JRE MMA Show #68 with Will Harris

Joe Rogan 0:01 And (claps) Will Harris, you're live.

Will Harris 0:05 Man, this is crazy.

Joe Rogan 0:06 (laughs) You're on the other side of the camera now.

Will Harris 0:08 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 0:08 Bef- let me give you an introduct- introduction.

Will Harris 0:10 Okay.

Joe Rogan 0:10 For people who don't know, Will is the man behind Anatomy of the Fighter. If you ever seen any of those videos, like, particularly the most famous one was when Conor McGregor threw that dolly at the bus with Khabib Nurmagomedov was on it, and it became a huge part of the promotion, which w- I thought was weird that it was this, uh, shameful act, right? That he did that.

Will Harris 0:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:30 I mean, really awful. C- cut a bunch of innocent people that were on the bus, but they used it over and over and over again. That was your footage.

Will Harris 0:38 Yes. A lot of-

Joe Rogan 0:39 A lot of people didn't even know, including me.

Will Harris 0:40 No one did. Um, you know, I was telling a friend the other day what's funny. No one has ever heard this, but when it happened, uh, (laughs) I, I showed Khabib at the back of the bus 'cause he was- had a smile on his face, and I showed him and everybody else on the bus that I actually caught Conor doing it 'cause they didn't really know it was Conor.

Joe Rogan 0:58 Right.

Will Harris 0:58 So, I remember Khabib looked at the footage, I was holding the camera, and he was like, "Brother, you could get paid from this." He's like, "Bro, this is worth $100,000." He looked at his manager, Ali, a shout out to Ali, and he was like, "Get this, get him, give him some money. He deserves this." And then I gave it to the UFC to use for Embedded, and, um, I thought it wa- that was just it, and they promoted the fight with it, and I was like, "Damn, I shoulda just leaned my head to the right and got hit by the dolly so I could-"

Joe Rogan 1:26 (laughs)

Will Harris 1:26 "... not have to be doing it, uh, you know, Go Fund Me's and shit."

Joe Rogan 1:29 Well, what you shoulda done is ask for money for it. That video footage was a- it turned out it was very valuable-

Will Harris 1:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:36 ... because it set up the fight, which also set up the post-fight brawl. I mean, there was, there was so much that was involved in him throwing that dolly, and you caught that video, and they played that shit over-

Will Harris 1:48 I know.

Joe Rogan 1:48 ... and over and over. I was actually kinda shocked that they did that because at the time, we were like, "Whoa, Conor might go to jail." Like that was, that was, like, legitimate assault.

Will Harris 1:56 They used it the next day.

Joe Rogan 1:58 I know.

Will Harris 1:58 Like, I was like, "Damn." Like...

Joe Rogan 2:00 WME is merciless.

Will Harris 2:00 When I saw it on like, um, when I saw it on, uh, Fox News and CNN, I was just like, "That's my footage."

Joe Rogan 2:07 Yeah.

Will Harris 2:07 You know, 'cause you know, when you building a s- like, a channel or a series like that, you think, "Oh, this is my moment." Every- everybody has a moment.

Joe Rogan 2:15 Yeah.

Will Harris 2:15 And unfortunately, the UFC promoted it, and shout out to them because they've been nothing but good to me. I can't say anything. Uh, I still wish I woulda got something from it, bro.

Joe Rogan 2:25 (laughs) You shoulda got something from it.

Will Harris 2:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:26 Pull, pull this mic up. Just pull it, just get it up, there, like-

Will Harris 2:29 Right here?

Joe Rogan 2:29 ... fist from your face. There you go.

Will Harris 2:30 Right there?

Joe Rogan 2:30 Yeah.

Will Harris 2:30 Right there?

Joe Rogan 2:31 Yeah, no, you do a fantastic job. I mean, you really do, and I, I, like I said, until that video footage came out, I didn't know...

Will Harris 2:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:39 ... that you weren't even a part of the UFC's promotion team. I didn't know. I thought maybe WME had hired you, and this was another thing that they were working on. I did not know that you were independent.

Will Harris 2:48 Well, e- what was crazy is that I started it almost two years ago. Um, I was just sitting at home in Florida. I was living in South Florida, and I was ha- I was hanging out with the guys at the Blackzilians at Jocko. I had stumbled over there one day at the gym, and I, I seen it when I was grocery shopping, and I just stopped in. Um, and I, I was doing stuff for Shannon Briggs. Let's go, champ.

Joe Rogan 3:09 Let's go, champ.

Will Harris 3:09 Um, I was going to st-

Joe Rogan 3:10 You did this stuff?

Will Harris 3:10 Yeah. I was going to the, uh, Heavyweight Factory. And ha-

Joe Rogan 3:12 You were do- you do all those-

Will Harris 3:14 I, I-

Joe Rogan 3:14 ... the Shannon Briggs ones?

Will Harris 3:14 No, I wasn't doing his phone videos.

Joe Rogan 3:16 Oh, okay.

Will Harris 3:16 What happened was I reached out to him, and he invited me to the Heavyweight Factory. Holyfield was there, everybody, and I just went there a few times, and I, I created some creative videos for them.

Joe Rogan 3:26 Holyfield still working out?

Will Harris 3:28 He was when I was there. I seen him.

Joe Rogan 3:30 He still looks good.

Will Harris 3:31 He does, man. He like what?

Joe Rogan 3:32 It's crazy. He's like 50 years old.

Will Harris 3:34 50 something years old.

Joe Rogan 3:34 At least 50 years old.

Will Harris 3:35 I got some, I got some amazing stories about, like that I've never released about Tyson fight, like crazy things, like his, his, his-

Joe Rogan 3:43 Him, him talking about it?

Will Harris 3:44 Oh, man, I got some stuff. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:45 When you putting it out?

Will Harris 3:46 Well, initially Anatomy of a Fighter was just supposed to be a documentary. That was it, and I was, that was it. Just a hour-long documentary. Um, I, I never knew who a Khabib was or nothing.

Joe Rogan 3:58 Really?

Will Harris 3:59 Like, I just didn't know. I, I, I knew Michael Johnson and all these guys because they was at the Blackzilians. So, I knew, the first day I ever went in a gym, like Michael Chandler, Kamaru Usman. Shout out to Kamaru Usman 'cause I, the first time I ever saw him, I thought he was a, a bum.

Joe Rogan 4:12 What?

Will Harris 4:13 'Cause Michael Chandler gave it to him, and I got it on camera.

Joe Rogan 4:16 Oh, no.

Will Harris 4:16 And I, I thought Michael Chandler was a stud, right? And then they was like, "Oh, he won the Ultimate Fighter," things like that. So, that was almost two years ago.

Joe Rogan 4:24 You thought he was a bum?

Will Harris 4:25 Yeah, b- just 'cause I saw the-

Joe Rogan 4:27 Must've been a rough day in the gym.

Will Harris 4:28 It was sparring.

Joe Rogan 4:29 Oh, okay.

Will Harris 4:29 It was just sparring. So, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm going around filming people, and then I just turn to the cage, and, like, Michael Chandler just dropped him with, like, a low shot, and then Michael Chandler, like, walking around him. Like I, I created this film called The Portrait of the Blackzilians. That was, like, the first thing I ever made because it was Glenn Robinson, RIP to him, and Tyrone Spong that really pushed me to do MMA. They saw the stuff that I did with Shannon Briggs, and they called me into the office that same day that I, I gave whoever the manager was at Jocko the, the, the footage. And Glenn just said, "Listen, we need this type of work in MMA. Like, this is high-quality stuff."

Joe Rogan 5:04 Right.

Will Harris 5:04 And Tyrone Spong was boxing, so I knew he was probably loving, uh, the f- the footage with Shannon Briggs 'cause he, he in boxing.

Joe Rogan 5:11 And that's after he broke his leg against Go Koseki-

Will Harris 5:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:13 ... and he decided to just go straight to boxing.

Will Harris 5:15 So, he, you know, Tyrone, he's very, uh, persuasive, and he was like, "Hey, hey, this, we need this in the gym." So, they gave me a pass to go to a sparring day and really work out with them. And, um, yeah, there it is right there. But, uh, yeah, that's how it happened, and, and I, I just kept going to the gym every day.

Joe Rogan 5:34 Put that back up, James. Yes.

Will Harris 5:35 And then-

Joe Rogan 5:36 Oh, the other f- Oh, it's for the TV. Okay.

Will Harris 5:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:38 Oh, 1 and 2.

Will Harris 5:38 Th- that's the first thing I ever filmed in my life called The Portrait of the Blackzilians.

Joe Rogan 5:42 Wow.

Will Harris 5:42 And that shot of, uh, Michael Chandler, uh, RIP to Jordan Parsons. That was a fighter that, you know, died after getting hit by a car. Um, but that's the first thing I ever filmed for Anatomy of a Fighter.

Joe Rogan 5:54 Oh, wow.

Will Harris 5:54 Uh, that, that was the sparring match.And, um, yeah, that was it. And from there, uh, everything was born. Um, I still was, like, focusing on doing, like, a documentary, um, until I moved to Vegas, uh, like a summer after that during the Conor McGregor and, uh, Floyd Mayweather fight. I just wanted... I felt like I needed to move to Vegas 'cause the energy was taking me there. And I felt like, "Oh, if I'm gonna do a documentary, I might as well be in Vegas where a lot of fighters is."

Joe Rogan 6:19 This is a giant shift for you, right?

Will Harris 6:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:21 So, like, what were you filming before two years ago-

Will Harris 6:24 Well-

Joe Rogan 6:24 ... when you worked with Blackzilians?

Will Harris 6:25 Uh, before that, like, I have a, a wedding business, so I was doing weddings.

Joe Rogan 6:29 (laughs)

Will Harris 6:29 My big Black ass was doing weddings.

Joe Rogan 6:31 (laughs)

Will Harris 6:32 Which is funny. I'll go to these weddings and people be like-

Joe Rogan 6:34 People will know 'cause Will's sitting down. Will's gigantic.

Will Harris 6:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:36 How tall are you?

Will Harris 6:36 6'5".

Joe Rogan 6:37 So he's towering over all these people-

Will Harris 6:38 Look-

Joe Rogan 6:38 ... filming their weddings.

Will Harris 6:39 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It, it... I, I, I, I, I really thought like, "Man, my life is miserable," at one point. I was like, "I'm just shooting these, uh-"

Joe Rogan 6:47 Oh, boring.

Will Harris 6:47 Yeah. After a while, like, you win a award, then another award, then another award, and it's all based off reviews, right? And it was like, "Man, I got, I gotta do something more than this." So I, I did, like, basketball documentaries in Italy. I li- I lived in Italy for a minute. I went to China, did a basketball documentary there 'cause that's my background, basketball. But after that, I was just like, "Man, what, what else can I do?" And I literally just stumbled... I saw the gym one day, JockO, and I was like, "That's where them Blackzilians train," and I went over there, and that's how all of it started.

Joe Rogan 7:16 So you just walked in? No martial arts training?

Will Harris 7:18 Nothing. I just saw the gym-

Joe Rogan 7:20 Wow.

Will Harris 7:20 ... and I was like, "That's JockO. I know the Blackzilians train there." So I went in there, like, midday. Nobody was in there, and I just said, "Listen, I'm a filmmaker. I would love to film some of these fighters." And that's how it happened.

Joe Rogan 7:30 Did you go to school for that?

Will Harris 7:31 Yeah, so I went to college at University of Southern Indiana in Evansville on a basketball scholarship. I was the top senior in America coming out of high school, and I went to this top division two school after I tried to wait my senior year to get some division one offers. Obvious- if people know, like, division one is the top level of basketball, and then division two is right under that. Probably not now, but back then it was. And, um, I went. Uh, Bruce Pearl was my coach. He was very persuasive to get me to come to the university. He, he coaches at Auburn now. Uh, they just went to the final four this year, if you know anything about basketball. But I played my first year, and then going into my second year, I tore my ACL. And, uh, I... My life was over. All I knew was basketball. If anybody know anything about Carbondale, it's about 25,000 people. People don't l- leave that town. It's kind of a miserable, you know, thing. I think, like, the average household median income there is like 16,000 a year for families.

