{"id":223789,"date":"2023-10-29T07:50:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T07:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allworldreport.com\/?p=223789"},"modified":"2023-10-29T07:50:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T07:50:15","slug":"reports-of-my-own-demise-have-been-greatly-exagerated-says-billy-connolly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allworldreport.com\/celebrities\/reports-of-my-own-demise-have-been-greatly-exagerated-says-billy-connolly\/","title":{"rendered":"Reports of my own demise have been greatly exagerated, says Billy Connolly"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When I was a wee boy, I felt like an outsider. I didn\u2019t fit in anywhere. As a boy I could never follow the established rules and paths that could lead to the kind of success other boys achieved.<\/p>\n

The one thing that made me feel less of an outsider was to be alone on the road. I\u2019d leave the house and just start walking.<\/p>\n

I realised that if I fitted in anywhere in the world, it was here, just rambling along to nowhere in particular.<\/p>\n

I never worried about getting lost. Nobody\u2019s ever really lost. You just walk until you become unlost.When I was in my twenties, I thought it was possible that I could live off my wits and just when I needed to I could play music and tell stories \u2013 a bit like a mediaeval troubadour.<\/p>\n

The call of the road was so strong in me that, even after I was married to my wife Pamela Stephenson, I once proposed I should become a full-time hobo. I\u2019d stride out onto the open road and just turn up at home whenever I needed money.<\/p>\n

I dearly wish that conversation had gone a bit better than it did. I think any man or woman who\u2019s got a faraway look in their eyes is a Rambling Man.<\/p>\n

To be a Rambling Man, you don\u2019t have to live your life on the road. It\u2019s more a state of mind. An ideal.<\/p>\n

The feeling of being on a motorbike is second to none. I once had a great biker jacket made for a tour I did of New Zealand. The name of that tour, \u201cToo Old To Die Young\u201d, was written on the back in Hells Angel-style typography and with a logo of a skull. A woman in Los Angeles created it for me. She told me she had to get permission from the Hells Angels team because they are quite particular about their style and trademarks.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I was out riding by myself one morning in Wellington wearing my jacket when I realised I was being flanked by teamsters from the Mongrel Mob \u2013 that\u2019s the largest biker gang in New Zealand, and it has quite a reputation. They surrounded me at some traffic lights and pulled me into a side street.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: <\/strong> Billy Connolly gives Parkinson’s update as he admits ‘I’m fed up’<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I felt quite vulnerable because I was completely alone. One of them asked, \u201cWhere\u2019d you get your jacket?\u201d I said a girl in LA got permission from the Hells Angels. They went away and had a little conference, then came back and said: \u201cThat\u2019s Okay.\u201d They backed off and let me go.<\/p>\n

America is another great country for riding a motorcycle. Route 66 is the most famous road in the world. It\u2019s come to represent the idea of escape, freedom and adventure, so naturally Rambling Men are drawn to it. I rode my trike for more than 2,000 miles along it, from Chicago to LA, while making a TV show about the journey.<\/p>\n

St Louis, Missouri, is the biggest city along Route 66 and it\u2019s where I climbed inside the famous Gateway Arch. Nine hundred tons of stainless steel and hollow inside, it\u2019s a tribute to the great hunters and explorers of the West. In Stanton, Missouri, I visited the Meramec Caverns, a place they advertised as the outlaw Jesse James\u2019s hideout. It\u2019s a proper cave with several levels and beautiful formations. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, I was driving 300 miles from Payson, Arizona, and I thought I was on the home stretch.<\/p>\n