Transcript
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What it is. Welcome to Planet Tyrus. I'm Tyrus and this is my planet. Today's guest is a very special guest, somebody who is close to my heart, somebody who mirrors a lot of the beliefs and things that I believe in and actually mirrors me a lot. Some would say that, that he is an extension of myself is. Well, basically he is me, myself. And I. I'm going to interview myself today. I'm going to talk about Tyrus today. More actually. Let's, let's just full disclosure, let's just get weird. I'm going to talk to George T. Murdoch today. A lot of people when you hear that name, you'll be like, whom is that? That is me. That is my government name is George T. Murdoch. And before that it was George T. Clements Jr. And I guess the best way to get into that is what's all the name changes. I guess that would be the first thing that people want to know why I've changed my name so much. A lot of it has to do with roots and by that not having any in terms of long term family connections. So a name often is an extension of your family tree of your family history, of what makes you great. Like I am, you know, back in the day when there was knights and shit and they would come up and I am George, son of George, the owner of, of the mountain over the top, you know, and you have all these long things. I think Game of Thrones had the, had the thing where like she was like, I'm the Targaryen princess of this and I'm of this and I'm the dragon slayer and those who roll the mountains and I own this, that, whatever. And then he's like, yeah, I'm Jon Snow. So in a lot of ways I'm Jon Snow. Actually, even less than that. I'm Tyrus. I just cut it down. So there's. How do I get to the beginning? So let's get the beginning. So I was born in New Hampshire in a small hospital in New Hampshire. And a lot of people will be like, wait, you say you're from Lynn. Boston, originally. Massachusetts. This is true. So for those of you who read my first book, Just Tyrus, I talked about it, that I was born in New Hampshire because I had to be born in New Hampshire. In Boston at the time, Massachusetts, there was a statutory rape law and my parents were both underage, but my biological father was 19 and my mother had just turned 16 right before I was going to be born. So she was 15 when she was given the gift, that is me. So in the state of Massachusetts, what they would do is they would wait till you're in the hospital and when you had a baby, that is the first name of the baby is evidence. So then you have a 19 year old with a baby, with a 15 year old. That 19 year old, his ass is going to jail. And so not to mention the fact that it also was not a very popular thing at the time for a black man and an underage white woman to be having a child together. So my biological father's family apparently knew the law very well. And spoiler alert, they were not lawyers. So they found for, through a friend or whatever that this kid, they could get married in New Hampshire and have me in New Hampshire and no criminal charges would be pressed upon my, my biological father. Which is hilarious because they were just prolonging the inevitable because he spent the rest of his life in and out of jail. So they might have been doing him a favor if he got carted off in the hospital. But I digress. So they moved my mother, who at that time was a runaway, she ran away from home to be with my biological father. And at barely 16 years old, maybe without me in her belly, she was probably 90 pounds soaking wet. So she is carrying this small monster with the same shoulders that I have now and went through excruciating labor. And at one point I got stuck. And they had to now in this day, and I don't know how they do it nowadays, but back then when there was any, I guess blockage. Is that the right word? We'll just say stuck either. Both sounds. Try not to visually imagine it. But having said that, you're now doing that. But I'm stuck. My. My shoulders are too big, my head's too big. So they basically take salad prongs, forceps, and they put them on the baby's head and they pull him, pull his ass out. So when they did it to me, they got me on the eye and they pushed so hard and pulled so hard that when they pulled me out, I was born with a black eye. So. So I literally came in the world and I got punched off jump. Like I walked in the world. It was going to be uphill battle. And I had a black eye and these tremendous traps and I was bigger than my mother when she held me, I was, I believe I was like 10 pounds 10 ounces and I was around 24 inches. I was a big healthy boy with a shiner. And the nurses were trying to convince my mother to name me Hercules because of my shoulders and the black eye. And then I was a fighter, so my name almost was Hercules. But they decided that I was a junior, so I was going to be George T. Clements, Jr. So that's what. What I was named and stayed in New Hampshire, I think, just long enough for it to look like. I don't think we established residency. That part is kind of fuzzy. I don't remember much at that point. There wasn't a lot of stories told. But at some point, the relationship with my biological parents went south. My biological father was drug addict. He was physically abusive. Again, if you read my first book, Just Tyrus, I talk about how much my mother put up with. And as a child, you don't understand it as much when the moments happen. It's when the moment happens, when the abuse happens, when your heart is beating fast or when you're trying not to wet yourself because you're hiding under a bed, because you hear your drunk dad screaming at your mom, and you don't understand. You think when it's over, it's over. As an adult man, looking back, you realize that the abuse is always there. There's just. There's quiet periods. But the person who's being abused, they're never comfortable because they realize that at any time it could happen again. So they're always walking on eggshells. And that's why I give my mother so much credit for staying in that situation, trying to protect her children. She ended up having my brother, so she had two boys with. We'll just say, not a nice dude. We'll just be polite. And it was a very difficult childhood. And my mother was a child as well, so we were kind of growing up together. And the abuse continued to grow and get worse and worse. And then eventually, something that became a big part of my life was television. Television shows now, and in Generation X, they called us, was it latchkey kids, where we'd come home with a key and we'd unlock ourselves from school because mom would be at work and we'd watch our TV shows and we'd go outside and play. And then when mom would come home, we'd have dinner and shower and go to bed and repeat. So we're very independent. So I would watch TV with my mom during the day. She wasn't allowed to leave the house. Because this is a hilarious thing, is when someone is a cheater and abuser, they always project, right? They. They think the people that they torture think like them. So when they leave the house, what do they do? When they leave the house and they're like they're looking for their next victim or side piece or whatever the hell it is that they're, they're doing. So they think in that mindset of what, that's what the other person's doing and the other person is terrified to do anything to upset them. So she wasn't allowed to leave the house to the point where he had put locks on the other side of the door. And again, we stayed in an apartment in a poor neighborhood. So it wasn't like there was anybody who was going to say anything. And so my mother was locked in and that's isolated. So scared to make friends, scared to talk to people, rightfully so. And my father wasn't a giant man like me. He was, I think he was like around six two. But to a five foot five, ninety pound white woman, that's as big as a monster you get. And again, we know up until recently that men are physically stronger. It wasn't until the last four years that all of a sudden there was this conundrum of questioning of whether men and women were, should play sports together. And the answer is no. And I know we're going to beep this. The answer is no. For, for reasons just like this and as we're growing together. The abuse was always aimed at my mom. So I think for her, as long as it wasn't happened to the kids, the women stay or she stayed. And then there was one fateful night. I was watching a movie with my mom. I think it might, I'm trying to remember if it was the, might have been the Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin. But there was some action movie that was happening and the bad guy was stalking and I think he was about to kill somebody and somebody came up behind him and they stabbed him in the back with a knife and he immediately died. You know, he did the dramatic, you know, this is back when everyone on the TV show was a great actor. