playing music, especially unloading ships as a longshoreman in Tampa. I made a ton of money back then. So I kept quitting to go back to work to make money. And then finally, when I got a call from New York, all the wrestlers here said, that's the big man's territory. And I've been training enough where I was pretty darn big at the time. And I went up there and Vince McMahon Sr.,

Had all these wrestlers like Pedro Morales for the Puerto Rican Americans. Chiefs Jay Strong for the Native Indian Americans. Bruno San Martino for the Italian Americans. So he wanted me to be Hulk Hogan for the Irish Americans. So that's where the name came from. Vince Sr. gave me that name.

Sterling Golden sounds like an adult film star. There's so much that I want to get to. There's so much. First of all, though, you came out to our show a couple years ago in Tampa at the amphitheater there. We knew you were coming. Couldn't wait for you to walk in. Myself, being born in 75, I grew up right in the golden era of wrestling, WWF. It was huge.

But we started talking about bass and I don't think a lot of people realize that you played bass. You were played in bands. I don't know if everyone knows that, which, which that was fun sitting back there talking about bass guitars and how you rip the frets out of your bass and turn it into a fretless, you know, which was, which was, which was great. Like, I don't think anyone realizes your background in music. Yeah. It wasn't a hobby. It was like you wanted to be a musician. Yeah.

Brother, I was just like you guys. I was doing anything to avoid a real job. Anything to avoid a real job. But I'd taken my mom played keyboards at the house all the time. She had a little organ and a piano. And I took music lessons on an old guild guitar that looked like a 335 Gibson, that guild, you know.

And so I played lead guitar in a couple of bands until I got in a really good band that brought in this lead guitar player from Todd Rundgren's band. And so I had moved over to bass and I got pretty good at that, but I always played it fretless. And then, you know, I didn't mess with a bass with frets until my daughter started playing music, but I never made any money until I got into wrestling with the music. And when I was living up in Connecticut, I had,

Cindy Lauper and Meat Loaf and Cindy Lauper's boyfriend Dave Wolf on the same area that I was in. And I talked them into doing some stuff with us. So me and Rick Derringer recoupled Land of a Thousand Dances and Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo and a bunch of stuff and brought Simon Cowell in to produce it. And he produced the first album that went platinum. And then we brought him in for the Piledriver album, the second album that went double platinum.

So that's not the only time I really made any money. But, you know, there's just a whole bunch of music in between that, going over to the UK and doing some stuff for Simon Cowell. They had a guy there that was kind of like their Elvis, a guy named Gary Glitter. And he was this transvestite guy that was all dressed up and got a song called Leader of the Gang. I could recut Leader of the Gang with a band called Green Jelly over there.

And that's how I got to know Simon. Then we had another kid die at ringside when, uh, I was wrestling in the UK and, uh, me and Jimmy Hart, who had a hit record out of sun studios, keep on dancing. I don't know if you guys remember Jimmy, but Jimmy had a hit song, keep on dancing. Then he recuts cinnamon girl and it went way up the charts, but Simon produced like 12 songs that Jimmy Hart and I sat up and wrote with an auto harp all night. And, uh,

That did really well for the little album over there on Billboard, and we gave all that money to the family. But yeah, and then that's what got me hooked up with Simon. Then we brought him over two times for the wrestling album, and he never left, you know, and he stayed here. So there was a whole history of music, but it was real spotty. I never broke through with it, you know.

One thing I thought was really cool and listened to a couple other interviews that you've had is that you were playing your shows and your rock shows and everything, and you were seeing wrestlers come to those shows, and you were looking out there. At the time, you're thinking, those guys are badasses. They've got cauliflower ear. They've got teeth missing and stuff like that, and you're like, I want to go wrestle those guys, which was amazing. No, I was scared to death of them because when I finally came back here to Florida and settled in, we had a bunch of really good high school bands.

So I would grab the best lead guitar player out of one band. I grabbed a lead singer out of one band, a good drummer, good keyboard player, and formed this band called Ruckus. And we started playing. If we'd moved from St. Pete to Tampa Clearwater, we had a following that would follow us around. And like when we would play, we had so much equipment. It's like the whole room would move, you know, when we play. And it was a crazy feel. You know, we played like rock funk stuff. And so we,

the wrestlers started coming in oh my god i was scared to death of them you know because they're all 300 pounds and they were all beat up and everything and back in the late 70s it was a different business i mean you didn't go to you know the performance center and learn how to wrestle with a helmet on you know if you want to get wrestling you had to take that 340 pound man's livelihood and the food out of his family's mouth to get in the business there were no openings for wrestlers so

It was a tough sell, but I started running my mouth telling people I wanted to wrestle, which was the worst thing I could do in such a small town like this. And so the first day I went down there, a guy named Matt Suda broke my leg and told me never to come back again. So that was the beginning, but...

Yeah, but it was weird playing music and having all the wrestlers come in. I was scared to death of them. Well, he set that up. I mean, that's the epitome of try that in a small town right there. Yeah. No kidding. Yeah. Well, it was different back then, bro. You didn't get sued. You could punch somebody in the face and not get sued back then. Yeah.

Well, you know, you're talking about the grind back then. It's funny because people think, oh, they, whatever, whether it's Jason Aldean or Hulk Hogan, they just see the superstar, man, people don't understand the grind and the journey it takes. Like you're saying, you're making a hundred bucks a week just to get your butt kicked by these guys. You know, at what point did you start to think, Hey, this, I can actually make a living doing this. This is something that can happen for me.

