Going Deep with Chad and JT - Ep. 86 - Sal Masekela Joins

Episode Date: August 14, 2019

What up stokers, in this week's episode, Sal Masekela joins us in studio! Sal has been a commentator for the X Games and NBC, a broadcaster for the Winter Olympics and is the host of Viceland's "Vice World of Sports." Check it out!  

Whenever you're ready. Oh, okay, cool. My headphones must be down. Sorry. What's up, Stokers of Stoke Nation? This is Chad Kroger coming in with the Going Deep with Chad and JT podcast. And guys, the voice you're hearing right now is none other than Sal Masekela. You know him as the host of the X Games for 13 years. Affirmative.

From E, from Vice, so many different places. Red Bull Media House. National Geographic. National Geographic. Thank you. The World Cup in South Africa. Thank you. Also that.

Oh, and the Olympics. Yes, that too. That's cool. NBA. NBA. And the NBA. Did a season as a sid the Olympics. Yes, that too. That's cool. NBA. NBA? In the NBA. Did a season as a sideline reporter at the Western Conference for ESPN and ABC.

How was that? The NBC, it was magic. It was incredible. Who's your favorite guy to rap with on the sideline? At that time, it was probably Shaq because I had to hold the microphone up so high. He's huge. Yeah.

Shaq was amazing. Yeah, it was crazy. Because he likes talking, right? He likes being on camera and stuff. Yeah, and he's super funny and cracking jokes and dripping raining sweat down on me. Who was the worst? Oof. Can I pry?

No, you can. I can't remember his name now. Who did he play for? Played for the Nets at the time. It'll come to me. So you'd go before the games. No, it wasn't. That was pre-Darren Williams.

Actually, Darren Williams was on the Jazz then. Kenyon Martin? Kenyon Martin. Thank you. That is who it was? It was Kenyon Martin. Gosh darn, I got it. Really good.

Thank you. You saved me. So before the games, you're in there pre-game to ask some questions. You get like 20 minutes in the locker room. I'm chill. I see Kenyon by his locker, and I said, Hey, can I get a couple questions from you before the game? And we met before.

I'd interviewed him a few times before, and it had always been chill. He looked around me and said, Can I take my motherfucking chains off first? Dude, that's how he played. He had that same energy. And I was taken aback that I didn't realize that his chains would get in the way of our exchange. And he had layers of gold, maybe a little bit of platinum at the time.

And I was so taken aback that i never i just said okay you bailed not today did you get nervous to approach players no no i i didn't i think that's why i mean the players really got along with me because i i didn't speak to them like a like a ball they call it a jock sniffer i spoke yeah jersey chaser yeah i really i really spoke to more as like buddy buddy as a buddy we talk about hip-hop you know we talk about they were always it was crazy how much they were curious about the x games yeah and so they want there was a little bit of like mutual curiosity to help break the ice because that's something they can't do right they can't wrap their heads around yeah so they just want to know all about it and you didn't

back yeah you didn't realize that they were watching that in practice or whatever. They'd have the X Games on in the locker room or something like that. So it was a fun experience, man. That's cool. Yeah, it's cool to be talking to you because I've been watching you, honestly, since then. Dude, I had the same thought. I was like a kid. I raised you guys.

You've been in my life a long time. Really? Yeah, the X Games. Were you? That's what people say to me all the time. Like, you raised me. I'm like a kid. I raised you guys. You've been in my life a long time. I really have. The X game. Were you? That's what people say to me all the time. Like, you raised me. I'm like, fuck. You didn't know you were doing all that?

Dude, you did. You, Taco Bell, Mountain Dew. Your mama never calls me back. How'd you get that gig at the X? Because I kind of know a little bit of your backstory because I listened to you on a couple podcasts. And it got me more jacked to talk to you. You did some pre-casting?

Yeah. I did some pre-casting homework. And dude, you were fire on these podcasts. Thanks. I really appreciate that. I enjoy the format. Yeah. It got me more jacked to talk to you.

I was like, holy fuck, this is going to be good. Oh, no, no. It's just a lot of fucking pressure. Sorry, dude. It's all on you, but I know you're going to deliver. How did I get started? So. Transurf receptionist.

Yeah. I worked at Transworld Snowboarding and Skateboarding Magazine. And that was, when I got that job as a receptionist there, that was like a life-saving moment. That was the equivalent of me getting accepted into a four-year big-time school. Yeah. Almost like a scholarship, but as a receptionist. Because I was a surfer, skater, and snowboarder,

and I had consistently been losing lots of jobs up to that point for chasing a lifestyle, i.e. like calling in sick and getting caught because the waves were good. You know, that kind of stuff. And people just not taking you seriously because you still were like, I was really like ingrained in living this lifestyle. Work was a means to do the thing. And I had started late with all those sports. Like at 16 and a half,

I started surfing in the summer. I've been skating at like 14, 15. But my point is like, I had never gotten to the point where I could be good enough to like compete, but I still wanted to live the life. And my parents were like frustrated they didn't understood what understand what that meant your friends are coming home from college

like graduating like they got jobs and cars and some of them are getting married like what are you doing like just working at the bank and like picking up some shifts at night bartending and like okay and then you'd be like do you still surf like no all right well who's the asshole here yeah um because it really changed my life when i moved to southern california there was something you know i was in this place i grew up in new york city i moved to socal and you were in the same class as method man is that in staten island yeah i went to elementary school with method man aka clifford smith and we were in the same classes together from probably like first grade all the way to six or seven. Are you still in touch at all?

Yeah. I got a gig at MTV, which was one of my first really big gigs in TV. And it was the MTV Sports and Music Festival. And they're like, so you're going to do the vert ramp and your co-hosts are going to be Method Man and Red Man. I was like, what in are you kidding me and probably like four or five years not like four or five years earlier i had come home from school from from work one day and i lived at a house with a bunch of guys and you know guys are sitting around drinking beers and watching mtv because that was a thing that we did

back then just come home and watch videos yeah Yeah, watch TRL all the time. Maybe some girls will come over. Life was easy. Sounds good. And there was no Graham. And this video comes on for 36 Chambers, and I'm looking at this dude who's got this grill and he's got this incredible raspy voice,

and I stood up in the middle of the living room like, yo, I know that dude. And all these bros are like no way you don't know that guy get the fuck out of here i'm like no i went i went to school with that dude in new york that's clifford smith that's my mans went to my mom's house dug through the school pictures sure enough like you could just see that we're like arm and arm like but i'm like just crazy you know fast i picture him with a five o'clock shadow even as a kid as a kid for sure he was he you know what was interesting about meth was he came from a really really really horrible background really like parents did not have much he was a kid who like didn't have money for school pictures and things like that and wore the same clothes every day and people would like tease him and shit because kids are stupid and then he ends up being you know

that dude so anyway we had that we we we had our reunion backstage at mtv and he was high as hell and rolls up on me he's like yo i was like yo man i'm salema because no one my full name is salema people didn't call me sal until i moved to California because SoCal kids are like, that's hard, dude. Salema, can you? Maybe you could shorten it. Like, oh, we're going to call you Sal, dude. And I didn't have any choice in the matter. It just became Sal.

And I was like, yo, man, Cliff. I said, Clifford. He looked at me like, who are you to call me by my government name? I said, it's Salema. And he just lost it. He's like, oh, shit. Yo, this is my fan. This is my fan.

Boom. Next thing you know, like we're hugging, et cetera. That lead ended up leading to the craziest hot box in a van with him, Capadonna, Method Man, and DMX that I will never forget. And DMX. And DMX that I will never forget. And DMX? And DMX. Oh, wow. Like, imagine, like, being in a band with these dudes, five baseball bat-sized joints being passed around.

Yeah. With, like, the strongest weed you've ever smoked in your life. Like, the shit that you saw in movies only. And, like, you're trying to keep up, and then you walk out, and you're like, I don't know where I am. I think I'm dead. At one point, I passed to join around late or something, and I just hear, this is how I discovered it was DMX.

Someone was behind me. It was in a van. It's dark. You're in Tennessee. You know, like five black men in a van in Memphis, Tennessee, smoking weed. Like, you're ready. Like, stakes are high.

And I just hear, hey, you're fucking up the rotation. Huh? Turn around. First I'm going to puff, then I'm going to pass. And like, oh, shit, there's DMX in here. Oh, and Redman was in the car too, of course. Yeah. So, yeah.

But anyway, working at the magazine sort of opened me up to this whole industry. I ended up getting jobs at different, at different brands and started doing marketing and team managing athletes. And you'd take turns at different events because back then they weren't like big sponsored events. They were just endemic events that your friends from different companies were putting on. All these companies were like basically started by kids like us who basically like their parents were like okay sure jimmy you want to start a snowboard company you get all you need is 50 grand here you go and that's how a lot of these brands were born and you take turns on the mic being like you know talking shit about

the run and entertaining the crowd and and i started people started putting the mic in my hand more and more and i started to get a reputation like, yo, if you're doing a contest or a demo at a shop or whatever, you should call this guy. He can't shut up. And that's really how, over time... Were you that guy in the group? Were you the talker of all your friends? Yeah, I was for sure that guy.

I enjoyed not trying to be funny for the sake of being funny. I could find the humor in just about anything. I really enjoy the shit out of life. So I was the person who was making up songs or raps or whatever and just inserting pop culture in the conversation. And I grew up with my father was a performer. My father was a trumpet player. And musician.

Yeah. South Africa, right? Yeah. So he was the father of jazz music in South Africa. Yes. The father of jazz music in South Africa and also like this sort of genre of music called world music basically

where he was borrowing from my Cuban and Brazilian influence and bebop jazz and African music and stirring the pot and playing shit that people were like, yo, what is that? And so my earliest memories with my father was watching him on stage, you know, and not just as a player, but also as this commanding like storyteller slash comedian slash activist as well, because he's a political exile during apartheid in South Africa. So he and he could layer all these things so I learned kind of how to have an affinity for that from him and he wrote a song about Nelson Mandela right because Nelson wrote a letter to him from jail yes is that correct

yes yeah yeah in 1984 I believe my or 85 my dad gets a letter in New York City. He lives in Harlem at the time and it's from Nelson Mandela. He's like, wait, what? He opens it up and it's like, hey, dear Hugh, want you to know that we appreciate the work that you're doing

out there and keep up the good work. Keep telling them about South Africa. And my father's like, wait, this dude's in prison. He's been in prison for 20 some odd years, and he's writing a letter to me telling me to stay strong and keep up the good work. And he just walks up to a piano and starts playing a few chords,

and the chorus came out immediately. Bring back Nelson Mandela. And then that ended up being this huge sort of freedom anthem that he ended up playing around the world with Paul Simon on the Graceland tour. Wow. It was, yeah, it was amazing. That's awesome. Did you ever feel pressure to follow in his footsteps?

I did. Yeah. In elementary school and junior high school especially. Because one of the great things about growing up in New York Was that they put instruments in our hands early and yet the arts are super celebrated and you're taking field trips to Broadway And you know you're going to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and shit like at a very young age you're being pumped with the importance of art and culture and I being pumped with the importance of art and culture. And I think it was second or third grade. There was literally a room with a bunch of instruments.

Like, okay, kids, pick one. And that's when I started playing. I started playing clarinet at first, much to the chagrin of my father. He was just like, wait, what? My son, you should play brass. And I was like, no, Dad, I don't like this one. Plus all the cute girls. Were you subtly rebelling

or you just like? No, it was just dumb, like little, not even dumb, just like actually all the cute girls were in the woodwind section.

