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DR. DREW

Charlie Sheen`s `Violent Torpedo of Truth` Tour; Interview With Sammy Hagar

Aired April 4, 2011 - 21:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DR. DREW PINSKY, HOST: It`s Monday, April 4, 2011. And welcome to the very first DR. DREW show.

Now, here`s the deal. I`m a physician, an MD. I will be addressing a whole range of related topics that impact each and every one of us. That`s family, relationships, sex.

My specialty is addiction and internal medicine. So, in other words, the human experience. I`m fascinated by that, why we do what we do. And I`ll have an opinion, I`ll express it. You can expect that.

Now, for those of you who say I can`t diagnose at a distance, I`ve been practicing medicine for nearly 30 years. I have experienced and have studied hundreds, let`s say thousands, of cases. It`s what I do.

And I want to start a dialogue about what concerns you, my viewers. We will address it professionally and we`ll get it right. I intend to make a difference.

OK?

Let`s get started.

Good evening. We have an exclusive interview with the teen who made an astonishing video about being bullied.

We also have Sammy Hagar here to talk about surviving a harrowing childhood and life after Van Halen.

But first, Charlie Sheen`s "Torpedo of Truth" tour. I can barely get that out. It`s actually the "Violent Torpedo of Truth" tour.

I want to know what really happened this weekend.

Kacey Jordan has been described by Charlie as one of his goddesses. She was in Detroit watching the act. I guess it unraveled.

Mike Catherwood, also known as "Psycho" Mike, he is my co-host on "LoveLine" and a "Dancing With the Stars" star.

Dylan Howard is senior executive editor of RadarOnline.

And, of course, Kareen Wynter, she`s a reporter here with us at HLN`s "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT." She witnessed Charlie`s show as well.

Kacey, I want to go to you first, if you don`t mind. You were sitting in the eighth row.

What went down from your point of view?

KACEY JORDAN, INSIDE SHEEN`S DETROIT SHOW: The show was OK for the first 15 minutes, and then it started to go downhill pretty fast after that.

PINSKY: OK.

We have some tape here. Let`s take a look at what happened in Motown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BOOING)

CHARLIE SHEEN, ACTOR: I figured Detroit was a good place to tell some crack stories. A show of hands, who here has tried crack?

Come on, guys. You paid to see me. You didn`t know what it was about.

You gave me your hard-earned money without knowing what this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) show was about. And I`m here, man. I`m (EXPLETIVE DELETED) here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PINSKY: Wow. I see what Kacey is talking about.

Kareen, you were also there at the event. What was all that about? He kept talking about drugs and the audience was out of control.

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Dr. Drew, I`ve got to tell you, it was unlike anything I`ve ever experienced. And again, sitting there right in the thick of things.

PINSKY: Was it scary?

WYNTER: And, you know, it was absolutely scary, frightening. They`ve been describing this whole show in Detroit as a train wreck. I describe it more as a bad, nauseating roller-coaster ride, one you wish you could get off of, you could jump off, but you couldn`t.

And the reason is we all know Charlie. Despite his years of scandal, he is successful on the big screen. He`s successful on his TV show, the one that he was just fired from.

But, Dr. Drew, this is someone who was spiraling out of control right before my eyes. He lost touch with the audience and he got more angry as the show unfolded. He was turning against them.

PINSKY: My understanding, what turned them deeply against him was all the drug references though.

WYNTER: Absolutely. They were tired of it. There were countless drug references, and he kept going from one example to another.

In fact, we have one of Charlie in action. Let`s listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEEN: I can`t tell you about the Plaza, that thing. Oh, got my watch back. Sorry, bought a new one.

I can`t tell you about the Plaza because that story involves Ambien. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) crack stories. Forget the crack stories. We`ll just move the show along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WYNTER: And Dr. Drew, you heard him there. He said, "We`ll just move the show along."

And that`s the problem. The show never, ever moved along. People got sick of it. Charlie even walked off at the very end, never even thanked the people at the end of the show.

PINSKY: And you hung around after the show, is that right?

WYNTER: Yes. Yes. And got some exclusive footage. It was absolutely chaotic. People --

PINSKY: We`re looking at it right now.

WYNTER: We`re looking at it right now. Hundreds of people left.

Charlie comes back out on stage 10 minutes later and finally thanks them. Let`s take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WYNTER: So, a really abrupt ending to the show. There you have it. There are people lined up at the stage.

Charlie, it appears, has left for the night. They`re chanting his name. We`ll see if he comes back out.

AUDIENCE: Charlie! Charlie!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PINSKY: Dylan, it seems like he was lucky it didn`t break down into riot.

DYLAN HOWARD, SR. EXECUTIVE EDITOR, RADARONLINE: Not surprised by it though, Dr. Drew.

PINSKY: You`re not surprised?

HOWARD: No, I`m not. For 28 years, Charlie Sheen was presented with a script every time he sat before a camera or stood before a camera. In this instance, he`s not a performer, he`s not a showman.

He`s not like Conan O`Brien who, after being dumped by NBC, did a spectacular nationwide tour. I`m not surprised by it one bit.

PINSKY: I think I saw some tweets over the weekend, Mike, where people were saying they were thankful that he proved that comedians have a difficult job and that writers are important.

Any thoughts about that?

MIKE CATHERWOOD, CO-HOST, "LOVELINE": Exactly. That`s one of the two major things that came to light through Charlie`s performances, is that just how talented real standup comedians are, real performers are. And that if you`re maybe good in a scripted capacity, it doesn`t necessarily lend you the talent to stand in front of a stage for an extended period of time. Once he does "duh" and "winning" and "tiger blood," he still has to have something left to keep the show going.

