Flint Rasmussen

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

Ready? Hit that flint. You shut it properly. Everybody does it differently.

My first movie. Yeah. You slam that thing down. Yeah.

Take no take no prisoners. Um anyways, I we were talking about uh him not taking himself too serious, but I find like in the show biz thing sometimes that hurts people. when they don't take themselves and I'd be curious about your take on that is like some of some of the people that I know that are like very humble don't take themselves too serious they're professional and they do what they do well and they take that serious but themselves they don't have this persona around them yeah but here when you get in the showbiz deal then there's the other side of the coin where there's people that want us to think they don't take themselves serious, but it's part of the persona they're trying to Oh, I like that guy because he doesn't take himself serious. Yeah, he does.

He's portraying that. Does that make sense? It absolutely does. Okay.

Hey, hey, we want to create this image where you look like you're happy golucky and don't take yourself serious. So, develop that when off camera they're dicks cuz they Yeah. Yeah. There's a take.

But we have friends like Chansancy. I believe that's I mean have you been to Morcraftoft, Wyoming? I have. It's cool.

It's small town. I grew up in a town like that. Shoto, Montana. Same.

Can't take yourself You know why you can't take yourself serious? Because people in small towns pick it up. They can read that stuff. No doubt.

And then they've known you for so long, too. Yeah. Um, and they don't want you to, you know, I've had, so Shonto, Montana is 1,700 people. Has been forever.

It's got the same population now as it did in 1951, probably. Um, and people will say to me, "Oh, that small town, they must be proud of you. Is there a sign on the edge of town, you know, welcome to Have you ever noticed driving across Kansas, every town is home of someone? Welcome to Hayes, Kansas.

Home of some senator. So proud. Yeah. And I'm like, Shoto, Montana would never put a sign on the edge of town, home of Flint Raspit, because they don't want me to take myself too serious.

So, yeah, I think it's a small town thing. It's a genuine There's an authenticity to small town Montana or small town Wyoming, small town America that it's not AI. It's not it. You're just You don't have fans, you have the people that just know.

It is way more like family. Yeah. Where you go to a family reunion, they're just going to want to bust your balls a little bit. Like if you if you come in wearing shades into the family reunion.

Yeah. Oh, hey. Big time. Yeah.

I was probably five years before. the hill might have been 10 years before I actually had my little farewell tour from the dirt and retired from being in the arena. People say, "Well, what are you doing now that you're retired?" Like, no, I'm still I'm I still fly somewhere every week.

But I wasn't doing the hometown Fourth of July rodeo, so I was gone. Oh, you're retired, right? No, I'm Oh, funny. Like back at home.

You want At home? At home. So now you don't do anything. No.

Yeah. They thought I was a drug dealer. You have a pretty nice house out there. How do you do that?

But I would I would and I love it. I don't want you to think this isn't a condescending remark, but I'd have people come and go, man, we went to the Fourth of July rodeo this year. Just not the same without you. That's great.

And I'd say that's great. The last time I did it was 1993. But and by the way, I didn't just pick a year. I know for a fact the last year I did that rodeo.

I just immediately went, "Oh, that's so awesome." Oh, yeah. Because the first year I was in the PRCA doing pro rodeos was 1994 and I went to the Fourth of July rodeo in Red Lodge, Montana. So, I know the years.

Oh, you know, like 2019. We sure miss you. The rodeo this year. When did the PBR actually start?

Early 2000s. PBR started in 1992. Oh yeah. Did you immediately go there after PRCA?

So no. So the PBR was founded the whole 20 bull riders chipped in $1,000. D which is completely accurate. Some of them had to borrow it.

Uh Jerome Davis, world champion, had to borrow $1,000. And those guys were going up and down the road and had to borrow $1,000. So they had that seed of 20 grand. And that was 1992.

Then I believe the piece first kind of PBR world finals was 94. Um I worked the my first PBR world finals in 1997. And I remember that because Michael Gaffne was the world champion. He's my gauge.

Michael Gman. Michael Gaffne. And we're really good friends now. We talk about that a lot.

And I do not bring up the fact that the leader going into the world finals was Adrianiano Maras, but right before World Finals, Adriano broke his leg and Michael Gaffne came from behind and won the world title. So there's a chance Adriano would have been the only four-time world champion. But Michael Gaffne, there you go. Bull riding his Was it right before the finals that he broke his leg?

Yeah, it feels like it. I'm trying to think. I can't really remember. I wasn't embedded that much at that time.

I think people forget though, the PBR wasn't structured the same. I have a lot of young people that work now for PBR in the office will ask me things about 1998, 1999. Oh, about which bull fighters were the bull fighters at? Well, it was more like rodeo.

It evolved into its own separate full production thing, but bull fighters were guys that could also drive a truck and work on the crew. You know, that's going a little far, but it wasn't structured the same. I was an exclusive PBR. I went until 2006 and did both rodeo and PBR.

So I had eight years from 1998 to 2005 that I worked the PBR World Finals and the NFR the same year. So I'd go and it was in the fall. So I'd go in October and do the PBR finals. Moved to Vegas.

It was it's been in Vegas since the 90s or the 80s, right? The PBR world finals. Well, the NFR Oh, the NFR 85 85 or 86. This is the 40th year.

Yeah. So I'd go and spend a week there in October and then go back and spend two weeks in December and but I was getting paid to be there. So yeah, makes a huge difference. So yeah, I did both.

I would, you know, for a while what I did was I booked rodeos and there it's a little busier now in the rodeo world in the winter, but I would book rodeos and then fill in the empty weekends with PBRs. So, I was one of the I sometimes catch myself saying I was lucky, but I don't think it was luck. I but I was fortunate enough to be busy in the winter in the rodeo business, and that's hard. So, you're talking over a decade of that type of schedule.

Yeah. Well, let's see. Didn't you say 98 to Yeah. 98 to 2006?

98. There was eight years where I did both world finals. Yeah. both the NFR and the PBR World Finals.

So, I was kind of everywhere like horseshit. You're just all over. That was me. That was me getting lugged around in My dad always say you're that guy's like horseshit.

He's everywhere, man. That's so beautiful. What a sweet thing to hear. Dad stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't It's very reminiscent of not purely because of the comedy thing, but standup comics like the travel schedule and like with what you did. Well, I was gonna say it seems like it's about as lonely as the standup comics, but you had a lot of people around you like some just people and boys and you know actually that's my group of friends.

Yeah. Yeah. To this day it's kind of hard actually. Not I still travel but not as much and I've found that wherever I stop if I'm home I don't have a group of friends there because my friends were always the announcers and bull fighters that I Yeah.

You're probably like solo traveling more now than you used to. Yeah. Um, you know, the last couple years I still go to PBR events in a and every time. Never fails.

What do you What do they got you doing here? Well, I got a sport coat on. My wranglers are starched. But I stand like this a lot.

So, it's more of a leadership role because I'm in, you know, in kind of that corporate leadership position. But as far as you want, you want me to pack panels or a bucket of water? I sure clean up. You know, we have actual people that spray the panels and wipe them off every day.

I don't do that. Well, I think you need to. But that's what it's kind of hard. What do you do?

Actually, we get this was like two days ago from when we're doing this. What do you guys do at PBR office? Like I think they think all of it that just happens arena's set up and the sponsorships are sold and so I just was explaining you know when you look on Facebook and the PBR post something it says coming up whatevers and it's got a cool picture and a graphic and somebody's got to do all that. It's not me but I know the people that do it.

So there's a lot. We had there's about 140 full-time employees. I think it Yeah. Serious.

Look at me getting in the business. The business in the business. Yeah. But the travel thing is to this day, you know, my best friends in the world were Shorty Gorum and Joe Bumgardner and Frank Nuomo and uh Brandon Bates and Clint Atkins and all those Richard Jones.

That's the guys that we fly on a Thursday and get there at night and say, "Meet you in the hotel bar and we'll have a drink and a chicken quesadilla." You know, that's my world. So then when I went home, I was married for a long time. And so I went home and I was with my kids and my wife and that was my friends at home.

And yeah, so it's I think everybody it sounds cool to everybody, but it makes it I'll tell you when your kids grow up and you get divorced, you don't have that group of friends. It's Yeah, it's more lonely at home than out on the road. I'm more comfortable out on the road. Yeah.

Yeah. I Yeah, I feel you on that for sure. Yeah. That's like I got to where man I got to get back on the road so I can sleep good in a hotel.

Yeah. It's interesting loneliness and like being depressed from loneliness. Like people uh try to talk about it like you can just snap out of it or something or like the idea of being sad and lonely like people just like well don't be. And it's like well you know I do that sometimes what's wrong.

Yeah. But I uh yeah, it's uh the thing I get is man, you gota probably have a bunch of fun people around you all the time. Like what do you do? How's Texas?

Oh, bet it's fun. Yeah, I mean it's you know who do you hang out with all? Not really. What do you mean?

They think it could because you're in front of crowds that you have people around you all the time in real life. And that's I think where performers do suffer a little bit because your whole life is your cup gets filled by those people the crowd feedback. That's me. That's what I miss right now is well that's what fills my cup is the that instant response back from crowds.

So when you go home you don't have that. So, it's actually being home that's tougher. My It used to break my heart when my kids were pretty young. They'd tell people, "Yeah, every the rest of the world gets happy, Dad.

