January 29, 2025 • 42 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Jay goes into the ring with wrestling royalty, the one and only Dustin Rhodes. Rhodes openes up about his past struggles with cocaine, pills, and alcohol…sometimes taking up to 40 pills per day. However, after admitting to his father that he finally needed help, Rhodes entered WWE's rehab program and began to turn his life around. Now 16 years sober, Dustin plans on being clean for the rest of his life and is now using his platform to help others in need.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental Wealth podcast
build you from the inside out. Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable mental Wealth Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
With Jay Glazer.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm Jay Glazer, and man, I got somebody from the
world of wrestling here who is royalty, his family's royalty.
It's been through it a lot, and I love to
have dudes don who are who are bad ass tough
guys who know how to be vulnerable Because anybody questioned
our man ud with that one to bring in a
long time, many times champion several different promotions.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Uh, the one and only Dustin Rhodes. How are you, brother?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I am great, buddy, Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Man, absolutely man, pleasure to have you on, Dude.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I love having some of the old school guys on too,
because all of us, like in the old school, right,
we had a certain way of coming across, like we
got to be so fucking tough and man, all this
shit and now everybody's kind of learning to be vulnerable
and it's it's turned and I think guys who are
friends with and.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Are brothers, you know what I mean? Yes, yeah, we
never thought about this back in the day.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
I always say this, you know, without the old school,
there's none of this new school stuff. But you got
to learn it somewhere and you go through it. And
the new kids today, you know, they're like, well what
do you mean. I'm like, brother, we went through hell.
I don't think provide what we went through, you know,
And it's just it was a tough business. But now
they're all playing video games and stand Out of Truck.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Which is way better, no doubt. Yeah, yeah, I mean
there's look I think for us too, like our like
I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I don't have a break about my success and I
break about my pain and my scars.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's my equity.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
No, And that pain that we all went through back
in the day. I think we got to go through pain.
Whether it's pain so you could be a great wrestler,
I could be a great fighter or football pronouncer or
coach or something like that. Or for pain that we
have to go through, well we could help others get
out of there emotionally, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I think that's very important man.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
And I see it a lot on X people just
reaching out saying you really have helped me with your
positive messages and things. And I used to not be
like that an asshole on Twitter, you know, and it
just I just I said, you know, why am I
doing this? It's already as sessful. It's a great tool,
it's free, but it's it's it's just bad. So I
(02:17):
just know I'm putting out positive messages and it's actually
helping a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So you know what was your turning point? Because I
did the same thing three years ago. I was I
was coming out with a book called Unbreakable How I
turned my depression, anxiety and the motivation and you can't too.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
And I saw that that was in the pages of
the book could really help people.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And I was like, well, funk, I don't want to
wait for the book then I help people, because that's
that's bullshit.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
It's just me doing something, you know, for the money.
I'm not doing that. So I'm going to start using
social media, start coming out with my ship now.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And I was petrified, right because social media is like, yeah,
you don't need to have clinical depression, anxiety and bipolar
and ADHD like I do to go through some shit
because as you said, X is assessed pool and you know,
Instagram and Facebook is highlighted like filtered highlights.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Of your dates.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
How fuck are we supposed to survive that? We all
feel left out? But I went on and I said,
this is really I took my mask off. I'm like,
this is what I really have. The lappy joke, you
guy you see on Ballers and Fox Vil Sunday, and
it's just a mask.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
This is who I really am. And if you feel
the same.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Thing, I hope I can give it words and leave
comments down below. And if you got to see comments
for somebody else struggling, let's.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Lift them up.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And I tell teams this all the time now too,
because people are like, I can't open up. Within two minutes,
there's a guy named Mercedes Lewis who's still playing in
the NFL.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
He said his nineteenth year.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I started training Mercedes and mixed martial arts seventeen years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And within two minutes he calls me and says, coach,
I saw your post.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I knew you were crazy and that's a badge of
honor in football fighting, but I didn't know when you're
in pain. I'm sorry, Yeah, I got And he has
called me three times a week every week just to
check up with me. What was your tipping point to
say I'm going to now, I mean, I'm I'm going
(04:10):
to do something to just.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Jump in and start helping people with a message on X.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I'm not sure what the tipping point was.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
I just noticed that I was just pretty uh negative
or you know, in between me promoting stuff or whatever,
and then it just you know, it's like it's not
doing any good because everybody has some form of depression.
Everybody's got their downtimes in life, right, everybody has problems.
There's not anybody that's uh that's perfect, and we all
(04:37):
have our issues. And I just thought, you know, my
dad used to say when I came out of rehab,
he would say this. Every day we say are you
working your program? Are you you know? I need you
to keep stepping And he would call me every day
and say that. So that's like my motto. It's more
than just a motto. It's something he gave me and
it helped me kind of see. You know, I'm going
I went through this and survived it, and you know,
(05:00):
this is the message he's given me to keep working
my program and stay clean and sober, and it's worked.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
You have your little circle of people at the AA
for a couple of years solid, and that kept me
from you know, kind of sliding back into the depths
of hell. I like call it. And it just worked,
you know.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
And for rehab people, they usually go in two or
three times, right, or four or five or six A
lot of people do. And it just worked for me.
Of course, that devil's right here on my shoulder, and
all as I have to do it turn around, grab
his hand, go for a walk, and I'm back to
where I was or dead, and I don't want that.
So I just I made this decision to keep myself clean,
(05:42):
you know.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
On this and I'm depressed.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
I'm on antidepressants, and I've been depressed my whole life,
gone through some childhood trauma, some abuse, you know, things
like that, and it just it does affect you as
you grow older. But all those things have taught me
very valuable lessons. All the failures, the falling down and
getting back up, you know, they've taught me valuable blessings
of what not to do and how to remain on
(06:09):
this straight and narrow path that I'm on right now.
And yeah, I fail every day and I fall down
and it sucks, and I revert back to some negative
shit in my life, and you know, it's no good.
But I believe in God and I pray daily. I
just keep working my program. And you know, if I
pray to him and give it to him every single day,
(06:29):
it usually helps my day. So that is something that
I really believe in every single day, is to reach
out to him and talk to him and just try
to stay the course for today. Because it's a daily thing.
It's a minute thing. For some people, it's tough.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
But I'm glad.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I'm on the other side with sixteen years clean and sober,
and that's amazing to me to say that.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
That's a long fucking time. But you know, and I
lost everything, right, if I can talk about that for
just a second.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
You know, in the beginning, after the matches and stuff
like that, we drink beer, have fun, drink beer. You know,
it's good to have some cold beer or whatever. And
then that just turned into you know, there's an injury
and start taking painkillers vicodin like you were talking about,
and then pretty soon, you know, my.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
World is a mess. I've gained weight.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
I don't think I have any problems, and I'm sixty
pills in a day on a vodka a day, an
eight ball every three days of cocaine, and it was
just a mess. And I didn't give a shit about anything, anybody, nothing.
I didn't give a shit about life. I tried to
kill myself twice, thank god I did not. They were
(07:41):
very rough sad moments and days. And I think what
did it to me is at divine intervention. I went
on a three day benz Man and it was I
ran out of pills. I got drunk. I used to
drink beer every day. You know, I didn't have money
for alcohol. I lost everything. I lived in a room
about as big as this office. That's how bad my
(08:04):
life had gotten. And my wife had been through a
few years with me of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
And she wasn't an alcoholic or a drug addict.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
But she also kept her distance with saying you need
to go get help, because when people say that, it
has the opposite effect on the attic. Oh no, I
don't need help. I'm going to take more right now
because you said that. And she didn't do that. She
was there and she witnessed a lot of it. And
I think after the third day of me just being
(08:33):
fucked up, I was drunk out of my mind, I
couldn't and I don't get drunk. I wouldn't get drunk.
I drink vodka all day long, take pills, all that stuff.
But I was actually I couldn't walk, and you know
the old thing of well, can't walk, so let me
just drink a couple of drinks and try to level out.
It didn't work. It just kept me like that in
that state for three days. And the third day, you know,
(08:55):
after taking vicodins, xanax, coke, alcohol.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Every thing, I woke up at two in the morning.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
And you know, my dad, he had purchased me a
prepaid cell phone, so I had a phone to call
him or call make a call, but we had no
service where we lived. He had to go out on
top of the hill on the property to get like
one bar on the phone. And at two in the morning,
I just I don't even know if I saw up
that night, but I kind of woke up and came
(09:24):
to my sentence and I looked at my wife and
I said, you know what I'm done.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I need help.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
I'm scared, and it was very close to probably dying,
you know. And I still get emotional about telling my story,
which I'm not giving you the full story right now,
because I know this is a podcast. But she helped
me crawl out, and it was raining. I remember two
or three in the morning, we went up on the hill.
I called my dad. I had one bar. And you know,
(09:52):
my dad has heard it a few times before when
I've called it, asked money, you know, asked for money,
you know, to pay a bill, when really just pawning
everything I.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Owned, just for drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
And this was different. I started crying. I said, I
want to get help. And with a WWE. They have
the Great Wellness Program. They have a really good wellness
program and they put you into rehab anybody that's worked there.