I think another thing that it clearly brought to light is that Dr. Drew has been telling me on "LoveLine" every single night, and he`s been the focus of media scrutiny because of it, that Charlie is a guy who is dual diagnosed. I mean, he is not someone who is just an addict.

This is a guy who is clearly suffering from some type of psychiatric disorder. Mostly mania. And people have been ragging on Dr. Drew about it and saying he`s diagnosing someone in absentia, diagnosing them from afar. And when you watch a guy kind of unravel and put together un-linear thoughts, and have no way of kind of relating to a group of normal human beings, I think it pretty much exposes, even to a layperson like myself, that this is guy who suffers from psychiatric disorder.

PINSKY: And Kareen, that`s what I was seeing on the stage, the little footage I was able to look at, was that things are very disconnected and disjointed and didn`t hang together. Things were sort of derailed, as we call it.

WYNTER: Dr. Drew, it was absolutely disgusting, some of the video that we saw. Let me describe it to people.

It was a big screen. And you saw clips, random clips, of people in pain, bloody, gory, disgusting things. And you`re wondering, was this Charlie Sheen`s definition of artistic entertainment? I mean, who signed off on this?

And there were people talking about it and absolutely grossed out by this performance. It`s really, really mind-boggling.

PINSKY: Dylan, you want to say something?

HOWARD: I just don`t think that we can say he`s mentally unhinged by the state of his performance. That`s the back-of-show people that clearly didn`t have the show coordinated and running smoothly and --

(CROSSTALK)

PINSKY: Well, but the words that were coming out of his mouth were very disconnected, very rambling, very derailed. That`s a symptom when people connect their thoughts very well.

Kacey, let me ask you this. Were you scared sitting there in the eighth row? I`m more interested in the audience, almost, than I am in Charlie. I mean, people were so -- I don`t know, they were so taken with him. And then they turned on him so viciously. I`m surprised it didn`t break down into some kind of riot.

JORDAN: Well, I did hear that there was police on standby in case there were riots because people were requesting refunds.

PINSKY: But Kacey, did you feel endangered by that crowd? It`s like they wanted tiger blood once they got disappointed.

JORDAN: I didn`t feel endangered by the crowd. I think because most of the crowd was just leaving, they weren`t even -- you know, they weren`t getting violent at all.

PINSKY: One second, Kacey.

Kareen, go ahead.

WYNTER: I have to jump in there, Kacey. I was right there with you, girl.

I was fearful of my life, because you had people -- it felt like a club. And my producer who was there with me said, "Kareen, I feel like I`m at a really bad club."

There were people who had alcohol. There were women in the balcony area dancing. And when people got so angry that they paid their hard- earned money to see garbage, it got really crazy in there. So I was fearful.

CATHERWOOD: The strange thing is -- and this is my reasoning behind the fact that I think he is suffering from some type of mental disorder -- is that he`s indignant to the fact that this crowd seems to not like his performance.

HOWARD: He`s an egomaniac.

PINSKY: Well, no, but he doesn`t assess reality. Reality begs no conversation. He just -- it has to cooperate with him or he`s infuriated. And that`s not a normal way of thinking. That`s an abnormal way of thinking.

CATHERWOOD: And the bottom line is, as someone who knows addiction broth from an anecdotal standpoint, from life experience, there`s things that you do and there`s things that force you to behave -- you know, stimulants, for instance -- that force you to behave in an irrational way. But there`s no real ability for Charlie Sheen it seems to connect to society. It`s as if that -- the world`s existing over here and he`s on his own.

PINSKY: And yet, he has tapped into something, Dylan. And that`s what fascinates me so much.

What do you think people are responding to? It`s sort of a flipping off the man kind of thing, isn`t it? Isn`t that what they`re responding to?

HOWARD: Well, the fact that he had 4,000 people who --

PINSKY: What is that though?

HOWARD: -- paid by their hard-earned --

PINSKY: And then turned on him. What has he tapped into? Some sort of frenzy he`s created.

HOWARD: He`s always had an audience. "Two and a Half Men," despite his violent past and domestic violence allegations, people still turned up to that program in the droves. And I think that will continue. He sold out again last night and will continue to.

PINSKY: I`m going to stop you.

Mike, that`s one of the interesting things about him, isn`t it? They give him a break for domestic violence, for drug use.

HOWARD: That`s not right. That`s not fair.

PINSKY: I`m just saying Mike was telling us he observed that.

CATHERWOOD: For 20 years somehow he`s gotten a pass for almost shooting a loved one, for numerous cases of domestic abuse and holding people hostage. A lot of really despicable things. And for some reason, Charlie has gotten a pass from the general media.

HOWARD: That`s celebrity justice. That`s Teflon Charlie.

PINSKY: Well, that`s him though. Not everybody gets that kind of a pass though. Right?

I mean, it`s fascinating. What really interests me is what he has tapped into here and what it says about us as audiences, as viewers, that we care, that we`re interested in this, and he`s driven people into some kind of frenzy that he`s now lost control over. And that`s interesting as well.

Listen, I`m going to talk more to Kacey, but I want to thank our "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT`S" Kareen Wynter for joining us this evening.

Thank you so much.

And when we come back, more insights, of course, from Kacey, as I said. But before we go, another look at Charlie`s Detroit show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No sir. Do not pay for Charlie Sheen. Do not do it, Chicago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the most preposterous load of (EXPLETIVE DELETED) I`ve ever seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really is horrible. He should be ashamed of himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If that`s Charlie Sheen sober, I want Charlie back on crack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEEN: Now that I have your lazy (EXPLETIVE DELETED) attention, world, sit back and rejoice.

