[Music] so ronnie tell me how you discovered bodybuilding for yourself oh see man i remember the poundless i used to see by the bodybuilding guys and i'm like i don't think i could ever do anything like that because you know for the most part i didn't really like the way the guys looked and stuff and didn't think i could get to that level either so i was like i ain't gonna even try to do nothing like that but uh you know i've always worked out you know even when i was like i started out like
12 13 years old so it was always a hobby of mine working out came really easy and i kind of like fell in love with it when i got to uh college and started you know polished and stuff so i was always wanting to work out even you know when i was going to college and they didn't really train that much at my college for the most part the football team they didn't have like you know this training regimen where they all the guys worked out it was like volunteers you wanted to work out you
killed but you had to go like at five in the morning and the gym was open from like five or six something like that and that was the only time you could work out and you know otherwise if you didn't work out at that time then you didn't get no workout in at all so for the most part i would i would get up five o'clock and go and get a little workout in and i'd do that for like two or three times a week because you know that's the most i could do you know
with you know all the homework and all that kind of stuff that i had going on in school and football and all that so i only worked out like three three days a week when i was in uh college but after college uh you know i was able to work out a little bit more i i'd go at least about five days a week four four to five days a week for the most part so i worked out pretty regularly uh after college you know when i was working with dominoes and all that kind of
stuff and once i got on police department i was still able to you know go to the station and work out over there because they had a gym at the station and uh actually that's how i ended up at metroflex because uh uh after uh i graduated from the academy and they cut you loose on the street one of the guys saw me on one of the calls like man you pretty big guy where you work out here no i told man i work out the station where it's free he's like man look what's up
there i got this gym i work out here uh they got a whole lot of ways now and everybody got enough for you over there anyway i'm like no i'm not really hey but yeah it's for your name you gotta pay nothing so you ought to come over metroflex gym i work out like okay so i go with metroflex and uh brian is there first day i get there and he's like man you pretty big guy you you compete no man i don't compete i just work police department you know working out kind of like
a hobby for me i've been doing it all my life you know i used to do pilots doing other than high school and stuff but uh never wanted to be a bodybuilder nothing like that because you know like i said i didn't think i achieved that level and i hadn't really too much care about you know the diet now all the kind of stuff i heard they do that they do and then uh me getting on the police department i heard they have to take steroids and all that kind of stuff and i definitely can't
do that working you know a full-time police department it's like no you want to do all that i'm like nah it's okay so like i think like i went in there like three four times in a row and every time i go in there he i was without with the guy who brought me so you know i was working out with him and he kind of like let me work out you know as as a guest and stuff and brian finally said you know i'll tell you what he said i said i'll give you a
free membership to the gym if you compete in this show coming up you know uh i think it's like three four months away or something like that like you gonna give me a free one i like uh yeah i grew for a free membership he's like i'll teach you how to pose i actually died after everything you need to know i'm like okay well if you're gonna teach me how to do all this and you're gonna give me a free membership uh yeah i i i can so um you know brian uh kind of like
took me on his wing we would go to this guy's house like two three times a week where he had this uh recording a studio set up but only thing about it was it was like a little bit of small sweat box no ac or nothing we'd be back there you know pose and he had his camera set up he would be recording everything we were doing and uh we like i said we we do that for like two or three times a week but you know brian taught me all the poses and stuff and
then uh he would go over you know like died and stuff and tell me what i need to eat and you know he showed me uh different types of workouts because like i said i i when i came along you know we power lifted so we we didn't do a lot of sets and we didn't do a lot a whole lot of reps and stuff like that brian showed me how to do a whole bunch of sets and all over a whole lot of reps because when i all our max reps and uh power lifts
probably was like four or five you know we didn't go over we didn't go over four or five reps you know for what we was doing because we was trying to just you know get stronger and and that's how we did it you know uh but brian showed me how to do uh multiple exercises you know multiple sets multiple a whole lot of reps and stuff and so it was a different different type of training from what i was used to but you know i caught on real quick and uh my first show that brian
