Bill Goldberg has mixed it up with some tough opponents in his career — Hulk Hogan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Trump — and now he’s setting his sights on a much more relatable foe: “crappy garage syndrome.”
As the new host of DIY‘s Garage Mahal — which starts its second season April 9 — the former wrestling superstar acts as ringleader to massive renovation projects aimed at decrepit, filthy garages and transforming them into glorious living spaces. This often means there’s a theme involved, and some of this season’s makeovers include turning garages into a British pub, a Vegas casino, a video gamers’ paradise and a motocross haven.
Whatever the job, people who know Goldberg only from his body-slamming days will get to see a different side of the man who once menaced the WCW and WWE with his “Who’s next?” battle cry.
Goldberg talked with me about how his new gig fits in with his ever-evolving image, and how Jay Leno is no different than many other men when it comes to what he keeps in his garage.
What’s your role going to be on the show, as host? Are you in there with a saw and hammer?
I am in no way shape or form a professional carpenter or contractor, but I can tell you that after one or two more episodes, I’ll probably be fairly qualified. I’m kind of the ringleader, the taskmaster, the puppeteer at times. I do jump into the fray from time to time and lend a hand whenever they need a big ox in there, when they need some comedy relief and with the relationships that I have and [the producers] have with some fairly influential people on this planet, I do believe that from the normal episodes we put on to the celebrity episodes that we put on, it’ll be a far superior product to what we’ve seen.
Are they going to rely on your bigger-than-life persona at times?
It’s hard for me not to be bigger than life considering my size. (Goldberg is listed as 6 feet 4 inches and 285 pounds.) Am I going to jump in front of the camera and yell, “Who’s next?” every five minutes? Absolutely not. I’ve reinvented myself a number of times and there’s a time and a place for everything. There’s no question they’re going to want something like that every once in awhile, but am I going to cloud our viewers with rants and raves that are quote-unquote Goldberg-esque? Absolutely not. I’m going to do it in a way that’s logical and well-timed. When it’s needed, that’s what they’re going to get. But if not, I’m definitely not going to inundate people with the screaming Goldberg.
One of the highlights of the season is you guys heading to Jay Leno’s garage.
We’re actually redoing Jay’s garage today.
With all his cars, that’s got to be quite a project.
Well, it’s his home garage, not his airplane hangar. I think that would be a little bit too much for us.
When you have celebrities on, like Jay, how present are they during the renovation process?
This isn’t a show that’s going to go in and say, “Hey, we’re in so-and-so’s house and we’re going to do their garage” then lo and behold, you have a finished product and they’re nowhere to be seen. That’s not the point. The point is all the celebrities that we’re going to have on the show are friends of ours. We have very good relationships with each and every one of them, and we’re not going to pick somebody just for the shock value of having them on our show. There’s going to be a backstory behind it and it’s going to be a case where they themselves are actually going to help us build. Active participation is a must.
Tell me a little about how you’re making over Jay’s garage.
Jay Leno suffers from CGS, which is “crappy garage syndrome.” A lot of middle-aged men find themselves in the same predicament. A lot of movie stars find themselves in the same predicament, because they tend to hoard all of their belongings. With an airplane hangar that can hold two to three hundred cars, I don’t think he needs to his home garage to house anything other than the cornucopia of crap that he’s accumulated over God knows how long. To think that every movie star or every celebrity and every athlete has an immaculate garage is extremely far from the truth. We’re just going to show that. Jay’s garage is no different than many other people’s.
After you do these sensational makeovers, do people still want to put cars in these garages, or is that considered a waste?
Some of them are complete makeovers into a themed garage where they don’t want their cars in there. We’ve turned garages into a British pub, a Vegas casino, a motocross garage, a tech-geek garage, a videogame garage. A prerequisite of us going in and overhauling a garage does not have to be that they put cars in it.
Will there be a Garage Mahal makeover at the Goldberg household at some point?
Part of the reason I’m sitting here as host of this show is I have a 5,500-foot garage at my house and it’s been on the cover of numerous publications. Am I going to get these guys to go work on my garage? You’re darn tooting I am. But, does my garage need a complete makeover? No. … I’m not going to say it’s immaculate, but it’s a fairly decent garage. I’m trying to live by example.
What kind of stuff have you learned being around the DIY experts?
From simple woodworking to painting techniques to cleaning up drywall, using a nail gun, some of these things I’ve never done in my life. A lot of the reasons for that is people are afraid of power tools. People are afraid to walk out to that diving board and look down and see what’s underneath. People just need to take that first step and they need to have good tutelage along the way. If you go wrong with a nail gun or if you do steel-saw cutting in an improper way, you could not only lose limbs, but you’re obviously going to prolong the time you put in on your project. Having the ability to have professionals walk you through certain techniques is invaluable. Not only am I learning along the way, but we are on Do It Yourself Network, and putting celebrities on your show is a wonderful thing, but at the end of the day what we need to accomplish is we need to empower the viewer and make them confident enough with their skills to be able to do it on their own, not have to pick up the phone and call somebody at $100 an hour to put two wires together.
You’re almost done shooting your first batch of episodes. Talk about the change between those first few episodes and the later ones.
I’ve been a professional at a number of things, but to think that people expect me to be a contractor immediately is an unrealistic goal, and hopefully by me learning along the way it helps the viewer feel more comfortable because I’m no different than anybody else. I just wore my underwear on TV wrestling in front of crowds. I’m just a normal guy that likes to work with his hands. From format to plan of attack to adding certain nuances to it, episodes have progressed naturally, there’s no doubt about that.
You’ve been out of wrestling for a few years now, and like you said, you’ve reinvented yourself several times. So is it easier now for the general public to see you outside of wrestling?
I should hope so. I did retire in ’04 … people still want me to get back in the ring, and that’s a question that I get all the time. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t be in this situation without all those years of me running around on TV. I’m not going to turn my back on it by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m not going to dwell on it. I’m also a father, I’m also a husband, and I’m also a guy who hosts TV shows. (Goldberg also hosts Bullrun on SPEED) … I’m finally breaking away from that. … It is kind of a struggle at times for people to take you seriously, given that you were so over the top in wrestling. But the reality is when I was wrestling, I wasn’t over the top, I was just me. I’m not going around ripping heads off homeowners. I am putting my hands in the wall and breaking things. That’s a dimension you’re not going to get from somebody else.
Were you always planning for your post-wrestling career?
My father was an obstetrician/gynecologist, my mother was a concert violinist, my brothers and sisters are extremely successful. I didn’t grow up in a house of dummies by any stretch of the imagination. I’ve always tried to excel in every single thing that I do, and one idea I try to live by is you’re only as good as your next project. While I’m involved in one thing, I’m thinking about what’s going to happen next. … You can’t rest on your laurels. The reality is, I’m not going to be a wrestler for the rest of my life, and the past six, seven years I’ve tried to break away from that. I don’t like to be stagnant. I’m moving onward and upward. I want to be the best TV host out there. I want to be as high-profile as I can be.