The Joe Rogan Experience - Joe Rogan Experience #2489 - Ryan Bingham

00:00:02.000 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out.

00:00:04.000 The Joe Rogan Experience.

00:00:06.000 Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day.

00:00:08.000 What's happening, man?

00:00:09.000 Yeah, good to see you, man.

00:00:09.000 Good to see you.

00:00:15.000 Hold on to that microphone, sir.

00:00:17.000 All right. 0.99

00:00:20.000 You were fucking great at that McConaughey thing last year. 0.99

00:00:23.000 I really enjoyed that. 0.99

00:00:24.000 That was my first time seeing you perform live.

00:00:26.000 It was really cool.

00:00:27.000 It was very cool.

00:00:27.000 Thank you.

00:00:28.000 You're so relaxed up there, man.

00:00:30.000 So it was like you brought everybody into a nice.

00:00:33.000 Like a comfortable, chill vibe.

00:00:35.000 It was cool.

00:00:36.000 I'm glad you guys felt that way.

00:00:38.000 Sometimes it takes me a minute to get into the groove, you know?

00:00:42.000 Yeah, but it felt like that.

00:00:43.000 You know, it felt like you were in it.

00:00:45.000 Like it brought the whole crowd into it, too.

00:00:48.000 That event that he does, the two events, the one, the singer songwriter one, and then the other one with the auction and everything, they're so cool.

00:00:55.000 Such good events.

00:00:56.000 Yeah, they're good people, too, you know?

00:00:59.000 I've really grown to just appreciate the community around here in Austin and the Hill Country area and all of that stuff.

00:01:05.000 I definitely.

00:01:07.000 Wouldn't have the career, I don't think, if it wouldn't have been for the community around here that just supporting songwriters and music and the way that they do, it's pretty incredible.

00:01:15.000 When they get behind anything, it's just like, it just feels so good to see that many people come together and have that support.

00:01:22.000 It's a really good place, man.

00:01:24.000 Austin is a really good community.

00:01:26.000 It really is.

00:01:27.000 A very positive place in a lot of ways.

00:01:29.000 I mean, nothing's perfect, there's no perfect places, but it's really good.

00:01:34.000 I like it so much better than when I was living in California.

00:01:37.000 It just feels like.

00:01:38.000 Real people.

00:01:40.000 I miss it, man.

00:01:41.000 I mean, I'm in the process of moving back to Texas as well.

00:01:45.000 Where are you at right now?

00:01:47.000 Outside of Dallas, Texas, out by Tyler.

00:01:49.000 Okay.

00:01:49.000 I've been in Topanga Canyon in LA for years.

00:01:52.000 Oh, Jesus.

00:01:52.000 You know, so I've been in the middle of it.

00:01:55.000 Doing that Hollywood thing.

00:01:57.000 Every time I get across the state line, it's just like that weight comes off, and you're like, oh, man, I'm home, you know? 0.98

00:02:04.000 Dude, you had the coolest fucking character in Yellowstone. 0.96

00:02:08.000 It must be so fun to play. 0.99

00:02:10.000 It was so much fun, man.

00:02:13.000 I always talk about it.

00:02:13.000 I laugh.

00:02:14.000 I felt like I had one of the easiest jobs there.

00:02:17.000 It's because my.

00:02:18.000 The character was kind of a smaller role, and you know, most of the time I'd work like one or two days a week, and then the rest of the time I'd just be like fly fishing and get lost in the mountains and just disappear out there.

00:02:28.000 Yeah, it was awesome.

00:02:30.000 God, Montana's awesome.

00:02:31.000 That show made so many people move out there, though.

00:02:34.000 I know you're gonna take your license plate off your car before you go, right? 0.98

00:02:38.000 You better not have a California plate, they will fucking write things on your hood, run you off the road. 0.95

00:02:44.000 Yeah, they get upset. 0.98

00:02:45.000 It's very interesting, they're very proud to be from Montana, and they want to keep it to themselves. 1.00

00:02:50.000 Let it go, motherfucker. 1.00

00:02:51.000 We're all Americans. 1.00

00:02:52.000 All right?

00:02:53.000 If you got a good spot, you should be happy that people from California figure it out. 1.00

00:02:57.000 Don't be a dick. 1.00

00:02:57.000 Yeah. 1.00

00:02:58.000 Like, you're American, bitch. 1.00

00:03:00.000 It's not the United States of Montana. 1.00

00:03:03.000 Shut the fuck up. 1.00

00:03:04.000 I guess it's kind of anywhere, right? 1.00

00:03:05.000 You know?

00:03:06.000 Not that much here.

00:03:07.000 Yeah.

00:03:08.000 Here's pretty inviting.

00:03:09.000 I've never had that experience here.

00:03:11.000 Yeah.

00:03:12.000 Not really.

00:03:13.000 Texas is a pretty friendly place.

00:03:14.000 Yeah.

00:03:15.000 And there's so many different walks of life that have been here for so long, you know?

00:03:15.000 Yeah.

00:03:19.000 I think up there and Montana and stuff, man.

00:03:22.000 If you were tough enough to survive those winters and.

00:03:25.000 Stake a claim up there back in the day.

00:03:26.000 You had to fight for it, and they're still fighting for it now.

00:03:29.000 That does make sense.

00:03:30.000 I mean, that's also one of the things that's highlighted by the whole series, all the different Yellowstone series, the older ones with Harrison Ford, and they really do explain a lot.

00:03:41.000 I mean, it's kind of a cool chunk of history to see how this all got started, the kind of people that had to survive out there when all you had is a fireplace.

00:03:53.000 That's it.

00:03:53.000 You got a fireplace.

00:03:54.000 I love all those mountain men stories, Jim Bridger and all that stuff.

00:03:58.000 It's just, Like, man, and there is something you get up there in those mountains, it gets into you, it gets in mountains, get into your bones, it gets into your blood, and it's a different thing, man.

00:04:08.000 I it's a spiritual place, it is, and it's also like the most potent art, like it's nature's art, and you don't think of it as art, but god, it's so beautiful.

00:04:22.000 It's like stunt, like sometimes when you're up there, you just have to stop and look, like, god, this is gorgeous, and it's overwhelming if you have it, it has a it gives you a feeling.

00:04:31.000 There's like it's a Almost like a drug that hits you because of the beauty of it all.

00:04:36.000 Like you take it in with the blue sky, you see the clouds and the mountain, and maybe there's a lake below you in the canyon, and you're like, God, this is gorgeous.

00:04:45.000 It's like you feel it in your DNA, man.

00:04:49.000 It's like your body knows, like, this is a fertile, beautiful place that's filled with life, and this should excite you.

00:04:56.000 So all your natural human reward instincts are all like, this is the place I should be.

00:05:02.000 Like, look at the sky, look at the lake, look at the mountains.

00:05:06.000 This is fertile.

00:05:06.000 Fertile.

00:05:07.000 This is like life giving.

00:05:08.000 Yeah.

00:05:09.000 Yeah.

00:05:09.000 Several years ago, I went to a guide school up there, like a hunting guide school.

00:05:14.000 Hunting guide?

00:05:15.000 Mm hmm.

00:05:16.000 And it was a whole pack squad.

00:05:18.000 Part of it, I grew up cowboying and ranching, but I've never really been up there in those mountains like that.

00:05:23.000 And my dad would always fantasize about that.

00:05:26.000 We'd talk, you know, one day we're going to go on like a pack trip up in Montana.

00:05:28.000 And, you know, we'd watch all those movies like Lonesome Dove and all of that stuff.

00:05:32.000 So it was always just kind of a daydream.

00:05:34.000 And years ago, I was just kind of overwhelmed with music stuff and all that and didn't know what I was going to do.

00:05:40.000 And I ended up I just wanted to go up there for a trip, you know, maybe go on a pack trip.

00:05:44.000 And I started looking up places and I found this place called Royal Time Outfitters.

00:05:50.000 And they're like, yeah, you know, we come up and you can take you on a pack trip.

00:05:53.000 But we also have like this six week school, you know, that you can.

00:05:58.000 Trained to be a guide that's all mule pack and all kinds of stuff, you know.

00:06:03.000 And so I was like, man, I'm going to sign up for that, you know.

00:06:04.000 And it was life changing.

00:06:06.000 There's only six of us in the class and, you know, spent weeks back in the backcountry packing mules and horses.

00:06:13.000 Oh, wow.

00:06:15.000 We just tie a rope between two trees with a tarp for sleeping at night and always post up a couple of guys to watch over the horses at night.

00:06:22.000 And I remember one morning I woke up and it was in June, you know, but we were way back in there and I woke up and the snow was coming down and I, I just kind of raised my head up and I was looking out at the horses, and the snow was just falling down on their backs.

00:06:36.000 And there was that moment in me, I was like, I don't know if I'm ever going back.

00:06:40.000 You know?

00:06:41.000 I was like, this is right where I need to be.

00:06:45.000 Right.

00:06:46.000 It was tough to come back to civilization after that.

00:06:50.000 I think we're doing something with ourselves, to ourselves, with civilization that we can't really fully appreciate because we're wrapped in it.

00:06:59.000 And it's not until you get to nature where all that weight just gets lifted off of you and you're.

00:07:04.000 Feel more normal, and you're like, Oh, this is where people are supposed to be.

00:07:09.000 Yeah, you know, no phones, there's no nothing, no distractions, and it's just like you all your senses heighten your eyesight, your hearing, your sense of smell like all of that stuff.

00:07:20.000 And you know, I remember going into it, you know, I didn't know what to expect really.

00:07:24.000 I've done some camping and things like that and grew up ranching and all that, but this was a way different deal.

00:07:29.000 And I remember I just had this like backpack full of gear, you know, and by the time I got out of there.

00:07:36.000 Like, I just felt like all I needed was a pair of scissors and some way to start some fire, you know, and that was about it.

00:07:45.000 Yeah, I followed this one dude.

00:07:47.000 God, I'm trying to remember his name.

00:07:49.000 Clay.

00:07:51.000 Let me pull it up because I really enjoy his videos.

00:07:55.000 But this dude, he lives, I believe he lives in Alaska, but he does a lot of trips in America, like all over America, in the lower 48.

00:08:04.000 And he.

00:08:05.000 Goes and lives by himself in some kind of harsh environment.

00:08:11.000 Like he's done it in the swamps.

00:08:14.000 Clay haze.

00:08:15.000 That's it.

00:08:16.000 Does he like take his kid out there?

00:08:18.000 I believe he has.

00:08:18.000 The kids will be.

00:08:19.000 He's taken his dog.

00:08:21.000 But a lot of times he just goes entirely by himself.

00:08:26.000 And they're very, very interesting.

00:08:28.000 Like he starts his own fire.

00:08:30.000 He'll figure out how to get food.

00:08:32.000 He figures out how to purify water.

00:08:34.000 He's taken salt water and made his own thing that kind of distills it into fresh water and removes the salt.

00:08:41.000 Like very slowly by using a piece of bamboo and fire and boiling the water in the bamboo so that, like, The water evaporates and then drips down, and it doesn't have salt in it, apparently.

00:08:52.000 Yeah, I love that stuff.

00:08:54.000 I mean, just to have those skills, just to know how to do it, like whether you'll ever need it or not, just to know how to do that, it's just so cool.

00:08:54.000 I love it.

00:09:01.000 I remember in that guide school, there's a lot of different parts to it, which was so cool.

00:09:06.000 It was like we did a whole week of backcountry, like wilderness first aid.

00:09:12.000 You know, he had a guy who had a paramedic come in and teach us all this stuff.

00:09:15.000 And then it was a whole week of just like leather work.

00:09:18.000 There was a whole week of shoeing horses.

00:09:20.000 There was.

00:09:21.000 Fly fishing and entomology, and all these just kind of little skills.

00:09:24.000 But one thing that really stuck with me was a fire building kind of drill when we started.

00:09:31.000 It was kind of right when we first caught there, and it was pretty wet and it had been snowing.

00:09:34.000 And there's only six of us, you know, and we're guys from kind of all over the country.

00:09:38.000 And I grew up in New Mexico and West Texas where it's pretty dry, you know, and you kind of build a fire, you can kind of just take some little small twigs and get a little fire going, you know.

00:09:48.000 And so he goes, All right, you got two minutes to build a fire, and you need to have, you know, like a flame to be three or four feet high.

00:09:54.000 And man, I'm running around grabbing like little sticks and twigs.

00:09:58.000 And I'm just, we have a lighter too.

00:09:59.000 You know, I'm just struggling.

00:10:00.000 It's just smoking and we can't get it going.

00:10:02.000 I look over and there's a kid from Alaska in the class.

00:10:06.000 And he just runs over to this big dead pine tree and just breaks off the biggest branch of dead, you know, pine needles and takes his lighter and just, within like five seconds, has this massive fire going.

00:10:20.000 I was like, okay, that's how you do that, you know?

00:10:23.000 And it was so, Just the littlest things, you know, to have that knowledge, you know.

00:10:27.000 And part of it was, you know, he was explaining to us the instructor.

00:10:30.000 He's like, Yeah, you know, if you're out here with, you're guiding somebody that's hunting, maybe he's an elderly guy or somebody gets hurt and you get caught back in the mountains and it's snowing.

00:10:38.000 It's like, you better get a fire going and keep them warm real quick, you know.

00:10:41.000 So there was always a, you know, a reason and a purpose behind it, which was really cool.

00:10:45.000 And I'll never, those are some of the things I'll never forget.

00:10:49.000 Did they teach how to start fires with like a piece of metal and like a flint?

00:10:54.000 Like, you know, what is that?

00:10:55.000 A striking rod?

00:10:56.000 Yeah, we did some flint stuff.

00:10:58.000 And with like the pitch wood from some old pine trees, you know, you can find that pitch wood.

00:11:03.000 And we did some bow and wood drill stuff.

00:11:06.000 Not a whole lot. 0.99

00:11:07.000 That fucking chain was hard. 1.00

00:11:08.000 It was. 1.00

00:11:09.000 So hard.

00:11:09.000 That's hard.

00:11:10.000 I did that in the Boy Scouts, and it took like hours to start a fire.

00:11:15.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:11:15.000 You have to fucking keep sawing. 0.99

00:11:18.000 And if you're doing it with your hand, you're going to blow your hands up. 0.99

00:11:21.000 Yeah.

00:11:21.000 You better get that bow.

00:11:22.000 Get your technique down. 0.91

00:11:22.000 Yeah. 0.91

00:11:23.000 You've got to have the stick on the top and the stick that goes all the way to the base thing, and you cut a little. 1.00

00:11:29.000 Hole in the base thing so that like all the little embers can fall into your kindling and you got to saw the shit out of that fucker. 0.99

00:11:36.000 And imagine trying to do that, you know, in the snow or it's wet, right? 0.99

00:11:40.000 It's like, man, it's just very, very unlikely.

00:11:44.000 You know what's really good for kindling?

00:11:46.000 Fritos.

00:11:48.000 All the oil that's in it?

00:11:48.000 Really?

00:11:49.000 Yeah.

00:11:49.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:11:51.000 It's kind of shocking.

00:11:52.000 We were in Alaska and it was raining all the time, and there was one day where it stopped.

00:11:52.000 Yeah.

00:11:56.000 I was with my friend Steve Ranella, who took me up there.

00:11:58.000 Okay, yeah.

00:11:59.000 My friend Brian Cowan, Ryan Callahan, all these guys. 0.99

00:12:03.000 So we went up there, and when we got one day, like a 10 hour stretch where it was not raining, we're like, we got to start a fucking fire. 0.66

00:12:11.000 Because it was raining every day for like five days in a row, and we couldn't find any deer. 0.96

00:12:17.000 It was a nightmare.

00:12:18.000 It was tough hunting.

00:12:19.000 Yeah.

00:12:19.000 So, we, this one day, and we were trying to figure out things to light on fire because everything's soaking wet.

00:12:25.000 And so, we got some pieces of wood from like underneath the bottom of trees and shit and dead trees that were covered by other things that were kind of sort of a little bit dry.

00:12:36.000 And we used Fritos.

00:12:37.000 And Fritos, when you light them, man, it's crazy how much oil is in those things.

00:12:42.000 Yeah.

00:12:43.000 They just, and they stay lit for a long time, like a candle.

00:12:46.000 Yeah.

00:12:47.000 And so, we started like piling little things.

00:12:49.000 And we got that fire.

00:12:50.000 I was like the happiest I've ever been in my life.

00:12:52.000 I bet.

00:12:53.000 Soaking away.

00:12:54.000 Just cannot get.

00:12:55.000 Once you get that kind of cold, too, it's just like there's almost, you know, no drying.

00:12:59.000 It wasn't that bad cold wise.

00:13:02.000 It was like in the 50s or 60s.

00:13:03.000 Yeah, it was just the wetness.

00:13:05.000 The wetness was impossible to get away from.

00:13:08.000 I thought once you get in your tent, you'd be dry.

00:13:10.000 You get in your sleeping bag, you'd be dry.

00:13:12.000 But I had to take a piss in the middle of the night and I had to turn on my headlamp in the tent.

00:13:16.000 And when I did, it was all just mist everywhere.

00:13:20.000 It was moisture.

00:13:21.000 And I was like, oh my God, I'm never going to be dry.

00:13:24.000 I had to just accept, like, there's no drying here.

00:13:27.000 How long were you guys back in there?

00:13:28.000 About six days.

00:13:30.000 We had to leave.

00:13:31.000 We were supposed to be there for seven, but we had to leave on the sixth day because a storm was coming in.

00:13:34.000 I was like, I could get stuck.

00:13:35.000 Because you can get stuck up there.

00:13:37.000 We were on, I guess, Prince Edward's.

00:13:39.000 Is that what the island is?

00:13:41.000 Yeah.

00:13:42.000 You get stuck up there.

00:13:43.000 And I was like, I got to get back home.

00:13:44.000 I got to work.

00:13:45.000 Did y'all fly in on a puddle jumper?

00:13:47.000 On a bush plane?

00:13:48.000 Yeah, we landed in the pond.

00:13:49.000 And you had to drink it right out of there, huh?

00:13:52.000 Yeah.

00:13:52.000 Exactly.

00:13:53.000 And you could drink right out of the pond.

00:13:55.000 Like the pond was all rainwater, and it was too high for beavers.

00:13:59.000 So, you didn't have to worry about Jardia or anything in the water.

00:14:01.000 You could just drink right out of the pond.

00:14:02.000 Like, this is crazy.

00:14:03.000 Yeah, that's the best.

00:14:05.000 I've never been, I've been to Alaska only like in the winter on a like skiing thing, but I've always wanted to go up there to hunt and fish.

00:14:11.000 The people are extraordinary.

00:14:13.000 Those are rugged people.

00:14:15.000 Like, when I did a gig with my friend Ari in Anchorage, and one of the things, and it was weird because you get there, it's 11 p.m., it's bright out. 0.94

00:14:23.000 One of the things that we talked about after was like, those people were fucking cool.

00:14:23.000 Like, this is weird.

00:14:27.000 Like, there's something about living up there, like, where you could.

00:14:32.000 Die going outside like a good six months out of the year. 1.00

00:14:36.000 There's fucking bears everywhere. 1.00

00:14:39.000 If you look sideways at a moose, it'll stomp you to death in the fucking Walmart parking lot. 1.00

00:14:44.000 Like it's. 1.00

00:14:44.000 Yeah. 1.00

00:14:45.000 You better have your shit together. 1.00

00:14:46.000 You better have your shit together. 1.00

00:14:47.000 There's bald eagles everywhere. 1.00

00:14:51.000 The salmon are as big as your thigh.

00:14:53.000 I mean, the people there are.

00:14:56.000 They work together.

00:14:57.000 There's like.

00:14:58.000 They're very friendly, but they're very rugged.

00:15:01.000 But they're also like.

00:15:03.000 They realize you need each other.

00:15:05.000 Like, there's a sense of, like, community and coolness.

00:15:08.000 Yeah. 1.00

00:15:09.000 If your fucking car breaks down the side of the road, you could die. 1.00

00:15:09.000 You need each other. 1.00

00:15:13.000 Like, someone's not going to let you die.

00:15:14.000 They're going to pull over.

00:15:16.000 In California, they're like, someone will get them.

00:15:18.000 They just keep driving.

00:15:19.000 So you just lose this sense of community.

00:15:21.000 Yeah, you're not calling.

00:15:22.000 You're not.

00:15:23.000 That's who you're calling for help in times of need is your neighbor.

00:15:25.000 Exactly.

00:15:26.000 I mean, even if, like, the bridge washes out, it's like, here comes your neighbor with the backhoe and the tractor.

00:15:31.000 Right.

00:15:31.000 You just do it yourself.

00:15:32.000 And that makes a.

00:15:34.000 Cool friendship when your friend helps you out, or when you help your friend out.

00:15:38.000 That's what I miss about living in Texas, too.

00:15:40.000 You know, it's just like some of the small things or whatever.

00:15:45.000 Even up at my place in Topanga, you know, you want to build some fence or whatever.

00:15:49.000 I do, I feel lucky.

00:15:50.000 I've got a couple of really good friends up there, neighbors that, you know, love to come, you know, work with their hands andor get their hands dirty and we'll build stuff.

00:15:58.000 And but like, man, in Texas, you want to like weld something or you need something with a tractor, some heavy equipment thing, you know, like you're not getting that done in California.

00:16:06.000 Right.

00:16:06.000 It's going to cost you a fortune to, you know, get someone with a skid steer up to your house to help you move some dirt around, you know.

00:16:13.000 But here in Texas, it's like, oh man, just call Frank down the road.

00:16:18.000 He's got one.

00:16:20.000 There's people that have a long tradition of doing stuff.

00:16:25.000 It's a real place.

00:16:26.000 I grew up like that too.

00:16:29.000 People cutting hay and stuff like that, especially when you're young.

00:16:32.000 Like, man, we would go stack hay for everybody around.

00:16:36.000 It's like that was the summer job.

00:16:38.000 It's like, let's just go.

00:16:40.000 That makes a strong person. 1.00

00:16:42.000 People that throw hay around, those are strong motherfuckers. 1.00

00:16:46.000 Like that term, farmer strength, that shit's real. 1.00

00:16:49.000 I was always a little guy too, so I had to use and learn how to. 0.99

00:16:49.000 Yeah, you better say. 0.99

00:16:52.000 Use leverage real quick, roll those bells up on your knee.

