00:00:43.000You know, it felt like you were in it.
00:00:45.000Like it brought the whole crowd into it, too.
00:00:48.000That 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.
00:01:07.000Wouldn'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.
00:01:15.000When they get behind anything, it's just like, it just feels so good to see that many people come together and have that support.
00:02:18.000The 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.
00:03:30.000I 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.
00:03:41.000I 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.
00:03:54.000I love all those mountain men stories, Jim Bridger and all that stuff.
00:03:58.000It'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.
00:04:08.000I 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.
00:04:22.000It'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.
00:04:31.000There's like it's a Almost like a drug that hits you because of the beauty of it all.
00:04:36.000Like 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.
00:04:45.000It's like you feel it in your DNA, man.
00:04:49.000It's like your body knows, like, this is a fertile, beautiful place that's filled with life, and this should excite you.
00:04:56.000So all your natural human reward instincts are all like, this is the place I should be.
00:05:02.000Like, look at the sky, look at the lake, look at the mountains.
00:06:15.000We 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.
00:06:22.000And 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.
00:06:36.000And there was that moment in me, I was like, I don't know if I'm ever going back.
00:06:46.000It was tough to come back to civilization after that.
00:06:50.000I think we're doing something with ourselves, to ourselves, with civilization that we can't really fully appreciate because we're wrapped in it.
00:06:59.000And it's not until you get to nature where all that weight just gets lifted off of you and you're.
00:07:04.000Feel more normal, and you're like, Oh, this is where people are supposed to be.
00:07:09.000Yeah, 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.
00:07:20.000And you know, I remember going into it, you know, I didn't know what to expect really.
00:07:24.000I've done some camping and things like that and grew up ranching and all that, but this was a way different deal.
00:07:29.000And I remember I just had this like backpack full of gear, you know, and by the time I got out of there.
00:07:36.000Like, 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.
00:08:34.000He's taken salt water and made his own thing that kind of distills it into fresh water and removes the salt.
00:08:41.000Like 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.
00:08:54.000I 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.
00:09:21.000Fly fishing and entomology, and all these just kind of little skills.
00:09:24.000But one thing that really stuck with me was a fire building kind of drill when we started.
00:09:31.000It was kind of right when we first caught there, and it was pretty wet and it had been snowing.
00:09:34.000And there's only six of us, you know, and we're guys from kind of all over the country.
00:09:38.000And 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.
00:09:48.000And 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.
00:09:54.000And man, I'm running around grabbing like little sticks and twigs.
00:10:00.000It's just smoking and we can't get it going.
00:10:02.000I look over and there's a kid from Alaska in the class.
00:10:06.000And 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.
00:10:20.000I was like, okay, that's how you do that, you know?
00:10:23.000And it was so, Just the littlest things, you know, to have that knowledge, you know.
00:10:27.000And part of it was, you know, he was explaining to us the instructor.
00:10:30.000He'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.
00:10:38.000It's like, you better get a fire going and keep them warm real quick, you know.
00:10:41.000So there was always a, you know, a reason and a purpose behind it, which was really cool.
00:10:45.000And I'll never, those are some of the things I'll never forget.
00:10:49.000Did they teach how to start fires with like a piece of metal and like a flint?
00:11:59.000My friend Brian Cowan, Ryan Callahan, all these guys.0.99
00:12:03.000So 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
00:12:11.000Because it was raining every day for like five days in a row, and we couldn't find any deer.0.96
00:12:19.000So, we, this one day, and we were trying to figure out things to light on fire because everything's soaking wet.
00:12:25.000And 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.
00:14:05.000I'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.
00:14:15.000Like, 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
00:14:23.000One of the things that we talked about after was like, those people were fucking cool.
00:15:50.000I'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.
00:15:58.000And 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.
00:16:52.000Use leverage real quick, roll those bells up on your knee.
00:16:55.000I 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.
00:17:08.000And it was, you know, we're stacking it in the barn, you know, so it's just like you're inside the barn.
00:19:19.000My 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.
00:19:29.000You 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.
00:19:41.000I 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.
00:19:50.000You 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?
00:19:58.000Or things like that, and have those skills.
00:20:00.000I still love working around the house and doing little projects and things like that.
00:20:04.000I 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?
00:20:13.000Right, they want to come over to the house and help with some projects and stuff.
00:20:17.000And I'm like, oh, yeah, cool, we'll just, you know, I already dug those holes and set up a string line.
00:20:22.000We'll set these posts and they're like, okay.