We get tired, grumpy, Dad." And that I was conscious of that. That affected me. Um Yeah.

Well, everybody's getting that part of you. I mean, it's exhausting to keep that up all the time. Yeah. And they people would fans would bend over when my girls were little and say, "Oh, is your dad wild at home?"

They're like, "No, no, he's the disciplinarian. He's the one that spanks us." The one that used to get them and they finally talked to me about it when they were, you know, 13, 14 years old. Fans would come up to them that don't, you know, fans can say anything to you.

There's they don't have to have a filter. And they'd say to my kids when I was standing there, are you embarrass? Does your dad embarrass you? And they finally won.

I remember it was in Las Vegas. I remember the conversation. One of them they said, "Dad, that offends us when fans say that. We're proud of our dad."

Good for them. So, we don't understand. How old were they when they even came to that? Yeah.

Kind of young teenagers just and they were offended by they said we're proud of you. Did they mean it like does he embarrass you like in a general sense with what he does or does he embarrass you on just a day-to-day basis? I don't know. I think what they meant was when they're watching me perform, do they go, "Oh my god, that's right."

And they really never did. Um that they never were because they understood the different roles. The That's They told me they said that's our dad at work. Also, like it's funny.

And it's fun. It's funny. I don't Yeah. I don't say, "Oh my god, look, it's my daughters.

They're idiots. I embarrassed you." Yeah, that's I didn't think I embarrassed people when I performed. I wouldn't think so.

Um, you know, people to this day will I mean, there's you do like a really great um I mean, there's like some self-deprecating stuff in there like self-deprecating. You got to have that. Yeah. your whole staying and like I think the I one of the main things of being an entertainer is like again like not taking yourself too serious so that everybody else can like loosen up and let their shoulders down a little bit like you're act you're acting like a little goofball and got your little zestiness and people and the guys are sitting around all acting tough and it's like Flint's out there in front of everybody just acting like a goofball like y'all chill out bro like we're here to have a good time.

See you're smarter than you look. Thank God. Um, but no, you're one of the nicest things anybody's ever said. Yeah, thank you.

You're you are so dead on though. Um, people and the idea of you taking that on and being willing to do that and people aren't smart enough to know like you don't know what you're doing. So, I've told young guys when they ask advice or whatever, I was because it was what I was. It wasn't, hey, it wasn't a conscious, you know what?

I think it'd be cool if when they played music, I broke out some dance moves. That wasn't it at all. I was in the early years of music becoming part of rodeo. That wasn't always the case.

You know, my dad was an old rodeo traditional rodeo announcer and kind of sterile. He came to me one time towards the end of his career and said, "They want me to like bring music to play." I said, "Dad, just don't go. Like, don't go.

Don't do what you're not supposed to do." You know, but I was early years and I remember going out to ro some rodeos in North Dakota. I remember the contractor Jim Mosser, the late Jim Mosser. He used to put on rodeos and his daughter played music.

And when the bull riding starts and I'm out there and I just start dancing because that's what I always did. And I went, "Oh, wait. They like this. This is cool."

But as the years went, I realized, and I this is the part I'd tell young people, you can bust out cool dance moves, but you need that moment that the crowd sees you go, I'm a dumbass. You don't say that, but you know, you need that moment, that self-deprecating, I'm a grown man and I just dance like Michael Jackson. That was dumb. Like, you need to do that.

So, so you did you ever have to That's probably a weird question. Did you ever have to struggle with eye contact while you were performing? Did I struggle with eye contact? Not struggle.

I guess I just immediately like with who? Like it's funny. In my mind, if you did make eye contact with anybody, it was going to be a struggle in my mind. So, no, but like was that something you ever It didn't seem like you're just out there doing your thing.

It didn't seem like you were ever like necessarily connecting with I actually you when I was in high school I was in music and I was in school plays music and drama stuff and they used to say in concerts or in when you're in a play when you look out to the audience you really don't look anybody at their face you look over their head because you that way you can still concentrate on what you're doing. Okay. Um there were certain when I looked in the crowd at a if I'm in Madison Square Garden Yeah. I made eye contact with people because I liked especially as the years went a lot of what I did played off what was happening in the crowd so I could get a feel for what people were liking and what they weren't.

And so I really did look at people. So, because it was different than just doing a concert where you're trying to remember the words to your songs you wrote maybe or whatever where you're just really looking out there. But the great ones you think in think back to all the great performers in music, rock and roll music, country music, there is a time in their show that they actually connect with people and I like that. Right.

There's a really odd moment sometimes where it's like at least playing music when you're looking at somebody and you make eye contact with them, if they almost sense that you aren't going to like lean into it, they'll dodge away. They Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Here's an analogy to it.

Here's my analogy. In today's world, 15-year-old girls will spend the entire day leading up to them going to a PBR show, taking selfies of themselves, posting on Snapchat, on Instagram, and they go sit down, and as soon as they get put on the big screen, they go, "Oh my god." Oh, yeah. Same.

It's like, uh, and you do you can make eye contact. Like I'd always make eye contact and I used to tell my friends, "Listen, if I see you in the crowd, I'm not going to wave because if I wave, 80 people wave like it." So mine was That's what I do. And then I' So I'd tell my friends, I'm not going to wave to you, but I'm going to do that.

But yeah, somebody's that I would think you're having a stroke. Well, you do. And you know, I was just going to say that through the years I've had people go, "Ah, the way you used to embarrass people." I didn't intentionally embarrass people.

I wanted to make them feel a part of things, you're misinterpreting. And so, yeah, I used to tell young guys, number one, you got to have some self-deprecation. You got to make fun of yourself so that people don't think this guy all he's doing, he's out there dancing, trying to be cool. Now, the other thing is when you involve people from the crowd, hey, where are you from?

What do you do? I always I always say you got to have a wink and a nudge moment. You got to have that point as you finish up that person knows we're good. Like I have I've watched guys that are friends of mine pick somebody out of the crowd and I'll be watching it.

Oh, they're interacting. And they'll walk away and I'll go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa." You got to make sure you're good. That person's He's pissed.

Now, you got to have the moment where you go either vocal on the mic, I on the mic. Hey, you know what? I appreciate you coming. You got to thanks for playing along, dude.

And then they're good. Or off mic. Thanks, bud. You got to wink and nudge.

Hey, we're good. And man, a lot of people don't have that and it gives me anxiety. Yeah. Because it's easy for me to think why are they so insecure like why are they not more comfortable with just like poking fun at themselves?

But they didn't sign up to be the performer. No. Like when you're the performer, you sign up for the criticism and you know the uh the judgment. I guess that just comes with the territory.

Yeah. Uh, but when you're just like an innocent crowd member, it's like I didn't I'm not doing your job. I didn't want this. Hold on.

I paid money for a ticketain and you just told me my girlfriend must be blind because I'm ugly. No, you can't. You do you. And everybody unless they're giving it to you.

If that person totally I don't remember. I'm the one with the microphone. I'm going to win every time. Not just because I have a microphone.

I truly believe like if I get into I don't anymore a debate on social media with someone or a bag of art I will not I'm pretty good at that. Do you did you get a lot of criticism through the years? Um luckily not really. Okay.

Do you feel like you did at times? Um I felt like when I did it was people digging for something and you do you put yourself you know you've been out in front of people when you do that you become the you're fair game it does come with territory even though that's not necessarily what we ask for. There were times when I'd get messages or something, somebody very critical and would say, "But the way you said it indicated this." The way I said it.

So, I didn't say anything. It was the way I said it. And as time later up to this point, it's still my career. I mean, I'm still out here, but later in the last 10 years, ridiculous.

Because social media, it's everybody has something to say. I don't know. I've wondered a lot if social media created [expletive] or revealed them. I think it just revealed them.

Yeah. Somewhere in there. The person who used to not get invited to the backyard barbecue and doesn't really have friends because they're not a good hang and they're hyper critical. Yeah.

And hyper judgmental and they never got invited to any house party. that person now has access to all the parties on their phone. They're in every party. They're at every party and they're just commenting, just being negative, being shitty.

Yeah. Um Yeah. I think it re I think it's just revealing more of them. Yeah.

So, criticism of really early in my career, I probably had one coming. They wrote a letter to it was a NRA, amateur rodeo in Montana. And I used to do Michael Jackson even way back then. And I spun around and did the I did the crotch crab in the arena.

Letter letter. It was got a They got a letter really from someone in the crowd that Yeah. And I went, you know what? He's right.

Never did it again in the arena. I'd do it. I'd do but I didn't do that. Yeah.

See, it's all Yeah. perception. I mean, it is an anatomy. So, I did I agreed.

Yeah. But as far as a mass, we've had a group of people. You said this in the arena. We can't have that.

I never really had that. If there was one person, we could look and go, you're not right on that. So, no, I was I again use the word lucky, but I was very always very conscious. We talk about what they pay to do.

They're not they didn't pay to be a part of it. Also, if I go see a comedian and the marquee has their name on it, if I go see Dave Chappelle or um what's another Nate Baretti is the best because everybody can go to that. But there are certain comedians when you go, you know what's coming. it's gonna be radical liberal or a you know Rob Schneider now is a guy he's a very conservative comedian and that you know when you go you don't walk in sit down and go what the hell's Schneider talking about I didn't want to hear about conservative stuff we don't people have tried to use that I tell another piece of advice politics is lowhanging fruit everybody you watch that crap on TV every day so if people come to a rodeo or a PBR, leave it at home because they've seen enough.

