Fred Gall Interview
 What happened the other night on Chris Casey's 31st birthday?
It started out, somebody wanted to get Olde English 40's, which
wasn't a really great idea. So we drank a dozen of those, went out,
next thing you know, Anthony [Van Englan] is getting beat up by two
bouncers. So I try to break in, and I get my ass whipped to the ground
a couple times. Got punched in the jaw. I think that's probably the
third episode since I've been out in L.A. Pretty much every week at
least something goes down. I guess trouble follows me.
I remember a lot of people out here kept coming up to me, like,
"Is Fred Gall in jail? Is Fred Gall going to jail?"
No, I did get into some trouble, but that's all over with now. I'm a
free man.
Do you want to say what it was for?
No, I'd rather not say. A lot of misunderstandings.
Were you looking at some jail time?
Possibly, yeah, but thank God it worked out.
Growing up under high tension towers and next to an oil
refinery, do you glow at night?
No, but I'm sure something is up. There's all these warning signs
everywhere about cancerous waters and all this shit, so I'm sure
we're all going to be fucked for living close to there.
Why do you live there?
I don't know. That's where I grew up, man. I live pretty much down
the street from where I grew up. My grandmother lives up the street.
The area right by your house is the epitome of what people think
of when they think of New Jersey.
Yeah, well, when you fly in, you're going over Newark, and it looks
like hell from in the sky, you know? And I live pretty much right in the
center of hell. But to me it's just home. I like leaving there occasionally
when it's cold like right now. But I'll always go back there for home.
Plus, I don't think I could live out in L.A. really. I could stay for a while,
but it's not my place to live. It's hard to get things done on a skating
level because you go and sit in traffic for like half a day and shit.
Some days it works out pretty good, but the whole traffic thing sucks,
and just having to drive to every spot pretty much sucks.
Don't you live right by where that gas refinery blew up in Staten
Island recently?
It was a four-million-gallon ship loaded with gasoline in the harbor,
right across the water from me. Not even a mile away. I could throw
a rock at the fire from here because it spread so far across the water
that it was halfway to my side. It was fucked. It was like ten after ten,
and I was sleeping, and the explosion was so loud that I flew right out
of bed, and my house shook for seriously 20 seconds afterwards. I
was pretty shook. I didn't know if a plane crashed or what. It sounded
like one of these oil tankers on my side of the harbor could have
exploded. I thought maybe it was terrorists because this area is a
major target for them with all the gas lines and all the factories and
shit. I was bugging. I went into my mom's room, and she had slept
through it. I don't know how. I woke her, and she told me to call my
grandma. My grandma tells me to look out my back window, and she
told me all her basement windows broke. I looked out my back
window and was like, "Holy shit!" it had just happened, and all the gas
was burning, it was a wall of flames like three to 400 feet high, just
dark black, insane gasoline fire. I'm like two blocks from the water, so
I walked down there, and the cops had it all blocked off. There was
news cameras everywhere, so they started interviewing us and shit.
I was on channel 23 news, 12 news, channel 13 and channel 42.
Those sound like all the shitty news channels.
Yeah, pretty much. Channel 7 and all the other channels didn't show
up until way later when it was under control. The whole thing burned
for over a day, but the big-ass shit was all the gallons burning. It
looked like a football field of flames, it was crazy. It burned for an hour
like that, and they were starting to evacuate people because there
was another barge a couple yards from the fire that they had to spray
down because it was getting hot, and it had the same amount of gas
in it, and if that one blew up, it could have caused a chain reaction
with all the other shit around there to blow up. It was kind of scary.
Has anything like that ever happened around there before?
Yeah, actually, several instances. One time lightning struck one of the
tanks directly across the street from my house, and it ripped the lid
off the tank, so it was burning out of it, and we got evacuated for a
day. A different time a propane train under the bridge right across the
street blew up, so we got evacuated for that too. Like when the World
Trade Center blew up, you could see it all from the waterfront by my
house. It just goes to show how gnarly this area is.
You kind of disappeared for a little while. You didn't have too
much coverage. What was going on?
Yeah, well, I couldn't leave New Jersey for a while because I had
some lawsuit to deal with, and I'm just coming off of three broken ribs
as well. I was skating some transitions, and I fell into the back of a
bench backwards and snapped a couple ribs, so that sucked. That
was about three months out of it.
