Joe Rogan Experience #1942 - Mark Greaney

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. MGMark Greaney0:00

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. NANarrator0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (instrumental music) What's up, Mark? How are you?

   4. MGMark Greaney0:13

      (laughs)

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:13

      Nice to meet you, man.

   6. MGMark Greaney0:14

      It's very nice to meet you.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      I've read, uh, a l- I'm on the 11th book-

   8. MGMark Greaney0:18

      Oh, wow.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:19

      ... of yours now.

   10. MGMark Greaney0:19

       Oh, wow.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:20

       Yeah. So the whole Gray Man series, I'm in, uh, I'm on, um, Sierra Six.

   12. MGMark Greaney0:25

       Yeah, yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       So-

   14. MGMark Greaney0:26

       The new one comes out immediately, so (laughs) -

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:29

       Yeah.

   16. MGMark Greaney0:29

       ... book 12 i-

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:30

       They sent me the new one.

   18. MGMark Greaney0:31

       Good.

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:32

       Yeah, so I have a copy of it.

   20. MGMark Greaney0:33

       That's awesome. I appreciate you reading.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:34

       It's, uh, you write some fucked-up books, man. (laughs)

   22. MGMark Greaney0:39

       (laughs) It's true. It's true.

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:40

       Just, you seem like such a normal guy.

   24. MGMark Greaney0:42

       (laughs)

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:42

       I was always wondering, I'm like, "How does someone write like this and not be a total psycho?" Like, the fact that you have those thoughts in your mind, and you can envision and create these scenarios in your brain.

   26. MGMark Greaney0:57

       Yeah, it, that pops into my head a lot when I'm talking to people-

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:00

       (laughs)

   28. MGMark Greaney1:00

       ... like, uh, my aunt who's passed away, but she was 93, and, you know, it's like, "Hey, Dorothy, here's my book about sex trafficking. I hope you enjoy it." (laughs)

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:09

       (laughs)

   30. MGMark Greaney1:09

       You know, she re- she read it. And c- 'cause she would, my aunt, if I joined the Taliban, she'd be like, "Well, they, you know, they have some nice clothing," or something.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   What were you doing…

   1. MGMark Greaney15:00

      it wasn't a dead-end- dead-end job, but I was making it a dead-end job (laughs) just because it wasn't really where I wanted to be. I wanted to be a writer and, um...

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:07

      What were you doing for them?

   3. MGMark Greaney15:08

      Um, I worked in, uh, international customer care. So we had subsidiaries in oth- it's a medical device company and we had subsidiaries in other countries, and, um, I would sort of get the, the supplies to the subsidiaries and go to trade shows and that sort of thing, so...

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:23

      And so when you left that job, did you say, "Hey guys, uh, I'm a published author, gotta go"? (laughs)

   5. MGMark Greaney15:29

      (laughs) Yeah, so there's a story to that, that it's, it's... My dad had passed away in 2005, and my dad, um, he had a kind of a white collar job. He ran the NBC affiliate in Memphis where I'm from, um, but he was very blue collar mindset in that you had to have a job and there was no way my dad would've let me quit my job. (laughs) Even though I'd- you know, my first book was just a, a paperback, mass market paperback, it wasn't a big release. It was Gray Man, it turned into something, but when it first came out, it was not a big deal other than the fact that Hollywood was interested. But I had this... You know, it, it wasn't quit-your-job money at all, and then they asked me to write two more books and, in the s- make a series out of it, which I never even had considered. I was just trying to hold something in my hand (laughs) with my name on it and a, and a title and a cover. I wanted to be, you know, that level of a published author. I had no higher ambition. And they asked me to continue it as a series and I said yes, and then I realized, it's like, oh my god, I, I've got to crank out three books in the next whatever number of months. It's like, I have to quit my job. Um, and it wasn't quit-your-job money as I said, and this was before the Hollywood money came in. So I went to my boss, I'd been with the company for like nine and a half years, I went to my boss and I put my notice in on a Wednesday. And the next Monday, they brought everybody in to the auditorium for a meeting, you know, 800 people there, and they're like, "Hey, listen, um, like sales are down or the economy..." You know, this is 2009, so you know, "The economy's not doing well," or whatever, "so we're offering voluntary separation. If you quit your job right now, we will give you a month's pay for every year you've worked here, we will give you insurance for a year, we will do this, this and this." Well, I'd quit my job four days before (laughs) and-