If his soul is inhabited by the ghost of Betty (ph), and now it will murder people, it will eat trolls with its razor fangs --

I am on a drug. It`s called Charlie Sheen.

Built troll by trolls. Keep that in mind. Phones were built by trolls.

I`m tired of pretending like I`m not a total (EXPLETIVE DELETED) rock star from Mars.

Hi, Chuck E. Cheese ball.

I`m smoking a cigarette and drinking something I won`t reveal unless they pay me. Everybody wins.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PINSKY: Boy, that is tough to watch. I have got to tell you, though, I have lots of patients that behave like that and they`re very infectious and they`re very entertaining.

Kacey Jordan has an interesting history with Charlie. She`s seen him at his worst.

So, Kacey, what was the scariest moment with Charlie?

JORDAN: The scariest moment was when the drug use started that evening I was with him, how excessive it was, how persistent he was, and how much he took.

PINSKY: Why was that scary? Why was that scary to you?

JORDAN: Because, I mean, I`ve never seen anybody able to consume as much alcohol, as much cocaine in my entire life. I mean, he should not be alive.

PINSKY: So you feared for him physically. The question is, did the behaviors become out of control as a result of all that drug use, too?

JORDAN: You know, alcohol I think makes him more violent, but he never blew up like, you know, he has in the past, or his previous situations that he`s been in. But the drugs make him really happy and talkative and --

PINSKY: Right, talking about tiger blood. It makes him manicky. Right? It makes him talk about tiger blood and having special powers, and being loving of everybody, and being effusive, this kind of thing. That`s why people do those sorts of stimulant drugs.

But let me ask you something. You mentioned him being violent when he gets on alcohol. What were you doing there?

JORDAN: What was I doing there?

PINSKY: Yes. I mean, why would you put yourself in the presence of some guy you know before to have been violent towards women, and you`re in a presence of him consuming the substances that, in the past, have been associated with him being violent, allegedly. What were you doing there?

JORDAN: You know, I was invited. I didn`t really know who it was at first until last minute. And, you know, I`m kind of -- I was just really daring and kind of just wanting to, you know, meet the guy, because, you know, he`s Charlie Sheen.

PINSKY: Do you regret it?

JORDAN: I don`t necessarily regret it because he didn`t put me in any harm.

PINSKY: Have you maintained contact with him? Are you still friends with him? Was he surprised to see you at the show in Detroit?

JORDAN: You know what? I really didn`t know what to expect in the show. The fact that he had one of his coordinators come out and hand me a backstage pass to go back and talk to him threw me off. You know, just because of everything and with all the media lately. So I`m kind of curious what he wanted to talk about.

PINSKY: So you didn`t go backstage?

JORDAN: No.

PINSKY: And let me remind people, while we`ve had a pretty lively conversation about Detroit thus far, Chicago, which was Sunday night, actually went a lot better. He basically sat and was interviewed by somebody, very much the way people do college gigs with celebrities around the country. They sort of tone the whole thing down. It wasn`t so manic, the way the other one was.

But, even so, we`ve talked already about how sort of dangerous Detroit felt.

Is that what it`s like to be around Charlie Sheen? Is there always an element of danger? Is that what it feels like?

JORDAN: Being around Charlie is just -- really just puts like a strain on your mind. It`s just trying to figure him out. And yes, he`s definitely in his own world, and it`s, like, really hard to understand it.

PINSKY: Have you ever seen anybody else in this condition?

JORDAN: No.

PINSKY: No. This is the first time you`ve seen it?

JORDAN: I really don`t -- it`s like a manic behavior.

PINSKY: Right. Right. It`s what we call hypomania, when people believe they have special powers, when their speech is pressured and tangential, when they`re hypersexual and when they don`t need much sleep. Did you see much evidence of the hypersexuality?

JORDAN: Well, I mean, we all know he has hypersexuality.

PINSKY: Kacey, I didn`t know that. By the way, I didn`t know that.

I mean, he keeps porn stars around him. He calls them "goddesses." It`s sort of been kept out of the press, exactly what the hypersexuality has meant for him or you guys. Has it been out of control?

JORDAN: You know, when I was over there, he, you know, invited me to watch some adult films with him. And he had quite the collection. So I think he`s definitely a porn connoisseur. He really enjoys, you know, that -- sexual behaviors and experimenting and --

PINSKY: What were you exposed to yourself with him?

JORDAN: Well, we -- I mean, yes, we did do stuff together, but, you know, it was really weird, because I didn`t -- I would think that he -- because he`s known to be this bad boy. And, like, you would think that he would be into more weird or kinky different things. But he was more -- he was really passionate, which threw me off, which I didn`t really expect that from him.

PINSKY: So you were expecting sort of a more aggressive, violent, choking, all that business. And, in fact, he just appreciated being with you. And were there other people the same night?

JORDAN: No, there were other girls there. There was me and four other girls.

PINSKY: But that`s -- I`m trying to understand the hypersexuality here. So he worked his way through you to other people. I mean, that`s a superhuman effort, right?

JORDAN: Yes. I mean, he always wants, you know, multiple girls around him, so --

PINSKY: All right. And that`s another simple of hypomania, hypersexuality, and the ability, sometimes, to keep that going. So, again, that`s a concern.

Let me ask this, Kacey. Do you have concerns for him still? We started this conversation by you saying you were fearful for his safety, physically. Are you still afraid? And where do you think this is all going to end?

JORDAN: I was really scared for him in the beginning. That`s why I spoke out, because I wanted to have him seek help. But as of right now, I think -- I mean, he`s the kind of guy that kind of wants attention, needs attention, and has a lot of celebrity support, a lot of fans.

