Andy Macdonald Interview
 Hey, is Andy around?
This is Andy.
Andy MacDonald.
Yes, sir.
I wanted to see if you had some time to talk to me, and I could ask you questions about skateboarding, and then you could give me answers, and we could do an interview.
Right, hold on one second. I'm in the middle of brushing my teeth.
Andy MacDonald's brushing his teeth right now, everyone. Do you brush from top to bottom or bottom to top?
Little circles.
Is there a type of toothpaste that works best?
Crest, definitely. Crest sensitive.
Is that what gives you that bright, white smile of yours?
No, that's the fake teeth. I was born without a bunch of teeth, and I got fake teeth in there.
Are you lying?
I'm not lying.
Did you have bad teeth when you were young?
No, I didn't have some of them. Like, they were all baby teeth, and I didn't have adult teeth to take their place.
How long did you have baby teeth for?
I kept some baby teeth for like 20 years.
You were like a little fish. Did you have to gum stuff?
No, dude, they worked. The only reason your baby teeth fall out is because there's adult teeth that push them out.
Steve Caballero pays for little kids to go to camps. How come you don't?
How come I don't? Well, I don't have shoe royalty checks in the hundreds of thousands of dollars like Stevie Cab does, for one, but I go to the camps and I've been working at the camps for the past 11 years.
What do you do when you work there? Do you serve food?
Yeah. Wash dishes. No. I used to be a counselor at Woodward Camp. I used to live in the cabins with the kids. Depending on the kids. Like yuo just stay up until three in the morning and listen to mama jokes from 13 year olds. Like every single mama joke you can think of.
Which one was your favorite mama joke?
Probably, your mam's so fat, when she wears her Malcolm X jacket, helicopters try and land on her.
You shouldn't tell mom jokes though, Andy, 'cause aren't you mother-approved?
Supposedly, that's what people tell me.
How did you get that title? That's not self-appointed?
No, that was a Sports Illustrated article that came out.
Do moms everywhere love you?
We were shooting some photos and went to the skatepark with the guy that was writing the article, and he met Tas Pappas at the park. He just saw the night and day of the skateboard world. Which was kind of cool. So next to Tas Pappas, I am "mother-approved." Next to Mike Frazier who doesn't smoke or drink, and he lifts weights every day, so in my opinion, he's more of a trainer than me, but for some reason, I'm the non-partier, trainer guy.
I heard you're always training.
That's what people hear, but I constantly skate, so if that's training, yeah, but I've never lifted weights. I think it's the most boring thing in the world. My knees hurt too much to be able to go running. I just skate, that's all I do. I eat junk food, and I skateboard.
When you're "training" at a park on a vert ramp, do you tune everybody out and not talk to everyone?
No, not at all. I talk to everyone, especially the kids.
If you saw a fat, overweight, bearded editor on the vert ramp next to you, would you just ignore him?
I don't know. If I knew he was an editor, how would I know that he's an editor?
I think everyone knows what Dave Carnie looks like.
Oh, yeah. I probably would recognize him if I saw him, but I wouldn't be able to go, "That's Dave Carnie."
He looks like a mountain man.
Okay, now i'm getting the picture 'cause I see him at contests.
When I told him i'm going to interview you, he was very sad. He said, "One time, I saw Andy MacDonald, and I introduced myself, and he just looked at me, and he just dropped in and ignored me."
Oh, that's messed up.
That made him sad, Andy.
Rough, I know. First impressions are bad sometimes. Had I known that that was Dave, then I probably wouldn't have done that. Depends on what the scenario is -- I mean, I wouldn't do that to anybody regardless whether they were an editor of a skateboard magazine or whatever. It's not something I tried to do, maybe I was all frustrated trying a trick. I get letters from kids that are like, "I introduced myself at the park and you were such a jerk and you ignored me the whole time." It's just there's a lot going on when you're skating, and maybe at the time that Carnie came up and introduced himself I was in the middle of trying some trick, and I was concentrating on that.
 See, I don't think you should have to apologize 'cause if I saw Dave, and I didn't know Dave, I would probably do the same thing.
Maybe, but it wouldn't be very nice.
Are you super short? In your tricks you always seem so tiny.
You gotta stay low to the ground, that's how you keep your balance.
Do you ever look at your photo's and say, "It makes me look fat?"
No. Kids sometimes think that I look short on TV, or they go, "I thought you were taller than you are," but i'm like, "Naw, I just look taller on TV 'cause i'm always standing on my skateboard."
Do you ever, before you enter a contest, in your dressing room, look in the mirror and say, "Does this yellow shirt make my ass look big?"
No. I wore a red shirt last contest actually.
You're not allowed to do that.
Just yesterday.
You didn't win then, huh?
No. I was wondering if that had something to do with the shirt.
Did you get a call from Powell the next day?
No, they didn't care. Last time I wore a baby-blue shirt Frazier was giving me hell. He was like, "What're you doing, dude? This is the contest! You're supposed to be wearing a yellow shirt."
