Jeremy McGrath on changing Supercross, where modern Dirt Bikes are lacking and more…

like I said by Nature I was a little bit lazy because I had a little bit too much talent I'm like why do I need Motocross when I can just kick the [ __ ] out of these guys in Supercross that's easy this where the money is I mean the most I ever made including bonuses and Champion the whole thing in one year is like bucks really now these guys get to show up to the start line it was so different we hung out a lot all the time like Rhino and me and Factory Phil and all the guys were out here on the West we were all sort of buddies you know Emig came in there and threw a wrench in it like he's from Missouri came out California and then you know some of his stuff was like what the um [Music] anyways I met a CHS now if you've been following the podcast recently you would know that we're on a massive Health kick uh as we get ready to take on world vets at Glen Helen in November of 2023 athletic greens is not only an allinone formula that helps me just cover all my nutritional bases uh it's also the first healthy habit that I have that starts every single day ag1 is packed with 75 vitamins minerals and Whole Food sourced ingredients of the highest quality that are able to offer gut health support mood support can affect your energy each day and contribute to overall healthier looking hair and skin [Music] um some guy some guy is making uh when I was in France or something some guy like takes old images yeah like of whatever writers you know and he gave me some but they're old images of of me like cut out and you know like Heats transferred on just a t-shirt they're so sick I was like man it's just like a it's like a shirt that we would have when we were little kids yeah like that we would love to have like whoever the guy was on there and it was just a random t-shirt with a like I remember when I was a kid I had one that said do it in the dirt it was a moto Motocross guy but it was just a heat transfer and might have been like Barnett or I don't even know who it was but it was it's kind of the same idea and I was like man this is pretty sick I could we could probably get rid of a couple of those on Instagram you know dude you could definitely yeah this dude uh his name is dirt Studios he uh yeah he does all this cool like retro [ __ ] remakes like some of old Super Cross shirts and stuff pull this up a little bit closer yeah there you go gotcha so joining me today on Gypsy tals is Showtime The King Jeremy McGrath we've been wanting to do this one for a while and I'm stoked man yeah man me too it's been a long time coming I uh well I mean I keep seeing all my friends on here so I'm like okay it's about time you know when was the one that got you like mostly you reckon uh I'm trying to think it was a while ago cuz I mean honestly in in the beginning of when when I started first started seeing you and seeing this I was like where did he come from yeah cuz I think you probably got the same thing from a lot of guys like where did Jace come from you know where's what's Gypsy tales and so I was like how's he getting all these guests cuz I was I would and I don't know maybe it's my own it's my own thinking but I'm like I'm sure that I would have met him well we we would have met we would have met like in passing a few times and I i' I've actually stayed at your Ranch before you remember when when I was there right no you weren't there oh like for a DC shoot or something was for uh Jeffrey herlings herlings yeah so yeah so it was DC cuz it was Nate Nate Holly was there and hurling and I think you kind of left as I got there so but I think we kind of met them then then there was another day it was a DC shoot as well um you were in the hills with Baran and like you guys parked in a different spot so like I filmed all day and I filmed all this [ __ ] of you but we never like act so we kind of had a few like sliding doors yeah yeah that's crazy wow yeah cuz I I always was like how how do we not know each other you know so then it's yeah it's good to be here yeah no it's cool cuz I I feel like you're you've I like you've just nailed like your place in the sport post racing you know and it's like obviously you're the king of Supercross like you've won the most you've like you built the sport in a sense but you've just been able to stay relevant stay in it you're still racing you're still around you're involved in like so you're still so in it but you're not like to in it if that Mak you know like that I think that's a kind of a hard line for a guy like you to walk like you're the best ever Supercross racer so it's like it it would be a weird balance to find I mean it I think in the beginning it was kind of weird right because I you know everyone's easily forgettable right no matter how much you've won to be honest um and I think it just boils back to the fact that I love my dirt bike and I love riding dirt bikes I mean that's really what it's about I mean of course I try to do things that are in the in the eyesight of people and what I'm doing and representing companies and doing that stuff but I've also found a really nice balance where a lot of it depends on how much I really want to work right so I'm like okay this is the balance I like to work yeah I mean quote quote unquote work right so um it's it is you know I'm a fan of the sport I love it it's given me stuff you know opportunities and creative things that I've never would imagine and especially to be able to work when I want to work and you know I I just try to keep things fun you know I've people ask me like hey why don't you do TV and I'm like well I did a couple shows at TV that's that's good I want to just do a couple that's not that fun yeah I mean if I'm going to travel the country I that's a job yeah I want to be paid for that yeah and in this instance it's more like hey come on as a couple guest appearances and and uh I'm I'm happy to do that I love it and the same thing with some of the instructing or coaching or whatever with some of the writers you know another one I I'm not looking for another job I'm not what I would call a job you know I've been at the track every day of my life for however many years right um so you know I'm just in love with the sport I love the community and I love to do it sort of my way and if you if anyone knows my career they kind of know that I just sort of my own line and did my own stuff and sometimes it works and sometimes it didn't a lot of times it did and thankfully but uh yeah I just I still have a lot of fun with it keep my face out there do some fun stuff try to try to just manage that part of it yeah well I think that was the vibe that I took from Mammoth so obviously a couple weeks ago we were hanging out together in Mammoth and it was so cool for me to like cuz I obviously grew up in Australia so like I never really got to watch you ride I think it I mean it probably was the first time I ever saw you race in person last in two week a month ago because like I just I didn't come here you were retired by the time I got here right right right but dude it was just so [ __ ] cool to see like fun like watching you ride watching you race it it was just fun like we were all on the side cheering you on you knew we were there I remember cuz the battle got tight there at the end I I dropped down and raced the 40 class and and one dude was keeping me honest there so I was like like oh man and I could hear you guys all right there at the at the side it was pretty sweet I mean to you know you know those those opportunities are few and far between these days right I'm not it's not like I'm racing in front of thousands of people anymore and you know those those are fun and I could hear all you guys and and uh yeah it made it a lot of fun that was that was tiring it it it was just like a I don't know for me like you know they say sometimes never meet your Heroes and it was like I got to watch one of my heroes ride in like a kind of obsc your race you know compared to like what you've done but it was just [ __ ] Soo like you got the whole shot and you were having to play some games and we were cheing on we could tell you were getting tired all was trying to pass you like that dude wanted to pass jerem McGrath we wanted you to win and it was like it was just such a cool fun thing I think that was a cool moment for me to be like man that's why this dude won all these races cuz he loves writing so much and it just it came out so it was kind of cool that it was like the one time I got to watch you race and it was a kind of a a obviously wasn't winning a supergross or whatever but it was still so sick yeah it's funny because like me going into that race it wasn't like oh hey I'm going to rely on some my old strategies or whatever you know it it it happened I was getting tired um that dude was kind of getting closer to me and I was like man okay there's I had about a 4 second lead but then he was kind of eating up the Gap a little bit and I was like uh and I was getting a little bit tired I'm like okay man do I try to blow everything I have right now or do I let him rest on I I rest one lap let him eat the Gap up get close and then just give it everything I got on the last lap so it was fun for me because some of the strategies came back from actual real racing yeah and uh was able to pull it off and so it was uh you know it's always nice I'm older now you know to get some re encouragement okay cool yeah you still have a little bit of something in there which is kind of fun you know so no and like even you know coming down the downhill and you got that right-hander and it was just such like that's s me like getting to watch that one turn was like that was a Supercross turn right there you know just that same style and it was just a a cool moment and cool to see that for all these years and everything that you've done dirt bikes is still just so much fun yeah I just I mean that's cool I was so stoked to see you guys there meet you of course and then and uh he the cheers you know for that last little there was a couple little bit of drama there was pretty fun um but you know first and foremost it's just the joy of riding a dirt bike for me is still there you know and that's that's exactly why I started I think we all start riding dirt bikes because we love it so much yeah uh unfortunately sometimes it turns into a crazy job and and you know a lot of times Pros they end up maybe racing a little bit too long where they become they become they get a little chip on their shoulder for the sport itself because it you know look it's tiring sometimes there's a lot of people pulling on you a lot of responsibilities yeah and you got to train and you got to of course you know the years after I retired it became even more serious and more corporate and more like hey a lot of pressure a lot of pressure the 90s we always say were we had a blast you know we we we H we were able to have fun we were able to be serious enough to you know make a career out of it and uh not be so stressed out that you know it made me hate the sport I think I always wanted to and it you know I always wanted to retire before I didn't like my dirt bike yeah um now the ending of my career wasn't exactly how I had the script written right it was just a little funky a little weird how that how that all worked out and it's not like you know if I would talk to myself in 96 like okay what's the end of this thing going to look like right yeah I just keep forever yeah end yeah and I'm like the end the ending looks like Hey I'm going to be a Honda Ambassador for the rest of my life yeah and and I'll just decide when I'm done winning andly and then someone else can win exactly and then you know look two a year later I'm on Yamaha and then I'm like what which is was strange and then you think okay all right three years three Supercross championships Yamaha hadn't won a Supercross Championship since since 1981 with Mike Bell three championships I'm going to be a Yamaha Ambassador I'm going to be a Yamaha Ambassador and and then it's like oh they're gonna they want sign villan instead I'm like what what's going on so you know like the the uh fairy tale script ending is never sort of the way you want it to be and the Never the way you imagine it in your head has it given has Moto given anyone a fairy tale ending I don't think it yeah I mean that kind of not really I mean Ricky did it pretty good Ricky did it pretty good but who would have ever thought Ricky would be riding for Suzuki I say but he had the same thing because he went for and but but Ricky at the end I mean he was winning and then he just said okay that's it yeah so he did the winning part of it right he was that's pretty unbelievable I mean you got to commend him for that I mean he was he came back the next year and went won all the races he came back and raced he didn't he didn't even race and if he that was the year that James did his knee so if Ricky literally could have come off the couch when Jam his knee and still won the got another million dollar yeah yeah so but it's far as you're right Honda did literally the same thing to him as they did to you and they didn't even learn from what they did to you either which is crazy right but I think they probably did it somewhere before me too right I mean who knows exactly what happened I mean it it we can look back now and go like look it'd be easy to do it this way right yeah but uh I think that's just life right we all can look back and go like hey we would have turned left here instead of right here you know I'm happy with the way it all ended it all work worked out fine um strange I think you know when I signed with KTM it was a little bit of out of a little bit of spite for Yamaha and Keith and those guys for trying to chop my salary down and when I had just done done a really good job for those guys for the past couple years so that was a little strange you know but all those guys are my friends you know I I respect all these guys you know they've all they all gave me a great opportunity to race dirt bikes and you know who would have ever thought that that was going to be my job you know I mean I I was set to try to go to college no one in my family went to college I was like okay am I College Bound here after high school or am I going to go dig ditches you know be a construction guy because I'm you know that's what I like I like being outside and I like could have been Pro BMX too really like wanted to do that maybe yeah maybe I was I was I was okay at BMX I mean I had won some some decent pretty big races but I was already you know that was like 9 to 14 so it's a little hard to tell at 14 I was a freshman in high school that's when I got my first new new dirt bike and it was like wow okay cool I don't have to Pedal I can throttle this thing and uh so again you know steep steep learning curve going 14 to like pro at 16 and a half you know that that was that was steep um I was lucky my parents really you know my family really gave me a good opportunity to go race dir bikes and give it a try and and uh that was those were in the days that you could afford that stuff you know my dad my dad and mom my dad's a mechanic by trade so he's not rich by any means yeah Motocross used to be like the blue color Motorsport yeah and I think I think in some ways it kind of still is but like you could become a top Lev am a top level amateur based off your dad being a mechanic like there's not that many kids now that if your dad was just worked as a mechanic that you'd be out to like do lettas and all that sort of stuff yeah I mean people find ways to do it that's true it's pretty cool you know they it's it's amazing what you would do for your kids your family Etc um you just find ways to make it happen and and that's what my dad did you know he worked extra hard to get us to go to lettas and we'd take those two weeks a year and do Ponka and Loretta and we'd hit up Mammoth and there was you know those four or five races a year we never made it as far east as Florida to race um but back then they had a big race in Vegas called World mini and so there was World mini Vegas and then during the winter we had some of the Golden State series and some of that stuff that was sort of all around Glenn Helen and atlanto and all these things um but but we went we were able I was lucky enough to go to Ponka and Loretta which were kind of the p p was a lot bigger at that time so they were pretty equal at the time so um yeah I mean my parents just pushed hard to give me that opportunity and it really you know again who knew who knew was really going to work out I mean I I'll say this and I always say this you know two or three years into my pro career I still had no idea how to ride a motocross track yeah I could race Supercross but in Motocross I mean I was not good I mean yeah I could get a top five but I had the best bikes out there and all that stuff so I in my mind I'm like it didn't it didn't really click until like you know 90 end of 93 '94 I was already on 250s at the time so you know four years into my pro career I'm still trying to figure out how to ride a motocross track I just wasn't good at it that's insane to think like cuz I remember I remember reading your book when I was younger like wide open it was It Wide Open yeah wide open yeah and yeah I remember the you the chapters were pretty cool when it came to Outdoors because it seemed like that was so hard for you to figure out but it always seemed like you kind of carried injuries through outdoors cuz you kind of you put so much into Supercross I feel like you just band-aided a lot of stuff through Supercross to win that and then Motocross you always kind of had to deal with some [ __ ] yeah I was I was you know I was pretty fortunate on the injury side right I mean I stayed on my bike a lot more than my a lot of my friends did that I raced against you know cuz back then we were all friends we did hang out and no matter what manufacturer we were riding for we were riding together going to the same tracks hanging out at night together doing you know weekends that we were off we were all doing stuff together it was pretty cool golfing biking training playing drinking whatever we were doing we were all hanging out um so yeah I mean Super Cross always just because of the BMX background I think just was very natural yeah um Motocross first of all I think I was a pretty lazy kid right took me a while to figure out that if I got my ass in gear and you know paired that with the talent I had on a dirt bike that it would make double trouble for the rest of the pack right but it took me three years to figure that out uh with the help of Gary Semix who was my a old former pro he was my sort of my mentor and trainer back in the day coach he's OG guy yeah and Gary used to you know we used to work together I'd go to his place in Ohio and then he'd come out and stay here for about two months a year and and he was really the one that just said look you know you have to retrain the way you're thinking about this and I was like I said by Nature I was a little bit lazy cuz I had a little bit too much talent yeah so I was just came real easy I'm like why do I need Motocross when I can just kick the [ __ ] out of these guys and Supercross that's easy this where the money is yeah but then you know after a few years all the talk of like oh he's he's not going to be regarded as one of the greatest guys in the sport ever even though I was winning every Supercross race if you can't win Motocross they're like well you're kind of not all round you know a badass and I was like well F that dude I'm going to figure out how to make had happen and uh that's kind of at the end of the 93 season is when I go all right I need to get my button gear and instead of looking for the smoothest line on a motocross track I'm going to go for the fastest line on a motocross track so that's what you used to literally you were just rot around just avoiding all the bumps care it was slow yeah I didn't care if it was slow I mean I was just trying to you look good again I was trying to be so different that it just didn't work you know right I mean that that that kind of thinking can hurt you sometimes too and in Supercross it worked well right because I was taking different lines different rhythms all the stuff to you know that would work in Supercross but in Motocross that doesn't work was just you got to have the shortest line fastest line the roughest line yeah and so the only way to figure that out was get your bike working and get your ass off the couch and start training a lot and uh you know honestly takes a long time to get over the hump and get to a point you it it a l and it's crazy there's a point where it just feels like it catches up to you yeah and then you're like ah you suck one day and then it's like all the six months before just finally work they all sort of start working and that's what happened that's what happened I started started winning winning winning a couple races here and there and then in uh you know 94 I really put my you know it was in a 93 I clicked in my head I started working harder '94 was the year I rode uh 250 Motocross for the first time yeah cuz in '93 I rode Supercross and then 125 outdoor yeah finished third I think that's unheard of too yeah yeah it was weird right I went back no one would do that these days no no no and you know I have to say you know Supercross came pretty easy but Outdoors it was hard kadasi L Rocco IG was tough um these guys know how to ride Motocross and I was like okay and they just suffer dudes too you know like Motocross really favors the psychos look at brownie still just wants to put himself through it you know and it's he just loves it being I I feel like now he I mean he's as good as he ever was right now yeah it's crazy he did all the hard and darl stuff it's pretty guy's a mad man oh yeah Brown still is you know Brown and I raced in 87 125 cclass at Ponka that was a year before I was born yeah sorry Mike Brown and I have known each other since ' 87 and I just started in June of ' 86 wow so I went to Ponka that year and raced Brown I won that year Loretta and he won Ponka I got second yeah so uh we've known each other for a long long time and and I I just love Mike Brown he's so cool that's one of the cool things we'll try and remember to Circle back to where we just were yeah but uh that's one of the cool things it's one of the weird things about modotto but it's also one of the cool things about motto is that you're on the line racing a dude that you've been on the line with for 15 20 years some you know as you get older like even longer you know there's so much weird tension and baggage and you know like Bara and Tomac literally never having a conversation together until maybe they've both got two years on their 450 career left and they're in the tunnel at Anaheim being like well being her dad's pretty cool and they've literally known each other their entire life it's interesting for me as a fan of these guys because it was so different in your day right it was it was so different we hung out a lot all the time like Rhino and me and Factory Phil and all the guys were out here on the West um we were all sort of buddies you know Emig came in there and threw a wrench in it like he's from Missouri came out to California and then you know some of his stuff was like what the um anyways um for the most part we were all hanging out pretty good it was it was was fun uh but you know now to to be a fan of these guys and connect the dots right yeah and to know like oh tomak and and Bara were in the KTM junor race together yeah or dunie and whoever you're like nobody even knew that until now it's pretty strange how that how that even Cooper and AC the first time they ever really had a conversation was they got sat next to each other on a flight this year wow never even really spoke to each other ever