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The Joe Rogan ExperienceThe Joe Rogan Experience

Ryan Bingham on Joe Rogan: Why Ranch Work Builds Stage Nerve

Texas ranch work and Yellowstone sets gave Bingham a fear-floor reset; physical discomfort, he says, transfers to stage confidence in ways comfort never can.

Joe RoganhostRyan Binghamguest
Apr 24, 20262h 22mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:02 – 2:04

    Austin community, Texas roots, and leaving California behind

    1. JR

      Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night. All day. [upbeat rock music] What's happening, man? Good to see you.

    2. RB

      Yeah, good to see you, man.

    3. JR

      Hold on up to that microphone, sir.

    4. RB

      All right.

    5. JR

      Um, you were fucking great at that McConaughey thing last year. I really enjoyed that. That was my first time seeing you perform live. It was really cool.

    6. RB

      Oh, really? Thank you, man.

    7. JR

      It was very cool. You're so relaxed up there, man. So, it was like you brought everybody into a nice, like, comfortable, chill vibe. It was cool.

    8. RB

      [laughs] Oh, I'm glad you guys felt, felt that way. Sometimes it, uh, it takes me a minute to get into the groove, you know?

    9. JR

      Yeah, but it felt like that, you know?

    10. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    11. JR

      It felt like you were in it, like it brought us, it brought the whole crowd into it, too. That, that event that he does, the two events, the one, the singer-songwriter one, and then the other one with the b- the auction and everything.

    12. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    13. JR

      They're so cool. Such good events.

    14. RB

      Yeah, they're good people, too, you know?

    15. JR

      Yeah.

    16. RB

      That's, uh, I, uh, really grown to just appreciate the community around here in Austin and the Hill Country area and all of that stuff. I definitely, uh, wouldn't have the career, I don't think, if it wouldn't have been for the community around here that just support songwriters and music in the way that they do. It's pretty incredible, you know? When they get behind anything, it's just like, it just feels so good to see that many people come together and, and sup- you know, have that support, you know?

    17. JR

      It's a really good place, man. Austin is a really good community. It really is.

    18. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    19. JR

      A very positive place in a lot of ways.

    20. RB

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      I mean, nothing's perfect. There's no perfect places, but it's, it's really good.

    22. RB

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      I like it so much better than when I was living in California.

    24. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    25. JR

      Just feels like real people. Just-

    26. RB

      I miss it, man. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm mov- in the process of moving back to, to Texas as well.

    27. JR

      Where are you at right now?

    28. RB

      Uh, outside of Dallas, Texas, out by Tyler.

    29. JR

      Okay.

    30. RB

      But I've been, I've been in, uh, Topanga Canyon in LA for years.

  2. 2:04 – 5:08

    Yellowstone life: filming in Montana and escaping into the mountains

    1. JR

      Dude, you had the coolest fucking character on Yellowstone.

    2. RB

      [laughs]

    3. JR

      It was such... It must be so fun to play.

    4. RB

      It was so much fun, man. I had to... I, I laugh. I always talk about it. I ki- I felt like I had, like, one of the easiest jobs there, you know? It's 'cause my, the character was kind of a smaller role, and, you know, most of the time I'd, I'd work, like, one or two days a week, and then the rest of the time I'd just be, like, fly fishing and get lost in the mountains.

    5. JR

      Oh, really?

    6. RB

      And just disappear out there. Yeah, it was awesome.

    7. JR

      God, Montana's awesome.

    8. RB

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      That show made so many people move out there, though. [laughs]

    10. RB

      I know. You gotta take your license plate off your car before you go. [laughs]

    11. JR

      Right. You better not have a California plate.

    12. RB

      Better not.

    13. JR

      They will fucking write things on your hood.

    14. RB

      Uh, run you off the road.

    15. JR

      Yeah, they get upset. It's very interesting.

    16. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    17. JR

      They're very proud to be from Montana.

    18. RB

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      And they wanna keep it to themselves. Like, let it go, motherfucker. We're all Americans.

    20. RB

      [laughs]

    21. JR

      All right? If you got a good spot, you should be happy that people from California figure it out.

    22. RB

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      Don't be a dick.

    24. RB

      [laughs]

    25. JR

      Like, you're American, bitch.

    26. RB

      Yeah, yeah.

    27. JR

      You're not... It's not the United States of Montana.

    28. RB

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      Shut the fuck up.

    30. RB

      I guess it's kinda anywhere, right? You know.

  3. 5:08 – 7:45

    Guide school in Montana: pack trips, mules, and shedding modern life

    1. RB

      Yeah. Yeah, several years ago, um, I went to a guide school up there, like a hunting guide school.

    2. JR

      Hunting guide?

    3. RB

      Mm-hmm. And, uh, it was a whole pack squad, but it, part of it was, I grew up cowboying and ranching, but I've never really been up there in those mountains like that, and I'm, my dad would always fantasize about that. We'd talk, you know, one day we're gonna go on, like, a pack trip up in Montana, and, you know, we'd watch all those movies like Lonesome Dove and-

    4. JR

      Mm-hmm

    5. RB

      ... all of that stuff, so it was always just kind of a daydream. And, um, years ago, I was just kind of overwhelmed with music stuff and all that, and didn't what, uh, know what I was gonna do, and I ended up, I just wanted to go up there for a trip, you know, maybe go on a pack trip, and I started looking up places, and I found this, uh, place called Royal Tine, uh, Outfitters, and they're like, "Yeah, you know, we come up and you can take, take you on a pack trip or whatever, but we also have, like, this six-week school, you know, that you can train to be a guide that's all, uh, mule pack and all kinds of stuff," you know? And so I was like, "Man, I'm gonna sign up for that," you know, and it was life-changing. There was only six of us in the class, and, um, you know, spent weeks back in the backcountry packing mules and horses and-

    6. JR

      Oh, wow

    7. RB

      W-we just tie a rope between two trees with a tarp for sleeping at night, and always post up a couple of guys to watch over the horses at night and I remember one morning I woke up, and it was in June, you know, but we were way back in there, and, uh, I woke up and the snow was coming down, and I, I just kinda raised my head up and I was looking out at the horses and the snow was just falling down on their backs and there was that moment in me, I was like, "I don't know if I'm ever going back."

