It's a Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast special report. The Lapse Fan presents the Complete Hulk Cogan, a real American story. We're brought to you by Garage Pierre.
All Right, folks, the Complete Hulk Hogan continues to unfold here on The Lapsed Fan with so many twists and turns and surprises. We're learning so much more about Terry Boley's early days than we ever expected to. You've heard from Vic Pettitt, who was one of his close buds growing up, and it just it just keeps going because if folks are willing to tell us and color in our idea of where Hulk Hogan came from, we are all ears and we are privileged to be joined here
this time by Gary Barris. Now, Gary was Terry Bolay's friend going back to fourth grade in Tampa. And you might also know Gary as a member of Hulk's first band, Infinity's End, which was formed in high school and set him on the course. So Gary, we want to thank
you so much for being here. Yeah, you're welcome, excellent, excellent to have you, and I guess we should start as soon as early as we can, because until connecting with you, I did not realize that your friendship with Terry began before high school and the whole band thing. Where did you meet him? How did it start?
We met at Balisfoyta Elementary in fourth grade. I think we had class together up but he was missus Post and we would we'd walk home from school together. We would we would go down Balasfoyne Boulevard. Do we got to McDill Boulevard. He would go right to go to Paul Avenue and I would go left to go to Leeld Avenue, and we just we're friends ever since then. I don't remember why we ate it off.
We just, you know, sometimes that just happens, absolutely, And so you were able to JP you want to go ahead?
No, No, I was just gonna say, yeah, I definitely happens. So many friends that I had when I was that age. You don't even I don't eve remember how I became friends with some of these people. It just kind of happened.
I totally identify with that going back that far. So you knew his parents as well, and Vic told us some great stories about Ruth and Pete, and I'm just fascinated by the home they kept, what it was like going to visit Terry at his house when he was a kid, and what they were like Any Ruth and Pete stories you can share.
Yeah, One thing we did is we made Ruth some end tables and shop class. I made one and Terry made one. She was just tickled to death with those things. They were in there the living room for a long long time to come. The thing about Pete was he worked for I was really construction, just out in the just brutal job you know, do an asphalt and anything. Anything he had anything to do with it was just hot. And he used to come home from work and just be read, uh you know, not not just sunburned, but
but just from the heat. And one thing he'd like to do when he when he came in the door, he would like, uh, would ask Ruth to fix him with Boultvanell ice cream.
Yes, yes, so uh.
And he would just sit there and cool off with that ice cream. And he'd like to have Hershey's chocolate on it. And this was this was back of the day. Hershey' chocolate came in a can, just like you get a kind of suit nowadays. You know, you had to open it up and pour it on there and one day, he's, uh, he's singing, Ruth, when did they start putting nuts in this Hershey's chocolate? She goes, they don't nuts in Hershey's chocolate.
What are you talking about? So she opened up the cupboard because they kept it in the cupboard instead of refrigerator, and she looked in some some nice crunchy roaches had gotten in there.
No, no, no, I clearly did not warn JP Gary about that. Oh Jesus, what did he do?
Did he?
Did he bar?
That's my funniest Pete story that I that I could think of. And he was such a little guy, but such a nice guy.
Yeah, yeah, So he didn't overreact to it. Did he shrug it off? Did he just eating roaches or what?
Oh? Yeah, yeah, he just he didn't finish it. But you know, he didn't go in the bathroom and throw up or anything.
So it seems like I'm pushing it off the tables a little bit.
Yeah, I'm good with that things.
Yeah. Yeah, he was a tough little guy though. Yeah. One other thing we used to do is sometimes Ruth would see Terry and I first started playing together. I think it was actually junior high. We were fifteen years old. We weren't weren't even old enough to drive yet. Dad used to have to ren new hall trailer and take our equipment around for us. And Terry you know, had that like like you like you mentioned before he hit that big head. He looked looked so much older than
his age. And sometimes Ruth would would ride to work with somebody and Terry knight hopping her white and Vala and we just go cruising during the summer. You know, I remember the keys were hanging right there by the door. It was just just just too much temptation. But of course we never got stopped or anything. Uh you know, Terry uh certainly certainly looked looked over his age.
He looked at you. He looked the part now as far as your earliest music with him, and we'll get to the whole Infinity's end story. Of course, don't want to jump the gun, but he does mention in one of his books that his very first band was called the Plastic Pleasure Palace. And this is something that never left the garage, So I don't know if you'd even call it a band, and then it didn't perform or anything. Do you remember that at all?
No, unless that was, Uh, this is the earliest musical thing he was. It was a full name Jack Nugent that formed a band and they used to practic just over it over at Jack's house. And that's the first band that I knew of that Terry was in. I think they only played once or twice. As matter of fact, I wrote I wrote with them to the gig. I think the only paid once or twice at local community centers.
I see.
But if you if you'd like to know how when Terry first got in the band, I was. I was playing the lead guitar and another very very good friend of Terry's, Wash Chet Yoakam, Chet was playing drums, and we had a keyboard player named Lee, and Lee left the band and we were trying to find a keyboard player and we couldn't find a keyboard player. Uh. And this was a practice one time. So my mom said, Gary, if you want learn how to play you know, keyboards. She says, I don't have to play piano, and we
can get you one week and you can learn. I said, okay, why not? So Chet says, well, that would work out really good because Terry has been telling me he wants to be in the band. M Well, Terry at the tie at that very moment, was over at Jack's house practicing with that band. Well, you know, Chet, being the good friend that he was, he had a little ninety c C Honda motorcycle, which back back then we thought
that was a big bike. And he went over to Jack's house and Terry took his guitar and he put it around his back, you know, so the strapp was on the front of him and the back was and the guitar was hanging out the back got on the back of Chet's motorcycle and he brought him over to Arur practice.
Wow, and he plugged in.
And that's that's how Terry joined Infinity's End.
So Infinity's End existed for how long before Terry got involved?
Oh? Not long.
Yearrish got it. So he shows up and tell me about his jobs and was he really good from the beginning? Did he get better? How did it go?
He was good. He had he had taken music lessons from a guy named Mike, you know, the professionally taught. Mike was in a band called The Opposite Sexist, and he was good. Mike taught hem, you know, the right way to learn, practice your scales and things, and Terry played lead guitar uh in the beginning. Later on we were practicing, we were learning the song by Yes, and
Terry's big old fingers just couldn't move fast. And the bass player David, David could play anything, so right there at practice they just swapped, you know, and Terry started playing bass and David, you know, played guitar. But Terry was a really good, really good, solid guitar player. He just you know, he had two different sides. He had
kind of a mild meek side. One time we were playing UH at an old airplane hangar at Lakeland Air Force Base, and the band that went on before us were so so good blues band, just three of them, uh. And so we went to go up on stage, and we were we were all pretty nervous. Uh. Terry was exceptionally nervous. And I looked over and he was trying to plug his guitar and his amp and his hand was shaking and I had to reach up and put
my hand around his and put it in there. But once things got going, he was a real showman, once he got past that little bit of stage fright that he sometimes had. Mom used to make his clothes and he would get we would we would wear these satiney looking long sleeve balloon shirts and he would have her so all kinds of fringe on it, a real long fringe, and then then he would have her take his bill bottom pants and make it even bigger. But he had
this kind of kind of shy sight sometimes. But then what he got on stage, it was a whole different thing, and he used to really really show off. We used to play some grand folk where I wrote them things, and he did a really fine job on those.