00:20:24.000And then after about a half hour, I look over, I'm there just kind of looking at the ground.
00:20:46.000Well, 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.
00:20:57.000That's so like viscerally appealing to people.
00:21:01.000There's something about watching that life.
00:21:03.000Like, it's you would say it's like a simple, difficult life, maybe.
00:21:08.000I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's like it's so appealing.
00:21:12.000Like, so many people wanted to be cowboys after they watched your show.
00:21:16.000I think it's something goes to like you're talking about that guy living off the land and stuff like that.
00:21:21.000It's just something that's been ingrained in us over thousands of years of survival.
00:21:28.000And we all have that in us still today.
00:21:30.000And we just unfortunately lose in touch with it because we're not doing it as much.
00:21:34.000And so when you get the opportunity to even just go plant a garden or something like that, I think it's in us.
00:21:41.000And it wakes up something within that's just been a little bit dormant for a while.
00:22:24.000Being on the road and being in big cities all the time, and you're just surrounded with information and screens, man.
00:22:30.000As 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?
00:23:03.000It's like 50,000 bucks for a trail horse, which is cool.
00:23:08.000I hope people are enjoying that and getting something out of it.
00:23:14.000I'm not running a bunch of cows these days, but I keep a few horses around, and especially for the kids.
00:23:19.000Whether they want anything to do with them or not, we enjoy so much in the afternoons.
00:23:23.000Go up and feed them some carrots or brushing their tails and just being around that energy.
00:23:28.000My youngest little boy, he's just got.
00:23:30.000He's got some kind of mojo with animals, you know.
00:23:33.000And I've got this old mule, and her name's Honey, and she's got these big ears, and she's massive, you know.
00:23:38.000And 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.
00:23:51.000And just like his connection with those animals.
00:23:53.000And 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.
00:24:04.000They're so anxious, or you know, not maybe so scared, but it's just nervous.
00:24:08.000You know, it's just big animals and stuff.
00:24:09.000And 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.
00:24:20.000You know, I think it's so magical to watch.
00:24:22.000Yeah, that's another relationship that's like primal the relationship between people and horses.
00:24:27.000They 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.
00:26:16.000And 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.
00:26:25.000And the road I was on, you know, was paved dirt, then it dead ended, and it turned into a dirt road.
00:26:30.000And 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.
00:26:42.000And Remy was just right down the road going towards Sula.
00:26:45.000And so I got the chance to just go over there and hang out with him and go stomp around the mountains with him.
00:26:52.000Just, 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.
00:27:05.000Well, first of all, he had Solo Hunter, where he'd go and film everything himself, which is so much more difficult than just hunting.
00:27:13.000He'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.
00:28:51.000There 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.
00:29:24.000I 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.
00:29:32.000He said, so the whole hotel was just like red clay everywhere.
00:29:36.000The fridge is just full of meat, like blood dripping out.
00:29:48.000But yeah, it's that weird red clay, and it all used to be part of the Dole pineapple plantation.
00:29:55.000So 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.
00:30:45.000Coming across all those old relics and just all the history there, it's just something to take into.
00:30:50.000And uh, we are laughing because obviously they're trying to like control the population of the axis deer there.
00:30:55.000And 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.
00:31:08.000The 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.
00:34:03.000And 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.
00:34:12.000There's so many of them and no predators.
00:34:14.000Yeah, and still can't thin them out, right?
00:34:22.000Yeah, 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.
00:37:45.000As of early 2026, California officials have approved a controversial plan to fully eradicate the non native mule deer population on Santa Catalina Island.
00:37:55.000To restore the ecosystem, around 2,000 deer introduced in the 1930s for hunting will be removed by ground based hunters to protect native biodiversity.
00:38:14.000So 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.
00:40:14.000I saw some one time I was driving up the coast.
00:40:17.000I think I was going up to San Francisco to play a gig, and maybe they're the Thule elk.
00:40:22.000I'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.
00:40:28.000I'm like, oh man, I didn't even know there were elk down here.
00:41:19.000I 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
00:43:34.000Biologist 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.
00:43:41.000What was that picture you just had of the elk?
00:44:16.000The wolf thing is interesting because they just brought them back to Aspen and they did a really stupid thing.
00:44:22.000They 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
00:45:48.000And 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.
00:45:59.000You know, it'd probably be the folks I'd want to ask how to handle it, you know?