Tell me your original plan for the article with the photos.
Yeah, my original plan was to have all my photos from Jersey. And I
got a lot of them. There's a lot of good spots out there. It's just hard
to get people out there to go on missions all day. But, yeah, I got a
couple photos out here too, but I'm still having a lot of photos from
Jersey, weird spots and shit.
What do you usually do when you're back there in Jersey?
Shit. For instance, in the wintertime and being hurt there's not much
to do but sit around, play pool and get drunk pretty much all day. Go
out to the bar, the strip bar for that matter.
Didn't you used to have a photo of you skating on a billboard for
a strip club?
No, I was supposed to have an ad for one, but it never went through.
For Charlie's Angels yeah.
So you were sponsored by a strip club?
I wouldn't say "sponsored," but I was in there so much, they knew me
and shit. One day a dude was talking about some billboard thing, but
it never went through. Damn, that's funny, I totally forgot about that.
Have you been hanging out at Ozzy's house at all since you've
been here?
Yeah, actually I went the other night. I went twice and just chilled. I
was stoked. Jack's cool as shit, and to be in the house of one of my
musical idols, Ozzy Osbourne, was sick. He was sleeping when I
was there. I was bummed. I wanted to say what's up to him.
 Did you go look at him sleeping?
No, but I lurked around and checked shit out though.
Did you steal anything?
No.
Not even like a fork?
No, fuck.
Are you saying Jack's cool just because he took you in the
house?
No, he's cool, man. He parties and shit. We were just hanging.
He seems like a dork.
No, he's all right.
I think in a couple years everyone's going to look back and be
like, "Remember when we thought Ozzy's two fat kids were cool?"
Fuck. I mean, whatever, he's cool to me though. I don't want to dis. I can't dis the Osbournes. Apparently, Jack and Dill are boys, man. He lived there for a minute, then he came back to do another episode for the show or whatever. I talked to someone the other day, and they said he's hosting some weird thing for MTV out in New York. It's crazy.
I heard that Ozzy didn't like Dill.
Yeah, I don't think Ozzy liked him. He said. "Ozzy didn't like me too much, and he barely remembers me until I scratch my head and shit." I want to try to get over there before I leave so I can meet him.
Tell me the story about you and Dill flying to Australia.
Well, fuck, when me and him flew to Australia together, it was pretty gnarly. First of all, we get on the plane, and we're pretty drunk because its a long flight, so we're gonna have to take some pills to go to sleep. We were flying out of LAX to Sydney. It's like 14 hours or something. So we take some Xanax to go to sleep, and Dill's just like drooling on himself. He's just passed out. He took more than I'd ever seen anyone take. I probably had six. But anyway, he passes out. and he's got a cup of wine and spills it on my lap. I had a Budweiser. Then, so I wake up hours later hanging halfway off my chair in the aisle, and my budweiser's just all the way down, like rolled out of my hand and shit. My leg's all wet. So I'm like. fuck. I'm up. The stewardess, dude, it was like a gay guy or whatever, he was asking me to.give him the drugs and asking what my friend was on. I'm like, "Look, man. He just took some sleeping pills. Chill out." So he was stressing because Jason was all passed out, looking crazy with a shirt over his head. So we land. The dude's like, "All right, well, now you're gonna have to tell it to customs," So we go to customs, they cut our boxes open, search us completely, the whole deal. We didn't have anything. So then they swab through your wallet and your cards and money to see if there's traces of cocaine in there. And some of the money that I had had all kinds of traces of cocaine, so they started fucking with me for it.
But they say one out of every three dollar bills in this country has got cocaine residue on it.
Yeah, yeah, true. So I'm telling the guy, "It's not mine. It's probably just on the money." So they kept interrogating me. Asking me if I'm bringing drugs and this and that and telling me to just give it up and all this shit for two or three hours. And I'm like. "Look, man. no." So they don't find shit. They weren't gonna let us go in. They were going to send us straight home. So we were freaking out. I was cursing at the dudes and shit. They just wanted us to admit that we had drugs, but we didn't. Finally, after hours of that, they just had to let us in. So we taped up our shit, taped our board boxes back up and just left. I mean, they probably could have found the pills, but they were prescribed, so they couldn't do shit. People warned me about flying into Australia. They said that they're going to fuck with you just because you're an American pro skater. Apparently somebody along the way got caught doing something. So I didn't really think they were going to fuck with us that bad, but they did for sure. I thought they were gonna strip search us and shit. I was getting real bummed on it. It didn't get down to that, so that's good.