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't like it is today. So he gets stabbed and he does the thing and he dies. And I thought to myself, the next time that my biological father hits my mom, I'm going to do that and that'll put a stop to all this. And so, and I didn't have to wait long. It was one of those situations that you knew was doomed from dump. My, my biological father was very into his appearance. It was very important to him. You know, he thought he was a very attractive man and he would tell anyone who would listen to him and because he was. He wasn't as light as me. He was darker, but he had reddish hair and he had my colored eyes. So he was a dark brother, but he had the blue eyes. So he was. In his mind, he was pretty. And he would talk about, like, he would do impersonations of Muhammad Ali and talking about how pretty he was and whatnot. And he wanted his hair braided. And he's asking a young white woman who grew up in a white neighborhood to braid his hair. Yeah, that's gonna go well. And I think she tugged too hard or did something wrong, and he turned around and he began to hit her. And I just had enough. And usually most of the time, the abuse. I had a safe place in my bedroom as I slept under my bed. I was always under my bed because at least when he would come in to look for me, if he didn't see me, he would leave. And because he was usually drunk or high, he didn't, you know, he'd look and react and then find something else to go on. So we always. Usually me and my brother, we slept under a bed. But he. He took it too far, and he was hitting her. And I ran in the kitchen and I got a steak knife and I ran up behind him and I went to stab him in the back, but actually I hit him in the ass. And I did not get the effect that I thought I was going to get. He did not just crumble on the floor. He was furiously, monstrously pissed off, turned around. He backhanded me when that's. I got one from the doctors being born, and I got one from my father. He banged up my orbital socket pretty good. And in that moment, he decided that I couldn't be his child because I betrayed him like that. And so he then decided that he was going to throw me out of the window of the apartment. My mother obviously talked him out of it and, you know, told him whatever he wanted to hear or whatever. And it was at that moment that my life changed significantly. I went. I think I was sent to my room or whatever. I mean, my eye was swollen. But back then, you didn't go to the emergency room for when your. Your father beats your ass, you just wait for your mom to come in with a. With a face cloth, with some ice, and you put it on there and she tells you she's sorry and this. But it. Some. It lit a fire under my mother. And she, the next day, called her family, who she had not spoke to by this time. I think I was four. So she probably not spoken to her family in five years. And her father organized his buddies. They waited for my dad to go out for one of his benders, and they basically showed up, kicked in the door, rescued us, got us out of there, and we went to go live with my mother's parents. And I think it was Lynn, the nicer part of Lynn. They had a nice house. It was actually on a pond. Sleuth Pond, I think it was what it was called. And so for about three days, it was. It was very different. You know, it was smell clean. There was no bugs, there was no rats. You wouldn't hear, you know, the fighting and whining of other families and stuff. You didn't hear crazy sounds at night. You didn't hear yelling and screaming in your own home. So it was very different. It was a very different world. And it lasted about last about three to five days, I think, before the other side of the coin dropped. Where my grandfather probably knew two or three black people his entire life, and his only consistent connection to black people was my father's relationship with his daughter. So I think you kind of get where I'm going here. He's not a fan. He has reasons for the way he feels. And you want to say that no one should be racist, no one should be this, no one should be that, but he had a direct issue with the culture based on his, which happens a lot. And that's. We'll get into that in other podcasts. But. But he had his. His. I don't. Like I said, I understand it. Do I wish he was different when it came to me? Sure. But it is what it is. And also, it also led to where we are today. So anything I talk about, I don't talk from a place of regret. I don't talk from a place of victimhood. It was part of my path to get to where I am today. And in all of us, no matter what we do or wherever we go in life, every road that leads to your. Wherever you are, there's going to be broken hearts scattered everywhere. Disappointment, letdowns, lies. You name it, you're going to go through it. And that's the point. So when you do get to a great place, you appreciate it, because you've walked through hell and fire to get there. And I think that's what builds the American spirit. That's what builds us. That's what makes men hard and tough and make women resourceful and smart. So you have to. You have to go through failures and setbacks and sometimes life Isn't fair. No one. Whoever told you it was was being unfair to you and not. We all start out on different points in life. Life is like a race. Sometimes you get to start out with a lead, sometimes you get started behind. Sometimes you aren't even in the same track, and you got to find the stadium. So right when I, at this point in my life where I thought, like, the bad man of my nightmares and stuff was going to be gone, then there was a new one. And my grandfather just basically said that he wanted my mother to start her life over. She was young enough to where she could go to nursing school or college and. And get a fresh start in life. But the catch was he could not have Negro children in his household. He felt that it was dangerous. The neighborhood wasn't for it, he wasn't for it, and he felt like it was a mistake. And my mother would always be connected to the other family. So the best thing to do is to cut your losses and move on. And originally, he wanted us to go back with them, and my mother was absolutely not. They're not going back with him. She would not. She knew the type of life that we would have had had they dropped us off with my biological father. So then my grandfather did the next thing, which was, let's put him in foster care. And basically the social worker said, listen, we'll take them. She can sign them away, but we don't know where they're going to go. And my mother's biggest thing is they have to stay together. They're all they have. And again, a lot of people will be hearing this, and they'll want to immediately say bad things about my mother. But again, when you're living in that situation, you have no other options in life. You have to make some of the. And as an adult, as a father, as a man, now I understand it. As a child, I didn't. But she had a chance to fix her life and giving us up and putting us in the best situation for us, because she couldn't provide that for us. If my grandfather would have opened the door and the three of us walked out, we had nowhere to go, no family. And the worst case scenario is after a few days of Miss Mill Cramps and Boston Winner, she would have had to go back, which would have been probably the end of her eventually. And most likely she would have been recreating my father in me. I would have grown up seeing that as okay, seeing that as. That's how you treat women, seeing that as work ethic. So you had two really horrible choices. But the one upside was at least I can have make sure my kids are safe, they're together, and they'll have an opportunity that I can't give them. So I understand. Sometimes parenting isn't as easy, or the decisions you make in life are not. Is not like tv, where you make a good decision and a bad decision. Sometimes you make a bad decision opposed to a horrible decision, but the intentions are good. I'm gonna say it again. You make a bad decision over a worse decision because your intentions are good. I'm giving my children up to the foster care system in hopes that they can have a better life because I can't provide for them. Or I take my children and myself back to a life where I know is going to end up with probably the death of her and the complete destruction of any opportunity for me to have any type of real life outside of going to prison, marrying a cousin, being hooked on drugs by the time I was 18, knocking off liquor stores, worse, maybe even robbing and assaulting people and all that stuff. And ended up becoming just a common copy of who I was. So she made a tough decision. And when the social worker said, we can't guarantee that we can keep them together, my mother then was like, that's the deal. Otherwise I'll walk out with my kids. And my grandfather then found a family that would take us in. And I believe he even paid them to take us. And they did. And again, it was one of those things where I remember the smell of the room the day it went down. I remember I had this thing with my hands for a long time, right? And the reason why I did was because my grandfather made me turn my hands over, and he was pushing in at my hands, and he was pushing at my hands, and he said, we just. He has pink hands. We can't. No one's going to believe he's anything but what he