The Inspiring Story of Former Hells Angel President Mel Chancey : Start Today Podcast Episode #57

what's happening guys welcome to the start today podcast i'm your host chris cavellini today we have a very special episode for you one that i've been looking forward to for a very long time i have a guest in the studio today who is someone who is thoroughly familiar with the taste of rock bottom mel chancey is a former president of the most well-known outlaw biker gang the world has ever known that of course being the hell's angels he was the youngest president in the group's 72-year history becoming president of the angels at just 23 years of age he's been to hell and back on more than one occasion served multiple prison sentences led the charge during the notorious hell's angel and outlaw war a six-year bloodbath that has come to be known as one of the most deadly violent gang wars in the history of organized crime as the leader of the hell's angels he's been implicated in criminal activities ranging from drug trafficking extortion murders bombings and too many shootings to recall and he actually lived to tell about it at one point federal law enforcement agencies considered him to be one of the most wanted and dangerous gangsters in the entire country ultimately he was targeted and brought down to the rico act the racketeer influence and corrupt organizations act as a federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization and it was also something that was formed specifically to bring down the bosses of organized crime syndicates today mel walks a different path he walks the path of righteousness he's involved with many successful business endeavors including core medical group the ifbb and mpc where he hosts professional fitness competitions as well as being the right-hand man to jim mannion the owner and founder of the npc and president of the ifbb he's a speaker philanthropist and a catalyst for positive lasting change for grown-ups and children alike his story that will be discussed today is so extraordinary that he's currently in negotiations with dwayne the rock johnson and his production company seven bucks entertainment to film a docu-series outlining his life story but once upon a time mel was one of the most feared ruthless violent outlaws that you'll ever hear about he took his oath as the leader of the hell's angels very seriously and unleashed his fury on rival gangs or anyone else involved in organized crime that dared opposed him although a true blood criminal mel never hurt innocent people his wrath was saved exclusively for other outlaws who he and his fellow angels were at war with or anyone who made the mistake of hurting the people he cared about mel once served a four-year prison sentence following an incident which involved an ex-girlfriend after being made aware that a former girlfriend of his who was still very close and had remained good friends with had been severely beaten by her new boyfriend mel and a couple of his angel brothers broke into the boyfriend's home and with the assistance of a baseball bat duct tape firearms and a pair of pliers taught this woman beater a lesson he would never forget now take us back to that day and and just walk us through how it all went down okay so um you know uh the girl was an ex-girlfriend of mine that i was very close with her family still and um you know we broke up just because i had so many different things going on in life and so many different women going on so i still had a lot of feelings for her and her sister reached out to me to tell me about how the previous the voice the boyfriend she was with at the time was laying his hands on her beating her up and real jealous you know wouldn't let her you know a guy would look at her he'd take it out on her so um once that got made to my attention um i happened to give the girl a call on a sunday and we didn't talk too much bro because she was pretty upset with me for breaking up with her and she had to find a new dude but you obviously still cared about her still cared about her her family owned a bar that we hung out in i was tight with her mother and father and uh you know she still had to see me inside the bar with different various of girls that i had back in the day so we didn't have the best relationship you know she was scoring at me but i reached out to her on the sunday afternoon because i found it hard to believe that she would be letting us go on you know and um she answered the phone and you know i said to her i said hey kendall i said what's what's going on man what's this i hear that you're you're in this kind of abusive relationship well lo and behold i didn't know that he was in the car with him so he grabbed the phone and threw him and shot me some choice words and said hey you know we got he hey [ __ ] he said i got a a bullet with your name on it don't think i'm afraid of you because you're the leader of hell's angels i got a crew and he went into that mode on me so after i smashed the home phone that i called him on because i was irate then next the next day monday me and two two of the other guys went over to her mom and dad's house to sit down and talk about what was going on her dad being an ex-marine he was not happy with what was happening here he had all kinds of crazy plans and we were trying to tell him all right pop slow it down man let's see what's going on lo and behold that monday evening a knock on the door comes a ring and the doorbell comes at her at the parents house and her mom gets up to go see who's at the door the door opens and uh here comes kendall in pretty banged up you know um i swollen socket you know i think he broke her orbital from from orbit from what we were understanding banged up and um so we hear her mom scream and we go in the kitchen and and and uh in the doorway and we see what's going on with her and her dad goes crazy and starts loading guns up and we're telling him slow down slow down right you can't go do this craziness you know so the plan was a johnny on the spot plan you know and being who we were we were so used to that lifestyle everything was on the spot with us you know you knew what to do we know what to do so my one you know my one brother you know i call him the other co-defendants he uh he said hey i'll be back i'm running to the house i go right on and we stayed there and we kind of and you knew what that meant we knew i knew what that meant yeah we kind of was helping her out do you mind elaborating on when someone says hey i'm going to the house yeah he's so we had uh we always had the the tool kit set up for what we needed to do if we found out some bad guys were somewhere and we went and got you know if we can some certain things the ball bats the pliers the you know we always had firearms on our bodies and stuff like that but if we knew we were going to go do a number on somebody that was the toolkit we got out the tool bag and uh so i stayed at the house with the other with the uh with the other uh member and there was three of us and uh we you know kind of were walking through with her dad what was going to happen and stuff and we had to give her some pain pills because she was in pain and stuff and she would have never went for the idea so as much as this was happening to her through the years and i'm going to take you back in a time where it's it was a pre oj so oj changed the law of what was going on so before oj and nicole if a girl if a guy beat up his girl and she called the police and the police came and put the charge on him if she didn't show up in court they sold it they called to throw it out yeah after the oj and nicole thing it didn't matter once that charge was put on you the state picked it up right so we know that so that's what changed that law that's what the time frame we're in that 96 7 area so she this happened to her about five or six times and she just never went to court because he'd say i love you and she i love you you know women get in these relationships they can't get out they just love the guy she loved them and uh he was just so jealous so we we knew that she wasn't gonna go for anything so we pain pilled her up a little bit and made her mood okay and we told her hey listen we're gonna go back to your dad's house so the gentleman i'm talking about was her stepdad and her real mom her real dad who her mom were separated from they were renting this house from him so it was his house so we said we're gonna go we'll go there we're gonna take you with us kendall we're gonna get pack up some of your stuff when we leave you're gonna call him up and tell him to come and get all his stuff out and tomorrow your real dad's gonna come and change the locks on this house and you're gonna come back home with your mother and george sure and she said okay but the whole time we knew we knew we were just spinning or what we needed to do so um so we went it was real cold that was i think the actual date is december 16th of 96 because you don't forget them days sure freezing out probably 20 below in chicago and uh we drove over to the house george and kendall drove together and we got in the house and you know we took the fella started packing up some of her stuff with her clothes and stuff like that but we had her call him on the phone when she called him on the phone and told him what the plan was we knew he was going to be no kendall please i'm sorry right i'm on my way please don't leave and she's like brian i'm here with george come get your stuff when we leave and my dad's changing these locks on it tomorrow and we're done it's a wrap with us we're done and no kendall i love you i'm going to be right there i'm going to be right there and the whole time we're behind the scenes going our plans working because we wanted to lure him there so um so that that that's what that's what we did we were doing that and he came to the house just like we knew he would about 15 minutes later and then the plan was as soon as he walked into the door that george was going to get kendall out the back door because of course she didn't know what was happening and stuff like that and that's what happened so him and uh him and one of his um one of his guys walked in the door together not knowing we were there coming in to you know see kendall and then one of my guys shut the door behind him and i'm popped on the light i'm sitting on the couch the living room couch and he sees me and who were you weighing in at that time i was always around 290. that was my going weights back in them days yes you know i was always real big like that that could be a pretty intimidating sight for our listeners yeah and uh you know you go into a situation like that the light flickers on you have the 290 pound boss of the hell's angel sitting on your couch yeah yeah welcome home welcome home so and he knew me from the nightclub like i said her stepdad owned this big this big club a lot of us hung out and he was hanging out there because she bartended so he knew me and i didn't know him but he knew of the whole presence and seeing me out and stuff like that so you know so when he looked at me and he was like oh hey hey bro hey bro is kendall here and i said oh i said well now i'm your bro i said but yesterday you were telling me to go f my mother and the whole nine yards which made me smash the phone i said so no kendall's not here you know i said but uh you know we're here and we're gonna talk his friend that he brought into the house um i knew a story where uh this this gentleman was beating kendall up at the time and his friend stopped him and said hey you ain't doing that [ __ ] in front of me and i knew that story and i asked him if that if he was that guy and he told me yes and i said well i got some respect for you for doing that you know and that's when he said i don't want no part of this and and and that's what we told him he said can i leave and i said no we can't let you go because i don't know where you're gonna go so you know you're gonna they're gonna secure you somewhere in here what does that mean when you're done so they took them in the basement you know tied them up put him in the basement and stuff and uh and uh he he got out the window but let me get to that so and i told him you know i don't know where you're gonna go there were some street guys you know and they had some some friends too so i don't know if they're gonna go bring back 10 guys we're going to be in a shootout in the house yeah so um and he did he was cool with that he didn't want no part of it i said but i just wanted to get out of the situation i said because it's going to be a bad scene for your dude here and you know we knew the kid we we heard the kid was good with his hands and stuff like that he was a fighter so as my two guys were you know done moving some of her stuff and getting her stuff together um you know me and him tussled in this in this little small hallway and it wasn't working out for him you know i was heavy i was big i could fight and uh so duct tape them put them in a chair straight up chair like this roll a duct tape around him and stuff and that's when the baseball bat comes out because i'm going to teach him a lesson for the beatings that he's given her the police reports and stuff and that's where my frame of mind was you know i was in that frame of mind like you should have not been doing this to somebody that was that close to me you knew you know what i mean and people were around telling them like he's gonna get wind of this man this is not a good situation to do you know i think honestly it also just kind of puts in a perspective the frame of mind you were in at that time that even though i mean look you're an outlaw right you're breaking the law like you were prepared for whatever scenario presented itself that day yeah but in that moment you know you had the foresight to recognize another guy who was kind of guilty by association and that could have went a different way and i'm sure there were situations before where you know you guys had conflicts with other gangs and and criminals you guys got into where people were casualties of circumstance and i think that really kind of says a lot about you that even in your most psychotic days you still had a good heart and that's something that i didn't really include in my bio because i kind of wanted to make it a little dramatic and yeah yeah yeah but guys like mel chancey is one of the scariest looking individuals that you will ever see at google google his name and you're gonna see he looks like if if you close your eyes there what would the president of the hell's angels look like like that's mel he looks exactly what you would think but he's also one of the most kind-hearted genuine caring compassionate empathetic individuals that i've ever had the privilege to meet and i've told you this in private many times and i will continue to to repeat that sentiment because it's special you're special and just to share a little personal story you know this is uh you've come to nutrition solutions and and and spoke to our team multiple times which i'm so grateful for you've impacted the lives of people all over the world but a lot of people here at the company and uh it's really really amazing that you know they have the opportunity to to learn from you for you to share their share your story and you know here we've got people that have been through it been through their own trials and tribulations and hearing the story and just the extraordinary circumstances of your life it it gives them more than inspiration it gives them hope and uh you know i have firsthand knowledge that there's multiple people who literally mel met at a at a talk he did at the company coming through and spent some time talking to you and then ultimately gave his personal phone number too yeah and that is not something that is common it's not something you see and i will tell you that it just means so much to me and i know it means a lot to them and that that that's who melancholy