Joe Rogan 8:31 Jesus.

Will Harris 8:31 Yeah, like, so you come from the bottom.

Joe Rogan 8:33 Did you get it repaired?

Will Harris 8:35 Yeah, so I had surgery. I had the red shirt. So when you're in college and you sit out a year-

Joe Rogan 8:38 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 8:38 ... you red shirt. So, one day I was dating this girl and she was going to Walmart, and she literally was just like, "Oh, you want to come to Walmart with me?" And I was like, "Yeah." I had some Pell Grant money, and I, I was addicted to the, the... Remember the MTV show Road Rules and Real World?

Joe Rogan 8:53 Yeah.

Will Harris 8:53 I used to be addicted to that stuff, so I used to watch it all the time. And I went to Walmart that day and bought a camera. That was my f- a Sony Handycam, the one you used to put l- little mini DVDs in.

Joe Rogan 9:04 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 9:04 And that was the birth. I... Literally, my life changed soon as I bought that camera. And I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna just film my rehab and, uh, come back more ferocious," and all I was doing was, like, filming girls at parties-

Joe Rogan 9:16 (laughs)

Will Harris 9:16 ... doing bongs and shit like that, like literally for four years. I had a camera every day.

Joe Rogan 9:20 So you just stopped playing basketball-

Will Harris 9:22 No, I, I-

Joe Rogan 9:23 ... totally?

Will Harris 9:23 ... I con- I continued to play basketball. I, I, I came back a year after my red shirt. Um, I finished at one of the top five scorers in school history and university history, top four rebounds, all-time leader in field goal percentage, All-American my senior year. We went to the national championship, played on national TV, everything. After that was done, I wasn't the same player after I tore my ACL. I can just admit that. Like, I was this high-flying, super freak, athletic, 45-inch vertical type of player, to... I couldn't do that anymore, so I had to adjust my whole game.

Joe Rogan 9:53 What was, what was wrong?

Will Harris 9:55 I don't know. Maybe I just... You know, s- it was different back in 2001, right?

Joe Rogan 10:00 As far as the surgery?

Will Harris 10:01 Yeah, for surgery and f-

Joe Rogan 10:02 Did you get the patella tendon graft?

Will Harris 10:04 I got patella, yep. Yep, exa-

Joe Rogan 10:04 That's a rough one to come back from.

Will Harris 10:05 That's a rough, that's... And they don't do that anymore.

Joe Rogan 10:07 They still do.

Will Harris 10:08 They do?

Joe Rogan 10:09 Yeah, Georges St-Pierre had that done.

Will Harris 10:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:10 They, they, they do that sometimes because they think that the patella ten... I had it done in 90... No. Yeah, '93.

Will Harris 10:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:18 I had it done on this leg, and then this one I had the cadaver, which was way easier.

Will Harris 10:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:22 Cadaver's like a six-month rehab, and I was back to jujitsu 100%.

Will Harris 10:26 I was always, like, slightly knock-kneed, right? And it's like that surgery made my left knee even more knock. And it's like, that's why I was telling Jamie, like, I need that 'cause I feel like I need to, like, strengthen my ITB.

Joe Rogan 10:38 Oh, you mean-

Will Harris 10:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:39 ... J- Jamie has this crazy roller thing. What is that thing called again, Jamie?

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 10:42 A roll recovery.

Joe Rogan 10:43 Here, sh- pull it-

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 10:44 All right, no, I got it. Um.

Will Harris 10:46 Yeah, that...

Joe Rogan 10:47 Hold on.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 10:47 I got it. It's this thing.

Joe Rogan 10:48 Jamie's showing everybody. There we go.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 10:50 It's crazy. Heavy-duty.

Joe Rogan 10:51 You clamp that thing down on your thigh.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 10:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:53 I- it didn't seem that good for my c- my calves.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 10:55 Well, you were, like, standing on it. You got to, like... You can't have any tension on it or whatever.

Joe Rogan 10:58 Oh, okay.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 10:58 You got to, like, have a loose muscle.

Joe Rogan 10:59 But your thigh, it seems like it'd be a lot of pressure 'cause it's-

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 11:02 For sure.

Joe Rogan 11:03 ... like a spring.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 11:03 Yeah, the thicker your muscle... Yeah, it's like, uh... It's h- I don't know how much, uh, weight is pushing on it, but it's a lot.

Joe Rogan 11:09 It's g- And you could also push with both sides.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 11:12 Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, you can have that in-

Joe Rogan 11:12 What's it called again?

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 11:13 R8 Roll Recovery. It's like medi-... It said medical grade on the box. I was like, "Okay."

Joe Rogan 11:17 Oh, medical grade.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 11:18 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:18 Like weed.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 11:19 Kind of.

Will Harris 11:19 Yeah.

Guest (unidentified third person in studio) 11:19 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 11:19 (laughs)

Will Harris 11:19 I, I feel like I need that to, like, wake up my left leg still to this day, all- two-

Joe Rogan 11:23 So-

Will Harris 11:24 ... t- two decades later.

Joe Rogan 11:25 Did you go through rehab and everything and it just-

Will Harris 11:28 I did. I did all that.

Joe Rogan 11:29 Just didn't work as good?

Will Harris 11:29 So listen, I recovered fine.

Joe Rogan 11:31 Right.

Will Harris 11:31 Like, my college career was totally fine.

Joe Rogan 11:33 But you just didn't feel the same?

Will Harris 11:35 I just didn't... Honestly, I lost the love of basketball.

Joe Rogan 11:38 Oh.

Will Harris 11:38 Honestly, after, i- i-

Joe Rogan 11:39 Filming girls with bongs.

Will Harris 11:40 That's all I, I had in my life, was basketball.

Joe Rogan 11:43 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 11:43 So once that was gone, even when I came back, it w- I wasn't the same. So even though I, I had games where I was 25 points, 15 rebounds, like, ex- great games, winning all these awards, all regional, I... It just wasn't there anymore.

Joe Rogan 11:59 Wow.

Will Harris 11:59 And I had this camera-... that I love to just have, because that year off, I was able... I, I, like, I... My first ever film I ever did was, I went around campus and filmed, like, girls and asked them who the hottest athletes was.

Joe Rogan 12:14 (laughs)

Will Harris 12:14 And I felt like that gave me power. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 12:17 (laughs)

Will Harris 12:17 It gave me power, like, just to be able to... 'Cause back then, that's when Girls Gone Wild was popular.

Joe Rogan 12:21 Oh, wow.

Will Harris 12:22 Yeah, that was, psh, 2000.

Joe Rogan 12:24 Girls Gone Wild. Wow. Who remember that?

Will Harris 12:25 Remember that? Remember that? Man, Girls Gone Wild.

Joe Rogan 12:27 Doug Stanhope hosted that at one point in time.

Will Harris 12:30 Mm.

Joe Rogan 12:31 Yeah.

Will Harris 12:31 That's funny. But, so I graduated college in 2004, and, um, I moved to Phoenix with my best friend, Mr. Organic. And, uh, he was out there just living, and I wanted to get out of my little town. So I went out there and I, I kinda wanted to, like, take a year off and then try to play professional basketball. Because you either play in the NBA or you go overseas to play basketball. So I went to Phoenix with no idea what I was gonna do with my life, and I, I literally started working at a call center. Amer- uh, it was, uh... What was that old, uh, phone company that went out of business? I can't remember what it was called, but, uh, I used to just call people collect, uh, and try to get them to sign up for long distance, and then you get caught. Uh, like I, I got caught every word in the book, every day, but it was funny. Like, people was calling you the N-word and everything, and you just laughing 'cause they mad, right?

Joe Rogan 13:26 (laughs)

Will Harris 13:26 And then you're like convincing, like, this 90-year-old lady to sign up for long distance, knowing that it's illegal as hell. Like, you just convinving- convincing this lady (laughs) to sign up for long distance. But I was good at it, though. I was good at it. So that was, like, my first job I ever had in my life.

Joe Rogan 13:39 So it's like one of them shady phone... They call you up, like...

Will Harris 13:42 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 13:42 I get tho- those robo calls.

Will Harris 13:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:44 Those calls you... You did that shit?

Will Harris 13:45 Like, "Do you want unlimited long distance?"

Joe Rogan 13:47 Do you feel guilty?

Will Harris 13:49 A little bit.

Joe Rogan 13:49 (laughs)

Will Harris 13:50 But they went out, they went out of business at, like, six months after I, uh, had the job.

Joe Rogan 13:55 Oh, okay.

Will Harris 13:55 And, uh, I... From there, I- I just didn't know what I was gonna do. And I had a, um... He's not my cousin but he's like somebody we all call our cousins. Like Black people, we call everybody our cousins. But he played in the NBA, his name was Troy Hudson, and he was from my town. So he was like the most successful person that ever got out of our town. He was, uh, you know, playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves. And I reached out to him 'cause I basically was like, "Listen, man, I need help 'cause I, I wanna play basketball again, but I don't know h- how I'm gonna... I don't have a agent, I don't have anything." So he kinda invited us up to Minneapolis. That's the first time I lit-... I, I literally went from Evansville, Phoenix, to Minneapolis to try to pursue this whole basketball career. And I did that for like three years, like chasing it, going to tryouts, things like that, sending tapes to, to agents and things like that. And it just didn't pan out. Nothing stuck. You know, I had opportunities, they just... I just wasn't the same player, and I can admit that and I'm comfortable with that because I know I had a successful basketball career. It just didn't go to the level where I made millions of dollars. So after that, man, I was literally stuck. After traveling around the world, I ended up in Malaysia, I was in Australia trying to pursue-

Joe Rogan 15:04 Malaysia?

Will Harris 15:04 You don't wanna know how I ended up over here.

Joe Rogan 15:06 I do wanna know.

Will Harris 15:07 Man, this is funny.

Joe Rogan 15:09 (laughs)

Will Harris 15:09 Only a few people know this story. So, (laughs) wh- when you at your bottom, you try to find something for comfort. I- I've never done weed or anything in my life, but I- I was addicted to, like, online dating back then.

Joe Rogan 15:22 Really?

Will Harris 15:23 Yes. I was, like, trying to meet girls, like, just to try to find some situation. I felt like, "Oh, I feel incomplete, so let me, like, online date or whatever." And I met this girl... Like, one of my friends in Phoenix played basketball in Kuala Lumpur, so obviously you need a visa to go over there. So I'm thinking to myself, like, "What's the, the, the way I can get over there to Kuala Lumpur and try to play basketball?" So I was, like, online dating. I don't even remember what website it was.

Joe Rogan 15:48 Well, I wanna say, you're a good-looking guy.

Will Harris 15:49 I know.

Joe Rogan 15:50 How you not getting girls in America?

Will Harris 15:51 I do.

Joe Rogan 15:52 (laughs)

Will Harris 15:52 But, uh, I'm just saying, I was just... Listen, my whole point-

Joe Rogan 15:55 I'm sorry, go ahead.

Will Harris 15:56 My point was (laughs) I literally met this girl in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She was from Canada. She was a singer over there, singing in little military bars or whatever, this little hot blonde or whatever she was. And, um, I remember talking to her for about a month, and I convinced her that I wanted to come visit her. But my whole intention was, "Let me get over there, try to find out what this team is and see if I can, like, try out for them." Some crazy shit. You don't do that today. I did it back then. So I went over there to... (laughs) I'm laughing 'cause I know-

Joe Rogan 16:26 (laughs)

Will Harris 16:26 ... people that know me is dying listening to this right now. This is a true 100% story. I get over there to Malaysia with no money, I may have $400. I got people to pay for a ticket, "Yeah, I'm going to Malaysia to play basketball." Just lying to people, right? So I get over there, this girl, I don't wanna say her name, she might sue me. Uh, but-

Joe Rogan 16:47 (laughs)

Will Harris 16:48 ... she picked me up at the airport. She looked exactly like her pictures. Beautiful, from Canada, everything. So, sh- she take me to her apartment. She got this nice apartment, it's like in a jungle, yo. Like, I'm talking about the balcony, I seen, like, little monkeys on the balcony.

