Steve Cutbirth

surprise guest that was not planned. Tony Brown was planned for this episode, but I'm pushing him back to next this week because I have to take the time to interview my father. We're on vacation the Bahamas last week and he got bit in the face by a shark. A shark bit my dad in the face. I mean, are you kidding me? Who on this earth has survived a shark bite? And let alone survived a shark bite

to the face. So he's fine, he's doing great, He's going to heal up just perfectly, have some cool scars. But I had to get the story out there because it's so incredible. And not only is the story so incredible, my dad is amazing. He's an incredible husband, he's an incredible father, he's an incredible businessman. He's a dentist, and he's built an institute, a dental institute, and he has so much wisdom to share. And just top it off with the story of the shark bite and how he

handled that and how he processed all that. So here's my dad's Steve cut birth. Y'all get excited. Okay, So I am here. How's it all look? Mom? What are you looking? Good? Great? I I'm here with my dad, Steve cut b who is also a shark bite survivor, which we we think you might be the only one who survived a shark bite to the face. We've looked it up. We haven't found anyone else, right, I'm not in on that. I don't know. It's all fun games now because you're fine for a while. This is very scary.

I could see what people would think that was interesting. So we want to get all into the shark bite. But before I did, I want to start at the beginning of your life. Kind of gives someone who's listening a little bit of an idea of who you are. So I'm gonna start with some questions. Tell me that don't look at my questions. Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind when I tell you ask

you a question, don't you can't think about it? Shark shark bride right now, it's a shark bite, shark bite death. Never think about that. Never, it's not your radar. Not worried about it. Great. Do you think there's something that happens after this life? I do. I think you go to a wonderful place after you die. And I think that the people have always thought that people are worried about death or and don't think you go to a wonderful place after you die, and don't think that there's

something out there bigger than all of us. Are going to have a hard time getting through life because you can't prove it one way or the other. But I think you lead a much better life if you just decide that's what happens. So you can have relationships with your spouse, with children, with I mean your children, your grandchildren, your friends. And I can't think of anything worse than thinking there wasn't something big that connects us and that you go to a wonderful place when you die. I

just choose to believe that. Okay, food, shrimp, Uncle Dann's barbecue, elk and kiss the door, chicken fehita. Case it did, that's the restaurant. These are Waco restaurants. Funny, We've eaten some of the finest restaurants in the world. But if I had to pick last meal, it would probably be Uncle Dan's. I've gotten the same thing for thirty four years.

A lean slice plate, yellowtato salad, baked beans, two pieces of wheat bread, mild sauce, two doubled eggs, sweet tea this half tea and half water with lemon, And it's just so. Would you say you're a creature of habit. If I find something I like, I don't that I really like. As in the case of your mother, I don't look for something else. I'm happy. So when you

laid eyes, Mom, you knew. Well it was kind of a funny story because I was in college my sophomore year, taking uh organic chemistry in the summer in the summer, and my roommate at the time was not my regular roommate. He was a fifth year senior that was in graduate school, but he was just there for the summer because my roommate had gone home. So we were in the same fraternity. So we were sharing an apartment and he said, we gotta get you out of here. Your brain is gonna explode.

And I said, okay, I'll have a break between the two summer semesters and we'll go do something. He said super. So he was dating this girl and he was gonna get me a blind date and we were gonna go water skiing with a guy that was a friend of his in Waco that had a boat on Lake Waco. So the day comes and we go out there, get out of the car and there is this girl walking the boat dock in a green bikini. And I said to the guy, I'm going to marry that girl. He said,

you don't even know her and she's my day. Are you engaged And he said, well no, and I said good luck. And that was it. Something about it never looked back. So when you find something you like, you stick with it. That's it. I'm done. I like that. Okay, uh fun outdoor? Um. I like sports. I love hard mountain back trails. I love to play football. I'm really more of a player than a watcher. I love to

play golf. We've never been to Las Vegas, but I don't know if I can play golf without betting a little bit my perfect golf round as you could win or lose a hundred dollars and uh what else. I love spear fishing, even though I'll be back in there to the next thing. It is kind of interesting because I don't hunt, you know, I have If I find a scorpion in the house or a cricket, I'll catch it and take it outside. But spear fishing is so fascinating because it's so difficult. Number One, you've got a

just a dive mask and a snorkel and fins. You're holding your breath. This this the spirit is not a spear gun. It's a Hawaiian sling with a wooden shooter and uh surgical tubing and a little cup that the spear goes through. And so you've got to dive down thirty find a fish. It's got the fish. You've got every advantage and we only eat Willy spirit what we eat, and then spear the fish, then corral the fish and then go to the top. And you've got the extra

little color of sharks. Well, you took that to a whole new level this trip with a shark bright to the face. Which we're going to get all into that in a little bit, but that's quite the taking it to the max. Well, it wasn't intended what you're holding your mask right now that you're wearing with a shark attacking, which I think this mass saved your face. I'm pretty sure that's right. Let's just hold this up. This mass saved dad's face. There's a big old slice near the nose,

