Andre Agassi's Extraordinary Journey

Tennis Star Speaks Candidly to "60 Minutes" About His Life, Career, Drug Use, and Incredible Comeback

(CBS)  Andre Agassi's disclosure last week that he took a drug known as crystal meth, lied about it to authorities and got away with it, is only one of the startling revelations in the new autobiography from one of the most respected athletes in the world.

What Agassi has to say about tennis - the sport that earned him over $100 million - is also pretty startling. Agassi's book covers a life he says he didn't choose and couldn't escape, a life that often made him feel empty and depressed.

It's the story of a tennis prodigy whose flamboyant personal style and relentless game changed the sport, and the story of a man who was a star before he was a champion, a champion who fell to the bottom before rising to the top, where he matured to become an elder statesman, sports icon and philanthropist.

"60 Minutes" and correspondent Katie Couric caught up with Agassi recently in his hometown of Las Vegas in a place he doesn't visit very often anymore - a tennis court.

Web Extra: Chrystal Meth
Web Extra: Getting Caught
Web Extra: The Meth Fallout
Web Extra: Wigging Out!
Web Extra: Andre on Brooke Shields
Web Extra: Steffi vs. Andre
Photo Essay: Andre Agassi


It has been three years since Andre Agassi retired from tennis after a 21 year career, one of the longest, most successful and most colorful in modern sports.

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"Open" was an arduous two-year effort, which Andre Agassi says he could not have accomplished without the help of Pulitzer Prize-winning author J.R. Moehringer.

Moehringer is the author of the New York Times bestseller "The Tender Bar."

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We met him on a public tennis court not far from his home in Las Vegas, on a rare tennis outing with his wife Steffi Graf, one of the greatest female players ever.

"Is this a little fun for you? It must be or is it torture?" Couric asked.

For both Steffi and Andre, tennis isn't what it used to be.

"It is a little fun. Come on!" Graf replied, laughing.

"Yeah, it's fun," he said.

Maybe now, but in his candid and surprising new autobiography Agassi reveals that for most of his life he hated tennis with "a dark secret passion" but never let anyone know.

"I think I was just flat out scared," he told Couric. "Just didn't know what people would do if they heard the way I felt."

"You write that one day quote, 'I'll look an interviewer right in the eye and tell him, or her, the unvarnished truth.' Is this that day?" Couric asked.

"It is. It is," he said. "I have to call it like it is. And hating tennis was a deep part of my life for a long, long time."

From the time he was an infant, his father, Mike Agassi, a first generation immigrant from Iran, programmed his youngest child for tennis, taping ping pong paddles to his hands when he was a toddler and encouraging him to hit anything in his path.

By the age of six, he was practicing four to five hours a day.

"Your dad had a burning desire to have you be the number one tennis player in the world. What drove him to drive you so hard?" Couric asked.

"Well, I think he drove me hard because he drove himself hard. Tennis was a passion that he had from when he was a little boy himself. And he saw it as the quickest road to the American dream for his kids. Somethin' that, you know, he wanted for his family," Agassi explained.

But according to the book that's not how he felt. He wanted to quit, but was afraid to tell his father, who he calls "Pops."

"Did you ever look at your dad and say, 'Pops, I hate this. I hate it so much. Please don't make me do it'?" Couric asked.

"No," Agassi said. "I needed to do it for the family, possibly an unnecessary burden for a child, but one that I definitely carried."

"What do you think he would have done if you had said that to him?" Couric asked.

"'You don't have to love it. You're gonna do it. This is what we do. This is what you're gonna do. You're born to be a tennis player. You're gonna be the best in the world. And that's the end of it,'" Agassi said.

Being "the best" meant hitting the road, traveling to tournaments every weekend. And when he wasn't, he was taking on a ferocious ball machine Andre Agassi nicknamed "the dragon."

"It was really scary. Especially to a seven year old," Agassi remembered.

“Shooting tennis balls at one hundred and ten miles an hour to seven-year-old boy?” Couric asked.

"One hundred and ten miles an hour, because my dad put a souped-up engine in it. We didn't have ball machines that hit the ball that hard back then."

"He was a maniac," Couric remarked.

"He was a mad scientist, as well," Agassi said.

[lovely2u2]

I know I'm very late in replying but it's never to late. Everyone who is giving Andre Agassi a hard time because he admitted to doing drugs should be ashamed of themselves. EVERYONE has made some mistake in their lives and no one is perfect. Your business just wasn't aired by the media. Drugs are wrong and there's nothing right about them nor are there excuses. One thing about it is, he overcame his drug use and turned his life around. I don't see any of you with organizations helping children along. I am a PROUD PARENT of the first graduating class of "Andre Agassi College Prep Academy--AACPA".

My daughter wasn't just sitting in graduating class, she was one of the ones who was sitting on the platform. She gave one of the speeches and while she was at Agassi, she made great strides. She was one of the main student speakers for different functions that were giving.

