Joe Rogan Experience #1982 - John Hennessey

1. 0:00 – 1:07

   Riding in the 1,817-hp Venom F5: Why build something this insane?

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      (drumbeats) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (instrumental music plays) What up? Mr. Hennessey.

   2. JHJohn Hennessey0:14

      Mr. Rogan.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      Fun hanging with you today. (laughs)

   4. JHJohn Hennessey0:16

      (laughs) It's been a blast. We, uh-

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:18

      That, that fucking vehicle that you have built is the most ridiculous thing I've ever been inside in my life. I can't believe how fast it is. Like, it doesn't-

   6. JHJohn Hennessey0:26

      Well, we only did the speed limit today, right? So-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:28

      Yes.

   8. JHJohn Hennessey0:28

      Um-

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:28

      We did... But we got there very quickly.

   10. JHJohn Hennessey0:29

       The... We got there very quickly. Yes.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:31

       Yeah.

   12. JHJohn Hennessey0:31

       1817 horsepower and, uh, 3000 pounds, so you got some power to weight ratio to work with there.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       That's like 700 more horsepower than a Tesla Plaid.

   14. JHJohn Hennessey0:41

       Yeah, it's like taking a McLaren 765 LT and adding a thousand horsepower to it.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       (Puffs)

   16. JHJohn Hennessey0:46

       Something nobody needs, but we've sold 36 of those.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       (laughs)

   18. JHJohn Hennessey0:50

       The Venom F5.

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:50

       What is ha-... What happened to you in your life that you needed to make these preposterous cars?

   20. JHJohn Hennessey0:56

       Well, you know, uh-

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:57

       Like what, what is going on? Like what... (laughs)

   22. JHJohn Hennessey0:59

       Yeah, there it is.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:00

       Like-

   24. JHJohn Hennessey1:00

       That's the Venom F5.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       How did you get to be this guy? Like what did, uh... How did this start out where you, you're making these-

   26. JHJohn Hennessey1:06

       You know-

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:06

       ... 1800 horsepower cars?

2. 1:07 – 3:05

   Chip on the shoulder: childhood, motivation, and proving yourself

   1. JHJohn Hennessey1:07

      It's probably kinda like, you know, the pool hall deal when we were younger. Like, I didn't have a good relationship with my old man. He was a car guy, but we didn't get along. And, I don't know, maybe six years later, you know, I'm 60 now, I've got s- you know, I still feel like I got a little chip on my shoulder and something to prove. Maybe a little bit-

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:24

      Oh.

   3. JHJohn Hennessey1:24

      ... less now, but, but for sure.

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:27

      Isn't it interesting that you would never want that to your-... for your son?

   5. JHJohn Hennessey1:30

      No.

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:30

      But, boy, is that a, a great motivating factor-

   7. JHJohn Hennessey1:32

      Oh, for sure.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:33

      ... for success. (laughs)

   9. JHJohn Hennessey1:34

      For sure, yeah. I'd live up... You know, grew up in a kind of an abusive situation and neglect and, uh, you know, now all of a sudden I've got all this motivation or had all this motivation for the last, you know, 40 years of my business career. So it's been good.

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:46

       It's funny, 'cause you would never want that for your children.

   11. JHJohn Hennessey1:49

       No, I mean the-

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:50

       But it may... It's amazing how well it's worked out for people like you or for me.

   13. JHJohn Hennessey1:53

       Yeah, I mean, I, I... you know, I don't think everybody out there that has some level of success has not necessarily been abused and motivated by, by negativity. But I can definitely see with our five kids, with the nurture mainly from my wife, Hope, um, they're gonna turn out just fine and they'll be plenty successful. But, you know, that just... I don't know your story-

   14. JRJoe Rogan2:13

       Yeah, it's a myth. They-

   15. JHJohn Hennessey2:13

       But that's, that's my, that's my road-

   16. JRJoe Rogan2:14

       I think-

   17. JHJohn Hennessey2:15

       How I got here.

   18. JRJoe Rogan2:15

       ... it can lead you to be very ambitious and very successful, but it, it can also just fuck your life up.

   19. JHJohn Hennessey2:21

       Oh, sure.

   20. JRJoe Rogan2:22

       And you can be very ambitious and very successful and also be, like, happy. Like that's-

   21. JHJohn Hennessey2:26

       Absolutely.

   22. JRJoe Rogan2:27

       That's possible too.

   23. JHJohn Hennessey2:28

       Yeah. Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan2:28

       You don't have to have a tortured childhood.

   25. JHJohn Hennessey2:30

       For sure. No, I'm very, very blessed. I mean, you know, to have an opportunity to build toys for people. You know?

   26. JRJoe Rogan2:35

       Yeah.

   27. JHJohn Hennessey2:36

       Whether it's a, you know, a seven to 800,000 horsepower pickup truck or a Venom F5, uh, you know, we were talking earlier is about... is first world problems, right?

   28. JRJoe Rogan2:44

       Yeah.