00:46:03.000Well, they would certainly tell you don't let the wolves in.0.99
00:46:06.000And if you do, kill them, you know.0.88
00:46:09.000But now it's gotten to the point where I think they're going to have to do something about them.0.99
00:46:13.000Will they put a hunting limit on them?
00:46:18.000Honestly, 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
00:46:27.000Don't drop them off in fucking Aspen, you idiot.1.00
00:46:30.000Because they're going to eat people's poodles too.1.00
00:46:34.000If 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
00:46:42.000They're going to eat all kinds of dogs.
00:46:43.000They eat dogs in Alaska all the time.0.97
00:47:28.000And 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
00:47:44.000So 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
00:47:50.000Yeah, you're just living with monsters.1.00
00:49:53.000When 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.
00:49:59.000Coyote running down the street with a pair of sunglasses on and a gold chain, eating better than any of us.
00:50:08.000When I went there in '94, that was the first time I ever saw a coyote.
00:52:03.000I 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.
00:52:15.000And 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.
00:52:27.000And I had an Australian Shepherd dog at the time.
00:52:31.000And I just asked him where, you know, good places to go stomp around.
00:52:34.000He said, Yeah, you know, you go up there.
00:52:36.000He goes, But I wouldn't take your dog with you.
00:52:59.000It'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.
00:53:10.000What their goal is to have zero hunting.
00:53:13.000Their goal is to have all the animals just balance each other out.
00:54:28.000You can still hunt for black bears, but you can't use dogs anymore.
00:54:31.000And so, as soon as they stopped the use of dogs, the amount of black bears they harvested went way down.
00:54:36.000So, the amount of bears in the population went way up.
00:54:39.000Yeah, 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.
00:54:45.000I mean, I've been up there, shoot, almost 15 years and hadn't heard of one.
00:54:49.000This is the first time one's kind of made it over into that area that I know of, anyway.
00:54:54.000Maybe up, you know, around the Malibu Creek and those state parks.
00:54:59.000But in Topanga, there's probably people feeding them.
00:56:13.000And, 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.
00:56:22.000And 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.
00:56:29.000And we get to Burbank, and we pull back in these stables, and there's a kind of a big cinder block wall.
00:56:36.000And I just got as close to that as I could because it was blocking the wind, you know, from hitting us.
00:56:41.000And the next morning, I woke up, and I was just, my Throat was sore and hurting.
00:56:47.000And I opened the camper door, and the Altadena fire had started, and it was right there.
00:56:51.000And so it was just a mountain of black smoke coming over the top of us there.
00:56:55.000And so I was like, let's go, let's get out of here, let's head north.
00:56:59.000And 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.
00:57:07.000And they're like, yeah, come on up here.
00:57:09.000So 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.
00:57:16.000And, you know, After doing that a few nights, and I was like, let's just head east and go to Texas.
00:57:25.000There'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.
00:59:06.000You can watch it on the news and you kind of get a feeling of it.
00:59:08.000But 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.
00:59:26.000We saw it when the Palisades thing was starting.
00:59:29.000From our house, it's kind of a Little mountain that comes up on the back, and I hiked up there and was watching it.
00:59:35.000You could see the smoke, and then you could like start seeing little flickers of the flames.
00:59:40.000And then it was just like somebody dumped gasoline on this thing.
00:59:44.000I mean, the flames shot up hundreds of feet into the air.
00:59:49.000And uh, my wife was on the balcony, you know, the house, and I'm kind of up on this little mountain.
00:59:53.000I'm looking over, looking in her eyes.
00:59:57.000I'll go hook up the horse trailer, I'll be upset.
01:00:01.000Let's load up and just, and you know, the wind was blowing.
01:00:06.000Like 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.
01:00:24.000Like that's the stuff that you always thought was the safest, right?
01:00:29.000And 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.
01:00:41.000So, I was amazed at the through some of the fires that I've been through, seeing the firefighters up there.
01:00:49.000Those helicopter pilots, uh, the airplane pilots, seeing those tankers fly through there.
01:00:55.000I mean, it's just incredible what those guys can do.
01:00:57.000I mean, if it hadn't, I mean, they saved that whole canyon, yeah, of Topanga at least.
01:01:03.000You 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
01:01:10.000Cutting 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
01:01:20.000I 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.
01:01:36.000And 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.
01:01:53.000And 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.
01:02:08.000And then you got 90 mile an hour winds blowing, and, you know, and I could see them from the house.
01:02:15.000You 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.
01:02:25.000Then you had the guys on the ground, you know, trying to contain it as well.