   6. JRJoe Rogan17:11

      (laughs)

   7. MGMark Greaney17:11

      ... so you think like, oh my gosh, there's this black cloud over me, and I was scared about quitting my job obviously, and, uh, and I remember my boss came into my cubicle right afterward, she's like, "I'm gonna talk to HR and see if they will allow you to come in." I'm like, "Why the hell would they do that?" I'm like, "I'm the best thing that's happened to HR in a while (laughs) you know?" This, this dummy quits three days before they offer you a ton of money to quit, so.

   8. JRJoe Rogan17:32

      (laughs)

   9. MGMark Greaney17:32

      So for, for about six months, I just felt like I had this cloud over my head and I'd done the stupidest thing in the world. And then the, the film, film rights got optioned for Gray Man and it still wasn't quit-your-job money, but it was like I can eat (laughs) for a year money. And, you know, within a couple of years, I was working with Tom Clancy and things started to really go in the right direction.

   10. JRJoe Rogan17:50

       Wow. That's an amazing story, man. I love it.

   11. MGMark Greaney17:53

       It could've gone either way. (laughs)

   12. JRJoe Rogan17:55

       But isn't that, like, always how it works with some of the best stories?

   13. MGMark Greaney17:58

       Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

   14. JRJoe Rogan17:58

       That it could've gone either way?

   15. MGMark Greaney17:59

       Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's, there's a sad version of that story, too, and I'm lucky-

   16. JRJoe Rogan18:03

       Yeah.

   17. MGMark Greaney18:03

       ... that I, I didn't have to experience it.

   18. JRJoe Rogan18:04

       That's my problem when people start talking about, like, manifesting your reality-

   19. MGMark Greaney18:08

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan18:08

       ... and The Secret and stuff like that.

   21. MGMark Greaney18:10

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan18:10

       Like, yeah...... you know, talk to people that win-

   23. MGMark Greaney18:13

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan18:13

       ... and they'll tell you that story, that I knew it was gonna happen-

   25. MGMark Greaney18:16

       Right.

   26. JRJoe Rogan18:16

       ... and I made it happen. I had a vision board. Talk to people that tried and failed and are homeless-

   27. MGMark Greaney18:21

       Yeah. Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan18:21

       ... and they have a different version of this-

   29. MGMark Greaney18:23

       Absolutely.

   30. JRJoe Rogan18:23

       ... manifesting reality story.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   My friend, Ari, has…

   1. MGMark Greaney30:00

      you come up for some reason there's tension between these two people and then that informs another part of the story and then sooner or later you've got a book. Every, every book... I'm not a super confident writer, so every book it's, you know, spring/early summer is the biggest piece of crap in the world and then sometimes- somehow by August I get it turned in and edited by October and I'm happy with it and proud of it, but-

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:20

      My friend, Ari, has a little piece of paper on his laptop-It's a quote by Ernest Hemingway, it says, "Every first draft is shit."

   3. MGMark Greaney30:28

      (laughs) Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I- I- I have said... That's good. I've said it... If I died when one of my books is, like, 98% done, it- it's unusable. Like them-

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:38

      (laughs)

   5. MGMark Greaney30:38

      They wouldn't be able to fix it. I don't know if that's true or not but, like, you know, as a writer, you know where all the bodies are buried in a 160,000 word book.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:44

      Yeah.

