Right now, everybody's lead guest because his book's out today. Tyrus, Fox Nation host, co-host of Tyrus and Timf on the podcast, you know that, and author of the brand new book, Tyrus a Memoir, but he's also the real star of Gutfeld at night, or one of the many at 11 o'clock.
Tyrus, welcome. You know, you just can't be a bad guy. Greg takes all these shots at you, and that was a great shot, but you couldn't let it go. You're just too good of a human being, man. You just, you're the better, you know what, you're on the high ground. I'm on the high ground? I commend you for that, yeah. All right.
Because, you know, Tyrus, I put you on that high ground as well. What an upbringing you had. This was, how tough was this book to write? Or was it therapeutic?
It was both. And your, my favorite book, The President of Freedom Fighter, I love that book. Thanks. And I love the courage that it took to write that book. But when you write about yourself, it's tough. I can never do it. It's, I, I almost didn't do it. Like, I, the hours that you spend, when you go back on stuff, it's, you like relive it in a certain extent, and then you get angry about it, and you get embarrassed about it. You don't want to talk about it. There was a lot of phone calls.
I had a writing coach, Chris Epting, and there was a lot of calls like, I don't want to do this anymore. Take it out. Let's change it.
Let's change it. Especially once the, when it was finished and I sent it off, I was calling him probably every day going, you know what, man, I don't, this is like walking naked around town, you know, and you're basically saying, hey, everyone who knows me, you need to know me more. And that in itself is kind of, it's a little awkward.
No, I think it's, I think it's great. I'm, I'm, I'm already on chapter five. I got through it. I know the latest chapter, but I didn't know the earlier ones, but growing up was brutal. Your dad was beaten up on your mom and you saw that. And the way you do it to hide, you literally hide under the bed. You didn't even know what to do until one day you grabbed a knife.
Right. You know, I have to, I have to thank Lou Ferrigno for getting me through my childhood and because messages on TV are important. And at least, you know, in my generation and seeing a little guy turn into a big guy to solve his problems and then turning back into, uh, the Hulk and he'd solve everything.
Oh, that's what I tried to do. I had had enough one night and I just, my mother crying every night and always being afraid and having to help clean her up was, was always difficult, but I was always making my mom laugh. I always try to do things to make her laugh because she was, she was young. I mean, she was only 15 when she had, so she was a kid herself. And, um, depending on what level of the beating was that night, um, it just got to the point where I'm her little man. I have to do something, you know, so I decided to do something.
The problem was that in the movies, there was four, there was, there was that, but it was also, you see things when you go back and you try to tell the story through your eyes as a four-year-old in your mind, every movie that you watched, when somebody got stabbed with a knife, they fell down, they died. It was over. It was, it was done. Like all you had to do was just get it done.
So that was my plan. And when I stabbed him, he didn't drop on the ground. He turned around like what the, you know, and then he put hands on me and as scary as that moment was, and I will always have, you see the little puffy dot that's from him.
I'll always have that scar on my, uh, orbital socket. It was a backhand. Yeah. And then he grabbed me by the legs and was going, cause he was convinced I wasn't his. I betrayed him because he was so concerned and paranoid about her cheating all the time.
So he was going to throw me out the window of where I think we're up on a 20 story apartment. He was going to dump me out the window, but my mother was able to talk him down and calm him down. But that moment is terrifying as it was for me, was the spark that made my mother made a change. I guess it was okay for her, him to batter her, even though that's terrible. But once he turned it on to me, that's when she was like, I'm done with this. That gave her the fire to get us out of there.
And he did. So you go to your grandparents, but you said flat out, as much as you respect your grandfather, he said he didn't want little black kids in the house. You're an interracial interracial couple. Uh, you point out that in 19, even in 1986, that you were fugitive, your parents were fugitives. I came out an outlaw, right? You know, which we just got silly.
We're silly people. You got their stabilized thing, but your grandfather, so you knew you couldn't live there. And this is one of the things in the book that I talk about is we, we always worry about, we always focus on the sins of people. Like everyone has a good side with extreme cases, but my grandfather was a hardworking man who took care of his family. He, you know, he worked every day at GE. He, you know, he was a pillar of the community, but his only experience with black people, unfortunately was my father. So he had all the hatred in the world for people. Cause dad wasn't a good guy. Not even a little bit, you know, and he wasn't even a bad guy. He was just a scared guy. There's a difference. There's a difference. And the youngest of 14.
Yeah. So he couldn't have us in his household and it wasn't sugar coated and he didn't hide it. It was, you know, a matter of fact that I still remember the examination because we were, we are light skinned mix, whatever you want to call it. But he looked at my hands and my hands have a pink tone to it.
