Mike Tyson has gone from fearsome boxing champion to convicted rapist to sideshow fighter - all throughout his life, it's always been easier for all of us to caricaturize him than to understand him.
That's why this tell-all interview with Ivan Solotaroff of Details Magazine is so interesting. For one, it hints on the American weakness for personal redemption. Plus it's filled with obscenities :)
Details: Twenty years ago, you were one of the most famous men on the planet. Is there a big plan for Act 2?
Mike Tyson: The first stage of my life was just a whole bunch of selfishness. Just a whole bunch of gifts to myself and people who didn't necessarily deserve it. Now I'm 44, and I realize that my whole life is just a fucking waste. "Greatest man on the planet"? I wasn't half the man I thought I was. So if there's a big plan now, it's just to give—it's selflessness, caring for the people who deserve it. Because I think I'm a pig. I have this uncanny ability to look at myself in the mirror and say, "This is a pig. You are a fucking piece of shit."
Details: Sounds painful.
Mike Tyson: No, not at all. Objectively, I'm a pig. That's why it's very difficult for me when people are offering me all that adulation and love. I just feel dirty. These people want to hug me, they want to touch me, and I'm feeling like, "Get your fucking hands off me." I feel that energy of theirs, and it's just filth and murder. It's not that they're bad people necessarily; it's just that they did something bad, and you can feel it on them. I have to go and wash up before I touch my own kids. And after I lost my 4-year-old daughter? All these people reached out and I realized: I just want to be of service to people. I need to help. I need to have something, finally, that I can offer people in this world.
Link - Thanks Eric! (Photo: Terry Richardson)
Of course if you're just looking for the bits of weirdness, then Buzzfeed has got you covered: 9 Best Quotes from Mike Tyson's Details Magazine Intervew