is. His brother looks a little different. Maybe we could say he's Italian. But his face, his nose, even the color of his eyes are different. Like, there's no way that we can convince anyone he is what he is. And so he can't be here. And I remember that distinctly. And so the next step was, how do you hand off your kids and say goodbye? You know, and of course, they. They would have conversations like, you know, once you get your degree and, you know, you get your life together, you can always go back for them. And, you know, you can visit them and it'll be. Just be like, you know, they Think of it like they're in boarding school, and they tried to make all these things to make her feel better. But I was hearing all of it. The only thing I was hearing was, you sons of bitches are trying to take my mother from me. Now. I had fought my father to protect my mother, so I had been a protector from day one. So I was just waiting for someone to try to do something bad to my mom. And again, it's a weird thing when you grow up in an abusive household. You worry about the others more than yourself. Like, my mother didn't mind if she obviously didn't want it, but she would take the hits gladly before she would let my brother and I take the hits, and vice versa. I would have rather been hit than seen my mother hit. And I think that's the. That's one of the things that. That bonds you, but at the same time, it's a burden you will carry together for the rest of your life. So they made arrangements for us to think we had, like, what, a play date? We were going over to meet a babysitter is what it was, how it was presented to us. And we went. Me and my brother walked in, and it was this nice lady and her husband and their kids. And they ran a daycare during the day, so there was kids in and out of there, and they were very nice. And they had a playroom with toys down in the basement. And they wanted to show it to me because my favorite character was the Incredible Hulk. And so they were like, oh, we have Hulk dolls down there and everything else. And so I went downstairs with, I believe, the youngest son, who was. I think he was. He was in graduating high school, so he was, like, 18, I think. And then they had their daughter, who was, like, 16. And I went downstairs with them, and the door closed behind me and my brother, which I thought was odd. And we were down there playing, and. And then I decided that I wanted to go tell my mom something. And I ran up the stairs and like, hey, hey, hey, kid. Because I couldn't remember my name. And I went to open the door, and it was locked. And I started banging on the door, and no one would open the door. And I kept banging on the door and banging on the door. And then eventually the door opened, and I said, I need to talk to my mom. And they're like, she's not here. And I said, where's my mom? You know? And they're like, she's gone. And you're gonna be staying with us for a while. This is your new home. And I was like, hell no, that's not happening in my mind. And they didn't know what they had. I was a monster. What I mean by that was like, I was about a physically aggressive child as you could possibly have. A lot of the things that my dad did in to humor himself. One of the things that he did was him and his buddies used to bet on their kids. We took those, those old school. You ever heard the playpens? I don't think they have them anymore. I think they're like against the law now. But they used to have these folding playpens, like a little wrestling ring. And he would put me and another kid in the thing and they would bet on us to fight. And so we would fight in the pins and I was always winning. So he was very proud of me because I was. But I mean, I get scratches and stuff like that. I remember I had a cousin named Benny. Poor bastard. Every time he would get in the ring with me, I would in the little playpen. Eventually when I got put in that playpen, I knew that it was hit or be hit. So I didn't wait, you know. And so we all were like that. All our kids were like that. We were all fighting in these, in these playpens that these guys were betting while they were drinking with us. Not with us, but watching us while they were drinking. And so I was an aggressive dude and I immediately went and attacked my. I guess. Well, I always say foster mom, even though it wasn't the system, but it was basically the same thing. And you know, I had to be restrained and held down and I was just an absolute nightmare. And it went on like this for a really long time where I was just trying to get back to my mother. And they went through hell with me. They went through. I attacked her again. I talk about it in my first book, Just Tyrus, where I hit her over the shoulder. Well, actually, so what happened was they were trying to civilize me and they bought me cool clothes, like nice clothes. Like I wore like a little suit to school. First day at kindergarten, I looked sharp. A little clip on tie. And it's the 70s, it was like green and olive brown, you know, I looked smooth. And they didn't really know how to brush my hair, but they had figured out to where they put a little part in it. Like I have one picture and I don't even know where it is anymore, but I have one picture and it was me in this suit on the first day of school. And I look clean. I was determined. You know, I walked in the school bus, I had theme music, you know, and I want. And I even went. They even left the back seat open for me because I was the only brother on there with a suit. And. But there was rules to these suits. And one of the. One of the rules was that at recess, I couldn't get them dirty. So I was supposed to bring. I brought a pair. They sent me with a pair of sweatshirts and a T shirt to change into when we go to recess, right? Or lunch, so I wouldn't get food stains on my suits. And I followed those rules for about maybe two or three weeks. Then my foster mom got me the coolest, coldest. I'll never forget this burgundy corduroy suit. This thing was clean, big buttons, didn't need a tie, butterfly collar. I looked. I mean, I saw it. I was like. I was literally like, jj. I was like, dynamite. I was like. I looked good, felt good, you know, got on the bus and I was like, the Bee Gees was playing and shit. Like, I was just. I was doing my thing, and we got to school, and I wanted everyone to see my cool burgundy suit. So I didn't change. I didn't change out my little day suit. You know what I wish they made? I would rock a day suit if they ever brought him back. Like, if they. If there was a designer out there. I'm making Tyra some day suits because of that burgundy suit. I would rock a day suit to this day. And I've never worn one since then, but we were this thing called. We had jungle gyms and monkey bars, and I'm playing and running around and chasing kids and remember, I slid on something and I got a grass stain on my burgundy corduroy day suit. And I knew I was going to get a whooping for that. And I was. I was mad. I was mad that I got it on there, but I thought I could. I could figure this out. I thought I could figure it out. So the first thing I did was I went in the bathroom and I got, you know those old school paper towels when you fold them in, like, four pieces and then you run it under the water and I was rubbing it on the thing, and all I did was I rubbed so hard and so hard that I ended up tearing a hole in the pants. And I got a stain and a hole in my pants. I am. What's the scientific word for completely here I am. I'm royally screwed at this point. I'm going to get I'm going to get in trouble. And. And I did not want to get in trouble. And I had a pretty good run of, like, following the rules and stuff. So we. School goes by and you're a kid, so you. You forget about it, right? You got art class and you're eating your little. You're having your milk and your graham crackers and your day is great. And you get on a school bus. And then I run into my punk ass brother on the school bus, and he's looking at me and he looks at my leg. And I don't know kids, if they do it anymore, but my brother used to sing when he was in trouble. He used to sing this song called Ooh, I'm Telling on youn. And he would sing it, he'd be like, ooh, I'm telling on you. You're in trouble. You got a hole in your pants. I don't know why he had to sing it, but. And then I threatened to hit him, like, shut up, man. And he's like, mm, mm, mm, mm. And his little day suit didn't have nothing on it, of course. His wasn't burgundy. It was like some whack ass baby blue. Mine was cool. Mine was clean. Mine was like something Lou Ferrigno would wear. Like, that's all I cared about. So we get home and I do. I gotta think quick because I want to go out and play with the other kids in the backyard because they. My. My foster mom ran this cool daycare. There was kids. We had like 20 kids there during the day. And I get home and I get in the house and I go straight to the bedroom. I peel off, put my play clothes on. I take my burgundy suit and I put it in a hamper and I stop and I go, nope, that's too easy. I take all the clothes out the hamper, I put my burgundy soup at the bottom of the hamper, and