Life Wide Open with CboysTV - Nitro Circus Founder Gregg Godfrey

Episode Date: April 5, 2022

In today's episode, we chat with motorsports legend Gregg Godfrey. He tells us about starting the most famous action sports film franchise Nitro Circus, working with the Jackass Crew, rolling a car multiple times, and almost getting stranded in the Utah Wilderness   Get 20% OFF @manscaped + Free Shipping with promo code WIDEOPEN at https://MANSCAPED.com! #ad #manscapedpod  Godfrey Proof Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/Godfreyproof-DC  Follow us on Instagram @cboystv and @lifewideopenpodcast To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenYT Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV You can also check out our main YouTube channel CboysTV: https://www.youtube.com/c/CboysTV Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Book Club on Monday. Gym on Tuesday. Date night on Wednesday. Out on the town on Thursday. Quiet night in on Friday. It's good to have a routine. And it's good for your eyes too. Because with regular comprehensive eye exams at Specsavers,

you'll know just how healthy they are. Visit Spexsavers.cavers.cai to book your next eye exam. Eye exams provided by independent optometrists. Like this show and want to make your own, let me tell you about Anchor. It's free. There's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or computer. Now you can even add any song from Spotify directly to your episodes. The possibilities are endless for what you can create.

Whether it's music analysts, your own radio show, or something the world's never heard before. Anchor will distribute your podcast for you so it can be heard on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and many more. You can make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. It's everything you need to make a podcast in one. place. Download the free anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. Well, welcome back to Lifewide Open podcast. Today we have an absolute legend on the show with us today. I'm going to give him a little introduction. He holds the world record for the longest semi-jump, Ironman the Baja 1000, and is the creator of the world famous Nitro Circus. Please welcome Greg

Godfrey. That was a fantastic intro. That's better than I've ever received so thank you. It's pretty easy to give you a badass intro because you've done so many good things. We did want to keep it short though because the list is pretty long of things that you've accomplished and done. It started longer. It started longer. We were doing a little bit of research.

I mean, we knew quite a bit, but we're like, all right, we'll save the rest for the podcast. It's your guys' world now. You guys are the ones claiming everything. So good job for you. We thought that it would be best to start out by thanking you for all the inspiration that you gave us at such a young age with nitro circus um because without that i don't think we'd be sitting here today so we've really gone full circle yeah to have you have you have you have you have you in our podcast in our RV in your in your in the parking lot of your house i failed to get you guys

a good spot so we're in the RV but thank you so much i think it's great right here it's great so if you guys didn't notice we're we're not in our typical studio uh well for one because it's pretty hard to get a guest on up in Cormoron, Minnesota. But then for two, we're on this two-week-long RV excursion, basically. We're filming videos and podcasts with... Where are you going? So is this your first stop? Yeah, Utah was our first stop.

So we did 24 hours through, just straight through, and we ended up sleeping at the salt flats. We got in at like 4 a.m. And we were planning on taking out the shifter cards and the bikes on the salt flats and, you know, filming a video, or at least a good... good bit and we wake up in the morning we're like what's all this water doing here i know when you guys you guys were asking about the salt flats i go i bet you there's water on it because they're really temperamental because the way that water comes out even in the middle of summer that happens

but usually in the winter it's and they freak out if you go out on the salt we read that we were about to do it we're like well you could probably still do it i mean it's like three inches but it'd still be entertained and then ryan did a little research luckily and he goes yeah i guess uh somebody got like what'd they get they got like a large fine and banned from national parks for five years and went to jail really yeah it's all based off of the video some Canadians posted a video of them taking their RV and a pedal bike on the salt flats when it was wet and they saw the video and they tracked them down in Wyoming and arrested them so we were like oh dude yeah we would make it to Nevada if we were lucky and then get arrested and end up in Vegas jail so do you

guys know why they do that salt flats it's pretty interesting why why they flood well it floods but why they don't want on there why it's so great they're so crazy about it probably because they don't want ruts yeah well it's not necessarily ruts but every year so there's like six inches of salt that it lays a bed and that's what hardens it so if you go out there if while that's getting done yeah there's kind of ruts but it's more imperfections that's how crazy they are just think about it I mean, you probably did, yeah, 600 miles an hour. It can't be any imperfections into salt, so. No, no kidding.

Someone did 600 miles per hour out there? I don't know what it is, but something like that. Because that's where they said all the fastest speed times, right? Yeah, that's the fastest place on earth. But get this, though. So we posted the video of us taking our shifter cards on the salt flats, and people were still mad that we were, like, not just going straight. They were mad that we did, like, donuts and, like, turned on the salt

because they were like, if you hit that at 200 miles per hour, you could die. Yeah. It felt bad about that. It was completely hard. Yeah, it wasn't doing anything at all. It didn't do anything. So, yeah, when we were talking about taking the bikes out and getting some cool wheelie shots through the water, we were like, man, they'd have a heyday with that one.

Have you always been kind of this adventure junkie, like, since a young age? I grew up with a racetrack in my backyard, so out towards the salt flats, my dad built a racetrack called Bonneville Raceway. And so they used to bring in since I was fighting. years old they'd bring in nitro cars that's where the nitro and nitro circus came from because at a young age he would make me sit in the middle of the drag strip and hold the light you know the Christmas trip so I've got two you know at that time it was 2,000 horsepower slingshot dragsters on either side of me no ear protection no nothing I'm just out there holding it up my dad was like that right

he's like just go get it done he was an entrepreneur and he he built a trucking company and then he built the racetrack but he had some financial issues and he lost the racetrack and then the trucking company took off and then later on when i was in high school he got the racetrack back so that allowed me to get back into the racetrack and i started to realize like i grew up racing motorcycles that is what i loved i didn't i could have cared less about a normal life and especially trucks were so boring to me i was grateful i had that experience and so nonetheless i went that route because i loved promoting i loved excitement i loved engines i loved power i love insane i mean i would say i i was i'm not so much now but i loved the chaos yeah i mean normal life was very difficult for me i'm sure

you guys yeah yeah we kind of really feel the same way how did you go from doing the chaos to capturing the chaos when did you pick up a camera and start filming it instead of being the actual subject well he was always kind of doing a lot of the stunts so it's not take but yeah so same as you guys at the time it was really difficult to film stuff i mean i'm so i know i'm when i saw people that were 52 when i was your guys's age i thought they were ancient so i'm probably we don't think that so i would we went up after high school and i used to play all kinds of sports but there was in the spring i'd have some downtime and so we wanted to throw double backflips on skis and at the time nobody was doing that so we'd go up and build a jump the middle of nowhere and just go for it no

you know we had no idea what we're doing but we started filming it. Right. And people loved it, like, you know, the chaos. And that's just, I'm sure it's how you guys started. Yeah. And so I went on an LDS mission to Italy, came home, and then I went to college. And then as I went to college, I hated, like, I had to do a stats class and all this.

I did. I was trying to take the normal route. I realized how much I hated it. So I went into film, and then, you know, that all began. I went and worked for Disney for like a year. And again, I hated that. Doing, doing what? I was a stunt guy.

Really? Yeah, I would do anything. I'd get them coffee. I just wanted to be in the industry. Right. So then after that, I realized that wasn't my route. And at the time, there wasn't a lot of people doing those kinds of films. I mean, it was difficult because you had to shoot film.

You had to process it. And it was just a lot of money. Like, my first film cost me $150,000. I didn't have $150,000, but I made it happen. Where did that money go to? it was super expensive to buy it the cameras were expensive so we rent you know i love slow motion now it's so easy for you guys and to shoot slow motion it just ate up a ton of film and then you had to process it but it really taught me because i would i would shoot it and i would take it down

and you'd sit and do the color correction and the processing so you had all these chances to look at the film and identify what you wanted and that was kind of the process and then i did three or four films and it was just again nobody cared unless you're doing something completely insane and so i took it to another level and we were making a film called children a metal god and that was like my first film series and this was like 96 again i know i'm ancient but we went and i this guy was a base jumper and i said let's jump off the grand canyon we totally poached it we didn't get permits we didn't ask anybody kind of we roll yeah i mean you just that's what you have to do right yeah but we went out to the grand

I mean it's it's so bizarre I think about it now it's like a I don't know 3,000 foot drop no safety equipment no nothing I pull the guy out of St. George where you guys are going

with the helicopter and he's like do you guys have for me it's like yeah yeah yeah we're good that's what we do that's what we say when people ask for forgiveness later

yeah you got to you right you guys you guys better be careful though because you're on them you're on the radar yeah yeah as it seems like lately we definitely have had to

take more precautions and getting approved stuff but so anyway this guy day barlia he hucks himself off the canyon and i just i was in the helicopter i had another guy in the canyon wall shooting it and this guy's just going into the abyss you know and i did the best i could feel it and the helicopter wouldn't follow him i mean nowadays they drop right in yeah but we got the shot we had to go down and retrieve him yeah thank goodness it wasn't a body retrieval he jumps in the helicopter and we left the bike

there and then NBC came to me and they said let's do it you know it was a highlighted stunt show so I produced it for him and I never told it it's actually on the Navajo Nation and I said hey guys I I hate to tell you this but I did this like seven years ago and I left the bike at the bottom of the canyon we retrieved the bike out seven years later yeah and they saw us pulling it out and I said I'm sorry and we said please don't do that again we got in trouble with the National Park Service. I don't know if you guys remember. There was a time down at Lake Powell when we were base jumping into the lake. And Roaner is doing this thing with Travis. I mean, again, I don't know how we survived it. He was, we did a huge thing into the Grand Canyon. We went and redid that. And then

we went to Lake Powell. And it was all of this stuff, you know, of these 500, 600, 600 foot cliffs, 200 foot cliffs. But there was a stunt. Travis was hanging on to Roner. And again, they did that free shoot thing and he jumped out and Travis didn't realize how far he was above the water because he was holding on to Rowner and he let go at like 150 feet just destroyed the whole back of his body lucky he was okay but it was again the park service found out about it they were coming after me with the federal you know really warrant yeah I went down kind of laid myself on the altar and said hey guys I really did do this and they let it go so if that does happen maybe Just be honest.