is present-day and i believe you were always that person to a certain extent yeah but backing up man how do you get how do you get into the hells angels what drew you to that life and what brought you to that place well the guys that i so i signed up at a little gym back in the day you know and this is in the 80s with a little key gym was 10 bucks a month get the key you go anytime you want and um there was two guys in there and they were to guide they were bigger guys they wore jeans work boots you know probably didn't train much of legs back in them days but they were big upper bodies and stuff and they were involved in a motorcycle club called the hell's henchman okay which we ended up oh that group became the hell's angel so we started the first chapter in the midwest chicago was through us so the guys that showed me how to train and dead lift and the crazy training that we all know about that makes you that massive big bodybuilder were the same dudes that showed me how to were you when you first met them and would see them in the gym and i'm sure you know they're bigger they're older little you're a younger guy you look up to them were you aware of what they were like what they did or how long into you forming a relationship with them did you become made aware that they were outlaw bikers well not too long maybe a few months if you know if i had to take a guess because how how weird it worked out too is a lot of people know this story so my daughter who is now 34 and i was 16 just turning 17 when when my girl at the time had her she lived on the corner in this town right in my neighborhood called in crestwood and two doors down was one of the guys that was in the gym they were neighbors shows you know when i first seen him pull in the driveway and i said to my daughter's mom you know jenny her name was i said hey man i see that dude in my gym and she's like oh that's johnny that's our neighbor johnny long pony tail goatee you know tatted from his neck down like i said word jeans and worked construction big upper body and i said man i want to look like that you know i wanted that look and you had a crazy chopper so when i was j i wasn't 16 yet when i got kicked out of high school so there was a there was a fight in in the high school i was part of the fight me and another guy threw some people through the library window getting kicked out of school my mom had to come they had me in an office my mom was talking to the dean when they let me in the office i seen my mother crying you know i know a lot of the viewers know i just took care of my mother until she passed at 90 years old my i came from a very tight family so when i seen my mom crying in the dean's office i said well mom what are you crying for and that's when he was like wow if your mother knew how to control her son and you know he was doing that so i jumped over the desk socked him in the nose the dean socked him in the nose broke his nose i ran out of the the office ran through the neighborhood you know did the warrior scene all the way home where were you going go i was going back to my mom dad's house right but i was just driving through the neighborhood i heard the sirens i seen the police cars out looking so i made it all the way you know like like like a 25 minute run through these houses home to my mom's house i get to my mom's house and at the time she's running the bank in the town which she became a crossing guard later for but everybody knew our family yeah my dad was the baseball coaches for all the kids i mean the chansey family in this town we grew up and elsa was my mom ran the bank my dad ran all the the sports with the uh baseball i was on the baseball team they were there waiting for me so anyways i wasn't you know i wasn't 16 yet my mom and dad had to pay for the for the you know for the damages to the to the dean yeah they kicked me out of the district i was gonna have to go to another district so my mom was gonna have to drive me 40 minutes away take me to school and i basically told her mom i'm gonna you're gonna drop me off at the front door and i'm walking out the back schooling me is a wrap i don't want to go no more so she signed me out so it was great because it was summer and my my family was you know a good middle class family my dad hard work and my mom working my two sisters we had a big pool in the yard so i'm lounging in the pool every day thinking this is great at 16 and then one day my mom came home with some construction boots and she said you're going to work and i went to work for my uncle's concrete company and that's what got me into the concrete and lo and behold that's what this john was doing pouring concrete so when i couldn't get along with my uncle after a year because he was a slave driver so to say he lived for that hard work and i went i went and got on john's crew and then that's when i got my first motorcycle at 16 years old 17 years old i was able to get my first i rock back in the day them were the big cars i got a harley everybody else was on the school bus and i was pouring concrete all day and making money making you know 17 18 bucks an hour back then that had to 87 86 somewhere around there yeah manual labor pays well it's hard work hard work but i was you know i i had the fruits of it i was able to buy what i wanted to you know so once i got the motorcycle and stuff and then you know i started hanging around with the with the hell's henchman and going to their parties and seeing what it was like and seeing the girls and the guys on the bikes with the colors on and stuff like that you know i got bit by that bug and i was training with them guys and stuff like that so at the time the rule was you had to be 21 years old to get into a motorcycle club you know you got to be in a bar and stuff so um this guy who ended up being my sponsor which he's he's right here on this tombstone big l and he got killed in 92. was that in the war with the war stuff yeah um so we're going down one night and it's real cold out it's winter we're in the car and he said okay i'm bringing you up for hang around prospect or for prospect status which basically means you go from being a nobody to being officially yes in the prospect yeah kind of like i see you do here yeah i mean with your with your thing you're very structured here and it reminds me of that you know these guys your team earns their way up to to to the latter you know to prospect yes so i said okay alan he goes and that was a big heavy set guy his nickname we called him slob because he was he wasn't you know the obese fat bastard fat yeah yeah but he was six foot two heavy gut barrel chested biker you know so we said all right when we get there and they get you in the room you're 21. and how old were you 17. got it he's like you're 21 you got it and i go yeah he goes okay they're gonna ask you and i okay he goes you look [ __ ] 30 and i cuz i had a goatee you know already i was already kind of built for training a little bit all natural still but i had a nice little built i was pouring concrete so i was you know looked surfer big you know yeah yeah and um so he gets me in the room with the president the vice president the sergeant arms all the officers right and they said so you want to make this official huh you want to be a prospect yeah you know where you know we're at war with another motorcycle club you know and i said okay yeah i know that and they said okay you know you're ready for all that and i said yeah you know this lifestyle could throw you in prison could throw you in you know the grave i know i'm ready i'm ready okay the president he says okay hey man how old are you exactly you know we know you're a youngster but how old are you exactly and i'm looking around the room and i got a case of paranoia scaredness and i'm like man i can't lie to these guys right and i go uh i'm 17 but i'm going to be 18 in february and they looked around they go what and they look at al and al goes you told me you were 21 and i go yeah of course i did i said i didn't want to let you down yeah i said and i went with the flow with them right so they're like ah no you can't uh we can't do that man you gotta be 21 i said okay but you can be our friend and you can come and go to parties and stuff and i said good with that so that 35 minute ride home from that clubhouse back to our neighborhood was very intimidating for me because al was really pissed off at me and i said bro i got scared man like intimidating situation to be in for a young man i'm in the clubhouse of the the hell's henchman who is you know is a notorious motorcycle club here you know he goes i get it i get it so one year later i kind of disappear i'm training working just doing my own thing seeing the guys at the bars once in a while i wasn't going to the clubhouse they invited me down for a big party i went down for the party they bring me in the room and the president at the time he goes how old are you now and i go 19. man it's only a year later he goes [ __ ] your good age terrible he goes you look you know you look like you're in your mid-20s you know and the pictures you've seen of me at 23. i mean i look like a grown age yes man and uh so they're like listen man you got a lot of heart you're always the guys are always seeing you out and this and that so we're gonna we're gonna bend the rules man if you want to come around and be in the club then you can you can start prospecting and that's not something that was common or done may perhaps had never be done at that time in that organization as far as them breaking the rules that's really pending yeah yeah bending the rules yeah man breaking their own rules so to say you know and uh i was like okay cool man i appreciate it and uh and you know that's how i i worked my way in into the club with that with the hell's henchman you know and um we were fighting with another motorcycle club a local motorcycle club in chicago but it was you know as i call it i know you laugh i call it the the school ground fights beating each other up in the bars ball peen hammers some axe handles if they can get you know they were you trying to use the axe handles on us and you know they're not deadly not not deadly shooting a killing or nothing like that you know they they grabbed a few of our guys one time four or five guys in a bar and there was about 20 of them and jumping on the guys kicks that i had the stuff like that which i always say is the playground stuff because obviously later what we got in sure is much different yeah so um and i was out i remember man them guys were like what time you uh start your start your morning at on the job site 6 30 okay we'll have you home by 5 30. have an hour to make your lunch and go gotcha so i spent many a nights out with the guys you know cruising around looking for the crews you know doing this and doing that and then going right to work you know so then it wasn't too long after that the fella showed me the drug game the cocaine game and stuff like that and i said man these guys are making you know a couple grand uh a week yeah slinging some drugs it's much easier than pouring coffee pouring concrete all day and being tired all night so i uh went to the people i worked for and i said hey guys you guys been good to me and now i i had my own crew i was a foreman i was real good at foundations i was real good at finishing you know i was young so i was in i was just in that gung-ho mood i liked the money and i liked the work you know and i gave my two-week notice and my boss says to me man mel where are you going is there can i do something to keep you here i said no brother i'm starting a drug empire and he looked at me all crazy and he goes what and i said yeah man i'm done working i'm done you know and that's how i started man i started out with the little eight balls and you know and i know i know you know how yeah you know how and then the next thing i know before i know it it's the keys and it's the let's not jump around too much so you were made i don't know the process are you are you elected was it a hostile takeover how did you become the president of the angels at 23 because that's a big deal yeah so the former president who was the president of the hell's henchman for all these years he was probably the president for 15 16 years into the merge with the hell's angels and how old was he um she's he's in his upper seventies now i'm 51 so he's about 20 years older than you yes yeah so if um yeah he was probably in his 40s at the time his upper 40s and upper 40s and um so once we start we started you know once we became hell's angels and things got on such a bigger picture yeah you now you're talking about worldwide and not just four different chapters through the midwest you know it got taxing and time-consuming and stuff and he worked a full-time gig he retired from a from a trucking company so i ended up becoming like i was the sergeant of arms at the time for for us for for for the henchman in into the angel merge i was our sergeant of arms and uh it got to be too much for the for the president so one day i walked into a meeting and i was a few minutes late and if you're late you call up hey man i get stuck trainer i'm a few minutes late man and pardon me i'm i'm right there and i walked into the meeting and everybody was in there and uh i sat down and they said so my nickname was road which you just started finding out of all the years i've known you for years i've never known that remind me to tell you that story how i got the name but anyways um they said hey rode listen man we took a vote and uh you're not the sergeant of arms anymore and i said really how could you guys take a vote without me being here how are you bringing this up to me and you know you're not being there i said i'm not the sergeant of arms i'm like man i bleed this chapter what are you talking about and that's when that's when uh jerry his name was he said to me he goes hey man we nominated you to be the president and i was like what like wow man i'm taking it totally unexpected totally noble yeah because every year is a vote for the for the for the leaderships and it's a vote one man one vote you know if somebody went if you know you want to bring somebody up the run they vote on him but usually in that deal whoever's the president and if of course and he's doing a good job and things are going well it's really he's going to keep the reins you know for a while you know he you know but you still vote on him no one's going to run against them he's he's the pastor sure but he stepped down and did this on his own he brought it up to the guys and said i think he's going to be perfect for us as our president he gets around he knows everybody i traveled everywhere i was in california i was in new york i was just traveling yeah and maintaining what was happening but things got gritty there was when we switched over to become hell's angels because the outlaws who were the dominant midwest motorcycle club at the time who were at war with the hell's angels from the late 60s 69-70 did not like that and when they found out we were doing that merge we sat down with him at a table while we were still henchmen and we told him yes we are going hell's angel and we are doing this move and we were in a restaurant about six guys the six of them six of us and that's when they got up from the table and said well there's no more discussions here boys we'll see you when we see you yeah i knew it was live then because them dudes were serious dudes we're gonna we're gonna get into the war because you know you and i last night smoked one two yeah yeah you shared some just i mean look we've been knowing each other for a long time you shared some awesome stories we always had some good conversations but last night was special and uh the war was something else man i didn't know it was that as big of a deal as it actually was and i wanna i wanna segue into that a little bit but i think what's worth pointing out and uh i failed to mention