PINSKY: Yes. But isn`t that enabling -- aren`t these enabling people, lending -- I mean, these kinds of situations end up in institutionalization, death, or jail or prison. And aren`t you fearful that that`s where he`s headed with all these people enabling him?

JORDAN: Yes. I mean, I think the people that are closest to him -- you know, his assistant -- and before the show, the guys at "Two and a Half Men" I think maybe enabled him a little bit because they kind of knew about his problem, but just let him do whatever he wants because, you know, he made them a lot of money.

PINSKY: It`s a real concern. I have to say thank you to Kacey.

Thank you for joining us.

I will tell you in a minute what effect I think this tour could be having on Charlie and all of us when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PINSKY: And that was more from Charlie Sheen`s "Torpedo of Truth" tour this last weekend.

A reminder. In Chicago, apparently things went a little bit better than in Detroit.

And we`re back of course with our guests: "Psycho" Mike Catherwood from "LoveLine"; and RadarOnline`s Dylan Howard.

So, gentlemen, I was just talking to Kacey Jordan, obviously. And you hear this young woman`s story apparently is that she maybe got pregnant by him, there apparently was a suicide attempt related to her relationship with him. She ended up in a psychiatric hospital.

And by the way, you can`t be admitted to a psychiatric hospital unless you have a severe depression. There`s no sort of press-generated kind of story there. That`s real hard evidence, some very severe distress.

So, my question is, why do we all -- interest in this guy? Why are people willing to put themselves in harms way and be close to Charlie?

Mike?

CATHERWOOD: Well, I mean, I think it`s all escapism. I mean, it`s the same reason why a suburbanite white kid like me likes gangster rap. It kind of is your ability to break outside the mundane lifestyle that you live. And Charlie is anything but mundane.

PINSKY: So, be a little antisocial, sort of flip off the man a bit? Is that right?

CATHERWOOD: Sure. I mean, we -- Americans in particular have a way of romancing, living on the edge. And we only seem to focus on the cool parts of, sure, we can talk about how Jim Morrison used to hold court on Santa Monica Boulevard and deliver poetry.

PINSKY: But the fact is he died of addiction.

CATHERWOOD: Right. And he was also drooling on himself later that night.

PINSKY: If Jim Morrison had been my patient, it would not have been a happy outcome.

Dylan, what do you think?

HOWARD: Well, I was going to say that the people that we saw -- I mean, at the audience, at their core, they wanted to hear his stories. Not so much about drug use and the such, but the Q&A format in Chicago last night really showed that people wanted to hear his stories.

It`s like a car crash. You don`t want to look, but you do.

PINSKY: It reminds me a little bit of the early days of Howard Stern. Doesn`t it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PINSKY: Remember when he used to do those big events, and there was a lot of sex, and a lot of sort of antisocial --

CATHERWOOD: It was, but that was a lot more clever. It really was.

HOWARD: And Charlie`s careers is on the line here. Make no mistake about it.

PINSKY: Yes. And by the way, Howard Stern wasn`t in a manic state when he put those shows on. He had writers. He was a standup kind of guy. He had done radio shows. It`s a very different situation.

HOWARD: Well, the interesting thing that he says is that he`s a character in a place of fiction. And I want to hear your thoughts, Dr. Drew. He says it`s like Lenny Bruce or the Mitchell brothers.

PINSKY: He says that he`s playing a role?

HOWARD: Yes.

PINSKY: It`s one thing to say you`re playing a role. It`s another thing to really believe that that`s who you are, and to have distorted perceptions, and to cling to that so fully that you don`t really -- reality begs no all alternative.

HOWARD: So what does he need then?

PINSKY: He needs some Depakote. He needs some medication.

You know what he needs? He also needs a little bit of sobriety, too.

I mean, a simple life would calm a lot of this down. And the fact is -- and I`ve said this earlier in the show -- is that this kind of behavior and this sort of a situation goes to a very bad place. It just can`t go anywhere else but death, institutionalization or jail.

That`s where this goes. It may not happen next month, it may not happen a year from now, but untreated and unchecked, he has a long history of addiction, now he seems to have a secondary problem with hypomania, very common for the combination of drugs that he`s been doing. And that eventually goes to a very bad place, even if he`s under treatment.

CATHERWOOD: Tons of resources, too, which is a bad thing for a guy like him.

PINSKY: Which is absolutely a bad thing.

CATHERWOOD: And it`s funny, because Kacey Jordan -- this is the "Torpedo of Truth" tour. Kacey Jordan now starring in the Torpedo of Meat. And I found it very odd and ironic, yes.

HOWARD: I don`t even want to go there.

PINSKY: Neither do I. So I`ll say thank you to both Mike and Dylan on that note.

And when we come back, a story about stopping bullying. It`s got hope and heart. How one teenager is coping, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PINSKY: Welcome back to our first show. Now, Charlie Sheen is a story that I just don`t think is ever going to go away. So, we will keep talking about it if you`re still interested.

But now, a primetime exclusive with the teenager whose YouTube video about bullying has simply exploded in the past few days. I spoke directly to Alye Pollack and her mother, Audra, from Connecticut earlier today. Take a look at Alye`s incredibly powerful video, and then we`ll talk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PINSKY: I mean, how can you not be moved by that video? So, I started out by asking Alye how the bullying got started.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALYE POLLACK, TEEN BEGS FOR BULLYING TO STOP: I was on Facebook one day, and I liked Justin Bieber`s news, like, like page, and he posted a video of some girl named Jade who made a video like mine. And since I`ve been bullied for, I think two years now, I just felt I needed to make a video to spread awareness about the topic of bullying.

