Barry Hearn interview: Snooker chief opens up on his life in snooker, darts, football and fishing

Straight-talking words from Barry Hearn, the 73-year-old who has spent the last four decades grafting, promoting and transforming the sporting world as we know it.

Many will associate Hearn as the man who helped Steve Davis on his way to six World Championships in the Eighties, snooker’s boom-time.

But the lad from an East End council estate in London – who built a sporting empire with Matchroom – has been a major player in sports like boxing, fishing and darts, even a football club owner with Leyton Orient.

Now 12 months into retirement – he is still president of the World Snooker Tour – Hearn has decided to publish his autobiography, and as you would expect, does not pull his punches.

Over three years in the making, including many hours reciting anecdotes on the fishing banks from the sporting world most of us never get to witness, My Life: Knockouts, Snookers, Bullseyes, Tight Lines and Sweet Deals is the result.

So why bring a book out now?

“Five years ago my daughter had twin boys, and she said to me about a year after, ‘dad, you have got to do a book because I want my boys to be able to read what your life was like in the early days, how we get to where we are’,” Hearn told The Yorkshire Post.

“It made me think, it might be nice legacy to have, something proper, it has taken me three and a half years to do.

“I have taken it very seriously because it is what it says on the cover, it’s called My Life. It’s honest, it’s truthful, it may upset a few people but I hope it makes a few laugh as well.

“If anyone upsets me, I tend to upset them back. The world is a strange place, but as long as you are honest – and more importantly to yourself – I think it will make a good read.

“It will certainly make my grandchildren aware of a few of the basic principals involved in building a business as substantial as Matchroom has become.

“I did about 60 or 70 hours of tapes, most of which while I was fishing. You sit there for hours and hours, nothing happening, and I just mumbled on into this tape recorder. I remembered stories, more and more came out, and it all got put together. I hope it’s an interesting read. I am quite proud of it, I think I have done it as well as I could have.

“It’s about the early days of growing up in an East End council estate, my dad died early, he was a bus driver.

“It’s a story about not giving up, trying your best and being as good as you can be. I am no genius, but I had a good work ethic and I found that helped.

“Falling in love with sport, obviously not being good enough to participate but being good enough to organise. That was second best, and it has given me longevity. It’s 40 years of Matchroom this year, and we have had a lot of fun. I hope we have captured some of that fun in this book, some of the hilarious stories that actually did happen.

“We had to only take two stories out, on the grounds that we would have been sued to death. That’s one for later, they say you have to wait for people to die before you can write it.

“The athletes I have worked with, they run into their thousands. It’s 45 years of promoting sport in the UK and around the world.”

Hearn has struggled with changing gears in life, out of the fast lane and into retirement.

Like many, he was ill after testing positive for Covid-19 during the pandemic – plus he suffered a second heart attack – and admits retirement has not come easy.

“I am getting better (at slowing down), I hope,” said Hearn. “It’s a year now since I announced I was retiring, and I am still doing bits and pieces because I love it.

“I have got great management, I don’t need to do anything, I can sub-contract. It’s just hard to give up, but I am getting there slowly.

“It’s just taking a little bit longer than I expected. My wife is being brutal with me, saying ‘you’re rubbish at retiring’.

“I have been through recessions and the banking crisis, but the pandemic was the greatest challenge of all. It just stopped everyone in their tracks.

“So many people lost their lives and it affected so many families.

“I had 12 to 14 days where I didn’t know who I was.

“But in comparison to other people I survived and came out of it. Other people had far greater consequences on their lives.

“I had a second heart attack during Covid as well.”

As World Snooker Tour president, there is no fear that Hearn will not continue to be a major figure in the sport’s future.

“There’s still a long, long way to go,” said Hearn.

“It is exciting. The sport certainly delivers a lot of value to sponsors and the public, viewing figures are great, but we need to keep that commercial appetite awake and take advantage of the changing market conditions.

“Whether that’s streaming, mainstream television, YouTube, it doesn’t make any difference; we have to embrace the market of today and we are on our way to doing that, which would take snooker to the next level.

“I think World Snooker has the team to do it and I am just in the background making sure everyone does.

“I never get complacent, because that’s a killer. We have taken a sport which was slipping into oblivion, into being a major front-runner in global sport where it was before.”

Now that’s a truth which will not upset anyone.

Hearn ready to take centre stage at the Crucible

Barry Hearn watched from the wings as Steve Davis lifted six World Championships in the Eighties.

Now the 73-year-old gets his own chance to take centre stage at the Crucible theatre next month.

‘An Evening with Barry Hearn OBE’ will take place on Tuesday, May 3, to help launch his autobiography ‘My Life: Knockouts, Snookers, Bullseyes, Tight Lines and Sweet Deals’, which comes out on April 28.

“I am doing a few evenings around the country launching this book, and we are doing one at the Crucible on Tuesday May 3rd,” said Hearn.

“I am looking forward to meeting people and saying thank you for being a major part of my life.

“I am there to be questioned and be honest with people.

“There are certain cities in this great country of ours that I owe a special vote of thanks to for significant roles they have played in my life, and Sheffield is right up there at the top.”

And the chance to take centre stage, like Davis did several decades ago?

“It’s amazing. I knew I would get my time, I just had to wait long enough,” he joked. “That ginger-haired bloke has completely dominated in my life at the Crucible.

“I am really looking forward to it, I have always enjoyed meeting fans. I need their feedback to make sure we are doing everything right.”

Tickets cost £20 and include a signed copy of Hearn’s ‘My Life’.