This is their place to come that they don't have to put up with it. And I've had guys, yeah, but they see it from other comedian. Your name's not on the marquee. They paid to come to a PBR in a rodeo.

You just pissed off half the crowd, 48%, whatever. Um, not worth it. They can bring their kids, too. Yeah, there's definitely I absolutely understand what you're saying.

There is that little part of me that's like, "Well, yeah, this is rodeo." You'd be surprised. Yeah, though. Um, oh, I know.

I know. Uh, but the problem starts to get where, this doesn't necessarily have to do with being an entertainer in it, but like the problem starts to get where if people are offended that we're even singing the national anthem and praying before the rodeo and they're offended by that, it's like that's where now. All right. But to me, that's not politics.

Well, they've made it politics. Exactly. Yeah. Uh I watched we were in uh what show were we at this fall?

I think it was Anaheim, California and there was a young couple and I watch I can pick it out. Um they sat with their arms folded, a young couple, a guy and his girl during the national anthe. Oh, and not by play, what go for it. But there's 14,000 other people.

Well, it's because standing up. They wrapped that rope around that poor bull's balls. Yeah, they I had a I was sitting in the Salt Lake airport one time. I'm in the Delta Lounge.

By the way, I have vivid memories of things most people don't. I remember days. The Delta Lounge. I was in the Delta the Sky Lounge.

You know, pretty fancy. They have good cookies, dude. They got So this family's talking to I'm in the United lounge. Oh, you're the Yeah, but the one what's the American one called?

It's got a fancy name. The Centurion. The Micah. The Centurion's a monster.

No, but this family is sitting there with their kids and they start talking and well, what do you do? We were all delayed or something. Said, well, I told him ah we live out by Oakley. Oakley, Utah is a great rodeo.

Fourth of July rodeo. We're from Oakley, Utah. We used to love the rodeo until we really found out what they do to those bulls to make them buck. And I said, "What's that?"

Well, you know, they tie the rope. And I told them, I said, "That is the longest running falsehood in all of sports." Why do people still think that? I Yeah, we were at the Iron Cowboy deal at the Cowboy Stadium.

Yeah. A couple years ago or whatever. And one of the ladies serving us drinks or whatever said that to us. And my buddy was like, "I need to get you down there, reach down and grab that thing by the nuts, wrap a rope around it.

We'll see how it goes." Yeah. Even logically, like if you were to if you don't know anything about it, if you just logically thought about it, it's like that's gonna be a tough one to pull off. I told those people, I said, 'You know that's not true.

Yeah, hold on. Said two things. Number one, ask him. I said to the wife, what would you do if somebody tied a rope around your balls?

Would you jump around? Woohoo! Or would you go, Here's the But here's the big one. Who's the guy that does it?

Who's the guy that crawls under this metal chute that you can plainly see nobody can fit on? Who is that guy? They have a tiny little man. There's a little man.

They ride in the truck. They ride in the truck. Belly down in the belly of the truck. They actually strap him to the bullet as well.

You know what? I He's actually holding on. You know what I just pictured? That the people we used to do that are like the elves on Polar Express.

Remember the creepy little gater cowboy versions of them. They have little cowboy hats on. Absolutely. Hey.

Hey, Santa. You're having some nuts. That's what I pictured. Yeah.

Um, so it's funny how not funny. Haha. Did they kind of talk like They almost talk like a old prospector or like a 1920s what the elves like war. I don't know.

I kind of got that vibe from you there for a second. Like they have mustaches. Yeah. Hey, my wondr.

Hey, let's get down there and tie that bull's nuts off. Oh, cigar. I saw you. You absolutely had a And they're up there.

Now I'm picturing the guy that the sign on his hat that says press and he's This guy can hit it out of the park. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. At the baseball game. Yeah.

Like on the natural. Wow. He's a real slugger. Yeah.

that you know who slowly I've come to think is hilarious because I couldn't figure him out at first. Shane Gillis, the comedian. And he has not think you didn't think it was funny. Well, I just didn't I didn't know him at first, his stickick, his delivery.

And when I realized he's just a guy laughing at himself and he does a bit about here's old here's old slam, the fastest man alive, they say runs a six flat 40. Everybody said, "You ever watch those interviews?" Old baseball player. Hey, tell us what you tell us what you're going to do, Scotty Mclugerson.

Well, uh, you know, we got a great It's going to be a great day when out here playing baseball and I think we're going to get the victory for the city. Look, other than the accent, most postgame interviews and stuff or pregame interviews don't sound much different. Yeah. You got a lot of like 110%.

Yeah. I mean, we're just, you know, hey, tell us, tell it, you know, like Russell Wilson was famous for this. It's like they have a string on their back and you pull it. Yeah, we're just uh you know, we just didn't get it done today.

And hey, look, we're going to regroup. We got a big game next week and that's really what we're focused on right now. We can't do anything about what happened this past week. And you know, it's a team thing.

It's oh my god. But it falls on my shoulders ultimately. Ultimately it does fall on your shoulders ultimately. But I mean I can't say enough about these boys and I mean I'm just so proud of them and the way they really came back in the second half was just strong.

But the best ones now the best ones now are they have a deal with the coaches that after the first quarter we're going to talk to you on the sideline. Hate it. I hate it. Hey listen.

Hey look. Uh you're down 14 nothing. what do you what do you got to do here? And the really good coaches helped the reporter out like you know listen um they've got a couple big play we've shut them down.

They just had two big plays. Well, what do you got to do to continue? Well, I just told you. But dude, I'm so envious of uh sport.

Anybody like in sport seems to have this disdain for media or like the marketing of their sport. Yeah. I'm like the only reason anybody's watching your thing is because of the marketing of your sport, but they all get to like kind of be a jerk and an [expletive] to the reporters and and that doesn't I that's fascinating to me. Uh like act annoyed by it.

This is just about football. This ain't about all this other stuff. I'm like, bro, all the other stuff is like you're playing a sport and people are watching it. It's a game.

So, I saw an amazing interview or heard one. I'm a big I'm a big Dan Patrick show. That's my That's my go-to. I think I think Dan Patrick in the world of media and sports journalism is one of the great hosts of all time and one of the great interviewers of all time because it's a conversation and he was interviewing a lady that had kind of got called out in a press conference by Bill Bich.

Remember Bellich where is it on to Cincinnati and they'd ask him he'd stare him down. So Dan Patrick has her on said, "What do you feel there?" I mean, is it humiliating when Bill Bellichic uh and he said something to her and she goes, "Let me tell you something, Dan. I covered the Sandy Hook uh elementary school shooting and I was forced to talk to parents who lost children and I she went on this whole thing."

She goes, "He's a damn football coach. You think he bothers me and he should learn that goes off like cool." And it was the most real thing. Hey, football coach Bill Bellichic.

Um, you're dating a girl my daughter's age, so maybe you ought to tap the brakes a little bit, you know? Yeah, you're right. So, it made me go, "Yeah, it's it's football. It's how do we get it?"

We do. I love the tangents. Well, oh, well, yeah. Welcome to my world.

Holy cow. Yeah. Come on. How does a real conversation actually happen, though?

Hey, uh, that's a good point. Um, I genuinely can't stand I mean, I listen to a lot of podcasts and the whole idea of like somebody guiding the conversation being like, "Oh, we're getting a little back on track." What if I did that in like we were having dinner and I'm like, Clint, I think we're getting a little Let's get back on track. I want to circle back to what we were talking about earlier.

Let's synergize. I uh my daughter does a cool little podcast for Larfield Sports College Rodeo stuff kind of relating to College Rodeo. And I've had I have lots of episodes. I haven't I haven't recorded a true podcast in a year or so since I moved to Texas.

And I used to write things and I'd keep track of if it in the midst of conversation I'd look down and I'd go perfect. I had that written down. I'd kind of make a check mark. And then at the end, if we had a whole conversation and I looked down and it covered everything I wanted to do, it was perfect.

But if there were things and I told her this, write them down, but let it be a conversation. Now, if you get to the end and there's something you haven't talked about that you really wanted to cover, casually try to go back, but yeah. Okay. I want to start with this.

What was the moment that Yeah. And I don't mind it. It's asking a question uh you already have the answer to and you're like asking the or like setting up a story where you like already gave away the freaking the punch line or the hook. Oh, tell me what that So the one where you know you and JB are standing over there.

Huh? And like and they basically like say what happened and then they're like go for it. Here you go. Then you got like bro I just I did a I did a show from New York City.

It was a call-in show. Uh I uh it was it when you guys were doing Madison Square Garden? Yeah, it was after and it was this pretty famous I'll call you later the name host on like PBS or something really huge listen to show. So they had me on and I didn't really get a heads up on it.

But what had happened is at Madison Square Garden, Miss America or MissUSA or Miss America was there and up above the shoots and I went up and they put us on camera and I did something and I had my hand here and I it was during the big me too movement right in the middle of it and I didn't do anything. I just was very conscious of how I was just my shenanigans and I didn't do anything. And so they had me on this PBR setup and he said, "Do you think a year ago you would have handled that situation differently? You were really conscious of" and I said, "I don't know.

Maybe." I said, "But I've always been conscious of that what it appears on camera on PBS." And it was Yeah, it was a show. It's a famous show in New York, this radio host.

