Joe Rogan Experience #737 — Lance Armstrong Transcript

Transcript

0:00 Yeah. And we're live, ladies and gentlemen, Lance Armstrong. How are you, buddy? or yeah i mean that's right you're you're going to have, I mean, what did we, I mean, I posted the other day we were putting our Christmas tree up. definitely deserve some of it right yeah for sure there for sure. There's no way around that. Yeah, right. But is it? So that meets really the perfect drug. I mean, you have a drug that's incredibly beneficial

3:51 the people who were there, I think, can speak to it. Me, my teammates, my peers, my rivals, they want to find someone who's done something bad and never let it go. And I think there's, And that's right around when you started uzpo 95 95 so around Right. And then we get to 95, there's tremendous pressure on the team, within the team. I didn't mean it that way.

7:28 I mean, EPO is this hugely powerful drug, but there was, you know, we sort of call them How does it work for racing bikes? I love it when in cycling, if you took cortisone, you would be banned. So it is what it is. Well, it's all performance-enhancing. somewhere. There has to be a line. there was going on. We know that. And they'd put it in their teat.

11:49 because it's so grinding. But once you get to the top level, it's remarkable how efficient it is. The peloton paces itself. They look at my generation and they say, OK, well, the times must be significantly faster. blood. You didn't have to put it back in. It made it, you know, it made it a lot easier. You obviously trained like a demon pushed you know when I when I if I were to say things like that people would they would

16:02 But, of course, you get, you know, there's no defense to that. But that's not a surprise to you or anybody else. in that lie or that deception. is I've tried to make amends with all those people, right? ready. But most of those people said, you know what're good we're done and so if it was my son Cycler? And that's, yeah. There's a lot of weight you're carrying around.

19:40 And it makes me having kids myself, it makes me cry. anymore no those goddamn things were everywhere yeah yeah they were we had a good run and 85 And what we just said, I mean, we now know on all of those things, right? And maybe they're right. Yeah. I mean, that's the story was so the story was too big. sure that children don't do this. janky sport in terms of the way it's organized and run as a business, that it was like a South American economy.

23:51 the things that i've always said about extreme winners is uh there's there's a borderline No, but I don't think you're bad. I don't think you're a bad guy That's it. You can't you know can't fake to the left and go to the right That concentrates the only way to win yeah it's it's an endurance event, so you have to be a little careful with that. And you have to manage it over the course of many, many, many days.

26:33 had to back down like there was is there moments where you like you're managing because i didn't that effort a lot easier. What is it? What are the differences in numbers? Like if you go back story got exposed. And so then people question everybody, whether it's Chris Froome, who won And I get asked all the time, what's going on now? kind of pissed off that there are performance enhancing drugs like if there was

29:30 But there are others that don't hold that belief. No, he's not like Bill. Oh, they're here. How do you find the guy who won it? So in the Tour, you have the yellow jersey, who's the guy who wins. So there's just an asterisk in first place. And it makes me sad because, look, I'm going to be honest. have those yellow jerseys in your house or do you have to give them back no good fuck them

33:22 capture those memories for myself and for my teammates. Facebook and social media, and, uh, it would have, it would have been a thousand times worse. Not immediately. So that's a relief. She came out hot. Especially if you're going to do something like that on television, you want to capture You mean people didn't like you afterwards in that way? I'm going to find the place that I'd rather sit down and talk about this

37:23 For the majority of the population, those first five minutes was way too much information. But I don't know why they would think So I see because they were also supporting Livestrong. it takes a hit in terms of obviously in terms of fundraising which directly leads to its effectiveness in terms of helping create change for cancer survivors all around the world.

39:26 yeah he's a biker so people say the ultimate fighting challenge it's championship But back in the day, before they got it dialed in. right yeah it's your motor oil But more red cells means thicker blood. that were 60, 64%. Those guys might be getting up in the middle of the night going for a little spin. there was this wave of dutch cyclists that passed away in the night and you know in the night huh in their sleep and that's

42:52 That was really what I thought. I mean, yeah. Testosterone and human growth hormone and EPO and all these. Well, for sure, yeah. that was the final piece yeah which just was unfortunately and it was as we've said numerous Starving yourself, training your ass off, just being, as you said a minute ago, light it's all power to weight i wish you were still i wish i would like to know what the fuck

48:34 what is that, 16 years? You're inexorably tied to it. those stories that get written whether it's on deadspin or the New York Times or on Twitter, Ask them. You think of skateboarding, you think of Tony Hawk. Greg LeMond is a cyclist. What's the other guy?. He's kind of a swimmer. But there's not a lot of names. Greg LeMond's a cyclist. I did. and you carrying the weight of that sport in the united states and trying to popularize it as well as holding on to this lie.

51:22 Right. Hundreds of millions of people who can get on their Facebook or get on their Twitter So if I walked down the street, which I have to admit was better than I expected, right? That is the most important thing. And a real credit to the city of Austin and the schools that they go to and our community and their friends and the kids in the school, very little blowback.

53:47 the lawsuit just piled up. I mean, and piled up big. But there were... And some of them were highly publicized, and some were not. The problem, the team was And when is that going to be resolved? allocation of resources towards someone who was bike racing. and murder and all the fucking So that's kind of a good old boys club that we're not a part of.

56:46 and a gun, they're talking. Yeah, it gets weird, right? Yeah. It's a different kind of investigation. But I think the idea that he was brought into the investigation, I don't know that that's necessarily true. I think – and again, I don't know Jeff, but I think he went, I think he looked for those cases. But I think he was opportunistic when it came to these cases, whether it's Barry Bonds or myself.