My, he looked me over and just said, flat out, no, he can't stay here. And he gave my mother a choice and I, and it was a tough choice, but she had to, she had nothing. She was 15 years old with two or at that time she was, she was older now, but she had to make a tough decision and life is about tough decisions.
And in the book, I talk about my mother's made decisions. Although you seem unfair at times are hurtful. They were always for our best interests. And sometimes love is not enough.
Right. And she made a choice to go to school and to get her life together. And we went to foster care. You and your brother stayed together. That was her only, that was her only condition. You cannot break them up.
Gotcha. Otherwise you're tied with your brother now. No, unfortunately life goes on. One of the things I talk about book being the protector and trying to look out for everybody is you hurt their growth and trying to, I tried to pave the road for my brother, not letting him pave his road, which leads to resentment. And just as we got older, we drifted apart and a lot of his unsuccessfully, he blamed on me and I'm not thinking of it because I'm being successful, even though the pressure of that or whatever. So eventually just ended up with what always happens with family was financial. Um, my mother, she kind of became like my friend during that time. She would visit periodically, but, uh, I was calling, uh, my foster family, mom and dad, and especially, uh, dad, he was, I was his guy. Like we were thick as thieves.
Like, uh, you know, we just, I, he had, he was a Navy man, you know, he, he worked for a living. He drove for Coke. Everything in the house was Coke. The biggest, the biggest betrayal in our household was, uh, my foster mom took the back. This was when they were doing taste tests, you know, the Coke and Pepsi battle tests. She picked Pepsi.
It was almost a divorce. Like it was a huge thing. I mean, I had Coke swim trunks, you know what I'm saying?
Like we were the Coke Coca-Cola family. He drove his truck home out of pride. He could have left it in the yard, but he wanted out in front of the house. Cause he wanted everyone to know he was a Coke man. That was the type of man that he was. And he cut hair on the weekends and I'd be in his barbershop with him. But, uh, them giving us up was, uh, one of the, one of the worst days, uh, of my life.
But again, it goes back to, they made it fun, even though they were pretty broke up. And you were still probably something underneath that you, you were determined to be successful. You were gonna, you were gonna overcome all this, would you say? Being broke, being poor sucks. Uh, not having anyone.
The, the hardest thing about not, is that you, you're playing with house money. I wasn't expected to do anything in life. I was just supposed to be another ghetto bastard in and out of jail. You know, just a repeat of my, my father and his lifestyle and, and that things. But I never was comfortable.
I never, I never wallowed. And I always talk about that. It's, it's my grandmother gave me a great piece of advice one time. Uh, and it was, I was younger, but she said, bad things happen to you and you're, but it's not the things that happen to you that it's your reaction that you're judged by. What do you do with it when you get hit in the mouth? Do you lay on the ground or do you clean yourself up?
Do you learn how to duck? You know, like you can make the same, you know, everyone makes a mistake, you know, but you can't make the same mistake twice. And that just carried with me. It wasn't what happened to me. It's my reaction. And I didn't always follow that message. And I talk about that on the book cause there's a lot of firings in there and a lot of, a lot of sleeping on couches and stuff, but that's part of the journey.
You want to be an educator and an actor. Yeah. Yeah.
That, what was I thinking with that one? But, uh, I originally wanted to be a zoologist, but you love animals. Yeah. Crazy about them, but you know, zoologists, you got to do dissections all day.
Right. And, uh, when they cut open the baby rabbits, I was a wrap. I was done.
I was just, you know, it just wasn't for me. Plus football took up so much time. Couldn't do labs and, and football. It was just, it was a lot and, uh, I chose football.
Right. Uh, sports helped? Uh, sports saved my life.
Uh, no question. My coaches were, were fathers where they were consciousness. They held me accountable. Uh, you know, coach Martinez in particular, uh, he saved my life.
I was, you know, uh, I was looking, I was just like everybody else. I wanted gold chains and I wanted, you know, I wanted 24 inch rims on in Cadillac and I was willing to take penitentiary chances to get them. And he was the one that kept me straight. Uh, when I got to Nebraska was coach Morris, uh, coach Hoffman coach. They got me in love with the weight room, got me in love, the commitment. It showed me that Nebraska way of work ethic, but that all had to do with, um, the sports tires. Congratulations on the book, which is, we got to come back and finish this story. But of course you got to get the book and finish it yourself. You can see him on Fox nation. You see him on his podcast, but most importantly, pick up just Tyrus, a memoir. Congratulations. Thank you, man.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-02-15 02:53:36 / 2023-02-15 02:58:53 / 5