   29. JHJohn Hennessey2:44

       You know, stuff that nobody really needs. Nobody needs to go to a comedy show or MMA, but they do it for entertainment. I tell people all the time we're more... Are there stars up there?

   30. JRJoe Rogan2:52

       Yeah, they fly.
3. 3:05 – 5:42

   Muscle cars, restomods, and why the experience matters more than practicality

   1. JRJoe Rogan3:05

      That's a great way of looking at it too, because that's really what those kind of cars are. Like, when I try to describe, uh, my love of old muscle cars for people, because, you know, they kinda are not super reliable.

   2. JHJohn Hennessey3:16

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan3:16

      They're, they're not so great at handling.

   4. JHJohn Hennessey3:18

      Sure.

   5. JRJoe Rogan3:18

      And, you know, so I turn them in, I get them done into Restomods.

   6. JHJohn Hennessey3:21

      Yep.

   7. JRJoe Rogan3:22

      But still, they're, the... But when I drive them, the experience is entertaining. It's like a ride. Like, I'm not just in a Corolla, I'm not just in some quiet Subaru.

   8. JHJohn Hennessey3:33

      Sure.

   9. JRJoe Rogan3:33

      I'm in a ride.

   10. JHJohn Hennessey3:34

       But does it take... Like when you drive your Land Cruiser, you drive, you know, one of your older cars, does it take you back to that time either when you had that car, you aspired to have that car, you knew the guy or the girl that had that car kinda growing up and you wanted it back then, but you didn't know how you were gonna get it?

   11. JRJoe Rogan3:49

       Oh yeah, for sure. Withmy Chevelle definitely.

   12. JHJohn Hennessey3:51

       Mm-hmm.

   13. JRJoe Rogan3:51

       'Cause my Chevelle, I have a 1970, uh, black with the white stripes-

   14. JHJohn Hennessey3:56

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan3:56

       ... the Tuxedo Chevelle.

   16. JHJohn Hennessey3:57

       Sure.

   17. JRJoe Rogan3:57

       And when I was a kid-

   18. JHJohn Hennessey3:58

       Cowl induction?

   19. JRJoe Rogan3:59

       What's that?

   20. JHJohn Hennessey3:59

       You got the cowl induction-

   21. JRJoe Rogan4:00

       Yeah.

   22. JHJohn Hennessey4:00

       ... hood? Yeah, LS6.

   23. JRJoe Rogan4:01

       It... Well, it actually is, uh, a 454 under the hood.

   24. JHJohn Hennessey4:04

       Yep.

   25. JRJoe Rogan4:04

       And, uh, Calvin, Kasey Calvin-

   26. JHJohn Hennessey4:06

       Sure.

   27. JRJoe Rogan4:06

       ... is Calvin Ulm. You know-

   28. JHJohn Hennessey4:07

       Yeah, yeah. Know Kasey. Sure.

   29. JRJoe Rogan4:08

       You know Kasey? He's the man.

   30. JHJohn Hennessey4:08

       Big Viper guy, yeah.
4. 5:42 – 8:28

   Horsepower philosophy, motorcycles, and the reality of distracted drivers

   1. JHJohn Hennessey5:42

      It entertains me, you know? So, uh, maybe to some degree. We, I mean, we do wanna have a balanced, safe car, but, uh, you know the old saying of Bob Lutz who used to be president of, of Chrysler back in the day when I first met him, he had, um...... he was working for BMW in Germany. He had a pretty fast motorcycle, and he's out tooling around Germany. And some dude just rips past him on the Autobahn, and he pulls into the gas station. It's this old guy, and Bob goes up looking at his bike and is like, "Is that a turbocharger on your bike?" This dude, this is like the early '70s. And the German guy says, "Yeah. Yes, young man, this, it has a turbocharger." And Bob says, "Well, how much horsepower does that bike have?" He says, "Well, probably 200 of the tire." And Bob's like-

   2. JRJoe Rogan6:21

      (exhales)

   3. JHJohn Hennessey6:21

      ... "What? Two hundred of the tire?" He's like, "Isn't that too much horse..." Bob is saying to this old German guy, "Isn't that too much horsepower?" And the old guy looks at him and says, "Young man, there's no such thing as too much horsepower."

   4. JRJoe Rogan6:31

      (exhales)

   5. JHJohn Hennessey6:32

      Bob told me that story like 30 years ago. I was visiting him up in Detroit. And I think to some degree that's true. But-

   6. JRJoe Rogan6:37

      It's a good story.

   7. JHJohn Hennessey6:37

      ... you wanna have it balanced, you wanna have it safe, you know?

   8. JRJoe Rogan6:39

      As long as you're not there for the end.

   9. JHJohn Hennessey6:41

      As long as you're not in the ditch.

   10. JRJoe Rogan6:43

       As long as you're not there for the accident.

   11. JHJohn Hennessey6:45

       Right.