And I answered the question and then he asked again and then he went a different angle and I was not giving him the answer he wanted. Like what does he want? Like oh yeah I would have sexually assaulted her. I think what he really wanted from me was a statement about the MeToo movement.

I don't even remember what it all was about but that's what he wanted. And I kept basically going, "No, I'm the kind of guy." There was no This is a 24 year old girl. No.

And I had said something where God gone, "Hey, oh like but it wasn't having it was just being self-deprecating, weird." And it was so uncomfortable and I was kind of mad about it. I uh it's like don't throw me into those. I handled it, but I remember not being very happy.

And at the end, he was very play. He was, you know, a good enough professional journalist that it was the wink and the nudge moment at the end. But not really. I was uh that is one thing I've grown through my career.

You go to New York City or LA and the fact that yeah, you got to really filter everything that comes out of your mouth. Um because people genuinely will come after you and it did happen to me once in New York City. That scenario mean that where somebody went after me by what they thought I meant? Yeah.

He already had the conclusion drawn and it was a different moment than it was a lady in the crowd and uh called me a racist and wrote to our CEO and nothing in New York. In New York City. Yeah. So, you got pump.

Was that the same? Uh, no. It was different. Now, the one on the radio, I wasn't in trouble.

They just were trying to get a different answer and I didn't have it for So, this lady at this event though, this was at MSG. Yeah, I'll tell I can tell you the story. Not that I don't want to get too heavy here. So, I gave a for years I gave a Cooper Tire fan of the night buckle.

Okay. It's famous. Like I think Cooper Tires owes me millions because how much how much I brought to Cooper Tire. Let's get him on the horn.

Get him on the horn. Anyway, so I give it there's a kid up in the stands and this kid's get it might have been a little girl and I went up and the cheering the whole time and I didn't always give it to kids that gets weary, you know. But I'm in and I said, "Where are you from?" What?

You know, which didn't mean anything in New York. They'd given a dress this buckle. And it was a cool buckle. They Montana Silver Smith made these buckles.

And I said, "I want you to promise me that Monday morning you're going to be the only kid wearing a buckle like this." She said, "I don't have school Monday." I said, "Oh, why not? It's Martin Luther King Day.

I lose track of the weekends. And I went, "Oh." And I said it, the intention was to be self-deprecating and against the state. I said, "My girls go to school in Montana.

They don't get the day off." They didn't. It was a fact. Uhhuh.

Uhhuh. That was it. That was it. So, how many how many people raised hell?

One lady. One. And uh I looked her up or she told me I got emails former reporter for the New York Times. Perfect.

Yeah. So it upset me, but I knew I think people get most upset when they know they've done something wrong. It upset me because I knew I was right. I knew what I was doing.

I No chance. Um no, no chance. And I looked at the black families around me and they were clearly um upset and disturbed maybe. Wow.

But you're the only one. So yeah, it was it bothered me because the middleage woman attention, they're usually the most offended for black people. Yeah. Uh so our marketing director there got the letter and the email.

They emailed the PBR. Um, I want to talk to somebody in charge. So, the girl who kind of was in charge came and talked to me. Denise, what do I do here?

And I said, "You know what to do cuz you know me." Little sidebar, Denise, the marketing director, is black and a very dear friend. That's hilarious. And so I said, "You know what?

I don't I What do you want me to say?" I knew what I meant. We had a good Anyway, not to get deep, but that stuff did get on a Zoom call with him. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I talked to Flyn. But um anyway, that was hard that I you know, I uh my kids and my wife at the time used to tell me, "You got to quit worrying so much about what people think about you."

And I said, "It's hard when your entire occupation is based on what people think of you." So that stuff, it used to really bother me, but it didn't happen very often. But stuff like that. Well, especially something like that where it's such an egregious accusation.

We know what's in our heart. Yeah. You know. Yeah.

And you don't like to feel misunderstood at that level of dep like at that depth. Yeah. You know, feeling misunderstood in that way is really tough. Yeah.

That hurt. That's tough. Anyway, man, it's so easy for people to say you don't care what people think. I' I wouldn't say I struggle with it.

I don't even want to use the word struggle as like I just cuz it's not a bad thing. I find apathy to be really lame. You don't care what anybody thinks. That's BS.

That is that's just not true. I do care what people think because it's important to me. Some people now there's some people kiss my ass. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh but yeah, it is important to me. It's important to me what the image people have of me and knowing I really I really want all of you to feel good like Yeah.

Yeah. It's a double-edged sword because it can really like make you feel bad if you are misunderstood or you make people feel differently. Yeah. So, I don't have like a good um remedy for that.

I've yet to figure it out. It's like I sway between just like, "Oh, you know what? I don't care what anybody thinks or but I'm not really being true. I'll tell people.

I don't care what they think. It is. There isn't a remedy. It's sort of like depression.

What? What do you mean? Just there's nothing to worry about. It's the same worrying about what people think of you.

like you know I went uh I went through in uh it's been 15 years ago 09 16 years ago I had a heart attack at home a bad one I had a bad heart attack I was 41 years old so yeah 15 years ago this was uh this last one it was March 11th 2009 I remember the date it was so I'm at home and I was working out. We had just come from Kansas City. I remember it was we had a Sunday afternoon performance in Kansas City and to this day I think it was my best Sunday afternoon performance I ever did because Sundays are hard. You do a Friday and a s Sundays but it was so fun.

I remember coming home and it was I believe it was a Tuesday March 11th or 12th and I was going to go for a run. I used to run down our highway. We lived out in the country and I'd run down this highway 3, four miles and it was like 12 degrees that morning. It was a really crisp I said I'm going to work out it inside.

So my wife was there and I sat all these stations cuz my treadmill broke the week before. So I had all these stations and uh I said come work out with me. I'm like we're getting out of our comfort zone today. We're doing all these, you know, muscle confusion and all this crap.

And she was talking to me. She kept talking to me, which is weird, right, for a wife to just want to talk. We talked a lot. Anyway, you know, and pretty soon she goes, "You know, they say you're working out too hard if you can't have a conversation while you work out."

I said, "Well, then apparently I am." And I was pretty short of breath. So, she left. She went the other end of the house and I'm finishing up this workout.

And I mean, I'm struggling. And I end and go get a big drink of water. And pretty soon, the world starts closing in on me a little bit. And I It was like I was drinking boiling water.

It was just this, oh God. And I start like dry heaving. And I was an athlete like football, basketball, track. Never threw up.

You know that run till you puke. Never ever. And I start like throwing up. Then pretty soon here it come the chest pitting down the arm and so I'm like whistling at her.

I said something's wrong here. I maybe you're maybe I should take you to the hospital and turns around walks away. I go get in the car in the garage. She couldn't find me.

She finally looks out the garage and I'm sitting in the front seat like you told me. So we take off. We lived 11 miles out of town of this town of 1,700 people. And oh, I kept putting my arm, she was driving like 90 miles an hour and putting my hand up because the pain down my arm was so bad.

And u see I'm getting into a story I wasn't going to tell you. And we're halfway to town and the sweat I'm soaked. Chest pains, arm pain, h tunnel vision like it's closing in. And she goes, "Think you got out of your comfort zone?"

To her credit, Katie, we still get along well. And I went having a heart attack. Timing and delivery. Yeah.

Anyway, went through the whole thing. They helicoptered me to Great Falls, stance put in, ICU, all that crap. How many stances? Just uh two.

They did one that day to save me. They didn't want to do two at once. And I went in the next week and got the other one on the backside. Culverts.

They're culverts. It's like a culvert, you know, that the water runs through. That's what they They went in here. Well, I know the funny part of the whole thing.

So, I get off the This is going somewhere. The depression thing. Oh, what do you Anyway, so they call ahead. Don't admit him.

Don't take him to the ER. Take him to the Kath lab. He's having a heart attack. They gave them all the shared information.

So I get there and they just wheel me from the helicopter into this dark room and I was pumped full of morphine by this time finally. I love the mor morphine so much I told him to fly around a while. Uh yeah, tell Dutch to fly me around. Uh I get it.

I open my eyes and it's there's one light. It's a dark lab and I'm like this and the lady the nurse says, "You've had a heart attack." And that's the first time in my head it went, "You're [expletive] me." What?

And she said, "Listen, I had workout clothes on. I had gym shorts just, you know." She goes, "Listen, what we do is we go through your femoral arter whatever. We go through your leg and that's how we do this."

She's explained, she was cool. And uh the thing was is Great Falls, Montana. They all knew me. So, she goes, "I don't want you to be uncomfortable, but in order to do this, I'm gonna have to pull these I'm gonna have to slide these shorts off."

And I'm like, "Yeah, if I had a nickel." And she goes, "Say it slower. I'm going to have to slide these shorts." I said, "That's fine."

She goes, "I don't want to be alarmed, but we have to shave your upper leg and pubic area." A little offended. Have to get to We're going to shave your upper leg and pubic area. And I said, this was my You might be surprised.

No, you didn't. And she goes, "Oh, dear Lord, white boy." Pikito. What's that?

Pikito. You thought I thought it was the other way. You thought it was the other way. You're going to be shocked.

Yeah. How little this thing is. I mean, it's kind of scary. You might be surprised that maybe I my leg and stuff is shaved.

