In this special episode of The Bobbycast, Bobby goes to Stone Cold Steve Austin's house to interview him! They reminisced about his career, and he shared what he does for fun now. Find out why his archrival was a 14-year-old girl and the weirdest thing someone's called him. Plus, find out wrestlers communicate in the ring, the story behind his favorite picture in his house and more!
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At fifty eight. Last year, I was a Rookie of the Year in the Federation. So I was a Rookie of the Year when I started my wrestling career in nineteen ninety, so I think I was the oldest rookie to ever win that ward.
Episode four to seventy two of the Bobbycast with Stone Cold Steve Austin, which our boss went with us and he never goes anywhere with us because he was like, I gotta go meet Stone Cold, right. Yeah, I was really one of the cooler sit downs that we did. We were with him for We were probably with them for a couple hours. The interviews about an hour long, but after we finished, he just wanted to hang out and talk.
It's almost like he's lonely out there at that ranch and he had people to talk to, so it was us.
I feel like, I don't know if he's low.
I think it's a chosen sure isolation because it's hard to get to his place, and so we landed and we had to drive an hour and it was a whole situation to get there. But yeah, he reminded me a bit of a younger Arkansas Keith, except that would really Whoop Your Butt Great Stories. Stone called Steve Austin was inducted in the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in twenty sixteen. He's been at a bunch of movies, including The Longest Yard, The Expendables, Grown Ups Two. He's had Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge, he has Broken Skull Beer where he has an ipa and a logger that are distributed in thirty five states, and is currently into off road racing professionally. We talk about that. He's an ambassador for Kawasaki. Six time WWF Champion, two times WWF Intercontinental Champion, four time tag team Champion, was a cover athlete of nine wrestling video games. Has the Guinness World Record for most wins at the Roller Rumble, and I could keep going. It's just pages and pages. I mean, he is, if not the most famous, it's one be it's Hulkogan, Stone Cold, the Rock. Yeah, and the Rock has got no I don't think John, and it's not pretty upper tier, but not in that tip tip top.
I mean, look, if my mom knows who Steve Auston is, he's pretty famous.
All right here. He is a stone called Steve Austin. When I saw you drive up in your truck. My curiosity went to what does he listen to in his truck? Like just the human part of Steve Austin. You're driving here or you're driving into town, like, what's on? What are you listening to?
Man? I'm not really listening to anything these days. I'm just kind of going down and really listening to the silence.
You're a silence guy, I really am.
At this point, I don't think any of the radio stations working that pickup truck. I've had to think such as brand new right now. As far as my gym selection goes, I've got everything from country just to meddle. I've been really into a Sepultura, which is old as hell stuff like that. But I'm a big George Straight fan, and lately I just got kind of got turned on to Zach Top. He's kind of come along.
Twenty six, but sounds like he's like fifty five.
I still think his voice is gonna drop a little bit, but that that kid can sure sing.
Yeah.
You know.
God named Joe Nicholl just came through town and me and my wife are gonna go see him. And the concert started at nine and so we got our tickets and then it started getting close from nine o'clock. We're homebodies, so we gave our tickets to some friend of ours. But you know, Joe Nickel, I used to realize to it a whole lot downer in South Texas when we had the broken score. Ranch down there kind of made a little bit of come back. He disappeared for a little bit, had some demons, but got dang. He was on fire for a minute. But I'm just pretty much standard country and country music and just a lot of hard rock.
You mentioned George Strait is that you're from Texas Originally, If you're from Texas, you're kind of forced you to love and then you have that love naturally for George straight because he's such a Texan. Is that why?
I don't know. I was a big Conway fan. Merle Haggard, George Jones, Randy Travis, you know Knot when he came out way back in the day.
So you're a real fan.
Oh yeah, absolutely. Music in your family, Well, my dad played in the country western dance band way back in the day. He sold insurance, but on Fridays and Saturdays they played gigs. My dad sang back up sang a lot of the songs as well, kind of spun them with a lead singer, but he was a lead guitarist. So I grew up with music and just grew up more into old school hip hop stuff and metal. And I wasn't so much a country fan until I got out on the road, and that's when I really turned in the country. So I don't know what turned me on about George Strait, but I guess his talent speaks for itself, and he stood the test of time and he's done everything with such class and grace. You can't help but be a George straight fan, especially if you're from Texas.
If your dad loved music, did that get passed down to you? Did you ever want to do music yourself?
Well? I did. I wanted to sing, hell, I wanted to be a rock and roll star, But I don't have any musical genetics. He's actually my dad, is actually my stepdad, so I didn't inherit any of his talent. I couldn't I can't sing. I tried to play guitar, I didn't practice enough. I switched to bass. I didn't practice enough. So if you don't practice, you're never going to be good at anything. What I seemed to excel at was athletics, so I really I started working out with the seventh graders when I was in fifth grade dinner in Edna, I was over standing on the side of the building and my brother was in their training. He coach says, who's that kid over and my brother, Scott said, that's my little brother, and the coach looked at me. Instead of running me off, he goes, you want lift weights? I said, yes, sir, So I started training and athletics helped me find my way.
Were you a bigger kid?
Yeah?
Were you bigger than your other classmates?
Yeah, somewhat. And you know, like compared to my you know, my brothers and my sister, I'm a little heavier framed, and just for some reason, I had a different structure than them. And we're all pretty much. I have the same mindset and got the same you know, genetics as far as everything goes. But for some reason, hey, maybe it was the waste. But like I said, I started at fifth grade, and it's kind of been a love hating thing that you know, you love to do it, but sometimes you just got to do it, so you hate it. But I've done it my whole life, so I still do it to this day.