Okay. So the focus was strong with this one at an early age, like second, third grade. The cliques were some dudes young. I want to be with them.

Those guys all suck anyway. And it worked out good. I dated like most of those girls ended up being the loves of my elementary to junior high life. Good move. And we're all still really good friends to this day. Are you really? Yeah, from my first band, which is crazy. And we would go and compete against other schools.

But when your last name is Masakeela and your dad's a huge jazz icon and he lives in the city and everyone knows him, teachers would be ecstatic. Oh, well, I'm teaching Hugh Masichela's son. And you don't really know what that means, but the pressure was real as I got older. And my dad, you know, he, like any musician in the 60s and 70s who has a lot of stardom,

he's battling, like, addiction and things like that. So our relationship sort of fluctuates up and down. And at a certain point, it did start to be a little bit of like, well, yeah, I have a natural ability for this thing, but I'm not going to let anybody, I don't want to be that. So I started doing it less. Was that intense when you were like, would you go with him on tour and be with him and his bandmates and all those people around that?

That was amazing. So crazy story. I mentioned Paul Simon and the Graceland tour. Yeah. That was one of the biggest albums of the late 80s. And it was a huge, massive tour. I don't think it sold like 17 million albums or something like that.

My father made it possible for Paul Simon to go to South Africa and make music with those musicians, which was a big deal in the midst of apartheid in like 85, 86. He basically made like he was going on there on like a curiosity mission, and then on the low was recording this album with black musicians. Like not something you could do at the time. Ends up being this incredible, you know, global changing album.

And Paul says to my dad, thank you. Like you're coming on tour with me and you're a headliner. Like it's Paul Simon Grisa in tour, but Hugh Masekela gets his hour and Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Miriam a headliner. It's Paul Simon Grierson tour, but Hugh Masekela gets his hour, and Lady Smith Black Mambazo, and Miriam McKayla. And I hadn't seen my dad in a few years in that time, and my mother and I go to see. He calls me and says, hey, we're doing this tour. And by that time, the Call Me Al video was on MTV every day.

And I said, Mom, my dad called called? And, you know, he's playing with Paul Simon. He's inviting us down to Radio City Music Hall. So we go, she calls him, etc. Having a blast, end up staying for a few extra days. And on the third night, Paul says to me, I'm 15 and a half. He says, hey, Salema, it'd be really cool. I think you need to spend a little bit more time with your father. I'm taking my son on tour with us for a little bit. His son Harper's like, you should come on tour with us. We're going to Australia for a few months.

I was like, look, Paul Simon, I'm in school. My stepfather is never going to go for that in no way, shape, or form. He's like, let me talk to your mother. After the show, my mom loved Paul Simon. He was like a deity. I watched him, Paul, take mom to the side, and I see her nodding, et cetera. I'm thinking there's no way this is going to happen. And sure enough, she walks back, and he looks at me.

He's like, all set? My dad's in shock because Paul had shock because my dad had told Paul, there's no way his mother's going to go for it, man. You're crazy. And three weeks later, I was on the road as a roadie with Paul Simon, my dad, Lady Smith Black Mambazo. And my parents took me out of school for two and a half months. You know that movie Almost Famous?

Yeah. Lived that. Wow. I lived that times 30. So you got to see all the artists up close and see their warts and see them kind of... All of it. Yeah, not be like the confident superstars on stage, but like the... All of it.

Insecure, needy person off of it. Groupies and blow and all the things that like you just you didn't even know existed so you're looking at it from a from a weird periphery and um and also just it was just amazing like i'm touring the world in a rock on a rock tour at 15 you know and seeing australia it actually was interesting because that was the first place i saw surfing for the first time oh and i thought it was the coolest thing ever i was like that's like break dancing on water yeah it's like an art yeah and i had i was a b-boy growing up and break breaking was a huge part of me i was like if i ever got a chance to do that i would do that yeah but so you it kind of normalized all that uh excess so like did that

help you like now when you because you you talk to celebrities so much, or do you feel like being around that as a kid kind of gave you the tools to just be, like, whatever about it? It definitely helped me. That's a really great piece of insight because it helped me to not be intimidated by people. And I think it was the reason why when I started meeting, like, the Tony Hawks and the Terry Hawkinsons of the world and all those, you know, everyone, everyone coming up in those different areas. I was never, it was like, no offense. Like you guys are the shit. But like Nelson Mandela talks to my dad. I've met Nelson Mandela. Like by the time I worked at trans world,

like I had hung out with Nelson Mandela. Like you're talking to some skaters. That's a great origin story. Let me tell you about one of my buddies origin stories. Yeah. And I think it's definitely growing up in and around i mean as a little kid in the i would go to the my dad had me on the weekends i would go with him to the club at like five six years old and we'd be hanging out to like two or three in the morning it would be like dizzy gillespie i mean it would be like miles davis it would be like Dizzy Gillespie. I mean, it would be like Miles Davis. It would be like Stevie Wonder. And I just got used to that.

I just, that was kind of. They're just dudes. They're just, they were dudes that like smoked J's with my dad. Did they ever do anything embarrassing? Never. Jazz dudes don't. They're cool all the time. They're the coolest dudes on earth.

They're incapable of like anything embarrassing. Do you still get starstruck at all? I do, sure. all the time coolest dudes on earth they're incapable of like anything embarrassing do you still get uh starstruck at all i i do sure um there's people that i that i'm i'm a fan of that i can't believe that i even kind of know that when i see them or if they like comment on something on social media you're just like what. How is that even a thing? But yeah, I still get starstruck. I've become, I have a working relationship with Morgan Freeman. Wow.

Because I did his show, The Story of God on Nat Geo. And then went to his company and pitched him an idea for a show and he's like okay cool we'll we'll do it and I'll come on board as an executive producer so we're taking out a show together right now I'm like you sit in conversations I'm like I did a panel with him at the up front and I'm sitting on this panel like I just look over a couple times like yeah that's him like we're this is really fucking happening i'm talking to god yeah i'm like i'm rolling with god like this it's nuts yeah cat power i don't know if you guys are fans the singer the singer someone who i've loved forever

and one day i just there was like a first i saw a like i was like that can't be and then it was like a comment with like emojis and I was like I'm good like okay cool Kappa yeah I never even imagined something this wonderful

could happen to me like life is so full of unexpected gifts yeah the first time I like when they sent me to Vegas to interview Jay-Z when I was at E

I was like send Sal he'll be perfect and I also lobbied for it I was like wait Jay's opened up the 4040 club it It should be me. Look, I'm the only

me here. I literally was the Han Solo Negro at the time. So I was like angling. And Jay was a superhero. And I waited for what felt like hours for him to show up in classic hip hop form. And I'm

starting to think maybe he's not going to show. He's got the classic hip hop form. And I'm starting to think like maybe he's not gonna show, like he's got the show tonight, et cetera. And then some people show up, start walking in and I just hear Sal Masekela. Ha ha ha. The worst Jay-Z imitation ever was. That was very good. Yeah, I liked it.

But that, it was Jay. And he said my name before I stood up. And then he starts like quoting me my discography, like X Games, et cetera. I've been watching you, been watching you, and so on and so on. And next thing you know, like, we have this great interview, and he's like, when are you going home? I said, tomorrow. He's like, no, you're not. You're staying.

Stay, go to the show. Ended up going to the blackjack tables with him that night. It was one of the craziest nights of my life. What do you think makes for a great interview? Listening makes for a great interview. I think a lot of times people go in and they got this list of questions and ideas and they're like, I'm just going to crush it. I have it in my head right now.

Which is good. That means you're prepared. But if someone gives you something that you weren't expecting and you know there's an opportunity to like go further and like you have to put on your audience vibe like what would someone who's sitting on their couch or in their car right now listening what would they ask next and if you can i think play between what your choices are and what your subject is giving you then you always win because if the subject sounds amazing you just win by default it took me a long time to learn that I used to ask

the longest most drawn-out questions where basically was telling them everything yeah that I wanted them to say and espn was a great place for learning that because there was just like you'd go to seminars and you'd be in a in a room with like every single broadcaster they'd fly people out for like 48 hours and do these intense seminars and they would throw your shit up on the screen of like what not to do really oh and there'd be someone on the stage with a mic did you know it was coming no oh no i remember the first time it happened to me it was like you're sitting there next to like in the same row as stewart scott and in all the heavies and you're just there's

but they're all getting thrown under the bus too oh really yeah and no one was that's fair yeah how often would it happen to you it would would happen, I think like two or three times I got crushed. Yeah. But the few times that they did play me as an example was such a big deal of how to do it right. It was such a big deal because most of the broadcasters at ESPN like quietly and not so quietly like mocked the fact that I was even there. Because you came from the X Games culture. This isn't the gridiron. It's not the NBA.

This isn't the MLB. Skateboarding. Snowboarding. I can't even believe we have to do those highlights in SportsCenter. Fuck you guys. That's like their dialogue when they're like,

hey, nice to meet you. That's their inner sentence that they're saying to you. And a lot of times... Who is that, like Craig Kilborn? Who are we talking about? Craig Kilborn was actually real cool. Only person ever...

Sorry for suggesting it. Craig Kilborn was the only person to ever have me on a late night show. Oh, really? When he used to hold... Daily show. He hated late night on CBS. The year that I was doing the NBA,

he was the only person to have me on. Okay, so he's a legend. Yeah, he's a legend. But there were plenty of others who were horrible. And some who were really cool. Like Brent Musburger was the coolest dude ever. That guy mentored me.

Really? Yeah, I worked on... Brent Musburger was my play-by-play guy while I was sidelining. And so we were traveling the country together. And he'd be like, Sal, you gonna come and meet me downstairs for a post-game brew like yes brent i will be down and i'd sit in the hotel bar with him and he'd tell me stories and talk about the ponies because he loved to gamble and he would be up front with me

about like how i could get better and you're sitting there with a fucking like a legend one of the greatest voices in the history of sports and Iconic. And he's everywhere we went. He'd be like, do you know Sal? Sal Mastichelli? He's, this is my guy, Sal. You got to pay attention to him. You see him out there on the X Games, but he's flexible. He's going to go a long way. And you'd be like throwing up, you know, to the haters.

Be like, Musburger bitches. Back the fuck off. That's the co-sign that i dreamt of i remember yeah it was it was a trip that's cool that must have been nice when yeah so when you had him in your corner you felt like all right i'm like i got some cachet here now it felt great yeah but also like that first i'd never gotten real criticism before the year that i did the nba because they're not no one's writing about you the next day in the sports pages. And you were the first one at the X Games,

so there was like no one to kind of compare you to almost. No one to compare to, and also it just didn't matter. Like they still weren't taking the Bob Bernquists and the Travis Pastranas and the Sean Whites. Like the mainstream sports still weren't taking them seriously in the early 2000s. It was like, you know, nah, this isn't a real thing. And we can't even believe it's on TV. And so when I went to do the NBA, I remember the first time,

like there was just a whole write-up of me on USA Today. Really? Yeah. And this guy, like, just eviscerated the very idea that I, he said, it was so brilliant. It was something like, he shouldn't even have a media pass to get into the game, let alone hold the microphone and ask questions on the sidelines to represent the game. Did it take a while for you to sort of like break into the other other sports? Like did you always feel like a little bit like an outsider coming from extreme sports? No, I was a massive fan of the game. Yeah. Like basketball was the thing that I played. I played pickup ball

every day. You know in the water in the daytime and playing basketball at night. Like I was a huge fan of basketball. So it was I never even thought about like oh that people are gonna care. So it was, I never even thought about like, oh, people are going to care. So it was a real slap in the face. I remember there was a legendary sports writer by the name of Peter Vesey who had also been on air at the time at NBC.