But anyway, um but then at the end, you know, people Oh, yeah. That's what you know, you tell her like, "Oh, you're not gonna I'm already No, I'm good. I'M ALREADY CLEAN. OH, YOU'RE GOOD.

YEAH. YEAH. UM, so then after, you know, I go back to work. I only missed like I think it was like 37 days from that day till I went back in the arena.

I wore a heart monitor and really stepped back. But then people like, "We're giving up." My friends all said, "I'm never working out again. If you had a heart attack, we're all screwed."

like, well, the fact that I exercised and worked out actually saved my life because it they have what you call back that your heart starts to bypass itself a little when you really work out. So, it was getting a blood supply. Anyway, people say history in the family. No, not really.

Well, what do you think? What do you think caused it? And I always I said stress and anxiety. Depression, stress, anxiety.

I was the kind that would sit awake at night till 4 in the morning with a beat of sweat running down my face wondering what happens if I can't do this job? How am I going to support my family? I was irrational but a little r legit things and there was some depression there connected to anxiety and I'd say stress and anxiety and people's responses, what the hell do you have to be stressed about? So many times, so many people said that to me or they'd go, "Yeah, when you're out in the arena, those bulls, that's pretty stressful."

That's not stress. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. So, you know, back to what there's no answer. It's you don't just go, "Oh, yeah.

Hey, quit being depressed. There nothing to be sad about. Nothing to be sad about. Why didn't I think of that?"

Anyway, so it has caused me health issues that anxiety. Anxiety. Yeah. Do you Yeah.

Wow. Anyway, heavy. No, no, no, no. Yeah, I like that stuff.

Uh yeah, cuz I mean I probably not to the same level um that you're talking about, but a lot I used to have horrible stage fright. really horrible stage fright. Kind of worked through it. Um I mean I still get anxious but now the anxiety has moved to different things like where it's like selling tickets.

Yeah. Is just freaking So it's interesting to me you chose the path you were this is how I read you. you were confident enough in your songwriting and performing ability that you set your you said I have stage fright but I'm still going to do this because that's how much I'm passionate about what I'm offering because to me opposite my peaceful place I went through a divorce and it could have ruined there's parts of me it did ruin sure um I had a great I was married 22 years great lady I my life was better when I was married. I'll put it that way.

And I went through that for a while. And my safe place was on stage in the arena. That was my escape. So when I when you say stage fright, I'm the opposite.

But you were you that passionate you were that passionate about what you had to offer that you overcame it, right? I think so. uh what actually made me do it? Yeah, I think so.

I think I think the passion for creating something that I think is unique to me and that connecting with people like pushed me through the fear. I think it came from a it was a double-edged sword because I think I think what made me probably more unique and really made me hyper critical of myself which made me better um uh is also the thing that made me so fearful of performing and stuff like I had family members and things that like the idea was like go me into playing in front of everybody at the family get together just to like shred me to pieces and I mean you know like you're [expletive] [expletive] terrible. I mean, like, you know, pretty, you know, where you're just like, "Oh my gosh." But I'll tell you what, those same people, the second I played something that they like actually liked, they were like, "That's pretty badass.

That's good." Yeah. So, you knew it was real, but also it did develop a sort of fear of like you just you just feel like for the longest time walking on stage, it just felt like every person in the room was like, "This guy sucks. I want him to fail because that's kind of people I was around to some of that fear of well we all everybody in this business where we're in put ourselves in front of people we have a fear of failure like that's what drives us though.

Yeah. What else would drive us to be great if we didn't fear failing? It goes back to the apathy thing. What if you didn't care?

Well, then what would drive you like? Yeah. Yeah. But there's a pushing through it though uh has been cool on the other side of it because there is a level of cal.

You are genuinely getting up there and doing it like for yourself. There's something with the music component of performance that especially if people are undecided about you, there's a part of it that if they can recognize like if we weren't here, this guy would still be there just doing his thing and he's comfortable in what he's doing. Yeah. And it's this feeling of like if y'all want to come along with me for the ride, I'm here.

But if you guys don't dig it, I'm still going to be doing my thing. That's cool. Yeah. And you uh you have that kind of vibe about it.

I It's just kind of interesting when you say I used to have stage f I'd be like man I'm really talented at being a mechanic and fixing cars but I have a phobia crawling under a car like what the hell what I know um do you know and maybe you've caught on this and this is why you know I'm friends with Chansancy Williams I consider I don't know if he considers me a great friend yeah I consider him a really great friend with Ned Leoo I've I early on in his care I did a talk show at the NFR at the National Vers Rodeo for 20 years. I was kind of the first one to do it. I've backed away from it this year because there's just so many. But my model when I was a little kid when I couldn't sleep, I'd look around the corner and watch Johnny Carson and he was my role model and I always wanted to be a talk show host.

But his last guest was always a musical guest or a comedian. So my show I always I said from the start I told my friend Kurt who helped me always a musical guest. Always have to have a musical guest. And so I become I remember we had Cody Johnson on and he just showed up by himself with his guitar and nobody knew who the hell Cody Johnson was.

With that Cody Johnson has remained my friend when I see him. he, you know, and that's always meant a lot to me because music is that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to be I played the tennis racket in front of the mirror. I had my showdown.

I mean, you know, my favorite song in the world when people ask, "What's your favorite song of all time?" Easy. Wanted Dead or Alive? Bon Joy.

It's Yeah. It's a It's a here funny story. you know, he's become pretty big time. Cody Webster, Bull Fighter.

He's in Cody Johnson's latest video. And it was like two years ago, we would play that song in the locker room. We play music in the locker room. We played Wanted Dead or and I'd sing it, you know, sing along.

And we're finally, we're in Billings, Montana. and Lucas Teodoro and Cody Webster, two of the bull fighters, are staying at my house for a couple days between shows. I'll be real, it was an apartment, but it's still my house. Slick place, though.

Slick. Yeah. Disco ball. Billings.

Yeah. And we're sitting there talking and he goes, it was in the locker room. He said, "Wait a second. This song isn't necessarily about being a cowboy.

This is like us on tour, isn't it?" And I went, "Hey, Oklahoma, did you just discover that?" Like I give him [expletive] about it. Like, are you kid You'd ever caught on a steel horse I ride.

Yeah. Sometimes I sleep. Sometimes it's not for days. The six string on my holy crap.

So, we get to my house and I show him the video. Now, he loves the song. He plays it all the time like you never knew that it was about touring. Yeah.

And uh but music was my thing and it's still my thing and I love being you know Chansy Williams I hop on his bus for two days and go to a couple stops. I love the world. I always wanted when I have a chance I sing Meet Me in Montana with Brooke on stage. They sang Wanted Dead or Alive in the South Point one.

I saw y'all do it at the South Point last year. Yeah, I think and that honestly that world and talking about music and I think people who don't who don't have music in their lives are missing out on a big emotional aspect that it can bring to their lives because if you music can it touches every single emotion touches anger, it touches jealousy. You name it, there's a song for it. Um, I had a really good conversation with Mark Wills.

Oh, yeah. Who I think is, you know, great songs. And we talked about it. He said, "Every emotion and every artist has a certain emotion that they gravitate to."

And Mark Will said, "And sadly, mine is sadness." Ironically, some of the things that people connect most with a musician sometimes isn't the thing that they might um think is like the truest to themselves. Uh sometimes the things that um like you're saying like you might skew towards like sad music or whatever, but ironically sometimes the thing that people like most about that style of music or the thing that you do is maybe like some upbeat uptempo stuff and happy stuff. It's almost like the thing that you think people are going to connect with the most about you sometimes isn't.

Uh yeah, if I if I'm reading you right, here's my I come from a family that doesn't show a lot of emotion. We don't hug each other. You love you guys and take forever to say goodbye. You say good to see you.

See you in a month. Thanks. Because we've hidden that for and so I don't come from that kind of family that expresses things. But in my choice of music, um I never I don't like to cry in front of everybody.

I don't But you get me home alone and going through some tough times. Oh, I'm throwing on Keith Urban tonight. I want to cry, you know. Or um take your cat, but leave my sweater.

What the hell line is that? Who you know? Take your cat, but leave my sweater. But I'll think of you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Take your cat, but leave my sweater.

Wait, did he just say it's a great song to weather? Did he just say did you have the endline and you just needed unfortunately needed something to rhyme? Yeah. Unfortunately, now every time I hear that song, I'm going to think of you crying with a cat.

You say I cry. Well, the real question though is cuz in my vision of you when I hear this song, there will be a cat and there will be a sweater. But the real question is are you wearing the sweater or is the cat also wearing the sweater? Yeah.

And here's the question. Obviously from what I do you think Keith told Nicole that Hey about the cat or the sweater? Take your cat. Oh, leave my freaking sweater.

Leave my sweater. But I want to think it's the cat's sweater though. I guess that is the ultimate. Yeah.

Yeah. What if the cat when you take when you when you take the when he takes the cat, it's like the cat's going, "Where the hell's my sweater?" Like, "What are you doing? Where's the sweater Keith got?"

Keith. So, the cat number one, what I gather from whatever Keith at some in some cocaine binge that he went through to write that song. 100%. So, well, also it's a Christmas.

Do you think Keith's watching this? Well, it's his Christmas sweater, too. Well, yeah. So there's for sure snowflakes on the So, right.

Gotcha. I did it. So yeah, you did. You did it.