JP had strikes me we have a chance here with Gary to get something potentially that Vic couldn't quite convey. We want to know that the voice, right, JP. We want to know what it sounded like to talk to Terry before he was hul hilgan.
You know, before before the voice dropped and he had that deep voice. I tried, I'm trying to picture and I just what it what it sounded like?
What did he talk like as a kid, He.
Just sounded like and the other little kid he did.
He didn't say brother all the time or not.
His voice did not match his body. How so Gary, well it was just kind of meek and mild. He hadn't got that low hold hook and but I remember the first time I saw him was on Johnny Carson as a matter of fact. In fact, they showed a picture of his third grade class and that's when he was talking about hook mania and things. And I was surprised that how his voice sounded. Now, as far as I know, he did a voiceover in Rocky, Yeah, I was.
It in post production like he does. He's not mouthing the words, he's.
Oh yeah, he's mouthing the words. But I believe it was a voiceover. It did not sound like him to me.
Well, like somebody else did a voice interesting.
Right, right, that's my understanding. I can't say that for gospel, but it did not sound like him.
To jump ahead a bit, I mean, that's got to be a trip. You see this guy who you know has some showing in him, like you said once the music ongoing, but who also could be very meek and mild mannered, who didn't have that big boisterous voice, who's trembling plugging into the MP And then you know, ten years later he's on national television screaming and hollering with this deep timber and going nuts that. That must have been weird to see Terry boleo or did you even see him in that guy anymore?
Yeah? Yes, and no. What I used to tell Terry was apparently got over stage right friends, you know, but farently he got over his stage right. Uh. It was a little it was a little surreal to see him, to see him like that, But you know, he's always been just Terry to me. You know that that's my memories of him. You know, I was playing hanging out together and playing in the band together.
When you uh were outfitted. Because he talks about this in his book a bit. Your dad was kind of the manager of Infinity's end, and your mom was involved, as you said, in the outfitting and the costuming, right. Yes, he remembers in his second book it is missus Barres used to paint peace signs and daisies on our pants with black light paint that would glow on stage. So you guys would kill the lights at a certain point. Was that part of the presentation?
Yeah, and turn and turn on the black lights and then our pats would light up. It's almost embarrassing right now to talk about, but it was really cool back then, you know.
Yeah, that counts as a special effense. Yeah, it's kind of like crazy technology for the time, all right, got it, So I can picture that now. He also said she also made us wear socks with our penny loafers, and if we didn't, we'd get fined five dollars. Is that true?
Terry used to tell a lot of half truths. I could name quite a few.
Oh, we'll get them by the time we're done.
He didn't like to wear socks, and and mom and dad tried to get him to wear socks, but he never got fined for not wearing socks, all right. He also mentions in the in the in the book that we did this synchronized movements when we were playing dance. How about how about fell on the floor laughing when I read that.
Wow, you guys were stationary.
He couldn't dance to save his life.
Oh my god, that's tremendous. Yeah, I just god. It's so it's so interesting, Grek, because so many wrestlers, especially in that era, came from athletics, especially in Tampa. I mean so many college football.
Players, even from Robinson High School.
Right, absolutely, Steve Kern and the Grahams and and others at Leslie. Uh, and they were in their athletes. And you know, Kerry did play little league baseball and dabbled a bit in football. We know this from looking at his history. And he bowled, of course, but by the time, by the time he's with you guys and plugged into the music, he's not an athlete. It's so fascinating that he became a pro wrestler without that sort of you know, collegiate athletic pedigree at all.
Right, he had, he had ability, but that wasn't what he pursued, you know, he had he had no interest in going out and for the football team and things like that. Now the coach didn't like the idea that he wouldn't go out. And we had long hair, and uh, he and I went to get our senior class done. We're playing at a club called the White Rabbit over in Saint Petersburg on Treasure Island. And during that, you know,
it was summertime. Our hair was good and long. We were swimming in the pool every day and then to try the next day. Well, and he and I went to get our senior pictures taken at Brown Island Studios. Our hair was down to our shoulders, and so we had our pictures taken. You know, we went back and did our own goofy thing, you know, playing in the
club and trying to meet girls during the day. And they called us up and they said, uh, you're you're you're not going to be in the in high Why is that because your hair is too long?
Oh my god?
Really so so he so, mom, cut is in my hair and we went and had to have it redone again. But as a matter of fact, I was supposed to be and I was in the top tim percent uh of the class. In graduation. I was supposed to be with the honor students. And I didn't know that I graduated with honors till after I got my diploma, and I said, what's just stand there in the corner.
Oh my goodness, because your.
Hair was because that was because the dean of boys didn't like either one of us. The coach didn't like Terry for not going out for football. Of course, the coach didn't like either one of us for having long hair. And uh, like I said, I think it was the dean that was behind neither one of us was going to be in the in the high school annual and uh that that just was the way it was, uh sab Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well that's something because Terry, as you probably know Gary's, he became a wrestling superstar and had that pole position to protect. He kind of got the reputation of a guy who was always looking over his shoulder at the next potential guy that was coming for his, you know, spot, and he was a master at staying relevant and on top.
Did he have any like, I don't know, for lack of a better term, like paranoid qualities, But even back then, was he very like self conscious about how he was perceived and things like that.
Well, he was very sufagious about his appearance. Yeah, he always was thought he had ahead that was bigger anybody else's and he wasn't. You know, that was part of his course sort of shy side and he was heavy. He was heavy when he was playing baseball. But he could still play baseball just fine. He can pitch, he could knock him over the fence. But he never was really paranoid so to speak of Okay, but of that shy side and those those things that he was he
was embarrassed up now. We could never get him to talk into a microphone. R. Wow, do you want to do you want to sing? Nope? Do you want a microphone so you can at least talk to the people? Nope, that's just that never happened.
That's wild.
Like I said, he got over his stage right again.
Just but I because I to kind of a piggyback on Jack's question there, because we've seen a bunch of the band photos, and what I find interesting is that in most of them, and like different bands too, not all, not just an Infinity's end, but he's always in the back. Terry was always in the back, and he kind of
had everyone else in front. And I don't know it, just it seemed it seemed interesting to me because he's such a powerful presence and made me wonder why he always wanted to kind of stay behind everybody and not, you know, be in front of anybody.
