Mr BioFile Interviews by Scoop Malinowski
By Scoop Malinowski
Status: Free spirit, musician, entrepreneur, American icon.
Ht: 6-4 Wt: 220
DOB: December 23, 1970 In: Cincinnati, Ohio
Childhood Heroes: “Man, I never had a bunch of heroes. KISS – the rock group KISS because my brother liked KISS. Rocky – because I watched the movie Rocky. I mean, I lived in a small village, I think that’s a great attribute of my success – is that I never really had heroes. I had to become my own hero.”
Favorite Movies: “Rocky, Rambo [laughs]. Nowadays, recent movies that I loved a lot? Well, I liked that Enemy of the State, just because I’m all about infiltrating the media and watching how communication just seeps through like a virus, through humanity. Of course, that’s what I do with my message – is infect the human race with it. I like that kinda stuff. Dude, I don’t watch movies, I don’t watch TV. Read, read.”
Hobbies/Interests: “I spend all my time working out, reading Emerson, Nietzsche, Anthony Robbins, Napolean Hill, Deepak Chopra, all the great minds of our time. I spend my time reading and working out, and then putting that into myself, which is communicated right here through myself.”
Musical Tastes: “[He begins to sing and strum his guitar] I’m Naked Cowboy, coming to a town near you. [Talking again] I don’t listen to radio, only listen to my stuff. Everything I do is literally outside the scope of what humanity is doing.”
Childhood Dream: “I wanted to be the most famous motherfucker to ever live the face of the earth and that’s what I am.”
Early Naked Cowboy Memory: “It’s all been one big, long blur [laughs]. One big day. I mean literally. I’ve been doing this exact same thing – I’ve been on Times Square 1,298 days today. I’ve been doing this since, going on almost eight years solid now. I’ve been outside, literally, in public, in crowds this big, every day since I started. I started out with personal development goals – financial, social, historical, physiological – all of which you could read at nakedcowboy.com. I’ve got like six books that I’ve written to date. They can be read at nakedcowboy.com. Product lines – I’ve now got shirts, hats, the little figurines with the snow in ’em, you know with the Naked Cowboy in ’em, right here in Times Square now, going throughout the stores through a company called New York Popular. Again, the goal is to dominate the commercial landscape of the entire world. And to raise the physical, financial and social, you know, basically the success standards for mankind. That’s what I’m doing.”
Greatest Career Moment: “Right this moment. I’m at the peak, height of my moment. I look for nothing but the present moment.”
Most Painful Moment: “Right now [laughs]. Everything’s in the present, dude. Everything’s present tense here.”
Funny Career Memory: “I don’t find anything funny.”
Embarrassing Moment: “No embarrassing…I don’t…”
Favorite Meal: “Chicken and vegetables. I eat it every meal. (Three times a day?) Six or seven times a day. Chicken, turkey, eggwhites, white fish, mixed vegetables, water and black coffee. Marijuana if I’m smoking it, but lately I’m not.”
Favorite Breakfast Cereal: “No such thing.”
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Don’t eat ice cream. It’s for babies.”
First Job: “Theft [laughs]. (How old?) 15-16, you know, being a little punk.”
First Car: “I think my dad’s maroon Plymouth Duster he gave me.”
Interesting Fact: Cowboy’s dad is Kenneth Robert Burck Sr., the mayor of Green Hills, Ohio.
Favorite Vacation Spot: “I consider the entire world my playground.”
People Qualities Most Admired: “Number one quality in the entire world is individualism. That comes from being free, which very few people are.”
Strange Encounter with a Fan: “I had a little old lady in New Orleans Mardi Gras grab my balls and said, Just want to see what you got there, Buster! Only lady that’s every done it. She was about 105. Last year at Mardi Gras, that was my third Mardi Gras. This’ll be my fourth. I expect to do it till the day I die. Awesome. Thousand dollars a day, up and down Bourbon Street. Just like here. Only other place in the country where I can make that kind of money on a daily basis. I mean with dollars in the boots. That’s not counting sponsors, endorsements and everything else worldwide, that’s really over the top at this point.”
Who are your sponsors?: “I got a Yahoo commerical right now. I got a Pepsi commercial with Whoopi Goldberg. Texas Justice – a TV courtroom show has a commercial with me. Guinness Beer in Ireland. Turka Cola in Turkey. Icon sponsors my parking – myself and the Mayor are the only two people that park for free anywhere in the city of New York. I could go on all day.”
Residence: “Right now, I live in a hotel in New Jersey. I’m getting ready to move to the Marriott. That’s jumping up $4,000 in rent to be right here on Times Square. This’ll be my front yard. That’ll be my house. And I’ll park right there in my garage.”
(Note: This interview with Robert Burck was conducted mid-afternoon on October 28, 2004 on the concrete median in Times Square between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. – SM)