took me to was called the mr texas and uh it's actually that trophy right there wow i went in one first and overall and i'm like oh yeah i thought you'd be pretty good at this and then the second show i went to that trophy sitting right next to that one i won first and overall in that one too so like the first four or five shows i went to i got uh first and over and all and overall in all of them you know and i'm like okay so that same year i went to
the nationals because i qualified uh you know i think at the qualif at the qualifying show you know it was a little bit tougher than you know just regular local shows and stuff uh i ended up getting like second but you know first and second qualifying for nationals so i went to nationals my first year and got third so you know for my first year in the sport you know going all the way to nationals like being like third in the country in the heavyweight class third in the world almost in the headway class so
i did pretty good my first year in the sport so my second year in the sport i went back to nationals and uh it was a little bit tougher this year because actually the first year uh when i went to uh national they drug tested everybody everybody in the show got uh drug tested you know i think that kind of like helped me out because i noticed that there wasn't a whole lot of guys competing that years probably in my class that years probably like 20 guys 15 20 guys in the heavyweight class because they
were drug testing and everything because you're you're a drug free officer yeah yeah yeah of course you know i work police i have to be so my second year um i went back to the nationals but this year they didn't drug test so it was a whole lot more guys it was like 40 some guys like double what was the next year before but the only thing about it was they had this this show called mr universe uh they called the world it was mr universe it was world champ chips and mr universe the same
thing same show pretty much uh they called world championships because everybody from all over the world would compete in this one show the only thing about it was you had to be drug tested to go and uh uh the first place guy was the guy who got selected the only thing about it was the first place guy uh couldn't pass the drug test so the second place guy couldn't pass drug to test the third place guy couldn't pass the drug test so i was four so i went over and i took the test and uh
i think you know when i went over there and took that test i don't think nobody else from my class showed up so i think i was the only one that showed up from the heavyweight class out of 40 some guys i took tests i passed it and uh got selected to the uh the uh what they call universe universe team and we went to the universe uh like i think it was like a month later uh september october so i had uh you know i had never been out of the country or nothing so
i had to get a passport and all this kind of stuff and actually i had to get get it rushed and sent back to me because but back in those days you had to go to houston to get it you know but i i put a rush on my uh i did next day air and all that kind of stuff and i got my passport in like two weeks uh normally it's like a two-month process but uh like i said i did the rush thing got my passport in time to go to that year was
in poland uh like i think it was catalyst poland and they took uh one guy from every class so it was like one heavyweight one light heavy one middle one uh lightweight it's like five of us i think all together who went to uh poland on the unit on the universe team to uh compete in the universe that year i mean if you won your class you turn pro automatically and not only did you turn pro you uh qualified five for mr olympia and you know so uh i went over of course i won my
class turned pro and it's just my second year in the sport uh i think me and the uh lightweight guy turned pro so we kind of like qualified for the olympia and this was my first year in the sport was 90. uh 91 is when i won the universe until 92 is uh when i uh did my first pro show you know from winning the universe uh i turned pro and i went to like the chicago pro show i ended up in like i don't know i think i got 11 12 somewhere now then i
went to uh the night of champion which was in new york that year and i ended up in like 14 15 somewhere in there and uh since i was qualified for the olympia i went to the miss olympia and it was in helsinki uh that year and uh helsinki finland uh during h1 that one and uh i don't even i i had a lot of fun but uh i didn't even get a call out you know [Laughter] so that's automatically like dead last right when you don't get a call out you know you don't get
compared to nobody they don't even place you and so you like last place so but i had a lot of fun and i enjoyed myself and you know the guy said yeah man you look pretty good you you could have played somewhere in this show right now you know i had fun i enjoyed myself and so at 92 when i went to my first olympia i got like dead last but you know back back in back in those days you know when i was competing and stuff i didn't really take bodybuilding as serious as uh