that was the first a they ever had crazy don't you think that like in my mind that that just makes things so much harder for sure it does CU it's a lot harder to not be friends with someone than it is to be friends with someone you've got to build a face all the time and if as an athlete and as a pro athlete you need to go to these things with no tension yeah feeling really free and loose and I'm not worried about all this other stuff that happens you know and with crazy relationships you think about that stuffff you for sure the Cooper used that to his Advantage you know like I think he's one of those guys that knew the dynamic knew the dynamic and was like oh I'll just keep this [ __ ] going I think degan's a lot like that too like you think him at the star Factory at the star compound every day just swinging his dick around like this little [ __ ] teenager that just like fastes every single thing like right like we were talking about it the other day and you know you're at those those facilities now and it's just like it's like football it's like scrimmage yeah you know everything every single scrimmage you're like trying to win then you get a that's why these kids become so fast too there's part of that that that you know you want to be the swing a dick every day yeah yeah because that that dynamic's there whether you like it or not yeah and I mean you're 17 years old no one's going to tell you you're not that guy yeah you know when I was 17 I was I was in high school just barely quit working vs to ride dirt bikes and going to Paris and Racing for 200 bucks on Saturdays right I wish I could ride my bike that that good at 17 you know it took me longer till I was 19 20 but um yeah that's the beauty of those compounds today but those kids can get so fast but they're also when you're young you can be cocky you know what I mean it's uh yeah I'm sure it's a pretty crazy environment you know that's probably why they only have certain guys in those environment right you got to you got to keep the keep that kid being built up you know so yeah yeah it's it's funny cuz you're going to start seeing people come and go like leave our kitchen just left like when's anyone left star I know like what's he leaving for I know the bike's still good they still got like what's the to me it's obvious it's just like okay I'm out this sucks like because of the environment yeah I just he's like this just isn't for me like I'm just not I don't want to show up and be at [ __ ] hard dos every or have to listen to this [ __ ] all day long you know 100% like it's a and so that's that whole like I think you probably had it different because you were just like the fs forever like you were the coolest dude you were win like so what what tension have you got you know what I mean well I never felt like I had any tension but I never was Jeremy McGrath's teammate either that's what I'm saying yeah right so for me I was um you know I was just like the fun atmosphere right I mean me and Lamson had a good time we like all my Doug Henry was on the we were on the team together it was super fun um Jimmy button and I were you know best buds throughout our career and just had so much fun together and we like Motocross was almost second yeah is we were just like enjoying life and having so much fun and like listening to the new rap music and just cranking the tunes we had the stereo and the semi and it was just normal stuff you know yeah um and and now it's just you know you got the different tensions here and there and you know uh I don't know it just seems a little more psychotic these days I think you know is it the money like did the money change it because so like all right one think I'm interested obviously this it's personal so you can skirt around it however you want but like I would assume that you made a [ __ ] ton of money so it's not like the money wasn't there but it's like did you just you built up the sport enough to where then like Ricky James Chad like they made the real is that how it work that's how it worked I mean Ricky Johnson before me Jeff Ward Ricky Johnson Brock Clover all those that era all of my heroes are like that we look back Ron Leen all those David Bailey all those guys Johnny O those guys built it up just enough where I could take it yeah and go CU do you know any guys from that era that really could retire not really no they all still and then in my era I'm the only one that could really retire without working if I didn't want to work yeah so I'm blessed in that way the money was plenty good but again my first deal when I rode for Mitch was 35,000 bucks yeah right the second one was 55,000 bucks my first pro career 250 contract was 100,000 bucks with Honda now where it fits in for me is I was able to win enough yeah to take all the bonus money which supplemented what I made as a salary yeah right so um thankfully I didn't go crazy didn't go crazy spending everything um and and made plenty of money where it can compile and now now I'm now I'm fine right so I don't have to work I love to work love to do what I do I'm so stoked to work with kwasaki and do the things we do host science of Supercross do events do all these things and take it at my own speed my own pace and I love all that um but you don't have to no I don't have to for sure and when my era ended that's where Ricky took it yeah right and then Ricky took it to the next level which allowed James and Chad yeah and those three in particular Ricky James Chad to go make really really big money really big money significant amount of money and was it a lot more than what you would have made yeah I think it was a pretty big change I mean the most I ever made including bonuses and Champion the whole thing in one year is like 2 million bucks oh [ __ ] really now these guys get 4 million to show up to the start line dude yeah that luck that's a but I had to do that several times to accumulate you know money to not be able to work yeah um and not go crazy on my spending either yeah so um it's provided me a nice life now Carmichael is the one that really capitalized on it right so he had a good run five years he won everything took all the bonuses yeah you know did that deal with Suzuki where he made you know flat rate whatever it was I heard it was five million bucks whatever Ricky and I are good buddies but I don't we don't talk about that stuff um so you know you just hear those things but you know I I did my part on being able to build it up for the next guy you know and I still love promoting this sport that's what I love I mean we want these kids to if they're good at it to be able to create a career for themselves create a job and um have some fun with it you know a guy like Jet Jet Lawrence you know Hunter Lawrence look at these guys I mean Joe shimoto is now coming on kicking some butt I mean it's neat to see these new guys I mean Hayden Degan is his dad is helping steer him but he's exponentially better than Brian ever was yeah you know what I mean yeah and Brian you talked about earlier need the about the conflict he needed that conflict to do what he was doing now someone look at that and go man what an [ __ ] why is he doing that but that's creative genius right look what he did because Travis didn't even have to get the joke right all Travis had to do Brian this is like the genius of Brion Degan is he set Travis up to just be himself right he was like Hey I know who you are you do you I'll do the rest yeah and both of them killed it blew this [ __ ] up to totally what it is now yeah and all that you know all that drama and all that stuff Brian needed all that to do what he was doing and create the thing that he did and it's it's commendable huge pretty crazy to think that you think now too like you've got Hayden Dean and the lawrences it's the same thing it's just like hey we'll do our thing over here jet Hunter just you do your thing I'll take it from here right right well you know the the things that that we didn't would that we never had as in our career window was more like the media thing yeah and uh Brian and Hayden and their team have a really good handle on how that works and they're capitalizing on it really well um you know it helps to have a talented kid of course uh he has a bunch of talented kids I mean um his daughter's amazing too yeah haly and she just did a two-year deal for xinity which is crazy pretty amazing pretty amazing so yeah I mean it's uh it's funny we were actually talking about that yesterday with a friend of mine and you like now now Brian's a dad yeah he's mentoring his kid but he's not going to tell his kid to act like he did right so he's going to say do the opposite of what I did because now it's working for you you're winning dirt bike rider you can have this career in the corporate world and do all this stuff um which sort of Brian was trying to get to that part but he didn't make it there so he had to create another Avenue yeah genius yeah so yeah it's it's um you know it's crazy the world takes you in different turns and and uh you know when I was racing back in the day and we were kind of the racer guys and then that that free style thing came out and they were acting crazy and re Rebel is you know we were like what the hell these guys are tearing down everything we built we're trying to build up here so it was this constant little battle that's real bro because I remember when I first got here and I was working for JDR KTM like that's what I first did oh okay and uh we'd go to these like sponsor meetings and [ __ ] and they'd be like oh like the Crusty Demons yeah that doesn't really fit our Vibe and we're like no no no no no it's not Crusty Demons they're like these [ __ ] or metal militia is what they would say and then we're like no they do that [ __ ] we do Super Cross like we're in the state where're the races we're like the clean cut American you know but everyone no matter where you went no matter what meeting you went in they're like oh Brian Dean Metal Militia yeah no I'm not interested and we was like [ __ ] that was the connotation that everyone had with just two wheels after those guys did their thing yeah I mean it's kind of the way I look at it is a it's it was very impactful right cuz we were trying to go corporate over here trying to win races and that's why we have a Starting Gate and we want to kick the [ __ ] out of the next guy on the Starting Gate well they're over here getting judged by a contest and all this stuff and we're like that [ __ ] ain't real yeah so you know there was always this constant little thing but it's a little bit the analogy is a little bit like say what Hell's Angels sort of did to motorcycling in general right some dude riding his Gold Wing down the street on a Honda people are like look at that dude you know he's like a he's a rebel and the guy's probably the nicest dude in the world riding his bike well that's what those guys did to did to Motor Racing you know and again to go out and create your own line and just create an Avenue for yourself it it's so commendable I mean to be able to just have enough nuts to just go out and like this is our way and that's what we're doing and have it work that's pretty Co but you so you timed I think to the your career the best in the sense that you made enough money to retire but the money didn't spoil the fun because then it seemed like once it got past you in terms of USD every year then that stops being as fun and you know everyone sort of it starts to get a lot more pressure a lot more on the line then people you know then I think Ricky with the training so right I think that that was what I was going to say is the model itself for being a pro racer changed yes right so I would people always look at me and they go man he had so much fun I don't think he trained very much he just so much talent he was out there just winning and out every night drinking and whatever it's so funny to me because I wanted people to think that right that's what I wanted I wanted my competitors to think that I was out on a Monday night or Sunday Tuesday night drinking or something you know when I not when I was I was busting my ass and but I wanted them to think that I wanted everyone to see that like oh he's got that party boy you know mentality whatever he's just in it for the glitz and the Glam yeah well that really wasn't the case so it was funny when people say that I used to love it right CU that means they're not working if I could get them to not work then it made it easier for me yeah right um then when the model came along with carmichel it was more like uh you know people look at Ricky and they go you took the fun out of the sport right well Well Ricky needed to train like that to beat me yeah cuz he didn't have it at first with Supercross where he was trying to make that transition and just really didn't work so he he figured out my weak points right lap 18 lap 17 18 19 20 whatever it was and goes you know look with the help of Johnny O we're going to figure out how to just be better at Fitness yeah be there and this race will come to us at the end of the race yeah and it did you know it did that's what he he worked it out they had a good strategy and I wasn't prepared for that and how hard is it to get all right how hard is it to get fit for 17 laps of Supercross versus 20 laps like how hard is that extra three oh it's so hard I mean that's honestly probably 30% right yeah cuz I mean when you go into 8 which is Anor robic threshold when you get over at and you're you're pushing it you only it's like an hourglass you only have a couple laps left right so if I hit at at like lap 15 17 came pretty good but about 18 19 20 if someone was on your ass you're like all right kind of like my 50-year-old vet race that was at Mammoth right um so it's those things are you know and and by the time by the time I was like oh okay I know what a strategy is now it was too late I was undertrained yeah yeah and then then like what happened with jet this year sort of I I reference the same thing what with what happened to Ricky once he knew that he could beat me late in the race well then that all of a sudden build his confidence up and then the next year he's like oh want to build that up yeah right and then the next year even if I came back in shape it would have been a lot harder yeah which you know is always the case you cannot give the kid all the confidence the window like this year when jet was riding Motocross those guys being hurt and him really not having a stacked field too too much in the beginning of the series really did wonders for him in confidence wise yeah now he's going to be able to go to Supercross and go huh well I guess I feel like should win and SMX exactly so like yeah they just literally gave him all the confidence I me look timing is everything right timing is everything that was brilliant on Honda's part to let him ride 450 cuz originally they were probably large was probably thinking okay we're just going to let him ride 450 we're not worried about the title we want them to be ready to ride in January 24 Supercross instead of coming in Fresh Off The 250 yeah for 450 so the thinking was right but then all of a sudden Stars lined up and it started to happen um which was incredible I mean it worked brilliant yeah but it it you know it wasn't designed like that it was designed to get him to ride the 450 get used to it and all that and then then he got all that confidence and it was like someone's got to win I might as well be the winner well that's literally Hayden said the same thing the other day he goes man the first time I beat Hunter I was like cool that's it now I'm going to beat him every week that's it that's like literally for a dude like that that's used to winning it's just that simple like you beat that one guy once then you go okay and I used to say all the time like whole shots is is kind of like that because it's sort of a mini race within the race right oh absolutely and there's guys that like you want to think you can hopefully get the whole shot or there's a guy that just knows they're going to get the whole shot and it's like if you just think you can you can't if you know you can you can that's that's sort of that seems like the way it works yeah I think it it's I agree with that I think you know like when I went to the line I was like well I'm going to get I'm going to get the whole shot that's just yeah I didn't go there for bad start but there's a guy like you know Mike loroco for instance like he probably got like three hole shots in his life right cuz he just went there going man I'm screwed I'm going to get a bad start you know or whatever I mean look at AC he he gets great starts gets out in front I mean it's so much easier to win races from the front than it is from the back so um you know yeah it's it it absolutely that way if you go there believeing you can and you feel like your Technique is there and everything once you get a few it's infectious right you go okay I'm going to get the whole shot but you almost can't do it without knowing that you can first like there's a weird chicken in the egg kind of thing that happens and then like once you get the first one then it sort of impacts that mental I think H shots are a buildup of everything else that's happening too right I mean you start to crack the code you even want to get the start to crack the Cod on Motocross you're like oh okay yeah I start I'm starting to win here okay and you start to put the whole thing is like a puzzle you just got to put it all together yeah and uh once you get the confidence what if we're going to go race around this circle right here once I have the confidence I'm going to be the winner at that race too whatever it is you just go like all right it's a mindset yeah right and you can see the kids out there that have it and the kids that are getting it or you can see it building up yeah along the way and uh it's a hard hard combo to beat in certain kids like like Hayden Degan for instance like once he believes he's going to be up there he's just not going to not me up there yeah you got okay I got the best bike uh won all these races super fit uh okay cool like I just you check the boxes and then do we're going to win yeah there's no searching anymore totally you know and I've been around guys that and maybe you have were in your career points where you're just like looking for answers like I remember Joey saachi when he rode for JDR you know it was like he was just looking in all these different places for all these different answ granted like he's a fantastic riter like he figured it out but it's like you could see a kid in his first series of first season of Supercross just like looking for the answers as opposed to just knowing you've got all the boxes ticked and that [ __ ] just takes like so long to build up like you said it was like three years for you right and and and you know let's take Joey for instance I mean he he would get great starts but even all those great starts he got he still didn't believe that he was needed to be up there or was belonged up there right I mean that stuff start to really should just take over yeah you know yeah um there's 22 guys out there on the Starting Gate for Supercross yeah and probably two believe that they could win yeah right even though they can all lead laps there's five or six of them they can lead laps and if the stars all line up that one guy that maybe we are not sure could win can win yeah but for the majority of the time the guy that we know feels and believes he can win is going to win is going to win yeah yeah yeah cream always Rises to the top they're all great Riders I mean with the addition of new new teams coming in I mean think about how many Factory Riders are going to be on the sterning gate now yeah which we need like it it needs to be full the S like Supercross is a such a weird sport it's like a I guess a different point entirely but where you can just like show up and race like if I got my license to race Supercross in a few months time I could roll my bike into the stadium and just have a crack like kind of weird in a sense you know and it used to be even easier I think now they now they make you get a pro Point somewhere you got to Race Arena Cross or something like that yeah um but but yeah it is like could you imagine the NBA if you've got some dude outside of Madison Square Garden on like a pickup half court that's just crushing it and then he's like looking at his way was like ah [ __ ] I've got I've just got to go cuz I think the Madison Square Garden game I'm going to try and get in it's like no bro you can't play here like this is not for this is not how that works like it's just a very weird system that we've got and I think that with jaat Triumph like these more uh more manufacturers hopefully we could see a full lineup of you know Factory rides I think you could change the schedule so much better for that like there's so much it sucks to say cuz the privateers are a dope part of the sport but feel like are going to get a chance now should get maybe the ble Riot on one of those teams yeah you know um it's going to be interesting to see how it lays out you know there's going to be a lot of factory Riders on the start line right there's a chance now that factory Riders might not make the main right if if if in time when those teams all come in yeah there's going to be a a time when we'll see Factory Riders oh man he didn't make the main tonight which is going to be a weird thing you know so do you you follow Moto GP quite a lot absolutely all right so what's your theory on why jatti are entering Motocross have you thought much about it h uh you if you have to guess well I think this uh I think sometimes and athletes are the same way when you when you're good at something and you're winning you're dominating you think you can be good at everything right I mean we all like I'm winning Supercross and I'm like okay I think I'm going to go race Indie Cars yeah Honda will probably give me a chance let me go drive the car I'm like I could be an indie car racer well then when I retired I'm like okay I'm going to drive NASCARs with Dale Jr monster sponsors him and and and I did and I went and did it but on these little tracks back East um you know you find out really quick that you're not as good as you think you are it's freaking hard you know I'm a dirt guy and and I was like when I went to drive on asphalt I was like car gets a little loose you're like you get out of the throttle yeah and these guys are like just like they grew up doing it it's like a box and not flinching when someone throws a like it would if someone was doing that D we'd be like he's a guy yeah these guys can see stuff because they grew up doing it right and it's the same thing it's be like if we took any one of those guys and put them on a dirt bike they'd be like what um so I believe that in ducati's case maybe they're just feeling like well you know we're Conquering the world right now maybe we need to you know maybe they've been kicking around the idea for a while I don't know but it's going to be interesting that they certainly are killing it at Moto GP right now I wonder this is my conspiracy as a Moto GP fan so you've got KTM coming in they're probably the only real threat to jatti in Moto GP right so KTM over the last few years to me it looks like they've pulled back and I know like some [ __ ] about the business some inside stuff yeah so it's like they've pulled back massively in all of these other avenues and that's all off-road motorcycles right yeah so they've been able to have such a crazy quick rise to the top of MotoG GP because they've kind of pulled from everything that they're already dominating on yeah focused on that so they're like oh well to your point we're killing it at everything else so we can start leaning this [ __ ] out and and then we'll put it into Moto GP and we'll catch up quick so I wonder if this is