Well, to be honest with you, if he'd had been out front with the rest of us, it was like the jolly green giant we looked.
Like, right, It's true, that's true.
Though I think the the photographer that we used probably placed him back there.
Got him. He didn't want to He didn't want to keep an eye on anybody. He didn't want to keep an eye on everybody or anything like that.
Yeah, yeah, right now, he may have gravitated back there. I don't really know, but I imagine that was the photographer that did. Yeah, yeah, that he probably didn't mind.
He probably didn't mind. Yeah, you can echo that for sure. Something else in the book, he remembers your dad, uh taking everything very seriously. He says, whatever the gig was, we would play forty minutes, then take a twenty minute break. We couldn't be late, we couldn't break too early.
Uh.
He kind of took some of the fun out of it with all that discipline. But the thing was, we were junior high kids, and we were actually making money at this on the weekends. So it's interesting he describes it not as like always this like just kids being kids. It kind of became a professionalized thing. Can can you help us understand? Kind of did you have dad seriously? Yeah?
Well, that that was the reason we were making money, and the rest of them we're still playing in their garages, right, you know, Dad, Dad, he was the manager at every sense of the word. If we had if we had a potential place to play, he would go meet with either the club owner or and we used to pay out the base a whole lot. And he was an air traffic controller and he could get on base anytime and kind of talked to Lingo and he would he
would make the arrangements. So he felt a lot of responsibility. And he would say, they'll show up on time. You know, they'll they'll do what they're supposed to do. He says, I'll make sure they don't play too loud, and that that he did. But it was because of his discipline that we were successful. And uh, Terry and I played together about five years. He and I were the longest standing members of Infinities in well, I was the longest
because I started it. But he he he, we've lasted. Gosh, we lasted a lot longer than most most kids, you know, stayed together. We were we started junior high and then we finished up playing together probably about two years after high school something like that. And I still sat it in with some of his other bands when they were shorthanded.
Oh good, No, we'll talk about the other bands, because you know, we were looking at some some materials over the years that have been in the paper. You know, Infinity's end is coming. To the youth center or whatever, and these press releases. And one of the things that I wanted to ask you about was you guys advertised yourself as bringing a big sound, a big sound, and I'm missing the context, like, what what did it mean
to have a big sound? What does that tell us about the style of music people would expect when they read that back then?
Well, well, for instance, we played the song and I got a da vida yes, And at the time we had two drummers, and the drummers did the solos completely synchronized, and and that I think that's that may have been what kind of started the reputation. But but you know, you can sell it was kind of a kind of a heavy sound, I guess you would say, without without being too loud.
Was it heavy enough that attracts to you? That Hulk claimed to want to join Metallica later, that seems a lot heavier than what you guys were doing.
That that would have been very much happier.
What about that story, that's a legendary one where I wanted to be you know, he put in he put out the word that he wanted to be in Metallica.
Well, what can I say?
I love it. I love it quite.
I was curious in one of the in one of the uh kind of promos we found for Infinity's end at this you know, at some youth center. It said, this is kind of fascinated me. It said at the end that you know it started, you know, they said, you know, they're going to play from seven to ten thirty, but they basically insinuated that the doors were locked between that time and you could not leave until the show was over.
And I was like, what was that about.
Some of some back then, some of the rear creation centers did that for parents peace of mind.
I see, okay, okay, they.
Didn't want the kids saying, well, we're gonna go to the dance, you know, then the kids go stick off in the woods, okay, come back later for mama dad to pick them up.
I just think of in like today's world, little word any kind of an emergency. You know, there's there's concerns about fire and stuff. It's like, oh my god, no you can't leave. The building's on fire, but you can't leave. But that makes sense where you're coming from, makes sense.
Yes, yeah, you appreciate that you drop the kids off and yeah, you'd hope, you'd hope that they wouldn't end up somewhere else. So you guys are in there, you're pretty young school age, and it looks like some of the clubs you guys were playing were liquor serving establishments. How did that work? Was it okay to have, you know, a band that couldn't drink playing for people who were drinking or was that? Was there not that overlap? How did that all go?
Well, a couple of places I could think of that we did that. They actually had a kind of it was kind of a section, for lack of a better comparison, like a like a smoking section or no smoking section, you know. And there was a little I mean, what do they think us to walk back to the bar right right? Anything to stop us, but we had to go through this little gate and someone would say, you know, you need to get back. In some places they'd go ahead and service.
To be clear, absolutely was he was he a part of your I mean obviously he wasn't like a huge party animal in high school? Well, you know, but give us a sense like did he did he become cool? He's confusing because he talks in his books and interviews about how being in the band sort of put them in in bold position and put you guys kind of in the spotlight, and so you were known. But he also says, like we're all kind of nerdy, and we weren't. Just because we were playing in the band didn't mean
we got a lot of girls. I'm trying to like slot him in my mind in the in the halls of the high school.
Well in in the high school days, I would say, the first two years of high school, and back then it was only three years. We were both we were both kind of shy, yeah, and then our senior year, we both both came out of our show a little bit more. That's when we you know, grew a hair long and you know, started start having some girl friends and such. His first girlfriend was a lady named Debbie Smith, and she was either a year or two years younger.
I'm still in touch with her occasionally. We've had lunch a couple of times. It was I actually ran across her on a dating site and she said, you know, I really can't date you. I feel like I was going out against Terry. Okay, but she was a real she's a real nice lady, and I just remember that's when Terry had his green Ford Galaxy five and he drove to high school and you know they would they would, you know, be out in the on the parking lot
in the in the Galaxy before school. And that's just that's just how I remember them walking together.
Fascinating when you mentioned the car, and he talks about a sixty nine road Runner one with an automatic three eight three engine and a four speed, and he says in his first book he couldn't have gotten them without the help of a woman by the name of Lilah Silverwood who was at Atlantic Bay Bank on Dale Neighbray
Street in Tampa. He says, now we've talked a little bit, Gary, I know you don't necessarily remember that that that particular woman who he says helped get the car loan before he could qualify from one age based on his own. First of all, do you remember Terry being like one of the first guys that got like financed for a car and and all of a sudden had had a like a hot rod before other kids did.
Well, we tried to make it the actually five hundred hot rod.
Yeah, I just generically it was eighty nine.
And I remember him he and I go into gosh I think it was Zerr's and boughting a Sparkmatic free speech shifter and putting it on the floor, and he wound up wrapping that car round a palm tree.
Whoa, whoa, what happened there? But did he get I can't just leave that one there? What happened?
It was just a little there was just a little road off McDill Avenue that that wasn't quite straight, and it wasn't a hard, hard corner either. It was just a kind of a curve and uh, he just took it too fast one time and he got sideways. He's in the quarter panel and and the palm tree had a had a little h incident there.