which here it lat's see it bit me. We want to get into that. Now, give us a little just a little bit, don't go to full detail. We'll see. This has been laying on the ocean floor since Saturday. In the day's Thursday, and Will my son in lawn Marcus, the son of the guide, went back just for fun

to see if they could find it. So they actually found the spear shaft that had the fish on it, and they found this mask on the bottom of the ocean down and they found a sixty fit grouper which they shop so you can see how the shark's teeth lacerated the strap. Then I pulled it against my white shirt. Lacerated the nose area. This is where it got my lip, and then it's got a hole here in the nose where it got my nose. And then it's got you can't see that, but it's got teeth marks on the

top and the bottom of the mask. So in my mind, the reason that it just bit and didn't tear was the teeth hit that plastic around the mask and it felt foreign, and so it hard and it released rather than completing the bite. And so this mouse saved your life, save your face at least, well I mean it. It is allowed me to have that edgy look rather than stranger look. So thank goodness with that mass. Okay, celebrity, celebrity Yeah, um gosh, that's a hard one. First day.

It comes to mind, James Bond, Matt Damon. You lived out your venture story, you lived out your venture movie. I did well. You know, Matt Damon is an interesting story. What is it? You know? We were staying at the Fourth Seasons Hotel in Austin. It was late one night. I can't remember why we were there, and I was about to get on the elevator to go up probably and here comes this dude, walking in with a toboggan and just a green T shirt and green pants and

some like combat boots on. And I said, uh, I said what do what? I said, reached my hand out and said Steve Cutberth And he said name, and I said, I know who you are. I said, what are you? What are you doing in Austin. He said, well, we're filming True Grit. Said this may be one of the best days of your life because my daughter at the time you were stealing angels. And I said, my daughter sings in a band with John Wayne's granddaughter and Reda

Lynn's granddaughter. So how about that they sing a song or write a song as the theme song for True Grit. And he said that's a great idea. Why didn't happen? Well, I gave him my card and he said, I'll call you. He never called, never called. We're waiting for your phone call. I guess. I guess one way deal. Yeah, I'm annoyed at that. Really a nice guy ticket, Yeah he is. He's as nice a guy as he seems like he is.

So we were just besties for about five seconds. We'll probably about a man in it riding up the elevator short lived best friendship. Okay, what do you find annoying? What do you find annoying? Excessive talk, meaningless talk, just chatter. These people just narrating, filling the air the most of the world you find annoying. No, I like a good conversation. I love a good story, but I don't like just

chatter to fill the air. Okay, you want to talk about something in particular, Yeah, okay, all right, and then when you finished, be like a pinpoint and you just stop talking. What do you fear Sharon getting mad at she's really leaving me? See if she left me, I've always said, if she ever threw me out, I just have a little tent in the front yard cooking out there, and it'd be raining and cold, and you and Katherine say, oh, just giving See I've given you this. This may be

a treacherous stark already. I've sent you this hook several times, and maybe somebody. I think somebody wrote this song give me one more last chance, a little shot, one more last chance? Is that a song? I'm sure that's what I say to Mom all the time. I say, just give me one more. Mom left you, you'd be tasted. She's a good hearted woman gets occasionally she'll try to

get that stern like but it didn't last. Why would she need to be stirring with you just because I'm bad sometimes not bad bad, but just I'm good, but I'm just push your limit a little, a straight not I would never do anything bad, but just you're a little rough around the edges. Well there you go. Hey, they got the shark right to prove it right. Okay, So you grew up on a ranch in Brownwood, Texas and you always talk about code of the West and how that shaped your values and moral system. Tell me

why that has impacted and what that means to you. Well, most of my family, my dad was a medical doctor, but most of my family were ranchers and farmers, and they were just very direct. You know, my my granddad. You say, a deal's deal, and paper has nothing to do with it. You know, if you say you're going to do it, you're gonna do it. And I think that's a pretty good way to live your life. Um No, I've growing up in Brownwood. It was the football capital

of the world. Sports have played a huge party, talked about that. Gosh, well, I coached all y'all's teams, and then it's funny with Caroline and Katherine. The first game of soccer I ever saw was the first game I coached when Katherine was about seven. But all ball games are about the same. You're trying to get the ball into this scoring area down here and keep the other team from getting it into this scoring area down here. So why can all of life be defined by coat

of the Western's sports? Okay, um, well it's it's try. You know, that's my favorite phrase, just try. Let's just try. Too many people, you know, get into some of as hard they just quit. And when I was coaching your team's I remember when your team was playing. You were a fourth grade team and you are playing a fifth grade team. And we didn't have a single person on the team on our fourth grade team because we were playing in standard baskets that could get the ball to

