John Cena

24:30You come out to Los Angeles. I think I came out here for the first time in 1985. I know I did. You came out here, and I don't know if you felt the same way, but when I came out here, it felt like I was going to the moon. I came from Massachusetts. I go to Los Angeles, and I had a really crappy car. I didn't have any money, and I was just—I think I would have felt exactly the same if you would drop me onto Mars and said, you have a very limited food supply. That's how strange it felt to me. And you came out here. Did you have a job when you came out? No, but no and. I felt it was strange, but I felt it was strange like, this is Mars.

25:13And if you'd been like, you have three days. I have three days of food. This is going to be great. Attitude is everything. I made a choice to come out here. Even my first trip when all the, you know, I'd saved up some money for like my senior year of college spring break. And everyone was going to Cancun to have fun. And at the time I didn't drink. So I came to Los Angeles to check out places to do an internship. And as soon as I got off the plane, I'm like, man, I'm coming back here. I'm finding a way. And the rest is kind of just finding a way. Yeah. You know? I know you worked at Gold's Gym for a while.

25:50And I started at a warehouse assembling and disassembling old fitness equipment. And I thought that would be a way to use my degree. I thought I would end up getting into the sales branch. But I was so good in the warehouse that it kind of chained me there for life. so I had to quit that. I worked security at bars. I worked a place called Sharky's over in Hermosa Beach. I was there like five days a week from happy hour to close. That allowed me to work out at Gold's during the day. And then I actually got a job at Gold's. That was very advantageous because I had to switch living situations. I had no place to live.

26:25So I just kind of lived in the parking lot and showered in the locker room and then just worked all day and then slept in my car. That was for a few months. And then I moved into a garage in Venice. And then again, I just got into wrestling by accident. And now we're here. And you made it. It's simple. It's really simple. This is an interesting thing I've been thinking about, which is to me, it makes perfect sense that you would be in professional wrestling and then be so adept at comedy. Because I think there's some, I've always said there's a relationship between comedy and musicians. And I think there's a relationship between comedians and what really good wrestlers are doing in professional wrestling, which is you need to figure out who you are.

27:11And then you need to attack that 100 % with an attitude. And there's all these disciplines that go beyond the actual physical part of it. obviously you had the physical part of it, but you're a, I just look at, I was thinking about all the different characters you inhabited as a wrestler. You keep coming up with new ways to come at this thing. And some of the, was it the professor of, uh, doctor of thuganomics. And when I hear a doctor of thuganomics, I'm like, that's great comedy writing. That's really good comedy writing and that's a great comedy character and the fact that you have to keep changing it up you can do something for a year or two and then you have to switch it and come out a different way it's almost a really good school for comedy if you approach it the right way do you think that's true i think it's a great perspective and you said um good comedians and good professional wrestlers i think comedy and live sports entertainment professional wrestling run parallels.

28:13So bad standups are in that phase of trying to find themselves. So we're bad wrestlers and they're working at shit clubs and they're mostly like working for free and they're losing money. Uh, but they are trying to hone their craft. All they need is reps and the ability to be coachable, a little bit of magic, but they do find themselves. And once comedians do find their voice, you know, uh, they do, they attack it. And the ones who have stood the test of time as storytellers can't just lean on successful material. They have to continue to bring the personality that the audience identifies with, but in a new presentation.

28:50And we in sports entertainment have to do the same thing after 23 years of tenure there. And now this is my sports entertainment uniform because I need to let the audience know, like, I don't want to confuse the audience of like, he's going to do something physical because I've been the first wrestler ever to retire. And I've said, I'm not going back to falling down. I'm just not. It's not conducive to the, to the goals I've set for myself. We were going to hit you with an orange crate. That's here. That's here. Ed Warner, were you ready with the crate? I was ready. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Just, but again, I'm, I'm kind of still doing that.

29:24I'm still curating what the personality is. It's never over. It's never, it's over when you walk away from it. Yeah. You know, so as long as I'm still involved and I'm, I'm, you know, WWE is my family. I'll never leave until they throw me out. Right. So I have to continue to evolve. And in doing that, my first rule was don't confuse the consumer. Show up in a different outfit so they know you're not getting your hands dirty. Right. And now I'm far more of a promoter and a sports person. Sure, sure. So. The, I guess what I was like, obviously seeing you over the years and in preparation for this talk, I was looking at a lot of your, you know, iconic performances in the ring.

