Below is the audio from an exclusive interview WWE Hall of Famer Jake “The Snake” Roberts granted to WrestleZone Radio. It features Jake talking with WrestleZone Daily host Nick Hausman.
For more information about the documentary The Resurrection of Jake Roberts please visit JakeTheSnakeMovie.com.
The following are excerpts from the interview:
On what made his promos so impactful:
JR: I worked a lot on subliminal thoughts. My thought was that if I can say something that you’ve heard in the past and you’ve heard it several times. If I say that, somewhere in your mind it clicks on and goes, “Oh! That must be true because I’ve heard it before.” So, that’s kinda how I played the game. Then I would take stuff out of music. Which would be Pink Floyd or The Rolling Stones or… whoever, you know? Because you’ve heard that enough. To the point where I hit those few lines, or one line, all of a sudden you’re nodding your head and you don’t even know you’re nodding your head. You’re agreeing with my interview. Once you agree with my interview you’re going to agree with the whole damn thing. You can’t cut it off. Charles Manson taught me that. I love Charles Manson. Are you kidding me? I know, it’s crazy, but I respect Charles Manson because of his power. I mean, the guy was a midget, he had no money, he was ugly, he wasn’t talented. Yet, he had these people under such control that he got them to do horrific things. Horrific things. And he was no where around them when they did it! It’s not like he held a gun to their head or anything and made them do it. He just reasoned with them and got them to do this. No different than Hitler. Hitler had amazing power. I don’t agree with what he did with it, of course not. But those speakers, guys that can influence you and guys that can drive you to do things that are out of the normal. These people are talented. I think Jake Roberts got people to do things and behave certain ways by his voice. Diamond Dallas Page is a great motivator, he gets on you, he gets you going and all of a sudden you’re nodding your head wanting to play his game. These are great things. There’s a lot of people in the world that are paid $100,000 a pop to drive and make speeches. It’s not for what they know it’s about how they deliver it.
On whether he was hesitant to have his journey documented for The Resurrection of Jake Roberts:
JR: It was something I was scared to death of because I got screwed over so bad with that other crap that was put together. You know, Beyond The Mat. That was a bunch of BS. It was a rip off. I never got a nickel out of that. They lied to me, they lied to my family and then they painted us all in a bad way. I don’t mind telling you I’m a drunk and a junkie but that damn movie did nothing but rape me and my family. Shame on those people for doing it. Someday I’m gonna move in next door to them and take their kids to school and be in their backyard helping their wives because I love them. (laughs) So when Dallas brought this to me the first thing I did was scream, “No way! No way man, I’m not going to get hurt again.” You know? And he talked me in to it and said, “You know, brother, we’re trying, we’ve done this.” So we finally sat down and he said, “Jake, we’re going to film all of this. We’re going to put it together. At that point, you watch it, if you don’t like it, it don’t go.” And I said, “Yeah.” We’re investing three years of hard work and filming. He said, “If you don’t think it’s a fair toss then we toss it out the window.” Well, I couldn’t argue with that.
The full interview can be found by clicking HERE or by listening to the show in the embedded player below:
In the full interview Jake speaks candidly about how his health is holding up, being inspired by Diamond Dallas Page, how DDP Yoga has changed his life, keeping a positive mental outlook, performing his “Jake Roberts Unspoken Word” show, “The Resurrection of Jake Roberts” documentary and more…
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