Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook
Welcome to 'Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook', a heartening podcast where embracing vulnerability is the key to success. Join your host, Kevin, as he dives into the stories of remarkable individuals who have transformed their lives by opening up, facing challenges, and finding strength in their most vulnerable moments. Each episode features inspiring conversations with guests from various walks of life. Kevin's journey of embracing vulnerability has led him to meet amazing people, and now he brings their wisdom, laughter, and insights to you. Tune in and discover how embracing your vulnerabilities can lead to your greatest victories in life, both personally & professionally.
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Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook
Tiger King Revealed: Joe Exotic’s Untold Story on Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook
Few American stories rival the wild journey of Joe Exotic, and on Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook, you’ll hear a raw, unfiltered conversation direct from federal prison. The Tiger King himself opens up about the life-changing moments Netflix never showed you.
Behind the flamboyant persona lies a story of profound pain and resilience. Joe reveals the devastating rejection that led him to attempt suicide by crashing his police car into a bridge – after being outed by his brother to parents who couldn’t accept his sexuality. From this rock bottom, he found unexpected salvation in exotic animals during rehabilitation in Florida, sparking a passion that would eventually create “the world’s most famous zoo.”
The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park wasn’t just a tourist attraction – it was a sanctuary for outcasts, both animal and human. “Over the years I had three, four hundred people come through there working that were drug addicts on the doorstep to going to jail,” Joe explains. “The good thing about the animals is they didn’t judge you.” This judgment-free environment helped countless individuals rebuild their lives while honoring Joe’s brother Gerald’s memory through 151 memorial sites across the property.
With newfound hope after receiving word that the White House is investigating his case for clemency, Joe shares his vision for the future – using his massive platform for prison reform and supporting Operation Smile, his favorite charity. Despite the destruction of his life’s work and the sensationalized portrayal by Netflix, Joe remains resilient and determined to tell his side of the story.
👉 Have you seen the evidence in Joe’s case? Visit www.joeexoticofficial.com
to learn more about his fight for freedom and the truth behind the Tiger King phenomenon.
👉 Watch this conversation and more at www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRw9rhdGEz_ussXlC6i0zy0movXyZRz7-&si=bCooWhQTIYxRP_FS
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This call is from Joe. This call will be recorded and subject to monitoring at any time. To accept this call, press 5. To block this call and all future calls, you may begin speaking now.
Speaker 3:Joe, what's?
Speaker 1:up Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook. Welcome back to Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook and man. If this is not unscripted, I don't know what is. I'm really excited about this one. So, from attempted suicide to the zoo that made him a household name, and now this guy is fighting for clemency at the White House, joe Exotic's story is one of the wildest in America, and today we get to hear it in his own words Joe Exotic, welcome, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 2:Hey, I appreciate you having me man.
Speaker 3:This is something, so you know. I ask you how it's going, but, like you said, it's prison.
Speaker 2:It's prison, it's prison, it's prison. We're getting close, though. At least we got their attention now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and that just came about yesterday.
Speaker 2:I believe my people announced it yesterday. I got a letter two days ago saying that the White House has got my case under investigation and gave me a number here.
Speaker 3:That is phenomenal. And I will ask we have some questions down a little deeper and we'll get to that because that's really cool and that's a story that we need to get out there so the people know. So you have spoken about your suicide attempt and that kind of hits home with me. I've been down that same path, yeah, a lot of people have.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and a lot of people are afraid to talk about it. So I feel like by talking about it it kind of helps others tremendously. But you've kind of made it like you've mentioned the exotic animals kind of saved you from that and saved you after that. Is there a specific moment that you can kind of walk us through and like what did those animals mean to you in that dark time?
Speaker 2:Well, okay, keep in mind when I was a police chief I don't know what Netflix did really portray it right but when I was a police chief, I was struggling with being gay. My parents didn't know at the time and I got a call one night to go to my mom and dad's house and I was on duty in my patrol car and I go to my mom and dad's and I go to knock on the door and my dad opens his door and he's screaming bloody murder. I mean the spit's like hitting you in the face and my mom is standing behind him crying and I'm like what the hell is going on? Well, my brother outed me to my parents that I was gay and my dad was that disgusted and he made me shake his hand in front of my mom and promised never to come to his funeral. And you know when you're struggling with something.
Speaker 1:This call is from a federal prison.
Speaker 2:Anything will tip you over that tipping point. So on my way back to town, you know, after I left that house hell, it made me feel so bad I drove my car into a bridge yeah, on purpose, and that's what ended my police career, because I broke my back. But you know, I went to West Palm Beach, florida, and that's where I did my physical therapy and everything. And you know I paid to go see a psychiatrist and you know what I learned as a psychiatrist for 12,000 bucks. Here I'll give your whole audience a $12,000 psychiatric treatment real quick. You know what I learned for $12,000?.
Speaker 3:What did you?
Speaker 2:learn. Just say fuck you if you don't like me, Ain't that?
Speaker 3:some shit, you know it is some shit.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you know, while I was doing rehab in Florida, my neighbor was working at Lion Country Safari and brought home all the baby monkeys and the lions and stuff at night to bottle feed, and that's where I got really my love for exotics.