Well, that was the mindset going into this thing was just to make a living, you know, like I did with music. But, you know, it was kind of like the guys in the music business partied, you know. But when I got in the wrestling business, it was a whole other level, brother. So I said, this is perfect for me, you know. But it was kind of like...

I just wanted to make a living, you know, but the problem was I kept quitting. I probably quit three or four times because I would go out there and wouldn't make much money and,

I slept in my van for a year on Pensacola Beach with a while of Simone sleeping in their van. We weren't making any money. I kept coming back. When I was playing music in between bands, I got a union laborer's card. I'd go to the union hall and they'd send me out on a different job. Every time I'd go out on a job for three or four days, like a

government shutdown of a phosphate plant or go to the university mall to put up can lighting or work with a steel worker or brick mason, I'll make good money, you know? So I kept quitting to come back to try to get back on my feet and save some money. And probably I really didn't think I was going to make it until I finally got that call to go to New York from Vince McMahon senior. And that was, uh, 1978. I got that call to go up there. And, uh,

The Vincent man looked at me, and I was way over 300 pounds, and I was crazy as a goat. And I actually thought I could beat Andre the Giant up, which I got my ass handed to me. I mean, he beat on me for eight years before he started liking me. But then, you know, then once I got up in that New York circuit, the Boston Gardens, the Philadelphia Spectrum, Madison Square Garden, I started playing those big venues.

You know, then, you know, and they naturally pushed me up to the top of the car because of how I looked. Then I knew I could make it in the business, but I kept quitting. I, and if I had to get that call from New York, I probably wouldn't have went back. I'll tell you what I remember going to the movies, uh, 82 and seeing Rocky three. And there you were thunder lips. And what I got to tell you, and I'm sure you've heard this before many times, but that you in that movie, that was a moment, uh,

That was like a movie. It still is like a moment. And Stallone still posts pictures all the time from that movie and you and him in the ring. And that was so cool. I thought that was, at that point, I was like, who is that? Yeah. That was, that had still, I mean, what an amazing moment though, right? Fun, fun was had, I'm sure. Yeah.

And you made bank off that. You made bank off that, right? Yeah, right. I couldn't believe how literally you made it. Here's what we have something in common right here. Wow. Brother, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to negotiating, but at the end of the day, I had seen Rocky one, and he was like 700 feet tall in the public's eye.

And I was with my girlfriend at the time. I said, man, if I could just be in one of those movies, just sweeping the floor as a janitor, I'd love to be in the movie, you know? So fast forward, here comes Rocky three. And I was actually in Allentown, Pennsylvania, um, doing television for the WWWF, the worldwide wrestling Federation where there were three W's that was before it was the WWF. And, uh,

I've got a piece of paper called Sylvester Stallone, you know, wants to talk about a part in the movie. Yeah, right.

because the wrestlers you know always rib each other you know they'll put rocks on your bag or cut your clothes up or take your car keys and pull them in the toilet or something you know so i went to japan for about six or seven weeks and i came back and when i came back it was back to the allentown farm center at tv again now i got a western union letter it says stallone needs to talk to you urgently

So I did call him and I flew out there and I got the part in the movie, you know, and he kind of like, we got in the ring a little bit and he, you know, we moved around. He says, I'm going to try to hit you and see if you can get ahold of me. I said, okay, whatever you say. But as soon as he stuck his arm out, I snatched his ass. And, and,

And then he says, I want you to hit me as hard as you can. I said, no, bro, you don't want that. Just give me 50%. Well, I'll give you a little bit. So I gave him a good shot. And as soon as I hit him, I hit him on the back and his face went down and hit my cowboy boots. And he popped up. He goes, oh, that's great. I said, oh, Jesus, he's crazy. But yeah, I got the mark. We rolled out of the ring and he put a camera in my face. He goes, I want you to get mad. And so he basically wanted me to cut a promo. So I was halfway done.

Learning how to do that. I really wasn't all the way there and I did the best I could he goes Okay, you got the part and he goes I'll give you $10,000

to do the movie. And of course, me being the genius that I was, I said, I want 15,000. That way to do it. Drive it up. Drive it up. Yeah. So he paid me 14 grand with no back end, no points, no nothing. Oh boy. It was worth it, man. I never had an agent. I never had a movie part. I didn't have one. Hey, how did he find you in the first place? I mean, how did he get the idea to use you in that part? Well, he had watched...

Madison Square Garden Network. And at the time I was like 335 pounds. And he watched me pick up three guys in a bear hug. And I was just ragdolling, you know, and I was holding three guys up and I threw them all down. And there was a casting director named Rhonda Young. So Sloan says he called Rhonda and goes, who's this guy?

So she called her brother, Peter Young, who's been my agent for 40 years and Mr. T's agent. And Peter Young, who was a wrestling fan at the time and wasn't an agent back then. So that's Hulk Hogan. I'm going to Boston College. We go see him all the time. So that's how they got a hold of me. That's amazing. I mean, it worked out, though. I mean, that was 82. And then January of 84. Well, no, no. We shot the movie, bro, I think.

Uh, mid 80, like mid. Right. Yeah. But then you got fired and started interrupting. Did you get, didn't you get fired? Didn't Vince senior fire you for doing that? Yeah. Yeah. I was in a fall river mass. I think I was wrestling at the high school, the armory. I can't remember. And, uh, I was supposed to go to LA the next day. And I had told Vince senior that I wanted to go do this Rocky movie. And I said, I'll be gone 10 days shooting the party. He goes, no, you're not doing it.