this at the beginning is uh i've known of mel chancey for a long time i've i said this this morning when i gave him his intro to the team before he talked i've looked up to mel for a long time i used to look up to him for reasons that are no longer consistent with the direction of either of our lives but when i was in high school and i was getting in trouble and i i mean look i was arrested 17 times before i turned 18 and the majority of those arrests happened between like my junior and senior year and uh you know i didn't have um i didn't have that support system you know at home to basically help me get my [ __ ] together whether that be beating my ass or whatever had to happen like i was on the path that i was on and there was no there was no stopping the momentum the the bad momentum the negative toxic momentum that i was creating for myself so i used to be oddly fascinated with the show oz and i was also oddly fascinated with gangsters with real life outlaws with uh with with crime with the mob with the angels with people like mel and uh i knew i knew about mel i knew i knew what this man stood for back then i uh you know funny story about that show oz which which is so [ __ ] crazy i was obsessed with that show i idolized you but i never made the connection that you were you on oz yeah so mel was in a a really famous tv show back in the late 90s called oz it was a hbo series about life in prison and i became obsessed with that show because it basically showed like life in prison the different gangs the whatever i was so obsessed with that show that when i was 15 years old my second tattoo that i got was uh a tattoo on my left arm that a guy the ryan o'reilly the irish kid in there that he had i mean i was literally thinking that ultimately that was gonna be my life so i was i was [ __ ] in it yeah and uh it's really really interesting you know because obviously both of us have changed our lives change our lives and uh you know now i look up to you for much much different reasons but i want to know the audience wants to know i mean i already know but right i want to get it out of you talk to me about the lifestyle talk to me about the day to day talk to me about your roles and responsibilities when you're at war which we'll get into that more in detail like you're not just walking the streets you're not just going to the gym to train normally you're not just going to the bars and hanging out you're doing those things but you're doing it in a very deliberate way so talk to me about the day-to-day lifestyle operation and overall mindset that you had as the president of the hells angels yeah so it was definitely um how do i want to say it it was definitely hectic now that i look back at it but with me training and loving the gym and stuff like that that was that was the love of my day so i i every day that i trained i needed to go to the gym well obviously the other team knew while i was going to this gym i trained at this gold's gym so they of course knew where i was i was always out running i was young so at night time i was out here in all the strip clubs partying you know as is is i'll tell the viewers but it's a lot of people know of me i've always had multiple girlfriends in my life all at the same time you know i had a girl that i when it was over with after the first prison sentence i was with her eight years six years four years kendall was the two year one and i had them all set up in different spots a house a townhouse an apartment and that was you know the spots where they lived and i bounced around the eight year girl her name was nancy that was my queen bee at the time i sheltered everything from her but the rest knew about each other but i kept everything from nancy because that was the one that back in the day that i thought i was gonna ride my life out without with i sheltered her from the club i didn't bring her around that stuff i was going and doing all the other stuff without her knowing she if she thought i was out of town or whatever so then i was out constantly in the clubs you know with their normal chicks you know so i had you know we call it the harem back then everybody's like yeah mel keeps that harem and uh so i was constantly out i mean when you're in the gyms you told me you'd be in there with the team of security as you're training i just couldn't imagine walking to a gym and seeing that that would be a very intimidating so you know at first i it wasn't like that i'd be training in the gym i'd have my gym bag next to me with the guns in it and stuff and i'd do a set and kind of look out and make sure that nobody was bum rush in the gym yeah but then after they were calling the gyms and we were hearing the grumbles and they went to a few other gyms looking for me i don't know if it was just to throw me off maybe they'd think i would they didn't i didn't know maybe oh they're looking at a gym 20 minutes away they don't know where i'm at i knew they knew where i was at that's when i that we put the team together that was my security team so when i was down when i was training they were at the front door and the you know sitting up you know by the shake counter and stuff like that pistoled out anybody comes in looking like they didn't belong in that gym yeah then my guys were going to see where they were you came in with some tattoos and some facial hair oh you could believe my guys if they didn't know you hey what's what are you doing who are you you know they didn't let nobody get by me taking girls out to dates man taking them out to the nice places in chicago i mean the most expensive restaurants because i'm making a ton of money back so basically during the the the height of the war you're not trying to be low-key you're not no trying to be discreet you're literally doing the opposite of that i'm driving around in a corvette with mr 187 on the plate which which 187 for those who don't know the penal code for murder you know um so i'm flamboyant i have business cards that that have made that said crime incorporated we supply what you demand i'm just pushing the button at the federal prison going take me in take me in right not knowing it at the time but i mean i'm just i get it flamboyant i get it 23 24 years old making a gang of cash and having the club on the track of man we were outnumbered in chicago as far as revenues you're making a ton of cash the majority of income that you guys had coming in was from the drug game and the guns and the gun scouting the drugs and the guns you know i was able to get you know nice source of revenue through both yeah i didn't have a karen or i had the girls i had the money i had the different spots you know and i was living that you know i don't want to say everybody's dream because not everybody's doing that but i'm at 23 years old i'm like i'm like a kid in toys r us like they opened up the door and they said son run through here everything's free and i'm running through right you know and keeping the crew on track and keeping us you know making sure we're taking care of business and that we were very outnumbered in in chicago you know from the others from the other side you know the outlaws were very very dominant there man and uh you know at the height of everything you know we had 27 guys and in all the areas around us the outlaws put their crews together i mean they can put 120 guys together and you know in 30 minutes of phone calls so we were really you know outnumbered but what kept us strong was the unity we had with each other we had a young crew me being the youngest but yeah i showed you a picture and we had a very young crew and uh most of the guys trained back then there was no mma so we were just all pounding on the bags you had to make sure you were in shape and you couldn't be so big that you know you were in a bar and you couldn't fight you're ready to go that's why i was everybody's like man mel is good with his hands because i practiced as i was growing sure so as i was 290 pounds i could still get on that bag and work that heavy bag because we were you never know we were fighting in bars with just street people from chicago chicago was a rough place back in the day i mean you just got to get a guy that gets stabbed in the bar and they're shooting pool over them nobody breaks stride back you know back then so um it was very very hectic it got to the point where like i said i i was i would take a girl out for you know let's go downtown a tavern on russian eat tonight okay babe okay and then the three guys are sitting at the table next to me sometimes they'd sit at the table with me and stuff but if it was like the girl and i was trying to have like a halfway romantic dinner with her the fellas would be like we'll just be at the table next year i'd be at the bar right here and stuff like that so you know yeah it was crazy you know i became without knowing i became public enemy number one to the federal government to the to back then janet reno was the was the attorney general of the united states uh janet reno was and um things got so crazy with the bombings and the shootings and everything like that that the government put a full court press on us you know um and jannarino named it operation lucifer and uh so what happened under this operation lucifer case they raided five of us me the vice president the sergeant of arms the secretary the treasurer they raided five of us on this one morning and uh they locked us all up in the and they really got nothing at one of the guys houses they were scraping cocaine off a mirror i mean little minor dust like that my house they grabbed a drawer full of steroids which i took back and everybody knew i was taking steroids they grabbed about 32 different guns that were locked up in a safe and my girl had a gun card at the time i didn't but i wasn't a felon so they couldn't charge me with none of the guns that were in the house and um so they charged me with um anesthol and i know you're probably familiar with that which is a vitamin b it's called an inositol and uh but back in the day everybody cut their cocaine with it because it was white it didn't smell it was you know pure it was a vitamin and um so i had a big jar of it a one pound jar or whatever like that so they said that they uh did some testing on it and they said i cross-contaminated it by putting the spoon from the cocaine and they charged me with a pound of cocaine which when we went to court it everything got dropped because it was all just pure anesthetic so long story short that operation lucifer got everybody a misdemeanor so you could imagine how pissed off the government was when because let's just paint the picture because people have never been through the system don't understand the man hours the time the energy the money like they're fully [ __ ] committed their their purpose their agenda months some in some cases years of their life is dedicated to one thing and that's getting a conviction yes a solid conviction and not a misdemeanor no i mean it was so bad at the end they were like hey were your clients plead guilty to one year in prison and our lawyers were like no we'll go to trial right so then finally they're like okay they couldn't charge me for the distribution of steroids because what got them in our houses was three consecutive trash pickups they were taking my trash from the street we didn't know it they were getting syringes out of me because i was injecting myself and everything like that so they tried to charge me with the distribution of steroids which would have been the felony but they couldn't get it for on me because obviously i was a bodybuilder taking the hormones you know had the broken needles in there the broken ampoules and stuff like that so like i said i pled guilty to a misdemeanor got a year supervision so did the other four guys they got nothing on them it was a big flop and that's when i knew right then and there that the [ __ ] was on this [ __ ] was on and now we were at kind of so to say a war with the federal government so now that now there is in fact two wars yeah two words going on i used i say it all the time i had the other guys that were trying to knock my head off my shoulders and put it on a mailbox stick and i had the government that was trying to give you know pump me sunlight and through 100 years in prison and put me under under a prison so you know we had two fronts going on we were trying to fight everything so once the war got crazier with the outlaws and the the bombings happened you know that's the third largest car bomb that you see on the gang land that got detonated at our clubhouse oklahoma so so was g was gang land i'm not familiar with the tv show i don't watch a lot of tv as you know was that show um loosely based off actual events that happened between the outlaws and the angels so there's a gang land called the biker wars and it's it's in the midwest and it was the war between the hell's angels and the outlaws and the federal agent that did my rico chris bayless that i speak in the schools with now he's retired he was on top of the that was his his thing so they came in and did the full court press well chris bayless he infiltrated our hell's angel chapter in rockford illinois which was two hours from us so he got in with a member that went bad so he brought chris around there's a prospect hang around hang around first and there's a prospect he had he had a his story was that he was an airplane mechanic and this this and that well he knew what the federal agent said he could never meet me because he grew up in the neighborhood i was from and we have mutual people sure so he could never be around me and somebody said hey yeah why you got chris with jesus so but their ploy was to get to me through the rockford chapter you know so every time so for the very first time that we were putting this plan together to go out and intercept a motorcycle club that was supporting the outlaws back in the day in rockford we were going to come and put a beating on him in this in this big party that they were having at this bar i'm in california and my guys call me up on the highway and he says hey bro we're pulled over man the state police got us all pulled over and i go why he goes they just descended on us and pulled us over and i'm like okay i know you guys are dirty he goes to the teeth bro and i'm like okay man call me if yeah whatever happens let me know you know so he calls me about 30 minutes later and he goes they let us go they turned us around and told us to get back to chicago and i go hmm okay pretty weird no surgeons of the cars or nothing no but they knew where we were going they said you ain't going to that arm party the name of the club was arm you ain't going there turn around hightail it back okay i said okay coincidence fluke no big deal i didn't think much of it well then another incident same kind of thing they're leaving the clubhouse in rockford and they got about 20 of my guys in chicago there i'm not another i'm not there again and they're going out to to rock and roll with this other team they all get pulled over down the street they call me up on the phone and i'm like this a couple months later i said wait a minute man what are these guys in our back pocket how are they intercepting us when we're going to do something so the outlaws didn't have this going on so everything they were pulling off was working the shootings the killings you know and the bombings and they were like wait a minute we're getting every time we go to do something we're getting pinched by the law lo and behold here's the federal agent in right in the scene with the member that's telling him everything hey man you got to leave rockford right now so his deal was he had pagers and stuff when he got a page he had to go he was an airplane mechanic at the big airport yearbook they took he took the fellas to his mom and dad's grave the federal government does it all yeah they showed everything because you know we want to know who we are i want to like