i didn't think i could be like with the top guys anyway so brian gave me a free membership to the gym and i had a full-time job police department so i i just i did you know it was my hobby and i was doing what i what i truly love to do working out and stuff and so i really didn't too much care about where i placed and stuff like that because i was having fun i had a free membership to the gym you know i made good money working for police department because we had
like part-time jobs you know i worked at denny's making extra money i worked at this uh boot store western warehouse making extra money there and then i worked for the apartment complex making uh actually i just got free rent i had paid no rent or nothing so i was doing pretty good so you know bodybuilding was just like like something that i just had fun with and just like a hobby because in 1993 uh when i competed uh i think i the highest i placed in my second year was like six or seven somewhere in
there you know and that's that's not high enough to qualify for the olympia you have to place in the top three in in the regular pro show so i didn't even qualify for the olympia 93 so 94 came around and uh i did pretty good in 94 you know i didn't have any sponsors or nothing like that you know so i like i get you know worked for the peace department like say i was doing pretty good 94 i qualified for the olympia by placing third in a show in paris i placed third in the
show in germany so i went to olympia in 94 and placed i got call out i played down at the bottom you know like 15 16 somewhere now but uh at least they called me out and compared me to the other guys it was a little bit better than the you know the last time i showed up where they didn't call me out and compare me to nobody so 1995 rolls around and uh i finally was able to i mean my first show i went to was the show in houston and i got like six
or seven i'm like man i'm showtime you know coming to the u.s and and not placing good and hard none of the shows but every time i go to show in the u.s i never placed real good you know they wouldn't even let me into the arnold classic i would sign up you know be picked for you only way you can go to honor classes like that well it's still you know invitation only yeah and they wouldn't even let me in auto classic uh so but when i went to canada and competed you know i
went over there and i won my first uh pro show you know so i don't seem like the only time i did google was when i went to another country because uh you know i qualified for the olympia again in 95 and i was finally able to get a sponsor i think i ended up with metrics my first sponsor in 95 is about what about five six years of competing they didn't pay me any money but they gave me free you know supplements and stuff like that so uh i went to olympia that year and
i think i placed like 11 somewhere in there 12 somewhere in there and uh so uh you know i'm moving up in places i'm i'm doing a little bit better you know i'm winning uh shows uh uh so bodybuilding is starting to you know look up for me 96 rolls around and uh i didn't live i think i did i i went had to go to canada again and qualify uh i wanted that one to canada show again and qualify me for the olympia and 96 i did pretty good in the olympia i ended up
in like uh what was like seventh i think eighth seventh seventh place in the olympia that year and uh you know that year they they drug tested too i remember and uh they and nasa failed so nasa got second so everybody behind him moved up so i think he ended up in like six you know from him you know getting disqualified so things are getting better and better every year uh 97 rolls around you know and uh i go back to canada go back to canada again i qualify by winning that show because like i
said you know every time i do a show like in another country i always did pretty good and i always i was able to qualify for the olympia by going there and uh that year at the olympia uh i got ninth you know and i remember i can remember like it was yesterday i went to the they finally let me into arnold classic i went to the arnold classic and you know the show before the arnold was the iron man and i ended up in like third fourth third place i think but the guy who
won the show was lee priest i'm like man uh how did he beat me you know me about this tall i'm like i don't know this is what for me so i'm at the arnold classic and i i remember going after the preachers i went back to my room and i like my girlfriend time was vicky your girl named big gay she was competing in the show too i like i'm done with this bodybuilding stuff even got like lee priest beat me yeah i don't think this is for me and she's like boy shut up
you ain't gonna quit and i thought about it like you know what yeah i do quit i might lose my free membership to the gym so i think i'm gonna hang around here for the while alone so anyway uh actually yeah i think i ended up beating him in that show and i got like fourth or something and like i said i went uh you know i went to canada and qualified again you know and went to the olympia and that's that 97 got like ninth but you know by this time you know i had
already i was done with being feeling sorry for myself and i remember they had every year after the olympia they had the european tour and uh and i was always able to go on the european tour like saying europe always did pretty good for the most part in most of the shows in 97 they had seven shows in 11 days and man that was the most rigorous thing i've been through in my whole entire life i remember the last show uh we got i was placing like fourth and fifth you know in every show because