30:01And what I see is 100 % commitment to whatever you're doing, you go in there and there is no fucking around and there's no lapse. There's not a moment where you drop who it is that you want to be out there. That's really impressive and that's really hard to do because you're coming in as an athlete and doing these incredible moves and displaying these great gifts in your physicality, but also just you as this persona, you don't drop it for a second it is life or death and then to me it's perfectly natural that you've had all this success in film and in television you just because that is 90 of the game is going in with that kind of this is life or death i'm going to commit to this i i think that's also a good perspective and i agree um i i learned that the hard way i thought just doing moves was important and almost lost my job yeah and then they were like oh you can rap would you mind being a character on tv that's right well they fuck yes i can and that's when it was like you couldn't didn't someone hear you you were like on a plane i'm here by accident like absolute all of us are here by accident except for gorley who seems to know what he's doing but but what am i doing oh i don't know i mean what am i doing here yeah i don't know what you're doing here but No, I've always heard the story that they're like, yeah, okay, maybe it's over for this guy.

31:34We get rid of him. No, it wasn't maybe this is over. It was like, hey, we're doing December cuts and your name's on the list. They used to at least, back when I broke into the business around 2000, 2001, they would make cuts in every April and every December. But there would also be a list of people on the bubble. So at least they would make you aware of like, and I think that was to light a fire. Sure. Like, hey, three months, show me something, kid. But I had nothing. And I had little understanding of how I could find myself. But because I had nothing, I had nothing to lose. And I went into a professional environment with the advice of mouth shut, ears open.

32:10Which was great. I learned a lot. But I never spoke up for myself. When I knew the ship was sinking and the guys were rapping in the back, I was like, fuck this. I'm just going back there. And the head of creative happened to be sitting at the front of the bus. And they were like, can you do that on TV? I said, I sure can. And it wasn't like the kid's a star. They started putting me in forgettable matches on their Saturday night broadcast that aired on nowhere. But in 100 % commitment, I was like, called myself Mr. Saturday Night. Like the show was my show. You give me an inch, I'm going to take a mile.

32:45But it was just the direction of, hey, you're the white kid from West Newberry who's the rapper. I get that. I can work with that. Let's go on. The idea to only wear cutoff jeans. Yeah. That to me, that to me, anyone, if you told me that ahead of time, like, here's my thing, I wear cutoff jeans in the ring, I'd be like, that's terrible. That's absolutely terrible. Believe it or not, that was a process in itself. I was wearing everything. I was wearing like yellow corduroys. I wore like blue sheepskin pants. I was really leaning into like urban wear. I would literally, you know, one. I never wrestle in corduroy.

33:24That is a deal breaker for me. I went over one audience member at a time. And I would literally go to the city we were in and shop in the hood for my gear that night. And while I'm paying, I'm like, yo, I'm going to wear this tonight. And the jersey I'm going to throw out to the crowd. People are like, oh, man, I'll go check that out. But just the fact that I'm going to these places, you know, for all the media, I would freestyle. Everybody had freestyle kids in the parking lot. I have an album, for God's sakes.

33:59Yeah, yeah.

34:22and wrestling that won't, my crotch won't split. And denim, time over time. I see you're working backwards from something. Yeah. Time over time, denim stands, stands up to any test. I've worn like regular cargo shorts and I've blown my crotch open a bunch. So. I blow my crotch open, I think once a week. Shorts. Yeah. Jorts just were more durable. And they also fit the evolution of the character. So that was the thing that could kind of like, you know, they started going above knee height. And by the time I finished, it was like the John Stockton jorts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you looked really close, you could see everything that was going on.

34:58But they would, I knew they would never tear. That's fantastic. I mean, it just, I love, the best part of any story is the beginning to me, because you understand, I mean, like the Beatles is an example. It's still interesting later on, but nothing's more fascinating than when they're figuring this out in Hamburg, Germany, That's always the most fascinating part to me. How did these people come together? What are they doing in Germany? They're not supposed to be there. And how did they become these guys? And understanding, you know, a million things went into you getting from North Shore, Massachusetts, to being in the ring wearing - Shorts.

35:39Yeah, exactly. All I wish is that you sold shorts on TV and you're always open with, tired of your crotch blowing open? That would be such a great ad, you know? Are you tired of your crotch? And then just a series of shots of crotches just exploding. Like they put a grenade in a mannequin's, where a mannequin's dick should be, and it just explodes. And then you're like, I've got just the pants for you. Hi, I'm John Cena. You'd be, I mean, I'm sure you're doing well now, but you'd be a billionaire. If I could have sold jorts like that to prevent crotches from blowing over. Yeah. You start to make this transition into film and you have this interesting story, which is true for so many people, but your first foray is not a commercial success.