01:02:29.000Just the coordinated effort between them, you know.
01:02:33.000I can imagine the conversations there.
01:03:40.000Got to where you can't depend on it, you know?
01:03:43.000I mean, I know our neighbors and stuff have a pretty good program in place.
01:03:47.000We'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.
01:03:55.000Or, you know, there's some folks that have horses, but they don't even have a horse trailer up there.
01:04:00.000And, you know, I'm like, okay, I'll come get yours too, or whatever, you know, we need to do.
01:04:04.000And you kind of just have to have that mentality, I think, you know?
01:04:29.000The materials that they're made out of asbestos or lead.
01:04:33.000I 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.
01:04:45.000I 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.
01:05:00.000Yeah, wood fire is hard enough, but the chemicals burnt TVs and computers and hard drives and electronics and refrigerators, treated lumber.
01:05:42.000I would just worry about even breathing the air that has the dust of all that shit in it.0.99
01:05:47.000Like, I probably wouldn't want to live there anymore.0.99
01:05:51.000If 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
01:06:29.000You 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.
01:07:19.000I 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.
01:07:56.000It 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.
01:08:04.000For any solution, you know, it's like all the red tape and all the hoops and things and all the permits or whatever.
01:08:10.000Like, you can't even, you know, the road's blocked.
01:08:14.000Okay, 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.
01:08:22.000And 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.
01:08:27.000We'll just go, we'll just go move this right now, you know?
01:09:18.000They 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.
01:10:55.000You 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.
01:11:05.000Same kind of thing, like you know, Marfa and out in that area.
01:11:08.000You 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.
01:11:18.000I hear people going out there and buying houses and all that stuff.
01:11:21.000Then they go out there for like a week and they realize that the only thing open at night is the Dairy Queen.
01:11:27.000They're heading back to New York pretty quick.
01:12:44.000I 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.
01:12:56.000A 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.
01:13:04.000And you try to build a ranch out of it.
01:13:09.000I was talking to family or my grandparents, I was like, Why did y'all stop here?
01:13:14.000You 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.
01:13:23.000I was like, It's only maybe another thousand miles out to California, or just keep going.
01:13:28.000They're like, Nope, this is it, we're done, you know.
01:13:30.000Yeah, I guess people didn't know what they were going to find if they kept going either.
01:13:34.000Like, you want to keep going for like another month?
01:13:37.000Oh, yeah, just miles and miles of more desert and no water.
01:13:42.000I mean, how long would that wagon trail take?
01:13:46.000Yeah, 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.
01:13:55.000And you're, you know, that's just rough country.
01:13:57.000And people have always been tough out there to survive out there.
01:14:03.000You'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
01:14:14.000I 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.
01:14:33.000Then you know it was survival and it was rough and it was work and you know had no running water.0.83
01:14:38.000I 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.
01:14:47.000And 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?
01:15:22.000I 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.
01:15:32.000Unless 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
01:16:57.000Yeah, I think his book's called American Buffalo, but it's really good.
01:17:02.000First hunting regulations appeared in colonial laws in the 1600s, mainly as seasonal closed seasons for certain game like deer.
01:17:11.000In 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.
01:17:38.000When 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.
01:17:54.000Well, it's amazing that they did that.
01:17:59.000Like 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.
01:18:07.000They can white water wrap, they can fish, they can hunt, they can camp.
01:18:12.000I mean, we're unlike any country when it comes to that.0.94
01:18:15.000It'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
01:18:25.000Being 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.
01:18:40.000Wilderness public land with dirt roads everywhere.
01:18:43.000And 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.
01:18:53.000And I'd haul my horse back in the way that the trail heads and just go explore stuff, you know.
01:18:57.000And you'd go over one ridge into the next, and there's a waterfall, and there's another drainage.
01:19:04.000And it's just like, you know, and this is the wilderness area too.
01:19:16.000You know, I was always on my toes about it.
01:19:19.000And I'd talk, you know, knowing Remy up there, he knew that area really well.
01:19:22.000So I'd kind of ask him spots to go check out and about bears and stuff.
01:19:27.000And 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.
01:22:01.000I 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.
01:22:21.000And at the end of the day, I just feel like we've just lost touch with that, you know.
01:22:26.000It's urban environments, it's unnatural environments that have given people this delusional idea of what our relationship is with nature.
01:22:35.000And, you know, people just think food comes from.
01:22:37.000Restaurant, yeah, and you know, the ground is for streets, and you drive sidewalks, yeah, just pave it all.
