The Steve Austin Show
Release Date: January 23, 2018
Recap by: Joe Aguinaldo
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0:00 – Intro
We are at 317 Gimmick Street. It is Saturday and Steve is planning to watch UFC 220, specifically Stipe vs Ngannou. On Sunday, he is heading to NYC to take part in the 25th Anniversary of RAW. Coming up on the podcast is ‘Bad Ass’ Billy Gunn who will be on both the Tuesday and Thursday podcast. Billy was doing a show in LA, hanging out with his son Colton. They have always been good friends and even though they don’t talk all the time, when they get together it’s like old times. They’ll be talking about a variety of topics such as road stories, how grouchy Billy is in the morning, bull riding, playing pool at Harley Race’s house and pro wrestling. They’ll also talk about how Steve whipped Billy’s ass at a hotel in New Orleans. Additionally, Billy’s son Colton will also be there, chipping in during the podcast.
12:12 – ‘Bad Ass’ Billy Gun
Steve starts off by welcoming Billy’s son Colton who he has known for several years. Steve says he’s known Billy for too long to do a normal interview and says they’re going to take a walk down memory lane.
Steve asks Billy who was the greatest travel partner he ever had (13:03 into the podcast). Billy knows he wants Steve to say it was him but says that Steve was a pain in the ass to travel with. Billy also says Steve is probably used to his guests saying he was awesome but Billy won’t do that. He continues to say he would have to get Steve’s water and snuff and if Billy ever touched Steve’s water, he’d get bothered. Steve says Billy was a good wheel man and would not let certain people drive him such as Mick Foley or Diamond Dallas Page. He says DDP had no etiquette as a passenger because he would lean the chair back all the way with no regard for the person behind him. They used to call DDP ‘the world’s tallest 6’4” guy’. Billy says the only guys that can do that legitimately were Andre The Giant and The Big Show.
Steve describes how he and Billy operated. Usually Billy would get the rental and would pick up Steve and away they go. Billy said that was the way guys would travel back then. You would find guys you could travel with who you didn’t mind doing that stuff with. Steve says he would usually control the radio because he was driving but with Billy it was 50/50. Billy says they listened to the same kind of music at the time.
Steve tells a story about riding down the road (16:22 into the podcast). Steve says he’s picky about music and Billy said he had a CD he wanted to listen to which raised a flag for Steve. The artist was Daryle Singletary which Steve thought was good. He says Singletary still has one of the best voices in Nashville and credits Billy for turning him on to Singletary. Steve tells another story about doing an on-sale for an event (17:47 into the podcast). Two of the associates told him there was a Tracy Byrd concert in town which he went to. Austin says Byrd crushed it and was awesome. Billy mentions Mark Chesnutt stuff was awesome as well.
Steve asks what Colton listens to. Colton is into old country like George Strait but also likes rap. Billy says he popped when Post Malone was on Austin’s podcast as his kids introduced him to that. Steve tells the story how he got Post Malone on his podcast (21:36 into the podcast). The BET awards were in LA and Steve’s twitter alerts started blowing up. Post Malone had worn one of Austin’s vest during his performance. They got in touch with each other through Twitter and Steve invited him to the podcast. Post showed up in a Rolls Royce Wraith and two eighteen packs of Bud Light.
Steve asks Billy about the night he (Steve) whipped Billy’s ass (23:24 into the podcast). They were in New Orleans and found a hotel room. Before going into the hotel room, they went to a a Daiquiri Hut to grab some drinks. At closing time, they head back to the room and as Billy is opening the door, Steve crushes Billy who initially thought he was getting mugged. Billy grabbed a choke hold and Steve said he would stop. As Billy gets up, Steve jumps on him again and Billy grabs another hold and tells Steve to stop. He makes Austin promise (who does) and as Billy lets him go, Austin attacks him again. Billy grabs another choke hold and makes Steve swear on his kids that he won’t attack him again. Billy let him go again and Steve hits Billy into the door and says ‘I got billy goats’. Next day, the go to the arena and are going to go to the next town when Steve realizes he lost the chain he was given from Brian Pillman. They had to go back to the hotel and luckily found it.