    8. JR

      [laughs]

    9. RB

      You know? [laughs] I was like, "God, this is right where, this is where, where I need to be."

    10. JR

      Right.

    11. RB

      You know? It was, it was tough to come back to, uh, civilization after that.

    12. JR

      I think we're doing something with ourselves, to ourselves with civilization that we can't really fully appreciate because we're wrapped in it, and it's not until you get to nature where all that weight just gets lifted off of you-

    13. RB

      Mm-hmm

    14. JR

      ... and yous feel more normal, and you're like, "Oh, this is where people are supposed to be."

    15. RB

      Yeah. You know, no phones. There's no nothing, no distractions, and it's just like you ... All your senses heighten, your eyesight, your hearing, your-

    16. JR

      Yeah

    17. RB

      ... sense of smell, like, all of that stuff. And, you know, I remember going into it, you know, I, I didn't know what to expect really. I've done some camping and things like that and grew up ranching and all that, but this was a way different deal. And I remember I just had this, like, backpack full of gear, you know? And by the time I got out of there, like, I just felt like all I needed was a pair of scissors and some way to start some fire, you know?

    18. JR

      [laughs]

    19. RB

      And that was about it. [laughs]

  4. 7:45 – 14:11

    Survival skills and fire craft: from pitch wood to Fritos kindling

    1. JR

      Yeah. I follow this one dude. God, I'm, I'm trying to remember his name. Clay ... Oh, let me, let me pull it up because, uh, I really enjoy his, uh, his videos. But this dude i- he lives, uh, I believe he lives in Alaska, but he does a lot of trips in America, like all over America-

    2. RB

      Mm-hmm

    3. JR

      ... in the lower 48, and he goes and, like, lives by himself in some kinda harsh environment.

    4. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    5. JR

      Like, he's done it in the swamps. Clay Hayes, that's it.

    6. RB

      Does he, like, take his kid out there?

    7. JR

      Uh, he-

    8. RB

      Or the kids with him

    9. JR

      ... I believe he has. He's taken-

    10. RB

      Yeah

    11. JR

      ... his dog. But a l- a lot of times he just goes entirely by himself.

    12. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    13. JR

      And, uh, they're very, very interesting. Like, he starts his own fire. He'll-

    14. RB

      Mm-hmm

    15. JR

      ... figure out how to get food. He figures out how to purify water. He's taken saltwater and made his own thing that kinda distills it into fresh water and removes the salt-

    16. RB

      Yeah

    17. JR

      ... like, very slowly by using a, a piece of bamboo and fire-

    18. RB

      Mm-hmm

    19. JR

      ... and boiling the water in the bamboo so that, like, the water evaporates and then drips down, and it doesn't have salt in it apparently.

    20. RB

      Yeah. I love that stuff, man.

    21. JR

      I love it.

    22. RB

      I mean, just to have those skills, just to know how to do it, like, whether you'll ever need it or not, just to know how to do that, it's just so cool. I remember, um, in that, that guide school, there's a lot of different parts to it, which was so cool, is like we did a whole week of, like, backcountry, um, like, wilderness first aid. You know, you had ... guy had a paramedic-

    23. JR

      Mm

    24. RB

      ... come in and teach us all this stuff, and then there was a whole week of just, like, leatherwork. There was a whole week of shoeing horses. There was, uh, fly-fishing and entomology and all these just kind of little skills. But one thing that really stuck with me was, uh, uh, a fire-building, uh, kinda drill when we, we started. It was kinda right when we first got there, and it was pretty wet, and it'd been snowing, and, um, there's only six of us, you know, and we're guys from kinda all over the country. And I grew up in New Mexico and West Texas, where it's pretty dry, you know, and you kinda build a fire. You can kinda just take some little small twigs and get a little fire-

    25. JR

      Easy

    26. RB

      ... going, you know? And so he goes, "All right. You got two minutes to build a fire, and you need to have, you know, like, a flame to be three or four feet high." And man, I'm running around grabbing, like, little sticks and twigs, and I'm just ... And we have a lighter too. You know, I'm just struggling. It's just smoke, and I can't get it going. I look over, and there's a kid from Alaska in the class, and he just runs over to this big dead pine tree and just breaks off the biggest branch of dead, you know, pine needles and takes his lighter and just woosh.

    27. JR

      [laughs]

    28. RB

      And within, like, [laughs] five seconds, has this massive fire going. I was like, "Okay, that's how you do that," you know? And it was so ... Just the littlest things, you know, to, to have that knowledge, you know? And, and part of it was, you know, he was explaining to us, the instructor, he's like, "Yeah, you know, if you're out here with ... You're guiding somebody that's hunting. Maybe he's an elderly guy or somebody gets hurt, and you get caught back in the mountains and it's snowing," he's like, "You better get a fire going and keep them warm real quick," you know?

    29. JR

      Mm.

    30. RB

      So there was always a, you know, a reason and a purpose behind it, which was really cool, and, um, I'll, I'll never f- ... Those are some, some of the things I'll, I'll never forget, you know?

  5. 14:11 – 16:26

    Alaska ruggedness and why true community forms in harsh places

    1. JR

      The people are extraordinary

    2. RB

      ... hike and do back country.

    3. JR

      Those are rugged people.

    4. RB

      Yeah.