I was a huge fan. Opened up the Post one day and this motherfucker just destroys my existence. And it was like, and they never, I think the thing that hurt them the most wasn't just getting the criticism. It was that they weren't criticizing what I had to say or my approach to the game.

It was that I came from this world, I had dreadlocks, and I didn't speak like a broadcaster. I spoke more from the perspective of a fan. And the fans liked it and the players liked it. But for those guys, it was like, well, where did this? They didn't feel like I earned it. Right, it wasn't like the journalism school method. Yeah, like you didn't do three years in Topeka covering like AAA and whatever.

They resented your route division four football you didn't put in the time at the local like you're you're prime timing on espn already on some shit that we don't even consider a sport fuck you i want i wish that was me and now you're in my shit nah how'd you process that like did you were you hard on yourself after or do you did you process that? Like, did you, were you hard on yourself after? Or did you learn to sort of push it aside? It was very, really difficult. Yeah. Yeah, I wasn't prepared for it. That was like getting T-boned, smiling with the top down as you're driving through the light.

And next thing you know, you're like in slow motion, like, oh, am I in a car accident? And it affected me on camera. I started thinking too much about people about what people might think of me. And it was probably the best thing that ever happened in that I learned to get tough skin. And it's like, oh, not everyone's going to like you. And that's okay. Yeah, it's like when you see those negative comments,

it's almost like a punch in the gut. Yeah, and sometimes they're very perceptive. Yeah, when they're perceptive. I'm not saying that about you, but sometimes when I read comments about myself, I'll be like, oh man, he drilled me. I'll be like, good work, bro. I do respect, I actually respect when they're creative

and it's actual criticism. I've gotten better from the actual criticism. It's the shit that's hate-fueled. For a little while, there were these guys that had set up fake Twitter accounts in my name with my likeness before that shit started getting policed early in Twitter. And these dudes were horrible. It was like racist as could be. And these dudes were horrible.

It was like racist as could be. And they'd talk about how my dad had opened the door for me. And if my father wasn't famous, I wouldn't be on television, which no one cared. Like no one in that world. And skateboarding was like, wait, your dad's a legendary jazz musician? Yeah. Come right on in. Yeah. Like no one knew.

And it was great because I got to just operate them of on my own yeah and make my own name for myself and um so yeah when you started when i started when that shit started happening that was really really crazy and i ended up finding out who the dude was really and he was this like salty bmx dude oh really oh Catfish. Who had like a vendetta on you? Yeah, he had a straight up vendetta. Catfish? Yeah, this dude Catfish. And he, I mean, the accounts were horrible. He's the only person that to this day, if I saw in real life,

it'd be very hard for me not to catch a case. Because I just remember the shit that he wrote. I remember how much it affected me and how much he just took these horrible shots at my family. Did you ever reach out to him and say, hey, man, I know it's you who's doing this? No, we had a mutual friend, and they used to do a show together.

And I remember calling him up like, yo, your man's not safe if I see him. And my friend was in a rough place because we were really good friends and he didn't know that this dude was doing this. He's like, you don't understand, he's a good guy. You know, he's just having like, nah, I'm just telling you, like, I can't see him alone.

I can't see him in a place where, even to this day, especially in the way, like since my father passed for some reason, like I think whenever I see, I had to unfollow and block them years and years and years ago um but yeah it's crazy like i'm talking about right now i'm being like oh wow you should probably go to therapy you still got some heat on it yeah it'll be yeah it's a heat on this it was like a decade ago do you feel less fear like more fearful more fearless since your dad passed

because i know i got into a like a fist fight with my dad one time and then when i came home like he was living in montana i came back to la i was like i was like looking to fight like everybody for a couple months you know losing losing your father is there's just nothing that prepares you for it has been a year and a half for me now um there's there's you can have all the empathy for in the world for people when they lose a parent, and you've been there for them, right? And you feel like you feel some texture of it, but you've been there for them and you console them, and you're like, okay, they'll be okay.

And then when it happens to you, you're just like, this is the most foreign, these are the most foreign physical, mental, emotional, spiritual feelings that I just never knew existed. And they eat your soul. And they come in these crazy waves. And you just get reshaped as a human being. Like you're not the same afterwards.

My dad's super sick right now, so I'm kind of looking down the barrel of it a little bit. I'm sorry, man. I know what that is. My dad had prostate cancer. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. And it was a long thank you it was a long you know my dad had it twice first time beat it the second time you know three years and i remember being i was in the the

office with the oncologist you know when they came out like one of those shitty movies and he sits down and says well clinically as fuck as fuck, like, you have stage four prostate cancer. And throw up the screen and show you all the places where, you know, your body's riddled and here's your life expectancy. Not like you're going to get better, but you should try and live the best life you can. And you just want to jump over the table and, like, attack this person. I wanted to attack my dad's surgeon. He came in and, like, looked at his phone for, like, the first five seconds best life you can and it's you just want to jump over the table and like attack this person i wanted to attack my dad's surgeon he came in and like looked at his phone for like the first five

seconds before he told us how the surgery went you know that a lot of these doctors i think they need that arrogance for some reason but i was like just angry yeah i think it's it's this i think it's so clinical for them what they do. And they deal with so much. Like death is just a reality to them. That it's like going to see the car guy. They have to detach in some way. Yeah, and they detach a lot of them in a very cold manner that keeps them safe. That, you know, you just doesn't feel human yeah

but I'm sorry man oh thank you yeah no it means a lot thank you yeah I was like I should say something yeah but I'm sorry for you too no I get it and just trust that it's a journey and make make the most of it it will serve you you know it will absolutely serve you they're going to i don't know where your dad's at but like they're going to give you what they're going to give you and it might not be what you want and you got to be okay with that right if that makes any sense i think it does yeah because there's that push and pull every day with like what i want from him and then like what where he's at yeah what you hope he's gonna say what you want to talk about he does a good job too i have to say he's he's very generous in that respect yeah but then some days it's like some days yeah yeah

worst but but he's got a good uh good average yeah like hall of famer i wish i wish him and your family the the absolute best man thank you dude i appreciate that yeah we just went to a place it was nice man yeah i started off with i got a little we started off with the groomiest balls and then we just went straight to perinda yeah i was just taking it in yeah it's uh it's a it's a journey man and this is i think one of the gifts i've been given in having a career for two decades is, you know, all the layers of what that is. And I can't believe that I still get to sit here with you guys and be relevant. You're telling me when I walk in that you were watching me when you were kids. And we're sitting here having a conversation about life.

You know, that's just a gift. Yeah, it's special i uh i think your sort of life story and career is cool because it's especially with your dad being a musician it's sort of like you found your own art and like surfing skating snowboarding and then with broadcasting it really it became my own music yeah And it allowed me to get out from under the idea of what people expected me to be. And I was able to find a place where my name didn't matter. It could have been Smith.

It took a very long time for anyone to recognize it in any way, shape, or form. And I was able to carve my own deal, not even knowing that that's where it was going. It wasn't like, I'm going to have a career in this. It was just like, oh, wait, someone else wants to give me a job that's not a real job? Sweet. It wasn't until like maybe two or three years into X Games when I was still a sideline reporter

where someone took me aside because I was the little guy who was out every night sending it and doing it as you should. And when you're like, wow, I work at ESPN. This is amazing. They're giving me money with zeros on it. Let's go. Where someone had to take me aside and be like, hey, you could lose this all. And also, this could all be yours.

I was like, what do you mean this could all be yours? Like, you could be the host of this whole shit. They want you to be this. You're going to have to step your game up and stop saying like i and i was i would always talk about espn is like you guys need to do this and it's cheesy when you do this and you need to start saying we and you need like to show that you you're here for the job you want not the temporary one that you presently have did you try to uh limit your partying and or any of that kind of stuff like or do you still party like how's that i have you found that

balance i'm a i'm old b yes balance for sure i mean i used to go out like four or five nights a week yeah like it was like that's just the job we had we had chris cote on ah and uh he was telling us about that he's been sober i think like two years yeah he said. Ah. And he was telling us about that. He's been sober, I think, like two years. Yeah. But he said he was just losing heart. Oh, he was full send.com. Yeah. And everyone's doing it, right?

I mean, it's like action sports stars, they probably get after it, right? Because it kind of feeds into the ethos. They work hard and they play hard. And these days, there's just too much money. And people handle their business. And it's not until the event is over that people go hard. And even then, it's become so jocked out that there's only a small, it's not what it was.

But in the early 2000s, if you weren't, if you were the first guy at the ramp and you didn't have a hangover, you might get shit for it from your other competitors who might be like who does this dude think he is like oh you're like a straight a he's out he's out here like trying to win yeah what a what a concept yeah he's out here trying to win make a name for himself but probably underneath it they're all that competitive yes like they're all acting like oh i don't care

about winning but those dudes care yeah but there was and there was also this thing about the culture that was like you sent it hard like when you were out doing doing the thing and then you you kept on sending it um and it wasn't a healthy culture and there was a lot of resentment like growing up just peripheral of it but like i dirt biked and stuff like that like no one liked travis pastrana like no one was like travis pastrana is my favorite guy exactly they were like dude he's corny and like the dudes we like have the boobs in their videos and stuff like that. He's corny and he drinks milk and stuff. He's like, hey, how you doing?

He's a milk chugger. What's your problem? And the longer that he kicked the shit out of all those dudes, pretty weird how they all started. They might have been like, yeah, I'm in worship. But also like, I was in the gym. Don't tell anybody. Like he changed it up for everybody

same thing with his life now you're like he kind of had maybe his life is like better because of some of those choices he made you know what i mean oh for sure i mean he probably could do without like 50 of the 58 surgeries he's had but damn but yeah um i think so i definitely think so but he also like he's the kind of person for whom I think substance would have killed him. Because his intensity and his ability to, like, endure pain and see, like, okay, I might break myself five times, but I'll get there. Like, he had, what was amazing about Travis was he would process the potential, the risk factor, and then choose to be like, that's worth it, and I can see myself doing it again even if I fuck up. Like, I'm not going to die.

Which was, on a dirt bike, you can talk to any of those riders and they'll be like, yeah. I remember that double backflip. Oh, my God, bro. Did you see that live? Yeah, did you see it? Like, watch when ESPN plays the clip. I'm losing my shit in front of the camera.'s your favorite moment that you commented on that one yeah i remember seeing that that was unreal the double backflip tony hawk's 900 we talked to

we had tony on like a month ago we talked to him about the 900 yeah i was on the ramp i was standing on the road oh man yeah that he he and travis pastrana i feel like they sort of had to endure that kind of criticism. The corporate face of this outsider sport. Yeah, and then they powered through it and now they're legends. There are haters. People still give Tony shit on his own page. Dude's 52 years old now.

