Cal White

Full episode transcript, auto-generated from the audio and lightly formatted (verbatim, not edited).

you said something about Mexico did you ride down there yes I did there's a rodeo associate or a bull riding Association down there they're kind of like PBR and they're a big deal down there and Ford sponsors and monster sponsors them and they would just roll out the red carpet for us those folks packed the house they're one empty seat in the

joint it was cool man [Music] so Bluegrass those your family yep my family White House Harmony had a band and uh man they traveled for the better part of my childhood matter of fact my granddad gave me a 1954 Gibson for one of my let's see I was probably 21 or two and gave it to me for my birthday it was his

first guitar that he played in the band with and it's really herringbone trim on it and you still have it yeah I still got it no kidding yeah it's a sweet guitar and uh they kind of a thicker neck on it yeah so anyway I grew up with them and they recorded several CDs over the years and traveled they played in Branson

and um I think they did about 14 years um Six Flags used to have a Western Heritage days yeah and they played over there for about 14 years and it was just the whole family it was my grandmother my papa my two aunts my and two of my cousins whoa so uh so the two cousins that live in yeah so we were

just talking about yeah Haley Simon okay yeah she lives in Decatur right there off the square and then uh she still plays some Texas Music stuff around the area and um and then Jordan Sinclair he was their base player and he does some things here and there but anyway I come from a musical family background and I kind of went off on

the rodeo bull riding Trail and track and anyway they um they always kind of wanted me to play the guitar and I picked it up a little bit when I was older but anyway bored was my deal when I was younger so I just kind of stuck with that and headed that direction well the music thing in the rodeo thing just to

go hand in goes hand in hand yeah and going on the rodeo Trail picking on the guitar right so and that's kind of when I went when I started college at Vernon um that's kind of when I picked up the music deal I wanted to kind of learn the guitar and how to play the guitar um because obviously you have time when

you're in college there's time right yeah in between classes and whatever else you're doing and so my roommate or not my roommate a buddy of mine had a guitar that he'd keep down in his room and so I'd sneak down there and grab it and he had a chord book and I started learning chords and then okay so anyway it was so

did you end up playing with the family at all no I'm not on that level my papa learned how to play by ear when he was a kid he grew up in the mountains of Arkansas and always had an affinity for music and so he picked a big guitar and learned how to play by ear himself and you know they started that

band he could pick and grin with the best of them they'd go those festivals and I'd sit around and listen to them plus say this is your dad no it's my granddad oh Granddad he's passed away now unfortunately but uh great man you know I really looked up to him a lot my dad also plays he plays a guitar in the banjo

and sings and he plays with some of the local cowboy churches and then I'm sure you're familiar with the Greenwood Country Store for sure yeah where they and they have catfish on Saturdays and stuff and um my dad will go out there and play sometimes I got a little they called they call themselves lonesome for fame ah it's just kind of a

joke you know they just have fun you know yeah they're uh but they're good man my dad I grew up with him picking on that banjo and he'd get going on that thing and then fingers you know them picks all his fingers and anyway it's cool you know growing up in that and all the family get-togethers we my family always played music

and sang and you know that can do a mean rendition of happy birthday probably the best happy birthday so anytime someone's birthday my you know they had a Harmony group you know obviously leave my grandmother my two ants would harmonize and anyway so that kind of put us to shame a little bit when they were singing yeah stay that harmonize and anyway

a lot of fun growing up for that yeah definitely did they Rodeo uh you know nobody really rodeoed my family with accession to I think my uncle and them kind of um you know played with Laura a little bit uh my dad his uh big joke was that when he was younger he got on one Bull and that was all it took

he went out to the cowbell I don't know if you're familiar with cowbell indoor arena it was in Mansfield very historical Arena a lot of guys got their start a lot of guys got on bucking bulls over there when they were kids and stuff and it was a weekly deal and they had practices and uh it's now uh I can't think of

the name of that high school maybe Legacy over a man it's right across from Whataburger but uh man it was I have some good memories I was a kid going over there too as well but uh that's where my dad got on his first bull his first and only Bull and um so anyway and so and so you like you I mean

you didn't have a lot of family in it you had to teach yourself or yeah no I um so you know I got to the rodeo deal kind of you know my family's country like I said my family grew up in the mountains of Arkansas so I grew up with stories of my granddad and my granddad telling me stories about my relatives

and you know with mountain lions and running crosscuts solves and the log woods and skin logs out of the mountains with mules and fighting and this moonshine bunch and you know and I grew up going to the river up there my family still has a 40 acre place up there the original home Papa's original Home Place and so I grew up there

you know I grew up going up there but I lived in I was born in Irving and so I was born in inner city and uh lived in Grand Prairie Grand Prairie at the time was pretty Rural and um huh that's funny yeah pretty rural there's not anymore I don't think obviously but uh my whole family actually lived over there so kind

of you know there was a country upbringing there and so I kind of you know fell in I started out schooling Keller my mom and dad were split up but um anyway I started schooling Keller with my mom and them and then ended up transferred over to Irving when I was uh in sixth grade and I fell with a group of kids

that were you know they wanted a rodeo they talked about getting on bulls and all this stuff there were some guys in that group that you know had tried it you know cowbell and everywhere else and so one of the guys had a bucking Barrel in his backyard and I'll never forget we it was just right down the street from our Junior

High and so a group of us went down there one day we were getting on that buck and Barrel and next thing I know back then Grand Prairie had some guys that had some bulldog and pens of stuff and they were just happen to be kind of in close proximity to where I lived and where a few of my friends lived at

and um so we just started going these bulldogging piss and these guys would they'd run steers you know and throw them and then at the end of the deal they let us get on their lead steer or whatever and it just kind of slowly built from that you know and I had a couple of friends that one was a team rubber West

Moss Out of Decatur and um and then Canberra blessing uh camera Smith now but um they were rodeoing pretty heavily in Pro Youth and actually kind of going you know what I mean and um I had at the time I was smitten with camera she was you know one of my first girlfriends and sure and uh she said well hey you know

