#2295 - Scott Payne

Scott Payne (0:03)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

Joe Rogan (0:06)

Trained by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

Joe Rogan (0:12)

You had a crazy fucking life, man. Like a really crazy life. So to get everybody up to speed right from the beginning, you spent 25 years undercover, working for the FBI in the Klan, Nazi organizations and biker gangs.

Scott Payne (0:29)

And then some. Yes, sir.

Joe Rogan (0:30)

What a crazy, crazy life that is. First of all, how did you get, how did you first get started doing that?

Scott Payne (0:40)

Good question. I grew up in South Carolina, played ball, all that stuff.

I was always kind of a, I mean, if you look back, not trying to be cocky, whatever, because that's not it. You've had plenty of people on the show that are complete badasses. But I was kind of a bully of bullies. I didn't, I always looked out. I like the underdog. I bounced in college. So I was already learning that gift of gab and fight techniques and stuff like that. And then I got, I became a cop. Because when I was in college, I took a course, I'm taking electives. I went to college so I'd have four more years to figure out what I was going to do. Yes. I didn't know what I was doing.

Joe Rogan (1:19)

Me too.

Scott Payne (1:19)

Except partying.

Joe Rogan (1:21)

I did three years.

Scott Payne (1:24)

I was good at partying. But I had an elective that was criminal justice. And man, I really liked it. Psychology was always a strong thing for me. But it took a back seat. And I ended up coming out with a major in criminal justice and a minor in psychology. But during those criminal justice courses, I was like, at first, for a fleeting moment, I said, I'm going to be an attorney. Yeah, I'll be an attorney. And then I realized I'd be a terrible attorney. I said, because if I was the defense attorney and they said they did it, I would probably just walk up and go, they did it. Right? That's not going to get me any clients. And if I was the prosecutor, I pictured me being like Sam Kennison, grabbing them and going, say it, say it, you know, you did it. So I'm like, that's probably not the best role for me. And I did a ride along with cops and the department and that was it. But once I got in to law enforcement, I was uniformed patrol for three years.

I was just so fascinated with Undercover. I don't know what it was. I can't really remember doing the book. I've tried to dive back in. People ask. I don't really remember. I just know that I loved Undercover movies, period. If it was a biker Undercover, I don't care how cheesy it was. I love them all. And then one of my mentors at the sheriff's office, he was actually the world's strongest man in the late 80s after Casmeyer. He was a former Marine and big dude. And he, as a task force, on a task force had gone Undercover in some biker gangs. And man, I wanted to be a biker. I grew up on motorcycles and then just started taking off from there.

Joe Rogan (3:00)

You got to think that biker gangs are probably super suspicious of people being Undercover because it's such a theme. It's been around forever, the stories of guys infiltrating biker gangs. It's been around forever.

Scott Payne (3:13)

40 plus years right now. Easy. And then there's books made. There's books made. They go to court. They learn.

Joe Rogan (3:21)

Yeah. So it was right after the Vietnam War, right? That's when all the biker gangs really started kicking off.

Scott Payne (3:25)

No, I think it goes back to world... I mean, my history is bad, but I think it goes back to World War at least too, right? Because all those... the way it goes, everybody always asks what a one percenter is. And it goes back, I think it's 1947, but it goes back to when your veterans are getting out. They have nothing.

They had no decompression back then. They had no plans or programs for them. And they've been out here living this raucous, rowdy life. And now they're back in the States. And now they're supposed to just flip and be like... So they started creating these clubs. And they were doing some raucous and rowdy stuff. And then it was the president of the American Motorcycle Association. They came out and made this statement that said something to the effect of, listen, 99% of all motorcycle riders are good, law-abiding citizens. There's only 1% that's bad. And they took that as a badge of honor and said, we're one percenters.