They're still giving him shit about conspiracy theories that they heard about the reason why a certain skater didn't get on the game. You watch other guys. He's like the villain in other dudes documentaries. Like they're like because they had like their three year run where they were at the top. And then they're like, but Tony Hawk like didn't make it. I mean, to this day, people think that he he that Tony made it so that Taz papas wasn't in the contest the night of the the 900 which is just not true but there are there are dudes salty ass dudes that are probably like 60 they're like fuck tony hawk fucking poser i didn't know there were conspiracy theories around

oh there's mad that's hilarious they're around everything like i grew up with like friends in aau basketball and the dads used to go on this website like socal hoops and just like trash each other's kids yeah talk shit on the parents could you imagine like don't you want to talk about i would go on there i was 12 though i loved it but those are the people who have their kids taken away from them right like fuck you yeah like you living vicariously through your kid because you were never able to pull it together, assholes. I see those people all the time in all the sports. And we see them even in skateboarding and snowboarding now,

especially in surfing. You go to the beach like at Trestles for nationals or something, and you see these parents who it's like, are you, bro, your kid's seven. This is not the world tour. You don't tell me how to talk to my son. You call that a cutback? Get your ass to the truck.

Yeah, with, like, surfing, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wonder if for, like, guys like Kolohe and Dino, you know, like, he comes from, like, a legendary, like, Dino and Dino. Yeah. And I wonder what it was like growing up under that with, like, that sort of pressure to surf well. Yeah, it was in a totally different direction.

Because most people get into it because, like you said, when I first saw it, it does look like dancing. Like, when you see good surfing live, it's beautiful. It's like an art. Watch Mikey February. Yeah. Watch Mikey February ride a surfboard. Craig Anderson.

Craig Anderson or Steph Gilmore. And you're just like, can I be six foot tall and just gangly and just Gumby, drop knee and casually like make things that are death that will kill you look easy yeah that'd be fun it's gorgeous like you don't have to be a surfer to know like hey what those guys are doing that looks cool that yeah that's amazing dane reynolds oh man i still i used to have on my itunes like a clip from you were commentating on it, like the Puerto Escondido. X Games. Oh, it was X Games.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was probably 2006 or something when Dan Reynolds was coming up. I watched that like 100 times probably because I was so in love with surfing then. We went to Puerto. I just remember being in Puerto Escondido for like two weeks. Yeah. All expenses paid. Yeah. With the best surfers in the world getting pushed in waves that I never dreamt I'd surf

and commentating like this crazy team event of surfing with the who's who of what would end up being the future of professional surfing. I heard Puerto is just like, it's so heavy that one guy described it as like concrete coming on your head. it as like concrete coming on your head it's like yeah concrete coming on your head in two feet of water but also the the sand below is also a form of concrete like so it's like a concrete on sandwich on on soft concrete sandwich yeah and it's one of those places where you've never seen a wave take shape that way yeah so it actually like makes you pause. You're like, wait, you can't catch this because it comes out of such deep water and hits the sandbar.

So next thing you know, it's like, is that a two foot? No, that's six, eight footer. And it's going to eat me. Yeah. You can't go anywhere. How would you compare Puerto to Blacks? Blacks in San Diego. Yeah. Sorry if this is getting too specialized. Blacks in San Diego. Sorry if this is getting too special.

Blacks in San Diego. That's good. La Jolla, adjacent to UCSD. You can see naked people there. Oh, that's great. It's a good training ground, but far softer. Far softer? Far softer.

And blacks is heavyweight. Blacks will fuck you up at like two feet. It has the underwater canyon, so really, it's good stuff. It's pulling from deep. You like will fuck you up at like two feet. Yeah, it has the underwater canyon, so really it's good stuff. It's pulling from deep. You like that? The blue was a strong choice. Sal just had his first sip of the blue drink.

Yeah, I'll take that. I believe it's almond milk. Is that correct? Yes, sir. It's almond milk with a little bit of like... A little bit of nothing. A little nutmeg. Yeah.

There's some nutmeg in it. A little bit of blue. It's got E3, tryptolitis. Yeah. You know, everybody's favorite. Those probiotics are going to help you so much.

Yes. We're all going to have great poos tonight, folks. So, I want to ask you some more like interviewing questions. Sure. So,

you've probably interviewed more high athletes than anybody in history, right? Like, athletes who are stoned at the time? Yeah. No, maybe not.

No. I mean, maybe... No. What do you think? I've been... I did Snoop Dogg's pocket... GGN, though. But do you think...

He was high as fuck. Do you think there's something different to talking to people when they're inebriated than when they're sober? Yes. I think so. Listen, I have been high before on camera. Oh, really? By accident. talking to people when they're inebriated than when they're sober yes i think so listen i have been high before on camera oh really by accident oh they just pulled you in and you were like yeah

so a lot of times in the early days um when we'd be doing regional snowboard contests um you're you find yourself in like lake tahoe or or somewhere, and it's a real close-knit snowboard community, and people are just stoked that you're there. And they're really particular. So the fact that they're, like, if they're embracing you, it just means, like, you're representing the culture. So all the time, people would be like, hey, man, like, just so stoked to have you in town. Like, I grow this at home, and I'd be honored if you'd take some. And also, like, maybe we could smoke a joint together. And I'd be honored if you take some and also like maybe we could smoke a joint together and be like of course and thank you walk around the side of the pipe

burn one a little bit and you come back um and one day i'd done that and i'm coming back around contest is over and my producer comes running up to me he's like hey hey we've been looking for you we gotta reshoot the winner's interview. And you're just like, like it's just a realization of like, oh, okay. And you're like really properly high. And you know how people say that like,

weed gives you creativity? Yes, it can. But not on camera when you're doing anything of merit. Because whatever your, when your inside voice gets amplified to like 10,000 when you're doing anything of merit because whatever your when your inside voice gets amplified at to like 10 000 when you're stoned so you're now that same question where you're like hey that last run you know it was really solid what worked for you now you're like

you know there was something about the way you were coming across the flat bottom on that last run you could just see the way you were leaving a lip flat bottom on that last run you could just see the way you were leaving the lip like there was just there was a different kind of comfort was that just me or were you just really in another zone that like just it just felt different than anything else previously i mean especially here in tahoe like the energy you just and i was vibing with you and i was wondering did you feel me and then you like you and then you put the mic back and dude's just looking at you like what did you just say in your mind we were like i just killed that i killed it that's the greatest question ever you should smoke all the time and then afterwards

you realize what you did and you're like that was a one and done yeah it's one and done what what do you think's the difference between talking to athletes and celebrities, like actor types and stuff? Actor types, there's a greater chance that they've just never been told no before in their life. Interesting. And also probably have never been figuratively or literally punched in the face by life. And how does that change them in their interviews? have never been figuratively or literally punched in the face by life.

And how does that change them in their interviews? So there's no ability to identify with regular human shit for a certain sector of them, because especially if they're kids who've come up since being a Disney star or something where it's just like, imagine no one ever telling you no from like 12 on. Yeah. And maybe you're already a little bit of an asshole. And then that just continues as you layer up,

continue to lay up, lay up, lay up, and you're like, oh, I get to still do this in my 20s. Those kind of people are horrible to talk to because they, you almost feel, not even almost, you feel bad for them. Yeah. Because they just have an impossibility to deal with, like, your, like, basic-ass gen pop life. And that you're asking them questions about theirs.

I can see that with Justin Bieber. I feel like the rest of the world is just, like, alien to him. When you see him. Right. It's an alien existence. Yeah. Like, you feel for him. Yeah.

You really feel for him. You can see, like, the pain a little bit. Yeah. Like, you're trying to comprehend this planet, but you're like, I can't breathe your air. Get inside this thing with me. Whereas athletes usually, yeah, they've been punched in the face more by life. Like a lot of them haven't. The job kind of requires it.

Yeah. Like you lose a lot publicly. You got to lose a lot publicly you you gotta lose a lot publicly and so yeah you you understand how temporary all of it is and how fickle people can be yeah now that being said there's a lot of really really great super famous people that are just so down to earth right off the bat you're like oh yes thank you like it could happen yeah like the first time i met julia roberts it was just like oh wow you're the greatest human being wow like when you see her you're like okay that's what a movie star is supposed to do like she's just like the homie generous and to to this day like a dear friend now

in my life awesome um i feel like brad pitt's that way too i haven't met him but i've heard that he's chill as fuck he looks like it i've been watching all the press interviews for once upon a time in hollywood i'm like dude brad he's just i never met i never met brad i never got yeah um however um what's his name johnny casamigos um come on sal you guys ring casamigos no is that a george georgeoney? Clooney, yeah. Oh, right, right, right. Clooney's the nicest, coolest guy ever. I've heard that too. Yeah, but he got famous a little bit later too, right? Like he had all those failed pilots. Yeah.

He did like a lot of shitty daytime, et cetera. So by the time it cracked off, he was like, whew, this was not supposed to happen. Yeah. Yeah, it could have not happened very easily. Young kids that make it really, really big quickly tend to be the worst. happened very easily. Young kids that make it really really big quickly tend to be the worst but these days I don't know I haven't been fortunately I don't

have to dance in that landscape too much. What do you most want to accomplish with your relationship to the viewer? I want the viewer to feel like I could hang out if I knocked on their door that they be like oh yeah come on in dude you want a beer like I want people to feel like oh that's my boy Sal I have a sense of him

as of who he is as a person based off of what he does and I'll respect his space because of that and also like know that we can also know that we can have engagement. I feel it. Go ahead. Is there stuff you want to say

but you feel like it wouldn't fit in with that image so you can't say it? It's constantly a dance and I think that if you want to be good or want to have a long career, you have to take chances. You got to push that a little bit chances you got to push that a little you got to push that a little bit but you can't you also can't push it for the sake of like this is

gonna get likes or this will be different this will be different and controversial like you got to push it because of who it's like it's urgent it's got to come from from inside and it's what you know you want to to get out there what you want to get. And it's now, in a clout-chasing world, it's just really hard to watch sometimes how much people are strictly trying to one-up each other based off of, like, emulating other people. And I'm lucky that I came. I don't think if the necessity for, like, having a massive social media following would have

been pertinent to my sustaining my career and having to like constantly get up and create like this existence for people to, to take me seriously. I don't think, I don't think I would have lasted in this business. I feel like you'd, I feel like you'd have a knack for it though. Cause your personality is so like outgoing.

Yeah. I think you would have been good at it too actually. Cause I think, I think Chad's like the best Iack for it, though, because your personality is so outgoing. Yeah, I think you would have been good at it, too, actually. I think Chad's the best I know at it. He's got a quarter million followers. Yeah. So he's doing something right. You guys are killing it. Actually, you guys should help me out.

Dude, we'd be happy to do stuff with you. Yeah, if you want to come mess with people in public with us. I enjoy your thing. If you want to come mess with people in public with us. I enjoy your thing. And it would actually be cool to go and be anonymous and wonder if people just have no point of reference as to who I am. So, yeah. Dude, that'd be fun.

Let's get it. Or, dude, like, yesterday we just danced at the Grove. Like, we just put on, like, some 80s bangers and danced. And, like, I ripped my tee off. Chad ripped his tee off. Like, it's a good, wholesome fun. The world needs that right now. That's what people say, yeah.

Some people say it's too much, and both sides, they know. Did you just both sides? Is that weak? No, it was weak on my part that I used that as a pun. But it's a fucking dark world out there. Yeah. And I think that if you can do the types of things that don't prey on people, but force people to laugh, especially now in this crazy-ass climate,

so necessary. I think not preying on people is a big part of it. Yeah. Where you're not fixing someone into a position where they've got to look bad. You're giving them a choice. Yes. And a genuine choice. A genuine choice.