   7. MGMark Greaney30:44

      And it's like, "Oh, that doesn't make sense, and this connection here isn't there," and so, like, it kind of, like, weighs on you until you get everything cleaned up to the best, best you can.

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:53

      Yeah, Stephen King said that he doesn't really have an outline.

   9. MGMark Greaney30:56

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:56

       He just-

   11. MGMark Greaney30:56

       I believe it.

   12. JRJoe Rogan30:57

       ... he sits down and starts writing.

   13. MGMark Greaney30:58

       Yeah. He- he's amazing. He is, uh, just another species. (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan31:03

       Yeah.

   15. MGMark Greaney31:03

       I'm- I'm so impressed with that guy.

   16. JRJoe Rogan31:04

       Well, certainly in the early days of his career, right?

   17. MGMark Greaney31:07

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan31:07

       The early days of his career, it's- to me, it's the most interesting. And this is not to disparage people that are clean and sober. It's not to disparage-

   19. MGMark Greaney31:15

       (laughs)

   20. JRJoe Rogan31:15

       ... the idea of getting clean and sober. You definitely should do that. Your health is more important than anything.

   21. MGMark Greaney31:20

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan31:20

       But-

   23. MGMark Greaney31:21

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan31:21

       ... when that guy was fucked up, he was writing some amazing shit.

   25. MGMark Greaney31:24

       Yeah, yeah. And he- he- he didn't create a genre, but he created a genre, basically.

   26. JRJoe Rogan31:29

       He kind of did.

   27. MGMark Greaney31:29

       Yeah, you know? It's like, um-

   28. JRJoe Rogan31:30

       He kind of did.

   29. MGMark Greaney31:31

       And he did... The output was so much. But even in-

   30. JRJoe Rogan31:34

       Oh, my God.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   It's still a shark.…

   1. MGMark Greaney45:00

      know-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      It's still a shark.

   3. MGMark Greaney45:01

      A big, massive thing. Yeah, yeah.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:02

      Yeah, could be a three-foot-long shark and it's like, "Jesus."

   5. MGMark Greaney45:04

      (laughs) Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:04

      Mark's so brave.

   7. MGMark Greaney45:06

      (laughs) Exactly.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:06

      Yeah, it's, um... So do you do anything else that's, like, kind of psycho like that?

   9. MGMark Greaney45:13

      No, I, you know, I've trained with firearms a lot, um-

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:18

       Have you always done that?

   11. MGMark Greaney45:19

       No. That was really to get i- involved with, uh, the writing.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:24

       The books?

   13. MGMark Greaney45:24

       Yeah, to learn about the writing and I started, um, training probably 2005, 4 or 5, something like that, and-

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:30

       Where do you train? Do you train at, like, a tactical place?

   15. MGMark Greaney45:32

       Yeah. It, it's been at different places, but the, I've done most of my training at a place in Middle Tennessee called Tactical Response and, you know, back at that point, they were training a lot of civilian contractors and so I took a... You know, you take pistol, an advanced pistol, and a rifle, an advanced rifle, and, um, this and that and then there's these things called, like, you know, HRCC, High-Risk Civilian Contractor classes. And I took a bunch of those and they're, they're like a week long and you stay in the bunk house or the team rooms with the guys. And I, and I learned really quick that, like, it's cool to learn about the guns and the gear and stuff for your books, but it's so much more impactful to sit there in the team room and drink Scotch with, you know, SWAT guys or fifth, special forces group dude, or, or whatever. You know? It's just like these been there, done that guys, contractors, Blackwater guys, um, back then. And, uh, and so, you know, I don't... I feel like I kind of became a mascot at that school.

   16. JRJoe Rogan46:26

       Mm.

   17. MGMark Greaney46:26

       I probably took fif- 50 classes (laughs) . I probably spent close to, you know, a couple hundred days there in Tennessee. And I've, I've done some other training. Um, I own a bunch of the firearms that are in the, in the books and, uh, and like to train when I can. Um, it's less and less as you get older and, and, uh, busier and more family and all that kind of stuff.