the rim. And so we had what we called the secret plan. I won't go into that, but our matto was we had a plan to keep the other team from scoring twenty points because we knew we couldn't score because we couldn't get it to the hoops. So the plan was to keep them from scoring. Yeah, because they've beaten these fourth grade teams six seed and nothing. And I said, no team of mine is going to be beating six ft and nothing. So our mato was, let's

just try and execute plans. So this coach Gordon would and he's like a world renowned coach from nings coach of all time. He won more state championships, more games, and that was back in the day, and he really impacted. Yet, oh man, they only took one team to the playoffs. Now they take half the district, but then they only took one. And he never talked about the assets of the other team. If there was a big guy on the other team, if there was a fast gut on

the other team, he didn't care what they did. He executed our plan, and he taught me systems and so I and that's transferred into your dentistry. Has Um. I'd written this article one time for k Texas Coach Magazine that coach Wood had asked me to write because we were both on the board of the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame and he was getting older and he said, Steve, I want you to write a thirty

year retrospective on the value of high school football. And I wrote that article for Texas Coach Magazine, just for Coach Woods, not really thinking how all that transferred to my later life. And after I got through, I said to my staff, if y'all want to know why we run our practice the way we do, read this article and it was just the you know, his his system, and what I've tried to do in my dental practice and other things is just uh kind of what he did,

which was fundamentals. He always got the fundamentals right. You never lost a game because somebody jo jumped off side or got a uh what do you call it, personal foul penalty or something that was stupid. You know you and in a real type game that could make the difference. So you just play like a practice fundamentals execute. So I know the other thing, the play like you practice is really a huge thing, and we use that on

all of your teams, which always won the championship. When somebody standing in the free throw about shoot a free throw, you cannot say I've got to make that free throw. If you do, you'll miss it. The only thought that ought to be in your mind is shoot like you practice, and practice. I dribble the ball three times, hold it

right here, take a deep breath and shoot. And if you've got that that mentality, you always want to have the ball in your hands at the end of the game, and you if you shoot the bast shoot the ball. Say you're taking a three point point shot to win the game and you miss. People that have never been

in that situation, you're gonna go, oh, she missed. But anybody that's been in that situation is going to be looking to see if you shot like you practice and understand that from three point range, you're probably gonna only get a hit about one out of three anyway. So you didn't choke, You just missed, and you had the courage to have the ball in your hands at the end of the game. So you've never been scared to

have pressure on you. Well, I've been able because of what I learned back then and other parts of football has transferred into your dentistry practice. Let's talk about that. It's a mind thing. You know, if you can't get your mind in the right place, you could be the greatest athlete or the greatest at doing what but whatever it is. But if you if you don't have your mind set, then I think you're not ever gonna be very successful if you're worried about failure. So how's that

transferred into dentistry? Because you've gone on to become a world around dentist. You you speak all over the world. You have a dental institute called Cards Center for a Senecal Story Dentistry. Yeah, you've even done some country music Tetheacher, Bobby Bones and Amy Brown on the Bobby Bone Show. I mean, you've done a lot of cool dentistry. You've really done a lot in dentistry. So how has that motto of the Code of the West play like you

practice transferred into your dental practice in your lifestyle? Well, I only think about the things I can control in my whole life. I don't think about things I can't control. And island plan, we'll talk about that in a minute. I'll forget who you remember. So from the get go, I said I want to be the finest restorative dentists that's ever lived. Restorative dentistry is veneers and crowns and

bridges and implants and things like that. Well, you you don't have to be that smart, because anybody that knows you knows I'm not that smart. I'm very uh what's the word perseverance. I'll stay with it. And you don't just wake up one day and say I'm gonna be

really good at something. You've got to be trained. And so I They've always told you and any girls on my team or our teams that if you want to be the best at something, first you have to identify those people that are the very best to get to them. And so I got to those people. One was in Switzerland, Dallas, New York, you know wherever they were. I just got the plane and went. You just called them up when

we didn't have any money. You've always said that people are so afraid to call the top dogs, and you never have been And tell them I don't want you to spoon feed me. I don't want to bother you take any of your time, but I just like to come see what you do. And then once I get there, I say, how did you learn? What you learned? And they're they're glad to tell you. Isn't that amazing? Think they're happy to tell you. People think that it's like

the homecoming queen or something that they're untouchable. But well, when I went to see that guy in but I blame that does can er treatment. None of us have cancer. By the way. That was Germany, right, Germany. Yeah, and this guy had invented this new cancer treatment that and I went over to seeing and he said, now, what type of doctor or you? And I said, well, I haven't dentist. He said, why are you here? I said,