then I put the clothes on top of it. The perfect crime. This will buy me at least a month before anyone knows anything. And I'm outside and I'm playing, I'm having fun. And I remember I was swinging. And we were. We weren't supposed to do this, but we'd swing and then jump. See how far you could jump off the swing. And we were doing that swing and jump. And I would have gotten away with it, but the problem was I was a slob. So when I usually got home, I would peel my clothes off everywhere. And my foster mom would have to pick up after me, and she'd be like. She would say I'm her little tornado. Cause I would just leave everything everywhere. Well, she goes to look for my clothes. They're nowhere to be found because I've neatly put them in the hamper. So she knew something was up, because I don't do that. So she pulls. She looks everywhere, looks everywhere. Then she pulls the clothes out, finds the corduroy pants, sees the hole in the grass stain, and she's pissed. She comes out, she yells, george. Or actually is. Is Boston. So it's Jodge. Joj in the house. And I was like. And here's the cold part. I actually didn't know what she wanted because I had already committed the perfect crime. There's no way that she found out. It's impossible. Well, she had to pay us on the table. And I saw it, and I knew it. I was done. But the problem was there was other kids in the room. And it was funny because my brother did something, and he was in the corner on timeout. He had 20 minutes in the corner. He did something. And then there was another kid in another corner. So you got two kids in each corner, and then you have two kids sitting at the table having a little snack. And there's me. And she's like, explain this. And I was like, what? She's like, how did you get a hole in your pants? And I was like, I don't know. Wasn't there when I had it on. Like, I was lying dead to her face. You literally. I still had the grass stains on my knee. Like, there was no way that I was going to get away with this. And she looked at me and she said, what was the deal? And I had to reluctantly say to change my clothes before I go outside and play, because if I don't and I ruin my school clothes, I'm going to get a whooping. She said, okay. So she went to the kitchen, to the drawer, pulled out and pulled out the spatula. Now she had this spatula, and this thing shined like it was. And she would hit you with that spatula. And it was just. It was. It wasn't terrible, but it was like a sting, you know, like when you hit. It was like one of those things where, like, you. It would make you cry. But because I had such a high tolerance of pain for pain at this point in my life, when I did get hit with a spatula, it was a mild irritation at best after what I came from. But the problem was, is a child that grew up in violence. When you try to use Corporal punishment with them. They look at it like violence. And a lot of times you're gonna get a violent response. The other side of it is, she was. Let's see, Dana Perino on a good day is what, 4, 11. I'm being nice. Throw some heels on her. She's maybe 5ft. My foster mom was right around in that neighborhood. We were eye to eye, and I was in kindergarten. She was not that much taller than me, maybe had me by like a couple inches at best, but strength wise, not even close. And she came around the corner with that spatula. And I see the two kids in the. And my brother's in one corner and the other kids in the corner. My brother's looking out through his shoulder to see me in the corner. And I decided that I was not going to get whooped today. And I said, you ain't spanking me with that. And she was like, excuse me. And she told me to assume a position that means when you put your hands on a little stool, because they had these little bar stools. We had a little bar come down in the morning for breakfast. Breakfast be at the bar. You sit at a little bar stool, eat your breakfast, and then you put your stuff in the sink and you grab your lunch and you get you behind out the door to go catch the bus. So I was supposed to put my hands on the stool, and I decided I wasn't gonna do that. I put my hands on the stool, but then I grabbed the stool and held it at her like. I was like, you come near me, I'm hit you with this. And she's looking at me with a spatula thing. And she actually giggled like, you're kidding me. The kids in the corner are like, what is going on here? Because no one had ever. You know, kids don't do this to adults. When an adult tells you something, you know, at kindergartening age, you just do it. And she told me to put the stool down. She said, drop it. Put it down right now. Put it down right now. And as she stepped towards me with the spatula, I swung and I cracked her on the side of the head and the shoulder. And the stool shattered everywhere. Broke her collarbone. Some of the wood when it shattered, got into her eye. She was out cold. She dropped like. She just dropped like a. Like a sack of wet mice, just. And the kids in the corner turned around because now there's anarchy. There's 15 kids in the house and the babysitter's knocked out. And I immediately go into survival mode. I open the fridge. Because I got to get out of here, you know, I can't stick around for this. And so I'm going to run away. And you know, it's funny, it's because of violence when you get into, when you think of violence, it's funny when you act that. I all of a sudden wanted to get to my dad, a person I had not thought of at all. Other than nightmares and bedwetting and all the shit that comes from being around someone like that. I was going to run away to there. So I immediately opened the fridge. I think I grabbed Twinkies, Capri Suns. There was an apple, but I was like, no, I ain't taking no apples today. And I think it was like some donuts. And I packed a bag, I rolled a bag to hit the road. I took off running out the front door and just left. I was gone. And when you're a kid, not just a troubled kid, but a kid, the world is a very small place. You don't realize until you get out there how big it is. I thought I would just get out, make a left, run for a little bit. And I would be at my grandparents house on my father's side. I'd be at their farm. That's where I would. That's all I had to do is just keep running in this direction. And I was freedom. Nope, it was big ass neighborhood. And I wasn't as fast as I thought I was. So I was running with my bag of snacks to live off of because I was going to go live in the woods or until I found my grandparents. And I'm running and I remember the neighbor because this is back when neighborhoods, they watched out for everybody and they heard the commotion. And I come flying out the house, screen door slams behind me. Hauling ass with a, with a brown duffel bag, a brown bag around the corner, running as fast as I could. And I remember the neighbor jogged me down, just kind of jogged alongside me like, hey buddy, where are you going? What's going on? And I was like, I'm running away, I don't want to be there. And he's like, okay, well slow down, slow down, you know, try to calm me down. And I'm like breathing a little this and that. And I'm like, you're not going to stop me. And he still didn't know what I did. He's just assuming I snuck out of the house, you know, and he convinced me to turn around and walk back. And I'm walking back with him. And once he got up to the steps. He walked in, and she was still laying on the ground. He ran to her, and I bolted, and I ran for the forest, and I climbed up in a tree. I figured I'll just live in this tree for a while, you know, five or six months in this tree, and then I'll figure it out, you know, and they'll forget about me. Well, they found me pretty quick, but I wouldn't come down from the tree. So eventually the police were called and the fire department was called. Fire department. Now, this was some. Let me see here. The townies, basically, they were like, look, let me turn the hose on and just spray this little bastard out of the tree. Like, they were just like, he hit his mother. He hit his mother. And, you know, they're like, oh, no, we'll take care of this. You know, they were. They were arguing over who was gonna shoot me down with the hose, basically. And I was sitting up there, and I remember the. You know how you get scratches from being in the woods, running around and stuff? And it kind of burns. Like, my whole face was burned from. I climbed up. I climbed pretty up that tree, and. But I would not come down. And they were trying to figure it out, and. And they were trying to call. They were trying to. By this time, you know, kids were home for school, and they called her husband, and he left. He. He left his job to come home. And I'll never. I'll never forget, they were trying to negotiate with me. And, like, at one point, a guy said he had a puppy for me. And I was like, I'm not falling for any of this shit. I'm not coming down. And finally, my foster dad came home, and he literally just walked up to the tree, and he said, hey, get down. And without even batting an eye, I climbed down, and he walked with me. And the cops, like, you want me to take the little