So he was he went hard. Yeah, that's that's all.
Well, we were we were both car guys. Uh you know, the the band van had a three twenty seven police interceptor and put in it, and we we were just we were all car guys. And because of the fact that we were making money, we could we could afford them. Now we couldn't afford to go out and pay for one cash for instance.
But the woman.
Of the bank probably help probably helped him out. Uh, you know they Pete Ruth lived in a very modest wood frame house, and I don't doubt that he may may have needed some assistance, uh, you know, to get a car like that. The Reverend was the four speed and the blue and was the automatic?
Was he well? We mentioned his banking time, and he's mentioned it in passing because it was a very short thing. But I think he went to USF where he went to Hillsbury Community College and had like a finance minor for a very short period of time or a major even, and it looked like he was considering maybe a career in banking. I have a hard time wrapping my head around seeing this massive man in the suit and tie,
you know, as a loan officer. But can you tell us whatever you remember about his short lived idea to be in banking.
I don't know where it came from. I mean we were, you know, after you playing a band. It's like, what do I do now? And I think he was, you know, comfortable at the bank from his dealings there and that just maybe I think he just went there and applied and apparently it was something that he was well suited for. Didn't handle his his money too well. I guess to get everybody else's.
I love that because he, uh, he talks a lot about, you know, being a numbers guy. Of course he made so much money, but I wasn't sure. Yeah, what was his spending like relative to uh, you know, a banker like? Was he was? He a free spender? What do you remember?
We were? We were pretty free? What what money didn't go for band equipment, went for cars, might go for cars, went for beers. He and I were were drinking buddies, bandmates and just just just you know, friends friends in general.
I love that. What was his beer of choice in his earliest years?
We used to buy old We call him old Milwaukee Old Mill okay, because he was like ninety nine cents a six pack.
So he was smart with his money. He wasn't splurging. He's find the cheapest beer he could find.
Well, that was because I got you the most.
Yes, that's that. That pencils out for sure. So did you ever go see him at the bank? Did you ever observe him in that element? I just can't even picture him.
And no, I never did, and and and like you say, that would be just so so hard to imagine pulling into a bank, and here's this guy that's uh, well over six ft you know, this this huge head, right, and I don't and I don't think he could his hair to go to work in the bank. No, but that would that would have been a bizarre site, for sure.
I was surprised to hear you say that that that was such an issue with like that the Dean and the Yebic community, because because to me, that whole era, it was sort of the long hair had already been accepted, and in the resistance to the long hair from from teenagers and twenty somethings was was in the rearview mirror. But it sounds like Terry grew up in a time when there was still a lot of opposition to that.
Look well, well, Hillsboro County, which is where Robinson High School resides, was a bit different, very behind in the times. I see, we we were not allowed to grow long hair. I kept in mind back over my ears, and he did the same thing to make it look a little bit shorter. Because the thing was, your hair couldn't be over your ears, you know, So we put it back and that's how we would get by, as long as it wasn't too long. But somebody, uh just just to
regress for a second. Here, there were four guys uh that did not get their hair cut a second a second time like Terry and I did, and they were not going to be any annual. And during the the last part of high school, someone in the county UH sued the county for not letting them, uh grow the hair long. And the judge declared that the here is just an extension of the body and you can't regulate something like that.
Oh wow.
So these guys were that were not going to be in the annual got in the annual because of the lawsuit, and we called it the long hair section because they were totally not worked in with the rest of the They ha already done the layout and everything, so they just stuck them at the bottom of the page. But we used left out that called the long hair section. Harry and I would have been there if we had.
That's really cool. Yeah, could you just think of him as oh, yeah, hippie rock like look at him. That was that was par for the course back then, without an appreciation that, you know, the county he lived in wasn't necessarily embracing of that that revolution.
Now we would we played in particular. One time we played in Arcadia, Florida, which at the time was just a little rodeo town. Still not huge, but it's you know, it's in the middle of the state, not anything already else around it. And some of the ladies were making eyes that the guys in the band, probably especially Terry and some of the good old boys, did not like that.
And uh, I see, we took the microphones stands and we laid them out in the grass as we were packing so we could have something to grab swing and we got a police escort out of the.
County wow Wowa. He had he had heat for getting the attention to the ladies for his long hair.
Right, and they, of course we didn't have They didn't like long hair either. But this was, like you said, it was it was getting a set acceptance, but Bill hadn't quite got there yet.
Yeah, so that that kind of tracks right, JP. And he's concerned that he's got heat with these Brandon people, you know, and that they might be coming for him.
That makes that mean Honestly, that makes that makes total sense. It's unbelievable how it even tracks back that far.
Now, Gary tell us when you think about that, that flirtation with banking that he had, for lack of a
better term. One of the things he kind of frames up in his one of his books is this idea that while he was at the bank, he had access to, you know, different client files and different client accounts, and he claims that the bank he worked at a lot of the wrestlers Florida Championship Wrestling wrestlers had their accounts, and so he was able to kind of peek just in the normal course of business at what they were making and saw these amounts that honestly seemed ludicrous for
the time. As far as what he put in his book, I guess when he first told the story, he was like two grand a week, and by the time he was done telling it, it was like thirty grand a week for some of these guys in the seventies, which is hard to believe. Anyway, what he was like, go ahead, like.
I said, Terry told half Truce. He told me he was from Port Tampa and he went from Port Dampa. He was from South Tampa. Port Tampa was dumb, Barbara. The high school was one time there was a gandy bridge connects Tampa and the Saint And as you're driving across that bridge in Port Tampa, you could look and you could see the largest neon sign in the world. It was like one hundred and fifty feet wide. They're three hundred feet wide one hundred and fifty feet tall,
and it was Atlantic Coastline Railroad on the sign. That's where their main yard was. Well, one time he told me, he said, I'm just going to use their first names. He said, Dougie and Cliff. He said they unplugged that sign once. And not too long ago, I was chatting on Facebook with Cliff's wife and I said, Terry said, you know, Dougie and Cliff unplugged that sign. She said no, She said they used to climb up on it, but they didn't have run plug it.
I guess climbing up on it wasn't a good enough story for Terry, right.
Right, right, But but you know it was all in good fun of course. Well, I'm thinking about it. He had this fascination with Port Tampa and he actually wanted to rename the band the Port Tampa Volunteer Electric String Band.
What why would you want to call it that?
The Port tamp the Port Tampa volunteer electric string band.
That's what he wanted to name the band.
Okay, why he.