All you nay sayers need to get a grip and stop tripping over things that are in the past. You can't hold people to their past but help guide them to their future. Stop being so miserable and get a true grip on life. "Love your neighbor as yourself", if you don't love yourself then you need to find yourself.....God Bless....Jesus Lives

[runninggirlintx]

Performance enhancer or prohibitor, it dosent matter. The point is the pressure elite athletes are under from whatever the source or collective sources may be, and how that can possibly effect them.

Athletes are just human, even though they do seemingly super human feats, just like the rest of us. Many of them find themselves in situations that lead to poor choices. Some get caught, some are protected, some die, some learn and so on.

Agassi has not provided excuses he has merely provided context. Good on ya Agassi your a great guy.

Only a small percentage of athletes as successful as him give back to the degree that he has/is.

Martina the steroids have turned your brain to mush, such condemnation from a Gay woman, please!

FYI Andre: Your best look was with the buzz cut.

[paulashatsky]

Ms. Couric,

I found your laughing and snickering as Mr. Agassi described himself as a 17 year old bald adolescent, in a state of terror when his hair piece fell apart and threatened to fall off during a match appalling. What kind of an insensitive woman and mother of adolescents are you? Have you know humanity? Is everything fodder for a laugh to you? You should be ashamed of the callousness you exhibited during this interview. You are 53 years old now. Cute no longer suits you. Stop laughing like you are a 16 year old and act like the journalist you pretend to be.

Paula Shatsky

Couric is the least liked correspondent from CBS. An overpaid hack by any standard, the other 60 minutes correspondents must cringe when Couric is on. She has snickered, made faces and sounded very juvenile at times. Why cannot CBS just pigeon hole this woman somewhere...and not on primetime tv.

[zekesax]

Katie, c'mon: "How many times did you do crystal meth, do you think?" Couric asked." In the interview, I even believe you persisted with this line of questioning. I know the answer, it's as many times as it took. It's astonishing to me that you failed to capitalize on the true story here; that addictions are about doing whatever it takes. That's why it's called an addiction. I would have to agree with the other poster who asks about the status of Andre's dad and their current relationship. Andre's father was such an important topic in the first half of the interview. Why did you not bring the line of questioning to it's logical conclusion? You really asked, "the tough questions."

By equating a Crystal Meth addiction to Steroid use, Martina Navratilova (and others) clearly demonstrates her ignorance on the subject of addictions.

For his philanthropy and honesty, I'll be what looks like to be the second person to applaud Agassi.

[BettyCon]

This was the biggest waste of TV time I have experienced in quite a while. Andre Aggasi is a brat, will always be a brat, and is just disgusting. I cannot believe that he is telling such crap about drugs, etc., to young children that have admired him, and want to be tennis stars. And give me a break! We are supposed to feel sorry for him. I would just like to slap him. Actually I only watched part of the interview and had to go throw up. Katie, there are a lot of people with problems out there, and you waiste your time on this. I have lost all respect for you also.

[lovely2u2]

BettyCon,
I'm sorry that you feel that way about this man whom you don't know. EVER person in the world has mad some type of mistake or another. I don't see you name on organizations helping children. I glad you threw up. You only got sick because you couldn't do the good that he has done...Sorry for ya!

[deepbreathe]

Andre...I saw your beautiful heart and soul in the Couric interview.Doesn't matter where you have been. Only matters where you are going...Your direction is magnificent!

[rfague]

Brilliant story about one hell of a tennis player and one hell of a human being, too.

In spite of everything pulling him down, he turned his life around and became the best in the world.

And he showed himself as a flawed human being, just as each and every one of us is. That took a lot of courage and a lot of tennis balls.

You rock, Andre!

[attorneygirl]

I respected Agassi until I learned he did hard drugs.

For God's sake, why the drugs?

Only losers take drugs.

Is Andre looking for sympathy? He won't find it from me.

[incog-nito]

He doesn't need your silly sympathy.

[rfague]

With such little compassion and obvious complete and total ignorance, I can't say I'm surprised that you find yourself without sympathy.

I feel sorry for anyone in your life, you have no heart and no soul.

[wwhorf]

I think Katie Couric is the worst interviewer on the planet. She doesn't listen to her subjects, they could slit their wrists in front of her and she would just proceed with her stupid little questions. She thinks drug addicts keep tract of how many times they shoot up but I still don't know what happened to Andre's Dad, is he still alive? Do they speak to each other? Did they ever resolve their issues? Good for Andre to let go of the secrets, he has certainly redeemed himself with a good and giving life.
WW

[pegleg2007]

I really like the interview with Andre Agassi, he proved to be credible and selfless. most enjoyed the story about his hair weave, geeze it must have been nerve racking to try playing great tennis with the thought your hair might fly off at the net!!! I always thought his hair was a bit too much, thought it was looking like the rock stars of the 80's.
So, tell me why Katie asked such a lame question regarding how many times he used Meth, as if that matters, maybe some producer had her ask that question. Either way, it was a wasted question, one that a rookie interviewer would ask, not a seasoned professional.