    5. JR

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

    6. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    7. JR

      Like this is weird. But one of the things that we talked about after was like, "Those people were fucking cool." Like there's, there's something about living up there, like where you could die going outside like a good six months out of the year.

    8. RB

      [laughs] Yeah.

    9. JR

      There's fucking bears everywhere. M- uh, if you f- you, you look sideways at a moose, it'll stomp you to death in the fucking Walmart parking lot.

    10. RB

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      Like it's, it's this-

    12. RB

      You better have your shit together. Yeah. [laughs]

    13. JR

      You better have your shit together. There's bald eagles everywhere.

    14. RB

      Yeah.

    15. JR

      The, the salmon are as big as your thigh. I mean, the people there are, they work together. They'll, there's like, they're very friendly, but they're very rugged. But they're also like, they realize that you need each other. Like, there's a sense of like-

    16. RB

      Yeah

    17. JR

      ... community-

    18. RB

      Talk about community

    19. JR

      ... and coolness.

    20. RB

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      Yeah.

    22. RB

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      You need each other.

    24. RB

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      If your, your fucking car breaks down on the side of the road, you could die.

    26. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    27. JR

      Like, someone's not gonna let you die.

    28. RB

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      They're gonna pull over. In California, they're like, "Someone will get him." Pfft.

    30. RB

      Yeah.

  6. 16:26 – 20:45

    Work ethic from ranch life: hay hauling, manual labor, and building skills

    1. RB

      I grew up like that too, you know, and, um, you know, people cutting hay and stuff like that, especially when you're young. Like, man, we would go stack hay for everybody around, you know. It's like that was the summer job, you know. It's like, let's just go.

    2. JR

      That makes a strong person.

    3. RB

      Yeah.

    4. JR

      People that throw hay around-

    5. RB

      Mm

    6. JR

      ... those are strong motherf-

    7. RB

      Yeah

    8. JR

      ... like that term like farmer strength, that shit's real.

    9. RB

      Yeah, you better said. I was always a little guy too, so I had to use some, learn how to use leverage real quick.

    10. JR

      [laughs]

    11. RB

      You gotta roll those bails up on your knee. I, that, I think one of the last times I did that I remember is, uh, I was going to school in Stephenville, Texas, and had a good friend over in Glen Rose. And it was the middle of July, and, and he's an older man, and asked us to come help him stack hay in his barn. And it was... And we're stacking it in the barn, you know, so, and it's just like you're inside the barn. It's just hot. It had to have been 110 degrees in there, you know. And we're talking hundreds of bales of hay, and it was just all we could do. And of course we're hung over, and we're, [laughs] you know, in college. You know, we're trying, we're stacking hay. And I was like, "I think, I think this is my last hay hauling job right now." [laughs]

    12. JR

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

    13. RB

      Yeah.

    14. JR

      Like get a good, rugged manual labor job.

    15. RB

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      It'll knock some fucking sense into you.

    17. RB

      That's how I got the guitar, man. I, I, I learned pretty quick that the guitar felt a lot better in my hands than that shovel did. [laughs]

    18. JR

      [laughs] Yeah. I know that feeling.

    19. RB

      [laughs]

    20. JR

      I, I spent one summer doing insulation in an attic. It was all that fiberglass insulation.

    21. RB

      Oh, man. Yeah.

    22. JR

      I had it in all my skin.

    23. RB

      Yeah, in your nose-

    24. JR

      'Cause you're sweating

    25. RB

      ... in your eyes. Yeah.

    26. JR

      Yeah, you're sweating 'cause it's hot-

    27. RB

      It sticks to you

    28. JR

      ... and it's the summer, so it's getting into your pores.

    29. RB

      [laughs]

    30. JR

      And you're always itchy. You feel like it's on you all the t- also, like it's gotta be terrible to be breathing that shit in.

  7. 20:45 – 25:46

    Primal appeal of cowboy life and animals: horses as therapy and connection

    1. JR

      No. Well, there's something about that kind of work, like putting in fences and all the stuff that you see the cowboys doing on Yellowstone, and then hanging out together afterwards, that's so, like, viscerally appealing to people.

    2. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    3. JR

      There's something about watching that life, like it's... You would say it's like a simple, difficult life maybe. I don't know what it is, but wh- whatever it is, it's like, it's so appealing.

    4. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    5. JR

      Like, so many people wanted to be cowboys after they watched your show.

    6. RB

      Mm-hmm. I think it's, something goes to, like, you were talking about that guy living off the land and stuff like that, it's just, uh, you know, something that's been ingrained in us over thousands of years of survival and, like, we ha- we all have that in us still today and we just-

    7. JR

      Mm-hmm

    8. RB

      ... unfortunately losing touch with it 'cause we're not doing it as much. And so when you get the opportunity to even just go plant a garden or something like that, I think that's i- it's in us, you know? And it's a, it wakes up something within that's just been a little bit dormant for a while, you know? And-

    9. JR

      I think you're right

    10. RB

      ... you know?

    11. JR

      I think that's exactly what it is. I think it is, like, it's in our memory.

    12. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    13. JR

      Like, the memory of our genes-

    14. RB

      Yeah

    15. JR

      ... that this is like a pleasing life.

    16. RB

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      This is a satisfying life.

    18. RB

      It's like that mama bear energy. You know, kids come, it's just like, oh, it's like-

    19. JR

      Yeah

    20. RB

      ... oh man, you know?

    21. JR

      Yeah. Yeah.

    22. RB

      It's, it's there, you know? And i- it's just like, I realize that having kids, it's just like, oh, man, it wakes something up within you that's always been there.

    23. JR

      Right.

    24. RB

      You know? That you were born to have, you know?