01:22:45.000It's all just this delusional perspective that comes from that sort of urban existence.
01:22:51.000And 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.
01:23:04.000Were you saying out there earlier that you rode bulls?
01:24:51.000And so, how do you teach someone how to fall off of a bull without getting stomped when they're 10?
01:24:56.000Well, 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.
01:25:03.000Steers 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.
01:28:22.000And it was a very much a family community deal, you know.
01:28:25.000Like, 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.
01:28:37.000You know, you got all the guys like Gary P. Nunn.
01:28:39.000I remember he always played the dance halls, and you get Robert O'Keefe and some of the, you know, hearing those bands.
01:28:46.000And 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.
01:28:58.000And I walked into this place my dad was living at, and he was playing dominoes with these guys.
01:29:03.000And this guy saw my guitar and he's like, Yeah, you know how to play that thing?
01:29:09.000And he picked it up and he played this.
01:29:10.000Killer, like mariachi song called La Malagagagna, and I was just fascinated with it.
01:29:15.000I was just like, Wow, I can't believe he made that guitar sound like that!
01:29:18.000You know, I've been dragging that thing around for a couple years, I didn't even know how to tune it up.
01:29:22.000And then he's like, You want to learn how to play this guitar?
01:29:25.000I said, Yeah, he said, Let me show you this song.
01:29:28.000He 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.
01:29:39.000And then I went up to Stephenville to ride bulls at Tarleton after that, and uh.
01:29:44.000A 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.
01:29:51.000There'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.
01:30:02.000So 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.
01:30:10.000But 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.
01:30:30.000So I went and got a book of chords to teach myself some new chords on the guitar.
01:30:34.000And I just learned one or two at a time and I'd start making up songs about our adventures on the weekends.
01:30:40.000A 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.
01:30:47.000You're tired of listening to the same old stuff.
01:30:51.000Whatever town we would get to, my buddies be like, Man, play that song, and you were singing in the back seat, you know.
01:30:56.000And so that's how the whole songwriting thing started.
01:30:59.000And 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.
01:31:08.000And 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.
01:31:17.000And uh, started working for him on the ranch and helping with some of the rodeo stuff and still riding bulls.
01:31:23.000And he found out that I could play the guitar.
01:31:28.000And he always had a party at the rodeo.
01:31:29.000He was kind of notorious and famous for having like just awesome parties.
01:31:33.000And he's like, Man, all right, Bingham, get your guitar.
01:31:35.000You'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.
01:31:42.000And those are like the first, he really encouraged me to like start playing for people and doing that.
01:31:47.000And then it would just spill over into the bars afterwards after the rodeo.
01:31:50.000And everybody would end up going to the bar.
01:31:52.000And everybody was like, Bingham, bring your guitar with you.
01:31:55.000And I started getting gigs in the bars.
01:31:58.000The bars would ask me if I wanted to come back and play.
01:32:01.000And 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.
01:32:08.000I was definitely not making a living doing it.
01:32:10.000I always had to have a day job during the week, you know, either working on the ranch or doing something.
01:32:16.000And 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.
01:32:25.000And I was like, man, this is almost as much as I made all day digging holes with the shovel.
01:32:31.000It didn't take me long to figure out that that was pretty cool.
01:32:34.000And I was just like, I'm going to stick with it.
01:32:38.000What an organic sort of a journey, you know, like a natural progression.
01:32:44.000Yeah, 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.
01:32:52.000It's just like, man, people were so supportive then.
01:32:54.000I'm just like, if you had a song to play it, people love live music.
01:32:57.000They'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.
01:33:07.000The 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.
01:33:13.000It's just like, man, we don't care if it's any good or not, just get up there and play.
01:33:50.000Well, 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?
01:34:00.000You know, like, oh, you play it like this, you know?
01:34:15.000I 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.
01:34:28.000After, 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.
01:34:43.000You know, out, you know, and been touring for five or six years.
01:34:47.000I think how old was I like when Yellowstone started, like 36, 37.
01:34:54.000So, yeah, I'd been playing, doing the music stuff for a long time.
01:34:59.000And so, how did the Yellowstone go from music to Yellowstone?
01:35:02.000Like, how did you even do any acting before that?
01:35:06.000No, 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.
01:35:18.000I 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.
01:35:29.000And then, written some songs for some other films and some TV shows since then.
01:35:34.000I 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.
