How It All Began
My karate adventure began back in the ’70’s. I was living in North Hollywood where I had rented a house with a few friends. It was across the street from the N Hollywood park. We rented a room to a man named Randall Cobb.You may remember Randall as “Tex” Cobb. He played the motorcyclist “bad guy” in the movie, “Raising Arizona”, with Nicholas Cage. When we met Randall he was a 2nd degree black belt in Tai Kwon Do.
He recruited a few of us interested people and organized a class in the park. Randall was a great guy. As huge and ferocious as he could be, he was a wonderful teacher and a great storyteller who kept us in stiches with hilarious accounts of his life adventures. During that time Randall decided to become a heavyweight boxer. He would go on the road around the country and piled up the “one round” knockouts. (Thus, the stories!) He never lost. Never. At least until he got a “title shot” with Larry Holmes. Randall went the whole 12 rounds and lost to a decision. Imagine. He later went on to become an actor around Hollywood. But the karate bug had been planted in this guitar player.