me i know you i've known you for the last seven ten years whatever i could say hey i know him and you know i know what he does for a living i know him that's how the guys want to know so they set chris up in this whole great role you know his mom and dad were dead you know um he was an airplane mechanic he had to leave on call at the drop of a dime so whenever they knew that i was coming to rockford with my crew when i was personally there chris would get that call if the member would tell him hey road's coming okay hey guys man i got to go i got to go to work they just called me you know look at the page i got to go yeah no problem bro because they want you to work you know you can't have everybody doing of course crazy illegal [ __ ] so he was working so he got out of there so i never had to see him and funny story is when i seen him for the first day when they kicked my doors in under the rico and we all got to the federal courthouse which was three hours away there was four of us on this rico thing in 2004 and i'm looking and i'm like man who's the biker dude with the ponytail and the big beard standing next to the us attorney and the two rockford fellas put their heads down and me and me and my sergeant-arms at the time from chicago he didn't know who he was either and they put their heads down and they go oh man that's chris he was a prospect for us for a while i said what yeah he's an atf agent and i go oh f minus on that one yeah you know i never seen him so that's how i got to know him from from there on but um so that's when that that's when that press started with us so they were intercepting a lot of stuff that we were gonna go out to do which in hindsight it's probably great that that got to happen because my rico indictment probably would have been much worse sure because they thwarted off a bunch of stuff that we were going to do and we were just all baffled like after the third time we're like something's up yeah you know who do you blame you don't know and you're not going to go just throw that out there who's bad who's letting these guys know this how are they knowing this it's a complex lifestyle to live yeah it's it's it's rough so it was definitely hectic getting back to that it was very hectic but i was out we were out everywhere i just refused to to stay in i did the only thing that we didn't do is we just didn't go ride our motorcycles freely because a couple of them guys got shot off their motorcycles on the highway moving open target moving open target and once that started i remember telling the crew like guys man we're in a real war yeah this is hectic and we lost brothers you got to take certain precautions got to take brooke i know we're a motorcycle club and we're going to ride to the runs and stuff like that i said but what i'm going to do is i'm going to hang my motorcycle upside down like you do your bike back in the day from the rafters and when it's time for us to go boast and ride that motorcycle we will but for right now we got to get strategic man and we used to run around and do our thing you know that's that's what kept us afloat and alive with how many guys they had like yes yeah so you guys were significantly outnumbered and one of the things that i've known about you um from our relationship from hearing your stories from reading your history is anything that you've actually ever been involved with right whether it was pouring concrete running the angels your uh medical venture and now the stuff that you do with the ifbb and npc the shows that you put on the speaking that you do the people that you help winning is important to you meaning doing your best and being the best and doing the best that you can to get the sought after result that is clearly something that has been instilled in you and everything that you've done in your life everything that you've wanted to make happen you've excelled at and what i basically want to know is obviously you're somebody who leads by example and you're somebody who's always led by example now one can make the argument some of the examples that you set back in a former life maybe weren't the best examples but they actually were in that in that life yes talk to me about the importance of leading by example and and just give some just very specific things and and and references and examples uh you know if you could yeah of how you did that as the president of the angels so getting back to the house thing that we opened up with here you know um you know i the fellas that were at the house with me i actually had two members of the club that were in from san francisco they were in visiting and uh and staying with me and when i said hey man guys i got to go you know i got to go take care of this and stuff and they were like man bro you don't have to go you sit back let let our team take care of this and stuff and and you just relax with us you know and i said no no no i can't do that it's my venture it's my ex-girlfriend you know they're kind of like my family i have to be there i have to be the one that's walking through the door and doing the same thing and the same thing went for you know we call them the hunts you know when we were out hunting and looking for the other teams because it's what they were doing us you know and i tell everybody to this day you know me being out of the club for so long i talk to all kinds of guys in different clubs i talk to outlaws i talk to them all that are still in there a lot of them are gone from my day and age you know what i mean but some of them and let's give context now because you know you've shared this with me which i really appreciate they reach out to you basically in a capacity looking for looking for some support looking for some answers looking for some direction as far as the lifestyle they're currently in which is that of a criminal outlaw biker and them just recognizing what you've done and then successfully exited from that lab successfully which most people probably don't do i i can't imagine there's actually stats on that but i'm sure it's unbelievably low as far as people who yeah go out of that lifestyle and actually create a legitimate lifestyle for themselves what are these people saying to you what are they asking you like how do you guide them well you know i get a lot of you know they'll hit me up on social media and stuff and i don't know them you know what i mean i don't know the guys that are in these motorcycle clubs so what do they say hey i'm i'm an outlaw yeah yeah and you know and uh and they'll reach out and say listen man i'm still active in the club you know i i know your story i wasn't around back in the day when you were here but i you know coming from like the poster child of that lifestyle and what you did and the transaction you did after prison and stuff you know a lot of people and i don't i just don't mean motorcycle clubs they go to prison they come back home and they go right back to what they were doing i believe it's 70 percent i believe that's the what they call them the recidivism or something i [Music] but i mean there's guys in prison that are you know doing years and years and years and they're plotting about what they're going to do when they get home so you know they never caught the redemption act i guess so to say and they'll reach out to me and say man how how did you know when it was time and i said i'm the type of person that when i can't give that hundred percent anymore it's not for me no more i can't give it kind of like the with the bodybuilding the dorian yates i remember him doing an interview when he said i couldn't train 100 i couldn't do that no more it was time for me to go same thing for me you know and i tell them you know i said what you got to look around it but i tell them this the fact that you're reaching out to me asking me questions about you're on the fence and you're not sure if you want to be in that one percent world no more goes to show me that it's already in your heart because back in my day you i wasn't reaching out to nobody i had the older cats telling me road slow down you had zero intention or aspirations of exiting that life you loved it i loved it i never wanted to leave that lifestyle until i got sat down until i got went to prison until i say the good lord and our relationship started and he took me out of the forest and i was able to see the trees because i have many friends three three very solid friends that are my friends to to this day a gentleman by the name of chuck jamie and this guy uh ryan and they were chomping at the bit begging me to come in the club man come on bro come on in my 13 years in the club i sponsored one guy one guy and i kept telling him it's not for you guys you guys see the glitz you the glamour you see the patch the girls that you know were running around the money and stuff but you're not seeing at all man you're not there when we're closing the casket and i tell the story on on a dear friend of mine from rockford that got killed and um in the war and i've known him you know was friends with him forever and i know his daughter and his daughter was like probably 15 16 at the time and and and monty had a real long you know white fl white and salt and pepper hair real long and as before we were getting ready to close the casket we put his colors over him and stuff and his daughter jumped up in the casket and was rubbing her dad's hair and crying and stuff and we're just sitting there looking like jeez man you know i told my friends you don't see this part you don't see what we have to deal with behind the scenes you don't you don't you don't feel it nobody got killed that's close to you yet you don't you know and um you know and i remember looking at that and you know finally grabbing her out and holding her and stuff and closing her dad's casket and putting it down and stuff and looking at my guys and saying you know we did this man this is the lifestyle that we're doing we could have probably helped to stop this you know but we just other team and our team let it go crazy we did it but on that note give them one by the end of the week i want this happening on the other side by the end of the week and we just walked out of there and that's how life was for us back then for me it was nothing to we'd be in the strip clubs and we'd have pagers you know we're going back to the early 80s early 90s and we'd have pagers and you know which was the cutting edge of tech yeah yeah you had that cool pager and stuff you know you hit the brick phone it's the brick phone if you get on the brick phone i forget what it cost you to use the phone back then but if things didn't go in you could use the brick phone as a weapon right wait like 20 pounds right how efficient yeah and we'd get we'd get the page you know and hey man there's three of the bad guys over in this bar girls see you bam there goes the team and we were thriving on it and nights would be sitting around like we'd have the best the hottest girls on us and we knew we were going home to pound on the hottest girls and do our thing and we were like how this night sucked we didn't get no calls you know we were so deep into that you know i want to segue into the into the war um specifically and and some just stories and and such but before we do that i want to give uh another example if i may you had uh talked about how you know you're the opposite of stealth right you're basically walking around with the sign said arrest me yeah yeah you you love what you did you were always in the same place you were doing anything you were loud a good example of that happened in 1999 when you came out on national television with the rest of the hell's angels in the front on your motorcycles with hulk hogan and the rest of the nwo this is when the nwo was blowing up this was at like the peak of the monday night wars which i mean millions of people are watching and here comes like hulk and uh you know some of the other wrestlers and like legitimately they're they they they announced and you know the nwo is coming out with the hell's angels so you know at the time as a as a as a young man when i'm seeing this and i think pretty much most of the viewers would think that just like the rest of what happens in the world of professional wrestling it was kind of like it was kind of an act it was kind of part of the show yeah but it wasn't part of the show because it was really you it was really the rest of the hell's angels and not only that during that time you were under indictment i was out on bond you're out on bond for the house case and not only were you out on bonds if i'm not mistaken you were not supposed to leave the county the county and then what happened a couple weeks after the fact when you had a court date yeah so so what happened was once once terry once hold call and said what he wanted to do and it was a big thing because at the time goldberg was with wcw he's an ex-atlanta falcon at the time he brought the atlanta falcons in a couple weeks prior to this and they jumped the nwo boys so hulk had this idea like hey man i'm going to bring my friends in me and chuck zito and we're going to get these you know we set it up with the rest of the guys and we're going to have these guys come around the ring on the bikes they're going to introduce me and chuck and we're just going to be they're backing from this point on so i said yeah yeah i'm game for that man you know and chuck's like let's put some guys together and he got some new york guys we got some kentucky guys we did it in knoxville tennessee like you said monday you know and it was it was awesome by the way it's a very intimidating sight yeah seeing hulk come out and then like i mean you have what looked like legitimate bikers and as it turned out you guys really were the deal yeah it was an awesome a lot of people didn't know and a lot of people were like oh yeah they brought some fake guys really the hell's angels and of course it was you know so i'm not supposed to be out of the county i'm starting the trial for we're already fighting the case for 14 months you know 15 16 months or something like that was a long time we're out on bond so i said man i'm going you know what's the big deal no you know i don't even think they're going to know well lo and behold i i think by the way it's on national team for those of you who don't know they might not know that so it was like a week later or something like that was very close we get in the courtroom on the monday and getting ready to start the trial for this case and everything and the three states attorney is like your honor we got something we want to bring in evidence we want to revoke mr chancy's bond here he is boom they pop the tape and they show me riding around the ring here he is in knoxville tennessee last monday or two mondays ago he's blatantly doesn't care about your orders he's not supposed to leave the the county blah blah he doesn't care we want to revoke his bond and keep him in custody so the judge watches the thing and my lawyer stands up and said hey it was a business opportunity for mel to make legit money boom boom boom so the the judge says to the state's attorneys listen his trial starting today it probably ain't gonna go until the end of the week it's gonna go for four or five days these three gentlemen been coming into the courtroom every month lock stockton barrel they put their money up on bond i'm not revoking their bonds today let's get past this so that was like the thing you know everybody's like man you're so funny yeah i didn't think they'd find out so let's talk about the war first of all you know you're in this lifestyle you're selling guns you're selling drugs you're competing for territory is that essentially what the the issue was where this uh the the rival outlaw gang and the hells angels you guys are basically competing over territory to sell whatever it is you're selling in these areas and to be the biggest dog on the block right and they have the numbers you said yes and