jaa's way of trying to get that money away from the Moto GP stuff put it back into the the dirt side of things because but I mean ducati's never had a dirt have they ever had a dirt anything built purposely for dirt I'm not sure they have well they've done the they've done like an adventure Style Adventure stuff yeah basically and like I don't know maybe some of the SC whatever but yeah that seems so crazy to me that in 2 years we'll have Triumph and ukat like two bik huge companies racing Supercross it it is strange when you think of those names you only think Street yeah and how's coroli did you see the thing about coroli going to ducatti no so yeah that's their team manager so I don't know whether I just saw it on the on Instagram but I know italianos love other Italiano so like that to even to take Ki away from KTM it just to me the Optics of that scream like jaat trying to [ __ ] with K this goes back to our conversation 10 minutes ago wouldn't you think kyi would ride off in the sunset as a KTM Ambassador for life right but here we are he's he's he's an ambassador for them and the the windows open for him to go do something El he the team manager right for the factory team right now and like he's just like Ciao Bella see you yeah I don't know I just uh duca's got the money right so yeah they're an Italian brand makes sense pretty cool yeah it's pretty cool it's going to be like extremely interesting to see and then if Marquez apparently Marquez gone I heard that I saw that me with his brother yeah dude scary team yeah I think so yeah scary because I saw that lineup the other day and it had his picture wasn't in there and then you you see the interview with Marquez a few days well a week ago maybe where he's like I'm we're working it out we're trying to figure it all out but that was just a ploy you know what I mean yeah I mean it is unconceivable right now to think that Honda and Yamaha went from the top of Moto GP and in like three seasons they're like the worst teams Yamaha especially yeah it's Ducati KTM ailia ailia and then it's the Japanese manufactur freaking crazy not even here insane dude crazy and the top of the class is like six Ducatis in a row or five or whatever it is you know I mean every week and maybe the best riter of all time is going to leave Factory Honda which he was unbeatable on in 2019 was it 2019 the last time he won what yeah was three seasons AG three seasons ago unbeatable yeah you know and you're going to give up but I wonder I was actually talking to um hammer another Jeremy Jeremy uh about it today we're talking about like Marquez on the Honda and it's like he he's basically saying like why can't we just go back to the 2019 Honda start from there and like cuz that bike was a bike that you could win on but I think it's a matter of that bike now is so [ __ ] compared to a that and Mark like the reason he's having the crashes is cuz he's like quaro could try and ride to the level that Mark is but is just going like out bro and Mark's like still on the sand on a just can't do it that that kind of thinking is it would be like okay you give me me give me my 96 Honda yeah and let me line up and it's going to be as good as it ever was yeah hell no yeah not there's no chance yeah maybe that was the best two-stroke there ever was at that time yeah at that time or technically maybe I would put that cuz it wasn't that long after two strokes kind of stopped right yeah that's but so I would put that bike against any aluminum framed Honda but um that kind of thinking like you know we always have these memories especially when you're winning of like oh man that was so cool we could just go do that and keep that feeling forever and do that but the equipment like you said is so [ __ ] yeah compared to the newest stuff and maybe Electronics had to do with that right a little bit I'd say so Electronics I mean these Riders sometimes I mean although the the the highight of B a couple weeks ago was pretty gnarly but you don't really see that a lot that was like the gnarliest two tur yeah that was dude getting flashbacks right now of that I could not believe seeing PCO just flying through the air on the second turn after getting a whole shot yeah and I think the electronics quit or something cuz when he nailed it thing just went sideways and was gone do you remember uh Casey Stoner on the uh warm-up lap I can't remember what maybe it was in like Italy magello or something like that and the electron just went and just another guy Casey was amazing at just pushing it like Marcus you know what I mean yeah yeah and that's what I think like you're seeing with Mark is like dude um how he got on the podium on the weekend is just beond like what a man like honestly especially when the other Honda's like just not even a thing it's not even in the same race hardly it's like they've given him a samurai sword and it's just on this perfect Edge and it's they're like you can cut anything if you hit it with this Edge yeah but if you get off that thing you're done yeah yeah it's it's been really crazy to watch I I don't know all the ins and outs but I'm a fan of Moto GP and K ktm's rise up has been really neat to watch um ducati's been you know I know when they first came in with you know Casey and um the other dude karasi was the other Rider um you know they were giving that team some advantages because that was more like a production bike instead of a Works bike so they'd give them a little bit extra power back then remember the rules and I don't know if all the rules are still even or they're still riding like a maybe not a full Works bike so they get some of these advantages but I mean you work within the rules you're given right ducati's done a great job at that so um you know I as a fan I'm a little I think it's a little weird with all the aerodynamic things they got and then they got the suspension that sucks down out of the corners you're like what it's a trip they're riding spaceships bro right they are totally and I think it takes some of the riding out of it yeah let the rider be the rider you know and electronics did a lot of that so but I mean they're also using you know probably formula ones you know well I think ktm's using for the F1 Wind Tunnel right okay so they're using some Formula 1 technology and there I think they literally put it in their Tunnel right which is [ __ ] gnarly like KTM in 3 years like Pedro Al Costa yeah that's like you know what yeah exactly it's over right yeah yeah I think yeah I mean it's got to be a tough space in your head if you're Mark Marquez right because you're just getting whooped now and that's he still has that fight in him and he's like [ __ ] what am I doing yeah so we'll see if he if he in fact leaves Honda and does that Ducati deal then we're going to see I mean his brother's riding great on that bike yeah right so we'll see it's interesting I wonder if um Honda stays in the sport like it just seems like such a crazy big deficit to overcome I mean Yamaha is with them though right yeah same thing and Suzuki and then they bowed out like you just got to get to a point where there's no Co in there no been a long time yeah I I think if you're those other manufacturers Ducati KTM ailia you want to make it so the other ones stay in you have to so you want to either give them Ducati got an advantage for a while you want to now take Honda and give them an advantage and give Yamaha Advantage so they can get back up and they can all battle Yeah I mean it's good yeah they're dominating but it's good for the overall health of the sport if you have everyone battling together yeah and it's the same in Supercross and Motocross yeah you know the new brands coming in you got to give them enough space to really let them build themselves up you know Yamaha Honda KTM um uh even Suzuki with roxon you never know it's a proper fight every week yeah yeah you yeah Lawrence is winning the Motocross Series but you know seon was in front of them a lot and whatever you know issues he has going on and then it's even a little weird to see him leaving Honda to go to KTM yeah see all the Instagram shots of him with the KTM with the number one on the plate and you're just like well that's crazy I did the same thing I left Honda rode the Suzuki yeah right yeah I took the number one from Honda went to Suzuki which is unheard of you know so uh I think the good thing is the sport seems pretty healthy I think so for sure for us it feels it feels pretty healthy well dude did you watch Motocross the nation on the weekend yeah I was catching highlights I didn't watch all of it but that CR bro that was packed that was so that was neat to see that if if can you imagine if every weekend at every mxgp and AMA Motocross that's what it was like I mean that's the potentials there that track looked pretty fun dude for real pretty cool it looked not like not for me but it looks I mean there were some gnarly jumps on it but um one of the things I always thought was weird and I raced Europe plenty of times right so um one of the things I always thought was weird that they have their Corners sort of like this round Corner instead of just like a point where you could come in and their Corners are all fenced off so so so the passing situation versus like an MX National versus an mxgp the way they shape their tracks is very uh you that you can rail the outsides is kind of how you pass there yeah cuz you're not getting on the inside of a guy where on our tracks you can get up the inside and slam a guy knock him out of the way whatever and I think it's due to the way they shape their Corners it's more of like a inside like an apex on inside not just like a point that you turn around ex and so I always you know that's the uniqueness of the European tracks is the racing looks so different um you know you see a guy like hurling or or even when kyi was in there you know that those passes they make they got to just go like 20 M hour faster than the other guy and just rail the outside and then they come out together and uh did you did you see the first you didn't watch all the first Moto did you see the pass that fev put on uh pra in the no I didn't see it was it aw literally exactly what you said like he railed this outside r as hard and it but yeah the his bars didn't have any side to side movement just just it was one yeah it was absolutely beautiful like the way that he did that but it speaks to exactly what you say yeah those guys hul ass man I mean they're for Motocross stuff I mean they're incredible you watch those guys when I I saw herlings a few years ago at Motocross of Nations at Red Bud it he looked like he was dirt surfing that thing look he looked like in a different class than anyone and he was I mean he was he was just railing like our American guys didn't even take the lines he was taking and he was you know five seconds a LP faster than they were so it was it it was really really cool to see I mean those guys haul ass there no no doubt yeah so you talked about uh the 96 CR250 we might as well just go and spend the next 20 minutes talking about it that's my that's my favorite bike of all time that's one of the most iconic bikes of all time and I think two years ago right before Co I was I was doing another bike build it was on Mark like on Facebook Marketplace found a bike I needed to buy to do this project and then I saw a 996 CR250 all original like and it was right before Co I think I paid $7,000 for it Aussie oh okay so so about like 5 and a half us and it was pretty Mint Condition mint dude yeah so I mean five and a half is probably pretty good I would have paid I didn't give like I would have I was just that was like my Rolex of BS where I was like I want to buy that thing never off yeah dude I've fully it was it's a fun bike to ride unreal like I I want to do I've got a build idea I wish you weren't a a c Ambassador for one project because I want to do I want to build that bike to be like a Resto mod so you know you get cars and then you know you kind of you do the Resto mod where you put modern suspension modern Brak keep everything facing old but new newer components yeah so I wanted to do like brand new Forks like brand new machine split triple clamps like there's a really good shock you can put in it like kind of strengthen up the frame a little bit to where I think the beauty of that bike though from back then the frame moved a little bit I mean look how many look how quickly KTM came up on the rest of the teams because everyone was aluminum framed yeah and then KTM stayed with steel yeah so when dunie was coming you know that steel frame bike he he made such advancements yeah yeah dunie was amazing too yeah and one of the best if not the best of that era right but you're completely he had a friendlier bike you know and for a long time all the manufacturers you know the aluminum frame started out in a really bad way I mean it was unbelievable like when I when I left Honda that year to go ride to Suzuki I I would have ride anything to get off that Honda yeah and it was unfortunate because I have so many good feelings and good memories about Honda but that was wrong thing to do to me yeah like I'm like dude I'm winning every race here I'm like why are you changing the why you fixing the a lamp post yeah exactly and honestly when I started riding that bike in the offseason I was like it was like I forgot how to ride scars on my chin like I mean I had I it it jacked me up several times dude what so that was have be the 97 that was and that was it was late 96 because we started going to some European super crosses I raced bery on that thing got so much arm pump in bercy it took like I finally won the third night but it was because my arms were so tired they couldn't pump up anymore because Old El latic was gone everything was gone muscles everything was gone I finally won a night of a bercy on that thing and then then we went that year to Tokyo Supercross and some of the Japanese races again scar on my face got knocked out um you know I was just like what in in the world happen and I'm in the middle of all the contract stuff at that time um got home from there went to Glenn Helen to test an outdoor we had an outdoor test scheduled that would have been great oh my gosh the ruts were so deep and just like Glen Helen gets and I again I was like I could not ride the bike I got off the bike test was done I called my dad I'm like it's weird to say but we got to leave Honda cuz we were negoti we weren't that far away Supercross was like a month away and my contract was still not done and uh thank goodness it wasn't done cuz that would have killed the rest of my career anyway because were you going to son well it would have been at least two years yeah right so probably two years with a third year option so that was probably would have been you know I was just 96 Supercross champ um had my best season ever 14 wins out of 15 so the negotiations were going fine but it was just slowed a little bit because of the bike and then then I made my final decision on that um and there's no fixing that thing like there's no clamps and there's I mean there's the proof is there right I I left Honda thank goodness for Mel Harris and the boys at Suzuki they gave me that opportunity to went over there and yeah the bike wasn't perfect but it rode good it was fun we had to you know we had to put the conventional Forks back in the closet and get the upside down forks back on the bike there was a few things loroco and the team Riders were really pissed cuz I was able to change my bike and they weren't if you remember those conventional Forks they had altine and him and I was like man these things suck bad and I put my 96 Honda Forks on that bike just standard show of forks upside down immediately changed the bike started was able to run up front winning win and um you know Wayne Hinson from Hinson gave me a lot of his time and the and and fixed the clutch on that thing I had many problems with that um so there was a man we we structured a really good team to get that thing working pretty good and almost won the title so it was it was it was good um the opportunity to ride that bike was was what was so great because I was we did it with like 20 days to go yeah there's no way race that block unheard of 97 yeah unheard of so um it's a shame that all went down like that right but again it was kind of like what we're talking about you know you think the scripts written one way yeah and and you here you go like 20 days before Supercross season it's entirely different I would have never imagined myself riding a Suzuki not ever not so um yeah it's it's wild how that stuff plays out you know and we're seeing that now with sexon going from Honda Supercross champ yeah going on to ktm's yeah KTM really hasn't been that great the last couple years no well I think they're suffering from like the exact opposite of what you're saying they they've gone stiffer like every year they've gone stiffer and it's funny like every test rider you talk to everyone that you actually talk to that rides the bikes drives the Vel the BS all wants them to be more compant yeah way more K is probably the one that is doing it the best with compliance at the moment I've heard the new 24 is unreal for that as well but they've that's like they've almost gone that direction like we went we went away so far from like that 96 and then you get cuz that b like dude when you Kickstart the thing you can feel it Flex underneath you like it's crazy how much that bike flexes but then you go so riter friendly oh yeah it's it's a a wild feeling to go from a like I don't know that many people would have got a chance to ride that bike a steel bike to Aluminum Bike or something well like a 96 to like a modern 450 now it's such a huge difference when I left Suzuki after those seven months and we went and did that chaperel team with Yamaha yeah another great steel frame another great steel frame so that bike was a a lot we made that Yamaha a lot like that CR yeah right um and if you saw what happened in the history of the sport at then Honda took Lusk from Yamaha yeah and I went to Yamaha yeah yeah so we swapped spots and he was made to ride the Aluminum Bike he was badass fast yeah crashed his ass off on that bike and never I mean he he would win races he'd win a race maybe win two races and then the next three races he'd crash super hard yeah so there's times that if you were maybe perfect perfect on it or the track was a bit more you could do it but man um you know to your point of the aluminum and the steel everyone came out with aluminum when it was and made them super super stiff why do you know why they did it did they communicate what the I never really got a reason why they were doing that you'd have to think it would be easier to manufacture the steel frames I don't know like there's always some we weird reason why people do [ __ ] that you might might not think you know yeah yeah well I don't know but you know what they did is they spent the next five six years trying to figure out how to soften it up yeah yeah right and then KTM stayed with the steel frame and they keep going stiffer and stiff stiff stiff you're going to get to the point where they were with the first aluminum frames right so it's going to be tough to ride yeah so I don't know sometimes you know I think with engineering and you can't just ask the Riders if they would have asked me just like hey the bike's good just keep give me the same bike until I'm done racing yeah yeah just give me this exact same bike every year we can win on this yeah um but if the engineers always ask the Riders you're going to get three different inputs then they're going to be like okay what do we build so they kind of have to just go and go all right we're going to go this direction and let's stick with it and the way the manufacturers work now and you probably know this they go in four year increments yeah right they come out with something good bad or indifferent and they're gonna they're going to work with that thing for Four Seasons yeah because you can get a black good in that right time and then by the you know if it's not like the K out the 450 out now is excellent the thing is so good the 23 model is bitching that's what these guys are all riding it's such a really Rider friendly bike so fun and now they have a new model right so they'll have to figure out how to work on that one and and do what they're going to do to it make it a race bike and then they're they're going to have four years to refine that yeah and then teams come out with a new by by then you know and so they sort of have a system and I don't you know like I said good batter and different you can't really ask the writers because each riter has a different different input yeah so they got to just go with how the engineering sort of world works and the writers don't quite understand that I think and and I just got caught up in the engineering cycle really yeah no matter what I was winning they they and of course I'm biased they should have asked me like hey what do you want to do well I just won all those races maybe we should just this bike's Bad season so let's let's try and do that yeah let's build a bike that's completely opposite of the winning bike um so looking back you know you wish I wish like oh hey someone would have come talk to me about that um but it's not how it works it's just not how it works so I mean we wouldn't have the story of how it all happened if that's what happened so that's so true yeah it's crazy dude I uh my first ever bike that I bought so we had like mini bikes when I was a kid I had some bad crashes and then like never fix the bike that I had whatever so then I was just obsessed with getting a bike dad basically said you got to save up get your own Mone so anyway the bike when I had enough money to buy a bike the first guess what the first [ __ ] bike I bought was was A1 1997 cr1 125 oh the one of the worst bikes ever and I got on this thing and uh we didn't even we didn't even go to like a motorcross track we went up like kind of we up in like the bush kind of thing so we went up and there was this air strip like dirt air strip and my brother who was like 13 jumps on this thing he's like I want to have a ride of it he had a ttr125 that really slow bike going on that and then so anyway he gets on my bike and just [ __ ] gets it into six gear and this thing just goes and dude do yard sale my brand new B way broke his wrist smashed the BL to a million pieces and I was like [ __ ] kind of scared of that thing after that and then dude every single time I rode that probably crashed but just headshake yeah like just every time I went down a straight I remember like you were little at the time too yeah and I'd be like remember how wide the bars used to feel when you were little like it felt like such a giant bike oh every time I went to get a tear off off it was like life or death a like you just hold your breath but that's so funny cuz I always say now I mean I didn't ride 125s at that time right cuz that was right when I switched up to I was riding 250s at the time um that bike when they came out with a 97 CR250 I'm always like that has to be the worst bike ever made cuz imagine your 125 with twice the power and that's that same frame I mean just I mean you were just it was a death machine when you when you hit the throttle so and then funny enough so I uh I bought a 98 CR 250 but for the motor cuz they actually have a ass motor yeah and cuz I wanted a spare for the for the 96 and then we did a a bike uh me and my dad built a 2012 CRF 450 shazzy with that 98 so we're like let's get one of these basically for the engine get a conversion yeah yeah but man I remember we bought that bike and I started it for the first time and was sitting and I just had normal shoes on and just like crack the throttle and the vibration that you would feel in your I was like this is got to be