Was he was obsessed. He just was obsessed with Port Tampa. They had an old jail that wasn't there anymore. There was a bank that was empty that's now public library. He had a crush on a girl named Sue Clark, and we used to toilet pay for her her house, which was her parents' house. Uh. And he ran the local uh general store. He actually I have a friend that that told me a story once. One of her sters was a mermaid in Wiki watching Springs, which is a big deal, and he had a crush on her.
So he left. He left a toilet in their front yard.
What he just had.
I'm sure he grew out of it, but just a weird of sense of humor sometimes.
Well that's it's something a wrestling rib to lead, you know, in the wrestling world. So did his proclivity to tell tall tales go back to high school even or did he only start telling the big whoppers after he became a wrestler.
Oh no, no, it was it was from junior high up from what I remember.
See, we always blamed the wrestling business for that but he he came ready to make misrepresentations. That's amazing a bit, just a bit, just a bit, because one of the reasons I brought the bank thing up was not just to see what you were called, but in how fascinating it is that he worked in banking, even if just
for a little while. But he kind of frames it up in his book as the real reason he decided to stop pursuing music, because he was able to get this glimpse at how much the wrestlers were making by virtue of this bank job he happened to have in these files, he happened to have, what's your perception, knowing him as well as you did, and playing in bands with him for so long, why did he stop playing music?
Well, with music, you either make it really big or you struggle after a while. And when we were in the final days of playing now I was in different bands and he was in a different band. Disco was becoming popular and everything was you know, DJ's spent in records, and you just couldn't get the good gigs hardly anymore unless you unless you played some of the larger clubs I see, And you know, there comes a time where
you've got to make a choice. You know, am I going to be a musician and starve or are you gonna, you know, have a regular job and be able to have a family and so on and so forth. But I don't doubt whatsoever that because he was actually playing you probably know the story. He was actually playing in a club where some of the wrestlers used to come.
In, Imperial Room, right, yes.
And yes, And I have no doubt that that all that just kind of merged together, just kind of came to fruish, uh, you know, the lack of being able to get really good gigs and and make really good money because of what was changing, you know, Disco was taking over, and him working at the bank, and the wrestlers, you know, running into him at the club. I batched, that all just kind of melded together and came to fruition. And and that's that's how hul Cogan was born.
I love it. Yeah, that's what we're getting to is the birth of Hulk Hogan, not just Terry Bolea. And the thing that the thing that just endlessly felt fascinates me about the guy is and there's so many examples of this, It's like a pattern and you've already touched on it, But this is another one where it's like he tells the story all the time, just as you did.
You know that the wrestler should be around him, and he become aware of of how big a deal they were, how much they could make, and that definitely got his attention and made him lean into it. Why then introduce this this fable about how he saw the wrestler's earning statements at the bank, Like, what did that do for him to have that story as part of it? I never understood why he did that kind of stuff.
Well, I cannot, I cannot verify that part of his story clearly. I think probably the rest of it, Yeah, you know, it all makes sense, and I think I'm sure it's true that part of it may be that a little bit of that half of a little bit untruth it might have worked its way in there.
Well, why do you think he did that? Why do you think he the sign unplugged? What did he get out of embellishing like that? Do you think.
Attention? Oh?
I see, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, he always had a little bit of an insecure side, and I think that, you know, it was just just part of him you.
Know, getting past that, getting attention, Not that we all didn't spend some tales, but of course yeah, yeah, he was pretty consistent with it.
You can say, I'm fascinated to hear that that was his rep before wrestling. Yeah, got jam.
I mean I say, would you consider that to be kind of like that insecurity? I mean this is a totally speculation. I mean, would you consid that to be kind of like a like a void he was trying to fill with this, uh, with these tall tales?
Yes, I would think so. Yeah.
Yeah, because when you tell this, when you tell the big crazy stories like this, you get people, I don't know, just more more engaged with you, right, I mean it's just a way to make people remember you.
Yes, yes, and of course people listen to you. You know it. It just it just was part of it. You know, many people are combination of different things. Do you think would not go together? But what it happens.
Yeah. That's what's been so rewarding talking to people like you and Vick is to see that in Terry Boleya that he was like he was so much more than just this big showman. You know, he wasn't even necessarily thought first and foremost as a showman for most of his formative years. He kind of discovered it now in seventy three, I think it was he would have been
in college. He was in a band called Magic, and they played on the Genie Conroy Show, which I think was filmed on Apollo Beach and had some TV stations that would show the thing. He kind of frames that involvement with Genie Conroy is like a first glimpse he got into like the magic of television and being on a set. But you know, there's no video of this TV show and him playing on the TV show or anything like that, which is a shame. I mean, I've
talked to you about it. There's pretty much no recorded music of his and yours that survives in the form of a you know, when you were both in the band on tape or anything like that. But do you remember the Genie Conroy Show. Is that something he had high hopes for? Was that something that could have been a springboard for him to play music longer or was that sort of like a last ditch thing. I have trouble with.
That, well, I do. I'm still friends with with one of the guys that was in that band. David, and he told me about it. You know, they they thought it was it was it was. I don't know if it was a show that was ever released or not. I see if it was, it was, you know, I think they were like doing a pilot or something. I see, and they look at this as is hopefully being a big opportunity for him to go somewhere. But I don't
think it ever ever really came about. We got approached an Infinity's end about backing the ladies that did a song called Love.
Can Make You Happy that was a hit back in in the seventies maybe the late sixties and what and the band dispersed and then it became a hit, you know, so they're scrambling, you know, trying to get u a group together, and we got approached and we went to recording studio and stuff and it it never it.
Never, it never. It never went anywhere. But I remember hoping that would would would turn into something. And I'm sure this this other show was something that David and Terry and Mark Mark was the drawer. They hoped it would, it would go somewhere.
And certainly back to that great story you told about, you know, his his long hair, getting him attention in the wrong town and causing a little bit of friction. Was Terry attractive to the ladies because of his size, because he he kind of pains himself as like really awkward, like like women were not interested in him. But if he was, if he had the long hair and he was a rocker and he was huge, I would I don't care how big his head was. You would think
he'd turned turned some heads. But I can't figure out if he was of interest in the ladies or not.
Going back to what I was talking about, he underwent a change between eleventh grade and twelfth grade.
I see.
The summer. There's a picture that was in our our high school annual that was taking during that summer. Uh, and like that summer, we know, we grew our hair out. Terry started working out for losing the weight, started looking better. So there was kind of a transition.
Uh.
This is probably a poor comparison, but there's a movie called The Summer I Got Pretty. It's kind of, uh yeah, kind of what happened with him. You know, he grew his hair long, Uh, started working out. I think we were we were both getting more confidence because we were you know, playing in the band, and people looked up to it and things, and we both just immature. We just both matured and grew up and got more confident during the course of that summer.
Oh wow, that was a pivotal time. That makes a lot of sense, Yeah, because it explains why before. In the before times he kind of it's about him being so awkward around girls. And then yeah, he discovers working out.
