Jake Roberts: 'I Can't Stand Snakes'

'A Music Blog, Yea?' sat down for an interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts where he revealed that he is actually afraid of snakes. It may come as a surprise, considering his nickname is "The Snake" and he regularly used to carry one to the ring. Below are highlights from that interview

On cutting promos: “In those days, I didn’t laugh a whole lot. I was angry, had a lot of hate, a lot of shame. A lot of shame. Shame is such a dangerous thing in wrestling. Shame is the one thing you have to put on yourself and I was just so upset with myself and the way my life had went. Some of the things that had happened to me, sexual abuse and all that. So it was easy to get ‘Dark.’ I always wanted to cast fear into somebody else, because I wanted them to feel how I felt.”

On his fear of snakes: “I can’t stand snakes, scared to death of the damn things. [But] there were enough zeroes on that contract to make me forget about my fear.”

On carrying around a python: “I really wish I’d been smart enough to skip the python and go straight to the cobra. The cobra only weighed about 15 pounds and it demanded respect. That cobra cast fear in everyone and he was so easy to work with. …Carrying that 100 pound snake around was brutal on my body, waking up at five o’clock in the morning at the hotel, you got your clothes – which is a lot, if you’re on the road for two to three weeks – and you got your wrestling gear, which is another bag. ‘Oh! Don’t forget the snake! There’s another 100 pounds!'”