the worst most old 490 style air cool Yama style vibrations and Dad's like do you want to take this thing for a r of the track before we rip it apart and I was like [ __ ] no I like burn this shazzy melt it down turn it into a [ __ ] tyon like that's the only thing exactly get rid of this thing fast let's get rid of it I don't like it's energy I don't like anything about it well I mean I think you know um if you probably asked any of those Engineers of Honda they were first to jump on that aluminum thing right they didn't win from me until carmichel right so Carmichael in 2002 finally yeah right and then he gets a perfect season on the thing right well I mean you remember the setup on that bike that he had it was funky baray down probably 120 millag and the bars back from the center from the stem like it was a wild setup they would I think they were cutting the subframe down like 15 Ms well oh yeah seat was nothing like it they it was a wild setup it worked for him it's fine but I mean those those times were lean so that if you ask them now you're like maybe we shouldn't have probably done that you know what I mean I feel like Honda just had some kind of like weird bad ju guu in a sense because they always made really good motorcycles you know like apart from that little era like it from 97 to 2002 like you could say the 2001 frame was okay but the2 from then like they it was good it there wasn't like I mean the 2012 CRF 450 was great the 08 was great like still uses that similar kind of you know frame now so I was like Honda made great motorcycles but they never won anything and it's almost like you'd always think the Moto gods were like well you [ __ ] McGrath and you [ __ ] car Michael so now we're [ __ ] you yeah yeah it seemed like that I was always and trust me when I was left Honda and I was and they wouldn't win and they'd win a few races I was like karma's a [ __ ] you know and I was so mad that that that that a a group of people could let that happen you know what I mean yeah and and that's always the strange part because all these manufacturers make beautiful bikes you know but Honda was always like the they were always Honda they always Honda you know and uh those years though made the sport better because those years that they weren't winning allowed all the other brands to catch up yeah for whatever reason Yamaha caught up Suzuki got better kwi got a lot better when I was racing in the 90s early like Emig was riding that cowi that bike really wasn't that great my Honda was way better than that no one's trying to find a 96 KX 250 a 96 CR 250 is as rare as hen teeth right and and the Yamaha at that time when Henry or some of those guys were riding that bike yeah no one really wants it Forks were way out there I mean it's just a weird two joke at the time yeah so the Honda had a big Advance you know big advantage on everybody else but um what that did is it allowed everyone else to get better that does make sense for the sport it was just a weird weird time but it sort of worked you know yeah so when you were um there's like so many different ways we can go but when we'll go back to that whole like Carmichael thing like when he came into the sport and then he had to work so much harder to get that kind of Advantage like from your perspective like how were you viewing that and were you kind of at the stage where you were like I just don't want to be that guy like or you kind of like what was the mentality seeing that little shift take place so you know um Ricky and I are good buddies yeah his family and my family are friends he was coming out to California great people yeah great people he was coming out to California when the races were out here and he would stay with us and so I was taking Ricky out in the way wakeboard boat and we were he was 10 years old right so I mean we we've been friends for a long time and any kind of animosity that that got built up was over was over Media stuff right it was the media creating some of that um and probably the fans too because they're billing for him and they're chairing you it kind of automatically creates the bit of a storyline in itself there was a little bit of some of the fan when when when the when he started beating me and the fan thing they were booing him and all this stuff well there was a couple of blunders they did like MGM Grand they brought him down in a king's chair with a king's crown on and the fans were like no no no no no no you can't do that too soon bro and yes way too soon and Ricky Ricky you know to his fault he went with that that he shouldn't have let him talk him into that stuff because that wasn't you know I I thought it was kind of funny BEC but but it was it was wrong to do to him yeah right CU that that kind of situation created a bunch of fans against him you know it took him years to get get all those fans back and it took a lot of winning to get all those people back on his side you know the fans are funny the way it works you know they they really want the upand comer the underdog then then they want the guy that dominates and then when the the new guy comes along and beats the guy that dominates they hate that guy so it's a really funny sort of strange cycle um so what happened to me was you know it took Ricky three seasons before he could really get up and compete with me right remember when he first got on that Co crashed yeah a big foot Peg through his leg um then the next year just crashed a bunch and whatever took himself out and then finally like the third year was when when we were battling and that was when he won um he was riding to co then the next year he switched to Honda right so um you know look I was 30 years old 31 years old Ricky was 21 years old 20 years old maybe something like that um maybe there's part of me probably that I you know I was I walked the line between confident and arrogant I mean I just was confident you kind of have to in a way yeah right I mean I was like okay he's coming but I still got him you know and the year that he actually the year he beat me and then started beating me every week I certainly was not expecting that and was undertrained but I still felt like you know the next year I had enough speed and enough strategy and enough you know knowhow to to get come back on well the next year I started training so hard I tried to do what he was doing and just put myself in a major hole and then I the 2002 season I couldn't even ride yeah I was so skinny and just like it wasn't me yeah um and like we talked about the window of confidence that he gained yeah in that within that time where I wasn't able to compete with him yeah my sense or My Hope for being able to compete with him again was gone it was lost yeah right because he gained that confidence now he knew he was supposed to win even if I was up there he could sit behind me and just go up okay time to go and just go yeah and those are the things that I did to Bradshaw and Stanton and a few of the guys when I raced yeah once I figured all the puzzle out I was like H I used to I love Bradshaw yeah he was one of my favorite writers you know and but when I got behind him I would just and as weird as it is to say I would just laugh I'd like okay all right time to go now and I would just blast off and and beat him when he was riding really well so those are the types of situations that happened to me with Carmichael you know he he could sit behind me and even though he he loved me like as a writer yeah um yeah we were friends but you you also look up to these guys and um you know he at some point you got to you got to break your Heroes you got to break them yeah and that's where he was at so with it being a little bit out of shape the year that he started beating me then trying to chase it really hard and being screwing myself up and not being able to ride the any hope of getting back that battle was lost yeah right so the timing is everything right I mean it took him three seasons though I will say that it took him three seasons before he could come up and compete with me on a regular basis so that was good I held him off for a long time which that when you put it like that that is quite a long time to you know kind of keep that that rain you know for someone that is the best in our sport ever Carmichael to hold him off really to get to my level for three seasons was a pretty good accomplishment right yeah um when I came in those guys couldn't say that I beat him in the first year yeah you know dunie came in he beat him in the first year so there's those times when that that guy like if Ricky carmichel the great Ricky carmichel was as developed as he was when he was 24 and he came in at with that kind of you know at a younger age he would have beat me right away yeah right so he just had to figure out the puzzle and I'm just you know look I'm proud that we can sit here and go hey the best guy ever in the sport is a guy that took over for me yeah yeah right but you can still say that you're the best ever when it comes to the stadiums too you know so I feel like there's there's always like there's always not not contention but I feel like you're just always going to have that seat at that table and it's all it's like it's like in surfing if you were the best ever at pipeline yeah it's like okay so that's the biggest that's the best Wave It's The Nest wave and he's one of the most out of you've just automatically like yeah M did he win the most world tours did he win the most evented World on a world tour no but you know so you've kind of I feel like you've got that well I'll always have that until someone comes along and beats that right yeah um you know there can only be one king of Supercross yeah and so I'm proud to be that guy I I mean I love the sport I love what it's done for me I I'd give back as much as I can in in a fun way but I mean it's just amazing that the dirt bike was able to do that you know I'm just one of the lucky ones if I started earlier I may not may not I may be working right now maybe doing something else is so crazy it's timing and it's cool that you can sit here as well and just call it exactly how was like cuz there's so many times where an athlete like the Next Generation should be better than you like if you did your if you did your job right it should be better than you and it's like what happened should happen like there's just this dude cuz you did it to everybody else right and it's like there's a guy but I guess the difference is is maybe what it took to beat you was something kind of crazy whereas it seems like you beat those other guys by almost like reimagining the sport in a way but it wasn't like hard to say like to me it's like when for Carmichael to beat you it's like he put his body on a Dyno and you know what I mean it's pretty true whereas like and then it was still a car and he was still you know doing the thing but you just got the car on the dno and you just made the car like really really [ __ ] gnarly refined it yeah whereas like you changed the way that you drove the car like the car didn't change that much you changed the way that you a car I mean that is a little bit true right because I hit the window of when the sport was changing a little bit like I was able to change the style of the sport yeah which I didn't go into the sport going hey this is my unque the culture as well which we haven't even kind of talk culture changed for sure but the style the style certainly changed right when I when I was looking when I look at my heroes Ricky Johnson Jeff W Brock Clover all those guys how high did they jump yeah yeah I mean they were jumping so high front end in the air just I mean Guy Cooper the these guys were awesome respect just respect but they're they were trying to make the obstacles you know where we were racing the obstacles and that that was the nature of what happened with a bicycle with the BMX style um I didn't set out to change the sport right that's just how you rode it's just how I rode and how I figured out how to apply what I learned on a BMX bike and put it in a motocross bike yeah and a Supercross track was the perfect canvas to let that all happen right and I was lucky because the sport was ready for some change yeah um and bikes were getting better bikes were getting better yeah tracks were getting better tracks were pretty steep and gnarly back then which was you know another Advantage I think I had because in bicycles you don't have any suspension so you have to be perfect yeah and I could hit the perfect line every single lap the perfect line within 4 in yeah and you know took a long time for guys to figure out how to do that right so there was a few things that really worked in my favor um with car in Carmichael's case he revamped What it Took right he could ride the motorcycle as good he copied what you did on the motorcycle but then took the fitness thing to a whole another thing so now you know and to to take that to into now today's account right you take all those guys are doing the carmichel method they're training like that they're so now now how do you get one guy to stand out yeah well then I think that's where it's just this ultimate pendulum swing right yeah it was like you changed the way the bike was written and then it was like now everyone copied that and then they just got better like human potential wise and now you see jet is kind of riding the bike like so differently I mean people argue that it's people say he's not but I do really think he is like the way that he's using a 450 and I think Rino said it really well the other day on here when he's like it's Jets making it not about Fitness as as much anymore he's about riding skill because the bike is so [ __ ] fast the track is so rough like how do I just put this thing around the track as perfectly as POS like you said as as with you know don't think jet uses the BRS that you know I don't think jet goes through the gears in the same way that other guys are he's doing it with finesse yeah it's so you know so then it's like human performance finesse and like well you look at you look at Eli Tomac right and he's going to muscle that bike and yeah do things that people can't do because he's stronger than them he's more fit than them yeah which is the combination that he found that works for him um you know look looking at Jet and seeing the Finesse and the way he rides that bike you should think that would lend perfectly for Supercross right that's this year is going to be his dream coming true right so it's going to be interesting to see what those other guys are going to be ready for and see how how ready they can make themselves to battle this guy yeah um you know it's the cards it are in the making right it's there he's got all the thing can he do it he's it looks like he's going to be able to start winning right away but we'll see you know I I guess that's why there's a Starting Gate yeah so you you know that car Michaels coming you can C you're in it you can see it yeah how did it look for you of like the way cuz the last few years of your career were pretty I guess shitty just in the way of like the KTM thing obviously didn't work out like you had this awesome era at yamah at Yamaha and then the KTM thing and then and then Ricky's like doing his thing and then you kind of concede in a sense like I've just lost this ground I'm not getting it back like what did your mentality shift to because it seems like from the outside looking in and then you anyone talks about you they just say you're the nicest most humbl dude and it's across the board like everyone says it so it's like would be pretty hard in my mind to be the king of Supercross and then have to almost like just graciously almost SE as up but then you managed to still be the king like while you did it so I was like how did you navigate seems like a very tricky end of career to navigate to still end up coming smelling like roses the way that yeah I think you know look I think at the end um you know in 2002 I was 31 years old right 2003 when I stopped racing that was when the KTM thing happened I was 32 years old that's not not now but when I raced I was kind of old you're old guy right so at that point you're already trying to figure out like what's my exit going to look like right um we already talked about it I thought I was going to ride off in the sunset on Yamaha didn't work um you know I went I won three championships then finished second in 2001 third in 2002 and then that's when uh Yamaha decided to go a different way and I said okay well that's it I'm going to reinvent myself I'm going to show you guys and that's when I made this deal with KTM well it's just kind of a shame it didn't work out because knowing what ktm's done now is so Rive I was just a little bit early and and they were a little bit too ambitious maybe right about then they had high hopes of doing something but it just the bike wasn't quite ready and then they were going to build a bike for it and they canceled the plans to build a bike and that's when I said okay I can't I can't race this bike it had no linkage it was just not made for Supercross I already crashed in Europe a bunch on it um dislocated my hip on it at the practice track and I was like you know what I'm 32 years old the guard's already changed yeah I'm I don't have to prove myself anymore I've done enough I'm retiring yeah and it and it just clicked one day that's it I'm like as as bad as I felt for KTM because they again like Suzuki did in 97 were going to give me an opportunity to to show myself and reinvent myself and do all that and do it my way and that was a really bold move on their part right and it was it was it was crazy for them to think that that that it would all work out and it was a little bit crazy on my part too right but again I was trying to do my own things my own way um so you know we did a couple it was I have to say it was a little strange right I signed with KTM then I retired and then I did some parade Laps on a KTM which was death defying on that bike cuz really yeah because I was having to ride a bike that wasn't made for Supercross and then you know a lot of the Supercross is back then the whoops are right before the Supercross and then I'm expected to do a knack Knack right so I'm getting paid by KTM I'm like holy [ __ ] yeah this is a gnarly 30 seconds exactly and it was a little bit like little bit like Windham doing those Opening Ceremonies with those big ass jumps a while for that he for a while until he crashed out like wanted to hurt himself or whatever then that stopped um but yeah I mean I survived that and then immediately when that was when that season was sort of over it was like okay no deals I don't want any deals I immediately went out and bought some two-strokes bought a Suzuki bought a Honda bought another y all Two Strokes just cuz I was like you know what I want to ride because I'm love to ride and so I just want to try them all this is the only time at this point I'll I'll be able to ride all these bikes without people saying something about it or being tied to somebody you know so um that's kind of how that deal started working then I Eric kho obviously is a really good friend of mine we raced together he raced era before me he's the team manager Honda those guys weren't riding so good he's like hey come out and help us out check it out so I started doing some test and that's when I raced again in 05 or something which was cool because I feel like that kind of gave you the send off and then because you're on the two-stroke that's exactly how I felt yeah it was just like it was a way better ending it felt right that one week you know I was doing all that testing I raced a couple races and then that one week I finished fourth in Phoenix on the 250 to the to the big three at the time right James Ricky Chad and then the next week I finished fourth again on the 450 the 450 right yeah so it was it was just like okay cool I can still ride everyone knows I could still ride yeah and did it on a two I'm good with that yeah last top five on a two strike exactly last whole shot on a two-stroke yeah um and that that for me was like felt really good to get that opportunity you know and uh from there it was just like there was no brand ambassador job at the time people didn't do what I was doing I was I made that role started doing it and started doing all these fun events and um X Games on the you know on the Step Up Super Moto and I was just doing all these fun things you kind of got to retire at the perfect time when like that [ __ ] was still happen too and you were the man on Super Moto for a while was so fun finished what second next games um also race Supercross in X Games that's years later finished second to that I think Josh Hansen won I got second maybe yeah Springs Bell maybe um Josh Grant was third in that or something like that anyway it was it was just a really fun time you could do these you know even carmak came out later and did step up and um yeah I mean it just it was a good time to retire a good time to be riding dirt bikes um and it kind of gave you everything you wanted out of it totally yeah and then and then throughout that created a new fun position and that's valuable now to every manufacturer out there and now I've been with kowi I mean I started my career on kawis yeah I won my first Supercross on a cowi I was Team Green for a couple years there and then when it came time to go to my pro career um they had other guys going to Team Green and I went to the pro circuit haunted team so um in a way when I signed with kawi again you know Monster was part of it yeah it just all everything made sense to go go do something with cowi and and do this ambassadorship with kawi and I'll tell you what man it's been so fun so so many fun opportunities we I really enjoy the people at Ko yeah they seem like a really awesome group of people so I I'm friends with taka the like Tes for yeah so he's just one of my boys and because of him being at KI like it's kind of bought me a little bit into into Cali I'm like [ __ ] these are good people man yeah good people good the bikes goes now good atmosphere bikes killer um been part of the side by side program with the krx you know and my my daughters are driving side by sides now and we we take the krx and we go race King of the Hammers and we do these crazy off-road events and stuff and and uh I'm just so appreciative of the opportunity but we also have a lot of fun you know there's a great group of guys over there um so yeah anything related to co that I do I just I have so much fun and I love it and appreciate it so much those guys are great yeah no it's just cool that you got to I guess like be a part of building the sport and then you kind of got to have like that kind of good it wasn't like the fairy tale ending but I feel like the way that it went down we probably got more of you than what we would have you know yeah I think maybe because you won three more titles at Honda and just more money more everything that comes with it and then maybe you're just like I'm out yeah yeah yeah maybe yeah I mean one thing that was never lost and I I just always wanted this to be this way in the career and I'm proud of the fact that one thing was never lost is my love for my dirt bike yeah you know and I love seeing the people like I can call anyone right now on any of these teams and they'll pick up my phone because I'm friends with them yeah which which that way of the world went away after my career because there's agents and all this other stuff that happened now you know my mom and dad used to help me do my contracts and then I would go in the contracts with my CPA Dave and um you know he did stuff with Ricky Johnson he did stuff with Jeff Stanton um those that kind of era went away you know like I I'm still pick up the phone and call kho and talk to him hey what's up man how you doing and and call all these guys and and uh I feel a little bit bad for the some