Joe Rogan 17:03 Whoa.

Will Harris 17:03 Yes, it was crazy. And then it's like a rainforest, right? And then in Malaysia, if you ever been to Malaysia, I don't know if it's like that now, the doors are high off the ground, like two inches, so it's like anything can crawl under the doors or whatever. So that's the first thing I noticed when I got to Malaysia. I was like, "This is some crazy shit," right?

Joe Rogan 17:21 (laughs)

Will Harris 17:21 We in the jungle and the do-... Like, what about snakes or bugs? I remember asking these little kids when I first got to Malaysia, I was like, "Have you ever seen a snake, like, i- in this area?" And they was like, "Yeah, I seen a cobra," and all this stuff. And I was just like, "Holy shit." But, uh, back to her, she turned out to be a sex addict. Yes.

Joe Rogan 17:42 Congratulations.

Will Harris 17:43 Man, listen.

Joe Rogan 17:45 (laughs)

Will Harris 17:45 Yo, this is crazy. Like, because this is way before I ever decided to s-... I'm gonna do f- film for a living, right?

Joe Rogan 17:51 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 17:52 I was over there, um, the first day I got there, like, I- I had a good time with her, then I, you know, ended up having relations with the lady, and she turned out to be a sex addict.So, you know, as a man, I just flew all the way across the world to see this girl, you sleep with her, and then all of a sudden (laughs) she wanted to do it again, and again, and again. And then when you, like, "Slow down, like, you know, I just got here," sh- bro, she started crying and going nuts. And I'm s- in Malaysia, I'm like, "I don't know who this girl is."

Joe Rogan 18:20 Oh, no.

Will Harris 18:20 Listen-

Joe Rogan 18:21 She's crying 'cause you won't fuck her again?

Will Harris 18:22 Yes.

Joe Rogan 18:23 How many times did you fuck her?

Will Harris 18:24 About two times.

Joe Rogan 18:25 (laughs) And she wanted to... (laughs)

Will Harris 18:26 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:27 You... (laughs)

Will Harris 18:28 Two long times too, like, sh- shit.

Joe Rogan 18:30 (laughs)

Will Harris 18:30 Like, it was crazy. So then, I'm in M- Listen, I am in Malaysia.

Joe Rogan 18:34 Right. Right.

Will Harris 18:34 This, I'm not in America, I'm in Malaysia.

Joe Rogan 18:36 Right.

Will Harris 18:37 (laughs) So, the crazy thing is, probably after a week, she started to go crazy and complain about, I'm not sleeping with her, "I'm a, I'm in my, I'm in my prime, my sexual peak and you don't want to sleep with me." And I'm just thinking to myself, like, "I don't know what the fuck am I doing over here in Malaysia, like, with this lady." So I ended up meeting this Black guy, (smacks lips) uh, that she introduced me to that was, like, a hustler in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And I started hanging out with him just to get out of the house.

Joe Rogan 19:06 (laughs)

Will Harris 19:06 And... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 19:07 You're, like, living with this girl.

Will Harris 19:08 I don't have any money to go home.

Joe Rogan 19:09 Oh my God.

Will Harris 19:10 So I'm just stuck in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Joe Rogan 19:11 Oh my God. With this beautiful girl that you have to fuck all the time. (laughs)

Will Harris 19:14 Yep. First world problems, right?

Joe Rogan 19:17 Serious first world problems.

Will Harris 19:18 And then she started getting even bitter, like, "I hate Americans. You Americans are so ungrateful." And I, I'm just thinking like, "Damn."

Joe Rogan 19:26 Wow, you're representing America.

Will Harris 19:28 Yeah, it was crazy. I was like, "Damn, I must have just didn't do it good enough." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 19:33 (laughs)

Will Harris 19:33 It's like, I thought I... You know?

Joe Rogan 19:35 (laughs)

Will Harris 19:35 Girls be lying then to me.

Joe Rogan 19:36 (laughs)

Will Harris 19:36 Right?

Joe Rogan 19:37 Well, maybe she was just extraordinary news.

Will Harris 19:39 She was, like, in her late 30s and I was in my early 20s. So...

Joe Rogan 19:43 Some girls in their late 30s, they hit this sc- itchy peak.

Will Harris 19:46 Man.

Joe Rogan 19:46 They're just like, all the time just wanna scratch it.

Will Harris 19:47 She ended up, she ended up kicking me out of her house in Malaysia, Joe.

Joe Rogan 19:50 Wow.

Will Harris 19:51 Like, uh, I went out with Bobby one night, this dude, his name was Bobby too. And, um, w- I came home and she said, um, "Your stuff is outside." Like, she text me, I had a little international phone. She was like, "Your stuff is outside." I'm thinking like... She was like, "Yeah, this is not working out." So think about that. Imagine being in another country and this is not working out.

Joe Rogan 20:11 No money.

Will Harris 20:11 No money. Zero.

Joe Rogan 20:13 Oh.

Will Harris 20:14 Not a dime. And I t- the guy that I was with, I told him what happened, he was like, "I'm gonna take you over there, get your stuff, you can stay with me until you figure it out." I get there and all my stuff is outside, everything. She's not there. She has done left or whatever. And I had some brand new Timberlands, you remember the boots, Timberlands?

Joe Rogan 20:31 Sure.

Will Harris 20:31 Hey, I'm poor as shit, I need them Timberlands. They in the house. I had them worn brand new. So I kick the door down. Boom.

Joe Rogan 20:37 Oh, no.

Will Harris 20:38 Yes. Like, I was trying to get in the door, I just kicked it and it broke, like, the little handle broke. I got in, got my Timberlands, left. I remember she text me, she was like, "Hey, did you break my door?" I was like, "Nah, I don't know what you're talking about. I just left." So from there, I was, I stayed with Bobby for, like, three weeks in Malaysia. I was hanging out with him every day, going to parties and I'm like, "Bro, I gotta get home to America." So I contacted my, one of my, uh, m- mentors growing up, uh, in Australia, he was playing pro- professional basketball in Melbourne, named Rashad Tucker. Shout out to him. And I convinced him to get me a ticket to come over to Melbourne because I was like, "Bro, I need some money to go home." And he was like, "Nah, man, I'll just get you a ticket to come to Melbourne."

Joe Rogan 21:18 (laughs)

Will Harris 21:19 I was like, "Bro, literally, like, I- I'm trying to go back to America. I don't know what to." But then when he, he sold me on it, I was like, "Damn, I really ain't going back to nothing. So let me go..." He was like, "Man, you can come over here and try out for the team. You can try out, practice with us." And I was like, "Oh, that may be my opportunity to play professional basketball if I... He's one of the top players in Australia." So I ended up in Melbourne. And I was in Melbourne for three months not doing shit, but going out, practicing with the team. The s- it was mid-season, so I couldn't, like, make a team because they was already, you know, their thing. And then I ended up getting stranded over there too.

Joe Rogan 21:55 (exhales)

Will Harris 21:55 Because he left me 'cause he cheated on his girlfriend and, uh-

Joe Rogan 21:59 (laughs)

Will Harris 21:59 ... he had to go make up with her. So he left me talking about, "I'm gonna be back." And then I was just stuck in Australia, like, "Yo, bro, I need to get back to America." He was-

Joe Rogan 22:08 No job?

Will Harris 22:09 No job, no money, nothing.

Joe Rogan 22:10 No money? Oh my God.

Will Harris 22:11 He was like, uh... L- I'm glad I was young when I did all this stuff. He was like, "Hey, man, tell her, tell one of them girls a sob story, they'll get you a s-" (laughs)

Joe Rogan 22:20 (laughs)

Will Harris 22:21 I'm like, "A sob story?"

Joe Rogan 22:23 (laughs)

Will Harris 22:23 "Bro, you have money. Buy me a ticket to go home." "Man, I can't do it right now." I'm like, "Man." So I had to tell this girl a sob story. Her name was Deanna, Deanna Casar. I'm giving her a shout out because she saved my life. She bought me a ticket home. She, she went in her savings and bought me a ticket back from Melbourne to Ho- Honolulu to Las Vegas. And, um, I didn't know why I chose Las Vegas, but I just chose to go to Las Vegas.

Joe Rogan 22:51 So you literally had zero money-

Will Harris 22:53 Zero money.

Joe Rogan 22:53 ... zero job. How were you eating?

Will Harris 22:56 Shit, her, people that I was around, right?

Joe Rogan 22:59 They just fed you?

Will Harris 23:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:00 Wow.

Will Harris 23:00 Man, sometimes you have angels in your life.

Joe Rogan 23:03 Yeah.

Will Harris 23:03 And I guess these people were angels that... 'Cause that's w- I was just telling Jamie, like, I just seen a documentary on homelessness. It was like four out of five people in LA County, paycheck to paycheck.

Joe Rogan 23:12 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 23:13 I think it was like eight, like, or it was four out of five people are, like, one $400 emergency from being broke. Or it was like 80% of people live paycheck to paycheck. So I always tell people, like, when, when I'm inspiring people now, I'm like, "Bro, I was homeless once," 'cause that's essentially homelessness.

Joe Rogan 23:29 Yeah.

Will Harris 23:29 If you ain't got a address, you can't pay bills, you're homeless.

Joe Rogan 23:32 Yeah.

Will Harris 23:32 No matter if you got a roof over your head. And I feel, I feel like people... You see all these beautiful moments w- that I do now, or what anybody does, does, and they don't see the, the story that ultimately led you. Like, what, what ultimately turned to you doing what you're doing now? So after Australia, I went to Vegas. I was living with two strippers. Yes, I lived with two strippers.

Joe Rogan 23:56 Congratulations again.

Will Harris 23:57 Yeah, I lived in Vegas with two strippers that worked at the Rhino, the Spearmint Rhino. I met them on Craigslist.... for rooms to rent.

Joe Rogan 24:05 Jesus Christ.

Will Harris 24:07 And I had enough money, like $600 to move into, uh, a room. So I literally moved in with these girls and one day... Have you ever been in the Vegas casinos? 'Cause this is like the climax. You, you ever seen like the Megabucks-

Joe Rogan 24:24 Yeah.

Will Harris 24:24 ... slots?

Joe Rogan 24:25 Sure.

Will Harris 24:25 So, one day it was Floyd Mayweather versus Oscar De La Hoya. So that was the year. I was in the, the Mirage and I seen these two hot Black girls and I had like some money in my pocket c- a hundred or something. So I went to sit down next to them, so I went over there and sat next to them and was just, you know, trying to shoot the shit. And I put a $20 in them slots, 'cause you know you can get free drinks if you put in a slot. So, I just hitting it talking to them, "Where y'all from? Y'all going to the fight," blah, blah, blah. And then one of the girls was like, "Hey, you won." I was like, "Oh, okay." You know, you thinking you ain't winning no slots. Guess how much I won?

Joe Rogan 24:59 How much?

Will Harris 24:59 $9,000.

Joe Rogan 25:01 Whoa.

Will Harris 25:01 Swear to God. $9,000 till somebody broke.

Joe Rogan 25:06 Wow.

Will Harris 25:06 Yes, $9,000. So, f-

Joe Rogan 25:09 When they give you that, do you pay taxes on it later or the-

Will Harris 25:11 Yeah, I gave them the wrong Social Security number though.

Joe Rogan 25:14 You gave them the wrong Social (laughs) number?

Will Harris 25:16 Yeah, I gave them the wrong Social.

Joe Rogan 25:17 (laughs) They c- you can do that?

Will Harris 25:19 Yeah, 'cause they just ask you your name and your Social Security number.

Joe Rogan 25:21 Oh, okay. Maybe you shouldn't have just told everybody that.

Will Harris 25:24 I don't know. They don't, they can't prove that I won anything.

Joe Rogan 25:28 They can't?