01:35:48.000He introduced me to Taylor, and Taylor was, I think it was that movie Wind River, his first movie.
01:35:54.000I'd met Taylor and just kind of talked about music and stuff, and he wanted me to write a song for Wind River.
01:36:00.000And 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.
01:36:08.000And 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.
01:36:16.000And 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.
01:36:22.000I got to find a way to get you in the show, you know.
01:36:25.000And 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
01:36:32.000And 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
01:37:16.000And 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.
01:37:27.000Really 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.
01:37:40.000You 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.
01:37:47.000So they already kind of have the whole thing set up.
01:37:50.000And so when I walk into a scene and they say they're lying to me, it's just like, oh, okay.
01:38:25.000I 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.
01:38:37.000If you could ride a bull, I think you could kind of do basically anything.
01:38:41.000Man, I, you know, that's one thing my uncle taught me when I was young.
01:38:44.000You 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.
01:38:52.000And it's all, it's not, I think I can, it's, I know I can and I will.
01:38:58.000You 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.
01:39:06.000You 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.
01:43:00.000And so they have to stitch your lip back on?
01:43:03.000Yeah, you know, and the shock was just, I didn't feel anything.
01:43:06.000Like, 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?
01:43:16.000I was like, nah, I don't have health insurance.
01:43:17.000I'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.
01:43:29.000You'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.
01:43:36.000And, uh, She goes, You want me to, you know, get you an ambulance there?
01:43:40.000And I was like, No, I think we can make it, you know.
01:43:42.000And she's like, She gave me some pain pills.
01:43:47.000And 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.
01:43:56.000And 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.
01:44:06.000And then it's, you know, I was starting to feel it.
01:44:10.000Took 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.
01:44:18.000And 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.
01:44:24.000And the tea, oh, it was an ordeal, you know, for sure.
01:44:28.000For months after that, you know, getting the dental work done, all that crap.
01:46:03.000Even 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?
01:46:12.000We got to get in the van and go drive around and play in bars, you know?
01:46:16.000And 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.
01:46:52.000Well, it's a great base to start out from.
01:46:55.000You know, I mean, it sounds like it's almost like the universe engineered this path for you to go down.
01:47:02.000Like, if you wanted to pick a path that would bring you to where you are right now, it is the perfect set of circumstances.
01:47:11.000I 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?
01:47:18.000And just a lot of luck and perseverance or whatever.
01:47:23.000I wouldn't say I haven't worked hard at it.
01:47:25.000I feel like I have and all that, but there's a lot of luck out there and a lot of good people, too.
01:47:30.000A 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.
01:47:39.000I 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.
01:47:49.000And 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.
01:47:56.000Bonfire and play some songs, and he's like, Oh, my brother's got a bar in Phoenix.
01:48:00.000And he's like, Call them on your way out.
01:48:02.000And 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.
01:48:30.000If 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.
01:50:51.000I rode bulls and you know, it's my very much my identity, you know.
01:50:55.000No cowboy stuff wasn't really cool then, you know.
01:50:58.000I 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.
01:51:08.000And 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.
01:51:18.000I remember, I think the first time, one time I was in LA, we were out on the Santa Monica Pier.
01:51:23.000And there was a guy that had like the one man band thing, you know, out there.
01:51:28.000And there's all these tourists on the pier.
01:51:29.000And I'm just like out there checking out the scenery and just minding my own business.
01:51:33.000And this guy gets on the microphone and he just points over at me and goes, Oh, broke that mountain.
01:51:41.000And everybody on the pier turned around and looked at me.
01:51:43.000And they're just pointing at me and laughing at me.
01:51:44.000And I'm just like, Ah, okay, you know.
01:51:47.000So I was like, That was the association with the cowboy had at the time.
01:51:58.000A whole new monkey wrench to that legend.
01:52:03.000But, 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.
01:52:11.000You know, I felt like for a long time they were so electronic and DJs and all that stuff, you know.
01:52:16.000Well, there's a giant country comeback that's going on right now, kind of nationwide.
01:52:21.000I'm sure you love Open the Gates, the Zach Bryan song.
01:52:32.000But there's so many great musicians out there now, and also have lived like different but very, like Charlie Crockett.
01:52:39.000What a fascinating dude that guy is.0.99
01:52:42.000Like 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
01:52:55.000Yeah, like wearing it on their sleeves, you know, and having the confidence to, I think people have always been.0.96
01:53:01.000I 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.
01:53:13.000The truth in their speaking into their songs and things like that.