of the current writers that don't really have it that way you know they have an agent someone to talk for themselves and I think it's as an ambassador I think it's obviously really helped with that position right but being able to speak for yourself is there's something to be said for that yeah and some of that's a lost some of that's lost in a little bit of today's sporting and it's not just Moto it's a lot of sports yeah you know um I'm just I'm just glad and I'm just glad I grew up in the era I did yeah it's always you always think like you know hey the grass is greener on the other side maybe I could have made more money maybe I could have done something differently but I feel like I hit that sweet spot in the window and uh you know I just still love riding my dirt bike so that's the most important part yeah I think one of the cool things and I always reference you when I talk to people about this like even talking to Hayden the other day you know everyone always says I want to be I want to grow the sport you know like I want to be the guy that like helps take it to a new level and then you get a couple years into your 450 career and everyone's pulling the strings and you've got this Tonight Show and then you've got and you're like [ __ ] I just want to like all I'm yeah all I want to do is ride my dirt but so everyone starts with the intention of like I'm going to put the sport on my back and you know like James he he could have blown the sport up he was amazing for the sport don't get me wronging but he could have gone way harder than he did but he didn't he he turn turned into that same guy kind of a recluse everyone had a small circle went around him like he wasn't available he didn't do I mean he did the MTV thing but then you know the industry kind of [ __ ] on him for that like it kind of for whatever reason there's like a little bit of toxicity that takes place and then these guys who wanted to take the sport to a new level just want to race make their millions of dollars and be left alone right yeah you were not that guy you were one of the people that said that they wanted to take the sport to new levels and you did every single thing that was required for you to do it and the whole time that you did it everyone said you were the nicest most humble guy yeah well I think you know I certainly was the first one to have a publicist and Cheryl was my publicist and we did so many great things and she was in charge of that and just killed it we did the Leno show we did all these things that were very unique to our sport we had the first video game we had the first we I was the pioneer of a lot of fun stuff yeah now now Ricky was awesome because he came along and got the SEC the second guy always gets the big big deals right yeah um so I'm I'm I'm happy that he was the guy to go do that right um but again I think in nature the way the sport the uh elev of salaries and money it it was so big it got so big they didn't have to do that they just wanted to focus only on riding yeah so it's hard to take a sport on your back when you're just making too much money right I mean it's just is you're like why would I want to do that when I'm just riding my dirt bike and all I got to do is win races and so that that's sort of the nature of that but is Michael making money or is T Woods making money you know so it's like the argument I think then the argument would be like how much isn't enough but I think that I think well that's that's a fair question because the balance yeah of trying to be a pro athlete and be as in shape as these guys have to be in and then take time to go do the Leno show or something like that you know you're taken away from you being the best Moto Rider so right the balance was that they're making enough money to race mocros only and not talk about anything else yeah yeah did they need to grow their brand bigger or not I was always trying to grow my brand bigger so I could have a better deal get a Mazda get 1800 collect you know get Bud Light at the time um get these big deals that nobody ever even no one can get no one could get um so but that in turn elevates the Optics of the sport as a whole and I think that you know like yeah the guys at the top might be making enough money for themselves right but it's only three or four Dudes it's not an entire sport that's making that money and I think that the difference and what you did by taking the sport on your back is you ended up making more like you ended up not eating more from the pie you made the pie way bigger right right and I think that's what it means to take the sport on your back right right right yeah I I'm certainly proud of that the pie did get bigger I mean there Supercross was was has grow grown grew exponentially with me in it yeah right and I think you get a lot of that with when someone dominates right you get like you take take NASCAR for instance Jeff Gordon dominated right no one knew I mean NASCAR was big I guess if you're a car racer but just us as casual fans yeah that guy blew the sport up because he won so much yeah Tiger Woods and Golf Tiger Woods and golf Michael Jordan Michael Jordan all these guys that you know Lance Armstrong yeah who who would have watched cycling if Lance Armstrong wasn't in there nobody yeah so you know you you know then take that further you got Jimmy Johnson who went and continue to win win win win win and I think those guys that win a lot are the guys that really really grow the sport like that now you know what what happens though I think what happens with that is the guys that make let's say after my era the guys that make a lot of money when they retire they're they they struggle trying to find their footing yeah because they're like okay what what am I what am I defined by yeah who am I defined by only winning yeah because that's what it seems like right you couldn't say that sort of about me I was doing all kinds of stuff yeah I love Supercross and winning and doing all that stuff but I was also just into all kinds of everything right so just busy doing stuff um when I was done and not racing I had other stuff that I could do and where these guys are um you know they're such just badass athletes and Racers that at the end of it they're like okay what do I do now yeah and yeah they made a lot of money and they can retire now but now what do they do yeah and so I think that life is long right life is long your career of as a sportsman is like this right yeah and yeah they can make their Millions last a long time but still um what do you like what are you about what kind of person are you what what kind of person have you grown into yeah you know and all these things and and I think that U you know some of the nature of the sport has those Riders looking at the end going okay what what am I about you know and more lately too I think like more recently maybe well I guess probably it's the same over the generations but maybe there's just guys haven't had the money to not have to work and they're put in like kind of that weird position I think the guys that don't make they make the medium amount of money are the guys that are going to be the most creative when they're done yeah right and the most out there yeah yeah because they've probably had to boot trp a few more exactly exactly so they've learned a little bit about that along the way and so that was kind of me I was like you know I was always in the in the nature of like hey someone's got to win I might as well be me but at the same time I was just trying to find ways of how we how I can grow myself how I can be bigger bigger so then I can get the bigger deals you know and still allow myself to race and and you didn't have like Instagram I think these days too like a lot of people think that I've got an Instagram but for you to have a publicist like like I was in Australia 4th of July jet goes 1 at Red Bud on America's birthday and I turn on the news and the sport comes on and I'm like surely J Lawrence is on Australian news right now at 20 years old going one one on [ __ ] Fourth of July perfect season in hand yeah and there was a chick that one in America playing pingpong and I'm just like yeah where's the what the [ __ ] are we up to like seriously what are we up to and it's like is that you there's so many things that you did in your career like have a publicist like yeah Jet's got an agent but I don't think he has a publicist that agreed I think they a lot of those they could the agency should have crazy to me that that wasn't bigger news he should honestly have a publicist at home and here yeah that's what I and I basically said big enough he's big enough he should be the biggest I mean he's going to be a superhero at home but he's not right no one knows yeah literally no one knows if you but I took that on my own back I paid for that on my own it was like okay this is investment I'm going to make because it's worth it yeah you know um yeah it cost me whatever 80,000 bucks a year yeah money well spent though bro Mone spent get on the you get that you can get that in tenfold you know if you grow your brand so but it's not like you but these guys also need to be learning those methods right you could take my playbook and apply it to today yeah you know so it's maybe more valuable than ever now though too but and that's the thing I think like oh well Jet's got the the defense is oh well Jet's got 400 a million Instagram follow but it's like okay yeah but everyone has Instagram now yeah yeah it doesn't really so what's going to separate you yeah it doesn't really matter you know and it's like but I guess were you were you cognizant that you were making everything bigger or were you making everything bigger as a proxy of you just wanting to make it bigger for yourself you know I was just uh cuz it would be hard I me obviously look obviously if you make everything bigger it gets bigger for me yeah right um and that's kind of the nature of me the way I have always been like when all my deals when I took my bike deals was always about the bike it was never about the money because I wanted to win on the bike and the rest will happen yeah right and so that's kind of the mentality that I took um when I when I came off Team Green and went to uh Team Pro circus to Peak anifree Honda team um you know Brian swink was my teammate at the time he was East I was West the next year in '92 or no it was after 92 no it was 92 he went to Suzuki they offered him we were making 50 Grand a year and they probably offered him 150 Grand a year uh he went for the money he went for the money I stayed with the bike yeah and then when I went to Honda he went to factory Suzuki he wrote 92 as a 125 Suzuki Rider Number One U won the East Coast Supercross Championship the next year he was going to be Factory 250 Rider but guess what now I have a factory Honda and he has a factory Suzuki yeah yeah he's making 200 Grand I'm making a 100 Grand but my bike's like 20 times better than and you're making money every single weekend youly and that and our career path just the lines crossed like you know mine was going like this and his was going down like this so I just tried to always remember that part if I can win races the rest will happen yeah and so the same thing with promoting the sport and stuff if I can make this good for everyone it's going to be good for me too yeah and I I just tried not to think think small you know we my dad really helped me get a Mattel Hot Wheels toy deal right we had toys going really we had uh RC tracks going you know with motorcycles Jeremy McGrath motorcycle thing yeah and so we had the PlayStation games you know Supercross 98 then Supercross 2000 Jeremy McGrath and then um you know all all these little things just kind of added up into one big thing right yeah so uh you know it was really about growing the whole brand yeah right yeah yeah it was almost like now that I'm like listening to your talk about it it's almost like you needed to make Supercross better so that your brand looked better in a sense and so you were just like lifting it like it couldn't help but come up because you're like I need this game yeah we got this game coming out you go to Feld I don't know how the conversation goes it's like hey I need this this and I need this this and this from you it's almost like you're pulling things together because you had this vision of like what Jeremy McGrath could be and it Supercross needed to get to a certain level to like live up to that in a way yeah and I think today's world you know some of the stuff that goes on is a lot I mean in order to be a pro aete and the best you got to be a little bit selfish but I was willing to accept the growth of building someone else's brand too yeah to build all of our brand to build our money maker yeah totally to build our money maker which is the sport for all of us I was willing to get other guys and let's help this whole let's get this whole package going yeah it would create a better opportunity for all of us yeah and so um you know that was kind of always the mentality I took I'm not I'm no business guy by any means of you know tried to learn along the way and listen and and just try to apply some of the things I've learned along the way to be a better businessman nowadays at an older age um but I I strictly try to do stuff with the with passion in mind yeah right I mean if I don't if I'm not passionate about it you're not going to be great at it anyways right yeah um it the world's not all about money yeah although some people think it is um in order to be good and want to promote and want to help and want to you got to have you got to like it you got like yeah yeah yeah no it's it's definitely cool to hear that perspective on it because it was such a like if you look at the very first time you were in a stadium to the last time you're in a stadium like that's a massive difference in this in this sport you know and I remember some of my memories my best memories of motocross are watching you in like Australia Australian superc crosses you know when you come over at number one on the for yeah for those guys Craig D Craig Dak I rode for and then I rode later on a Honda with Y and his group of guys um Chad was there and then um so yeah I mean Australia has always been fun you know but I think I just remember like you looked bigger than the sport you know and and it was always seemed like you were this team had this sponsor you had 1 1800 and you had Mazda and you know bu lied and it was just everything that you did seemed like it was on a bit of a grander scale than what the sport was currently at but then it kind of caught up and then you did another thing and then it kind of C yeah I think you know like we all know this to be to be true right perception is reality for sure right so what what you see and then you being in so far away and then I'm showing up you know you're thinking us standards Supercross yeah you know same things probably Chad Reed thought of when he was thinking of Supercross like whoa you know he used to tell me all the time like all I could do is watch you race Supercross you know that was all I wanted to do and uh he figured out his Pathway to get to the US to do that and you know for me when I was coming up and riding dirt bikes as a in you know as an amateur I sucked at Loretta ly right that's that and and right now that race is everything for these kids right I sucked so bad there I wanted in the cclass yeah but then I never did anything after that period so I was so lucky to get a sponsored get a factory ride to be honest I was one of the guys luckily at Ponka the week before I killed it and won like a bunch of two or three overalls and won the overall thing but um you know all I was trying to figure out is navigate a pathway to get myself to the stadium floor cuz that's where I knew I would be good right but unfortunately you got to go through all these channels to get there um as a kid so uh you know it's the same with with these guys that are coming from Oz and coming from different places they they got to find a a way pathway it's is it mxgp then to over to here you know look at Tom V for instance you know his dad I raced his dad noce [ __ ] A bunch in Supercross at bercy many times he was mxgp Rider and you know now his his dad dream was to come here and so his kid he was probably showing his kid yeah yeah the whole time like us Supercross check it out here's the goal right here but we got to do GP first and then you know now he's over here then you so it's everyone tries to find whatever way it is to get to that ultimate some some never find it you know I was lucky yeah no so true so when you when you first started getting these bigger kind of outside industry or when like when okay simplest way to phrase this question when did you start to become like Showtime I had Showtime on the butt of my pants in 8 seven at Loretta in the cclass so you would just Showtime the whole time I was Showtime the whole time and the reason I have that nickname is because my I had my own track at and my house used to sit on this pad above my track yeah and I was always out there jumping is that the one that was on the side of the freeway it's like before the hospital the hospital so when I grew up there there was there was nothing was a freeway there yeah it was there but it was just a two little two lane little nothing um so I was always riding in the back on my track and always having my mom and dad watch me and that's where my dad was like we got to put Showtime because I'm always like styling and doing all this stuff it was so corny for back in the day but I was a kid you know I was like check this out you know and I loved jumping even before I could ever even race Supercross you know so um that's kind of where that came from and and me and Davey kums always talk about it like hey 87 Loretta you had Showtime on your pants why and I was like I don't even know why you know we had I had JT orange pants with Showtime on the back and uh yeah it was just that was always the way it is and I I like to show off I don't like to talk a lot about it you know I just like to do it yeah and that was kind of my way to express myself you know but I think that's so cool but I think uh Showtime kind of took on its own life in the '90s and early like where that became you know likeor McGregor the notorious you know what I mean like it became a thing when did it start to feel like it was becoming a thing or is it like losing weight where it's like you kind of don't know it just sort of happens over time but I mean you know I I think when you start to dominate so when I was starting to win a lot and then it was then it was then it was always like styling over the finish line and then the last lap on the triples and it started to take on a life of its own and then when the Knack Knack came out when I started doing the Knack Knack is when it like really became isn't that crazy it's really became the thing you know um and then then and then that that took on a life of its own right so then then everyone was coming up with something right that they having a good nickname it can really help you your brand too it's branding yeah yeah and so um you know it just and then and then I I played into it like I was I was always having crazy helmets and I was doing I was doing these wild helmets with Troy Lee and we were doing it for Anaheim for the openers and all this the fire coming off my helmets and all these weird tail lights yeah like um you and Randy with the blue hair yeah exactly blue hair back in the in 98 or n whatever that was I mean we we we were always sort of trying to do something to make people look at us yeah yeah right I mean that's basically what we're doing yeah and uh you know luckily like like for instance like with Troy Lee was his his business and my career were coming up together we were helping each other and he's so creative and we would sit in there and laugh and go like hey let's do this you know let's come out with a helmet with like dingleberries around like a lampshade okay yeah let's do that and then I'd go out and win with it and it was like holy [ __ ] dude what what's he doing what kind of helmet what is it what is that you know and then um there was there was always something so um you know the show thing just sort of there's a plenty of other ones people you know MC and all these other you know things um but but the showtime always kind of stuck you know yeah and I think that it definitely I think that particular character within the sport is what really kind of catapulted the sport you know and maybe I think from from me like from when I looked at the sport as a kid in Australia and like we could just get VHS tapes every now and again and like we'd have to tape stuff if it ever came on TV and [ __ ] you know so it was kind of like a in the morning on a Tuesday night or something yeah legit and like trying to pause the commercials so that you didn't have to like watch right right uh but it seemed like that Showtime the '90s it just really everything kind of it just went from like hey Bales in a stadium to the show we see lights and you know and I think there's you know the US Open had a lot to do with that with the that you know did that whole deal so it's obviously there was a lot that was kind of going into it but it just really seemed like you were the face of that yeah I think you know one of the things cool is Feld was also creative too you know they they they when we were changing they were changing you know and they created a better platform for all the writers you know better show better lights better Opening Ceremonies um you know they let us do Opening Ceremonies like you know let us ride a fast lap do some jumps ride together you know um and who were the like who was putting forward those ideas was that coming from you guys yeah I mean we you know there was a guy named Gary Becker that was involved before it was it was fed when it was like you know SRO there was Charlie manuso and then there's you know Todd and then you know there there's been a lot great lot of great people that love the sport that have really backed the thing for a long time and and uh you know we had many conversations of hey what do you think about this what do you think about this and um I was lucky to be in those conversations right cuz I was the top guy at the time yeah um and and I got I got along with those guys really well yeah I mean that they were creating a platform for us and uh yeah I mean we we all spoke about it together it wasn't like if I wanted to do something they would say no like hey okay let's think about it how can we make that creative and um you know they were investing in the lasers and the money you know the smoke machines and the the music and all the stuff that that went on with it so um you know look I was I was the guy dominating and winning and you know the name people were hearing and the showtime thing and this but the sport itself was growing too yeah and so I remember the first time we were ever on like sports center you know it still doesn't happen which I don't know why I don't know but I I got on Sports Center a few times after winning you know 10 races in a row finally I got on Sports Center but um you know it's weird to me to think that that Motorsports doesn't really get us any time on you know even if it's just a hair on some of that you know yeah Formula One does a little Moto GP doesn't even get on it you know so um but us Supercross should be on Sports Center because it's an American Sport and it's just like it's as big as the others more famous than the others yeah and and again I think that's a little short-sided because if if someone at ESPN could get they could help grow the whole sport yeah you know and create more Superstars yeah create more known figures where where he like we're in the perfect time for it now too because I think you were there were obviously a lot of other go great