Will Harris 25:29 That was like 12 years ago.

Joe Rogan 25:31 They didn't have records back then?

Will Harris 25:32 I don't think so.

Joe Rogan 25:33 I hope not.

Will Harris 25:34 Nah, me too.

Joe Rogan 25:35 Okay. (laughs)

Will Harris 25:35 Ain't nobody gonna watch this.

Joe Rogan 25:36 Nobody's watching this right now.

Will Harris 25:37 Nah, no one... This, this is... Nobody's gonna watch it.

Joe Rogan 25:39 Nothing.

Will Harris 25:41 So after that, I, I literally lived off that, um, nine grand for about the rest of the summer. And, uh, I ended up moving to San Diego after that. Like, I'm skipping some stuff, but I moved to San Diego and that's when my life changed, because I lived in San Diego and was just partying.

Joe Rogan 25:57 What brought you to San Diego?

Will Harris 25:58 I met a guy in Vegas during the, the night of the Floyd Mayweather fight and just partied with him that night. And I just got his phone number one time and then I was just, you know, staying in touch with him, whatever. And then he was like, "I live in San Diego." He was in the Navy, Dr. Bill. And, um, I literally said, "Let me come out there w- one weekend." I was like, "Let me just come out there and kick it with you or whatever," 'cause he was telling me how great San Diego was. And, um, I went out there and I, I didn't leave for four years.

Joe Rogan 26:23 San Diego's pretty awesome.

Will Harris 26:25 Yeah, I love San Diego. But I, I essentially was doing the same thing I was doing for the past couple years, lost. 'Cause you gotta understand, like, athletes go through this now. Like, I just did, I just released an episode with Ron Bader on my channel, and I talked to him about that. Like, when, uh, when your sports career is done, a lot of people go to something else, they're lost and things like that. And I was for about four or five years. And it wasn't until I lived in San Diego that I figured, I was like, "Man, I got to really do something with my life." I'm

Will Harris 26:55 literally a failure. I got a c- I g- have a college degree, I, I graduated from college. So it wasn't like... I just didn't want that responsibility of having to do a 9:00 to 5:00 or, and things like that. So, it wasn't until I lived in San Diego that I, I literally talked to the guy that I was living with and was like, "Bro, I, I don't know what I'm going to do in my life, bro, but I got to figure something out." I was like nearing 30, and, um, I ended up moving to Minneapolis, back to Minneapolis, and I got a job as a teacher, uh, like a teacher's assistant. Uh, they called it behavior assistant. I was like working with kindergarten kids.

Joe Rogan 27:28 Jesus.

Will Harris 27:28 Literally crazy life, right?

Joe Rogan 27:30 What a crazy life. (laughs)

Will Harris 27:31 To end up where I'm at now to be on Joe Rogan, right? So it w- it was March 3rd, 2- 2011. Um, it was like negative 20 degrees outside. I was living with my guy, my best friend, and, um, I went to work that day and it was freezing outside, and they literally still went to recess that day. I'll never forget that. They was like, "Oh, g- put your coats and gloves on, kids. It's time to go to, to recess." And I was like, "What do you mean? Are we going in the gym or outside?" He was like, "We're going outside." I was like, "Man, these people in Minnesota are crazy."

Joe Rogan 28:00 They're hard, those are hard people, bro.

Will Harris 28:02 That was the last day I ever worked in my life.

Joe Rogan 28:04 Y- you said, "Fuck this"?

Will Harris 28:05 I can't do it, man. I was like, "Bro-"

Joe Rogan 28:06 You can't be outside in that weather?

Will Harris 28:07 I- it was just the fact that I was like, "What am I doing with my life? I'm working with kinder," d-

Joe Rogan 28:12 Right.

Will Harris 28:12 Great rewarding job. I'm like, "What? I, it's nothing wrong with me."

Joe Rogan 28:16 Right.

Will Harris 28:16 I'm physically able to do anything, I'm intelligent enough to do anything, I'm qualified enough to do anything.

Joe Rogan 28:22 You're a victim of circumstance-

Will Harris 28:23 Victim of-

Joe Rogan 28:24 ... because things just kept happening.

Will Harris 28:25 Things kept happening. Um, and a lot of it is my fault, like, because you're just lazy, right? So March 3rd, 2011 is the day I, I said, "I'm quitting, uh, my job." I went back to my apartment with my roommate. He was pissed. He was like, "Bro, you're always quitting jobs." (laughs) And he was like, "Bro, what you going to do?" I was like, "Bro, I'm f- I'm finna figure something out. I'm finna buy a camera or do something." He was like, "Yeah, yeah, whatever." And, and we literally were sitting in the kitchen, in his little kitchen on the floor talking about life, 'cause I was just tell, I literally mentally broke. I was like, "Bro, I'm just jacked. Like, I got to figure something out." I had... Pell Grant was coming up. I was getting my, my tax returns back and I had enough to buy a camera, and the first camera I ever bought was a Canon T2i. It was like $800 and I bought a lens, and that was it. That was it. It changed my life. And I literally spent, like, the next year shooting videos in garages, like cars coming up, filming the wheels. And I was just reall- literally honing myself. Because back then when I had a camera in college, digital cameras weren't even out until 2008, like these little new style cameras. So I had to relearn everything, and I, I relearned a lot from YouTube and Vimeo, and I was watching the... I had a creative eye and a, a mindset, so I was just like, "I got to get this skill set." So I started doing rap videos for $50, $100, free. You know, I tell all these kids that message me now, like, "Bro, I spent two years doing videos for free just trying to learn how to do this stuff." Everybody want to get paid for something, and I'm like, "You probably don't deserve to get paid yet." So I, I, I had friends, shout out to Mack Erv, Mr. Organik, like, I was shooting they videos for free.... and I was just getting better. I was getting better and better and better and better. And then, like, three years into it, I shot a music video called Saks Fifth Avenue. And, um-

Joe Rogan 30:16 So, you're editing these as well?

Will Harris 30:17 I'm editing, I'm doing them all.

Joe Rogan 30:18 What are you editing on?

Will Harris 30:19 Uh, at the time, I was editing on Sony Vegas.

Joe Rogan 30:23 Hmm, okay.

Will Harris 30:24 Uh, a old program now.

Joe Rogan 30:25 I remember that.

Will Harris 30:25 And, and it's ... Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's popular now. It's- it's- it's pretty easy to use and, um, it was cheap to buy, like, 90 bucks, so I was able to use that, um, like the movie studio version that was y- you don't get all the little tools, but you got enough. And I had this cheap laptop, uh, that this girl bought me. Uh, she lied and told me she was gonna buy me a camera, then ended up buying me a, a laptop. I was pissed off.

Joe Rogan 30:50 (laughs)

Will Harris 30:51 And I was like ... She was like, "Listen." Like, the most popular Canon, uh, camera back in, like, 2011 was, like, a Canon 5D Mark II. It was, like, $2,000. I couldn't afford that. So, I met this girl online. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 31:06 (laughs)

Will Harris 31:08 Literally.

Joe Rogan 31:09 She's just like-

Will Harris 31:09 From Denver, Colorado, from D- Denver, Colorado. And, you know, you start your little love affair or whatever, you talking, you promising. And, and, "I wanna see you." So, one day, she was like, "I'm gonna come see you in Minnesota." This is around the time I started. And, uh, she told me she was gonna buy me that camera, 'cause I was telling her that's, like, my dream camera, my dream camera. And I remember my roommate, uh, like, I run in his room, like, "Look, bro, look at this short film that was shot with this camera. I'm finna have this camera, bro. We finna do all types of things." So, she, like, kept telling me she had the camera, kept telling me he had the camera. So, like, the day she came, I picked her up. I had this little used 9- 1992 Ford Taurus, it was blue. And, um-

Joe Rogan 31:47 (laughs)

Will Harris 31:48 ... I picked her up at the airport. I remember, I was like, "Where the camera at?" as soon as she p- (laughs)

Joe Rogan 31:52 (laughs)

Will Harris 31:53 Soon as, soon as she picked me up, "Where the camera at?" She was like, "Don't worry, don't worry, don't worry." And I'm, like, driving, thinking like, "Man, she ain't got this camera. She lied to me. She just wanna see me," right? So, we get to my apartment. And my boy, he anticipating it too. He's like, "Man, he finna get this camera. We finna shoot all the music videos," right? 'Cause if you get this camera at this time, you ... Oh, you shooting with a 5D? So, I remember she, like, pulled ... She was like, "Here's a gift." It's like, she pulled out the gift and I'm like, "This ain't no camera box." It was a, a brand new laptop, and I'm sitting there complaining. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:23 (laughs)

Will Harris 32:23 I'm complaining about a laptop, and I already have a camera.

Joe Rogan 32:27 Right.

Will Harris 32:27 But she, like, give me this laptop and I was just like, "All right, cool." So, she gave me the laptop and, uh, I get the Sony Vegas program, and then I started editing with that. And I had that camera for about two years. I couldn't-

Joe Rogan 32:37 Where's that girl?

Will Harris 32:39 I don't know.

Joe Rogan 32:41 (laughs)

Will Harris 32:41 There's a lot of that in my life.

Joe Rogan 32:42 (laughs)

Will Harris 32:44 And I don't blame them girls. Listen, man.

Joe Rogan 32:45 Oh, yeah.

Will Harris 32:46 I used to be one of those guys. You know them girl, them girls that's materialistic?

Joe Rogan 32:51 Yeah.

Will Harris 32:51 And they all about nice things and they like to travel or ... You ever date a girl and you, like, see her previous boyfriend and they be like, "Damn, they done went to, like, Napa Valley and-"

Joe Rogan 33:00 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 33:00 "... fucking Vegas for her, her birthday or, uh, New York."

Joe Rogan 33:03 That's a lot of pressure.

Will Harris 33:03 And you're like, "Damn, I can't even take you to the movies."

Joe Rogan 33:06 Hmm.

Will Harris 33:06 I'm like, "Damn." So, for me, if a girl get tired of you, now they call it ghosting, right?

Joe Rogan 33:12 Right.

Will Harris 33:12 They call it ghosting. But back then, ghosting, that's what ghosting was, it was like, "Oh, this guy ain't worth nothing. Let me get rid of him." So, she left.

Joe Rogan 33:20 (laughs)

Will Harris 33:20 I, I ... She left. (laughs) I had a summer jo-... I ... My last ever official job was at 43 Hoops in Minnesota. It was a basketball academy, where I was there with a lot of pro basketball players or semi-pro, or guys that had college experience, and we just taught kids all the time. And, um, I was getting paid, you know, $20 an hour, $25 an hour per session to teach kids. And I kind of made a ruckus there too, complaining about just, "Bro, we teaching 20 kids and I'm only getting $20. How much are y'all getting for all these kids?" Right? But, I mean, that's just work, right? I shouldn't complain about a job. But that whole summer, I was just telling everybody in there, "I'm finna do film. I'm moving back to California. I'm about to just do film. I'm about to do film." 'Cause I had enough. Like, I was doing videos at that point, but now I have a part-time job that I'm able to do videos. And I never forget, one day, I, I was telling a group of guys in there, "I'm quitting this job and I'm finna go do film." And I, I just remember the look on their face like, you know, like the boy that cried wolf. Like, "Whatever, man. You ain't gonna do anything." But that drove me insane, Joe. Doubt. Doubt drove me insane.

Joe Rogan 34:25 People doubting you?

Will Harris 34:26 People doubted me. That's what I needed. I needed that fuel where people-

Joe Rogan 34:28 Oh.

Will Harris 34:29 ... could tell me I couldn't do anything.

Joe Rogan 34:30 You needed haters.

Will Harris 34:31 I needed haters. And it drove me insane. And I went n- nuts, and I started shooting a lot of music videos that ... Any videographer out there that, that knows this industry, they know ... Like, music videos feed you. You make a lot of money. It's a recession-proof business. People are always gonna need music videos, especially rap videos. And I got good. I got very good. I did a lot of high profile videos. I made a lot of money.