I'm going these Pro youth rodeos and she said well why don't you enter you know and you can go with us and I said hey that sounds great and then so anyway so you were 17 16. no I was uh I started riding steers when I was 10. yeah so I was 10 and I wrote both oh yeah we're going to youth

rodeos yeah youth rodeos yeah so I started out riding steers and um I rode Steers for I know a year or two there and uh well actually tell you what that first year um they started out putting us on just kind of Bulldog and steer type uh stock and about Midway through the season I said hey we're going to switch over to

what we call PeeWee bulls and that freaked me out a little bit you know because it's you know it officially became a [expletive] it didn't want to steer anymore right and um so anyway we started getting on Peewee bulls and uh you know just stuck with it man I am I spent about I don't know 15 years all together often you know

riding bulls from youth Rodeo all the way through professional rodeo and anyway I just really enjoyed my time riding bulls it I you know I was telling I was telling my dad about this the other day you know because um I remember being a kid in Irving Texas Grand Prairie inner city and um you know I grew up going to you know

my mom and dad and them they'd take me or my family to take me to rodeos the old Traders Village Rodeo I don't know they used to have Rodeo out there I don't know if you're familiar with that or not uh but as a kid I was I was probably you know four or five years old I've got pictures over there up

against the fence looking you know watching the rodeo and stuff and so I grew up kind of with the influence you know we'd go and watch it and I always kind of had a an attraction to the Bulls and sure a big you know everybody all the kids do right and um anyway so I just I had that influence and anyway I

fell into it well you were saying you were talking to your dad about it was it like the idea that what specifically were y'all talking about the how you got into it or oh yeah yes uh so yeah I was talking to my dad and I said you know I remember being a young kid and just I couldn't um I was just

wanted to be a cowboy so bad in whatever way I could and obviously we I didn't have a ranch ranching cowboy background you know I didn't have the um the opportunity to get out there and do that because we were living in Grand Prairie you know I was around a few horses and things through camera and them and uh but man I

remember sitting on the back porch and uh listening to old Chris LeDoux cassette tapes listening to all those songs or about Rodeo living and being a cowboy and uh man just dreaming and watching the NFR outside back then you know there wasn't a lot of rodeo on TV like kind of like there is today on you know because the cowboy Channel and

all that which I think it's great for kiddos and everybody else but back then it was TNN and you know uh Mesquite Rodeo was pretty much the most standard Rodeo production on TV may not watch those old Mesquite rodeos and um you know then when it was NFR season I'd stay up late and watch the NFR man and just sit and dream

of being just being good I just wanted to try to be good you know I just wanted to get on the road probably at the time you know started getting stuck on my head but which happened a lot you know and um but I listened to those old Crystal Dew tapes and man I just be I'll just eat up with it you

know and I played all the traditional Sports I played uh baseball and soccer and basketball and karate and you know I tried a little bit of everything growing up baseball was kind of always my deal I really enjoyed playing baseball until I was about I don't know probably sixth grade somewhere in there and um you know I played a little football in

junior high and stuff like that but Rodeo just stuck with me and I think it you know it's a mentality thing and I it tried me and it was challenging and you know once you once you do get on a bucket animal and you ride a buck an animal you kind of have that you know that fire in you know it's like

it just kind of sticks with you and um how would you describe the feeling of getting on I'll tell you man I have uh you know over the years man I obviously 15 years around Bulls you know I got to feel that feeling a time or two you know riding I get them Road and all that stuff made some good borage of

stuff but you know after I quit riding bulls I you know you kind of a little bit you miss that feeling so you start trying to find things to replace it and I've been skydiving and that sort of thing and man it's just there's nothing like writing uh a bucking animal and being a bunch of points and getting off you hear that

whistle blow and you get off and you got the crowd cheering for you and then you get there behind the bucket shoots and your buddies are shaking your hand telling you good boy ride your heart's pounding you're scared to death anybody that tells you they're not scared it's lying you know what I mean at what at some point you know and uh

so you just did this real dangerous thing and you're scared to death and you turn you turn that fear into something positive and there's this positive outcome and man there's just nothing like I guess maybe you could probably relate you know you go on stage and you got the crowd screaming for you your heart you know I don't know if your first

time out there on the stage maybe that would be something similar um they still get nervous yeah there you go you get out there and you do something difficult and um you get to the end result and it's a positive result and I don't know it's just hard to explain it I mean you know but it's I'd be curious if the nerves

almost get worse with something like bull riding or something really risky like that what I do there's no risk you know it's not like you're rolling the dice when you get up on stage like riding a bull or anything skydiving you know there's a roll of the dice element to it yeah that it's almost like yeah if you haven't had it real

bad yet it's like it's gonna come well there's always the danger Factor yeah and that's is that what the fear came from I mean you know it's you know it just depends I think at certain points of your career um you know I think there's probably different things that cause different levels of fear sometimes it's um fear of just you're getting on

a 1500 pound bucking animal that's you get on them you sit down on them slide down them on in a buck and shoot and they're shaking you can tell they're you know they're adrenaline they're as hard as this table they're just so muscled up and they're shaking and that you just well it's fixing to be a battle Yeah and then other times

obviously there's and every time I probably there's somewhat uh fear of failure you're out there in front of your eye it's you know what I mean it's everything is on you on your shoulders and um everybody's watching you sitting there in the stands and again you go from small deals to Big deals and you know it's you know it's humbling to get

yourself to get too jumped out there in front in front of several thousand people you know or in front of your buddies even in front of your girlfriend I don't know but hers to get your ego Bird yeah sometimes you get yeah it's a very humbling sport man you know that we always used to say You're only as good as the next

Bull you get on you know and that's the truth and it's really like that in every aspect of life you know and uh it's in everything you do and that's honestly you know more than anything I love the competition aspect of it I loved uh conquering you know difficult animals to ride uh you know I like the winning money part of it

the winning money part of it was secondary in my opinion it came with all it came as a result of everything um but man it uh Rodeo taught me a lot of as a Young Man Rodeo taught me a lot about life and taught me a lot of life lessons how to you know get up and dust myself off and keep on

rolling and uh fight through difficult things how to you know manage money and pay fees and you know how to survive kind of you know you're out there on the road and you're a young man and we learn how to be independent and adversity deal with adversity and which is probably the biggest thing you know and teaches a lot of lessons man

and um so anyway but then you know I really had a very Rodeo has really blessed me and um good Lord has blessed me obviously but um you know I was able to compete as a con you know as a contestant for many years and um made a bunch of friends I wrote Bulls down did you say you pro rodeo yeah Pro