00:16:55.000 I think one of the last times I did that, I remember, is I was going to school in Stephenville, Texas, and had a good friend over in Glen Rose, and it was the middle of July, and he's an older man and asked us to come help him stack hay in his barn.

00:17:08.000 And it was, you know, we're stacking it in the barn, you know, so it's just like you're inside the barn.

00:17:13.000 It's just hot.

00:17:13.000 It could have been 110 degrees in there, you know, and we're talking hundreds of bales of hay, and it was just all we could do.

00:17:19.000 Of course, we're hungover.

00:17:20.000 We're, you know, in college, we're stacking hay, and I was like, I think this is my last hay hauling job right now.

00:17:27.000 Yeah, those jobs are good for letting you know that this is not the life you want.

00:17:31.000 Yeah.

00:17:32.000 Like, get a good, rugged manual labor job. 0.99

00:17:34.000 It'll knock some fucking sense out of you. 0.98

00:17:36.000 That's why I got the guitar, man. 0.99

00:17:37.000 I learned pretty quick that the guitar felt a lot better in my hands than that shovel, dude.

00:17:43.000 Yeah, I know that feeling.

00:17:45.000 I spent one summer doing insulation in an attic.

00:17:49.000 It was all that fiberglass insulation.

00:17:51.000 I had it in all my skin.

00:17:52.000 In your eyes.

00:17:53.000 In your eyes.

00:17:54.000 Yeah, you're sweating because it's hot and it's the summer, so it's getting into your pores.

00:17:59.000 And you're always itchy.

00:17:59.000 Yeah.

00:18:00.000 You feel like it's on you all the time. 1.00

00:18:03.000 Also, it's got to be terrible to be breathing that shit in. 1.00

00:18:06.000 Oh, the worst, yeah. 1.00

00:18:07.000 And I don't even think we were using equipment.

00:18:10.000 I don't think we used any safety equipment.

00:18:12.000 Heck no, you didn't have a mask on or anything.

00:18:14.000 I don't believe so. 0.99

00:18:15.000 I think we just installed it, just unrolled that shit and stuffed it into the rafters. 0.99

00:18:21.000 Using paint with lead in it. 0.99

00:18:25.000 And then back then, the gasoline had lead too.

00:18:28.000 So drinking out of the water hose.

00:18:30.000 Right.

00:18:31.000 Oh, yeah.

00:18:32.000 I think it makes a resilient person to drink out of water hose.

00:18:35.000 Heck yeah, you get tough or die. 1.00

00:18:38.000 You get extra minerals from the fucking copper on the faucet. 0.99

00:18:44.000 Yeah, it's those jobs are really important, like for a young person to figure out what they don't want to do. 0.99

00:18:51.000 It teaches you work ethic, teaches you, like, hey, like, this is you can get some satisfaction out of a hard day's work and a hard week.

00:18:58.000 Like, you did it, you put it in, you feel good about yourself.

00:19:01.000 You know it was difficult to do, but don't keep doing that.

00:19:05.000 Yeah.

00:19:06.000 Figure out a way out of this.

00:19:07.000 Yeah.

00:19:09.000 You got to understand that.

00:19:10.000 You understand it.

00:19:12.000 You got to feel for it.

00:19:13.000 You know what hard labor is, but.

00:19:15.000 Don't ruin your life.

00:19:17.000 Yeah, I feel real grateful.

00:19:19.000 My granddad was always a real hard worker, and even when I was 12 and 13, you know, in the summers, I spent a lot of time living with him, and he always had a job lined up for me.

00:19:29.000 You know, it's like, hey, you're going to go over here and we're going to mow so and so's lawn this morning, or we're going to go over here and we're going to send you out to Ken's and you're going to build some fence this weekend.

00:19:39.000 And I always enjoyed it, though.

00:19:41.000 I enjoyed those guys I was around, and, you know, I'd work all day, and then we'd sit around and they'd drink beer in the afternoon and tell me stories.

00:19:50.000 You know, and even now, like on my own place, you know, it's like I don't want to be building somebody else's fence, but I'm glad I know how to build my own, right?

00:19:58.000 Or things like that, and have those skills.

00:20:00.000 I still love working around the house and doing little projects and things like that.

00:20:04.000 I meet a lot of younger guys and kids that sometimes I, I guess, I have an expectation that they know how to do that kind of stuff, you know?

00:20:13.000 Right, they want to come over to the house and help with some projects and stuff.

00:20:17.000 And I'm like, oh, yeah, cool, we'll just, you know, I already dug those holes and set up a string line.

00:20:22.000 We'll set these posts and they're like, okay.

00:20:24.000 And then after about a half hour, I look over, I'm there just kind of looking at the ground.

00:20:29.000 I'm like, what are we doing here?

00:20:31.000 You know, they're like, I don't have a clue what you want me to do.

00:20:33.000 You know, that's hilarious.

00:20:36.000 That's hilarious.

00:20:38.000 But yeah, it's wild.

00:20:42.000 It's changed, man.

00:20:43.000 Kids ain't out there mowing lawns no more, that's for sure.

00:20:45.000 No.

00:20:46.000 Well, there's something about that kind of work, like putting in fences and all the stuff that you see the cowboys doing on Yellowstone and then hanging out together afterwards.

00:20:57.000 That's so like viscerally appealing to people.

00:21:01.000 There's something about watching that life.

00:21:03.000 Like, it's you would say it's like a simple, difficult life, maybe.

00:21:08.000 I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's like it's so appealing.

00:21:12.000 Like, so many people wanted to be cowboys after they watched your show.

00:21:16.000 I think it's something goes to like you're talking about that guy living off the land and stuff like that.

00:21:21.000 It's just something that's been ingrained in us over thousands of years of survival.

00:21:28.000 And we all have that in us still today.

00:21:30.000 And we just unfortunately lose in touch with it because we're not doing it as much.

00:21:34.000 And so when you get the opportunity to even just go plant a garden or something like that, I think it's in us.

00:21:41.000 And it wakes up something within that's just been a little bit dormant for a while.

00:21:47.000 I think you're right.

00:21:48.000 I think that's exactly what it is.

00:21:50.000 I think it is like it's in our memory.

00:21:52.000 Like the memory of our genes, that this is like a pleasing life, this is a satisfying life.

00:21:58.000 It's like that mama bear energy, you know.

00:22:00.000 Kids come, it's just like, Oh, it's like, Yeah, oh man, you know, yeah, yeah, it's there, you know.

00:22:06.000 And it's just like, I realized that having kids is just like, Oh man, it wakes something up within you that's always been there, right?

00:22:14.000 You know, that you were born to have, you know, that survival instinct and all of those things.

00:22:20.000 And I still, that's what I still love about it.

00:22:23.000 Like, I even at home, it'd be.

00:22:24.000 Being on the road and being in big cities all the time, and you're just surrounded with information and screens, man.

00:22:30.000 As soon as I can get home or get outside or get into nature, it just wakes that stuff back up in me, and I feel like it puts that spark back in my eye, you know?

00:22:40.000 Yeah.

00:22:40.000 I try to stay in tune with that as much as I can.

00:22:44.000 Well, it's clearly so appealing to people that don't experience it.

00:22:47.000 I mean, how many people that are watching shows like Yellowstone never go into those areas?

00:22:53.000 But they watch it like, oh, yeah.

00:22:55.000 I want to live like that.

00:22:56.000 We see the prices of horses just skyrocketing.

00:22:59.000 You can buy an old Lindsay horse for like five grand.

00:23:02.000 Oh, you sure?

00:23:03.000 It's like 50,000 bucks for a trail horse, which is cool.

00:23:08.000 I hope people are enjoying that and getting something out of it.

00:23:14.000 I'm not running a bunch of cows these days, but I keep a few horses around, and especially for the kids.

00:23:19.000 Whether they want anything to do with them or not, we enjoy so much in the afternoons.

00:23:23.000 Go up and feed them some carrots or brushing their tails and just being around that energy.

00:23:28.000 My youngest little boy, he's just got.

00:23:30.000 He's got some kind of mojo with animals, you know.

00:23:33.000 And I've got this old mule, and her name's Honey, and she's got these big ears, and she's massive, you know.

00:23:38.000 And I remember when he was like three or four, I'd be looking around for him in the backyard, and I'd look out in the pasture, and he'd be out there with that mule, and she'd have her head down, and he's just out there petting her ears, you know.

00:23:51.000 And just like his connection with those animals.

00:23:53.000 And then, you know, getting kids up to the house or from the city that aren't around those animals, their first time around horses or maybe even dogs and stuff like that.

00:24:02.000 And you can see their.

00:24:04.000 They're so anxious, or you know, not maybe so scared, but it's just nervous.

00:24:08.000 You know, it's just big animals and stuff.

00:24:09.000 And within like 20 minutes of just sitting them on their back or petting them, and then you see them relax and you see that energy kind of slow down.

00:24:17.000 And I just, I love that.

00:24:20.000 You know, I think it's so magical to watch.

00:24:22.000 Yeah, that's another relationship that's like primal the relationship between people and horses.

00:24:27.000 They do that with addicts, they do equine therapy where they just have like people that have like heavy anxiety and depression, they have them hang out with horses.

00:24:37.000 I think even me, I still do.

00:24:38.000 I mean, I get depressed and stuff like that every now and then, and I love being around them.

00:24:43.000 I can walk out to the barn and just being around them and laying on their backs, and it's just like, ah, yeah, all right, here we go.

00:24:50.000 Just touching their head makes you feel better.

00:24:52.000 Like, hey, how are you, honey?

00:24:54.000 What's happening?

00:24:55.000 They look at me, connect, you know, I get eye contact with them.

00:24:59.000 I think it's looking into your soul.

00:25:01.000 It's like an ancient thing.

00:25:02.000 I mean, they helped us survive, and we took care of them.

00:25:07.000 It's like this ancient relationship, and then when you're around them, That connection like immediately rebonds, reestablishes.

00:25:15.000 I think it's in our DNA.

00:25:16.000 I mean, just think about like how many generations of humans had to survive on horseback before anybody invented anything else. 0.99

00:25:23.000 It's like if you wanted to travel faster than you could run, it had to be a fucking horse. 0.99

00:25:27.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:25:27.000 So that was probably thousands and thousands and thousands of years just cooked into our DNA. 0.99

00:25:33.000 And when you're around them, it's like, oh, my friend, this is my friend.

00:25:36.000 It's waking it back up.

00:25:37.000 Yeah.

00:25:38.000 It's there.

00:25:39.000 It's weird that that stuff is in you.

00:25:39.000 Yeah.

00:25:41.000 Mm hmm.

00:25:42.000 That nature stuff is in you.

00:25:43.000 I mean, that's why we like watching shows like this Clay Guy.

00:25:47.000 I love that too.

00:25:48.000 I love that Steve Ranella show, that Meat Eater.

00:25:50.000 I like watching that with my kids.

00:25:53.000 Aren't you friends with Remy Warren?

00:25:55.000 Oh, yeah, real good friends.

00:25:56.000 He ended up being my neighbor when I was in Montana working on Yellowstone.

00:25:59.000 Oh, really?

00:26:00.000 Yeah.

00:26:00.000 Oh, that's crazy.

00:26:02.000 And what I really liked up there was where they filmed the show.

00:26:06.000 It was kind of way out there, southwestern Montana.

00:26:09.000 And a lot of folks that were working on the show would go back to Missoula in the cities.

00:26:12.000 But I was like, man, I want to go.

00:26:14.000 Get as far away out there as I can.

00:26:16.000 And so I kind of went down this West Fork area that's on the right on the edge of the most massive wilderness areas out there that goes into Idaho.

00:26:25.000 And the road I was on, you know, was paved dirt, then it dead ended, and it turned into a dirt road.

00:26:30.000 And then I got this cabin that was just way back up, and there was no Wi Fi, no nothing, you know, and I just disappeared out there and ended up meeting some folks.

00:26:42.000 And Remy was just right down the road going towards Sula.

00:26:45.000 And so I got the chance to just go over there and hang out with him and go stomp around the mountains with him.

00:26:50.000 It's such a cool dude.

00:26:51.000 It's like Remy's the best.

00:26:52.000 Just, you know, like you're talking about going to Alaska, you know, I love going into those places, but like you want somebody like that with you when you go.

00:26:59.000 For sure.

00:26:59.000 Yeah.

00:27:01.000 Yeah, he knows how to get around.

00:27:02.000 Yeah.

00:27:03.000 And he used to have a great show.

00:27:05.000 Well, first of all, he had Solo Hunter, where he'd go and film everything himself, which is so much more difficult than just hunting.

00:27:13.000 He'd set up the key, carry tripods with him and shit, and set it up and make sure the camera's on the animal before he would shoot it, and then film himself.

00:27:13.000 Yeah.

00:27:22.000 Film himself moving up to there, set up different cameras that could show him executing the shot.

00:27:26.000 I'm like, God, that's so complicated. 0.82

00:27:28.000 He's a beast, man.

00:27:30.000 Just trying to keep up with him, you know? 0.89

00:27:32.000 Just.

00:27:33.000 Walking around the mountains with that guy.

00:27:34.000 I'm like, oh man, wait up.

00:27:36.000 I'm coming.

00:27:36.000 I'll be up.

00:27:37.000 Yeah, they get that mountain cardio.

00:27:39.000 Yeah, he's like a mountain goat.

00:27:41.000 Well, you know, he hunts probably 200 plus days a year.

00:27:45.000 And on top of that, he does a lot of guiding.

00:27:45.000 Yeah.

00:27:47.000 And when he's doing guiding, he's like always in the mountains, always hiking.

00:27:50.000 It's like you just get conditioned to it.

00:27:53.000 Yeah, he's fit. 0.85

00:27:54.000 I went to Hawaii with him and did an axis hunt over there. 0.95

00:27:57.000 Cool, one of the coolest things I ever did. 0.98

00:27:59.000 And I got this buck and.

00:28:03.000 We're loading him up in the truck and all that.

00:28:05.000 And he was like, Man, I'm going to, I'll meet you guys back at camp.

00:28:08.000 You know, it was dark already.

00:28:09.000 And like, I know, you know, during the day we were hunting, it was just steep mountains up and down.

00:28:14.000 And I said, You're just going to meet us back?

00:28:16.000 He's like, Yeah, I'll meet you back.

00:28:17.000 And he just put on his backpack and just took off running.

00:28:20.000 And we, you know, drove down this mountain road to go back.

00:28:22.000 And he beat us there by like a half an hour.

00:28:24.000 And that was his workout, though.

00:28:26.000 He's like, Yeah, it's part of my workout.

00:28:28.000 I'll meet you guys back there.

00:28:29.000 I was like, Oh, you're an animal. 0.64

00:28:31.000 That's funny.

00:28:32.000 Access deer in Hawaii is very interesting because they were given.

00:28:38.000 To King Kamehameha in like, I don't remember what year it was.

00:28:43.000 Find out what year they got introduced there, but they're everywhere now.

00:28:47.000 I've gone to Lanai a bunch of times.

00:28:49.000 Go hunting?

00:28:49.000 That's where we went.

00:28:50.000 Yeah, it was wild.

00:28:51.000 There are thousands of them everywhere, and you're trying to sneak up on a group of ten, and then you don't even realize there's like a hundred right here laying down that you didn't even see, and then they get up and spook the rest and stamble.

00:29:02.000 You know, you've been there.

00:29:05.000 Okay, it was in the 1800s.

00:29:07.000 A gift to King Kamehameha.

00:29:10.000 From India.

00:29:12.000 And there's 30,000 of them in Lanai and only 3,000 people.

00:29:16.000 Yeah.

00:29:17.000 I mean, it's crazy.

00:29:18.000 Weird laughter.

00:29:18.000 It's the only place where you can go hunting, bow hunting, and you stay at the Four Seasons.

00:29:22.000 Right?

00:29:24.000 I think Rip, he said he got kicked out of there, though, because he was hunting so much and all that red clay there on your boots and stuff.

00:29:32.000 He said, so the whole hotel was just like red clay everywhere.

00:29:36.000 The fridge is just full of meat, like blood dripping out.

00:29:39.000 They kicked him out of there?

00:29:40.000 Oh, I don't know if they kicked him out, but he's like, well, maybe we ought to go find somewhere else to stay.

00:29:45.000 Well, just take off your boots before you come inside.

00:29:47.000 That's all it is. 0.77

00:29:48.000 But yeah, it's that weird red clay, and it all used to be part of the Dole pineapple plantation.

00:29:55.000 So when you're around there, one of the things you notice is there's layers of dirt, but then there's almost a plastic bag underneath it, like a hefty bag.

00:30:04.000 From all the farming? 0.96

00:30:05.000 Yeah, so I guess they had a layer of that kind of whatever the fuck. 0.63

00:30:11.000 Hefty bag is made out of whatever that plastic is, and then the dirt was on top of that somehow.

00:30:16.000 And then the pineapples would grow up through it.

00:30:18.000 I just keep moisture and stuff like that in the ground.

00:30:20.000 Yeah, I would imagine.

00:30:21.000 But it's disconcerting because it doesn't feel like nature, it feels weird.

00:30:25.000 It's like it is weird.

00:30:26.000 There's plastic everywhere in the ground.

00:30:28.000 Yeah, it's also you get in the mountains and like those old World War II turrets and stuff that are up there.

00:30:33.000 Did you come across any of that?

00:30:34.000 I mean, it's just like, first of all, like hunting axis deer in Lanai, and like you get up on the top and you're surrounded by the ocean.

00:30:41.000 I mean, what a trip, you know.

00:30:43.000 I know, seeing that, and then.

00:30:45.000 Coming across all those old relics and just all the history there, it's just something to take into.

00:30:50.000 And uh, we are laughing because obviously they're trying to like control the population of the axis deer there.

00:30:55.000 And I think somebody mentioned, like, man, just get a couple of bangle tigers out here, exactly that'll thin out the population, it's thin out the population of people, too.

00:31:07.000 Unfortunately, yeah.

00:31:08.000 The thing about them is that they did evolve around tigers, that's why they're so fast, like, they'll jump a string faster than any animal I've ever seen in my life.

00:31:16.000 I have a video of me.

00:31:17.000 Shooting at an access deer at 80 yards, and it's we have a slow mo of the arrow.

00:31:23.000 So, as the arrow's coming, it's a perfect shot within 10 yards of him.

00:31:30.000 He hears it and he's gone.

00:31:34.000 It's the craziest thing. 0.99

00:31:35.000 Like, you look at it, you're like, How the fuck did he move that fast? 0.96

00:31:39.000 This thing's going at least from the actual, like, leaving the bow, it's going 275 feet per second. 0.94

00:31:47.000 Yeah.

00:31:47.000 And he can hear it within 10 yards.

00:31:50.000 Within 10 yards, he's hearing it coming.

00:31:52.000 And he's like, see ya.

00:31:53.000 Yeah.

00:31:54.000 And nowhere near him.

00:31:55.000 Like, he was a foot in front of.

00:31:57.000 It was. 1.00

00:31:58.000 The arrow landed a foot behind his ass. 1.00

00:32:00.000 Jeez. 1.00

00:32:01.000 That's how fast they move.

00:32:02.000 It's crazy.

00:32:02.000 Yeah.

00:32:04.000 How long did you go over there for a while or just kind of like a few times?

00:32:06.000 A few times trips, yeah.

00:32:08.000 We found that the best time to hunt is actually in the afternoon because in the afternoon it's really windy.

00:32:14.000 And when it's really windy, it covers your sound a little bit.

00:32:16.000 Okay.

00:32:17.000 The morning's rough.

00:32:18.000 The morning's rough.

00:32:18.000 Yeah.

00:32:19.000 Like, the morning.

00:32:21.000 I got a couple of them in the morning, a couple of times morning hunting, I got a deer.

00:32:25.000 But it's.

00:32:27.000 A lot of blown stalks.

00:32:28.000 You got to walk super slow.

00:32:30.000 You got to be real cautious. 0.99

00:32:32.000 And again, there's a lot of high brush and you don't know where the fuck they're hiding. 0.98

00:32:36.000 You got to kind of find a pinch point. 0.98

00:32:36.000 Yeah. 0.98

00:32:38.000 Yeah, you jump one and then the rest of them sound off.

00:32:41.000 The way they bark and all of that's pretty crazy too.

00:32:43.000 It's a weird noise.

00:32:43.000 It's weird.

00:32:45.000 What you got to kind of do is like find where they're going to be and just wait.

00:32:48.000 Because they travel so much, they do so much moving.

00:32:51.000 You think, I'm just going to go, you know, still hunt and spot and stalk and I'll find one and I'll.

00:32:57.000 You're almost better off just staying put.

00:32:59.000 Yeah.

00:33:00.000 Just staying put and wait for them to, because they're moving all over the place. 0.95

00:33:02.000 There's so fucking many of them, it's crazy. 0.96

00:33:05.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:33:05.000 But it's amazing how unsuccessful people are bow hunting them. 0.99

00:33:11.000 Rifle, it's a done deal.

00:33:13.000 If you want meat, and it's the best meat in the world, it's so delicious.

00:33:17.000 For the people that live there, it's incredible.

00:33:19.000 I mean, they have access to the best meat in the world.

00:33:22.000 100% they're going to get a deer.

00:33:25.000 But if you have a bow, we went there and then.

00:33:29.000 So I went with Remy, I went with John Dudley, Cam Haynes, and Adam Greentree.

00:33:35.000 They're like all seasoned bow hunters.

00:33:37.000 Everybody got a deer and we made a.

00:33:40.000 Podcast about it.

00:33:41.000 We had a good old time.

00:33:42.000 They had 150 people go over the next year, and one was successful with a bow.

00:33:51.000 That's how hard it is.

00:33:51.000 Yeah.

00:33:52.000 Yeah. 1.00

00:33:53.000 Because it's like these fuckers are, they're dialed in, man. 1.00

00:33:57.000 And they move. 1.00

00:33:57.000 A lot of people chasing them, too. 1.00

00:33:59.000 They know the game, right?

00:34:00.000 365 days a year they get hunted.

00:34:02.000 There's no season.

00:34:03.000 And then they have snipers that are after them at night because, you know, they use it for meat for the restaurants and meat for people, and they just have to control the population.

00:34:12.000 There's so many of them and no predators.