I just had to know. I said, don't. Don't medical people come over and see you from the United States all the time, And he said, no, you're the first one. So I think people just they just yeah, the homecoming queen. Thanks to homecoming Queen's already got a date, but probably nobody called her because they didn't they thought you already had a day. Yeah, so you're just curious and you're not afraid to ask. Well, it is. It's a funny thing because so many people, that's the older people are going,

oh my gosh, the times were in right now. And if I hear one more time, I worry for my grandchildren. I think I'm gonna throw up. We're living in the best possible times. You can get on a plane right now and go anywhere. And I think that by traveling two different interesting places around the world, Uh, you see that there's no perfect spot, and we're living in the spot that everybody wants to go to. The United States is where everybody wants to go, That's where they want

to live. And I've got a dental assistant that it's from Mexico and she is the most just one of the most pleasant people in the world. And I've asked her, Luisa, what what's the big deal about the United States? And she, without blinking and eye she says, opportunity. But they're not going to give it to you. You go for it. Yeah, you gotta work for it. But you know, what do

you want? You got opportunity. Anyway, back to the dental thing, I never thought about productivity or money or things like that. I want to have enough money that your mom, Sharon, and I could buy a house that she wouldn't be embarrassed to bring her friends. That was my goal. I said, I'd just like to have a decent house that Sharon would not be embarrassed to bring her friends. And so I never thought about anything else. And I want to

be the best at this that's ever been. And then like Muhammad Ali, he claimed he was the greatest even before he was well, I didn't necessarily want to claim I was greatest. I just wanted technically to know I was the greatest because it was in my mind the best, because I would have a hard time talking to people about their options if I didn't think I knew everything that could be done to fix it and was using

the best in the world. And this was an interesting time when I first started, because interest rates were fourteen percent and went up to and nobody wanted to do this route of dentistry that you were h ms to just come in managed care. And managed care means you sign up to a program, they tell you what you can do, they tell you what you can charge, and so it's a prescription for mediocrity. There's a place for it, but you can't do the very best of anything in

that mediocre media open situation. It's like communism are socialized, everything is the same. It'd be like every restaurant in the world at the charge the very same thing and you know, have the same product. And with managed care and medicaid, it's a lot of people don't notice. Like the this story about buying watermelons for a dollar, I mean buying watermelons for two dollars and sell them for a dollar and try to make up the cost differential involue you can't do it. So I was never cut

out for that. So we've never done managed care or medicare and medicaid any of at not that I don't think there's a place for it, but everything everyone told you you couldn't make it doing the way you did it. They said you're gonna go broke if you don't. I was about twenty seven when it came in and this guy gave a seminar to our dental society and said, if if y'all don't sign up, then you're gonna go broke. You're gonna want to get on and they're not gonna

let you on. And I said, it's cruel, and it's turned out great for you, to hell with it. We'll go somewhere else. Somebody's gonna want what I do and what exactly do you do? Quickly? And I do. My training is in complex restorative dentistry, but it didn't start like that. When I started, I was doing dental hygiene everything,

and we see all kinds of people. But my training is in complicated things like porcelambineers, missing front teeth, pull myth reconstructions, implants and every so every day it's bobs from just dark hurt in two. I see one patient every morning from eight in the morning until one or two or three or four in the Absolutity satellite. We'll take a little break at lunch. And they've got ivy sedation, so they've got a verse in denverroll which are very safe.

Gregs just takes the edge off and uh, we're doing complex, something complicated every morning. Then we do easy things in the afternoon, say some when we see people's kids. I like that it is complicated cases or specialty. Okay, you lost a brother at thirty six, How did that affect

your life? Well, it's it's uh, you know, he and over the same size, the same high, same way, we both had been, had loved athletics, um and he was just playing tennis one day and at thirty six and dropped dead of a rhythmic and we I think my family kind of marked time by his death. And from then on I just thought, you can't anticipate it. You don't want to be stupid, but you sure don't want

to go through your life playing it completely safe. And because he was in perfect health as far as he knew it just had a lot of times a good athlete or good athletes die over rhythms, but you know they're not playing it safe. Is kind of gone to extremes because Sharon and I have gone the places like out of Mongolia, which is three days from nowhere, with a guide and a cook and an old Russian. Here come these Mongolians riding up on horses with nineteen fifties

rifles across their back. And he and I looked at each other and said this could be interesting. But after that true for friends, said Steve, you've taken this too far, too far, but we've had we've had a good time. So basically though, with the passing of your brother, that helped you to be a little fearless, oh you know again,

not stupid. I don't want to take chances with people like you're not gonna see me riding down the road on a motorcycle with sharing on the back, because that's I like things that I've got a little control over, you know, if the little old lady pulls out in front of you. But for myself, you know I do hard mountain bike riding, and you know how it is.