Audio for a little bit I feel actually uh filled my permit my freshman year in college and I decided I filled it at North Texas State Fair Rodeo I won the board over there oh cool um so I'm playing on the 24th oh you are cool uh my son's riding sheep over there this year he's a returning champ from last year yeah

won the mutton busting last year so we got what night are they doing the mud so it's a progressive deal so they have a um like a qualifier deal that uh you know they lump all the kids into two days and last year I think there was about 160 kids that entered good grief and so they had like 80 kids per day

and then I take I believe it's 10 per day uh based on ride you know how long they ride if they make the whistle or whatever however they however they do it you know and then there's a semifinals perf uh that's usually during the bull riding performances like the Miller Lite board I know whatever they call it now and um so then

they take I think an additional they take five from each night of that to the finals and then there's 10 total in the finals and then they select a winner but so obviously they do it almost every night yeah so there's uh five performances I think it might must but it's all usually towards the so they get to ride in the um

the qualifier deal is over in their one of their show barns show arenas and then if they qualify out of that then they get to ride the big boy rodeo and so which is a cool deal for the kids you know they won it last year yeah he won it he won him a big old uh dinner plate buckle and you know

he was in the Wise County Messenger and ironically enough when he won that Buckle uh the good Folks at Justin Brands had invited him over to also participate in um mutton busting over at the Fort Worth Stockyards Coliseum and um so he went over there and actually won one of the perfs over there too so he had a big trophy and a

buckle and so he was you know he's Mr mutton Buster at that point so uh getting on balls uh is that something you'd discourage or encourage or just kind of impartial to if they want to do it then uh you know I'm not going to discourage it Rodeo you know my dad and I again were having this conversation the other day you

know but um I'm not going to discourage it um you know if they want to ride Bulls then you know I'm gonna give them the best opportunity and get them teach them how to do it the right way and with the right equipment put them on the right quality of stock right because I think that's a that's a difficult thing there's a

fine line there in today's world of bull riding because a lot of the Bulls these kids are getting on are just they're obviously the genetic deal has just become has become a huge deal and there are some buckers out there like some fire breathing dragons you know what I mean and they start them so young and so you know I think and

uh you know Cody Custer our previous world champion bull rider he's a big advocate of that putting kids on the right level of stock and you know the my oldest boy he got on a couple of calves and there's a guy that brought some holy in Cavs and he got on some of those and they're big but they're easy to ride yeah

easier to ride they have a you know pretty standard bucking pattern and those Dairy calves are pretty docile and it was just I think they're those are really good for young kids to get on as we're transitioning out of the sheep riding or if they're starting uh you know on the calf riding deal or even some of the kids are interested in

maybe getting on the steer to um just make sure that you're getting on quality stock and that's the same for my kids if they want to ride bulls or I'm gonna make sure they're getting on stuff that is that fits their skill level sure um you know back when I was getting on it wasn't we didn't really think like that yeah we

just showed up at a place and you know the bull riding deal is different back then well you know there's times that I paid to get on bulls and now I think guys pay people to get on bulls and yeah shoot down at um the Stockyards Rodeo like Fridays and Saturdays I think they pay you 200 bucks just to get on yeah

I think they just yeah they had one guy that covered and he just won all like all you got to do is just cover and yeah shoot you can just get on for 200 bucks yeah absolutely you know so that's a totally different uh environment than I was accustomed to and I was getting on bulls is you know when I was a

kid we would pay to get on we'd show up at these guys bucking pins and there would be like you're gonna get on whatever we run in here and they may be two-year-olds and they may be going to touring Pro deals or whatever and so we just did you know and it wasn't getting on one or two you know it was getting

on six or eight and call it what you will sometimes that probably wasn't the best thing but that's the only way we knew uh I grew up like I said and went to uh when I was getting on stairs my parents paid for me to go over to Don Gay's board on school 8X and um so I went over there to Mesquite

and um I'll never forget him telling me he said um all of us all of us he said you don't learn how to ride Bulls by getting on a bucking machine by watching it on TV he said you learn how to ride Bulls by getting on bulls and so um I took that I took that to heart and um just that's what

I did I learned how to ride Bulls by getting on and I'd show up at a practice pen and I'd get on bulls I've heard some guys talk about riding jumping horses yeah helps a lot yeah and you can do things to condition your groins and your you know get your balance you know there's uh some guys that will get on a

lunge put a horse on a lunge line sure and you know yeah get up off the rear end and you know start trying to you can do things to condition yourself sure you know and that obviously helps and I'll tell you some of the best guys going down the road especially when I was going some of the guys were in our group

that were that rode the best I grew up either roping or I had one buddy that rode race horses you know jockeyed rice or not jockeyed them but um exercise race horses out the track on the side to make some money and uh his he grew up doing that and he was sticky you know yeah he grew up doing that yeah he

just had a pretty good seat in general yeah he just had a good had a good feel for it and so you know there is a lot to that as well yeah balance and she's throwing that mental component yeah of just fear and the danger yeah I just the whole game changes yeah and that's uh you know the saying is boron is

