Danny Trejo Ziplines Down a Cliff | Running Wild with Bear Grylls

Soon your weight is going to come onto your rope above you. Keep walking it back. OK, and now just enjoy the ride. Here you go. Keep pulling back. Try and get your feet down when you can, Danny.

Whoa! Uh! Ahh! Ah.

OK, we need to move fast. [bleep] I'm coming, Danny. It's a long way.

Uh! Uh. Uh. Oh.

Well done, Danny. What a legend.

Woo.

What a legend.

That was awesome.

Hey, do you know what the best thing is? You still got your hat.

Awesome.

Come on.

Yeah, that was a-- that was really a ride. I just, I lost my balance or something [inaudible]..

Lost your [bleep] [inaudible]. Feeling OK?

Yeah, I'm just tired.

I know. I remember once on Everest, I could see the last 1,000 foot above me in a snowstorm in the middle of the night. And a steep couloir, deep snow, every step I want on, I was sliding two back. I remember halfway up this thing, I was hyperventilating, dizzy, I was hallucinating.

Yeah.

And I said, I cannot do this-- you know, in that voice that's going I cannot. But it's like, [inaudible] all [inaudible] all come to this. [inaudible] We're going to [inaudible],, come on.

I'm not [inaudible].

And, and the thing is, all those-- the fatigue, and the doubt, and the-- you know, I think like you, as you get older you learn how to manage yourself. And sometimes it's hard and you've got to rest, and then you go again, you know? But--

It doesn't matter where you start, it matters where you end.

There you go. There you go. Who'd you say that to?

Everybody, anybody.

Yeah.

When I go talk to kids at juvenile hall, I go, you know, you guys think that this is where you-- it doesn't matter where you start, it's where you end, you know?

And do you, do you do that a bit, you go to prisons?

A lot, yeah-- prisons, high schools, youth authorities, juvenile halls, rehab centers, you know.

And what's your, and what's your kind of, what's your main message with it.

Drugs and alcohol will ruin your life, and education is the key to anything you want to do. So I had a teacher that just kept bugging me about a high school diploma, and I thought it wasn't important. And when I got to San Quentin Prison, I asked to go to the dry cleaning and they told me that trade you need a high school diploma. I'm in prison, what are you talking about, you got to get out a-- so I got my high school diploma. Yeah, it's like crazy.

So you were in San Quentin. I mean, that's one of the toughest, most notorious prisons in the world.

Yeah. That one and Folsom.

Do you remember the first day walking in to San Quentin?

Breathtaking.

Really?

Breathtaking. It's a-- I don't care who you are, it's like, uh, you know that you can come in here and, you know, you might die. And when you walk in, you hear this eerie sound. And what it is, it's everybody's voice echoing off the wall, you know? And at night you're in your bunk, the, the pipes cool and it sounds like you're in Vietnam. [making bomb sounds] And that's the way you sleep. It's a, it's like a right now place, do you understand? Everything is right now-- no future, no past. You realize that the bottom line to an argument is a murder, so you, you don't argue, you know? You just go with it, whatever it is, you know? And it's like the taste of tension, it's the worst taste in the world. And--

What a taste? You can, you can taste--

Taste it. You taste it. It's like a, like having a, one of those old lead pennies in your mouth all the time.

Yeah.

And then when you get used to that taste and you don't taste it anymore, that's when you're screwed up, because you're becoming somewhat of a psychopath, and you just don't care about anything, you know, any life whatsoever, you know? That's what-- I mean, you have to be ready to take a life if you, you know, somebody stares at you long, or argues, or wants your space, you know?

How could you find faith in a, in a place like that?

In 1968, I kind of hit a wall and went to the hole with some pretty serious charges. And when I was in the hole, I stood there and I was, I was thinking, you know, like, everybody, everybody always said I had a lot of potential. When I was in the hole that day, I was thinking, this is it, this is where all that potential got me. And then the thought of not using that potential, you know, and I just made a promise-- if God would let me die with dignity, I'll say his name every day, and I will do whatever I can for my fellow man. So when I come out of the hole, that's what I started doing. I got out of prison August 23, 1969, and ain't looked back, man.

What an inspiration you are. Wow. I think we've had some shade.

Yeah, ready.

We've got to push on. How are you feeling?

I'm feeling great.

You are amazing.

God bless.

You are amazing. For me to sit and listen to Danny tell some of his, you know, life experiences, from San Quentin Prison, I felt I could feel my heart rate going up just listening to that, that sense of fear and trepidation. And you know, I take a lot of actors and stuff away, but it's a privilege for me to actually take somebody who's really kind of really been there, you know? Done the hard yards when they really are hard yards.