So anyway, I call him up and I said, look, I'm leaving tomorrow to go do the Rocky movie. He goes, you're not allowed. You have to go from Fall River, Mass. You got to drive to Charlotte all night because they want you on Charlotte TV at 10 at noon. And I would have barely made it if I drove all night. But I said, I'm sorry, Mr. McMahon, but I'm going to go do this movie. I'll be back in 10 days. He goes, OK, you're fired and I'll never work here again.

I went, okay. It was cool to me because I had a really hot-looking girl that lived in Japan at the time. So I just went over and stayed in Japan for a while and kept wrestling the circuit over there, which was really intense back then. And then I sent some of my pictures to this promoter in Minnesota, Vern Gagne of the AWA. And there were two places...

that all the wrestlers wanted to work. That was the Madison Square Garden Circuit or Minneapolis because the trips were short and this got paid really well. So I sent him my pictures and he said, how quick can you be here? And so as soon as I landed from Japan, I got back to Florida and I drove up to Minnesota and I started there. And I wrestled there for about three years, three and a half years. And we were just getting ready to come in.

And we bought TV time on Channel 9 in New York. We were going to run up and down the whole East Coast when Vince Jr. flew out to my house in Minnesota and we cut a deal. He goes, I'm going to build a blueprint. You're going to build the building. And we're going to take over the whole world. I said, oh, I like that. So that means you stay in the Eiffel Tower and I'm the one that gets shot at. He goes, yes. So it was tough.

So it all worked out great. You know, I heard you talking about Madison Square Garden and that circuit. And it reminded me of an interview that I heard with you. You were saying that was the most memorable and the best night of your career when you were against the Iron Sheik. Yeah. But it wasn't necessarily for the match. Can you talk a little bit about that? Well, so many things were going on, which I was...

Which I wasn't aware of, you know what I mean? First off, I just left Minnesota. And I just bought a house there from the promoter's daughter, from Bernd Gagne's daughter. So he thought I was locked and loaded to stay there. And I just sat out by his swimming pool that weekend before. And booked myself in all the main event matches against Nick Bockman, the champion, all these cage matches. So I did something that was totally...

unethical in the wrestling business, I walked out without a 30-day notice. So, I mean, I walked away very unprofessional, usually say 30 days, 30-day notice, you let everybody in the territory beat you, all the top guys. I locked the door and went away. And I went to Madison Square Garden and

And Vern Gunning, the promoter, was really pissed. So they had a guy named the Iron Sheik who was Cosgrove Lacerre. He was the real bodyguard of the Shah of Iran. And he wrestled in the Pan Am Games, a real shooter, a real wrestler, not like me. He was a real wrestler. And so Vern tried to give him 100 grand to break my leg that night in the garden.

I didn't know that. I didn't know that was happening. So all of a sudden, we get to Madison Square Garden, and it was like the perfect storm. It was the Iron Sheik, and at the time, there were 444 American hostages being held by Iran. And I was coming in as like this American hero. So when I hit that Eye of the Tiger music, bro, the garden exploded. And it just changed the business forever because...

When I went back to, you know, wrestle the Iron Sheik, they didn't play music. They didn't sell merchandise, which I had been doing in Minnesota. And it just, the whole game changed, you know, and it was just a magical night, you know, winning that belt and stuff. It was just amazing. Is that when the entrance music kind of started with, with that or had it kind of gone on before that?

No, it hadn't. I was playing in Minnesota. No one else was. I was playing The Eye of the Tiger, which Scotty Brothers had publishing on. As soon as I started playing it, they shut me down and wouldn't let me use it anymore. But I did play it for a while in Minnesota, unnoticed. But as soon as I went to the garden, they noticed. But when I went to the garden, I asked them, it's about playing music. They said, no, we don't play music here. So there was some other stuff that happened that day, which I guess I should tell you about.

Right before, you know, the match started, Vince McMahon Sr. and Vince McMahon Jr. were there. And the guy that had gotten beat the month before by the Iron Sheik, when the Sheik won the belt, Bob Backlund came up. And Vince Sr. was looking down at me over his glasses, clicking the quarters like he always did. He goes, well, you know, Terry, I think we're going to postpone this title switch for about six months and, you know, go ahead and, you know, get back with Bob for a while.

So I said, well, you know, guys, that's fine with me, but I'm going to go ahead and do the right thing tonight. I'm going to put the iron sheet over. You can beat me one, two, three, but then I'm going back to Minnesota and I'm going to rebuild that huge bridge that I burned down and beg for forgiveness. So I went to my dressing room and was drinking my normal cup of beers before I go out and wrestle. And, uh, Vince Jr. Came in and goes, Oh no, no, no. I talked to the old man. We're going back to the original plan. So, uh,

That was the kink in the works that almost ruined that night. But, you know, the Iron Sheik decided to do business with me. He didn't break my leg because he could have. And I wouldn't even know what was going on, you know, because he would have done it very maliciously. But he decided to do business instead. And that was a crazy night in the garden. My name is Glenn Story. I'm the founder and CEO of Patriot Mobile.

And then we have four principles. First Amendment, Second Amendment, Right to Life, Military and First Responders. If you have a place to go to put your money, you always want to put it with somebody that's like-minded. Of course. I think that's the beauty of Patriot Mobile. We're a conservative alternative.

Don't get fooled by other providers pretending to share your values or have the same coverage. Go to patriotmobile.com forward slash smalltown to get a free month of service when you use the offer code smalltown or call 972-PATRIOT.

