Jon Peters on Becoming Barbara Streisand's Hairdresser, Having a Bullet in His Chest

Because my uncle's, the Pagano's, the Italian twins, they did all the movie stars So when I was a little kid I was in their beauty shop Wow And I got married So when was the first time you saw a movie star? How old? Oh, three Whoa So it wasn't even weird to you? No And then I did their hair, see? I drew, you know, on the magazine and clients come They tell their friends I was doing 30, 40 people a day So how did you go from, was it Barbara Streisand? Yeah You went from here to here It was basically Barbara, yeah I met her, I put the word out that I wanted to meet her and I'd go anywhere, anytime, anyplace for free And I knew the free would get her And are you a hustler? Yeah, baby I am, motherfucker Every sense of the goddamn word, man What a crazy question, what a crazy question to ask someone Such a strange question I don't know, is Dana White a hustler? Yeah, okay So you hustle, right? Yeah Even when your leg hurts, you hustle Me too The only difference is that I had to deal with overwhelming anxiety Which I have now pretty much got under control What's start, well that's another thing that was Just going into the fight, because everything was like a fight to me Right, so you were constantly in the air So when I was a kid, and we were at Van Nuys Junior High School And one of the Chicanos told me off, I'd meet them in the back of the gym 500 kids would show up and we'd go at it I'd take them out, I'd wrestle them down, boom Wrap up, it was it Really? And it happened 30 times People would challenge me, the kids would come I always had a sense of dramatic One time I knew I couldn't beat this kid There was the bleachers, he was standing there I went up on the bleachers and I did a Superman punch I dove off the bleachers and hit them like that And knocked them out Really? I went this way, that way and he went out, yeah I didn't know it was a Superman punch I used the bleachers as a launching pad for my punch That's a creative maneuver Yeah, I'm a creative guy I get it I never got in any street fights like that Yeah, I avoided them all One time, yeah I was smart But I was like, alright, my dad died I was in a lot of pain I didn't feel the punches, I didn't feel nothing I got shot right in my chest, I didn't feel it You got shot in your chest? Yeah What caliber? 22 So it stayed Why did somebody shoot you? It was a gang fight and a guy brought a couple of guns And this guy shot the gun and it bull hit me in the chest And then like many years later when I married Leslie Ann Warren Who was a big Broadway star We went to the doctor and the guy took me in the room He said, I said, what? He said, you know you got a bullet in your chest I said, shh, don't tell anybody It was in the fatty part of the thing and it's still there right now I love doing hair How did you get into hair dressing? When I got out of juvie My mother, the judge said you have to put them somewhere So she put me in beauty school And I had shot five guys You shot five guys? Yeah How'd you shoot them? Yeah It was an axe, I never said this before Five people by accident? No, it was a gang fight It was a fight in San Fernando and there was like 30 guys And Has the statute of limitations passed on us or should we edit this out? Yes, yes You're out there shooting people And it was somebody else's Everybody in Woodshop was making a weapon I remember that from high school Yeah Oh, you used to make nunchucks and say they were table legs Yes, exactly Yeah Yeah, that's what happened And this guy came with these guns and these guys was And I bang bang and then this guy was And then I was like, oh my God, what the fuck That was the changing of my life That And when I was in juvie A guy that I met from Boys Town Which was in the middle of the country A place where a lot of fucked up kids would go He came from Boys Town He ran away, he went to juvie And they weren't supposed to They weren't supposed to have things And they covered it up But he tried to get away and they shot him on the fence Right in front of me and 30 other guys Oh And And he was, fuck you He was, I said, man You're gonna get killed You gotta shut your fucking mouth You gotta take it cool If you're gonna get out of here You gotta work your way out There's no escaping this Strong, the blond-haired guy, farmer boy Years ago, and then I'm getting tired, I gotta go But years ago when I was with Leslie on Warren I had a beauty shop And it was on the corner of a day when Brighton Way It was called the John Peters Salon O.J. would come, hunt the girls Everybody would hunt the girls Because I'd have like 40 or 50 beautiful girls Getting their hair done all day long This guy comes in, my mother happened to be working at the desk And he comes in, big overalls, big tall guy And he says, I'm here to see Cinderella You know, Leslie on Warren And I came out, said I'm her husband And he was like a fan of Mission Impossible Whatever it was, I don't remember what it was at the time Next thing I know, we went home that night And he had been there in the colony He had come to the colony So I sent out a bunch of my guys Because a lot of the hairdressers I had were guys like you They were tough kids that were smart And they needed a chance They went to beauty school and I got out And women were lined up around the block It sounds like a movie It is a movie, my life is like a crazy movie That does sound like a movie, a bunch of tough guy hairdressers out there protecting you Right out in front with all the motorcycles all lined up Wow So tough guy hairdressers on motorcycles Yes That's a movie And when the thing was over The L.A. Times said they don't make hairdressers like they used to Because the guy, Kate, was coming into the house He had a little pistol in his hand like this He was walking in I had a mezzanine, I looked at him I was naked, I jumped on the mezzanine, off the mezzanine Jumped on him He went through the... You jumped on him with his pistol? Oh yeah, I do, right on time I didn't see it until I was in the air Oh Jesus And he was like this And it was dark and it was backlit And you're naked And I was naked, yeah, I woke up I could hear him walking around I wasn't thinking I just moved That's a surprise Naked dude jumps on you from a mezzanine And he ended up with 160 stitches Because he came to rob me, came to kidnap her Jesus Christ So we fought out into the colony Naked Me naked and him in the farmer outfit, yeah Good thing I didn't get a heart on right? Oh my God Good thing You didn't have questions It's a true story I believe it You look it up in the L.A. Times I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story I believe it's a true story