85 mental 15 physical and I just I've never been on at some I've always wanted to do but yeah I mean now I'm at the point too that it's like the margin of error is like I'm giving up a lot yeah to just like even go for it so yeah so like the moment has passed but I still just even think about

the idea of like just like getting my chest out over one yeah I don't think I could that's also why I don't really want to go on get on because like I don't think I could fully commit it's just the idea of really just putting myself out there yeah I got on them well see that the mindset changes when you start getting

older and then that's what happens with that's the natural progression or transition phase there but um you know guys get a few they have to start paying a few bills maybe have a family have some things you know a music career or whatever and they go you know I don't know about this when you're younger and you don't have anything going on

and you're just like hey man you can yeah so caution to the win I'll tell you what I'm pretty good couch jockey though I mean if those guys aren't putting in the effort you know yeah look at him Lee looked at the ground you know what I mean what is he doing you know I have to just sit there and let my

wife will just look at it yeah I can't believe he did that get on yeah for sure nah it's you said something about Mexico did you ride down there yes I did um and that was a great experience and um so you know I was talking about on the way over here you know how I ended up down in Mexico uh so

my dad I'll tell you my dad uh worked for a long time in corp for Minyard food stores and they had a carnival food division so I was raised around a lot of Hispanic people selling Maynard uh no from Minyard oh man your food stores the grocery how do you even say it is it mean it or Maynard Menard oh it's not

even Leonard that's right I believe it's Menard don't quote me on that I'm sure it's effectively in 1872. so anyway I've always had a an appreciation for the Hispanic culture and you know those folks in general and so when the opportunity came up I feel like you know there was a couple of buddies that probably just said hey man you know we

have this opportunity to go down to Mexico do you want to go and I was like heck yeah man let's do it and not really knowing what to expect I just knew I was going to Old Mexico what year was this 0203 so it was pre-cartel Wars and all that stuff and it was such a different place man and um there's a

there's a rodeo associate or a bull riding Association down there and that literally translates to Crooked horns and their logo is a bull with crooked horns you know and um they're kind of like the Mexican version of the PBR and they're a big deal down there and Ford sponsors and monster sponsors them and um matter of fact the guy that owns the

association he came up to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo met me up here him and his family came up and my wife came over and we hung out with him a couple days I hadn't seen him in years but we stay in contact and I've got a bunch of friends still down there and uh hadn't been down there years but

we communicate through Facebook and what's the name of it again cuernos Chacos okay yeah and they're online they're still doing their thing yeah they're big how long were you down there man I spent about a summer down there uh off and on you know we'd go down there a couple weeks come back home you know that sort of thing but it was

fun but it was fun yeah it was a blast and uh you know we went down there they would just roll out the red carpet for us it was just awesome man we first event I went to was in queretaro which is down south pretty far and um they had all their events and saw these old bull fighting arenas and um man

it was cool it was they those folks packed the house I don't even I couldn't even give you a number of people that it was that place would seat but there wasn't a empty seat in the joint no kidding and it was and it was just they were on fire how different were the Bulls same really yeah I mean yeah the quality

of the bulls and all that stuff down there are is it's the same as up here at the United States and I think a lot of those guys down there and they all ride good those guys ride really good down there they're very consistent uh they're all about they're boring down there uh but some of those guys get a little nervous about

coming up and competing in the U.S for whatever reason uh but I'll tell you those guys could come up here and do their thing and yeah and dominate as well if they wanted to yeah so when you left uh I guess so that would have been like 0203 were you still in college yeah so I was in so I started college at

Vernon college and uh on a rodeo scholarship yeah to ride bulls for Bobby Scott and I started college I graduated high school in 2000 and um so you know yeah oh 203 somewhere in there is whenever that'd have been my technically myself Junior Burnham was a junior college it still is I think um so I ended up spending three years at Junior

College uh because I wanted a rodeo and Bobby said hey we'd like for you to stick around the third year and we'll make sure you're taken care of and we had an awesome team at the time and we won the men's and women's National Championship in a three yeah and set a record in the NRA oh and um at Cade swore and

Jackie Crawford yeah Willow and something oh yeah y'all were stacked yeah we were stacked and uh we kind of we had our way at the region you know all of us either won our events or Reserve Champs and then we just kind of cleaned house and I'm not trying to be braggadocious but it was just one of those teams that um you

know it was kind of a once a lifetime team killer and we had a blast and we won and we did our thing and a lot of great memories from those years but um but yeah it had been 0203 and uh so that was in the course of me going to college there and um we'd go down there and a group of

us and we'd drive all over Mexico and we'd go down there in our own personal vehicle drive it down the middle of Mexico there's a highway that runs right down the middle of Mexico and man and we take our own personal vehicle down there and they load us up and we'd go to these bull runs and stuff and we they'd put us

up in people's houses and feed us and put us on TV and radio and we'd sound autographs at fairs it was cool man it wasn't that long ago no it wasn't that's crazy it's changed that much that fast as much man yeah I'd say I never you know you hear the stories of Old Mexico and especially back then you know my dad

had been down there he was he worked in Corporate America for 26 years so they'd go down there sometimes on travel and stuff he'd just tell me to be careful but you know uh it wasn't like it is now where I feel like if you drove your personal vehicle down through there where you I feel like somebody would probably take your car

maybe do away with you pretty sketchy man yeah I don't know that I'd trust that Pro but those folks down there in South you know obviously the border of Mexico is different my wife has family that lives down there on the border you know there's obviously those Border Wars that go on for um you know for all that stuff goes on down

there but when you get a little further south I think it's depending on the state you're in I think it's a little different yeah definitely and so those guys that have that Association they're kind of native to queretaro the state and uh they live a lot of their family lives in Korea City and um they say it's pretty chill down there's a

little part of it too that it's like you know you could go into Dallas and if you're looking to get yourself into some trouble yeah you're gonna find it right yep but I mean it's kind of yeah I understand that it's a little bit more dangerous than it used to be historically but yeah if you're going to look if you're in some

sketchy places you're probably gonna find some sketchy people absolutely yeah I think and you know there was times like we went to Mexico City one time for a bull riding and uh it was in a bar and um the folks told us hey do not leave this bar you know because just don't you know you stay with us and you stay within

the compounds of this and then if you want to leave just let us know maybe we all go together or whatever but uh obviously they were telling us hey you know it can get if you get off in the wrong alley over there you might find yourself in a jam so I think that's probably a lot of the way because you know