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He dropped a backbreaker on you and the camel clutch, which was his move. That backbreaker looked like it hurts. I mean, there's no way that doesn't hurt. Well, brother, let me tell you. Now that I've had 10 back surgeries now, there's no way I could even get in that position. I can't even stand up straight, much less get bent over backwards like that. It was crazy, but the cool thing about it was they told me no music.

So I went to the sound guy, I said, "The hell with this." I had a Tiger cranking. I gave him 500 bucks. When that music started, that "donk, donk, donk, donk," the roof of the place blew off. And, you know, then I told Vince, "Man, I've been selling merchandise, t-shirts and headbands and hats and koozies and wristbands and making a ton of money doing it because nobody else is." And, man, Vince picked up on it real quick.

And it just took off. And then everybody wanted entrance music. So Jimmy Hart sat up all night, most nights, writing entrance music for all the wrestlers.

Yeah, and it's kind of cool because that, again, is where your rock career and music career entertaining took over, and everything kind of started going to the next level. And you realized, because you said yourself, which is crazy to me, that you didn't feel you were a gifted athlete when you were younger, even though you could play pro baseball and stuff like that. You thought that wasn't your gift, but your gifting was entertaining. When you found the entertainment piece of the wrestling, you said that's when things kind of clicked. Yeah, it really did. You know, and it happened.

It happened in Minnesota, you know, where I was in that guy, Vern Gagne was a collegiate wrestler, NCAA champion. And he was just one of these real hardcore old guys that would put submissions and hooks on you and make you scream, you know, going through his wrestling camp. And when I got there, I started working with his son a lot. And I noticed that when I body slammed somebody, that would...

get a reaction, but if I looked at the crowd and mugged the crowd, the reaction got a bigger response. I got this figured out now. I started working with the crowd more than the wrestler in the ring. It all came together, man, but it took a while. It took at least a good grief from the end of 77 until 84 for me to really figure it out. Then I didn't have it figured out all the way. I really had it figured out by 85, 86, 87.

So it takes a while. You need that seat time like a NASCAR driver. You need to put that seat time in before you get good at anything. I get it, man. It's like music. We didn't just start playing and know how to entertain a crowd, man. You got to do it. You got to know how to do it. The wrestling industry is exactly like the songwriting industry, except I don't have to have 10 back surgeries over it. We take a beating, just not that kind. People ask me all the time. They say, well, do you ever...

Pick up the guitar. You ever play around a little bit? And I very seldom do because my fingers have been jammed and broken over 40 years of wrestling. I mean, it's, you know, and when I go to grab a guitar, it's almost like the arthritis is overwhelming. But I wonder what would have happened if I had played another 10 years because I only put 10 good years in.

I played in junior high school bands and high school bands, but I really didn't put the time in like I should have. I always have wondered if I would have played another 10 years, what could have happened, you know? Are you still tinkering around with music at all? Not really. I mean, you know, something special comes up, you know, and Jimmy Hart gets involved with something I'll mess around. But really, not really. I mean...

There's two, I mean, you know, there's a couple situations where I shot in the wrestling business, you call it shooting at an angle, you know. And I had pretty much gotten tired of being on the road 300 days a year, wrestling 350 or 360 times a year, twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday. You know, you get tired of flying 300 days a year. And I remember I was in an awards ceremony in the UK with Jerry Hall,

And back then, that was Mick Jagger's old lady, and they needed a bass player, right? So I kept my mouth shut. We go to the awards show, and when we come off stage, she goes, oh, my gosh, Hulk, my kids are big fans. Could you please get them some merchandise? I said, yes, I can. And I said, by the way, by the way, your boyfriend and any of that music they play, if they need a bass player...

i would love to be in the band so i got this box of merchandise together put an audition tape in there and sent it and i never heard a word back from him oh my god never never heard a word i was about to ask you go ahead no the same thing happened with metallica that's what i was gonna ask bro and everybody says hulk why he tried out he said he tried out for the stones and metallic but he's a liar well with metallica it's the same thing i saw they needed a bass player

I put a tape together and sent it to him. Never heard a word. They didn't even respond at all? No. No. Nothing. But the bass player they got is just bitching, man. That guy kills it. Oh, yeah. Julio, he's great. Yeah. But I would have quit wrestling in a heartbeat to be in either one of those bands. Are you serious? You would have quit wrestling? Oh, hell yeah. Oh, hell yeah. Much safer. Yeah.

I guess. I don't know. It turns out he was hanging with a brother. I tell you what, though, it worked out because I remember watching you and you'd run, I mean, like Saturday night's main event, that kind of stuff. We would wait up for you watching to come on. It was such a feeling in the country, too. You're such an American figure.

you know, and it was amazing. Like it's a, I still get pumped up. I was watching your old matches and, you know, it still gets me going. Me and me and Aldine always talk about, you know, WrestleMania three and what that looked like back then, you know, we were 80, 80,000 people, you know, and that, that had to be something though. You and Andre the giant and it's still walking out and seeing those people had, that had to be quite a feeling.

Well, brother, first off, it was 94,000, okay? But the weird thing is about Saturday Night's Main Event, you know, if you look at the ratings now, the universe has so many choices.

you know, with all these TVs and Paramount Plus and Fox this and Fox, you know, there's so many choices now for people to make with all this streaming stuff that it's not the same as it used to be because, you know, I looked at the numbers for Saturday night main event here recently and I saw what the numbers were. But then when, like when I wrestled Andre the Giant on Saturday night's main event, we had 33 million people watch that night. I mean, the numbers were insane, you know, so it's a whole different world and a different universe. And so, uh,

Times would be a changing. Yeah, it is. Where do you see it? Where do you see the future of wrestling now moving forward? Well, I mean, it's stronger than it's ever been. I mean, it's so powerful. It's this international juggernaut. I mean, it's like, you know, they're always looking for an attraction, you know, like The Rock or Andre the Giant, you know, or like Roman Reigns. They're always looking for an attraction, you know,

But even if they can't find that one guy, the machine and the production is so big, you could actually have a wrestler be in the main event. If he gets hurt, you can actually replace him because the machine is so big and it works so well now that they've got it really figured out. And so it's just going to keep moving forward like a monster and it's just eating everything up as it goes because it's getting bigger and more popular.