Joe Rogan 34:53 Who'd you do 'em for?

Will Harris 34:55 I did, uh, music videos for, like, rappers, like, like Chief Keef. You know who-

Joe Rogan 34:59 You did it? Yeah?

Will Harris 34:59 Yes.

Joe Rogan 35:00 You did his videos?

Will Harris 35:01 I did it, yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:01 That seemed like you'd have to wear a bulletproof vest to be around that dude.

Will Harris 35:03 It was a video called Traffic. You gotta check that out.

Joe Rogan 35:06 Oh, okay.

Will Harris 35:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:07 I think I've seen that.

Will Harris 35:08 It's-

Joe Rogan 35:08 That's you?

Will Harris 35:09 They went wild on the streets.

Joe Rogan 35:10 Oh, I would imagine.

Will Harris 35:11 Wild.

Joe Rogan 35:12 They're legitimately wild.

Will Harris 35:13 Yeah, they, that was real gangster shit going on with them Chicago-

Joe Rogan 35:17 Yeah.

Will Harris 35:17 ... rappers and stuff like that.

Joe Rogan 35:18 Well, that dude is, like, the king of that shit, right?

Will Harris 35:20 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 35:21 He's only, like, 20, right? I think now he's, like, 20.

Will Harris 35:24 Nah. He probably, like, 23, 24 now.

Joe Rogan 35:27 Is he?

Will Harris 35:27 Yeah, they was kids, man. But I was shooting-

Joe Rogan 35:29 Yeah.

Will Harris 35:29 ... a lot of music videos in Minneapolis and, and I got popular, 'cause that's a huge music scene. It's, it's a very indie ... You know, Prince made it popular.

Joe Rogan 35:36 Hmm.

Will Harris 35:36 But I think the hip hop scene is very d- enriched there. They, they just don't ha- h- ... They haven't had anybody, like, explode out of there. So, I made a living just in Minneapolis, like, shooting music videos. But after a while, I remember I was dating this girl, and this one lasted a bit. And I remember I, I used to brag to her like, "Look at this music video, this music video." And she was like, "You wanna just be known for doing music videos? You wanna be a guy that just do music videos? You need to do other stuff." And that's what woke me up. I was like, "Let me see if I can tap into my creative side and do other things." So, I, I did, like, uh, a film called, like, The Confessions of Skid Row.I li- literally went to Skid Row and filmed homeless people.

Joe Rogan 36:14 Oh, wow.

Will Harris 36:15 Yep. And I, I-

Joe Rogan 36:16 Is that available?

Will Harris 36:17 Yeah, I, it's somewhere on the li- online.

Joe Rogan 36:19 Skid Row freaks me out, man.

Will Harris 36:20 Yeah, it was called the Confessions of Skid Row, and then I did the c- it was ca- I was like, "I'm gonna make this, this series called the Confessions." And then I did the Confessions of Gay Pride, and I literally interviewed this guy in, in, um, San Diego about how, when Obama passed, uh, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, like, I, I, I interviewed this guy, um, and he told me how he came out to his parents, and I'm like... I know my boys used to look at me like, "What the hell are you doing?" Like-

Joe Rogan 36:44 Right.

Will Harris 36:44 ... these type of films, but I was fascinated by documentaries, so I was like, "Let me just do this type of documentary content."

Joe Rogan 36:50 Doin' the one on Skid Row, did that have, like, an extra impact on you because you were basically homeless for-

Will Harris 36:54 Yeah, 100%. I told, I told the guy, I was like, "I was literally homeless, so I know what you feel like."

Joe Rogan 37:00 Hm.

Will Harris 37:00 And I don't think people understand that, like, if I look at my life now, live in downtown LA, view of the Staple Center, things like that, like, they don't understand, years ago, I didn't have, I couldn't afford to live in a $400 a month apartment. You see what I'm saying?

Joe Rogan 37:13 Yeah.

Will Harris 37:13 'Cause you didn't have any guaranteed income, and that's how it was even the beginning of my film career. I lived out of, like, you, you know them shitty hotels? Well, they not shitty to everybody, but, like, Extended Stays.

Joe Rogan 37:23 Yeah.

Will Harris 37:24 I lived in Extended Stays for, like, uh, y- two years.

Joe Rogan 37:28 Hm.

Will Harris 37:28 Literally, like, uh, say I was getting a $400 for a music video from a rapper or something like that. I would use 200 of that for six days in the Extended Stay 'cause you know, that was like $30 a night.

Joe Rogan 37:38 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 37:39 It'd be nights where I'm like, "Damn, I got one day left. I gotta convince somebody to give me, like, $200 to shoot a music video." So I was hustling.

Joe Rogan 37:46 Wow.

Will Harris 37:46 Like, reaching out to people on Facebook, "Hey man, you trying to shoot a music video? You trying to..." They not knowing I need this money to just live somewhere.

Joe Rogan 37:54 Wow.

Will Harris 37:55 So once I was able to sustain enough income, because it's just too long of a story, but I was able to really get myself to a point where I was making some money, I moved to Florida with my best friend, Tone, from Macedonia, six foot nine, Macedonian mercenary, that's what he, he want to be. Like, he a crazy guy. Like, he wants to, like, go around the world and kill, like, drug dealers.

Joe Rogan 38:17 (laughs)

Will Harris 38:18 That's liter- he from Macedonia, man. They crazy, man. They crazy. So (laughs) brother Tone, I moved in with him in Boca Raton, and that's literally how it started.

Joe Rogan 38:26 Wow.

Will Harris 38:26 That's how all of this Anatomy of a Fighter stuff started. I moved to Florida, lived with him. I had a roommate, so it was cheaper to live. I went to Italy that year and shot a documentary. So I got some money from my guy, Bobby Jones, and, um, I was able to have a life. I felt comfortable. I wasn't, like, felt like a, a, a monkey was on my back at that point. Um-

Joe Rogan 38:45 So you're, you're getting momentum.

Will Harris 38:46 I got momentum. Um, I had a lot of momentum at that point. About 2014, I was making money, um.

Joe Rogan 38:51 So when you were doing these documentaries, like, uh, Confessions of Skid Row, what, and Confessions of Gay Pride, like, what are you doing with them, and how are you getting paid from them?

Will Harris 38:59 Just releasing them online for free.

Joe Rogan 39:00 Really? And then, uh, uh-

Will Harris 39:01 Yeah, I didn't get paid for anything. I paid...

Joe Rogan 39:03 You didn't?

Will Harris 39:03 I paid, like, I paid, like, the, the homeless guy that let me talk to him-

Joe Rogan 39:06 Did you put it on YouTube?

Will Harris 39:07 They gotta be on Vimeo. They gotta be-

Joe Rogan 39:09 Well, why don't you put 'em on YouTube and get the ad revenue from them?

Will Harris 39:12 Yeah, that was back in the day, though.

Joe Rogan 39:13 But you, but they're, are they out there right now?

Will Harris 39:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:15 Okay, do you have it?

Will Harris 39:15 Like, no, I have, I have a great one. If... You know Alan Watts?

Joe Rogan 39:19 Yes.

Will Harris 39:19 So I, it's called the Beauty of Nothingness by A- Alan Watts. If you put the Beauty of Nothingness by Alan Watts and Will Harris, you'll see one of the most beautiful homeless films you ever seen. I, that was, like, three years ago. I went to New York. I was here in LA. I was in Florida. I was just sitting on the streets with homeless people, talking to 'em-

Joe Rogan 39:34 Oh.

Will Harris 39:34 ... for, uh, for two days.

Joe Rogan 39:35 And is it Alan Watts narration?

Will Harris 39:37 Yeah, yeah. He, yeah, it's the Bea-

Joe Rogan 39:38 Oh, that's amazing.

Will Harris 39:39 It's the Beauty of Nothingness. It, like, won an award in New York.

Joe Rogan 39:41 Well, when I first saw... I don't remember what video I saw of yours that was first, but I was like, "This guy's got an eye for shit." You, you, you, it's not the stan- You know, sometimes you could see videos, and you're just watching a video. Like, "Okay, this is cool. I'm seeing how these guys are training. I'm seeing their lifestyles. I'm seeing, you know, their family." But then you see one, and you go, "Oh, whoever the fuck is filming this, they know what they're doing."

Will Harris 40:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:05 That's what I got from you.

Will Harris 40:06 Well, it's 'cause I, look at all the shit I've been through.

Joe Rogan 40:08 Yeah.

Will Harris 40:08 You simply thought-

Joe Rogan 40:09 But also, your focus.

Will Harris 40:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:11 Like, you, you, you have a vision. Like, it's very clear that you're an artist. Like, when you're doing these videos, it's not simply you're filming things. Like, you're thinking about how to film.

Will Harris 40:22 Yeah, 100%.

Joe Rogan 40:23 You're thinking about the angles, how to edit it, what, what, you know, how to have a vo- people talking, you hear their voice while their, their mouth's not moving 'cause they're talking from another... You know what I'm saying?

Will Harris 40:33 Yeah, yeah, yeah, the narration.

Joe Rogan 40:34 And when you, when you-

Will Harris 40:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:34 When you see things that, where someone puts it together and, like, it makes it richer, makes it more interesting, and you-

Will Harris 40:41 Did you ever hear of a documentary called Hoop Dreams?

Joe Rogan 40:43 Yes.

Will Harris 40:43 It was, uh, that was my high school life. Like, they were older than me, but when I was in high school, that film came out.

Joe Rogan 40:49 Ah.

Will Harris 40:50 That fascinated me, and I was like, "I want-"

Joe Rogan 40:52 Just the documentary itself, yeah.

Will Harris 40:53 Documenting somebody for five years, follow their life.

Joe Rogan 40:55 Right.

Will Harris 40:56 I was obsessed, and then my favorite documentary of all time is Pumping Iron.

Joe Rogan 41:00 Oh, of course.

Will Harris 41:01 So when I saw that in college, I was like, "I wanna shoot documentaries."

Joe Rogan 41:03 Ah.

Will Harris 41:04 So I was always obsessed with documentaries. Like, I don't know if you remember Bang- you remember Bangin' in Little Rock?

Joe Rogan 41:09 Yes.

Will Harris 41:10 Whoo...

Joe Rogan 41:10 Yes. That was on HBO, right?

Will Harris 41:12 Yeah, Bangin' in Lil-

Joe Rogan 41:12 Yeah.

Will Harris 41:13 Like, all those, that's what I like. I don't like movies. I like documentaries.

Joe Rogan 41:16 Ah, me too, man.

Will Harris 41:16 So for me, I've always was obsessed with docs.

Joe Rogan 41:20 Mm.

Will Harris 41:20 I'm like, "If I can ever shoot a doc, I'd know where that passion come from." So when I literally moved to Florida, like, I literally just reached out to Shannon Briggs one day. I was like, "I w-" 'Cause I was doing weddings and music videos, so I was making money, especially with weddings. I was making a lot of money with weddings 'cause that's just... I mean, people get married every weekend.

Joe Rogan 41:39 Right.

Will Harris 41:40 Right? So, I mean, you can get... And if you get good enough, you can get three, $4,000 a wedding video. So, I mean, I'm booking two a week. I started to get to a point where I'm literally-

Joe Rogan 41:48 Let's go, Champ!

Will Harris 41:49 Yeah, that's the one, yeah, that's the one.

Joe Rogan 41:50 I love him.

Will Harris 41:51 That's the one. So that was, that was three years ago.

Joe Rogan 41:53 Did you ever see the podcast I did with him?

Will Harris 41:54 Yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 41:55 Yeah, he's-

Will Harris 41:55 It was ca- called Portrait of a Boxing Gym.

Joe Rogan 41:57 Ah.

Will Harris 41:58 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:59 Nice.

Will Harris 41:59 So, like-

Joe Rogan 42:00 He's, he's a fucking character.

Will Harris 42:01 Who was the guy D- Deontay Wilder knocked out? Ber- Bermane Sturvein?

Joe Rogan 42:05 Uh, yes, Sturmane.