00:34:14.000 Yeah, and still can't thin them out, right?

00:34:16.000 I know, it's crazy.

00:34:18.000 I think they got a good head start.

00:34:19.000 They eradicated them from the Big Island.

00:34:22.000 Oh, did they?

00:34:22.000 Yeah, somebody tried to reintroduce them or introduce, I should say, to the Big Island, and they're like, no, no, Remember them being like how they are now.

00:34:48.000 They don't stop.

00:34:50.000 They have three or four litters a year, and each litter has, I think, they can have as many as six piglets.

00:34:57.000 It's crazy.

00:34:57.000 They just, and they can get pregnant six months old.

00:35:00.000 At six months old, they can get pregnant and they're ready to rock, and they're just spitting out pigs and just tearing shit up. 1.00

00:35:07.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:35:08.000 We have a lease out here for a hunting land, me and some of my friends, and the amount of pigs is disturbing. 0.53

00:35:16.000 It's like you hear them everywhere.

00:35:18.000 You hear them in the bushes. 1.00

00:35:19.000 They're all over the fucking place. 1.00

00:35:20.000 It's like, Most of Texas, probably that's not like City, has wild pigs in it. 1.00

00:35:28.000 It's just like fucking. 1.00

00:35:30.000 Taking over, man. 1.00

00:35:31.000 And it all came over on boats.

00:35:33.000 Yeah.

00:35:33.000 That's how it all got here.

00:35:34.000 Is that how it all got here?

00:35:35.000 Yeah.

00:35:36.000 Yeah.

00:35:36.000 Just importing them in.

00:35:37.000 Yeah, guys from Europe, they brought boats, and in the boats, some of them brought pigs, and then they let them loose. 0.69

00:35:43.000 It's crazy, man.

00:35:46.000 Tearing stuff up.

00:35:47.000 Yeah, I don't ever remember them being as bad as they were in the last 15 years or so.

00:35:52.000 It's actually bad in California, too.

00:35:53.000 And California has them from William Randolph Hearst.

00:35:56.000 Didn't they eradicate them off the Channel Islands out there?

00:36:01.000 I think so.

00:36:02.000 I think the islands, and they had mule deer on some of the islands out there, too, right?

00:36:08.000 I forget which island had mule deer.

00:36:10.000 But apparently they had, like, you could go hunt on one of these islands.

00:36:16.000 Yeah, I think you might still be able to, like, on Catalina or a couple.

00:36:19.000 But maybe Santa Cruz.

00:36:22.000 They did because I know my buddy Matt, he did it like maybe the last year or the year before.

00:36:28.000 But I think they're trying to put a stop to it and kind of stop it.

00:36:32.000 Those Channel Islands are pretty interesting.

00:36:33.000 I remember first moving out there, even just going out there 15 years ago and seeing the islands out there.

00:36:41.000 And I'd ask people all around, I was like, man, what's the deal with these islands out there?

00:36:44.000 And half the people that I would talk to be like, what are you talking about?

00:36:47.000 Islands.

00:36:48.000 And I'm like, that island right out there.

00:36:51.000 They're like, Oh, I thought that was Long Beach.

00:36:53.000 I'm like, really?

00:36:55.000 I was like, have you looked at a map?

00:36:56.000 I love maps.

00:36:59.000 So I started doing some research and figuring out all about it.

00:37:02.000 And they're really cool.

00:37:04.000 And over the years, I've met some really cool guys who go out there a lot and spearfish and just to go out there to them.

00:37:10.000 And besides Catalina, like Santa Cruz and San Miguel, they're all nature preserves and protected.

00:37:16.000 So it's like going back in time when you get out there.

00:37:19.000 And I love it out there.

00:37:21.000 It's such a cool spot.

00:37:23.000 Did they try to eradicate deer from Catalina?

00:37:27.000 I think I've read something about that.

00:37:30.000 Let's see if that's true.

00:37:32.000 I think they're trying to remove the deer because they said the deer were non native to the island.

00:37:36.000 Yeah.

00:37:37.000 Yeah, I think that's what they did with the hogs, and I don't know.

00:37:41.000 There's like a specific island fox out there. 1.00

00:37:44.000 Yeah, here it is.

00:37:45.000 As of early 2026, California officials have approved a controversial plan to fully eradicate the non native mule deer population on Santa Catalina Island.

00:37:55.000 To restore the ecosystem, around 2,000 deer introduced in the 1930s for hunting will be removed by ground based hunters to protect native biodiversity.

00:38:07.000 Come on.

00:38:09.000 That sounds crazy.

00:38:10.000 How about just let people hunt them?

00:38:12.000 What's wrong with you?

00:38:14.000 So the issue is Catalina Island Conservancy considers the mule deer an invasive species that disrupts the ecosystem as they consume native plants and seedlings while spreading fire prone invasive grasses.

00:38:29.000 Really?

00:38:32.000 I just always worry about conservancies and their judgments on things like that because there's a lot of.

00:38:32.000 I have.

00:38:40.000 They want to eradicate all the pigs from Texas or from California, rather. 0.89

00:38:45.000 They think of them as non native and they want them out too, but you're not going to. 0.98

00:38:50.000 They want to eradicate.

00:38:52.000 There's like elk in California that are Yellowstone elk that were brought there in like the 1950s.

00:38:58.000 Yeah.

00:38:59.000 That they want to eradicate. 0.99

00:39:00.000 Like the Thule elk?

00:39:02.000 No, they're actually Rocky Mountain elk.

00:39:04.000 Oh, okay.

00:39:05.000 Yeah, but they're a larger breed of Rocky Mountain elk that they call yellow, apparently.

00:39:11.000 Like in the Sierras or down along the coast and stuff?

00:39:15.000 Tatchpee. 0.98

00:39:15.000 Tatchpee, yeah. 0.98

00:39:16.000 Up in that area in those mountains. 0.99

00:39:19.000 Big fucking elk, like 400 inch elk. 0.99

00:39:22.000 Like a couple of those elk out there that are in the front, that's what they're from. 0.99

00:39:25.000 That's from there?

00:39:26.000 Those are massive.

00:39:27.000 Yeah, that's from Tejon Ranch.

00:39:29.000 Okay.

00:39:30.000 Yeah.

00:39:31.000 Oh, yeah.

00:39:31.000 It's like going up over the grapevine.

00:39:33.000 Exactly.

00:39:33.000 That's where you got those?

00:39:34.000 Uh huh.

00:39:35.000 Wow.

00:39:35.000 I had no idea that they were that big out there.

00:39:38.000 It's the biggest private ranch in California.

00:39:41.000 It's like 270,000 acres.

00:39:43.000 I've heard of the ranch, but I didn't know they had elk like that up there.

00:39:46.000 Yeah.

00:39:47.000 One of the rare places.

00:39:47.000 Yeah.

00:39:48.000 Gorgeous fucking place. 1.00

00:39:50.000 But they also go up. 1.00

00:39:51.000 It's kind of funny.

00:39:52.000 They go up to there's a golfing community higher up in Tatchby, and the elk just hang out on the golf course.

00:40:01.000 I just turned it up.

00:40:02.000 They're like giant.

00:40:03.000 Elk, like 400 inch elk, just chilling, hanging out together on the golf course, and dudes are playing golf.

00:40:10.000 That's why.

00:40:11.000 While they're lying down next to them, like 20 yards away.

00:40:13.000 It's crazy.

00:40:14.000 I saw some one time I was driving up the coast.

00:40:17.000 I think I was going up to San Francisco to play a gig, and maybe they're the Thule elk.

00:40:22.000 I'm not sure what they were, but I was along the coast there, and I looked over in a field, and there was like 30 head of them just laying down over there.

00:40:28.000 I'm like, oh man, I didn't even know there were elk down here.

00:40:32.000 It's just, I love seeing.

00:40:34.000 Wildlife that in unexpected places, you know.

00:40:37.000 Yeah.

00:40:38.000 They recently just found a wolf.

00:40:40.000 Or unexpected animals.

00:40:41.000 Or unexpected animals.

00:40:42.000 That's what happened to me anyway.

00:40:43.000 Yeah.

00:40:43.000 Oh, really?

00:40:44.000 See if you can find the story about that wolf that they just discovered in Los Angeles.

00:40:48.000 There's a mama bear, black bear with three cubs now running around in Topanga.

00:40:53.000 Oh, yeah.

00:40:54.000 There's a lot of those.

00:40:55.000 A lot of lions running around.

00:40:57.000 There's a lot of bears.

00:41:00.000 I've seen them in Pasadena and people's pools.

00:41:03.000 I knew there was a bunch out in Pasadena in Glendale.

00:41:05.000 Look at this.

00:41:06.000 Wolf detected in Los Angeles County.

00:41:08.000 For the first time in more than a century.

00:41:11.000 Crazy.

00:41:14.000 Isn't that nuts? 1.00

00:41:16.000 Those guys can fucking travel. 0.99

00:41:19.000 I had a lady on who was a wolf biologist, and she was talking about, like, the, you know, they'd collar some of these wolves and they would track them. 1.00

00:41:27.000 They would go 500 miles.

00:41:28.000 Yeah.

00:41:29.000 Like, it's kind of insane.

00:41:31.000 I didn't know that.

00:41:32.000 Yeah.

00:41:32.000 That's incredible.

00:41:33.000 Well, that's how they learned about them.

00:41:34.000 It's really the only way to tell is to, like, put a collar on them and track them by GPS.

00:41:39.000 And, you know, they mean they're extraordinary animals.

00:41:39.000 Mm hmm.

00:41:43.000 Like, where were they originating from?

00:41:45.000 And, and, Montana, Wyoming, and where were they going, the ones that they were tracking?

00:41:50.000 I think the ones that they were tracking were the part of the group that was brought in in the 1990s.

00:41:56.000 So there was that pack and the subsequent packs that came after that.

00:42:00.000 There were all the reintroduced wolves.

00:42:02.000 And so they would dart and collar some of them.

00:42:06.000 And when they would do that, they would just track their motion.

00:42:08.000 They're like, Jesus.

00:42:09.000 They're covering some ground.

00:42:13.000 They're covering some ground.

00:42:15.000 It's interesting, too, that they actually make mountain lions kill more deer.

00:42:21.000 Competing with them.

00:42:21.000 Yeah, because the mountain lions kill a deer and then the wolves will steal it.

00:42:25.000 Oh, really? 0.98

00:42:26.000 So they'll come up on the mountain lion and they'll surround them, and the mountain lion will go, fuck this, I'm out of here. 0.99

00:42:30.000 And he'll just go kill another deer. 0.96

00:42:32.000 So he doesn't even get a chance to eat his deer because the wolves keep stealing his deer.

00:42:36.000 They keep tracking the lions, probably just following them around.

00:42:39.000 Let them do the dirty work, yeah.

00:42:39.000 They're smart, man.

00:42:40.000 They do.

00:42:41.000 They let them do the dirty work and then they steal their deer. 0.75

00:42:42.000 Work smarter, not harder, huh?

00:42:45.000 What does it say?

00:42:46.000 The wolf that they found?

00:42:47.000 Yeah, this is from February when they first spotted it.

00:42:51.000 So the wolf was born in 2023, Plumas County's.

00:42:54.000 Where's Plumas County?

00:42:55.000 It's traveled more than 370 miles.

00:42:58.000 Wow.

00:42:59.000 Including crossing State Route 59 near Tachapi.

00:43:02.000 There you go.

00:43:03.000 They had one up in Tachapi, too, that a buddy of mine.

00:43:07.000 It was actually closer to the city that's down there. 1.00

00:43:12.000 What is that fucking city? 0.99

00:43:14.000 Bakersfield. 1.00

00:43:14.000 Bakersfield? 1.00

00:43:15.000 Exactly.

00:43:15.000 Yeah.

00:43:16.000 Wildlife officials now estimate at least 60 wolves live in the state.

00:43:20.000 Wow.

00:43:21.000 One crossed over in 2011.

00:43:24.000 Wow.

00:43:25.000 From California, from Oregon.

00:43:27.000 So.

00:43:28.000 So they find him in the Tachapia Mountains.

00:43:30.000 Interesting.

00:43:34.000 Biologist told newspapers that she could encounter a mate in the nearby region, such as Tatchby Mountains, potentially forming a new pack or continue to roam.

00:43:41.000 What was that picture you just had of the elk?

00:43:43.000 Yeah, that's that golf course. 0.99

00:43:44.000 Look at that giant fucking elk chilling on the golf course, clashing. 1.00

00:43:50.000 Black flag. 1.00

00:43:51.000 Yeah, look how beautiful that is.

00:43:53.000 God, so pretty out there.

00:43:55.000 Massive elk.

00:43:56.000 Oak Tree Country Club. 0.97

00:43:57.000 Perfect sanctuary for them, right?

00:43:59.000 Oh, yeah, man.

00:44:00.000 And it's just, it adds to the coolness of playing golf.

00:44:04.000 I mean, you're playing golf around.

00:44:05.000 Giant, beautiful animals.

00:44:07.000 I bet those greenskeepers love them, though. 0.94

00:44:11.000 They probably fuck up all kinds of things up there. 0.95

00:44:14.000 Yeah. 1.00

00:44:16.000 The wolf thing is interesting because they just brought them back to Aspen and they did a really stupid thing.

00:44:22.000 They brought them into an area where it has a lot of livestock and they brought them in from a place in Oregon where these wolves had all been captured because they were killing agriculture. 0.64

00:44:34.000 So, what did they do?

00:44:35.000 They captured them and they Dropped them off in Colorado where they started killing cows.

00:44:41.000 They just do it.

00:44:42.000 Well, it's on people's, my friend's ranch.

00:44:44.000 One of them, they dropped three wolves off on my friend's ranch.

00:44:47.000 That's tough, man.

00:44:48.000 I've heard that even with the bears and stuff.

00:44:49.000 You know, you get some problem bears or whatever, and then they go drop them out where the farmers and ranches are living.

00:44:55.000 You know, it's like, man, how's that going to work?

00:44:57.000 Well, it's the people in charge of these things and making these decisions, they don't understand what they're doing.

00:45:03.000 They're monkeying around with wildlife, nature, biology, and you don't know what you're doing.

00:45:08.000 Yeah.

00:45:09.000 No idea.

00:45:09.000 You don't.

00:45:10.000 Also, how the fuck do you, in good conscience, take a wolf that's used to killing cows and put them around other people's cows? 0.99

00:45:18.000 Yeah, it's already programmed. 0.99

00:45:20.000 The dinner bell is free.

00:45:21.000 It knows exactly how to do it, it knows it's easy.

00:45:23.000 They're all fenced in, they taste delicious.

00:45:27.000 Why would it stop?

00:45:28.000 Or why would it chase tougher prey, right?

00:45:32.000 So now these poor ranchers have to have people monitoring their cows 24 7. 0.96

00:45:38.000 They have to have cowboys up all night.

00:45:40.000 That are wandering around and on horseback and just looking for wolves.

00:45:45.000 I mean, it's a disaster.

00:45:46.000 They've killed dozens of cows.

00:45:48.000 And these are folks that, you know, have been like we said, surviving on this land for generations and dealing with that and, you know, have a history with managing that stuff.

00:45:59.000 You know, it'd probably be the folks I'd want to ask how to handle it, you know?

00:46:03.000 Well, they would certainly tell you don't let the wolves in. 0.99

00:46:06.000 And if you do, kill them, you know. 0.88

00:46:09.000 But now it's gotten to the point where I think they're going to have to do something about them. 0.99

00:46:13.000 Will they put a hunting limit on them?

00:46:16.000 You think?

00:46:18.000 Honestly, that would probably do something, but really what you should do is hire someone to recapture them and don't drop them off there. 1.00

00:46:27.000 Don't drop them off in fucking Aspen, you idiot. 1.00

00:46:30.000 Because they're going to eat people's poodles too. 1.00

00:46:32.000 They don't give a shit. 0.99

00:46:34.000 If they run out of cows, if somehow or another the rancher scare them away from the cows and they make it into the town of Aspen, you don't think they're going to eat your golden retriever? 1.00

00:46:42.000 They're going to eat all kinds of dogs.

00:46:43.000 They eat dogs in Alaska all the time. 0.97

00:46:46.000 Yeah.

00:46:47.000 Yeah, I hear a lot of those, like the lions and stuff, man.

00:46:50.000 You're coming after your kids.

00:46:52.000 Yeah.

00:46:52.000 You know, there's been a stuff, that Malibu Creek Park, you know, I've heard a couple of incidents there, you know, hit.

00:46:57.000 It's like, man, they're going to go eat something.

00:47:00.000 Especially when they're old.

00:47:01.000 Yeah.

00:47:02.000 When they get old, you know, they can't catch a deer anymore.

00:47:06.000 They're hungry and they haven't eaten in a few days.

00:47:06.000 Yeah.

00:47:08.000 And then they see a kid hanging around a little too close to the outside of the woods.

00:47:13.000 I got a big one that comes right by my house.

00:47:14.000 I got a little game trail camera set up.

00:47:17.000 I got a little fountain right in the front.

00:47:18.000 It doesn't come around when I'm there because we got the dogs, you know, a lot. 0.92

00:47:21.000 But whenever I'm out of town for weeks at a time, I'll come back and that sucker's just laying on my front porch. 0.96

00:47:27.000 Wow. 0.98

00:47:27.000 Just massive. 0.98

00:47:28.000 And then the other day, a friend of mine was taking the trash out and it was like around lunchtime and it jumped over the fence into the driveway and had a dead rabbit in its mouth just looking at her, you know. 0.99

00:47:41.000 And she's like, holy shit. 0.99

00:47:43.000 They're there, you know. 1.00

00:47:44.000 So every time I'm even walking around by myself or with the dogs, you're just like, man, this sucker just be in a tree looking at me right now. 0.99

00:47:50.000 Yeah, you're just living with monsters. 1.00

00:47:52.000 Yeah.

00:47:53.000 Whoo.

00:47:53.000 You're there.

00:47:56.000 California spent more than $100 million trying to make a bridge over, I forget which freeway it is.

00:48:03.000 I think it's the 101.

00:48:05.000 Is it the 101?

00:48:06.000 I think you're right.

00:48:08.000 So they spent over $100 million and it's still not done.

00:48:11.000 Oh my God.

00:48:12.000 For a bridge.

00:48:13.000 A bridge for the mountain lions. 1.00

00:48:15.000 Like, you fucking dorks. 1.00

00:48:19.000 It's like this idea of like it's going to be a bridge, but it's going to have dirt and grass on it, so it'll encourage them to walk. 1.00

00:48:25.000 Across, so they don't have to go over the highway and die.

00:48:27.000 This would have been nicer than the roads we're driving on.

00:48:30.000 Yeah.

00:48:31.000 Well, $110 million is crazy.

00:48:34.000 And it's still not even done.

00:48:38.000 It's so crazy.

00:48:40.000 So that's what it is.

00:48:41.000 Early 2026.

00:48:42.000 It's like going up to Ventura, right?

00:48:44.000 Yeah.

00:48:46.000 So they want to have this big dirt mound and this bridge so the animals can get across the highway.

00:48:53.000 But it's just like, it's so goofy.

00:48:56.000 And they never want people to do anything about the population of mountain lions.

00:49:00.000 Regardless of how out of control they are, they don't do anything about it.

00:49:03.000 They have to hire people.

00:49:04.000 The state has to hire people to go and get the bad mountain lions, the ones that are problems.

00:49:09.000 And when they capture them, one of the things they find out is they actually kill them, right?

00:49:13.000 So one of the things they find out when they examine their diet is like 50% pets.

00:49:17.000 50% dogs and cats.

00:49:21.000 That's what your mountain lions are eating.

00:49:22.000 That's crazy.

00:49:24.000 Yeah.

00:49:25.000 And they spend money, like a lot of money, going after these mountain lions.

00:49:30.000 And instead, they could make money by letting people hunt these mountain lions and giving them tags and control the numbers.

00:49:38.000 In that place, Tahone Ranch, one of my buddies works there.

00:49:41.000 And they have a trail camera set up on a pond.

00:49:44.000 And they found 16 different cats that were drinking out of that pond.

00:49:49.000 Oh, my gosh.

00:49:50.000 That's insane.

00:49:53.000 When I first started going out there, too, the coyotes, you know, and even around like in Hollywood and stuff, you know, I was like, man, I swear I just saw it.

00:49:59.000 Coyote running down the street with a pair of sunglasses on and a gold chain, eating better than any of us.

00:50:08.000 When I went there in '94, that was the first time I ever saw a coyote.

00:50:10.000 I couldn't believe it.

00:50:11.000 I was staying at, you know, they have those furnished apartments, the Oakwood furnished apartments.

00:50:16.000 Oh, no, not really.

00:50:17.000 Temporary.

00:50:18.000 Like for people that are like, don't have a house yet and you got to move to California quick, they have this place called Oakwoods.

00:50:24.000 And you go in there, it's already got a couch, it's already got a TV, it's already got a bed.

00:50:27.000 You're like, okay.

00:50:28.000 Like an Airbnb type of thing.

00:50:29.000 Yeah, almost like you just move in.

00:50:31.000 And I was driving up to the.

00:50:34.000 Entrance to the place, and I see these little dogs on the street. 0.99

00:50:38.000 I was like, What the fuck is going on? 0.98

00:50:41.000 That ain't no dog. 0.99

00:50:42.000 I was like, Oh my God, they're coyotes.

00:50:47.000 Like, this is weird.

00:50:48.000 And so, this is like 94. 0.99

00:50:50.000 I had never seen a fucking coyote. 0.99

00:50:51.000 I never even heard of a coyote being out just wandering in the street. 0.99

00:50:55.000 I just couldn't believe it that they just wander around on the concrete.

00:50:59.000 Man, they're everywhere.

00:51:01.000 I feel like I've seen more there than anywhere.

00:51:03.000 You see them more in town than you do anywhere else.

00:51:05.000 Yeah.

00:51:06.000 Yeah, well, they have large populations of them in downtown where they know where they den up.

00:51:11.000 They den up in certain warehouse buildings.

00:51:13.000 Okay.

00:51:14.000 Like abandoned buildings and under bridges and freeways and stuff.

00:51:18.000 Yeah.

00:51:19.000 They live there.

00:51:20.000 They probably keep the rat population in check.

00:51:22.000 Nature will take back over one day, won't it?

