The Jerry Beasley Interview
Conducted By Paul Bax

You initially took an interest in Bruce Lee after reading his landmark article in BLACK BELT magazine in 1971. How did this article change your views on martial arts?
Jerry Beasley: Bruce was inducted into the Black Belt hall of fame in 1972. I saw his photo and that’s when I went back and read his article in the Sept.’71 issue of Black Belt. I was a product of a traditional school at the time. I had been taught to respect tradition. Everyone I knew seemed to not think much of Bruce Lee. He was considered an upstart who had turned his back on his Asian seniors. In July 1973 I remember I was having lunch and Paul Harvey, a famous news commentator announced that Bruce Lee was dead as a result of a drug reaction. Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin had recently died of drug overdose, so it was natural that Paul Harvey would put Bruce into this category. By that time I had read about Bruce Lee but I had never seen him on film. That summer of 1973 Bruce’s movie ETD came out. As soon as I saw it I knew the martial arts field had lost someone very important. At that point I started really looking at the stuff Bruce Lee did. That same year Jhoon Rhee invented the safety equipment and Mike Anderson required all competitors use them in competition. I bought a pair and immediately discovered that hitting someone with contact was very much different than the old game of touch that we had been playing as we sparred. I began to “abandon” some of the traditional techniques and learn the American karate system of “use what works”. The American fighters were being taught to “borrow from all styles”. Also that summer the first issue of Professional Karate magazine was published. In those first issues, Joe Lewis wrote detailed articles about the training methods he had learned from Bruce Lee. Joe Lewis was my all time favorite competitor. His teacher was Bruce Lee. So, Bruce Lee became even more important to me at that time. To answer your question, I continued to read the “Liberate yourself from Classical karate” article and move a little more independent of style each time.

Feeling Lucky?!
Since Lee was somewhat a rebel to the martial arts community at the time and was not a proven champion, do you think his words fell on deaf ears at that point in martial arts history?
JB: Yes. I know they did. My Korean instructors seemed to despise Bruce. Most of the tournament champions here on the East coast continued to hold Bruce in low regard. Kung Fu in the sixties was the “red headed step child” of the martial arts world. All the other arts thought they were superior to Kung Fu. Except for Al Dacascos no other Kung Fu instructor had made a name for himself on the tournament circuit before 1970. Bruce represented Kung Fu, so he had very little respect for his art. It was Joe Lewis that had made Bruce an honored name among the elite competitors on the West coast. A prominent Texas promoter had asked Joe in 1968, “Are you really taking lessons from that little rice-beater”. Joe was sick and tired of people telling him that Bruce Lee was just a little Kung Fu TV actor when he knew that Bruce had coached him to several championships. So Joe told the promoter that in order for him to enter the tournament he would have to be given a room to present a seminar. The promoter complied. Joe began to teach what Bruce Lee had taught him to tournament fighters in the fall of 1968. In no time at all the concepts of weapon first, independent motions, five ways of offensively approaching your opponent became commonly used among tournament fighters. Joe would take lessons from Bruce and then go right out and teach a seminar exposing everything he had learned. This is how Bruce Lee became important to the karate fighters. Bruce recognized the fact that being known as the teacher to Joe Lewis could help his career and it paid off. Bruce asked Joe to say his style was Jeet Kune Do and his teacher was Bruce Lee. On several occasions Bruce was welcomed to center stage as the instructor to the tournament champion, Joe Lewis. When Bruce died in July 1973 tournament promoters, sensing a publicity opportunity began to recruit Joe Lewis to represent Bruce Lee. In a few short years Bruce went from being disliked to being idolized.

The fact that you mention how Joe Lewis would teach what Lee had showed him in the late sixties puzzles me since Lee was so adamant to Dan Inosanto about not teaching JKD to the masses. Is it safe to say that Joe Lewis was teaching Lee’s principles without his Lee’s knowledge or permission?
JB: Of course. Joe told me that Bruce told everyone not to teach jeet kune do. But Joe had no other choice. To defend Bruce’s name he taught the jeet kune do principles and strategy so that others would believe that Bruce Lee was the real deal. Joe was always taking up for Bruce or promoting his name while he was taking lessons from Bruce in 1968 and 1969.

You began researching JKD in the early eighties when seminars first started becoming popular under the instruction of Larry Hartsell and Dan Inosanto. What was your first impression of the material being presented?
JB: In 1981 a book publisher asked me to research and write a book on Bruce Lee and his art of jeet kune do. He provided a contact for me. I was to travel to Charlotte NC and meet with Larry Hartsell and write a magazine article for Official karate magazine on the “only JKD school on the East Coast”. When I went to Charlotte Larry was promoting a seminar with Dan Inosanto. The first day Dan taught about Jeet Kune Do. The next day Dan taught kali. I liked both jeet kune do and kali. I was at the time a 5th dan in tae Kwon Do with considerable kickboxing experience. In fact I had begun working out with Joe Lewis that same year. The kali was very foreign to me. The rhythm was very different. I took the seminars and went home and practiced the kali every day.

At that time, was there any distinctions made between Kali and JKD being two distinctive arts or were the two merely taught as one art?