Will Harris 42:07 Stiverne? Stiverne?

Joe Rogan 42:07 Yeah.

Will Harris 42:08 Yeah, that was one, I remember he was in there that day. So I wa- I used to do stuff like this before I ever decided to do Anatomy of a Fighter.

Joe Rogan 42:13 When you say who-... Daunte, Deontay Wilder knocked out. You gotta say everybody he fought. (laughs)

Will Harris 42:17 Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Joe Rogan 42:19 (laughs)

Will Harris 42:19 40 knockouts, 41 opponents.

Joe Rogan 42:21 He has the craziest fucking record in the history of boxing.

Will Harris 42:23 He knocked out Tyson Fury too.

Joe Rogan 42:24 Well, basically.

Will Harris 42:25 10 seconds.

Joe Rogan 42:26 Yeah, yeah. He didn't get up.

Will Harris 42:27 Yeah. That's my dream... Listen, if you ask me who my dream guest is on Anatomy of a Fighter-

Joe Rogan 42:32 Deontay?

Will Harris 42:34 One, I would love to do a behind-the-scenes fight companion with you guys. Just being here with the camera filming y'all motherfuckers talking.

Joe Rogan 42:40 But what, that's what we're, the fight companion is though.

Will Harris 42:42 No, no, no, but out in the hallways, the breaks and-

Joe Rogan 42:45 No, no, no, 'cause Eddie Bravo bring up some crazy conspiracies and-

Will Harris 42:48 He'll bring some crazy shit. Well, hopefully Eddie Bra-

Joe Rogan 42:49 We'll all be rolling our eyes, trying to get away from him. (laughs)

Will Harris 42:51 Ho- hopefully, hopefully I get Eddie Bravo on today-

Joe Rogan 42:53 Oh.

Will Harris 42:53 ... with Chito Vera.

Joe Rogan 42:54 Yeah, you'll get him on. Yeah.

Will Harris 42:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:55 Well, Chito's fight is canceled, right?

Will Harris 42:57 I know. So, but-

Joe Rogan 42:57 Are they trying to get him a r- replacement opponent?

Will Harris 42:59 I was hoping they, they gave-

Joe Rogan 43:00 Shout-out to Chito Vera.

Will Harris 43:01 Yeah. I, I was... He love your show, by the way.

Joe Rogan 43:03 I love him.

Will Harris 43:04 Uh, he, um-

Joe Rogan 43:05 He's a tough motherfucker.

Will Harris 43:06 He is. He, uh, I was hoping he got-

Joe Rogan 43:08 I love Sean O'Malley too. That's, it was unfortunate.

Will Harris 43:09 Yeah. I love Suga Sean.

Joe Rogan 43:10 I love both of them.

Will Harris 43:11 I love how he taking it too.

Joe Rogan 43:12 Yeah. Yeah.

Will Harris 43:12 Like, I, he taking it because, you know, I- I've seen a lot of people online talking about, you know, are they gonna move the card to Anaheim now? It's like, "Nah."

Joe Rogan 43:20 Nah.

Will Harris 43:20 They ain't doing that for Suga Sean.

Joe Rogan 43:21 He... No, no, no. He got a, he got a tainted supplement. I mean-

Will Harris 43:23 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:24 ... it's, it's... These new studies or these new tests that they have, they are so fucking extensive.

Will Harris 43:31 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:31 They catch shit that you did years ago.

Will Harris 43:34 That's crazy.

Joe Rogan 43:34 And if you took a tainted supplement with something that has zero performance benefit years ago, it can still show up in your system.

Will Harris 43:42 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:42 Whereas they used to have, like, "Oh, it'll be out of your system in six weeks," like, especially talk to, like, a gym professor. Like, there's a lot... Look, there's a lot of cheating in professional sports. There's a lot of cheating.

Will Harris 43:52 Is it?

Joe Rogan 43:52 For sure.

Will Harris 43:52 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 43:54 (Laughs) A lot of cheating in MMA, a lot. But less than there used to be because of USADA and Novitzky and what the UFC's implemented. 100% there's a lot less.

Will Harris 44:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:03 But supplements are a dirty business. I know this firsthand from ONNIT, from being one of the owners of ONNIT.

Will Harris 44:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:09 And not even supplements tainted with things that are illegal. When we first started making Alpha Brain, we, we had it independently tested. We get all our shit third-party tested-

Will Harris 44:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:18 ... and we were like, "What the fuck is this doing in there?" We had stuff in there that's not supposed to be in there. Well, it turns out when you get stuff made, like say if you have a... You put together some sort of a, a, a pre-workout drink, and you wanna have vitamin B12 and all these different things in it, you get those mixed by a third-party lab. This lab mixes it all for you, but you don't know what the fuck they're doing. They're not cleaning out their vats.

Will Harris 44:40 Nah, you don't know what they're doing. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:42 They're not cleaning out their shit. So they might have been doing steroids right before they do your shit, and you're having to make, mix you up some creatine, and your creatine has Ostirine in it, which is like-

Will Harris 44:53 Yeah, what is that?

Joe Rogan 44:54 Some kind of steroid. I don't know what it is. It's some kind of steroid.

Will Harris 44:57 I was talking to, uh, the bodybuilder, Mike Rashid, about supplements, 'cause, you know, obviously he a bodybuilder and-

Joe Rogan 45:02 Yeah.

Will Harris 45:02 ... he has a company. I think he, he works with Trifecta too, or, uh, something like that. And I was just like, "How do, how does that happen, like, these tainted supplements?" And I interviewed him about it. I'm gonna release it one day, u- uh, how he goes into it. But, you know, with bodybuilders, they catch flak because they bodybuilders.

Joe Rogan 45:18 Yeah.

Will Harris 45:18 You gotta be on something. But these guys know their shit. He has a legitimate business. So-

Joe Rogan 45:22 I'm sure he does, but most of them are on something.

Will Harris 45:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:25 Like if you want to get to the size of, like, a Lee Haney, you don't get that big without steroids.

Will Harris 45:30 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:30 It's not a human size. You know, when you get to, like, um ... You know, ju- j- just go back and look at, like, Franco Columbu and the, I mean-

Will Harris 45:38 Oh, man, my favorites. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:39 Oh, my God. You know, but, but then you look at, like, Frank Zane. Frank Zane, you can get that body without steroids. That's possible.

Will Harris 45:47 What about, what about, uh, Francis?

Joe Rogan 45:49 Francis Ngannou? Oh, yeah.

Will Harris 45:51 He, he start, if he started to be a bodybuilder, he-

Joe Rogan 45:52 Oh, my god. He'd be gigantic.

Will Harris 45:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:53 Yeah, there's freaks.

Will Harris 45:54 Just naturally, yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:54 There's natural freaks.

Will Harris 45:55 Kamaru Usman is a freak.

Joe Rogan 45:56 Yeah.

Will Harris 45:57 Like his h-

Joe Rogan 45:57 Tyron Woodley's a freak.

Will Harris 45:58 Yeah, they freaks, but-

Joe Rogan 45:59 Brock Lesnar's a freak. There's freaks.

Will Harris 46:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:01 There's, look, there's girls with giant tits. They're born with triple F tits.

Will Harris 46:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:05 This is how it works. Some guys have 20-inch dicks. This is just how the world works.

Will Harris 46:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:08 Some people have big noses. The world's weird.

Will Harris 46:11 I wouldn't want to have a 20-inch dick though.

Joe Rogan 46:12 No, it's too big.

Will Harris 46:13 Nah, that's gotta-

Joe Rogan 46:13 Ima- imagine saying that.

Will Harris 46:15 I know.

Joe Rogan 46:15 It's too big.

Will Harris 46:16 But you brag about it.

Joe Rogan 46:16 But you can't complain though. You can't complain because-

Will Harris 46:18 Eight or nine is good though, right?

Joe Rogan 46:19 But you know how many dudes are crying out there with a three-inch dick that be like-

Will Harris 46:21 I know.

Joe Rogan 46:22 ... "Oh, 17 more inches."

Will Harris 46:24 Yeah, that's crazy.

Joe Rogan 46:24 You're better off having a 20-inch dick than a three-inch dick.

Will Harris 46:27 'Cause-

Joe Rogan 46:27 Then you just find a girl who's had, like, eight kids and just wreck her.

Will Harris 46:31 It'd be weird. Like, listen, you wanna know another fun-

Joe Rogan 46:34 (laughs)

Will Harris 46:34 ... another funny online si- story in my life? These was all in the past, but I remember, uh, dating this, like, older lady, and she was like, "I'm a freak, I'm a freak, I'm a freak."

Joe Rogan 46:43 Uh-oh.

Will Harris 46:44 And I was like, "How much of a freak you is?"

Joe Rogan 46:45 (laughs)

Will Harris 46:46 Like, she went in her drawer and pulled out, like, a dildo that was, like, 20 inches.

Joe Rogan 46:50 Oh, Jesus.

Will Harris 46:50 I was just like, like a horse cock. And I was just like, "What the fuck I'm gonna do with this?" I did everything in my power to... (slaps knee)

Joe Rogan 47:00 (laughs)

Will Harris 47:00 She didn't feel shit.

Joe Rogan 47:01 (laughs)

Will Harris 47:03 I got mines though, Joe.

Joe Rogan 47:04 I believe you. I believe you.

Will Harris 47:06 Hey, it's some weirdos out there, man.

Joe Rogan 47:07 Oh, yeah.

Will Harris 47:07 We all weird in a way.

Joe Rogan 47:09 Yes, everyone's weird.

Will Harris 47:09 We all... Listen.

Joe Rogan 47:11 Everyone's weird.

Will Harris 47:11 Vegans are weird.

Joe Rogan 47:12 Yep.

Will Harris 47:12 People that say they don't drink are weird.

Joe Rogan 47:14 Yeah.

Will Harris 47:15 Uh, people that only eat nuts and berries are weird. We all weird in a way.

Joe Rogan 47:20 Atheists are weird.

Will Harris 47:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:21 Christians are weird. Lot of weirdos.

Will Harris 47:22 I c- you can't judge nobody. I be like, "Oh, I never smoked a weed in my life." But then I'm, I be online dating. That's some weirdo shit.

Joe Rogan 47:28 Yeah. You've never smoked weed ever?

Will Harris 47:29 Never, not one time.

Joe Rogan 47:31 No. How come?

Will Harris 47:31 Drink a little bit, maybe five times a year.

Joe Rogan 47:35 How come you never smoked weed?

Will Harris 47:37 Um, ad- I had an addictive family.

Joe Rogan 47:40 Ah.

Will Harris 47:40 Like, I seen it, and it was, it was embarrassing and, and, and struggling. Like, my mom was 14 years old when she gave birth to me.

Joe Rogan 47:47 Wow.

Will Harris 47:47 And my mom was born the same month I am. So she was born May 3rd, I was born May 19th. So she coulda had me at 13.

Joe Rogan 47:54 Whoa.

Will Harris 47:54 My dad was the same age. So I didn't grow up with any parents.

Joe Rogan 47:58 Right.

Will Harris 47:58 I mean, it... You know, your parents are hate h- hearing that, but I don't know my dad, um, at all.

Joe Rogan 48:04 I don't know mine either.

Will Harris 48:06 I maybe have two... I may have talked to him twice, and the, the only, the last con... You know the last conversation I ever had with my dad? He had got out of prison and I was living with his mom, my grandmother, the one that raised me. And he, like, overtook the room that I was living in 'cause it's his room again.... like a grown-ass man telling his son.

Joe Rogan 48:23 Oh, Jesus.

Will Harris 48:23 And I found his porn tapes.

Joe Rogan 48:25 (laughs)

Will Harris 48:27 And me and my best friend, like I knew, I was like, "Yo, you want to watch some porn?" So I like went up in the closet, took out the tape, put it in, and then I heard him coming in the house, so we ran and put the tape back. And this is how precise he was with his porn probably, he noticed some clothes move, so we like le- left the house, he came out the house, "Hey, stay out of my room." I said, "Man, shut up. You a grown man watching porn." This was my dad. That's like the last conversation I ever had with him.