I'm surprised he even recognized you.
I know, right? I don't know what happend there. Somehow I just became "Yellow Man." He's cool. I met him. He's super cool.
Did he try to get you high?
No, everybody's tried to get me high though, but it doesn't happen.
What do you think the best way for a kid to handle that situation of being offered marijuana?
The last thing I want to do is preach to any kid about you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that, because, you know, every kid can make their own decisions, but I try to set a good example. Here's the decisions that I made, and here's where I've gotten in my career, in my life, if you're into that, then maybe they'll follow that example, but i'm not going to tell kids like, "Don't do this, don't do that, do this, and just say no and run away." and all that stuff is just silly to me, you know, the whole frying-pan commercial and stuff. It didn't seem like it was getting anything across. People just made fun of it.
But say a kid doesn't want to do drugs, and there's a lot of pressure on the kid, what's the best way to handle a situation like that? What works for you?
Luckily I found skateboarding before drugs and stuff were even an issue. First of all, with beer I just never liked it. It's an acquired taste, I tried it, you know, the first party when I was 13 years old in the woods.
You drank beer?
Yeah.
Woah.
Whoa, right? They were all, "Try it dude, have a beer." Took a sip, spit it out and was like, "That's disgusting! Why would you drink that?" and went right back to drinking my Dr. Pepper or whatever I was drinking. Later, when i was like 19, I had moved to California, and my rommate paid me a hundred bucks to drink a beer. That's the only beer I ever drank voluntarily. Slammed it.
Oh, you slammed it?
Yeah, well, that was the deal. You had to drink that beer as fast as you can. Originally, it was like we were in this bar, and there was a 3/4 full pitcher of beer and I was trying to sell my car at the time for 700 bucks. He's like, "I'll write you a check for $700 if you slam that pitcher of beer right now." And I really needed the money. "No way," they knew I never drank. And other people just like, "Man, I'd do it if it was full of piss. 700 bucks! Do it!" And I ended up not doing it, but then later that night there was one little beer left, like a 21-ounce beer left, and my roomate's like, "Hundred bucks, right now," and I was like, "Cool."
How was it?
It was disgusting. Got a little buzz maybe, I don't know.
But how about drugs? How did you avoid that?
Yeah, like I said. I had friends that I would skate vert with and stuff that would, halfway through the session, disappear. I'd be like, "Where'd everybody go?" And they'd just go out to the car and smoke some weed and come back in and be skating again. Some of those guys seemed like they skated better because of it. For me, it wasn't even an option. To me that was only going to hinder what I was trying to do. Like, let's go smoke cigarettes and then try to do physical activity? Like, whatever. So that's the only way I avoided it is by just skating.
You deal with a lot of people on corporate levels, do they have different stereotypes of what skateboarders are?
I think it's still pretty much the same. It's come a long way just in the past six years with the exposure that television gives skateboarding. It's not so crazy to tell somebody you're a professional skatboarder these days, you know? They go, "Oh, Tony Hawk. My son plays that video game." But there's still that preconceived notion, like, "Oh, well, you're a skater, so you must do this or that or listen to this kind of music or drink beer and do drugs."
Does that upset you that people are like, "Oh, skateboarding, Tony Hawk"? Does it make you want to be like, "But what about me, Andy MacDonald?"
No, I think that skateboarding couldn't have asked for a better ambassador than Tony. I mean, he's done a great job. I don't know how he does it sometimes because of all the stuff he has to deal with. Can you imagine if you were just going out to dinner, and people were like, "Oh, you have to do a 900," like everywhere you go? He deals with it great, I can't say that I'd be able to do the same.
Do you think if and when Tony comes back to contests you'll be able to take him out?
I don't know. I mean, we've been skating together for a long time, and we've skated against each other a long time, and it just comes down to every other competition. Like skateboarding's so subjective, and it's so random, like whoever has the day. Sometimes I have the day, and I beat Tony. More often he has the day, and he beats me. I don't think he'll come back. I think he's tired of it.
So, then, I could take that as a yes, you would beat him?
No.
Why not?
'Cause that's not what I said.
But you can't just say it for me so I can get a nice sound bite?
Nope. I can't give you that sound bite, man, 'cause it's not what I said. That's what i'm talking about with the stuff that Tony has to deal with. Like the XGames, as an example, like the most blown-out media event in skateboarding, Tony won it the first year, I won it the second year, he won it the third year, I won it the fourth year, like we were battling, and the media would try and get us to talk trash on each other. Like USA Today would be sitting there doing an interview, Tony and I, like talking about the doubles competition, and we're partners for the doubles, competition, and they couldn't understand how there wasn't this rivalry, and they would try to build this rivalry in, and Tony and I would just be like, "This isn't football. This is skateboarding. Tony and I are friends, and we skate together, and sometimes he wins, and sometimes I win." We ended up just telling them, well, as long as Tony or Andy win, it's all good.