I know people that go down to Mexico and still experience the culture and stuff and they come back with and they're fine yeah now I know some other folks that actually have had some problems with the cartel folks but that's a whole other story for them to tell yeah I got a buddy that at least is like a bunch of land hunting

land in Mexico uh and he's a he's an Outfitter oh he is yeah he's out of Colorado okay yeah and he's got some pretty wild stories there's some and I'll talk to you about it also off the podcast here but you probably know you may know the story but there's a couple of guys I know that actually got kidnapped and all that

stuff down there in Mexico so anyway they're from our area so anyway you made it out I made it out alive you didn't get kidnapped no you know but I was with a bunch of the guys the association guys down there and inevitably there's always someone that was affiliated with the Mexican Government in our group and so I think a lot of

the time we were we were counter protected patted you know saying they kind of made sure that we didn't get ourselves into spot and make sure that the people that may put us in a spot knew that we were made sure that they knew that we were guests of this so did you did you make it out of your Rodeo career like

relatively uh yeah I'm yeah were you gonna ask relatively sound injured and sound yeah so you know honestly I feel very blessed that I did uh for as long as I rode bulls and I yeah I kind of grew up rough anyway you know uh my I've been knocked out several times and had several you know lots of concussions uh I you

know my big deal were my big deal was soft tissue stuff tearing biceps and uh ligaments and those sort of things I didn't break a lot of Bones I broke a collarbone and fractured my nose one time and bit through my lip and that sort of stuff but a lot of mine was soft tissue damage and matter of fact I still got

a torn ACL on my left knee from when I was a junior yeah and um but the very first time I ever got knocked out I got knocked out riding a dirt bike when I was in fifth grade say irony yeah the irony you know so I'm like I've had my tooth knocked out and it wasn't even knocked out riding bulls it

was knocked out by a dog biting me so I've got this your tooth was knocked out by my front tooth yeah uh I was down petting him and he jumped up in my face and I guess it was just they bit me in the perfect way but it grabbed my front tooth and pulled it straight out of my gum root and all

so he bit the tooth out like he well he just bit my he went to bite of my face and I really don't know how it happened I really don't know exactly if his mouth was open and grabbed my tooth and pulled it down or if he hit it with his nose but I was you know I was leaning down petting him

and my buddy Was preparing some food for you yeah and he jumped up and boom and it pulled my tooth gosh duh rooting all out of my gums was it a Healer it was a doberman it was huh yeah I freaking deal what'd they do so the dentist actually took my tooth and pulled it back up in my gums and then ran

a bar across and then bonded it to my other teeth that were up yeah structure and um would they would they do with the dog us I don't know that was my buddy's dog and you know the funny thing is he got that dog so I had some friends that grew up in the neighborhood with me and he got that dog when

he was a puppy and I so I was around the building up here and then they ended up moving that dog and I don't know why but they had a moved it over to like a carved junkyard or something and um so we were over there he said yeah I want to run by there and feed him and uh I mean we

were my buddy was old enough to drive you know 15 16 years old and um I was probably 13 14 and you weird with dogs now no I'm not I you know I've actually had a couple of Runnings with dogs and I had a Nikita jump up and grab my side one time and boy and you were like these were some dogs

that are no Jail lady I saw one the other they were I don't know where we were we were my wife and I were somewhere and this couple went walking by and then oh we were we went to Canada we were in Canada and they went walking by with a Nikita and I looked at that dog and I went man I know

that kind of I know that breed of dog yeah it's a wolf yeah so anyway um yeah I was in I don't know fourth third or fourth grade or something I don't and I'd walk by this yard and this guy was he was building a section of the fence rebuilding the section of the fence he put up some construction fence that you

know that flimsy orange stuff just to kind of fill the Gap so that to keep the dog in the yard and I went by there and the dog was barking at me and I probably was antagonizing the dog and uh just hitting the fence or whatever you know and he said enough of that brother he jumped over that little deal and chased

me down of course I took off running like an idiot you know like you're not supposed to run from a dog and anyway he caught up with me and jumped up grabbed a gun and then turn around ran off and so I think the owners were real concerned that you know we were gonna you know press charges or you know whatever but

it wasn't one of those deals it was my fault I was just a little punk kid you know yeah so anyway I got bit by a chihuahua it was pretty intense those Chihuahuas man they look at that yes they will they run the roost man you'll see those little Chihuahuas around a big old you know Great Dane or something and they're calling

the show for sure man you know what I mean yeah totally so how did you end up getting linked up with the forward stock show because I mean is that's kind of like one of your main I know you do a bunch of stuff but that's one of your main you're the director of the forward stock show me yes so I'm the

rodeo director of the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo that's actually my full-time job okay so I'm there at the office Monday through Friday year round uh obviously during the show on their uh without any days off for like 40 something days straight but 15 18 hour days but um so you know it's a combination of my background and obviously being up and

having my education so I started out schooling and Rodeo at Vernon and then I get four years of Eligibility when you're rodeoing in college and so I did three years at Vernon in one year at um in Canyon at West Texas A M and so I moved up the canyon for my fourth year of Eligibility and uh Rodeo for Mark Eakin up

there who's now the coach of the Tarleton tall at Tarleton State and I think they've been a big Powerhouse over there now but um so I stuck around there and got my bachelor's and started my Master's Degree and uh ultimately you know I kind of had a long way of coming around back to this but I moved back home with about six

hours left in my Master's Degree decided I was going back to Amarillo to finish up got up there and got hired on with the Tri-State Ferry rodeo and it's their big fair and rodeo up there the annual fair and rodeo and I got hired on kind of a again a blessing no you know the right people got me in for an interview

and taught me how I never had written a press release and they said well a portion of this interview you are going to have to write a press release and so the person that had gotten me into it goes have you ever written a press release I said never written a press release today in my life but I've always kind of had