I used my brain. So the cat's obviously a dick cuz if you take it out of the context of take your cat, believe my swe. It's the Keith Urban saying take your [expletive] cat cuz I hate him. He pissed under the bed every night.

But that sweater look sweater. So yeah. So, look, but the major issue that I'm running into on this storyline is that I'm pretty sure he says cap. Take your cap.

I think he says cap. Can we Google the but words, but everything in me wants it to be a cat. Is it cap? Are we going through one of those moments of 80s songs where I look back now at in my mid-50s and go I never knew that's what the word I think.

Does anybody know the real words to Africa? It's okay. It's cat. It is not.

Yeah. It is actually cat. It's cat. Take you thought it was cap.

What cap is it? His Dodgers cap. Is it a Texas R? We don't know.

It's a rockinar bar cap from Boseman. Yeah. find cat to be way too specific. You know, if she if she's going, why the hell would he want that [expletive] ass cat?

Hey, I never like Hey, big, you know what he's saying? Here it is. We're digging into it. I think Keith would agree with this.

Basically, what he's saying in the song is, "I never liked that cat in the first place." Well, there's also something that they were they were going through and I think he went he would go to the cat when he times got tough. What is wrong with Cuz we have nothing we have nothing left to weather and you know it's like sometimes you got that you're just going through something tough and you just want to grab onto that little fuzz ball and it'll pull you through. Yeah.

And maybe he's wearing a sweater and maybe he's not. And maybe it has snowflakes and maybe Keith's high on cocaine. But there's a vision of her in the sweater where it's the old it's a long sweater and she's pulling it down like this. The cat pulls the sweater down and then goes.

What? Yeah. No, that's her. That's she did that.

She did that. The cat would not And Booger the dog hates the cat. The cat is And that's a whole different song than tonight. I want to try.

Watch this. Booger. Come here, Booger. I do this all.

Booger. Come here. Give Flint a push-up. Give him a push-up.

Give him a push-up. Yeah, it's really Dear Lord, come on. That's one more push-up than Chancy Williams has done all year. Ever.

Ever. Ever. Anyway, I love breaking down music when you really I just My girls are I told you got to watch the song my daughter wrote. That's part of the deal of me being here.

My girls sing the a great two-part national anthem. I'm terrified. Oh, it's so Oh, I can't. So, when we, you know, part of the PBR is lining up anthem singers big time like mainstream singers now won't do it.

You ruin your day. Well, come on. It's almost a lose-lose in ways, you know? You just can't.

You either have to. Now, here's what I will say. Chris Stapleton doing it on the guitar. Well, I think it was at the Super Bowl.

That was one of the best things I've ever heard. Unreal. like the heart that and that's why Chris Stapleton is who he is because it's different. He means it.

He means everything. He means it and I mean just the arrangement of it. He played it on the It was just different like Yeah. But true to it.

It was different, but it was still true. Totally. Yeah. Absolutely true to the song.

Oh, I mean different in the sense of it hit me. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, whoa, what was that?

There's times that I listen to music and somebody's like pretty good and it's good, it sounds good, but I almost feel myself getting anxious listening to it because it's not like great. Yeah. Um, and then there's times when I listen to somebody perform and they're in total control and it's like I can completely trust, this sounds super artsy fartsy, but I can like totally trust my emotions with them where it's like I just totally let my guard That's Chris Stapleton. Agreed.

Yeah. But even any performer, whether it's a stand-up comedian or uh I mean I would think people at uh a show that you're at in an event that you're hosting, like I feel that way with you. I mean I Dude, I grew up watching you on the P PBR. So it's like Yeah.

Yeah. For sure. You never told me that. Well, what do you what do you mean?

It's a big moment for me. Yeah. I had like I mean I had your poster above above your picture. Yeah.

It was directly above Oh my god. Yeah. You're right. Hey, do you ever are you ever out of place?

I'm being serious though. I did like grow up watching you on the PBR. You're from I lived in South Florida, too. Like in college.

Well, no, I mean from Texas, but well, I was born in Florida and then we moved out here when I was real little and then I went to college for a little bit down to South Florida and uh but when I was living down there, you know, I was like a fish out of water and it was cool for a little bit, but I would I mean I watched the PBR like religiously when I lived down there and um who's your guy who's your favorite writer of all time? Come on, bro. Who do you think? JB Moon.

Yeah, come on. And because that was like, man, jump on the band right now. Yeah. I mean, but that was like right during the heyday, dude.

It was just Yeah. You're that age where he was the definition of what every what we wanted. That's what everybody wants every bull rider to be. I really enjoyed Glammy too, Marchie.

Glar. Yeah. Uh when uh when people ask me like SOO was freaking wicked. Inevitably, we uh who do you think's the best bull rider of all time?

And I don't think you can narrow it down. I think it comes to moments. What's the best bull ride you ever saw? You know, we all get asked that and I have answers to it in my career right in the heart of when I was really getting going in the PBR.

And I think that a lot of this the answer depends on the moment like the situation, the friend, this person was, the intelligence I saw in him, the deeper thinking, uh, in my mind, the greatest bull rider of our all time just surrounding my career and stuff was Justin McBride. Uh yeah, just because of how he handled himself. He was misunderstood by the crowd. Oh, McBride's an [expletive] No.

And here's what's cool about McBride to this day. If you fly on an airplane with him, he's got a freaking book with him all the time. Oh, and he reads and he's well read. That's what made him as great of an the greatest Western sports TV analyst ever in my opinion.

Sorry, Butch Nolles. and but just break things down. And he has a vocabulary and he just made some of the biggest rides. See, that would have been just before I was like really Yeah.

diving. What are you 21? What? Well, no.

Pretty close. Yeah. Anyway, however, the greatest bull ride I ever saw because of the moment it was in was JB Mooney. Well, was it the B the Bushwhacker?

No, because that wasn't the to this day. I mean, the moment was the biggest, probably the most famous and biggest moment. Yeah. Uh, Sou Falls, South Dakota.

Great PBR event. Believe it or not, it's a real great market. JB Moo, we used to have these 15 bucking battles at the end for CBS, but when we did them back then, the good guys would have to get on two bulls in a night. Yeah.

So, JB's getting down on his bull. He's towards the end of the regular long route and he's got an elbow issue and if his elbow did a certain thing his hand would lock up just like that like so he's getting on his bull and his drawn bull in the long round and he's getting down like he did and he was always back here and that bull jumped forward and popped his arm and his hand locked up and they get him on and he can't it's painful can't get on his bull. in the long run. Buck a couple more.

It's turnover right to the 1515 bucking battle and JB as Pearl Harbor. And at that time, Pearl Harbor was a bad dude. I mean, just 13 14 13 uh in there somewhere. Yeah.

Right in there. So, they take JB back Sports Medicine. Welcome to the 1515. It's its own separate TV show production wise.

We're JB's going to get on. JB I think was 94 points. 94 points or whatever it was on Pearl Harbor, Sou Falls, South Dakota. 1515.

And I'm I can tell you where I stand. I'm against the fence looking at the chute. And he came right there and did it right there. We could find it on YouTube.

And I went in my career. That's the greatest bull ride I've ever seen. Be but see, people don't always know the story leading up to it. Now those times Jose rode whoopa and the other thing you don't catch and people were like that's [expletive] They marked him.

No, that bull's front feet were I could see under the bull every jump standing there. But in the moment it was JB on Pearl Harbor. That was Yeah. Unreal, dude.

Yeah. I had heard about the one I think it was here in Decar at um JW's deal that they put on. Yeah. where the lights went out or something.

Oh, I was not there, but I remember hearing stories of Wasn't that on Bushwhacker? Uh, it was on uh It might have been. Yeah, it might have been. Like a jump or two and lights went out.

Yeah. Do you know how many times stories you hear about lights going out at a rodeo, but I never see it. Yeah. It's like the freaking You never see a cat really in a sweater because the lights go out.

That's got Gosh, it's so funny, dude. There's a little there's a pinch me for sure. It's just so funny. I like uh and I've been around you a few times now.

Uh but just talking to you is just like um I don't know. My I It's funny because I found some old Christmas card. My mom worked at the newspaper, little local newspaper. So, she had printing capabilities way back in the 70s, early 80s, which you and not everybody, you couldn't just type it on your computer and print it out.

Everything was a little tougher then, a better world. So, she'd always print our uh Christmas card and she'd tell what each kid was up to, you know. Well, Flynn is active in sports and now is taking art lessons and continues to entertain us around the house every year. And it's funny because I was far from like the class clown.

I don't think my friends in school thought I was funny because friends are different and you go through things. I played a lot of sports. I was I was a good athlete and matter of fact, my friends some I struggled with it sometimes because I'd go score a touch. I remember having a really good football game and then t driving through the night to go sing in the Montana All State Choir.

And high school kids don't always like that. Like that's You're not It This isn't an 80s movie. You're not instantly popular. They just go, "Oh, you think you're so much better than us?"

Yeah. You had to wait till the early 2000s for that. Yeah. You know, be the quarterback in the Yeah.

So, uh, but my mom always, um, yeah, Flint continues to entertain us and so I found all these every year like, uh, make me sound like a big screw off. Yeah. Or, uh, pe the idea of being entertaining. Some people say like it's a negative thing, like you have to be the center of attention.

