Wrestler Shares Inspiring Hulk Hogan Story; Hogan’s ‘Real American’ Song Analyzed

Wrestler Shares Inspiring Hulk Hogan Story

Independent wrestler Gregory Iron was a recent guest on The Steve Austin Show where he told “Stone Cold” Steve Austin about how Hulk Hogan impacted him during some pretty tragic times,

“My mom got really addicted to drugs, specifically crack. I think she always dabbled in drugs as I was younger; but, her mom, my grandmother, when she passed away of bone cancer, I was eight years old. It really escalated because she couldn’t cope without living with her mom. It was hard on me too because my grandmother is the one that got me into wrestling. She was like the glue that held the family together, so once she was gone things got real rough for me.”

Iron revealed that his grandma was a big Hulk Hogan fan,

“When she passed, because it was the first major death I ever dealt with, my parents told me, ‘If you put something in her casket, she will always be able to remember you and you’ll be able to stay with her. It was cool because last year I met Hulk Hogan for the first time and I got to share this story with him in what was a cool life moment for me. So, I thought to myself, ‘What could I put in her casket that would be important to both of us?’ I just got a Hulk Hogan WCW action figure because this was ’95, so I had one of the old Hasbro WWF ones, the smaller ones. It was like my favorite action figure; but, I said, ‘You know what? I’ve got this new one. I’m gonna put this Hulk Hogan action figure in her casket.’ That’s what I did. I remember all the adults walking up to the casket thinking it was weird that there was a Hulk Hogan figure in there; but, it was important to us. I feel like that was a really big reason I latched onto wrestling at an early age. Not only was there stuff going on at home; but, that was our thing. She was into wrestling way before I was even around. Once she exposed me to WrestleMania VI (Hogan and [Ultimate] Warrior) I started discovering all these other VHS tapes she had. She had WrestleMania I and WrestleMania IV. She was a huge Hulkamaniac.”

Iron went on to meet his hero & was able to tell Hogan the entire story.

Readers interested in listening to Austin’s entire interview with Iron may do so HERE.

RELATED: Hulk Hogan At Signing In Orlando

Hogan’s ‘Real American’ Song Analyzed

Mel Magazine did a recent expose of the making of ‘Real American,’ Hulk Hogan’s WWE entrance theme. The song was written by rock & roll veteran Rick Derringer, who sang lead vocals on the hit oldie song, ‘Hang On Sloopy.’ According to Derringer,

“My writing partner Bernard Kenny and I sat down one night in 1984, and we had the idea to write the most patriotic song of all time. We were really proud Americans, and we wanted to express that in the song. So that was the whole objective behind it when we sat down — a few hours later, the song ‘Real American’ was born. After it was written, we actually played it, and it brought us to tears. We knew we had done such a good job, and it was destined to be a hit.”

When rock n’ wrestling hit it big around the same time WrestleMania was taking the world by storm, Vince McMahon called on Derringer to produce The Wrestling Album, a compilation of wrestling themed songs. ‘Real American’ is the only song on the album that a wrestling personality does not sing, which was McMahon’s decision.

The song would inevitably became Hogan’s iconic entrance theme.

According to Derringer,

“Hulk was a cool guy. He was a very prominent, visible, high-profile wrestler, so from that point-of-view you couldn’t ask for anything better. Hulk used it everywhere! Every time he went in the ring he used it as his theme song. Every time he did a television appearance he played the song. He created videos. In fact, when we made the original music video with Hulk, he was playing the bass guitar — he’s a bass player. I showed him, ‘This is kinda the bass part we play,’ and I remember him saying, ‘Hey, that’s not the bass part you play, come on, show me the real bass part!’ So I showed him what we really played. But in the video we see Hulk playing that little Fender Stratocaster guitar, and it looks really small on him. We were really happy about all that. But still somewhere in the back of my mind I thought, Man, this song should be somehow more legit than just a wrestler’s theme song. We had wanted to write this fabulous patriotic song for all Americans. We saw it somehow on a different level than a wrestler’s theme song, so in some ways I was a little let down.”

The song inevitably went on to live up to Derringer’s heightened expectations. It has since become synonymous with political campaigns and has been used by politicians on both sides of the aisle like; Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and WWE Hall of Famer President Donald J. Trump.