PINSKY: And Alye, part of what is so stunning about your video and what you`re telling us now, it`s hard to imagine somebody bullying you. I mean, not to say that there`s somebody who should be bullied, but I can`t understand what they`d be bullying you about. Let me ask you this. Do you have any sense why you are bullied or why you`re the target?

ALYE POLLACK: You know, a lot of people have told me that when somebody bullies someone else it`s because they`re jealous or they`re insecure, and I think they are insecure about themselves, which I feel bad for them, but yet again, they shouldn`t be bullying anyone. They should -- they should talk things out maybe with a therapist or their parents or something.

PINSKY: All right. Here`s what I want to know. Sometimes, the greatest wisdom comes from young people, in my opinion. What do you think needs to be done about the problem of bullying?

ALYE POLLACK: It completely needs to end. It should not be tolerated anywhere or with anyone. No matter what somebody`s done to you, you shouldn`t bully them. At all.

PINSKY: Now, mom, Audra, you`re sitting right next to Alye there. I`ve spoken to you a little bit about what`s been happening since she`s made this really powerful, beautiful statement about something that a lot of people agree is a problem, and yet, by making the statement, my understanding is she`s become the object of more bullying? I got to tell you something, when you told me that, I was probably jumping out of my skin. I was so angry. Is that what`s happening?

AUDRA POLLACK, MOTHER OF BULLIED DAUGHTER: Absolutely. We`ve gotten a lot of hate mail. Alye and I are working together to monitor accounts and to take a look and see what`s going on right now. I think that it`s unfortunate, but I think this is the way of the world right now.

Everyone always seems to focus on the negative, and I think, right now, we need to be focusing on the positive, every step of the way, every moment of every day, and just saying to each other, you know, are you OK? Can I help you in any way? How can you be helped? And just assessing situations a little better.

PINSKY: Well, I so agree with you, Audra, but it`s just so stunning to me that this beautiful, young woman who makes this incredibly poetic, powerful statement then merely becomes the object of more bullying. It`s almost more than I can bear. I got to tell you something. Alye, do you understand why I`m so upset about this?

ALYE POLLACK: I`m upset, too.

PINSKY: OK.

AUDRA POLLACK: Dr. Drew, I`m a parent. I`m extremely upset.

PINSKY: Yes. It`s not OK, but I`ll tell you one thing, though, that, again, we spoke a little bit before this satellite feed. And you told -- Alye said something that I thought was so courageous and really probably the reason we`re speaking here. She said, look, mom, if we allow this bullying that I`m now the object of to cause me to crawl back into a hole somewhere and not speak out about this, we`re letting the bullies win.

And hats off, Alye. God bless you. I mean, you`re courageous on courageous. You have this beautiful video. You`re a poet. You allowed your face to become really something associated with a solution, and you`re not going to back down. I just say hats off. I mean, I`m so impressed. Audra, nice job.

AUDRA POLLACK: Thank you.

PINSKY: Has she always been kind of an exceptional kid?

AUDRA POLLACK: I think she`s beyond exceptional. I think I see a movement that will come out of this. And we`re seeing it already. We`re seeing it in a lot of different places. I`m getting tons of e-mails from individuals. This video is being shared, I believe, in 19 different school districts right now, and it`s completely overwhelming. I really hope that the good outweighs the bad.

PINSKY: And one last thing. I think a lot of people that watch this video get frightened for Alye. Is she OK? And so, let`s kind of close this conversation by giving us an update on how she`s feeling and she, you know, in the video, says she`s thinking about cutting. Alye, are you OK now? Are you cool?

ALYE POLLACK: Yes. Things have gotten a lot better at school. Even though, I`ve gotten tons of hate mail and bad messages, it`s -- 75 percent of that is really good, like, the positive comments. It just makes me feel amazing.

PINSKY: Your mood seems bright and cheerful right now. So, I hope you continue to feel well, and I hope that whatever bullying and abuse that comes through the internet, which, frankly, internet has become sort of almost entirely that these days, if you`re not careful, I hope none of that takes you down. I hope you don`t read any of it and know that the vast, vast, vast majority of people out there take their hats off to you.

Both of you. Mom, Alye, Audra, thank you so much for joining us. I really do appreciate it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PINSKY: Well, her story certainly does make the problem more vivid, doesn`t it? No doubt we`ll be talking more about bullying in shows to come. But, in the meantime, everybody, cut it out. Stop it already. All right? Come on, now.

Next, from Van Halen, the unpredictable, Sammy Hagar.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PINSKY: Sammy Hagar is best known for his days as a member of Van Halen, of course, and most recently, proclaiming he was abducted by aliens in his new book "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock." It is number one in `New York Times" best-seller list, and we welcome to the how. Sammy, thanks for coming.

SAMMY HAGAR, MEMBER OF VAN HALEN: Thank you, doctor.

PINSKY: Is there anything you can`t do? You write a book, and pow, it`s a number one sales. I don`t understand that. How`s that work?

HAGAR: OH, there`s probably a whole bunch of stuff I can`t do.

PINSKY: I understand you can`t surf. That`s one thing I heard you can`t do.

HAGAR: I probably could, though. I just haven`t tried.

PINSKY: You scare me. Guys like that. But listen, thanks for coming here, and I`m fascinated by so much stuff you wrote about. You know, for me, childhood sets up so much of our adult lives. And you had a tough go in childhood, right?

HAGAR: Absolutely. You know, raised by single mom, alcoholic father died in the back of a police car, picked up in a park, 53 years old.