Steve asks Billy why he was so miserable/angry to be around in the morning (28:45 into the podcast). Billy says he’s better now but says he’s never been a morning person and needs time to get going (his son confirms this). He continues saying Bart Gunn and Bob Holly were the worst to travel because they would be chipper in the morning to rib Billy. Steve says he’s not much of a morning person either until he gets coffee into him.
This leads into a brief discussion about being on the road and how when you were on the road, you’d want to go home but when you got home, you’d want to go back on the road. Billy talks about how this would also disrupt his wife’s schedule and she would want him to go back on the road.
Steve mentions he was on the road running hot and heavy and wasn’t the greatest father. He asks Colton how hard it was having his father in the business (32:30 into the podcast). Colton says it was a love/hate relationship. Kids in school would be amazed that he knew the wrestlers and during summer he would travel with his father. The hate part was that Billy was on the road 300 days a year and when he was home, he was exhausted. While he wouldn’t trade the memories, he said it was hard when Billy wasn’t around.
He follows up asking how Colton ended up in Santa Monica. Colton says he went to Florida State (getting a double major of finance and applied economics). Colton’s girlfriend got a job in Los Angeles and he moved with her. Colton has been in LA for a few months and is in job hunting mode. Colton adds LA is awesome and the weather if perfect plus there’s so much to do from the mountains to the beach to watching an NBA game.
Steve asks Billy if he remembers playing a charity softball game with special needs kids (35:45 into the podcast). Billy says yes and that the WWE did a lot of those. Steve talks about his competitive nature and even though it was a charity softball game, Steve was swinging for the fences, sliding into second base and trying to tag the kids. It wasn’t until the 7th inning that someone finally smartened him up to tone it down. Billy says he’s the same way. He says on the first date with his wife, he smoked her in mini putt. She has said to Billy it would have been nice if he had taken it easy and Billy said sure…but I’m gonna win.
Steve brings up a story about going to Harley Race’s house whenever they went to Kansas City (38:00 minutes into the podcast). Before the matches, Harley and his wife BJ would have a BBQ and all the boys would load up before going to the event. After the matches, they would go back to Harley’s house to have some drinks and play pool. Billy gets on the pool table, takes over the table and smokes Harley. Steve would try to get Billy to put Harley over but Billy would say no. This brings up another story of Steve and Rick Rude playing pool and Rick would be standing there holding his pool cue sleeping while standing up. Steve would wake him up for his shot then Rick would go back to sleep.
Steve asks Billy what he thought of Harley Race. Billy said he was awesome and one of the greatest of all time. Steve brings up the Curt Hennig story (45:35 into the podcast). Curt was working with Harley Race when Harley asked him what Curt’s finishing move was. Curt said it was a dropkick off the top and Harley said ‘I’ll move’. (Ric Flair has told this story on a few podcasts and the way he tells it is hilarious).
Ric Flair told Steve in the past Harley would sometimes go with Flair to Japan to keep an eye on him in case of a double cross. Harley was known as being a nasty guy in a fight and asks if Billy had heard any stories about that. Billy says Harley has that aura of being rough around the edges and compares him to Meng. He continues to say that despite Meng’s reputation, he always has a smile and is personable. Billy thinks it’s the same with Harley.
Steve says Harley would never raise his voice and says he couldn’t have worked a match with Harley because of his (Steve’s) hearing. His poor hearing is why he started calling matches at an early age, which brings up a short discussion about Jerry Lawler (47:47 into the podcast). Billy says he worked with Lawler twice. The first time was at a charity event and the second time was at TNA. During the charity event, Jerry called a spot which had Billy riding Jerry (who was on all fours) like a horse. Early in Steve’s career, he got a chance to work with Lawler. Before the match starts, Lawler in his ventriloquist voice was calling high spots to Steve but Steve couldn’t hear him. After two more times, Steve thought someone from the crowd would yell the high spot for him.
Steve also brings up working with Billy Jo Travis (51:18 into the podcast). Travis had Steve in a headlock and called a tackle/dropdown/hip toss spot. Steve was much bigger than Travis and he thought Travis would take the tackle bump. When Travis went to tackle Steve, they stood in the middle of the ring and Austin realized he was supposed to take the bump (which he did). Worse still, Travis hit the ropes, leapt over Steve waiting for Steve to pop up and do the hip toss but Steve lay there so Billy Jo ended up laying the boots to Steve.