I like English and stuff and writing papers and stuff when I was a kid and yeah and I've always kind of been long-winded anyway so I figured well sure I can write a press release so she taught me the structure kind of that pyramid structure to start with the bulk of and then narrow it down right and so I went in there

and wrote a press release and I said okay you're off around too and um so they hired me as their marketing director and um so I dealt with I my job was really kind of all-inclusive it was um some sponsorship stuff and managing the newsletter that went out the website we had a Gala at the time uh Blake Shelton was kind of

on the come up and he was the Entertainer that performed for our Gala that year that I was there um and then I did the media in public relations as well for them and so you know media you know interviews and stuff when they come onto the grounds of the fair and just a little bit of everything really it was a small

office good Folks up there and so I worked for the Tri-State fair and rodeo for a year and decided I wanted to move home and um you know obviously the Fort Worth Stock showing Rodeo I grew up coming to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and having the you know at least a year of experience and that uh in the entertainment

business and large event business I just made a phone call and said uh hey um I'm coming home and I've got some I'm the marketing director for the Tri-State Fair I'd like for you all to consider me and uh you know again it's back to relationships and people that come into your life and um you know present those opportunities and help you

get to these opportunities there's a lady Denny Didi there in Decatur that worked for the Wise County Messenger uh that put in a good word for me and um you know like the communications manager at the time reached out and said hey we need a guy that knows how to do social media and that was when Facebook and all that was just

getting going yeah I said well yeah I know about a little bit about social media and so I was kind of that age range you know yeah and so they said well come on uh well first ones to get Facebook yeah it was like when Facebook was hip he like had to be in college right yeah that's right yeah matter of fact

I that's exactly how it started and I remember when I had a Facebook page whenever I was in college and it you had to have a college email in order to create an account yeah my sister my oldest sister is about your age yeah I remember she went to TCU for a little bit okay and I remember her coming back and it

was like we all wanted to get on Facebook because all the college yeah you know all the kids you looked up to did yeah had it yeah man so anyway yeah I came they hired me on they said yeah we've got uh I don't know they made it had like 350 followers at the time on their page or something or 1500 I

think it was 15 man that first year of the show I'm like it grew exponentially and the general manager goes hey um you know at the end of the show that you're they had kind of let all the 10 employees go you know we have some temporary employees that come in and work in the office and do office related duties uh during

the show and um there's always kind of a time where those duties kind of come to a conclusion and we say see you again next year and they said see you again next year all the temp employees and I was still sitting there so yeah then the general manager comes up to comes up to me and goes hey we'd like to hire

you and we'd like for you to be our first social media manager so I got hired on full-time to manage all the social media and then as a course of that job I ended up um managing all the social media created the first app for the show and then a lot of the digital technology helping with some of the screen design during

our rodeo we had started incorporating had started to incorporate we called in the poor boy ribbon boards it was just our version of a ribbon board but it was like two or three four small screens down lower level at Will Rogers Coliseum and we're still there and then we come in and we built a uh you know custom we call that little

house because you got big Haas over at Texas Motor Speedway yeah in my general manager called it little hospital it's a big Center on the screen and that we came in and built out of video walls and so imagine some of that content and helping design some of that content which I was very I'm not the greatest yet but you know I

built in Photoshop or something and now we have an official it's cool but you learned a lot of that stuff just on the job yeah a lot of that technology was kind of getting created like right when you were doing it I talk about that you know the social media deal was so fluid at the time man it was like ever changing

it was like it still is still is it's constant I'm out of it now and we have a girl that does it now and she's she keeps up with all that she's got the tick tock and all that stuff but at that time it was so fresh I mean there was landing pages on Facebook that you had to you had to know

how to code still doesn't have my space back myspaces back then uh Twitter was there um you know so uh then there was Instagram and there's all these different I don't know you know I had to go back and there was just several of them that you know you had these uh what do you call them scavenger hunt type social networks where

I don't know there's just all of these ideas out there and we were trying all of them and I learned how to HTML code and I learned how to use Photoshop and never had any uh previous experience and so anyway that job is kind of how I got it my foot in the door with Fort Worth Stock showing Rodeo they saw need

and uh I just happened to be so when did you become the director uh I officially became the rodeo director I believe in 20 don't call me on that 2020 I believe I did but prior to that my title was assistant operations manager and I was doing all the same stuff that I'm doing now but officially my title I became the rodeo

director around that time frame yeah and um so I you know I did that I did the social media deal for about five or six years I've been with the show 14 years so I did that social media deal for five or six years and then became assistant operations manager which really that job involved predominantly Rodeo related things but um you know

anything we have such a small we've got 22 full-time staff members that operate the show year round and we all assist each other with a variety of things so you know um we all play different roles at different times and obviously my baby is the rodeo 20 uh let's see 25 performances in 23 days yeah and uh this which by the way

January 12th through February 3rd Fort Worth Stock showing audio let me get that plug in there yeah and uh 25 performances in 23 days um so I'm over the management of all of those and all the personnel and the cowboy Channel broadcast and the intricacies of all of that and we have production meetings prior to every perv we had we have running

shows that are built out by the minute for everything that happened during the rodeo and got a great team of people man the best team that I've been around since I've been around rodeo and uh man it's just had a lot of a lot of learning experiences and my bosses really put me in a lot of positions that I was like I

don't know man it's just one of those adversity things yeah you know he puts you out and he's pushed me out there and said hey do it get after it you know and so I feel very fortunate very blessed to be running one of the largest rodeos in the nation for sure in the world it's been how long has it gone for

um the show started in 1896 that was a Livestock Show portion and there's debate about this but um you know the official Rodeo by term was in 1918 and it started over uh north side of the Coliseum there and we transferred our event over to Will Rogers Coliseum in 1944 that was kind of during the all the World War II stuff and

they were utilizing Northside Coliseum I believed house airplane parts during that time and so um you know moved over here Will Rogers Coliseum and it's over the years it's grown obviously in scope and size and uh we've got some leaders around the city that have really been huge benefactors and made that possible and made that possible for the community and uh it's

a great event man there's just so many people that show up out there that have so many stories from their childhood uh or their dads you know had grew up there or what you know there's just so many stories and um so some such great people that come out to the show and it's a family-based event I love to see all the

people come back and that have been coming for years I get we get told all the time hey man you know I've been coming out here since I was you know five or whatever and I've been to every rodeo performance since I was five years old and I'm 50 so six now or whatever you're like that's amazing there's that level of community

support and so it is huge I've played the whatever the yeah I saw that Rodeo Roadhouse yeah a lot of roadhouses yeah it's awesome yeah man well that's everything y'all do out there is so cool wow appreciate that man it's and now that it's in Dickey's dude is awesome dude it just yeah it took it took our deal to another well you

know obviously Will Rogers Coliseum has its um you know has a has the Ambiance and the historical background for you and a lot of great memories a lot of great uh Rodeo Heroes you know step foot in that Arena a lot of Heroes in general yeah Business Leaders and dignitaries and all of that so you know uh and I've been at every

rodeo performance since um since I've been hired since 2010 I just did it everywhere your performance since 2010 and um but there's people have stood at twice as many of that you know as well so that by the boxes and they come in and all that sort of thing but whatever we Transit transitioned over to Dickey's arena in 2020 um man it

was just it's just such a different experience and it was just a time it's just a time in our history where it was necessary and Vicky's Arena has just been a phenomenal venue for Fort Worth overall outside the uh parameters of our rodeo as well um you know obviously there's concerts and events that come in and out there all throughout the year