PINSKY: How old were you at the time?

HAGAR: I was 20 when my dad died, and I had --

PINSKY: Were you the parent in the house at that point?

HAGAR: No. I was the youngest of four kids at four children, but my mother had already raised us. My dad had been homeless for 15 years. Five years old when my dad went homeless.

PINSKY: But I mean, that must have had a profound effect on you growing (INAUDIBLE). Can you describe what that is?

HAGAR: Yes. I think it`s really important that you turn that into a positive. My positive was I don`t ever want to be poor again. I will get out of this. You know, I will be somebody, and I was determined. I had drive and willing to work my butt off for anything I achieve.

PINSKY: Because I know in this day and age, we live in this world of the secret, we just think it`s going to be so and it`s so.

HAGAR: Yes.

PINSKY: You got to work your ass off to get --

HAGAR: There`s not question about it. You know, you can have all the luck in the world, but if you just sit in your house, you know, it`s not going to come to you. You need to work at what you want. When you have a parent that loves you and shows love in your family, then, I think you feel like you can do it. If you have a beaten down childhood, you can`t.

PINSKY: But you had both.

HAGAR: Makes it hard.

PINSKY: Right?

HAGAR: Oh, I was also beaten down.

PINSKY: Your dad was a boxer, right?

HAGAR: Yes, but he loved me, and he always showed that. He was embarrassing to me, you know, when he beat up my girlfriend`s father in a bar. You know, and that come over the house --

PINSKY: He would beat up your mom and wouldn`t beat up you?

HAGAR: He beat up my mom, yes. He didn`t beat up the kids. He was a very loving man in that sense.

PINSKY: You still had to go through seeing all that violence and aggression. I mean, take me back --

(CROSSTALK)

PINSKY: I mean, Sammy, that is so -- I wish it were that easy -- because I`m really fascinated because I have patients. I`m, you know, helping them to overcome traumas in childhood and whatnot. Thinking positively, you have something else going on. I talked to a friend of mine who`s a musician. He goes, ask Sammy how he has such a great attitude. No matter what happens, he`s a happy guy, whether it`s aliens abducting him or his dad`s, you know, dying in the streets, Sammy --

HAGAR: I think appreciation that I came from nothing. Everything I got, every dollar I earned or every piece of love or success I had, I appreciated it so much because it came from nothing. So, it`s part to do with personality, but going back to, I really do believe that hard work, it`s like if you see what you want to be, if you can figure out what it is you want so bad, I would play guitar over anything.

I locked myself in a room as a teenager, you know, instead of partying, I said, I just want to be a great guitar player, you know? And when you have passion for what you want to do and are willing to work hard, the only thing that can stop you from reaching your goals is yourself by quitting too early and giving up.

PINSKY: You had a sort of vision of A to B to C and the hard work to get there, which, again, I can`t say strongly enough, people just don`t have that today. It drives me out of my mind. Let me telling you something else, you`re getting to something I think is very powerful which is the love of the parent. Even though, it wasn`t a stable family system, you knew somehow that there was that connectedness, right?

HAGAR: My mother made us for feel -- as a family, we need to put food on the table.

PINSKY: Without a dad.

HAGAR: Without a dad. Single mom back in the 1950s. Man, that`s not easy with no education.

PINSKY: So, what is that -- I know -- I`ve looked at your book, and I know family is really important to you. I mean, I can tell. I can see the joy that the kids have brought you since they were little kids, right? Do you remember, like, the first time when your daughters smiled at you, for instance?

HAGAR: Oh, doctor, when my little girl was born, she came out, and I held her because she was having a caesarian. So, I took the baby, cut the cord, and that baby smiled at me when she was born and just tore me up. I bawled my brains out. I just was crying like a baby, you know what I mean? The touch of -- I got goose bumps on me. The touching of unconditional love that you find from a pure child like that, there`s nothing like that shows you what God is.

PINSKY: I totally agree with you.

HAGAR: Yes.

PINSKY: Why don`t enough people touch that? So, you know, when I think about my viewers out there --

HAGAR: I think it`s hard not to --

PINSKY: Well, I agree with you. When you think about people in this world, people, they`re shattered by their family systems, people are not open and available for that kind of incredible -- they just -- they don`t connect. They don`t have that.

HAGAR: Love is so important. Love. My mother made me feel loved. Like I said, we were poor. She`d go, we`re going to go pick fruit. You want a new pair of jeans for school this summer, we`re going to pick boysenberries, and we`d all go down as a family and do it. And then, we`d celebrate it.

Afterwards, we`d have a little money, she`d go buy some pasta and stuff and would make a big spaghetti dinner. I mean, that stuff is so important. It`s so easy to do. Anyone can do that. Anyone can go to the beach --

PINSKY: Do you do that with your kids now?

HAGAR: Yes, we cook. We go to the beach. We, you know, we do free things just like you have all the money in the world. My kids don`t want to fly around in a G5 up in the air, you know?

PINSKY: My kids do.

(LAUGHTER)

PINSKY: Because they don`t have one. These guys want one, too. These guys want to go with you if you don`t want to take the kids.

HAGAR: They go to the beach. They want to go to the beach. They want to go to the mountains.

PINSKY: Let me ask you a tougher question.

HAGAR: OK.

PINSKY: You had an alcoholic dad.

HAGAR: Yes.

PINSKY: You had alcoholic band mates.

HAGAR: Yes.

PINSKY: One of the vivid aspects of your book that I saw, and I, actually, appreciated is you really give an unvarnished look at what it`s like to be dealing with alcoholics, both not in your family origins but amongst your peers, man.