And do you guys get releases afterwards or never just like full sound we tried at first but then we were like it's just too much time what a cool world you know we had one release oh yeah we do we had one release we had all these people sign it and then we did this interview with this guy who uh had been in a fight with a shark and we wanted him to sign a uh a contract that said there would be peace between humans and sharks and he he got really upset he's like i can't sign this this is nonsense and then um we drove off and we felt kind of bad kind of icky but then he called us he's like you can't release that video and i'm like dude you signed a contract and then he looks at the contract he says it says i'm allowed to cancel the contract i was like i was like no it

doesn't and then our guy forgot to take out that line. Why did you leave that in there? Yeah. So basically the contract had no value. I was just like, okay, fuck. But for the most part, are people pretty chill? Yeah. I think because we lead with kindness for the most part. We're just, you know, it's all pretty positive.

Have you been arrested? No. I came close a couple times. Yeah. I snuck into some events with a friend who looked like the person whose event it was. Sick. And the cops got a little frustrated, but never all the way to the station. Just like sat down and threatened.

Anytime you can exploit elitism and exclusivity is fine by me. What are those, Neck Boy dudes? Neck Boys, yeah. I saw the one they did in Coachella. Oh, yeah. That shit was all time the clout chasing the clout chasing yeah and checking followers and and these people are like you know these wannabe fucking influencers are taking it seriously you've seen it like be the end of people's world

yeah that brought me joy yeah that's smart yeah those are people they don't, no one's like, your heart's not breaking for someone at Coachella. You're just like, yeah, get it. Yeah. And with the council too, it's public domain, so they can't do anything about that. And also, I think we say we're protected by the constitution, you know, so they kind of just have to hear us out.

The consti, bro. The consti. The most fluid document in the world. Oh, dude, thank God. And we go to challenging places sometimes because I think it's like you want to, I think at the core of that is like everybody should be able to like communicate

with each other on some level. We did get kicked out of the Renaissance Fair. You have to work hard for it. And it was like, they're like, all right, you guys have to wait here. Security's coming. We might call the cops. And like, cause we're dressed in tuxedos like filming ourselves like yeah it was just too

much of a production they didn't want us there yeah that was funny there's that fine line between like hey we know we're just hanging out and do you have a permit yeah yeah yeah it's like what any you know and you can see them wrestling with it the people are watching you and they're like do i want to they're like literally going back and forth they're like should i stop this should i not and then after a certain time i think they just get tired of thinking about it they're like you know just get the hell out of i'm tired of thinking about you being here that's fine yeah yeah i wanted to ask you a really serious question and it's very germane to my dog chad yeah when he cut your when he cut your dreads oh was that yeah like that was a big deal yeah we've come up with stuff where we might have to shave our heads

oh no I just had like a life attack JT's like how about we shave our heads I'm like nope and I just leave slam the door and I just do an anger drive my DMs

when I cut my hair I heard you were coming off I just do an anger drive. My DMs. My DMs. When I cut my hair. Yeah, I heard you were coming off a breakup or something. And I get that. Because I just like, if I even have like a little tiff with my girlfriend, I'm like, I need to shave. I need to like change something. This was the heartbreak that they write like number one songs over. The ones that remain anthems for like decades. This was like full reset.

Figuratively speaking, you feel like you lost a couple limbs and you just don't have a point of reference on living. And I didn't know that happened to dudes. I thought that I'd landed and it was like, oh no, it's another 20 floors down to concrete. And when I hit, yeah just i just woke up one day and i was like okay i gotta make some life changes here uh maybe this will work i call up my boy i was

like i'm coming down to the shop he's like for what you know i don't twist out your dreads you know i'm like no we're cutting it off today he's like you better have a note i said bro i'm coming down went down like a note from your people yeah yeah and um my buddy jason agreed to come and shoot some photos of it and the first one he cut like i started crying it was like a weird yeah like involuntary how long did you have him like 13 years yeah 13 years he put so much work into it kind of i didn't i didn't well it's just like it's like but it i unbeknownst you don't realize you don't realize that it has become a perceptive part of your identity yeah like you just know you and you've happened that look this way yeah and so when i cut him i didn't really honestly didn't do it to be shocking.

I just needed to do something. And it wasn't until I saw myself in the mirror that I was like, uh-oh. Because I didn't call the agent or the manager or anyone first. Your employers were like, dude. The moneymaker. I had had all those conversations before where casually I've been like, I think I'm going to cut my dreads.

And hold on a second. You were on the phone with one of them. And then it's like, I have such and such. I have such and such. And now you're on a group call with like five people

who are like, in the nicest way possible saying, don't fuck up our money. Or yours. Don't fuck up your money. Don't fuck up our money. And they're like pleading with you.

They're like, come on, man, please. Please, not yet. It's not the right time. You know, we'll get to this point and then it'll be a thing. I'm like,

what are you talking about? I just want a haircut. Yeah. And I had never bought, I guess that's the thing is like as much as I had become at a certain point relatively famous,

especially when I was on E! and ESPN at the same time, like shit was popping. Like you're going to certain places and and paparazzi are like, wait, they're taking pictures of me? This is stupid. Did you like that? There were points. There were periods where it was fun. It was fun for like three minutes though. And then it was like, this is the worst. And I worry about that sometimes. If it goes away, does that hurt too? Well, this is the worst. And I worry about that sometimes. Like, if it goes away, does that hurt too?

Well, this is the cool thing, is the anonymity that I instantly got, it was like taking a trip back in time. Yeah. I would walk past people who knew me and they didn't know me. And then it was interesting because there was all i mean when i posted the photo on instagram it was just crazy the amount of people who quote unquote are your fans are like sell out you sold out like what do you what do you mean you're like i'm going through a tough time i had to sold out like i cut my hair off yeah like oh man you did it because i had

just signed with rebel like well you you Bull there must be like some Red Bull NBC thing I can't believe that you did that I didn't expect all that there's extreme sports fans they're aggressive oh yeah we got a little we did a show for the World Surf League and that's the hardest

I've ever been roasted by anybody they came out as hard granted I think the team that we had was great, but it was hard for me to do the job. It was a hard job. Yeah, surf fans, they got no patience. And I don't know if I delivered the best product. In my mind, I was like, I won't be able to surf again.

I went to like zeros. I was kind of scared to get out of the car. I was like, I'm on WSL Instagram, and people fucking stab wrote wrote about us they're like what the fuck is this wow dude you know what like surfers here's how here's how interesting the surf community is just think about this the greatest surfer on earth who's ever lived kelly slater go and read his instagram and then you'll realize what surfers are like for the most part a very bitter myopic lot that um don't necessarily embody the whole like hey man we're just out here

in the ocean yeah it's true it's not really like the thing so i mean i get criticized every time i do a wsl broadcast i get eviscerated by people who basically just wish that they were doing what I was doing. Yeah. They care so much. They care so deeply. They care. Yeah. And they, you know, which it's a trick.

I always used to say, surfers are kooks, but I love surfing. Yeah, I felt that way a lot. Yeah. Like, in college, I'd surf Santa Cruz a lot. I'm like, man, a lot of the guys are like Steamer Lane and stuff. I was like, I don't want to hang out with any of these dudes. Not to the audience. You're killing the core, baby.

Guess who's not paddling out at Steamer Lane? Sorry, dudes. I appreciate your honesty. I'll be like, I didn't say it. I just was next to him. I didn't know those dudes. I did to him yeah they're like three dudes i did not alone they're like three dudes that's it i think that when your sole identity of who you are as a person yeah is based and attached to this one thing that you do if that's the only sense

of self-esteem that you get i understand how you would be so precious with it but it's also a sad existence because at a certain point, that shit's going to run its course. You can't exist that way as a human being. Yeah. There's some things I wanted to ask you about because I heard on another podcast with emceeing events, for a while you were doing it for free.

Yeah, for a very long time. We do stand-up and all that kind of stuff. And the idea of getting paid for it is that once it starts happening, you're like, I'm going to get 20 bucks. Like, what? Because you were talking about how there was a moment where you're like, you sort of realized your worth. Is that correct?

Yeah. And that's when you sort of found this way to start asking for money. I'm very impressed with the pre-search. Yeah. What I always, I went through a period where I felt that I didn't know that I had talent. of felt like, wow, like, you know, I've been able to have this, this, this, this career within the industry that I wouldn't have if these people wouldn't have held doors open for me to get opportunities to get jobs at this brand or this brand or whatever it is. So, and I also came in as representative of the culture. I wasn't trying to get on TV. I literally was like, when they asked me to do the X Games the first time,

I said no. Because I thought it was cheesy. And my friends were like, no, dude. You gotta do that shit for us. Go in there and represent us. And when the guy called me back, I was like, okay, I'll do it. But I literally said no the first time that they

asked me to be on the X Games. It wasn't about trying to be famous, but it was about the culture. So when people would ask me, like, hey, would you come and MC our big corporate Christmas party or come and do this award show? I was just like, yeah, of course. Yeah, I got you guys covered. And I was doing all this shit for free. And maybe they'd give me some clothes from one of the brands, of course. Yeah, I got you guys covered. And I was doing all this shit for free. And maybe they'd give me some clothes

from one of the brands, et cetera. And this is when you're on TV. And at a certain point, I had this one friend who was like, what the fuck are you doing, man? These people are playing you. You're homies or whatever, air quotes, but they're playing you.

But I can't. I've known them for years. Like, it would be weird. Doesn't matter. It's time for business to be business. And I dreaded it for a long time. And then I remember the first time when I asked and said, no, it's going to be, like, whatever, $1,000. And they were like, okay.

And I was like, oh. And it just switched. And then the people who didn't value or respect what I did stopped asking and people started seeing me less

but I was doing more cool high end shit which in turn people would see that and I it just led to more snowballed

yeah but you gotta let go of like this idea like you gotta start giving yourself a sense of value. Yeah. Well, it's tough, too. I think with some of these jobs, it's tough because it feels like a little vain to say you have talent. But they're not asking anybody to do it other than you.

And there's a reason why they want you to do it so bad. And you have to acknowledge that, like, it's not that the next person doesn't have talent. It's that they don't have what you have to give. It's not about demeaning, you know, what anyone else does or that they might not be capable of doing the job, but they're not going to do the job that you're going to do. Your talent is particular to you, and no one can do what you do. And you have to, in this failure-based industry, where you have to fail more times than you

succeed on a regular basis, if you don't hold on to that dearly, you won't last. Let's go. Let's go. And that's basically, that's also life and fucking jacked. Yeah, no I that's just life in general like yeah, whatever it is in your in your job and what you do No one can fucking do which I can't do what you do or what you do and vice versa The reason why you guys work together is because you do your shit in a complimentary manner Yeah, that's why you're both up there on that fucking, do you guys get free burgers, by the way?

Or in and outside. No, we're waiting for them to start knocking. Work on that. It's either going to be a cease and desist or a free burger. Well, I'm going to use the speech you just gave and call in and out. Yeah. We're doing an homage law. Yeah.

We should be protected if we're just trying to make them look good. It's just homage. It's just for the love. Yeah. But when I learned that lesson, that's when good. It's just for love. Yeah. But when I learned that lesson, that's when it really started to work for me. Yeah, it's interesting because it's like, with what we do, you're doing something you love.