So got onto the phone to the people in WWE
and they got me into rehab in two days. And
they were scared to death that I wasn't going to
(10:24):
get on the plane and go to rehabit It was
at West Palm and I lived in High Springs, Florida,
right outside of Gainesville, and I had to go through
Atlanta and then Atlanta back to Fort Lauderdale instead of
driving right, so you know, I decided to.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Fly and I loaded up.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
I loaded up the whole day before and I was
just like, I'm going to get help, going to get help.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
One last day of it.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Yeah, I did try to talk to my wife and
talk out of it, you know, but she kept no,
you go do this.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Let's let's get it done. You do it. So I
finally got on the plane shit faced.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
It got to the Atlanta airport, had a little delay
or not a delay, a layover, drank More landed in
Fort Lauderdale. I made the driver go to a seven
to eleven and pick up a twelve pack and I.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Just went man.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
So I got in there and I woke up eight
days later. I had eight days of detox and in
the like. After two weeks, I started seeing things for
the first time clear.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
You know, you notice this weird stuff.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
You notice butterflies, you know, flying around or whatever, and
you're like, oh, this is cool.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
It was very different for me.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Right and after the thirty day mark, I said, you
need to stay another thirty I said, no, I'm done.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
I'm done.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
I was scared, scared shitless to leave the place, but
I hated the place it was. I never wanted to
go back there, but it did get me to where
I needed to be to go out and use the
tools that were available with the AA meetings every single night.
They want you to do ninety and ninety's that's a
big deal. Well, I did two years straight. I maybe
missed a handful of days in those two years. And
(11:54):
I had to put that first before my daughter, which
was tough because I was in my daughter's life for
couple of years and that shit broke me down more
than anything, and it still does talking about it. You know,
seeing her on a visitation with somebody there, you know
that's looking over our shoulder, which was really hard. But
you know, and my ex wife would call me, I
(12:16):
need you to pick up Dakota, and I'll be like, no,
I can't. I have an AA meeting. I have to
do this, and you have to understand that this comes first.
I had to So I did that and I got
through that two years and then it became a little easier.
And you know, I haven't gone to an AA meeting
in a long time, but I have my little circle
of people that are there for me that, you know,
(12:37):
if I start to think about stuff through there, don't
do it. I had a sponsor in AA meetings and
I was on a fight with him one day. He
was not sitting next to me, but he was drunk,
so I went I had to, you know, get him
out of my life. I had to stay sponsor really
had like twenty seven years of clean and sober so wow.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
But he took me through the.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Twelve steps, and I did the twelve steps and I
work them. So at that point I was like, you
know what, I got my wife, I got my daughter,
I got my father.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
That they're my poor group of people I can talk to,
I can.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
You know, my daughter is the number one thing that
keeps me going and sober now and I cannot go
back because to see it did to her and her
mom right now is in a lot of trouble with
that stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Through what happened to her too, So she's been My
daughter's like really strong and scone. That's what it took
for me to get to get out of this.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Like I texted you earlier, I said, I went down
to hell, I kicked the devil and the teeth survived
and came out on the other side. Now I just
have to maintain it. You know, I am depressed. I
do have depression and it hits and sometimes it hits part.
But I work through it and I know that because
I was taught this in rehab and taught this in
(13:57):
AA meetings, that it is okay to have a day. Okay,
not the end of the fucking world. I'm not looking
to kill myself. This depression medicine has helped me almost
to the point of where I'm kind of numb to thing.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
But I would rather be numb to things than you know.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Dispeart and go out to the local bar, because this
time I know it will kill me.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
So I choose not to do it. And I choose
that every single day.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And I tell you I love then I appreciate you,
you telling this because that is your is your equity.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, and you know, look, I again, I'm clinical depression
and anxiety ADHD, bipolar everything.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I never know what I'm waking up with every day. It
is a It's hard for me to get out of
bed every day it was.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And I would say, I'm a dude who's fucked up,
who's learned how to be good with his fucked upness.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So earlier this year, I gave a talk to an
NFL team and a player raises his hand.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I tell all my ship and what I've done now.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Also, man, as I I have really done a lot
of work of realizing where these issues have helped me.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
So I weaponize them now.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Like my anxiety, I fucking suck and calm, but motherfucker,
I'm breating chaos, which will me is great cauld. I
live half my life in a cage and the other
on TV, and it allows me also, like I'll cause
chaos and business meetings because most people can't deal with it.
So I became my superpower. So if I weaponize them,
I'm not ashamed by it anymore. So where are these things?
(15:28):
So I start telling this and this player says, raise
his hand for a fucking one hundred and fifty cats
in there, says, please tell me there's light at the
end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
I said, what do you mean? And he's and I
won't repeat what he said, but he's he's.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Gone through it big time, and he opens up to
his team about what's going on, says.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Please tell me this light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I said, Well, here's where I can tell you. You
may have saved someone's life in here today by opening
up about your shit. Right same for you, Dustin, just
to hear it is you may save someone like to
by hearing this. Yeah, that's the light at the end
of the tunnel. But I'm fifty four now. I didn't
open up until I was fifty one. Since I've opened up,
(16:11):
I like, I used to live every fucking day in
the gray, and I was a fucking terror out. I
was a savage and I would have rather taken Vike
and I had a roll and shit like that. Said
to go out and get in trouble, yeah, and get canceled.
Then tell anybody I was fucked up. And you know,
I said, Now, because I've opened up, I've learned all
(16:32):
these things. Now, I've learned how to you know, breath
work and meditation and all these different things. And I've
given myself routines now, whether it's coal pluts, I make
sure I have certain work, you know. And I've gotten
older and fifty four, I don't have the same fight
team I used to.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Like, I was in my fight gim for fucking six
hours today.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
So we did. I was fine.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I was at the Island of misfit toys, right, So
were you right? The ww you're wrestling, We're the island
of misfit toys.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
We're good together. But I said, man, I'm fifty four.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Now and for the first time, I'm now married to
someone who I feel like I deserve her love, which
I never felt it. I'm not sabotaging it because when
you feel like you don't, you know, depression makes you
feel like you're not worthy of it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
You ruin it, and.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
You speed up the process because waiting for it to
end is more painful to it ending, like living in
a question of when the fuck is this.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Lady gonna leave?
Speaker 4 (17:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Right, so we say so, I fuck it up on
purpose and push everybody away. And now, Saibro, I'm fifty four.
I never knew I could feel this kind of joy. Yes, right,
So for guys like you and I who you know
again like and I always tell guys I've trained one
thousand football players and fighters and said, hey, in a
cage or on I feel, motherfucker, You'll never ever ever.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Know if I'm hurt or tired.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Fuck you, You'll never know. I'll be relentless. I break
an arm, you fucking break my back. It doesn't matter.
But that's the same way we acted outside that ring
or cage or feel that gets us to end up
in rehabbit gets us to want to fucking put a
revolver in our mouth, or gets it. You know, it
gets us to be so in the tact. But now
they're able to separate it and go the other way
(18:12):
and be vulnerable with each other.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
You know, you and I never met before, and look
how we're.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Talking like this is never gould have happened ten years ago,
you know, and you start bonding with I said, that's
your equity, bro, And I said, for you to be
able to use your story to help other people, that's
the light at the end of the tunnel. But because
we're opening up now, Dustin, Like, dude, I never knew
I was capable of feeling this kind of joy and
sustaining it without b Yeah right, you know, without an ecstasy,
(18:40):
without something that was gonna help me.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
And it's fucking beautiful. And if I had to wait
fifty four years for it, man, it's worth it.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
So yeah, like when I finally got the courage to
go wrestle again, I was scared that I could born
without some substance, and I found out that I was
just fine, and I was as hell and nothing was
that bad, right, And you said, something good about you know,
our vulnerability, man, is a powerful thing. And I've never
(19:10):
had problems with telling people what's going on with me, right,
I mean, I'm an open book as far as excess
concern everybody my struggles and they can't hold anything over
my head.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
They don't have an power over me anymore. Right.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
I do share a lot, and maybe too much sometimes,
but it has helped. It helps keep me grounded in
control by sharing those that stuff. And there is one
or two people that always say something, you know that, Wow,
this is really powerful, and they'll share it or they'll
message me on the X or whatever, and it's just it's.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
It's pretty powerful.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
So I couldn't see myself keeping that in for that long.
And a lot of people do that. They don't want
you to know that they've been to rehab. They don't
want you that they've had these problems.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
And I'm why, right, And you.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Can help somebody. And you know, people are different. They
bottle stuff in and they hold things in and just me, I,
you know, this is my new life. I got a
rebirth here.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
So it's like I'm sharing the shit out of it.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Whether they like it or not, I don't care.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
You're gonna end up helping people go with this being
the service.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I also talk about needing the team, and you talk
about God earlier. So again, my whole life, I was
just lonely and by myself. I just started talking to
God and not asking God, Hey can you get this
job or make me rich?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
But who do you want a best friend in parent?
You just want that person to listen, just be there.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So I alwauld say God, like you're my team. I
talk about having a team, and like people don't have faith.
That's on you, but my judge you, but don't do
to me. It doesn't hurt me to have faith that
I'm never alone. And I would say God, I'm gonna
go after this as hard as I can. Well I
want is when I fail, because I'm gonna fail, pick
me up, brush me off, and let's keep walking this
walk together.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
And that's got me where I am.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And every morning I wake up and I tell God
a loving prayer because it's better for me to wake
up and say I love you to something then wake
up in that filth of the great And I do
it at I too, and I do it a few
times during the day and I have someone to love
and now I have somebody else in my wife, which
it helps.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Absolutely, So growing up in a wrestling family, Yeah, how
fucking different was that?