   12. JRJoe Rogan6:45

       The, the thing about motorcycles is the consequences are so grave.

   13. JHJohn Hennessey6:49

       Well, sure, yeah. I've, I've had a few. I've, I busted up my knee and spent a week in the hospital when I was in high school. And I guess now the term they use, and it's to some degree true, donorcycle, so.

   14. JRJoe Rogan6:59

       Yeah.

   15. JHJohn Hennessey7:00

       Yeah. My b- my boys all like to ride, we ride KTM, we ride dirt bikes up in Colorado in the summertime. But I'm like, on the road, you gotta be careful because even back in the day if you're riding, you know, there are distracted drivers now, everybody's on their fucking phone. Nobody's paying attention to shit.

   16. JRJoe Rogan7:12

       (exhales) So bad.

   17. JHJohn Hennessey7:13

       You know? So-

   18. JRJoe Rogan7:14

       There's so many people that are just addicted to their phones and they can't put them down while they're driving. It's so wild to see.

   19. JHJohn Hennessey7:19

       Yeah, I mean, every now and then I, I take a car service to the airport or something, and if you're not driving, you can just like look out the window just-

   20. JRJoe Rogan7:25

       Mm-hmm.

   21. JHJohn Hennessey7:26

       Next time you do that, just look out the window, more than half the people are fucking not even looking at the road. (laughs) They're on their phone.

   22. JRJoe Rogan7:31

       Yeah.

   23. JHJohn Hennessey7:31

       And they're supposed to be driving, or they're putting on their makeup.

   24. JRJoe Rogan7:33

       One of the things I love about Apple CarPlay is you don't have to take your hands off of anything.

   25. JHJohn Hennessey7:37

       Absolutely.

   26. JRJoe Rogan7:38

       You can just say, "Hey, Siri, play."

   27. JHJohn Hennessey7:40

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan7:40

       It'll play a song for you.

   29. JHJohn Hennessey7:41

       Yep.

   30. JRJoe Rogan7:41

       That is the wi- like I do that shit with my daughter, because my daughter is into like Taylor Swift and-
5. 8:28 – 10:45

   Cars as freedom and status: John’s motorcycle-to-car origin story

   1. JRJoe Rogan8:28

      Yeah. I just, there's something about cars that I guess it was 'cause when I was a kid, it represented freedom, right? Because you were in high school, if you didn't had a, have a car, you had to ride the bus.

   2. JHJohn Hennessey8:39

      Freedom, status.

   3. JRJoe Rogan8:40

      Yeah. Status for sure.

   4. JHJohn Hennessey8:42

      Chicks.

   5. JRJoe Rogan8:42

      Chicks for sure.

   6. JHJohn Hennessey8:43

      Friends maybe, you know?

   7. JRJoe Rogan8:44

      It was really more impressive for guys than it was for girls.

   8. JHJohn Hennessey8:46

      Sure.

   9. JRJoe Rogan8:46

      The kinds of cars I like, girls are like, "This fucking thing stinks."

   10. JHJohn Hennessey8:49

       Sure, yeah, yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan8:49

       Smells like gas.

   12. JHJohn Hennessey8:50

       I went to this, I went to this Jesuit high school up in Kansas City called Rockhurst, and I was a tota- I was a little guy and total nobody. I was on the wrestling team and I think I was in a 98 pound, pound weight class when I was a freshman. Anyways, a total nobody, and then, uh, I, I bought a motorcycle from my dad when I was like a sophomore. And I remember the first time I rolled into school, I was late, and there's like this quadrangle where I could like pull right up to the door, and there's all these windows that are open, and all these guys like rushed to the window to hear what this loud (laughs) motorcycle was. And all of a sudden, I had status. All of a sudden, I was not a nobody.

   13. JRJoe Rogan9:19

       Oh.

   14. JHJohn Hennessey9:19

       I was like, "Who-

   15. JRJoe Rogan9:20

       Right.

   16. JHJohn Hennessey9:20

       ... who's the wild man in the moto- little kid in the motorcycle?"

   17. JRJoe Rogan9:22

       That is the thing, right?

   18. JHJohn Hennessey9:23

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan9:23

       If you're a kid showing up at school with a motorcycle, you're a wild man.

   20. JHJohn Hennessey9:27

       Sure, yeah. Yeah. So-

   21. JRJoe Rogan9:28

       Yeah.

   22. JHJohn Hennessey9:28

       ... sa- and then I kinda had my car crash, and the guy that lived across the street from me had this old 442 convertible. It's kind of a crazy story, like my old man was an insurance adjuster, and he, he was gonna buy this car from this body shop for like a couple hundred bucks, and he told me it was gonna be my first car, blah, blah, blah. And like a month goes by, I'm like, "Hey, Dad, when, when, when we getting that car?" And he just kind of ignored me and just kind of blew me off. And the next thing I knew, the neighbor across the street had that car.

   23. JRJoe Rogan9:52

       Wow.