And I never dreamed it would turn into this, but it's just amazing to watch it happen. I was really happy with the time that I grew up wrestling, but boy, I'd sure love to wrestle during this era. I'm thinking country music singers need to get involved with wrestling. I'm thinking Garth Brooks. I would love to see him in a ring. I would love to see Luke Combs in a ring. Yeah, maybe like Luke Combs and Justin Moore. Let me put it to you this way, Carter.

I'll put it to you this way. If Jay Leno can do it, anybody can do it. That's a fact. I forgot about that. I forgot about Jay Leno. Maybe we can get Al Dean interested and get him in the ring. I don't think he's going to do it. I'd love to get his ass in there. Get him and Luke Bryan in the ring together. That would be fantastic. That's not a terrible idea. I don't have one more in me, but I'd definitely step up for that one. I don't think you'd have much of a problem. I really like the...

I thought the McMahon Netflix doc was really good. I thought that was really, really cool. It was so good. It was peeled back the curtain quite a bit. Some of it. Some of it. Yeah. So when you were wrestling at the height in the 80s, did you have... I always wanted to ask you this, and hanging out, I meant to, and I always forgot to.

Did you have like a favorite couple of dudes that you would like, you know, always enjoyed wrestling or some that would, you didn't like, you know, as far as like it was, you know, I know, I know how that goes competition wise too. So how does, how do you know anything that you'd. Well, back in the eighties, everybody was buying for that top spot. You know, it wasn't like now everybody's got guaranteed contracts. And if you get hurt, you get paid back then. It was like,

If you didn't wrestle, you didn't get paid. So everybody was shooting for that top spot, and that happened to be the spot I had. So the two guys that I really loved to wrestle with most were Macho Man Randy Savage. He was a total pro. He was just so physical, and you knew you were in a war when you were in there with him. And the other one that I loved, even though it was pretty brutal, was working with Andre because the money was so crazy.

Yeah.

So I don't know how much you hung with those guys, but I heard you talk about Andre and how you guys got close afterwards. Any of the other guys that you ended up getting close with after the fact? Well, a lot of guys I'd been friends with all along, you know, the Nasty Boys, you know, I was friends with. I was friends with British Beefcake for 45 years while we were wrestling. And, you know, Haku, I don't know if you know who he is, but he was a good friend.

And at the end, the one guy I finally became friends with, which we did not get along at all, was Roddy Piper and I got real close at the end. Right before he passed away, man, we were on the phone every day talking about scripture and he wanted to understand about accepting Christ as a savior. Every day I was on him, brother, every day. So we became very close.

Hey, I know, speaking of that, spirituality and your relationship with God is important to you. And I know that you were a Christian and been a Christian through your whole life, but I'm sure there's been like a reawakening of sorts. Like, when did that happen for you, and when did you really start that walk again with God? Well, recently. I mean, I was saved when I was 14.

I was playing guitar at a youth ranch, you know, I was playing football and a couple of football players say, we come, we go to this Christian youth ranch and we sing every week. So I went with them and then, you know, they said, Oh, he can play guitar. He can play guitar. So the next week I brought my guitar and ended up playing guitar for all the songs and stuff. And I accepted Christ as my savior then, but it took a while for me to get it. But then, you know, rock and roll music, wrestling didn't follow the path for many years. And then I,

with all the stuff that's happened in my life personally, all the crashing and burning and getting up and moving forward and starting over and crashing and burning again and this mistake after that mistake, I just totally surrendered, man. And I said, you know what? I've fought harder than anybody. I've worked more longer hours than anybody. And I'm just so tired of being in the same empty back to zero space that I started going back to church every weekend and

And got baptized, totally surrendered. And now I just tell my big God about my little problems and all these people that nip at my heels, brother. I just pray for them. I can't get involved with the drama because, you know, I just let God fight those battles, man. I just let him take over. And no matter what type of drama comes at me, it's always something. You know, I just sit back and try as best as I can. And I'm not always good at it.

I try as best as I can just remain still. That's amazing. When you said about baptizing, I baptized my brother, who's a lot bigger man than I am. And I was thinking about when you're getting baptized, did you have to have a couple guys in there bringing you up out of the water just because you're a big man and one guy do it? Did he say, help me out, brother? You got to help me out. No, my pastor, Aaron, he got me in and out. My wife, Scott, I got baptized with all of my stepkids and

She's been a major influence in calming me down because I've got so much turbulence in me, you know, from always being physical my whole life. About 8 o'clock at night, I start rumbling, you know, because I'm used to getting in the ring about 10, 30 or 11 and, you know, just breaking this crazy sweat and have another man beating on me. And all of a sudden, you know, okay, I'm okay, but I don't have that anymore.