Any of my friends that are extremely athletic, especially when they were in high school, they played every position, like I would assume because you have been an athlete your whole life, that they had you running the ball, catching the ball. Is that? Is that true? Especially in high school to play running back, I bet or a quarterback.
Yeah, I was running back and I wasn't fast enough to run east or west.
So I ran north straight south.
And man, I'm lucky that I grew up one hundred miles south of Houston, Texas, because if I'd have grown up in Houston, I'd have been sitting on a bench or playing a lot more linebacker. But being down there in South Texas, you can run a four nine and forty, and if you can run over people, you'll get the job done. So I was, you know, all district enough, good enough of a football player to get a junior college scholarship, and good enough after that to go to the next level to get another scholarship. And then I dropped out of college after my last year of eligibility ran out, and I stopped college at seventeen years. It was seventeen hours to graduate, and god dang it broke my mom and dad's heart. But athletics helped pave the way for me to get into college and get into education or whatever I got of wanted, and get me into the wrestling business.
Now, what age did you tear because you kickoff teams? I was reading like, that's where you like tour in ACLMC at one of those Where were you in your college career when that happened?
That was my junior year, my first year at North Texas State University there in Denton, Texas, running down on a kickoff coverage it to hit my guy I was supposed to block, and man, I went down. I'd never felt anything like what I felt in my left knee and a tour my ACL. But it was a mop in tear where you tear it in the middle and the edges are kind of a frayed and that's why they call it a mop. But they can either repair it or not repair it. Based on the strength of my quads and my hamstrings. They didn't repair that knee, so anyway, subsequently, that's what led to all my knee issues down the road, and I've had the a c L E c L put in there from cadaver ligaments several years ago. And you know, if I'm telling you like it is, and I will, you know, I need a new I need a new left knee here pretty quick.
Would you go back and have that repaired? Now? Would you tell that kid to have it repair to take a year off?
Absolutely? But I wasn't of that mindset, you know. And if you've got two years to play, and I didn't even think about, you know, doing a medical red shirt thing. I re you know. I stayed down for the season and then I rehabbed all during the summer, came back and that was when I was playing linebacker. They switched me to week side defensive end, which is an easier read for me. And you know, started all eleven games and then got on and started driving a forklift.
Now tell me how you think what you think about me when I tell you the story. So I have some tendonitis on my foot here. If them bother me for like what I don't here, we go listen. I respect his opinion. He's been through it all. He's so I have some tend to night. It's on my foot that goes up through here. I have a strained calf. I just did a whole couple of days at the University barks. I'm playing basketball. I have two days this festival have to do. I just requested a wheelchair. Now what do you think about that? Don't gold?
How did it happen? It was just something that's been ongoing.
Yeah, well the ten to night is for like six months. The strained calf has happened through like full court basketball. But I mean like the wheel Like I literally just requested a wheelchair. Would you request a wheelchair for these minor injuries?
Oh? Man, I'd give me a walking stick, but a wheelchair is kind of cool. No, man, I'm I'm gonna use my walking stick. Yeah, I have one that I use every here and there. But man, I, whatever you gotta do, you gotta do. Are you taking any anti inflammatoris are?
Though?
No?
I don't. Uh No, I just thought the wheelchair would do. No. No, I think about the actual things, like the healthy, productive things I could do. I just felt like i'd request a wheelchair to kind of give me out for a couple of days.
You know, every now and then you can get away with it, and you know it makes you it's helping you get to where you need to go. I guess that's a good thing.
Yes, I feel like that's an endorsement for the wilchair.
I love man. I'd probably crawled in on my way to that chair.
What do you do now? That's fulfilling because for us, like I see on social media holding the chicken and stuff, like I see like you doing little things around here, But like what now is exciting to you?
You know? Yeah? I do the chores around here. We live on forty acres. We got horses, chickens, and a couple of dogs, the cats. My wife mainly takes care of all that stuff. Competitively, what I found lately is racing, you know, side by sides, you know, utility vehicles. I've been a brand ambassador for Kawasaki Motorsports is twenty fifteen on the Mule division, the Workhorse brand. And then I was filming the show last year that turned into a bomb. But I got a chance to one of the producers ask me, do you want to do a poker run? And I said, what the fuck is a poker run? Because I don't play cards.
I was about to say it the same question you just yeah.
So a poker run as it h you know, pertains to side by side racing if you're going to run a course and say I just got fish racing this past weekend. Each lap was fifty five miles out in the desert. So on that poker run, basically you're pre running the course that you're going to run the next day and race. So on your GPS you can mark all the dangers, what kind of turns you got, where you might need to check up things, adjustments you need to make while you're driving. Now during that ride where you're marking all your dangers there, you're getting cards as you go. And so at the race driver's meeting the next you know that later that day and we do hey, who wanted to poker in? Who had the worst hand. It's kind of entertainment. But that's how I found racing side by sides, and I been doing it for about a year and a half and I've absolutely fallen in love with it. And it's just so different from anything I've ever done because I've been driving you know, four by four, you know, full whel drive stuff four wheelers done when I lived in Georgia and the mud hunting and side by sides, but just recreationally. And when you start racing something and pushing the machine to its limits and pushing yourself to your limits, which you don't know that you have yet because you've never driven at one hundred percent, it takes a while to learn how to do that. So I equated with when I first started wrestling, I sucked, and when I first started driving these things. I won't say I sucked, but I had a lot to learn. And the biggest mistake you making pro wrestling trying to get is trying to do everything too fast and racing, they'll tell you. And it didn't make sense to me until I ran a few races. In order to you know, to drive fast, you must first learn to drive slow. I mean like when you was born, you started crawling right.