36:27No, not at all. Neither is the next one or the next one or the next one or the next one. Certain people, Judd Apatow, Tina Fey, they're like Amy Schumer. Like, no, no, no, there's something good here and we're going to stick with this. We're going to work with this guy. and you start working in these and doing a really good job in these great movies. I appreciate that. So you had said like a million things have to happen. Take it from the North Shore to wearing shorts. 900 ,000 of those aren't strictly me. Like it's all a collective work. Yeah, yeah. What can I control and what can I learn from my experiences?

37:05The reason those movies or the reason I can control that those movies sucked, I wasn't wholeheartedly invested. Right. I wanted to be in the ring. Yeah. Because as a 27-year-old, spending 15 hours a day to watch one thing blow up in a library-quiet set is not near as cool as being in an arena in Lexington with 22 ,000 people going apeshit to be like, this is the fucking best thing I've ever seen in my life. Yes. And then you drive to the next town and do it again. And you need, like, I wanted to be there. My focus was elsewhere. and again i i think i've had at least a bit of control over knowing when something is happening like do you want to rap i do it's going to be ridiculous i'll do it like i'll be ridiculous instead of putting roadblocks yeah by the time i auditioned for train wreck i was like hey you've already been run out of the movie business once and you're also doing okay you have other things going on.

38:02I was, I was hosting the today's shows, reading the news, doing live programming. I, I was having fun. So if you're going to get back into this, I just told myself, put the same amount of passion you do in wrestling into this. And at the very least, you won't regret your choices. And that's exactly what I did in that audition. I'm sitting with very funny people. I have no business being there, but I didn't give a fuck and just let it go and realize that like, I was the joke in many cases. So I didn't put the roadblock in front of myself. I can't laugh at myself because I'm cool and fuck that. Like, let's go.

38:36Let's make the funniest, coolest thing. And in being on set in New York, man, Judd called Tina, who was filming just up the road, and be like, hey, I'm done with John. If you have a small part for him, which they did, they needed a drug dealer. And they were like, yeah, sure. He's not going to sink the movie. If he sucks, sure, we'll give him a chance. and then i got like within a small period i got to work with and watch very funny people not only on screen but also how they see comedy it was it was like how i learned from my mentors in wrestling like the people when i started my character and got some speed the experienced folks that i got to work with every night was like fucking college and just those instances i got to go from judd and Amy and everybody they brought in to Paula Pell, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and everybody they brought in.

39:26And then like Will Ferrell and his whole crew with Mark Wahlberg, it was just a storm of very funny, very successful comedians. I got to work with Seth Rogen's group like every single time. I wasn't the smartest guy in the room and all these smart people were like, we want you to be funny because if you're funny, it helps us. So I was also in an environment where is okay to fail. They're only going to show the funny stuff. Don't be afraid to tell a joke that bombs because it doesn't fucking matter. Like I really got nurtured and combine that with, Hey, don't fuck this up this time. Go wholeheartedly, like be in it.

40:02Know that every day is going to be 14 hours and don't complain to try to get it done faster. Just show up and go. And that's, that's been a system that's, you know, it worked in wrestling. And I, I, I look back on those decisions about what the fuck was I doing? But I'm just so grateful that I did get another chance. And I didn't hold out for like, I have to be the star. No, I'll be a fucking merman. I don't care. Like it's a chance to be creative and do something. I'm holding out for merman. Again, like putting a door in front of a window. See the opportunity. I'm not saying say yes to everything because, you know, it's impossible to do that.

40:37But a lot of times we might have something going or there might be potential there. And the biggest obstacle is self-sabotage. Yeah. So I just try to minimize self-sabotage. I get the impression talking to you that you've done a lot of work, meaning you've read a lot about strategies. You think a lot about strategies to succeed. You've done a lot of work. I don't know if it's a self-help books or something, but I get that impression that you take, you are very honest with yourself about what could I have done better? Yeah. How could I, and not a lot of people are. A lot of people, you know, it takes a lot of discipline to constantly look at yourself and say, okay, I'm doing well.

41:19This went okay, but how could it have gone better? That takes a methodology that you had when you were 13 years old and you decided I'm going to lift weights every day and read this booklet. It's all the same thing over and over and over again. That's the part that I respond to viscerally when I'm talking to you is I know that I screwed up a million times in a million different ways, but my methodology when I was 13 was, well, I would like to be better than I am. Or I'd like to take this, yeah, a little bit of thing that interests me that I think I have some ability in and I want to see how far I can push it.