The La Fan wrestling podcast, the wrestling podcast that knows the boys need their candy. It's the Lapsed Fan. He's a Lapsed Fan wrestling podcast with Jack and and JP.
Were you were you close with either of his brothers by chance? Alan or Kenny?
Uh? Terry didn't meet Terry didn't meet Kenny until much later in life, much later, Okay, much later in life. I remember Kenny's picture being in the living room and that was from his mom's first marriage. Yes, uh, now, I you know Terry and I being drinking, but he's in of course Alan being big time into drinking. Yeah, we used to. We used to hang around uh together, Alan, you know mentioned Butch Smith and what uh he was the kind of the school bully and Terry and Butch
became good friends. And uh, you know, Terry introduced me to Butch.
To be clear, Butch is the guy he broke He broke his nose because he threw the rock with right. He became friends with that guy. That's interesting.
Yeah, see, he became very good friends with him.
Uh.
Terry took me over to Butcher's once and that's where I had the first beard I had ever drunk. And wow, but I lost Where.
Were what you were saying? You were going out? You go with Alan too?
Yeah? Alan? One time. Alan was the biggest bad ass in the in the neighborhood in that part of town. One time, Butcher was getting mouthy with him and Busch had been drinking and Alan just grabbed him, grabbed his belt and grabbed the back of his shirt and just literally threw him at flat on the ground in the parking lot and and knocked him out. Alan was Alan was really someone to be feared. But the only the only person to be feared more than Alan was his wife, his own wife.
Yeah, she was.
She was a trip.
Are you saying Alan's wife or Butcher's wife? Alan's wife rest in peace? Yeah? The one who was murdered, yeah, or killed in him yeah, yeah, what about that? I mean, were you around did you hear that? What was what was the talk in the city around What happened to Alan's wife?
I I don't know, Yeah, I just remember her. They lived on a corner and the whole front yard was was sand. And I remember Terry's little nephew being out there in diapers, you know, playing in the dirt, and us going by to pick up Alan and his wife coming out and just screaming, you know, you're not going anywhere, on and on, you know, many many choice four letter words. I'm sure half English, half Spanish.
Okay, so she was okay, Yeah, I figured she was Spanish, but I wasn't sure. Yeah.
Yeah, I don't want to be derogatory because I'm I'm just talking about her in particular. But Terry called her a crazy Cuban.
Wow.
Yeah. And I have spoken in the meantime to Alan and HER's daughter. A friend of mine is friends with her, and and she said, yeah, that sounds about.
Right, sounds about right.
Yeah.
I think that little nephew, remember, went on to be a wrestler in his own right. If that was Michael, Yeah, amazing. So that's that's quite the portraits, so you got a flavor of Alan as well. It surprises me that Hulk was so him in and meek, and it sounds like, you know, he could break a nose if you had to. But none of that rubbed off on Terry. Uh that that aggressive streak that Alan had very little, very little, okay.
Very very very little. There was after Terry started working out and stuff. He uh, there was. We used to have a thing called Beach Week. Everybody went to the beach for a week during spring break and there was a little bit of an altercation Terry got into over there once and you know, there's a little more background to it than that that I don't want to go into fair enough, but he he as part of us
coming out of his shell. He was also a little more more aggressive, not terribly, not terribly, you know, not every day, not not not to make a big deal out of it, but Harry was a while to see a little bit.
Of it, a new side of him that that might not have been there before he started hitting the weights and stuff. Yeah, yeah, exactly, very interesting. So quickly on the music thing, was he formally edu formally educated in music, you know, because he was he was going to study music in school, and it sounds like he had a tutor, Like how formal was his music training?
It was, It was very formal. It was a guy named Mike. I can't remember Mike's last name. He played the band called The Opposite Sexist and he was Terry's guitar teacher. Mike used to go with us once or twice on gigs and he taught Terry the right way to do it. He taught Terry how to play scales on the guitar and practice the scales and that that's hard, that's hard discipline. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a lot of disciplined to sit down and do that, because
you're not playing a song or anything. You're just going down to scale, you know, down the neck. But it made him a very good guitar player, it really did. He could compose melodies, you know, using these scales. It was. It was great.
Yeah, it was interesting when he was telling some of those telltale else about you know, wanting to be the bassist in Rolling Stones or in Metallica. You know, he's doing these interviews and these interviewers are kind of like, you know, that's not a little high to reach. And I think they. I'm not saying he was the most brilliant bassist ever, but I think in general people underappreciated how formal his training actually was. It wasn't just like this pick up hobby for him to play in bands
in high school. I mean, it was a hobby, but he had he had training.
Yes, very much so. And his parents bought him a very nice guild Hall. Abouty guitar, I mean that I remember that being a very big deal, and he had such a nice guitar, really the envy of a lot of different people.
Yeah, that was a prized possession of his. So why do you think he didn't show off his musicianship more in wrestling? I mean, we all have these visions of him strom and a guitar and that ww F music video and stuff, But wrestling fans never saw Terry you just pick up a guitar and play a song like we all have to. We rely on these descriptions of what it was like in the infinities end days, but we can't see him play guitar then or as a wrestler. Do you think he kind of try to put that
to the side. What what did it conflict with his image. I wonder.
I think he was just concentrating on the wrestling.
Yeah, yeah, and like it looked.
He was a very good league guitar player and a good league guitar player that can't quite move his fingers fast enough to keep up with the songs of the day. That made him a very good bass player too, because playing bass is all about scales, right, and he was he was very He was very good at both.
So there was Infinity's end, there was let's see, there was the band with Anthony Barcelo. I think that was was that Ruckus? I think that was Ruckus.
That sounds about right.
Yeah. Do you remember Anthony at all, because he seems to be also an important part of Terry's music life.
No, I didn't. I didn't know him. I didn't know him. He was the one that occasionally was out and I would sit in with the band. I see, David would switch to guitar, Terry would stay on bass and I would play keyboards. They able to play anything, so he just went wherever he was needed.
Yeah, I think he said. Terry said that Anthony Elso was the guy who threw his family, got him hooked up at the docks. Because he worked at the docks for a while. I don't know if you remember that.
Oh yeah, I had forgotten about it.
Yeah, so this is when he's giving up music or when he's still doing it. I was kind of unclear on that.
I think he was still he was still doing it. He was still doing it. You know. You you had what was called your day job, right sometimes, or your day gig. Terry and I's first day gig was we went to work at a tile factory called Winslow Tile and Port Tampa.
Kyle, Okay.
And he and I unloaded box cars of raw material. And this was in the middle of the star and you'd open up a box car, you know, and it was it was terrible and there, and the first thing you'd do is you work frantically. You'll get to the other side so you could open up both the doors and at least hopefully have a out of breage. Now a little bit of bragging rights. He lasted two weeks. I lasted a month, So I lasted longer than Hull Covid on a very physical job. Yeah.