    25. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    26. RB

      That, that survival instinct and all of those things. And I, I, I still, that's what I still love about it. Like, I, even at home, being on the road and being in big cities all the time and you're just surrounded with information and screens, man, as soon as I can get home or get outside or get into nature, it just, it wakes that stuff back up in me and it, I feel like it puts that spark back in my eye, you know?

    27. JR

      Yeah.

    28. RB

      I, uh, try to stay in tune with that as much as I can.

    29. JR

      Well, it's clearly so appealing to people that don't experience it. I mean, how many people that are watching shows like Yellowstone never go into those areas? But they watch-

    30. RB

      Yeah

  8. 25:46 – 40:38

    Hunting and conservation tangents: Remy Warren, axis deer in Lanai, and invasive species debates

    1. RB

      Mm-hmm. I love that, too. I, I love that, uh, Steve Rinella show, that MeatEater. I like watching that-

    2. JR

      Oh, yeah

    3. RB

      ... with my kids. And, uh, uh, aren't you fr- are you friends with Remy Warren?

    4. JR

      Oh yeah, real good friends.

    5. RB

      He ended up being my neighbor when I was in Montana working on Yellowstone.

    6. JR

      Oh, really?

    7. RB

      Yeah.

    8. JR

      Oh, that's crazy.

    9. RB

      And, uh, I, you know, I, I, what I really liked up there was where they filmed the show. You know, it was kind of way out there southwestern Montana, and a lot of folks that were working on the show would go back to Missoula or in, in the cities. But I was like, "Man, I wanna go get as far away out there as I can." And so I kinda went down this West Fork area that's on the, the, right on the edge of the, the most massive wilderness areas out there that goes into Idaho. And, uh, the road I was on, you know, was paved dirt, then it dead-ended and then it turned into a dirt road, and then I got this cabin. It was just way back up, and there was no Wi-Fi, no nothing, you know. And I just, um, just a- disappeared out there. And, um, and ended up meeting some folks, and Remy was just right down the road, uh, going towards Sula. And so I got the chance to just go there and hang out with him and go stomp around the mountains with him. Such a cool dude. It's like-

    10. JR

      Remy's the best

    11. RB

      ... just, you know, like you're talking about going to Alaska, you know, I love going into those places. But, like, you want somebody like that with you when you go.

    12. JR

      For sure.

    13. RB

      You know? [laughs]

    14. JR

      Yeah. Yeah, he knows how to get around.

    15. RB

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      And he used to have a great show. Uh, well, first of all, he, he had Solo Hunter where he'd-

    17. RB

      Mm-hmm

    18. JR

      ... go and film everything himself, which is so much more difficult than just hunting.

    19. RB

      Yeah.

    20. JR

      He'd set up the... He would carry tripods with him and shit, and set it up-

    21. RB

      Mm

    22. JR

      ... and make sure the, the camera's on the animal before he would shoot it.

    23. RB

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      And then film himself, film himself moving up to there.

    25. RB

      Mm.

    26. JR

      Set up different cameras that could show him executing the shot. I'm like, "God, that's so complicated."

    27. RB

      And he's a beast, man. Just try- just trying to keep up-

    28. JR

      Yeah

    29. RB

      ... with him, you know, just walking around the mountains with that guy. I'm like, "Oh man, wait up. I'll be, I'm coming." [laughs]

    30. JR

      Yeah, they get that mountain cardio.

  9. 40:38 – 55:13

    Predators near people: wolves returning, mountain lions, and the politics of wildlife management

    1. JR

      They recently just found a wolf in Los Angeles.

    2. RB

      They're unexpected for me anyway. Oh, really?

    3. JR

      Yeah.

    4. RB

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      See, see if you can find the story about that wolf that they just discovered in Los Angeles.

    6. RB

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

    7. JR

      Oh yeah.

    8. RB

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      There's a lot of those.

    10. RB

      And a lot of lions running around.

    11. JR

      Um, there's a lot of, uh, a lot of bears.

    12. RB

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      I, I've seen them in Pasadena in people's pools.

    14. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    15. JR

      Black bears.

    16. RB

      I knew that there's a bunch out in Pasadena and like-

    17. JR

      Look at this

    18. RB

      ... Glendale.

    19. JR

      Wolf detected-

    20. RB

      Oh, look at that

    21. JR

      ... in Los Angeles County for the first time in more than a century. Crazy. Isn't that nuts?

    22. RB

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      Those guys can fucking travel.

    24. RB

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      I had a lady on who was a wolf biologist.

    26. RB

      Mm.

    27. JR

      And she was talking about like the, you know, they'd collar some of these wolves, and they would track them. They would go 500 miles.

    28. RB

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      Like it's kind of insane. Like-

    30. RB

      I didn't know that.

  10. 55:13 – 1:04:09

    Topanga wildfire evacuations: moving horses, shifting winds, and firefighter heroics

    1. JR

      Topanga's great, but it's always sketches me out if a fire catches.

    2. RB

      Oh, man, I, we, we, we got hit hard last year as, you know, the Palisades stuff, and man, I didn't... That, that was kinda it for me, too. I was like, "I'm out." You know?

    3. JR

      It's terrifying.

    4. RB

      Yeah. I've evacuated out of there several times over the years, but, um, I've got horses up there now and stuff like that, and luckily I had like a, a... I always keep a big truck and a trailer just in case, and I've got some friends down in Burbank that have some stables, you know, that I'll have, like, as a backup plan. And, um-

    5. JR

      Mm.

