Tony Little Interview

TL: I got to tell you something. I used to go to a psychiatrist and talk about it, because it was like I attracted so many strange people in my life. I’m like asking, 'Why do I attract them?' Basically I think what it came down to, as far as what the psychiatrist [told me], 'Tony, you’re a very personable person. You’re very approachable. People like your persona. So, they approach you. You’re nice. You’re not standoffish. And so obviously you get approached by a high percentage of strange people.'

Hank, the deal with that and the bodybuilding, now he’s dead, but he ended up being involved in three or four murders. It was a very strange thing. I’m sure I would have been one of those murders. Because obviously I was against the guy. The other guy that was the hitman was actually very nice. He was a very nice guy. He was a very cool guy. Obviously, I never would have ended up meeting [him] at the gym, but when I met him at the New Year’s party he was nice. He’d come over and talk. He was even nice when I told him that the FBI and sheriffs were looking for him [because] he kills people. He was like, 'Yeah that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.' It was a big matter of fact type of conversation. He was very respectful of me being honest. It almost goes back to the days where you sit there and go, 'Even though that was a weird situation, everybody respects somebody who tells it like it is.' It could have been the other way where I hide it and I get nervous. Who knows what would have happened to me. But, I liked the guy even though he shot people.

TCC: When you look at your life, do you look at your life as it was out of the norm or do you feel many people walk down some of the same difficult paths that you did?

TL: I think a lot of people walk down a lot of the difficult adversary paths that I’ve done. A lot of us have challenges. I’m not so sure that they’ve walked down some of the strange, weird things like getting a hypothermic needle in your buttocks and being carried out by a potential killer or pedophile or something like that. I mean I don’t think that’s the norm. But I accept it. When I get with a bunch of people and we start talking about stories and stuff like that and I start telling my stories, everyone is like amazed. At the end they always say the same thing. It’s kind of a stupid thing in some ways, but they say, “Wow, I haven’t even lived a life.” It’s not that I lived a life, it’s that I move fast, I travel international, I’ve been in a lot more friggin’ things that I put in this book. [Laughs]

I can get very weird on some of the stuff that has happened to me in public or other things. The other day I was doing a live show in Vegas for HSN for celebrity type stuff and when I came out on stage, I was asked twice, twice to take off my hat to see that I had all real hair. And I’m like, “How can that be such an important thing?” ABC Nightline did a special on me, it was a great special, again, another positive and cool thing. When they did the advertising for the Nightline special, they went on Twitter and they went on Facebook and they started going off about the truth on Tony Little’s hair. And I was like, “What is the deal with the hair?” Obviously, I use it as a channel stopper to get people’s attention and not look like a total physical jerk, a physical guy with short hair and really clean cut. Boy, it really intrigues people whether I have real hair or I don’t have real hair.

TCC: How long do you plan on keeping the signature long, blonde ponytail?

TL: You know, not that long. I obviously do not want to be [long] grey haired. I’d like to go to short hair someday, because obviously it also is better with what I could come up with like my pillow -- which I sold four million of. I started sweating in the bed with a lot of hair, so there are positives in the hair, too.

TCC: In your book, you sort of alluded to religion with the story about the woman on top of the house and the three boats. Are you a man of faith or do you believe everything happens for a reason?