Maybe that's an hour. Just be honest. You had mentioned that you were making, you made three smaller films. How did that transition into Nitro Circus, I guess? Well, Travis and I did a film together. He was 18 at the time. So my last children of metal god, he was, it was just this time of year. And I went out and filmed him in Daytona, and he's 16 years old.

But he was, he was racing. He was always super fast in the whip sections because he was just tall and lanky, and he could just kind of lay on the back of the bike and go for it. So he comes down this section. his qualifying round, I mean, he goes down so hard. He's unconscious. They pick him up, gets back on the bike, goes back to the pits, comes back in the LCQ, wins that, comes out in the main, wins the main. And I just said, I love this kid. Wow. So he was 16 when you met him? He was actually 13. 13. Wow. Wow. Nonetheless, we filmed with him in Florida at that time. And then I said,

hey, you know, I got this project working on. It took me a while to get the money together. It was with a company here called OGO. And that was the biggest budget film I'd ever had at that point. OGO? Oh, yeah. So they gave us half a million dollars, and we went and made a film called Global Diction. So that's when it really started.

And I'm looking at it, and I'm like, all right, we need to build. And I love the word like Nitro, going back to my childhood. We've got to build a project or some kind of a series around this. And Travis, of course, you ask him, he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He forgets about it in five seconds. But we went and did the first night. they hated the name they hated the context of how we were doing it but eventually it started getting traction and then everybody started to fall that's like i always say when you're building

a brand don't worry about the name because if you're putting the great content behind it the name will build i mean we were the same way i remember like are we really going to be see boys tv but we wrote it hard enough and that it's a you know it's a brand now absolutely and i remember when you guys were out here two years ago we had a lot of conversations about what you guys were going to go through and face and man you've done a fantastic job with your brand thank you just watching it from afar good job thank you so when you were making these films did you just make each one as like a single project and then release that and then it kind of just turned into more and it turned into the tv show from there or did you when you were doing it have a vision of like

i want to do a tv show and then a movie and then a live show well you hoped right you hope that's what's going to happen i was going to back up and say when are the thing to you guys the thing about you guys is it's very difficult to do it alone you've got to have you know four or five guys you can count on to go out and build this but yeah we started i had a friend of mine that was in a that i grew up with and he was an attorney jeremy the guy with the black hair if you remember him so it was jeremy and travis and i and then we got a guy that financed us so it was the four of us and then andy Bell really helped to.

I'll back up a little bit. When I was in college, I was super bored because I just, school sucked. And so I called, from my racing days, I called the people that promoted the AMA Supercross series. And I said, do you guys have something that we can bring to Salt Lake and put in the stadium? Because I worked with the stadium because it's a public school. If the student body votes on it, the athletic director can't shut you down. And so it was just kind of for me, it was a challenge.

So we got a hold of a supercross. And then we had a vote with the student body. Do they want Supercross? And they said they did. So at 23 years old, I promoted the largest motorsports event in Utah at Rice Ricycle Stadium, the University of Utah. So we did it two years in a row. Anyway, they ended up going bankrupt, the guys that had the racing series at that time.

So that went away. So I wanted to do something live. Definitely, that live component was always in there. The movie thing was just evolving for me. And I didn't understand how much publicity or, which I say marketing that movie gives to the live event. But we were building that, and I think subconsciously we were hoping.

We were watching Jackass, and I'm like, man, those guys are killing it right now. So by fate, we helped them do a thing with, it was on Evil Caneval in 2008 with Matt Hoffman and Jeff Tremaine and Johnny Knoxville. It was a salute to Evil Caneval because that's when he died. And we all grew up with Evil Caneval. And Tremaine comes over to me and Trip Taylor,

and they said the guys that created Jackass, And they said, do you guys want to do a television series? And I said, yeah, for sure. And within two weeks, I'm sitting in L.A. And they said, yeah, let's do it. It was, they were so much like us. They were a little more. Fly by the seat of your pants?

Well, they liked mail-on-mail contact, I'll say, a little more than us. But they did. They got us into Lorne Dogeant at MTV, and it was pretty quick. So that's how you got in with them. That was one of my questions was, how do you even, approached well we had those guys I mean Knoxville was a god

and Derrick hadn't built up to be what he was yet yeah Knoxville was the man and he just he stamped his approval on it and that's and Tremaine and that was how it happened so this is a pretty good story so and the evil con evil thing on the MTV tribute deal we broke his dick

yeah I know and he would not because the back flip yeah and I was the one holding I was the one holding him he really had no idea how to even get to the ramp and you could barely ride the bike yeah and i'm like just hit we just put it in first gear and i said just pin it and he crashed like so hard twice couldn't even get to the ramp and he's so focused you know and he's like he's like a little kid he wants to do good job he's like

he's just i can do it i can do it and he's got this ridiculous helmet on he's got like a sweater let him his jacket no pads he wouldn't wear pads the thing goes up and the fender comes down, smacks him in the penis, breaks his urethro. There's blood all over the inside of his shorts, and of course he's got to show everybody with his dick out. There's blood dripping off the end of his penis. He put him in the ambulance, and he's like, thanks Travis for breaking my dick, you know, the way it is.

So when we had that meeting, he had to cast for two years because he had scar tissue on his penis rank. So he comes out of the bathroom, and we're sitting there with Spike and Jeff and Travis and German. and I and he's like he's bent over so his cornhole is facing everybody and he's got the catheter stuck up his unit and he's going see what you guys did to me it's just he is a character and then another time I'm sitting there and you know they're they're they're they're they're very creative I would say and we just had so much fun at that time the MTV show I mean it was just a lightning in a

bottle. Like, I just, it'll never recreate of how fun and progressive that was at that time. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored ice coffee and delivery. But Knoxville was such another level of like entertainment. Like, I think you guys do a much better job even than we did is like a friendship, you know. But we missed that just insane, creative, lovable personnel.

I mean, you guys might have it better than us. But so Knoxville's like, I'm sitting in the office by myself writing something. It's in Tremaine's office and there's Dix everywhere. I mean, he just has pictures of Dicks everywhere in his office. And if the kids show up, they put post-ies out, post-its all over the Dicks. Not that it does any, I don't know what they mean.

But Knoxville thinks he's alone. and he comes out of the bathroom. I've told this story before. I don't know if you guys have ever heard it, but he's reaching down in his pants and he's kind of getting, you know, the dick cheese right there. And then he pulls it out

and he starts smelling his hand. And I'm like, he's truly a 10-year-old kid. He is. But that's what makes him so amazing, you know, and he's, we learned a lot from him of how to just be a showman. Like, we were all just so bent on getting the stunt done.

I mean, it was all about stunt, stunt, stunt, stunt, stunt. stunt and then those guys I'm watching them I'm like we got to tell the story a little better so I think in the MTV show we did that a little better I mean it was still about the stuff yeah the MTV show is I thought did a really good job of that and Jeff was a big part of that so it was just it was insane I felt like we were a rock band you know on tour and it just all the trappings and all the bad stuff yeah all the good stuff that you hear it was happening so then the live show comes this guy comes over from australia and we were trying to get a live show what year did the live show start 2010 okay we tried to do the show with felt do you guys know

who felt is felt entertainment they do super cross and they do the monster jam and they're like okay yeah they're a couple billion dollar company and when they said we took it to him they said it'll never work same thing right same thing you guys face it'll never work and i'm like well okay this guy from australia comes over and he starts then well you know i think you know i think We can do this, this, and this. And it's like, all right, let's go. He paid us a few dollars to get the initial rights, and we built this business out.

And he knew what he was doing. I mean, he was really good. But he just took our videos and just turned them in a live format. You know, some ways I look at it and say, well, that was easy. But, you know, without him, the name is Michael Porra. We wouldn't have done it. So I am grateful. But, you know, that's when it turned into a $100 million company.

The live tour. Yeah, the live tours would explode. Yeah, you guys were selling out. stadiums yeah it's Chandler was part of that I mean we were yeah I mean again your whole family you had your your nephews and everybody even didn't your daughters even do some stunts too like your whole family is just my daughter that's a funny story about my daughter we were so there's tour starts we do our initial tour in in Australia and right from the get go we're selling stadiums out I mean the brand was strong enough be cool for you guys to do this

a live show, you know, and, uh, we're not athletes, though. Well, you know, we don't, we don't necessarily have the skill. Go buy the athletes. You guys got the personality, so, and just intermix it into your show. I'll help you do it. So we go into Brisbane and I'm thinking, I'm not that we're not going to have any people, but the brand's big enough, sells out, 8,000 people. We do another night, sells out.