No, I was actually balancing on one foot. I was pretty I came out of the room, amazing, I was.
Told, But you don't come out and just start running.
That's true.
Same thing that's true, same thing with racing, but graduated a little faster.
So I don't understand the side by side. Do you have a partner with you or is it as always the same partner?
Yeah, my co driver is a guy named Shane Kissman. They owned the race team that I raced with when I was filming that show. They got into contact with these people and they ride Kawasaki like I do. And because I won't get any and I won't get into anything else. And so anyway, I did the poker run with those guys and I had so much fun. We were hauling ass out there, and I had so much fun. I said, man, I've got to do some more of this. And somehow, some way out of the blue, Shane called me up and he said, hey, man, do you think you'd really want to start racing side by side? And I said, hell yeah. And so we built a car and I started racing. And that's just by meeting people. And they asked me if I wanted to start, and I couldn't believe it took me this long to find, you know, this sport that I found At fifty eight. Last year, I was the Rookie of the Year in the Federation. So I was a Rookie of the Year when I started my wrestling career in nineteen ninety. So I think I was the oldest fucking rookie to ever win that ward. You know, I'm competing against. You know, there's people my age, but there's also people that are half my age. I'm one of my art rivals last year was a fourteen year old girl. She drive her ass off. So you know, when you're born out there and you get that DNA and you the men him kids are fast. So it's fun, it's competitive. It gives me something to do.
Mister stone Cold, when you said co drivers call you.
Mister stone Cold, that felt weird.
I'm just going to say that I don't respect that, just wanted didn't want to disrespect.
I think mister Austin would be more more human, not mister right. You're right, I don't know why, mister Cold. What's the weirdest thing somebody? Not to interrupt your question, girl, like, what is the weirdest thing people would call? Because I would never call you mister stone called it was in mister Austin.
God nag. Mike Tyson used to always call me Cold Stone like, motherfucker, that's an ice cream shop. My name is stone Cold, Steve Auston and out there to raise his money. I go by Steve Auston. You know, I never you know, if someone calls me stone cold all. Answer to it, mister Stone Colile, damn sure, answer.
To I love it.
Yeah, I've been living my life for a long time as Steve Austin.
Well, I love that you're from South Texasaus. I'm from South Texas. I'm from accall In, Texas and it's way way down there, and you're from ed nine. I think it's awesome that that, you know, when you're in South Texas. And maybe Bobby don't understand this. You think that everything's impossible. Everything on TV is impossible, which you probably got that too from being a small town Arkansas. But in South Texas, any like being a superstar that seemed impossible.
Was that impossible to you?
Man? I look, well, I look at it now, and we were doing shit, sitting in this very same shop doing a biography for biography for a and and I just told those people I'm still Steve, the dude from EDNA. But you know, I never would have figured, and I always wanted to be after my rock and roll dreams got crushed because I can't sing. You know that wrestling was the next thing that I wanted to be, But you just never would figure. You know, some kid from EDNA is going to mount to a hill of beans, especially when I finally got that call up to WWE. If you put all the superstars up against the wall and say, hey man, pick the next big thing off that wall right there. Of all this talent, I'm going to be the last person you're going to select. Had a receding hairline, had a buzz cut when I walked in there. Nobody ever saw anything really for me. So to answer your question, I don't know. I guess it ain't where you're from. It's what you do with. You know what you got, and you got to work your ass off in anything, so and you got to have some luck and some breaks along the way. So I guess I caught some lucks and some breaks. But I never figured that. When I got into the business of wrestling. I just wanted to get in there because it looked cool on TV. I never knew what it could turn to. But had I been born in Los Angeles, I guess maybe the same shit would have happened. But I guess just because you're way down there and a tip of Texas, you just don't figure you know much is going to happen other than hard work. And I always tell people. Man, I'm lucky I found pro wrestling because I was built for manual labor. All I've ever done was haul hay, work on Lee's crews, drive fork lift, load load and unloaded trucks. I'm lucky I found when I found when I found it.
I grew up in rural Arkansas. We hauled a lot of hay. And there were two jobs. There was the person that ran behind the truck and there was a person in the truck that stacked the hay. And I was thin and young, so I was doing a lot of stacking in the truck. You seem to have been genetically a little larger. Were you tossing the hay into the truck?
Man? We swap off, you know, one guy riding that trailer for a little bit and I've got to throw up, throw on and then we just swap out and changed.
I mean, that's that was That job sucked.
God dang man, I don't know. The most ever made Holland hay, and this is a lot of money back in the day was thirty five cents of baill Man. You thought she was really making a ship ton of money When he's making thirty five cents a Bill.
And I'd always have hay like in my throat. Like I would get back at night and I was like a for a cat having a ferbal like the hay, and the taste of hay never left.
One time we was we was out there hollering, Hey, it was hotter in hell in South Texas. You remember them funon onion rings.
Remember am I still getting at the gas station?
Are you still eating them? Yeah? Damn, you need to stop.
Man, that's still the hillbilly Arkansas.
I was eating things for lunch and just bringing ship tons of gatorade. And after a while you're supposed to wait forty five minutes after eating before you swim. Same thing with hall of hay. Damn, I got the worst stomach cache I've ever had in my life. And it didn't end up in a pretty fashion. And I'll leave it at that.
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor, and we're back on the Bobby cast.