When we first went to Waco. I was still playing uh City League football for the first ten years, and you and Katherine would go to those games and asked you about one night I went home my face was all blooding my hands roll and you're Catherine One said, Dad, You've got to grow up. I like I like things with a little edge, not stupid, but with a little edge. Okay,

so now we want to get to the shark bite. Okay, tell me briefly, don't go in too much, dufl Tell me about how long you've been coming to this island, what your routine is with spear fishing, and why this one day was different and the shark attacked you. Okay, we've been coming to this island thirty years, briefly going out with the same guy a thirty years. He was thirty two, I think when we started our thirty seven

and now he's sixty seven. And we've gone with his son, David uh and we're with his his other son Marcus, and so we've got a protocol, which Sharon said, because they're used to really not be as many sharks over here back in the day, you'd see one ever now and then, because they used to shark fishing was a thing way back then and they quit doing that. And I don't know if it's the warm water, we've talked it, but back then you'd see a shark and if you

were here for a week, maybe two or three times. Now, whenever you get into spirit, you pretty much know every time a shark is gonna come. And we're not afraid of them, but we're respectful. So the protocol with Sharon and Lincoln set up was after you've speared two or three fish into place with these Hawaiian slings, you moved to another spot because sharks are gonna come in and bloods in the water, and anytime you see a shark,

you you go to a different spot. Obviously on every time we're not and sharks do not want to bite people. If you're just snorkeling in the water, you don't have in it's clear water like the cribbon, you don't have a thing to worry about. We've been um Wheel has been back spear fishing every day with the guides since I had this and eat you and he yes, my son in law Will powers Uh and he and Katherine live in Austin, and of course Caroline and Michael Hobby

a thousand horses. You Yes, my favorite band live in Nashville. Um. And Will's in the gas compliance business magazine magazine, so he knows what he's doing. So what was I talking about? We're talking about don't they don't want you. But if you're spearing and you've got a fish that's been spared, wake up because that's shark is only doing its job, which is keeping the ocean clean by eating dead and injured fish. And this shark was no different. He was just doing his job. And it has to be a

pattern to be a perfect storm. So here's what we do when we go sparing. Were generally in probably twenty to thirty of water. That's a that's a free dive depth. And so we get in and we stay together. Usually there's there's always at least two of us and sometimes three, and we stay together, and you know, then you'll go

dive right there. In this case, Will and Tyrone, who is Lincoln, our guide's nephew, and I were together and there was fish here and a fish here, and I went after this fish and they went after this big hog fish. And so Tyrone went down and speared that fish, and he and Will were together and as they were coming to the surface, this big five six ft shark comes in and follows them all the way to the boat. And they we go directly to the boat, always with a fish and put it in the boat, so we

don't ever drag him behind us. But this shark came to the boat and actually knocked the Willie had his go pro on his shooter, which is the wooden handle, and it actually knocked the shooter out of his hands. So this shark was in feeding frenzy, prehistoric dinostaur attack mode. It was. It wanted the fish and they call it hot. That fish. That shark was hot, and we don't mean sexy, no, not like you and wom And this fish was after the fish. This shark wanted blood and the fish. It was.

It was dinosaur mode. Dinner bell had been the inner bell had been run and so Ladi da, I'm over here. But so you have no idea that it knocks because my fish had gone this way. And we're you know, we're careful about staying together, but we're guys out there. Come on, we're not like holding hands. Yeah, and I'm known to be focused. And you know there's a fish. Well I'm in the group, but we're not. We're not because we really hadn't thought about this scenario. Who does.

It's a once in a lifetime deal. So I've waited. My fish is going across the sand, giant hawk fish, and it I'm waiting for it to get to a coral head because you're visible if you go down and it's over the sand. So it finally gets to a coral head and goes behind a fan coral and then I go down and spear, get a good shot, get the fish. But then you've got to go down. Yeah, it's a big one, and it's a free spirit. It's

not connected to a line. So you've got to go down and get the fish on the spear, and the spears probably you know, three ft long or more feet long or more, and then you put the spear on the shooter so you can and then you hold it right here. Are some people hold it behind them, or you can hold it right here. It's easier to keep

the fish on the spirit right here. You're holding it behind you because of the weight and the water pulling it may pull the fish off of the Spirit's got a little barbed that flaps out that holds it on but still a lot of times so that's not out and it could and if it's nothing, it could rip through and that's more blood in the water because it's longer in the water. Yeah, But anyway, I just did

what Lincoln usually did, which was holding up here. I don't know if anybody explained it to me, but I've got that fish right here in front of the face. Yeah, And I don't know have any idea of what's happened with will in Tyron and the hot shark. So I'm coming up past the coral head and I'm thirty ft down. I'm coming up and I've got that fish right here holding my shooter, and I'm probably within ten ft of

the boat. And you can imagine dived, dove, dived down thirty ft, speared the fish, corraled the fish, put it on the shooter. You're out of breath, are inside out the bottom. Now here we come. And I'm coming to the top. And I mean, I know I'm not gonna die, but because I've had it enough, you're focused on getting to the top. You want to get to the top. I'm right here, about ten ft from the top, and all of a sudden come boom, something hits me in