We go to Sydney, 18,000 people, sells out. We go, do another night, sells out. Was this because nobody had ever done it? anything like that in australia i think the brand was pretty big it was on the show was so popular i feel like that it just promoted it without even and and plus this guy that was running the live show knew how to tackle the mainstream audience that hadn't seen it so it was both things i think working and you know there's the underground swell that was pushing pushing pushing but then we were able to dive into the i think the people that had never heard about it they saw the commercial

and said oh that looks fun Australians are different too that's where you guys should start i told the diesel brothers if they ever do a live event you've got to because australia they're they're fanatical about this kind of stuff yeah and the u.s not so much and i don't know if you guys got it you know following over there and not we do yeah yeah they're fanatical pretty big i think it's the third biggest really yeah it seems like australia is known for like they're they just love like motorsports and extreme sports especially it seems like we did sydney two nights and then we flew to perth which is like it's like flying from San Francisco to New York.

It's 2,000 miles across Australia. It's kind of where the, they call them Bogan's, which is kind of white trash is what they say. But Daniel Ricardo's from Perth. We got a bunch of writers from Perth, you know, the F1 driver. So it's not necessarily true.

But we, they put a fence around the bottom of the arena. And I'm like, what are you doing? And he says, they'll attack the writers at the end of the show. They're just savages. And I'm like, yeah, whatever. attack in a good way.

Like, they don't, they just are pretty loaded. Like bombard you? Yeah, yeah. They want pieces of the ramp. Storm the, it started to happen. I mean, when the show was over and they started pushing the fence down and trying to come on it, I'm like, were you scared?

No. So that had to have been a pretty surreal moment when you're standing there and you're looking out at a crowd of 17,000 people because up until that moment, you'd never really seen the faces behind the views. I mean, that's the same thing with us. You know, we have a video. really well a million people that's a ton of people but then we have a meetup and there's 1,500 people and you're like wow this is a lot of people and they know you and they know

you exactly so what was that like looking up into the stadium and seeing that many people there because of something that you created basically out of thin air out of thin air but um you know ours is online but yours was through television and everything like that gratitude that's how I felt. I mean, you know how it is when you're suffering through it. Nobody cares. Then all of a sudden, you've got this as a reward. I was just grateful. It was an amazing, amazing. And then we went to Melbourne. Same thing. Sold out. So you, you know, and then when we went to New Zealand, same thing. Sold out, sold out, sold out, sold out. My daughter was with me. And this was our first year too. And she's like, please let me hit there. That's what happened every single time. The

kids had come over, spend time with me, and then they just couldn't handle it. Because it was my show, I'd just, uh, right, put him at the top of the ramp and see how they did, you know, I mean, they'd figure it out. But Chandler hucked his first backflip off the mega ramp when he was 14 years old. He'd never even hit a mega ramp. Oh, no, BMX, Mike? Yeah. Did he land it?

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Good job, Chandler. You kind of instilled this wildness in the kids. even with your garage, Chandler was walking us through the garage last night. It's all torn apart, but yeah. Yeah, there used to be a foam pit right here,

and then there was trampolines around here, and then there was a half pipe with a drop-in ramp right here. And I was like, oh, man, how old were you guys? When you built this and he was like, I don't know, eight? Yeah, there was a mega ramp over there in a full skate park and dirt jump. Yeah, and it was purely for the kids. Like, I didn't really ride the stuff. I just enjoyed at that point, it was all business to me.

I mean, so it was fun to see them get into it. So kind of going back to the TV show, when we sit down and come up with, you know, the different bits that we put into a video, you know, we've got a whole process to it where we kind of know, you know, these are the characters that we have or this is what we want to do, you know, yesterday. We took the shifter cards out on the desert and we, you know, kind of had a plan here. What was the process like for you guys coming up with these shows? was because you guys were doing extreme stunts and multiple ones in one, right? So would you guys sit down and you would just throw ideas at the board and then have to have people come up and man up and do the stunts that you'd come up with? Are you saying for the TV show or for the live?

For the TV show. It was all good on paper, right? Mm-hmm. And but that group, I'm sure you guys are the same. I mean, we would feed off each other. So I would set it up that way. I'd sit there and it's all right. I would kind of just create a little bit of a maybe a through line.

And Jeff was really good at this too. And then everybody would start because everybody's super competitive. I don't know if you guys are like that. Healthy competition, not like I want to beat them at all costs. So we'd put an idea up on the board. And then all of the sudden, everybody, if it was a good idea, would just start, you know, pushing and pushing and pushing, just talking. But that starts on thinking.

And it would always escalate, you know, if it was a good stunt, it would escalate 10 times more. And as you guys know, sometimes it works on video. Sometimes it doesn't. But you've got to do, you know, you've got to do, out of everything you shoot, you might use 30, 40%. I don't know. Maybe you guys, the ratio is higher. I don't know, a little less even. Yeah.

So it was definitely a formula of how it would feed. And then I'd say the initial conception was those, there was roundtable things that we did for. the media piece and then we would take the media piece and that would create discussion to have around the live stuff because you could take only certain things and implement them into the live show and there was only certain amount of props you could put in the live show to make sense out of it so did you ever have issues with people step not wanting to step up with if you ever came up with an idea not with that group I feel like even that's wild you would step up oftentimes and and you'd I mean I've seen

plenty of videos of you doing I'd always get hurt though I was I lacked a lot of the talent as those guys. You just had the balls. I would go for it, it turns. Did the ideas change when you had no budget or a very low budget to a very high budget? Obviously, they did. I think what started to happen is we started to afford, you could afford permits and, you know, infrastructure, like to jump from building to building. That's the kind of stuff.

That's good. What I picture for a higher budget thing, like the building to building jump. Yeah, it's whatever when we had budgets, it seemed like it was a lot. lot of buildings and helicopters and then when we didn't you know you're just like in the backyard playing around which is kind of funny you know we were grown men acting like we're 10 so that's how we are with us yeah um to like what you're saying about like the through line that's how we kind of look at things too we're like you know we don't really know how this is going to go but I know if we just kind of get us all in this situation and everyone's in a good mood and everyone's

having fun it just always and not always but seems like most time just something really good happens you know it just it comes up very entertaining that's the formula for sure yeah but everyone's got to be in a good mood and be like down to have fun yeah the second somebody comes in and they've got a bad attitude yeah it kills it yeah it's all about energy back to the budget question I don't know if this is like too much but uh when you were like working with MTV what kind of would they give you a pretty large budget per an episode or it was it was a half a million Jesus Wow, that's a lot

And would you guys spend all of it? Oh yeah The thing about MTV is Like we were such a I mean I give them credit right I was just talking to the guy That used to be the president of MTV last week And our executive producer at MTV

And I said how in the hell Did you guys get permission For us to do this? And they said we just lobbied You know And we had an attorney on site with us When we were filming And the attorney had to

He'd say, yay or nay to the stunt. And I can't tell you how many times. And the attorney was definitely on our side. Because we knew we had to kind of be politicians a little bit. So we would come on, let us do it. And we'd bow to him a little bit. And he'd be on the phone with all the MTV attorneys as we're getting ready to do the stunt. And say, you guys got to allow him to do this.

And he would get it done. How often would you guys have to cut an idea because it's too reckless? Not very often. Really? There was one time that it got kind of ugly, but it was Andy Bell that we had, like, these Fort Explores. And it was when, I think the first time I was jumping the semi, we were out at our truck yard. The first time. And, yeah, we just literally pulled the truck out of the yard and put a horrible roll cage in it.

Okay, so you did put a cage in it. Kind of. I mean, if it flipped, I'm going to pay a heavy price. But it wasn't that big. It was the rally jump. And so I just pinned it and hit it. And so, again, it escalates, and everybody's like, I'm jumping it. So Andy jumps in the rental car, and he's rally.

In the rental car? And it's toward expedition. And he, it's got camera gear in the back and the whole deal. And he comes off. I guess it was a little wet. And he was a really good driver, you know. A little wet, it kicks him sideways. Totals the car.

For sure. And, I mean, he was so lucky. He didn't get hurt. And he had Jolene in the car with him. And that attorney comes flying out And he goes, yeah, mother efforts We're done I fight for you, I lobby for you

And then you idiots And they were like Okay, I guess we can't be as stupid As we always are And Andy, you know, he asked me He goes, should I do it? And I told him yes As you had just done it in a semi

Yeah, so I had to take the heat From the attorney But anyway, he worked it out Did you do anything that you regretted after doing it? Yeah Yeah, the stupidest one. I mean, and it changed my life was when I flipped out of that loop on a big will. I don't know if you guys have ever seen that,

but Chandler was hit and Bob Bernquist was there. You guys remember him? He's a professional. Oh, yeah, I have seen that. And we just put this loop into the Mega Ram. God, that was bad. And Chandler and Tyler, my nephew's Chandler, again, I think he's 14 years old. He goes, do you think I can do it, dad?