00:51:24.000 Exactly.

00:51:25.000 I think they probably keep the rat population in check, though.

00:51:25.000 Yeah.

00:51:28.000 Yeah.

00:51:29.000 If you think about it.

00:51:30.000 Yeah.

00:51:31.000 I keep a lot of other things in check, too.

00:51:33.000 Right.

00:51:34.000 Cats.

00:51:35.000 Well, there's a terrible video from Woodland Hills a few years back where a guy.

00:51:40.000 Was unloading his car and his toddler was out there in the grass.

00:51:45.000 I saw that.

00:51:46.000 And the coyote grabbed his toddler and tried to run away with his kid.

00:51:49.000 Yeah, I saw that, man.

00:51:50.000 You know.

00:51:52.000 I'm always watching around for stuff and with my arc kiddos or just people around the neighborhood and stuff.

00:51:57.000 You got to remind yourself, you know, they're there and they're not scared of you.

00:52:01.000 You know, they're not afraid.

00:52:03.000 I remember one of the first times I went up to Ojai just north of LA there, you know, and I just wanted to go up there and go hike around and check out the area and those, an archery shop up there.

00:52:15.000 And I had this old guy, he kind of looked like Charlie Daniels, just big overalls, big old beard, you know, and I walked in there and just to check out the shop and also just, Ask him about, you know, some areas to go stomp around in.

00:52:27.000 And I had an Australian Shepherd dog at the time.

00:52:31.000 And I just asked him where, you know, good places to go stomp around.

00:52:34.000 He said, Yeah, you know, you go up there.

00:52:36.000 He goes, But I wouldn't take your dog with you.

00:52:37.000 I was like, Really?

00:52:39.000 Why?

00:52:39.000 He's like, Man, those lions are a real deal up here, you know?

00:52:42.000 He's like, You won't see them, you know, until they're on you, you know?

00:52:48.000 And I just, you know, I knew they're lions and stuff like that.

00:52:50.000 But hearing it from that guy, you know, maybe he's trying to scare me a little bit, but, you know, there's, It's a real deal.

00:52:58.000 It's real. 0.75

00:52:59.000 It's real, and they try to downplay it because all the wildlife lovers, all the greenies, they don't want you setting the alarm and killing them.

00:53:10.000 What their goal is to have zero hunting.

00:53:13.000 Their goal is to have all the animals just balance each other out.

00:53:17.000 I think it's going to happen.

00:53:19.000 You can't.

00:53:20.000 Not with humans in the mix. 0.54

00:53:21.000 No, the humans have interrupted that whole idea, right?

00:53:24.000 So if you've got a city and then you've got.

00:53:27.000 Wild giant predators, like 170 pound cats, that are killing dogs.

00:53:33.000 And they're like, you got to control them.

00:53:35.000 Can't manage one without managing the other, right?

00:53:38.000 And so the first thing they did to stop people from doing it is they banned hunting with dogs.

00:53:44.000 So if you ban hunting with dogs, guess what?

00:53:46.000 You basically, you're killing most of the hunting.

00:53:48.000 Because the reality of mountain lions is you can't find them.

00:53:50.000 They're really hard to find, really hard to catch, really hard to find.

00:53:54.000 And the best way to control their population is to tree them.

00:53:58.000 And you get dogs to treat, because that way you know if it's a tom or if it's a female.

00:54:03.000 You know if it's mature, you know what size it is, you have a really accurate estimation.

00:54:08.000 You can look up at it, oh, that's a mature tom. 0.99

00:54:10.000 That's what we're looking to kill. 0.99

00:54:12.000 And then you can control their population. 0.99

00:54:14.000 That's the only way.

00:54:15.000 Same with bears.

00:54:16.000 It's a great way to control their population.

00:54:17.000 See what it is and decide if it needs to go or if it needs to stay, right?

00:54:21.000 Yeah.

00:54:22.000 But they do little things to stop the effect of hunting first.

00:54:27.000 So, California.

00:54:28.000 You can still hunt for black bears, but you can't use dogs anymore.

00:54:31.000 And so, as soon as they stopped the use of dogs, the amount of black bears they harvested went way down.

00:54:36.000 So, the amount of bears in the population went way up.

00:54:39.000 Yeah, I don't think they've, I mean, I know they've been around in Pasadena a lot, but I don't think there's been one in Topanga for a while.

00:54:45.000 I mean, I've been up there, shoot, almost 15 years and hadn't heard of one.

00:54:49.000 This is the first time one's kind of made it over into that area that I know of, anyway.

00:54:54.000 Maybe up, you know, around the Malibu Creek and those state parks.

00:54:59.000 But in Topanga, there's probably people feeding them.

00:55:02.000 I've got berries for you, my friend.

00:55:02.000 Oh, 100%.

00:55:05.000 Give them. 1.00

00:55:06.000 Give them weed.

00:55:10.000 Some berries.

00:55:13.000 The bang is great, but it always sketches me out if a fire catches.

00:55:17.000 Oh, man.

00:55:19.000 We got hit hard last year, as you know, the Palisades stuff.

00:55:22.000 And man, I didn't, that was kind of it for me, too.

00:55:25.000 I was like, I'm out, you know.

00:55:27.000 I've been evacuated out of there several times over the years, but I've got horses up there now and stuff like that.

00:55:27.000 It's terrifying.

00:55:34.000 And luckily, I had like a, I always keep a big truck and a trailer just in case.

00:55:39.000 I've got some friends down in Burbank that have some stables, you know, that I'll have like as a backup plan.

00:55:45.000 But this was just a different deal.

00:55:47.000 As the crow flies, I could see the smoke from the Palisades, you know, it's like a mile away, you know.

00:55:52.000 And we were actually working in our arena there and smoke came up.

00:55:56.000 And I was like, shoot, let's just go.

00:55:58.000 Every time I see the smoke, like, I don't wait.

00:56:00.000 I'm just like, we'll be the first ones out and beat the mad rush of everybody that's going to decide to try to stay.

00:56:06.000 And loaded up the trailer and the truck and the camper and the dogs and all that stuff.

00:56:12.000 And I was like, let's go.

00:56:13.000 And, uh, My wife and I went down to Burbank, and I remember we were driving through the night, and the wind was just howling like I've never seen before.

00:56:22.000 And power lines are snapping, and it's just like trees are coming down, and it just felt like the end of the world, you know.

00:56:29.000 And we get to Burbank, and we pull back in these stables, and there's a kind of a big cinder block wall.

00:56:36.000 And I just got as close to that as I could because it was blocking the wind, you know, from hitting us.

00:56:41.000 And the next morning, I woke up, and I was just, my Throat was sore and hurting.

00:56:46.000 I could hardly breathe.

00:56:47.000 And I opened the camper door, and the Altadena fire had started, and it was right there.

00:56:51.000 And so it was just a mountain of black smoke coming over the top of us there.

00:56:55.000 And so I was like, let's go, let's get out of here, let's head north.

00:56:59.000 And I had some friends in Moore Park, you know, up in that area going towards Ventura that had horses trying to find some places to go with some horses.

00:57:07.000 And they're like, yeah, come on up here.

00:57:09.000 So we went up there, stayed there a night, and then they cut all the power off up in that area because the winds were snapping power lines and they were worried about fires.

00:57:16.000 And, you know, After doing that a few nights, and I was like, let's just head east and go to Texas.

00:57:25.000 There's always so many friends you can like show up with five horses and a bunch of dogs, you know, like, hey, we're going to stay for a while, you know.

00:57:31.000 Especially in California.

00:57:34.000 Yeah, we're like, let's just get out of here and head it back.

00:57:37.000 And you didn't know when we were going to make it back.

00:57:39.000 And they, you know, closed indefinitely or whatever.

00:57:42.000 And it's just like, man, I'm over it.

00:57:44.000 I got evacuated a bunch of times when I lived there, but the last one was 2018.

00:57:49.000 And, uh, When the last one, we got out early.

00:57:52.000 I came home from the comedy store and we saw fire coming over the top of this hill.

00:57:57.000 And it was probably like one o'clock in the morning.

00:57:59.000 Me and my wife were sitting there.

00:58:00.000 I go, What do you think? 0.98

00:58:01.000 And she's like, Let's get the fuck out of here. 0.99

00:58:04.000 Like, let's get the fuck out of here. 1.00

00:58:05.000 Let's just grab some shit and maybe it'll come this way. 1.00

00:58:08.000 Maybe it won't. 0.99

00:58:09.000 So it didn't burn the house down, but my neighbors, the front three neighbors, all lost their house.

00:58:15.000 And my next door neighbor, his roof caught on fire.

00:58:18.000 But my friend, who refused to leave, he stayed in the neighborhood and.

00:58:23.000 Protected his house and guided firefighters.

00:58:25.000 He brought the firefighters to that house and showed them that it just started on this guy's roof and they hosed it down. 0.97

00:58:31.000 They stopped it in his tracks, but it was pretty fucking bad. 0.83

00:58:35.000 It's wild because you know it's going to burn. 0.94

00:58:36.000 I mean, it's not a matter of if, it's just when.

00:58:40.000 I mean, that's canyons have been burning like that for thousands of years.

00:58:43.000 And even the two masks were setting them on fire on purpose to get ahead of it, right?

00:58:47.000 And control and all of that stuff.

00:58:49.000 And now there's just so many houses and communities back up in there.

00:58:54.000 It's a tough thing, but when they hit, man, they just.

00:58:58.000 They're rolling through how fast they come through.

00:59:00.000 Those Santa Ana winds are blowing like that.

00:59:04.000 It's just very surreal in person.

00:59:06.000 You can watch it on the news and you kind of get a feeling of it.

00:59:08.000 But when you're there and you're driving down the 101 and you look at the side of the highway and you see like these hills in the distance that are just covered in fire hundreds of yards of fields of fire just making their way over the top of this hill and burning houses.

00:59:26.000 We saw it when the Palisades thing was starting.

00:59:29.000 From our house, it's kind of a Little mountain that comes up on the back, and I hiked up there and was watching it.

00:59:35.000 You could see the smoke, and then you could like start seeing little flickers of the flames.

00:59:40.000 And then it was just like somebody dumped gasoline on this thing.

00:59:44.000 I mean, the flames shot up hundreds of feet into the air.

00:59:49.000 And uh, my wife was on the balcony, you know, the house, and I'm kind of up on this little mountain.

00:59:53.000 I'm looking over, looking in her eyes.

00:59:55.000 I'm like, start packing up.

00:59:57.000 I'll go hook up the horse trailer, I'll be upset.

01:00:01.000 Let's load up and just, and you know, the wind was blowing.

01:00:06.000 Like offshore, then, you know, so the fire is like on the coast, you know, and just depending on where that, how that wind is blowing, you know, at the beginning it was blowing offshore, and then within a half an hour it just shot up the coastline and just ripped up through Malibu and burned all that coastline.

01:00:24.000 Like that's the stuff that you always thought was the safest, right?

01:00:28.000 You know, yeah.

01:00:29.000 And then the next day the wind shifts coming back on shore and it blows it back towards Burbank, you know, going back up like the Forth up that way, and then the winds are shifting again and then coming back across, you know.

01:00:41.000 So, I was amazed at the through some of the fires that I've been through, seeing the firefighters up there.

01:00:48.000 Those guys are incredible, man.

01:00:49.000 Those helicopter pilots, uh, the airplane pilots, seeing those tankers fly through there.

01:00:55.000 I mean, it's just incredible what those guys can do.

01:00:57.000 I mean, if it hadn't, I mean, they saved that whole canyon, yeah, of Topanga at least.

01:01:03.000 You know, it's like, man, there's so much brush in there that probably needs to burn, it's been accumulating over years, you know, and um. 0.97

01:01:10.000 Cutting those fire breaks and seeing them drop the retardant on the ridge lines and stuff, and watching the wind, it's just like, man, hats off to those guys. 0.98

01:01:19.000 Absolutely. 0.99

01:01:20.000 Yeah.

01:01:20.000 I mean, think about the amount of damage that was done in that fire and how much more would have been done if it wasn't for the firefighters.

01:01:27.000 That's how crazy it is.

01:01:28.000 Yeah.

01:01:30.000 Yeah, it is.

01:01:31.000 And I met one of the helicopter pilots.

01:01:34.000 I was on a flight somewhere.

01:01:36.000 And we just happened to be sitting next to each other and we were talking about it and just, you know, learning from him, you know, about, you know, the thermals that come up from underneath and trying to hold those helicopters in, you know, in formation and all of that stuff and how heavy they are when they're full.

01:01:53.000 And then as soon as you release all that water, whatever's in them, you know, all of a sudden that the power that they got, you know, throttle's full throttle, you know, when they're loaded down and then they, Drop all that water and then, you know, trying to get back a hold of it.

01:01:53.000 Right.

01:02:05.000 I never even thought of that.

01:02:08.000 And then you got 90 mile an hour winds blowing, and, you know, and I could see them from the house.

01:02:15.000 You know, there'd be like two or three helicopters that would come in, start dropping water, and then they would move out, and then the tank, the planes would come in, and then helicopters back in.

01:02:25.000 Then you had the guys on the ground, you know, trying to contain it as well.

01:02:29.000 Just the coordinated effort between them, you know.

01:02:33.000 I can imagine the conversations there.

01:02:34.000 Yeah.

01:02:35.000 Hey, man.

01:02:37.000 It's so crazy that they didn't have the reservoirs ready.

01:02:39.000 Oh, dude.

01:02:40.000 It's so sad.

01:02:42.000 I had Spencer Pratt on.

01:02:43.000 You know, he's running for mayor now.

01:02:45.000 He was explaining it, like how bad it was.

01:02:47.000 Yeah. 0.81

01:02:48.000 How do you fuck that up that bad?

01:02:51.000 It's devastating to hear that it's like, you know, that that stuff's coming. 0.90

01:02:55.000 Yeah.

01:02:56.000 You know?

01:02:56.000 It's just to not be prepared for that.

01:02:58.000 It's just unacceptable.

01:02:59.000 Complete incompetence.

01:03:01.000 Yeah.

01:03:01.000 It's just complete, total incompetence.

01:03:03.000 And yet they still, Are there.

01:03:08.000 Like, you're definitely not good at the job.

01:03:11.000 And yet, you don't take any personal responsibility and blame everybody else. 0.99

01:03:17.000 And the problem, it's just fucking, it's a problem that happens every few years. 0.98

01:03:23.000 Like, you're going to get fires, period. 0.99

01:03:26.000 The fact that you don't have a full reservoir is crazy.

01:03:29.000 It's crazy. 1.00

01:03:30.000 You should dump all your resources into fixing that fucking reservoir. 1.00

01:03:33.000 Stat. 1.00

01:03:34.000 Get that shit filled up. 1.00

01:03:35.000 The residents are more prepared than anybody. 1.00

01:03:38.000 You know, because I think they just.

01:03:40.000 Got to where you can't depend on it, you know?

01:03:43.000 I mean, I know our neighbors and stuff have a pretty good program in place.

01:03:47.000 We'll all get together and talk about, you know, who's got fire hoses and swimming pools with access to water and where, you know, evacuation plans.

01:03:55.000 Or, you know, there's some folks that have horses, but they don't even have a horse trailer up there.

01:04:00.000 And, you know, I'm like, okay, I'll come get yours too, or whatever, you know, we need to do.

01:04:04.000 And you kind of just have to have that mentality, I think, you know?

01:04:09.000 Yeah, definitely.

01:04:10.000 Definitely.

01:04:12.000 You know what's really freaking me out about the Palisades?

01:04:16.000 What is in the ground now? 0.99

01:04:19.000 You know, like how much toxic shit got melted into that ground? 0.99

01:04:23.000 Because think about how many people have electric cars now. 0.99

01:04:26.000 Well, all those old houses, too.

01:04:28.000 You know what I'm talking about?

01:04:29.000 The materials that they're made out of asbestos or lead.

01:04:33.000 I mean, the stuff in the air that was, even if you were several miles away from the actual fires, the wind and blowing all the ashes and the smoke and all that stuff over.

01:04:45.000 I remember going back up in there, you know, weeks and just trying to get stuff out of the house or whatever when they'd let us back up.

01:04:50.000 And you could still.

01:04:51.000 It would just make your throat hurt, you know, breathing that air and stuff.

01:04:55.000 So, right, that's bad stuff.

01:04:57.000 It's not just wood fire.

01:04:58.000 No, no.

01:04:58.000 Yeah.

01:04:59.000 Like chemicals.

01:05:00.000 Yeah, wood fire is hard enough, but the chemicals burnt TVs and computers and hard drives and electronics and refrigerators, treated lumber.

01:05:11.000 Yeah. 0.99

01:05:13.000 All that shit's going to get in your groundwater. 1.00

01:05:15.000 Like, it's on the surface. 1.00

01:05:17.000 It's going to rain.

01:05:18.000 It's going to seep through.

01:05:20.000 Like, what happens to the water?

01:05:21.000 Is anybody checking the water out there?

01:05:23.000 Yeah.

01:05:24.000 You know, you got to imagine.

01:05:27.000 Especially like Topanga.

01:05:27.000 I doubt it.

01:05:28.000 I bet a lot of folks have wells.

01:05:30.000 Don't you think?

01:05:31.000 I think there's some.

01:05:32.000 You know, it's definitely all like on septic up there, too.

01:05:35.000 I mean, all of that building code stuff's pretty crazy up there.

01:05:35.000 You know?

01:05:40.000 I don't know.

01:05:41.000 It's just a mess. 1.00

01:05:42.000 I would just worry about even breathing the air that has the dust of all that shit in it. 0.99

01:05:47.000 Like, I probably wouldn't want to live there anymore. 0.99

01:05:51.000 If I was in a place where all the houses burnt to the ground and I knew there was toxic shit in the ground, I'd be like, Hey, let's get the fuck out of here and sell our house to China. 0.99

01:06:01.000 Oh, man. 0.99

01:06:03.000 Because that was the other thing Spencer said.

01:06:04.000 They're the ones who are the number one land buyers in Palisades.

01:06:07.000 It's China.

01:06:08.000 Is it going to be a golf course resort up there before we know it?

01:06:13.000 Yeah.

01:06:13.000 Who knows?

01:06:14.000 Or affordable housing.

01:06:15.000 Yeah.

01:06:16.000 One or the other.

01:06:17.000 I don't know either.

01:06:18.000 But it's just, I really wonder what the long term damage of all those chemicals in the ground is.

01:06:18.000 I don't know.

01:06:25.000 It has to be pretty high.

01:06:28.000 Gotta be, you know.

01:06:29.000 You know, I was talking to some friends of mine out the other day that have grown up there, lived out there their whole lives, and you know, going over the Channel Islands, you know, they got those oil platforms out there in the water, and there's been oil spills obviously throughout there through history.

01:06:29.000 I don't know.

01:06:42.000 And, but also, like when you're surfing and stuff like that, there's oil that's been on top of the ground.

01:06:48.000 It's just like so surface level, it's been there for millions of years, you know.

01:06:51.000 And so, I don't know, you know, it's like I'm sure all the toxic stuff that, Happens, how long does it take for it to dilute?

01:06:59.000 You know, there's not much rain or the wind or like what, you know?

01:07:03.000 I'm not an expert on it, but I feel like Mother Nature takes pretty good care of herself.

01:07:08.000 You know, we're the ones in trouble, right?

01:07:11.000 Mother Nature will sort it out over time, but I just don't know how good it's going to be for the people that live there.

01:07:11.000 Right.

01:07:17.000 It can't be the long term, you know?

01:07:19.000 I have a buddy that has a house out there and he lost his house and burnt down and I asked him about it and he said, I think what they're going to do is take all the dirt out of their backyard and then replace the dirt.

01:07:29.000 And I'm like, okay.

01:07:32.000 I don't know if that's enough.

01:07:34.000 Because what about his dirt?

01:07:35.000 What about your neighbor's dirt? 0.99

01:07:36.000 What about all the toxic shit that's in his dirt that's going to get down into your ground as soon as it rains? 1.00

01:07:43.000 And also the air. 1.00

01:07:44.000 Along with all the Roundup and everything else coming down.

01:07:51.000 It's sad, man.

01:07:52.000 It's sad.

01:07:53.000 That's just the kind of state of it.

01:07:56.000 It seems like it's so far of a mess that even the folks that do have answers that do want to fix stuff, it just kind of becomes impossible for.

01:08:04.000 For any solution, you know, it's like all the red tape and all the hoops and things and all the permits or whatever.

01:08:10.000 Like, you can't even, you know, the road's blocked.

01:08:14.000 Okay, well, before we could even get somebody out here with a tractor to move the rocks, you got to call 10 other people to get it approved and then the process and then it's that.

01:08:22.000 And it's like, that's the part I'm just like, man, I wish I could just call Frank down the street with his bulldozer.

01:08:27.000 We'll just go, we'll just go move this right now, you know?

01:08:30.000 And it's like, you know?

01:08:32.000 Well, government has increased so much.

01:08:34.000 In California, and they just want more regulations so they could justify more government.

01:08:39.000 And so they just regulate themselves to a place where people just want to leave. 0.90

01:08:43.000 They just go, Look, I can't fucking do this anymore. 0.80

01:08:45.000 And it's expensive, man. 0.98

01:08:45.000 Let me get out of here. 0.98

01:08:47.000 It's so expensive to live there.

01:08:49.000 Meanwhile, it's beautiful.

01:08:51.000 It's such a great place. 1.00

01:08:52.000 They fucked it up so hard. 1.00

01:08:53.000 It's paradise. 1.00

01:08:54.000 It's paradise.

01:08:55.000 And the mountains within like two, three hours, you can be in the Sierras, you can be in the beach, or the mountains.

01:09:01.000 You can go skiing and then swim in the ocean on the same day.

01:09:05.000 It's gorgeous.

01:09:06.000 Yeah.

01:09:07.000 Beautiful places I've ever been.

01:09:08.000 Yosemite.

01:09:09.000 I mean, get out of town.

01:09:10.000 Yeah.

01:09:10.000 You know?

01:09:11.000 Incredible weather.

01:09:12.000 Kern River.

01:09:13.000 Yeah.

01:09:14.000 Man, it's beautiful.

01:09:15.000 But.

01:09:16.000 They got ruined.

01:09:18.000 They got ruined with progressive politics and bureaucracy that just ramped up all the control they have over people to the point where you can't even buy flavored Zins.

