Arnold’s Training Partner/Friend From Back in the Day, Bodybuilder/Pro Wrestler Ric Drasin, Talks About the Austrian Oak’s Dating Habits and Randy Savage’s Death
As many of you will recall, we spoke with bodybuilder and professional wrestler Ric Drasin earlier this year (see interview here). Mr. Drasin was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bodybuilding training partner from 1969 to 1974, during what is considered by some to be the golden age of the sport.
Ric and Arnold were friends. They trained together. They socialized together. And they went on double dates together. If anyone knows Arnold from his bodybuilding days, it would be Ric. Drasin has, till recently, maintained some level of contact with the bodybuilding legend, action movie star and former governor.
In the face of Arnold’s marital woes, stemming from a purported relationship with Mildred Patricia Baena, who worked for him and Maria Shriver, and with more recent news of a woman, Gigi Goyette, claiming to have had a relationship with him beginning some 35 years ago, CYInterview has brought back Ric Drasin to fill us in on what Arnold’s social life was like years ago.
Listen to the entire Ric Drasin interview:
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Drasin first tells us about what his and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s dating life was like long before the former Mr. Olympia was a movie star or governor:
“On the weekends, we would go down to the Marina, right by Gold’s Gym where they each had clubs, they had dance clubs and bars, and that was the dating places where you’d go to meet women. Arnold was very funny. I had a good sense of humor and he had a good sense of humor, a lot of laughs together. The main thing we would do is go out and meet women and just laugh like hell and just have a good time. If we went home with them, we went home with them. It just depends on how it would work out.”
Many now wonder about Arnold’s personal life, given recent media coverage. Mr. Drasin, a former Mr. Venice Beach, that back in the 1970s there were women who would throw themselves at Schwarzenegger. However, there were also women who avoided him because he was a huge specimen.
“As far as Arnold goes, yeah, he met a lot of women. A lot of them were very intrigued by his accent and by the size of his body because he was huge. He had a nice personality and was fun. He was no different than anybody else and they would throw themselves at him. Many would go the other way because they were afraid of him because he was so huge. When they found out he was such a nice guy, it wasn’t so intimidating.”
Last week, reports surfaced that Ms. Goyette, who media outlets reported had done some acting on Little House on the Prairie, alleged she had a sexual relationship with Arnold beginning when she was 16 years old. Drasin says he doesn’t know her, but she was probably one of many women Arnold dated at the time. He also mentions a Schwarzenegger girlfriend from that period, Barbara Outland who the one-day-to-be-governor dated for eight years.
“I don’t remember her. At that time he was going with Barbara Outland who worked at Zucky’s Deli and he was dating her for like eight years. But women would come and go and we’d go out and meet them and guys would do what guys do. I don’t remember her unless; I definitely don’t remember her looks. I don’t know what she looked like back then. People change over the years. I don’t remember the name, so I can’t really give you much information on that, but she probably was one of many…When I heard about it, I was kind of thrown back for a minute like, oh my God, this is horrible to have someone do this to somebody. Then the other side of me said, ‘It’s not surprising to me at all.’ It was bound to happen and I won’t be surprised if anyone else steps forward now.”
Drasin spoke to us about what dating was like in 1970s Los Angeles:
“That’s the way it was, especially in the 70s. 70s was the hippie era of free love on the beaches in L.A.. Meeting and going out and having sex was a whole lot easier than it was today. You weren’t worried about diseases and that type of thing. It was just like the free love era, free love period. Guys being guys, our goal was to go out at night and meet somebody and take them home. That’s just what everybody did. It just seems that Arnold got caught. I mean, how many people have actually done that and not gotten caught? Many. He got caught.”
On a different front, we spoke with Ric Drasin about the passing of “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Not only was Ric a pro wrestler, he maintains a wrestling school to this day. The autopsy reports for Mr. Savage came back with a reported unknown cause of death. Drasin worked with Savage in wrestling and auditioned for commercials with the “Macho Man”.
On his YouTube series, Ric’s Corner, Drasin has a seven part series on steroid and growth hormone use. People might question if Savage had utilized performance enhancing drugs during his wrestling career. If it was a heart attack or stroke that laid the former wrestling star low, could previous steroid use – this is a hypothetical question – have impacted his death? Drasin expressed high regard for the “Macho Man.” He doesn’t believe what happened to him was occasioned by steroid or growth hormone use earlier in life:
“First time I met him was probably about 25 years ago at the Sports Arena and I was working a show there. He was on the card and he was a very, very nice person. He to me was one of the best showmen in wrestling ever…I knew him outside of that as well because we would go on commercial auditions and he would show up for the commercial auditions as well…I don’t believe that they [steroids] have any effect later in life on anything other than growth hormone itself can enlarge not only your muscles, but it can enlarge your organs…You’re almost forced to take the drugs in order to keep up with the others. Even though they say it’s drug tested and they say they don’t want you to, they kind of do want you to. It just depends on how much you take.”
No doubt, there will be more reports in the coming days, weeks and months about Arnold Schwarzenegger, his wife Maria Shriver and whether or not they split for good. Drasin gives his take on the situation. He has empathy for Arnold, but at the same time he feels bad for Maria:
“I have empathy for him. A lot of women won’t agree with me because he cheated on his wife. I say it was wrong, definitely wrong and he shouldn’t have done it, but he did and you can’t take back a child and you can’t back the event. He’s gonna get a lot of slack because of who he is in the media. I do feel bad about that because he’s tried to keep a good reputation through life. This is really gonna destroy a lot of it. I feel very, very bad for Maria [Shriver] because she’s a nice woman and it’s undeserving for a woman to have that disrespect thrown at her. I think it’s really sad. I just feel awful about it to be honest.”
You can find out everything about Ric Drasin and Ric’s Corner at his official website at http://www.ricdrasin.com
You can email Chris Yandek at ChrisYandek@CYInterview.com
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