Name: Joe Rogan Experience #1787 - Dakota Meyer
Uploaded: 2022-03-02T00:00:00.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1787 - Dakota Meyer' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-03-02. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1787 - Dakota Meyer' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-03-02. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #1787 - Dakota Meyer

Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.
Dakota, what's happening, brother? How are you? Good to see you.
What's up, man?
You wrote a book, man.
I did, I did, with Rob O'Neill.
The Way Forward.
Yeah.
Master life's toughest battles and create your lasting legacy.
What drove you to this?
You know, like, I think that there was, like, a point in my life
to where I kind of just, you know, kind of put it all together,
like, wanting to help people, you know, like, the way forward.
There's always a way forward.
You know, my life's been such a shit show so many ways.
And obviously Rob's has, too.
That was one thing we could relate on is, like, you know,
we both came from two different places, did two different things,
but, like, there's always a way forward, you know, focusing on what matters.
Was there a time in your life where you didn't think there was a way forward?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I wrote about that in my first book about, you know,
a time that I just didn't know if there was a way forward.
But, you know, what I learned was is, like, you know,
when you don't see a way forward, it's because your purpose is yourself
and it's not other things, right?
People that are lost, or I felt like when I'm lost
is when I'm too busy focusing on things for me
and my purpose is me and it's not, like, the things that are around me,
the things that matter.
Like, in what way? What do you mean?
You know, like, my kids, like, my friends, my circle, right?
Like, doing something bigger than me, like, focusing on something
that's bigger than just, you know, trying to survive.
Like, okay, well, I'm going to go pay my bills.
Well, that's not really a great purpose, right?
Right.
But finding something bigger that you can believe in, like, you know,
being a firefighter or being a good dad or, you know,
just trying to have goals of fitness or start a company or all those things,
right?
So, did you feel like at one point in time where you were only thinking about
yourself
and you didn't see there was any point to it all?
Is that what you mean?
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I got out of the Marine Corps and, you know, I got out and it was all
about me, right?
It's like, oh, you know, I serve this country.
This country owes me now.
You know, because, look, when you're in the military, you're, the whole time
you're told you're a hero.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Like, oh, everybody's just, they're, they're, you're just, you're just greater
people, you know,
or all these things.
You sacrifice for this country.
This country owes you.
And I hate that word owes, right?
Like, owes.
The only thing we owe is the bank.
But, you know, that was where I was at.
And I was walking around blaming all my problems on, you know, well, you know,
I'm drinking.
I wasn't an alcoholic, but just drinking all the time, trying to, you know,
overcome the pain of, you know,
the stuff that I'd seen, the things that didn't make sense.
And then, you know, when you would try to question me or hold me accountable, I'd
be like, well,
you didn't go through what I went through, right?
And so how are you going to argue it?
You know, and I was surrounded by that.
I was, I was the victim.
I made myself the victim of, of life.
And, you know, at that point was where I got the lowest, right?
Like, I, I just couldn't, you know, because at some point, like, people are
going to,
they're going to try to help you.
Like, that's the great thing about the world is people are going to help you.
People want to help, but they can only help you so far.
Like, they're not going to drown with you, especially when you're not choosing
to, to, to get better.
And that was where I was at, you know, like just drinking all the time, you
know, being, I was,
I was an asshole.
Like, I mean, I'm still an asshole, but just a different way.
You know, I was an asshole and just, you know, blaming, blaming the world for
my problems
when really I was the problem, you know, I just didn't have anything bigger
than me.
And I would surround myself by people who would, who wanted to coddle me, right?
Like, oh, Dakota, you know, what you've gone through, you know, you, you
deserve, you know,
you're, it's okay.
This is normal for what you've gone through.
And it's like, no, no, no.
Like, that's what America is about is the comeback story, right?
Like everybody's going to go through their problems.
Everybody's going to have their lumps, but America, they, they want the
comeback story.
You know, what was it that made you turn around?
Like, did you have a moment?
Did, did, is it something you read?
Is it something you learned?
No, I, um, you know, so I was living at my dad's house.
I was living with my dad.
My dad's just an incredible man and, um, one night I was out drinking somewhere
and I
was driving home on this road and I just seen like the pain I was causing the
people around
me, right?
Like my dad was never going to kick me out of the house, but I, I mean, I just
seen like
the disappointment, right?
Like the disappointment in people, uh, that I was, that I was bringing and, um,
I was driving
down the road one night and I just said, look, this is it.
Like, I'm done.
I pulled over at my buddy's shop.
Uh, he had a welding shop and I, cause I knew that I didn't want to inconvenience
anybody
to have to, well, where's he at?
This huge search.
I knew he would be in at eight, six, six to eight in the morning.
He comes in every day.
Um, I pulled over and, uh, parked right in front of the bay door and, uh,
pulled my gun
out and I stuck it to my head and squeezed the trigger.
And so like somebody had unloaded that gun.
Uh, I'd shot it that day.
Actually, I'd shot this Glock 40 that day.
Um, and it was the loudest click I've ever heard in my life and probably the
quickest
sobering thing that I've ever seen.
Holy shit.
Um, and so I sat there and I, uh, I, I just told myself that if I'm going to
continue to
live life like I am and waste it, then I know how to load this gun.