And I said, yeah, you got it. So, you know, not knowing how deadly that. thing was if you made a mistake and he whips around it. No problem. Then Tyler does it, whips around it, no problem. And I thought, I'm going to do it because I'd be fun to do during the show. I mean, this is as haphazard as we were. It wasn't like everything was organized. And Bob Bernquist comes over to me and he says, hey, Greg, those things are deadly. You know, this ruined Tony Hawk, like it shattered his pelvis when he did it in the jackass film. And he was bringing up all these bad experiences of people that had on these. And it was a big

when I think it was 18 feet tall. I got it, I got it. And he goes, don't lean back. You know how you're so used to hitting ramps and you lean back to flip? And I... All of us. Yeah, that's so many times.

Yeah, you lean back. And I came into the face, and I think it was just natural. I just a little bit. I leaned back, and I saw the front wheel lift, and I said, I'm dead. Because it just walked it right out of the loop. And I flipped me enough,

and I could just feel it. And I'm trying to save my head. I just didn't want to hit my head. you did that so i hit on my pelvis shattered it and i'm laying there in australia it's socialized medicine so they don't really know what they're doing and they're trying to they got this drug that's like you take it immediately and it kills the pain it's called a whistle and i take the whistle and i'm still like in such horrible pain and they're trying to move me and i can just feel my bones grinding because it's just all shattered in here and i broke my back i broke my my scapula and i broke my pelvis

and they're trying to pull me out and I'm like, you guys, something's wrong. And I pass out because of the pain. And my nephew comes over and he goes, and then Travis comes over and says, I don't know what the hell's wrong with him, but you guys quit moving him because he can handle most of this, but this is bad. So anyway, the painkiller gets in, they put me in the ambulance, take me to the ER. And my nephew's with me. I don't know why he ended up with me, but we're sitting in the ER and I mean, I am dying.

and they wouldn't like tend to me you know it's just socialized medicine like god bless america in a lot of ways and uh this guy's like oh you know let's get him up an x-ray him and i'm like i can i can feel my my pelvis grinding on itself and i basically had ripped my sacram out of my pelvis so i was you know luckily it was attached to my spine so i wasn't going to be paralyzed but it was pulling the lower half of my body apart and i get on the x-ray table and I said, you guys, this is not going to do any good. I'm telling you something's really wrong. And they look at it

and they said, yeah, it looks like you separated your SI joints and I said something's, it's more than that. My nephew's fighting with him, fight with him and said, you guys got to do more because there's something else going on. So they shoot me with that glowy stuff you know, so that you can tell and they just saw the spider fractures

in my pelvis and the doctor said, just give him morphine and put him in intensive care because you can't do anything for it. You can't cast it or anything right so they put me in intensive care and i mean it's an it's again it's socialized medicine i can't stress this enough there's no private rooms you're you've got curtains and there's six other people in there there's an old lady dying next to me there's a guy that just was in a fight and stabbed some dude and the guy stabbed him he's enough and no and all night long

i'm here and i might he tried to stab me but i got the best of him that dirty bastard all night long and I'm just like this is pure hell I couldn't sleep I couldn't move and I had to pee and this poor little girl that was my nurse now you know

like my little penis had just shriveled right back up into my spine and I got to pee so bad and so I'm like trying to lean over and there's a bedpan and she's grabbing a hole in my unit and trying to hold it out

so I could take a leak and I'm like I couldn't get anything out and I said just please cath me just do something but it was honest on and then it even got worse after that but how long that last for um it took me almost three years to recover wow yeah i wouldn't say until about three years ago i could run i thought i could never

run again and i've been able to repair my body and get it all back going kind of stoked on that that was the worst one though when you were laying in that bed were you like fuck this i'm never doing that again no you didn't that didn't cross your mind not at that point i think in the earlier days if I'd have done that yeah there was so much energy at that time and we had a lot to accomplish so I just wanted to get better so injury was a second thought at that point so when you guys were creating these these episodes in the movie and and doing stunt after stunt did you feel like you constantly had to want up yourself yeah and what did that ever worry you yeah that it would get to a point of yeah where you go where you go I think that was what was good about the

film background because then I started to get artistic and all those collages where it looked like everybody's going to collide. I started developing more of that and developing, trying to develop story more. So we didn't have to kill ourselves since there was a little more longevity in it. We always say you can either spend more money,

you can get more creative, or you can just be more reckless basically. There's three ways, three ways to create and build. Bravo. You guys have figured it out. We unfortunately, don't have the massive budget and we try not to hurt ourselves so we have to get creative at times

we got to film a video the week the next week after so that's the one of the things too you know where we're luckily we have the dynamic of the group to really lean on as a crutch for that that's what i think when i watch your guys stuff you're you're more like the jackass guys where you've got a very good relationship and communication and that's what your audience is feeding off of you guys have got longevity and what you're doing well thank you yeah that's good to hear because you know how many times people ask us what are you going to do when that ends or what happens when

YouTube drops you guys like I don't know if that's how YouTube works exactly but you'll find a way yeah what are you gonna do if your boss fires you I always say I don't say that but I think that I'm like I mean you can get fired the next day and also like with AI and technology your job

could be very replaced you know and you went to college and spent all this money but one of my questions is so like was it hard having you were the director and the producer behind a lot of this if all of it probably um was it tough like getting everyone to like rally and like getting everyone on the same page and like i feel like that would be there's so many people you got your lawyer sitting there watching you got all these camera guys you got MTV you got the talent you got probably someone building

something like is it tough to manage all that and get it all to come together we had a really good team a really that's what made the difference but you know when trying to get people to come together is it's we talked about this when we're in the snow cave i can't remember who are you was yeah i was like you guys have got it stay together like you'll figure out a way no matter what if you can just stay together the thing that happened to us like that that killed us it wasn't the lack of ideas or i thought was kind of the you could see the writing on the wall that that old guard was going away and the new guard was coming in um is everybody started to get really selfish the second that that's all it is there's not it's you you do away i was watching chandler came in last night and i

was watching drive to survive and that toto guy you know if you guys watch that anyway the mercedes guy the principal he said something that really resonated with me he said you know here's a driver louis hamilton that's making umpteen hundred million dollars a year you know He's the most recognizable driver in the world at the top sport of the world. And this team manager is saying, don't have ego and don't be entitled. Work together. Everybody pull their weight. The thing, yeah, you'll never run out of stuff.

And even then, like, Bill, I know you guys are like on the trajectory to have a live show at some point. I know you are. You've got to learn certain lessons. And you've got to be able to, you've got to get past that. Then what happens, so say like you've got this publicity or this fame from YouTube, right? And it's a certain amount. I have this conversation with Sparks. And it's like the second you develop or go into a live show, and that's where you're going to make more money, right?

Because each night, and I'm not afraid to talk about the numbers, but in those Australia shows, when we were selling them out, it was a million a night. so we were spending quite a bit on the operations but we were making almost half a million to 300,000 a night all of a sudden your life starts to really change right and people are making more money and it's not just a group of friends and you know I don't know if you guys have women and I don't I love I love the ladies and I think you know whatever somebody in your life but if they get in your whoever in your life gets in your ear and start saying it's all you, it's all you, and then you start believing that, it's going to die.

Yeah. Remember, it's ego, and you don't have to depend on those things. You've got to just work together and support each other. I will never forget when we were sitting in the snow cave and you told me, like, you said, you guys all need to stick together. That is the number one thing. If you guys all stick together, you'll be just fine. You've done it. You want to know what happened the next month?

What happened? I don't know the whole story. You want to tell me? We can only talk so much. Yeah, we'll give you the spark notes of it. Basically, what you just said, someone got in someone's ear. I talked to him about it. And, uh, okay.

I mean, yeah, we're cool now and everything's fine, but, I mean, definitely. I mean, I don't want to speak for him, but. So how was that with, uh, Travis Pistrana, obviously being the superstar? Travis has no ego. It doesn't seem like it. Is that why he's, he's continued to be as one relevant. as he is still after such a long time of being in the spotlight. Yeah, like Travis has no ego.

Knoxville has no ego. I wouldn't say Tremaine has an ego. So people like being around him? Yeah, they just encourage and build up. I mean, Travis is magic. And I think that's why I wanted to build the brand around him. I could not believe somebody is this good and this humble. I could not believe it.

It was like a gift. Rare. And he's continued to be magic till today, obviously. And when Travis is in the spotlight, Nitro's in the spotlight, it's amazing to me. And even Knoxville, like, I went and watched the jackass, whatever. Or?

Whether it's gross or not into it or whatever. But, no, too, again, he's magic in that, because he just rallies everybody together. He makes it fun. He invites the audience in. I mean, without him, it would not work. Do you feel like it was just Travis and then B characters? Do you wish that it would have been more building more Travis's,

or there is no way that you could build more Travis? Travis couldn't always do everything, and it was you had to put an ensemble cast around him to support what was happening, and especially for the brand to continue, you had to create a window, and that's why we had the Thrill-Bee team, I call it. In the live show, you know, we run it like a sports team,

and we go six deep on some of the characters, right? I mean, you've got your top FMX writers, but if one of them gets hurt, I mean, you can't replace the Travis. If he gets hurt, you just stick him out there with a microphone because people just want to see him, but that's not the case now. So you have these characters that are not as big as Travis, but they are very, very talented individuals. And that's what's been beautiful about nitroles.

