Biker interview-Billy

all right billy yes billy uh where'd you grow up where are you from originally i'm from uh charleston west virginia on big tower road tell me about your childhood you grew up with both your parents yeah i grew up with both my parents uh right up here above his trailer in a little one-room house how would you describe your your childhood i had a good childhood uh i was an only child and i you know had a good childhood i fight you in school i didn't go to school until the 10th grade and i got kicked out the first year for fighting what kind of stuff were you getting into after that well they the they sent me what's called cable adult up on florida street uptown and i went up there and i started fighting too uh just about every day and you didn't have to go you know they had no authority up there you just checked yourself out and i started drinking liquor and getting out and smoking weed and doing a little angel dust whatever and uh drugs became your part of your life at some point at some point uh in my later part of my life uh when i first started my everything it was just liquor beer wine and a little bit of weed and like i said little angels us here and there and some lsd just progressed from there and eventually got into what like heroin or stuff like that i didn't get into the heroin i didn't inject any dope or drugs uh up until i was 48 years old and my mom started dying of cancer and i started doing a little injection and heroin and oxycontin and stuff like that and i didn't start smoking cigarettes twice 48. that's all right how old are you now i'm 57 57. and you've stayed here in uh west virginia i stay in west virginia have you traveled i have traveled my mom and my step-dad uh have a house i had two houses now my mom's like i said it's gone but my stepdad has two houses now down monterey way down in arizona okay do you like this part of the country you love it here this is my home i do love it here but i don't have anything here anymore i've lost my wife for 31 years and both my mom and dad are gone and i really don't have anything here that's keeping me here i keep saying i want to leave and go back down west or or go up uh in the mountains of tucker county black waterfall somewhere in the mountains yeah and and throughout your adult life what kind of stuff were you doing oh my god uh every night i would get i was getting out and drinking and going to these bars and stuff and running with the biker gangs and fighting two and three times a night uh you know it's wonder i didn't get a real long stretch in the joint but uh i did that's the prison time yeah i did get a little pull back in the 80s uh i got convicted of uh beating the guy with a ball bat they three guys took me up to uh quincy and tried to get me uh you know shots was what they done and i took a ball bat when i got inside i they've nonchalantly used to happen to be a ball bat in the corner and i got a hold of the ball bat and i like to kill all three of them and i meant to kill the guy that they had set up up there but the gun won't kill me so they give me one to five i've done two and a half at the time right did you have kids of your own no sure i don't okay but you were married i was married for 31 years i never did go get divorced from my wife i was hoping she'd straighten up and come back home they found her may the sergius three years ago uh dead what was that from uh heroin over there yeah so tell me about the uh the swastika tattoo you've got on your arm uh well that's something i got when i was in a joint and uh i got with the abf of huttonville and you know they took care of me when you're in the joint you know you gotta you gotta side up or either you know you end up getting hurt and uh that's where i got that back in 82. so it's not necessarily your belief system as much as it was just a prison yeah community or group that you were in this group that was pretty strong in there yeah and what do you make of the the future of appalachia you know the drugs seem to be so out of control now they are poverty seems to be as bad as ever yeah back when i was growing up you never seen anyone walking around with uh backpacks uh on their back and not not had no place to stay homeless now it's it's a you see it everywhere and not only that usually if you see someone with a backpack and say they're homeless they're hooked on heroin someone's working and doing side jobs and has money every week's buying them or not buying for a rent of a place and they just soon put the dope up her arm yeah but it's a huge part problem here isn't it's an epidemic yeah yeah it's rare to find a family or house that isn't affected by it it is and you know i'm not one to judge no one but i see all this happening yeah and it's such a it's a such a beautiful part of the country and then you have this going on yeah if you scratch the surface and it's an interesting mix yeah and now you know charleston west virginia it's it's all over but uh now like huntington and different spots like down that way is where a lot of the dealers come in from out of state and they stay and and like no names being mentioned but there's people around here that goes down to huntington and gets it uh and you know you see it on the news all the time but uh it's it's a bad thing down there a lot of people dying yeah are you religious you believe in god yes i do you do yes i know if it wasn't for that man up there giving me grace and mercy i'd be been going a long time ago dear friends yeah i have i have some friends uh you know i can count em on my my one hand uh you know i really can what are your biggest