Who was somebody who believed in you early. And you look back and you go, I don't really see why they did it, but I'm so appreciative they did because it helped launch me into whatever it is that you feel great about now.
Man, that's a damn tough question. Who believed who believed in me back in the day.
And I can vamp for a second, like, there's a guy that's with us now named Rod who uh when I was doing one single radio show in one single market. He was like, yeah, I really feel like this is bigger than what it is. And I was like, I think this should be like a national just wait before the TVA, before radio. I was like, I want to help you do. He is the first executive that ever flew in and I thought somebody flying in to meet me. I was like, this is unbelievable. Somebody's gonna spend money to come and have dinner with me. And so for me, that was that guy who I still like, I don't know what he saw in me then, but had he not seen it then, I don't think I would be here now.
You know, There's been a few people like that. But now I got to go to probably a really good friend of mine from Oklahoma would been Jim Ross, and he had been announcing all over the South and finally he got the call up to go to New York to work for mistering Man, and he kind of saw me through all the weeds and figured, hey, man, this is a guy we might need to talk to based on what I was doing at that time. So I would say Jim Ross was a strong advocate for me back in the day and turned into a really close personal friend. But I would I would say his support helped me out a whole lot.
Before we started. You'd asked if I get nervous when I do this, and I said, this is actually where I'm most comfortable put in the reps. I've messed up a lot, but I've also realized when I messed up a lot, it's never even that bad. So no really need to get that nervous like I've done the worst and got out. When did you get most nervous? Or when do you get both questions? When when's the most nervous you've been to perform? And then when do you get nervous?
Now? Back in the day, man, when I first started and in Dallas, Texas, and after just a couple of months, they shipped me over to Tennessee, where the bulk of the territory was based. And I'll show I'll never forget showing up to the little town and Dutch Mantel was the booker, and the bookers guy who's making all the storylines and making the matches. I showed up out of no where. I just got finished two months in Dallas, just came off of forklift, drove my little nineteen eighty eight high end Excel down there. And we're in some non descript town in Tennessee and there's a guy that works in a mask and I was going in as a good guy, and Dutch Mantel says, go out there and give us about eight or ten minutes and then whatever the finish was was was to finish. And I'm thinking, as I'm walking to the ring, what the fuck am I going to do for eight or ten minutes? That's a lot of time you do stand up eight or ten minutes. Yeah, that's that's a pretty that's a pretty good good amount of time to fill when you don't know anything. So now, if you told me not now, but back in the day, if you told me eight or ten minutes, you know, when I had, you know, a couple of years in the business, said what the fuck am I going to do with that? I need twenty or thirty So, uh, getting nervous before matches way back in the day, or really before, you have an identity and you don't know who in what you are. You haven't really honed or come up with a character, you know, and you just go out there and try to do an interview and you're you're talking from your throat and not using your diaphragm, and you don't know who or what the fuck you are, and you just trying to talk a bunch of trash like you heard everybody else. And maybe you're you're yelling because you've seen so many people yell. You figure that's the thing to do rather than be kind of silent and articulate like Jake the Snake Roberts Uh talking you know, you don't you don't really know what is it to talk about? Who am I really involved with? So these days I think maybe right before we start a race, I wouldn't even call it nerves anymore. I call it an anticipation, because man, I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with that car. But other than that, I mean, there's not a whole lot to get nervous about.
I have a question about communication with an athlete while you're working with them. In my comparison is I did a dancing show once and I was not good at it, but my partner would talk to me under her breath with her lips close the whole time, and she would say, okay, lets And I imagine when you're working with someone, there's a lot of that communication in the ring. Are you guys talking to each other or what is there a language that you use or is it all just you can do it by feel.
That ventriloquist thing you just said. You know, back in the day when I first started in the wrestling business, the way you know, almost all sports have sped up, the wrestling business has sped up as well. So you know, back in the day, you were talking in a ring like a ventriloquist and calling the match as you go. I mean, you're doing something just to a listit a response, and based on that response that you get from the people, you keep going on and on and on. So yeah, you're talking like a ventroller quist, and people talk about choreographing and setting up matches. I'll never forget the first times yet I worked with, you know, the King Jerry Lawler, who is one of my all time favorites and one of the best, and I was pacing around the ring with him and I had two weeks in the business, and Jerry said, all right, tackle dropped down hit toss.
And I said, like a PETRILLI quest he was saying it, Yeah, yeah.
Tackled down hit toss. And there's about I know a thousand people out there, and I go.
What this is?
Before I admitted to what and he goes running down hit toss? I said what, God, let me called it one more time and then I said, well, fuck, I did a tagle drop down and I didn't know who was supposed to hip tops who and it was a cluster fucking ensued from there, and Jerry Lawler was booking the territory at the time, and I'm sure he was thinking to himself, why you know, why in the fuck did I book this match with this punk kid? Anyway, Yeah, that's how that's how it's done. You've got to communicate. People used to think, oh, they're squeezing each other or they're giving a signal by you know how many times they know that, ain't it?
Yeah, So either you know them in the communication is in a because of so much you've worked together, or you're still in some way communicating talking Oh yeah, yeah, man, I have to extend a match because sometimes I'll be on TV like I did American Idol, and they wouldn't be able to commercial, So for four years they'd be like, stretch, stretch. I'm on freaking national TV and they're telling me to stretch out fifty one seconds, which is an eternity. You ever have to do that last minute where they're like, uh, we just got to.
