Friday, January 30, 2009

Fuck Being Normal: An Interview with Dave Tate

Dave Tate is a badass. He's big. He's strong. He may be the most opinionated guy you'll ever read. And he is testosterone incarnate. I'm not saying this is necessarily a good thing, but it's compelling - especially to a guy like me, who grew up afraid to offend anyone.

Courtesy of T-Nation [NOTE: title and location were changed since I posted - the link has been updated thanks to a reader who wanted to read the whole thing.]

Fuck Being Normal: An Interview with Dave Tate

I interviewed Dave Tate, 41-year-old businessman and world-class powerlifting expert, on January 13th. We talked, laughed, and cursed for two hours, and somehow I convinced myself that I'd done my job as a journalist, that I'd conducted a comprehensive, cohesive interview.

Then the transcript arrived. Sixty-two pages, 21,994 words. After reading through a few pages, I noticed a pattern: there was no fucking pattern.

While Dave was talking about Westside Barbell, he launched into a story about sending 75 pounds of pornography to Jim Wendler, a fellow powerlifter and his future sales manager at EliteFTS. He talked about why the 225-pound bench press test, a favorite yardstick to measure athletic talent at the NFL Combine, was "fucking stupid," then pivoted to a rant about fat guys and kindergarten. He told me his thoughts about the future of the fitness industry, said he liked my book, then went off on a tangent about tearing both pecs.

I realized my questions didn't matter. He had a lot to say, and his thoughts were uniquely interesting, funny, poignant, and inspiring. But there's no use pretending those thoughts were offered in response to any particular question I asked. We might've ended up with the same answers if I'd asked the questions in Arabic or Lithuanian. So I took out the questions, leaving you with pure, undiluted Dave.

Dave, a native of Findlay, Ohio, currently resides just outside Columbus. He's as well-known for his prolific and profane rants about whatever happens to be on his mind (if you're not easily offended, try this one) as for his powerlifting achievements. (He reached Elite status in three different weight classes, and recorded an all-time-best total of 2,205 pounds.)

He's also the author of Under the Bar and a married guy with two young sons.

With that out of the way, here's Dave.

Interview with Dave Tate

I Became the Dude You Didn't Fuck With

I Was Standing Up There In My Underwear With Oil On and Felt Stupid

Under the Bar, It's All About You

3 comments:

strongmountain said...

That's a badass interview!

Anonymous said...

The link to the rest of the article is broken...please fix. I NEED TO READ THE REST!!!

william harryman said...

link should be fixed - they moved it and changed the title