I need to just rack it back and get it over with.
But I just made this deal with myself that if I'm going to put, put the car and
drive and
go home that like, this is not an option ever again.
And, um, I, you know, God gave me a different, had a different, different,
different outcome
come for me.
And I drove home and ever since then, I mean, I mean, you know, look, I think
we all,
I think we all go through moments where we don't know that there's always these
moments
where we don't know if we can get out of it.
Right.
Like that's normal.
Yeah.
But for that to stay that way is not normal.
Right.
And that was, you know, I, I, I like slowed up on drinking.
I didn't stop.
Obviously I didn't really slow up as where I need to be until I had my child.
Um, but I got a lot better.
Right.
I started surrounding myself with different people, people who weren't going to
buy in and
support my bullshit, you know?
So that moment when the gun went click, like in your mind, is there like a
clear change between
before that moment and after that moment?
Was there like a, I mean, was it a, was there a, was it like a realization?
Was it, was just like, you feel like you got a second chance at life?
Like, yeah, I mean, look, I've, yeah, I mean, I've been in so many situations
where I was supposed to die
or I thought I like, there's been at least five or six situations where it wasn't
that I thought I was
going to die.
It was that I knew I was going to die.
And, um, the combat situation, combat situations, right.
It's totally different experience though.
You know, this one was like, has like, like, like why?
Like, you know, and I think at that moment I realized that I was only feeling
sorry for myself
because if my teammates, like if losing my teammates, you know, it, I mean, it
sucks.
Like it still sucks.
Like I, I, sometimes I don't even know if I have even came to the realization
that I'll never see my guys again.
Um, and I don't know why it's kind of weird, but you know, I don't know why,
but I think that like,
I just realized that I need to live a life.
If I don't want to do it for myself, then I need to live a life that's worthy
of their sacrifices,
right?
Like how stupid is it?
How selfish of it, of me, someone who has seen what the cost of freedom is, or
someone
who has seen the sacrifices that people have gave, who don't get it, don't get
it tomorrow.
They gave their today so that we can have a tomorrow and how selfish of it is
for me to
walk around and, and, and, you know, be a drunk asshole.
And that's the representation that I'm going to represent their sacrifices.
Like it's, it's just, it's such a, um, it's just not right.
And that was at that moment that all that started to come together that no, no,
I just feel
sorry for myself, not them.
They don't feel anything.
So I'm feeling sorry for myself.
And as I'm doing that, I'm wasting days that, that they, I guarantee they wish
they had.
Yeah.
It's such a common problem with veterans.
I mean, I believe at one point in time, I don't know what the status is now,
but at one
point in time, more veterans had died by suicide, um, in Afghanistan than had
died from combat.
Yeah.
I mean, I've lost more guys since being home to suicide than I ever lost in
combat.
What is, um, let's see what the number is.
See if you can find there.
I think just, just Google more veterans die from suicide than combat.
Cause I think that was what they were trying to, uh, drill into people is that
asking people
to go over there and fight and to see the horrors that they see and to, to see
friends die and
loved ones die and then ask them to come back and have life just be normal.
Look at this four times as many troops and vets have died by suicide as in
combat.
Yeah.
Holy shit.
So this is not a, an uncommon problem.
It's a, it's a giant problem.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a huge problem.
They don't, I don't mean, I don't know what kind of training they give you when
you're about
to leave the military military or when they're, when you're returning from
combat, but do they
try to give you any sort of an understanding of how to cope with this kind of
stuff?
Yeah.
I mean, you know, it's, it's obviously gotten a lot better, right?
I mean, it was more of the tough love.
I mean, it's more, the more that mental health is accepted.
I mean, I mean, look, I mean, to be honest, I mean, as men, 10, 15 years ago,
it wasn't
something, it was looked at as weak.
Right.
Um, you didn't hear a lot about it.
It seems like somewhere along the line, I mean, I don't know what the
statistics show,
but it seems like somewhere along the line, it became way more common to know
people
that kill themselves.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, and I, I didn't understand, I didn't know about it until obviously the
military,
right?
I mean, I went in at 17 and, um, but no, there wasn't a lot of talk about it.
And, um, you know, I, the more, the more we were in combat, the more you
started to see
it.
Right.
And, uh, yeah, I mean, this thing of PTSD, but I mean, PTSD is something that,
that the
world suffers from.
It's not something that's only to veterans.
Right.
Don't you think that veterans have it in a larger experience?
If you experience combat, I mean, the amount that they have, I mean, so many
guys that I
know like yourself or some, many of my other friends that are veterans, they
just have memories
that they can't shake.
I think that, uh, you want to talk about the group of people that have it the
worst is our
first responders, cops, cops, firefighters, EMTs.
Like, like, uh, the stuff that I've seen as being a firefighter, um, sometimes
like combat
was, it's no comparison.
Really?
Yeah.
I mean, and so, you know, and, and over there, the mind, like the, you know,
the mindset's
different, right?
Like, like, I mean, most of the people that we were part of, like we were there
to fight.
Right.
So it's, it's like, it's, it's almost like, you know, watching someone in the
octagon fight
versus watching someone on 