Scottish actor and comedian Sir Billy Connolly has described an "aggressive” encounter with the Mongrel Mob while touring in New Zealand.
In his recent book Rambling Man: My Life On The Road, he described the confrontation – which took place when he was filming a TV show in Aotearoa.
He said the tense incident occurred in Wellington while he was out riding a three-wheeled motorcycle and wearing a Hells Angels-style jacket.
“I was out riding by myself one morning in Wellington wearing my jacket when I realised I was being flanked by teamsters from the Mongrel Mob,” he wrote.
“That’s the largest biker gang in New Zealand, and it has quite a reputation."
Connolly believed that because of his jacket, the bikers mistook him for a member of the Hells Angels, a notorious biker gang in the US which also has chapters in New Zealand.
The jacket read, "too old to die young", in a Hells Angels font, and featured a skull wearing glasses.
“They surrounded me at some traffic lights and pulled me into a side street. I felt vulnerable because I was completely alone.
“One of them asked, ‘Where’d you get your jacket?’ I said, ‘I got in Los Angeles. A girl made it for me. She got permission from the Hells Angels’.”
During the confrontation, Connolly described the Mongrel Mob members as being “pretty aggressive”.
But it all worked out for the comedian, who was able to continue his journey with the jacket.
“They went away and had a little conference. Then they came back and said ‘That’s okay.’ They backed off and let me go on my way.”
“Afterwards, my TV crew went crazy because they didn’t get any of that on film. And I didn’t talk about it onstage because I wanted to get out of town in one piece.”
The incident allegedly occurred while Connolly was filming 2004’s World Tour of New Zealand.
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