I think they're the fourth highest grossing venue in the world whoa as nominated by billboard magazine really last year they were just nominated again as a top venue in the world for the seating capacity of 10 to 15 000. yeah it's actually kind of weird it's not as big as I thought it was man but you know because even there was a

whole NFR thing that kind of tripped me out where they did it over in uh Globe Life yeah but because I was like why didn't they just do it at Dickies but it wasn't big enough apparently well or I guess that was with the distancing thing too but even um uh what the heck uh Thomas and Mack uh in Vegas yeah I

guess I didn't realize how big that Arena actually is yeah it seems like Thomas and Max he'd sweat 15 000 or something man I think it's close to 20 is it maybe it is but I didn't when I'm in Dickies it feels huge yeah it is Big yeah I guess in this relation to how many people they're packing in for the NFR

yeah I guess I just thought it was like what else you know the cool thing about Dickies is that Arena was designed um for Rodeo because we're the anchor tinted there and um the chairman of our board Mr Bass uh Edward p bass um he was obviously very influential in Dickey's arena being constructed in Fort Worth and managing that whole process and

um you know he obviously has an affinity for our rodeo and designed that arena with rodeo in mind and so oh cool yeah and so it's probably the only venue that I know of that was built with rodeo in mind not any other venue in the world that I'm aware of was there's like some uh hockey arenas that have been in where

I mean it's kind of random but like in Tampa specifically where the lightning play uh it's like it's very steep yeah uh the way this the seating is and it gets just straight up and down you're just looking right down in on top of it but it was I mean it's a hockey arena right and it makes a lot of sense sometimes

when they do that in like a basketball gym or basketball should be more like that probably right um that's kind of the way Dickies feels a little bit you know a little bit more over on top of it there was there was a considerable amount of thought put into Dickey's ring obviously you can see that when you walk in um you know

with all the native grasses and things that you know Mr Bass has uh really got an affinity for Native grasses and plants and that are native to Texas yeah all of the uh landscaping around Dickies arena is all NATO stuff so if you're there next time you can look around like that stuff is all native to Texas mesquites and all this sort

of thing and yeah uh that level of detail I mean down to the stuff what the bathrooms felt like and look like yeah pot you know how nice they are and he wanted everybody to have a good experience there and um but they also did some studies on the distance of the top row of Will Rogers Coliseum down to the dirt level

yeah what the distance was and it's pretty comparable really okay and so uh while it does yeah that there's obviously more seats and Dickies Arena than theirs and Will Rogers I believe that uh Will Rogers about 5400 and in our configuration it's 9 300 9400 and Rodeo configuration in Dickey's Arena because there's different configurations so they can get up to around 14

000 I think 15 000 for concerts and that sort of thing um but for our deal you know 9 300 but it's so intimate you know what I mean for sure even for a concert definitely I still haven't been to a concert in there really oh man you got to the oh actually I take that back I went to uh dinner one

night and he has a boxer at Dickies okay cool yeah so we ended up going to post Malone but Sam's like I think he was going to give some of the tickets away to some people that worked for him like his daughters or something like that and then one of my buddies knows Sam he's like dude BOGO yeah so it was my

wife and all them and Sam's like we're at their dinner and he's like now what are we who are we going to see right now you know I was posting so he sat there about like a quarter of the way through post yeah I think he was like all right dude I gotta leave been there done that got the T-shirt right I

can't do this anymore I don't know what he's saying yeah so you know uh that's awesome that's what Dickies Arena provides in my opinion is just a there's such a diverse range of people that come in and out of their concerts I mean K-pop for instance we had a K-pop concert for real yeah we had a K-pop uh cake pop concert during

the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo of our old Auditorium last year never heard of K-pop until they had it during the stock show yeah over in our old Auditorium and uh my general manager came to me and he goes hey man he said um that's Korean pop Korean pop Korean pop and he goes what do you think about having a K-pop

concert and uh ironically enough I stay in contact with the technology director with Nikki's Arena and they have a big K-pop concert over there at least one a year and um I asked him about it he goes man it's he said they pack the house for the sucker and we want to you know at the show we want to appeal to everybody

we want to have an opportunity for somebody to come out and enjoy our tow show and whatever capacity it may be and so he came to me goes what do you think about the K-pop concert and Auditorium I go hey cool let's do it and so we had one and uh my wife happened to be out of the show and she was

walking around the exhibits Hall and she's like I told her there was a K-pop concert that comes to the auditorium and uh she goes you know I saw those guys she said they were running around the um the commercial exhibits area with a camera they probably loved it yeah and they were shooting little they were getting a little sound bites and doing

all that stuff and so anyway I think that's great and yeah he's brings a diverse range of things to Fort Worth and from monster truck rallies to Rodeo to yeah Rodeo is an interesting culture because it you know there's like you're always wanting to grow and like grow the industry um but there it's so steeped in Tradition and like that's what it

comes from and that's what makes it so cool is because of the history and the tradition at the same time you want to be like I guess accepting of people coming from different areas or different walks of life and stuff uh he's like I wasn't real I grew up in Decatur but I wasn't uh my parents you know weren't into horses and