i was kind of like burnt out for the most part you know from doing all those shows anyway i did the olympia i did the show before the olympia you know and in addition to doing those seven shows i already done like four or five shows going into that going into that tour so i'm kind of like burnt out but i remember kevin was on the tour and kevin is winning every show and i'm like what the hell was kevin kevin lebron yeah like what the hell is he doing to win all these shows so
i went to kevin's room i like kevin what are you doing how are you staying so hard you know to win all these shows he's like you know what i'm doing i'm like yeah so he goes over to his coffee maker and pour the coffee in the cup then he goes to the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of vodka and uh he poured that into the cup and he said uh drink that [Music] i'm like dude i don't drink no vodka i don't know like alcohol just like well you asked me what i was
doing to win all these shows and this is what i'm doing i'm drinking coffee and vodka every night so i'm like okay so uh i drank i drank that coffee in that vodka and uh went to the show the next day and beat kevin well uh-huh yeah and uh you know like i said i've been getting like fourth and fifth in every show and i got i finally got a first place you know on the tour and this this is the last the seventh show you know and uh i beat him and uh uh after
that you know i don't i don't i don't know if kevin even beat me after that because uh 98 you know uh every show i went to that year i won uh i went to like canada now the champions i won and uh i remember leaving i remember going to the olympia they said dory ain't competing this year i saw olympia's wide open and you know flex had been getting second kevin that big in second sean red been getting second nasa had been getting second and i'm like well i ain't got it ain't got a
prayer so uh he's like well look like kevin like flex is gonna win this year you know because he had all the momentum and he had been winning all these shows stuff two leading up to and he got like i said he got second uh in the olympia before and he was the favorite for the most part that year because uh i remember going into the show uh this day they were looking for somebody at the guest post and flex charge like olympia on money uh to our guest post that our show was like ten
thousand dollars or something like that and she paid it to him because she you know she everybody said you know flex is gonna win she believed it and and i remember going into the show and uh being compared to uh flex and kevin and you know those guys that i had already won and a couple of times they had put me in the middle and i'm like oh i'm doing pretty good here they put me in the middle comparing me to the big to the big dogs of the sport and uh i can remember after
pre-judging was over joey came backstage been like man you look really good uh i'm gonna sign you to a contract i'm like who me you want to sign me and uh he's like yeah and you know i get you all these get you all these money guest posts and stuff i'm like oh okay that sounds good do you think i got a chance to win this show he's like yeah yeah i think to win this okay i don't think so and so i i can remember like it was yesterday when you know when they call
that the the final my my goal was just place the top five you know i was like man if i could just play some tough five olympia you know it would be a dream come true for the most part for me and i remember they called you know like fifth and sixth and i'm still standing there and they call forth i'm like oh shucks i'm doing pretty good then they got down to third and i'm still standing there i'm like whoa i ain't never had this happen before and then i i can remember me and
flex standing down and they were down in the first and second and i'm like wow i was truly blown away and then wayne when he called out second place he waited for a long time before he said flex his name you know and it just totally caught me off guard and just kind of like blew my mind and uh i remember hitting the floor you know because i i was like man i was in shock for the most part and i couldn't believe they called his name second for second place and i don't remember anything
that happened uh from the time they called second you know i don't remember fletch getting his medal getting a trophy and nothing only thing i remember is vicky coming and picking me up off the floor that's that's the only thing i remember and i don't know how long i laid on that floor but i laid on that floor a long time because i watched the tape flex came over to me and said something chris camilla came over to me and said something like what did you guys say to me because i don't remember nothing and
uh yeah i i ended up in first and of course you know the rest was pretty much history after that and uh and i did end up getting that wheda contract too so vodka and coffee really became a secret weapon yeah that was the only time i did that okay wow yeah but uh it it it did uh put me in real good shape and then it brought me from fifth halfway to first place so uh wow yeah yeah that was that was a that was a that was a good it was a good thing
for me uh to to do that and get that first place and and after that you know kind of like re-write my career you