I've got all this turbulence in me all the time. I've got a gym in my house. I'll work out or I'll just go ahead and remain still and just go back to my faith. It took a while to calm me down. I still struggle with it every once in a while, but it's nothing like it used to be because Skye, who I've been with about three, three and a half years now, she's just been a godsend. She's just been

been amazing as far as out thinking me, you know, out talking to me, talking me down, helping me out. She's, uh, she's been my best friend. And so it's just amazing how things have turned out. Well, you certainly left your mark on that. I mean, when you, uh, when we saw you in Tampa, Aldine, you know, brought you out on stage to say hello to the crowd and,

and that place blew up i got goosebumps talking about it i felt like i was back in the 80s you know so it's crazy it's crazy like you that's got to feel you accomplish something so great though i mean people you left us a mark on their memories which which is really incredible i mean that it was it was crazy that night it was it was so fun seeing that you know it was you know

Yeah. Sometimes I forget, you know, and like when I'm, when I'm here on the beach, you know, I take the, the only thing I reason I got the rag on the bald head is cause I knew I'd be on camera with you guys. But, uh, usually when I'm at home, I'm just walking around with the old bald head hanging out and stuff. And,

I go outside, you know, and I forget the moment I walk outside, if the mailman sees me, he goes, he doesn't want, he doesn't want Terry to go, Hey, how you doing? He wants to go, Hey brother, what's up? You know, just give a little time. And I keep forgetting that the moment people see me, they think Cole Covey instead of Terry, but what's been so great. We've been pumping that beer, real American beer, which I showed you guys. We've been traveling every week, you know, kind of like being, being back on the road with the band. We've been traveling every week going to,

Different states, you know pumping the spear thing up and the crazy thing, you know My wife said you told me you're gonna show me the world but you didn't tell me there's gonna be grocery store and gas stations One grocery store at a time but you know the craziest thing is I love meeting these people and shaking their hands and looking them in the eye and hearing their story and

Because everybody's got a Hulk Hogan story. And it really makes me understand how important that character was.

that I hit on because I have people go, you know, my father and I bonded watching you. I buried my brother with your shirt on or I was on drugs and you saved me from being a drug addict or, you know, my father, you know, you were my father growing up because I didn't have a dad. The stories are overwhelming and I see all these special kids because when I have a huge line of people, I make sure I get to all the special kids and handicapped kids first and just how they respond and their reactions.

And some of the stuff that's said to me by the parents, it's overwhelming. And I forget how powerful that whole character was on not only America, but the whole world, really, because I get the same reaction when I go overseas. So it's just amazing to hear the feedback now, but sometimes I forget.

And as soon as I leave this house, you know, I can't go to the mall or anything like that. But, I mean, when I go to make an appearance or something, I get to be around people. The stories and how loyal they are and how nice the people are, it's just amazing. It's the same thing with us. It's like we forget until we go somewhere.

Like if I go to a Jason Aldean concert and I hear he cranks off into a song that I'm a part of and I turn around and look at the crowd and everybody's singing that song and then people find out that you're a part of that song and they tell them how it affected their life. And you forget. We take it for granted a lot. Yeah, it's true. It's the same thing with us. That's a good point. Yeah, it really does. But the inspiration that you've been –

And the walk that you're on now is so inspiring to us and to our listeners. It's just, it's awesome to hear your journey and where you've been and where you are now with your walk. Well, it's not easy, you know, because you can't be too light in the loafers in the spiritual world. You know, you can't be too airy-fairy over here. And you can't be too dialed into this human incarnation. And you have to have your foot

each one foot in both places. But when stuff comes at me now, like negative stuff or people hitting me with stuff constantly, I'll go ahead and deal with it for a minute. Then I'll bracket it and I'll go back to center, you know? So it's something that affects me, but I, but I shake it a lot better now than I used to. And like I said, I just told my big God about my little problems and pray for these people that are still talking and having to spread their stories or whatever their fiction is or whatever their, uh,

Their reality is it's not what mine is or was, so I just want to keep moving forward and not look back. It's amazing where I'm at now in my life. I didn't realize I was going to have to be 71 years old to figure it out, but it's just an amazing place to be right now. It's just a great time. There's a lot of life left, and you can move people in a different way now also.

Because the platform that you have, you know. I was going to ask you, if you guys don't mind, about the ball-peen hammer. Because you'd said, and this scene, you had an art with it where you could hit a guy with it and hurt him, but not hurt him too bad, but it was like an art. Like you could just, I don't know how you did that, but can you preach on that for a second? I know we just talked about Jesus, but if you go back to, you know.

jesus got mad too i mean he got mad too yeah well if you ever go back and watch the the rocky three thing again you know stallone was telling me if you're gonna throw a punch if the camera's right you can't cross you know you cross you know this way i don't know how to explain it like if the camera's over here you cross that way and pull through his chin so it looks like he took the punch and he'll sell it that way

I told him, I'm going to throw a direct punch into your forehead. If you ever watched the Rocky III Thunderlips thing again, I set him up and I throw a punch from left field all the way from the ground right between his eyes. And, you know, after we got the shot and we got it done, I said, how was it? He goes, well, I felt it, but it was perfect. He looked it back on the video assist. He goes, oh, my God, I've never seen a punch thrown like that. I said, I've been practicing a long time. And it's the same thing like with a ball peeing hammer because when I –

Went back to the WWE after working for Ted Turner and trying to put them out of business for 10 years. I wasn't the most welcome guy in the dressing room. Let's put it that way. And so, you know, I was going out to Chicago and The Rock was going to come out and interrupt my speech and challenge me. And after he challenged me, he rock bottomed me. Then my NWO brothers came out and we basically crucified him in the middle of the ring. I went out and dumped a toolbox out and there was a ball peen hammer and

And I said, I'm going to hit you wide open in the back of the head, but I'm not going to hurt you. So I gauged it and I swung wide open. I caught him. He goes, well, it was a little stiff. The rock goes, it was a little stiff. I said, well, did you get hurt? He goes, no. I said, fine then. But then we put in an ambulance and chain the ambulance up and I get the semi and ran the ambulance over a couple of times. But we, we, you know, we did it live to tape and cut the tape. We pulled him out of the ambulance. Of course,

before I ran it over a couple times. Yeah, I mean, when I was doing it every night, I got real good with timing and distance, and it's just an art form. You learn. Yeah, Stallone, I think, still talks about that, how you were able to throw those punches and just stop at the right time. He always wanted to...