01:53:16.000And 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.
01:53:24.000There's also an appreciation for it because I think we're all fearful that people like you won't exist in the future.
01:53:31.000Because 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.
01:53:45.000Like when we meet a guy like you in real life, you're like, oh, keep him around.
01:53:49.000You know, like you want to make sure that people like you still exist.
01:53:54.000It'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.
01:54:05.000Like, 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
01:54:24.000It'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.
01:54:37.000I kind of have to think about it myself.
01:54:39.000I was like, no, you definitely didn't.0.99
01:54:41.000You rode a bull when you were fucking 10, dude.0.99
01:54:43.000Most people when they're 10, they're playing with G.I. Joes.1.00
01:55:28.000Most men see that and they wish they were like that.
01:55:32.000I 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.
01:55:41.000And 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.
01:55:45.000It was like this little steer and then this big bull, you know.
01:55:48.000And I went to it was a junior rodeo in Odessa, Texas, and it was my first year to ride junior bulls.
01:55:54.000And I entered the bull ride and my uncle was there with me.
01:55:59.000And, uh, They started running the bulls up into the chutes and they were big.
01:56:03.000They were like backs that wide and horns sticking outside the chutes, you know.
01:56:07.000And they were big, but they didn't buck that hard.
01:56:10.000You know, they just kind of jumped, kicked down, but they were still big, you know.
01:56:13.000And like I remember like scared and like in tears, you know, kind of I was scared.
01:56:19.000And my uncle, you know, was super cool about it.
01:56:22.000He wasn't like, you have to do this or you have to.
01:56:24.000He's like, man, whatever you want to do, you know, you want to pack it up, we'll get out of here right now.
01:56:28.000It's like, this is either for you or it's not for you, you know.
01:56:34.000Him 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?
01:56:42.000I 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?
01:56:52.000There was something in me where, like, I meant because I slept it, I dreamt about it, you know?
01:56:55.000I just loved it, and I was like, nah, I'm going to do this, you know?
01:56:59.000And I put my rope on him and had all the sport there that I needed in that moment.
01:57:04.000They opened the gate and this big old high horned bullion, he just turned and kind of jumped out there real docile.
01:57:11.000And I think I rode him two or three jumps and fell off.
01:57:14.000And it was just like, I'm the king of the world.
01:57:47.000Like they full on started these like breeding programs.
01:57:49.000You 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.
01:58:02.000And then they started breeding these young bulls.
01:58:04.000Man, 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.
01:58:34.000And just, they just kept running them in there, man.
01:58:37.000They'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.
01:58:47.000And they would, you know, they'd get rid of the ones that didn't buck and keep the ones that did.
01:58:50.000And man, I'd just be like, the wilder they got in the shoot, like, the more aggressive I got.
01:58:56.000Like, I just was like, oh, okay, that's what we're going to do.
01:59:10.000You 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.
01:59:17.000When they're acting like they call them scrub bulls.
01:59:20.000Like my buddy Adam, he lives in Australia or he's moving to America.
01:59:24.000But 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.
01:59:35.000And then many generations later, they're now completely wild.
01:59:43.000I knew these three guys from Australia that, or several Australian guys that came over and lived in Stephenville.
01:59:48.000A lot of these cowboys have moved to Stephenville because it was so central and it was kind of.
01:59:51.000Cowboy capital there, and his name was Lance Kelly.
01:59:54.000He had some brothers, and they were from up there in North Queensland somewhere.
01:59:59.000One 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.
02:00:05.000You know, I was young and curious, I was always fascinated.
02:00:07.000It was like, Wow, you're from Australia!
02:00:09.000You know, I've only seen movies, you know, like the, what's it, the, oh gosh, Crocodile Dundee?
02:00:17.000No, man from Snowy River, not which was, anyway.
02:00:22.000But I was fascinated with Australia and him and his brothers.
02:00:25.000And 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.
02:00:34.000And he'd videotaped it around his body while he was walking around working on the ranch.
02:00:40.000And he'd have his four wheeler in there.
02:00:42.000Chasing these wild cattle and rounding them up, him and his brother, brothers.
02:00:46.000And 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.
02:00:52.000And then he had this piece of pipe on there, he could run up behind them and kind of knock them down.
02:00:56.000And then he'd jump off and tie their legs together.
02:00:58.000And they would catch a bunch of them like that.
02:01:00.000And then his brother would come by, you know, later with a truck and a winch and winch them up into the trailer.
