Cody Rhodes Recalls Seeing His Father In Character Out Of the Ring

Cody Rhodes has said he doesn’t always know when he’s not in character outside the ring, recalling how his father did the same. Rhodes was asked by Chris Van Vliet during an interview in March about being in character all the time, which he called a “haunting” question at the time.

In Rhodes’ latest appearance on Insight, Van Vliet revisited the question. He spoke about his initial answer and then talked about how his constantly being “on” is something he saw in his dad. You can see highlights below:

On Being ‘Haunted’ By The Question Of When He’s In Character:

“You know, now I say it, and it’s not so much haunting. I should frame it differently. You asked me the question on one of our talks, and I think I should frame it more as, what’s a good way? The question’s a good question, and the question’s an important question, and I kind of give it a dramatic answer. That’s something you should ask yourself, like me, before I do anything

“Because there are probably times, the best prime example is Undashing Cody Rhodes to be in some sort of character, and then there’s times when that’s not a good call at all, also not to waste anyone’s time, right? Not to waste your time, not to waste someone else’s time, or you don’t want to look back at these interviews and think, ‘Man, I was just completely full of it, or I was trying to sell a ticket versus actually having a conversation.’”

On How Much Of That Is From Being Dusty Rhodes’ Son:

“I think I told you, I used to know when he was on in the morning. Did I tell you this? So I used to know when he was on because he had an office. I’d go down the steps. His office would be on the right, and in his office he’d sit there. It’s very funny because my dad didn’t work an office job, but he liked having an office. So he’d go down in the morning, Cuban coffee, which I found is vastly different from American coffee, because I assumed it was all Cuban coffee until the first time I got gas station coffee and thought, ‘Oh, different. Where’s the intense amount of sugar and flavor?’

“But no, he had an office to the right of the steps, and he’d just be down there nine to five every day. That was literally what he would do. Sometimes you’d wonder what he was doing in there, but I knew when he was on and in character because if he did a radio spot or did anything like that, I’d hear him talk in the voice. I don’t think a lot of people know Dusty’s voice was not that, and it wasn’t even turned up. As he gets older and you see interviews with him as an older man, you can start to hear what he actually sounded like. In the beginning I can’t imagine how difficult that was. Every stop you made on a trip to always talk so loud and so whimsical preacher style, the Baptist Church and Thunderbolt Patterson is where he got the majority of the gift of gab and poetry.”