Hulk Hogan claims a chance encounter with Simon Cowell led to the music producer staying in the United States.
WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan recently sat down with Muscle and Health. During the interview, Hogan took credit for the global success of music producer Simon Cowell.
“Simon Cowell originally came to the US to help me with a wrestling album, and he never left,” Hulk Hogan revealed. “I was in Wembley Stadium meeting Make-A-Wish Kids with Mr.T and Michael Jackson. One kid, in particular, was in really rough shape. The EMTs were with him, and he was on a stretcher. His body odor had a smell to it that I hadn’t smelled in a while. His parents were freaking out. I knew he was in trouble.
“I said my goodbyes and gave him a huge hug and kiss. I organized a nice place for him and his family, Ringside at Wembley Stadium, and it was all roped off. I went to wrestle, and I kept looking and looking, and the kid wasn’t there. When I came back from wrestling, I said, “What happened to the little fan out there?” And they told me, “Oh, the kid passed away.” I felt compelled to do something as a tribute right away.
Simon Cowell
“My manager Jimmy Hart, “The Mouth of the South,” used to be in a band and had a couple of number-one hit songs here in the States. We stayed up all night together and wrote twelve songs for the kid’s family. Jimmy knew somebody from Select Records, they got a hold of Simon Cowell. He produced a little album for us, and it went number one on Billboard for eight weeks.
“We donated the money to the family. Then Simon came back to me and said we needed to do the song with a band called “Green Jelly” and something called “I’m The Leader of the Gang,” a Gary Glitter song. That did really well on Billboard, too. When I returned to the States, I had a crazy idea. Since I was still wrestling, I might make music here too. So I grabbed Cyndi Lauper and Rick Derringer and a bunch of people, and we recut a ton of songs.
“Simon came over and helped produce The Wrestling Album. Then he came back and produced the second wrestling album, Piledriver, and he never left. He stayed here, and he became this monster producer. He’s the nicest guy in the world. He plays a tough guy on TV, but he’s a real sweetheart. We’re still great friends to this day.”
It should be noted, despite Hogan’s comments, he never performed at Wembley Stadium. He did, however, have a match against Ric Flair at Wembley Arena for WCW in 1994.
It’s also worth pointing out that while Simon Cowell has a producer credit for WrestleMania: The Album in 1993, he’s not listed on either album Hogan claims he worked on.
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