the side of the head like a freight train. And you're not afraid, You're just your thought is just shocked. What I well see. I was twenty above the bottom, I was ten ft above the top of the coral head. I was ten ft from the ocean. Service I couldn't imagine what it could be. I couldn't imagine what it was. Just shark. It just no, I didn't. That never crossed my mind, never crossed my mind. Well, because in the movies,

you think we shark biting something. You don't think about it just blowing in to you at full speed and no pain, just boom. And so I looked to the side and the thing has taken my map, has bitten my mask off, and so I can't right here. Here's this mass bite ripped it right side and top like we talked about, so and it's cut the strap. So all I can see is this blur right here, this white underside, and this giant mouth open and all these teeth because the water's crystal clear. Why does teeth look

like coming at you? Were they coming at you to eat you? Just there? It's just like a picture. Were they coming towards your face. No, I mean it's it's it's the weirdest thing because it's an ultra slow motion. As I thought about it, it was like a choreograph dance, and it was in ultra slow motion on the one hand, but on the other hand, it was at lightning speed.

Because again, this fish was not after me. It was I was in the way of it doing work, the shark thing, and so I don't think a synapse ever got from my brain to my hand or my arm or my legs. I think it was on I think he, as I said, he was in prehistoric dinosaur kill mode, and I was in prehistoric dinosaur and stress ancestral I don't want you to kill me mode, and so I just lashed out with my hand. I may have had that shooter in my hand because I ended up in

the boat with the shooter. I lost my mask in the spirit let go, and I hid it on the side right side of the head with this arm. And the shark was so big. I don't think I knocked it back. I think just propelled me away from it. Well, he took about a second and then he's back in, just rooting down. It was like a pig rooting burrowing down my side because the fish is now dropped blood in the water. I'm moving. You know, he's just confused, and he's just rooting down here, trying to find that fish,

all the way down by side. And I hit him again, and each time I guess it would propel me away and give you about a seconds break, and then here he comes back in again. So you don't remember feeling the shark bath on your actual face. No, I think dying when the time is right, dying in uh violent accident is probably the most painless thing that could ever happen to you, because well, you know how many times I've been hurting my life from you thing, And you

never feel it when you get hurt. You feel it when you're recovering, But at the time you're hurt, you have no earthly idea. I didn't I didn't know, I didn't have a thought in my mind. And so then he finally gets down here. I'm just you know, the whole way down I'm hitting and kicking, and so did you think you were going to die? Why so you weren't thinking this thing is gonna kill me? I'm freaking out, You're not brave. You're not anything. You're just again prehistoric

dinosaur ancestral survival. You're not gonna I don't want you to bite me money. And I never thought of kill, really, I just thought, whatever you're doing, So you didn't think what I thought. I thought, whatever that shark is doing. I wanted to go do something else, and I want to go do something else. Get the road. Yeah, we've we've we've done. We've had enough of this. Were you worried I was gonna bite your arm off or your face off? You don't even think about that. It's not

a thought. That's crazy. You don't have time to think. I like I said, I don't think a thought got to my brain. I've got so much room and my head from now on to put new things in because I think it cleared it completely. I don't think there's a thought in there. So then I remember on the way up, you know, now we're separating. You pushed it away, you've dropped it well, the spears going down, and I think that's why, possibly when it went down on my leg,

because it's following that fish down. So now we're separated, and I remember thinking, this guy can swim a hundred times faster than me. There's no sense in me swimming fast. So I just kinda swam raised me up to the water, thinking I'm gonna be relaxed, and if he hits me again, I'll be ready for you rather than just being in a frantic I'll be prepared as much as you can. So I got to the surface even and just felt

this total sense of calm. I was not frantic. I was you know, Sharon hates me to say this, but I think I was really chuckling, sankling. I don't know. I was thinking something and I don't know what it was, but it was just like it was almost surreal. Yeah. I mean, for some reason, anytime I take a mad mountain football or something like that. A lot of times after mountain bike fall, I usually am kind of chuckling after I get up and that you made it through.

You don't really know. It's almost funny because this really traumatic thing happened. You kind of just laughed. I wasn't worried about it coming up and get me. You know, they're just everywhere, and so Lincoln the boat guide with this, you know that we've been going out with in this beautiful meloded Bahamian voice. They all kind of sing when they talk, and it always and he barked, Steve, I think he's been bit, in his classic understated way getting the boat, and so I swim the ten yards to

the boat. At that point I kick in and I say, hey, we made it this far. I think I'll motor on over there. Yeah, get the shoot her in And then pulled hoisted myself over the top. And Will was funny after that. He said, I didn't reach down to grab you because I wasn't sure if you had any hanging limbs. Truly, what if your army fallen off. Nobody knows knows, and

I didn't know. So I sit in the boat and uh, we go into triage mode and Will has taken these courses and stuff, and so he comes back and he's looking at they course blood just everywhere. Luckily nothing was pulsing, which would have indicated arterial damage and there was none of that was just bleeding and just boat blood and leg and all over my face and yeah, it's in

my eyes. So I didn't know if I'd got bitten in the eye or you don't know anything, and my face is known, so I don't know if it's when we saw it. Your whole lip was hanging off. Mean, you got a stitch back on. Great, but I mean your face was like hanging on. It was interesting for sure, and so will you know? He said he was good. And he said, are you in shocked? And I said no.