It is just a place for athletes to show their gifts. Because for action sports, that doesn't exist. It really doesn't. Unless it's a Red Bull situation, I mean, on a grand scale, I feel like, you know, the whole X-Games thing is dead. Yeah, it really has just... Well, even Nitro's taking a hit. And so it's like, there will come, maybe it's you guys,

there will come another group of kids or people out of this vein that lights that again. It will happen. It's just in a... And that's what happened with us. I felt like we lit that genre again. It was there. We just took all the assets, organized it and put it together. it's interesting like I look at like the people that are kind of in action sports or I'd say you guys are adventurers too I don't know where to put you but there's not really anybody I mean the deans and then you got Chad Reed doing his thing but those guys are racers they're not really antics right so you guys are really the only ones around doing antics so maybe it's your guys's turn to come in and take possession of that it would be interesting to put you guys on a on something you guys.

you know and see where it goes so well yeah thank you that's uh appreciate that big compliment coming from from you especially all right guys brief break in the podcast from word today sponsor manscaped fellas have you started spring cleaning yet the carpets need cleaning the drapes need dusting and your lawn needs mowing it's time to clear out your winter bush and join the other four million men worldwide who trust manscaped go to manscape.com for 20% off plus free shipping with the code wide open we all know manscaping can be a task but manscaped has you cover for the full package you need for spring cleaning this year. The performance package 4.0 is the only tool you need to keep your boys looking and

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how much makes him as special as he is? Is it more his personality that he can, you know, talk to the camera and be like, that was crazy or commentate somebody else doing something or the talent? That's a good question. I mean, it both works. That's what makes him unique.

It both works simultaneously in conjunction with each other because he's got mad, mad talent, and he's a show-off. And so he just loves, like, feeding off of, you know, people and audience. He does better, for sure, when there's an audience. You know, Travis is, like, I think his number one thing is his heart. And what I mean by that is it's, he's, I've never, ever come across a human being that is more determined than him. we have been in the most hairy death-defying situations and he somehow finds a way through it like

there's there i just recount like mainly the base jumping stuff there were just situations he should not have survived and he's just got this never say die mentality but the uniqueness of him is there are some athletes that are that way but they can't talk they can't tell the story yeah i think that's what made evil can evil so amazing he was the same thing right I mean he wasn't so diverse he did one thing but he could tell the story

and he had heart the guy went for it as long as he could he went for it I remember I was super inspired by him and so was Travis and it was like he can't carry on

you know the longevity of him is impossible it's going to die at some point right so how do we put this cast together so we can continue on because he can't do everything but the talent The talent versus the showmanship, or I mean the stunt side of him,

he's just a weird, unique blend of all of that stuff. I mean, those people don't come along, but once every hundred years, you know. The thing about it that people don't understand is without a cast, a sporting cast, he would have been nothing. And he knows it. It was the cast, too, in conjunction with him that made it so powerful. Because he tried a couple times to go do it on his own. It failed.

It's so tough when you don't have anyone to like bounce off of Well, and I think the people were just there trying to make money off of him And I think you trusted me, so I think he did TP, if you're listening to this, I think you did I'm sure he did And so you've always just kind of had a knack for adventure You were talking about, I guess, these hairy situations and all that Chandler was telling me most of his like most valuable life lessons

and the things he's learned have come from just being on some adventure with you and winding up stranded in some desert. Yeah, he was trained for sure. Yeah. I mean, I don't think him as bad as I used to be, but people didn't like going riding with me because... You push him outside?

Yeah, comfort zone. I just had to take it further and further and further and further. And then, you know, you're stuck in a situation with no fuel and you've got to hike out 20 miles, which has happened many times, and you had to sleep in the desert nose down in the dirt. I mean, not that we were, our life was, I mean, there were times, I guess, but yeah, it's just, I think one of the things that I know this kind of sounds silly is being in different countries and doing these antics. And then all of a sudden you got the police breathing down your throat, you're involved with some sketchy people and like your life is really hanging in the balance.

It's not so much the stunt. It was more of that. And I don't really want to talk about like a lot of that. You get kind of used to, like, living, you just, like, adapt to, like, stress, you know? Or, like, stressful situations. We were talking about that last week when we were in a snow cave, just, not to, like, to our own horn, but we're just kind of used to, like, having pressure on us. Like, it's like, I need to film this video.

I have to edit it. I got all these other things I need to do in this time, and it needs to be done and put out. And you just kind of get used to having that pressure, and you adapt and you adapt. Diamonds are formed under pressure. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Could you tell the story you're talking about sleeping on the desert

When you're doing the Baja 1,000 and you crashed? Yeah, I think that was an element Like Travis talks me into that And I grew up racing, you know, I know how to ride okay And, you know, the Baja was always, I love the Baja I love, love, love Baja But it's like a Ricky Johnson used to say this It's like a girlfriend

I love you, I hate you, I don't want to be with you Toxic, oh, will you please come back? Yeah. it's that I don't think we'd finished no we finished it on the dirt bike once we'd never finished it in four wheels and so it was just he had to ride a $300,000 check because he burned a car down the year before

so he's like both of us are just kind of done with the cars because they're just too expensive it's like let's grab bikes and go for it and he was let's iron man it and it was the longest one ever yeah you guys set like the world record didn't you yeah well and I didn't know you know if it was whatever it's the longest or this or that but I get down there

and honestly I felt like my whole life was preparing me for that moment like literally the thousands and thousands and thousands of hours I'd spent on a motorcycle racing and all this insanity we'd done overseas

and Ayersburg and Romaniacs and here I am in a Baja I feel like I'm in my backyard and we take off and you know we KTM brings me a bike that was like the millennial falcon it was a piece of crap

we had to put together the night before it was somebody's practice bike but the good thing about it is it had a works motor in it and it had a factory suspension and they were at the time they were probing these new front forks you know that could just take heat a lot of heat for a long period of time and so that I had a lot of things going for me accidentally wasn't necessarily but again like I was just built to endure you know and I wrestled through high school and college and I know to suffer, cut weight, and just get the living hell beat out of me. And we take off. I think I was 38.

Travis was, he would have been 25, 24. And he's, you know, he's a massive talent. I'm not that, but I can suffer, you know, that's it. So he takes off. We're supposed to ride together, and right from the get-go, he just bolts. I'm like, I am not doing that. We have 1,300 miles to go. Your goal is to just finish.

Yeah. And I know. that he's just too young you know he can't think through like pace yourself yeah he's so crazy he gets i come up on him and he hit a booby trap like in the first 10 miles he'd eat crap already i'm like dude you got to slow down he goes ahead and then we catch him again and he's taking a dump you know off the side of the road he's just he's so nervous and then he just takes off again and so you know the gap started and then there was this insanity of this the cartel at that time

whenever the U.S. economy is killing it it's always dangerous in Mexico because there's more drugs flowing in and so the cartel was there in force they actually had a truck in the race the whatever family that runs so they're

chasing the riders they're waiting for their track to come so they're chasing the motorcycle riders I think just screwing off and I saw the helicopter and they were kind of as we were heading up to Mike Sky Ranch and there's these big power lines and I didn't see this

but later on I mean before the truck showed up they hit the power line crashed and it killed everybody in the helicopter so the poor Mexicans they take the bodies back to the Morgan or in Ensenada they didn't realize who it was

and it was this you know the head of these families so they came in this is why I'm racing they come in and they gun everybody down kill everybody in the morgue and take the bodies out what because they didn't want them identifying that the that the capos have been killed yeah it was insane and there's there's military all over in the race course and everywhere and they're hiding in the bushes so we're racing through this because what they would do is the cartel would come out and they'd cut landing paths out the middle of the desert so they'd get a dozer and they'd cut these paths however they were smuggling the drugs in

you know, they would bring them maybe to the shore on the Baja and then they'd load them in a plane or run them over. We'd run into these guys out in the middle of nowhere with 50-gallon drums of fuel. And it's like, what are you guys doing? Nothing. They're fueling the airplanes. So when the airplanes would land

and they're probably bringing the drugs on. So we're watching this whole operation when we're pre-running. And I'm like, my buddy calls me that's in the FBI and he said, be careful. The cartels on. They're crazy down there right now. So all that's going on.

You know, I had a couple run-ins in the middle of the night during the race with the military, with guns pointed in my head. I'm like, hold up. What? Bahamil. Bahamil. We're racing. You know, we're not cartel. Can you tell?

Look at me. Yeah. And they would back off. But it would happen if you stopped by them or whatever. So, Travis is, we get into the night, and I think it's about three o'clock in the morning. And at this point, he's like an hour and a half ahead of me. He's flying. But I'm just, again, I'm just saying there's.