Call go Oh absolutely, man, you know the end of the match or the finish, just called it go home. And so a lot of times, you know the referee he's want to keeping time and so or he's getting the timekeepe for somebody. And you might think, okay, as you go out to TV, you and your guy have fifteen minutes. All of a sudden, something happens and you have six minutes. So now you have to make a long story or a fifteen minute story, a six minute story, or hey man something the cameras are down. We're't a commercial break, so you've got to adjust there. No matter what they say, you just do it on the fly. And these days, if you watch those cats, they're they're so good they you can talent and the ring has to be able to improvise, adapt and overcome. And so that's what you learn to do. You think on your feet and you just become a jack of all trades, whether it's you know, you just buying time, you know, whatever you got to do to just to make everything work.
That's what you do, mister Steve Austin. Was there a specific time better pay I was working, I was thinking how I'm going to do that? Was there a specific time in your career your life when you realize like, oh wow, I'm getting famous?
Like this is it?
It's happening.
And do you notice it immediately? Because a lot of the artist friends that we have, they're on the road so much, Yeah, that they will not notice it because they're constantly moving.
Interesting. I started in Dallas, and then I went to Tennessee, and then I went to UH. I was living in Nashville, and then I got hired by Dusty Rhodes to work for World Championship Wrestling in Atlanta. Ravishing Rick rud had just come into Atlanta and we hooked up almost immediately and became very good friends. So I would travel with Ravishing Rick Rud. Rude had just come off as run with w NWWF and everybody who watched wrestling knew who that guy was.
Dance like him. I would watch him. I like him. So I'll be like eight, and now I'll be doing this.
We will go down road, stop at a Denny's, a Cracker Bear or whatever our usual stops, and everybody knew who he was, and maybe about maybe one out of every fifteen that knew him knew who I was. And so when you're sitting there in somebody's shadow, and it's a competitive industry, and you said, god damn, you know what does it take to get some recognition? So it's a it's an interesting thing to deal with. I forgot the question you asked.
When did you notice?
Oh so, okay, so when I I love about being famous, but when I started noticing that people were starting to finally gravitate towards me. Where I started off in Dallas, I'm just a punk. I went to u USWA where Dutch Mantel gave me the stunning Steve Boston name. He gave me the Steve Boston name, and I was starting to gain traction. And then when I went to w CW, you know as stunning Steve that that was okay. But when I went to when I went to WWF, and I became stone cold, and we were in Chicago, and man, it was a tag mash and I can't even remember who I was tagging with or against. For some reason, Chicago has always been a stronghold for me, and every time I got in that damn ring and people would come alive. And that was when I really got a sense of, hey man, I'm gaining traction. People know who and what I am and they're starting to get with me. So that's when I on an internal sense. As far as the business, I never really after not getting recognized by people traveling with Rick Rude, didn't pay any attention to.
That you mentioned before we came on. You didn't have the gift a gap. I think your podcast is great. I think you seem like a natural at it. Do you feel like you were a natural when you started because you're compelling when you speak, You say things that make me want to listen. What have you learned while interviewing other people and how do you feel like you've developed as a question asker well Man.
I stopped podcasting in twenty two when COVID hit. I kind of had some disagreements with the people that I was doing the podcast with. And man, I'm a real easy guy to to I'm a zero maintenance. Let me do my thing and I'm good. But anyway, so we stopped doing that. But when I first started doing the podcast, podcast one gave me a call or my agent and they wanted to know if I want to do a podcast. And I was already thinking about it, but I didn't know how to get in on the technology level, and I said, well shit, yeah. So we had a meeting and I started. And so at the time, you know, they were I started, you know, using a little recording all got over there and going out and just two microphones, doing my own thing. But the first time when I started, it was in a glass building. All the walls were glass. You can see everybody and all the other cubicles. And here I am, boy, this is stone cold Steve Boston. He's starting a podcast. Fucking guy can talk and he's just going to be a natural. I didn't make any notes, I didn't research nothing, I didn't do shit. I started talking. Hey, welcome to Steve Austin Show. Blah blah blah. Hit the wall in eight minutes, and all the producers in the room, and again, because there's pressure, right, all these producers and all this guy's gonna be a fucking natural. I hit the wall in eight minutes, and boy, I took my tail and went home and realized that, boy, you better get your shit together if you're going to start doing a podcast. And that's when I started researching and doing whatever I had to do to get the job done. And I was rougher. I was rougher and shit in the beginning. As you know, you know you step on people, Yeah, you step on people, or you just you talk too much. You know, you're there to talk to your guests. You know, let your fucking guests talk. And now don't try to get all your shit in. People don't seeing all your stuff. We're here to talk about them. So it was I don't do it anymore. I you know, I've actually thought about starting a small show up again, just maybe a thirty minute version of the things that go on here around the ranch and with my racing career. But I sucked at it, to tell you the truth, and I figured I got a little bit of a speech impediment. I'm not the most seamless flowing talker. You know, I'll stutter and make my way around words, but that's the way I've always talked, So it worked okay for me.
I was watching some clips of the podcast. I mean, they're still up and it again. Tom Rady wasn't good his first game a couple of weeks ago. He came back week two was much better. Like a guy that went in. You could tell. The reason why he was great at what he did is because he took the notes of him not being so great week one and came back. It was super strong week two. And so I watched like two or three of your old podcasts that are up now, and I was like, God, dang, like you could have done this. But it's funny to hear you talk about how you weren't good at the beginning and then you dedicated yourself to being better. Did a lot of that translate into how you wrestled as well? Would you go back and go out maybe that match wasn't good early and go this is what I could have done better? Or was it all just you had to get in the ring to do it.
