Roddy Piper R.I.P.

I subscribed to his iTunes podcast a few months back called "Piper's Pit." He had great stories. You can sense a sadness to him unless he talked about his cause of stomping out bullying in school. It's here where I learned 22 kid kill themselves over real bullying every day. That's an eye-opener. To Roddy, this touched deep as he was bullied at a young age. He is dead now at 61 and it's so odd to me someone who brought so much fun to people could be gone.

I recall him being in a "Goonies" music video with some of his other WWF wrestling buddies. It amused me as a kid since it was really surreal. There were sushi chefs, and gas stations and...well, Cyndi Lauper. To which he's mentioned on several occasions did more for the WWF than is recognized. Listening to a podcast was cathartic for me, as an alcoholic.  He had no more barrier to overcome. No one to judge him. But there was always a shadow of pain that you could hear in his voice. He never talked poorly about people unless they were who they were. I believe everything he says, because he had nothing to gain or lose because of it. He seemed to have a weight removed from him when he spoke openly. But, his voice...you can hear a man who's been through substance abuse talk. He's not specifically direct, but sometimes...abusers have the tendency to not be so self-conscious anymore. Why bother?

The voice behind that podcast is gone now. And sometimes I just feel responsible. Sounds odd, but Roddy was a hero and as I grew up heard less and less of him. Responsible in that as a fan, I didn't reach out in some way to remind him what it meant to a lot of kids in that era. That we didn't put more sheckles in the kilt.

I won't go as far as to say he was a hero of mine, but I will say...his WWF contribution goes further than I think he realized.