And then there's like a weird, to ask for money for it is, yeah. It feels like a little, like asking too much. Like it's like, I already get away with doing this and I get a little bit of credit for it. It's like, to ask for money, it uh like i'm putting myself on a pedestal yeah but they each got across that line you gotta cross that line and then realize like oh if i get some money i can do this other shit that i've always wanted to do right yeah which for which money was a barrier and now like i get to do this shit at another level and grow.

Unfortunately, that's part of how our system works. You've got to have the funds to be able to create the platforms to do what you want to do. And what do you think has been the biggest day-to-day benefit from doing all this? What's the thing where every day you're like, man, I'm glad I did all this? Is there like a...

It's endless, man. I mean, I was just in South Africa for a month while doing working on the WSL I went and did JB I went did Jeffries Bay I was sitting there Jeffries Bay it's the longest left longest right I'm a poser was that I wanted that to be on purpose now I understand why you got destroyed. I know, dude. I read one book on surfing. I read one book. I'm like, I'll be good.

And then, like, after two months, like, the social media guy was like, look, guys, here's the dynamic. Chad knows about surfing. JT doesn't. I was like, I don't know about surfing. That's really, really. It's the longest ride. If you watch it in a mirror, it's the longest ride.

But it's the longest right. If you watch it in a mirror, it's the longest left. But it's the longest right in the world. And to be able to do so in South Africa, where, you know, my family's from, was special. And I had more than one moment where I was sitting there. I did like a two-hour in-depth sit-down with Kelly Slater

for the umptime, you know, in this house overlooking Jeffries Bay and we're just shooting the shit and talking about life and what's next and I'm like this is I'm at work right now and this all started from like answering phones at the front desk at Transwell

I'm winning I'm playing with the house's money at this point you know and you know I'm winning. I'm playing with the house's money at this point. And I make music. And today, before I came here, I was on an audition for a film, and I've gotten opportunities to do more theatrically. Shit that I've always dreamt of, but there's still these realities, new realities and new opportunities that are coming from choosing to not be safe.

I've had plenty of opportunities to be like, that's probably the safer job. That's the job that's going to guarantee me a longer deal. But I'm going to be locked up in doing what other people want me to do more than I get a chance to do what I want to do. It feels like you have a philosophy of saying yes to life. 100%. Whatever comes your way, just don't think about it. If there's a crack in the window and I can see myself crawling through that space

without breaking the window, I'm going to get in there. That's just, if I know that i have something to give in a certain space and place i manifest the shit out of it and i'm like given the opportunity i just try to crush do you still rage yeah but it's periodically you know i don't you you get to a certain age son and you don't have the ability to recover. I think I'm there, man. I'm there. But, yeah, they're far and few between. Because now you've got to pay the taxes for your actions.

You know, that whole, like, we killed it. Should we go again? Yeah. That doesn't exist anymore. Now it's just like, talk to me in two weeks when I recover and get some sort of level of dignity. What was the craziest safe for podcasting incident you ever bore witness to while raging? Oh, safe, the craziest safe for podcasting.

Or maybe not safe for podcasting. I was just trying to get you. Just safe for my career and save it for the book also. That's the move. Philip Ross advice for your memoir, spare your memoir? Spare no one. Spare no one. I think one of the just sort of most surreal out-of-body moments that I look back on was on the Tony Hawk tour.

When, you know, we had this bus, it said, Tony Hawk, gigantic skate park tour down the side of it. And, like, just when it came into town, it was just on. Like, people saw that shit into town it was just on like people saw that shit and it was just literally like they're running out of ice cream truck of partying in life is coming to our town there's been posters up like they've been waiting for us and like you pull in the town there'd be kids like yeah this is pre-social media people like yeah they're like they've already coordinated and And they're like, welcome you into town. Yeah.

And one night, somehow or another, we convinced the bus driver. We were in Texas to let us take the bus to the strip club without Tony. Tony's like asleep with his wife and kids. And we pulled up at this spot i think it was called the yellow rose and i'll just never forget that like reception greeting and then what yeah like what would go down the good energy that the good energy that that i look back and i was like oh wow it's a good good thing that there was no social media then, because it would have been like, at the time it probably would have been like,

will the Tony Hawk tour continue? Yeah, Tony would have had to separate himself from it the next day. I wasn't there, I was with my kids. They're Snapchatting the bus pulling up. Yeah, it would have been, but yeah, have been. Did anyone skate inside the club? No one skated inside the club, but definitely dudes ended up on the stage,

and perhaps there might have been a mutual sort of, would you like to come and check out our stage? Right. That happened, yeah. An exchange of stages. Stage exchange. That's beautiful. Sal, do you want to answer?

We answer listeners' questions. Sure. Yeah. I think you'll be fired at this. Chad, was there anything else you wanted to ask that first? No, this has been great. Thank you again for coming on. Thank you guys for the diligence.

These dudes literally asked me in the DMs, hey, do you guys have a booker? Yeah, it's called Instagram Direct Message. And you asked in a way where it was like, all right, cool. I did a little research. I was like, these guys are smart. They're cool.

Seem fun. If I can make the window, I'll do it. That's awesome. Thank you, dude. Yeah, it's been awesome, man. All right, first questions. Let me see. I want to get the good ones. You can get the shitty ones, too. Yeah, it's been awesome, man. All right, first questions. Let me see. I want to get the good ones.

You can get the shitty ones too. Yeah, thank you. Stokers, if I've ever needed you, it's right now. I'm incredibly stressed. So to give you the rundown, I've been living with my brother and his girlfriend in their apartment and I usually miss rent payments so they cover for me, but his girlfriend is always getting on me about it.

I don't have much money because I'm still following my passion for music and I know I'm good enough to make it. For some extra cash, I was able to slink my way into a substitute teaching job. I have no idea what I'm doing teaching, but I think the principal wants to choke me if you know what I mean. So I'm still here. Now here's where it gets hot. These kids are dummy talented and we have jam sessions during class sometimes. I want them to understand rock and roll the way I do. So I'm breaking, so I'm sneaking them out of school to play in the battle of the bands. I know this is illegal,

but I think if we shred hard enough to Zach song, I'm assuming that's one of his students. No one will really care. Just let me know if you think I should bail on this or stick with my plan. Thanks. Stokers. You're a couple of bees. Yeah.

At this point, if this is, if this is the big air ramp, you just dropped in on the roll in and now you're wondering if you should bail before you hit the kicker like go you gotta send it across the gap

see what happens when you hit the quarter pipe now you might land in the flat bottom and break yourself but it's gonna look it's gonna be a great story I actually think that there's a I wish I knew how old the kids were but it's going to be a great story. I actually think that there's a... I wish I knew how old the kids were. I'd say they're like 11 or 12.

I mean, there's basically like a sequel to... He's on some School of Rock shit. I'm not familiar. With School of Rock? Wait a minute. That's basically like the premise of School of Rock. Fuck me. I don't think I've ever seen it i

would tell you that you probably know what's best for these kids even above their parents right now their parents you don't want them to succeed in a long-term academic sense and that's super important but in the in-between times when they're on their way there they need someone who understands them who's going to push them to fulfill their own dreams not their parents and i think you could be that guy and i think something is telling me that the principal is like a little bit uptight and you need just need her to reconnect with stevie nicks yes exactly crank some stevie nicks get her back in the groove so she can get rocking again and enjoy life it's the way you move sing the song, sing, sing, and sing it. I don't know the lyrics. Oh, there we go.

That felt good. Felt great. Yeah. We might have lined up. Please keep me anonymous. What up, Stoke aficionados? One of the squad recently got broken up with by his last, and he is kind of being mopey all the time.

And when I say recently, I mean six months ago. They dated for four months, and he really did like this girl, so it's understandable to have a grievance period but we don't know how to get him out of this funk. He is kind of a schmull. A schmull is a word we came up with for someone in the friend group

who nobody likes but keeps hanging out. Like a re-nob which is boner backwards. And this guy might be a big re-nob which is a big boner backwards. As whenever we go out

or hang with babes he kills the vibe by bringing up his breakup. He is a chill dude but we need a surefire way to help him move on. The squad isn't the same without him, and we don't want to boke him.

Boke is to kick him out. But it is getting close to the only option. Love the pot, and thanks for keeping stokers like me amped on life's experiences at all times. I think you might need to see the clouds for this schmo. You know, just preload the gift gift card if you know what i mean

with um you know some type of um ladies that are gonna give healthy attention and um maybe get this dude out of schmole out of the schmole zone yeah the schmole zone's tough and i think zone is tough. And I think this guy is, based on the dating numbers, like six months of grieving for a four month relationship. That's tough. I appreciate the sensitivity,

but I got to say it's excessive. So I think the best thing you can do for this dude is get him stuff, get him doing stuff where it's tough to be a schmole. Like you're playing pickup basketball. You're going to the beach. You guys are tanning together. You guys are doing a book club.

You guys are going paintballing. You guys are going out and getting after it. How's he going to be a schmo in those experiences? Especially tanning. Oh, yeah. He's got to do activities that take you out of your dome. Tanning, applying sunscreen, paintball. You're going to really bond with some dudes over paintball.

And, yeah yeah just get him out there to get him doing activities and let him talk about it but at a certain point just give him the look just like he'll bring it up and just go let out a little breath of air just go oh yeah and he'll be like all right i've probably talked about this too many times yeah i remember i was going through a breakup and i told my dad and he started laughing. And I told my brother about it. I told my brother about it. He's like, see, it doesn't matter. Maybe that was probably good though, right?

No, it was good. I was like, all right, I'm going to go hit a treadmill. That's great. Yeah. Dear Chad and JT, writing in to ask some advice. I know it will help me. I recently moved from Virginia to Hawaii with my best friend who I consider blood brother. We are both 21 and going to the University of Hawaii.

We have been here for a month and it is amazing. I have a chill job and a place to stay, but no way of transportation other than the bus. I find myself doing everything I love by myself. Any advice on starting over? Sometimes I feel like a small fish in a huge tank full of others. How do you find your people? I also love to play guitar, which I sold my equipment to Ford to move out here, but I'm purchasing a new one.

Which do you all think is is better electric guitar or acoustic? Sounds like real Holly problems if you ask me on a rock What do you mean? It's he sounds like a Holly in Hawaii who's suffering from a loss of sense of identity On his campus of bros on a hawaiian island and if i was him i would go and like insert myself just deep go find the aloha and if you search for the aloha then you're he's gonna find it you won't even need an electric card the guitar or he's just gonna go ukulele and can you what do you mean by the aloha the The aloha is the spirit of the Hawaiian mana, the people, the earth. He's got to go get connected to that.

He's got to go ingrain himself in where he is. And the campus is almost like a foreign country within the island, so that's why he feels lost. He's got to go and connect out. Did you kind of do that when you moved to you move to carlsbad they just start surfing right away 100 was like all right school full of 2300 white people um and literally three black people and people being like you guys don't even swim what do you mean you're going to learn how to surf? Well, I got two choices here.

Fuck you, I'm going to kick your ass. Or watch this. So I opted for just like deep dive, all in, people being like, you're never going to make it. And then before you know it, being like, I made it. That's cool. That's awesome. Dude, yeah, I think Sal's advice. Oh, go ahead, Sarge. No, I made it. It's cool. That's awesome. Dude, yeah, I think Sal's advice.