   24. JHJohn Hennessey9:53

       So the torture of I didn't get the car and now I gotta, now I gotta drive, uh, go home every day (laughs) on my motorcycle and look at the neighbor across the street who had the car.

   25. JRJoe Rogan10:00

       Oh.

   26. JHJohn Hennessey10:00

       So when I had my motorcycle wreck, I had two bikes, I was 16 and, um, trying to fix my bike and the guy across the street worked at this Ford factory up in Kansas City, and he offered to help me with the bikes, and I ended up making a deal with him and I sold him... I traded him the two bikes and I paid him like 50 bucks a month for a year, something like that, and I bought, I bought, I bought the car back with my own money.

   27. JRJoe Rogan10:19

       That's awesome.

   28. JHJohn Hennessey10:19

       So I'm like, "F you, old man."

   29. JRJoe Rogan10:20

       That's awesome.

   30. JHJohn Hennessey10:21

       Anyway, it was fun.
6. 10:45 – 15:30

   From rally dreams to Pikes Peak: the path to founding Hennessey Motorsports

   1. JHJohn Hennessey10:45

      So I'm 62, yeah, so, so I just grew up around muscle cars and then, um, fast forward, you know, went to college for a few years, dropped out, moved from Kansas City to Texas and, um, back then like the, in the '80s, the, the German cars, they, or they had these rally cars over in Europe and they called, it was the Group B rally cars and they called them the killer bees because they got so fast back like in the mid to late '80s that, that the crowds would like bunch up in the road waiting for these, you know, rally cars blasting by at 120 or whatever. And they knew where the rally cars were because the helicopters were chasing them, you know, kind of spotting for them or the TV camera, and then one time, the cars got so fast that they would like hit the, they w- they got ahead of the helicopters and these Group B rally cars like landed on people and killed a bunch of people.

   2. JRJoe Rogan11:31

      Oh, my God.

   3. JHJohn Hennessey11:31

      So they called them the killer, killer bees. So I was really kind of enamored with like the Audi Quattro, they went to Pikes Peak and they raced at Pikes Peak, and that's really kinda what got m- um, so I kind of, you know, shifted gears from, uh, American muscle to now kind of this higher tech German all-wheel drive turbocharged stuff.

   4. JRJoe Rogan11:49

      Mm.

   5. JHJohn Hennessey11:49

      And then kind of I started a small, um, uh, environmental cleanup, like an asbestos abatement business back in the late '80s, and, um, made a little bit of money, uh, wasn't dating my wife, wasn't married yet, and so I'd, I'd read in Motor Trend magazine about this guy named C. Van Tuine. He was actually the editor at Motor Trend back in the mid to late '90s.And he had bought an Eagle Talon, this is like 1990, put a roll cage in it, and he went, goes and enters the Pikes Peak Hill Climb in Colorado Springs. And I read that, and I'm like, "Oh man, my name's not Andretti or Unser, I can't just show up to Indy, but maybe I could do that." And so, made a little bit of money on my asbestos business. I, um, was reading the car magazines, and I'm like, I'm the kinda guy, whether it's then or now, I don't really wanna do what everybody else has done. I'm a contrarian by nature and, you know, if everybody else is racing Porsches or whatever... So, I'm trying to find something that I can afford but that's high tech that I can modify to race at Pikes Peak. And I read about a car that came out that year. Uh, it was the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4. So, it was all-wheel drive, twin-turbo V6.

   6. JRJoe Rogan12:51

      Let me see what that looks like.

   7. JHJohn Hennessey12:51

      Four-wheel seal- four-wheel steer. Yeah. And, um, and-

   8. JRJoe Rogan12:56

      I had a Mitsubishi Starion.

   9. JHJohn Hennessey12:58

      Yeah, those were cool.

   10. JRJoe Rogan12:59

       Remember those?

   11. JHJohn Hennessey12:59

       Those are coming back. That's kind of Rad- Rad Wood-ish.

   12. JRJoe Rogan13:01

       Yeah. What car was it? Was it Mitsubishi 3000...

   13. JHJohn Hennessey13:03

       3000... Yeah, just type in Hennessy 3000GT and you'll probably see something pop up, VR4.

   14. JRJoe Rogan13:07

       Oh, you know what? Now that I'm thinking about it, I had the Dodge version of it.

   15. JHJohn Hennessey13:10

       Yeah, yeah the Stealth.

   16. JRJoe Rogan13:11

       I had the Conquest.

   17. JHJohn Hennessey13:11

       Oh, the Conquest, yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan13:13

       Yeah.

   19. JHJohn Hennessey13:13

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan13:14

       Oh, so you had one of those.

   21. JHJohn Hennessey13:15

       Yeah, yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan13:15

       Those things were sick.

   23. JHJohn Hennessey13:16

       Yeah, those were cool.

   24. JRJoe Rogan13:17

       I loved those things when I first saw those.