bastard? And by this time. And by this time, she was coming out, and she was in a little gurney, and they were getting ready to put her in the hospital. They had her eye wrapped up in a patch, and her shoulder was, like, in a little sling. And I was just kind of looking at her. And the cop was basically, want to know, like, do we take this kid to social services? What do you want us to do? And she just yelled out, don't take my baby. He doesn't know what he's doing. You don't know what he's been through. And it just. Something clicked in me on that day. Like my entire. I mattered to someone. I Think that's what it was. There was just a thing, and it was just this rage, this fire that was in me forever in terms of just being an angry kid was just gone. Like, I couldn't believe that after what I did to her, she still wanted me because it was people that I would do anything for that didn't want me. So this was completely weird to me. And now I'm worried about, like, I just hit this dude's wife with a stool. What is he going to do to me when the police leave? He is going to. He's going to do, like, what my father would have done in my mind. And so she goes in the hospital, and I think her daughter went with her, and it's me and her. And my foster dad is in the house, and he's just looking at me, and I'm sitting there and I'm just waiting. I'm just waiting. He told me to go to my room, and I went and sat. I was sitting in my room. Of course, I hid under the bed because that's what I always did. That's where I was most comfortable because I was waiting for the abuse. And he came in, he said, come on out here, and you and me are going to go downstairs and we're going to have a talk. And I remember I went downstairs with him, and I'm still waiting for the. I'm still waiting for the attack. I'm still waiting for the, you know, which. Which I is going to get dotted today, you know, And. And I was sitting there and he was trying to explain to me. He's like, that's my wife. I'm her husband. That's your. Your mom, whether you like it or not. I said, you put hands on my wife as her husband, what should I do? And I remember saying, like, you should hit me. And he's like. He's like, do you understand what you did and why you did it? And I was like, I didn't want to get spanked. And he said, you're. You're. You're a young man. You're a boy. You're going to grow up to a man. Men don't hit women. Real men don't hit women. He goes, and when you hit a woman, you're. You're not a man. You're an animal. And you're not going to be raised in this house to be an animal. Now you need to pay for what you did, and you owe me for what you did. So here's what's gonna happen is you're gonna get a spanking, and you're gonna get a spanking from me. And he's like, you're gonna get five lashes with the belt for what you did to my wife. And then you and me are square. And a lot of people would be like, oh, he didn't say, hug me. No. Cause that's not how it was. I still did some terrible. What I did was terrible. And I took it like a champ, you know, and it was the merry gon thing where he holds on your arm and then you. The whip, and you kind of move around. And he gave me five. And that was. It was done. You know, he said, go upstairs, go to bed. And I thought I was going to bed without dinner and all that stuff. And the next thing I know, about an hour later, he brought me out of the room, and him and I sat down. I think we had SpaghettiOs. It was like SpaghettiOs or something. And then after work every night, he had a glass of sherry and smoked his pipe. I'll still never forget those smells. And I watched TV with him for a little bit, and it was my bedtime, and he tucked me in, and he said, tomorrow will be a better day, and you're going to be a better person tomorrow. And that's all you can do is try to be a better person each day. And after that, they didn't have any violent issues with me. Completely didn't see the rage that was in me from being not wanted in my childish, in my child, mind change. But it changed. There's moments in your life that you think, always remember this and that. And this is. I'm like 5 years old, and this has forever been in my mind in terms of how to treat people. How you don't hit a woman. You know, you do own it. The next day will be better. No matter what you think, there are consequences for your actions, and you got to pay your bill. And so those rules really defined and molded me at such a young age. But I think it changed my trajectory in life. I think before that happened, I think I was on a path probably, well, we wouldn't sit here and be doing this. If I would still be on this planet. I probably would have been on my way to be pretty much like my father. With the exception being is that I wouldn't have had his extended family to always protect him and bail him out. I've been on my own, which means I'd been in and out of jail, and then, you know, probably would end up either in jail for life or someone would have shot my big ass because, let's be honest, not a lot of people are going to sit there and fist fight with a. With a giant, aggressive, six, eight, young, you know, angry black man. I mean, this statistically doesn't play well for me. So it changed my trajectory on life, and there were lots of ups and downs and. But after that, my relationship with them changed tremendously. We became a family. You know, I remember there was a lot of. I always refer. Called them by their first names. And then even now, I won't do it. You know, their mom and dad, and they're not on this planet anymore, but we went on vacations together, and they put me on the hockey team. And. And so we had like a. I was part of a family. And then. Life is funny. My mother did exactly what she said she was going to do. She graduated from nursing school, she got a job in California, and she came back for her sons. And even though we didn't have much contact, she wanted her sons back. And we were kind. Well, I had gone from missing her to remembering her, to not really thinking about her anymore, because I was just so much in the positive environment that I was in that you don't. You tend to forget things. Like, it wasn't. Like, if my mom showed up, I'd have been happy to see her, but it was just one of those things where I didn't have time to dwell, you know, like, if you live in the past, you're depressed. And as a kid, if you keep sitting at that window waiting for mommy to come, you're never gonna grow, you know, and they did a really good job of focusing me on what was in front of me. And so when she did come back, I was not. I was just. I don't want to say I wasn't thrilled, but I didn't understand why she came back. Like, we were good, you know, and I felt like I wanted to stay. My brother wanted to go. He wanted to go back to his mom, but I didn't. I wanted to stay. And I remember them saying that, like, I have to go, you know, and my mother didn't even. And not like she was made of money, you know, she was already in California. So we were actually. A friend of hers was flying out, so we had to fly with a friend of hers to go back to. To meet her in California. And again we went. We're in a nurturing home doing. I was doing well in school. They were dealing with my dyslexia. I was playing sports. I had friends like I had all the thing. All the accoutrements to a happy childhood coming from such a. A dark place. I mean, they went from having to watch me all the time because I was convinced at one point, and I had mentioned earlier about the. The pink hand things. So one of the things I did when I was like, I. They had to watch me when I would take a bath and stuff, because I would get Brillo pads and I would try to scrub the dark off my hands. I would try to scrub the black off me, because if I could get the black off me, then I could be white and I could go live with my mother. Like, they went through just years of. Just of just a basket case, a kid who couldn't sleep on a bed. And whenever I did sleep on the bed, I'd wet the bed. Like, I. Probably because I would have nightmares about my father and I would be too scared to go to the bathroom. Like when we. If you got up at night and when I was living with him and you ran the. Took the chance to go to the bathroom, you also could witness some horrible shit. So you were better off peeing on yourself than getting up or peeing in a corner of your room. But the difference was if you peed in the corner of your room, you got your ass beat. If you wet your bed, you just. At least you could control that. Like, you would. You could go change your clothes, but if you peed in the corner, they're like, you did that on purpose. And if you. So it was actually the lesser of two evils to hide under the bed and wet yourself than peeing the corner. I know in the mind of a child, you just got to think like, they're just trying to avoid the worst of the evils. So this is what they had to deal with. And so they got me through all of that, you know, and. And kept telling me I was special and I had the best of both worlds, and I was handsome and, you know, and they wish they had my hair and they wish they. And every summer I was like, oh, you don't