do you know how significantly you guys are outnumbered by then like percentage wow i would have to guess i would probably say four or five to one yeah yeah so again back to your point you know you had to you had to step up and lead and get strategic in order to counteract and combat that deficit and overcome those odds tell me a little bit about just some of the situations that uh you know materialized during the war some of the more significant like acts on on on both sides and uh just some of the things that you remember from that point in your life obviously it went on for six years if i'm not mistaken that's uh that's a long time to be living with that kind of stress yeah and uh i would just love to hear your insight the audience love to hear just uh what life looked like during those times and and how how nasty uh you know it truly got yeah well i mean the one of the you know they they were they kind of were the leaders on where this war was going so to say we were kind of like sitting back and seeing where it was going to go and then they would do something you know there's always an unwritten rule you never came to nobody's house you never beat nobody's girl up you just took the you took it between the men you know yeah but then things got a little crazy and they got a little you know they got crazier and stuff and one time they beat up our one of our guys wives bartended at a bar and they went in the bar and beat everybody up in the bar with a support your local hell's angel t-shirt on and broke her jaw and the whole nine yards you know so we had to do tit-for-tat yeah if they were doing that so were we you know we escalated we didn't want to go beat up some guy that i seen at a gas station that had one of those support shirts on and we knew it wasn't them yeah you know the guys don't wear their own support shirts or somebody who thinks it's cool to wear the shirt yeah yeah and all of a sudden now he's getting his head kicked in because he got the shirt on we didn't want to do that you know so things were getting very very crazy you know um and and they got technical with the bombs man and we didn't know it at the time you know we were kind of like they had you on the the uh explosives provisions for sure for sure i mean some of the guys i was with were like me we didn't barely know how to put the batteries in the pagers we weren't savvy you know and then they did that bomb at the clubhouse they blew up a member from rockford so we all had electric starts on our car is mandatory since i had the vets now i had in the back of the vet where the trunk opened i had a mechanics uh you know the thing you lay down and get up underneath the car but i had a mirror on the top of it so i would pull this mechanic roller out get look up underneath my car with mirrors every time i got in and out of the car every time i got out if i went to a store and i came out and people have been be in the parking lot like what's this dude doing i'm up underneath the car seeing if they put a device somewhere so they did that to one of the members in rockford and he looked he remote started his car and uh i don't know if he actually checked underneath the car but he remote started it and they put the bomb and they tied it to the transmission so when he put it in reverse and that yoke spun it pulled that cord and it blew him up in the car and he lived he died two or three times on the way to the hospital his legs were veins were pumping out everything the explosion took everything from his lower body on you know his hands and stuff so he lived through it you know it was in the hospital god you know probably for a year because we were all doing hospital watches with them sending guys from chicago to rockford all night long and his rooms were doing shifts he was never alone at that room so they can come in and finish it off you know so we were like man we're in a different arena now and we didn't know how to do this so you know we found somebody that was a a former navy seal that was good with explosives and we're like we gotta answer the call so and that's what we did that's when we put a bomb in their clubhouse and that was probably the last time or finally the atf said no more not that they don't mind the shootings or the violence but it it that is what it is but when you start putting the third largest car bomb on on in front of the clubhouse raises red flags for other national security crazy right and like i said you know people watching they're like man they'll call me up to this day man they detonated the third largest 100 pounds of c4 they drove in a car and put it right up against the door of our clubhouse at a city chicago big building it was fortified you know with with brick and steel and stuff but that concussion blew down it wasn't shaped exactly the way they needed it it blew down and it blew an eight foot hole in the sidewalk and when that concussion came back up it blew that car they found the vin number the feds found the vin number a mile and a half away to that car holy [ __ ] the concussion went not blew the front door out the back of the building and it was a deep building blew that front steel door right through the back concussion went across the street just missed a bus at five o'clock at night on a wednesday in downtown chicago a regular passenger bus if that concussion would hit that bus it would just through it you know right off the right off the street and it went across the street to the house that was across the street and the house was a old siding chicago house you know with the aluminum siding and thank god nobody was home there and thank god nobody was in the clubhouse because it would have blew everything out of their bodies their ear drums their everything they would have been bleeding from everywhere and when i seen the house it looked like one of them things from the cartoons where the dynamite went off and everything was shot back the guy's face was all you know the old cartoons right and um so when that night happened i was sitting at home and all of a sudden the news goes on and everybody's calling me like hey bro i think that you're building there was an explosion in chicago on grand avenue it was at your building and i'm looking and then they're calling me like hey bro there was an explosion at the clubhouse and i'm like okay i said let's all meet down there let's meet at the gas station on the corner busy street grand avenue in chicago busy street and um so i get down to the gas station and they got it all blocked off we can't even get nowhere near it you know the gas stations you know probably you know the quarter mile from there and uh all the all the people are out the neighborhood people are out all the lights are out you know it's like probably like seven o'clock at night now and um all of a sudden i see the federal agents coming down and they said they're going in the crowd hey where's road man you know we know rhodes here where is he at and i come on i'm like hey what's up and they're like come on come over here you know hey man you're somebody put a bomb in the clubhouse you know obviously yeah yeah i'm like yeah i've seen it on tv and they're like any ideas i said no man any ideas on your it wasn't me i didn't blow up my own [ __ ] place if that's what you're asking right you think the outlaws did it i said well i don't know i said i i mean i they they could have i don't know who did it i wasn't here you know so i said hey can i see the building you know and they said yeah we'll walk you down there come on just you and i walked down there and i'm talking to him they said hey man you know if you know anything you know we know you guys are at war and i said hey man it is what it is i said but i i don't know nothing i watched it on tv so they showed me the building you know i walked inside and said okay it's not horrible right you know it's back big hole in the back wall everything it was a there was a three level the base but make no mistake about it it could be hard it could have been horrible had people yeah was anybody inside yeah they thought there was people in there and there was not yeah okay and the crazy part about it the outlaw member that drove the car to this that gas station i told you that was you know a quarter mount the street he pulled it over in the gas station and he took the little piece of lithium paper out that made the connections the contacts and drove that you know a quarter mile down and got up on the sidewalk and pinned our door because they didn't want nobody getting out so he pinned it on the door so that ballsy dude drove that car with 100 pounds of c4 when the lit the thing was out the paper was out because you know the feds found out how it happened they caught him he ended up flipping on the on his team in the whole nine yards a lot of people rolled over on that because that was the biggest thing going you know but he drove that thing so when he got out of the car there was a camera across the street at an auto parts store that kind of seen this and he doesn't shut the door all the way and he gets off the curb well the timer must have been a little too quick the car lights barely get out of the range of this camera from the auto parts store and the explosion happens and that's when everything goes out so they didn't make it too far you know they've had to feel that street shaking in the whole nine yards so what did you guys do after that what was what was your like what was your literal next move as far as retaliating for that so so okay so once once that they they made the clubhouse a crime scene everybody came in from washington the feds came in from all around now it's a huge explosion i mean they they took over that clubhouse probably for a week and a half we had no access to it we had members sitting around the clock rotating doing shifts across the street because they told us when we're done here we're just walking out it's yours it's our crime scene right now but we're done so we had members so i remember a week week and a half later the guys that were doing a watch you're like hey bro they left let's go in there i said okay man i'll meet you down there so they get in there because they're sitting on the scene they call me up on the phone they go man this place is just destroyed and i said yeah i said what do you mean hold on i'll be right there you know and i told you i walked in i went upstairs i went downstairs the downstairs was underneath the sidewalk so that was all a concrete basement there was no damage down there upstairs at the bar area stuff was blown around no big deal right i went upstairs and there's holes in the wall well the feds did all the damage most of the damage they searched that place with a fine-tooth comb we had an elevator and in the elevator we had a fake floor and the floor opened up and we put you know some of the weapons in there and [ __ ] like that because you know back in the day you couldn't have any handguns in the city of chicago so we had weapons hidden in there they found everything so i walk in there and i'm looking i'm like damn man they said man that bomb destroyed this place i said the bomb did the structural damage they did the rest the bomb didn't put the sledgehammer holes in the ceiling that was the government that did that right so it was so crazy and it was so hectic and the heat was on that we structurally fixed that building up and we said it's time for us to get out of the city limits yeah let's go to the suburbs south and get out of these city limits because we give a call with a pistol they're taking your vehicle i said we're going to sell this building you know and uh so about a about a month later and this is what got these guys in deeper trouble they went somebody threw some molotov cocktails on the roof of there was a flat roof on the roof so the fire department had a calm now there's a hole in the roof and stuff like that because now we're not utilizing it right and we're gonna sell it well they went and took a picture with about 60 of them in the street flipping the clubhouse off all in their patches and stuff which got used as an exhibit at one of at their trials because they're showing what they did you know basically saying hey i did this well then they got caught because the guy that drove the car flipped the guy that gave him the car flipped a lot of people helped themselves out when the indictments came down on that on that team so their rico started in 1997 and when it when the government was done with them in 2001 there was probably about 24 or 25 guys if i if my memory states me that got wrapped up in the rico our rico started in 2004 with four of us and it ended with four of us taken and pleading guilty to our charges and nobody else ever got indicted nobody had to pick up the phone for us not not one member had to come so we all pled guilty to the racketeering and you can't do that in the clubs because you're basically admitting that you're the enterprise is is a corrupt organization so you're getting thrown out i was already out of the club because i quit when i came home from the first thing right i had the couple years home and i laid the club down and then i got the rico the other three members that were involved with the rico with me they were still members at the club at the time they got thrown out on bad terms i got thrown out in bad terms because i pled to the rico like i said i was gone on my own already so um but out of that there's no cause that's where you know what people say like well you guys didn't hurt i said nobody even had to pick up a phone and call a lawyer because mel pulley or jd or ricky and implicated him in something that was the four man rico indictment that ended right there with us taking our lumps and it was over with yeah and you know and it's funny because you know uh you know people throw that stigma out they're like oh these guys man they sat down and made a deal with the government if i if i sat down and i wanted to hurt individuals in the club who better than me dude i get it and i i had half a million dollar bail and i had people saying that i was snitching yeah you don't [ __ ] have a half a million dollar bail on felony drug charges if you're snitching you don't have bail because you don't get arrested that's just the you know the nature of the world but you know what dude it's still stung at the time because that's not how you want to be that's not how you want to be known that's not how you want people speaking you and i remember like when i was in when i was in court i got transferred uh from tampa up to jacksonville it was my first appearance in jacksonville and when i'm in there they're you know reading my chargers and going over the thing and the police are not the police prosecutor but the prosecutor right again this is just the pre-trial [ __ ] basically painted me to be this like i mean basically painted me to be like a mel chauncey circa 1995 and you know talking about offshore bank accounts and uh international uh steroid conspiracies and all this [ __ ] and she also said that i was cooperating that i had cooperated and i'm like whoa i was like that is not true and i turned to my lawyer and i said that's not true and she's like and then i'm just like why the [ __ ] like why the [ __ ] would she just say that and i'm just it's a weird thing yeah the system it is such a weird [ __ ] thing it's like if i cooperated what what the [ __ ] am i doing what am i doing here yeah you know i've been in jail for last week what am i doing here but i get it man and i'm just glad that that part of your life and then listen i'm locked up you know when i get it i'm hearing the stuff and you know i'm hearing guys out there going oh man he's in there man and he's going to sit down and we're all done and we're gonna get our doors kicked in because he knows this and one of the guys was you know from chicago he's telling me he was the loudest one and man i'm gonna get my doors kicked in and i'm sitting in there thinking