Pat Sajak has hosted Wheel of Fortune drunk. In the early days, he would have a few drinks with Vanna White across the street before a taping, Sajak revealed in a recent interview. (PHOTO: Screen Capture / YouTube / DLHQ)

Instead of a vowel, Pat Sajak used to buy a margarita. Or six.

In a recent interview on Dan Le Batard is Highly Questionable (DLHQ) on ESPN, Sajak, 65, revealed that he and Vanna White would sometimes drink before tapings of Wheel of Fortune -- during the early days of the show.

When I first started and was much younger and could tolerate those things, we had a different show then . . . we had endless time between shows, our dinner breaks would be two and a half hours long, Sajak explained.

We had a place called Los Arcos . . . they serve great margaritas. So Vanna and I would go across and have two, or three, or six and then come and do the last shows and have trouble recognizing the alphabet. They're really good tapes to get a hold of, he added.

Did Sajak ever get in trouble with producers of Wheel of Fortune?

I had a great time. I have no idea if the shows were any good, but no one said anything, so I guess I did OK, Sajak said.

Sajak has been hosting Wheel of Fortune since 1981, and has remained one of the longest TV show hosts in recent history, right up there with Alex Trebek (Jeopardy) and Regis Philbin, who retired in November 2011.

Since airing on Wednesday, Sajak's interview has received more than 33,000 views and is the second most popular video on DLHQ's YouTube channel.

Here are some other highlights from the interview:

On his deejay gig in Vietnam in the late '60s It was the biggest I'd ever worked in at the time. I had half a million American troops. I was the 'Good Morning Vietnam' guy. And it was actually fun. If you can call a war fun. It was good training for me. The enemy never got one of our records. I'm very proud of that.

On famous fans We were at a party years ago . . . in a corner, there was a rather elderly James Stewart, the great actor. And I said to my wife, 'That's Jimmy Stewart.' And I had been on the air for a few years . . . I approach him, rather meekly and I get about two steps from him, he stands and goes, 'You know, Gloria always solves the puzzles before I do.'

On Dr. Dre You know what, I found out. He is not actually a doctor.

On what Vanna White smells like She smells great. She smells a little like Lucille Ball.

On being in the 'shadow' of Vanna White. She's a big part of the show. People love her. She's a great gal and a sweetheart to work with. And I'm fine, I'm happy to play second or third fiddle, as long as they keep the checks coming.

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