get sunburned and you look so handsome. And they were just always building me up to where I didn't feel like such a freak all the time, you know. And so it was a lot to give up, and I was angry about that. And then when I got to my mother, as I went from, like I said, really nice household. Nice household. We had that. We had a swimming pool, we had a backyard. I had friends there every day to a house with a roommate in Sunland, Tahunga, California, which I think is famous for bikers and bars. I think maybe, like, it's not a. It's not a. And my first night there, me and my brother had a mattress on the floor in our bedrooms. And I woke up and walked out to the kitchen, and it was cockroaches climbing out of the garbage disposal. And I was like, what is this? And the first. And then I went in the backyard, and there was a grapefruit tree. And let's just say grapefruits weren't real popular in Peabody, Massachusetts, back where I was living. And they had bugs coming out of them. They're on the ground. And, like, the yard wasn't kept. It wasn't. You know, there was. There was no lawnmower and stuff. So I immediately called my foster parents and just let them know, like, this is ridiculous. This is some mistake. Like, we shouldn't be here. When are you guys coming to get me? And that's what woke my mother up. And that was actually the first time I had seen her in a long time. And, you know, she talked to them for a few minutes and then she hung up. And then she told me, like, hey, you're not allowed to call them. Like, you're with me now. Like, that's behind you. That's not your family. I'm your family. Blah, blah, blah. And I just remember going, yeah, but there's bugs in the sink, so maybe you should clean that shit up before you have kids over, you know, I was very, like. Because I was very. I was all. I've always had this mouth, this mouth. I've always had it. It was just like whenever I felt wronged, I would speak on something. And so it took a while for us to kind of get close again. I don't know if we ever really did, to be honest with you. We both. It's one of those things. And again, so that's, you know, that's how George T. Clements was. Junior was growing up or manifested. And that's. I was still a George T. Clements Jr. Then. And then I. I start in my next book, Nuff Said, I talk about the name change or the. I went from George Clements Jr. I didn't like being a junior because I didn't like the memories of my father. I didn't want to be like him. And I started playing sports. And one of the coolest thing about when you play sports is you get a uniform, and on the back of that uniform is your last name. And my last name was Clements. And I felt like every time my mom, who for some reason didn't go to a lot of my games, missed a lot of them because of work or whatever. But I also thought, like, how does that feel seeing the name of the monster on my back every time? So we. And we moved around a lot. And I didn't like my mom seeing that name. I didn't like that she still had nightmares. I didn't like that when we were in public, if a tall brother came walking towards her, she would get nervous, you know, like, she had been through a lot. So when I got into the cause, Generation X, we did everything ourselves. My first day of school, I signed myself in. I went in there, like I got dropped off first day of. Cause we moved around a lot because she would get jobs here and there. I would go in and like, they fill out the paperwork. And the lady said, it's George T. Clements. And I said, no, no, no, I'm sorry, that's not right. That's not my last name. And I still hadn't even mastered spelling Murdoch correctly yet. And she's like, well, what is it? We have it as Clements. I said, no, it's Murdoch. M U R D O C H. And they're like, oh, like your mom. I said, yeah, well, what's Clements? I'm like, I don't know. And so they changed it right there in the school. There was no legal name change. I didn't go to courts. I just convinced elementary school that my last name was Murdoch. And they did it. It was on my grades, everything. So when I started playing sports and my mother didn't really realize that, she just, you know, when you get your report cards and stuff, it's a George Murdoch on it. George Murdoch on it. And she didn't really think much of it, actually. It's a George T. Murdoch. And it wasn't until probably when the sports started getting real important to me in high school, when I made the football team my sophomore year. When we moved again, there was an opportunity to put Clements. Because high school doesn't play. They take your birth certificate and all other stuff. And they're like, hey, this guy's real last name is Clements. And I got my football jersey and it said Clements on it. And I was really didn't like it. And I went to my coach and I told him my reasons why, man to man, and he said, okay. And so I think it was one of the games that my mom came. She came and she saw them. I was George T. Murdoch on my football jersey. And for me that was just something that meant like we beat him. You know, in my mind I'm not him, I'm never going to be him because one of the problems that me and my mother always had was I look exactly like my biological father. So there'll be a lot of times when a couple glasses of wine in you start to think and you see the face and, and you reminisce and the reminiscing was never a good. We never had any fun stories, you know, I never heard a story about oh, we were in love and this, that whatever, like it pretty much was all downhill from jump, right? Was just a bad relationship all the way around. And it's. Which led me to, in my book enough said, I talk about, and it's probably the best chapter I had written to this point where I talked about sea turtles. And it's funny because when I do my Tyrus Live tours, I have my silver haired foxes, they bring me gifts at the meet and greets and actually I have some gifts here at some point where I'm going to break out. But they bring me a lot of crystal sea turtles and they, they get a little teary eyed because they said what you wrote about being a sea turtle really touched my heart because one of the toughest things and well, what's a sea turtle? So as everyone, or maybe you don't know, a sea turtle's mother swims all through the ocean hundreds of miles, in some cases thousands of miles to one beach where she then digs a pit which she's not fit to do. She's got flippers and she's heavy and she digs a pit. She goes through hell. She lays the eggs, she covers them with sand and she leaves and that's it. There they ever. She's giving them all that she's given all of them that she can and now the rest is up to them. And so I say that sometimes life, your family, you have to be like sea turtles. And it doesn't mean you have to hate each other. I love my mother very much, but there's just too much bad memories and bad experiences between us to where we, it's just, we just can't get past it. Sometimes some things are just so bad for you that you have to learn to let go. And that's what I did. You know, you can love somebody and still know you have to let him go. And when you let them go, it's for the betterment of everybody. Now the downside is that, yeah, I don't have a mom. When I have a bad day at work, or I have a fight with my wife, or I have a fight with my kids, or I'm just lonely or sad, I can't call mom up and get a pep talk or I can't call dad. So a lot of ways I have to sea turtle it. I have to figure it out myself. So. Because people a lot of times will say, well, blood is thicker than water. But funny thing about that saying is you don't. You should listen to the whole thing because what it's trying to tell you is that the ones that you're related to are the most dangerous ones. They are the ones who hurt you the most. When you look at everyone who's ever been robbed, any professional athlete that's been wiped out, it's not no stranger off the street. It's a brother, a mother, a father, a wife. It's somebody close to you that always seems to get you. So when you have a bad relationship, instead of saying it, sometimes you got a sea turtle. Thank them for everything that they've given you and you'll take it from here. And that's basically what we did. And no regrets, but it was a powerful thing. And again, growth, understanding yourself, believing in yourself, wanting a pursuit of happiness and sometimes knowing when some things just can't be fixed. And that's okay. That's how life works. And it's not fair. Like I talked about beginning, life is not fair. And sometimes you think, you get mad or you get upset. And sure, we have all those days. I have those days where I'll be like, you know, I get a little pissed off because, you know, my kids don't have grandparents. That stuff eats at you. That's just a normal thing. But the overall good is having closure and moving on in life so you can pursue other things and build other things. And again, it led to me sitting in this chair, in this situation with my own studio, with my own stuff and my Godzilla's and my. All the things that I'm not allowed to have at home, I now have shipped here. So during this podcast, we're going to