In brief: On And Now We Drink (EP473, Sept. 17), Michael Vegas said a motorcycle crash ended his firefighting career before it started, that nursing school showed him burnout, and that he then chose adult film. GQ reported the crash broke his neck and back and put him in a coma for 10 days.
Contains adult themes: the embedded podcast video discusses adult-industry work.
Michael Vegas planned to become a firefighter. A motorcycle crash, then nursing school, sent him into adult film instead.
Vegas was the guest on “And Now We Drink Episode 473: With Michael vegas” (And Now We Drink, Sept. 17). He opened by admitting he had “accidentally” taken hallucinogens before the taping (“I just forgot that I had the podcast happening”) and still arrived only about four minutes late, which the host said beat many guests.
The fire academy
He said he had worked as an EMT, graduated “the top of my class” at fire academy, and was offered “my dream position as a rookie firefighter in Orange Park Acres” when “I got in a motorcycle accident that completely changed the course of my life.” He said he had a traumatic brain injury, and that with his back he no longer trusted himself to be responsible for other people’s safety. “So I decided to go do nursing instead.”
Nursing school
He finished nursing school but said he was “surrounded by people that are burnt out,” people who “while technically alive are dead inside.” Then:
I just died pretty recently in a motorcycle accident. I am not going to die in a hospital again.
“And so I decided to come do adult film,” he said. Why that? “Because I like movies, right? I wanted to be in movies.”
He was candid that this came at a dark time: he was going through a divorce, and he said he was feeling suicidal and decided to try the career he wanted first. If you are struggling, you can call or text 988 in the US.
“Died” is his shorthand, not a medical record. GQ (2019) reported that the crash broke his neck and back and left him in a coma for ten days, that he wore a neck brace for six months, and that it ended his firefighting career and preceded the end of his marriage. GQ also quoted him then describing “when I came back from being dead.” Nothing we found says he was clinically dead.
Fire academy, a crash, nursing school and then adult film, plus a hallucinogen-assisted podcast appearance where he was still nearly on time.