58:42 So the, the, I think the real problem is the allocation of money, it seems like it was a fuckload more money than a hundred thousand dollars yeah well that's that's That's why we know about these cases in such an extreme detail. He asked to do it. And he's done a fantastic job to the point where, as I was telling you before the podcast, said before the podcast i mean you have a sport where you know the bigger and stronger you are

1:01:17 I mean, there's great guys right now. big problems with the ufc You know, you're not talking about an extreme endurance sport. just gave a pretty good perspective on it so uh more power to him there it's just it's messy But the tour seems like it's so pervasive that if they pulled the drugs out, The impression is, or when I do Oprah, for example, which is three or four months later,

1:04:39 all right, this shit's going down. This is unbelievable. Being in the middle of it, being me, this is unreal. And I thought, you know, and we're talking about 1999 through 2005, but let's use 99 as an And, you know, that's not totally accurate. Yeah, and this is before. whether it's agreeing to that Because you're such a fucking winner. That's a great idea.

1:06:52 I didn't have that North Star, man. about it. But, but, but the more defensive I became and the more aggressive I became in the denials, all that does, right, is it might appease some people or supporters go, did you? That's a real bad approach. Did you read what he's, I mean, he probably didn't even say anything. it's good to be a competitor, but it's not good to be too competitive.

1:09:46 they knew what you were doing, I don't know, They never pulled you aside? And they didn't ask you? really yeah no one no wow that's fucking crazy if i was your friend dude i would have got you And what you want you you Oh, really? Please do. That's a good drug. It never lets you forget. opposite pot is a uh open your focus this is fascinating though isn't it jamie forget you

1:13:23 but at a certain level, you're certainly impaired, Paranoia. And for them to pretend that they didn't know what I knew as a fucking comedian who, again, peripherally watched cycling. How the fuck does Nike not know? But they kind of knew, and they just said, it's all right. about it but can you talk about this is this is a reality when you are accused of defrauding the

1:15:52 Just from a, I don't want to get crushed by my lawyers, but we like our case. equaled a significant increase in revenue. So we like our case. I mean, and at this point, And what can we prove to be the damages? And, uh, you know, I mean, we had three houses. I mean, the happiness factor is exactly the same. Right. more things. And it actually makes you more tense. It gives you more to think about.

1:20:03 So I still speak, and sometimes I'm paid to speak. And then there are just other appearances. I mean, are dedicating all this time. We do a billion now. I mean, that's just the way it is. How many of them were cool with it? Right. going through it, people either lean in or they lean out. And some people lean out, which means But then there are others that lean in and they surprise you.

1:24:01 And for 20 years, you know, there was just a bunch of chumps overcome great adversity he says his lads he's overcome great adversity. He says, Lance, he's overcome great diversity. You're trying to set an example. So you didn't have to explain. That's awesome. Anna goes, we all go to them, the kids go, So we still sit down and just kind of work this out, dude. This is not,

1:27:05 in another class goes, isn't your dad that cheater? Like, he's going to be like, what? Like, he doesn't probably think I should have been more proactive, And what was their reaction? And my point to Oprah was that at this point, I get to say to Luke, stop defending me. You don't need to defend me anymore. Right. especially if you're talking about the importance of being honest

1:29:35 Not too many people would be fucking with him. it's also open and it's also brought up by coaches it's also brought up by trainers And it didn't. And it was just surreal, you know, have been surprised, I suppose. Well, they needed a landmark case. I mean, if you look at the But it still pains me to, look, I know what went on. which is really, I think, bothered a lot of people that, that this person being me

1:34:46 When you have this thing where you're on video over and over and over and over and over and over again, being deceptive over and over again, defending yourself when you it's. uh-uh, I'm never trusting this guy ever again. I don't care. I don't care how apologetic or But it's not as if, you know, there's anything crazy out there outside of that. So I train every day.

1:37:31 I mean, you could run for an hour. right we're gonna you know so that's that's but that's that's on me i gotta work that out and Like you're in there, you're suffering. Traffic in Austin is not like L.A., but it's bad now. No. We can keep going. Yeah, definitely. that people, they love the idea of someone who is like a superhuman person, the Roaring Fork Valley was kind of his domain.

1:41:00 he says champ he says uh did you ever meet hunter and i said no i never met him and he pauses dead it's fine some of the people are still alive. They're still alive. Right. You know what he said? We could actually read it on the air. Yeah. appearances like we would do like the Conan O'Brien show and you could 511, coffee, Dunhills, 530, more ice in the Chivas, 545, cocaine, 5.11, coffee, Dunhills, 5.30, more ice in the Chivas, 5.45, cocaine, etc., etc.

1:44:21 Now it got serious. Chivas, coffee, Heineken, clove cigarettes, Yeah. 8.20, Halcyon. That's the first, that was before Ambien. Yeah, 820 sleep. the illusion of near infinite possibility Yeah, it applies to your life. If I was just a cyclist, we wouldn't be having this conversation. that fall came swift and hard man well there's parallels in life when it comes to this story in

1:47:17 TMZ alone. And I don't know how that's going to happen, but I think it's going to happen with something that connects us Yeah, I mean I dropped it so I did drop my phone, but I'm like I'm like fucking scratching myself I don't touch it. traffic and the guy's on his phone? trolls. And the guy says, not that this lady, I'm not calling her a troll, but the guy says, is anybody

1:50:06 You definitely like a challenge. Ha, cool, thanks. He says ha, cool, thanks. have secrets from anybody in the future right i think um you kind of you caught like the wave of this trend Nobody's. He could have been. come on, man. what do you give a shit? fucking thing. Really? Thanks for doing this. That's it.