guys around you but it was so focused on you through that period of time nowadays like Chase is like the American quarterback out of Ohio State you know like is the most cleancut American kid athlete kind of dude you got like Justin Bieber of motocross you got Hayden Dean you've got Joe shimota from Japan you you know like there's so you've got a the cowboy like there's more Eli Tomac is the [ __ ] American Eagle you've got Ken roxon like you've got such a Eli is a Bruce Springsteen of superr you know just like he's just like you know Americana as it gets you know dude I uh I was in Rome once and we were it was like the night before I flew out so we had one night in Rome and and Bruce Springstein played a 4-Hour set in these ruins right next to my hotel room we just sat on the balcony with like wine and cheese and just watched Bruce Springstein play for 4 hours in like most random thing but a memory you'll take with you forever the best dude that is the best analogy ever Eli is the BR he is it's pretty I mean he's he's just the guy you know you think like right now too especially the world is just so horned up over like a real man you know it just feels like we've lost our way of what a man is these days Eli Tomac ladies and gentlemen he's just been there the whole damn time yep yep yep I know he showed me a video the other day where washle and uh well I was we're talking about bears or shooting or something he's like oh yeah look at this video dude and he's like a [ __ ] huge bear came up to his back his wife at his place in color his wife's hit the button to like go to get groceries and there's a huge bear like trying to rumage through his trash and his his wife they've got like the ring cam you know W his wife's like he just lost no no end he had he's got this gnarly dog I can't remember the name of it but it's like one of those be dog kind of things and the dog straight up ran out and was like circling the thing yelling at it it probably was a black bear anyway right yeah I think it was but it was big yeah black bears are in nature not quite as gnarly as say a grizzly bear and I don't even know if grizzly bears are in sort of you know Southwestern Colorado where he's more like New Mexico yeah he's right on the corner of Arizona New Mexico Colorado it's called Cortez is where he's at yeah it's by Durango and uh so it's kind of like the South it's on the mound bikon in Durango right they used to DOA they used to do like norba series and stuff yeah yeah so he's on the western side of the divide the continent Continental Divide so he's on the western side of that um which seems pretty unusual for the bears but I mean you go to Mammoth and there's Bears yeah right so but yeah that must have been pretty cool ring ring cam oh dude yeah his wife probably was freaking about it yeah yeah she was she was tripping but as you would that the kids were just standing there don't leave the kids out in the yard yeah but this I said dude shout out to the dog like it's good to know that you've got a dog that would actually do that the dog just ran out and just started losing it at this that's cool but I mean American right there like it doesn't get more American than Eli in Cortez Colorado like doing his thing and just to be he's just the champion of champions you know like he's like that D nhart kind of style guy you know just like the full American champion so it's like we can support that now and I wonder I think Supercross is definitely getting better for sure it's getting better like I mean I'd say over the last couple years especially having this platform like I've been very happy to voice my opinion on what I think they can do better sure and they've done so much of it better whether it's come from me or not like not saying that you I mean yeah when you refine something so many times and Supercross is a really refined machine right I mean just like when we look at a a 450 we're like holy [ __ ] man how can this bike get better yeah and they do yeah so it's the same sort of I would assume it's the same sort of thing right I mean they're finding ways to make it better yeah but I still think that there is a ways to go when it comes to that side of the sport you know like I don't know why there's not more you know Sports Center like think about and I think this is where the money does matter like and I know weant I think he's one of the best in the sport in like that we have in terms of a wine but he I think he sort of sits in the camp that's like ah is money that much better like do we need money for the sport like shouldn't doesn't it sort of ruin things but I think it's very very easy to like be at a bar and sit down and there's golf on the screen and it's the 70c hole and a dude has one putt for $3 million it's just really easy and any person like if it's like anyone would be interested that yeah yeah any person can watch that and go damn that's the $3 million to make that like it's relatable or you could understand the emotion you miss a putt for 300 Grand or 100% whatever so like that's where I think the whole SMX thing and having that million dollars on the line so like let's play out and they royally [ __ ] it on the broadcast which sucked but you've got Ken roxon Chase seon and Eli Tomac in the last race of a 31 Race season battling for $1 million Chase seon is out front if he doesn't crash he wins $1 million bang he crashes jet Lawrence is out front Okay if Ken roxon passes jet Lawrence he wins 1 million if jet wins this race he wins $1 million and like that's the dream scenario so you take that into a 30 second Sports Center Chase saon [ __ ] braining himself in exactly you know like while leading just an explosion of sand jet almost kills him roxxon's coming up jet wins a million dollar 20 years old [ __ ] drops an iconic photo like bro tell me there's not a better 30C piece of ESPN content that you could make I I there's not and it's not made yeah so that's a problem yeah yeah yeah that's a problem yeah I I would agree I mean I totally agree I mean even if you took the big time money and applied it to the 16 or 18 rounds of Supercross and it's at the end like that um you know that's Sports Center worthy you know like even but this SMX you know three round Championship thing was pretty interesting especially at the end like you said they're fighting for all this money and it's the last Moto yeah so it couldn't have worked out any better for them oh they nailed it yeah theyed I think they know they need to refine a few things um you know in my mind in in my mind I I didn't quite understand how the points even as a Avid fan how the points thing worked out for Jet right he didn't waste Supercross and then he raced the motorcross and so the points must have been similar to get him well I think it's because so the same way that uh like Bara didn't race all the outdoors so like you've got to earn enough combined points to get into the so because jet won every single mod made enough points yeah yeah so yeah and I think like maybe I think the points thing will definitely continue I like how it went single points double points triple points that that that was cool that was really cool I thought I think I loved that as well I wonder if there's a way to implement the full Championship points into it though but I don't know like that's yeah it would be hard I think that I think that I I think a good way to do it would be is shorten a Supercross series yeah and yeah they have the same amount of rounds but start the SMX part with like you know let's let's start the uh SMX part with say at Round 12 m you go like you know the SMX part now becomes eight yeah so you saying do like a 12 round Supercross series but six or or no you could still race Supercross keep going yeah make it 18 weekends but start the SMX points before the end of the sort of series you know kind of weird I guess maybe You' you you'd have like five rounds of SMX outdoor then five rounds or three rounds SMX so then it's it makes eight or whatever so how about this then how about now that Fel and MX Sports are hanging then they're cool and everyone's chilling are they yeah well I don't know they're cool enough I think cool it's worked like they they yeah yeah how about we go away from a Supercross season and a Motocross season and we do Anaheim one Hangtown San Diego Supercross Colorado outdoors and how about we have a full season where they're changing like changing changing bikes changing setups I think it would change like because all right so all the same points all the same points and then you go to your SMX and then you can take a couple rounds off like make it to where you don't have to race just make it to where I've actually got a few ideas on this but you have a couple throwaway events or whatever well that you like say you're like Canyon you don't want to do outdoors right yeah right right so you don't have to do do every Outdoors to be in the it's like four of the outdoors will coun as points for SMX four superc crosses counter so like a dude like Jeremy Martin Alex Martin or whatever like he can't he's not the best Super Cross but he's [ __ ] man Outdoors like the dude was in the top 10 when he retired from because he didn't have so you get a guy that goes I don't want to race Supercross so they got to Sharp and do four make maybe you make the night show whatever but instead of having an outdoor a super season because the the thing is and World Supercross was cool for this right so the boys will fly to Abu Dhabi November 5th for the race they'll all get there a week before there's no practice track there's no testing that like you're done yeah once you get to the track you're done you got a long ass practice Friday you didn't forget how to ride a bike in a week ex so do we really need to be [ __ ] cycling Monday riding Tuesday rid do you good anyway yeah let's have it to where like so imagine you got to race A1 maybe you do two super crosses then you go to Hangtown then you do parlor then you got three more Super crosses then you got washugal you know so you're sort of sprinkling it in you it's not going to be as routined of like the grind it's going to switch it up for people like alden's got a formula that works and Swan's got a formula that work like that's so easy it's so repetitive and it's almost like I say he who grinds the most wins you know it's like that is that the best for our sport is that what gives people the the most out of their careers does is that the best for fans so anyway I think that there's a way to where now that you're working together you're not competing series there's probably a really cool way so to where it's like in NASCAR does it Indie does it they got ovals they got short truck they got you know they got Street circuits so I think but one of the problems is is that the sport just has such a weird dynamic of like who owns this bit what are they want out it's a three-way partnership that's that's always the problem yes it's Fel and it's MX Sports and it's the teams the manufactur the manufacturers that to me is weird and then then there's the Riders so if you if you take Fel and MX Sports let's just say for instance they were together you still have a three-way thing right the teams the manufacturers the the promoters and the writers yeah that's why there's always been it's always been a little bit tricky the Riders are tied to the manufacturers and then the manufacturers are tied to whatever series is whatever I think the having the mixed Supercross and Motocross might be a little uh you know they used to do that in the back of the day back in the day we'd have we'd go to Daytona then the next week we'd race Gainesville super or Gainesville Motocross yeah you so you'd race Gainesville then you go back to Supercross what was that lo I I thought it was fun mixing it up but but I don't think the teams thought it was that fun cuz you have to have yeah I know you have to have but but now look how much money it cost to switch bikes and the suspension is totally everything's totally different so now you have to have so pay double pay them all you mean have Fel pay all well yeah like let figure it out you know yeah I mean you could do that yeah I mean every anything is possible yeah right um but to your point what got a start on this tangent is that Fel is like they're open to change and there is you know change kind of going yeah well I think you know there's going to be some internal feelings about that other because there's already a lot of races and the teams are like [ __ ] how many races are we going to support here well I think that's probably one of the things I think that's another kind of like it would be a pretty drastic change but I wonder if you have say for like three or four of the outdoor rounds the 450s don't race and it's the 250s and the Futures and like you make the Futures almost like a MX3 class like a development class so then there's yeah I just I wonder though like and the obvious thing to say is well no one's going to go cuz they're not watching the 450s but you're telling me that like people aren't going to go to watch danger boy and shimo and like all of these guys plus some other amazing talent but I feel like cuz the reason why they do 31 races like that's how they got the $8 million is because it was like a combined series they could sell 31 events to Peacock well I'll tell you exactly why they're doing 31 races it's because it's a reaction to what that iy did with World Supercross yeah oh yeah definitely I mean the Riders weren't in favor of riding more racist they were like really we got to race more racist it's great they got paid big money and especially the mid pack guys that got those 30 and $50,000 checks yeah more than they made all year long which is great yeah um but that's how it should be throughout the racing series yeah they shouldn't take I'm happy it happened but it shouldn't have taken a reaction from what someone did that didn't even work out it started to work out but it didn't work out and they they that was a reaction to what was going on now what did that do it got filled in MX Sports talking it got them figuring out their stuff together you know it's always been like hey we got our thing you got your thing well now they're working together a little bit that's good for everybody um you know now you got to come up with some compromise that that still has those kind of purses yeah that makes everyone pay attention hey this guy wins this race he's winning a million bucks and then and then gets the schedule that's proper for yeah the ath yeah cuz that 31 races are a lot of races yeah and you can talk to anyone anyone that and they'll say that like even you know well yeah literally everyone says it that well I mean when I raced we had 15 races then we had 16 super crosses and then all you know continually now recently in the last 10 over 10 or whatever years keep adding races and again it was due to having two World Supercross races or whatever that was so they kept adding events and what they want is they don't want people going to race other races they want their guys racing their races and that's natural I get that so what they're as soon as someone else does something their reaction is well you're going to go race over here well we'll put some more races yeah and so and then and they they all you know the manufacturers are saying the same thing and that that's probably that's probably what happened with Kenny yeah and Honda yeah right I mean again we should have thought Kenny right off in the sunset at Honda dude you your career and his career in terms of what he did like he had to leave Honda and then build his own Suzuki and he did pretty [ __ ] good but it's actually insane yeah it's pretty pretty pretty crazy how that works but but again I think that was you know his whatever happened with him was somewhat of the nature of that guy starting a world Supercross series and going Kenny come race these races we'll pay you a million bucks and he'll be like all right I'm not I can do it and then that's when all the turmoil started to happen happen you know and then that was the reaction of s to SMX to World Supercross so you know look I I'm a fan of these guys working together and doing all this stuff it shouldn't take a guy from that's not even that's why competition matters like literally it elevates everything America is built on free market capitalism exactly like and I think that's I mean not to start a massive conversation but it's like that was one of the problems is like there was no competition for years so you've got Arena cross not the same sport you had one Supercross series with no competition that's why the p is where it's at yeah and it stayed so similar for so long because it's just like path of leas resistance and Fel that's one good thing about the wsx is that it's got one owner with one property that's their that's their horse in the race you know like Fel has Disney on Ice it's got Monster Jam it's got like it's just it's a b you could literally say and I don't think it is the case but Feld could keep Supercross just so they keep Stadium dates and stop other people getting in the stadiums like that you could go that deep into it you know but it's like you need competition America was built on competition a state byst state America's built on competition totally you want California sucks right now go to a better State this state can change these laws so that it's a better fit and it's going to force these people to react anytime you have no competition in an ecosystem it's really [ __ ] bad for the ecosystem totally bad yeah I agree so simple competition makes everything better yeah yeah I mean if you know this guy's winning you want to do what that guy's doing you want to go be better than him and you know it's that's what creates these creates greatness yeah and so yeah it's It's the reaction and the buildup of SMX was great I think their purse money was awesome these guys are stoked I think the formats were good too like the right was yeah the racing was good this is really cool so how many races is ideal then like knowing what you know like what's the ideal amount of Supercross races and the ideal amount of motorcross races to do I mean I think you you know you're probably in the nature of 17 Supercross and 12 outdoor yeah 11 outdoor yeah that's what 28 races seem like that's about what I raced when I was racing 28 races yeah and then it still gives a guy enough time if he wants to go race a Australian Supercross or a European Supercross or you know gives the privateers some time to go over there and do some of those races make a little bit of money allow them to come back and it gives the it gives the top tier guys enough time to switch Brands test get ready train get all and it all happened again in January yeah um pretty short window they have like we always used to stop after Labor Day yeah and so you know this now with the addition of SMX it's it's going quite a bit longer um [ __ ] back on I hate this is why I hate J technal I [ __ ] hate it in Australia it's just so like just one button seamless everything works yeah um sorry keep going so yeah I think um I feel like you know 28 races would be yeah what they do 30 something this year 31 I think in then yeah 31 so they they added three or four they have 18 Supercross and yeah you know I don't know I think um yeah 31's a lot yeah especially you know it's it's you know people think of like a lot of times people think of the athlete the Supercross athletes and Motocross athletes as like oh hey you race on the weekends cool you know 30 weekends a year that this is a s day a week job yeah you know and and there's a method to all this madness and if you're behind in your Fitness it's hard to catch up yeah you know if you get hurt if you get hurt it's hard to catch up you know so there's a lot of factors that go into this thing and um you know I figure if you you know January to September sometime even if it was mid-september that gives the rider the last two and a half two months to sort of okay decompress go at it again um you know one of the things I think that's with the addition of all these races it's really good for sort of my career record mhm with Supercross because I think a lot of the Riders now they race so much and they make the top guys make a lot of money so even if you're a winning athlete by the time you by the time they get to like their 10th season like where I was at they're not going to make it 10 seasons no they don't want to make it 10 seasons no they want to make it five or six seasons yeah and for me in my record that's a great thing you know so um they can do whatever they want it just keeps my record safe really for a while but it it is true like and and I think that the reason why let's say Fel and MX Sports would want to keep races is cuz like obviously that's how you make more money like they make money when they RAC yeah but when you're just churning dudes out of the sport at a at a higher rate granted we've kind of seen some dudes go a little bit longer but it's like it makes sense to keep jet until he's 35 years old so that's 15 years as a sport where you could build a star like look how long Tom Brady's been around look how long Aaron roders has been around like the Michael Schumer leis Hamilton like the it's all a brand they're all the Nam Val Valentino Rossy you know like when you've got guys like a vill four crazy years five crazy years yeah dips y dunge four crazy years dips like you're not getting 15 years with the superstars of the sport they're not getting a chance to have a PR Company work with them they're not getting a chance to do all of these like dungeon is on a wedi box and then next year he's retired you know so it's like I think that that's where you know everyone in the sport should probably have like a bit more longevity you could only create more Longevity if you had about half the amount of races I mean how many races does Formula 1 have 18 yeah 16 18 whatever yeah and you've got these if a Motocross guy and Supercross guy raced 18 races a year he'd be like sweet yeah is good well the crazy thing is like by even as the most hardcore fan like we do the Supercross companions I don't know if you've seen like some we got the studio in Australia big TV on the wall four of us get in there and we just watch the race and film it basically it's the best [ __ ] of all time but like we do four of them we're like [ __ ] four weeks in a row dude I'm over it man imagine imagine this stuff to takes to be the writer dude yeah even from a fan perspective like where as hardcore As It Gets like I literally my job is to talk about the sport and then five rounds in I'm just like dude I'm done like I'm planning to stay in America till about 4es it's done and then I'm dipping you know yeah yeah yeah but that's like I think even for the sports it makes like the breaks between the GPS and you know like in Moto GP and F1 and even in Europe it kind of gives you a bit more time for everything to like percolate you know yeah I mean it'd be it's it's hard to say you know there's there the formula has been working super cross is pretty popular it's pretty big um then you look at you know Formula 1 and you're like okay they race like every other week and then they take a two months a month off six weeks off then they go back at it again um you know maybe it's just a little harder because it's on the world stage so they need you know they need time to create all this stuff up and go to different countries and all that same with Moto GP where in Supercross you know like you said Feld has every date at every Stadium locked up they have monster truck this week Supercross next week monster truck Supercross boom boom boom they got this thing um it's easy for a team to race Anaheim 3 weekends out of six yeah right they're all right here let's Anaheim San Diego wherever else right around here yeah it's Phoenix four out yeah right it's