   25. JHJohn Hennessey13:18

       So, I took it and raced it at- raced it at Pikes Peak, and, uh, didn't win anything, but, uh-

   26. JRJoe Rogan13:24

       Those things were the shit when they came out.

   27. JHJohn Hennessey13:26

       Drove- drove it to Pikes Peak, drove it home. I did a couple races. If you type- type in, uh, yeah...

   28. JRJoe Rogan13:31

       You know what's crazy? Does Mitsubishi-

   29. JHJohn Hennessey13:33

       Oh, there you go, that Motor Trend article. There's Bonneville. You can do Bonneville.

   30. JRJoe Rogan13:35

       Mitsubishi doesn't make anything like that now, right? They don't make-
7. 15:30 – 19:14

   Tuning anything that rolled in: Supras, GN’s, and the Viper breakthrough

   1. JRJoe Rogan15:30

      What- what kind of cars are you modifying back then? Like so you were-

   2. JHJohn Hennessey15:33

      Yeah, any... Dude, anything that would roll in the door. And- and I kind of had a little bit of notoriety from the Silver State Race. So, you know, it was JDM, so it was Supras, 300ZX Twin Turbo.

   3. JRJoe Rogan15:43

      Ah.

   4. JHJohn Hennessey15:43

      Um, you know, so Grand National-

   5. JRJoe Rogan15:46

      Supra?

   6. JHJohn Hennessey15:46

      Yeah, Supra. So- so the Mark IV Supra.

   7. JRJoe Rogan15:48

      Yeah.

   8. JHJohn Hennessey15:48

      Um, you know, the Cyclone, the, uh, the Typhoon, you know that had like-

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:53

      Oh, the GMC pickup truck? That's crazy pickup truck.

   10. JHJohn Hennessey15:54

       Yeah, that had like the 3.8 liter single-

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:57

       Yeah.

   12. JHJohn Hennessey15:57

       ...single turbo V6. And so then a guy calls me up, uh, in early '93 and he said, "Hey, I've got one of the first Dodge Vipers coming." It was actually a model year '92 but with... They had some production delays so the car didn't come out till the spring of '93 and he says, "Hey, I wanna... I'm gonna... I bought a Viper and I want to take it to the Silver State Race, and I wonder if... Can you help me put like the safety equipment and help it pass tech?" And I said, "Sure." I said, "But I'll make you a deal. If you let me modify it, I think I can get another 100 horsepower in that Viper, and I'll do it for free."

   13. JRJoe Rogan16:28

       (laughs)

   14. JHJohn Hennessey16:28

       I said, "I won't even charge you to do it." I said, "The only thing I'll ask in return, I'll take you out to the race, we'll- I'll support you, we'll... I'll bring my mechanic, we'll look after your car. After the race, if you'll..." Again, my buddy, Joe Jacuzzi, was with Mitsubishi at the time, um, said, "Hey, I'll take you around LA and I'll introduce you to the editor at MotorTrend and Hot Rod and Car Craft and Road and Track," and sure enough, we did all that and we... I initially did it with my 3000GT, got some articles off of it, and I'm like... When I was doing that back in the early 90s, this is before social media, this is before YouTube, no internet, and so that... The only way we knew about car stuff is we read car magazines, right?

   15. JRJoe Rogan17:04

       Right.

   16. JHJohn Hennessey17:04

       And so I'm doing all this for a couple weeks with Joe and going around, I'm thinking, "Man, I've been gone a long time." I did this race, I go to talk to all these media guys, and Joe's like, "Just be patient. When the magazine comes out, if they're- if they like you and they like your car and they write something nice about it, your phone will ring." And sure enough, phone started ringing. So I did all that with the Viper, and then-

   17. JRJoe Rogan17:22

       How'd you get 100 more horsepower out of it?

   18. JHJohn Hennessey17:24

       You know, the Viper is a big, um, you know, eight liter V10. And so back in those days, the- the exhaust system sounded like a UPS truck. They still kind of sound weird. It's two five cylinders basically is what it sounds like. So we freed up the exhaust, we did a cold air intake, we ported and polished the head. So we got... We bumped it to at least 500 horsepower. Then we started doing cams and stroker motors and eventually turbos, and basically from '93 through for the next 10 years into the early 2000s, I would say we were on the covers of 30, 40 magazines, including all the major buff books.

   19. JRJoe Rogan18:00

       Isn't it crazy when you think about the progression of cars and- and power, that if you go back to the original Viper, it wasn't really that fast?

   20. JHJohn Hennessey18:07

       ... now, compared to today, now-

   21. JRJoe Rogan18:09

       What did it have horsepower-wise? The original out there?

   22. JHJohn Hennessey18:10

       It was, uh, well, the original was 400-

   23. JRJoe Rogan18:11

       400, yeah.

   24. JHJohn Hennessey18:11

       ... and then they went to 450.

   25. JRJoe Rogan18:13

       So, 400 is like... I mean, you get a regular Mustang GT, you're getting 460.