    6. RB

      But this was just a different deal. I, as a crow flies, I could see the smokeFrom the Palisades, you know, it's like a mile away. And, and we were actually working in, in our arena there, and smoke came up, and I was like, "Shoot, let's just go." Every time I see the smoke, like I don't wait. I'm just like, "We'll be the first ones out," and-

    7. JR

      Yeah

    8. RB

      ... you know, beat the, beat the mad rush of everybody that's gonna decide to try to stay, and loaded up the, the trailer, and the truck, and the camper, and the dogs, and all that stuff, and was like, "Let's go." And, uh, my wife and I went down to Burbank, and I remember we were driving through the night, and the wind was just howling like I've never seen before. And power lines are snapping, and it's just like trees are coming down, and it just felt like the end of the world, you know? And, uh, we get to Burbank, and we pull back in these stables, and there's a kind of a big cinder block wall, and I just got as close to that as I could, 'cause it was blocking the wind, you know, from hitting us. And the next morning, I woke up, and I was just... my throat was sore and hurting. I could hardly breathe. And I opened the camper door, and the Altadena Fire had started, and it was right there.

    9. JR

      Whoa.

    10. RB

      And so it was just a mountain of black smoke coming over the top of the Sierra. And, uh, so like, "Let's go. Let's get out of here. Let's, like, head north." And I had some friends in Moore Park, you know, up in that area going towards Ventura that had horses, trying to find some place to, to go with some horses. And, uh, they're like, "Yeah, come on up here." So we went up there, stayed there a night, and then they cut all the power off up in that area, 'cause the winds were snapping power lines, and they were worried about fires. And, and you know, after doing that a few nights in a row, I was like, "Let's just head east and go to Texas," you know? So we just... [laughs]

    11. JR

      [laughs]

    12. RB

      There's only so pl- so many friends you can, like, show up with five horses and a bunch of dogs, you know. Like, "Hey, we're gonna stay for a while," you know? Uh-

    13. JR

      Especially in California.

    14. RB

      Yeah. We're like, "Let's just get out of here," uh, and headed back. And you didn't know when we were gonna make it back, and they, you know, closed indefinitely or whatever. I was just like, "Man, I'm, I'm over it."

    15. JR

      I got evacuated a bunch of times when I lived there, but the last one was, uh, 2018. And, uh, when the last one, we got out early. I came home from the Comedy Store, and we saw fire coming over the top of this hill, and it was probably like 1:00 in the morning. And me and my wife were sitting there. I go, "What do you think?" And she's like, "Let's get the fuck out of here."

    16. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    17. JR

      I'm like, "Let's get the fuck out of here."

    18. RB

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      "Let's just grab some shit, and maybe it'll come this way, maybe it won't." So it didn't burn the house down, but my neighbors, the front, front three neighbors all lost their house, and my next-door neighbor, his, his roof caught on fire. But my friend, who refused to s- to leave, he stayed in the neighborhood and protected his house and guided firefighters. He brought the firefighters to that house-

    20. RB

      Yeah

    21. JR

      ... and showed them that it just started on this guy's roof, and they hosed it down.

    22. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    23. JR

      They stopped it in its tracks, but it was pretty fucking bad. But-

    24. RB

      It's wild, 'cause you know it's gonna burn. I mean, it's not a matter of, you know-

    25. JR

      Yeah

    26. RB

      ... if. It's just when. And I mean, that's, that's... Canyons have been burning like that for thousands of years, and-

    27. JR

      Yeah

    28. RB

      ... even the Chumash were setting them on fire on purpose to get ahead of it, right?

    29. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    30. RB

      And controlling all of that stuff. And now there's just so many houses and communities back up in there, and so it's just a, it's a tough thing. But when they h- when they hit, man, they're, it's... they just... they're rolling. To how fast they come through when those Santa Ana winds are blowing like that and yeah.

  11. 1:04:09 – 1:23:03

    After the flames: toxic fallout, groundwater worries, and California bureaucracy

    1. JR

      Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It's... You know what's really freaking me out about, like, the Palisades? Is what is in the ground now, you know? Like how much toxic-

    2. RB

      Oh. [laughs]

    3. JR

      ... shit got melted into the ground.

    4. RB

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      Because think about-

    6. RB

      Yeah

    7. JR

      ... how many people have electric cars now.

    8. RB

      Well, all the hou- those old houses too. You know, I'm talking about the-

    9. JR

      Right

    10. RB

      ... all the, the materials that they're made out of.

    11. JR

      Yeah.

    12. RB

      Asbestos or-

    13. JR

      Mm-hmm

    14. RB

      ... lead, and I mean, the stuff in-

    15. JR

      Plastic

    16. RB

      ... the stuff in the air that was... Even if you, you know, you were several miles away from the actual fires, the, the wind and blowing all the ashes and the smoke-

    17. JR

      Mm-hmm

    18. RB

      ... and all that stuff over. Um, I remember going back up in there, you know, weeks and just trying to get stuff out of the house or whatever, when they'd let us back up, and you could still... It would just make your throat hurt, you know-

    19. JR

      Yeah

    20. RB

      ... breathing that air and stuff, so.

    21. JR

      Right. That-

    22. RB

      It's bad stuff

    23. JR

      ... it's not just wood fire.

    24. RB

      Yeah. No. Uh-uh.

    25. JR

      No. Like-

    26. RB

      The chemicals. Yeah.

    27. JR

      Yeah. Wood fire's hard enough.

    28. RB

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      But the chemicals, burnt TVs, and computers, and hard drives, and electronics, and-

    30. RB

      Mm

  12. 1:23:03 – 1:28:05

    Bull riding beginnings: from junior rodeos to PBR-era intensity

    1. RB

      Mm.

    2. JR

      They're cooler. Were you saying out there earlier that you rode bulls?

    3. RB

      Mm-hmm. Yeah.

    4. JR

      Dude. How many times?

    5. RB

      Shoot, I started when I was a kid, you know, riding steers when I was, like, 10 in the junior rodeos. And then-

    6. JR

      You were 10 years old-

    7. RB

      ... working my way up

    8. JR

      ... and someone let you ride a fucking steer?