Yeah. I never felt like that. I mean, if the moment presented itself. Yeah.

But I wasn't wild. Like I and the other thing is people will say to my mom or something I bet he was a handful in trouble and my mom will say no. And I have a brother Pete my brother Pete will step in and go no like I didn't drink in high school. I didn't go out.

I was always be home at midnight and at 10 to midnight I go hey I'm home. You know um got good grades. I was a good student. I graduated from college in four years with high I mean it's I think my I'm not bra I think it catches people off guard I think they have a vision of what you were and cuz the job I have done in the arena it takes discipline like you got to know what's going on it hey my kid could do your job he's wild and just the discipline of just showing up and being consistent and having your wits about you.

Mhm. And doing business the right way, treating people right, following through. Uh, relationships and connections. Tell my girls that all the time.

That's the two things. Whatever you do in life, it's going to be based on your relationships and connections. And the people that argue with that don't have them. And they get pissed when we do.

Like, oh yeah. Um, hey, my girls went through [expletive] with like with high school rodeo. Oh yeah, they're asmus and girls. Oh, look.

The horse they're riding. That's their That's the horse their mom pro- rodeoed on last summer. Yeah, because we own the horse. What do you want?

Oh, we should Hey girls, we're leaving that horse home because it's not fair. Like, no. Those were our horses and my girls could wrench. Yeah.

And so they went through stuff with their but I like I told them, oh yeah, those raspersons and girls, their dad does this, so they whatever. It's a timed event. Yeah, it's pretty effective, you know. It's so there's Yeah, but it's relate and my girls are good.

They know Yeah. how to treat people. I've had I've had people where some of my best friends like I went to high school with them and uh and I and I have a lot of relationships that I've had for a long time and those aren't easy to keep, you know, and they come with conflict and then working through it, right? and uh um reconciling with people when it's not comfortable.

You know, you typically don't have relationships for 10, 15, 20 years without any sort of conflict resolution, right? Good point. And um and I've had and I've had people at times like, "Oh, it must be nice to have friends for that long." And it's like, well, it took effort, you know?

Yes, it's a huge blessing to have people like that, but at the same time, it took some work and effort and you know, you can see other people in their lives that maybe didn't put forth that same type of effort or care, and they don't have a lot of long-term meaningful relationships. Yeah. Not saying I do all of them properly or correct, but my college friends are solid. I could call right now, I'd pick up the phone and call my friend Ted.

Just doesn't mean anything to you. I'd thought of one. We'd pick up right where we left off. We share a birthday.

We, you know, so there's that. Uh, you know, you hear, "Oh, yeah. Flint back in high school, he said blah." Wow.

If we had, well, let's judge everybody by [expletive] they did in high school. Oh, dude. I heard one recently where somebody was like, "He's different than he was in high school." And I'm like, "Thank goodness."

Oh my god. Like, what? You want me to be the exact same? Oh god.

I'm inauthentic because I'm different than the way I was when I was 14. Yeah. Okay. Me, too.

I don't ride my bike around town anymore. I don't wear short shorts with my socks pulled up. Well, I do actually ride my bike around Keller, Texas. I'm the guy on the butt.

I do. I ride my cowboy hat on. Hey, you know what though? And I wore my hat today because it was important.

And because if to quote the host of this show, oh god, you do you, boo. Hey, hat and a cowboy shirt. You do you, boo. Like, what?

But I'm going as we as we record this whenever it comes out. Uh tomorrow as we record this, I'm flying to Denver and I'm speaking early in the morning the next day at the Colorado Farm Bureau state convention. I do public speaking. I've done graduations, but I'm trying to get out there and do more of it.

And one of the things I used to all the years I hosted my talk show, I never wore a hat because I said I'm not I'm surrounded by rodeo announcers here and I'm not one of them. I'm a show host and I'm on TV and I didn't want the light, you know, it's a it's TV nightmare. So, I never wear a hat and I go speak at things and not wear a hat because I wanted to be different. But to me, in today's world with everyone wanting to wear cowboy hats, being from Montana, you know, a lot of it's getting inundated.

You know, Yellowstone, it's a documentary, you know. Um, but everybody wants to wear a cowboy hat, but I don't think they understand the responsibility and the expectations of wearing a cowboy hat. And I've caught myself wearing my cowboy hat more because I understand the true what we should expect from someone in a cowboy hat. We have higher expectations.

We're supposed to be the guy that's just treats people a little better and nicer and uh the farther I've gotten from that, it you know, it means something. working in the PBR office. I'm one of the few people that's really a cowboy and they come to me. Part of my job is to, hey, Flint, are we on the right track with does this fit in the bull riding competition?

I say, not really. And they say, well, too bad. No, but there's an expectation. I feel like there's a responsibility of how I act when I wear a cowboy hat.

Can't hide. It's important, you know, people take notice more. Yeah. I used to be really uh when I'd fly, I would have a hat can I'd pack in my bag and not wear my hat through the airport because I didn't want to draw it.

I didn't want to mess with it. And there was that era where it was like cowboy and now nah [expletive] No, I wear my cowboy hat. Brad badge of honor. Yeah.

I just think I was always I felt my job the way I did my job for years and years. I ch I was an element of change. I changed the way the job was done. I feel like I changed the expectation and the standard and set the bar a little higher.

But I always I realize now as I've gotten older, I still remain true to that 74year-old former rodeo cowboy that's a rancher could still watch me and be entertained. I never alienated those people. And as I've gotten older, I've gone, "Yeah, I'm more traditional than I thought I was. I'm still from Shoto, Montana."

Like everything I am is because I grew up in a little tiny town. Everything creative, passionate, uh, compassionate, all of it is because of what I how I was brought up in a small town. All of it. What's the future look like for you?

You think? Remember when you said, "Hey, are there things you don't want to talk about?" I'm joking. I feel you on that.

No, it's uh I don't know. Um, so the first year out of the arena, people would always they come up and say, "Do you miss it? You miss it, don't you?" It's like they want a gotcha moment.

Like I'll be moving to around the music, they go, "Oh, I knew you missed it." What is the What are you trying to catch me at? What? I did a job very well for 30 year almost 30 years.

Do you think I don't miss it? And for the first year, I didn't really miss the process. I missed being that guy, but the process of it, I was uh when I kind of retired from the arena, I was in a lot of pain. Like I had one bad knee and what just in general my whole body I beat the [expletive] out of my body self.

So did it to myself. Yeah. You're doing the worm on sand. Yeah.

And uh jumping up and down on things. Very physical and emotionally. I was worn out. had been through a lot and just was tired.

So that first year I didn't miss it. As the time has gone by, I miss that feeling and I feel like I have things to say and do in the Western world. I feel like I contributed and gave a lot to it and I feel like I still contributing working for the PBR but I also feel like what else can't sit I don't know. I'm working on some things.

I have Dude, you're one of You're one of a kind. Like, you are quite literally one of a kind. There was sure there was like the entertaining guy at the rodeo before, but not in the not in the context of the way the PBR put together, and there was nothing like the PBR before it. Like, you are the guy.

You're the one and only. Like, you started that whole thing. Yeah. And you know, I was in the early stages of PBR and they could the guy named who we lost a couple years ago, Jerome Robinson could see that I fit where they were going.

So he and I evolved even after You didn't have anybody to copy. No. And I didn't copy like I didn't even though my dad was a rodeo announcer. It was around Montana.

So I didn't have those old rodeo clowns to really watch. I watched comedians. I knew and then as time went I really adapted to what my talents were. So I approached it completely different still I think to anybody doing it today.

I approached it differently. Like I said I always I didn't want to be the best rodeo clown ever. I wanted to be the best entertainer. Like and it isn't just a freaking title.

People slap that title. The guys are so afraid to call themselves rodeo clowns. And I'm proud of that. Like I have buckles that say rodeo clown of the year and it came from hey what do we call you because PBR when I went to PBR we're not a rodeo so what do we call you and you don't really make balloon animals and I don't know I guess I'm entertaining in the arena the arena entertainer it wasn't some big so people then as years have gone oh don't call Flynn a clown I don't give a [expletive] I'm proud of that it was just that's what I wanted to be and that's how I approached it you know if you're just the best rodeo clown.

It's like being the best looking waitress at Denny's, you know. Sorry. So, I love Denny's. Well, I You can't beat the Moons Over My Hammy.

So, is that Denny's? Is that a hop? No, that's Denny's. I don't know if they have it.

Moons over my hammy. You can't beat that. Is that a butt? Is that just what that is?

Like butt cheeks over my hamstrings. Moons over Yeah. Is that what that is? Like two little butt cheeks over my hamstrings.

All I can visualize is the plate sitting there and a cat in a sweater over the top of just trying to paw it. Uh but anyway, it's Yeah, I just I don't know. I feel like there's I'm not old that I'm 57 years old and I do not I felt like it for a while. I've been working out hard lately.

What do you think about the podcast? Yeah, I need to start doing more of that. I Yeah, I have some ideas. I think there's some Listen, there's a lot of podcasts out there as you know and I love your I watch your clips.

By the way, this isn't podcast. Do you realize Do you really have a neighbor that's a calf robber that feeds the horses and hit I want you to know something? I thought you meant when he hit the pin, he saddled his horse and went out in the pin and roped some calves. He's hitting the pin.

Double on. Who would ever hear of a roper hitting the pen? Hitting the dab pen. Yeah.