like man i didn't you didn't steal a pack of gum in front of me you never broke a window in this crew like what do you you know so i'm hearing all that and i'm like okay it's gonna and some of my personal friends are like hey bro this is what they're saying i go hey listen i can't prove nothing to you now yeah it's gonna come out in the world yeah we'll see if i'm sitting on somebody's trial and i'm pointing the finger at him up on his stand then you guys got every right to shun me exactly because i'm going against what i said i was i was believing it yeah i said but you're going to see it when it comes to important to you going against my word and you know i've been home since 2008 and we're in 2020 and there ain't a there ain't a guy in that club that can that can come on or come on this podcast and he can call me anything he wants yeah they can say i'm no good because i pled guilty to my chargers but they can't say he hurt chris let's be honest man and this is something we talked about last night uh amongst other things we had amazing conversation the reason people want to villainize you from that life from that world the reason people want to think that you did the that you walked the dishonorable path is because they look at what you've done with your life and it doesn't really make them feel very good about where they're at with theirs and it is a hell of a lot easy in situations when you see somebody that has done something or is doing something that you know you aspire to that you really wish you could do it's very it's a hell of a lot easier to like come up with you know reasons to be malevolent or disgruntled or angry a lash out than it is to accept responsibility take a deep look within and realize you know like in order for me to to make the changes that this guy did and and and and to walk away and create the successful life that he has for himself a successful happy life mind you because you're one of the most genuinely happy people i know and and that makes me happy for you people don't like that man normal people like it it makes them feel like [ __ ] like when they see other people that are getting it and are living a life that they want to live for themselves not normal people insecure people yeah people who are not of sound character people who have not taken responsibility for their life and you know this is something that i've learned uh you know over the years i've lost a lot of friends as you know um and you know you you something you always like to say is about the destination what's the your current situation is not your final destination and then you're not gonna say that i say that everybody ain't gonna finish the journey with you and that is so so [ __ ] true and it's such a hard thing to accept when you lose the first couple when you lose someone it's such a hard thing and you look at what did i do wrong what could i have done different what could i have done to prevent that from happening and the fact is you don't want to do anything to prevent that from happening you want to do all the things that you've done to continue to walk that path and to move forward and to and to and to grow personally professionally spiritually all of these things and the fact is when you're growing when you're evolving when you're going up they're going to be people that aren't capable of doing the same and eventually you outgrow people and you have to learn to accept that because spending that energy and that time focused on why this person feels this way or why this person has turned on me why this person is this person who should support me this person i've done so much for this person who at one point was a brother or a sister or or whatever spending your time trying to figure out what's going on in their [ __ ] head brother that'll drive you it's too much easy it's it's way too much and it's purposeless it does not help you become any closer to like resolving or fortifying the issue you have to look at it for what it is i always tell people losing people is a mandatory part of the journey you are not going to grow and go from here to [ __ ] here without losing people it's not it's just possible so when you do lose people i think it's important to recognize those situations for what they are yep evidence that you're growing yeah evidence that you're improving evidence that you have taken your life to another level and as much as it would as much as it would be amazing to be able to take everybody with us it's just not possible right but the ones who want to be there they'll come they're there yeah for sure i seen it it took me a while to to to be able to it's so hard man look back and say could i did anything different there and i'm look back and i say no man i hurt nobody i i did what i needed to do for me and took the time that i needed to take and came clean and plead guilty i got the drug conspiracy dropped against the three other co-defendants that i had so they only had to plead guilty to a count of racketeering i had to eat the drug conspiracy because i had too much drug weight on me with the people coming in before me so i did that for them guys you know i'm like man i couldn't have changed nothing no could i you know i mean i did the guys get mad at me because i even sat down in the room with a proffer to talk to him yeah i could see where they're saying ah you know some guy's like ah he should have never even talked to him he should have been telling him after you the whole time well that all looks good on paper yeah and it sounds great and yeah until it's your life sitting in there and you're not gonna hurt anybody now you know hence when they said hey mel we want to put you in the witness protection program and you come clean on on all this right here it was not happening i didn't do it so that's why it took me a while but i finally came to at peace with it like hey man i i did what i needed to do i hurt nobody but this this situation also it couldn't have happened any different because had you not got into this position you got yourself in this position right we've obviously owned that and you get sent to prison and during this prison sentence this uh this tenure how long was it the uh started out at nine started at nine and then i ended up on the nine i ended up doing four and a half got it this was the one that everything changed yeah talk to us about that this was the one so this was so when i came home from the first one you know and i told i tell everybody you know i reconnected with the lord i come from a very catholic upbringing ccd my mom the italian my dad you know that we lived behind the church i mean it was very structured in our in our childhood my sisters went to catholic school i knew the lord you just went against the grain a little bit went against the grain for sure man everybody was like man little mel's what is he doing now in life doesn't make sense yeah it doesn't make sense so um when i reconnected him in there i came home and i i always said i don't let me be a hypocrite i don't want to be one of them guys that just talked to you and read your word in there and i come home and like april fools i'm good ah and i came home and i kept my relationship with the lord going a few years later the rico comes into play right and at first i get locked up in there and there's no bond then all that violence we're all sitting in there and i'm like oh we got a long toll ahead of us 18 19 months before i even played guilty right you know sitting in an mcc a federal building you know getting the blues and um yeah first i was like okay god threw me off on this one you know i'm on my way i'm running the nightclubs i'm slowing my womanizing down i'm not in the club anymore like what's going on and then i finally just got down on my knee and opened my heart up to him and that's when i said okay you're this is for a reason i'm putting the car in neutral take the wheel you drive it from here man whatever it needs to happen it's it's going to be your will and that's when i felt that peace and that's when it came to my mind and my heart like this is the cleansing like they say you got to go through trials and stuff for the gold the gold gets refined through all the heat and the trials and life and stuff like that i go this is his cleansing he's getting the rest of it out of me because even though i quit you know i got out of the club and i was home for that three three and a half years of being home and i wasn't on a motorcycle and i wasn't doing the violent stuff in that one percenter world i was still the womanizer i still had the violent temper i was still downtown at the nightclubs you know i thought i'm a much better person now because i'm not doing all this other stuff and beyond that something that i've that i've i've learned because you know when i got in trouble in 2015 they arrested me for [ __ ] that i did in 2012. yeah it catches up with you yeah so you got you got in trouble and got sent to prison yeah because the number you did on the guy you still had to answer to karma for all of these other things it just didn't happen like in the most ideal way possible but karma man it it never forgets it has a very good memory and it is going to serve you and yeah and come back at from my experience like the most inconvenient inconceivable times when i got arrested man i i completely walked away from that life i started my business i was doing good but bro i i i had to pay i had to pay the price man i had to pay the price of karma i kind of laughed you know when i was reading all the indictments and and it's it's 2004 and five and the stuff is going from 1994 5 6. you got to remember once 97 came and i took that other case now all my predicate acts stopped because now i'm out on bond on this case and i kind of had to lay it down a little bit you're a choir boy yeah yeah i'm i'm the best i can and i'm like man i'm i'm pleading guilty to stuff that i did and you know 10 years ago i'm telling my lord she's 10 years old and he goes well let me explain how rico works he goes it's like a movie if you act in the beginning part of the movie and you got one line when the end of the movie comes you're on that credit list on the end right and i go yeah and he goes that's how it is with rico it don't matter the longer the better they're going to show a jury you guys been degenerates for 10 years you guys just staying some criminals that did some stuff this year you've been doing it for 10 and he goes and with your criminal history being in the state penitentiary then in the federal penitentiary i did back to back when i got out of that state sentence the feds indicted me and i had to go give them 14 months on an insurance fraud that they had me on a car give up that they held on me so then i came home so my criminal history which on the federal guidelines zero to six on the top and then down the left is your your offense line and then where that matches up is with the months and the time you get so i was at it from zero to five i was at a criminal history of four going into this thing so that's when he showed me he goes they're gonna prove to the jury that you guys been doing this forever you're a career criminal now when you get when you take this when you take this sentence here with the drug conspiracy and the rico because that's two separate charges you know and i said oh i got you he goes so you know it's where it's where we're sitting with all this i'm like okay so i'm thinking that they didn't have much because it's so old but the longer the better oh yeah and they tell the story and that's how this makes it sound very [ __ ] compelling so that was let's just talk about like when you decided to just commit to a more righteous life and to completely change your ways completely change your mindset and to just genuinely be a good person you've always had a good heart but i think it's fair to say you always haven't been a good person right yeah when you decided that you were going to be a good person and that you were going to dedicate your life to serving others to helping others and to just being the best version of you that you could responsibly be still in prison what did the rest of your days from that point look like how did you conduct yourself because i'm sure initially it's like oh wow former the president of the hells angels in here and you kind of carry yourself a certain way but then you have this this breakthrough this transformation how did life in prison change from the time that happened to where the end of your sentence was was fulfilled much different from the from you know the previous years when i was in for state and federal i was younger and stuff so once i made that conversion i spent a lot of time in the library there was a little gym that we had which is a little ironic yeah considering uh in your younger days you were throwing people through libraries yeah yeah good i never put that together yeah but you got it um you know i was in the library i had a little gym that i was in there i would train with the fellows and stuff and i became really good friends with one of these abs which is the earring brotherhood guys you know maybe i became friends with this guy and um and uh he uh was always in the arts and crafts room he when i left there in 2008 he was just going on his 30th year been knocked down forever so um i used to go and watch him and he'd paint and he'd do clay stuff and i'm like man kevin you're amazing bro you paint like portraits and he goes yeah i got a lot of time to practice right you know we used to laugh and stuff you know so i hung out with him and uh i always was going you know i was at church on sunday everybody knew i was on the spiritual kick and my beliefs and stuff and i just conducted myself in a good way no problems with nobody because i didn't get nobody's business i didn't walk around there like i was joe somebody i was just doing my bid minding my business and i kicked it with everybody i kicked it from kind of like how you do now now yeah yeah you know um and uh i kicked it with everybody you know all the gang leaders all the different motorcycle clubs that were in there they knew i wasn't on that page no more and they really knew people would tell me yeah we thought it was a front at first but you're really not on that page i go that's not my business what happens in that world no more what you did to them or they're doing to you men please don't i don't want to hear about her to bring it to me because it's not me no more you know so i really had to concentrate and stay in the word and stay with you know in my relationship with the lord to not turn around and and as i say i can't dip my toe into that pool because i can't test the water because i'm so structured to that old lifestyle it's like an alcoholic and he's not going to be like let me i'll just try a sip of that and then like let it hit the lips yeah and that's how i think of it that's why people like you don't ride no i don't ride you know and it was funny we just had the tampa pro last weekend it's not who you are anymore yes and you knowing all the wrestlers and batista being a local guy and being your friend i seen him at the tampa and you hadn't seen each other in years and he said no man he goes it's crazy i just got a bike after 10 years of not having a bike i just got a bike got my other friend's bike in the garage i got two bikes in my garage he goes what's the odds now we're sitting with eddie from powerhouse john hanson or seven eight of us around he goes man what's the what's the odds of uh me and you riding side by side with each other i go yeah bro i'm not happening so did so did he know did i know that i i kind of told him well he knew my story and he knew who i was did he know that you had given up writing he he he some people told him that i don't write anymore and then but he might not have taken it very seriously because when i heard that i'm like no i don't think so yeah and and i said to him i go pro not happening you know you shared