    9. RB

      [laughs]

    10. JR

      Really? That's so crazy.

    11. RB

      It was just like b- it was like Little League baseball, you know, when I grew up. [laughs]

    12. JR

      [laughs] So a steer is a bull that doesn't have its nuts.

    13. RB

      Yeah.

    14. JR

      And so how much less do they kick when they don't have their nuts?

    15. RB

      Oh, they're a lot... They're pretty docile.

    16. JR

      Is this you?

    17. RB

      Oh. Oh, we did that one.

    18. JR

      Oh, I found a video.

    19. RB

      Yeah.

    20. JR

      How old are you here?

    21. RB

      This is... I was, like, 17. This is in, uh, Monterey, Mexico, actually.

    22. JR

      Wow. Why in Mexico? Look at you, dog.

    23. RB

      [laughs]

    24. JR

      Damn. That's crazy. Damn, dude. You're good. And you got off without getting stomped, too.

    25. RB

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      Is it just knowing when to release?

    27. RB

      Yeah. You gotta know, you gotta know when to get off, that's for sure.

    28. JR

      And right there.

    29. RB

      Uh-huh.

    30. JR

      You're like, "That's a wrap."

  13. 1:28:05 – 1:34:59

    From rodeo to songwriting: learning guitar, Texas dance halls, and first bar gigs

    1. JR

      How do you go from that to anything else? Like, how do you stop riding bulls and eventually become an actor and a singer?

    2. RB

      It was all very much a kind of a natural progression. You know, I-

    3. JR

      Really?

    4. RB

      ... since I was a kid at the junior rodeos, there was always a dance afterward and a band playing. You know, and it was a very much a family community deal. You know? Like, you go to these towns, and, you know, it was the junior... The rodeo was going on, and then the dance, the street dance, and, uh, food and music and, you know, growing up listening to bands play, especially in Texas. You know, you got all the guys like Gary P. Nunn. I remember he, he always played the dance halls. And you get Robert Earl Keen and some of the... You know, growing, hearing those bands. And, um, I moved to Laredo, Texas when I was like 16 or 17 when my dad and my mother had bought me a guitar and, uh, didn't know how to play it much and, uh, walked into this place my dad was living at, and he was playing dominoes with these guys. And this guy saw my guitar, and he's like, "Yeah, you know how to play that thing?" I said, "No." And he said, "Well, let me see it." And he picked it up, and he played this killer, like, mariachi song called La Malagueña, and I was just fascinated with it. I was just like, "Wow, I can't believe he made that guitar sound like that."

    5. JR

      [laughs]

    6. RB

      You know? I've been dragging that thing around for a couple years. I didn't even know how to tune it up. And, uh, he's like, "You wanna learn how to play this guitar?" And I said, "Yeah." And he said, "Let me show you this song," and he taught me the Malagueña. It had a couple little parts, you know, a finger-picking part, a strumming part, and, uh, it really kinda gave me the f- that foundation, you know, just kind of those few little tools. And then I went up to Stephenville to, to ride bulls at Tarleton after that. And, uh, a couple other friends that I'd met there that rodeoed could play the guitar a little bit, and they had bands that played every weekend, uh, in the town. There was a little bar there called City Limits where all these bands would come play, like Jason Boland and the Cross Canadian Ragweed guys and Pat Green and, uh, Robert Earl Keen. Like, all the Texas guys would come play, you know? So I was like... I went from li- being on the border to kind of just mostly, like, the Corridos and Tejano bands that I would see, which was really cool. But then when I got up there, I was like, "Oh, man, there's all these, like, cool kind of song... You know, w- guys writing original music and songs and playing in bands." And, um, we'd, we'd go watch them all the time. And, uh, as I was still rodeoing, uh, the only song I knew was that, uh, Malagueña tune, so I was like, "I gotta come up with some new stuff. This is all I know how to play," you know?

    7. JR

      [laughs]

    8. RB

      So I went and got a book of chords to teach myself some new chords on the guitar and would just learn one or two at a time, and I'd start making up songs about our adventures on the weekends, you know? A lot of it was just sitting in the back of the truck and being in places where you didn't have radio signal or, you know, nothing to really listen to. You're tired of listening to the same old stuff. And I'd make up songs, and then whatever town we would get to, my buddies would be like, "Man, play that song you were singing in the backseat." You know? And, and so that's how the whole songwriting thing started. And then, um, I ended up getting a job working for a guy named Mack Altizer. He had a rodeo company called BAG Company Rodeo in Del Rio. And I, I'd ridden bulls at, at some of his rodeos and knew him. My, my uncle had knew him, you know, over the years, and so I was kind of familiar with, with, uh, that whole thing and, uh, started working for him on the ranch and helping with some of the rodeo stuff and still riding bulls. And he found out that I could play the guitar and, and sing a few songs, and he always had a party at the rodeo. He was kind of notorious and famous for having, like, just awesome parties. And he's like, "Man, all right, Bingham, get your guitar. You're gonna play, like, the after party," you know, and pulled a flatbed trailer up there for the hospitality tent for all the contestants after the rodeo. And those were, like, the first... He really encouraged me to, like, start playing for people and doing that. And then it would just spill over into the bars afterwards, after the rodeo, and everybody would end up going to the bar. And they were always like, "Bingham, bring your guitar with you." And, uh, I started getting gigs in the bars. The bars would ask me to, if I wanted to come back and play. And just after, like, I feel like a few years of that, it was just like... You know, I was kind of a weekend warrior riding bulls. I w- I was definitely not gonna, making a living doing it. Always had to have a day job during the week, you know, either working on the ranch or doing something. And, uh, I started getting to where I could go to these bars and make like 100 bucks in tips, you know, within a couple of hours and get free beer and free food. And I was like, "Man, this is almost as much as I made all day digging holes [laughs] with a shovel," you know? So that's... It didn't take me long to figure out that that was pretty cool, and, uh, I was just like-I'm gonna stick with it, you know?

