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| Mike Massey Billiards Trick Shot Champion |
Author: Jonathan Herrmann
Source: News-Herald
Source: News-Herald
Mike Massey has seen his share of ups and downs.
He touched on them briefly in a 29-page section of his book, "World of Trick Shots," which he has dubbed his "Poolography." He also travels the world to tell his story and share his faith.
Growing up in Loudon and Lenoir City the son of an alcoholic father, Massey first took up billiards on a bumper pool table at a Loudon County bar. At 13, he began to truly learn the game.
"About 13, in Lenoir City, we went to a pool room and were playing some eight ball," he said. "It was like I almost knew what I was doing."
At the time, pool was "a bad four-letter word. You didn't see women in pool rooms."
Having dropped out of school after the eighth grade, Massey enlisted in the military at 17.
Stationed in Germany, he began to win tournaments. After leaving the military, he used pool as a way to make money. But not in what he would call an honest way.
"I went traveling and hustling and gambling," he said. "I've been locked in rooms with people coming at me with guns, knives, alcohol, drugs, four packs of cigarettes a day, the works."
In his book, he recalls making thousands hustling people on the table, but also being drugged with a heavy dosage of LSD that landed him in a hospital.
He quit his life on the road, married, and became a brick mason and firefighter in Loudon. He stopped competing with others on a pool table.
"I had a thing against competition at one time. I started making all these rules for myself. I got to thinking certain things were wrong and one of those things was competition," Massey explained. "I thought it's not right if you go up there and try to beat someone."
It was in the fire hall that he began to learn trick shots.
He began to enter competitions once again, eventually going on to become a 10-time world trick and artistic shot champion.
"It's not necessarily wanting the beat the person," Massey said of his decision to return to competition. "I think you should try to do your best and if your best becomes the best, great. If it doesn't, well, you tried."
Massey attributes his ability to turn his life around to his faith in God, and that is the message he wants to share.
Despite a stretch in his life where he says he "backslid" into something more closely resembling his time on the road, leading to a divorce from his first wife, he works to deliver that message on the table.
"I started doing these trick shots actually to give my testimony," he said. "I like to see people smile around a pool table and that's what these trick shots are all about.
"I'm at peace when I'm using them for the Lord and using them in that way rather than out there beating somebody and winning tournaments," he said. "I'm burned out on that. You win a tournament and there for a while you get the glory and you get the money and for a couple days your ego feels OK, but it's not true joy."
Massey has done shows in prisons and has been to 43 different countries, traveling with his current wife.
"My wife and I are like two gypsies running around," he said. "This year already I did probably 40 or 50 shows."
Having returned from travel that included a stop in Egypt where was able to share Scripture with his trick shots to several countries over a video feed, he shared his story to a small group in Loudon Thursday before doing a trick shot show in Knoxville Saturday. He is set to leave the country again soon.
"I don't care how many tournaments you win, how many touchdowns you make, how much money you make, if you don't have Christ you're still not going to have joy," he said.
He makes his way back through Loudon about once a year, and he hopes to return more in the future.
"This is my roots," he said. "It's where I'm from."
He touched on them briefly in a 29-page section of his book, "World of Trick Shots," which he has dubbed his "Poolography." He also travels the world to tell his story and share his faith.
Growing up in Loudon and Lenoir City the son of an alcoholic father, Massey first took up billiards on a bumper pool table at a Loudon County bar. At 13, he began to truly learn the game.
"About 13, in Lenoir City, we went to a pool room and were playing some eight ball," he said. "It was like I almost knew what I was doing."
At the time, pool was "a bad four-letter word. You didn't see women in pool rooms."
Having dropped out of school after the eighth grade, Massey enlisted in the military at 17.
Stationed in Germany, he began to win tournaments. After leaving the military, he used pool as a way to make money. But not in what he would call an honest way.
"I went traveling and hustling and gambling," he said. "I've been locked in rooms with people coming at me with guns, knives, alcohol, drugs, four packs of cigarettes a day, the works."
In his book, he recalls making thousands hustling people on the table, but also being drugged with a heavy dosage of LSD that landed him in a hospital.
He quit his life on the road, married, and became a brick mason and firefighter in Loudon. He stopped competing with others on a pool table.
"I had a thing against competition at one time. I started making all these rules for myself. I got to thinking certain things were wrong and one of those things was competition," Massey explained. "I thought it's not right if you go up there and try to beat someone."
It was in the fire hall that he began to learn trick shots.
He began to enter competitions once again, eventually going on to become a 10-time world trick and artistic shot champion.
"It's not necessarily wanting the beat the person," Massey said of his decision to return to competition. "I think you should try to do your best and if your best becomes the best, great. If it doesn't, well, you tried."
Massey attributes his ability to turn his life around to his faith in God, and that is the message he wants to share.
Despite a stretch in his life where he says he "backslid" into something more closely resembling his time on the road, leading to a divorce from his first wife, he works to deliver that message on the table.
"I started doing these trick shots actually to give my testimony," he said. "I like to see people smile around a pool table and that's what these trick shots are all about.
"I'm at peace when I'm using them for the Lord and using them in that way rather than out there beating somebody and winning tournaments," he said. "I'm burned out on that. You win a tournament and there for a while you get the glory and you get the money and for a couple days your ego feels OK, but it's not true joy."
Massey has done shows in prisons and has been to 43 different countries, traveling with his current wife.
"My wife and I are like two gypsies running around," he said. "This year already I did probably 40 or 50 shows."
Having returned from travel that included a stop in Egypt where was able to share Scripture with his trick shots to several countries over a video feed, he shared his story to a small group in Loudon Thursday before doing a trick shot show in Knoxville Saturday. He is set to leave the country again soon.
"I don't care how many tournaments you win, how many touchdowns you make, how much money you make, if you don't have Christ you're still not going to have joy," he said.
He makes his way back through Loudon about once a year, and he hopes to return more in the future.
"This is my roots," he said. "It's where I'm from."
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