Hometown Heroes Bun B and Booker T Interview | Houston Rockets

Hometown Heroes Bun B and Booker T Interview | Houston Rockets

World Champion hey what’s up guys this is trilog G bumby re UGK for life and TR Burgers I’m here with the 11 time tag team champion six time world champion htown Hometown hero Booker T Booker T how are you my brother doing grand man man I’m so glad that you could give me

Your time today man you know because I got questions that I’ve always wanted to ask but we’re typically in very informal settings so I never felt it was appropriate to ask some of those things but you know I fell in love with wrestling as a young teenager watching

It on television um Junkyard Dog heaw Jim Dugen um von Eric family you know I had a very young early entry point when did you fall in love with wrestling Booker you know I grew up here in the city and uh you know we didn’t have WWF

Back in the day we only thing we had was Houston wrestling right Y in a million years thought I could be hacka Jim duing a junk your dog or Butch re you know Rat Pack you know I never thought that in a million years um it wasn’t on my radar

So at what point CU I got to imagine it’s it’s not your only athletic ability right at some point you were probably an athlete what what made you pull the trigger I’m just guessing or no I laugh I laugh because never played Sports huh

I was a drum major I was a dancer yeah I was a Dan I just assumed that you’re an all-around athlete world class athlete and raffling was what you chose you know um I loved sports but I wasn’t academically inclined and so I just didn’t resonate to it um as well as I

Was going through a whole lot as a kid I lost my father when I was 10 months old I lost my mother when I was almost 14 years old so I was trying to figure out how am I going to get from one day to the next um it became about life but

For me um you know somehow I figured it out and and Ras thing ended up being that path for you yeah you know U my brother um I used to follow my brother around since I was a kid um he was like my hero and uh I remember um he was in

The same Elementary School at one point and remember him walking me home he used to have his hand on my on my neck walking me like a dog you but just taking care taking care of me though he used to you know look after his his

Little brother yeah yeah and U I always wanted to be like my brother and he loved wrestling and um he found a wrestling school in 1990 Ivan psky wrestling school and um I had just got out of prison I had um uh ended up getting in trouble um with some friends

And we had ended up doing a robbery and I ended up um going to prison for two two years I had a 5year sentence and then when I came home um I asked my brother you know if he could help help me my brother told

Me I can help you but I need you to do something for me you know um he said uh no matter what job I get you he don’t care I don’t care if it’s sweeping floors I don’t care if it’s wiping Windows digging ditches whatever it is

He said do that job to the best of your ability to something better comes along and I said I can do that and then I start getting on my feet and the guy that he introduced me to uh he sponsored me actually to go to the wrestling

School after working for him for about a year and a half and he getting trust he trusted me he trusted me with with with his you know with his uh with his business um to run it um for him I was there s days a week um at some point

Sometimes I was there from 700 in the morning to 7 at night just to just because I say I’m a criminal okay you don’t you’re not supposed to trust me um I got to I got to earn that trust and um and then I earned that trust and like I

Said my brother found a school and it was $3,000 to go to school and it was a 8we course and uh my my boss he uh he sponsored me to go to school and there again um it was something that I never did before but it was like deja vu it

Was like a place that I had been before it seemed like it was so easy for me all the stuff from Paul’s Place being in the neighborhood kind of all just seemed like it just was there it was it was in my blood amaz and and uh and I think the

Dance background helped me I used to love movies I used to skip school and go watch movies and I was like wow you know and so when I learn when I got into wrestling and learned the psychology of wrestling all of those karate movies came right back into my head and I was

Like oh okay it’s about going out there and making it real it’s about making the fans feel something but we lose ourselves inside of the wrestling and it becomes an escape for us in the same way the movies became an escape for you exactly my point I wanted I wanted my

Fans to feel the same way I did when I left the movie theater and I always say uh those Kate movies you know the five deadly venoms you know the um the Shogun Assassin you know uh they all made me feel a certain way when I left that

Theater and I always say if I wasn’t you know chopping you know jumping up I wasn’t doing that when I left the it wasn’t a good movie you know so I said I would always make my fans when they leave that Arena say man can’t wait to

See Booker T again see that’s how I feel as an entertainer right cuz I came up in the era where it was all about production and my youngest I used to see people like James Browns of course in my um my formative years watching people like Michael Jackson you know what I’m

Saying Prince you know people who took their presentation and their performances very seriously and didn’t want to let the audience down so I think about that stuff all the time whenever I even to this day I’m 30 years in as a recording artist still performing I got

A show tomorrow you know and um but I always want to put my best self forward I always want to put the best pres presentation of myself forward because I have no idea who’s in that crowd looking at me aspiring to be me I could either I

Could either help sell that dream to them a little bit harder or make them be like you know what I don’t even think I want to do that if that’s how it’s going to be bo when did you realize not only were I’m a wrestler and I’m professional

I got a good job is consistent but I’m actually really good at this and I might actually have a chance to be the man at this I really never um put it in that perspective um when I got into wrestling I knew it was something that I was good

At um but it was something that we as you know African-American as uh people of color we didn’t really excel in um I saw so many come um before me and they were really really good and it was it was a reason why they didn’t make it to

That next level so um I studied that um so I say I don’t not going to think about titles or anything I just want to be the best in the locker room I just want to be the best on TV uh um and and I tell them you know young wrestlers