He said, you have the chills. He knew what the sentive work, and I did too, and I said, no, I'm coherent, don't feel dizzy, don't think I'm gonna faint. I feel pretty good overall. I mean, you're like the only shark survivor who's just totally calm. So he says, you want me to take a photo of you so you can see and I said, I might as well get it over with. Go ahead, And so he took a photo and you know, my face was not gone. I didn't have any big pieces missing. My lip was

you know, cut through and hanging down. And I had you know, you said, blood over all over the face, but I could tell that it was something that could be put back together. And UH was really relieved about that. You know, the first thought is man, and you've got a lot of blood on your face, But all in all, I was happy that the big pieces were there and there weren't any big pieces missing, and so, oh, this

was funny. We all got the boat by we always uh rent from Wade Cash which is Sunset H Marna and boat Rental, and the boat Sharon loves it because the boats were always in top condition. They've got the everything's brand new, the GPS works, the radios are brand new. They've got more than left brand new life jackets and so of course he had a fantastic first aid kit. So Will takes out a bottle of alcohol. It's about like that. He said, here's Steve, you want me to

pour this on your face? And I said, They're gonna be a number of things happening today, but you pouring that out on my faith is not one of them. Are my knee? He said? I said, are my need? I said, I will take my chances with infection. So we had a little chuckle about that. Then you get to the island and we got to think about what are we going to tell y'all? Oh, and Will said, okay, I gotta call the girls and tell them we're coming in, because you know they'll kill us if we don't say something.

So he said, what am I gonna say? We thought for a minute. I said, well, you don't want to tell somebody that's gotta wait. We're thirty minutes out. You don't want to tell somebody Steve just got bit in the face by a shark and I've gotta waite thirty minutes six. So I said, why don't you tell him? I ran into something sharp on the coral reef and

we're going in to get me a stitch. Oh, And Catherine says, oh, well, just bring him in and dump him off and we'll bring him home and you and Marcus and I mean you and Lincoln go back experience. He said, no, We've had a good day, and never stay here. He never calls spearing early because he loves it so much. When he called it, we knew something was up for like something's but we're going on because

bumped into something sharp. I sharp. That was so Mom and I get to the clinic when Dad shows up and his face is falling off, Mom and are freaking out. We don't believe you because you that video which will do is the classic, which that is the classic, which nobody's seeing but us, and it is one for the ages. It's just so well, Dad tells us his shark, he's

faced a bit by a shark. And you have been known to be a tall talor sometimes when I know everything is okay to add color to your story, exaggerate or makeup tall tale. So Dad's like, oh, yeah, I got hit by a shark and Mom and the're like, no, do you didn't. And Mom mused for a few choice words,

and it's like, tell me the truth. He was looking at Will and she's looking at Lincoln, And because she knows all of us have been inclined when everything's okay to kind of go in to your fix, she said, you tell me the truth with a lot of choice working there. Yeah, I'm like a flubbering idiot. It was pretty good. Did a great job in nurse. She'd never done anything anyway. So we go in and we just I sit down and you know, by then, I've seen the photo. I know that in much time. We go

five minutes. Okay, we get to the clinic and they call the nurse in. It's about the size of this thing right here. It's not big. It's open air. And the nurse comes in on Saturday, named Shakira, and she's pretty adorable because she looks at me and she said, we're gonna ship you to the mainland. And I said, I said what mainland. I didn't know she sent green Church. I don't know she met Treasure or this. I said, no, you can do this. Your coach goes in. She said, no, no,

I'm not doing this. And so we go back in, get on the table and she looks at me and she said, I gotta make a call here he gets I said, Shakira, we can do this, and so should you take sharing any other him? And and she tells Sharon that she's about to have a panic attach. She said, I've done some stitching, but I've never done a shark. But said, we need to take him to the mainland. Chances now you can do this that he does lots of surgery and y'all get through it together. The thing