Oh, go ahead, Sarge. No, no, no. I think Sal's advice was awesome. I would just say also read a lot because it's a good way to pass the time and then when people do talk to you, you have something more interesting to say. Yes.

Books. Shits have been helping dudes win for years and years and decades. And then you have the people in the story you'll relate to, and then you won't feel as alone. Yeah, you'll have fire vocab to, you know. Like, I just learned the word indignant. I'm really pumped on it. I've used it, like, 20 times this week.

Even though I don't really get indignant, but I'm like, if this were the – I could get indignant here, but I'm stoked. It's funny. It's true. When you're like, I'm indignant over how indignant I am. I was like, damn, dude. I'm going to remain chill and not be all indignant on your ass. I've always said this. The more syllables you can fuck with, it doesn't matter the size of your penis. So syllables actually, the more, like less monosyllabic.

There's a monosyllabic guy out there with a little dick though right now who's going. But he, listen, girth and length will come with more words. Because just go get your fucking, your word game up. Yes. And just watch how all of a sudden people are looking in your region being like, are you packing something in there? Like, yes, fucking knowledge. Dick knowledge. Knowledge.

Yeah, my shorts are fat with knowledge. Yes. Dudes, I got to run and, like, I got to get to this show by 830. You're going to go do comedy right now? Yeah. Go crush that shit for free. Tony Morris said this about language. We die.

That may be the meaning of life, but we do language. That may be the measure of our lives. Bang. May she rest in peace. Rest in peace. The bluest eyes. Publisher first novel I read when she was 38 or 39. 39.

She was also a single mother, and she would get up. She was a single mother of two or three kids, and she would get up at four in the morning to write she literally wrote like on borrowed time she's a classic example of you know there's no excuse for you not to be able to do your shit other than you don't want to really or you're scared and she was a woman and a black woman at the time when no one had any respect for it like she's just amazing yeah do you have time for one more? Yeah. I got to get there by 830. I'm at 826. Where are you doing the stand-up tonight?

I'm going to Largo. Okay. Yeah. I'm not going. I just have my college buddies meeting there. You're going to support. Oh, okay. Right on.

Can you go in late? No. To stand-up? It's disrespectful. You can be late to stand-up. To Largo? Oh, you're going to watch? Yeah. Yeah, you can be late to Largo. Just tell them to leave the tickets at the front. Okay. Yeah, be late to stand up. To Largo? Oh, you're going to watch? Yeah.

Yeah, you can be late to Largo. Just tell them to leave the tickets at the front. Okay. Yeah, they're at Wilco. Maybe you'll get heckled from the stage. It's a great venue. Possibly. Look at this guy.

It's Nick Kroll. I've never seen him. Nick Kroll and friends? Nick Kroll's amazing. That'll be good. I was in a movie with Nick Kroll. Which one? Uncle Drew.

Oh, really? Oh, nice. How was Kyrie? What's he like? I didn't meet Kyrie. He wasn't in my scene. But it was Lil Rel, Nick? Oh, nice. How was Kyrie? What's he like? I didn't meet Kyrie. He wasn't in my scene. But it was Lil Rel, Nick Kroll, and myself. Nice.

That's awesome. All right. What up, Super Stokers? I come to you today with a serious question. This summer, my consumption of the velvet grass has reached a new level. I've been burning bush nearly every day. I don't think it has taken my life over, but I'm worried about the impact on my dome, especially because I'm only 16.

What do you guys think is a healthy amount of coleslaw to consume shout out brady gorman for being the biggest fan of the pot out there what up brady yeah i would take the joe rogan route you know abstain for now and then once you have your own podcast let it rip yeah let it rip yeah i get stoned a lot i but too much. I did not start. Because my dad was smoking weed around me all the time, it just wasn't, I was like, oh, it's whatever. I never felt like, I'm going to smoke weed. So I didn't smoke weed until my 20s.

Yeah. I will say that I got some very distinct memories of people who started smoking weed too early, and then they never evolved past the age they started smoking weed at. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't start young. I know those people who were just stoned all the time, and they don't smoke weed anymore, but they still look, like, hella high. Yeah, 16, I think, is too early to be doing it every day.

Yeah, it's like, you know, you shouldn't be drinking every day all day. At a certain point, everyone goes through their period where you're like, okay, I'm going to smoke less i'm not going to stop but i'm i don't need to be high all the time yeah and then there's that line from the world's end where he's like how do you know what you're like when you're normal if you're fucked up all the time and also i for me i i never really got too into weed because i just it never vibed with me i would get paranoid but there was a especially in high school there's a huge part of me that i wanted it to be my identity you know i wanted to be like a stoner you know because i'm like those guys are so cool they have bongs you know you go to a party they have the hookup they don't give a fuck yeah they

don't give a fuck and and uh yeah but once you take a step back and you see people who you know have a little more together and they're just um yeah just try to just disassociate from what's cool for a 16 year old i don't know if this will make sense but like try to disassociate yourself from that perceived identity if that's what's going on yeah you're like the cool system is pretty skewed yeah and it doesn't last very long it's hard when it's your whole life though yeah but trust me it's legal now too so yeah not that cool yeah don't don't don't do it pass on grass for now and don't get dependent on it because then you feel like you can't do stuff without it and that's a weak position to be in super weak and it will really really really interfere with your ability to touch people who you want to touch yeah yeah in a horizontal fashion you know because they don't

have any patience for it yeah well even or even like not in a horizontal fashion like it can shut down your ability to be emotionally available to people yes yeah like you want you don't want to hurt people it doesn't go this far all the time. I don't mean to be dramatic, but I've been there where I was too stoned to vibe with people who wanted to vibe with me in a meaningful way. Miss out on life. Yeah. It's also helpful, that stuff sometimes.

When I slowed down drinking and stuff after college, my relationships, they all improved. Isn't that strange? Especially with my parents. Because I would talk to my dad or my mom without shame. I'd be like, I'd be like, what up dad? He's like, what are you doing? I'm like making progress. You know, that's a beautiful thing. Yeah. He's like, who are you and what have you done with my son? Yeah. He's like, all right, that's good. You're going to go banana Republic,

get some sweaters. We're going to, we're going to compound. But you had to draw the line there. You were like, yeah, I was like, I was like, dad, I know who i am okay i'm going to pack son i'm getting i'm gonna be sober at pack son loading up yeah he's gonna like dress you like a real east coast boat shoe wearing chad yeah he's like all right just a different chat he had in his mind all right new backstory we're from nantucket dad i like your chad i've seen the brochure i'm just to stick with the Chad. Son, I want you to take this sweater and tie it over that Oxford. Let the arms hang just casually around the chest. Did your dad ever think you were living like two straight of a life?

Yes. He called me square often. Really? Oh, that's interesting. And it was with merit. I grew up in a really conservative Christian household with my stepdad, especially. So, yeah, I was super square. And I thought like everything that you did that was risque, like you were going to die. God was going to kill you for it.

So your mom went the other direction with her next husband who was like. Oh, my mom. Yeah, my mom went a complete other direction yeah it was a trip so my life like the lives that i lived with my dad and with and at home they were literally two different planets and my stepdad would work to like basically deprogram me and make me unlearn all any of the fun that i had with my dad yeah but i feel like because of that you can get dropped anywhere and you can make it work 100 it actually ended up being a cool byproduct that i can i'm good in any room that's cool yeah because you came in here and uh we got to end but yeah you were phenomenal self thank you thanks man well also like if people got

to be desirable to be around. You guys are real cool. Oh, thank you, man. Thank you, dude. Dude, that's huge. Dude, whoa. You're a childhood hero. Sorry, I lost all that cool vibe right there. My bad, dog.

Sorry. I like where you're going, man. It gives me hope. Oh, thanks, man. Oh, thank you, dude. Appreciate it. Yeah, like I said, dark world needs light. Keep fucking shining it.

Thanks, man. Let's go. Well, we're pumped to have you. It's an honor to have met with you and talked with you. Yeah, thank you so much, man. Boom clap, Stokers. To all the Stokers out there, all the super uber bros that have endured this conversation, some of which might be a little heavy for you, just put that shit in your back pocket.

You'll have access to it later and you'll be like fuck you know what that was worth it dude I love it love that alright well guys thank you so much for listening

Sal thank you for coming JT Chad thank you for existing yes you too brother um well we could just do

beefs and bays we'll come in on Monday or something before the other one yeah alright cool thank you guys for listening and uh I'll see you next week Well, we could just do Beefs and Babes. We'll come in on Monday or something before the other one. Yeah. All right. Cool.

Thank you guys for listening, and I'll see you next week. Enjoy the Beefs and Babes when we record them next time. Yeah. Aloha. Dude, thanks again. That was so fun. Dude, Sal, that was awesome, man. Thank you so much. No worries, dudes.

I hope I didn't talk too much. No, it was great. For your trusty editor. All right. Should we hop into... That was legit with Sal. He's a beast. Yeah, he was great. For you, trusty editor. All right. Should we hop into... That was legit with Sal. He's a beast. Yeah, he was great.

We were recording this the Monday after because we did the full time with Sal. Mm-hmm. But that was fun. Yeah, he was great. Yeah. It was funny talking to him and hearing his voice in person because I've listened to it for so long. Yeah.

So it was fun. Yeah, and it was in a brand new context so long. Yeah. So it was fun. Yeah, and it was in a brand new context too. Yeah, it was cool. He wasn't talking about Huck and 720s. He was talking about how he feels. Yeah, it's a different Sal that we haven't experienced before. Dude, so we have to do our babes, beefs, and legends now. So Chad, I ask you, who is your babe of the week?

My babe of the week is Brian Deegan. You might know him from Motocross. Guys, he was huge in the early to mid-2000s. The Metal Militia, Brian Deegan, a freaking beast. I was just watching some of his best trick clips. One of my favorites is where he pulled off that backflip 360. And I just wanted to give him props you know and this is sort of x games theme because we had sal messica on i wanted

to give brian deegan props because i can't remember which one i was researching youtube for the best trick but i can't remember i couldn't find the one but i believe it was like a flat 360 or something he pulls off or like a corkscrew nunchuck i don't know i remember those you do yeah um that was legit so he pulls off this trick it's huge and he's just he's like the bad boy of motocross so what does he do to celebrate he hasn't just jump around arms around like oh i did it he rides up to the top of the ramp does a fat burnout for like a minute and um i remembered that moment i think about it almost every day now it's a total babe moment and uh i just want to give props for that metal militia me too um thank you for burning rubber inside the arena in carson city and showing

us all that deegan rules deegan knows how to celebrate so that's my babe do you remember that that was an interesting time in a motocross because like video games were coming out where the tricks would be in the game and i'd be like i wonder if anyone's ever going to do this trick and the x games would come up and i'd be like someone did the trick dude they really kept elevating it yeah no that was a it was like the most it was like the art it was like the uh space race yeah of motocross yeah and it's like who's gonna get to the moon first that was the backflip yeah and it's like uh you feel like the the ceiling is set because they're on a dirt bike it's so heavy yeah what's there left to do they've done the backflip i think that's it

you know and then these these dudes just keep you know double backflip flat 360 that fucking corkscrew thing where they like jump and then do a uh 360 over the bike a barrel roll over the bike yeah yeah it was legit yeah that was cool too when guys would disconnect from the bike do the body roll and then grab back on because you're you're turning your back to your bike yeah 35 40 feet in the air. Yeah. Do you have a favorite trick? Probably that one. Yeah.