I'm being sorry. None of them ever in history. Yes. The Yeah.

The new way. Yeah. I don't think any I can't even remember of a calf roper that did anything illegal ever. I'm not I know too many guys.

Hey, you know, I want it. I had people starting to comment with like names and stuff and I was like, so I basically just cut it out. I'm like, I'm not I'm not saying anything about it. That song is in my head cuz you use it.

I like your style how you throw it on every clip you're doing. You're showing your freaking horse. I love that you finally gave evidence that your horse kicks your phone over. But the fact that you've thrown so many clips out with that song, brilliant.

That was brilliant. But I want to say though, I have if I had to pick a I know a lot of calf roers and good that are good dudes, but one guy that's a very dear friend of mine cuz we m we host the nightly goround awards. Oh. At Vegas is Joe Beaver.

Yeah. And Joe Beaver helped teach my girls how to rope. My daughter Shelby about sixth grade. She went to a breakaway roping school.

And Joe says this day, "Boy, baby girl, when you came to my school, we just prayed the roping gods and run a calf through your loop and she couldn't, you know, God." He said, "Damn it, Flint, buy her a horse." Jesus, I got hundreds of $15,000. God, you tight ass.

And we did. And my daughter as a freshman in high school was the state champion high school breakaway robber. And those, you know, my two girls are national champs. and Paige was the uh national champion goat tire one year the allaround one year their team was the national champions at Montana State I think they were his two the two most influential members ever of Montana State rodeo that's my opinion but Joe Beaver is a great clinician great teacher he was a great calf roper and he owns all that [expletive] like he owns it all he talks about it as an example to young guys of how what not to do and the that alternate world he was in of not taking care of himself and I respect him for it.

You know, it was that was his world and he owns it and he's been successful. There's a lot of characters and if you zoom out on the greater like horse industry too. I mean shoot like when I first started shoeing and most of my work was all like north of Denton over here. So it's like Pilot Point and Whitesboro.

So there's a bunch of rainers and a lot of cutters over there and like even the stories of some of those ranches over there of like horse trainers and then breeding facilities flying in mayors from Mexico and from Brazil. It's like there's some pretty wild like there's so much to the western. I always say I know a lot of people say the rodeo world and they expect everyone to know it's the broad. I use uh the western world or the western sports world.

That's my term of that's kind of everything to me. Yeah. And that takes in to me that takes in cutters and rainers and sorters and penners. Nine.

Your number is nine. Um are you a team pen? No. No.

No. But to me, I'd love to do it. the western sports world because honestly to the people in New York City or Pittsburgh, wherever you go, it's kind of all the same. So, we have to stick up for each other.

Our world's pretty fragile. It's a small world and it's a fragile world and it could disappear. So, we got to kind of all look out for each other. That's why the whole, you know, people the PRCA saying, "Oh, you're a PBR guy.

Screw you. We all wear hats. We're all on the same team. We can't afford to, you know, the normal person on the street doesn't know letters in front of what's going on.

Yeah. It's like I mean, most of the people I was raised around and stuff, I immediately think about them when somebody's like, "You a real cowboy?" I'm just like, "No, no, no." And then they're like, "What do you do?"

I'm like, "I'm a horseshoe." And they're like, "What? What?" They're like, "You're by far the most cowboy person I've ever even seen in person."

Right. for them. Yeah. And so yeah, I mean there's like varying degrees, but like the world I'm from, it's like, dude, I can't hold a candle to half these people.

Like I shouldn't be wearing a hat. Did you tell them how was your Oh, man. What's a day like? I'll tell you what.

Great day shoeing. Not a nail showing. Straight in. Every time.

Straight in, dude. Every time. Straight in. No nails showing.

Look at that. Oh, look at you guys where you got a nip off the What? I dude on one of my videos. I can't remember.

I was did a caption on it. It said like I was shoeing in it. I can't remember exactly what I put. I think I said like I'm trying to drop hot songs, not hot nails or whatever.

And see, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Blood. It was It was too It was too niche. It was way too niche.

Blood. I think I saw Yeah. I get the horseshoe pass, dude. That was like the Everywhere I go.

That's That's down home. That's like real cowboy stuff. I avoid I do have to tell you like when in public speaking that I do I tell my story and I say and I get a count 450 people. There's 450 of you that I expect never ever to ask me again how'd you ever get into that cuz it's like because it is it's roundabout.

My dad, my brother's a rodeo announcer and Will and yeah, I just I never wanted to be anything in rodeo ever and now here I am. See, that goes back to what I was saying though, like some of the things that you don't really see in yourself. I didn't see it myself and now I'm Yeah. as you know, people knew my name in the rodeo world and I never wanted anything to do with it.

I team roped in high school and steer wrestled a little because my family was going and in high school rodeo there was usually a dance after. Totally. So why not? Why not?

I get it, dude. I get it. Um, thank you for doing this, man. We could I would say we could sit here for I could sit with you for hours.

And you dude, you only live like 30 minutes from me. I know. Exactly. That's crazy.

Yeah. come over to the house or the it's an apartment. We'll ride our bikes together. I have some trails.

You got some sweaters? I don't have a cat and I don't have a I have some good sweaters. You know what's hard for me? Uh being in Texas.

What were you doing? What was that, dude? I caught myself. I was about to talk about the sweater I got.

What was on it? cuz I did just buy a new sweater. What? Do tell.

And then but you started dogging and I got caught. Hey, I have this. And so I just sat there. What's your sweater?

I want to know about your sweater. It's a Snoop Dog sweater. So it's got Snoop Dogg with like a uh a little Christmas hat, a Santa hat, and then it's just I mean Yeah. I mean, it's just him.

Do you cry, wouldn't you? You could, couldn't you? Yeah. That's funny.

Anyways, yeah, you got you caught me. I mean It's hard in Texas. I have this whole I thinned out clothes when I came to Montana. Like I don't need this many coats.

I still I have coats a coat closet that just has dust on them. Like when people can badmouth cold weather, but it really opens up a whole new wardrobe that we have in Montana that people don't have here. Oh, you have so much fun with it. Yeah.

There's so much room to accessorize. Yeah. Like sweaters. Snoop Dog sweaters.

Yeah. It's just it's harder. I mean, we're we were middle of November, 86 degrees. What is that?

Like, but the humidity is great on my skin and my hair. I can tell. Yeah, I was going to comment on it, but I didn't want to come on too strong. Yeah, I know.

I know. So, all right. Well, I'm going to come down to your apartment. Okay.

Well, but take your cap. Believe my sweater. Cap. We get, you know, we should do we should do digital content.

And just break down lyrics of songs. Yeah. Because here's what I've wanted. And then we'll I'm going to circle back and we'll end with this.

I think what I've wanted to do is do a deal. I want to do it on my show because people badmouth new country music, not as good as the old country music. I want to read two sets of lyrics and guess which one is the classic country song and which one is new. That's a great idea because if you really read the lyrics of some old country song, there is dumb it I mean come on.

No, some of them are really dumb. Yeah, but not every song has to like lyrically change the world. Well, yeah. Sometimes you're just having a good time.

You're just We are the world. We are the children. We Hey Jared. We are the ones who make a ones who make a better something.

That's my era, man. We are the world. Is that Pink Floyd? Who is that?

We are the world. Uh, we are the artist for Africa. Yeah. For Africa.

There comes a time when we heed a certain call. When the world must come together as one. God, you were in choir, dude. You just tener.

That was a tener. Took on Disney Channel right here before my eyes. Oh, dude. I thought that was a um Disney Channel.

I thought that was ribbon twirling. I thought you were doing a ribbon. Dude, you're the freaking best. This is like uh Yeah, this is really cool for me.

So, thank you. I Thank you. Thank you for getting me out of the office. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Hey, I gotta go do this podcast for PBR. Yeah, that's what I for PBR.

No, I like doing this and uh I've told a lot of people that this is a great vibe and I called Chansancy. Guess what? I'm on charge. Yeah, dude.

That the Chansancy Williams dude. He's not like this guy like reinventing something, doing country music. He's just this horseshoeer who sings. That's what he said.

That's what he said. Yeah, cuz you're like, dude, what is going on with this cat? He just said, "You do you, boo. You do you, boo.

I want to tell you and I made a mental note and I forgot through the I had a dream last night and I don't even know what I was dreaming about, but we were with my daughters and doing something and I said, "Boo the band. Boo." Oh, you did it in the dream. In my dream, I said, "Boo the band.

Boo the band. Yeah, that's become our uh because I knew I was coming here today. I guess that's we did that to Chansy in the middle of his concert. Such an object like a boo the band.

Boo the band. Everybody's into these low booze. But I'm Okay, come on. Boring.

You got to get a You got dead silence. Boo. You do you, boo. That's what Jany and I do now.

like side stage whenever one of us is playing. You can just hear the other one over there just boo. Song sucks. So, I had a dream about that.

So, boo. Oh, I'm sorry. Well, that's where we sign off. Boo.

This podcast. All right. See y'all. High hopes I know every time they're popping the game.

Oh Lord, no score. That was just too damn ranks. Little buddy, better luck next season. Get a gold buckle and a couple good reasons.

She might let you come back home. Oh, hell no. Kick rocks ain't nothing but a heathen. More money, but just as a wicked, she'll never let him come back home.

Kick rocks cowboy.