Billy talks about his first match with Don Harris (54:19). They were working as a heel tag team. Don brought one of the babyfaces over to their corner. Billy tagged in and hit Don (who was his partner) right between the eyes. Don said not to worry because they were heels but to also not hit him again. What makes the story even funnier is that Don (and his brother Ron), trained Billy.
Steve asks why Billy wanted go get into the wrestling business (55:31 into the podcast). Billy says he has no idea and says he wasn’t a fan. Billy was riding bulls and doing a regular job. Billy says he went to Sam Houston State University because it was the only school that gave him a scholarship for bull riding which is what he wanted to do. Back to Steve’s original question about getting into the business, Billy never watched and would make fun of it up until the day Ron and Don Harris beat the crap out of him for three hours. After that, he got hooked and couldn’t get enough of it.
Steve asks about Billy’s bull riding days (57:47 into the podcast). Billy’s dad owned horses and it was something he always wanted to do. He started bull riding when he was 10 or 11. Billy says there’s no way he could do it now and that anyone over 6 feet couldn’t do it as it would rip someone that height apart. They talk about Billy’s time at Sam Houston State. A friend of Billy’s would travel around and ride bulls which led to his scholarship but he only stayed there for one semester. After that semester, he worked on a ranch. The owner (Roy Carter) would haul bulls all over Texas and let Billy ride the bulls while teaching him how to ride. After awhile, Billy went to LA to go pro as there was a school there where you could get your pro certification. He then went to Donny Gates school in Texas. Donny told him the day he didn’t have butterflies riding a bull, don’t get on them because that’s the day you’ll die. After some time, Billy realized he didn’t want to do bull riding anymore. Steve asks about injuries in bull riding and Billy says it’s not if you’re going to get hurt, but it’s when. Steve asks if Billy met Lane Frost who was the subject of the film 8 Seconds. Billy said he met him a few times and was one of the best bull riders he ever saw. Billy also brings up a few famous bull riders such as Jim Sharpe and Ricky Lindsay. They also talk about what kind of bull Billy liked to ride and training grip strength. Billy says bull riding isn’t about grip strength, it’s about positioning and balance.
Steve asks Billy about travelling on the road with a rodeo versus wrestling (1:07:46 into the podcast). Billy says there are similarities and says these days, some of the top guy in rodeo are flying in private jets. The money is much bigger than it was in the past. Billy talks about riding in the car with the older guys where they would learn about the business. Similarly, older bull riders will give the younger bull riders advice on riding.
1:11:07 – Show wrap
Steve thanks Billy and his son Colton for coming by for the podcast. Thursday will be part two of their interview. And that’s a wrap.
Show Rating 8/10
Very interesting show. Some funny stories and I don’t know much about bull riding and found that stuff interesting. Also, you can tell these two are old friends which made the podcast that much more fun.
Timestamps
0:00 – Intro
12:12 – ‘Bad Ass’ Billy Gun
13:03 – Billy’s Greatest Travel Partner
16:22 – Music On The Road
17:47 – Steve Goes To A Tracy Byrd Concert
21:36 – How the Post Malone Podcast Happened
23:24 – Steve and Billy Beat Each Other Up
28:45 – Why Billy Is Not A Morning Person
32:30 – Billy’s Son Talks About Having His Father On The Road
35:45 – Charity Softball Game
45:35 – Curt Henning and Harley Race
47:47 – Working With Jerry Lawler
51:18 – Working With Billy Jo Travis
54:19 – Billy’s First Match
55:31 – Why Billy Got Into Wrestling
57:47 – Bull Riding
1:07:46 – Bull Riding vs Wrestling, Being On The Road
1:11:07 – Show Wrap
Writer Bio
Joe lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two boys. He’s been watching wrestling for about 40 years (give or take) but don’t consider himself any sort of expert. He just likes wrestling. Check him out on twitter and instagram @ja113.
For more, check out Steve Austin’s interview with Vince Russo.
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