   26. JHJohn Hennessey18:18

       Yeah, yeah, and the new-

   27. JRJoe Rogan18:19

       Like, right off the factory floor.

   28. JHJohn Hennessey18:19

       The new Dark Horse'll be 500 and I mean-

   29. JRJoe Rogan18:21

       Right.

   30. JHJohn Hennessey18:21

       ... you, you could take a, you know, Tesla, you know, Model 3 and beat a, beat an old Viper, I mean-
8. 19:14 – 22:41

   Modern absurdity: 1,000-hp trucks, visibility, and why Germany trains drivers better

   1. JRJoe Rogan19:14

      So, when did you start getting to the shit you're doing now? Like, you know, you made me a 1,000 horsepower-

   2. JHJohn Hennessey19:20

      Yeah, yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan19:20

      ... TRX.

   4. JHJohn Hennessey19:20

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan19:20

      That car is so stupid. (laughs)

   6. JHJohn Hennessey19:22

      It is. It is so stupid.

   7. JRJoe Rogan19:24

      But it's so... The problem with it-

   8. JHJohn Hennessey19:25

      And the brakes are good? 'Cause I, I was worried-

   9. JRJoe Rogan19:27

      The brakes are, yeah.

   10. JHJohn Hennessey19:27

       ... that you would end up into the back of an 18-wheeler.

   11. JRJoe Rogan19:29

       The upgrade? No. I drive it very responsibly-

   12. JHJohn Hennessey19:30

       Okay, okay, okay.

   13. JRJoe Rogan19:30

       ... believe it or not. I don't, I just love the fact that it has so much power. You don't need the-

   14. JHJohn Hennessey19:35

       And it sounds great.

   15. JRJoe Rogan19:35

       Oh, it sounds amazing.

   16. JHJohn Hennessey19:36

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan19:36

       It's very comfortable.

   18. JHJohn Hennessey19:37

       Yeah.

   19. JRJoe Rogan19:37

       And it also, because it's high up, you get a-

   20. JHJohn Hennessey19:39

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan19:39

       ... great vantage point. You get to see accidents-

   22. JHJohn Hennessey19:40

       Great vantage point.

   23. JRJoe Rogan19:41

       ... before they happen.

   24. JHJohn Hennessey19:42

       If you're stuck on the highway and there's some wreck-

   25. JRJoe Rogan19:44

       Yeah.

   26. JHJohn Hennessey19:44

       ... you can just go through the grass and go onto-

   27. JRJoe Rogan19:45

       Yes.

   28. JHJohn Hennessey19:45

       ... the feeder road.

   29. JRJoe Rogan19:46

       Yeah, you really could do that, actually.

   30. JHJohn Hennessey19:47

       I mean, trucks are... And the other thing is like, like when I'm driving, like, my older cars, like, I've got a Cadillac CTS-V Wagon Manual, and I'm pulling out of a store and some lady, at Christmas a couple years ago, runs into me 'cause she didn't see me. So, I do like, like driving something bigger like that because-
9. 22:41 – 32:01

   Paper routes, martial arts obsession, and choosing between fighting and comedy

   1. JHJohn Hennessey22:41

      We've got, we've got a lot of things in common.

   2. JRJoe Rogan22:43

      You delivered newspapers?

   3. JHJohn Hennessey22:43

      Oh, fuck yeah, I did.

   4. JRJoe Rogan22:44

      Did you? Did you? Which, which one?

   5. JHJohn Hennessey22:44

      I was 12, 12 years old, Kansas City Star.

   6. JRJoe Rogan22:47

      Nice.

   7. JHJohn Hennessey22:47

      And dude, I mean, I'm getting up at like, fuck, 3:45, 4:00 AM delivering papers-

   8. JRJoe Rogan22:52

      Mm-hmm.

   9. JHJohn Hennessey22:52

      ... for two, two and a half hours. And dude, like on a Sunday, which i-

   10. JRJoe Rogan22:55

       Did you do it on your bike?

   11. JHJohn Hennessey22:56

       No, I'm in the back of this paper truck. And this guy had the route, and then, you know, we would have to like roll the paper-

   12. JRJoe Rogan23:02

       Mm-hmm.

   13. JHJohn Hennessey23:02

       ... and put it in this machine and crank this thing, and he would tie a little knot with some string around it, and we'd fucking toss it out the window-

   14. JRJoe Rogan23:08

       Yup.

   15. JHJohn Hennessey23:08

       ... when we're going by. You know, like, dogs are barking at you and it's snowing and it's cold. And then I'd be the... I, you know, I would do some of that, but all of sudden there'd be like an apartment complex, "Well, here's your stack of papers," and I'm out tossing 'em at people's doorsteps and like, on like a juicy day, we might make like $3.25.

   16. JRJoe Rogan23:24

       (gasps)

   17. JHJohn Hennessey23:24

       And so what would we do? We'd go, we'd go to 7-Eleven and we'd blow half the cash on fricking, you know, nasty burritos and Big Gulps and crap like that.

