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The feature film on the Von Erich Family, The Iron Claw, is available for VOD purchases today. The lead character in the film is Kevin Von Erich, as portrayed by Zac Efron. In July 2023, Kevin sat down for an extended conversation with PWInsiderElite.com.
Some highlights from that conversation:
On leaving Hawaii and his family making the move back to Texas:
"Boy, [Hawaii] is paradise, Mike. I didn't even hear planes fly over. It was so peaceful and that's what I wanted. I really just wanted to you know, when I had decided that you know I really wanted to get away from Texas back 20 years I was gonna move out to Costa Rica and Panama. I'd was between those two countries. That's where I was looking, and I wanted to. It was just too expensive down there. [I] couldn't find anything that was right, and believe it or not, I found the perfect place out there in Kauai, and we built A house that was just like every room had something from a hotel that I'd stayed in that I liked. I had a big, deep bathtub that you could do a cannonball in. Mike, you could splash all the water you wanted, and it went down a little drain. It was made just for every room had, something that Pam really liked, and. After a while, my kids were living at different spots around the island, Kristen and Jill and Ross and Marsh were living with me because they're still teenagers, or preteens but it's so expensive out there, Mike. It was like gasoline is $6 a gallon. It's 1,000 a week for groceries now, every week. Wow. It's just too tight. Yeah. And then and so we we found a place that was, had 27 acres on it and had five houses, but they weren't rent houses. They were just like local houses, and so we traded that straight up just to trade that huge place out near Clearwater Ridge for this 27 acres and it just turned out to be the best thing we ever did, Mike. It was, we had a waterfall on it and it was Yeah, it was just great. It was like a little village. It was like Von Erichville, and it was like the old days, though, because all the kids do the casting nets, and then you have a spearfish, and spear lobster, and catch crabs in the river, and it's just a great, natural way to live. It wasn't like Texas, where I had beef all the time, and chicken. Here, I eat more duck, because we raised ducks, and ate more lamb, and and deer than we did beef, because we hunted, and it was, and then we raised all kinds of fruits, pineapple and three or four different kinds of avocado and all the tangerines and you just, on and on has so much fruit. So I think it was a really healthy and good for me, good for in my my head to get together and it was just perfect for me. But then my, after 17, 18 years out there, my my granddaughters are getting to the age. We're looking for Husbands, and it's that time of the season. Life's not all about me..It was just reallythe wise thing to do is come back to Texas, so they had good Texas boys to choose from instead of a few thousand people on our tiny island, the whole island. It was just the right thing to do."
Hopes for The Iron Claw before seeing it:
"It's really going to be a surprise, I can't wait to see it, but Marshall and Ross did go down there, and they did some [work]. These guys, they're actors, I really admire them, they're really devoted people, and the whole crew, they rebuilt this auditorium, they built another one, out there in Louisiana, and had Ross and Marshall come out for some wrestling scenes, some stunt work, Ross has done stunt work in a lot of movies. They came out there and and met everybody. And they said Zac Efron is the nicest guy they ever met and that the guy's like in character. Marshall said he looked at the wardrobe and he said it was like walking in my closet. All the stuff that I wore on any kind of TV or media, they've got it all. They're just devoted to playing that character. As a matter of fact, Holly was down there, Kerry's daughter.
How Fritz and Kerry Von Erich are seen by some:
"Holly was down there with him and when the character came in that was playing my dad, I don't think anybody on earth can play Fritz von Erich. To me, he was the greatest man to ever live and everyone respected him. It was like he was the president of the NWA. He was the man. He was fair and honest and had the respect of the world, he really did. He was the, you know who my dad was, he was like, the best, yeah. I just can't tolerate them people to say the kind of stuff that I hear on YouTube. People just, they don't filter it at all. They just say it, and the stuff they say about my dad and Kerry just infuriates me. Now, Kerry did have some bad moments, because of the drugs, but that was a small part of the end of his life, and my dad, to talk about how greedy he was and things like, that's not the truth at all. He loved us so much and they talk about he made us wrestle and It was all about the bottom line. I never...he didn't even want us to wrestle. I just want people to know my dad was a good, honorable man who I admire and I've never seen anything about him. I won't tolerate anybody to do it around me either."
Whether He's Ever Considered Writing A Book from his Perspective about the Family:
"Yeah, I will for sure do that really soon and I'll tell you like the story is still going on, too. I mean that after being in Kauai and it's so beautiful out there, peaceful and harmonious. We all took care of each other. It was sons matured into men and run the place over there and it's like they're doing here out here in our other ranch here. What a great time it was. I'll just...if I could say anything to the fans out there, they'll just, that I could to make things better, the suffering that I went through, if I could help someone through something they're going through then that's what I want to do. I want to be have something gratifying, something to do for my neighbor instead of just [a book].
His Life Advice:
"I'll tell you this, Mike, I've seen during my life that there is no greater joy than being with your children and raising sons and raising daughters, when you really love them and they come up, you treat, you teach them what's right and wrong and to see them develop and all. I can't think of a greater pleasure in life at all and so I just thought if I could express that to people that look, I know there are so many guys out there that are thinking, 'I'm going to get married and I'm going to start a family, but not now. I'm going to wait till I have a little money put back' and I know you can wait and wait till it's too late. I'm going to recommend that you start now and you just, because I know how I was and how, I was thinking I would get, I do want to get married. I want to have kids and I know my girlfriend wanted to get married, I was waiting for that right moment, waiting for enough money. Like I'm sure a lot of us are doing, but what I would recommend to my list of my fans is, do it now. Don't delay. Marry that girl, have children and love them with all your heart and what a reward it'll be because they grow up and you teach them right from wrong and what a beautiful life you'll have. There'll be ups and downs, but life's going to have ups and downs. Life's going to be tough, but we're men. Get tough. And do what you've got to do, but do not divorce. You give an oath to God when you say, I do. And remember that's the most important thing in the world is that your relationship with God, you've got one lifetime to figure it out folks, but if you do that, you'll have the most joy, the most joyful, you'll look forward to waking up every morning. It'll be hard sometimes, but you can do it. You can do it. It's so rewarding. That's a little something I would suggest to my fans. If I could just alleviate suffering to make life good, what I've learned in my days, that would be it. Family. That's where the real heart is."
More from Kevin Von Erich on Page 2!
For more on the Iron Claw, click here.
Kevin Von Erich can be found on Instagram at this link.
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