But there's gotta be something that you could talk trash on him about. Like, I bet you have more yellow shirts than he does.
Yeah, you're probably right.
See. So there, Tony.
So there.
Do you ever feel like you missed the whole boat thought with the Powell thing by not being with the team when teh real Bones Brigade was around?
Well, I was just starting skating, so I can't really feel that way. I mean, I just feel lucky to be a part of what it is now. The original Bones Brigade was a whole different era of skating.
You don't consider yourself a little bit lazy for starting so late?
No. I was only 12.
Well, that's a grown man in Israel.
Yeah, right.
[At this point Andy had to go, but he said that it was okay to call him the next morning and talk to him some more. So I did.]
Andy, I was thinking about it last night, and I felt bad that I tried to make you say bad things about Tony, and I wanted to give you a chance to say nice things about Tony if you would like to.
I think I already did.
But you don't want to compliment his smile or his haircut or anything like that?
I'll compliment his costume. We had an 80's party at my house not too long ago, and he was rocking a little bit of the flop, he had grown his hair out a little bit. There used to be this barber shop in a town in Massachusetts near where I lived that advertised Tony Hawk haircuts. Isn't that cray?
How come McDonald's hasn't approached you to be a spokesperson for them?
It's spelled differently? I don't know.
When you went to the White House, did you try to steal anything?
No. It's pretty gnarly security, and there's a Secret Service agent literally every 30 feet. When you're walking down the hall, they're just like hangin' out.
Was it really cold in there?
It's kind of echoey. It's like a museum or something. But like high ceilings and marble floors. The craziest part was, I got to drop my board down and just skate down one of the hallways.
They didn't try and tackle you?
No, the Secret Service guys were just like, "Hey, what are ya doing?" But I had to do it just so I could say that I skated in the White House, but that's as crazy as I got.
 What was Bill Clinton like, did you talk to him at all, or was it really quick kind of like shake your hand and take a picture?
No, we hung out for like 20 minutes. He's a super-big dude, but way more down to earth than I thought he'd be. When I met him, I was just like, "Wow, like he's two feet taller than I am, and he's a really big kind of country guy." Like super-firm handshake and stuff, but it's just kind of weird because his day is so scheduled. I'm sure that they schedule when he's allowed to go to the bathroom. Like we're hanging out in that room behind where you go out to do your speech, and it was like me and General Mcaffrey from the office of National Drug Control Policy and like some bigwigs, and we're hanging out there, and then the Secret Service guy comes in, and he's like, "Potus will be here in two minutes." And i'm like, "Potus will be here? Who's Potus?" And somebody's like, yeah, "The President of the United States." And, sure enough, exactly two minutes later, he walks through the door and starts shaking hands and saying what's up to everybody, and then somebody introduced me, and I gave him a board. It was like the end of his term and stuff, and I was like, "Hey, if you have some time on your hands later on, if you want to learn how to skateboard, give me a call."
What were his hands like, were they clammy?
Nah, just like firm, like he'd worked before. Which was interesting.
Were your hands sweating?
No, the weird part is that when I say he's down to earth is that he was just talking to me like just some guy. I didn't get the feeling like, wow, this is like the most powerful man in the world. He was like, "Hey, yeah, Andy MacDonald, I've seen you on TV before." He was like, "I've seen the XGames."
Did he have any hot interns with him?
No. Everybody always asks that, though, when they heard I went. The funniest part is, probably like six months after, Tony went to some party in L.A., and Monica Lewinsky was there, and he shot a photo with her. And Tony wrote me the e-mail like, yeah, you met the President, but check me out, and sent me the picture of him hangin' with her.
Do you have any closing statements you would like to say on being surprised with this interview or anything else?
No, I mean, nothing super surprising, just I respect your whole shtick. Just your willingness to do it, because I know you guys get a lot of hell for doing what you guys do.
Do you want to say who your sponsors are?
Sure. My wife, number one, she's my biggest sponsor, biggest supporter.
Why, what does she give you?
Everything. Motivation. She kicks me out of the house and tells me to go skate. Brigade, Split, Sobe, Airwalk, Swatch, Protec, Tech Deck, Harbinger, Grind King and Bionical.
Comments
Raff
19 Mar 2007, 12:09
what a fuckin' bore. someone should hold that fag down, and blow crack smoke up his nose.
brunothakid
19 Mar 2007, 21:54
fuck off raff, that andy mac is a class act!
tvillesk8t3r
04 Feb 2008, 10:59
Yeah if you think hes a bore get your ass out there and you go pro
Alex Szliwoski
12 Mar 2008, 17:29
I met Andy at the Gravity Games and he really was a dick. He just ignored me and refused to give me an autograph. Same with everyone else. He doesn't support his fans. Thats why no one likes him. Lose the stupid yellow helmet...
rick
30 Oct 2008, 21:23
what a dump hump dick fuck
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