nobody rodeoed or anything and like it was my brother-in-law that taught me to shoot horses so that's how I even like entered into all of it and I you know I dealt with definitely some people that if you didn't come from like a rodeo family or your freaking Grandpa didn't own three sections out in West Texas like yep it's like you didn't

really belong yeah uh which isn't cool you know yeah like some people yeah they don't have the opportunity they got to learn it on their own yep um and if you exclude some of those people it's like never gonna grow at the same time I am big on like tradition and history sure and uh you gotta like respect the tradition to a

certain degree and so like I've always found that to be an interesting Dynamic with Rodeo yeah you know let's think about our shows we want again back to um we want to make everybody's experience that comes out there we want them to experience the Western culture of the industry in whatever capacity they want to experience it in if they want to come

and they just want to watch a rodeo and they want to buy a ticket we want to give them the best production possible uh but then you know if they want to come out and see the animals and do that sort of thing there's that opportunity too but uh you know we're just trying to create that connection to the Western industry to

keep it alive you know because uh as these kids get further and further away from the ranch and the farm you know back 100 years ago people were either farming and ranching or they're like maybe one generation removed and now we're three or four yeah and it just continues to kind of get a little further and further away from the farming and

ranching Lifestyles there's a lot of people that are maybe kind of you know believe it or not it's hard for me to imagine but um you know there's a lot of kids out there that don't even realize where they get milk from you know what I mean and so there's these things that educate these kids about you know and I know that

the a lot of the livestock folks do a really good job of that we have a milking parlor out there that has we bring a dairy cow in there and they talk to them about how to milk a cow and this is where it comes from and this is where the milk in the store comes from and so or this is where

the meat on a pizza comes from or this is where leather you know all that it was interesting you have to explain some of that stuff yeah you know it's uh you hate it but you know if it weren't for events like hours in the people involved with the volunteers and the companies that get involved with our event um a lot of

that education for those folks may go by the wayside which then as those kids grow into adults and assume political roles and Leadership roles in doing whatever they're doing out in the world um you know if they don't have a connection to that or don't have a remembrance or a memory of that sort of stuff then if it may not be as

prone the advocate for it right totally yeah might go the opposite direction and be uh against it yeah absolutely like even with the rodeo thing a lot of it's just like educating people and like what the heck's actually going on a lot of people get weird about it roping a calf or something like that because they just don't really totally understand what's

happening so if you ostracize those people they're like always going to be against you yeah you know and you can't please everybody but dude it's pretty wild even like I have uh like just with the internet how you can connect with people that you would never think that you would yeah like I have songs that uh got covered a Rihanna song and

it um like it went pretty viral on Instagram and stuff and like I get DMS from people almost every day felt like Iraq and Iran man Japan the power of music and there yeah and also it is the power of the sort of like Texas cowboy thing yes it's fascinating absolutely they'll send me DMS and they're just like it'll be like a

picture of my album cover or something they're like yeah Texas cowboy and I'm talking it is somebody from Iran wow like what so I'm a horse shooter from Decatur Texas exactly how is that even Isn't that cool though man wild um we live in such a you know obviously technologically advanced Society these days and I'll talk about that just not only from

like on a very uh pigeonholed Fair View of that but uh from the rodeo side of it when I when I was growing up we didn't not everybody had a cell phone nobody had a cell phone in their pocket yeah now you go to a bull riding and there's everybody behind the bucket she has a cell phone out recording it and then

they can get back there behind the bucket shoots and they and they can slow-mo it and they can back it up and forward I used to have to get the tape from my buddy's mom that had a handheld recorder in the stands I may or may not be able to find her you know maybe a week or two and then I'd stay

the night at his house and we could get in there we'd slow-mo it and then we'd fast forward in reverse on his VCR you know what I mean so from you know so yeah I mean it's great and then obviously uh back to your comment about people having an affinity for the cowboy culture and being the Texas Cowboy Persona I think you

know Yellowstone is kind of oh yeah helped with that and oh yeah all been kind of riding that wave and which has been great you know I mean there's folks out there that have one opinion or the other about Yellowstone and but my opinion of it is drawn it's kind of like uh urban cowboy era you know definitely eight seconds era where

it just you know people gravitated are gravitating back to uh the Western culture and they're buying more horses and they're buying a land out in Decatur Texas and they're going and buying boots at Cavenders and these places and you know getting outfitted head to toe and coming out to the stock show and so they're wanting to come out and see some Livestock

in our deal or they want to come to one of your shows and listen to some Texas country and they'll just heat up with it so you know that's great all right well January 12th January 12th of February 3rd and tickets are already available uh tickets will be available I believe in September we changed that a little bit okay fwssr.com okay uh

you can learn a little more about how to purchase tickets and what events we offer and we'd love to have everybody and yeah and if anybody has any complaints about the rodeo or anything and they direct them specifically your way uh well yeah I'm just kidding no that's all right I'll be happy to talk to anybody that has a complaint absolutely please

call and we'll talk it through and we might agree to disagree but uh well we may agree I don't know so yeah please call and yeah show up at your house yeah show up at my house and my wife she's pretty mean yeah I bet she's Hispanic She Don't Put others so you better watch out but anyway and then uh my little

boy's got a birthday and uh he's asleep over there but Riot white he'll be uh 10 tomorrow yeah he had a big wrestling match today yeah him and his brother both wrestled over in Keller today at Spartan mat club and uh for an hour and a half it was it's a takedown tournament so they just take those kids down they get back

up take them down again and so they're both wiped out and so he wanted he was so excited about coming being on the Pike or wanting to get on the podcast today and he's asleep over there in the chair they did good yeah they were sitting over there for about like an hour yeah I was has it already been an hour yeah

really yeah that's fluva anyway I was really interested in coming in and seeing what this format was like I listened to a lot of podcasts oh okay really appreciate you having me on yeah man it's been a pleasure man honestly been a pleasure yeah I wish we had more time we'll do it again too even uh when it gets closer to the

stock show or something absolutely be glad to come back you can even get like a few people that like you work with and stuff you could have a full yeah we could have just a little round table discussion and chop it up man yeah cool yeah well thanks for doing it man absolutely I really appreciate you having me over and really enjoyed

it so yeah thanks man