   18. JRJoe Rogan23:33

       Right.

   19. JHJohn Hennessey23:33

       You know? But that was just kinda what we did. But that's... I mean, it's what we had to do to make... So, so you were, you were doing papers while you were doing standup?

   20. JRJoe Rogan23:38

       Yeah, I was doing newspapers, um, from the time, I guess I was... Probably like 17 or 18-

   21. JHJohn Hennessey23:46

       Okay.

   22. JRJoe Rogan23:46

       ... when I first started it.

   23. JHJohn Hennessey23:47

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan23:48

       Uh, maybe, maybe it was a little...... yeah, somewhere in that range. And, uh, I did for the Boston Herald-

   25. JHJohn Hennessey23:54

       Okay.

   26. JRJoe Rogan23:54

       ... I did it for the Boston Globe, and I did it for The New York Times.

   27. JHJohn Hennessey23:57

       Nice.

   28. JRJoe Rogan23:57

       And so I had, uh, at one point, I don't... Uh, I had a huge route, and I even got a van. I had, like, a cargo van.

   29. JHJohn Hennessey24:03

       So you were... You had your own deal. You weren't working for somebody else?

   30. JRJoe Rogan24:05

       No, I was working for, uh, a dispatch.
10. 32:01 – 49:57

    Standup grind to UFC chaos: early backstage interviews and the sport’s turning points

    1. JHJohn Hennessey32:01

       Now, how, where did, where did standup kick... Where did standup come on, come into that whole program? How old were you when you started with that?

    2. JRJoe Rogan32:06

       Well, I was thinking about it when I was, like, 19 or 20.

    3. JHJohn Hennessey32:09

       Okay.

    4. JRJoe Rogan32:10

       And, um, I-

    5. JHJohn Hennessey32:10

       You wrote your own stuff?

    6. JRJoe Rogan32:12

       Yeah.

    7. JHJohn Hennessey32:12

       Okay.

    8. JRJoe Rogan32:12

       Yeah. Just like... It was horrible. (laughs)

    9. JHJohn Hennessey32:14

       Right, yeah. (laughs)

    10. JRJoe Rogan32:15

        It was-

    11. JHJohn Hennessey32:15

        But you're, but you're the kinda guy that, like, you don't mi- you don't, you'll put your balls out there and you won't mind getting punished for something that you wanna try?

    12. JRJoe Rogan32:21

        It... Well, I wa- I was just curious. Like, I'd, I'd seen... This is what it was. I- I have a very good friend to this day, his name's Steve Graham.

    13. JHJohn Hennessey32:29

        Okay.

    14. JRJoe Rogan32:29

        He's a good buddy of mine. And Steve, when I was, uh, 15, when I met him, he was, uh, an ophthalmologist. And like, uh, he'd been on the US Ski team, like a fucking, um, uh, wild man.

    15. JHJohn Hennessey32:42

        Yeah.

    16. JRJoe Rogan32:42

        Just done a lot of stu-... Like, super, super-duper smart.

    17. JHJohn Hennessey32:45

        Right.

    18. JRJoe Rogan32:45

        And, you know, he was, like, in his 30s and I was, like, 15, and, uh, we- we'd used to train together all the time. And when we would go and fight in tournaments, I was the guy who made everybody laugh, 'cause everybody would be nervous. We would be all scared because we're gonna go fight.

    19. JHJohn Hennessey32:59

        Yeah.

    20. JRJoe Rogan32:59

        Or when we were about to spar.

    21. JHJohn Hennessey33:00

        Okay.

    22. JRJoe Rogan33:00

        Everyone would be super nervous.

    23. JHJohn Hennessey33:01

        All right.

    24. JRJoe Rogan33:02

        'Cause sparring's scary.

    25. JHJohn Hennessey33:03

        Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

    26. JRJoe Rogan33:03

        You know? And I was the guy who, like, cracked-

    27. JHJohn Hennessey33:05

        You could cut up and crack jokes.

    28. JRJoe Rogan33:07

        ... I'd cr- 'cause I realized if there was, like, tension in the room, and then I could get attention-

    29. JHJohn Hennessey33:10

        Okay.

    30. JRJoe Rogan33:10

        ... from cracking that tension.
11. 49:57 – 54:14

    Why Joe started podcasting: radio energy, internet studios, and long-form freedom

    1. JHJohn Hennessey49:57

       So from throwing newspapers, to stand-up, to pool, to New York then Hollywood, UFC interviews, when, what, what motivated you for podcasts? You were so far ahead of your time on that.

    2. JRJoe Rogan50:11

       Well, I wasn't really. There was other people that were doing it at the same time. The, they, like Adam Carolla already had a podcast.

    3. JHJohn Hennessey50:15

       Yeah.

    4. JRJoe Rogan50:16

       Marc Maron already had a podcast. There was quite a few people that were already doing it.

