Survivor: San Juan del Sur -- Blood vs. Water eliminated John Rocker during the second episode of the CBS reality competition's 29th season. 
 
John, a 39-year-old former MLB player from Atlanta, GA, was voted out of his Coyopa tribe on Day 8 at the season's third Tribal Council session. He departed the game with a hidden Immunity Idol in his pocket because he firmly believed his alliance of five guys was going to stick together in voting out Baylor Wilson.

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John's girlfriend Julie McGee, a 34-year-old model and owner of a spray-tan business from Atlanta, GA, still remains in the game and is currently competing on the opposing Hunahpu tribe. 

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, John talked about his Survivor experience and blindside. Below is the concluding portion of his interview. Click here to read the first half.

Reality TV World: You were shown saying you didn't expect to make it through the whole game without your previous controversial comments coming up, but had you expected them to surface as early as they did on the show? Had you anticipated them becoming as big of an issue as they appeared to?

John Rocker: Well, you know, most of the stuff that was -- with the exception of [Natalie Anderson's] blow up -- most of those comments, when you see some of the camera roll and what not, was when I wasn't around.

So as far as I was concerned, my tribe was good with me and everybody on my tribe, we all got along fine. There was no fighting and things like that. But, yeah, I was a little surprised, especially with the venom that Natalie came out with. The fact it was that big of a deal on the other tribe, I mean, again, the people on my tribe actually had a chance to get to know me.

That's why I think with my tribe, it was a little less of an issue. The other tribe for the large part didn't know me. All they had to go off of was what Julie was saying about me, and obviously she's going to say good things.

So, like I said a few minutes ago, I foolishly thought I was going to put my head down, wear my hat low and kind of get through the game unnoticed, which -- you saw the first episode, two hours into this thing, walking with [Wes Nale], he was like, "You're John Rocker." And I was like, "Son of a b-tch."

So, once the name came up and things could be connected with me, I knew it was only a matter of time before, you know, some thoughts would be directed to that article from 15 years ago.

Reality TV World: Was trying to be John Wetteland really your cover story? (Laughs)

John Rocker: I was playing -- it caught me off-guard. And for whatever stupid reason, that's the first name that popped in my head. After, I was like, "Why in the hell did I just come up with the Yankees' closer?! Did I really just say that sh-t?" No, I mean, [Wes] just caught me so off-guard, and for whatever reason, that was the first thing that popped in my head. I have no idea why I said, "Wetteland," no clue.

Reality TV World: I got a good laugh when that happened. (Laughs)

John Rocker: I don't know why I went with Wetteland; I don't know why I picked that.

Reality TV World: Your five-guy alliance really seemed taken aback when you admitted having made an alliance with Jeremy Collins in trying to save his wife Val Collins at the Reward Challenge. That kind of seemed to be one of the things that made your tribe start to question you. Did you have any concern that was going to be the reaction, or what was going through your mind when deciding to publicly apologize?

John Rocker: I didn't really ever look at it that way. But, you know, looking back on the game now, I was not near as savvy and educated of a player as I should have been -- definitely not as savvy and educated as a lot of the folks that were on my tribe.

To be honest with you, I've watched maybe one or two Survivor episodes before I got invited to come on the show, and then it was like a massive cram course to try to better understand as much of the game as I could in a three or four-month period of time.

And I was just a bit of a novice going into it. And looking back on being in the game and knowing a little more of how it's played now, yeah, that probably wasn't a smart thing. But I guess it really didn't come down to what I said, it was basically what I did. I told Jeremy, "This is what we're going to do. My word is my bond. If I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it."

So I approached Val, we had a conversation, and I think [Josh Canfield] or somebody saw me approach Val and knew I was in exile the day before with Jeremy. So it was like, "Alright, he's cooking something up." So, even without words, I think they saw some actions, like, "Okay, something is going on" that they didn't know about.

Still, I pulled Josh aside -- and I don't think it made the edit -- but I did pull Josh aside and I wanted to say, "Look, the five-guy alliance is still intact. I'd like to see us protect Val because I told Jeremy I would protect Val. I'd like to see us protect Val this first vote, maybe the second vote, but at some point in time, there's a five-guy alliance versus, you know, we've got the numbers, and in some point in time, she's got to go. So, it just can't be right now. So I'm still sticking to the plan."

And then in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "Well, protecting Val now is not good enough. I've got to protect her all the way through to the merge." I was just hoping "Plan B" would arise somewhere down the road two or three councils later, but it just didn't work out like that.

So I guess through those actions of approaching Val, I guess Josh didn't like the way things came off with the conversation I had with Jeremy that ultimately, you know, [became] conversations with Val. I guess Josh, it didn't sit well with him. I never thought he would perceive it that way, but he did.