HAGAR: Yes.

PINSKY: These guys were alcoholics. They`re hardcore. And dad, what you portrayed in your book is what it feels like to be around alcoholics.

HAGAR: Yes. And being raised by an alcoholic, I think, it made me easier for me to be able --

PINSKY: You were attracted to those guys because you`re not an alcoholic.

HAGAR: In a way, you know, I think --

PINSKY: Maybe you`re not an alcoholic.

HAGAR: I`m not. No, I don`t have the disease, I guess. I don`t wake up in the morning and want to drink. If I have too much to drink the night before, I wake in the morning going, woo --

PINSKY: But dude, you know the disease. You know it. You`ve seen it, and you`ve lived with it in Van Halen.

HAGAR: It`s a rough life.

PINSKY: I can still see the pain. Those guys hurt you.

HAGAR: I love those guys. And Alex Van Halen, I love him, because he took the oath. We took one, two, Al, after "50 on 50," Al went to rehab, and as far as I know, never drank again. I don`t have contact with Al, but I`m assuming he`s still strong. Eddie didn`t do that. And Eddie keeps falling down and would be in denial. And on the 2004 reunion, it was horrible. He was in really bad shape.

PINSKY: Wait, wait, wait.

HAGAR: It breaks my heart.

PINSKY: It breaks your heart.

(CROSSTALK)

PINSKY: But you didn`t -- I`m not sure I got that from the book how painful it is to you, just how frustrating it is, I got that.

HAGAR: Well, because of my father, I`m very sensitive. And I love Ed. And, I heard he`s doing great again now, but you know, Ed goes up and down. Ed is doing --

PINSKY: He`s a guy to love, right?

HAGAR: He`s got the biggest heart in the world.

PINSKY: He got the biggest heart in the world.

HAGAR: Like I said, when I said to the reunion, when I came in and I saw him, he was in such bad shape, and he said, you all right, man? I`m going, yes, what`s the matter? He`s going, you look a little beat up. Here`s this guy who`s got teeth missing. He`s looking -- I thought he was -- Ed, you OK, you know?

PINSKY: Yes.

HAGAR: And he says that to me, and I`m thinking, geez, and then he goes, hey, give me a hug. It`s like, oh, yes, you know? Give the guy a hug because he has a great big heart. I love the great days of Van Halen. The greatest thing in my musical career being part of Van Halen. I praise those songs. I praise those times.

PINSKY: So Sammy, when I see people in pain because their relationships are ruptured from addiction, and that`s what Eddie, I guess has, alcoholism. That is not OK for me. I feel like you got to kind of reach out --

HAGAR: Call him.

(CROSSTALK)

PINSKY: You want me to?

HAGAR: You know what happen if I -- PINSKY: Seriously, you want me to?

HAGAR: You do whatever you want to do.

PINSKY: OK. I will do that.

HAGAR: My goal in life before we all die, we have to become friends again, you know, Eddie and I, because Alex and I are still friends. It`s just because (ph) of Eddie we can`t be. When someone becomes your enemy, Eddie is like the anti-Sammy. It`s like anything Sammy wants, he wants it black, I want it white. I say, OK, I`ll take it white. No, I want it black.

PINSKY: Is he example of your success?

HAGAR: I don`t know. I think there`s a little jealousy. A little bit of jealousy of happiness and having a good time, but I would say, if I had the opportunity to be friends with Ed again, I`d take it in a second because you`re right. The ending was hurtful.

PINSKY: I can see it again.

HAGAR: It was hurtful. It was freaking hurtful.

PINSKY: Yes.

HAGAR: Nobody likes that. You know, it`s like --

PINSKY: You`ve shed some tears over this. I can tell.

HAGAR: No, no, I never cried.

PINSKY: Dude.

HAGAR: I`m an easy cry. I cry over all kinds of stuff.

PINSKY: Not over this?

HAGAR: No, I didn`t cry for that. I was pissed off. Exactly. I let it out on the other way. It was like -- you know, I was angry. And I`m still, you know, carry it with me. Like you said, I feel it. I`m going, you know, why did those guys do that? Look, they throw me out of the band, and then, they haven`t done anything since, 18 years later. It`s like, why did you do that? We were the biggest band in the world.

Everything was fantastic. It just -- it`s a shame to see that go to waste, but I`m happy. History to me, happened. Next, you know? I can`t tell you how much money I have. I can`t tell you how many records I sold. I can barely tell you where I live you know? I really -- it`s like, I`m on the frontline all the time.

PINSKY: I`m reconsidering that diagnosis I was making about you not being an addict alcoholic.

HAGAR: I drink.

(CROSSTALK)

HAGAR: You can drink fine wines.

PINSKY: That`s fine. You`re not an alcoholic. And you can even have a problem with alcohol and pull back and not be an alcoholic. That happens.

HAGAR: I had more fun with Eddie for nine years. I mean, we had a blast. We did everything. We had a blast.

PINSKY: A lot of interest in your book was the sex tents and all this stuff. You want to talk about that or --

HAGAR: I won`t talk anybody else`s tent, but we all had a tent, and I know what mine was when I came off (ph) until I met my wife. I was happy

PINSKY: Is that a problem? You have how many daughters?

HAGAR: I have a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old -- 15-year-old, I`m sorry.

PINSKY: Is this God`s way of getting back at you?

HAGAR: Oh, my wife said, honey, you`re not going -- she was proofreading the chapters. She`s like you`re not going to put that in the book, are you? I said, you only have one chance to write your autobiography. I`m going to do it. I just make them read Keith Richards` book first.

(LAUGHTER)

HAGAR: Funny papers. It is so fun.