01:09:31.000 They banned blackjack.

01:09:33.000 You can't have blackjack anymore.

01:09:35.000 They just stopped blackjacking the casinos, they stopped flavored Zins.

01:09:40.000 They just regulated into oblivion.

01:09:42.000 There are all these people that want to be the mommy of the world.

01:09:47.000 And tell you what to do. 1.00

01:09:49.000 Like, fuck off. 1.00

01:09:50.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:09:51.000 Like, fuck off with all your goddamn rules. 1.00

01:09:54.000 You're just making your government bigger so you can justify all these fucking rules. 1.00

01:09:59.000 And you need the rules for the government to sustain itself. 0.97

01:10:03.000 So you just keep adding more rules and adding more government.

01:10:06.000 Yeah.

01:10:06.000 We were reading about it the other day.

01:10:08.000 Like, what was the number that California's government went up by like 24% and their population went up by like 1%?

01:10:16.000 I know.

01:10:17.000 Now you're kind of running out of places to go.

01:10:20.000 I forget what the actual numbers were that we found, but it's.

01:10:23.000 Yeah.

01:10:24.000 I'm always looking for hideouts, you know, to kind of get away from.

01:10:27.000 It's like, man, you find a spot to go to, you kind of don't want to tell nobody about it.

01:10:31.000 I know, right?

01:10:32.000 You know, that's what I hear about West Texas.

01:10:34.000 I think that's what's hard about Montana, you know, when I first started going up there years ago.

01:10:39.000 I mean, it was just such a, and still is, it's a paradise.

01:10:42.000 It's just, you know, and I think that's probably what a lot of people are upset about.

01:10:46.000 It lived up there.

01:10:47.000 It's like, man, the secret got out a little.

01:10:49.000 Bit and I can understand that, but I get it, I get it from their perspective.

01:10:54.000 Where's the next place?

01:10:55.000 You know, the thing about Montana, though, or like Wyoming another example is that winter will thin the herd, it's like West Texas, like that's funny.

01:11:05.000 Same kind of thing, like you know, Marfa and out in that area.

01:11:08.000 You know, I grew up all out there going to junior rodeos and all kinds of stuff, and it was just ranches, you know, and you know, local diners and stuff like that, and you know.

01:11:18.000 I hear people going out there and buying houses and all that stuff.

01:11:21.000 Then they go out there for like a week and they realize that the only thing open at night is the Dairy Queen.

01:11:27.000 They're heading back to New York pretty quick.

01:11:29.000 Yeah.

01:11:31.000 Those winds thin them out.

01:11:31.000 You're right about Montana.

01:11:33.000 The winter gets you.

01:11:34.000 The winter's rough, it's cold.

01:11:39.000 The first time I ever went hunting was with Ranella.

01:11:41.000 That's where I got that mule deer that's on the table right there.

01:11:44.000 And it was nine degrees in October and we're camping.

01:11:49.000 And so we're sleeping on the ground at nine degrees.

01:11:51.000 I'm like, bro. 0.99

01:11:52.000 How did these fucking people. 0.99

01:11:54.000 And you also, you go by these old homesteads. 0.99

01:11:58.000 So they were giving land out there for people.

01:12:01.000 You just, you can get a chunk of land, just start farming on it, and the government was encouraging people to go there.

01:12:06.000 But it's all this like muddy ground.

01:12:06.000 Yeah, prove it up.

01:12:11.000 Like the ground is like mucky.

01:12:13.000 Like when you hike in it after a while, your boots are so heavy because they're just thick with this clay.

01:12:20.000 Yeah, just muck all over your boots.

01:12:23.000 And so it's not.

01:12:24.000 Fertile.

01:12:24.000 It's not good, like in the Missouri Breaks, like that area.

01:12:27.000 It's not good for growing things.

01:12:29.000 So you find these abandoned homesteads.

01:12:32.000 It's really eerie, man.

01:12:34.000 You just think like this family that came out here in the 1800s and they tried to set up shop and maybe got killed by Indians.

01:12:43.000 All the way. 0.97

01:12:43.000 Maybe. 0.97

01:12:44.000 I think about my family and I've got stories of them settling in New Mexico and coming out on a covered wagon with maybe a steer and a pig.

01:12:55.000 And then, like, yeah, here's you.

01:12:56.000 A bunch of acres, and you got to prove it up, you know, and dig a hole in the ground is what they're living in a dugout, you know, and dig a hole in the ground that's where you're living.

01:13:04.000 And you try to build a ranch out of it.

01:13:06.000 I always laugh.

01:13:09.000 I was talking to family or my grandparents, I was like, Why did y'all stop here?

01:13:14.000 You just like you were so beat down, you're like, Oh, this is the driest, flattest place, you know, but we're here, the most roughest, you know.

01:13:23.000 I was like, It's only maybe another thousand miles out to California, or just keep going.

01:13:28.000 They're like, Nope, this is it, we're done, you know.

01:13:30.000 Yeah, I guess people didn't know what they were going to find if they kept going either.

01:13:34.000 Like, you want to keep going for like another month?

01:13:37.000 Oh, yeah, just miles and miles of more desert and no water.

01:13:42.000 I mean, how long would that wagon trail take?

01:13:45.000 Weeks.

01:13:46.000 Yeah, even just like Missouri, Texas, and then out to through, even like just going through West Texas to get to, you know, Southeast New Mexico and all that.

01:13:55.000 And you're, you know, that's just rough country.

01:13:57.000 And people have always been tough out there to survive out there.

01:14:00.000 And you're stuck.

01:14:02.000 Yeah. 0.99

01:14:02.000 You're a sitting duck. 0.99

01:14:03.000 You're slow moving with a wagon pulling the horse, and you got all your shit in the wagon, and they just looking at you from the hills. 1.00

01:14:10.000 Yeah. 0.99

01:14:12.000 Wasn't glamorous.

01:14:14.000 I know my granddad was a pretty tough old guy and as real a cowboy as you'd ever want to know or meet, but he wasn't really one to ever brag or fantasize or romanticize about the cowboy stuff because it wasn't romantic.

01:14:14.000 No.

01:14:33.000 Then you know it was survival and it was rough and it was work and you know had no running water. 0.83

01:14:38.000 I remember him having a conversation with this guy, and he was like some like a tech guy, you know, invented all this website shit or whatever.

01:14:47.000 And he was asking my granddad, He said, 'You know, what's the most important invention of your lifetime?' And I think he was expecting my granddad to say, 'The computer or the internet.' And my granddad said, 'Refrigeration.' Was the most important invented, you know?

01:15:02.000 Yeah.

01:15:03.000 When he was growing up, he was like, they had no way to keep their food cold, you know, other than like a root cellar.

01:15:08.000 You kept it underground, you know?

01:15:09.000 So it was just a perspective, you know?

01:15:12.000 I think everybody was surprised to hear it, yeah.

01:15:14.000 Well, I think people are so accustomed to electricity and so accustomed to things like refrigeration.

01:15:19.000 Just like.

01:15:19.000 Yeah.

01:15:20.000 They're running water, yeah.

01:15:21.000 Yeah.

01:15:22.000 I mean, when there was no refrigeration, you had to eat what you had, you know, like that day, and then the next day you had to get something else.

01:15:30.000 Yeah.

01:15:31.000 And.

01:15:32.000 Unless you knew a place that was an ice house, you know, that would get a giant chunk of ice and you could have an ice box and stick it in there and cool things. 1.00

01:15:43.000 Like, you're fucked. 1.00

01:15:44.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:15:45.000 You're on your own.

01:15:46.000 Yeah.

01:15:47.000 Well, you had to learn how to dry meat.

01:15:49.000 That was a lot of it.

01:15:50.000 Make pemmican, dry meat, make things that'll survive and last.

01:15:57.000 And, you know, that's also how market hunting almost wiped out all the deer in this country because people needed fresh meat every day.

01:16:05.000 So they were just shooting everything that.

01:16:07.000 Existed.

01:16:08.000 And then finally they started looking around and going, hey, we lost all the elk.

01:16:08.000 Yeah.

01:16:12.000 There's no more deer left. 1.00

01:16:13.000 Like, let's make some fucking regulations on this shit. 1.00

01:16:16.000 And they stopped market hunting. 1.00

01:16:19.000 I did not know that.

01:16:20.000 Yeah.

01:16:20.000 It's interesting.

01:16:21.000 Yeah.

01:16:21.000 Beginning of the 1800s, by the time, I guess, when did they start doing regulations in terms of hunting regulations in this country?

01:16:34.000 Because obviously they wiped out almost entirely the American bison, they were almost gone.

01:16:40.000 And you know, a lot of that was just for tongues. 1.00

01:16:40.000 Completely. 1.00

01:16:43.000 Nah, man, it's crazy.

01:16:44.000 Yeah, they would send them back each.

01:16:46.000 They would pickle their tongues.

01:16:47.000 Didn't Steve Ronella have a song on a show? 0.65

01:16:50.000 My buddy was telling me.

01:16:52.000 I haven't seen it yet.

01:16:52.000 It's really interesting.

01:16:54.000 He's talking about the history of the bison and hunting and all of that.

01:16:56.000 Yeah.

01:16:57.000 Yeah, I think his book's called American Buffalo, but it's really good.

01:17:02.000 First hunting regulations appeared in colonial laws in the 1600s, mainly as seasonal closed seasons for certain game like deer.

01:17:11.000 In terms of nationwide U.S. law, the first major federal game protection statute was the Lacey Act of 1900, which targeted commercial and market hunting and interstate trade in illegally taken wildlife.

01:17:25.000 Yeah, there was elk in every state.

01:17:27.000 Yeah.

01:17:27.000 And we wiped them out, and there was deer in every state.

01:17:30.000 But now there's more deer than there ever has been before, which is interesting.

01:17:35.000 Congress passed the Lacey Act.

01:17:38.000 When modern regulations start, so the 1900s, most states had game and fish commissions, hunting seasons, bag limits, and license requirements, all reinforced by federal laws like the Lacey Act and later migratory bird protections.

01:17:54.000 Well, it's amazing that they did that.

01:17:57.000 We have an amazing system, too.

01:17:59.000 Like the fact that the United States has so much public land, you know, there's so many different places where people can go and they can hike.

01:18:07.000 They can white water wrap, they can fish, they can hunt, they can camp.

01:18:12.000 I mean, we're unlike any country when it comes to that. 0.94

01:18:15.000 It's like the amount of land that we have that's available to Americans, that every, it's public for everybody, is fucking incredible. 0.97

01:18:23.000 Yeah.

01:18:25.000 Being up in Montana, New Mexico's like that too, and California, but up in Montana, what I love, you know, staying in that wilderness area, like that little cabin that I stayed in, you know, probably didn't have much land with the cabin, but man, there's thousands and thousands of acres of.

01:18:40.000 Wilderness public land with dirt roads everywhere.

01:18:43.000 And man, I would, you know, on those days off that I had, I would just drive back in there for miles, man, and just see the most beautiful country, you know.

01:18:53.000 And I'd haul my horse back in the way that the trail heads and just go explore stuff, you know.

01:18:57.000 And you'd go over one ridge into the next, and there's a waterfall, and there's another drainage.

01:19:04.000 And it's just like, you know, and this is the wilderness area too.

01:19:07.000 This isn't even a national park.

01:19:09.000 You know, I was like, man, this is beautiful country as I've, I've, Ever seen?

01:19:13.000 Did you run into any grizzlies?

01:19:15.000 I never did.

01:19:16.000 You know, I was always on my toes about it.

01:19:19.000 And I'd talk, you know, knowing Remy up there, he knew that area really well.

01:19:22.000 So I'd kind of ask him spots to go check out and about bears and stuff.

01:19:27.000 And he said, man, there weren't too many grizzlies back in there, but you never know, you know, especially coming over from Idaho and stuff like that.

01:19:33.000 So I never did.

01:19:34.000 I've run into some black bears, never in any wolves and all that.

01:19:39.000 But, you know, I don't know, maybe being horseback too.

01:19:44.000 A lot of those places I never did.

01:19:44.000 I don't know.

01:19:46.000 But, I definitely had my eyes open.

01:19:50.000 Yeah, that's another animal that they want to list again and make them available for hunting, particularly in Montana and Wyoming.

01:19:58.000 They just have a lot of grizzlies.

01:19:59.000 Yeah.

01:20:00.000 They have a lot, and people don't want you to shoot them.

01:20:03.000 They think of it as trophy hunting or whatever it is.

01:20:06.000 It's tough, man.

01:20:07.000 But, man, you live, like you said, like those folks that live back up in there.

01:20:11.000 You know, all they have is their neighbors and people to depend on, you know.

01:20:14.000 And it's like, man, you get mauled by a bear taking your trash out.

01:20:17.000 Or something like that.

01:20:18.000 That's what your experience is with them.

01:20:23.000 Everybody wants to keep them as pets until they're in the backyard with you.

01:20:27.000 Yeah.

01:20:28.000 They don't play by the rules.

01:20:30.000 They don't play by the rules, and they're 900 pounds.

01:20:32.000 Good luck. 1.00

01:20:33.000 A 900 pound giant fucking wild animal that eats everything it can. 1.00

01:20:38.000 Even like that lion hanging around my house. 1.00

01:20:38.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:20:40.000 I was like, man, cool.

01:20:42.000 You're fine.

01:20:42.000 But why don't you go on down the road?

01:20:44.000 Yeah.

01:20:47.000 I don't need you in my backyard.

01:20:48.000 The thing is that you can't do anything about it either. 1.00

01:20:50.000 In Texas, you could just shoot them. 1.00

01:20:52.000 Yeah. 0.99

01:20:53.000 Yeah, we don't have that problem.

01:20:55.000 Yeah, that's how it should be.

01:20:56.000 Yeah.

01:20:57.000 Like, you shouldn't have wild monsters living in your yard.

01:21:00.000 No.

01:21:01.000 And you should have the right to decide that for yourself.

01:21:04.000 100%.

01:21:05.000 Not only that, they're going to be fine.

01:21:07.000 There's still going to be plenty of them.

01:21:09.000 Yeah. 0.98

01:21:09.000 Okay, but it'll probably be a more healthy number if they get whacked whenever they eat someone's dog. 0.98

01:21:14.000 Yeah, and have a healthy respect for coming in your backyard or coming after your animals or your kids.

01:21:18.000 Yeah.

01:21:19.000 Yeah.

01:21:20.000 They should understand that.

01:21:22.000 But just like, we're so goofy, we make laws.

01:21:26.000 To protect them that don't protect us.

01:21:29.000 Like, help me out.

01:21:30.000 Like, do you love animals more than people?

01:21:33.000 Like, I love animals, but I'm on team people.

01:21:37.000 100%.

01:21:37.000 Yeah.

01:21:38.000 Yeah.

01:21:39.000 Everybody else is cool, but team people first.

01:21:42.000 You know, oh, we got monsters in our neighborhood?

01:21:42.000 Yeah.

01:21:45.000 And then, no, We got to kill the monsters so that the kids can play outside. 0.97

01:21:48.000 You don't have to worry about them getting eaten. 0.97

01:21:51.000 Yeah.

01:21:51.000 Me too.

01:21:51.000 I mean, growing up ranching or farming or whatever, I mean, that's your job is to take care of animals, you know?

01:21:58.000 It's animal husbandry.

01:21:58.000 Yeah.

01:21:59.000 It's, it's, that's your job.

01:22:01.000 I mean, to, Take care and provide for these animals to provide food for your family, you know, and the wildlife that's around it, you know, it's like, and to take care of the land and the dirt and the water and the grasses and all of that stuff has to be supporting each other to make it all work, you know.

01:22:21.000 And at the end of the day, I just feel like we've just lost touch with that, you know.

01:22:26.000 It's urban environments, it's unnatural environments that have given people this delusional idea of what our relationship is with nature.

01:22:35.000 And, you know, people just think food comes from.

01:22:37.000 Restaurant, yeah, and you know, the ground is for streets, and you drive sidewalks, yeah, just pave it all.

01:22:45.000 It's all just this delusional perspective that comes from that sort of urban existence.

01:22:51.000 And I just think that's why people that live in the country and live in you know environments where you're like Alaska, where you're confronted by nature, they're like more interesting people, they're more robust, they're cooler.

01:23:04.000 Were you saying out there earlier that you rode bulls?

01:23:08.000 Mm hmm.

01:23:09.000 Yeah.

01:23:09.000 Dude.

01:23:11.000 How many times?

01:23:13.000 Shoot, I started when I was a kid, you know, riding steers when I was like 10 in the junior rodeos. 0.99

01:23:18.000 You were 10 years old and someone let you ride a fucking steer? 0.99

01:23:18.000 And then. 0.99

01:23:23.000 Really?

01:23:24.000 It was just like Little League Baseball, you know, when I grew up.

01:23:24.000 That's.

01:23:29.000 So a steer is a bull that doesn't have its nuts.

01:23:32.000 And so how much less do they kick when they don't have their nuts?

01:23:32.000 Yeah.

01:23:36.000 Oh, they're a lot.

01:23:36.000 They're pretty docile.

01:23:37.000 Oh, they found video.

01:23:40.000 How old are you here?

01:23:42.000 This is, I was like 17.

01:23:43.000 This is in Monterey, Mexico, actually.

01:23:46.000 Wow.

01:23:48.000 Why in Mexico? 0.99

01:23:49.000 Look at you, dog. 1.00

01:23:52.000 Damn, that's crazy. 1.00

01:23:55.000 Damn, dude, you're good. 1.00

01:23:58.000 And you got off without getting stomped, too. 0.99

01:24:00.000 Is it just knowing when to release?

01:24:02.000 Yeah, you got to know when to get off.

01:24:05.000 That's for sure.

01:24:06.000 And right there.

01:24:07.000 You're like, that's a wrap.

01:24:09.000 Yeah, he kind of bucked me off there.

01:24:10.000 He kind of had me over to the side in the air, you know, but that's a good time to check out.

01:24:14.000 There's like that gray zone, you know.

01:24:16.000 Either that or you hang on and you end up underneath them.

01:24:19.000 You started out when you were 10 years old, though.

01:24:22.000 How wild are your parents?

01:24:23.000 Like, yeah, that's a good age.

01:24:24.000 Yeah, well, they've, you know, they've ransed and grew up out there, and my.

01:24:28.000 My uncle rode bulls professionally.

01:24:30.000 Oh, really?

01:24:31.000 Yeah.

01:24:32.000 And that's kind of how I got into it, too.

01:24:34.000 I looked up to him a lot and see pictures of him riding bulls.

01:24:38.000 And then it was just around.

01:24:39.000 And I was like, I wanted to try that, you know?

01:24:42.000 And man, I just got the bug for it, like, super young.

01:24:45.000 I was like, just ate up with it.

01:24:47.000 Wow.

01:24:48.000 From 10 years old.

01:24:49.000 That's nuts.

01:24:50.000 Yeah.

01:24:51.000 And so, how do you teach someone how to fall off of a bull without getting stomped when they're 10?

01:24:56.000 Well, when you're riding those little steers, you know, a lot of time they cut bulls and turn them to steers because it makes them a lot more docile.

01:25:02.000 What are you talking about?

01:25:03.000 Steers are typically like 600 pounds, 600, 700 pounds, compared to a 1,500 pound bull that's aggressive and back that wide and horns like that.

01:25:16.000 They're like little steers.

01:25:18.000 I remember my dad or uncle would get in the shoot with me and hold their horns.

01:25:23.000 They just kind of run out there and jump and kick and just fall off on the side.

01:25:27.000 Not too bad.

01:25:28.000 And then you kind of graduate up into the junior bulls and then the bigger bulls and then.

01:25:35.000 The harder they buck, you know.

01:25:37.000 So there's kind of different levels you can progress as you go.

01:25:41.000 But it was a lot different deal back then when I was riding.

01:25:43.000 It was really before the PBR started, you know, there was no helmets, there was no vests, there was like none of that stuff.

01:25:49.000 It was just old school rodeo, you know.

01:25:53.000 But at the same time, I say that, but you know, it's evolved in such a sport now.

01:25:59.000 Like the bulls are just so much ranker now than they were back then, you know.

01:26:03.000 It's like now they're breeding them like racehorses and the genetics where every one of those bulls.

01:26:09.000 You know, bucks, you know, and like you got to go to get on three or four of them in the night.

01:26:12.000 You know, back when I was doing it, we'd go to the, they were still kind of full rodeos with all the other events.

01:26:18.000 And, you know, out of 15 or 20 bulls, there might be one or two in there that were like bad to get on that would hurt you, you know.

01:26:25.000 The rest of them were pretty rideable, you know, just to say so.

01:26:29.000 And, you know, we're smoking cigarettes and drinking beer back behind the sheets.

01:26:33.000 So, you know, that kind of a thing, you know, we weren't training and doing yoga.

01:26:37.000 And I like how these guys are today.

01:26:42.000 You know, but I loved it.

01:26:43.000 I had so much fun and I loved the road part of it.

01:26:46.000 You know, get in the truck with your best buds and go down the road on the weekends, and there was always a band playing.

01:26:52.000 And, you know, it was just so much fun.

01:26:55.000 I loved the culture of it and it was just good times, you know.

01:27:00.000 How many times do you think you've rode bulls?

01:27:02.000 I mean, I rode until I was about 23.

01:27:05.000 From 10 to 23.

01:27:07.000 Wow.

01:27:07.000 That was all I ever wanted to do.

01:27:09.000 Yeah, I wanted to just ride bulls, yeah.

01:27:09.000 Really?

01:27:13.000 And, uh, You know, I rode in high school.

01:27:15.000 I rode junior rodeos, rode Bulls in high school.

01:27:17.000 And then I went to Tarleton State in Stephenville and rode Bulls for Tarleton.

01:27:22.000 And then I got my pro card for a couple of years.

01:27:26.000 And that was when, like, the PBR was starting up and all of that.

01:27:29.000 Wow.

01:27:30.000 It got intense.

01:27:34.000 There's a picture of you backwards on one.

01:27:36.000 What, Jamie?

01:27:37.000 There's one picture I just lost.

01:27:38.000 He was backwards on it.

01:27:39.000 Oh, yeah.

01:27:40.000 I was probably getting dusted.

01:27:43.000 Oh, no.

01:27:43.000 That's not backwards.