Yeah, he kind of dipped, that's good man. He dipped his tone. One of the hard labor a little bit. He talks a lot, it seems like, over the years about he didn't want to he didn't want that job roasting in the sun. But he also saw that there was good money there, you know. And he was always someone that minded that. I mean not to say to your point he could spend extravagantly sometimes maybe, but also at the same time he was always ready mindful of how much an hour am I making, you know, and
is this more an hour or is this more? Take home? That seemed to be right. A big part of his mentality is psychology.
Yeah, well, you know, I think he grew up not having all that much. Yeah, and really you know, appreciated it later in life. So it was importance to it.
Invinity's end there was and that had you chett yoakum uh. It was your brother involved to or somebody in the.
Very beginning of my brother played bass.
Okay, got it and John Phillips on drums.
If if well, let me start to let me start at the point where we started playing and being somewhat successful. It was John Phillips on drums, was my brother Mike on bass. I was the lead guitar, and I also sang the lead and Lee Shugel is a very very accomplished keyboard player, was our keyboard player. And then when Lee left, that's when Terry joined Got It And uh.
Why did a pardon me, Gary if I'm forgetting if you said that?
But why did to be to be another band?
Got It? Okay? And he was a friend with the.
Guy named Keith Keith Arsenault if you if you, if you go very go back to the very very beginning of Infinity's end when we were practiced. We we used to practice in a ballet's studio because Keith Keith was the drummer. His mom owned a ballet's studio. And there was a guy named David Barnes who I was friends with that we were going to school with, that played guitar and Lee was at the time it was actually playing guitar as well. Uh. And then they invited me
if I wanted to come and join the band. Uh. And I think I think the idea was Lee was going to start playing bass, and this was Lee the bound up being the keyboard player, but he didn't have an organ yet. So that was the very very beginning. And then you know, we we people came and went and things like that, and Keith went very very early on before we started getting a paying gigs, he started another band and Lee and him were such good friends.
They went to play in high school together. Lee went to play with Keith and uh John and Check quit drumming about the same time. That's when we got Mark Kerr and Mark Mark so good.
Oh yeah, yeah.
He stayed with with Terry and David in the later bands.
So did Infinity's End become Magic or was that a different band?
Different?
It was different? Okay, that that was?
That was after Terry and David and Mark stayed together. Understood, Okay, they had to put it simple. They had a conflict with my dad one night that kind of just blew things. The things blew up, and the three of them went on to play and I had to very quickly put a band together to do the gigs that we already had understood. We actually used the name Infinity's End with that group until the jobs were all up. Then we switched all.
Right, understood, So there was there was there was a clear break there with where Terry left. Okay it with two other bandmates exactly, Okay, got it? Yeah? Was that was that? Back to the earlier issues we talked about where he you know, felt like it was too too rigid. I mean there was plenty of success, like you said to point to because of that rigidity, But did he just throw his hands up at that.
More or less?
Yeah?
You know, we were getting older by this point, we were two years out of high school, and you know, did light like any bird leaving the nest? I guess you know, absolutely there's going to be conflict and and and that that was the that was the root of it.
And then there was a pan called Cocoa that he was associated with, and then Bandit and then Ruckus. I don't know if you remember any of those those bands playing around the area or anywhere ever, go oh yeah, m what was that like? What was that much different than Infinity's end.
Or well it was, it was. It was later, so the music was a little bit different. I think that they were. They were very they were very accomplished and could do some more difficult songs. Did I'm sure if we'd have stayed together, we'd have got requested two as well. But the longer you play together, you know, the better you get. Right.
I think Ruckus was the band where he was up there and the wrestlers started coming to the clubs. He would play in particular the Imperial Room, and that's where it all started. Was was he a big wrestling fan? Do you remember? I mean he went to the matches, but was wrestling really something he talked about? Always was oh really okay, really.
Always liked watching. You know, Tampa was really the one of the birthplaces of professional wrestling. And I know that Petry, Uh, Pete, Terry's dad used to go to this uh sport Rama, which was Mike Gossip's excuse to me, Mike.
Graham, Mike Graham Grand We were.
To school with him, so that's you know, he's my Gossip. But Mike's father, Eddie Graham started started the Portatorium and he started the Florida Professional Wrestling and that and that was a little bitty building and I remember Terry used to go to that, and then of course when it got bigger, it was at the Armory. Uh. But Terry always talked about going to going to wrestling with his dad. It was something that he enjoyed doing when he was younger.
That's interesting. Yeah, he says he used to go with a Vic's dad too, and Vic kind of remembered Pete kind of not not being that into wrestling. It's something he didn't like it. But I wonder, I wonder maybe Pete went to more matches than Vic remembers. I don't know, It's it's hard to recollect all these years later, but he painted a picture of Pete kind of being dismissive of it, Like, what is that?
Like?
I don't care.
Well, I think I think Pete probably when when when Pete took Terry, I think it was probably, you know, just out if Terry's love.
For it, right, not his personal fandom.
And Vic and uh and and Terry's dad. We're very good friends. As a matter of fact, they used to do things as couples.
Oh yeah, okay, And I think that had.
You know, I'm not sure. I'm not sure which came first, if if Vic and Terry's friendship came first, or their parents friendship came first. But but they were, they were, they were close, as close as two families, you know.
Just wrapping up with you here, Gary, I don't want to leave this conversation without being able to have a picture in my mind of a of an infinities end gig. You know, I'm sure, there were a lot of different ones and a lot of different venues, but give me the prototypical one. Explain the vibe, Explain who's there, Explain how the night unfolds, and and the peaks and valleys. If you could just try to put me in one of those one of those youth centers or clubs or whatever it.
Was, well, a lot of a lot of the times we would start off with Chicago song called beginnings. Ah, and uh, of course your your your introduct introductory song is what kind of gets things going right. And let's let's say we're playing a five hour gig at a night club, because that later on that's what you wind up doing, either five nights a week or there there it's a club that it's only opened a couple of nights,
you know, Friday, Saturday. But you start off with with like beginnings that you good, you're good, kind of easy going but but you know, good beat, good song rape opster at the time, and you try to try to you know it at first, they're not always out of the dance floor. So the first part of the gig, first part of the gig, you're you're you're trying to play danceable music. You know, Johnny be Good is one that really got people up, and that is the night
wears on. Well, when people are drinking, they starting more fun because things would really get the rock and get the rocking and rolling. And then that would be like this maybe the second and third uh part of the fourth set. But then by the end of the night, you know, all these people that were dancing, they're they're they're pretty tired by now, and usually couples heading out the door, whether they not necessarily ones that came in together. And the last the last gig, the last hour, you
could just kind of unwind. Well, we would do a lot of the times we would we would play songs that we had just learned, you know, the last hour, because everybody that was still there had been drinking and if it wasn't perfect, that was okay, of course, and we would just kind of wind up with with unwinding a little bit, uh, maybe playing some little songs over again that we had enjoyed playing or that that people were asking for. Uh. And then and then at the end of the night, we we had to pack up
our own gear, uh. And then we would always then we would go to sand Bozon Dell. Maybe for breakfast.
