#2489 - Ryan Bingham

“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 and you feel more normal. And you're like, oh, this is where people are supposed to be.”

“The idea of starving on the road playing in a band, playing music, I was like, let's go. And getting a guaranteed paycheck every night. In the writing bulls, I mean, after time, you walked away with nothing. A busted lip, nothing. If you ride a bull, I think you could do basically anything.”

“Government has increased so much in California and they just want more regulations so they could justify more government. And so they just regulate themselves to a place where people just want to leave and just go, look, I can't fucking do this anymore. Let me get out of here.”

“It doesn't matter how strong you are. It's not about, it's all mental, it's all in your mind. And it's all, it's not, I think I can, it's, I know I can and I will. And he goes, if you don't believe that, every time you go put your rope on one of those, on their backs, he's like, it ain't gonna happen.”

“It became a tool that all of a sudden I had access to this thing that was helping me heal in a way, like I could get stuff off my chest, like the things that I was uncomfortable talking about in conversation with folks, like I could put them into a song and like sing them to the wall. And I was just like getting that stuff out, like there wasn't anybody in the room.”

“Whatever it is, it's like, it's so appealing. Like so many people wanted to be Cowboys after they watched your show. We see the prices of horses just skyrocketing. They're buying old ranchers for like five grand. Now it's like 50,000 bucks for a trail horse, which is cool.”

“The amount of land that we have that's available to Americans, that it's public for everybody is fucking incredible. There's thousands and thousands of acres of wilderness public land with dirt roads everywhere. Man, on those days off that I had, I would just drive back in there for miles, man, and just see the most beautiful country.”

“I always think of music as almost like a drug. Because music, when a good song hits, you're like, fuck. If you're in the car and a good tune comes on, especially back when I used to listen to the radio, and you didn't expect what was coming on... It excites all these parts of your senses, your consciousness, your feelings.”