41:55And then here I am all these years, decades and decades later, and I'm still doing the same thing. It's just, it's not that romantic or cool. It's just this, I'm going to go back at it again today. And I think that's what is romantic and cool. So I'm going to lean into those two words for a second. Yeah, yeah. Romantic and cool. New romance. That's, you know, passionate and fiery. What really tugs at my heartstrings is when I see a 50th anniversary. Yeah. And that's beautiful. When I see an old couple walking hand in hand, that's romance. that's cool yeah you know what that takes the same fucking thing every day and it's not easy there's sensitivities you fucking brush your teeth too loud or there's there's so much to coexist you know to coexist with somebody yeah to build a team to be successful for that long yeah that's romance that's cool what's interesting is that we're in this uh immediate satisfaction culture and when you talk about these things, like, no, you got to commit to this over this many decades.

43:10You can see people's eyes kind of go over. See it. Yeah, because we live in a culture where, wow, that looks cool. Amazon will bring it to you by 5 p.m. today. 5 p.m.? I need it by 1. Yeah. God damn it! Or if it's 5.05, you're in front of your house. Why have I been lied to? My life sucks. I think that's what helped with physical fitness. Yeah. I didn't blow up the second I did all those exercises. Right. Nor three months later, nor a year later, nor two years later. Yeah. Like, it was a very long-term thing. And right as in that, you know, adaptable period where you're learning about life and self, I found that like, oh, nothing is gained tomorrow.

43:53It's trench warfare. It's an inch at a time. And eventually the inches make a mile. Yeah. and I kind of use that as a template of like, oh, man, I mess around with piano. Like strictly for me, not to monetize it, not as a skill to show. It's a hobby. It's like a safe space for me. I'll hear - Is that something you were interested in even as a kid or is this something that came much later? I wanted to play music so bad as a young kid and I look at my hands and I'm like, oh, I try to pick up a guitar. I have like a - You crush it. I have a catcher's mitt with small sausages attached to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

44:27So it was very easy. I feel like it's like Hulk. Hulk want to play oboe. Crush. Hulk sad. It was just easy for me to say, I'm not built for this. Yeah, yeah. And for the longest time I did that. And on my 40th birthday, I'm like, fuck it. You're going to learn music. You're just going to learn. So I got a shitty keyboard and just started mashing keys. And I did mash keys. And I was like, man, I'll be good at this in five years. And in five years, I was better than I was when I was mashing keys. but compared to someone who's a musician, I still sucked. I've been playing for almost 10 years. Yeah.

45:00And I'm better than I was yesterday, but I still suck. What kind of stuff do you like to play? Right now, man, I want to just play jazz. I want to sit down with like a scotch and just jazz it up. Like that's my goal. And I know I'll be there in five years. Wow, so cool. So like that's, I'm just learning like fundamental 12-bar blues and cocktail jazz and stuff like that. and I try to put in an hour a day and I know like fluency takes eight hours a day or four hours a day. I don't have that. So I'm on my own speed, but because it doesn't sound right right now, I don't care. I'm like, hey, what's it going to sound like in 2035?

45:36Yeah. And if I'm not there, then I got to pivot. And each year I kind of take an assessment of, all right, I'm not where I want to be, but dude, you didn't know how to play this last year. Yeah. And I'll, I'll work on a piece for a year or I'll work on fundamentals. It's just the same. for a fucking year, 18 months. My wife was like, are you going to learn something new? And you're like, can you try and brush your teeth a little more? It's 5.05, where's my Amazon package? Do you, it's interesting because I have a similar thing with guitar. I don't think I'm a natural musician, but I was just really interested in it and, you know, went and got a guitar when I first came out to LA and got a booklet just, you know, like you did with the weights and sat in my, I didn't have a girlfriend when I first came out to LA.

46:26So I just sat in my room and played, forced myself to do these scales and, and try chords. And I know that if I sit with musicians, they're like, oh, he's a comedian. But I also know that I just enjoy it. It's, it's, it's something that's for me. Yeah. Like you also don't, I was never going to be Mr. Olympia. I lifted weights like it was my job. It's never going to be Mr. Olympia. I committed to football as if it was the last thing I'd ever do. I played division three football. I was never going farther than that. Right. And I was never going to play football in front of more than maybe 1500 people.

47:04Right. I started wrestling not because I knew I would make it, because it was a way to justify staying in California and proving my dad right that I could make it, working my shitty job, as long as they gave me the weekends off. And I would dress up as a fucking superhero and and and do kind of be athletic and justify like why do you spend so much time at the gym because i'm a wrestler and it works and that's fine like i never yeah it's okay to have something you want to be you don't have to be a gold medalist yeah you might still like to go out for a run you know what i'm saying like piano for me is that's for me it's not for somebody to be like oh you can't play yeah i can't play like you but you should have seen me when i started i fucking couldn't play and now i can kind of play so that's all and also i can't play like you but i can rip your head off felonious monk yeah you just go to jazz clubs and beat i love you going to different and beat the shit out of all these like old amazing players you can't do this can you john cena killed 11 jazz greats today in a uh berserk yeah it's it's weird now like i i also am very grateful for when I grew up because I don't think I would have had the perseverance.