Speaker 5 (21:22):
It was well when you're when I was little, it
was great, right, But then as you get a little
bit older, it's you know, we go places or whatever,
and Dad's never left alone, you know, and he was
kind of brutal to fans when we're eating dinner and
stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Uh, And it was I saw just what a hard
life it was.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
And you know, my dad didn't want me to break
into the wrestling business. I was very good in football
and I had some scholarship offers, but my grades were
ship all up until I graduated.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
You know, we had coaches coming and he would put
on a.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
Big meal for him and things, and it was just
And I did have a hard to play football, but
I wanted to be a wrestler more and he didn't
want me to be.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
And I think because he divorced my.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Mom at such an early age of five or six
years old, I can't remember that it was a hard
life for him and he didn't want that for me.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
He wanted something better.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
So me and my daughter, my sister Kristen were kind
of neglected in a way, you know. And I love
my father. I loved him to death. We did have
a falling out, you know, but that was we got
back together, but you know, many years before he passed.
But it's it was hard, you know, and his current
(22:40):
wife or his you know, my stepmother, and his two kids,
Cody Eel, they got everything, they got all of him,
you know. And you know, we're sixteen years difference in age,
Cody is and me, and it was it was It's tough,
but it is what it is. I look at it
at you know, the times were different and things happened
(23:03):
for a reason.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
I don't look bad appoint it.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
I don't look at it like, well, why hasn't he
given me the love that he's given Cody Ortil.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
He's my dad. I loved him, and you know he.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Was when we did when I did start the business,
I was around him constantly.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
So it was good to be close to him.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
But then I went into that that downward spiral where
I just didn't give a shit for years, man, and
it nearly killed me, you know, And it was it
was a tough time. But growing up being in his
shadow was tough, and especially when I did break into
the business. A lot of people think Audustin had the easy,
easy road to get into business. It's actually one hundred
(23:41):
percent opposite. He made me work for everything. He sent
me to Florida to his mentor. His mentor was Eddie Graham,
who passed shot himself and his son, Mike Graham, where
he made his name in Florida. Dad did so he
sent me down to Mike Graham and Steve Kerrn to
learn professional wrestling. He sent, he said, me with two
thousand dollars. I lived with my aunt and made twenty
(24:03):
dollars a night for two years, and I loved it.
It was my favorite time in the business when I
first started working every night, learning how to do things,
living my dream, get into trouble, you know, doing stupid
shit that I shouldn't do, but loving the wrestling industry
and having a passion for it because it was in
my blood and soul.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Man and he finally brought me up after a.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Couple of years to the NWA before they turned over
to WCW. And I don't know if you've heard of
Kendall Wyndham. It was Burry Windham brother, and he put
us together for the first time on you know TBS
on TV, A young dustin twenty years old or whatever.
But he made me work for it. He didn't push
me in skyrocket me to the moon. Right there, I
(24:46):
was just having fun listening to the vets because back
then it was different.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
They all could work right.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
And I'm the greenhorn coming in and I just shut
up and listened, and that's what I was told to do,
and they guided me to where I am right that. That
was for many years that I did that. I just
listened and they guided me. But he could have made
me world champion.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
He did not.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
I was on my way to become world champion, but
it took a long time to get there and was very.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Hard being in his shadow.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
A lot of people think I'm going to follow in
my dad's footsteps and I'm going to.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Fill his shoes. It's possible. Now you can't. I cannot.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Yeah, you gotta wear your own shoes.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I had different. I had this. I needed to be
a little different, but I didn't know that until I
went to WWV for the.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
First time and Vince McMahon created this gold Dust character.
That's when I, you know, It was scary because it's
something I'd never done before. I'm just a redneck from Texas, right,
and I played this cowboy character and a good guy,
and he gave me this character that's a bad guy
and a.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Very over the top agynous character.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
So I didn't know what I was going to do
and took a while to figure it out.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
But once I did and I stepped outside of my
comfort zone, that's when the magic started happening. And I
stepped into my own shoes and did something on my
own as justin Rohase, but as this flamboyant character gold Dust.
So I knew then. I was like, you know what,
I just found my own shoes. Never be my father,
(26:22):
even close to him, but I can do this. But
it was tough being the son of Dusty Roads, who
you know, the rock.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Wrote I called my niece wrote the foward to my books.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I've heard a bunch of stories from obviously growing up
the business and his uncles and all that.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Who is your favorite uncle growing up?
Speaker 4 (26:42):
My favorite uncle?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, as far as the other wrestlers of your dad was.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
With Dig Murdock. Dick Murdoch was his partner years ago.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
They became the Texas Outlaws, who I now have trademarked
and put it on my nephews. There are two kids
that are nineteen and eighteen now they're going to the
University of Texas to Texas Outlaws now. But Uncle Dicky Man,
he and he's not my uncle, but he was around me,
you know, my whole life. And it was he really
(27:11):
kind of taught me, you know, and he would get
on to me if you know. Like, there was this
this bar in Chicago we used to frequent and it
was it was a bottle bar. It was after hours bar, right,
and we went there just to drink have fun. But
I went in this little room with some of the
wrestlers where they do some other stuff. And I didn't
do this then, but I came out of there and
he grabbed me by the lapel and threw me in
(27:33):
the car and said, don't you ever fucking go in
that room again. You know, you stay that ship, which
was a bunch of cocaine right right right, which I
didn't do because I was I was young and I
wasn't there yet to do that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I was just drinking beer.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
But you know, it really and my dad always preached
don't do drugs, don't do drugs, and it just had
the opposite effect on me, you know, and I just
I chose to go down the dark path. And I
think that there there's millions of people that do that.
You know, there's not there's clean cut family out there.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Everybody has their fucking issues, man.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
Everybody has their problems with you know, a lot of
people have their problems.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
With alcohol and drugs.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
So no, I'm not the only one, and there's millions
of people that go through this, and you know, it's
I know, I kind of.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Get off the track there, but it was like I really.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Tried at the beginning, you know, I just drank the beer,
had fun with my wrestling, learned and all that stuff.
But Uncle Dicky, he was he was about as close
to me as anybody ever was in the business and
my best friend for a long long time because I
kind of grew up with him in the black Jack
Mulligan all those old timers and you know, Barry, me
(28:43):
and him, we were around each other all the day,
every day, you know, I would I would ride with
him and we just drank beer.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
You know. So it was all good until it just
wasn't what.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Was your best moment from all those thoughts, best experience,
best woman?
Speaker 5 (28:59):
You know, I think my legacy is when I got
clean and sober. I think that that encompasses my whole legacy.
But as far as having the funnest time, I'm having
with aw because I feel this company.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
He loves wrestling, Tony Khan loves wrestling.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
He's a but I know Tony, trust me, he's a bet.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
It's one hundred and ten percent different than the events
mcmon days. This was pretty brutal, and you were walking
on eggshells all the time, worried about your job with Tony.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
He loves me, he is a huge fan of my wrestling.
He's treating me very very good here for the last
five years.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
And my contract is up actually today and hoping that
you know, I can renew the contract or where it
goes right now. And last year I was worried like
crazy for a solid year. Oh God, what's going to
happen in my contract? So worried about what epps right,
And it's like this time, not one fucking day have
I worried about either re.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Signing or not.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
It's like it is what it is, so I'm hoping,
you know, that I get to remain or a door
opens or an avenue opens or whatever.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
But I'm fifty five, so it's but.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
I'm doing the best works the last couple of years.
I'm doing the best work I've done in my career.
I look better than I looked when I started. I'm
in shape for a fifty five year old man. And
I don't know what it is, but it's like when
I got out of rehab, I started going to the gym,
and I never went to the gym. Go to the
gym enough, right, and I go every single day. Now
(30:33):
it's like not every day, but close to it, and
I'm in there.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
And that's kind of my other addiction.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
By you said you don't know what it is, it's
your lighter yees here, Like we're cap We carried all
this heavy shit and now that we've opened up, start
talking and helping, everything's just lighter. A thirty second NFL
training camp. Every camp, I do the same thing. I
get my own set fucking roof. I got, I get
(30:58):
a glazed roof.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I come in. I'm gonna fucking huddle with these guys.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
I work out with every team. I get IV's with them.
We go out, man, I eat with them. The coaches
will cancel meetings because I'm there so we can go
hang out and shit like that. But this year, because
I just got married in May and I'm just happy
for the first time in my life.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah, I was like I've done. I did the same
exact thing this camp that.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I did last year, year before, year before, but it
just felt different. And it's just like I just feel
light and airy and like if I have some other shit, like,
we're still gonna have problems, dude, it's Life's about it.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
How the fuck we handle them?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Man, it's just like shit, just we're able to handle
it better instead of sinking all the way down. And
if I do sink all the way down, I used
to I have a supports system now I know to
call like immediately and just unload and bam and pick
myself up. And it's not just my wife, but I
think that's what it is like to I just feel lighter,
and then everybody else could feel it too, you know
(31:55):
what I mean.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
More manageable. Yeah, if you're until it doesn't.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
But then we, like you said, a little support group
and we can get a mess pretty pretty quickly.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Absolutely, And when I'm when I'm fucked up, I'll call
I'll call two to four people and tell them I'm
really fucking struggling. And then I'll call like two to
four people and not tell them and just check up
on them, because like, man, it may not happen one
hundred percent of the time. Ninety percent of the time
they'll be like, oh, I'm good, I'm good. But ten
percent of the time someone call go, oh, man Clays, I'm
(32:26):
so glad you called.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Man, I'm in a bad way right now.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
And then I help them and so lad by being
of service, I don't remember that I'm I'm going to grat.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Usually when people say I'm good or okay, that means
the opposite. Yeah, I know sometimes right, I had a
lot too, and it's uh, you know, I don't want
to bother anybody that don't want it, but you know,
there's there's I'm a pretty good mentor at work, and
people have problems all the time and I talk to
them and I think I help them. So I mean
(32:55):
I'm doing my part as as far as helping myself
while helping others, you know, passing on whatever knowledge I
have It's tough, man, It's tough what we've been through.
