Wall of Death - History of the Wall

A Rotten Interview

New York/New England's
Full Throttle
Magazine for Motorcycle Enthusiasts

The only thing more exciting than watching Rhett Rotten perform his extreme Wall of Death show, is getting the opportunity to talk with him and his wife, Kimberly about the Wall of Death. I caught up with tem after his local appearance at the Catskill Mountain Thunder even in September. After meeting, with Rhett and Kimberly and hearing their story, it was hard not to have a genuine affection for this daredevil. It's a story of pure love for the artistry of riding. A man who kicked the odds in the teeth and the drive to be recognized for the extreme athlete he is in the extreme sports industry he dominates.

Rhett found his wall of death in the newspaper in 1993. He took it home and learned to ride it on his own. He's been riding motorcycles all his life, but has been riding the wall of thirteen years. It's been six years since he started riding the wall as his full time gig. The Wall of Death is nothing new. The sport has been around since the 1900's. It started with the wooden board flat tracks created for racing. The wall became steeper to create more excitement, which in turn created more accidents and even the death of a rider, and spectators. From that evolved The Wall of Death, which essentially is a huge wooden barrel that is constructed of two by fours and hardware with a platform at the top, so viewers can the rider speed around the interior, which held in place by raw skill and centrifugal force. These became popular at carnivals and fairs. Rhett's Wall of Death was built tin 1941, and in it he reaches speeds of over 50 mph on his vintage Harley's and Indians, most of the time with no hands in the bars! " The set up and tear down in brutal," he says. " It takes us about fifteen hours to set up and eight to tear down. We are fortunate enough to have two good guys that work for us full time. We hire four or five guys when we get to an event to help set it up. " now we just show up and ride" says Rhett, "Thanks God cause that shit will tear you up!"

I asked Rhett, who inspired him to do what he does? He responded that he "thrives off the negative." When he bought the wall, he was told no one would ever pay him to ride. He was told that he would spend his life " working at McDonalds>' Today Rhett proclaims he is paid to ride all year round, owns nineteen motorcycles, and is married to "the most beautiful woman in the world."

Kimberly is beautiful and their love is truly a part of the show. They met in Daytona in 2001 and married ten days later. Wow,,, I asked Kimberly how she feels watching Rhett perform. "Every show is different for me" she said, " I do get nervous sometimes- that's cause I know if the bike's not running right or something. But for the most part, I am having just as much fun as the crowd. To do what you love, day in and day our is awesome. To watch my husband perform and see his progress every time is amazing. Every show is different...It keeps me on my toes." It must because Rhett Rotten suffered the worst crash of his career last June. Rhett commented, "I didn't practice as I always do We had been setting up for twelve hours. Normally I would go home get a good nights rest, come back, practice for about an hour, and then do the show." he went on to say, "At the end of set up there wee about 200 people, screaming my name, so I bought them up and did a show. I ended up in the trauma unit for a couple of weeks. It made me realize that i am not invincible. I have fully recovered. My Indian...1927...was badly bent up, but it is now fixed. It took me about three months to fully get my groove back inside, but the scar, and scrapes on my wall make me relive the incident every time I walk into the show.

When I saw him perform in September, he was still hurting from that accident. he was open about it and the audience was in his pocket from the moment he gradded the mic and started talking. And as tired as he was after the performance, he stayed and signed autographs and took pictures, lots of pictures. And he talked to the kids. I asked him about some of the things he said to them. " I have been through a lot in my life and I like to give the children a chance to admire someone, whi is viewed as a bad boy, but still ends a good message, letting them know it's OK to be good," he said. "Every show I do, I see little kids in the audience. I make sure I tell them that school is the most important part of their life right now. Take advantage of the sports and clubs that are offered there. Stay far away form the drugs and the alcohol that will lead you down the wrong path. Be a leader not a follower. And just as I live my life everyday, always remember no matter how many times you fall, you will never be a failure as long as you always try to get back up."

There's a lot of competition to be the #1 bad ass in this industry-to do the sickest stunt-to stun the crowd. Rhett told me, "I will not stop until I am recognized as an athlete in the extreme sports industry. I look back six years and cannot believe how far I have taken this sport and how much further I have to go. I owe it to my fans." Speaking of his fans, Rhett says, "The best thing I can ask of my fans is to pass the word and don't forget that this is the RHETT ROTTEN wall of death, often imitated, never duplicated." It's quite evident that he takes what he does very seriously. "My show lasts 30 minutes" he added. "but the feeling lasts a lifetime. This is not just my job. This is my lifestyle."

Please Click Event to View Article

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"Driving Himself Up a Wall"
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