Yeah, you got to get in the ring to do it. We used to One of the guys that used to travel with is one of my closest friends, Diamond Dallas Page. He was ahead of his time as far as taking care of his body, and he videotaped all his matches, and I'd be over doing color commentary, you know, while who's in the ring working and the Sure enough we'd get to some ship box motel and we'd hook the VCR thing up to the TV so we could watch his match and say, Man, no, don't do this right here, do this then, or do it like this, So we start critiquing all of his matches, so the same thing. Man, it's reps in anything, just like with racing east side by side, just reps. You got to do anything or whatever whatever it is you're trying to do, you got to do it over and over and over again to get to make improvements.
And you know that are you feeling Are you feeling fulfilled in your competitive spirit by racing now from what you were getting from football and then professional wrestling, like, is it the same feeling of fulfillment?
I would compare it more to football rather than wrestling, just because in wrestling you're in front of such massive crowds. Which meant I've been in front of crowds of twenty five people, you know, and shit hurts a lot more with it. Ain't nobody there high A drilling ain't near as eye. Just give me a good swift kick in the ass before I hit the damn door and make my entrance. Uh Many, A drilling factor is a whole different thing, because man, when that glass broke, when they wrote that music for me, they couldn't have wrote a better piece of music for Stonecold Steve Boston. When that glass breaks, you could be dragged out for being on the road because we used to live on the road like all that. A lot of the artists you talk to. It's a way of life, and shit happens, and sometimes you're down. And when that glass breaks and that crowd goes through the roof, it's and adrenalinst spike that may if you've never felt it, There's no way I could put it into words to explain it to you enough. But this racing thing is more like football because of just I just want to compete, that's something, and I want to win, and god damn it, I ain't gonna win all the time. Hell I broke down We had a race a couple of weeks ago. It was a five hundred and fifty five mile race, and I broke down at mile mark or one hundred and had to pull out of the race. And that sucked ass because I was on about a four four race winning streak in my federation that I run in. And so it's nice when you experience those highs and you know, it's like anybody can learn how to win. It's those losses that kicking ass and kind of ground you and say, Okay, the lows come with the highs, and the highs go with the low. So racing is it? Really? It gives me a lot of satisfaction, a lot of fulfillment. And I never knew this, but last year when I started racing, we're running basically on just rough ass, you know roads out here in the desert, on a two track road, and we'd be going straight down the road and there's rocks and turns and it's reference hell out there, and hell I just veer off the fucking road and end up in the sagebrush. Well, my co driver's been racing this whole life, and he's called Calm Cooling elected and I'd gather my ship back together and get on the road and say, hey, man, sorry about that. We're wired for sounds so we can talk to each other. And what had happened was I was thinking, hey man, what the fuck what am I drinking tonight? I'm gonna have a beer? Am I gonna drink whiskey or whatever? As soon as my mind left the task at hand, which is navigating, you know, through that desert. And it happened about three or four times that first season, and racing has taught me to be laser focused, because as soon as you take your mind off what you're doing, you will fuck up. And that that's one of the things I enjoy about it as well, Like the world can be in a pile of shit right now, but if I'm in that race, bug in a race, it can wait because I'm dealing with what I got to deal with and try to get across that finish line before the other guys. Do you have a drink wine? Oh? Yeah, I love wine.
People were like, why are you drinking wine? Your stone cold, Steve Bosta, You should only drink beer.
Yeah, yeah, I'm a well rounded drinker.
I would just be like answer, sharing a are you sure, mister Austin, But I've.
Been around for so long. Now I'll make a post on Instagram. Oh man, you better want you live. You've been drinking like motherfucker. I take care of myself. I ran hard when I was in the wrestling game. I ran hard and I ran fast. It's just the way I lived. I won't speak about anybody else, but you know, uh yeah, I love wine. I love my beer. I've been in a beer business with Elsie gun Know brun coming he since twenty fifteen, and I love a good bourbon.
Yeah, I just fire a waiter. Are you sure they bring a beer anyway? Looking at that?
Wine is good, man, Wine is good after a race when you add a couple of beers and this is that that that final drink for you. Hit the hey Ema with.
Rember.
That was the thing when it first came out. Oh yeah, they're still around. I don't know. I hope not.
I'm just kidding you were You were in a few movies with Adam Sandler.
What was what was he like? I always tell people as a night guy, I ever met in Hollywood, and I didn't do Hollywood. I lived in you know, in uh Marina del Rey in the Venice area. So I didn't go to parties, I didn't go to the Hollywood Hills. I didn't do none of that shit. I just wasn't my scene. I was an athlete. We were talking early before we started rolling cameras, and we start talking about the artistry of some of the guys that you've interviewed. But man, those those actors are a little different, you know. And I don't mean a bad way. I just mean they're different than an athlete. They're wired different and or I'm wired differently than they are. Adam Sandler was the funniest, nicest guy I've ever worked with, and I've enjoyed each time I've gotten to work with him. He's a super guy, a sweetheart.
I'm not going to mention any names. I don't expect you to either, But there are times in my career profession I have to work with people I don't enjoy working with. It's just part of what we do. But you gotta fake it, you know. I feel, especially if it's like a boss'll be like, I need you to have this person on the show. He doesn't often do that, but I'm like, I don't really like them. But I'm gonna bring them in, I'm gonna work with them. We're gonna make it work for me. That's difficult, but I can fake it. What is it like happen to be do a job so intimate and you just don't like the person you're working with and you're wrestling with them.