get boxes from Nike, we're going to get all kinds of cool shit from Japan, Godzilla stuff. And every once in a while, I get some cool gifts. So basically, you have the roots of, of, of how I came to be at this point where this is George Murdoch, of course, Tyrus, you know, that was more of a marketing thing, but at the same time, it was also a thing where I wanted to do Something T has always been a big. My middle initial was always important to me, but to fast forward through all my success and stuff in the WWE and Bodyguard, and those are for another podcast. But I got to the point where Dusty Rhodes had given me some really good advice my last day in the wwe, which, looking back, I think he knew. Him and I were extremely close. Not so much wrestling, because honestly, he had an elbow, an elbow drop, a right hand, and he could talk, but it was. And every once in a while, a backwards figure 4. He'd put your ass in. But he would always talk to me about life. He was always worried about me out of the ring, not in the ring. He always says, you'll smell the popcorn, hear the crowd. I know you know what to do, because you are me. And Dusty was always very supportive, but he was worried about me because he saw a lot of himself. And so one of the things he told me is that you have to paint your own canvas. And the WWE doesn't see in you what I see in you. So whether you're here another two years or three years, you're never. Or you're gone tomorrow. Ironically, he was right. I was gone tomorrow that day. But he said, you have to paint your own canvas, and you have to make yourself so big that they see you with their eyes closed. And I did that. Yeah, I've done that. And so you think about your accomplishments and you think about your sacrifices. And like I said, I wrote two books and then. Which I never thought I was going to. You know, just like Meeting the President, which again, is another podcast. I just knocked off, like, three or four podcasts right there. See, we'll never run out of content and shit. And so I did Just Tyrus, my first book, and it was New York Times bestseller, and it was number one on Amazon for, like, I think we had six weeks. We were, like, killing it. I got. It's like the list is all goes on and on up there. Like I said, I got a little picture and stuff. And then I wrote Enough Said right after that. And one of the. One of the cold parts, and that made the list, too. But one of the things was, like, people decided to tell me that it was good to have books of the same color. So I have. I think it's right. Like, I have Nuff Said is the same color as Just Tyrus, so people will be buying Just Tyrus thinking it was Nuff Said. Like, the two books look almost exactly alike, and I'm topless in both. Which the reason why I Went topless is probably just because. Well, for one, Will Wolfork was a defensive tackle for the New England Patriots. And he did a. I think it was a Sports Illustrated cover where he was like, naked or something. I mean, taste. He was tasteful. He was tasteful, but I was like a big guy who's not afraid. You know, Rick Ross, he was always doing videos and stuff. And I guess I'm the Jack version of that. So when I said just tyrest, I mean, it was just me, take me as I am. And so I did it with my shirt off. And then the second book, they just. I guess it got good to him and we did it again. So the two were a little confusing. So they kind of crossed. I crossed. I cross promoted against myself in a lot of situations, but both were great experiences. I never thought I would be able to write a book. It's not easy. I didn't want ghost written shit I want, you know, and it didn't. It wasn't. It wasn't a fun process. I was supposed to be with HarperCollins, and then they told me they didn't think I was clever enough to write a book by myself. So I took my ball and went home and I went with Post Hill. And they were like, yeah, yeah, go ahead, write it. We'll see what happens. And it did. And of course, I'm an author now. I actually have four projects. My daughter and I wrote a children's book which is coming out pretty soon. And then, lo and behold, today, as you got the first part of who I am or what led me to be. So we're at George Murdoch at this point. I think in the next. Next time I do a solo shot, we'll get into the other. Other things of it. But since the book. My books were a common theme today, I actually have both books were intricate insights into my life. My just Tyrus book was about my humble beginnings or how I am. Enough said. Is how I think and how I've able to get success to a certain level. And then I wrote a third book. And ironically, that third book came in the mail today. So I have. I guess if I was an influencer, I'd be like, I have a special box right now that just came in from Post Hill. Hi, guys. So I have my book. And please comment down below if you like the color and stuff. So we're gonna have the big reveal as soon as I get 15 likes. Okay, we got our likes. So I guess we'll have the reveal. So without further ado, very Excited about this. I've not seen this. Okay, What it is America. And yes, I'm topless. I don't know why. It's just a thing. Okay. I could have wore a collar or a tie, but it's just like, if it ain't broke, right? Plus, you also see the transformation of me in each book cover. Like, just Tyrus. I didn't shave. I don't think for the photo shoot, it was a little rough. Nuff said. I think I was pissed. So you see the size changes as. As I leaned out over the years. Sorry. Sorry, guys. It's just like this evolved Godzilla. I've evolved. I'm not. Wasn't real fan of the. The pink spikes, but I get it when he absorbed the, you know, the sea chick thing. But yeah, so what it is America. It's by me. And again, I wrote three books. Like, this is crazy. And I'm very excited. This one, I. I kind of. I took shots. Like, I was always polite in my other books. This book, I take a lot of shots. And one of the craziest things about this book is I wrote a lot about when I predicted the election would be a landslide and wouldn't be close. Like I said, my whole book's not politics. It's life. It's a collection of trademark, classic Tyrus stories. Apparently, my stories are classic now and vivid from my personal and professional life that offer unfiltered insights into the heart of the nation while holding leaders accountable and. And celebrating the diverse experience that defined the American spirit. Yeah, I guess that's. That's me. Probably would have said it differently myself, but one of the cool things about this book is I talked a lot about the president and probably about. In about three chapters, and how I felt like his Persona changed, how he changed from the first time he ran to the not getting back to office from the assassination attempt, and just how he had. Had changed. And also during the writing of this book, I actually met him and got to spend some time with him and actually built. It's weird saying this, but I have a relationship with the president. Like, I'm cool with the president. You know, like, he might text me, like, what it is. Tyrus. I'm like, not much, Mr. P. And he's a very. He's a very different dude than what the media portrayed him as. And I was shocked. I even sat down with an interview, and I couldn't believe how they were able to so distort who this man is. And this is a dude who's running for office. He's got a million things going on. I thought it was fair just because I talked about him a lot and I was critical on some things. So I sent a copy to his team and to him to let them know. This is what I'm discussing when my book is coming out, and I just wanted to let them know. And I get a text from him saying, hey, I love it. And then I get a text from his team saying that the President would like to write the forward for your book, which was phenomenal. Cold part was I already had somebody writing a forward for my book. But what are you going to do? You know what I'm saying? The President of the United States is going to write a forward to your book, and you got an accomplished writer who's going to write a forward for your book. So you kind of go like, hey, bro, I guess this has happened to people in relationships where, like, you want to go to the dance and you really want to ask the head cheerleader, but you get nervous, so you ask the girl on the flag team. So you got the girl from the flag team going to the dance with you. And then lo and behold, you're in lunch line and the cheerleader comes up to you and says, hey, I'd like to go to the dance with you. You know, you're going to cut the flag leader. You know, it's just. It is what it is. And so I was like, hey, man, sorry, I won't need the forward on this book. And he was like, why? What happened? I did something wrong? I was like, no, the president wants to write it. And they're like, well, hell, yeah, I would have done the same thing. So that was the cool part. But, yeah, right here at the bottom, sorry, this side, the forward is by President Trump. And it was very cool. It was very President Trumpish. And I'll read you a small expert of it because I'm excerpt. Because I'm still laughing about it. Those of us who have. I