United Kingdom, Oct. 13 -- Sylvester Stallone had a real "wake-up call" after being jailed in a "true house of horrors".

The 80-year-old Hollywood star has recalled a time he was arrested in the early 1970s while working at a New York City deli, when he had to tell a man from a waste disposal company that the business was going to start using a new vendor.

In his new memoir The Steps, Stallone wrote that the man "closed the distance and gave me a big-time shove against the counter" and threatened him with a "f****** beatin'".

The Rocky star quickly grabbed a tenderising hammer and "razor-sharp fish knife", but police intervened before things could escalate.

Stallone was arrested "for threatening an 'unarmed' man with not one, but two ...