And I've been through fourteen surgeries and it's I can't
believe I'm still walking right to knee replacements. But you know,
I'll go get a cortizone shot or two and I
feel good, and you know, I just know the inevitable
(33:18):
is almost.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Here, and that's going to be a hard thing to
deal with.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
You know.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
I think I may have two or three years left
that I can go full steam and then.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
What it's like, that's that's something that I'm going to have.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
To really really work on to try to keep vanity
and keep wearing any.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
New routines, new rhythms, new supports. Yeah. Absolutely really. Hey,
by the way, well you should think about what I did.
I went down to Panama. I got stem cell.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Yeah I was.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I was a week away from a three level fusion.
Now I don't need it.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
And so the thing about stem cells, man, they go
away just like anything else, right, But the one you're
talking about in Median.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yeah, well not.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
I go to play some Panama coled origins, but they're
using yeah, so I'm not They're not using my own
fucked up stems.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Also using americal cord, which man, it's it's a game changer, dude.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Really game changer.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
Like Ray Mysterio, he's he's religious about it. You talked
about it about going down to uh Colombia. Yeah, and
going to a place and a lot of the guys
go to it there for about a week and just
do all kinds of millions of themselves.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
In their body. It's changed my life really.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Yeah. Man. I had Max.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Crosby and Derwin James to my bice attendant super spinas
and rotator cuff first fifteen minutes and train these fools
for a month and again.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
My thing is if you're hurt and tired and that
that ran, you don't show it. Don't show it. Don't
show it. They fucked me up and I had to
get it.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I have to get my bicep tend to reattached anchored
back while I was getting married, so I couldn't do
it then, And then when I wanted to go do
it with something from Fox, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Then.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Then I training camp, so I said, you know what,
fuck it, I'll just go down and get stem cells.
I don't think it's gonna be able to help, and
I went with Mark Kerr, who the Smashing Machine, who
the Rock is making a movie on right now from
Amma Champ.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
We both went down and.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I just figured, Okay, maybe it will help me some pain.
I was supposed to have a surgery next week. Cancel
the surgery. I don't need it.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
I'm good.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
And it says I sent a combat bet down since
I've known him cannot dress himself.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
And he went down there and it regrew the nerve in.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
His ankle and helped his multiple sclerosis help with that,
and he did a tough Mutter race in February.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Holy fu for a guy who could not put.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
His own pants on. So I'll offline. I'll give you
the information.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Man, you're selling me on it.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
So it's a game changer.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I listened before I let you go. Brother, I asked
all my guests this, and you may have answered the
question already. Give me your unbreakable moment, that moment that
should have broken you and didn't. As a result, you
came through the other side of that tunnel stronger forever.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
I think I already kind of talked to him.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I think you did.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
But yeah, the unbreakable moment was, you know, so what
I was up to for about two years straight, and
you know it started years before that. What I was
up to was a half a gallon of vodka day,
about seventy pills a day, mixed with the lower tabs
of Vikingins and xenax, and a half of an eight
(36:23):
ball every two to three days. And I don't know
where I got the money from, because I fucking pond
everything off right. But for some reason, I think I
started drinking beer and I hadn't drinking beer in a while,
and it was just plain liquor and mountain dew vodka
and mountain.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Dew all day.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
And when you haven't drinking beer in a while, it'll
get you fucked up, cooker, I think that's what did it,
you know.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
And then trying to come.
Speaker 5 (36:51):
Out of it with pills because vicodins had the reverse
reaction on me.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
They made me go up, not down.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
A lot of people that make it go down, right,
Take two or three of them in the morning.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Man.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
To get up out of the happiest ship, yep, yes,
and I get happiest ship, and then to come down.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
I get violent as fuck. It's not good.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Well I did with with brown alcohol with it pretty
fucking mean and start fights and ship like that, and
that is no good. I just kind of didn't want that.
I wanted a good drunk, the happy drunk, right. So
the vikings and the vodka really helped. And then the
Xanax in night time. I would take a ship tone
of them, which is just fucking dangerous. Xanax was the
(37:36):
hard hardest thing to come off of.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Deadly.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
You're taking xanax, buddy, that's like it's a recipe for death.
It's it's heavy. But I mean, not everybody has addicted personalities.
Some people can't social drink and drug and be okay
and not pick it up again for two months or whatever.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Not me, I have one. I need twenty, you know today.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
Maybe I could go back and say, hey, I want
to have a beer today, But then the second day
is going to turn into ten, you know, and so
forth right with the pills and everything else, and I'd
be looking for drug dealers. I had doctors everywhere, I
had drug viewers everywhere, and.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
It was just a mess.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
But I think those three days of me not being
able to function and my heart just doing all kinds
of weird things really scared the shit out of me.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
And you know, I really do believe.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
That God, you know, at that waking hour, the witching
hour of two or three o'clock in the morning, said
you have had enough. You got to stop now. And
I had what bearings I had left in my head
to get out there on the hill and make a
phone call and say I'm done, I've had enough, I
(38:49):
want help, And they got me in there. And I'm
sure I believe my parents a lot, and you know,
everybody kind of took a deep breath when I came
out and make me making sure I was on my
right path with the keep stepping thing. And I've talked
to you know, a lot of people over the over
the sixteen years about it, and I think that is
(39:12):
the unbreakable you know that what say, the unbreakable.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Unbreakable moment.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
And now you know, and I was very scared to
talk in front of people. Now I'm like, because I
have a school, I put on these long speeches and
I want to do a tour. Now, I want to
do a tour around the US, a speaking tour about
recovery and addiction and things and telling my story. And
it's in the works, so it's got logistics down and
(39:40):
start doing it. Alex Marvez is helping me write my book,
so get that going and we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Buddy.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Alex helped me a lot early on, man, when the
other reporters just hated my guts and killed me. He
was the one and the first guy in the media
to befriend me, saying, no, you're doing the right way
start relationships.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
We're just not able to but you, you're man. He
helped me a lot, And I want to say this too.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
I want people to understand this, and you could quickly
just back this up for everybody who goes through shit
and they end up going to reapp like you hit
rock bottom.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Which you need to do to go to rehab and
have it completed.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
All people want for you to see you succeed and
be the best. People don't hold it against you what
has happened. People don't say, oh fuck this guy. Everybody
I know who has gone through shit, we come to
the other side. Hey, man, I went through reapp. We
all just we're happy for you. Yeah, right, And I
think a lot of people go, oh my god, I'm
(40:36):
so embarrassed.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
I can't believe people are gonna be so mad at me.
We're not. We just want to see the best for you.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Anybody out there who's listened to this, take it from
the two of us.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
Man, if you're close, this is rock bottom. Go get
help and you'll.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Be amazed by the outpouring of support and love that
you get on the other side.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
I truly believe this. If you are as deep as
like you and I were, impossible to do it yourself.
It's really hard. I really do believe that. Like, when
you are so deep, you can't just quit because it's dangerous.
You can't do it on your own. You always make
excuses and I did, you know, and I tried, but
(41:17):
I was like, uh uh, you know, I don't have
a problem. I'm in control of this. And believe me,
you do have a problem. There is help out there,
and all as it is is a phone call away,
and you're worried about money or whatever.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
This is your life.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
You know.
Speaker 5 (41:31):
Rehab can save your life, but you got to want it.
You have to recognize that you actually have a problem
and you need it. I don't think forcing rehab on
anybody is good. I don't think works. I think they
go back many times. You know, until you actually want it,
until you actually open your fucking eyes if you can
(41:53):
and say I've had enough, like.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
I did, thankfully.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
It's a tough thing to get out of and you
cannot do it alone and there's help out there, and uh,
you know, I just wish the best for people and
hope that they can get better.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
In their own lives.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Brother, I'm proud of you, man, I'm thank you that
you were on the same team.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Dude, I really appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Man, absolutely sure.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Custin Roads, you were a fucking stud.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Thank you, Thank you, brother, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Mustin Roads here on the Unbreakable Podcast
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental Wealth podcast
build you from the inside out. Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable mental Wealth Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
With Jay Glazer.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm Jay Glazer, and man, I got somebody from the
world of wrestling here who is royalty, his family's royalty.
It's been through it a lot, and I love to
have dudes don who are who are bad ass tough
guys who know how to be vulnerable Because anybody questioned
our man ud with that one to bring in a
long time, many times champion several different promotions.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Uh, the one and only Dustin Rhodes. How are you, brother?