48:18Like when I grew up, you'd look at a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger in a magazine or, or you might be able to, if you're, um, if you're an aspiring musician, get a, a dubbed tape of some like live performance. Now you go on your phone and you see the 1 % of everything. And there are so many, let's, let's say you're, you're into lifting weights, right. And, and, and you want to be Mr. Olympia, uh, 8 billion people in the world is probably, you know i'm making low estimations 100 million people that train dedicated every day that have profiles that post shit you're gonna be flooded with people who you know if i work the fucking hardest i can i'm never gonna look like that i'll be the best me yeah but that shit's out of reach i i think if i had if i was 13 now it would be very tough for me to be like kill your initiative yeah man i remember when i was young and i saw him like my first corvette i was like man that's fucking aspirational now it's just supercars everywhere it's like how the fuck am i ever gonna get a 12 million dollar car because that seems to be what everybody's driving but it's not it's what a small percentage of people are driving but you're flooded with all this information of yo if you're not like this don't even fucking try don't try and that's difficult and i really have a lot of empathy for young folks out there and that may a short attention span all that but even being flooded with that information might really stop people from like, I'm just going to fail anyway.

49:43That's why you need to block some of the apps sometimes and just get into your garage and work on what you're going to work on. That's also like saying like, Hey, yeah, stop doing crack and hanging out. Like it's so addictive, you know, blocking the apps is so easy to say, I would just need to be on our phone less. That's the easy fix. Dude, it's addicting. You know, I know, I know. It's just tough. It's tough. You know? So again, I, I don't know. I'm just very grateful for the time of life I grew up in and the fact that everything is gone the way it's gone. But I just think it was like, I didn't know any better.

50:16So even when it came to telling jokes, I didn't know any better. I knew I was sitting with, you know, comedians and important people in that field, but I didn't overthink it. And I didn't know that like, if I tell a shitty joke, I'm going to feel less than. I just got in and went. This is an interesting thing too. Like I'm a fan of Peacemaker. You know, I think you're really funny. It's a really funny character. I think that's a great role for you. And one of the things that makes it work is you're not telling jokes. You're just, you're saying everything with complete sincerity and you're very earnest.

50:53And your character's outrageous. You know, he's a total asshole. He's going, you know, he's got a cruel nickname for everyone. Yeah. He's self-absorbed. He doesn't always, he doesn't see himself properly. So what your, your approach to it is you could be Laurence Olivier. What you're saying is very important to you and it's real. It just happens to be completely wrongheaded and insane, but it's what, what, what, it's what makes it so funny. You know, that a lot of being funny is not saying a joke. People, because I've been in comedy for so long. Sometimes older people, younger people never say this, but older people like, oh yeah, you're that funny guy.

51:30Tell me a joke. I'm like, I don't know a joke. I've never said a joke in my life. And when I do hear a funny joke, I can't remember it for more than five minutes, but it's about committing to something absolutely absurd with incredible intensity. You do that so well. Well, we're all storytellers. And again, that's just something from wrestling. yeah don't drop the act yeah yeah because if you do people notice yeah and i got to see it every night like i did the beatles thing i performed five nights a week for 23 years non-stop yeah but we don't have an off season we don't stop ever so like i had my time in germany and by the time i got to my ed sullivan show trying to play different characters other than john oh you just never break the bit yeah and and swing big and go for it you know like and that's what you're i mean that's what you're doing uh and i want to make sure i i get to because uh we were talking to eric andre we were talking about your new project together by the way tremendously talented too he's he's got so much talent and skill that he kind of keeps for him yeah uh it's he's a he's a really well this is interesting too i'm realizing you know he's a jazz guy oh he's a serious jazz guy do you guys ever have you ever played together so that i don't want to like have my dreams crushed because he is very good yeah well he's berkeley school of music he is very upright bass playing yeah so like multi-instrumentalist brother i'm like man you know you're all over the place what are you doing he's like after this i'm rapping i'm going to budapest to do some classical jazz album we're gonna score it and everything i'm like yeah wait what i want to come too i'll bring my piano.