    9. JR

      What a organic sort of a journey, you know?

    10. RB

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      Like a natural progression.

    12. RB

      Yeah, and I didn't have high expectations, you know, but I just like... And I, I was talking about kinda community in this Austin area, and in Texas in general, it's just like, man, people were so supportive then of just like, if you had a song to play it, people loved live music. They're like, "Yeah, get up and play," you know? Like Mac with the rodeo company and all the guys that worked there, Dave Jennings, and Casey, and Smir, there's a whole crew, the, the Bad Company crew from those days, and they always had kind of the Bad Company house band too, where everybody would get up and try to play a song, and it just like, "Man, we don't care if it's any good or not, just get up there and play. We're all, we're all in it together." And there were so many like places that were like that, that I, I don't think if I was in that environment, I probably would have never pursued it, you know? Just had so many people, you know, supporting you and encouraging you-

    13. JR

      Right

    14. RB

      ... to try it. And it took me a long time, you know, to, uh, work stuff out and learn, 'cause I didn't have any really formal music, musical background or lessons or training. I'd really just learned it on the road and playing in bars and from other musicians. Yeah.

    15. JR

      Really?

    16. RB

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      So no lessons at all?

    18. RB

      No. Yeah

    19. JR

      Just kind of figuring it out along the way.

    20. RB

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      Wow.

    22. RB

      Well, the guy, you know, the guy taught me the La Malagueña there, but then after that it was just, you know, anybody else who had a guitar and might know a song, you know, I'm like, "Oh, what, cool. How do you play that chord?" You know, like, "Oh, you play it like this," you know?

    23. JR

      Ah.

    24. RB

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      Wow. So how many years were you doing that before you got Yellowstone?

    26. RB

      Oh, gosh, for a while. I mean, I think my, uh, you know, I was 22 or something like that in Stephenville, you know, riding bulls, starting to play songs, trying to play gigs. Um, after, you know, ended up moving down here to New Braunfels in the Austin area, playing music for a while, and then ended up going out to Los Angeles and playing, and then hit the road with a band for, I think I had f- four or five albums or so, you know, out, you know, and been touring for five or six years. I think I... How old was I, like, when Yellowstone started? Like 36, 37. So yeah, I'd, I'd been playing, doing the music stuff for a long time.

    27. JR

      Hmm.

    28. RB

      Yeah.

  14. 1:34:59 – 1:40:19

    Breaking into acting: Crazy Heart, Taylor Sheridan, and landing Yellowstone

    1. JR

      And so how did the Yellos- how'd you go from music to Yellowstone? Like how'd you even... Did you do any act- acting before that?

    2. RB

      No, I'd been wanna... I'd, I'd done a film with Jeff Bridges years ago called Crazy Heart and wrote some songs for that movie.

    3. JR

      Oh, I remember that movie.

    4. RB

      And that was really my only thing. Yeah.

    5. JR

      That was a good movie.

    6. RB

      It was pretty cool. You know, I w- I was just like, uh, he, Jeff Bridges plays a, a musician in the show, and I, I, and we're like the backup band at the bowling alley for one of the scenes, you know-

    7. JR

      Wow

    8. RB

      ... which was really cool. Um, and then, uh, written some songs for some other films and some TV shows since then. And I, uh, met a guy na- named John Linson out in, uh, in Los Angeles. He's a producer, and his, him and, uh, his dad, Art Linson, they did, like, Sons of Anarchy, um, bunch of shows and a bunch of great movies. And, um, he introduced me to Taylor, and Taylor was, uh, I think it was that movie Wind River, his first movie. You know, I'd met Taylor and just kinda talked about music and stuff, and he wanted me to write a song for Wind River. And I'd given it a shot a couple times, never really had anything that fit for what he wanted, but he ended up using a song that I'd already written. And, um, and we just kinda kept in touch, and then when the Yellowstone thing came up, um, he got in touch again about writing some songs for the show. And then he learned that I used to do all the rodeo stuff, I think, and grew up ranching. And he's like, "Well, shoot, you can do a lot of this stuff. I gotta find a way to get you in the show," you know? And it literally went from the conversation, he's like, "Well, I don't, I don't know what I'm gonna do with you, but I'm a f- I'll find something to do with you," you know? And, and he literally said to me, he's like, "You know, if you do good, I'll," or you know, "You guys, if you suck, I'll kill you off. If you do good-" [laughs]

    9. JR

      [laughs]

    10. RB

      "... I'll keep you on." [laughs] Something like that, you know? And I'm like, "Yeah, good, good to know."

    11. JR

      So you had no formal acting, like, training or anything?

    12. RB

      No, not at all. Uh-uh.

    13. JR

      That's what's amazing, dude.

    14. RB

      No.

    15. JR

      You're really good.

    16. RB

      Oh, th- I appreciate that. You know, I, I get to kinda play a cowboy and be a little bit of my, of myself.

    17. JR

      Yeah.

    18. RB

      And I appreciate it.

    19. JR

      But it's, that role's got some complexity to it.

    20. RB

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      It's not just a cowboy. It's like you've got some complicated scenes, you know?

    22. RB

      Mm-hmm.

    23. JR

      Some emotional scenes, some deep scenes, and you're really good, man.

    24. RB

      Yeah. Thank you.

    25. JR

      That's impressive.

    26. RB

      I appreciate that. It was... I, I enjoyed it, you know? I hadn't done much acting at all. And, um, yeah, I gotta give a lot of credit to the actors that are on the show too, you know, th- those folks that have really studied it and paid their dues learning that craft. You know, they really create the environment, you know, especially for me not knowing much about it, you know, and just kinda being a part of the scene. Like, they're so good that they make you react in a certain way.