I liked about it was it was so clean. It was open air. You're not dealing with a lot of the issues that you're dealing with in a big hospital. And I knew I was going to get there was nobody else there. I was going to get her undivided attention. And I'm a guy. And she said that you actually kept her calm. Well, but that's what I said. I'm a guy in any mail, you're crazy stars place to have that edgy look. You know you're crazy. You mean the thing that a few scars like, Well, I've already

got the cute girl. What wants to do? So anyway, she sewed it up, did a wonderful job sailing it, disinfected it with iodine, stitched it up with proline suiture. I knew exactly what she was done. As we went through. She'd take photos and send them to the doctor, the medical doctor on the mainland wherever that was, and then both she and I would talk to the medical doctor. Gave me a technics shot, put me on antibiotics for five days, which we happen to have with us, but

they sent some more over. So all in all, I mean, as far as having a shark bite to the face, you couldn't have gotten out better. And now you do you have that, Jason. Here's one of my granddaughter, Genevieve. Interestingly enough, my Sharon's grandmother name is Lovey. My grandmother my grandfather name that Sharon, Catherine and Caroline figured out is lucky. I've always been so lucky, and I'm so

lucky to have them. So as luck would have it, when it bit me right there, the plast excited my mask stopped it and I had a big dive knife right here with a big handle. So when it bit me on the knee, got me on both sides, it didn't tear either place. It hit the hard metal or plastic apparently, and let up rather than complete the bite and tear set out. So you've truly lived into your name. Lucky, lucky, and that shark to be in good spirits about it all.

Most people probably freaking out losing years off their life, but not you. What have you learned from it all? So much of life is about timing and luck. And I read an article one time in the paper about a guy about a boat falling out of an airplane and hitting a gun in the head and killing. Well, how random is that? And so, like I said at the beginning, you don't want to be stupid, but you definitely I want to take a few chances. It's funny that I asked my ninety six year old grandmother Memmi

one time. Uh, I was just talking to I said, Mammie, if you had to do it, differently, what would you what would you do? And she looked at me and didn't bad enough, and she said I would have taken more chances. Really, so you looked like that. So I like to wrap up with leave your light, which is leave inspiration, how codes you live by it? And something you want to inspire people buy or something inspires you, which ties it well to a sharp fight rock and roll.

You know, just just decide that life is a good thing, that it's fun and you're gonna enjoy it, and uh, you know, be the best you can at what you do. And somebody's always as far as making living, somebody's always gonna want what you do if you're really good at it. That's by motivating things. Not I've never thought about making a living. I've just thought about be the best at

what I do and somebody's always gonna want that. Or if not have island plan, and the island plan is up for us has always been if dentistry ever didn't work out, we just come to the Bahama's an open little dive shop, and you know, I'm not gonna jump off a cliff, so that that would be my My leave is this is the best time you could possibly be alive. You've got more opportunity, more things you can do. Just take advantage of it. And done. A little shark bite holds you back, Try to be a good person.

Tip big, you know, don't don't focus on yourself. And I think that's it. I think Lucky is a fitting name for you. Done, and we're writing a book. I got bit in a shark. I got bit in the face by a six ft shark. Because that is something, a tale that needs to be told. So you'll be looking for it. It's going to be a news stands next year. You have been talking about this, and I can't see why people might be. It's happening a little interesting, So everyone be prepared for that. Oh you know, there's

one other thing. I have a whole new appreciation for social media because you went viral. It was never intended to be that way. You know, you you you think about when you go home. You can't just show up with your face bitten by shark. You've got to let your family and friends know. And so Caroline and Sharon and Catherine just posted on their webs, on their what, Instagram, instagrambok that this had happened. Well Julie Hayes was the wake Up, was a TV anchor, was one of Caroline's friends.

She called Caroline, I wanted to talk to me, talk to me. Boom. That one got picked up by everyone. I mean we've been talking to people from Norway, London and the capital of this the State Department. Yeah, and but that my message, my leave messages. It's not the shark's fault. Don't be afraid sharks. That shark was doing its job. We have to have sharks to clean up the ocean, to get rid of dead and injured fish. So it was just strictly a timing thing. We were

in his environment and it worked out that way. So uh, people should never be afraid of just snorkeling in the ocean. Basically it's clear water and if you're spear fishing, just be respectful and pay attention. Steve Lucky Cutbirth survived the shark back to the face. Thanks dad, You're welcome, all right by favorite interview. Hey, thanks you, my favorite dad. Carolave. She's the queen of talking. He was sown your man.

She's on the inside. So you got the scoop on the walls, on the lawns to side, no one can do win quiet my Carola, Carola, I hope that you loved hearing from my dad. I still can't believe that he got bit in the face by a shark. Like I can't process it. Sometimes I'm like what, and You're fine? And what. I love him so much. He's an incredible father. He's an incredible man, and I think he has so much advice and wisdom. I'm so glad he got to share. Next week, I have Tony Brown. This dude is one

of the biggest producers producers in music period. He is considered the founding father of alternative Americana country. He has had over forty years in the music business, over a hundred number one songs and over a hundred million album sales he has been a part of. He has produced Reba, Bence Gill, George, Straight, Bricks and Dunne, Tricia Yearwood, Rodney

Crowd and name a few. He's incredible. He's won a Grammy and he's so so sweet and interesting, and he's writing a book talking about all of his experiences with all these pictures, with these greats. He also played in Elvis's band What and Emmy Lou Harris's band, he played piano. So y'all get excited for Tony Brown next week. You're not gonna want to miss it. BELTL