53:11It's just one of those things that like in everybody's got a story, you know, we know nothing about and to hear his, and he does it, it's pure passion for him. It's not, he's not trying to blow it out of the water. He just wants to be around good musicians. He wants to compose. He wants to create, you know, he's, he's known to me. And I think a lot of the people who know him for outrageous physical comedy and commitment to concept. And that's why I love Eric. And, um, I was so happy to work with him and allow a project that I thought was written for him with outrageous physical comedy and commitment to concept and in learning who he is like man he's a real he's a talented director like yeah he's got so much stuff going on he knows it's one of the things is knowing how you're funny and eric knows i could just see him knowing exactly this is how i'm funny in this situation uh what makes um Little Brother, I think the core of it is you two are a funny comedy duo because you present as so different.

54:10You know, you're complete opposites. And your character also is incredibly uptight, you know. And then again, committing to the bit. I got this guy going crazy around me. Right. But you're supposed to be type A. Yeah, and you're not laughing. You're not thinking it's funny. You're not winking at the camera. you're incredibly irritated by the fact that Eric Andre has shown up in your life. And is just wreaking havoc. Is wreaking havoc. And you are trying to hold it all together. Yeah.

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57:17the thing i wanted to mention that i got to see last night coyote v acme which is something i've been waiting for because it's such a funny and and i they gave me a chance to watch it and i was thinking okay it's such a funny idea and i'm a fan of yours and uh i love will forte i think this is I like all the ingredients, but are they going to do this correctly? And the nice surprise for me was, yes, they did it correctly. It's really funny. It's really funny. And you're, of course, the head lawyer, head chief counsel for Acme, which is really funny. And the Coyote's really good. Forte's great.

58:04And they did a really nice job of blending that sort of classic Warner Brothers animation with real life characters and having them all come together. Dave Green, and that's all for him. It's one and lost in prep when you do, when essentially you're acting with a tennis ball. Yeah. It is one and lost in the prep. And I've done a lot of digital stuff before. Dave had so much realism on set to allow us to get lost so we don't drop the bits so we're not winking at the camera because it is just a tennis ball. Man, he really directed his ass off for that thing in his shows. I'm very glad that his movie is going to be seen by people because, man, I would love to get him another chance to do something.

58:50This is a crazy story because I remember being very excited about this movie and then hearing that, well, Warner Brothers isn't going to release it for tax purposes. You're like, wait, what? And they were going to take a loss because they do that now. The business has changed and they can, sometimes they think they can make more money if they write it off as a business expense. And you're like, wait a minute. No, I want to see this movie. And what's nice is that there was this explosion online of people saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can do this with a lot of crappy movies. You can't do that with this movie.

59:23We want to see it. and so that won the day, and the movie's coming out, and I just watched it, and I really loved it. I appreciate you saying that. Thank you, and I guess, you know, when we do creative work, it's for an audience. Very few things we do creatively, I mean, I know I play piano for me, but like very few things, it's for an audience. It's a storyteller, it's the entertainer, especially when you have that many people involved. I completely understand someone who pays for the thing getting the thing and be like, I just want to put it over here. And even though I'm upset, I didn't pay for the thing.

59:57You did. It's yours. It is technically yours. I've been compensated. Everybody's been fairly compensated. The only thing we're missing is the approval or disapproval of, you know, the loud voices out there. So if you buy it and you're like, I'm just going to put it in a baggie. I'm a car guy. There are some car guys who just buy nice stuff and put it in a bag and don't drive it. I think everything should hit the road and be out there because that's just my philosophy. Yeah, I'm that way about instruments. A lot of times people say, oh, man, this guitar is really great, but, you know, I'm just going to keep it in storage because it's really worth a lot of money.

1:00:31It's like, no, guitars have to be. Man, you got to get out there and play it, you know? So I, but that's only my perspective. I respect somebody who's like, it serves us better here as long as everyone's fairly taken care of. they didn't pay anybody or it's like they tanked it or whatever that's a different story and then even uh even when it got a chance the fans you know voice their opinion of i want to see it it still had to go through a lot of loopholes it had to get purchased to be seen so you have to have another company be like it's worth the risk and not a cheap buy-in for for another place yeah so the people who bought it originally get their money's worth and the people who inherit it now can hopefully give something that the audience enjoys you uh mentioned you're a car guy, what are your go-to cars?

