[music playing]
JAKE THE SNAKE ROBERTS: I want to talk about people that
have reached the pinnacle of success in their own sports,
but what do they do?
What do they do?
A moment's weakness, and they take the devil's powder
and they run it up their nose.
They call it cocaine, say it's a good time,
and their careers are gone.
All addiction is is when you're able to be
satisfied in life with a drug or a drink and nothing else.
That's all I cared about--
how much coke did I have?
Because when I ran out of dope, everything else was gone.
I was gone.
Because he'd been wrestling since he was 20 so
his body was hurting.
And you got to try to kill the pain,
and he made a lot of choices that were not good choices.
JAKE THE SNAKE ROBERTS: And we were out there 25, 26
days a month, man, at least--
at least.
When I came off road, I was so frigging beat up,
and I'd barely even have time to wash my clothes
and repack them and take off again.
[somber music]
I spent a lot of time with Jake,
and I got to see some of that firsthand.
He would stay up all night and party and do whatever.
ROBIN SMITH: At the point where he did become
more famous, certainly, and more successful than our father,
he's like a tornado.
He just spun right out of control.
MARK CALAWAY: People want to be around you,
and they want you to come to their bars.
And they want you to-- so all-- all of these things that were--
that were Jake's demon, people are just presenting it to him.
BRANDY WOODSON: In 1993, I had just graduated
from high school, and--
he was "sober," and he was making
it work in his second family.
And I packed everything and moved
to Georgia for the first time to go to college.
He talked to my mom, we packed everything up, and took
the risk because he was my dad.
And so he smoked crack the entire drive
from Texas to Georgia.
I drove.
He smoked crack.
Because when he drove and smoked crack,
I was terrified for my life.
Growing up, I always swore that I
would never, ever treat my children the way
my father treated me.
I swore that up and down a million times.
And what did I do?
I wasn't there for my children, either.
During the time of our teen years and on towards adulthood,
we didn't see him a lot.
He was an absentee father.
He was the dad that everyone wanted to have,
but didn't know what that meant and what it looked like.
Those are the darkest moments of my life because of him
not being there.
Being an absentee father really has
an impact on you when you're trying
to figure out who you are.
You know, as a kid, you still just
want your father's love, so.
JAKE THE SNAKE ROBERTS: Too busy being a star
or a drunk or a drug addict.
Wasn't there.
It's hard.