    27. JR

      Right.

    28. RB

      You know?

    29. JR

      Right.

    30. RB

      They, they know how to get it out of you.

  15. 1:40:19 – 2:13:35

    Injuries, grit, and why music felt easier than bulls (plus the modern music landscape)

    1. JR

      Right. Well, did you get in, ever get any serious injuries?

    2. RB

      Uh, I've... You know, I was fortunate, like, not serious, serious, but I did... I, there was one, the worst ever. I got knocked all these teeth out, and I got jerked down one night in Weatherford, and, um, took my lip off.

    3. JR

      [gasps]

    4. RB

      My teeth went through down here, and-

    5. JR

      Oy

    6. RB

      ... I, these are all fake up here. And then my lip was just hanging right there. What was wi- it didn't knock me out, which was wild, though. I got on this bull and, uh, I remember [laughs] it, it was in Weatherford, Texas, and, uh, it's got a, a butler arena there. And he had this, um, little Angus bull there. Didn't have horns on him, little muley. And, uh, usually you can go up to the guys that own the bulls, and a lot of the bulls have patterns, you know, that they, that they'll do over and over, you know. So you can kinda talk to the stock contractor or the guys that own them and be like, "Hey, you know, what's this bull d- generally do?" And he's like, "Ah, most the time they'll take two jumps out and they spin to the left," or, "They take two jumps and then they go to the right," or, "Oh, they just, you know, they'll jump kick around and make a circle." And he goes, "Man," he goes, "I don't know." He's like, "The last two times I've bucked," he's never, he hadn't been ridden. "He usually jumps out there and just spins right in the gate." And he said, "Nobody's really ridden him past three or four seconds." So he goes, "I don't know what he's gonna do after that." And sure enough, that's what happened. I got on him and, uh, it jumped out and just got it on right there in the gate, just spinning right there. And I rode him through it, like three or four rounds, and after I rode him, like, I think the b- bully didn't know what to do next. He got a little frustrated and he just stopped, and just stopped dead still and was just blowing and just [exhales] you know, just mad. And, uh, you never really wanna jump off of them when they're still like that, 'cause you just, you'll fall right beside them, you know? So you want them to have a little momentum so when you, you know, you're checking out, they can, you can get away from them.

    7. JR

      Right.

    8. RB

      And so I spurred him a little bit to get him to jump, so when he jumped I could jump off. But when I spurred him, it just jumped off, straight up off the ground like a cat, off all fours. And when he came cra- and when he jumped up like that, I, you know, kinda wrought me back on, back like that and my hand's still tied in the rope. And then when he came down, he just brought all that, jerked me down with the force, and I came forward and he threw his head back and I just head-butted him.

    9. JR

      Oh.

    10. RB

      And [laughs] and then when he did and then my hand was still caught in the rope, and then he took off running around, just drug me around and just stomped the crap out of me, you know, for a bit. And I finally got loose.

    11. JR

      Oh, wow.

    12. RB

      And, uh, I remember running over to the fence, and I just, you know, I just kinda had my arms on the fence and I could see all the blood just kind of pouring down all over me. And one of the bullfighters ran up, and he looks at me and he goes, "Oh, buddy." [laughs]

    13. JR

      [laughs]

    14. RB

      He's like, "Whoo." And, uh-

    15. JR

      So they had to stitch your lip, lip back on?

    16. RB

      Yeah. You know, and the shock was just be- I didn't feel anything.

    17. JR

      Wow.

    18. RB

      Like, I was just, like, in shock, and I was like, "Oh, man." You know, I remember, like, my girlfriend was there from high school, and my buddy, and, um, we drove to the little... You know, they're like, "You want us to call an ambulance?" I was like, "Nah, I don't have health insurance. We're gonna have to call no ambulance," you know? And, um, got in my buddy's car and we drove over to the emergency room [laughs] in Weatherford. And I go in and the nurse, she's just like, "Oh, man." She's like, "We can't do anything for you here. You're gonna have to go to, like, Dallas to, like, uh, trauma. You know, you're gonna have to get, like, an oral surgeon to put you back together." And, uh, she goes, "You want me to, you know, get you an ambulance here?" And I was like, "Nah, I think we can make it, you know?" And she's like, she gave me some pain pills, and she goes, "Don't take these now." She goes, "Hold onto these and then when you get to Dallas, then take them, 'cause you're probably gonna have to wait, you know, before they can... Because it'll be 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning before they can get somebody in there to see you." So, and, uh, sure enough, uh, we got to Dallas, and I'm just sitting there in the waiting room, and I had a rag and I was just holding my mouth together. And, uh, the shock wore off, man, and then it's, uh, you know, I, I was starting to feel it. Took those pain meds, and then doctor came in and held me back and gave me a big shot in the roof of my mouth to try to numb everything, and just... I think it took him longer to clean it all up, you know, pull all the hair and dirt out of there-

    19. JR

      [laughs]

    20. RB

      ... and sew me up. And the t- oh, it was an ordeal, you know, for sure.

    21. JR

      So-

    22. RB

      For months after that, you know, getting the dental work done and all that crap.

    23. JR

      So how was l- l- the lip hanging off?

    24. RB

      It, uh, it bit it o- all... It, it would've came all the way off. It was just hanging on right here by the side, so it was just hanging down.

    25. JR

      And so they just had to stitch the lower part-

    26. RB

      Yeah

    27. JR

      ... to the upper part and put it all together again?

    28. RB

      Yeah, just all acr- right through the middle. And kinda, if I shave, I got a big scar that kinda goes down there.

    29. JR

      Wow.

    30. RB

      And then they went through down here, um, so I got some stitches down there. And then most of the stitches were all in my-... my gums and all of that too, yeah

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