   18. JRJoe Rogan46:48

       Yeah.

   19. MGMark Greaney46:48

       But, but I, I really do want to get back into it even more.

   20. JRJoe Rogan46:51

       So when you were talking to these, uh, special forces guys, did you let them know that you're writing, that you write The Gray Man?

   21. MGMark Greaney47:00

       Yeah, yeah. And, um, y- early on. I mean, I, I actually heard the term "The Gray Man" at one of these classes from, from a guy, I think he was a contractor, which is just... They would say, you know, "Be The Gray Man," which is, like, not wear the tactical gear and the 511 pants and the-

   22. JRJoe Rogan47:16

       Mm-hmm.

   23. MGMark Greaney47:16

       ... Wirelex glasses and the-

   24. JRJoe Rogan47:18

       Yeah.

   25. MGMark Greaney47:18

       ... the Luminox watches or, or whatever.

   26. JRJoe Rogan47:20

       Ah.

   27. MGMark Greaney47:20

       Because they're traveling into the Middle East and, you know, the airport in Dubai or something like that, they, Al-Qaeda would have, like, watchers there, you know, seeing who was coming in and, and things like that, so...

   28. JRJoe Rogan47:32

       And if you're there with Salomon boots on, looking tactical.

   29. MGMark Greaney47:34

       Yeah, exactly. You got your Salomons on-

   30. JRJoe Rogan47:36

       Black Rifle Coffee T-shirt.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:05:20

   Beyond the Valley of…

   1. NANarrator1:00:00

      mean, this says there's a... It gave me four, four answers.

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:03

      Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

   3. NANarrator1:00:04

      Up.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:05

      Who Killed Bambi?

   5. NANarrator1:00:07

      Softcore sex comedy.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:09

      Maybe that's it. There's one of them that's kind of perverted.

   7. NANarrator1:00:13

      Well, that... I mean, that would be that movie.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:14

      That's probably it.

   9. NANarrator1:00:16

      (laughs)

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:16

       Yeah. A man named, uh, Adolf Schwartz, Adolf Hitler in hiding. This is it.

   11. MGMark Greaney1:00:22

       Oh, my god.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:23

       Was living in a Bavarian-style castle in Northern California. After an orgy in the dungeon with three women-... and a man. He is murdered when someone places a ravenous piranha fish in his bathtub. This is a fucking dumb dis-

   13. MGMark Greaney1:00:39

       (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:00:39

       A voluptuous woman named Margo Winchester appears later in the town, uh, in the nearby town, Miranda, and is spotted by local sheriff, Homer Johnson. He tries to make advances, but Margo rejects flirtatiously at this point. After that, she is picked up by Leonard Box, a known troublemaker and son of a sawmill operator. An argument breaks out, the result that Leonard subdues and rapes the unconscious Margo after she accidentally kills him. What?

   15. MGMark Greaney1:01:07

       Ugh. Sounds ... Oh, okay. Based on an original idea by-

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:01:13

       Yeah, he's out of his fucking mind.

   17. MGMark Greaney1:01:15

       (laughs)

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:01:15

       He was out of his fucking ... It was ... Apparently, it's so bad, like the people-

   19. MGMark Greaney1:01:18

       It's beyond parody.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01:19

       ... people that have read it and like, "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

   21. MGMark Greaney1:01:22

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:01:22

       But it makes you understand like, oh-

   23. MGMark Greaney1:01:24

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:01:25

       ... okay.

   25. MGMark Greaney1:01:25

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:01:26

       This is why you're so snarky when you're reviewing films.

   27. MGMark Greaney1:01:28

       Yeah, the chip on your shoulder. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:01:30

       Yeah, yeah.

   29. MGMark Greaney1:01:30

       It was ... It's a strange thing to be a critic of stuff- Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:01:34

       ... you know, because it's like, it is a kind of unfocused energy, like that-

Episode duration: 2:47:46