There's no human, it is not humanly possible to run like a national motocross race pace for, you know, 20-some-odd hours. We get into this section, and I'm buzzing along, and the trophy trucks hadn't caught me yet, and that was always scary because they don't really care if they hit you, and you just try and stay ahead of the trucks, and they caught me at mile marker like 6.30 or something, so we were, and it was probably 4 o'clock in the morning the next day. Does they send the bikes out first? Right.

So you're trying to stay in front of. of all the chaos of the trucks and it told me about the helicopter crashing and they said the trucks are coming in on you and you know just be careful and I'm tired and I'm seeing honestly I'm so delirious I'm seeing like you know ghosts running around I don't know what's yeah I'm freaking out a little bit and I kept thinking I saw lights coming up on me and that's always nerve wracking because you're ira right you know and I'm tapped I'm at 110 miles an hour down this road you know in the middle of the night. And, you know, I start to kind of, you know, lose focus a little bit. But all of a sudden, this truck just overtakes me in it with his toddler Duke. As he goes by me,

he's doing a buck 40. And I'm doing 110. And I don't know exactly what happened. And it was probably a blessing. But as he came in front of me, my light goes out on my bike. And I didn't have reserves on my helmet or anything. I just had the bike on the truck or had the light on the bike truck blows by me and i i honestly couldn't tell if i was upside down or sideways i couldn't tell what was going on because my body was in such disarray of everything that just happened and i hit a rock and it throws me down you know because my lights out i couldn't see plus there's dust and i'm just following his light i fall down i kind of fill my body it wasn't a bad crash but i'm feeling my body like trying to make sure i'm all together again all this suffering and all these

races and all this stuff I'd gone through led me to kind of this moment. I'd try and start my bike. It starts, but there's no light. I don't know what to do. You know, I guess I start ripping it apart and this guy starts flashing a flashlight at me. And these little Mexican family had, they'd had a camp right, or they had a camp right there. They were from a fishing village on the Pacific side. Just so happens. And they had, the woman was cooking dinner. She made me Kampanados in the middle of nowhere. And this little Mexican guy leads me back to his camp. Were you worried that it was cartel at that point?

No, you can tell. Most of them are good people. Okay. Like you can tell this. Okay. We're harmless. So I said, hey, I'm going to fall asleep. I'm gibber in Italian, whatever.

They're trying to communicate. I said, wake me up when the sun comes up. And I got a, I almost got like a 45 minute nap. And that made all the difference. So it was so serendipitous that that, That happened to give me that, because I wouldn't have stopped, to give me that little rest. Yeah, I was going to ask what your longest break was, because you're like 40 hours all in on this race. Yeah, I mean.

That's a long time just to be up. I mean, my longest break was maybe 10 minutes to that point, because you just want to go, go, go. And I get back in and my pit was waiting for me, and they were terrified because my sat phone, I could only call back to Utah. I couldn't get my team. So I'm relaying back to Utah. to call the team to say, look, I'm okay. Anyway, we get going. I start, you know, I'm so exhausted.

My arms are jello. My legs were pretty good. My, I'm doing okay. When the sun came up again, I'm doing okay. And then I hear Travis is down. And so he had, and I didn't, I'm like, is he okay, is he okay? So I get into a section. They gave me an IV, tried to get me boosted.

And I knew I was coming in on the section where Travis, in fact, I just went through this section again, this last Baja, he just packed up and took off because he was pissed. He didn't want to see me. It's really depressing when you, you watch the sun come up, you watch the sun go down, you watch the sun come up, and then you watch the sun go down. I've never in my life. But again, my whole life, I've been really good at suffering, really good at suffering. So I'd know how to suffer. So it's just suffering. So that last sundown was the worst? Yeah, I started to basically have a psychotic break. As you're tap doing 110 down, yeah, the Baja.

And I'm... And you're like, what am I doing? What am I doing? I got through kids. I'm like, you know, this is insane, but again, I love it. But it's insane. Were you thinking about quitting at all? No way.

So you were like, ah, this sucks, but I don't really have a choice? At all costs, man, I'm finishing this. Because Travis and I made a $1 bet, and I want that $1. so you just if the bike breaks i'm done it wouldn't that ktm that bike we put together the night before was just unbelievable kept gone unbelievable in fact ktm spent a million bucks on a on a four-man team to go down there and race and they spent you know they gave me an old crappy bike and some parts and i got twice the publicity that their million dollar team got so anyway um i'm i have this psychotic break in this section and i don't

I don't know where I'm at. I'm ready to quit. I'm done. And I thought I was lost. And I'm just like, you know, what am I doing? I pull up and I'm 10 miles. I didn't know this, but I'm 10 miles from the finish. And one of the McMillan pit guys is sitting there.

And I mean, I don't know if I was bawling or what, but I pulled up to him. And I said, where am I on the racecourse? And he says, yeah. And he puts his arm around me and he goes, you got 10 miles. You're almost there. Ten miles. So I come in. And I mean, it was so emotional.

And I, you know, into Cabo and into the finish and Sal Fish grabs me. And he goes, that was the fastest single run of the Baja Peninsula and the history of the race. And he goes, you just broke every record that used to exist. You are the iron rider. And I'm like, I mean, I was so emotional. It's like, what does this mean? I mean, nobody cares really except the Baja people. But to me, it was just like, yeah, you know, I didn't quit.

Yeah, you go through so many experiences. You want to test yourself. Go do that. And there's been guys that have ironed it since then, and I think they're more strategic, and I think they train harder. The only thing I got going for me is it's never been that long again, so I still have the record.

I think people would beat it if it was that way. No, no, no. You don't have to mention that part. Have you done it since? Yeah, do it every year. Every year? Yeah, Chandler and I raced it two years ago. I love the thousand.

Remember when we first met you guys? I don't race to compete, but I just do it for fun. You said you're going to do it, and we're excited to hear that Chandler was doing it. And we're like, oh, I mean, I don't think we could do it, but it's pretty cool to see that all age of you guys are, like, crushing that race. You guys could do it. Just pick a vehicle and go for it, man. It's an adventure.

Yeah, we could do it in our four-seater razor, probably. All pile in. What do you guys? Take the bus. What do you do for me? He's so sick in the back. Ken would be like, oh my gosh. That would be amazing, though.

That would. Think about it. What do you do for food in that? Do you eat, or do you just eat little nibblets of, like, granola bars? Or obviously, you got a fine meal at the campfire with those guys. Of course, it's like everything. We didn't plan really very well, so we threw a couple of snickers in. Yeah.

I mean, we were surviving on nothing. I mean, we would come into the pits and beg for food. from other teams because we didn't sometimes we'd miss our pit and blah blah blah blah I was just make it work we did the one thing I was really scared about was getting dehydrated so I'm not sure I was always I can go forever without food but not liquid so how many times have you done it then I think like 10 wow dang yeah that's so impressive but now we go down and do it and it was like this last year we were down there I mean I'm truly just doing it for fun and to stay in shape and so forth.

But Chandler was running on a team behind me. You know, we got out in front our team, and the guys that were on his bike weren't quite so fast. And so when the bike got to him, I just didn't want him catching me. And I got to one of the pits, and the guys go, your boy is hauling ass.

You better get on it. And then Chandler came into a section, and I think he blew the bike apart. Baja, you always got to back it down to about 60, It's a marathon. Yeah. What was the story behind, or could you tell the full story behind when you tried to do the barrel rolls, the most car flips on Nitro Circus? The story behind you?

Well, it wasn't it? No, it was you and you and Street Bike Tommy and you hit that jump and he landed right on the roof. That was Jim DeChamp and Tommy. I'm the one that tried to set the barrel roll thing. Okay, barrel. What, but then didn't you have to go to, wouldn't you like really bad, badly messed up from that? No, I remember.

That was Jim. Okay, so he was one that was in the coma. Yeah, that was horrible. All right, just tell the story of the barrel rolls. You were trying to set the world record for most flips in a car, right? Lauren, I'm just beat Travis, too. Well, I'm sitting with Ken Block and we're talking about stunts we could do for the movie. And Ken goes, I think it'd be really funny if you turn.

I tried to beat Travis's right. It was Ken's idea. Travis's record for the most clips. And he did that on accident, though. A record, no one should really plan out to break. And Travis was going, I'm going to put this up there. Travis was going downhill, so he had more momentum, and he was in a shorter car.

Nonetheless, I thought I had it fast enough. I hit it at 110 miles an hour, and I hit it so hard. It's an old crappy Mustang, you know, and it like i thought it sent my jaw up through the top of my head because the concussion there's no suspension on those things and it was like a two-foot kicker yeah and then everything goes into slow motion you guys know that and the second i do that it was like an eternity i i was thinking the car wasn't going to roll because i went like this and all of a sudden it hits holy shit it was so violent because

that speed of throwing you, but it really, realistically, it's just kind of enduring the madness, right? It was, I was safe. It's not like a motorcycle or a snowmobile where you're exposed and you're going to get worked. Yeah, you're in a cage. Yeah, so I think my arms blew out and I was just, I've been practicing, reach in and grab

and I flip, and I mean, I just wanted it over when it started. I'm like, this is never ending. And then, yeah, Travis ended up beating me, and of course, you know, by quarter of a turn. Yeah. Were you... So you were like, all for nothing. Were you pretty shook up then after that, obviously?