Yeah. And you know, even it's like a super old one, but I love the, when people started doing the Superman where you just let your feet off and then when they would do the tail grab Superman. So they'd float to the back of the bike, grab the back of the bike,

be hanging out horizontal and then pull themselves forward and stop it. Yeah. That was so insane. Dude, you know what really wets my beak is the classic tail whip oh it's a great trick yeah a fat tail whip really just sort of gets my juices flowing yeah because there's a lot of attitude in that move yeah what up it's classic and you can really just you show a lot of personality in it it feels like you're smacking a balloon with the back of your bike 40 feet in the air. Boom.

Like Deegan's tail whip versus Pastrana's. Totally different. Yeah, a lot of different personality. A lot of different nuance. Yeah. Dude, my babe of the week is Pat Benatar. 1980s singer. I just think her music gets me so jacked up.

If I'm driving and the song Invincible comes on, I feel invincible. And I appreciate her giving me that juice. And then she's also got some ballads and some really nice love songs, like Love is a Battlefield. And yeah, I want to write a musical about her music. I know she did one about her life,

but mine would be about a guy who works at a factory and falls in love with the factory owner's daughter, and then he has to sue the factory because his dad got a bad illness working there, and it becomes like a courtroom drama, but with song.

And I'm just really jacked on the idea, and I think I want to thank Pat Benatar, because each one of her songs feels like a full story. So you're like, oh, this is, yeah.

And she's, you know, she's badass. She takes it to you. She says, hit me with your best shot yeah love is a battlefield i was out you told me about you're listening to her so i've caught some of her jams dude i was i fucking floored it in my hybrid you know yeah bruce spring no no john stewart had a good line about bruce springsteen where he said his songs don't make you they make you feel not like a loser. You feel like you're a character in a movie about losers. And I think Pat Benatar's got a little bit of that.

Yeah. Dude, who is your legend of the week? My legend of the week is this YouTube channel, Studio Binder. I've been really interested in filmmaking and directing and writing and just also all sort of facets of that stuff. So StudioBinder has a bunch of editing too. I mostly, I like, I was on YouTube and I saw this like how Tarantino, it was like the first one is like how Tarantino directs a film, how Tarino writes a film and then i was looking at like editing and it's just like uh i love it if you guys are interested in any of that stuff check it out it's just like really cool to like nice get some uh technique

uh to get your perspective on the actual technique that these guys use um and just to have a better understanding of what's going on in movies. So StudioBinder, one word. They're legit. You can learn about Tarantino. Yeah, just all these little nuances in Tarantino movies. He did a thing on Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, and it's dank. Nice. Yeah.

Right on. Yeah. My Legend of the Week is Vince Vaughn. David Fincher and it's Dank nice yeah right on yeah my legend of the week is Vince Vaughn oh nice I love Vince Vaughn he's just a cool fast talking

witty dude and he's big I first fell in love with him in the movie Swingers where he plays Trent T the coolest guy

in LA but the best part about him is that even though he's always just trying to like hook up with chicks and like sound badass at the end of the day what he cares about most is his buddies you know he's really got Mike's back and he wants him to be up on his feet and feeling good again and I think I really was inspired by that like coolness matched with his like you know good intentions and good heart yeah like even when mike like blocks him from hooking up with like a uh girl he's interested in like um he doesn't really get

mad at him he's just like a little bit frustrated yeah yeah which was like very compassionate on his part and then you know obviously uh wedding crash, Old School, Starsky and Hutch. He's been in a lot of funny movies. And then, you know, he's gone into drama, too, with The Cell and True Detective, some of which was Mrs., but I like that my dog is, you know, stretching outside his comfort zone. But the thing I like the most about Vince Vaughn is that he seems like he's Vince Vaughn even when he's not in a movie.

Like, these are TV shows, they're like real like dinner with five or dinner with guests or dinner with friends was a Jon Favreau IFC show where they talked about movies Vince Vaughn is like talking shit the whole time and being hilarious and like he pushes it to the edge where you start to dislike him but then he makes it funny again you're like no I love this guy yeah and he's doing that and it's like real he's just having dinner with these people and then on mark maron he was so good it was like a master class and how to deal with like a passive aggressive smart person like vince vaughn just wouldn't let him do it like mark maron would be like oh so you were like a like an athlete like jock in high school like but kind of putting this like negative tone on it then vince vaughn's like

what's wrong with that what do you hate my letterman jacket you want you hate my Letterman jacket? You want to wear my Letterman jacket? I'll just give you my Letterman jacket. It's not a big deal. And then like Marin couldn't like, he couldn't spin that. And I was like, dude, what a beast, bro. It was in front of a live audience. So I think Vince was just like, yeah.

He was like, no, you're not going to do me like that. So yeah, that's my legend of the week, Vince Vaughn. You're so fucking money, dude. You're so money, dude. All right, Chad. What is your beef of the week? My beef of the week takes me back to the gym. So when I warm up, I like to hit the assault bike.

You know, work full body. Get that fan going. Get it fucking moving, you know work full body get that fan going get it fucking moving you know get that get that air blown because i'm full fanning it out legs and arms toning up you know and i like to get in the zone and there's this dude every time i go he wants to use it too there's only one and he's just giving me daggers the whole time. Really? I hate that. And I'm like, dude, like, first off, first off, like, you know, what are you doing? You know, you don't have to give me daggers. I know you want to get on the bike, but I'm going to do my full 20 minutes.

All right? So you're giving me daggers. You're not going to pressure me on it. All right? You know, I bet his name is fucking Carl. I'm just guessing and uh dude you know go do some

go push a fucking sled go do some pull ups go get into your own workout instead of sitting there staring at me while I fucking break a massive sweat alright cause you're impeding on my workout and you're making me feel like I need to rush it, and I don't want to rush it.

I want to get in the zone, and I want to get those endorphins flowing, and you're blocking the endorphins, all right? So I just want to send a huge, massive suck it to this dude who gives me daggers every time. Oh, are you going to use it? How much longer are you going to be on that? How much longer are you going to be on that? As long long as i want to be because i got the assault bike all right

it's the only one and you can eat a giant dick the gym rule is kind of like finders keepers losers weepers yeah if i beat you to the squat rack i got it for as long as i want it that's just the unfortunate way these things shake out yeah guess what carl we're all dealing with it yeah early bird gets the fucking worm all right and the worm is the assault bike and it's delicious yeah and you know the bird that's jealous doesn't stand by you while you eat your worm you know it keeps flying to go get its own worm yeah yeah but it's not this worm yeah just sitting on a bench just like looking at you yeah you're like i've done it yeah you're just like what dude go what? Go. What? Go. What, dude? Especially for cardio because cardio can take a while. It's one thing to sit there if a guy is doing bicep curls on the pulley

because that's going to be, what, three sets, ten reps. It's going to be a couple minutes max. But if someone is doing cardio, they could be doing that all day. Yeah, I guess my beef is also with crunch, the gym. Get another one. Yeah, why do you only have one? That's how it is with squat racks. I'm like, the the squat racks are always taken so just get an extra couple squat racks yeah lose a couple of these nautilus machines that we don't that we know don't even really

work that well yeah but just trick people who aren't serious gym people into thinking they're doing work yeah that fucking ski machine yeah get that out of there that's my beef it's a good beef what'd you be i think a lot of people are gonna be beefing with that beef in a good way um my beef is hard knocks hbo's behind the scenes uh reality show about training camp in the nfl it is one of the best shows of all time nothing gets me jacked up like seeing chrisirals fly through the air, said to a badass, you know, rhythm and blues soundtrack or watching awesome buff football players banter and talk shit. It's the best. But this season they did the Oakland Raiders and I don't like it. I don't think there's any really super sympathetic guys on the team. I mean, I know they're going to get me invested in some of the guys trying to make the roster,

but I mean, of the studs, I just, they're all kind of annoying. Antonio Brown, who, you know, is one of my favorite football players of all time. He's just kind of an annoying dude right now. Like he can't stay out of the news for two days in a row. And then they got Richie Incognito on the team. Richie Incognito has been kicked off eight teams for a variety of reasons. And he threatened the people at his dad's funeral home to let him cut off his dad's head or he was coming back with a shotgun he had in the car he's wild what yeah and dude he's built like just the ultimate bully he's just like eight kegs transforming into one and wait how'd that transpire he was like he had he was really

freaking out he freaks out sometimes. Yeah. And I think he thought his dad wanted to be cryogenically frozen. So he went into the burial house or whatever before they put his dad on the ground. He's like, give me the fucking head. And they were like, sir, you can't cut off your dad's head. He's like, if you don't let me cut off my dad's head, I'm going back out to my car and getting a rifle and I'm killing all of you. And now he's back in the league.

And you know what Hard Knocks is going to do? They're going to make him sympathetic. Incognito is a smart guy. He's already in the first episode like being like mr chummy teammate and i believe he is that guy to a certain extent because all of his teammates tend to like him because i think because he's such a warrior but um yeah he's kind of an asshole and i just i just i don't like him getting those episodes. Even though I think everyone should have a path to redemption, I guess. Yeah. Aaron, you know about Incognito? Excuse me.

Yes. Didn't he like bully a teammate to the point where that guy left the team? That's what he's most famous for. Oh, the Dolphins? Bullying Jonathan Martin on the Dolphins. Yeah. Yeah. I remember that.

And then Jonathan Martin tried to come back to another team but i think that was one of those things where if you're in the nfl unfortunately more people are going to side with the uh bully than the guy who got bullied you know what i mean yeah that's why I stopped watching football damn decisive Aaron Chad what is your quote of the week my quote of the week comes from Cameron Poe from Con Air a true gentleman a hero he's talking about his

time in jail when his life when his wife sent him a little, you know, a fucking, what are those things called? Those pink. No, no, no. That's the quote. But like when you get like a package full of treats.

Oh, care package? A care package. Yeah. He's like, those pink coconut. Hold on. Those pink coconut things that made me quite popular. I met a guy the other day, Babyo. He sure does love them.

That's my quote. He's a good writer. Yeah. Dude, my quote of the week is from Remember the Titans. Coach Yost, played by Will Patton, I think in the semifinal game, where the refs have been dogging him. The refs have been paid off to make them lose. But then Yost is like, I'll take everybody down.

You've got to call a fair game. The refs agree. And then one of his star defenders, Petey, kind of is being a little bit of a diva. So Coach Yost says to him, get out of here. You want to be a star player? Give me a star effort. Petey walks away. He can't handle the criticism.

And then Coach Yost goes, all right, forget about him. Allen, you're in. And then he goes, all right, now. I don't want them to gain another yard. You blitz all night. If they cross the line of the scrimmage, I'm going to take every last one of you out. You make sure they remember forever the night they played the Titans. Then they go out there and they start beating ass,

and then Yosh just goes, leave no doubt. Nice. We doing the getting after it thing? Yeah, Chad, what is your phrase this week for getting after it? When I want to get after it, I butter the skillet. Nice, dude.

What's yours? Hey, I forgot to think of one, so now I'm just trying to do one. Let's put on our goblin mask. Spooky. Yeah. It's a precursor to an upcoming episode. Because we got a horror movie coming. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. I think that's it. Sweet. Guys, thank you so much for listening to episode 86. Thank you to Sal Masekela for coming in. Thank you, Sal. You're a legend. We'll have to have him back sometime.

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