Speaker 2:But you know, that's why I built this zoo and had so many misfits there. You know, over the years I probably had three, four hundred people come through there, you know, working that were drug addicts on the doorstep to going to jail. You know, in rehab and a lot of them made it clean and cleaned up and moved on and some of them didn't. But the good thing about the animals is they didn't judge you. You know, the good thing about the animals is they didn't judge you. You know, as long as you were good to them, they respected you. Yeah, and I think that's what helped a lot of these people you know move on to better things was they had, you know, 1,200, 1,400 animal souls there that actually gave a shit about them, you know.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And that was the cool thing about it. But you know, the only bad thing about Netflix and Tiger King is they turned it into a bad thing because you know they were outcasts, their parents kicked them out, you know, and nobody wanted them. And then Netflix just made it all that much worse, made them look like horrible people again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's crazy because you know, no matter, despite what Netflix did and how they painted the picture, we could still tell that like what you made was something larger than you and it was something larger than the people that worked there, and you know you could see that in it. So, but they just made it this absolute train wreck. That's what Netflix did.
Speaker 2:They did, you know, and that's the sad part about that whole thing today is, you know, everybody forgets that that was a memorial park. Okay, animals gotta live in honor of people who passed away. There was 151 memorials there and there was three people's ashes actually buried under their memorials, you know. So today it's a ghost town. The weeds are taller than the cages.
Speaker 2:You know, ricky told me that I guess half of my house is burned down and it's disgusting because nothing about any of this was for tigers. Okay, that was. That became the world's most famous zoo on the planet, you know, and if this was about tigers or conservation or animals in general, all they would have had to do was stop breeding and they could have done more for saving tigers than anywhere in the world. Because, I mean, 123 countries knows about that zoo. But instead they spray painted foul language on the buildings. You know, they spray-painted foul language on the buildings. You know, they broke the windows on all the buildings and they tore it up and Carroll sold it for $140,000. With a 100-year contract, it can never be another zoo.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:So what did it accomplish for Tigers? Nothing. Other than shut Joe down and put him in prison.
Speaker 3:They're in a worse spot.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yeah, that's horrible. So with these animals, so without the animals, you probably wouldn't be here today, right? No, really I wouldn't. Yeah, I can relate, man, I've been down, you know somewhat similar paths, but nothing like that, you know especially after Travis died.
Speaker 2:I gave up Travis. My husband, you know that, shot himself at the zoo. Yes, you know that was in Netflix. At that point I could have killed less if I lived or died again.
Speaker 3:Right. How are you feeling today?
Speaker 2:I am hopeful because you know, I've got Well. Somehow I'm going to get out of here. If I have to serve my whole sentence, I've only got four and a half more years, but I truly believe Trump is going to make this right. There's just too many people out there screaming for this to be made right, not to mention all of the government. Witnesses got on world television on season two of Tiger King and admitted to perjury.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. That season two kind of helped.
Speaker 2:I don't even belong here. But what drives me now is, you know, I haven't really seen how big my platform really is out there is. I haven't really seen how big my platform really is out there. But the letters, the inmates that come in here that saw the show and were out when the show was out, everybody knows me. I mean, it's just crazy, everybody knows me. So I'm looking forward to getting out of here and using my platform for justice and prison reform and to fix little kids' faces because Operation Smile is my favorite charity and helping people that are struggling. I want to do nothing, but help people, yeah.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Well. I mean, you have the platform too, you have the attention. Yeah, so your brother's tragic death in the vehicle accident that shaped your whole journey?
Speaker 2:right, it did it did Because, you know, we started that zoo and I moved to Oklahoma to take care of my parents because he took care of my parents and we started that whole zoo in memory of him because he wanted to go to Africa. You know, and Gerald was the type of person that he would get his shirt off his back to a stranger and we did some charity work when we had the pet store. You know, we flew a lady to Boston and had brain surgery and flew her back and and we did some other things too. So that's why me and my mom and dad decided to do that zoo, you know, to help people. You know we opened it for free every holiday. You know we did Tigers for Tots, we did toy drives, we fed the homeless. It was remarkable and they destroyed it for a movie.
Speaker 3:Right, do you feel like?
Speaker 2:This thing's going to hang up, so I'm going to it just beeped and said it's going to hang up in 15, 20 seconds, all right? Hey, I'll be glad to call you back on another day.
Speaker 3:Love it, man. Shoot me an email and we'll get that coordinated man, but I appreciate this, so we'll definitely stay tuned for the next one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everybody get on JoeExoticOfficialcom and look at the evidence.
Speaker 3:Joe, thank you so much. I appreciate you coming up here. So you just heard what I heard from Joe Exotic. His story is not over. He's fighting clemency with the White House. He does have the most wildest story of all in america and that was really exciting to get a phone call from him and be able to do this podcast with joe. Joe, I appreciate your time. I appreciate everything you're doing, man and uh man. I just can't wait to see what happens, bro. So, uh, until next time. Uh, life unscripted. Kevin shook. Follow it on the platforms Also. Go over to Joe Exotic, hop on his site, give him a follow, give him some love and catch you all next time.
Speaker 1:Life Unscripted with Kevin Shook.