02:01:06.000And they would catch all these wild cows like that.
02:01:08.000And 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.
02:02:46.000I think it's a lot about what you say, too.0.98
02:02:47.000You know, when you survive certain things in your life, and you know, it puts things in perspective of what you're taking seriously anymore.
02:03:30.000And I think it also puts life into perspective.
02:03:32.000With 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.
02:03:39.000I 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.
02:03:50.000But, man, I find in comics, man, I feel like.
02:03:54.000There'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.
02:04:05.000You know, it's so much, I don't know, for me, it seems like so much more than just a joke.
02:04:51.000Yeah, 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
02:04:59.000When a good song hits, you're like, fuck.0.85
02:05:01.000If 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
02:05:38.000It's always been real therapeutic for me at the very beginning.
02:05:41.000Like 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?
02:06:03.000Like, 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.
02:06:13.000And I was just like getting that stuff out.
02:06:14.000Like, there wasn't anybody in the room.
02:06:16.000I was just like, you know, but I was getting this stuff out of me, you know.
02:06:21.000And it's also a way for people to hear it where it's not annoying.
02:06:42.000You 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.
02:09:23.000I mean, I always think, like, you know, gosh, it's changed so much since I started out, you know?
02:09:28.000I 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.
02:09:36.000Now there's like, oh, here's a guy that'll just show you every note and this and that.
02:09:39.000Yeah, there's a guy on YouTube that'll show you exactly where to place his fingers.
02:09:43.000Yeah, that took me years to figure it out.
02:09:45.000You 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.
02:09:56.000And it's just like, boom, there you go.
02:10:00.000You 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.
02:10:08.000And 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.
02:10:55.000I was like, man, I really want to get better at the guitar, you know?
02:10:58.000And he's like, well, just listen to all the stuff that you really like.
02:11:01.000You know, he's like, don't try to play it all note for note.
02:11:03.000He's like, just keep listening to it, and like, you'll start eventually finding those places and develop your style.
02:11:10.000But 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.
02:11:32.000And I needed, you know, and it was just, it was so, I had so much fun doing it.
02:11:36.000And, 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.
02:11:44.000And, you know, I went years, you know, without having any kind of lessons or training.
02:11:49.000And then I'm just like, within, Three weeks of being on tour and watching YouTube videos of it just stepped it up so much.
02:12:04.000I mean, that's the positive part of the internet.
02:12:08.000If 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.
02:12:13.000Yeah, if we all could just avoid the negative of everything, right?
02:12:18.000Unfortunately, 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?
02:12:25.000So they're just spreading negativity online.
02:12:40.000This 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.
02:12:50.000Like, how many views does that shit have on YouTube?0.98
02:12:54.000It's got to be like 100 million views or something nuts.1.00
02:12:59.000But that song was fucking gigantic.0.99
02:13:48.000So 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.
02:13:53.000And then I go, Hey, hey, hey, don't sign nothing.
02:14:29.000Yeah, 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.
02:14:36.000But he's getting an offer for $7 million to sign this.
02:16:39.000Like this weird digital world and AI and just this strange fucking life that we're all living like now.0.99
02:16:48.000That 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
02:17:14.000Like, 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.
02:17:29.000And I remember being young then and being like, oh, man, you know, these are the last guys left, you know?
02:18:15.000Just keep writing, keep making it, and just be undeniable.
02:18:19.000And 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.
02:18:30.000And I guarantee you, there's going to be somebody that's going to stop and appreciate it.
02:18:33.000Well, that's what got Charlie Crockett started out.
02:18:46.000You 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
02:18:50.000Like, 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
02:18:55.000We'll have a party over there, you know?0.99
02:19:14.000You know, that's what's, it's something that's special to you.
02:19:18.000I think when I talk about the therapy of songwriting, that's what's, I hold on and protect that ruthlessly.
02:19:25.000You know, I'm not just giving that away.
02:19:27.000You 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.
02:19:38.000Like, what I get out of music is like when I'm sitting at home in a room all by myself.
02:19:43.000And letting that stuff pour out of me, and I'm just singing it to the wall.
02:19:47.000Like, that's what's saved my life, you know?
02:19:53.000I'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.
02:20:06.000Pick up their guitar and start writing.
02:20:07.000Because it's like stories like yours, and the way you express it, it inspires people to get.
02:20:13.000Excited about it inspires people to really dig in.
02:20:29.000I'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.
02:20:39.000And the rest will all be always be around and always come and it'll change, and a good song will.