don't know what planet you've been on to where you wouldn't know something that President Trump says or how he says it, but he's just. He also does something in here which was very cool, and he was trying to teach me a lesson. He's a very. He's a very, very. He's a brilliant man. But his wisdom, he does it in very clever ways. Like he says, I have known George Tyrus Murdoch for many years. Throughout his career in professional wrestling and television, he's earned the respect and admiration of millions While late night television ratings have rapidly declined, Tyrus continues to be a star, using his iconic wit. I have iconic wit, ladies and gentlemen, and humor to target the radical Democrats MM. And their joyless campaign against the American way of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. After doing hundreds of radio and television interviews throughout the course of 2020 presidential elections, one of his highlights was hanging out with me just a few weeks prior to the election and Tyrus and he talks about I designed his custom Trump 24 championship belt which he presented to me. I knew then that I was a die hard maga. And he actually read it and he goes on, but spoiler alert, you got to buy the book to hear the rest of it. But it was very cool because he reminded me to make of my first name of who you are. And for a guy who had changed it. Like I said, when I left, when I went to wwe, I became Brodus Clay. And Brodus Clay was a name that me and Dusty Rhodes had come up to together. And then it was my identity. But then the WWE owns the rights to everything and I didn't want again, I don't have a relationship with either one of my families at this point. And as life was going on, I didn't really want to be connected to anyone. So I took that tee with a guy named John Gerbach, who I think he still works for WWE somewhere, but he was with us in tna. We called him big and him and I came up with Tyrus, which was a playoff my middle name. So I became Tyrus and I was like, I'm going to do it my way. I'm going to paint my canvas and I don't know if it's watercolors or oil paints, but we've definitely painted something here. And I've got my third book. Very, very happy about this. Again, if you would have met me when I was an angry kid who wet the bed at night, was dyslexic, couldn't read right, left, had a small stutter at times, and if you said too many things to me, I'd throw a chair at you or something. To go from that to having a president write a forward in your book, it's very humbling. I guess you could get arrogant with it. I guess you could let it go to your head. I guess you could be an asshole. But I have. Every time you get to the top of the mountain or anytime you're at a high level of success, you need to remember that you're one step away from falling down the hill. And I've fallen down enough hills in my lifetime and in my career to where when you get to the top, smell the roses, but at the same time, keep your knees bent. Be ready, because anything can happen. And the last thing you do when you're falling down a hill, if you stepped on heads to get up there. And listen, some people, they got to do what they got to do. But the hands and the heads that you stepped on to get there are the same ones that are not reaching out for you when you're falling down. So you never know who you're going to be. I mean, it could be a waiter at a restaurant or one day is the CFO of the company that you need to pay for advertising. He's like, nope, that's that dick who was rude to me when I was a waiter. I don't work with him. So you never know who you're going to meet in life. And it is a small world, an extremely small world, so be thankful. But what it is, America. It comes out November 11th. You can get it on Amazon. I'm sure I'll be talking about it a lot. And obviously I changed the color of the COVID but I stay consistent with my toplessness, so I'm very, very proud of that. And you can't say what it is America without having American flag in there. So that was very good. And actually, spoiler alert. This was not shot in the studio. I have to leave the photographer nameless to protect his identity. But this was literally. Hey, got a minute? Want to take some pictures in a. I think it was a weather room and just kind of snuck in, took some pictures and sent it in. And they were like, what? Who's the photographer? And I was like, he won't let me tell you. So people who know that inside Story will laugh. Those who. Who don't. I guess eventually, when the statutes of limitations roll out on that, we can. We can tell you. But I got my whole box of books to hand out at some point, so I'm pretty excited about that. And then, okay, so you've got the first part of me, and then the next time we do one, we'll get how I went from. From. We'll get into the wrestling and the Bodyguard and the teaching stuff and all those kind of things. When you kind of learn me a little bit. Another. Before I let you go, I want to do my cool little segment is. Is called Gifts. Very simple, just gifts. I get gifts sent to me all the time. And I was doing a standup on tour and A guy came up to me, very nice man. He said he was an artist and he wanted to make something nice for my podcast. And I was like, cool. And he's like, I know you're into history, and so I want to do something nice for you. I think this is what it is, and it's got my name on it, and it's from David Sample. And that was the other. Was this David Sample. That's funny. An artist and his last name, Sample. That's weird. That's weird. So hopefully this isn't a sample, but I got a feeling this is going to be really cool. I'm not gonna whisper. I don't know why they do that, you know, in those reveals. Like, hey, guys. So we're gonna open this up. It's up, it's open. We got it out. And I'm just gonna reach in here and don't want to hurt the integrity of. It's in a tube, so it has to be important. It's in a tube. Don't tear this, bro. This is when having meat hooks for hands can be really scary. Okay, I'm not gonna look at it. I'm gonna hold it open and hopefully I'm right. But this should be the Tuskegee Airman. And it is. This is awesome. So the Tuskegee. He drew this. He create, recreated this. Obviously, we gotta get a frame. I don't know if we have the budget for that, but we'll definitely get a frame for it. And it's very, very cool. Look at that. That is awesome. So with all the cool stuff here, we'll have a historic thing. Of course, this was the one that. This was the first black Air Force regiment that kicked ass in the war and kept the bombers from getting shot down and pretty much changed the tide with Germany. So this is very cool. Angel from above. They painted there. So they. You know who they were. They painted the front of their plane red and their tails red. So you knew who was coming. And it's an official thing. And a little piece of paper dropped out. Did we lose that? I think it's a letter of authenticity. So this is legit. If things don't work out with the podcast, I guess I can auction this at some place on ebay for thousands of dollars. Maybe if. But I'm not selling. This is awesome. This was absolutely amazing. So this is what is cool. When you are amongst the people, you get cool things. So thank you very much, sir, for this. And again, we're gonna put this safe, but it's The Tuskegee Angels from Above. And this was made by David Lee sample, now 1999. And that was Colonel Charles McGee, USAF retired president, National Tiki Airman Incorporated. And this is. I think it's 120 of a thousand. 126 of a th, 000. So this is. This is very, very cool. So we get cool gifts. Are they always going to be this cool? I'm going tell you right now they're not. But we'll get some stuff. We're like, oh, thanks. And we'll put that in the special mystery closet and it will never be seen again. This we're going to get a frame for. And we'll put it up somewhere cool in here because it's very. Maybe above the planet Tyrus. That might be very, very cool or on the wall or something. Or. I mean, if I had a library in my house with leather brown books, this would totally be it. So. Wait, wait, there's more. What if it's like wallet size up? It's a card. Another card. All right, you know what? It's a lot harder to get this. All right, get in there. I did not destroy it. That was my biggest fear. All right, so what do we all have down here? Oh, cool shirt. Like what I thought Certificate of authenticity. So this is legit because ain't no watercolor. This is real deal. So we got that and then we got. We got some cards here. Please don't be awkward. Okay. Whim swept wings. The aviation artwork of David Lee Sample. So he gave his business card and. David Lee Sample, vice president of Blue Angels Alumni Association. That's the planes that fly around, do tricks and stuff. I don't think. I think I'm big enough to take those lessons. So we'll have to. Do we have an intern yet? Yeah, we got to find an intern to fly the Blue Devils. That was very cool. So, all right, so this has been. You've hung out with me, and my guest was me. Please leave your comments below till next time. It's watered world but it's my planet. Enough said.