No? Really? You were fine. That's what I was going to ask. I remember when you explained that. Jim was messed up. Right. You asked that and you were like, was that, that had to be the worst.

And so going back to when you did the loop, you know, horrible, horrible injuries, large set of injuries that happened and a few other things that you did that maybe seemed less crazy than intentionally rolling a car that many times. and you've seen that with other characters on the show too some of the craziest stunts end up just fine and some of the stupidest little things end up with some gnarly injuries Oh you guys understand that

Oh yeah That's true, yeah Yeah But that's where the longevity comes from Is being smart enough to identify those stunts That aren't gonna kill you But they still get you What's the worst injury you guys have had?

For me, obviously just concussion really bad But one of the dumbest things that's, in my opinion, happened to us on accident, littlest things. Oh. Was we were having a good old-fashioned birthday party, you know? This is recently. A couple weeks ago. And somebody got a cake for Ken. It was Ken's birthday, right?

So got him a cake. Happy birthday, Ken. We're all standing there celebrating. You just got done saying happy birthday. Yeah. and I had the cake in my hand. Candles are lit. So I go to cake, Ken.

With the lit candles. With the lit candles. And it was an ice cream cake. Rock hard. Rock hard. We punched it after we're like, this is not moving. Punched it and you couldn't even see your knuckle imprint.

You had no idea. I didn't think it through. I had a little bit of liquid courage, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I wasn't thinking straight. Still, so dumb. Candle to the eye. And he's got right into his eye.

Wet. candle or wet wax in his eye then. Wow. The, I thought I broke his nose. I did do. Because the cake was so hard. So it was like two things at once. And, um,

did he get his eye? Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's what. It's a silly little thing. Scard. Yeah.

Yeah. Can you see still? It's, I can kind of tell it's a little. I'm sorry. Yeah. But like that's little things. How many times you've seen someone?

smash a cake or face cake smash someone on their birthday pretty normal yeah you know it just was a weird coincidence let me ask you guys something do you guys have like a methodology of what you're doing do you have like a statement that really pushes you along is there anything what's something that motivate you not not to get like what organizes you're get you excited about it we just like having fun like it's pretty simple that's pretty good yeah you just like having fun and being happy that's that's at least for me i that's pretty much All of us. The fun.

Yeah. We got to make, like, our passion, you know, our job, you know, and doing what we love to do, you get to go and hang out with your friends. And as long as you're filming it and that's a day of work, you know. That's fantastic. It's all about the fun. Yeah. We try and keep it light, which is tough too, you know, because we're running a business.

There's some struggles. There are some struggles, but the more things grow, now we got overhead. and we got, we're a little bit older, so we have, you know, houses and cars and these things and the lifestyle grows with it. So it's not all just sunshine and rainbows at the end of the day like it used to be. But I think, you know, we all have a pretty good grasp on that. A bad day at work for us is still a pretty good day. So it's keeping that in mind.

That's fantastic. You guys got a good beat on it for sure. And we're pretty conscious not to run ourselves too. thin like financially but also just with everything yeah we kind of know we obviously know to grind but don't run yourself so thin that that fun is being pulled away because you'll notice you'll start to notice it when we do do that a little bit so you have done it i mean but not like fully where we're like we need to reimagine what we're doing but just where we're like all right well let's just make sure we're having fun still you can get like doing too many things at once that's probably

what and then that's just you're not doing anything good basic principles kind of good yeah really is basic principles like i always say you know one of the best things is that every single one of my partners and my friends they just all know how to work hard you know one thing i would say is it's always kind of good for you guys as you're going like just to map out a little bit you know not that has to be super strict right we we kind of do yeah just where do you want to be and how you want to grow it and yeah we've got goals and and uh a rough idea i guess of how to how to get there it is a big part it's definitely not like to the book you have we have to do this to to achieve that which is the beauty of i think social media these days is as long as we're constantly grinding

and constantly staying and doing good making yeah yeah but constantly staying aware of of uh where the industry is going and being able to evolve and grow and reinvest we pretty much invest most of our money that the company makes back into the videos which is I think in my opinion one of the maker breaks of why people stay relevant is if they're able to continue to build the brand and we've managed to do that which is crazy over five years you know it feels like we've been doing it for at moments six months but then at other moments is like 10 years we're like man we've been doing this for a while do you know one of the things is that that i always try and say with people is like looks like you guys have done it you know fell fast so when things don't work you get

rid of them and you put in the things that do work what an audience is is gravitating to what they're excited about how you can get away with a stunner situation not kill yourself you guys are figuring it out we've learned that with businesses that we've started along the way too if if they're not working right away obviously it takes a little bit of time to get certain things off the ground but like with this podcast we we could see ourselves doing this for a long time and we want to stay consistent with it the views are still there people love it we get a lot of great feedback from it but then um so this is something that we want to continue to put this is a good one right yeah this is a This is one of our best.

We want to continue to put our efforts towards a podcast, right? But then we had other businesses along the way. Like we had like a cleaning products business. And it was just one of the things where, you know, you learn pretty quickly. Like one, you're not super passionate about it. That sucks then. Two, you know, the market isn't super stoked on it. So then it's not like you release something and then you get that instant dopamine

hit of like people love this. And then, yeah, I mean, seeing like the longevity of like how long do we want to do this or we were pretty small back then too we didn't have the efficiency to our videos or any of like the see boys tv business side of things and then we integrated that and it was just it was a mess and we really didn't have like a large following to even be dropping some product that we're going to be promoting if i mean in hindsight but i don't think we would have it any other way yeah we learn yeah you of all people could answer like you learn from your mistakes and like we were small so we bit on certain things

that we were like this is awesome and then you know we look back in a year and we're like why do we even do that but what if we didn't yeah there's so many YouTubers that go through it are bigger than us and they started like a year ago like they're just crushing it they're doing so so much I mean they're just they got more viewers more subscribers you know whatever else comes with that but like for us we've just been learning as we go

and I honestly wouldn't have it any other way because we've just Slowly every time It seems like we're just getting a little better And we just slowly master our craft You know And it builds in more Our organic audience For sure

You know If you like Just give people what they want The main audience Mainstream audience What they want You'll get followers and views real quick But it might not mean as much

In five years Well you're not going to be passionate about it And you'll fade away You're not doing what you want You guys are You guys are in a good situation situation. You would mention that one of the biggest things, or some of the best advice you have for us is to stay as a group and stay together. What other things as a content creator? Can you look at us and be like, oh, this is, this is working well. You should do more of that, trying to avoid things like letting other people come into our businesses. What kind of advice do you have on that aspect? I'd say that's the number one protect it with your life who you let in because, you know, you, you have gone through the

experience already of how fast, you know, you've got to bring partners in to grow. It's just the way it is. Unless you're the right people. Yeah. And sometimes if you put yourself in a financial bind, then you have to bring in a partner. You don't want to. And that's horrible. You know, it's just like a stunt.

Like if you're, you bring in the wrong person and they go and get weeded up and, hurt themselves and then you got all that liability and you got to deal with them and you want to set up the right person to succeed in that situation is the same thing was to bring a partner in i think that was the thing that we had a really closed group of people and that was the thing that hurt us more than anything is bringing in these people that just they so badly want what you have and they they try so hard to break you up and pull it out and you know that bad intentions The reason it's working is you guys all have good intentions and you're working good together. If you can just continually, like when you got shit that comes up, you guys want to kill each other, kill each other.

But don't quit and figure it out. Find a way to, and it doesn't seem like you guys have that kind of thing. But I'm sure these little things building in the back that bug you. I mean, we have issues that pop up, but we handle it. Discuss them. Yeah. Always keep an open discussion and keep it in a place and protect who you let in and just, you know as you're developing these stunts and these content pieces it's like i think it's going to be

really fun to watch you guys i think this is an interesting place like i'm i'm watching sparks like he does not want to get hurt he's not that kind of guy it was really fascinating to watch how he he started going to find dead bodies out in the desert and how people were so into that i was kind of clever he's crushing it yeah and his rescue missions as well yeah and he he just didn't want to get hurt and he likes equipment he's done a good job with it and he's got a good group of people that are around him everything he's doing the way he's building his business

is fantastic so many ways you can do it in so many different ways you're having fun that's the most important things can keep you it starts to turn into a job you know and unfortunately when you get a lot of people involved it does but even then it's not so bad if it still get up in the morning

and it's enjoyable and just protect that with your life like I think that was the thing I just I regret is that you know we got kind of bored I think where we were at and so we so badly wanted to get into that live show category which it worked but we let the fox in the henhouse right and you know he started killing all the chickens and you know it's still going through an evolution like it's at a matter massive scale. It's got the most powerful partners in entertainment involved in that brand. And I'm grateful for that, but it's like been 10 years of real difficult for me, but it's coming around. And so maybe that wasn't a bad thing that I let these people in. And you're no longer affiliated with them anymore. No, I am. I still own a big chunk of it. There's been such a turnover, and I'm back supporting some of their causes and working in conjunction with.

them and okay but it's interesting a couple of these kids don't even know who I am that are involved at the company well they're so young now probably 16 real young kids yeah they come and say it's nice to meet you and I'm like yeah nice meet you too I don't say anything if you don't mind sharing like what are like some other mistakes or like failures that maybe like we could could learn from or other people listen to back home could could learn from if you don't mind sharing do you have any is I go through it I'm just like the people you let in you know fell fast it's

I think it's important like for me I'm a super visual person I think you guys are too I used to have I was kind of stupid but I didn't know I was doing it but I would one of these walls in this old shop over here I used to just pin vision board

everything on that wall and I would it amaze me that I go in and look at that everything on that wall was achieved I wrote goals 10 years prior to 2000 and three, and I achieved every one of those goals. I think it's important to, you've got to set a standard for yourself, and I know you want to have fun, and it's like sometimes the structure kills it.

