Jake Roberts Discusses His Drug Use In The 1980s, Smuggling Drugs and More

Jake Roberts was recently interviewed on the Joe Rogan Experience late last month, Roberts discussed his drug use during the 1980s. Thanks to WrestlingInc. for the transcript.

On his drug use during the ’80s: 

“I’m lucky I didn’t get into heroin. I probably wouldn’t have beat that one. Yeah, I would because this is what I’m meant to be doing. But to go through 25 to 30 years of doing cocaine, I thank Vince McMahon for affording me my addiction because without it, I would be in prison somewhere. I would’ve killed somebody for my drug. No, without a doubt, I would have knifed him or whatever, man. That guy [has] got an eight ball [of cocaine]. Watch this! [Pretends to stab] Done! Life meant nothing to me, man.”

On whether he ever wrestled under the influence: 

“No, I was straight, pretty much. I may have been going through withdrawals at the time, but no, I didn’t drink or any of that s**t before a match. And I didn’t like it, but I did it that way because it’s my duty. And my thing is as a wrestler to take care of my opponent.”

On whether WWE helped talent get steroids: 

“No, I can’t say they helped me, but I will tell you this. What they would do is, we’d get booked in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Now, when somebody told me this story at first, I was like, ‘This is an old wives’ tale because s**t like that [does not] really happen.’ You get to Allentown/Hershey, you go to the locker room and all of a sudden, somebody says to you, ‘Hey, they need to see you in locker room three.’ ‘What the f**k did I do?’ Then I’d go in there and there’s a doctor there and he [has] got suitcases over here, boxes here, suitcases over here, boxes there, [and he would ask] ‘What do you need, kid?’ ‘Excuse me?’ ‘What do you need?’ Up, down, what?’ ‘What do you have for sleep? Oh, Halcion, those are good! How many can I get? As many as I want? 300.’ ‘I’ve got them right here.’ ‘Steroids?’ ‘Yeah, absolutely!’ ‘I’ll take that, I’ll take that, I’ll take that.’ It was grocery shopping!”

On smuggling drugs into Canada: 

“And it used to be funny, guys would be like, ‘hey Jake, will you carry my s**t for me?’ when we’d be going over to Canada. And I’d be like, ‘Sure! It’s going to cost you a percentage of your s**t. Give me 10% of what you’ve got and I’ll carry it across the border for you.’ So I’ve got eight of 10 guys and I’ve got all their s**t. Where am I hiding it? In the snake bag for crying out loud!”