In summer of 1999 the Cave of Trouble, the House Band of Chook Industries, was approached by a musical artist who refered to himself as Mike Tyson. Tyson, who bore an uncanny resemblance to the boxer Mike Tyson but evidently of no relation, had wanted the band to help him realize a musical album that he had never gotten the chance to produce. Tyson had told the members of the Cave of Trouble on numerous occasions how he had played acoustic guitar as the fourth member of the highly acclaimed white reggae band, The Police. Tyson also said how he helped The Police write many of their big hits, but was kicked out and never given credit for his contributions. Chook Industries looked into the matter and was unable to find any documentation mentioning the name "Mike Tyson" in association with The Police. Grue, a member of the Cave of Trouble always had his suspicions too.

Loki comments:

"We never really believed the dude for a minute. But he was completely adamant about how he had played acoustic guitar for The Police. And who knows, maybe he did. The Police are a big enough institution in rock that I am sure they could write somebody like Tyson out of their past. Honestly though, it really doesn't matter, cause he paid us about 100 bucks for a total of one recording session with us. Give me a hundred bucks, you can be whoever the hell you want, I don't give a shit."

It had been luckily for Tyson that the Cave of Trouble often cited The Police as one of their favorite bands. With immediate common ground, Tyson and the Cave of Trouble forged a relationship and within a few weeks found themselves working together in Tiger Lounge Studios. It had been Grue who had discovered Tyson and worked with most closely.

"The other members of the band didn't put too much stock in the whole thing. In the end, we only ever really recorded one song and even that went wrong. Sadly that was the best thing we recorded, cause the rest of it was complete shit. I thought maybe Tyson could actually do something, but in the end I have to agree with the rest of the band, the guy was fucking annoying. Chook recently came to us and asked us if we wanted to put some stuff up on the web site. We didn't have anything really at the time and I suggested the botched Mike Tyson stuff cause it is never going on an album, you can be sure of that. I talked to Loki, he said sure whatever and we never got word back from Bear and that's pretty much it and that's how the Tyson recording came to be."

Be sure to visit the Cave of Trouble Page hosted by www.chook.net and check out the Mike Tyson recordings now.

Song Descriptions:

Mike Tyson Apology - "We had recorded some pretty cool music and we let Mike come in and lay down some vocals. Originally he said he was going to do something like the lyrics he'd written for 'Message in a Bottle'. Instead it turned out as this fucking weird apology to Evander, which went totally wrong in the end."

- Loki of the COT

Mike Tyson Rap #1 and Mike Tyson Rap #2 - "Tyson wanted to do some rap. I really don't know what else to say."

- Grue of the COT

Mike Tyson Phone Call - "This was unfortunately the end of our relationship with Tyson. Nice working with you dude."

- Grue of the COT