WWE Hall of Famer did an interview with Muscle and Health Magazine to promote his new CBD brand. Scroll down for the full interview.
Hogan told a story about bringing Simon Cowell to the United States:
“He came to help with the wrestling album. Long story. I’ll make it short. I was in Wembley Stadium and I saw a lot of Make-A-Wish kids. It was me, Michael Jackson, Mr. T. It was all the Make-A-Wish kids during the 80s and 90s. I had a kid there that was in rough shape. The EMTs were with him and he was on the stretcher and you know, his body odor and stuff, it had a smell to it that I hadn’t smelled in a while. Not bad, but it was just a different type of smell. I really wasn’t sure what it was and the parents were freaking out. They were Hulkamaniacs. I told the doctors and EMTs you know, ‘The kid is in kind of trouble here, you know? So let me say my goodbyes and give him a hug and kiss him. I got a nice place for him out at ringside at Wembley Stadium and it was all roped off.’ So I went to wrestle and I kept looking, I kept looking, and the kid wasn’t there. So when I came back from wrestling, I was the last person to wrestle in the main event. I said, ‘What happened to the family out there?’ They said the kid passed away.”
“So when I found out the kid passed away, my manager Jimmy Hart, The Mouth of the South, he used to be in a band too. He had a couple of number one hit songs here in the States and I played music before. So we stayed up all night and we wrote 12 songs for the kid’s family. I didn’t know anybody in the UK. and Jimmy knew somebody from Select Records and they got a hold of Simon Cowell. He produced a little album for us and it went number one on Billboard for eight weeks and we gave, donated the money to the family.”
“Then Simon came back to me and said, ‘We need to do a song with a band called Green Jelly over in the UK, something called Leader of the Gang, a Gary Glitter song. So that did really well on Billboard too.”
“So I came back to the States. I had the crazy idea since I was wrestling, maybe we should do music here. So I grabbed Cyndi Lauper and Rick Derringer and a bunch of people and we recut a bunch of songs, Land of a 1000 Dances and stuff and Simon came over and helped produce the Wrestling Album. Then he came and produced the second Wrestling Album, Piledriver and he never left. He stayed here and he became this monster producer and nicest guy in the world.”
“He plays a tough guy on TV, but he’s a real sweetheart. He’s a really nice guy. It’s amazing because I’ve watched him on America’s Got Talent. You know, he’s doing the character, you know, he’s doing the Simon Cowell up there, you know, with the stern face, but in real life, he’s a real sweetheart.”
Note: Cowell did not get involved with WWE until the WrestleMania album that was released in 1993. Hogan did not wrestle at Wembley Stadium. When WWE ran SummerSlam 92, Hogan was not on the card and not active with the company.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Muscle and Health Magazine with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