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I am great, buddy, Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Man, absolutely man, pleasure to have you on, Dude.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
I love having some of the old school guys on too,
because all of us, like in the old school, right,
we had a certain way of coming across, like we
got to be so fucking tough and man, all this
shit and now everybody's kind of learning to be vulnerable
and it's it's turned and I think guys who are
friends with and.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Are brothers, you know what I mean? Yes, yeah, we
never thought about this back in the day.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
I always say this, you know, without the old school,
there's none of this new school stuff. But you got
to learn it somewhere and you go through it. And
the new kids today, you know, they're like, well what
do you mean. I'm like, brother, we went through hell.
I don't think provide what we went through, you know,
And it's just it was a tough business. But now
they're all playing video games and stand Out of Truck.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Which is way better, no doubt. Yeah, yeah, I mean
there's look I think for us too, like our like
I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I don't have a break about my success and I
break about my pain and my scars.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That's my equity.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
No, And that pain that we all went through back
in the day. I think we got to go through pain.
Whether it's pain so you could be a great wrestler,
I could be a great fighter or football pronouncer or
coach or something like that. Or for pain that we
have to go through, well we could help others get
out of there emotionally, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:54):
I think that's very important man.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
And I see it a lot on X people just
reaching out saying you really have helped me with your
positive messages and things. And I used to not be
like that an asshole on Twitter, you know, and it
just I just I said, you know, why am I
doing this? It's already as sessful. It's a great tool,
it's free, but it's it's it's just bad. So I
(02:17):
just know I'm putting out positive messages and it's actually
helping a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
So you know what was your turning point? Because I
did the same thing three years ago. I was I
was coming out with a book called Unbreakable How I
turned my depression, anxiety and the motivation and you can't too.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
And I saw that that was in the pages of
the book could really help people.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
And I was like, well, funk, I don't want to
wait for the book then I help people, because that's
that's bullshit.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
It's just me doing something, you know, for the money.
I'm not doing that. So I'm going to start using
social media, start coming out with my ship now.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And I was petrified, right because social media is like, yeah,
you don't need to have clinical depression, anxiety and bipolar
and ADHD like I do to go through some shit
because as you said, X is assessed pool and you know,
Instagram and Facebook is highlighted like filtered highlights.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Of your dates.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
How fuck are we supposed to survive that? We all
feel left out? But I went on and I said,
this is really I took my mask off. I'm like,
this is what I really have. The lappy joke, you
guy you see on Ballers and Fox Vil Sunday, and
it's just a mask.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
This is who I really am. And if you feel
the same.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Thing, I hope I can give it words and leave
comments down below. And if you got to see comments
for somebody else struggling, let's.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Lift them up.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And I tell teams this all the time now too,
because people are like, I can't open up. Within two minutes,
there's a guy named Mercedes Lewis who's still playing in
the NFL.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
He said his nineteenth year.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I started training Mercedes and mixed martial arts seventeen years ago.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
And within two minutes he calls me and says, coach,
I saw your post.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I knew you were crazy and that's a badge of
honor in football fighting, but I didn't know when you're
in pain. I'm sorry, Yeah, I got And he has
called me three times a week every week just to
check up with me. What was your tipping point to
say I'm going to now, I mean, I'm I'm going
(04:10):
to do something to just.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Jump in and start helping people with a message on X.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I'm not sure what the tipping point was.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
I just noticed that I was just pretty uh negative
or you know, in between me promoting stuff or whatever,
and then it just you know, it's like it's not
doing any good because everybody has some form of depression.
Everybody's got their downtimes in life, right, everybody has problems.
There's not anybody that's uh that's perfect, and we all
(04:37):
have our issues. And I just thought, you know, my
dad used to say when I came out of rehab,
he would say this. Every day we say are you
working your program? Are you you know? I need you
to keep stepping And he would call me every day
and say that. So that's like my motto. It's more
than just a motto. It's something he gave me and
it helped me kind of see. You know, I'm going
I went through this and survived it, and you know,
(05:00):
this is the message he's given me to keep working
my program and stay clean and sober, and it's worked.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
You have your little circle of people at the AA
for a couple of years solid, and that kept me
from you know, kind of sliding back into the depths
of hell. I like call it. And it just worked,
you know.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
And for rehab people, they usually go in two or
three times, right, or four or five or six A
lot of people do. And it just worked for me.
Of course, that devil's right here on my shoulder, and
all as I have to do it turn around, grab
his hand, go for a walk, and I'm back to
where I was or dead, and I don't want that.
So I just I made this decision to keep myself clean,
(05:42):
you know.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
On this and I'm depressed.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
I'm on antidepressants, and I've been depressed my whole life,
gone through some childhood trauma, some abuse, you know, things
like that, and it just it does affect you as
you grow older. But all those things have taught me
very valuable lessons. All the failures, the falling down and
getting back up, you know, they've taught me valuable blessings
of what not to do and how to remain on
(06:09):
this straight and narrow path that I'm on right now.
And yeah, I fail every day and I fall down
and it sucks, and I revert back to some negative
shit in my life, and you know, it's no good.
But I believe in God and I pray daily. I
just keep working my program. And you know, if I
pray to him and give it to him every single day,
(06:29):
it usually helps my day. So that is something that
I really believe in every single day, is to reach
out to him and talk to him and just try
to stay the course for today. Because it's a daily thing.
It's a minute thing. For some people, it's tough.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
But I'm glad.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
I'm on the other side with sixteen years clean and sober,
and that's amazing to me to say that.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
That's a long fucking time. But you know, and I
lost everything, right, if I can talk about that for
just a second.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Absolutely.
Speaker 5 (07:03):
You know, in the beginning, after the matches and stuff
like that, we drink beer, have fun, drink beer. You know,
it's good to have some cold beer or whatever. And
then that just turned into you know, there's an injury
and start taking painkillers vicodin like you were talking about,
and then pretty soon, you know, my.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
World is a mess. I've gained weight.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
I don't think I have any problems, and I'm sixty
pills in a day on a vodka a day, an
eight ball every three days of cocaine, and it was
just a mess. And I didn't give a shit about anything, anybody, nothing.
I didn't give a shit about life. I tried to
kill myself twice, thank god I did not. They were
(07:41):
very rough sad moments and days. And I think what
did it to me is at divine intervention. I went
on a three day benz Man and it was I
ran out of pills. I got drunk. I used to
drink beer every day. You know, I didn't have money
for alcohol. I lost everything. I lived in a room
about as big as this office. That's how bad my
(08:04):
life had gotten. And my wife had been through a
few years with me of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
And she wasn't an alcoholic or a drug addict.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
But she also kept her distance with saying you need
to go get help, because when people say that, it
has the opposite effect on the attic. Oh no, I
don't need help. I'm going to take more right now
because you said that. And she didn't do that. She
was there and she witnessed a lot of it. And
I think after the third day of me just being
(08:33):
fucked up, I was drunk out of my mind, I
couldn't and I don't get drunk. I wouldn't get drunk.
I drink vodka all day long, take pills, all that stuff.
But I was actually I couldn't walk, and you know
the old thing of well, can't walk, so let me
just drink a couple of drinks and try to level out.
It didn't work. It just kept me like that in
that state for three days. And the third day, you know,
(08:55):
after taking vicodins, xanax, coke, alcohol.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Every thing, I woke up at two in the morning.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
And you know, my dad, he had purchased me a
prepaid cell phone, so I had a phone to call
him or call make a call, but we had no
service where we lived. He had to go out on
top of the hill on the property to get like
one bar on the phone. And at two in the morning,
I just I don't even know if I saw up
that night, but I kind of woke up and came
(09:24):
to my sentence and I looked at my wife and
I said, you know what I'm done.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I need help.
Speaker 5 (09:29):
I'm scared, and it was very close to probably dying,
you know. And I still get emotional about telling my story,
which I'm not giving you the full story right now,
because I know this is a podcast. But she helped
me crawl out, and it was raining. I remember two
or three in the morning, we went up on the hill.
I called my dad. I had one bar. And you know,
(09:52):
my dad has heard it a few times before when
I've called it, asked money, you know, asked for money,
you know, to pay a bill, when really just pawning
everything I.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Owned, just for drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 5 (10:03):
And this was different. I started crying. I said, I
want to get help. And with a WWE. They have
the Great Wellness Program. They have a really good wellness
program and they put you into rehab anybody that's worked there.
So got onto the phone to the people in WWE
and they got me into rehab in two days. And
they were scared to death that I wasn't going to
(10:24):
get on the plane and go to rehabit It was
at West Palm and I lived in High Springs, Florida,
right outside of Gainesville, and I had to go through
Atlanta and then Atlanta back to Fort Lauderdale instead of
driving right, so you know, I decided to.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Fly and I loaded up.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
I loaded up the whole day before and I was
just like, I'm going to get help, going to get help.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
One last day of it.
Speaker 5 (10:45):
Yeah, I did try to talk to my wife and
talk out of it, you know, but she kept no,
you go do this.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Let's let's get it done. You do it. So I
finally got on the plane shit faced.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
It got to the Atlanta airport, had a little delay
or not a delay, a layover, drank More landed in
Fort Lauderdale. I made the driver go to a seven
to eleven and pick up a twelve pack and I.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Just went man.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
So I got in there and I woke up eight
days later. I had eight days of detox and in
the like. After two weeks, I started seeing things for
the first time clear.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
You know, you notice this weird stuff.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
You notice butterflies, you know, flying around or whatever, and
you're like, oh, this is cool.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
It was very different for me.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Right and after the thirty day mark, I said, you
need to stay another thirty I said, no, I'm done.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
I'm done.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
I was scared, scared shitless to leave the place, but
I hated the place it was. I never wanted to
go back there, but it did get me to where
I needed to be to go out and use the
tools that were available with the AA meetings every single night.
