Adam Carolla to Beck: 'I Dug Ditches' and 'Know What It's Like to Grow Up Poor

Video follows below.

Some readers were only vaguely familiar with radio personality Adam Carolla until The Blaze published what was perhaps the most hard-hitting, profane yet profoundly insightful, tirade on Occupy Wall Street and the self-entitled "participation trophy" generation to come out of 2011.  Carolla, who has become a champion of straight-talk and common sense when it comes to the Occupy movement -- and in larger part what it means to embrace a dedicated work ethic -- appeared on the Glenn Beck Program Tuesday evening to discuss his background and new book, "Rich Man, Poor Man."

Glenn celebrated the success of both Carolla's podcast and book and expressed how impressed he was with the former "Man Show" host's entrepreneurial spirit. For his part, the astute Carolla delivered what we've now come to expect -- plain-spoken pearls of wisdom.

The interview began with Carolla mirroring his sentiments from late last year, blasting the negative connotation millenials place on success in the U.S. He followed by sharing his personal story of growing up poor, with a mother hobbled by her dependence on government assistance.

Carolla explained how his then "able-bodied" mother refused to seek gainful employment when he suggested she do so, because she feared losing Welfare. He said he saw her already low self-esteem plummet "through the wagon-train tracks."

Bowled over by the revelation, Glenn observed how tragic a circumstance it must have been.

"It's not exactly a Bill Cosby-esque moment to share with your young child," Carolla quipped, "but I realized right then and there I would do for myself."

Carolla, who did not attend college and "barely graduated high school," worked multiple jobs, often in construction "digging ditches," where he "busted his butt," and didn't even taste success until age 31. "I lived at the poverty level and I know what's it like to be poor as an adult," he said. "And I know what it's like to work multiple jobs."

He explained that coming from nothing and working hard his entire life makes him uniquely qualified to tell others to "get off their ass" and "get to work" too.

“Now I’m the bad guy for telling other people to do that.”

The feisty L.A. native believes people are either "part of the problem or part of the solution" and are either pedaling the bicycle or "dragging their feet." Carolla made no bones that he would like to throw the feet-draggers "off the bike."

Throughout the interview the banter between Glenn and Carolla never waned, with each expressing the importance of coming together through common goals rather than focus on whatever difference in viewpoints the two may have on a given issue.

Carolla, who pointed out that what he and Glenn do "are not dissimilar,” said he prefers gleaning insight from people like Glenn, Dennis Prager and Dennis Miller, as opposed to politicians who he sees as merely puppets for their constituents.

"For me, personally, I realized at a certain point that people think of me the way I think of them...which is not that much," Carolla laughed. He added that he would rather be both loved and hated for "speaking the truth" than be overlooked by a dispassionate group of "people in the middle."

"You want to be either loved or hated by the head cheerleader," he joked. "The last thing you want is her to say is 'Glenn who?'"

Carolla's website describes his book:

If you turn on the evening news or listen to NPR you’ll be bombarded with a non-stop parade of commentators pontificating on the ever expanding gap between the rich and the poor. But is the chasm really that wide? In Rich Man Poor Man, comedian and bestselling author Adam Carolla exposes the phenomena that are embraced by the really rich and the really poor–but never the middle class–like having an outdoor shower, wearing your pajamas all day, or always having your dog with you. Combining Adam’s inimitable comedic voice and four-color illustrations by his friend Michael Narren, Rich Man Poor Man is a hilariously accurate look at what the people born with silver spoons in their mouths have in common with the people whose only utensils are plastic sporks stolen from a Shakey’s.