Yeah, he always wanted the camera here and to cross through and not hit him. But I said, bro, I can throw him straight in. You can have the camera right on you. They're not going to see any holes because I am going to make contact. But I will not hurt you. I won't hurt you. That's amazing. Wow. Hey, so you were talking about, you know, the film industry and obviously, and you made your mark on that. Yeah.

From what I understand, you got offered the role in The Wrestler, which eventually went to Mickey Rourke, obviously, who did a great job. Is that true that you got offered that role and you turned it down, right? Well, it's kind of true, but I did say no. What happened was I'd already done a wrestling movie called No Holds Barred.

which I hope you guys get to see it because it's just crazy. But it was like, yeah, it's a funny movie. But since I'd already done a movie about a wrestler, I did the first two movies New Line Cinema had, Mr. Nanny and Suburban Commandant when New Line Cinema was first starting, and then the Wolf of Wall Street guy. What was his name? Jordan Belford. Oh, okay. No, Jordan Belford. No, he gave me some money to make a couple movies together.

And then this wrestler's script came through my agent, Peter Young. And he goes, the studio wants you to read this and see how you feel about it.

And I saw The Wrestler, of course, and I read it, and I just couldn't visualize it because I usually picture every shot, you know, and every camera position. I've been around the TV business so long, I try to picture everything in my head. Like, I'll read a script real fast. I can read like 110 pages in maybe an hour or so. But then I'll go back and read that 110 pages. It'll take me two days to block out every shot and think about it. And I just didn't get a hold of it. And plus, I didn't want to play a wrestler again.

Because I just figured it'd be the same lukewarm welcome I got with the last film I did as a wrestler. So I told Peter Young, my agent, I didn't want to do it. So I don't know if I would ever be offered the part, but I said I didn't want to do it until before that happened. Yeah, and 10 grand is not a lot of money anyway. Easy, brother. It was 14. It was 14. Yeah, that's right. It was 14. Yeah.

Hey, real quick, let's talk about Hogan's Hangout. Is Karaoke Night still rocking? Yeah. I'm going to get my head geared up for that here in a couple hours. That's what I was wondering about tonight. Bro, this tonight will be wide open, too. We're going to come down there. We're going to try that bus. Oh, definitely. You guys can come in. I hope you come in and drink. Are you kidding me? Don't stop believing. I told Jason.

I told Jason, I said, what if you come in and sing karaoke and you don't win? I mean, because that's the way I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I tell you what, I had one of my guys come in from the church, you know, and he's a really good singer. And he sang his butt off. But then, man, we had some people come in that just were blowing smoke, man. And, you know, I had to put the bell on those people. And, man, I don't know, I think I still got heat for that one. What's the prize for first place?

Well, we give away title belts, you know, and we, uh, we give away title belts to the best, uh, female and best male singer. And then every quarter, every quarter we have the quarterfinals where we give cash away. But then at the end of the year, we have the ultimate championship and we give like 10 grand away to the winner, uh,

And second place gets whatever and third place gets whatever. But for around here and locally, it's a lot of money, you know. But I get guys flying in from Jersey and Vegas and all over the place to come down here and sing. It's kind of like turning to like a little – the Madison Square Garden of karaoke here. We are so there. That's going to be – We got to go. We have to go. Well, originally, we were – the whole plan was to come down with our –

Try that in a small town bus that Wade hasn't got us yet to do this in person, you know, but it's, we're, we're such fans. I mean, and, and, or like us and Jason, like you coming out and hanging out with us, we really appreciate it. Cause it's for us, it's like a, such a part of our growing up and, and,

those memories and having you hang out with us. We just, you know, I'm sure you get sick of telling us the same stories again, but for us, it never gets old. You know, it never gets old hanging out with you, man. You know, no, it's a lot of fun, brother. It's a lot of fun hanging out with you guys. No pressure. It's really cool. Well, like Tully said, it's just been such a pleasure and an honor. And there's, you know, you could have been doing a lot of things today and that you've got to share stories and talk with us. We're very appreciative of you. Yeah.

Keep walking the walk, brother. We love you, and we'll see you soon. Thank you so much. You guys are awesome. Thank you, guys. Thank you, brothers. Have a great night tonight. Brother, that was amazing. I got to tell you, I know I'm guilty of it, but I...

every until whenever we see him whenever even tonight like i go right back to being seven eight nine ten years old like i have to know about the wrestling stuff and he's answered the questions a million times i thought the music stuff was incredible yeah i had never heard well no one even knows that nobody knows about all that stuff i mean he's like addicted to the music scene yeah it's a legit passion i'm so glad and i wanted to ask him but he brought it up on his own i thought it was amazing because i had heard the story of him

trying to get this stones gig the rolling stones gig metallica and then the metallica gig like they said tapes he said the tapes it's amazing and they didn't even respond to him how do you not respond to hulk hogan like at least a courtesy like brother like that's awesome probably go this direction how badass would he look on stage with metallica amazing how do they not do 30 shows with hulk hogan at least let him come out well well and you know what's funny about that is like

the bass player they have now, he's great, but you can never hear the bass. So maybe I'll have Hulk Hogan up there doing it. You're not going to put bass in any of the mixes or live shows, so just have Hulk up there, then, I mean, why not? When you're thinking about, you talked about the fretless bass, and I was thinking, was he playing fretless because he was so strong and he rubbed the frets off? I mean, how did that work? You know, was he doing that? And then also...