Those were so few and far between. I always got along with pretty much everybody and I and you could go talk to anybody that's ever worked with me, and maybe they might have a different opinion. But I've seen some guys that were outstanding workers, but they were kind of at odds with each other, and when they got in the ring, it didn't click because there was some animosity.
But I was.
I meant, for some reason, I've always gotten along with just about it, damn near everybody I've ever worked with. Now there's some guys whose style is so different and that you knew it was going to be a difficult task, you.
Still liked them as humans? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they were stylistically so different.
Yeah, but yeah, and there was there was, There was very few people that I disliked.
Who in your career And I tell you why. I asked I remember and if I'm wrong on the facts. Please correct me. I remember w CW you were still Stunning Steve. And when I was really young, I loved Ricky the Dragon Steamboat.
Awesome.
I hear he was a really great guy too. Never never met him, and he was maybe the US champion. He had the belt, but he his backer I don't know if it was real or not, and he had to give you the belt, and and so he was I can't wrestle, so you got the belts as Stunning Steve. And I remember thinking, man, that would be so cool to be in the ring with Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. Aside from whatever the storyline there was then, who were those guys? And one could have been Ricky Steamboat? Who are those guys? When you came up and the first time you got to actually professionally be a peer that you were like, this is freaking awesome.
Well, I was wrestling with Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and I think I was in the turnbuckle. He was on the second rope and he was punching me, and I pushed him off and he landed on his back. I believe that's that that was one. That was how he got one of his bad back injuries and Ricky the Dragon Steamboat was awesome, probably one of the best ever for sure. Uh what was the question, like, who did you get to work with me?
Like this is you were young, but you're like, this is sick. I get to be in the ring with this person.
I looked up to, well, Rick Flair because people kind of saw me as maybe being the next Rick Flair because I was modeling this four I had my neck injury down to WCW. You know, I was kind of modeling my style after Rick because to me, he had the ultimate pro wrestling style. And I'll never forget. We were at a TV tape and down there South Carolina or somewhere like that, and it was me, Rick and somebody against three other guys, and I'm thinking, man, I'm gonna show this motherfucker what's up. And all of a sudden Rick tags in and I see him go go to work. Of course, I'm a lifelong fan. And when you're standing on an apron and you're watching the guy, and that was at eighteen by eighteen ring and WCW, but all of a sudden, when you're watching the man do his thing, You're like, fuck this, I got a long way to go, but it was all to be in a ring with him, because it was like a head's up called like, okay man, this is kind of you need to step up your game a whole lot more than you thought you did. And I would never say that I ever reached Rick Flair status in the ring at all, because I consider him the goat. But working with a guy like that, Hey Morgan, with Ravishing, Rick Rude, but working with any of those guys that had any any any names was always fun to me. But also, yeah, I really didn't look at it like that way. After a few years in the business, or even after a few months in the business, you're just saying, okay man, these guys are just just like me. It might be more well known, but there's really it's not a big deal.
Yeah. The first time I met Garth Brooks, I was like, holy crap, this is the craziest thing ever. And Eddie and I then went and open for Garth Brooks and Football Stadium once and I still see him go, holy crap, business, Garth Brooks. So I guess you're just way better at your job than we are at ours because we never got normal.
Well, we did hey quit Garth Brooks story. We was at the I love it was a CMA, the CMTS, the MTV Awards, I know what the fuck it was. But I was given out award. They called down there to the office, said hey, we would like Stone CoA Steve Auston to give Garth Brooks the Entertainer of the Year. Whatever it was. I gave it to him, and I was so in character. I'm thinking, well, you know, I ain't dressed up like these people because I'm stone Coach Steve Austin. And then I showed up an event. At the event, I had my black high tech boots on that I used to you know, stomp mud holes in. I had blue jeans on in a vest, my stone Cold best and that's that's what I wore, no shirt underneath. And I walked out there and you know, gave him the award. It's a pretty cool thing, but I was so wrapped up in being stone Cold Steve Austin and Garth Brooks had been on fire, and of course, you know, it was fun to listen to all of his music and it was cool to give him that award back then, but I was I was going to be stone cold about it.
The Bobby Cast will be right back. This is the Bobby Cast Final three questions.
What is your favorite picture in your house right now? It's just a personal picture, but it's in the living room and it really gives you just a fond memory of something special.
Well, my daughter had a good flies hanging around here. My daughter had a picture painted of my dog, Hershey. She has this wonderful artist friend of hers. It's in my closet on the left hand side. And me and Hershey. She was a chocolate lab and we were just I bought that dog off my hunting partner in South Texas. I met that dog when she was six months old. Next year I went down there, she was a year old, and I'd recruited my wife. That's what I was working on. I was dating my wife. I'd rented a Class C camper down there and was staying out there. And you know christ and my wife, she's vegetarian at first vegetarian I ever met my life on how they lived. Anyway, she met Hershey and I told her about this dog, and so while I was out hunting, she would text me. She goes eighty nine to five feet. Hershey's some chicken or what. I said, no'll go ahead. So anyway, we were sitting at the airport fixing the fly back to LA from South Texas at there in San Antonio Airport, and we were sitting there drinking bloody Mary, and I told my wife, I said, man, we can't leave that fucking dog buying. I said, we got to buy it. And I called my buddy Trey, who's a car salesman, and he got top dollar off that fucking dog, and I drove down there. I flew down there, and I was gonna get a rental car, and I'm a very frugal person, so I was gonna get a one way car, and it was gonna get to be a money Carlo because I was the best deal I could find. And of course, you know, they didn't have any Mony Carlos, so they upgraded me to Lincoln Cott mital and so me and Hershey, after I flew down there, got to ride down to the ranch, paid my buddy for the dog, and me and Hershey rode in a Lincoln Continental all the way back to Los Angeles. And that picture of Hershey in my closet is one of the favorites, one of my most favorites in the house.
