Posted on 11/04/125 by Colin Vassallo
Nattie Neidhart recently appeared on SiriusXM’s The Nikki
and Brie Show to discuss her new memoir.
During the interview, Nattie opened up about legacy, the
power of writing through pain and how her memoir helped her
forgive her father. She also discussed getting Dwayne “The
Rock” Johnson to write the foreword for her new book and how
he inspired the book’s ending.
Nattie Neidhart on how her memoir helped her forgive her
father (19:26-20:18)
Nattie Neidhart: It was tough talking about stuff with my
dad because I needed to be able to explain the stuff that
was going on with my dad and his health in order for people
to understand that he wasn’t trying to be a bad parent. I
think he was doing the best that he could, and so in writing
that, I actually forgave my dad. In writing this book, for a
lot of the hard things that we went through as kids, I
really forgave my dad. I got to the end of it and I just had
so much freedom of like, he did the best that he could and
now that we understand that he was struggling with so much,
it gave me like this totally different understanding of him.
That’s why I wanted to dedicate the whole book to him
because I was like, this is my big story for me and my dad
and he wasn’t trying to be a bad parent, but sometimes, you
know, there’s no playbook on how to be a great parent.
Sometimes parents are just doing the best that they can.
Nattie Neidhart on how The Rock inspired the ending of her
memoir (21:23-24:12)
Brie Garcia: You have Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson write your
foreword. Did you ask him to do it? How did that come about?
Nattie Neidhart: So, I wanted Bret to be a part of my book
because Bret is just a master storyteller, but I was also
like, the thing with Dwayne is that part of asking him to be
a part of the book was that it was part of me standing on my
own two feet, and so of course, I wanted to include Bret,
but I also wanted to show that this was also like, “Okay,
I’m not gonna just lean on family,” because Bret is, he’s
one of the greatest storytellers ever, but I was like, I
want to ask Dwayne if he would help me with this project
because Dwayne’s dad was a wrestler. Dwayne’s grandmother,
just like my grandfather, they were wrestling promoters, and
so Dwayne is the first third generation male superstar in
WWE, and I’m the first female third generation superstar in
WWE, so I was like, we have all these similarities, but our
careers were very different, but I was like, I would love
to, I know he’s so supportive of women’s wrestling and he’s
just, he’s somebody that I feel like we have so much in
common because he also, he’s extremely successful now, but
he also went through a lot, and so I was like, “I would love
to have his help,” and this is gonna sound crazy guys, but
he jumped at the chance to help me. He was like,
“Absolutely.” It was literally me getting up my courage. I
was just getting up my courage to ask him at the Netflix
premiere. I was like, “I really want to ask him here. I’ve
got to make this my mission today,” and I walked right up to
him. Of course, he swarmed with everyone. Everybody and
their brother was trying to talk to him. He sees me, gives
me a huge hug, stops and talks to me as if I’m the only
person in the room and then agrees to do the foreword, and I
was like, I couldn’t even believe it. I was just like, I
mean, I can believe it now, and then he researched it. So,
he reached out to me and asked me a bunch of questions and
he’s like, “I want to write this from my heart. I want to
make it great. I really want to be involved in it,” and I
know now we realize, “Oh shit, he’s doing this massive
movie.” You know, he’s one of the busiest guys on the
planet, but the busiest people, they always are the ones
that make the time and he made the time and he helped me
with actually the ending of the book because when we were
talking about the foreword, he said to me, he’s like, “I
really want to know what legacy means to you. What does
legacy mean to you? I need you to think about it.” He’s
like, “Take a couple days, think about what legacy means to
you,” because I was struggling with the finish of the book,
and then I was like, when I was trying to answer Dwayne’s
question, and I was like, “Oh my god, I have to finish the
book. This is the finish. This is the finish of the book,
what legacy means.” It’s very powerful, but he was a huge
proponent for what legacy means to me.
The Nikki & Brie Show hosted by Nikki & Brie Garcia is
available anytime on the SiriusXM app. New episodes every
Monday and Thursday.