Joe Rogan 48:51 Wow.

Will Harris 48:52 He'd been in prison all, in and out his life. That's the thing, it's like, listen man, everybody can paint, make a picture out to be poor me.

Joe Rogan 49:00 Yeah.

Will Harris 49:00 I don't... That's not me. Y- me telling you all this stuff ain't poor me.

Joe Rogan 49:04 It's just real.

Will Harris 49:05 It's just life.

Joe Rogan 49:06 Right.

Will Harris 49:06 Right? Where I'm at now is beautiful. You know, I was filming videos to survive, and then I finally found something that stuck. I never in my fucking life thought it was gonna be MMA. Never.

Joe Rogan 49:17 That's crazy.

Will Harris 49:18 Never.

Joe Rogan 49:18 So you, you saw people with addiction problems and you just didn't want to have anything to do with anything-

Will Harris 49:23 No, I, I just-

Joe Rogan 49:24 ... and you just kept-

Will Harris 49:24 Yeah, I just thought it was... Luckily for me, man, I, I found sports in, in the fifth grade, and I just was obs... I have an addictive personality.

Joe Rogan 49:31 Me too.

Will Harris 49:31 Whet- what, whether it's masturbation or anything, right?

Joe Rogan 49:34 (laughs) I have a very similar situation.

Will Harris 49:36 Yeah. I, I, you know what's crazy? I seen one of y... Like, what's fascinating about this podcast is that if you go to your channel on YouTube and you go to, click oldest videos, that's why I'm not in a, in a rush for anything, 'cause everything takes time. I looked at like one of your podcasts with Eddie Bravo, like three hours long, it got like 11,000 views.

Joe Rogan 49:53 Oh, yeah?

Will Harris 49:53 Yeah, like 20,000 views.

Joe Rogan 49:55 Well, people always want to say like, "Hey, how do I get paid for podcasts?" I'm like, "Do 'em for six years."

Will Harris 49:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:59 I didn't get paid at all for years. I mean, this podcast is almost 10 years old and I didn't really start getting paid-

Will Harris 50:05 Yeah, like-

Joe Rogan 50:06 ... like five years ago.

Will Harris 50:07 And I, that's what... It's fascinating to see that, like you go look at your oldest videos, 20,000, 30,000 views.

Joe Rogan 50:12 Yeah.

Will Harris 50:13 And that's the thing, like MMA fans are fickle, right? They like who they like, they don't like who they like. It's only about three or four fighters that can get a lot of views on YouTube.

Joe Rogan 50:21 But that's, that's, that, it's that way with everything.

Will Harris 50:23 That's what I'm saying.

Joe Rogan 50:24 So with comedy, so with...

Will Harris 50:25 Yeah. And people are fascinated. Like, m- I- I'm lucky enough to know a Khabib, right? Or somebody like that. Like, I didn't know who this guy was until Rashad Evans was like, "Yo, let me introduce you to my guy Ali." And then I met Ali filming some Renzo Gracie stuff for him, um, and he was like, "Yo. I like you, man. Let me put you together with my fighter Kha... You know who Khabib is?" I was like, "Is that the guy that fought Michael Johnson?" I didn't know who Khabib was. He was like, "I think y'all would be a good fit, 'cause the way you do stories and stuff like that, I think you, he'll like you and you'll like him." And I literally met him of January of last year, of 2018, in Boston, um, when Francis was fighting Stipe and Volkan was fighting DC.

Joe Rogan 51:08 Hmm.

Will Harris 51:08 And that was the first time I ever met Khabib, and the rest is history. I, I, I filmed him up there, he was gonna fight Tony, um, then I filmed him doing the whole Conor fiasco, Al Iaquinta. Then I went to Dagestan, I went to Dagestan.

Joe Rogan 51:21 What's that like?

Will Harris 51:22 Intense. But it was-

Joe Rogan 51:24 What was it like?

Will Harris 51:24 ... it was beautiful. Because people tried to scare me when I was supposed to go to Dagestan.

Joe Rogan 51:29 Who?

Will Harris 51:29 Like, I got people in the UFC that was like, "Yo. Be careful over there." I'm thinking like-

Joe Rogan 51:33 People that work for the UFC?

Will Harris 51:34 Yeah, just saying like, "Be careful." Like, and I'm thinking to myself like, in my DMs on Instagram, like, "Bro, just be careful."

Joe Rogan 51:41 They don't fucking play over there.

Will Harris 51:42 I was going d- I went during Ramadan last June.

Joe Rogan 51:45 Wow.

Will Harris 51:45 At the end of Ramadan. And, uh...

Joe Rogan 51:47 Did you have to observe while you were there?

Will Harris 51:50 So, uh, Khabib wanted me to come during like the last tail end of Ramadan, right? So I went over there, um, by myself, went and got my visa in Miami and went over there, just fl- got my ticket, and, um, I went over there. I remember the first day I got there, I was in like customs for like two hours, 'cause they couldn't speak English at this little airport in, in Dagestan. And Khabib was outside (laughs) and he wouldn't come in the airport 'cause he's too famous, right? And this is in the middle of the night. And I remember when I first got there, uh, it was just checkpoints everywhere when I got there. Like, we'd like drive down the street, person with some guns. I'm like, "All right, cool. This... Well, I don't know where we at, but this is Dagestan." And, um, I ended up getting to this, this... I stayed at his uncle house, I think, and from there it was, it was just a beautiful moment. The Dagestan Chronicles is my most popular thing on my channel, obviously 'cause it's showing Khabib in a way no one's ever seen him. Um, I observed Ramadan the whole time I was there. I didn't eat, I didn't drink, I did exactly what Khabib and them did, because I think a, a problem with us a lot as Americans is we take our culture somewhere else, and I wanted to observe their culture and really see what it was like. And I was fascinated, I wanted to know why women covered themselves, and I asked all of those questions. All of that stuff is in the documentary. And now when I get all these millions of people watching these videos, the most common thing is like, "Where's the women at?" And I'm like, "Why are these people so obsessed with where the women at?" And, and I literally went into that, like I asked, like, "When you, when these women are married, you don't point a camera at these people." Y-

Joe Rogan 53:20 Hmm.

Will Harris 53:20 Like, I've seen women. You just don't point a camera at 'em, it's rude, right? And that's like the-

Joe Rogan 53:25 In their culture.

Will Harris 53:26 In their culture.

Joe Rogan 53:26 Did they ex- explain this to you?

Will Harris 53:28 Yeah, they did. They did.

Joe Rogan 53:29 Or is this something... Well, how w- what did they say?

Will Harris 53:30 They literally just said they look at they w- like... I talked to a couple of 'em, a couple people over there, and they was just like, "We look at our women as, women as queens. And we cover 'em because in, in, in the, in the Quran it's, uh, you know, the man is weak to the flesh." So they don't want their woman to be c- y- n- y- you know, looked at by other men. I think it's-

Joe Rogan 53:51 Ogled.

Will Harris 53:51 Ah. Yeah, that's the word I was looking for.

Joe Rogan 53:53 Yeah.

Will Harris 53:53 So they just cover themselves up. Um, and that... In our culture, that's, you know, that may be weird, but I respected... Like what they told me, it made sense. It literally made sense, where it was just like, "Listen, we don't let another man look at our wife," right? I'm not gonna bash on that culture because I feel like that's silly. A woman can do whatever they want to do. That's just how they feel. Like I don't... You know? So, but I've seen women. I've seen some beautiful women too while I was in Dagestan. So, it wasn't the fact that I didn't film any women, I seen women.

Joe Rogan 54:23 But they explained to you, "When you go here, w- you cannot film the women?"

Will Harris 54:27 No, no, no. It was just...Yeah, in a way. Like, just don't film another man's woman. Like, I think I talked to Chris Weidman once, uh, when I was at- at his gym, when I was doing La Cuenta. He, he went to Chechnya.

Joe Rogan 54:40 Yeah.

Will Harris 54:41 And, uh, he told me a story. I think him and Werdum went to Chechnya, and he was telling me a story of like, he accidentally touched a woman's hand, and, uh, they like literally got on him like, "You don't touch another woman. You don't touch a woman's hand over here 'cause that's bad on her," right?

Joe Rogan 54:57 Right.

Will Harris 54:58 And I was like, "Damn, that's crazy. You can't even..." 'Cause he said he was just like reaching out, shaking people hands-

Joe Rogan 55:03 Right.

Will Harris 55:03 ... and then he auto ma- sh- you know, human instinct-

Joe Rogan 55:05 Right.

Will Harris 55:05 ... you reach and grab somebody hand. And he just said, "Man, that- that's a different culture over there. You can't, a woman can't touch another man's hand," so...

Joe Rogan 55:12 Yeah, that guy from Chechnya, the- the leader of Chechnya, he's like really into MMA, right? He flies-

Will Harris 55:18 I know.

Joe Rogan 55:18 ... a bunch of people out.

Will Harris 55:19 Yeah. You know what's crazy is that I don't know anything about the guy or his politics or anything, but I know that he obsessed with fighting, right? I know-

Joe Rogan 55:29 Yeah.

Will Harris 55:29 ... Tyrone Spong been over there and-

Joe Rogan 55:31 Yeah.

Will Harris 55:31 ... Weidman and all these guys. I just met, uh, Nick "The Tooth" the other day.

Joe Rogan 55:35 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 55:35 And they went u- they went over there to Chechnya, him and the Mendes brothers. Uh, they had a s-

Joe Rogan 55:41 To teach jiu-jitsu?

Will Harris 55:42 Yeah, they had l- uh, uh, I think the Mendes brothers had like a, uh-

Joe Rogan 55:45 Seminar or something?

Will Harris 55:46 ... seminar. I did like a preview of Chito Vera and he was talking about it in there, like they did a jiu-jitsu match in front of some oligarch or s-

Joe Rogan 55:54 Oh.

Will Harris 55:54 ... over there. Like, it's crazy, right? Like, they flew 'em over there for that.

Joe Rogan 55:57 Yeah.

Will Harris 55:58 So-

Joe Rogan 55:58 Well, he's got a lot of money.

Will Harris 55:59 Yeah? Oh, psh, hey, Anatomy of a Fighter needs sponsors.

Joe Rogan 56:02 Didn't he give Khabib like some crazy Mercedes when he won?

Will Harris 56:07 I think I saw that on Instagram, he got like a gift.

Joe Rogan 56:09 Yeah, I think he gave him some crazy S-Class, like a Logan S-Class.

Will Harris 56:10 Khabib getting that Dubai money now, though.

Joe Rogan 56:12 Yeah?

Will Harris 56:12 He always in Dubai. Look at-

Joe Rogan 56:14 Is he?

Will Harris 56:14 I mean, since this fight, he been in Dubai how many times?

Joe Rogan 56:17 What's he doing over there?

Will Harris 56:18 Speaking, things like that.

Joe Rogan 56:19 Oh.

Will Harris 56:19 I mean, when you one of the most fam- I think he's like top 15 in f- most famous athletes now.

Joe Rogan 56:24 Well, for sure, and definitely the most famous Muslim athlete.

Will Harris 56:28 Yeah. Yeah, so I mean, he-

Joe Rogan 56:29 And the only UFC champion that's undefeated, other than Jon Jones, who should be undefeated-

Will Harris 56:34 I-

Joe Rogan 56:34 ... if it not for that one-

Will Harris 56:35 Listen.

Joe Rogan 56:36 ... fucked up disqualification.

Will Harris 56:37 After spending time with Khabib in Dagestan, like me and his father going into the mountains and things like... I just don't see nobody beating him. I'm sorry what you throw at him, you're not go-

Joe Rogan 56:45 In what way?

Will Harris 56:46 I just feel like just his pedigree of where he from, it's nothing that's gonna break that guy. It's noth- you can't... What are you gonna do? It- I just don't think it's nothing you can do. After going to Dagestan and seeing how those people live and how their- their- their code and their- their- their values of how they live-

Joe Rogan 57:02 In what- in what way? What- what was so convincing?