Awesome.
Are you still going hard in the gym?
Yes? Yes, I trained this morning. I you know, I completely changed my workout. It's more for like a racing type workout. But man, I'll do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I do a full body workout. I pick one exercise per body part and I'll make four to six circuits. Those first two or warm ups, they each get heavier, and I'm always in the first twenty reps fifteen and then tens and then to failure. But yeah, I can. If you want to go right now, I'll show you what you Oh no, no, no, we.
Don't got it. We go be a welchair. I gotta be in a wheelchair. For the wheelchair, I'd be like, let's go.
No, you know, I'm out there and compete with all these damned kids out there. Now we're just driving race cars, I mean side by sides. But man, I'll sit in my sauna. I'll do my thirty minute cardio every morning. I'll stretch. I do mobility things. When you're young and you're going through all the stuff, people say mobility, Like the fuck is that stretching? Together? These days, I thought I get it. Yeah, mobility, what about that cold puns you do? Cold cold punch? I got the other thing over, Yeah, I did my first post. Man. I didn't know you was supposed to just jump in there, and I just kind of started immersing myself in there slowly.
And that ain't what's up, because the nuts are when you go you get I mean that's honestly, because yeah, just.
Just just drop down, dunk your head and just sit there and then start your breathing routine. That's the best way to do.
It, because it's hard to acclimate your for me, maybe not for you. It's hard to acclimate you're junking it because that's when you start to go. I can't go any further.
That's why I just got to jump in.
No, I hear you. I don't do it. I don't do that. The final question, what are you most proud of? And I want a professionally and a personal answer.
And on a professional level, I don't know. I guess being able to succeed in the business, which, like I said, if you put me on the lineup, you would never pick me to be worth the hill of beans. So professionally and in the world of professional wrestling on a personal life. On a personal level, you know, it took me a while to find my wife, but me and my wife have been together now for twenty years and I think we got married in nine and just on a personal level, man, my wife makes me so much better than I am and she you know, i'd been married three times before and never wanted to get married again. And I found my wife and she had never been married, so of course she wanted to get married. And I was almost like, well, this is crossroads because I don't really want to go there, And then I'm glad I did because my wife is a former special education teacher and her students love her. Anytime we're back in La, if we're like a home depot or the grocery store in one of her kids recognize her. They just they just love her. So I think the fact that she's such a great communicator, I mean, for one of the things that takes to be a special education teacher, amongst many other qualities. But I'm very proud of my relationship with my wife. That took me a long time to find her. She's my soulmate and we'll be together until it's over.
Thank you for being so generous with your time. We're massive fans, and I know it's been super cool for me. Oh this wasn't totally annoying for you. And I'm going to edit you saying I should be in a wheelchair because that we have that ability now to be like, yeah, I would be in a wheelchair and know I'm stone cold. That's what it's gonna say when I'm doing here. So as long as you call with that, we're good.
Man. I was sorry to hear you guys have travel problems coming in here because the fog.
We made it though, we made hitchhiked.
And then I think my publicist said something to amen, Steve's the time fanatic, don't don't be late.
I'm also a time fanatic. And I literally said to my guys, we're here, but we're canceling because I will not show up and be disrespectful.
He'd rather cancel them rather be canceled.
Yeah, yeah, then then show up and be like, hey, we disrespected you by making you wait on us. So that was what I told him. We're canceling because and now that was our side of it. What would you have thought if we were you know, I would have matter.
If you cancel it, because already set up side part of my day for you. And so just because you got late, dudes to factors which were beyond your control. When when that guy's flying that jet, you back there as a passenger and they say, hey, man, we can't land. I don't think I don't expect you to go strong on that pilot and say hey, motherfucker, get out of here. And then you commissed the landing the airplane. So I might have done that. Yeah, that's right, So I can understand. I understand that. But I remember when we used to live in La. You know, of course, my wife is from LA and she knows that city. I don't know how she does it. As soon as we moved in this town, she knew this table like about of her hand. I'm still struggling. There's only ten thousand motherfuckers that live here, so anywhere on the streets of La. I used to this is way back before the technology days of the iPhone. I had a garment on my windshield and then I'd be going to a meeting, I said, goddamn, I call my wife, Kristen, I said, garments telling me to hang a right on this street said no, no, no, go do this. She'd give me the back route. But anyway, a lot of times I'd go to a meeting and she goes, well, your meetings at nine am tomorrow. What time you leaving? Eh seven? And she goes, it's only two miles away, sud You're going to be there way too early, And I said, I don't care. I'll sit on the side of the fucking road and send emails or do something to kill time. But I will not walk into a meeting late. So that's kind of one of my things. I've always been. Even going to the buildings, we're always supposed to be back in the wrestling days, you're always supposed to be there at least an hour before. So they got something, you know, they know what they're working with. The cards subject to change, right, But I was a guy, especially when I got a chance to start main eventing, but I was always the first guy to the building and then later on the last guy leaving the building.
I think successful people that do the big things right have to do the little things right in order to even have a chance to do the big things. And the little things are showing up on time, having a good attitude, being respectful, and so thank you very much for allowing us to because I told the pilot you land this thing right now, or I'll do it for you. I didn't, he didn't. It didn't work.
So was that from your the seat of your wheelchair.
Hi, we're done. Thank you, thank
You, thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production