Did Oyola ever tell you any crazy stories about being
locked up out there?
He just said it really sucked, man He was out there for like, three months or something when he got locked up for hitting a dude with a pool stick. But apparently the dude was a real cocksucker. I heard the guy had to get some plastic surgery and whatnot.
 I remember the first time when I seen you skate, like when you were 12, you were a little shit. And you
haven't grown at all. How tall are you?
5-11.
You ain't 5-11, bitch!
5-10 at least.
Shut the fuck up.
What?
Dude, you're like 5-4.
5-4? Fuck you.
You're a little fucker.
Dude, you're crazy. I'm at least 5-10, 5-9 for sure.
It just keeps getting shorter and shorter.
I ain't no 5-4, man.
Dude, you're just a couple inches taller than Wee Man.
Yeah, right. I've grown, man. I've grown more width than height, that's for sure. Times change, man. You get older, and you get bigger. I don't fall lightly anymore, that shit hurts nowadays. It takes longer to fucking heal.
When do you think you'll get an On Video documentary about you? Because for me when the whole switch craze started taking off, it seemed like it was Salman [Agah] on the West Coast and you on the East Coast that was doing crazy switch shit.
I know, man. A lot of that stuff was so old when it was all first happening. And like most people who skated with us in that era will remember. But most of these kids now just see what the new 411 is and shit. They don't know about a lot of that stuff. I'm psyched that I helped start it, or fuck, that I contributed to starting it at least. What am I going to do? I can just still try to keep it going.
Do you ever get bummed that all of these other kids are paid up?
Yeah, I mean, I definitely get bummed because I don't even have a shoe sponsor right now. And to get paid up, you got to be out there, so I'm trying to get my shit out there again. But a lot of people get paid a lot of credit for not doing much, you know?
You have an amazing ability to spend your monthly check all in one day and then not have shit for 29 days.
Yeah, I'm pretty good at blowing through some cash quick. I don't really have much savings at this point, so I get my check, pay whatever bills, and then have a good time with the rest of it. I got to live.
What's the quickest you've blown through your check?
I mean, I've done like four or five days is the quickest. It's not really the next day, but a heavy run of partying and whatnot will demolish a check pretty quick.
What do you do for the rest of the month?
Just get by, man. No partying and just skate. For instance, since I've been out here, I've been broke for a few days, so I'm doing the old-school thing with Ramen noodles. And you can always call up the Bank of Dyrdek for a loan. Dyrdek always hooks me up for a loan if I need it. So right now, I owe Dyrdek $200 and England $100, Wenning a couple bucks, and I owe Stevie some money too. I just got a check from Elwood, so I'm going to go pay them later today.
With all the money you owe them, are you broke tomorrow?
No, no. I'm still doing all right. But I'd rather not be having to pay out this much from loans. Like $500 at least probably.
Do you got anything to show for it all?
Nope. Just some good memories.
You've been pro for how many years now?
Nine years. It'll be ten next year. Since I was like 15. And I just turned 24 in November, so if I can keep holding it down, I'd be stoked to have ten years of being pro.
But what do you got to show for ten years being pro?
Nothing. I had a couple vehicles and shit, but of course shit gets ruined pretty easily, and you have to suffer the consequences.
You don't even own a car now?
Nope.
You own your own house though, right?
I stay with my mom. So fucked.
But you've got a lot of jewelry, right?
I do have some old watches and shit, but I'm not really
into that shit. I do got a couple Tag watches that were
worth some cash, but those are old, man. They're
probably worth shit now.
So ten years of being pro, and you ain't got shit?
I don't own no houses. Legal matters did claim big sums
of money from me though.
 Do you look at a guy like Dyrdek who's just got
money falling out of his pockets and just be like,
"What the fuck did I do wrong?"
Yeah, dude, all the time. Like every day when they pull up
in their new cars and shit. Fuck.