You want to squeeze it to death and choke it, but it's good to have an idea, at least a vision, because if you can actually see it in your mind, and you're going to get there, and everybody's pushing that rock up the hill together, I can see where you're headed. It's, it's to the live tour. Or it's maybe there's another offshoot on a network. Because you kind of need that. You know, Sparks is worried about that. That he needs maybe some kind of a network piece

that it reaches more of a mainstream audience. And you still contain your YouTube piece. And then you've got a live element to it. And you've got a product that you're selling in conjunction with it. So if that's what you want to do and you want to build the company, if not, and you want to stay where you're at, you're kicking ass. Leave it there. Don't get crazy with it.

One of the things with me with Nitro from the very beginning, and I've actually gone back to this as we're starting to build these other brands with my kids, the number one thing I wanted to teach them was to not be afraid. That was the number one thing. So I wanted to inject them into situations

where they could overcome fear. I mean, Chandler's been lit on fire on accident. He's gone through multiple brokenness or that and he, you know, as he's at 20, like you guys all the same age? Yeah, we're all in the same. Yeah, so he's been able to push through a lot of that.

My daughter's, I mean, maybe not necessarily in business. But even with the athletes, it was like, how do they deal with fear? And now it's coming back to this thing. That's really what Nitro stands for, is to overcome fear. That is the number one thing. And I'm good at that. So what is it that you guys want, you know, as you're growing, what is the number, what's the theme of, I mean, from what I'm hearing from me, it's to have fun. Be happy.

That's a number one thing. Be happy. To the fullest. And another thing that we go by is, like, we were versed at a lot of things, but we're not professionals at any of them. Perfect. And I love relaying that to the people watching. You can go out and do it, too. You don't have to be doing backflips on a dirt bike.

You can just ride on a trail on your dirt bike and have just as much fun. And so we're pretty big advocates for that. Yeah, and then all of a sudden you can start to partner with some other people to open up yourselves up to another audience. And that's great. Yeah, you guys are focused. It's obvious. You're having success, right? I just think as you go into this next dimension,

the next 10 years, it's going to be fun to watch and see what happens. Because you guys are dedicated. That's the number one thing. You've got that. You're dedicated. The rest of what you'll figure out. I am not a smart person.

I know it. I just lower my head, suffer, and go for it. And, you know, I've had a fantastic life. Fantastic. I can't even believe. what's happened in my life if I would have ever thought that this could have been achievable. So, you know, stay with it. Don't quit. I think that was the best vice I've gone. Just don't quit.

Thank you. I think we can follow that one. Yeah. That's some wonderful advice from all around and some wonderful stories as well. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot for us to take in, obviously, the advice to us, but I think just to anyone listening. This is my favorite saying of all times. Go fast and take chances. I like that

Don't take the safe road There's no fun in that No fun It's true There's no learning really in that either It seems like everybody like around us You know we're from Minnesota Kind of just smaller area

A lot of people just kind of take the traditional I mean pretty much everyone takes a traditional route Minus us and And uh Well there's one character you guys came in touch with That didn't take the traditional route Levi Levi

Exactly. 100%. I love him. Yeah, he's such a good guy. Yeah, he's a brute. Yeah, we had him on a podcast. Is he still tough as hell? Yeah. Yeah.

I haven't talked to him for years. He's kind of just built for it, too. Like, he's just like, you can tell he's in the gym working out. And, like, he's just like a. And he's the definition, too, of people going, well, what you do is so crazy. And he's sitting there and goes, I mean, it's what I do. Yeah. He's humbled, too, like Travis.

Yeah. He's like the snowmobile version of Travis. 100%. On our podcast, he goes, when I filmed with Travis, I crashed and he said, man, you're lucky. You're built like a bowling ball. You can just roll out of things. He was rubbery when he was young, but so stout. And that was one of the things like, when I saw Levi, I'm like, we are pulling him in because he is perfect.

Right. So durable. Like I told you guys, I drug him to Romania. And his whole goal was to keep Jeremy alive. It wasn't even to race. It's just that Jeremy was out of shape. and I knew he couldn't do it. And Tommy.

He was just the wing man to pull their bikes up and help him get through stuff. And he did it. Wow. Beast. So what's some kind of adventure that we could go on that you think is like a must? And that you know would get us into, one, an uncomfortable position, but two, something that would just make amazing content. Chandler, should we take him on the six-day trip? Baja or the six-day trip

The six-day trip will change your life What's the six-day trip? Is that what the K-TM is named after? Oh, okay. What is the six-day trip? Doesn't even want to tell us. Otherwise, we're not going to... There's no plan.

We have a razor. We have mountain bikes. We have our good old legs. We have rope. And we have a couple of granola bars. Yep. Wow. You are...

You might have... I have just explained hell to Ken. And then what? Where do we start? I know this. I usually do it. That way. I do it.

I do it in Utah because I know. Like you get down south and it's just so insane. It's so insane. Of any place I've been in the world, it's super complicated down there. And I mean talking like from Moab to Canab and St. George. And then you go down to Monument Valley and into a place called Escalani. There's this.

place called the grand staircase. And there are thousands and thousands of deep crevasses and crazy stuff that it just, you constantly use one vehicle to get on an adventure. And you try, just because I've been down there enough, I can usually get into it and get out, but sometimes you don't. And Chandler's pretty tough. He's been through a lot of this stuff. So we started this in 2018. And we just go for it. talk about footage and a situation and a life-changing experience, or Baja. Baja always delivers. Like I said, it's like a good girlfriend, bad girlfriend. But either one of those.

Baja might be hard to film, though, or more difficult to film. You don't get enough of the context I feel of how crazy it is. It is hard, but the canyons seem to lend themselves because you're hanging off of ridges and there's all these crazy stories that go in with it. That sounds brutal. We should do it. It's fun. When would it be like a good time a year to do that?

Spring. Spring? Not too hot. Yeah, it's like in April if you want to go down. Is there snakes? Oh, yeah. There's cougars, there's snakes, there's coyotes. I'm sure there's wolves now because they're making their way down here.

I don't like that at all. But we rarely have it. They don't want to mess with you. Okay. Are you, do you still stay in contact with much like the original Nitro Circus? like TV cast I stay in contact with Tommy and Dusty and Travis and

Jeremy a little bit but it's everybody kind of you know unfortunately we all went different directions and I think what's happening is you kind of get this everybody misses it you know they all tell me that that was the greatest time of their life and that was for me too

it was a great moment and I feel like there's another one brewing you know and you just kind of got to let it come and go as it is and evolve with it because you can't force it all the time right so you you clearly still have like the drive for adventure do you still feel like you have like the desire and like the drive like you want to keep you want to create more content and like another show or yeah i love exploring i am i think that lends itself to stunt stuff but travis is the ramp guy i wouldn't say i'm

the ramp guy i like the the airsburg stuff and romaniacs and boxasks it's more just get into such insane situations and it's more it's longer and it's more difficult physically I feel so that's fun for me nice well I think we don't want to take up too much more of your time before you lose your voice

I feel like we've talked for a long time I can't believe it held up yeah I thank you for doing this seriously thanks for coming I apologize we should have planned it out and taking you guys on some more stuff the Palmer guys are fun though but it's a lot of ramps just beware they're moto guys I may ride

Yeah, I was thinking. Yeah, they don't let them. They got like a couple train sections, don't we hit it. You're going to die. Okay. All right. That's where we got Evan. Evan's the ramp guy.

He loves, yeah, he loves that kind of stuff. Yep. Yep. Anyway, I mean, we can't say thank you enough, obviously, for doing the podcast, but for creating the show that kind of built the foundation that our channels built on. Oh, you honor me. Thank you. I appreciate you guys.

Let's plan the sixth day I'm going to leave it to him That'd be fun I'm down Are you guys open Towards the end of April At some point We might be

Yeah We could probably figure something out It's gonna Yeah You just gotta block out a week So Yeah But you'll get two or three shows out of it

All right Sparks wouldn't do it Oh really Yeah I think it's too Even better Well the next time We see you might be

For that trip Yeah Until then Thanks for everything Thank you guys Thanks for coming out Everyone followed Greg on on Instagram. What is your at?

Isn't it a nitro hamster? Yeah. Well, I think it's just Greg. It's G-R-E-G-G-G-O-D-F-R-E-Y. There's a four G-Gs in it. Just remember that. Four G's G. Do you want to plug anything else?

I think at this point, you know, Godfrey-Prove, Nitro, it's all good. Thanks, guys. We appreciate it. We appreciate you, guys. Thank you. Later.