PINSKY: But doesn`t it change, you know, your feeling about what you were doing as a rock star when you have your own daughters?

HAGAR: Yes. My 15-year-old daughter has got me freaked out, man.

PINSKY: Right. Tell me.

HAGAR: Well, I`m a firm believer in just, you`re going to do what you`re going to do. Like, if I say to her, you`re not going to -- and I try to control her world and all that, she`s going to do it, anyway. I say, you know, show them love, show them that you`re there for them, get mad at them when you`re mad, but make sure you let them know you`re mad because you love them. When I was in the band, we had about 50 percent -- you`re playing 18,000 cedar, you had 9,000 women, and 5,000 of them were gorgeous. So -- and they all want to get backstage truthfully. Sorry, they did. You know, it`s part of the rock `n` roll thing.

PINSKY: You regret any of that?

HAGAR: No, it`s awesome, but you know, I wouldn`t do it now. I`m a married man with children. My last marriage was falling apart, and when I got divorced, I went crazy when I separated --

PINSKY: You were a sex addict?

HAGAR: Yes.

PINSKY: You were a sex addict.

HAGAR: Yes, and I still am, basically. I chase my wife around the house. I`m trying to -- I dig it. It`s really a wonderful experience. Wonderful release. And I`m not into just the quick thing, man. I like -- I like the act of Kama Sutra, you know, like, you know, stop. Take a little break, you know, make love. You know, it`s like I`m into it. I dig it. I think it`s one of the greatest gifts we have as humans. That`s as pure --

PINSKY: People don`t pay enough attention to it in their marriages, I will tell you that.

HAGAR: They don`t.

PINSKY: We`re going to talk more about it. Sammy said -- we`re talking about this, too. He said he had a close encounter of the third kind. Well, I`m very curious about this. He said he thinks (INAUDIBLE) or maybe did. We`re going to talk about the alien abduction when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

PINSKY: We`re back with Sammy Hagar. Don`t forget, get the book. Make Sammy happy. And one of the more colorful episodes involves his abduction by aliens.

HAGAR: You know --

PINSKY: I know it`s a dream. Who took you, where did they take you?

HAGAR: They didn`t take me anywhere. I was in my bed. This is what`s so quirky about it. It was so unusual to where, and today`s world, it makes more sense, but back in 1967 or whenever it was when it happened, there were no wireless telephones. You know, we didn`t have satellite dishes in our home, and there weren`t laptops downloading, uploading information, but that`s what happened in my dream. So, I`m dreaming, I see these guys in my head.

PINSKY: What did they look like?

HAGAR: They were just kind of this, like, a beams of light, you know, and they were kind of blue. OK? And with no features because it wasn`t close-up. You know, it was just kind of -- and I`m dreaming, and they`re going, oh, he`s waking up. We got to end this, right? But it wasn`t language spoken. It was just, you know, a telepathic thing. And then, they haltered out this weird digital, numerical code of our numerical system. It wasn`t like 9,11, 12, 13, 14, and it went woop, and it ended.

And I felt like there was like a cord plugged into my head, but of course, they were 13 miles where I knew where they were and my -- it was in my home. It was like one of those dreams where everything was the same. And I woke up and I -- it put me on a quest to say, what was that? That was so real. So, I think it was a download and upload situation like an experimental thing, like I was a guinea pig.

Anyone -- you know, you can call me crazy all you want, but anyone that says there`s no one in this whole universe. We`re the only life in this whole big giant vast universe, they`re crazy.

PINSKY: I have to agree with you. I agree. I think actually life gets catapulted forward by sort of catastrophic events from the universe. I have no doubt about that.

HAGAR: When you dream stuff like this and you said, I was in my own bed, exactly who I am, right in the house -- I know exactly where they were parked. You know, you just go. Wow, that seems so real.

PINSKY: When you talked about it, it reminds me of way people talk about near-death experiences, that same kind of sort of holistic, bigger than life kind of something that you`re talking --

HAGAR: I saw a big picture.

PINSKY: Yes, you were touching something.

HAGAR: It interests me. I don`t blame these people --

PINSKY: Given the success you`ve had in life, I may have to adopt a certain amount of your strategy because there`s something you`re plugging into, as you say, but we were talking about giving and receiving love, and it sounds like the easiest thing in the world. And yet, people don`t seem to be able to do it today.

What are we lacking? Do you do it? You`re successful. Is there something we can tell viewers that they can take home and go, Sammy, he`s a guy that understands this and here`s what he tells us to do.

HAGAR: Have a ritual. Even if it`s only five nights a week, four nights, three nights, two nights, you have to have -- no, maybe it`s dinner. You know, I`ll cook dinner, make the kids set the table and you all sit down and you stay there --

PINSKY: How do you -- the two parents are working. How do you get yourself emotionally present enough to be at that table so something`s exchanging between you and the kids?

HAGAR: Well, if you just give yourself five minutes in your brain about what you`re really doing. You have kids. You have a responsibility to those children. You have to raise them in some kind of way and show them some kind of ethical or moral things. Pass something on to them, you know? It`s a tough world out there right now. Two people working, mom, dad both working, coming home, uptight --

PINSKY: That`s right. That`s a reality.

HAGAR: Traffic at home. Can`t make the rent. That`s tough.

PINSKY: The fluster in my eyes is I really want to talk a lot more about this, Sam. It`s another huge topic, so hopefully, you`ll come back and visit us some time.

HAGAR: Oh, thank you for having me. Thank you very much. Big fan.

PINSKY: Thank all of you for having joined us today. And we will see you again on the next DR. DREW.

END