01:27:46.000 That guy is riding backwards.

01:27:48.000 Oh, it is backwards.

01:27:49.000 I don't know if that was on purpose. 0.77

01:27:54.000 That seems like a ridiculous thing. 0.92

01:27:55.000 He pulled it off if he did. 0.99

01:27:57.000 What a terrible choice.

01:28:00.000 Yeah.

01:28:01.000 It was cool, though.

01:28:02.000 I loved it, man.

01:28:03.000 I loved it.

01:28:05.000 How do you go from that to anything else?

01:28:08.000 Like, how do you stop riding bulls and eventually become an actor and a singer?

01:28:13.000 It was all very much a kind of a natural progression, you know.

01:28:17.000 Since I was a kid at the junior rodeos, there was always a dance afterward and a band playing, you know.

01:28:17.000 Really?

01:28:22.000 And it was a very much a family community deal, you know.

01:28:25.000 Like, you go to these towns and there was the junior rodeo going on and then the dance, the street dance and food and music and, you know, growing up listening to bands play, especially in Texas.

01:28:37.000 You know, you got all the guys like Gary P. Nunn.

01:28:39.000 I remember he always played the dance halls, and you get Robert O'Keefe and some of the, you know, hearing those bands.

01:28:46.000 And I moved to Laredo, Texas when I was like 16 or 17, with my dad and my mother had bought me a guitar and didn't know how to play it much.

01:28:58.000 And I walked into this place my dad was living at, and he was playing dominoes with these guys.

01:29:03.000 And this guy saw my guitar and he's like, Yeah, you know how to play that thing?

01:29:06.000 I said, No.

01:29:07.000 And he said, Well, let me see it.

01:29:09.000 And he picked it up and he played this.

01:29:10.000 Killer, like mariachi song called La Malagagagna, and I was just fascinated with it.

01:29:15.000 I was just like, Wow, I can't believe he made that guitar sound like that!

01:29:18.000 You know, I've been dragging that thing around for a couple years, I didn't even know how to tune it up.

01:29:22.000 And then he's like, You want to learn how to play this guitar?

01:29:25.000 I said, Yeah, he said, Let me show you this song.

01:29:28.000 He taught me the Malagagagagagna, it had a couple little parts, you know, a finger picking part, a strumming part, and it really kind of gave me that foundation, you know, just kind of those few little tools.

01:29:39.000 And then I went up to Stephenville to ride bulls at Tarleton after that, and uh.

01:29:44.000 A couple other friends that I'd met there that rodeoed could play the guitar a little bit, and they had bands that played every weekend in the town.

01:29:51.000 There's a little bar there called City Limits where all these bands would come play, like Jason Bolin and the Cross Canadian Rag Week guys, and Pat Green and Robert O'Keefe, like all the Texas guys would come play, you know.

01:30:02.000 So I was like, I went from being on the border to kind of just mostly like the Carillos and Tejano bands that I would see, which was really cool.

01:30:10.000 But when I got up there, I was like, oh man, there's all these like cool kind of songs, you know, guys writing the original music and songs and playing in bands.

01:30:19.000 We'd go watch them all the time.

01:30:21.000 And as I was still rodeoing, the only song I knew was that Malagaina tune.

01:30:27.000 So I was like, I got to come up with some new stuff.

01:30:29.000 This is all I know how to play.

01:30:30.000 So I went and got a book of chords to teach myself some new chords on the guitar.

01:30:34.000 And I just learned one or two at a time and I'd start making up songs about our adventures on the weekends.

01:30:40.000 A lot of it was just sitting in the back of the truck and being in places where you didn't have radio signal or nothing to really listen to.

01:30:47.000 You're tired of listening to the same old stuff.

01:30:49.000 And I'd make up songs and then.

01:30:51.000 Whatever town we would get to, my buddies be like, Man, play that song, and you were singing in the back seat, you know.

01:30:56.000 And so that's how the whole songwriting thing started.

01:30:59.000 And then, um, I ended up getting a job working for a guy named Mac Altizer, he had a rodeo company called Bag Company Rodeo in Del Rio.

01:31:08.000 And I'd ridden bulls at some of his rodeos and knew him, my uncle had known him, you know, over the years, and so I was kind of familiar with that whole thing.

01:31:17.000 And uh, started working for him on the ranch and helping with some of the rodeo stuff and still riding bulls.

01:31:23.000 And he found out that I could play the guitar.

01:31:26.000 And sing a few songs.

01:31:28.000 And he always had a party at the rodeo.

01:31:29.000 He was kind of notorious and famous for having like just awesome parties.

01:31:33.000 And he's like, Man, all right, Bingham, get your guitar.

01:31:35.000 You're going to play like the after party, you know, and pull the flatbed trailer up there for the hospitality tent for all the contestants after the rodeo.

01:31:42.000 And those are like the first, he really encouraged me to like start playing for people and doing that.

01:31:47.000 And then it would just spill over into the bars afterwards after the rodeo.

01:31:50.000 And everybody would end up going to the bar.

01:31:52.000 And everybody was like, Bingham, bring your guitar with you.

01:31:55.000 And I started getting gigs in the bars.

01:31:58.000 The bars would ask me if I wanted to come back and play.

01:32:01.000 And just after, like, I feel like a few years of that, it was just like, you know, I was kind of a weekend warrior riding bulls.

01:32:08.000 I was definitely not making a living doing it.

01:32:10.000 I always had to have a day job during the week, you know, either working on the ranch or doing something.

01:32:16.000 And I started getting to where I could go to these bars and make like a hundred bucks in tips, you know, within a couple of hours and get free beer and free food.

01:32:25.000 And I was like, man, this is almost as much as I made all day digging holes with the shovel.

01:32:31.000 It didn't take me long to figure out that that was pretty cool.

01:32:34.000 And I was just like, I'm going to stick with it.

01:32:38.000 What an organic sort of a journey, you know, like a natural progression.

01:32:44.000 Yeah, and I didn't have high expectations, you know, but I just like, and I was talking about kind of community in this Austin area and in Texas in general.

01:32:52.000 It's just like, man, people were so supportive then.

01:32:54.000 I'm just like, if you had a song to play it, people love live music.

01:32:57.000 They're like, yeah, get up and play, you know, like Mac with the rodeo company and all the guys that worked there Dave Jennings and Casey and Smurt.

01:33:06.000 There's a whole crew that.

01:33:07.000 The bad company crew from those days, and they always had kind of the bad company house band, too, where everybody would get up and try to play a song.

01:33:13.000 It's just like, man, we don't care if it's any good or not, just get up there and play.

01:33:17.000 We're all in it together.

01:33:19.000 And there were so many like places that were like that.

01:33:21.000 I don't think if I was in that environment, I probably would have never pursued it.

01:33:25.000 You know, I just had so many people, you know, supporting you and encouraging you to try it.

01:33:29.000 And it took me a long time, you know, to work stuff out and learn because I didn't have any really formal music.

01:33:37.000 Musical background or lessons or training.

01:33:40.000 I'd have really just learned it on the road and playing in bars and from other musicians.

01:33:45.000 Yeah.

01:33:45.000 Really?

01:33:46.000 So no lessons at all.

01:33:47.000 Just kind of figuring it out along the way.

01:33:49.000 Yeah.

01:33:50.000 Well, they got, you know, the guy taught me the La Malagagagna there, but then after that it was just, you know, anybody else who had a guitar and might know a song, you know, I'm like, oh, what cool, how do you play that chord?

01:34:00.000 You know, like, oh, you play it like this, you know?

01:34:05.000 Wow.

01:34:06.000 So how many years were you doing that before you got Yellowstone?

01:34:13.000 Oh gosh, for a while.

01:34:15.000 I mean, I think my, you know, I was 22 or something like that in Stephenville, you know, Ryan Bulls, starting to play songs, trying to play gigs.

01:34:28.000 After, you know, ended up moving down here to New Bromfields and the Austin area playing music for a while and then ended up going out to Los Angeles and playing and then hit the road with a band for, I think I had four or five albums or so.

01:34:43.000 You know, out, you know, and been touring for five or six years.

01:34:47.000 I think how old was I like when Yellowstone started, like 36, 37.

01:34:54.000 So, yeah, I'd been playing, doing the music stuff for a long time.

01:34:59.000 And so, how did the Yellowstone go from music to Yellowstone?

01:35:02.000 Like, how did you even do any acting before that?

01:35:06.000 No, I'd been one of, I'd done a film with Jeff Bridges years ago called Crazy Heart and wrote some songs for that movie.

01:35:13.000 And that was really my own thing.

01:35:15.000 That was a good movie.

01:35:17.000 It was pretty cool.

01:35:18.000 I was just like, Jeff Bridges plays a musician in the show, and we're like the backup band at the bowling alley for one of the scenes, which was really cool.

01:35:29.000 And then, written some songs for some other films and some TV shows since then.

01:35:34.000 I met a guy named John Linson out in Los Angeles, a producer, and him and his dad, Art Linson, they did like Sons of Anarchy, a bunch of shows, and a bunch of great movies.

01:35:48.000 He introduced me to Taylor, and Taylor was, I think it was that movie Wind River, his first movie.

01:35:54.000 I'd met Taylor and just kind of talked about music and stuff, and he wanted me to write a song for Wind River.

01:36:00.000 And I'd given it a shot a couple times, never really had anything that fit for what he wanted, but he ended up using a song that I'd already written.

01:36:08.000 And we just kind of kept in touch, and then when the Yellowstone thing came up, he got in touch again about writing some songs for the show.

01:36:16.000 And then he learned that I used to do all the rodeo stuff, I think, and grew up ranching, and he's like, well, shoot, you can.

01:36:21.000 Do a lot of this stuff.

01:36:22.000 I got to find a way to get you in the show, you know.

01:36:25.000 And it literally went from the conversation, it was like, Well, I don't know what I'm going to do with you, but I'll find something to do with you, you know. 1.00

01:36:32.000 And he literally said, He's like, You know, if you do good, I'll, you know, you guys, if you suck, I'll kill you off. 0.99

01:36:38.000 If you do good, I'll keep you on. 1.00

01:36:41.000 Something like that, you know.

01:36:42.000 And I'm like, Yeah, I'm good.

01:36:44.000 You have no formal acting like training or anything?

01:36:47.000 No, not at all.

01:36:49.000 That's what's amazing, dude.

01:36:50.000 You're really good.

01:36:51.000 Oh, I appreciate that, you know.

01:36:54.000 I get to kind of play a cowboy and be a little bit of myself.

01:36:57.000 Yeah, I appreciate it.

01:36:58.000 But that role's got some complexity to it.

01:37:01.000 It's not just a cowboy.

01:37:03.000 It's like you've got some complicated scenes, you know, some emotional scenes, some deep scenes, and you're really good, man.

01:37:10.000 That's impressive.

01:37:10.000 Thank you.

01:37:12.000 I appreciate that.

01:37:13.000 I enjoyed it, you know.

01:37:14.000 I hadn't done much acting at all.

01:37:16.000 And I got to give a lot of credit to the actors that are on the show, too, you know, those folks that have really studied it and paid their dues learning that craft, you know, they.

01:37:27.000 Really create the environment, you know, especially for me not knowing much about it, you know, and just kind of being a part of the scene.

01:37:33.000 Like, they're so good that.

01:37:35.000 They make you react in a certain way.

01:37:37.000 Right.

01:37:38.000 You know, they know how to get it out of you.

01:37:40.000 Yeah.

01:37:40.000 You know, Cole and Kelly and Luke and all those folks, you know, they're like, they know how to set up the scene and they know what they're doing.

01:37:47.000 So they already kind of have the whole thing set up.

01:37:50.000 And so when I walk into a scene and they say they're lying to me, it's just like, oh, okay.

01:37:55.000 Yeah, I got to answer.

01:37:56.000 Right.

01:37:57.000 I'm just like, kind of like naturally answering that, you know?

01:38:01.000 Right, right.

01:38:02.000 Yeah.

01:38:02.000 It's like, if you work with a really good actor, sometimes you forget their acting.

01:38:06.000 You're like, oh, Oh, like, oh, yeah, we're acting like you seem like this is really happening, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:38:12.000 For me, like, I think it was moments when I thought it was really happening.

01:38:15.000 Yeah, how long did it take before you got comfortable like doing that on camera?

01:38:19.000 Still not, really, yeah, still not, yeah.

01:38:22.000 Well, you play it off good.

01:38:23.000 Well, thanks, you know.

01:38:25.000 I think some of it comes from the riding bulls, you know, you learn how to channel that anxiety or fear into just like, oh, okay, it's go time, let's just like, dude, pull it together and channel that, you know.

01:38:37.000 If you could ride a bull, I think you could kind of do basically anything.

01:38:41.000 Man, I, you know, that's one thing my uncle taught me when I was young.

01:38:44.000 You know, he was really quick to be like, Man, it doesn't matter how strong you are, you know, it's not about it, it's all mental, it's all in your mind.

01:38:52.000 And it's all, it's not, I think I can, it's, I know I can and I will.

01:38:58.000 You know, and he goes, If you don't believe that every time you go put your rope on one of those, on their backs, he's like, It ain't gonna happen.

01:39:06.000 You know, he says, You don't, it's not being cocky, it's just being confident, you know, and believing in yourself and having that.

01:39:06.000 Yeah.

01:39:14.000 That power of mind over matter, you know.

01:39:17.000 Yeah, if you could do that, acting is easy and take that in anything in life, yeah.

01:39:21.000 And I do because I definitely have moments where you know I'm like, okay, take a deep breath, right?

01:39:28.000 It's go time, let's go, you know.

01:39:30.000 Well, especially having more than a decade of doing that with bulls like that, that's so uncontrollable.

01:39:39.000 Like, it is like you're at the mercy of fate and how this plays out, yeah.

01:39:45.000 And you have this enormous beast, and you've chosen to. 0.81

01:39:49.000 To scare the shit out of yourself, get on top of this thing and try to ride it. 0.78

01:39:53.000 You chose it to join the dance. 0.91

01:39:54.000 Yeah.

01:39:55.000 If you can do that, if you can do that and be successful at that, I kind of think you could do anything. 0.98

01:40:01.000 I think that, I mean, I wouldn't want my kid to do it at 10, but fuck, it's probably, if they could survive, pretty valuable. 0.98

01:40:08.000 I laugh. 0.99

01:40:08.000 I really picked two of the easiest professions, you know, like riding bulls and playing music. 0.99

01:40:13.000 Right.

01:40:15.000 Two that have the least amount of success ratio.

01:40:18.000 Impossible tasks.

01:40:19.000 Right.

01:40:21.000 Well, did you ever get any serious injuries?

01:40:24.000 You know, I was fortunate, like, not serious here.

01:40:29.000 There was one divorce I ever, I got knocked all these teeth out.

01:40:31.000 I got jerked down one night in Weatherford and took my lip off, and my teeth went through down here.

01:40:38.000 These are all fake up here, and then my lip was just hanging by my throat.

01:40:42.000 It didn't knock me out, which was wild, though.

01:40:45.000 I got on this bull, and I remember it was in Weatherford, Texas, and it's got a Butler Arena there, and he had this.

01:40:55.000 Little Angus bull there. 0.99

01:40:56.000 Didn't have horns on him, little muley. 1.00

01:40:58.000 And usually you can go up to the guys that own the bulls, and a lot of the bulls have patterns that they'll do over and over.

01:41:04.000 So you can kind of talk to the stock contractor or the guys that own them and be like, hey, what's this bull generally do?

01:41:10.000 And he's like, most of the time they'll take two jumps out and they spin to the left.

01:41:13.000 Or they take two jumps and they go to the right.

01:41:15.000 Or they'll jump kick around and make a circle.

01:41:18.000 And he goes, man, he goes, I don't know.

01:41:20.000 He's like, the last two times I bucked, he hadn't been ridden.

01:41:23.000 He usually jumps out there and just spins right in the gate.

01:41:26.000 And he's like, nobody's really ridden him.

01:41:27.000 Past three or four seconds, so he goes, I don't know what he's going to do after that.

01:41:31.000 And sure enough, that's what happened.

01:41:33.000 I got on him and he jumped out and just got it on right there in the gate, just spinning right there.

01:41:39.000 And I rode him through it like three or four rounds.

01:41:42.000 And after I rode him, like I think the bully didn't know what to do next.

01:41:45.000 He got a little frustrated and he just stopped and just stopped dead still and just blowing and just, you know, just mad.

01:41:53.000 And you never really want to jump off of them when they're still like that because you just, you'll fall right beside them, you know.

01:41:59.000 So you want them to have a little momentum.

01:42:01.000 So when you, You know, you're checking out, you can get away from them.

01:42:04.000 Right.

01:42:05.000 And so I spurred him a little bit to get him to jump.

01:42:08.000 So when he jumped, I could jump off.

01:42:10.000 But when I spurred him, it just jumped off, straight up off the ground, like a cat, off all fours.

01:42:16.000 And when he came crack, and when he jumped up like that, I, you know, kind of rocked me back like that, my hands still tied in the rope.

01:42:23.000 And then when he came down, he just brought all that, jerked me down with the fours.

01:42:27.000 And I came forward and he threw his head back and I just headbutted him.

01:42:30.000 Oh!

01:42:33.000 And when he did, then my hand was still caught in the rope.

01:42:35.000 And then he took off, ran around, just drug me around and just stomped the crap out of me, you know, for a bit.

01:42:42.000 And I finally got loose.

01:42:43.000 And I remember running over to the fence.

01:42:46.000 And I just, you know, I kind of had my arms on the fence and I could see all the blood just kind of pouring down all over me.

01:42:51.000 And one of the bullfighters ran up and he looks at me and goes, Oh, buddy.

01:42:58.000 He's like, Woo.

01:43:00.000 And so they have to stitch your lip back on?

01:43:03.000 Yeah, you know, and the shock was just, I didn't feel anything.

01:43:06.000 Like, I was just like in shock, and I was like, oh man, you know, I remember like my girlfriend was there from high school and my buddy, and we drove to the little, you know, they're like, you want to call an ambulance?

01:43:16.000 I was like, nah, I don't have health insurance.

01:43:17.000 I'm calling an ambulance, you know, and got my buddy's car, and we drove over to the emergency room in Weatherford, and I go in, and the nurse, she's just like, oh man, she's like, we can't do anything for you here.

01:43:29.000 You're going to have to go to like Dallas to like trauma, you know, you have to get like an oral surgeon to put you back together.

01:43:36.000 And, uh, She goes, You want me to, you know, get you an ambulance there?

01:43:40.000 And I was like, No, I think we can make it, you know.

01:43:42.000 And she's like, She gave me some pain pills.

01:43:45.000 She goes, Don't take these now.

01:43:46.000 She goes, Hold on to these.

01:43:47.000 And then when you get to Dallas, then take them because you're probably going to have to wait, you know, before they can, because it'll be three or four in the morning before they can get somebody in there to see us.

01:43:56.000 And sure enough, we got to Dallas and I'm just sitting there in the weight room and I had a rag and I was just holding my mouth together.

01:44:04.000 And the shock wore off, man.

01:44:06.000 And then it's, you know, I was starting to feel it.

01:44:10.000 Took those pain meds, and then the doctor came in and held me back and gave me a big shot in the roof of my mouth, tried to numb everything.

01:44:18.000 And just, I think it took them longer to clean it all up, you know, pull all the hair and dirt out of there and sew me up.

01:44:24.000 And the tea, oh, it was an ordeal, you know, for sure.

01:44:28.000 For months after that, you know, getting the dental work done, all that crap.

01:44:32.000 So, how was the lip hanging off?

01:44:35.000 It bit it all, it would have come all the way off.

01:44:38.000 It was just hanging on right here by the side.

01:44:40.000 So, it was just hanging down.

01:44:41.000 And so they just had to stitch the lower part to the upper part and put it all together again?

01:44:45.000 Yeah, just all right through the middle.

01:44:47.000 And if I shave, I got a big scar that kind of goes down there.

01:44:50.000 And then they went through down here.

01:44:50.000 Wow.

01:44:53.000 So I got some stitches down there.

01:44:54.000 And then most of the stitches were all in my gums and all of that stuff.

01:44:58.000 So they had to put like posts and implants and all that stuff?

01:45:01.000 Wow.

01:45:02.000 Yeah. 1.00

01:45:03.000 That shit takes forever, huh? 1.00

01:45:04.000 Kind of knocked the front four out and then it just dominoed the rest of them. 1.00

01:45:11.000 Riding bulls with no health insurance is wild.

01:45:15.000 That's crazy, man.

01:45:17.000 That's crazy.

01:45:21.000 Yeah, it was just life back then for me.

01:45:23.000 You know, I think going into the music stuff was like.

01:45:28.000 I don't know.

01:45:28.000 I just wasn't really scared about it or even the expectations of making it.

01:45:32.000 I mean, to me, at the time, I had a truck and a camper on it, and I was like, man, I was like, I got no bills.

01:45:39.000 I got no responsibilities.

01:45:40.000 I'm just like, go make a hundred bucks a night playing music in a bar.

01:45:43.000 I was like, this is the dream.

01:45:45.000 You know, I'm like, I made it.

01:45:46.000 Yeah.

01:45:49.000 Well, I think when you've done something super, super difficult, everything else seems easier.

01:45:55.000 And if you've done what you did with riding bulls, For that long, like the music business is like, that's the worst that could happen.

01:46:02.000 Yeah.

01:46:03.000 Even the travel part, you know, like, you know, in the early days of playing, when I really decided I was going to try to make a run and play, you know, and it was like, oh, what?

01:46:12.000 We got to get in the van and go drive around and play in bars, you know?

01:46:16.000 And I was like, we've been doing that rodeoing for years, you know, where you sleep in the back of the truck or whatever, and it was fun for us.

01:46:22.000 We loved it.

01:46:23.000 Yeah.

01:46:23.000 So the idea of like starving on the road playing in a band, playing music, I was like, let's go, you know?

01:46:33.000 And getting a guaranteed paycheck every night, you know?

01:46:36.000 Right, the gratitude you must have.

01:46:37.000 The riding bulls, I mean, half the time, you walked away with nothing.

01:46:40.000 Right.

01:46:41.000 You know?

01:46:42.000 A busted lip, nothing.

01:46:44.000 Yeah, and no health insurance, and you're risking your life.