Reality TV World: Some viewers have wondered if it was just a coincidence Julie happened to pick the only African American guy to go to Exile Island with you or if maybe she proactively hoped to repair your reputation by addressing your history and giving you an opportunity to spend time with one of the people who might've been most offended by your previous comments. What are your thoughts on that?

John Rocker: We've talked about that and not really. I think he was the one on her tribe early on that she connected with the best and that she was forming an alliance with early on.

So I think her [strategy] was more of, "I've got an alliance with Jeremy. Let's make Jeremy and John buddies and then they can work out something where John and Val can form an alliance on their side. And if we're all fortunate enough to make it to the merge, we'll have a nice little four-way alliance between myself and Julie and Jeremy and Val."

We've actually talked about that since that whole thing. That was her thinking, that I could cross Tribal lines and form an alliance with someone whom she has already formed an alliance with. It was all about the game.

Reality TV World: What made you decide to tell Josh you had found the hidden Immunity Idol and was he the only person you had told? Do you think telling Josh kind of backfired and made you more of a target in his eyes?

John Rocker: Josh was the only one I told. He was the one that, in my alliance, I trusted the most -- foolishly, I guess. And the reason I did tell him is when Val and, you know, bless Val's heart -- I pulled Val aside in that conversation we had.

I said, "Look, here's how it's going to go down tonight. I already talked to my alliance and you're getting votes tonight. That's just what's going to happen, so if you have your idol, play it!"

And then she kind of gave me a funny look, and I'm like, "You have an idol, right? Tell me right now if you don't." And she's like, "No, no. I got one. I got one." If she hadn't, I would've handed her mine. But anyways, so when Val's running around camp and talking she not only has one idol, she has two, Josh -- well, back up.

Everybody else, from [Dale Wentworth], especially Wes and [Alec Christy], they saw having an idol as a bad thing. They didn't see having an idol as. "Maybe I want to form an alliance with this person who has an idol and maybe it will benefit me or at least the strength of my alliance."

They didn't see it that way. They thought it was a bad thing, like, "Idol? Idol is bad! Idol's bad and that person needs to be manipulated not to play their idol." They want to vote and just get rid of them. I didn't really think that was a very good strategy, and of everyone in our alliance that felt that way, Josh didn't think that way.

When Val was talking about the idol she had, Josh was probably -- of everyone in our alliance -- he was probably more of the, "Well maybe she can be useful down the road," whereas everybody else -- like Dale, Alec and Wes -- were more like, "We've got to get rid of her."

And so, that's precisely why I didn't tell Dale, Wes and Alec that I had an idol, because it would put me in the same position, at least in their eyes, that Val was in.

Josh didn't come across as seeing an idol as a negative thing, seeing an idol as something that's going to lay a target on somebody, which is why I divulged to Josh -- hoping that me divulging that information to him would now make him see me as more of an asset, like, "Okay, I definitely want to keep John on my side. Maybe this idol could benefit the alliance." Personally, I thought he would've seen it as a positive.

Reality TV World: The comments you made after the Immunity Challenge about how you would've knocked Natalie's teeth out if she was a man, what would you like to say about that?

John Rocker: The only reason I said that [is] they were getting tongue and cheek, was so I could maybe call her a man after that -- just being a f-cking smartass. But, you know, what you don't hear and what you don't see, is at that water challenge, Natalie was pissed off [her sister Nadiya Anderson] was voted out.

And after that water challenge, they went -- Natalie... for about 45 seconds, while she swam back to her boat, was doing nothing but flipping us off, "Motherf-cking, goddamn-t" -- just cussing out our entire f-cking tribe.

We just lost and then Natalie literally spent 45 seconds, "You p-ssies, you f-ckers!" Like I said, "GD and MF'ing" and not for five seconds, for literally a minute. So at the next challenge, they win. She's walking across that little wooden plank, same thing, both hands, flipping us off.

And for probably a minute, minute-and-a-half, two minutes, I mean, "You guys are just f-cking p-ssies! You f-cking suck! F-ck you, man!" I mean, just eating our asses.

And then, you know, it showed a little bit of that, but it showed very, very little. I mean, literally, I'm not exaggerating, it was probably a minute-and-a-half. I had a career in professional baseball for a while, so I've heard a lot of foul-mouthed sh-t. Natalie and Nadiya, they could keep up with me word for word when it comes to f-cking [talking] sh-t. I guess they also have that gift.

So anyway, then she gets back to her side of things -- where her tribe was -- and then she specifically singles me out, and I'm like, "Why are you picking me out of eight other f-cking people?!"

It comes down to a point of, I look like a p-ssy for getting chewed out by a woman and cussed out by a woman and not defending myself, or, I look like an assh-le if I fire back and say something. So, I chose assh-le.

Click here to read the first half of John's exclusive interview with Reality TV World.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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