it's pretty doable it just wears the athlete out you know yeah um so I don't know you know there's no real the model seems to be working yeah the rider sometimes probably just they have to be careful that they don't go too hard and get hurt you know which which also kind of sucks right you want to give you want to have every athlete every Rider give it their all every weekend because they just want to leave it all out on the table well and it's like when you're out doing a run right now you and you know you have to do one hour of running yeah so you at at 30 minutes you're like okay I better back it off a little bit so I can make it to the hour mark or whatever yeah yeah and that's what the Riders do yeah where um I I think with the way the duration of the race is it's too long the main event is too long they need to be we used to have 20 laps right they want to get a 20- minute window and it's I understand it's for TV but they should be um an 18 minute race with a white with a two laap board then then it would be 20 minutes not 20 minutes plus two laps 20 minutes is 25 laps sometimes yeah you know and then then basically at the end of the race you're limit ating roxon uh cerello Bara Tom tomak just stands tall at the end because he can last only he's only guy can last that long so as a fan the model they're using for Supercross main events I think is not right it's too long they need to because the guy that knows he can't make it 20 minutes plus two laps he won't ride his hardest even up to 10 laps yeah because he needs to finish the race right we want the best we can see of these guys so let's shorten it a little make it 18 minutes plus a lap yeah right everyone I feel like everyone can race hard hard hard for 18 minutes yeah you know can they race hard for 22 minutes maybe not it's like that we were talking about earlier if if we got the shortened Model A little bit we'd see a better race because everyone would be giving it their all for the whole time yeah where now they some guys have to conserve a little bit and then they're going to back off we're going to we're going to miss some of those epic battles that we would see if if the guy goes man I can almost make it I'm going to do it I'm going to do it yeah and and so I question sometimes the the model of the main event you know yeah in the modern era yeah we were 20 laps maybe 20 laps wasn't right because 20 laps back when I was racing it was about 20 minutes the 22 Strokes are slower tracks were steeper tighter you know it was almost 20 minutes so you'd roughly between 18 and 19 20 minutes whatever now you're if you rode 20 laps on some of these tracks with the 450 it's 14 minutes yeah we definitely need more than that but we definitely don't need 25 lap race y tracks destroyed the the the 450s don't get a good track so automatically the racings they can't go in between the 250 Main Events a little bit long tracks trash it's live live TV yeah they they can't fix the track 450 start out in a way there's one line on the track if you go out of that line you're effed right yeah so the racing sucks sometimes on the softer tracks uh and then the rate then by the time 22 minutes is gone you're at 25 or 26 laps you're like yeah everyone's bored they're just hanging on race is spread out you're done they're hanging on just to finish the race yeah so in my mind we get a more of a 18 minute model and we do give them five minutes or whatever to get the tractors out and fix the track yeah you're going to get a better race grow the sport EP more epic battles um so those are some of the things I would like to say see as a fan and as someone that knows the sport yeah we're not seeing the athletes the best we can see because the race is too long yeah and a lot of the dudes a lot of the time are injured and a lot of the injuries happen late late late in the race yeah cuz they're just barely hanging on they're tired they're exhausted it's just crazy how gnarly our sport is it is level now is just insane like some of the stuff when you're on the floor of a Supercross race now and you see dude's eyeing up like a big section like it's big now like a big section nowaday jump anything it's crazy and that's the scary part like uh in our day you were never worried about over jumping you're always over worried about under jumping now I think all the guys worry about over jumping cuz that'll hurt you bad you jump into the transition of a next jump and it's not good so yeah it's different there's different worries out there but you know the model the sports scene seems healthy a lot of things are good I would like to see the model tweaked just a little bit and it'd be better for us it'd be better for the Riders yeah and it'd be healthier for the Riders because that you'd get the best Rider every week and you'd get a chance to build these Brands over 10 15 years as a part totally and you know what I'd also like to see and I know it's live TV and whatever but I'd like to see the them bringing back the semis the semi qualifier cuz they have the main event or they have the heat races right now and they take nine guys well let's see fifth from ninth fifth to 9th they never get their face on TV they never get anything if you want to build the health of the sport and the middle of the sport yes then you want you want the fifth place guy to win a semi I completely and build up his name like let's find out who that guy is that was like Nick way back in the day he made a living off that and he was so good in those and I got to be a Nick way fan because because of that you know yeah and we don't need a lcq I don't think we don't need a play where you take a piss and get more beers and like it would be better to see let's say you take five from the the semi and there's no more lcq and then you know you're really getting to see a different better kind of you'd probably see Adam cinerella win like every single semi semi and that'd be like an epic battle there every yeah then we'd have a Eli we'd have a Kenny we'd have a Chase seon we'd have an Adam you know now it give you more to race for in the heat too totally and I think I just think that they need to revisit the model a little bit that's kind of one of the things that I've been a little bit critical of in the last few years is the length of the race because not everyone can race that long and then let's build up the middle of the sport you know yeah no no I completely agree and I think it's worth anytime I go on my little Rants and I start carrying on like a [ __ ] I love the sport Supercross is amazing it's doing great that was a fantastic year like there's so many positives but do we sit and chill on that or do we try make [ __ ] even better I think we try and make better I we do absolutely so uh we got almost 3 hours already it goes so quick I feel like about [ __ ] I know it so probably the thing that I would want to talk about the most would just be terraferma and steel Roots yeah because I think that like so let's go all the way back to question one or like the theme one of this is just like you love this [ __ ] and it's so much fun oh yeah you would not have made those movies if you didn't just froth riding a dirt bike oh yeah ring a dirt block and listening to music yeah absolutely and and uh the era of those movies like that were were just like lightning in a bottle lightning in a bottle totally and and the nature of that right we did the fox videos terraforma series and scrap just I mean this they just killed it we had so much fun fun doing that um and then we took it even further with the steel Roots model and then obviously you had the Crusty model um and then then there was all kinds of people making movies you know um Moto Tri XX guys and Jordan and doing all those guys doing all that stuff um yeah it was I mean that that was for me that was a form of expression that we weren't able to do when we're racing right I was doing that anyway I was doing it anyway that's yeah exactly and so I was doing all that anyway and that was you know when when um Freeman and Dana Nicholson came along and created crusties and and uh you know sort of open that that little window of like hey maybe we should just document all the [ __ ] we're doing anyway yeah cuz we're doing that we were been shooting videos not shooting videos but going and riding like that for years um when we're in the off season um yeah that those times were like we we did a lot of growing up in those times and we we did we just had a lot of fun uh there was no pressure and we were just loving our dirt bikes yeah yeah and it just it influenced the culture and I think that the parties oh the part we had a lot of good fun parties just the like we got very similar style party in two we have a lot of fun no we're not afraid of it but I think that what you did for the culture like what you did for the sport of Supercross in the stadiums was so massive but I think what you did for the culture of dirt biking with those movies was just as impactful and it was like I was just at Red Bull imagination right oh yeah I watched it uh yesterday that was steel roots that was it was you know like what you did back then and I mean even that Suzuki like that was some crazy free riding you did on that Suzuki you know like you found some good [ __ ] in that in that time period but the culture like you know I've got friends that are Formula One drivers Moto GP Riders you know like in NASCAR they all [ __ ] Frau that [ __ ] you know like he just changed all like it like it was lightning in a bottle and then you just changed the culture for so many people going forwards yeah the thing about it is is what feel so good about that and the history of that is we were just doing what we did that that's what was R it wasn't like hey here's this crazy ass script here's this idea let's go do that we were really just doing what we do and and filming it you know where um you know when when when the Crusty guys came along and came in they they took the snowboard model right they took the snowboarding model and applied it to dirt bikes is what that's where the model came from right um we took sort of the racers vacation model yeah and did it that way with our the Halloween parties the ride in the 50s um you know riding all kinds of different bikes Speedway Flat Track like all kinds of [ __ ] that you'd never see us doing yeah and then you know you have you have the you know night life the super fun night life with all the girls and all the costumes and all the crazy [ __ ] we did um you know th those were that's what I'm talking about we just did a lot of growing up yeah you know we were all trying to figure out how to live as young adults yeah and uh I think we had a hell of a good time I mean we had a hell of a good time and and a lot and a lot of people saw that on the video and that that's that's the culture that was happening then yeah did when did you feel or like did being famous or like getting famous in that way ever feel weird or like did you ever have those kind of like stop and think about it moments because it is a pretty weird thing to get quote unquote famous because you're still the same person but it's like there something different you know yeah Fame affects the people people uh you know in a lot of different ways I mean I think uh I always say this you know it it I would be famous around a racetrack yeah right around the nature of a racetrack so if I'm around an atmosphere like Hey we're in Anaheim okay you know everyone's around I'm famous in that town for that night but the beauty of what was going on with us is we were wearing helmets Yeah so if you weren't a super big fan you might know my name and even still today people know my name they don't know me yeah and so I I was I'm thankful in a way that we were always wearing our helmets and so now I can walk around and be Woods can't walk around you know Michael Jordan can't walk around I mean those guys were famous real famous way much more famous than any of us but they weren't wearing a helmet so they weren't sort of protected you know their face was was out there yeah um you know and that that's kind of the sacrifice when you're when you're that guy and you're making that kind of money and your face is out there I mean there it's like being Shaquille O'Neil or something you know those guys are super famous so I I'm I feel pretty normal until you get around a track yeah then it kind of a little bit strange you know it's never been any weird nothing weird to it yeah it's been cool I mean been able to use it to my advantage obviously um it's there's never really been any negative play over it and so but that time though when you were like filming everything and the parties and the girls and like that like that's where I can imagine you would have felt famous like you would have felt like a a rock star is maybe like that's maybe a better way of saying is like you were kind of a rock star kind of like do and say and be and kind of you can do and be however you want to be you could be like you can do whatever you want as long as you're winning yeah but you remember we didn't have any internet at that time there was no like phone media like cat yeah I mean we had those crazy box cameras that you half the time you threw away you never even developed any film but um I'm stoked we we grew up in that cuz we did some dumb [ __ ] right that that people might might not I looked like that was very cool or whatever I mean never mean never mean for sure I'm not mean by nature but you know look we again we were trying to grow up and trying to figure out how to be adults yeah and acting stupid as kids right with money and with money and a little bit of Fame and the doors were open to do whatever you wanted to do right yeah and you were famous enough in like I think to put myself in the time like I remember when I first came here 2010 and I'm like hanging out with Dean Wilson and Tommy sir and Hill and like those guys were like famous here in this town and like you built this scene to where like a professional dirt bike rider like chicks know who that is you know what I mean like that and yeah and that happened yeah I mean wherever we went like I said I was very popular within the race crowd yeah but if I went somewhere where there was no race and no race happening and I was just somewhere you'd get a couple guys like oh hey what's up you know like but they were the guys that were watching ESP or Moto World 2 or whatever it was back in the day or somehow saw a race on something you know like hardcore fans yeah at two in the morning on a Tuesday night or something you know um so that was an advantage we had right so we could still the parties and all the stuff you saw on video was long gone by the time it came out on video yeah true people back to being athletes and whatever you know those were that was offseason you know Shenanigans really and uh so that was good because we didn't get too crazy and it wasn't happening like live time all the time where you actually had to be the athlete yeah um you know people remember that stuff because it was so off thewall and unique right it wasn't normal to see us doing that stuff so those are the things that people remembered but we were we were finally tuned athletes we were training hard and riding hard so but just not a lot not scared to have fun yeah and and with was there the same perspective that like the teams and the factories had on that sort of stuff back then because nowadays it's such an like if a team found out you mean dude like can you imagine is it well or is it just cuz the guys don't do it they just don't put they put that on themselves well I mean I know when probably the last I was probably around the last generation of dudes that partied and yeah the teams [ __ ] hated it like big time you know I don't again if you're winning if you're winning you can do whatever the f you want you Breeze through your whole career purely based on I came away on scath won everything and like you didn't have to play head games with no one cuz you were the man like even when you watch like a you watch steel roots or you watch Terra Firma like you're out there with the guys and you're just better than them at dirt bikes in like every single scenario so it's like you go riding the hills you're the winner you go to1 you're the winner you go to the party you're the winner like you just got to kind of be that guy it was just smooth sailing and as long as the doing whatever it was was not affecting my race results then it then no one I could just continue to do it and they're like well then you like kind of own the teams too in a way like when you were in the steel Roots era and you're on Yamaha like you're kind of the boss there as well yeah I mean it's just I mean it was wild I mean even for my status in Supercross it was wild that the people that would come to superc crosses a lot Le because my publicist yeah like Tommy Lee was coming around with Pam Anderson then there was like you know uh the the girls that were in Charlie's Angels with us right it was uh is that how Carrie met pink no did they meet through oh he might have been on the music video I think remember there was like the Charlie's Angels for the film yeah I was and she yeah she wasn't in that though she wasn't right why is there some there's like a song coming to my mind where she was like in it maybe she she was maybe I'm tripping I think um X Games had a party and it was the X Games connection oh he was freestyling and she was coming up and then they had a venue and she might have played yeah okay and it was kind of do you remember like MTV Sports remember that no oh so that was really cool because MTV Sports was like a basically an X game thing with music and the whole thing oh like a festival kind of deal Festival kind of thing and that's how a lot of people met up at that time um wasn't a racing thing um I I don't know exactly how Carrie and and her met but um but so they were coming to the ra like that kind of level coming to the races yeah like Vince vaugh was coming around and um you know uh gosh what's the guy's name he has his own Radio Show on satellite right now in anyway um but that kind of Interest was there yeah music was there actors were there actresses were coming around and hanging around and they were all coming to see Supercross yeah and so you know they they would all come to my truck right so I got to see them all meet them on it was really a cool time but that was when Supercross was you know it really yeah it was on the come up big time it was big yeah and and uh just a it was just a kind of a cuz I'm you when you see someone way famous comes around you're like whoa that's kind of cool yeah you know it makes you realize oh you're not really that famous you know you know big actor comes along you're like oh okay I've seen that dude in about 10 movies yeah you know so um just makes you realize like oh hey there's a whole another world out there well I think I think that's cool the way that you navigated that [ __ ] though cuz you know and then I think there's a few ways that it's kind of cool you've navigated stuff like with how good your career was and with how everything went down like a could have just been like the biggest dick that could have just like never let go of it but also I mean the opportunity for you to go so off the rails in that period of time with everything going on yeah it was it the opportunities were there but I was you know my upbringing with my parent my mom and dad were were I mean they're amazing because they just helped me reain that all in you know yeah um and you know there's there was one thing on my mind when I started to get success it was just get more success yeah you know win more races all I want to do is win and if I could win the rest would take care of itself and that's what I always thought of when I was chasing points or any of that stuff it's just when tonight it'll take care of it take care of itself when next Saturday night and and our our sport by nature is crazy right because you're only as good as your last race yeah when it all starts to crumble and fold up you you don't have a lot to draw on because there's a winner there's a winner that night someone won yeah someone won if it wasn't you so you know it's like I don't know how many times like I went through what three generations of guys when I was racing because my career Spann 12 years pretty much on Pro Tour um you know and that in that group there's there's like three generations four or five years a piece right I was lucky to race a long time but uh you know you're only you know it was like if I didn't win it's was like oh that guy's the next guy yeah and then I'm like nope [ __ ] that I'm still the guy and then another guy would come along oh he's the guy I'm like nope screw that I'm the guy yeah and so that happened three different times so that that was like really good motivation for me yeah you know and I used that thought process of like hey dude you're you better win because someone else is going to win if you don't yeah and so that you know I just kind of always tried to think of myself as the underdog even though I wasn't yeah I just try to keep my mind in the underdog thought yeah and uh that that that's a question I get a lot right because what did you what motivated you during that time to still want to drive to win yeah and it really was just the thought of people saying I couldn't win and PE people saying my time was up people saying this guy's the next guy you know and I always use these little nuggets along the way of as my motivation and I always try to keep my train of thought as being the underdog m and you know it it worked I mean I think for the most part it worked I the with the exception of the night that Jeff beat me to beat the streak in St Louis you know that day if I could Replay that day I would have won that night no problem I I during that day I was Fel had me upstairs doing autographs in the middle of the show after my heat race and then you know I was just totally distracted that night from trying to race and win the race and uh I still almost won the race but I just I probably just took it for granted a little bit too much I mean I was at my 13th win I was probably thinking okay I'm just going to win again you know and you know sometimes you get a little complacent and that that's I needed that little smack in the face to go okay yeah you are beatable yeah get your ass in gear here and the next week I went and won again but but you know it took a while to get to that point because I felt like you know I had this easy going yeah and then it you know and I got beat but I think when you get beat it just smacks you in the face a little bit and you go okay yeah regroup got to get my [ __ ] together here and and go that was very disappointing just like that's as close as anyone will probably ever get to a perfect season in Supercross just to have that one shitty KN in St Louis and it was pretty close and if you go watch the race I watch it every now and again it's pretty funny like loroco knocks me off the track albertine blocks me like I I had all kinds of and then the track by Nature that night Jeff was at his home race that's a HomeTown race so you know you get super energy when you got your hometown race um and then the track by Nature was super soft and Ruddy my worst condition yeah and I got a bad start which didn't usually happen but for whatever reason um I was just coming up through the pack getting knocked off the track you know L Rocco hit me twice Albert this is I Still Still to get that close even to him I was pretty surprised really to be honest so um yeah but it it it sort of reset the boundaries for me and got me going again you know yeah everything I guess everything happens for a reason ites that stuff too though you know like but I always like to say that's the night I made eming famous how was that rivalry with with him like