Today you know it’s all about checks and championships baby it’s about checks and championships you know because if you’re the best checks and championships just it just comes along with it just part of it um but I remember um I think when I really felt like um I got to a certain

Point you know we used to go to McGregor Park you know when we was coming up and that was the the day go Sunday man every Sunday um and then I remember getting into the wrestling business and um was a few years in and then I still had that

Mentality I still wanted to go to McGregor Park on Sunday oh no so I went to McGregor Park on a Sunday and this kid he saw me and U he said I want to be you one day I want and I was like man I was like Wow knowing where I came from

Right in that same area growing up on those streets and you know uh trying to clean up that mess now you know all that dirt I created I said man and I see a kid you know and you want to be like me one day and I was like wow um that’s

When I knew I I I was I was on to something you really affecting jange yeah yeah most definitely and that’s what you want to do right if you’re doing what you’re doing at the highest level you want to be able to be a a a point of inspiration for people somebody

That they can consistently look at tncc he never gave up he never let let his past Define him I believe you’re a true Testament to the spirit of never giving up now now here’s my thing cuz I’m a musician right yeah I know Sports locker rooms there’s always that music that

People play to get them pumped up I’ve never been able to ask this question what are wrestlers playing in the locker room and what are you what would you play in the locker room I’m playing Park all day long when I first uh um when

Back in the day I used to I always wear a suit and tie all the time you never saw me without a suit and tie and and um my wife she thought I was like a you know corporate nerd or something right uh that was before we was married and uh

She saw me roll up one day and I was listening to Tupac and she was like what what what’s going on here you know who’s this guy you know but for me I always had to go back to where I came from I always had to stay in that zone but I

Always had to know how to change my levels at the same time I tell young people you got to always know how to change your levels because you can find yourself um you know you know saying the wrong thing in the wrong place at the

Wrong time um um so for me um I always let they uh motivate me um but at the same time I knew exactly what I was trying to create um just like the music that that I come out to uh my my my theme music it’s been my theme music for

Over 30 years now and that theme music it resonates with everybody in the audience I said I could I couldn’t just listen to Tupac and make everybody understand the experience of Booker T I had to have a music that made everybody say oh it’s Booker T you know he was not

A black guy he was not a white guy he was Booker T hey look every hero needs his theme song exactly my point so my theme song it definitely uh you know it resonates but that that two Park that uh you know staring through my rear view

Stuff like that always made me think about where I came from and and where I’m trying to go now Boogie you’ve wrestled literally all over the world yeah what’s it like to wrestle at home what was it like like coming home being on that big stage back in Houston in

Your city you never win you you know you never win and you you know it just never happens I don’t know what it is even when my first pay-per-view uh in WCW way back in 1993 uh was was here in Houston um war games and I went out there and got the hell

Beat that’s crazy though because I imagine if you’re the heel then it all works out right because the crowd gets to see the the hero beat up on the hill but if you’re the good guy and you lose your storyline got to continue in a whole other City no but you know we’re

Going to you see it’s not that I did have one great moment though when I was King Booker uh they presented me with the key to the city uh it was it was it was a great moment yeah yeah to have the key to the city to be recognized and you

Know where I grew up here I grew up right in South Park uh yat high school you know Hartman Junior High and uh for something like that to happen to me you know I got my own day you knower day you know I’m like how the

Hell that happened you know but for me uh it’s just about putting the work in I’m still working I’m like like nipy Hustle Man you know grinding all my life you sacrifice hustle pay the price hey the marathon got a roll the dice you know me so that’s the way I am I’m

Always working I I don’t even think about um the past a whole lot as forc to accolades I don’t go back and watch my own matches or anything because I feel like still feel like it’s so much work still yet to be done I feel like I just

Ask God I said I I said God just please give me enough time to finish my work you know because I have a wrestling school I have a wrestling promotion and I I work with so many kids and and and the thing is I used to be one of those

Kids and and and I know was a I wasn’t a dumb kid I really wasn’t all I needed was somebody to Pat me on the back and tell me I could do it right or tell me no man you don’t need to be I didn’t

Have all I didn’t have that I had to teach myself you know all those lessons but I know um you know from working with kids you know all all they need sometime is a pad on the back some sometimes they don’t even know what they can do until

You tell them hey try this to their encourage oh man you know so for me to be u in the position that I am right now and able to give back I don’t even know why I do it you know maybe like I said because I I was one of those kids who

Wanted that and needed that and now I’m in a position to give that and you know I can’t take it with me you know I might as well give it back you know well I have to say as a fan as well as a friend man thank you for not just what you’ve

Done and what you’re doing but what I know you’re going to continue to do you inspire people that you may probably never even me see people are going to watch this video and I think get a whole other side of who to is they may just know the wrestling side thank you for

Being so open honest with us man man you know you know my book from president of Promise man I wrote that for a reason um just so people would know that I’m not just the person that they see on television from prison the promise amazing verse thank you book g no doubt

Appreciate you f oh man I appreciate you so does aown baby oh Sweet

Bun B sits down with the legendary wrestler and Hometown Hero Booker T delving into the highs, lows, and triumphs of his remarkable wrestling journey, while exploring what it truly means to represent H-Town!

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