Below are quotes transcribed exclusively for WrestleZone by JCW’s Kevin Gill from his recent interview on The Kevin Gill Show with WWE Hall Of Fame Inductee, Jerry Lawler!
An embedded player and link to the full interview is available at the bottom of this post.
Lawler on Vince McMahon:
Years later I was on the plane with Vince, sitting in his private jet. He leaned over and he said “I’ve never told you or anybody this, but I was so freaking jealous when you were on the David Letterman show with Andy Kaufman in New York, knowing that we could have had Andy do all that stuff in our company.” He did give me credit. He said, “not that we have done it anywhere near as good as you guys did, because it was fantastic.. But just knowing Andy came to my dad first and we turned him down….
Lawler on Andy Kaufman:
If you remember, right after that, they did this thing with Cyndi Lauper and Captain Lou Albano, Mr T… So Andy Kaufman was really the forerunner of all the Hollywood involvement in the WWE, thats lead to… I mean look at what they are doing today!
Lawler reveals past and future cover inspiration for upcoming Headlocked Comic issue:
If you saw the last Headlocked comic cover, it was a take off of a Norman Rockwell painting where a 90 pound weakling kid was looking at a mirror and looking at some posters of some big he man muscle bound guys and he’s there lifting some weights, and you can tell it was mission impossible for him to ever look like his heroes but he was gonna try. We took that cover and switched it around to a kid that was working out and looking at wrestling posters to one day be a famous wrestler.The next one we’re gonna work on is a also a takeoff of a Normal Rockwell painting. I’m sure you’ve all seen it at one time or another. It’s a little kid standing in front of his fathers wardrobe or chest and he’s opened the bottom drawers and found a santa claus costume. and he’s standing holding the Santa Claus costume in one hand and the beard in the other and he’s got a look like… it’s like the realization, suddenly. We’re working on one of the same little kid thats gone to his fathers chest of drawers and opened it up and found a pair of wrestling boots and a wrestling mask, and all of a sudden he realizes that his father is one of the masked wrestlers he’s been watching on TV and that’s going to be the cover of the next Headlocked Comic.
Lawler on becoming a Wrestler:
It’s funny because, when I was going to the matches as fan, never once did I think about actually trying to do it. I just thought thats out of the question. But once I was around Jackie Fargo, and that sort of thing I thought, if i just could try this one time. So I started hounding him. Come one, let me just try it once. He said No Kid, you are too good of an artist. He said stick with art you will make a fortune doing that. I said, If i could just have one match, and try it one time I promise I will go back to being an artist, and I will ever ask you again. Of course, that was like 43 years ago and I am still doing the wrestling.
Lawler on Art:
I’ve been doing art a lot longer than I’ve been wrestling. I started drawing Superman and Batman as far back as I can remember, like 5 years old, and did it all through school…drawing when I should have probably been doing schoolwork, instead I was always drawing!
Lawler on Man in The Moon:
I almost didn’t get the part. I had to actually go and read for the part, and try out to play myself… They were going to use Disco Inferno to play me!
The full interview can be found by clicking HERE or by listening to the show in the embedded player below.
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