01:46:47.000 And there's not a bunch of people that love you.

01:46:49.000 No.

01:46:49.000 Yeah.

01:46:51.000 Yeah.

01:46:52.000 Well, it's a great base to start out from.

01:46:55.000 You know, I mean, it sounds like it's almost like the universe engineered this path for you to go down.

01:47:02.000 Like, if you wanted to pick a path that would bring you to where you are right now, it is the perfect set of circumstances.

01:47:11.000 I look at it all the time, you know, just from an outside perspective, I guess, and just like, wow, how in the world did all this come together?

01:47:18.000 And just a lot of luck and perseverance or whatever.

01:47:22.000 And I.

01:47:23.000 I wouldn't say I haven't worked hard at it.

01:47:25.000 I feel like I have and all that, but there's a lot of luck out there and a lot of good people, too.

01:47:30.000 A lot of good people helped me out along the way and gave me gas money and gave me a place to sleep or a place to eat and helped us get other gigs.

01:47:39.000 I remember going from one town to the next and not having gas money to get to the next and having no plan other than, let's just head west or head east.

01:47:49.000 And you'd go play at a bar, and sure enough, there'd be somebody there that was like, oh man, y'all should come back to my house.

01:47:56.000 Bonfire and play some songs, and he's like, Oh, my brother's got a bar in Phoenix.

01:48:00.000 And he's like, Call them on your way out.

01:48:02.000 And we'd go there, and we'd always like to chop firewood or wash dishes or wood mow your lawn or wash your car on the way to get gas money and keep on going.

01:48:11.000 Wow.

01:48:12.000 So that was just kind of how I felt like I learned early.

01:48:16.000 If you were willing to help yourself, people would help you all day long.

01:48:20.000 I think luck is a factor, but it's only a factor if you've already had all those other experiences.

01:48:30.000 Like, think about it.

01:48:30.000 If you hadn't ridden bulls, you hadn't gone through all the ranching, all the hard labor, all the different things, then, like, you probably wouldn't have capitalized on that luck the same way.

01:48:42.000 No, not at all, huh?

01:48:43.000 Your character wouldn't be the same.

01:48:45.000 You know, it's like part of who you are is the character that you've developed from what you've done.

01:48:45.000 No.

01:48:52.000 It kind of conditioned me to do it in a big way.

01:48:55.000 And it seems like it's your life, it's almost like it's engineered for this to happen the way it happened.

01:49:00.000 Which is kind of crazy.

01:49:01.000 It's been cool, man.

01:49:03.000 I feel.

01:49:04.000 Very storybook.

01:49:06.000 You know?

01:49:06.000 Yeah.

01:49:07.000 Very like movie.

01:49:08.000 Like a plot in a movie.

01:49:10.000 Guy who's a cowboy, bull rider, starts singing songs.

01:49:13.000 People are like, hey, you should probably do this for a living.

01:49:16.000 And then someone's like, hey, man, you should be on TV.

01:49:19.000 You know?

01:49:20.000 And the next thing you know, you're on one of the biggest hits in the world.

01:49:23.000 I'd be like, that's that song.

01:49:24.000 One day they're going to put me in the movie.

01:49:26.000 Yeah.

01:49:26.000 I was like, how am I living this thing right now?

01:49:30.000 You know?

01:49:31.000 It's like, I know I meet people all the time.

01:49:32.000 They're like, oh, they're like, you know?

01:49:35.000 They can't really believe where I'm from or whatever.

01:49:39.000 They just think it's some like made up story.

01:49:41.000 I'm like, oh, yeah, all right, man, you know.

01:49:44.000 Well, it seems like a story that someone would make up if they wanted to pretend to be a cowboy.

01:49:48.000 Yeah.

01:49:49.000 Well, I think a lot of people have.

01:49:50.000 I bet, right?

01:49:52.000 Yeah.

01:49:52.000 I bet.

01:49:53.000 And a lot of people still do.

01:49:54.000 Yeah.

01:49:55.000 Isn't that funny?

01:49:57.000 That's like stolen valor almost.

01:49:57.000 That's funny.

01:50:00.000 Yeah.

01:50:00.000 You know what I mean?

01:50:01.000 I think in all kinds of stuff, you know, professions or whatever, you know, people pretend to be what it is.

01:50:07.000 Would you mind if I went to the restroom?

01:50:09.000 Oh, no, no, no, no.

01:50:10.000 Not at all.

01:50:11.000 I totally understand.

01:50:12.000 I want to keep talking about it, I don't want to stop this.

01:50:14.000 Let's pause, take a leak.

01:50:15.000 We'll be right back, folks.

01:50:16.000 And we're back.

01:50:19.000 Yeah, it's kind of funny that people would want to fake the life that you've lived, but that is such a romantic story.

01:50:27.000 Like, it's such a movie that it makes sense that people want to fake it.

01:50:32.000 It's got to be weird walking around, like, having lived a life that people would want to fake and pretend that they lived.

01:50:40.000 It is.

01:50:41.000 It is sometimes, you know, and it's like, you know, I remember when I really started playing music and stuff.

01:50:48.000 I mean, I wore a cowboy hat all the time.

01:50:50.000 That's what.

01:50:51.000 I rode bulls and you know, it's my very much my identity, you know.

01:50:55.000 No cowboy stuff wasn't really cool then, you know.

01:50:58.000 I like feel like in the early 2000s and all of that, you know, and there wasn't a lot of big, there wasn't a big Americana scene or you know, any of that kind of stuff, you know.

01:51:08.000 And definitely going to New York or going to Los Angeles and touring around, I would be the only one wearing a cowboy hat, you know.

01:51:18.000 I remember, I think the first time, one time I was in LA, we were out on the Santa Monica Pier.

01:51:23.000 And there was a guy that had like the one man band thing, you know, out there.

01:51:28.000 And there's all these tourists on the pier.

01:51:29.000 And I'm just like out there checking out the scenery and just minding my own business.

01:51:33.000 And this guy gets on the microphone and he just points over at me and goes, Oh, broke that mountain.

01:51:41.000 And everybody on the pier turned around and looked at me.

01:51:43.000 And they're just pointing at me and laughing at me.

01:51:44.000 And I'm just like, Ah, okay, you know.

01:51:47.000 So I was like, That was the association with the cowboy had at the time.

01:51:50.000 That's hilarious.

01:51:52.000 Yeah, they changed cowboys for a while.

01:51:56.000 Now's a whole new ball game, dude.

01:51:58.000 A whole new monkey wrench to that legend.

01:52:03.000 But, you know, now playing, and man, I'm so stoked to see all these new bands out there and, like, so many young folks playing actual instruments.

01:52:11.000 You know, I felt like for a long time they were so electronic and DJs and all that stuff, you know.

01:52:16.000 Well, there's a giant country comeback that's going on right now, kind of nationwide.

01:52:21.000 I'm sure you love Open the Gates, the Zach Bryan song.

01:52:24.000 Yeah.

01:52:25.000 That's such a great bull riding song.

01:52:27.000 Man, they got some great tunes, man.

01:52:28.000 Yeah.

01:52:29.000 Yeah.

01:52:29.000 That's a great bull riding song.

01:52:32.000 But there's so many great musicians out there now, and also have lived like different but very, like Charlie Crockett.

01:52:39.000 What a fascinating dude that guy is. 0.99

01:52:42.000 Like just kind of performing on the streets and, you know, just being kind of a vagabond, traveling around, and then finally catches, and people are like, damn, this music is fucking great, man. 0.75

01:52:55.000 Yeah, like wearing it on their sleeves, you know, and having the confidence to, I think people have always been. 0.96

01:53:01.000 I think there has been plenty of folks out there, you know, writing from the heart and so to speak, and all that, and, you know, having a certain integrity to the things that they're saying and wanting, you know.

01:53:13.000 The truth in their speaking into their songs and things like that.

01:53:16.000 And now there's just a lot more of a platform to support them, you know, and people are like, oh, wow, there's a bunch of this stuff out there, you know.

01:53:24.000 There's also an appreciation for it because I think we're all fearful that people like you won't exist in the future.

01:53:31.000 Because it seems like a guy like you, you know, bull riding, living on a ranch, like singing songs in bars, like that almost is like a thing of the past.

01:53:41.000 Oh, very much.

01:53:42.000 But it's so romantic to people that.

01:53:45.000 Like when we meet a guy like you in real life, you're like, oh, keep him around.

01:53:49.000 You know, like you want to make sure that people like you still exist.

01:53:54.000 It's a very exciting thing for people to have a person who's lived an authentically interesting life and authentically out of the box life.

01:54:04.000 It's not a normal life. 0.99

01:54:05.000 Like, you're if you meet a million people, the odds of you meeting one guy who used to bull ride and then started singing in bars with his friends and was happy living on the road, now all of a sudden he's on a fucking. 0.98

01:54:20.000 Gigantic television show. 0.95

01:54:22.000 It's not even one in a million.

01:54:24.000 It's pretty, it's strange because sometimes I, you know, I meet people and I, you know, I'm like, oh yeah, I grew up just like you, you know, and then I realize, like, I don't think I did.

01:54:37.000 I kind of have to think about it myself.

01:54:39.000 I was like, no, you definitely didn't. 0.99

01:54:41.000 You rode a bull when you were fucking 10, dude. 0.99

01:54:43.000 Most people when they're 10, they're playing with G.I. Joes. 1.00

01:54:43.000 Okay. 1.00

01:54:45.000 Yeah. 0.91

01:54:46.000 You know, they're not riding bulls.

01:54:48.000 That's a very unusual setup for the rest of your life.

01:54:52.000 I think if you do some things difficult when you're really young, you get accustomed to fear, you get accustomed to anxiety and nerves.

01:55:02.000 The thing that, I mean, that is like the mark of a man. 0.98

01:55:06.000 Like a man is his ability to be in a very high stress situation and keep his shit together. 0.97

01:55:13.000 And to have gone through a lot of that when you're very young, like riding a bull at 10 is crazy. 0.97

01:55:19.000 To have gone through that when you're very young.

01:55:21.000 It just develops the kind of character that allows you to kind of do anything in life.

01:55:26.000 And I think.

01:55:28.000 Most men see that and they wish they were like that.

01:55:32.000 I remember a moment, you know, it was really when I was, you know, riding steers and then I made that transition to the big bulls, you know.

01:55:41.000 And it wasn't like, oh, here's this like this little steer and then there's an in between and then there's the big.

01:55:45.000 It was like this little steer and then this big bull, you know.

01:55:48.000 And I went to it was a junior rodeo in Odessa, Texas, and it was my first year to ride junior bulls.

01:55:54.000 And I entered the bull ride and my uncle was there with me.

01:55:59.000 And, uh, They started running the bulls up into the chutes and they were big.

01:56:03.000 They were like backs that wide and horns sticking outside the chutes, you know.

01:56:07.000 And they were big, but they didn't buck that hard.

01:56:10.000 You know, they just kind of jumped, kicked down, but they were still big, you know.

01:56:13.000 And like I remember like scared and like in tears, you know, kind of I was scared.

01:56:19.000 And my uncle, you know, was super cool about it.

01:56:22.000 He wasn't like, you have to do this or you have to.

01:56:24.000 He's like, man, whatever you want to do, you know, you want to pack it up, we'll get out of here right now.

01:56:28.000 It's like, this is either for you or it's not for you, you know.

01:56:32.000 And I remember just.

01:56:34.000 Him telling me, you want to take like 20, 30 minutes and just kind of think about it, and whatever you want to do, we'll make happen, you know?

01:56:41.000 And I did.

01:56:42.000 I kind of walked around there for a bit, and I just had this some kind of like, I knew I would regret it if I didn't do it, didn't try it, you know?

01:56:52.000 There was something in me where, like, I meant because I slept it, I dreamt about it, you know?

01:56:55.000 I just loved it, and I was like, nah, I'm going to do this, you know?

01:56:59.000 And I put my rope on him and had all the sport there that I needed in that moment.

01:57:04.000 They opened the gate and this big old high horned bullion, he just turned and kind of jumped out there real docile.

01:57:11.000 And I think I rode him two or three jumps and fell off.

01:57:14.000 And it was just like, I'm the king of the world.

01:57:17.000 Yeah.

01:57:17.000 I was like, I'm a bull rider now.

01:57:21.000 You know, I'm not just the steer rider kid.

01:57:22.000 You know, I kind of made that level.

01:57:24.000 And I remember after that, I just, man, I just craved it.

01:57:29.000 Like, just the higher they jump, the faster they spin, the better I like it.

01:57:35.000 Oh, just, yeah, just dirty rank.

01:57:35.000 Really?

01:57:38.000 Just run them in there.

01:57:39.000 And when I was little, I mean, even when I was like 14 or 15, you know, guys were starting to breed the bulls for like the PBR.

01:57:39.000 Let's go.

01:57:47.000 Like they full on started these like breeding programs.

01:57:49.000 You know, used to, you could go to a practice pen and, you know, it'd be an old farmer that had two or three old bulls that you could get on and practice and they'd just jump around and just, you know, nothing that was really going to hurt you bad, you know.

01:58:02.000 And then they started breeding these young bulls.

01:58:04.000 Man, you'd go to the practice pen, there'd be 10 or 15 of these like yearlings that bucked and they needed somebody to get on them.

01:58:11.000 You know, like test pilot.

01:58:13.000 And I was the test pilot.

01:58:14.000 There was a guy named Bradley Raspberry, I believe, kind of out in Brownwood.

01:58:19.000 I remember going to his house and I could ride.

01:58:23.000 I was pretty sticky when I was younger.

01:58:25.000 I could ride a lot better when I was younger than I was when I got older, you know, for some reason.

01:58:29.000 I just had that no fear or whatever that was.

01:58:32.000 And I'd get on 10 or 15 a day.

01:58:34.000 And just, they just kept running them in there, man.

01:58:37.000 They'd be trying to flip over in the chute and just, you know, they're young green bulls that were half wild and, And they're just trying to figure out which ones bucked and which ones didn't.

01:58:47.000 And they would, you know, they'd get rid of the ones that didn't buck and keep the ones that did.

01:58:50.000 And man, I'd just be like, the wilder they got in the shoot, like, the more aggressive I got.

01:58:56.000 Like, I just was like, oh, okay, that's what we're going to do.

01:58:59.000 Come on, let's go.

01:59:01.000 I don't know.

01:59:01.000 Let's do this, you know?

01:59:04.000 I was nuts, you know?

01:59:06.000 God, that's so crazy. 0.53

01:59:07.000 That's such a crazy way to live your life.

01:59:07.000 Yeah.

01:59:10.000 You know, wild bulls, when you say wild, like the ones that are out there in the wild, they're some of the most dangerous animals that you could ever encounter.

01:59:17.000 When they're acting like they call them scrub bulls.

01:59:20.000 Like my buddy Adam, he lives in Australia or he's moving to America.

01:59:24.000 But when he lived in Australia, he said that they would encounter these scrub bulls, which is like wild domestic bulls that got out and started breeding.

01:59:35.000 And then many generations later, they're now completely wild.

01:59:39.000 They're like deer out there.

01:59:40.000 Yeah, and they will run after you.

01:59:43.000 I knew these three guys from Australia that, or several Australian guys that came over and lived in Stephenville.

01:59:48.000 A lot of these cowboys have moved to Stephenville because it was so central and it was kind of.

01:59:51.000 Cowboy capital there, and his name was Lance Kelly.

01:59:54.000 He had some brothers, and they were from up there in North Queensland somewhere.

01:59:59.000 One summer, he went back to work, and then when he came back, he wanted to tell me about where he was from all the time.

02:00:05.000 You know, I was young and curious, I was always fascinated.

02:00:07.000 It was like, Wow, you're from Australia!

02:00:09.000 You know, I've only seen movies, you know, like the, what's it, the, oh gosh, Crocodile Dundee?

02:00:17.000 No, man from Snowy River, not which was, anyway.

02:00:22.000 But I was fascinated with Australia and him and his brothers.

02:00:25.000 And so he went home and he had videotaped a VHS, you know, he didn't have phones back then, but it was like the old cam VHS tape recorder.

02:00:34.000 And he'd videotaped it around his body while he was walking around working on the ranch.

02:00:40.000 And he'd have his four wheeler in there.

02:00:42.000 Chasing these wild cattle and rounding them up, him and his brother, brothers.

02:00:46.000 And he would just like chase them on a four wheeler as long as, you know, keep them running until they got so tired they couldn't go anymore.

02:00:52.000 And then he had this piece of pipe on there, he could run up behind them and kind of knock them down.

02:00:56.000 And then he'd jump off and tie their legs together.

02:00:58.000 And they would catch a bunch of them like that.

02:01:00.000 And then his brother would come by, you know, later with a truck and a winch and winch them up into the trailer.

02:01:06.000 And they would catch all these wild cows like that.

02:01:08.000 And to be able to see that footage and stuff and have him tell me how they were doing it and show them, and I was like, oh, that's a Coolest thing in the world.

02:01:16.000 When can I go?

02:01:16.000 I want to go.

02:01:17.000 You know?

02:01:19.000 Australia is such a crazy place, man.

02:01:21.000 I mean, it's bigger than the United States or the size of the United States, roughly. 0.62

02:01:28.000 And it has less people than Los Angeles.

02:01:30.000 And everything will kill you over there. 0.99

02:01:32.000 Everything will kill you. 0.98

02:01:33.000 Every snake, spider, every snake, crocodiles. 0.99

02:01:37.000 They have saltwater crocodiles and giant fucking great white sharks. 0.99

02:01:41.000 And hearty people, man. 0.99

02:01:44.000 Yeah. 1.00

02:01:45.000 Hardy motherfuckers come from that place. 1.00

02:01:47.000 I feel like Texas and a lot of folks from Australia are a bit kindred spirits. 1.00

02:01:51.000 Yes.

02:01:52.000 I think so too.

02:01:53.000 My buddy James McCann was on the podcast yesterday.

02:01:55.000 He's a comic out of Australia.

02:01:57.000 And he's from there and he spends time here.

02:02:00.000 He was living here for a while, but he had to move back because he had another kid.

02:02:04.000 But now he's coming back and forth and trying to figure out.

02:02:06.000 He's really talented.

02:02:07.000 He's trying to figure out.

02:02:08.000 Yeah.

02:02:08.000 Coming to Austin?

02:02:09.000 He was living in Austin for a couple of years, living in America for a couple of years, living in Austin for about a year.

02:02:15.000 But, you know, his wife's about to have another kid, and they just decided to go back to Australia where she's got support. 0.98

02:02:21.000 But, man, he fucking misses it. 0.96

02:02:23.000 He was here. 0.98

02:02:24.000 He's like, mate, I miss it so much.

02:02:26.000 I miss it so much.

02:02:27.000 Like, I think there's any place like this place.

02:02:32.000 It's pretty awesome.

02:02:33.000 But, Australia, it's like, it's the same kind of thing.

02:02:35.000 It's like, it's a rugged place.

02:02:37.000 And the kind of people that live there, they're fun.

02:02:40.000 They're fun, kind of. 0.98

02:02:42.000 Got a super fucked up oppressive government, unfortunately. 0.98

02:02:46.000 Yeah. 0.98

02:02:46.000 I think it's a lot about what you say, too. 0.98

02:02:47.000 You know, when you survive certain things in your life, and you know, it puts things in perspective of what you're taking seriously anymore.

02:02:57.000 What's an emergency?

02:03:00.000 Right.

02:03:00.000 Oh, is this life or death, or is it not?

02:03:06.000 And to be able to laugh at stuff.

02:03:08.000 Man, I love comedians.

02:03:10.000 It's just like, man, to be able to just joke and cut stuff about the most serious things or whatever it is.

02:03:15.000 It's like, God, we need that so much.

02:03:17.000 It's an important service. 1.00

02:03:19.000 It doesn't seem like it is to people because it seems stupid. 0.99

02:03:21.000 They're like, oh, you're just telling jokes. 0.98

02:03:23.000 Like, not for me, when I go and watch a good comedy show, I feel better.

02:03:28.000 It's medicine.

02:03:30.000 And I think it also puts life into perspective.

02:03:32.000 With a sense of humor, you can kind of look at things through a different lens and go, yeah, we're probably going to be all right.

02:03:39.000 I get a feeling like, you know, I think a lot of folks have this idea that songwriters are where, you know, especially, you know, have a bunch of sad songs or whatever to go to that deep place and you live through stuff that you write about.

02:03:50.000 But, man, I find in comics, man, I feel like.

02:03:54.000 There's some of the heaviest stuff in the world that those folks have experienced to be able to, you know, come up and tell these kinds of jokes and stories and the educational part of it with it.

02:04:05.000 You know, it's so much, I don't know, for me, it seems like so much more than just a joke.

02:04:10.000 It is with some.

02:04:11.000 I mean, some people just do jokes.

02:04:13.000 It really depends on your style.

02:04:14.000 But I mean, if you go back to like Richard Pryor, his whole thing was like explaining life and telling stories.

02:04:20.000 Yeah.

02:04:21.000 But with an amazing sense of humor.

02:04:23.000 And that you would leave that and you'd be like, everybody feels like more united, they feel better.

02:04:28.000 Yeah.

02:04:28.000 Just like you, like what everybody was thinking.

02:04:31.000 Yeah, it was everybody's thinking, afraid to say, and also he would look at things from a very wise perspective that was also hilarious.

02:04:39.000 So you walked out of there feeling better.

02:04:41.000 Yeah, you felt like you were better.

02:04:43.000 It felt like there's bringing some hope.

02:04:46.000 Yeah, you know, yeah, there's hope in humor, yeah, for sure.

02:04:49.000 But there's hope in music, too.

02:04:51.000 Yeah, you know, I don't have any musical talent at all, but I always think of music as almost like a drug because music. 1.00

02:04:59.000 When a good song hits, you're like, fuck. 0.85

02:05:01.000 If you're in the car and a good tune comes on, especially back when I used to listen to the radio, you know, and you didn't expect what was coming on, and all of a sudden. 0.99

02:05:09.000 You can't rewind it. 0.98

02:05:10.000 Yeah, all of a sudden it's Radar Love by Golden Ear, and you're like, fuck yeah, let's go. 0.97

02:05:16.000 You feel different. 0.98

02:05:17.000 It changes your mood. 0.99

02:05:20.000 You hear Freebird, you're flipping through the channels, and the fucking guitar solo for Freebird comes on, you're like, yes! 0.99

02:05:28.000 You feel better. 0.99

02:05:29.000 Like, it excites all these parts of your senses, your consciousness, your feelings.