They want you to do ninety and ninety's that's a
big deal. Well, I did two years straight. I maybe
missed a handful of days in those two years. And
(11:54):
I had to put that first before my daughter, which
was tough because I was in my daughter's life for
couple of years and that shit broke me down more
than anything, and it still does talking about it. You know,
seeing her on a visitation with somebody there, you know
that's looking over our shoulder, which was really hard. But
you know, and my ex wife would call me, I
(12:16):
need you to pick up Dakota, and I'll be like, no,
I can't. I have an AA meeting. I have to
do this, and you have to understand that this comes first.
I had to So I did that and I got
through that two years and then it became a little easier.
And you know, I haven't gone to an AA meeting
in a long time, but I have my little circle
of people that are there for me that, you know,
(12:37):
if I start to think about stuff through there, don't
do it. I had a sponsor in AA meetings and
I was on a fight with him one day. He
was not sitting next to me, but he was drunk,
so I went I had to, you know, get him
out of my life. I had to stay sponsor really
had like twenty seven years of clean and sober so wow.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
But he took me through the.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
Twelve steps, and I did the twelve steps and I
work them. So at that point I was like, you
know what, I got my wife, I got my daughter,
I got my father.
Speaker 4 (13:11):
That they're my poor group of people I can talk to,
I can.
Speaker 5 (13:15):
You know, my daughter is the number one thing that
keeps me going and sober now and I cannot go
back because to see it did to her and her
mom right now is in a lot of trouble with
that stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Through what happened to her too, So she's been My
daughter's like really strong and scone. That's what it took
for me to get to get out of this.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Like I texted you earlier, I said, I went down
to hell, I kicked the devil and the teeth survived
and came out on the other side. Now I just
have to maintain it. You know, I am depressed. I
do have depression and it hits and sometimes it hits part.
But I work through it and I know that because
I was taught this in rehab and taught this in
(13:57):
AA meetings, that it is okay to have a day. Okay,
not the end of the fucking world. I'm not looking
to kill myself. This depression medicine has helped me almost
to the point of where I'm kind of numb to thing.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
But I would rather be numb to things than you know.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Dispeart and go out to the local bar, because this
time I know it will kill me.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
So I choose not to do it. And I choose
that every single day.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
And I tell you I love then I appreciate you,
you telling this because that is your is your equity.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, and you know, look, I again, I'm clinical depression
and anxiety ADHD, bipolar everything.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
I never know what I'm waking up with every day. It
is a It's hard for me to get out of
bed every day it was.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
And I would say, I'm a dude who's fucked up,
who's learned how to be good with his fucked upness.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Right.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
So earlier this year, I gave a talk to an
NFL team and a player raises his hand.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I tell all my ship and what I've done now.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Also, man, as I I have really done a lot
of work of realizing where these issues have helped me.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
So I weaponize them now.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
Like my anxiety, I fucking suck and calm, but motherfucker,
I'm breating chaos, which will me is great cauld. I
live half my life in a cage and the other
on TV, and it allows me also, like I'll cause
chaos and business meetings because most people can't deal with it.
So I became my superpower. So if I weaponize them,
I'm not ashamed by it anymore. So where are these things?
(15:28):
So I start telling this and this player says, raise
his hand for a fucking one hundred and fifty cats
in there, says, please tell me there's light at the
end of the tunnel.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
I said, what do you mean? And he's and I
won't repeat what he said, but he's he's.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Gone through it big time, and he opens up to
his team about what's going on, says.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Please tell me this light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I said, Well, here's where I can tell you. You
may have saved someone's life in here today by opening
up about your shit. Right same for you, Dustin, just
to hear it is you may save someone like to
by hearing this. Yeah, that's the light at the end
of the tunnel. But I'm fifty four now. I didn't
open up until I was fifty one. Since I've opened up,
(16:11):
I like, I used to live every fucking day in
the gray, and I was a fucking terror out. I
was a savage and I would have rather taken Vike
and I had a roll and shit like that. Said
to go out and get in trouble, yeah, and get canceled.
Then tell anybody I was fucked up. And you know,
I said, Now, because I've opened up, I've learned all
(16:32):
these things. Now, I've learned how to you know, breath
work and meditation and all these different things. And I've
given myself routines now, whether it's coal pluts, I make
sure I have certain work, you know. And I've gotten
older and fifty four, I don't have the same fight
team I used to.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Like, I was in my fight gim for fucking six
hours today.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
It was awesome.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
So we did. I was fine.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
I was at the Island of misfit toys, right, So
were you right? The ww you're wrestling, We're the island
of misfit toys.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
We're good together. But I said, man, I'm fifty four.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Now and for the first time, I'm now married to
someone who I feel like I deserve her love, which
I never felt it. I'm not sabotaging it because when
you feel like you don't, you know, depression makes you
feel like you're not worthy of it.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
You ruin it, and.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
You speed up the process because waiting for it to
end is more painful to it ending, like living in
a question of when the fuck is this.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Lady gonna leave?
Speaker 4 (17:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Right, so we say so, I fuck it up on
purpose and push everybody away. And now, Saibro, I'm fifty four.
I never knew I could feel this kind of joy. Yes, right,
So for guys like you and I who you know
again like and I always tell guys I've trained one
thousand football players and fighters and said, hey, in a
cage or on I feel, motherfucker, You'll never ever ever.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Know if I'm hurt or tired.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Fuck you, You'll never know. I'll be relentless. I break
an arm, you fucking break my back. It doesn't matter.
But that's the same way we acted outside that ring
or cage or feel that gets us to end up
in rehabbit gets us to want to fucking put a
revolver in our mouth, or gets it. You know, it
gets us to be so in the tact. But now
they're able to separate it and go the other way
(18:12):
and be vulnerable with each other.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
You know, you and I never met before, and look
how we're.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Talking like this is never gould have happened ten years ago,
you know, and you start bonding with I said, that's
your equity, bro, And I said, for you to be
able to use your story to help other people, that's
the light at the end of the tunnel. But because
we're opening up now, Dustin, Like, dude, I never knew
I was capable of feeling this kind of joy and
sustaining it without b Yeah right, you know, without an ecstasy,
(18:40):
without something that was gonna help me.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
And it's fucking beautiful. And if I had to wait
fifty four years for it, man, it's worth it.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
So yeah, like when I finally got the courage to
go wrestle again, I was scared that I could born
without some substance, and I found out that I was
just fine, and I was as hell and nothing was
that bad, right, And you said, something good about you know,
our vulnerability, man, is a powerful thing. And I've never
(19:10):
had problems with telling people what's going on with me, right,
I mean, I'm an open book as far as excess
concern everybody my struggles and they can't hold anything over
my head.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
They don't have an power over me anymore. Right.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
I do share a lot, and maybe too much sometimes,
but it has helped. It helps keep me grounded in
control by sharing those that stuff. And there is one
or two people that always say something, you know that, Wow,
this is really powerful, and they'll share it or they'll
message me on the X or whatever, and it's just it's.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
It's pretty powerful.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
So I couldn't see myself keeping that in for that long.
And a lot of people do that. They don't want
you to know that they've been to rehab. They don't
want you that they've had these problems.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
And I'm why, right, And you.
Speaker 5 (20:02):
Can help somebody. And you know, people are different. They
bottle stuff in and they hold things in and just me, I,
you know, this is my new life. I got a
rebirth here.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
So it's like I'm sharing the shit out of it.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Right.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Whether they like it or not, I don't care.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
You're gonna end up helping people go with this being
the service.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I also talk about needing the team, and you talk
about God earlier. So again, my whole life, I was
just lonely and by myself. I just started talking to
God and not asking God, Hey can you get this
job or make me rich?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
But who do you want a best friend in parent?
You just want that person to listen, just be there.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So I alwauld say God, like you're my team. I
talk about having a team, and like people don't have faith.
That's on you, but my judge you, but don't do
to me. It doesn't hurt me to have faith that
I'm never alone. And I would say God, I'm gonna
go after this as hard as I can. Well I
want is when I fail, because I'm gonna fail, pick
me up, brush me off, and let's keep walking this
walk together.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
And that's got me where I am.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And every morning I wake up and I tell God
a loving prayer because it's better for me to wake
up and say I love you to something then wake
up in that filth of the great And I do
it at I too, and I do it a few
times during the day and I have someone to love
and now I have somebody else in my wife, which
it helps.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Absolutely, So growing up in a wrestling family, Yeah, how
fucking different was that?
Speaker 5 (21:22):
It was well when you're when I was little, it
was great, right, But then as you get a little
bit older, it's you know, we go places or whatever,
and Dad's never left alone, you know, and he was
kind of brutal to fans when we're eating dinner and
stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Uh, And it was I saw just what a hard
life it was.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
And you know, my dad didn't want me to break
into the wrestling business. I was very good in football
and I had some scholarship offers, but my grades were
ship all up until I graduated.
Speaker 4 (21:52):
You know, we had coaches coming and he would put
on a.
