JRE MMA Show #84 with Brendan Schaub

Brendan Schaub (0:10)

A lot of shit on this table.

Joe Rogan (0:11)

Yeah, this table is ridiculous.

I'm a mess, and this table is reflecting of the busyness of my life right now. I need to take some time and clean this fucking table. But the thing is, man, people keep bringing me shit.

Brendan Schaub (0:23)

But it's all cool shit.

Joe Rogan (0:24)

Paul, I love you, buddy, but you gave me a mushroom hat. This hat is made up. Yes, I'll put this on.

I don't know, is this the way to wear it? Like this way?

Brendan Schaub (0:33)

Yeah, I think so.

Joe Rogan (0:37)

So people keep giving me cool shit. They also gave me this mushroom.

It's a dried mushroom. People give me all this cool shit, and so I go, oh, thank you, and then I don't know where to put it.

Brendan Schaub (0:46)

He set it down.

Joe Rogan (0:47)

I got a Dan Aykroyd's vodka in the corner there, a cool skull vodka thing.

Brendan Schaub (0:51)

God, I've never seen someone push vodka so hard on a podcast.

Joe Rogan (0:54)

He goes hard in the paint with his vodka sales.

Brendan Schaub (0:56)

Great promotion.

Joe Rogan (0:56)

It's very smooth, and it's Dan Aykroyd. So you're like, I'll buy it just to let, I wanna hear you talk.

Brendan Schaub (1:01)

The Blues brother? I'm in, dude.

Joe Rogan (1:02)

Dude, come on, man. I bought it. He was a Conehead, he's one of the original Saturday Night Live Slayers, like the real OG. One of the Blues brothers!

Brendan Schaub (1:14)

Blues brother.

Joe Rogan (1:16)

Hey man, we started this podcast off talking, off the record, and I thought it was probably good for everybody here. I'm so happy you're not fighting, and what we're saying is I know that I was a dick to you to get you to stop doing it, but I felt like there was almost no other way that you were gonna live. I felt like, I felt scared. I've seen too many people that are just, there's a moment where it changes, where they stop being that person, and they keep fighting, and you see it. You see the deterioration, and no one steps in, and no one stops them, and then you'll talk to them alone, man, maybe you run into them in Vegas, maybe you both have a couple of drinks, you see each other at the bar, and you're like, hey, how's things? And you have these conversations, and then the reality sets in. Things are not good for a lot of these guys.

A lot of these guys that have taken punishment for too long, there's no bringing them back, man. They get to this spot where you know, everyone knows there's something wrong, and no one says anything to them.

And...

I was real scared that that was gonna happen to you. I was real scared, you know? Like, I didn't anticipate, when we did that crazy podcast that wound up being, you know, this like intervention, I didn't even know I was gonna do it.

But while it was happening, I was like, you gotta stop. That's all I was thinking is you gotta get out. I was, we were a little high. I don't even remember if we were drinking, but we probably were. But I remember being so sensitive to it, like there's something has to be done. Like now, you had so many other possibilities that there's, if like most guys that are all in on fighting, they don't have anything on the side. Like there's almost nothing else there. There's almost just fighting and maybe a family, right? But you were, you were starting to flourish. You're hilarious on podcasts. What, you know, that can go away.

Brendan Schaub (3:13)

Yeah, you guys become shells and man, I.

Joe Rogan (3:18)

We see it, right? Now that you're out, you see it, right?

Brendan Schaub (3:23)

Yeah, I think, thank God or whoever's up there, man, for you and Brian Kellan. Thank fucking God.

Joe Rogan (3:29)

I know it came out dicky. I know it did. And I know I apologize then and I apologize now.

Brendan Schaub (3:34)

But I think that's the only way you could do it.

Joe Rogan (3:36)

I know you weren't gonna listen. I knew you had this pride. Like you were, like we were talking about before the show. You were a top 10 professional heavyweight in the biggest organization in the world.

That's a, that's a identity thing too, man. Like people get strapped into that identity. That's one of the harder things about fighters is when you quit, you have to find meaning in your life. Like what are you good at now? Dude, for me, I know I never did anything professionally, but it was the formative stages of my life where the only thing that gave me any feelings of good was martial arts.