Jordan Karlesson
It appears that “Iron Mike” Tyson might be immortal, after all.
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Mike Tyson opened up about death, his fears, and other once-unmentionable topics on a recent podcast.
The 56-year-old boxing legend and pop-culture icon bared his soul in an emotional conversation with his therapist. The discussion, also featuring DJ Whoo Kid, appeared the July 13 episode of his podcast, Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson.
“We’re all gonna die one day, of course,” Tyson said. “My expiration date is coming close, really soon.”
The conversation, somewhat reminiscent of Tony Soprano talking with Dr. Melfi on The Sopranos, was heavy right from the get-go.
Meet The Real Mike Tyson
Sean McFarland, a.k.a. “Seano,” sat down with Tyson and DJ Whoo Kid in the studio for Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson.
“Tell them who I am behind all this stuff,” Tyson asked his therapist at the beginning of the program. “Let them know.”
“All right, I’ll let them know, man: You’re a scared little boy sometimes,” McFarland replied.
Taking a deep breath, the therapist said, “I’ve known Mike in a lot of different variations. There was a time in life when Mike wasn’t as happy and … wasn’t being kind to his body. And we lived together. We would go out and do things together. And Michael would say to me, ‘You know, my head screams to me, when I walk into the restaurant, everyone’s yelling, “This big fat …”’ the N-word.”
McFarland described their system for dealing with the episodes Tyson would have when they would go to a restaurant or movie theater.
He’d tap him and the therapist would know he was scared and overwhelmed. And the therapist would say, “Michael, I love you.”
“The Baddest Man on the Planet had to learn how to ask for help,” McFarland recalled. “He had to learn how not to run away and face that. … He’s talked about the greatest enemy, the greatest fight he’s ever had is his mind.”
“I am so scared … that I can’t control my mind,” Tyson revealed, choking up. “They don’t believe that I hate myself.”
Mike Tyson’s Greatest Fears
Tyson revealed that he was once homeless and that he tried to start to “reprogram” himself in 2004.
“I was such a Neanderthal … vicious,” he said, recalling a life of sex and drug addiction. “Success is the reason why I tore my life apart.”
Since then, he’s learned that, “Tearing yourself down is as motivating as bringing yourself up.”
Tyson further claimed that, if he hadn’t sought help, he’d be dead.
DJ Whoo Kid asked him: “Are you at the end game of your life right now?”
To which Tyson replied: “No. I see a little boy that’s tricked the world. … That’s what I look in the mirror and see. I’m a great actor.”
On the topic of addiction recovery, Tyson admitted: “Any moment I’m liable to relapse. I’m clean five — but any second. I’m fighting every day of my life … just to be present. Life is a fight.”
Tyson also touched on why he takes commercial planes instead of private ones. His revelation provided some context surrounding the widely publicized incident involving him and another passenger on a plane.
Tyson said the “trigger” for his addiction is flying on private planes. They remind him of when he used to live “a life of cocaine and strippers.”