Will Harris 57:04 Well, just how strict their faith is over there, right? And they tie in everything they do to their faith. It's sort of like how Ali was, like, "I'm not gonna lose because of Allah," and things like that. And I truly believe that after seeing like just the camaraderie over there, the gyms they train in, the mountains, everything that makes this guy... It's nothing in a octagon that someone is gonna do, like that's gonna beat Khabib. Like, everything can happen, a fluke can happen, we see it all the time. But I just feel like mentally there's nothing that's gonna break Khabib. Like if, I- I feel like if- if he was ever in a situation where he had to tap, he wouldn't. Like, he would- he would just have to put him to sleep, 'cause I just don't think that's possible, like to beat him. I- I honestly feel like Khabib can't lose.

Joe Rogan 57:52 Oh, yeah?

Will Harris 57:52 I just don't see nobody beating him. I just... I've been in locker rooms of fighters and you got a butterfly feeling and things like that. Like, when he fought Conor and I was in the locker room, Khabib was FaceTiming his people in Dagestan laughing, and Javier Mendez is like, "Let's get focused, let's get focused. Let's get focused." Khabib is not caring.

Joe Rogan 58:12 Wow.

Will Harris 58:12 Khabib just ready to go, right? When, uh, Tony Ferguson was fighting Pettis, he like hitting mitts with Javier and Khabib just looking up to the screen. (laughs) Javier is like, "Let's get focused, let's gets focused." Khabib don't care, man. It's a different level. H- he always say that's like his favorite thing, "This is a different level." That's what I love about him, man. It's like people are obsessed with the fighter. I like Khabib as a person. And that's the thing that I get out of this Anatomy of a Fighter is like, uh, just hanging out with this guy.

Joe Rogan 58:41 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 58:41 Like, if you ever watch my series, I never really talk about a guy's fight coming up. Like, if you ever watch Anatomy of a Fighter, it's not about your opponent. It's just about your life. Because I felt like when I created it, I felt like these organizations wasn't promoting fighters all the way. And not, yeah, they're gonna promote the top fighters and things like that, but what about the guys that are two and one in the UFC, not ranked? Like, they in the UFC, like they may get cut after a couple fights. Like, what do they have left after that? And I was just like, let me create this series instead of a documentary and just continue to build this and follow these guys' lives. And that's all I really wanted to do. It was no hidden incentive where I was like, "I'm gonna make millions of dollars off this. I'm gonna end up on a Joe Rogan podcast." It was like, I love following these fighters and telling their stories, because it's sort of like similar to my journey. You know, these guys are y- y- w- who, what was the guy that just fought, um, Deron Winn in Greenville? Eric Spicy or Spicely or whatever his name was.

Joe Rogan 59:42 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 59:42 He tweeted like, "Oh, I had..." He just got, they got fighting tonight.

Joe Rogan 59:45 Right.

Will Harris 59:45 He was like, "I had t- n- n- minus 270 in my bank account."

Joe Rogan 59:49 Yeah.

Will Harris 59:50 I- I've been there, Joe. So that's why I- I get the passion out of doing it, 'cause I've been there with these fighters. I've, at this point in my life, I've paid for fighters' flights and hotels because they couldn't get a hotel. Like, these fighters know that, some of these fighters know that, to where I'm able to help them. And I- I'm funding this all on my own-

Joe Rogan 1:00:08 Mm-hmm.

Will Harris 1:00:08 ... breaking myself. So I'm, to me, I'm just thinking to myself like, "You doing this for a specific reason. You passionate about it and you want to tell these guys' lives." And I just w- really wanted to offer another glimpse into fighters' lives other than fight week.

Joe Rogan 1:00:21 And are you getting paid from the YouTube revenue? Or...

Will Harris 1:00:24 Yeah, I, my account is monitanized- monetized and verified-

Joe Rogan 1:00:28 Monetized?

Will Harris 1:00:28 Yeah, monet- m- monetized and, uh, verified, and depending on the month, it's, it can be a good month, it can be a bad month. Um-It, it's surprising to me I haven't got a sponsor yet, like, as popular as that channel is, but it is what it is.

Joe Rogan 1:00:43 You could get one now.

Will Harris 1:00:44 Probably, who knows. I mean, shout out to, like, people like 8 Man Strong. Like, you know, th-

Joe Rogan 1:00:49 The... And that's Ryan Bader's company.

Will Harris 1:00:50 C- yeah, that's Ryan Bader.

Joe Rogan 1:00:51 Yeah.

Will Harris 1:00:51 Shout-out to Adam, the owner of it, and his brother. Like, they was the first people to ever send me stuff, like T-shirts. I was just happy. I was like, "Damn, I got some free gear," right? Like, "Man, finally." I remember seeing they, they shirts back when I first started what Kamar Uzman was wearing their stuff. And, you know, companies like that, you get money here and there from them, but, like, to sustain this? Like, remember Fight Land? Remember the show Fight Land?

Joe Rogan 1:01:14 Yeah, yeah.

Will Harris 1:01:14 I heard they went out of c- business because of m- funding.

Joe Rogan 1:01:17 Wasn't it Vice?

Will Harris 1:01:18 Yeah, something like that.

Joe Rogan 1:01:19 Wasn't that a Vice company?

Will Harris 1:01:20 Because-

Joe Rogan 1:01:20 I doubt they went out of business because of funding. Vice probably just decided to stop doing it.

Will Harris 1:01:24 Listen, Joe, you-

Joe Rogan 1:01:25 It was, right?

Will Harris 1:01:25 ... you travel.

Joe Rogan 1:01:26 But Vice is a billion-dollar company.

Will Harris 1:01:28 That is true. Wha- were they...

Joe Rogan 1:01:30 I believe Fight Land is a Vice show.

Will Harris 1:01:32 Was it?

Joe Rogan 1:01:32 Wasn't it?

Guest (very brief interjection) 1:01:33 It was.

Joe Rogan 1:01:33 Well, w- w- let's find out.

Will Harris 1:01:34 Yeah, find out.

Joe Rogan 1:01:35 I'm pretty, I'm p- I'm pretty sure, uh, Fight Land was Vice.

Will Harris 1:01:38 L- if you flew to Phoenix for three days to do comedy, um, and get a hotel, and... You, you know how expensive flight and... Like, so imagine me funding this on my own if I want to go somewhere for three days.

Joe Rogan 1:01:52 Well, especially Dagestan.

Will Harris 1:01:54 Yeah, shit like that.

Joe Rogan 1:01:55 Yeah. And where are you staying when you're in Dagestan?

Will Harris 1:01:57 I was staying with, uh... I stayed at Khabib's family house.

Joe Rogan 1:01:59 Oh, wow.

Will Harris 1:01:59 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I stayed, uh, they put me, like, above a store, and, uh... (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:04 Oh, wow.

Will Harris 1:02:04 He told me, he gave me a key, he was like, "Brother, lock this door at night, brother." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:09 Jesus Christ. (laughs)

Will Harris 1:02:11 He was like, "Don't go outside." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:12 Oh my God. (laughs)

Will Harris 1:02:13 I still went outside.

Joe Rogan 1:02:14 Did you?

Will Harris 1:02:15 Yeah, I still went outside.

Joe Rogan 1:02:16 Yeah? Where did you go?

Will Harris 1:02:17 I just was roaming, like, walking around just filming stuff.

Joe Rogan 1:02:19 What's it like out in Dagestan when you're roaming the streets?

Will Harris 1:02:22 Well, they never really seen Black people over there, so I was-

Joe Rogan 1:02:24 So...

Will Harris 1:02:24 ... like a little celebrity over there.

Joe Rogan 1:02:26 And you're a big one too.

Will Harris 1:02:26 And they know I'm from... I'm with Khabib, so I was cool with that.

Joe Rogan 1:02:29 (laughs) Oh, so they knew that?

Will Harris 1:02:30 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:02:31 Oh, okay. So they were friendly with you?

Will Harris 1:02:31 You know, you get p- ... Yeah, they was chilling.

Joe Rogan 1:02:33 Did they speak English?

Will Harris 1:02:34 A couple people did.

Joe Rogan 1:02:36 Yeah.

Will Harris 1:02:36 A couple people did. Uh...

Joe Rogan 1:02:37 Did they ask you questions?

Will Harris 1:02:38 Yeah, they asked me questions. They a- you know, they, they obviously... I had already been with Khabib at that time, you know. I was... That was past the Conor McGregor fiasco, so...

Joe Rogan 1:02:46 Right.

Will Harris 1:02:47 You know, my channel get popular 'cause of something like that, and-

Joe Rogan 1:02:49 Right, right.

Will Harris 1:02:50 ... they just watch anything Khabib-related. Um, Khabib got some crazy fans, man.

Joe Rogan 1:02:55 And how many people live in Dagestan?

Will Harris 1:02:57 Man, I don't know. Jamie, pull that up. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:02:59 (laughs) I s-... (laughs) Did you always wanna say that?

Will Harris 1:03:02 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:03:04 (laughs)

Will Harris 1:03:04 Uh...

Joe Rogan 1:03:05 I saw some of the videos of people celebrating when he won. It was fucking crazy, man.

Will Harris 1:03:08 It was nuts.

Joe Rogan 1:03:09 The streets, they're honking their horns and leaning out their windows-

Will Harris 1:03:11 When he won the f- the title or when he beat Conor?

Joe Rogan 1:03:13 When he beat Conor, when he beat Conor.

Will Harris 1:03:14 Yeah, that was crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:03:15 Yeah. 2.9 million. Yeah, okay. Cool. So, um, so it's... You're, you're... I- it's a, it's a city, but it's essentially, like, nestled in the mountains?

Will Harris 1:03:24 It's big. Yeah, it's big. It's a-

Joe Rogan 1:03:26 The mountains are, like, right next to it or something?

Will Harris 1:03:28 Yep.

Joe Rogan 1:03:28 Like, sort of like Denver?

Will Harris 1:03:28 Well, when we went to his mountain village, we had to drive, like, two hours to get there.

Joe Rogan 1:03:33 Oh, really?

Will Harris 1:03:33 Yeah. Like, we had to go on the borders of Chechnya. I had to get another visa.

Joe Rogan 1:03:37 Oh, wow.

Will Harris 1:03:38 Like, just to get through that checkpoint. I'll never forget. Like, we got to the checkpoint, and they... Like, we had to all give them our stuff, and then Khabib was, uh... Khabib was like, "Get out." (laughs) And the dude was like, "Get out," the, uh, army guy with his gun. And then I get out, and I come around the car, and Khabib was like, "Get your camera, brother," right? And then he was like, "They want to take a picture with you with the camera." I was like, "Oh, thank God."

Joe Rogan 1:04:00 Oh. (laughs)

Will Harris 1:04:01 Like, "What the hell y'all about to do?"

Joe Rogan 1:04:03 (laughs) Yeah, that's kinda strange.

Will Harris 1:04:04 I caught, like, a bad case of diarrhea while I was over there 'cause I was eating nothing but meat. I is trying to do keto while (laughs) I was over there.

Joe Rogan 1:04:11 (laughs)

Will Harris 1:04:11 And listen, the toilets are just a hole in the ground.

Joe Rogan 1:04:14 Do you have to squat?

Will Harris 1:04:15 Yeah, you gotta squat, and pull the string, or whatever.

Joe Rogan 1:04:17 Oh, Jesus.

Will Harris 1:04:17 So I remember, like, we was driving from his village at the... That was, like, my last night there, and, uh, I ca-... Like, I was... Oh, I was destroyed.

Joe Rogan 1:04:26 (laughs)

Will Harris 1:04:26 I was like... And we got two hours.

Joe Rogan 1:04:28 Oh, no.

Will Harris 1:04:29 And we, like, stopped a couple times to eat and pray, and all that stuff, for... Like, you know, I... And I remember, like, I was suffering, and Khabib was, like, filming me with his phone laughing, "Look at his brother. Look at his brother.