Back in the day, did you ever wonder to yourself, why does Mr T wear gold chains? The sight of him pimped out in an extravagant, over the top adornment of gold around his neck is an image of the man that a generation grew up with. But in 2005 he stopped wearing them, which made me wonder a couple of things. Initially, why does Mr T wear gold chains to the extreme, and secondly, why did he stop wearing them?
There’s no denying it, Mr T is one big, bad, mean looking sack of muscle. Not only is he bulging out of his shirts, he also served in the military, learning many skills along the way. When he finished up with his life in the Military Police Corps he tried out for the Green Bay Packers, but didn’t make the cut due to a knee injury. Following this disappointment he decided to use the skills he acquired while a member of the military and become a bouncer.
The reason why Mr T wears so many gold chains
It was during his time working as a bouncer that Laurence Tureaud, Mr T’s real name, created his famous persona. Working at nightclubs, he regularly collected jewelry that was either lost and left behind by patrons, or lost following a fight. People who had been banned from entering the premises obviously would have had difficulty reclaiming their items, so as a workaround Mr T would wear them while bouncing outside. This way, people who didn’t want to enter, or weren’t permitted to enter, could reclaim their piece of jewelry without confrontation as they were freely visible and available. Clearly, a lot of people never came back, and his embellishment of gold grew.
Why did Mr T stop wearing gold chains?
At the peak of his fame in the mid 1980’s, Mr T had pretty well acquired all of the gold chains that he would ever wear. It was a sight that made many people look at in awe. This man looked as rich as he was tough. But one day in 2005 an event occurred that moved him to forever part way with his gold chains. That event was the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina.
When he was assisting in the cleanup of New Orleans he thought that it would be insensitive, and unchristian to continue to wear the gold chains. To continue to wear all that gold would have been disrespectful in light of all those who had lost their lives and property. In his own words:
As a Christian, when I saw other people lose their lives and lose their land and property…I felt that it would be a sin before God for me to continue wearing my gold. I felt it would be insensitive and disrespectful to the people who lost everything, so I stopped wearing my gold.