Speaker 5 (21:54):
Big meal for him and things, and it was just
And I did have a hard to play football, but
I wanted to be a wrestler more and he didn't
want me to be.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
And I think because he divorced my.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Mom at such an early age of five or six
years old, I can't remember that it was a hard
life for him and he didn't want that for me.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
He wanted something better.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
So me and my daughter, my sister Kristen were kind
of neglected in a way, you know. And I love
my father. I loved him to death. We did have
a falling out, you know, but that was we got
back together, but you know, many years before he passed.
But it's it was hard, you know, and his current
(22:40):
wife or his you know, my stepmother, and his two kids,
Cody Eel, they got everything, they got all of him,
you know. And you know, we're sixteen years difference in age,
Cody is and me, and it was it was It's tough,
but it is what it is. I look at it
at you know, the times were different and things happened
(23:03):
for a reason.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
I don't look bad appoint it.
Speaker 5 (23:05):
I don't look at it like, well, why hasn't he
given me the love that he's given Cody Ortil.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
He's my dad. I loved him, and you know he.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Was when we did when I did start the business,
I was around him constantly.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
So it was good to be close to him.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
But then I went into that that downward spiral where
I just didn't give a shit for years, man, and
it nearly killed me, you know, And it was it
was a tough time. But growing up being in his
shadow was tough, and especially when I did break into
the business. A lot of people think Audustin had the easy,
easy road to get into business. It's actually one hundred
(23:41):
percent opposite. He made me work for everything. He sent
me to Florida to his mentor. His mentor was Eddie Graham,
who passed shot himself and his son, Mike Graham, where
he made his name in Florida. Dad did so he
sent me down to Mike Graham and Steve Kerrn to
learn professional wrestling. He sent, he said, me with two
thousand dollars. I lived with my aunt and made twenty
(24:03):
dollars a night for two years, and I loved it.
It was my favorite time in the business when I
first started working every night, learning how to do things,
living my dream, get into trouble, you know, doing stupid
shit that I shouldn't do, but loving the wrestling industry
and having a passion for it because it was in
my blood and soul.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Man and he finally brought me up after a.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Couple of years to the NWA before they turned over
to WCW. And I don't know if you've heard of
Kendall Wyndham. It was Burry Windham brother, and he put
us together for the first time on you know TBS
on TV, A young dustin twenty years old or whatever.
But he made me work for it. He didn't push
me in skyrocket me to the moon. Right there, I
(24:46):
was just having fun listening to the vets because back
then it was different.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
They all could work right.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
And I'm the greenhorn coming in and I just shut
up and listened, and that's what I was told to do,
and they guided me to where I am right that. That
was for many years that I did that. I just
listened and they guided me. But he could have made
me world champion.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
He did not.
Speaker 5 (25:10):
I was on my way to become world champion, but
it took a long time to get there and was very.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
Hard being in his shadow.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
A lot of people think I'm going to follow in
my dad's footsteps and I'm going to.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Fill his shoes. It's possible. Now you can't. I cannot.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
Yeah, you gotta wear your own shoes.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
I had different. I had this. I needed to be
a little different, but I didn't know that until I
went to WWV for the.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
First time and Vince McMahon created this gold Dust character.
That's when I, you know, It was scary because it's
something I'd never done before. I'm just a redneck from Texas, right,
and I played this cowboy character and a good guy,
and he gave me this character that's a bad guy
and a.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Very over the top agynous character.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Right.
Speaker 4 (25:58):
So I didn't know what I was going to do
and took a while to figure it out.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
But once I did and I stepped outside of my
comfort zone, that's when the magic started happening. And I
stepped into my own shoes and did something on my
own as justin Rohase, but as this flamboyant character gold Dust.
So I knew then. I was like, you know what,
I just found my own shoes. Never be my father,
(26:22):
even close to him, but I can do this. But
it was tough being the son of Dusty Roads, who
you know, the rock.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Wrote I called my niece wrote the foward to my books.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
I've heard a bunch of stories from obviously growing up
the business and his uncles and all that.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Who is your favorite uncle growing up?
Speaker 4 (26:42):
My favorite uncle?
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, as far as the other wrestlers of your dad was.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
With Dig Murdock. Dick Murdoch was his partner years ago.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
They became the Texas Outlaws, who I now have trademarked
and put it on my nephews. There are two kids
that are nineteen and eighteen now they're going to the
University of Texas to Texas Outlaws now. But Uncle Dicky Man,
he and he's not my uncle, but he was around me,
you know, my whole life. And it was he really
(27:11):
kind of taught me, you know, and he would get
on to me if you know. Like, there was this
this bar in Chicago we used to frequent and it
was it was a bottle bar. It was after hours bar, right,
and we went there just to drink have fun. But
I went in this little room with some of the
wrestlers where they do some other stuff. And I didn't
do this then, but I came out of there and
he grabbed me by the lapel and threw me in
(27:33):
the car and said, don't you ever fucking go in
that room again. You know, you stay that ship, which
was a bunch of cocaine right right right, which I
didn't do because I was I was young and I
wasn't there yet to do that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I was just drinking beer.
Speaker 5 (27:47):
But you know, it really and my dad always preached
don't do drugs, don't do drugs, and it just had
the opposite effect on me, you know, and I just
I chose to go down the dark path. And I
think that there there's millions of people that do that.
You know, there's not there's clean cut family out there.
Speaker 4 (28:05):
Everybody has their fucking issues, man.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
Everybody has their problems with you know, a lot of
people have their problems.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
With alcohol and drugs.
Speaker 5 (28:13):
So no, I'm not the only one, and there's millions
of people that go through this, and you know, it's
I know, I kind of.
Speaker 4 (28:20):
Get off the track there, but it was like I really.
Speaker 5 (28:23):
Tried at the beginning, you know, I just drank the beer,
had fun with my wrestling, learned and all that stuff.
But Uncle Dicky, he was he was about as close
to me as anybody ever was in the business and
my best friend for a long long time because I
kind of grew up with him in the black Jack
Mulligan all those old timers and you know, Barry, me
(28:43):
and him, we were around each other all the day,
every day, you know, I would I would ride with
him and we just drank beer.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
You know. So it was all good until it just
wasn't what.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Was your best moment from all those thoughts, best experience,
best woman?
Speaker 5 (28:59):
You know, I think my legacy is when I got
clean and sober. I think that that encompasses my whole legacy.
But as far as having the funnest time, I'm having
with aw because I feel this company.
Speaker 4 (29:15):
He loves wrestling, Tony Khan loves wrestling.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
He's a but I know Tony, trust me, he's a bet.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
It's one hundred and ten percent different than the events
mcmon days. This was pretty brutal, and you were walking
on eggshells all the time, worried about your job with Tony.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
He loves me, he is a huge fan of my wrestling.
He's treating me very very good here for the last
five years.
Speaker 5 (29:38):
And my contract is up actually today and hoping that
you know, I can renew the contract or where it
goes right now. And last year I was worried like
crazy for a solid year. Oh God, what's going to
happen in my contract? So worried about what epps right,
And it's like this time, not one fucking day have
I worried about either re.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Signing or not.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
It's like it is what it is, so I'm hoping,
you know, that I get to remain or a door
opens or an avenue opens or whatever.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
But I'm fifty five, so it's but.
Speaker 5 (30:11):
I'm doing the best works the last couple of years.
I'm doing the best work I've done in my career.
I look better than I looked when I started. I'm
in shape for a fifty five year old man. And
I don't know what it is, but it's like when
I got out of rehab, I started going to the gym,
and I never went to the gym. Go to the
gym enough, right, and I go every single day. Now
(30:33):
it's like not every day, but close to it, and
I'm in there.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
And that's kind of my other addiction.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
By you said you don't know what it is, it's
your lighter yees here, Like we're cap We carried all
this heavy shit and now that we've opened up, start
talking and helping, everything's just lighter. A thirty second NFL
training camp. Every camp, I do the same thing. I
get my own set fucking roof. I got, I get
(30:58):
a glazed roof.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
I come in. I'm gonna fucking huddle with these guys.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
I work out with every team. I get IV's with them.
We go out, man, I eat with them. The coaches
will cancel meetings because I'm there so we can go
hang out and shit like that. But this year, because
I just got married in May and I'm just happy
for the first time in my life.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Yeah, I was like I've done. I did the same
exact thing this camp that.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
I did last year, year before, year before, but it
just felt different. And it's just like I just feel
light and airy and like if I have some other shit, like,
we're still gonna have problems, dude, it's Life's about it.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
How the fuck we handle them?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Man, it's just like shit, just we're able to handle
it better instead of sinking all the way down. And
if I do sink all the way down, I used
to I have a supports system now I know to
call like immediately and just unload and bam and pick
myself up. And it's not just my wife, but I
think that's what it is like to I just feel lighter,
and then everybody else could feel it too, you know
(31:55):
what I mean.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
More manageable. Yeah, if you're until it doesn't.