Does Rob try to give you advice?
I mean, I know what I'm doing. I'm just so far behind. It's
like I'm only getting paid by one company. It's not like I
have a shoe out or any of that shit. These guys with the
shoes out, that is the heavy amounts of cash.
Yeah, but does he give you stock tips or shit like
that?
I mean, he would if I owned any stock, but I don't, so what
do I need tips for?
At least Alien and Carter and all those guys have
stood by you since you were a little kid.
For sure, man. I appreciate that a lot from them. We've
had rough times, but shit usually works out for the best.
And I guess my boards were still selling at the time too, so
that helped me out.
Were you one of those guys that ran into tax
problems along the way?
I still owe some money right now actually. Fuck. Actually I
owe a lot. I don't really like to talk about it, but I'm at least
$20,000 in debt to them. And, on top of that, this past year,
because I still owe money from a couple years ago, that
has been taxed on crazy. And then like every other year
when you're trying to pay that, you just get hit with the
next year. And then there's crazy interest, penalty fees, all
kinds of shit. Kids, pay your taxes, for sure.
What's the deal? When you were younger, you just
didn't know or you just didn't pay em?
I pretty much didn't pay them, and sometimes I didn't
have the money really, and I would pay in portions. But no
matter what, try to pay that shit off 'cause it just doubles.
And it will keep doubling.
Do you have an accountant now that's trying to sort
you out?
I have an accountant, but I just stopped working with him
recently because he wasn't really helping matters. Out
here, in Cali, all the accountants are pretty used to
dealing with skateboarders and athletes, so it's easy for
them to get over. But this dude was trying to help me, he
didn't really know how to use the loopholes, so that's it for him, I'm not really sweating it too bad though.
You need to rob a bank.
For real, man. Shit, that's why I got to get my name out there again and start busting shit. Get paid and pay off fucking Uncle Sam, dude.
If this skateboarding shit comes to an end for you, what are you going to do for a living?
Shit, I don't know, man. I've had ideas to get in the skateboard industry, but there's too many people involved in that right now. The time to get involved is pretty much passed. But me and my boy Joe Dorsi got this Domestics clothing thing we're doing, and once my dad retires, I could always work with him and stuff, doing home remodeling and shit. But only time will tell.
Have you ever even had a job in your life?
No, I've never had a job period. That was one of my life goals: to never have a job. I'm sure I'll have a reality check sooner or later, but it's gone this far, and I had fun doing it, so I'm not mad.
I guess you should tell me your sponsors.
NJ Skateshop, Habitat, Venture, Elwood, Domestics, Bones Bearings has been giving me stuff, and as far as a shoe sponsor goes, I'm still looking. Lakai flows me stuff, but I need to get set straight with a shoe sponsor.
Comments
andy
07 Aug 2007, 22:30
i used to see this guy when he was a kid a brick skatepark and sayreville hes been skating forever. ive been getting his metal board and telling people to ride it. maybe that will help his broke ass out.
suchabastard
01 Sep 2007, 07:40
Fred totally fell off. I used to skate love when he was at the top of his game before he got fat and alcohol/drug addicted or whatever and he was the best skater there except for maybe Stevie. Getting in debt, trouble with the law and into drugs, pretty much the top three things you can do to ruin your life and he did all three, which sucks.
Wut
12 Nov 2007, 06:26
Man what you talking about he hasnt fallen off. Im guessing by now everyones seen his new Habbitat part.His metal part was doooope too.Love the dude fucking raw style.True true skater
fred gall
19 Nov 2007, 09:37
Nigga, I needs to get PAID!
cus route
20 Nov 2007, 12:15
fred is the fucking man, have you seen the shit he skates. dude is always down toskate no matter what. inhabitants part fucking ripped mosiac ripped metal ripped timecode killed it. fred gall best fucking dude.
j-rock
20 Nov 2007, 12:50
Actually, Fred Gall is in my top 5 skaters I'd love to personally skate with. I know that sounds dumb, but if you think of how much talent is out there it's a huge compliment to him.
Oakland Pete
22 Mar 2008, 18:43
Good to see Gall back on his game (although this interview must be 6 years old by now). All those Philly skaters changed skating for the better and hopefully they can reap the financial rewards. Bring back Matt Reason!
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