regrets my biggest progress is uh the the things that i've done in the past the bad things and uh getting on the alcohol and the drugs and uh you know i i i can't say race and dirt bikes are getting all broke up because i did enjoy that but getting out drinking and getting in these car wrecks and getting hurt and a lot of the injuries i've got is from fighting you know uh i've been stabbed numerous times and you know i've had a lot of a lot of uh grace and mercy by the lord you get depressed sometimes what emotions do you go through oh yeah i get depressed and not only that i've got high anxiety uh you know i the anxiety is worse than anything i i feel like sometimes this prayer is sitting on me you know need to move up here hold on a second that's stopping where is it [Applause] pathetic it seems like it's stopping starting i think we're okay it's just water yeah okay look at that all right problem solved yeah homemade umbrella [Applause] what do you worry about uh i worry about my health these days so you know i i worry about my health a lot of getting up and all the old injuries and stuff i've had is catching up with me and other than that i'll be honest with you i have learned and i have trained myself not to let other stuff worry me like i used to because you know it's number one death stress is the number one death stress yeah and if i would sit around and worry about everything that's going on around me and stuff that i've been through i would drive myself batshit crazy so you you've spent the majority of your life kind of what people would describe as a hell raiser yeah and yeah where do you think that comes from because you said your childhood was pretty well i'll tell you uh my dad and me sit down i don't know probably 15 years ago and he he talked to me about the drinking and the fighting and he said you know billy i think i know where you got this crazy [ __ ] and i said where's that dad and he said your grandpa goodson he said nobody knew where he come from nobody knew where he was born he was from virginia and he was a steel worker and he drunk he was a little man and he drunk whiskey and and he would come home from a bars and my grandma had eight kids uh five of them i think was boys and he would come home and jump on grandma and and came you know when the boys got old enough they all started ganging up on him and and you know whooping his butt when he was and he died of cancer before i was old enough to ever sing ted goodson was his name and the the biker gangs that you were in tell me without getting in into too many specifics what that what kind of life that was well you know it was a rough life uh you know i never was patched up uh but i run at a young age with different gangs i knew a lot of older guys that was in different biker gangs and not only you know did i get with them at times and run with them and go their pick growths and stuff like that i knew a lot of them on personal uh level and i would go to different ones and and you know stay weekends and and party drink and raise hell with some music you know and uh had a good time back then but you know you just had to watch your p's and q's dodge your eyes and cross your teeth or you end up with one ear cut off or something you know if you could have lived your life differently what would you have done i could live my life differently i'd try to stay in school and graduate and get a good job i have good good trays i was a i was a mason by trade my dad taught me how to lay block brick but you know i i never did when i was younger i get jobs good jobs and back then i thought not paying into the government just getting cash money was the way to go and now here i said drawing 700 some damn dollars a month can't even hardly survive and back then i was making 700 a day laying block you know so i would do that different i i would i would have turned all my my earnings into social security and and stuff and i'll be drawing pretty good check now you know what you say is the most important lesson you've learned in your life most important lesson i've learned in my life and this is not no [ __ ] is to stay away from the damn alcohol and the drugs and to try to grow when you're growing up go to school get your education and get you a good job because this whole world out here is a rough [ __ ] and it don't care who it hurts or or when it does the people in it and it's getting worse and that being said if you're not out running these streets with these type of people and just doing this kind of stuff you you need to be get at a good job where you can have a good life that's what i would do different i wouldn't be running was i wouldn't run with the people i did do drugs and bad [ __ ] i i was having a good job or at least how hat would have had a good job and be drawing a good pension now that's why i would do different and i would tell all these youngers and young younger people god whatever you do whatever you do listen to this old man because i walk in steps and i know what i know what what's out there bad [ __ ] if you don't go down the right road so stay away from me more people and and doing these little bad things i'm telling you right now you'll prosper and you'll be glad you did all right billy thank you so much for sharing your story you're welcome sir i wish you the best of luck thank you i appreciate it and you take care thank you man all right

Channel: Soft White Underbelly

Views: 251,246

Rating: 4.9362903 out of 5

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Id: Ky5crQ92hso

Length: 14min 56sec (896 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 02 2021