because even to say you know like he kind of came in and was like the first out of town dude to kind of like jump in in the mix like he was such a a character like almost an anti-hero in a way and the fact that he was so good Outdoors like it just I he just seemed like a a bit of a a bit of an anti-hero to your story not that he's not a great dude yeah no I mean look you need the good guy you need the bad guy right I mean EMC played the bad guy he was you know he was party boy on shift and um you know to me you know we get along fine now it's totally fine but um you know all those years he was really arrogant I thought really cocky and I freaking hated that I'm like no way dude I can't stand that someone doesn't give me respect you know not that I command respect but don't don't disrespect you know yeah so um you know I always just I always just had this thing because you know one of the main things that I didn't get along with him over is his riding um he he was really ruthless on the track like riding wise so he would do dangerous [ __ ] like chop you off on the lips of the jumps and his riding etiquette was a little suspect to say the least and so that's the part I really was mostly angry about but then um I I never really felt threatened by him and the racing part of it um I always felt like I had a pretty good handle on that but you know again that year the year he beat me was was when I switched to Suzuki we had all kinds of problems um but you know his style like I was confident and and push the limits on being cocky and whatever but I think he was just always kind of sort of by Nature really arrogant and I just I don't know I didn't have any patience for that at the time obviously we all grow up yeah we all we we're kids trying to figure our way find it find a way through this whole navigate this whole famous sort of moto career yeah um so you know look we're all old old guys now and you can look back and laugh at all that stuff but you know things that bothered you then have no place in your head for now you know what I mean yeah yeah so it's it's funny how it all worked out and and uh you know we we came to we actually came to blows a couple times mechanics had to break us up but um you know all it all created a good scene for Moto you know if I didn't have him I wouldn't be striving to be better well and I think too like the times that you w outdoor races like it feels like that would have probably felt so special because it did it was because of him yeah he propelled me to be better Outdoors because that was when people were talking like oh you can't beat this guy and and uh he was he's a phenomenal Rider I mean he killed it outdoors and he made me a better Rider yeah and absolutely you need those guys otherwise absolutely you know yeah absolutely and I I mean he's he made me get it and gear cuz I couldn't stand losing to him yeah right so I was like no way I'm going figure this out and so um you know and there was plenty of fast guys Outdoors but he was a guy winning so I was like how do I take down that guy yeah and I finally figured it out and I'm I'm stoked about that when I won the outdoor title and then almost won the next year's title which he he got me cuz I hurt myself but or something yeah I I I tried to jump at milville that I should have never tried and cased it my foot wrapped under my foot Peg and really destroyed all the ligaments in my foot so I was kind of injured the rest of that year but up to that point I had won like six of the eight weekends already and it was killing it but um life has a way of smacking you down when you get to a little a little too confident right yeah so um and that's when he won the championship in the final round final race final Moto at Steel City that year um and he rode his ass off killed killed it um but uh in 95 when I won the title even out of all my Supercross races and winnings and championships that title has a lot of I mean that that has a lot of significance for me because it was so hard yeah and to finally achieve that I was just like all right now I know what everyone's talking about being good at this you know and it it really made me feel accomplished yeah because there's many times when you get done racing a motocross race and you're in the backseat of the Renta car just fold it over because your gut hurts so bad from all the bumps and yeah and I mean it just takes a toll and where Supercross was like that's easy it super easy outdoor was hard yeah and so uh that's why that that for me the meaning of those that championship ship and that win those wins all those those two seasons yeah pretty darn amazing that I'm really stoked about and then like my win at Motocross of nations in 96 a big outdoor race same thing where was that it was at Herz the Moto GP track oh they built the motor track up around on the mountain side in there yeah so the motor track was within the Moto GP track that would have been mental it was sick super sick and it was a fresh track it wasn't a European track it was all brand new yeah yeah big downhill jump like 120 footer like really it was sick and uh so yeah I mean those outdoor winds are special because they just didn't come easy yeah I remember as when I read the your book for the first time that that's kind of 94 95 Outdoors that was probably the most gripping part of that book because like you know I wasn't obviously around that much for you know following the races then so I was kind of like reading along like through those seas and it was to see that that was so hard for you to win those races I didn't commit myself like I told you I was pretty lazy right so I didn't really commit myself and that's where Gary simix came in and came in really big time at that time because he's just like you know hey what are you gonna do you gonna you're gonna be a man and get it done here this is how we're going to do it here's the combination let's do it and so um you know it it just sort of got my attention just a way I had to retrain the way I was thinking about it and uh like you said earlier when when you when you start to feel the the all that the effects of all that work and it starts to happen then all of a sudden you've made something big yeah and um that's what I felt and and and honestly as cool as Supercross felt and me winning Supercross titles when I won them both I was like oh yeah I'm the man I'm the man now I got it now I got it now I can officially say I'm the man now yeah you know so um you know and the same thing with that Motocross of Nations it it happened at the same time it's not often you can say you're the best in the world on that one day yeah and I was the best in the world for one day and and uh that's something I'll cherish you know forever so how did that that event break down then like who was on the team who would who were you racing against like how was your results that day cuz it's so hard to get Motocross Nations right like look at F on the weekend the man in Moto one struggles in Moto 2 jet six in Moto one wins Moto 2 like it's very hard to win the Motocross Nation so there's a lot of history on that 186 Motocross donations team with Johnny O Bailey Johnson Meo I think it was maybe it was either MCU or Donnie Hansen one of those guys um we all won our classes I went 1-1 l went 1-1 wow and then uh Emig was on the team too he rode the 500 so we all won our classes that's so heavy so we we all went one1 so arguably it's the one of the best result teams in the history of the motor cross of Nations for us um so we all had like phenomenal phenomenal races like we won we all won so it was amig and Lamson and me so it was Lamson on the 125 IG on the kx500 and who were the top Euro guys then uh I think it was like Marque botes um Evers was there yeah uh you know like for France it would have been like Fred bolle Tom uh you know Desa maybe or was that a bit later little bit little bit later yeah a little bit later um yeah I don't exactly know maybe maybe it was it Fred ble and Fred V Tom's Tom's dad yeah um I can't remember now but um we all had really it was lamp an eye on Hondas and we we we crushed it it was cool and he wrote especially well because he won one of the motos I think outright on 125 that's so sick with a one of the open and 125 motos he won that outright on a 125 against 500 against 500s how crazy is pretty cool yeah so um yeah that that race is one of my favorites in in my history you know my history of stuff yeah and because it's it's Unique to to win for a team you know especially like you you don't really like and you're like teammates with the dude yeah I mean that race the camaraderie is felt you felt you know there's it's unlike any other race that I have erased I erased it twice once in 93 where I was the total weak link we barely won and then in 96 where so you've only been on winning but you [ __ ] the other times I didn't go cuz I turned it down I wasn't ready iuck going to lose I'm yeah I'm like nope oh that's funny but I mean in '93 when I went I was definitely the weak link I was a Supercross champ but I was suck I still sucked in the outdoors so it was pretty crazy that us team chose me it was because of my popularity obviously um it certainly wasn't because of my speed and my skill on outdoors and then we raced that fullon Euro track where I was like horrible I think the best Moto I had was like a ninth no [ __ ] yeah so I we get squeaked by on that one so and that was during the streak where we had had like 13 or something in a row dude imagine if you would yeah I almost lost it dude I almost lost we barely squeak by so oh that's so fun are you uh are you doing well vets this year it's coming up yeah come do it bro yeah I've been training it all year for it you you're coming to race I'm doing literally all year I mean so I built up the 125 I raced at Mammoth you saw that yeah they're doing the 125 race I think I know it's called the posha race yeah done and I built my bike just for that race I think I'm coming I think I'm coming so I've got you remember the track last year though no it wasn't here last year for oh good thing it was the worst Glenn Helen I've ever seen in my life really it rained a lot the week before the whole track was rut oh I hated it really I mean I couldn't I was like this is not why I ride dirt bik this is not my vibe yeah no so uh I I was just like I'd get out and start riding and start riding pretty well and then I was like I got to slow down so someone's getting an OT yeah exactly so I got I got uh I go got my brother who's way better than me uh my one of my best mates azza he's he won it in 2017 oh really he came over and won like the 40 expert class or whatever oh sweet and then one of my mates sley who these are all just boys I grew up racing with but he did his shoulder uh at the start of the year so we're trying to convince him just to come [ __ ] it and just to come and ride lot my dad's coming over to mechanic one of our mates Franco he's uh Jack Miller's like basically Jack Miller's like home mechanic he build all his bikes Road flat track everything so Franco he started his own business Franco's Race shop so we're all like trying to pump up his his new his new deal so he's coming over and uh and yeah my family like everyone so we're just going to rent a big house in Metta Kurt Nichols we're getting blocks off Kurt all right and uh yeah we're just fully having doing a big old big old like family reunion at the motor TR yeah so but I've been training all year for it because we decided probably towards the end of last year that we'd all do it and uh it's just been the sickest thing like I've never been fit for a dirt bike race and I've done L I think in order to like in order to get fit you need a goal yes so this is the accumulation of your all your work is going to be put into this race so like I did that for Mammoth I did about a six seven week training program for Mammoth and then since Mammoth I really haven't done [ __ ] so but I know World vets coming up and I had a pretty good base going into Mammoth so I'm like I need to pick start picking it back up yeah to get ready for World vets we had about what four weeks a month yeah yeah four weeks so oh I'll be at the tracks I'll be in grinding but it's crazy the the feeling like I so but it's it's kind I had a pretty shitty year in a sense but also a really good year like I think I'm at I'm at nearly 70 20 minute motos for the year like I just that's awesome every time I went to the track bro I just did the of the year I just couldn't even do it but I was like by the by the end of my like first 20-minute mot of the Year me I was getting like looking down at my watch at 8 minutes and being like are you [ __ ] serious right now like so now you can probably do more than one oh dude I go to p and did I did 420s on the on the on the weekend yeah on the vet track the other day just like bang bang bang I'd do like three Helen but that point you said of like that accumulation there was just one day where it all felt like it clicked and like right started riding better like even and like my wife she's been filming me so I can like try and get Techni a little bit better and like but it all kind of came together now even just riding slower like you're in the better position you're in you know so putting in as that time and then it sort of feels like it all just clicks you know and like I think you can see that with like a hunter he's had all those years of injury and and kind of like just it didn't have the compounding time and then it's like that one year everyone's like what the where did this come from like now it looks like this is dude's unbeatable but it's like things take so much time to actually mature but it's not a secret no there's no secret I mean there's you just got to go do it right you just got to put the time in yeah and you know I can sit here and say like okay I did my little six week program but that's it's just me trying to get used to my bike again really right putting a little training in just so when I go out there I don't feel like a dummy what training do you like doing um well I'm naturally like genetically my I'm on the bigger side right so it's easy for me to gain weight I all I do is you know when I eat I just gain weight so um I like just being like bike riding bike I'm plenty strong I just need to work on my cardio yeah and then sea time yeah right so I just try to do cardio and sea time little bit of Weights here and there um obviously when I was had a racing career and stuff um I can mix it all up and then I was didn't have to worry about it because I was so active all the time I didn't have to worry yeah but now um when I go like okay if I'm to race World vet I'm GNA try to ride like Moto once or twice a week and cycle once or twice a week yeah because you need to rest too yeah so that's really what I do yeah and it's just kind of a little compact training thing yeah it's good to have a goal you know oh man it's been it's been awesome and it's kept me it's it's made my year so weird though like so I I like used to well I still do martial arts stuff so I do I used to do a lot more competitions with that [ __ ] right but I was just a [ __ ] psycho like I had to kind of like chill it down oh you were just going crazy on that well it's too it's gnarly when at least in motocross race you do a start there's 40 guys like who cares like I'm not a winner at Motocross so like to me no one's looking at when you're one-onone but when it's oneon-one it's like you either win or you lose like and if you lose in Motocross no one's really looking at you you got lapped you're just pulling off the track but that's the worst way to [ __ ] lose anything so I'm like I don't really care about winning I just really don't want to lose really hated losing so I would just be like out training twice a day like just absolute psycho so it's kind of been the same for this but it's not as much cuz I kind of don't care as much like my only goal is I want to be fit enough to race every Moto and like go hard for me and if I get 17th but I sent it for the six L I'm pumped right if you can feel good and you've pushed hard for whatever your speed is the whole time then that your goal is accomplished yeah that's me winning like if I can see the last laot board and then go [ __ ] let's go like I want to get that one more guy that's a win y but so it's funny like that same kind of psycho energy manifested in this like we we moved to the at the start of the year so yeah I remember cuz that's when we were talking about doing this and you you split for a little while yeah so we're over there for like the first five months of the year and I'm like R buying a 450 like so I bought this gas gas 450 with like AIT suspens yeah the tracks are so sick like I I basically real like they have practice tracks and stuff there oh bro like so this is the setup I bought this bike I was I had a Hertz rental car for like 4 months like I didn't get a car I bought a bike instead and I was driving to the truck in like a Hyundai XL yeah so they set up of basically had like this brenal car bought this 450 they've got it's called MX ride Dubai and it's just dude sandunes like there's a freeway that goes between like Abu Dhabi and Dubai and then there's just this huge like sand June and they've built the best track there they've got like a kitchen they got bunks they got so it's just a sand track yeah huge sand trck in the dunes yeah and the average speed is like 65 K an hour so you're like a highp speeded like up being whooped out the whole dude it's so much fun so yeah I basically bought this bike there never really rode sand and I uh never really rode sand at all and I sucked so bad and I so I like but you got to figure it out after five months I'm sure yeah yeah like I just and I went out every time stopped watch on the handlebars 20 minutes and I had the first couple weeks I had some huge crashes just from literally forgetting where the track was oh wow i' think it turned right like you come up over sand you and you're like okay this is the one that goes right and then you just turn jump in the air and then you just land sideways and sand whops so but it's been really cool to have that goal at the end of the year and know like especially when you talk about the podcast and everyone's listening you're like I'm going yeah did you bring that bike home here no it's still there oh it's still there so I literally just left it they've got a workshop there so I didn't even have a truck nothing I got the bike I got it sent there and the bike had just stayed there the entire time I just put a sand Tire on it and just rode it and like every day you tell them you're going to ride they you got fuel there and they like do your air filter the it's a sick setup wow that's pretty cool but yeah just every every everywhere I went then I got here and uh then I went back to Australia for a couple months was just riding whatever I could there and then came here and like I borrowed a friend's xcf 350 KTM trail bike and I took the suspension off and I got like good suspension it's just being this constant thing all year of like trying to find what to ride just trying to get to Glenn Helen you know like just try oh oh trying to get to the world back yeah just like whatever happens and like every time I go out I'm doing 20 minutes and I've kind of stopped that now like now I'm trying to actually work on my speed a little bit oh yeah I sort of just going a bit too slow but um yeah like it's been a it's been a cool thing it's pretty cool yeah so I'm St I'm stoked you racing it yeah yeah last year I went and I was not ready for it I heard that last year was a bit of a strugg it was struggle struggle bus for me yeah I raced 125 and I'd get to the lead and then that bike would would just overheat and so I got passed and then on 450 I was in the lead and the track was just so gnarly I'd get arm pumped and I was like dude I'm not going to kill myself so I just drop out slow down I'm like forget about it and then right after that is when I go you know what I'm going to race Mammoth and I'm I'm going to get my ass in shape here cuz this is ridiculous so this year in a I'm in a lot better space than I was last year so what could your riding schedule look like between here and there because I mean I'm in yeah yeah yeah um it I'm home mostly most of the week and weekends but I like going to caha Creek on Wednesdays is what I like going yeah that's like my favorite track around here yeah I ride there for the first time last week actually did you like it yeah I don't know it was Weir did you ride the Vetra or the pro the prot track yeah it's good yeah yeah there was uh I wasn't really I was doing the testing for kefa so I was like riding his bikes I didn't get much time to riding no he did like a 250 vers 3 I'm a big 350 dude it's Church of 350 you know so uh he wanted me to do like a lap time shootout there was like a few of his buddies so I was like a second F on the 350 but I like kind of didn't really I got to learn the track a bit then I had to do two fast Laps on two different so it was just kind of like a bit of we you didn't get to like really have your own time on it and it was windy and like the [ __ ] [ __ ] is dunk right there just I don't know just just a weird day you know one of those weird days parked you right by the [ __ ] no I did that myself okay so I was just you know one of those days I was like oh I didn't really nail this the wind was going the wrong way on that day yeah yeah that's funny well it is a fun track but I I'll ride wherever I I should probably ride Glenn Helen it's probably Tuesdays or Thursdays or whatever right is it Thursdays yeah Tuesdays and Thursdays if you're real Kane yeah yeah I I we'll we'll figure it out it' be be pretty uh pretty sick well hey we uh we did over 3 hours we could do a lot more there's so much we better go for round two ah done yeah whenever whenever you want to do it cuz there's a lot more that we didn't go into um yeah but yeah I appreciate man I'd love that yeah you're the best dude to ever ride Supercross and you're just chill down to earth down to party down a ride Mammoth swing a golf club real good [ __ ] stoked appreciate appreciate you having me on making time for that that's cool I was always wanted to come up here um you know I think the funny thing is you know with all that stuff going on along the way and and becoming sort of famous all I ever wanted to be was normal yeah you know and I just again it all just leads to riding my dirt bike and I'm still stoked to to be able to do what I do in the sport have the Partnerships that I do I love doing stuff with Kawasaki we do so many F fun things as a family and as a Kawasaki family and uh you know so it's it's been fun I do a lot of stuff with a lot of people and and mostly it all re revolves around dirt bikes so no I'm lucky I appreciate you coming on man so yeah it's super cool see you at the track I'll see you at World vet done we are excited to announce the launch of our new membership site Gypsy tales.com packed with exclusive content and perks that you won't find anywhere else this is your chance to become a part of the Gypsy gang and as a special bonus if you sign up to an manual membership you'll be entered into the draw to win our custombuilt tc125 Gypsy game

Channel: GYPSY TALES PODCAST

Views: 521,617

Keywords: jeremy mcgrath, jeremy mcgrath highlights, jeremy mcgrath supercross 98, jeremy mcgrath kx500, jeremy mcgrath vs ricky carmichael, jeremy mcgrath nac nac, jeremy mcgrath supercross 2000, jeremy mcgrath terrafirma 2, jeremy mcgrath supercross, jeremy mcgrath steel roots, jeremy mcgrath supercross world, jeremy mcgrath jay leno, jeremy mcgrath 2 stroke, jeremy mcgrath banshee, gypsy tales, gypsy tales podcast, sx 2023, supercross 2023, eli tomac, eli tomac achilles

Id: 6ToGHncgmXQ

Length: 195min 20sec (11720 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 23 2023