1:01:13What are your... Man, I love everything. I'm not as eclectic as like Leno, but I mean, I love, I grew up off American muscle. So that's the stuff I saw as a... What is your iconic American muscle car? 1970 Pontiac GTO. Yeah. The Judge package. Like, I think that is the toughest looking car, period. And the thing is, they're all the same. Like, gma bodies i believe like the chevelle the 442 the buick gsx and the pontiac gto they're all the same it's just they did a little bit things different for some reason that that mixture of the 70s psychedelics and the stupid colors and all the stripings pontiac just got it right man i think that's i would have you have many of those then no no i i had a phase where i had those cars and drove them um they're they're rewarding but they're also like enormous uh i would also put the plymouth superbird the one with the nose and the huge wing it was joe dirt's kick around car before you got his awesome car at the end i think i think that's a a nice thing because like racing was so big and you had to sell a certain amount of them at the dealers to be able to race them on sundays so they actually sold these cars i think that's a pretty cool connection i like like um first of all i'm a honda man and my daily driver is a honda civic type r and i beat the shit out of that thing i love that car like it's it is the best of all worlds you see you beat the shit of it you just attack it with a bat or you drive it rough with you i don't know sorry i i drive it like i'm i'm testing it to withstand anything yeah great great it's a manual shift car it's Oh, I love that.

1:02:52It's a true four-door. It's got just enough horsepower. It's like 330 horsepower, so it's not one of those thousand horsepower deals where if you do mash your foot, you get thrown back so far, you can't steer. Like, you're always on it. The interface is great. It's got everything that I want in a ride. And I also like a lot of the old British stuff for the reason of... You just have to maintain it. Sure, they all break. Yeah. But that's the fun part. That's also kind of the fun part of like... I never got that being the fun part. When a car doesn't start, I just lose it. And I start murdering people.

1:03:27But if you're essentially driving for another reason than to get to point A to point B, that's why I love the Honda. Because I know when I put the keys in that, I don't care where I'm going. And I don't care if I shift everything at 6 ,500 RPM. I'm going to get to my destination. That's why I love that car. The other stuff leaks, brakes, and it's tough to get parts. It's tough to find a skilled mechanic. But I like it because it looks sleek. They're very small. and you're not going at a death-defying speed when you're ripping through the gears. An old Austin Healy, you can club through the gears and you're third going to fourth and you're like, man, this is great.

1:04:02I'm going 40 miles an hour. Okay, I'm also safe. This is going to be fantastic. I like someone shouting in a car, I'm also safe. Well, there's no roof on it. So it's, to me, that experience of, I love to drive and I don't love to track drive, although it's the same experience here on the track. I never listened to the radio. I look at the car like a pilot of like an old prop plane. I'm always clocking the gauges, my rear view mirror. I'm trying to, I'm listening to the motor. My wife thinks I'm nuts. It's literally like we have permission to jam out on some of the cars that have audio systems.

1:04:39She's like, can I connect? And yeah, go ahead, go for it. I'm okay. Right. But there are some times she knows that like, oh man, you just need to listen to the thing okay it's all right i'll be over here you just you just do your thing and i just i'd be happy and i'll be over here i love yeah i'll be over here miserable yeah uh i'm gonna brush my team there you go there you go my man right there i just love that that experience of being connected and to take it back to the old muscle cars they're so big and wobbly sometimes you lose a little bit of that connection yeah you know but like man i i just love stuff that you're that you're on i was It's just in, we were shooting something, and Sona was there too.

1:05:15We were in Morocco, and we were at the foothills of the Sahara, and we were driving around in this, I think it was a, not a Land Rover, it was a, I think it was a Land Rover. It was a Land Rover. It was, yeah. It was a Land Rover, but it was manual, and I realized how much I miss manual, because I used to have, I still have it actually, but it needs to get fixed up, a Ford Taurus SHO. Oh, yeah. Yamaha V6. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Is it British Racing Green? Yes, it's British Racing Green. It's the Wolf. You know what? People have been laughing at me and I finally met the guy who's giving me fucking respect.

1:05:51That car fucks. That thing is awesome. Yes. Oh my God. Do your kid and play dance. Come on. Yeah. Do, do, do, tap, tap. The, the, so that car, I had it for years and I would always talk about it on the show and it became this thing that all my fans knew that I have a Ford Taurus, a 1992 Ford Taurus SHO and with the Yamaha engine. Tan leather interior. Yes. God damn it. I want to marry you. Anyway, we left it at Warner Brothers and they still don't know. We like hid it in a parking garage. It's covered in dust. And recently we heard from Ford that they might rehab it for me because it is beat to shit.

1:06:34It doesn't even run. But I want to get that thing rehabbed And I want to tool around in my green Ford Taurus SHO. That's a fun car to drive. But I miss shifting. And I want to get that back into my life. It keeps you off the phone if you're worried about driving me on the phone. Yeah. Like having to work both your feet and your hands. Right. It's like riding a motorcycle. I also fondle myself while driving. Oh, Jesus. You can't do that much. I know. I can't. You can. You just got to be quick. I'll be like, shift in a second.