Oh okay, so you had the the late night breakfast food love it. Mm hm, that's the lifestyle these crowds. Are they conservative? Are they They're obviously not conservative? But is it a mix or is it just a bunch of you know, rockheads.
It was a mix. Now when we played for when we played for a frat party, those are those were some wild, wild parties, I bet. But the night clubs, you know, they were they were kind of classy. There was one called the Almens over over in St. Pete that was, uh, you know, had cocktail tables and things and you sat down and they brought them drinks. And then sometimes you'd play a place called The Pad, which was on Gandy. Uh. It was kind of a different vibe,
you know. It was all just real local South Tampa people and like the party hard and drink and just just it varied on the venue really and and the part of the even the part of the city that you were playing in.
What when you played these uh these bachelor part I mean frat parties rather Uh, like you guys were junior high right or like early high school we.
Were high school then, Yeah, it.
Just seems like a weird okay, because it just makes me wonder, like, you know, how you got got that kind of a gig, you know in uh uh you know, as a high school band or you know, you know, uh, just out of high school band. It seems curious how that worked.
We did a lot of high school dances and uh. Then you know, those people got older and went college. You know, oh hey he's in we could get them to play. Uh and once you you know, once, word of mouth, of course is the best advertise. Of course, So it was it was a matter of us getting older and I think our fans getting older as well.
Now we talked about the wrestlers coming through and seeing Terry perform, and we know that among the more important people that came to see him were the Briscoes, Jack and Jerry, who were shareholders in the Florida Championship Wrestling Office had an autobody shop for years and years in Tampa. And I was tickled to learn Gary that you know them very well and in fact kind of worked under under them in their autobody days. Tell us how the Brisco's factor into this story.
Well, they were Jack and Jerry on the body shop Brisker Brothers body shop. And I was harsh manager at large Chevallet dealership in Tampa. And they were customers, and they were they were very good customers. They were probably our best customer, both volume wise and professional wise. Just great people. Now they were they were businessmen, don't you know. You can be professional and friendly and whatever and they still be a good businessman.
Uh.
And Jack Jack was occasionally Uh. I had an outside salesman named Don and uh. Sometimes he would say Jack, I'd like to have breakfast with you, you know, and the three of us would meet, we'd have breakfast. Uh. Jack was just a wonderful guy. And uh, you know, one of the one of the times that we were having requasts, he says, I'm meeting with Terry today. We're doing a promotion. But they were Jack was more into the wrestling. I think Jerry was more about the body shop,
but of course they were. They were both about the body shop. Uh. And every year I would we would go buy the shop and give them. I would give them a certificate to get a turkey, you know, which better than manning out of turkey itself. And they were always very appreciative. They were always there when when they heard I was coming, just some some really really great guys, and I can Terry couldn't have possibly come across a couple of guys that were better for getting him started in the business.
That's huge. How would they talk about him in terms of potential? Would they talk about I mean, did you have any hint from talking to them that he would become the one day the biggest wrestling star in the world or was he really still green?
They well, they had hopes. You know, he had such a presence that they thought he was going to go somewhere. And I have no doubt that they were a big part of that, of that happening.
And it sounds like you were right there, Gary to see that first glimpse of that presence. I'm not never going to forget that story of him being has it to plunk in the amp and then by by halftime or so to speak, he's, uh, he's he's he's a bucket of charisma.
Oh yeah, he's out there and his his satin shirt with the fringe all over the sleeves and his bell bottoms that mom and added to the bottom of them to make them even bigger, and he got where you like to wear platform shoes, which, if you can imagine.
I've seen a picture. Yeah, those are wild man, those are woes.
Isn't that something.
There when he was in the band called Bandit. I don't know what the idea was. But he's got the platform shoes. They got a publicity photo that's out there that you can find. He's got you Fedora on white leisure suit, the platform shoes, and they're all holding rifles. Have you ever seen this one?
I have seen one of them old rifles.
No, No, it's wild. I can send it to you. I would love to know the story behind this one. I don't know who the Bandit guys are and then have a list, but yeah, they're all.
Larry Stowell was the drummer. That's the only one that I know.
Okay, I mean they're not holding it menacingly. They're just kind of like smiling or they could come straight, you know what I mean. But I wondered what the I guess they were Bandit, like, you know, they was supposed to be like a theme, right that their take over the town or whatever. I don't know. So, yeah, Terry was always always afraid of shooters, that's for sure. And yeah,
here he is with a gun. So I'll close with this as you got to know that Terry was making his way, uh in the wrestling business, and you saw him become Hulk Hogan. Then you think back to the days in the band. What's what was the prevailing emotion. Was it like, man, we we should have gone longer with the band and look at how much presence he has or was it, man, you know, it was the right time for him to break off and go this way.
I wish we'd have stayed together because I played in two or three bands after Divinity's in, and you know, we sometimes you get the guys together and they just click, and that's that's the way. With an Infinity's end, it was the best time in my life. We just all clicked. Everybody just did a great job and it was it was just so much fun. And I wish we just stayed together because there was just so much talent in
that group. Would have been nice if we would have and I were made friends, you know with the guys. I wasn't. I wasn't a part of any thing that had happened that I was breaking up. So David became a preacher and uh, of course we all know what Terry became. Mark became a subcontractor remodeling houses. But it was su sure, it was a good time when we were together and we shared a click.
Well, that's a great way to wrap it up. I guess. Finally, what did you remember hearing about Hero Matsuda.
That he was, that he was tough and moke Terry's leg and Terry got out of it, you know, for a while. I'm back back in again. After that, I saw Terry at a beach called Picnic Island and he said, oh yeah, I tried that wrestling thing. He says, Man, that guy broke my leg. But of course later on he got back in with the Briscoes.
But at that time, Gary, he seemed to be in the frame of mind of I'm not doing this again.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He didn't care for pain. Of course, I guess to get over that, but that was kind of a big thing.
Well, I guess the page has been turned from Terry Buley at Hulk Cogan now, but thanks to thanks to Gary Barriss, we have a very clear idea of what it was like when Hulk was starry eyed about a potential future in music and playing all these clubs. It's such a cool part of his story, and we want to thank you so much, Gary for taking all this time to recollect the terry bully you remembered. Thank you very much.
You're more than welcome. I'm just happy to do it.
Nelson as a tej to Santa's production.
Its content is intended for private use only.