Speaker 5 (32:00):
But then we, like you said, a little support group
and we can get a mess pretty pretty quickly.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Absolutely, And when I'm when I'm fucked up, I'll call
I'll call two to four people and tell them I'm
really fucking struggling. And then I'll call like two to
four people and not tell them and just check up
on them, because like, man, it may not happen one
hundred percent of the time. Ninety percent of the time
they'll be like, oh, I'm good, I'm good. But ten
percent of the time someone call go, oh, man Clays, I'm
(32:26):
so glad you called.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Man, I'm in a bad way right now.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
And then I help them and so lad by being
of service, I don't remember that I'm I'm going to grat.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
Usually when people say I'm good or okay, that means
the opposite. Yeah, I know sometimes right, I had a
lot too, and it's uh, you know, I don't want
to bother anybody that don't want it, but you know,
there's there's I'm a pretty good mentor at work, and
people have problems all the time and I talk to
them and I think I help them. So I mean
(32:55):
I'm doing my part as as far as helping myself
while helping others, you know, passing on whatever knowledge I
have It's tough, man, It's tough what we've been through.
And I've been through fourteen surgeries and it's I can't
believe I'm still walking right to knee replacements. But you know,
I'll go get a cortizone shot or two and I
feel good, and you know, I just know the inevitable
(33:18):
is almost.
Speaker 4 (33:19):
Here, and that's going to be a hard thing to
deal with.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
You know.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
I think I may have two or three years left
that I can go full steam and then.
Speaker 4 (33:27):
What it's like, that's that's something that I'm going to have.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
To really really work on to try to keep vanity
and keep wearing any.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
New routines, new rhythms, new supports. Yeah. Absolutely really. Hey,
by the way, well you should think about what I did.
I went down to Panama. I got stem cell.
Speaker 4 (33:44):
Yeah I was.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
I was a week away from a three level fusion.
Now I don't need it.
Speaker 5 (33:50):
And so the thing about stem cells, man, they go
away just like anything else, right, But the one you're
talking about in Median.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Yeah, well not.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
I go to play some Panama coled origins, but they're
using yeah, so I'm not They're not using my own
fucked up stems.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Also using americal cord, which man, it's it's a game changer, dude.
Speaker 4 (34:12):
Really game changer.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
Like Ray Mysterio, he's he's religious about it. You talked
about it about going down to uh Colombia. Yeah, and
going to a place and a lot of the guys
go to it there for about a week and just
do all kinds of millions of themselves.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
In their body. It's changed my life really.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Yeah. Man. I had Max.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Crosby and Derwin James to my bice attendant super spinas
and rotator cuff first fifteen minutes and train these fools
for a month and again.
Speaker 3 (34:44):
My thing is if you're hurt and tired and that
that ran, you don't show it. Don't show it. Don't
show it. They fucked me up and I had to
get it.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
I have to get my bicep tend to reattached anchored
back while I was getting married, so I couldn't do
it then, And then when I wanted to go do
it with something from Fox, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Then.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Then I training camp, so I said, you know what,
fuck it, I'll just go down and get stem cells.
I don't think it's gonna be able to help, and
I went with Mark Kerr, who the Smashing Machine, who
the Rock is making a movie on right now from
Amma Champ.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
We both went down and.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
I just figured, Okay, maybe it will help me some pain.
I was supposed to have a surgery next week. Cancel
the surgery. I don't need it.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
I'm good.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
And it says I sent a combat bet down since
I've known him cannot dress himself.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
And he went down there and it regrew the nerve in.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
His ankle and helped his multiple sclerosis help with that,
and he did a tough Mutter race in February.
Speaker 4 (35:38):
Holy fu for a guy who could not put.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
His own pants on. So I'll offline. I'll give you
the information.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Man, you're selling me on it.
Speaker 3 (35:45):
So it's a game changer.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I listened before I let you go. Brother, I asked
all my guests this, and you may have answered the
question already. Give me your unbreakable moment, that moment that
should have broken you and didn't. As a result, you
came through the other side of that tunnel stronger forever.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
I think I already kind of talked to him.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
I think you did.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
But yeah, the unbreakable moment was, you know, so what
I was up to for about two years straight, and
you know it started years before that. What I was
up to was a half a gallon of vodka day,
about seventy pills a day, mixed with the lower tabs
of Vikingins and xenax, and a half of an eight
(36:23):
ball every two to three days. And I don't know
where I got the money from, because I fucking pond
everything off right. But for some reason, I think I
started drinking beer and I hadn't drinking beer in a while,
and it was just plain liquor and mountain dew vodka
and mountain.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Dew all day.
Speaker 5 (36:43):
And when you haven't drinking beer in a while, it'll
get you fucked up, cooker, I think that's what did it,
you know.
Speaker 4 (36:49):
And then trying to come.
Speaker 5 (36:51):
Out of it with pills because vicodins had the reverse
reaction on me.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
They made me go up, not down.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 5 (36:59):
A lot of people that make it go down, right,
Take two or three of them in the morning.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Man.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
To get up out of the happiest ship, yep, yes,
and I get happiest ship, and then to come down.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
I get violent as fuck. It's not good.
Speaker 5 (37:13):
Well I did with with brown alcohol with it pretty
fucking mean and start fights and ship like that, and
that is no good. I just kind of didn't want that.
I wanted a good drunk, the happy drunk, right. So
the vikings and the vodka really helped. And then the
Xanax in night time. I would take a ship tone
of them, which is just fucking dangerous. Xanax was the
(37:36):
hard hardest thing to come off of.
Speaker 4 (37:39):
Deadly.
Speaker 5 (37:40):
You're taking xanax, buddy, that's like it's a recipe for death.
It's it's heavy. But I mean, not everybody has addicted personalities.
Some people can't social drink and drug and be okay
and not pick it up again for two months or whatever.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Not me, I have one. I need twenty, you know today.
Speaker 5 (38:00):
Maybe I could go back and say, hey, I want
to have a beer today, But then the second day
is going to turn into ten, you know, and so
forth right with the pills and everything else, and I'd
be looking for drug dealers. I had doctors everywhere, I
had drug viewers everywhere, and.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
It was just a mess.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
But I think those three days of me not being
able to function and my heart just doing all kinds
of weird things really scared the shit out of me.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
And you know, I really do believe.
Speaker 5 (38:27):
That God, you know, at that waking hour, the witching
hour of two or three o'clock in the morning, said
you have had enough. You got to stop now. And
I had what bearings I had left in my head
to get out there on the hill and make a
phone call and say I'm done, I've had enough, I
(38:49):
want help, And they got me in there. And I'm
sure I believe my parents a lot, and you know,
everybody kind of took a deep breath when I came
out and make me making sure I was on my
right path with the keep stepping thing. And I've talked
to you know, a lot of people over the over
the sixteen years about it, and I think that is
(39:12):
the unbreakable you know that what say, the unbreakable.
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Unbreakable moment.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
And now you know, and I was very scared to
talk in front of people. Now I'm like, because I
have a school, I put on these long speeches and
I want to do a tour. Now, I want to
do a tour around the US, a speaking tour about
recovery and addiction and things and telling my story. And
it's in the works, so it's got logistics down and
(39:40):
start doing it. Alex Marvez is helping me write my book,
so get that going and we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Buddy.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Alex helped me a lot early on, man, when the
other reporters just hated my guts and killed me. He
was the one and the first guy in the media
to befriend me, saying, no, you're doing the right way
start relationships.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
We're just not able to but you, you're man. He
helped me a lot, And I want to say this too.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
I want people to understand this, and you could quickly
just back this up for everybody who goes through shit
and they end up going to reapp like you hit
rock bottom.
Speaker 3 (40:12):
Which you need to do to go to rehab and
have it completed.
Speaker 2 (40:15):
All people want for you to see you succeed and
be the best. People don't hold it against you what
has happened. People don't say, oh fuck this guy. Everybody
I know who has gone through shit, we come to
the other side. Hey, man, I went through reapp. We
all just we're happy for you. Yeah, right, And I
think a lot of people go, oh my god, I'm
(40:36):
so embarrassed.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
I can't believe people are gonna be so mad at me.
We're not. We just want to see the best for you.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Anybody out there who's listened to this, take it from
the two of us.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
Man, if you're close, this is rock bottom. Go get
help and you'll.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
Be amazed by the outpouring of support and love that
you get on the other side.
Speaker 5 (40:54):
I truly believe this. If you are as deep as
like you and I were, impossible to do it yourself.
It's really hard. I really do believe that. Like, when
you are so deep, you can't just quit because it's dangerous.
You can't do it on your own. You always make
excuses and I did, you know, and I tried, but
(41:17):
I was like, uh uh, you know, I don't have
a problem. I'm in control of this. And believe me,
you do have a problem. There is help out there,
and all as it is is a phone call away,
and you're worried about money or whatever.
Speaker 4 (41:28):
This is your life.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
You know.
Speaker 5 (41:31):
Rehab can save your life, but you got to want it.
You have to recognize that you actually have a problem
and you need it. I don't think forcing rehab on
anybody is good. I don't think works. I think they
go back many times. You know, until you actually want it,
until you actually open your fucking eyes if you can
(41:53):
and say I've had enough, like.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
I did, thankfully.
Speaker 5 (41:56):
It's a tough thing to get out of and you
cannot do it alone and there's help out there, and uh,
you know, I just wish the best for people and
hope that they can get better.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
In their own lives.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Brother, I'm proud of you, man, I'm thank you that
you were on the same team.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Dude, I really appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
Man, absolutely sure.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Custin Roads, you were a fucking stud.
Speaker 4 (42:14):
Thank you, Thank you, brother, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Mustin Roads here on the Unbreakable Podcast
Host
Jay Glazer
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