02:05:36.000 It's a drug.

02:05:37.000 I mean, it's an amazing drug.

02:05:38.000 It's always been real therapeutic for me at the very beginning.

02:05:41.000 Like I said, I didn't have high expectations, but I knew when I kind of wrote some of the first songs that I wrote and I got some of that stuff off my chest, it changed me, you know?

02:05:53.000 Yeah.

02:05:54.000 It like it became a tool that all of a sudden I had access to this thing that like was helping me heal in a way.

02:06:02.000 Like, I could get stuff off my chest.

02:06:03.000 Like, the things that I was uncomfortable talking about in conversation with folks, like, I could put them into a song and like sing them to the wall.

02:06:13.000 And I was just like getting that stuff out.

02:06:14.000 Like, there wasn't anybody in the room.

02:06:16.000 I was just like, you know, but I was getting this stuff out of me, you know.

02:06:21.000 And it's also a way for people to hear it where it's not annoying.

02:06:24.000 You know what I mean?

02:06:25.000 Like, if you just tell some sad story about your life, people are like, oh, geez.

02:06:28.000 You're like, here we go.

02:06:31.000 Crowd me a river, kid.

02:06:32.000 Everybody's got a story. 1.00

02:06:34.000 But if you have a sad story in a song, it's like fucking, it's beautiful. 0.98

02:06:40.000 Like, I love a good sad song. 0.97

02:06:42.000 You know, a song that has like real emotion in it, whether it's a real story or whether, like, one of my favorite Coulter Wall songs is Kate McCannon.

02:06:52.000 Yeah.

02:06:53.000 Jamie turned me on to that song.

02:06:54.000 He said it to me.

02:06:55.000 Coulter's a gem.

02:06:55.000 Coulter Walls, man.

02:06:57.000 He was fucking 21 when he made that song, which is crazy. 0.99

02:07:01.000 Yeah. 0.99

02:07:02.000 You listen to that song, that sounds like a 58 year old man who's been smoking cigarettes his whole life.

02:07:07.000 Yeah.

02:07:08.000 And that dude is interesting, too, because he still works on a ranch.

02:07:12.000 Yeah.

02:07:13.000 He's a great guy.

02:07:14.000 He's one of my favorites of the younger guys that have come up and been doing this. 0.99

02:07:17.000 He's just, um, the same way when I first heard those first songs, I was like, who the fuck is this? 0.99

02:07:23.000 Yeah. 0.99

02:07:24.000 You know?

02:07:25.000 Then you saw, then I saw like a picture of him.

02:07:27.000 I'm like, oh, man, he's a kid, you know?

02:07:29.000 And I just, Fabulous song.

02:07:29.000 Crazy.

02:07:33.000 There's a wicked bird. 0.92

02:07:35.000 You hear that, you're like, what is this?

02:07:38.000 Yeah.

02:07:39.000 Who is this guy?

02:07:41.000 And I couldn't believe he was 21.

02:07:43.000 I'm like, that makes zero sense.

02:07:45.000 Yeah.

02:07:47.000 He's got it, though, man.

02:07:48.000 And there's a bunch of them out there now that I'm hearing, too.

02:07:51.000 There's just like, I'm like, man, how cool.

02:07:53.000 Yeah.

02:07:53.000 How cool.

02:07:54.000 I'm so glad that they're getting a shot at it or just getting the support.

02:07:58.000 I don't know if I'm saying getting a shot at it, but it's like getting the love and support that they deserve for the.

02:08:03.000 It's good music, man.

02:08:04.000 Yeah, it's great.

02:08:05.000 Great music.

02:08:06.000 And there's a thing now with the internet where it's so easy to share something.

02:08:10.000 You know, like someone's got a good song and it's on YouTube or Spotify, and then you just send a link to your buddy.

02:08:16.000 You go, bro, check this out.

02:08:17.000 Like, I got to say, like, half the songs I find out about, my friends just send me. 0.99

02:08:22.000 And then all of a sudden, I'm like, oh, shit. 0.99

02:08:24.000 Yeah. 0.99

02:08:25.000 And then I'll add it to my playlist.

02:08:27.000 You know, it's like, it's easy to share things now where you don't have to go to the record store and pick up the record.

02:08:34.000 You know, now it's just like, Within seconds of you getting it in your phone, you're listening to it.

02:08:40.000 And it's easier to record the stuff too.

02:08:42.000 It's like you don't need half a million bucks in a studio and all that stuff.

02:08:46.000 It's like, man, half the stuff you can record on your phone.

02:08:49.000 Well, look at Oliver Anthony.

02:08:50.000 Yeah. 1.00

02:08:51.000 One fucking song. 1.00

02:08:52.000 Yeah. 1.00

02:08:53.000 One song, and the first show he ever does is like 18,000 people.

02:08:59.000 That is the first show that dude ever performed at.

02:09:03.000 I feel for him.

02:09:04.000 I would never have been able to do that when I started, you know?

02:09:07.000 I was not prepared for anything.

02:09:09.000 And I, you know, I don't know, maybe they're not, but that's a lot of.

02:09:12.000 He settled in, Carrie.

02:09:14.000 He settled in pretty easy.

02:09:15.000 He figured it out.

02:09:16.000 He's a smart cat.

02:09:18.000 He's a really smart dude, and he settled in really easy.

02:09:21.000 I guess they have to, you know?

02:09:23.000 I mean, I always think, like, you know, gosh, it's changed so much since I started out, you know?

02:09:28.000 I mean, we didn't even have, like, you know, if you wanted to learn how to play a song, you kind of had to go listen to the record and just try to figure it out, you know, and rewind it.

02:09:36.000 Now there's like, oh, here's a guy that'll just show you every note and this and that.

02:09:39.000 Yeah, there's a guy on YouTube that'll show you exactly where to place his fingers.

02:09:43.000 Yeah, that took me years to figure it out.

02:09:45.000 You know, and, um, but, you know, maybe that is like today, you know, these guys, it's, uh, they're learning how to do it at such a quicker rate and, like, they know how to handle the crowds and do all the stuff.

02:09:56.000 And it's just like, boom, there you go.

02:09:58.000 Well, that's with everything today.

02:09:59.000 Yeah.

02:10:00.000 You know, I think that's also why, like, um, I mean, in martial arts and, like, UFC, there's a reason why the guys are so much better today.

02:10:08.000 And it's because they get to see everything that everybody's ever done and then they practice it and improve upon it and they get it at a year early age.

02:10:15.000 Yeah.

02:10:15.000 You can essentially just on your phone watch every fight that's ever taken place ever in human history that's been recorded.

02:10:21.000 I did that on the road a few years ago.

02:10:23.000 I mean, I've always been a pretty rudimentary guitar player.

02:10:27.000 You know, I can't solo all over the place and all of that stuff.

02:10:30.000 And I think it was like 2019, I put out a record and I was going on a tour.

02:10:36.000 And my friend Charlie Sexton produced the album.

02:10:38.000 He's a wonderful guitar player.

02:10:41.000 Charlie Sexton, the guy from the 80s, Beat So Lonely?

02:10:46.000 Play with Dan, play with Archangel.

02:10:48.000 He was like really young when Beat So Lonely came out, right?

02:10:52.000 Oh, man.

02:10:52.000 He's, yeah, legend.

02:10:53.000 And I remember calling him, though.

02:10:55.000 I was like, man, I really want to get better at the guitar, you know?

02:10:58.000 And he's like, well, just listen to all the stuff that you really like.

02:11:01.000 You know, he's like, don't try to play it all note for note.

02:11:03.000 He's like, just keep listening to it, and like, you'll start eventually finding those places and develop your style.

02:11:10.000 But it was when I got on the road as well, man, I had access on YouTube to all of my favorite musicians and guitar players, and I just kind of made a point of sitting down and I even found this guy that was just breaking down and giving simple blues guitar lessons for kids.

02:11:25.000 I was like, man, this is great.

02:11:26.000 Never done anything like this.

02:11:27.000 And just like went through, I went back, you know.

02:11:30.000 I got to memorize all the notes on the fretboard.

02:11:30.000 Right.

02:11:32.000 And I needed, you know, and it was just, it was so, I had so much fun doing it.

02:11:36.000 And, you know, and also give confidence to get up and jam with other musicians and play and kind of know what key you're in, what you're doing.

02:11:44.000 And, you know, I went years, you know, without having any kind of lessons or training.

02:11:49.000 And then I'm just like, within, Three weeks of being on tour and watching YouTube videos of it just stepped it up so much.

02:11:57.000 Like, how'd you learn how to do it?

02:11:58.000 I was just about 20 years later in my career, I decided to learn how to play the guitar on YouTube.

02:12:03.000 It is amazing.

02:12:04.000 I mean, that's the positive part of the internet.

02:12:08.000 If you could avoid the negative parts, there's a lot of great positive stuff in the internet, and the access to stuff like that is amazing.

02:12:13.000 Yeah, if we all could just avoid the negative of everything, right?

02:12:16.000 Right.

02:12:18.000 Unfortunately, there's a lot of people that don't have good lives and they Do you have a lot of extra time because they're not really investing in their own life?

02:12:25.000 So they're just spreading negativity online.

02:12:27.000 Yeah.

02:12:28.000 And it's just human nature.

02:12:30.000 Wild, wild world.

02:12:32.000 It is.

02:12:33.000 It's a wild world, but it's also a wildly positive world, too.

02:12:36.000 Just what you just said about the guitar stuff or with the Oliver Anthony stuff.

02:12:40.000 Yeah.

02:12:40.000 This guy standing there with a guitar in front of a field with no production value at all, but has a song that he's singing from the heart.

02:12:50.000 Like, how many views does that shit have on YouTube? 0.98

02:12:54.000 It's got to be like 100 million views or something nuts. 1.00

02:12:59.000 But that song was fucking gigantic. 0.99

02:13:01.000 Yeah. 0.98

02:13:01.000 Richmond North of. 0.98

02:13:03.000 I remember my wife playing it for me for the first time.

02:13:06.000 I was just like, what the.

02:13:07.000 I was like, what is that?

02:13:08.000 And she's like, oh man, check this out. 0.88

02:13:09.000 You know, I was like, that's so fucking rad.

02:13:12.000 Yeah, I got a chance to see him perform live too with his band. 0.98

02:13:15.000 They're fucking fantastic. 0.95

02:13:16.000 And he's settled. 0.99

02:13:17.000 He's completely settled into being famous now.

02:13:20.000 He's cool with it.

02:13:21.000 Yeah.

02:13:21.000 He's still the same dude.

02:13:23.000 I met him real early on and I actually talked to him on the phone.

02:13:27.000 How many was the guy?

02:13:28.000 236 million. 1.00

02:13:30.000 Holy shit. 1.00

02:13:34.000 Wow. 1.00

02:13:35.000 When you say he settled, dude, I didn't know.

02:13:37.000 Was he having a hard time with it?

02:13:38.000 He was freaking out at the beginning.

02:13:40.000 And I contacted him early on and he said, Hey, can I ask you some advice?

02:13:45.000 And we talked on the phone.

02:13:46.000 I said, Yeah, sure.

02:13:48.000 So I called him up and he was just telling me that he was getting hit up by all these different people that were trying to give him money to sign a contract and this.

02:13:53.000 And then I go, Hey, hey, hey, don't sign nothing.

02:13:57.000 I go, you don't need nobody.

02:13:59.000 You don't need to be locked up in any contracts with nobody.

02:14:02.000 And he was like, they're all telling me I got to strike while the iron's hot. 1.00

02:14:04.000 I'm like, fuck them. 1.00

02:14:06.000 I go, you got talent, dude. 1.00

02:14:08.000 Talent is the number one thing.

02:14:10.000 You already have that.

02:14:11.000 You're going to be fine. 0.98

02:14:13.000 You just keep making songs like that, you can't fucking lose. 1.00

02:14:16.000 But what you don't want to do is be tied with some legal contract to some assholes just sucking you like a vampire. 1.00

02:14:23.000 And they're going to be stuck with you for years, and then you're going to have to go to court to get out of that shit. 1.00

02:14:28.000 Exactly. 0.99

02:14:29.000 Yeah, when you have the opportunity, like you said, man, you're writing good songs, you're doing good stuff, and you have a way to give it to the people.

02:14:36.000 But he's getting an offer for $7 million to sign this.

02:14:39.000 I'm like, don't do it.

02:14:41.000 I know it sounds like, but that $7 million, they're giving you that because they're going to make $14.

02:14:46.000 There's not a chance in hell.

02:14:48.000 You don't need them.

02:14:49.000 You should get all the money.

02:14:49.000 You don't need them.

02:14:50.000 You shouldn't give any money to anybody else.

02:14:54.000 You can make your own records.

02:14:54.000 You don't need it.

02:14:56.000 You can put it all together yourself.

02:14:57.000 You don't need nobody.

02:14:58.000 I guess you always got to remember they're going to buy for one, sell for two, somewhere like that.

02:15:03.000 Yeah, exactly.

02:15:04.000 There's no way they're going to give you that money unless they're going to make a lot more.

02:15:07.000 And then you're going to get stuck with them.

02:15:09.000 Don't do it.

02:15:10.000 And he's like, they're all telling me I got to do it now. 0.99

02:15:12.000 Because if I miss this opportunity, I'm like, you ain't missing shit. 0.99

02:15:16.000 Yeah. 0.99

02:15:16.000 You ain't missing it. 0.99

02:15:17.000 There's not a chance you're going to miss it.

02:15:18.000 Especially when you're that young.

02:15:19.000 Yeah.

02:15:20.000 And good.

02:15:21.000 Yeah. 0.98

02:15:21.000 And just fucking good. 0.98

02:15:23.000 Who knows what they're going to be writing in the next 10 years. 0.98

02:15:26.000 Have you heard that song, Woman Scorned?

02:15:26.000 Yeah.

02:15:29.000 I haven't, no.

02:15:30.000 Is that one of his new ones?

02:15:31.000 Woo!

02:15:33.000 He wrote that one after a breakup, and it's just, woo! 1.00

02:15:36.000 You hear that fucker, it just gets you right in the bone marrow. 1.00

02:15:40.000 Yeah, getcha. 1.00

02:15:40.000 Yeah, it's fantastic. 1.00

02:15:42.000 It's so good.

02:15:43.000 But it's just like, you know, it's a beautiful story.

02:15:47.000 And I love a story like that.

02:15:48.000 When Dude was like selling, he was selling like heavy equipment. 1.00

02:15:53.000 Like he was a salesman, just like fucking machinery and shit. 1.00

02:15:57.000 And then writing songs, and he gets fed up one day, and he puts this song, let's make a video of this fucking song. 1.00

02:16:03.000 And then all of a sudden, boom! 0.98

02:16:05.000 Man, people ask me all the time.

02:16:06.000 They're like, man, who do you think's the best young songwriter out there, musician or guitar player?

02:16:13.000 I'm like, man, I don't know.

02:16:14.000 It's probably some 16 year old kid in the garage that nobody's heard of.

02:16:17.000 That's probably the best guy out there.

02:16:19.000 And he's ready to jump off.

02:16:20.000 Yeah, he's going to hit you with some song that just crushes you.

02:16:25.000 Yeah.

02:16:26.000 They're out there.

02:16:28.000 But that's the thing that I was saying about guys like you that people look at guys like you and it's such a romantic story.

02:16:34.000 They worry that there's not going to be any more of you.

02:16:38.000 You know what I mean? 0.97

02:16:39.000 Like this weird digital world and AI and just this strange fucking life that we're all living like now. 0.99

02:16:48.000 That are not, I don't want to say simple because it's not simple, but it's unencumbered by all the bullshit of the world that we think is fake and unfortunate. 0.98

02:16:59.000 Yeah. 0.77

02:17:00.000 Like to have this pure life and this wild romantic story.

02:17:05.000 When people meet a guy like you, they're like, oh man, there probably ain't going to be many more of them.

02:17:09.000 I don't know, man.

02:17:10.000 I mean, look at this guy, you know?

02:17:12.000 Yeah.

02:17:12.000 Guys are to come.

02:17:13.000 I feel so fortunate, too.

02:17:14.000 Like, when I did come to Austin, like in my, you know, mid 20s, you know, I met guys like Joe Ely and Terry Allen and Guy Clark and, like, these little Steve Earle legendary kind of guys that I looked up to.

02:17:29.000 And I remember being young then and being like, oh, man, you know, these are the last guys left, you know?

02:17:35.000 Right.

02:17:35.000 And so, you know, I don't know.

02:17:38.000 There's so many of these young, Folks out there that I think crave it.

02:17:44.000 And that's what they're interested in.

02:17:46.000 They want to play that music.

02:17:48.000 They want to feel that stuff.

02:17:50.000 So I'm optimistic about it.

02:17:51.000 But I can, it definitely is a different world out there these days.

02:17:57.000 And even for myself, just going with the flow and like, well, where are we going tomorrow?

02:18:03.000 I have no idea how so much of this social media stuff is working or how you put out an album or songs.

02:18:10.000 And it's like, don't worry about all that jazz.

02:18:14.000 Just keep writing.

02:18:15.000 Yeah.

02:18:15.000 Just keep writing, keep making it, and just be undeniable.

02:18:19.000 And at the end of the day, if all of that stuff disappears, you can always go sit on the sidewalk and put your tip jar out there and play a song for people who are walking down the street.

02:18:30.000 And I guarantee you, there's going to be somebody that's going to stop and appreciate it.

02:18:33.000 Well, that's what got Charlie Crockett started out.

02:18:35.000 Yeah.

02:18:36.000 I've had plenty of gigs where you go into some bar, and my wife always says, go where you're celebrated, not where you're tolerated.

02:18:44.000 Yeah.

02:18:46.000 You go into some bar and they kind of, you can tell they don't really want, you know, they're not excited about you playing or whatever. 0.96

02:18:50.000 Like, yeah, shit, I'll just go, I'll go park in the parking lot across the street and sit on the tailgate of my truck and play. 0.94

02:18:55.000 We'll have a party over there, you know? 0.99

02:18:57.000 Yeah.

02:18:58.000 That is the crazy thing about music.

02:19:00.000 Yeah.

02:19:01.000 You could just kind of set up anywhere.

02:19:02.000 You don't need all that.

02:19:03.000 So you're like talking about signing contracts and deals and all that.

02:19:07.000 It's like, man, just like you got that guitar in your hand, you got your song.

02:19:11.000 You know, hold on to it.

02:19:14.000 Yeah.

02:19:14.000 And protect it.

02:19:14.000 You know, that's what's, it's something that's special to you.

02:19:18.000 I think when I talk about the therapy of songwriting, that's what's, I hold on and protect that ruthlessly.

02:19:25.000 You know, I'm not just giving that away.

02:19:27.000 You know, and that's more, that part of it's way more important than selling an album or a concert ticket or going on the road touring and all that, man.

02:19:38.000 Like, what I get out of music is like when I'm sitting at home in a room all by myself.

02:19:43.000 And letting that stuff pour out of me, and I'm just singing it to the wall.

02:19:47.000 Like, that's what's saved my life, you know?

02:19:50.000 That's awesome.

02:19:51.000 It ain't any of the rest of it.

02:19:53.000 I'm glad that you articulate it that way, too, because I think there's young, aspiring songwriters and singers out there that are listening to this right now that are feeling this, and they just can't wait to get to a pad right now and start writing.

02:20:06.000 Pick up their guitar and start writing.

02:20:07.000 Because it's like stories like yours, and the way you express it, it inspires people to get.

02:20:13.000 Excited about it inspires people to really dig in.

02:20:18.000 I hope so.

02:20:19.000 You know, I definitely had folks that mentored me like that and you know steered me in the right direction in a lot of ways.

02:20:26.000 Terry Allen, the guy, definitely.

02:20:29.000 I'm just like, man, just keep writing, keep you know, and whatever it is, whatever that's making you want to do that in the first place, you know, like that, like hold on to that, you know, and protect it.

02:20:39.000 And the rest will all be always be around and always come and it'll change, and a good song will.

02:20:45.000 Survive and find its way.

02:20:47.000 Just like the guy, you know, that song you just played me, like you said, 200 million people in it just, they'll find its way, you know?

02:20:55.000 Yeah.

02:20:55.000 They'll find its way into people's hearts.

02:20:58.000 Yeah.

02:20:59.000 And like I said, it's just, it's important for people like you to tell your story.

02:21:04.000 Thank you.

02:21:04.000 It really is.

02:21:05.000 It's fuel for people.

02:21:07.000 Thanks.

02:21:08.000 Thank you for being here.

02:21:09.000 I really appreciate it.

02:21:10.000 It was a lot of fun.

02:21:11.000 I really enjoyed it.

02:21:13.000 And tell everybody they want to, Find you performing anywhere where they can catch you.

02:21:17.000 Is it you got a website that shows where you're going to be at all over the interwebs?

02:21:21.000 Yeah, it's all out there.

02:21:22.000 Is it do you have your own personal website?

02:21:25.000 I do, it's probably just Ryan Bingham.com or Bingham Music.com, something like that.

02:21:31.000 Got all the dates are up there.

02:21:33.000 Yeah, do you use social media at all?

02:21:35.000 Yeah, we're on all this.

02:21:37.000 Do you pay attention to it or do you got somebody who does it for you?

02:21:37.000 I mean, all this.

02:21:39.000 Both, yeah, do both.

02:21:41.000 Yeah, like mostly like on Instagram, I pay attention to that one, you know, and check in and stuff.

02:21:45.000 Like that, there's so much of it these days.

02:21:47.000 It's like I can't keep up, yeah.

02:21:49.000 All of it, you know, it'll rob your time.

02:21:52.000 Yeah, I'm trying to go get away where all that stuff's turned off.

02:21:56.000 That's where I'm gonna find me.

02:21:57.000 Beautiful, all right.

02:21:59.000 Thanks, brother.

02:21:59.000 Appreciate it.

02:22:00.000 It was a lot of fun.

02:22:00.000 Thank you.

02:22:01.000 Bye, everybody.

The Joe Rogan Experience - April 24, 2026

Joe Rogan Experience #2489 - Ryan Bingham

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Transcript