it with me last night we talked about it and you're like i just i don't really know like why between the the writing and certain establishments you no longer frequent and just certain lifestyle activities you don't you just don't do anymore and you kind of just it like it seemed to me you had a hard time really understanding why you purposely and intentionally and deliberately stay away from those things and brother i get it it's it's it reminds you of the person that you used to be that that person that that's that's not you anymore no that those those that lifestyle that cro i mean brother you lived under chronic stress whether you're whether you were consciously aware of it or not i mean when you're at war and you're the president you know they're gunning for you yeah you're in chronic stress and you lived like that for a number of years so anything and especially now with how the vibe of your life is just on the total opposite end of the spectrum you're happy you're working you're helping people you're you're always smiling anything that interferes with your vibe and kind of even brings you back to that place for half a second dude you're gonna feel that little bit of anxiety in your stomach and and you just have to separate yourself from it and there's nothing wrong with that there's absolutely talking about getting away from being the uh people we used to be so i mentioned at the beginning of this a tattoo that i got when i was 15 years old of one of the guys on oz so we were talking about tattoo cover-ups that's what this is yeah it started with just getting a i wanted to get a skull over it and then looking at how it it just didn't look right so then i had to get more added on to it more added and i'm like you know what speaking of which like not only is that that it was a longhorn a bullhead not only is that not who i am anymore this this whole tribal piece i got when i was super young and that's not who i am anymore and i'm basically rehabbing my entire arm it's a complex process but it's like you know we have to evolve into our new forms and anything and anything and everything that isn't consistent with the way that we want to feel and the vibes that we want to feel for ourselves and project on others man yeah it's got to [ __ ] go and that's not going to make sense to everybody yeah it was it was a slow process i i i tell everybody when we talk and i said the lord's taking his time with me he just didn't go okay 180 you're a different person today he brought things out of me slow i i always say god babies me you know what i mean he does baby me he protected me through that crazy lifestyle i was telling the fellas in her earlier i was by far not the baddest dude in that one percenter lifestyle there was guys that in my own crew that i wouldn't wanted a step to period on a fighting stance on a taking care of business dance you know there was some real maniacs around me on both sides of the president's legitimacy yeah for sure so he protected me in that lifestyle you know i got the tombstones on my arms you got guys that never coming home from prison and here i am doing this interview with you and and i said you know the lord you know kind of played chess with me for something later in life and now i kind of not kind of i really see it because look at all the people that do reach out to me look at the people that i get to help through his through his grace and i'm like okay you got a guy you know i tell my my 30 year friend 35 your friend pastor steve you know he's been a christian since he's been 15. he said mel quit saying that you're being lazy you're not lazy you're reaching people i could never get to i reached people you couldn't get to he goes you're reaching you're not being lazy you put it out there everybody knows your faith so with him taking his time with me and bringing me from out of that stuff and taking that stuff out of my lifestyle you know people see it and they're like i won't go into a strip club anymore because and i have some very dear friends here in tampa that own them here and very they're friends around the country but for me i'm dipping my toe in that water the old alcoholic syndrome or whatever and i just have to avoid it you know what's best for you and yes i do i know where the fight's at and i and i know how to stay battled up you know through my relationship with him and that's what works for me and a lot of times i have to go and get out of a situation and get into prayer because let's be honest you know the industry sometimes you're not dealing with the best people well i know times you and i have been out together where i had to we had to i had to play in the corner yeah hey man yeah yeah good man for sure that's nothing let's uh you got to know your fight so um i'm blessed to be to be where i'm at i'm i'm in such a good spot you know in my life or spiritually you know my my wife with my relationship with my dear friends with my you know with the core medical and the ifbbn pc i i just look i open my eyes and say man it's like a dream everything that i was praying for many years ago i'm living now yeah and and one thing that you know you just kind of briefly touched on it like your dear friends you like i have a lot of cool friends i know a lot of cool people you have like probably the the largest selection of cool friends that like out of all my friends i mean you know everybody and and like they're good people like we don't just hang out with people because they're somebody their status yeah we surround ourselves with people by the quality of human they are um and you know it's like his last couple days like working out yesterday and putting mel through some functional training helped him step his game up and uh we face time with uh jay cutler this morning it was hulk's birthday time hall wishing him happy birthday happy birthday you just keep a good vibe of just good quality people around you that support you that have your back and that believe in you man and people good people gravitate towards good people man you're basically that like focal point and you know when i i remember the first time that like you dm me on instagram this is years ago and you're asking about the jeep oh yeah and when i got the message i was like holy [ __ ] i was like is this is this like maybe this is like uh a fake profile or something or like but then you're asking about the jeep and i'm like and it was just like such a big deal and i'm like why like my life i was in a completely different place oh yeah and it just it showed me that you were someone who like you're like a real dude who treated everybody the same and what i pointed out at the beginning of this uh the the episode is just seeing you interact with some of the team and then having them come talk to me about it after or send me a message about the impact that had knowing that you've given some of these people who you don't know from a whole net you know them as as as team members of nutrition solutions the fact that you graciously give your phone number out and and things like that that is a testament of the quality of human being you are and it's also to me a testament of what is in store and what will continue to be in store for your future man because you've whether you see it or not like your circumstances have evolved significantly over the last couple years it's hard to see it for ourselves when we're in it it is but i see it clearly and i love it i love like i told you this last night i don't know if you remember we were again we were getting there but i love you you mentioned you know i just feel lazy and i'm like man that's that's admirable the fact that you you want to do more and you're hungry but i was like man it makes me so happy when i tune into your instagram and i see you at the pool chilling happy sending out super positive messages to the people from all over the world that follow you yeah that makes me happy yeah because i know that i mean you've spent a lot of [ __ ] time in a prison cell you've spent a lot of time living basically in chronic stress fearful for your life maybe not showing it yeah but look man like you guys were doing what you were doing you had security with you at the gym you had security with you at the strip club not because you know you did everything was all good and i was in prison before prison yeah really to say the truth my life was a prison and where you're at now like you're in just such a good head space yeah like and man i just bro i i'm just so grateful that we've cultivated this this relationship and friendship yeah i'm i'm i'm i'm pumped about the training that we're doing today yeah me too mel lives uh about an hour and a half away uh tampa uh florida is where i live it's where the uh we record the podcast where my company is um mel reached out to me last week and sent me a voice note he's like hey uh i got this thing that i'm getting ready for and he's like you know no big deal you know dwayne dwayne no context dwayne dwayne you know just got off the phone with dwayne he's talking about the rock and we're uh going to be putting together this docu-series they're going to be interviewing me and dinner and he wants to step his game up like you know mel he's not the 290 pound [ __ ] meat meathead neanderthal on the motorcycle anymore he wants to be a little more functional healthy longevity and he wants to look [ __ ] awesome when he's getting interviewed on the daca series i'm not mad at that he's like i would love to come train with you and uh just have you show me some of the things that you do you know let me know if that's okay and i'm messing back i'm like are you are you [ __ ] joking is it okay like yeah let me let me think about it i was like dude get your ass here this is awesome well i knew bro interrupt with you i'll go back and forth with you i knew man and i've been you know we've been friends for so long and you know we don't see each other a lot you're here with the business yeah i'm here with they're with the business and we stay in touch how we do phone calls and in in social media right randomly running into each other on flights and things like that was the best going of going to vegas and uh so i knew i was watching you and that's when i told my wife i said listen i said who better to me that's closer to me that's into this functional training like you are i still see the way you lift the weights but i watch you do this functional training and at 51 and as tore up as i am and stuff the weightlifting game for me is is i got to do it light and fast which you know i know i know i'm a pro at that that lifting the weights on how to train my body in that aspect but i said let me go to let me go to my little brother you know and little mel my wife is so supportive of me and she's like babe whatever you need why don't you go on mondays and tuesdays because i go to work on wednesdays we got the dogs she works right around the corner for her friend at a wings and rings you know just to get her out of the house she's a hard worker she can't just sit in a pool like me she's got to be going you know so she does that and i was like cool babe i appreciate that you don't mind i'm going you know i said the soak over things going on some home more i said but let me i got to get with chris man i know you were the guy that was going to do it and uh it's been an amazing two days so let's talk about that talk about the training because yesterday was kind of like the warm-up to today we did like a little tutorial we pushed a little bit but today we did a straight up 16 minute like it was uh it was six different exercises it was a uh like a 70 pound like ball over the shoulder up and back up and back into uh six ball slams six calories on the assault bike yep um six one arm dumbbell push press on each arm six deadlifts with 185 pounds six jump over burpees and it was basically as many rounds as possible in 16 minutes yeah and dude i mean three minutes in on your balcony in the heat yeah oh yeah by the way yeah on the balcony in the direct sunlight in the it was 93 degrees today yeah so what do you think bro what's the what's the consensus so i you know driving up yesterday i was like man i i kind of know what i'm in for because i watch your videos and stuff and i was banking on that i do a lot of cardio these days and i went from 290 to two and a quarter so now it's a different so i i'm like i'm okay in the cardio department and you know yesterday was you showing me all the things and i'm like all right this was good it was taxing yeah you had that great session set up for me last night with matt you know and it's on the newbie the machine the newbie and uh we'll you know so so basically what what what i did was i wanted to basically just just the tip with the training yeah last night i gave mel just the tip and then i strategically scheduled a physical therapy for him after the fact to just mitigate any soreness just help him keep flexible because i knew today we'd be getting after it bro you you traveled an hour and a half to be here i had to give you your money's worth baby you did that was great last night with that machine he opened me up he got me moving again everything where i was tight that that newbie and him hit me with that gun was worked it was so good we told hulk today and for his birthday yeah i'm getting you a session you got to try this guy when you're when you're ready so um but then going into going in today and setting up that circuit and out in that heat on your balcony and you know we had a long night and we took a little dozed off i took a little nap you were getting ready for the podcast so we kind of woke up and went right out there and uh man it was an eye opener i remember one time you go you okay and i go just gassing yeah i'm just guessing yeah that was like four minutes in you go take your pace take your pace and we did it because you started off real strong hey man like like let's dial it back a little because like we're one-fourth this worked out yeah but it was fun man and look in mel's defense okay you not only made it through you made it through it flying colors you got after it you pushed yourself seeing you did those jump over burpees like a little tear came to my eye because you know that was something it's an unfamiliar move like you've had some some issues with your body before dude it was really exciting seeing you do that knowing it's day two yeah and bro we're just getting started baby the super exciting thing is we put some stories up we're gonna do some more tonight but having all my followers and stuff and the people that know me good and my friends and knowing that i got knee issues and hip issues and no tendons in my shoulders knowing i'm pretty beat up the pec tears and stuff they're like man bro we've seen you doing it i said yeah you know it it definitely takes heart to do it you got to go slow with it i go but that's why i knew the functional training for me was going to be good and plus it gave me it it gave me the the passion back because we talked about it this you know for the last few years now two years ago i had a sten put in you know i had that heart block heart artery blockage and everything's great i didn't have no issues you know by the grace of god he put it on my heart to go get checked up no symptoms or nothing but i kind of lost the passion since i couldn't bodybuild no more and i couldn't get in there in the gym and i also lost the passion for for my meals you know i if one day i want to have a peanut butter and jelly and doritos and sit in the two go hand in hand right yeah and i kind of lost it you know when i downsized and everybody's like oh you look good now you look younger because you're not so blown out and stuff you know but i was like man i just need a little bit of a kick and then coming by you and of course eating clean i mean because your meals are from the company here and we're at your house and you're showing me a few different things and showing me like the old