1:07:09I just heard from Ford. They're out. Ford's out. Ford's out. God damn it. All right, I've kept you. But Chevy's in.

1:07:22The all new Chevy masturbator. Listen, I've kept you. Calvin pissing on it, but no stream. Yeah, exactly. Okay, take it easy. Let's all settle down. And I apologize to all car companies everywhere. I've kept you too long, but it's because I just love talking to you. You're fantastic. Coyote v. Acme is dropping, and it's really funny. You have to check it out. And it's a theater movie, something you gotta go see on big screens. And you know what? It looks great. It looks great. It's really fun. And also, I grew up on those Roadrunner cartoons. and I love all the callbacks to the classic moments in those cartoons.

1:08:08So very cool. And I'm just, I'm very happy for you because you seem like a really good guy who just keeps applying himself and doing the work and it's leading to all these amazing things. And I hope that it's going to just keep happening for you. So I like your vision of prediction. I realize that it won't. And I think that allows me to invest wholeheartedly in these moments. Yeah. Any within reason, you will die. Of course. And this is how we end all podcasts now. By the way, guests, you will die. Also, there's a high likelihood that before that, the town stops calling. Yes. And like. We all know that's coming.

1:08:50It's weird, though. And I'm just going to take some more time. Fuck it. Yeah. Because I'm having a great time. Oh, good. you get into this thing and you're awarded a few opportunities and you think it'll last forever i think it's really important to lean into the fact that it doesn't and it makes me sitting here with you extra special because god damn i'm sitting here with you like this is fantastic we get to talk who would ever thought we've been talking about a ford sho taurus like that's the way that was that was kind of how we ended it until i fucked it all up yeah yeah but like brings it up um maybe it maybe it doesn't continue yeah and i think the way to look back on it and we'd spoke off camera and you came in you're like man i i do this because i love it yeah and in a nutshell you were like because i love it that doesn't mean it's easy which i there's a whole nother podcast there right but man uh this is gonna end and all like opportunities are beyond my control i'm not a studio head i don't green light movies i don't know what the future holds like i don't know what's gonna happen so when i get a chance to talk to you i'm gonna pump it a few minutes because this is fucking great and i don't want it to end but it is gonna end But I think that's refreshing to hear because I think about that all the time.

1:09:58It is. I've had a lot of nice things happen in my career. And I've had some low times. I've had some high times. And I'm very aware I've built a life where, you know, without getting too sentimental, but I love my wife. I love my kids. I really like my friends. There's a bunch of things that I'm interested in doing and getting involved in. And so I always have this reserve idea in the back of my brain, which is they can take all this stuff away. And I don't even know who they are anymore, but that can all go away. And I think I'd still have a lot of fun. And then you're, then you feel bulletproof.

1:10:33And that's the most important thing. I just retired from in-ring performance last year and everybody was like, are you going to be okay? In many interviews, I was like, that was heard. Athletes die twice. I never just labeled myself the pro wrestler. There might have been a period in the beginning of that windfall, but I'm more than that. And when it gets taken away, it doesn't take all of me with it. You know, I love doing this. Also, you still have that. You'll always have, I mean, there's huge tracks of the internet that are devoted to all of your work and all your iconic performances. But what's nice is that that's out there.

1:11:09That's not been deleted. Now you can go on. If I want to relive those moments, fine. But I didn't wholeheartedly invest so people would build statues and talk about me forever. I wholeheartedly invested because people paid that night. You know what I'm saying? And that's it. And after that, the experience is over. And any ancillary stuff we get, that's great. It will end. And when it does, I hope I have a long run afterwards because it's not what defines me. I find a whole other shit interesting in life. And that's the fun ride of figuring out what's next and what's going on. So with that in mind, I thank you guys for the time today.

1:11:45This has been awesome. Is there a more delightful person than John Cena? Do you do life coaching at all? I have some questions. Well, listen, you are welcome here anytime you want to shoot the shit about anything because you're also that very rare person. You're incredible. He's so well-mannered. Yeah, I know. And you are not, Sona. I'm not. No. I'm agreeing with you. Yeah, yeah. She's a monster. But John, continued success to you and such a joy having you here today. Seriously. I can't wait to talk again. All right. Thank you, guys. This won't air. It's unairable. It's unairable! Conan O 'Brien Needs a Friend.

1:12:28With Conan O 'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Leow. Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy.

1:12:46Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM.com slash Conan.

1:13:21And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O 'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

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