    5. JHJohn Hennessey50:19

       Well, but you're, maybe just your style just, just stuck and grew.

    6. JRJoe Rogan50:21

       Well, it's just, um, I think, uh, I, I got into it because of radio, really.

    7. JHJohn Hennessey50:26

       Okay.

    8. JRJoe Rogan50:26

       Just like d- doing like Opie and Anthony Show, mostly.

    9. JHJohn Hennessey50:29

       Okay.

    10. JRJoe Rogan50:29

        Like, when you, when you do-

    11. JHJohn Hennessey50:29

        Oh, so you, you did radio for a while, then?

    12. JRJoe Rogan50:30

        Oh, yeah. Everybody did.

    13. JHJohn Hennessey50:32

        Okay.

    14. JRJoe Rogan50:32

        And when you would do radio in the morning, like you, uh, the Opie and Anthony Show in particular, you'd go there and you would hang out with comics. So it was all just us shooting the shit and having a great time.

    15. JHJohn Hennessey50:41

        Yeah.

    16. JRJoe Rogan50:42

        And when I would leave there, I'd go, "God, that's so fun. I love doing that."

    17. JHJohn Hennessey50:45

        Uh-huh.

    18. JRJoe Rogan50:45

        "I wish I could do that all the time."

    19. JHJohn Hennessey50:46

        Okay. All right.

    20. JRJoe Rogan50:48

        And, uh, Anthony Cumia, who was, uh, Anthony from Opie and Anthony, he built, uh, a studio in his basement of his house in Long Island.

    21. JHJohn Hennessey50:55

        Mm-hmm.

    22. JRJoe Rogan50:56

        And, uh, he used to do a show called Live from the Compound.

    23. JHJohn Hennessey50:59

        Okay. (laughs)

    24. JRJoe Rogan50:59

        And he had like a green screen behind him and he played karaoke with a machine gun.

    25. JHJohn Hennessey51:03

        (laughs)

    26. JRJoe Rogan51:03

        Just, he's a f- he was always hammered. It was hilarious. But he would-

    27. JHJohn Hennessey51:06

        That's funny.

    28. JRJoe Rogan51:06

        ... just stream it on the internet. And I was like, "That looks like so much fun. Maybe I should start doing something like that."

    29. JHJohn Hennessey51:11

        Yeah.

    30. JRJoe Rogan51:11

        And so then I went to Tom Green's house, and Tom Green, uh, he had this crazy setup. Mi- mi- might have went to Tom Green's house before Anthony had his thing, in the same time period.
12. 54:14 – 1:02:28

    Back to cars: Raptor R vs TRX names, C8/Z06 performance, and the Venom F5 business

    1. JHJohn Hennessey54:14

       Have you ... By the way, uh, uh, have you experienced the Raptor R yet?

    2. JRJoe Rogan54:18

       I have not.

    3. JHJohn Hennessey54:18

       Okay.

    4. JRJoe Rogan54:18

       It looks amazing, though.

    5. JHJohn Hennessey54:19

       They're hard to get.

    6. JRJoe Rogan54:20

       I'm a Ford fan.

    7. JHJohn Hennessey54:20

       They're expensive. Uh, we, we're working on a 1,000-horsepower package for VelociRaptor 1000. So it would compete with the Mammoth.

    8. JRJoe Rogan54:27

       Oh.

    9. JHJohn Hennessey54:27

       But yeah.

    10. JRJoe Rogan54:28

        Well, maybe we'll have to m-

    11. JHJohn Hennessey54:29

        Yeah.

    12. JRJoe Rogan54:29

        I, I miss my-

    13. JHJohn Hennessey54:29

        I'll keep you posted on that.

    14. JRJoe Rogan54:30

        You know what I really miss about the Raptor?

    15. JHJohn Hennessey54:32

        Yeah.

    16. JRJoe Rogan54:32

        It, the visibility.

    17. JHJohn Hennessey54:33

        Yes.

    18. JRJoe Rogan54:34

        It's way ... You can see out of the s- side mirrors way better.

    19. JHJohn Hennessey54:36

        Yeah.

    20. JRJoe Rogan54:36

        The TRX is rough.

    21. JHJohn Hennessey54:38

        The TRX is rough. The Ford's got the aluminum body and chassis. I mean, I th- I, I think both trucks are a hoot. And we sell plenty-

    22. JRJoe Rogan54:45

        Oh, no. I love the TRX.

    23. JHJohn Hennessey54:45

        Yeah.

    24. JRJoe Rogan54:45

        It's just the visibility.

    25. JHJohn Hennessey54:46

        Yeah. Okay.

    26. JRJoe Rogan54:46

        That's the only issue I have with it.

    27. JHJohn Hennessey54:48

        Uh-huh.

    28. JRJoe Rogan54:48

        It's an amazing truck.

    29. JHJohn Hennessey54:49

        Yeah. Yeah.

    30. JRJoe Rogan54:50

        I fucking love it.

Episode duration: 1:48:14