he spent, he didn't talk about this, but he spent the 20 years in Japan, like six months, you know, he was there. So, and he talked about it on other podcasts and he goes, yeah, it was great. He goes, I mean, I was single. I was over in Japan. And, um, but he also, he learned there was one of the rock stars over there had long blonde hair. So he joined a band over there, you know, it was in a legit band. Yeah.

doing the wrestling stuff and over there he was he was freaking elvis in japan longest time was really cool i mean he used the music you know and even said when he got in the ring he used the cadence you know it's like when we're talking about the entertainment part of it you're like i mean he took all the music stuff and the entertaining and made you know it was cool to hear all that history i mean he is a global global superstar like you mentioned i mean

He was Elvis over there. Yeah. I mean, even here too, but I mean, just across. And a great American, which we didn't really get a chance to touch on. We could have went on forever with Hulk, but like, you know, at that time,

When he came in, I remember, I mean, so patriotic. He'd come running through the crowd waving the flag. You know, he's fighting the Iron Sheik, which is anti-Syriac. You know what I'm saying? And then now he's still fighting the good fight today. And he's a great guy. He'll come out and hang out with us, and I'll look over, and I'm like,

And we've been around a lot of cool people. Yeah. I'll still see Hulk Hogan sitting over there. I'm like, wow. Hulk Hogan, you know, Tully has his base in the dressing room. You know, we all kind of warm up or whatever. And Hulk grabs it and he's playing your base. And it's like, dude, that's awesome. Yeah. Tully would have slapped me if I'd have done that. No. You go in the dressing room, grab Tully's base, get smacked. You can grab it. Any of you guys can grab it. Thanks. My base side is. Yeah.

carte blanche, carte blanche. I just like how hard, uh, you know, the story for him, even how, how big he is physically. And like, you see, see him now and we've known him forever. Like he was a legend first time I ever saw him. But, but to hear, you know, like, like all of us, you know, anybody in sports, entertainment, whatever it's,

It's just not easy. And he went through all that stuff, sleeping in vans, just like you had artists sleeping in vans and cars on Broadway and stuff and making nothing. Like you talked about, you're playing sets eight hours and making 20 bucks or whatever. And then he quit several times. Pretty amazing. He just sticks with it. The wrestling life is really tough. I mean, they wrestle seven days a week. Yeah. Twice on some days. And then you get in your car and you drive...

another five six hours to where you're going pretty brutal you know they don't they don't stop no and in comparison to today's wrestling where it's not as much actual right physical contact those guys were they were landing blows and it was it was a it took a toll on him obviously he said he's had like 30 surgeries 10 pack surgeries

Yeah. He's in the, he's in the thirties and it was, it was funny because not funny, but in doing the research went, cause when I was a kid, I mean, I watched it, but I didn't follow it, follow it because you had a lot of people say, Oh, that's fake and all that stuff. And I don't want to get into that. You're talking to Hulk Hogan, you know, but, um,

but you know, he was even saying in other podcasts and interviews that then the seventies said, if you kick somebody with the laces on those boots, they wanted to see the laces on their face and on their chest and all that. If you hit them, they wanted to see bruising and bleeding and stuff like that. And so,

So it was a brutal game back then. That was a man's man type of thing. And now, it's not easy now. It's still entertainment. But the things they do, you can't do that painlessly. If they threw me around like that, I'd be broken a million places. He didn't talk about it tonight. Or hope he talked about it. Edit. Cut. Sorry. Is this post-drop-up or pre? No, it's post. Go ahead. Okay.

We didn't talk about it tonight, but he picked up Andre the Giant in body slam. Right. That had to be one of the back surgeries for sure. Well, no, wait. I believe, if I'm not wrong, when he did that, he told me when he was in Tampa, he said he ripped, I think he ripped the bicep right off the bone when he was doing it. Or something on his shoulder, something got ripped off the bone and he kept going. But he picked up

Andre the Giant. Yeah. I mean, yeah. No, it's like picking up a Walrus. It's incredible. Exactly. You know? But anyway, yeah. What a...

I got a cramp in my pinky. My guitar is heavy. My case is heavy. Putting on my 12-pound guitar. Oh, my traps are so tight. So funny. We want to thank everybody. It's like, as always, we say, you know, if you're on YouTube, leave us a comment, leave us a review. That really helps us. So please keep doing that.

Download. What else we got? We got to thank our sponsors. Original Glory, Patriot Mobile, eSpaces. That was really cool for us tonight, right? Hulk Hogan, man. Yeah, still processing it. I know it. I can't believe we got him. So fun. So fun. And like I think Tully was saying, we're going to go down to the Hogan's Hangout. We're going to get on the karaoke bar. Neil, what are you going to sing? That'd be fun. I remember you.

What are you talking about? I remember you. I'm doing it. All right. I think I'm just going to watch you guys. That's a good one. I'm going to support you. That's awesome. Yeah. From the Patriot Mobile Studios, this is the Try That in a Small Town podcast. Thanks for joining us, guys. Subscribe, share, rate, and check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.