meathead way of meeting every two hours and seven meals a day you've made a good point our ancestors didn't eat like that you don't need that much food unless you're going to try to be a 300 pound kai green or you know mel chance or jay cutler yeah you know and when you don't have to do that you don't need that much food and you kind of showed me like okay you know and today we ate minimal you know we came here fasted and yeah we got with the team i talked you know we did the ceremony i had a little something here we went home had a light pancake and a protein shake then we tested the meals i had a little something here you know i'm thinking man i feel good today yeah and if this was three days earlier i might have been in my fourth [ __ ] meal or just eating junk around the house so it kind of showed me that so i told i told mel i told little mel when i called her today i said we're gonna be definitely making our just meals again and i said we're going to do this and stick to it because you know sometimes you need that spark and so you're not aware until you walk into a situation you take note of a different way of doing things yeah and just to touch on the functional training and like the hit training functional training like it's an opportunity to to change things up okay which is important change is important you're not going to have the burning desire to go do the same meathead bodybuilder workout that you've been doing since the late 80s yeah like if that's what you're doing you got to change it up and with the functional training with the way that we train today yeah like if the the the opportunity for for for for change and ways to structure it are limitless you ask me like oh what how do you normally do this work and i'm like brother i just made this up yeah but but it's because i've been doing it for so long but it's also a very valuable opportunity to step out of your comfort zone at the end of the workout you know you're sitting down breathing heavy we're both breathing heavy and i'm like hey bro like just know like it's supposed to feel like that because you're like man i thought my cardio is better i'm like no dude like dude this isn't about having good cardio or not having good cardio it's about pushing yourself it's about getting out of your comfort zone your heart is supposed to be beating super fast you're supposed to be out of breath you're supposed to feel like you're gonna [ __ ] die yeah for a few minutes but then after a few minutes yeah it comes down it doesn't feel like that and then your brain starts releasing these chemicals and you start feeling [ __ ] amazing and you take it with you for the rest of the day and it also raises uh your uh basal metabolic rate to the point where your body is burning calories long after that workout is completed which also allows you to burn through more body fat yeah and and that type of training also is good for functionality what does functional mean like functional like moving around bending down like moving around and living your life yeah this type of training is geared around allowing you to move maneuver and just exist yeah feeling as good as your body is supposed to feel and i think a lot of people get that part confused when they think of that type of training but um man it's changed my life and it continues to and that's why uh i mean that's why i [ __ ] do it because yeah i like a challenge and there's always ways to take things to the next level for sure and make it challenging and we did it in 16 minutes today yeah and that's that's that's efficient baby you know i am with efficiency yeah i'm looking forward i see you know we we talked i'm gonna come you know mondays and tuesdays yeah next week and i'm looking forward and then i get in the gym and lift my little you know my weights and my circuits and stuff like that and you know i know what it's going to do to my body i know it's going to lean me out even more you know i kept a little bit of muscle for a guy that can't really yeah a little bit a little bit push that weight like i used to and uh you know as we get older and it starts losing it and i said that a wife the other day i was looking in the mirror and i got out of shower and i go geez babe i said just the the depth of my arms are about the same size as my my legs are shrunk up so much you know my arms are just as big as them it's crazy but um you know i'm you as you know i don't have the ego with it no more i don't care that i'm look what i'm surrounded by the mr olympias and these young kids that are 290 pounds now and i don't have that ego thank god because when you're older like that and you keep that ego you're going to hurt yourself you're going to have some problems you're going to have some health issues so it's uh i i'm looking forward to everything that we're doing together brother mel where can uh where can our viewers who don't already where can they find you and follow you on social media oh so the instagram is uh mel chancey316 my facebook is you know obviously uh mel chancy um and uh you know as as you know right now i'm i'm a managing partner in at core medical with you know with the hormones and everything like that so um i get a lot of people that reach out to me for that that's a joy and your phone has been none and i'm so sorry to interrupt you but since you've gotten here your phone has been non-stop and it's obvious that you guys are helping a lot of people and i had the privilege of kind of just overhearing and and maybe i was ease dropping yeah because you know it's like it's cool for me to see you do that type of thing and like you know from as a high school kid who looked up to you in one capacity hearing you actually running your business and actually helping people it's uh it's pretty inspiring but it sounds like business is good because you're i mean literally between every thing that we had scheduled today you're stepping up taking phone calls with patients your doc it sounds like that's kind of amazing the same thing as you we knew the hormone game back in the day yes we were selling the steroids and we knew what the hormones were doing we were innovators of our time yes right now i'm at another level of the hormones and i'm helping people out so when i did yeah legit when a patient gets a hold of me or not even a patient yet when a guy gets a hold of me on social media instagram and he leaves me a message then i shoot him my number back and say hey brother this is too much to you have to call me yeah and he's like wow man hey mel you know i got your number and it called you and i'm and i give them a 20-minute spiel of how the testosterone works with the anti-estrogen and the hcg for the testicles and how you feeling they tell me how they're feeling okay let's get you in and get you the blood work done the joy to see that person that become that patient changed their life around but they put me on the phone with their wives thank you for giving me my husband back one lady goes we got a nickname for you around the house mel i go oh yeah this ought to be good what is it she goes we call you the dick doctor i said yeah oh i'm glad you got your husband back it wasn't you his hormones he loves you yeah you know what i mean and that gives me joy helping people back with the nutrition part of it that i know with the hormone part that i know i have an amazing partner he's the same way as me you're helping people reclaim control of their lives and that's a big deal yes i love that and then i do the same thing on the ifbb npc side we're throwing the shows and you know i have people here that i met today for the first time and they're doing one of my shows yeah that was random yeah it's crazy man to see like and i sit back and i'm like man lord thank you man the blessings that you put upon me and the people that i get to meet and they did a show or this person met me at a show and what like they i told them something that i obviously don't remember telling them and it impacted them today with one of your guys out here man he grabbed me after it was all done and over with and told me how much of a believer he is in his faith then you told me he just got his own place for the first time he told me in here with rick that he was in a toxic relationship and we all started talking with the three of us and i'm like brother once you have to rise above that and i there's a thing that another thing that hulk told me that it makes so much sense and i will leave everybody at this i love bending down to helping the brother out that's in that rut that's in that ditch i'm the first guy i'm getting down on my knees and i'm throwing on my arm man come on brother let me help you you know but there's a fine line into you helping him up or him pulling you down and that's what people got to understand and you didn't and and i do it by my faith and i know when the times the cut if i can't help that person because he's pulling me down into that ditch he's in and he's draining me of my energy and my spirituality and stuff like that i gotta cut you gotta let it go you gotta let it go and and and you know your your your teammate here that was telling me that he stayed in that bad environment which a lot of people do a lot of people do man and and it's a very tough it's a very tough thing because you don't want to give up on people right especially if it's your family or someone you're very close to yeah but you have to draw an awareness of the situation you have to look at how many times you've tried how many times you've attempted to to fortify the situation and someone we talked to last night who was in a toxic uh marriage and he's been back and forth and yeah you know finally i believe he's in a good place to to move on and never look back you you have to know that sometimes like you know when when that glass is broken it's supposed to stay that way yeah yeah it's supposed to stay that way and and just because like two people like you could be a good person she could be a good person but that does not mean that you two are good for each other right and we just have to accept that yeah we accept that we move forward yeah this life is too short yeah to try to [ __ ] piece together a shattered vase that is essentially impossible to repair you move forward you grow and you look at that person and that scenario and that chapter of your life for what it was yeah a learning lesson yeah and you take that knowledge you take that wisdom you take those insights and you move forward and you utilize it responsibly and you grow but if you stay down there you ain't [ __ ] growing oh no you're dying yeah and he's pulling you in so so that's that's a good way to end man yeah thank you for doing this love it yeah thank you man yeah well we'll do it again in the future now that you're going to be here more awkward two days with you and the team here today was exciting today was an awesome i got to see a girl graduate that she didn't know she was stepping up the ladder here yeah yeah announcement uh just see the team i always say man i haven't been here in a couple of years but and there's a lot of new faces i told you but you structure it and you give these guys goals here and you know we like we said you take the street person yeah you give them all the opportunity and that's amazing because i was there you know and i had people that were in my corner a lot of people that come home from prison or come from a bad family or something like that they don't have nobody no brother that's why 70 of them end up back in the [ __ ] yeah they don't have nobody and to have a guy like you that's you know you the way you are with the team and you're strict with them too you make them answer up you know i mean i'm here for 48 hours i seen you i tested the meals with yeah and we had great meals yeah you didn't like the presentation of a couple of them and you you let them know you know so and they i see it they appreciate let's throw a plug for that if you guys go on the nutrition solutions facebook page we did a facebook live where mel was the guest uh he was my celebrity guest taste tester and uh he was a little he was a little light on them i'm not gonna lie i was like come on man we gotta turn up a little bit here we gotta keep them on their toes but they did a good job with that today they can't take that away from all credit to the uh nutrition solutions team and um i appreciate you pointing that out man that that means a lot yeah no it's uh it's it's it's it makes me happy to see the way that you are as as a leader here and uh as the owner of it and how you interact with everybody and how they are with one another i could see it's a team i can see when somebody's you know down and they lift them up i can see how happy they were for for stephanie today as she graduated i could see how they are with these guys the the individual that just lost all that weight yeah that was talking to me outside yeah whose car broke down it right when he got the job and he was walking here he told me eight miles to and from to and from yeah and he goes hey i could have just quit and said hey sorry chris i don't have a car but i was walking then i saved up for a hooptie and he told me the story outside and i was like man that's dedication that's perseverance and that's nutrition solutions man that's what we do here that's what you're doing that's how i had to do it in them rough times in that cell i could have just sat back smoked joints in there and relaxed and when i came home said hey man i'm coming right back home to everything that was there when i left because it was there yeah of course and i said no man i gotta i gotta dig deep i gotta make a new life for myself and do something different and you know going through that pain and going through that suffering yeah i'm like you walked eight miles to and from wow i'm not sure i would have did that my lazy ass might have been like yeah i'll find another one i mean he had a hundred pounds to lose he looked that's what he viewed he viewed it as an opportunity to to get in his cardio and to lose some weight and and and lose the weight he did it was awesome hearing them stories today and watching and coming back here and knowing like this three years ago i was here and doing it you were doing it with that crew that was here you know a few faces left still yeah but a different team and it's the same it's the same thing you got going on so it's uh my props to you brother because you you know you do it right we'll keep doing we'll keep doing that we'll keep doing that yeah you know that's the whole that's the whole concept we bring people in here and uh this is an institution of higher learning and and we train them we're training soldiers here we're training them to be just good people that's it that is it good good [ __ ] people not good workers to be good good quality human beings that need to go out and represent nutrition solutions in the world through their acts leading by example something you're very familiar with yeah but um yeah man much love thank you so much for doing this my brother this is awesome i love you too yeah guys thank you so much for listening and uh definitely give mel a follow on social media mel one more time on the instagram uh mel chancey c-h-a-n-c-e-y 316 facebook mel chancey yeah guys thank you for listening much love crush it this week and we'll talk to you the man go soon let the man go through

Channel: Chris Cavallini

Views: 1,196,303

Rating: 4.6868157 out of 5

Keywords: Mel Chancey, mel chancey gym, mel chancey wrestling, big mel chancey, Hells Angel, hells angels mc, hells angels motorcycle club, hells angels, Hells Angel president, harley, chris cavallini, chris cavallini podcast, chris cavallini motivation, chris cavallini interview, hell angels biker, hell angels president interview, nutrition solutions, Start Today, start today podcast, former Hells Angel president

Id: K5wuvB9TOio

Length: 120min 50sec (7250 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2020