Guest: Paige Murray and Lee Wells
Guest: Paige Murray and Lee Wells
Talked to Paige about her upcoming children's book release and Lee Wells about his documentary on the Texas Panhandle Wildfires.
Shown a trailer for: LANDMAN
Talked to Paige about her upcoming children's book release and Lee Wells about his documentary on the Texas Panhandle Wildfires.
Shown a trailer for: LANDMAN
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:30Work em' on the Sundays, do it all again, race em' in the sand, buck em' in the mud,
00:37drip a cowboy's sweat, bleed a cowboy's blood.
00:52I'm Zeke Thurston, 2016 World Champion Saddlebrock Rider, and you're watching the Peppered Stewart Show.
00:58Yes, that's what you're doing. That's exactly what you're doing. You're watching it.
01:05We've got a lot of stuff going on today, but I want to clarify right out of the gate, okay?
01:09Everybody wants to know, I have not been to a Diddy party, okay?
01:16Not been there, there's no videos, so we're good on that.
01:22But, that is an interesting story. There's a lot of stuff happening with that, a lot of crazy things.
01:25Which is weird, because I've been to quite a few, you know, the celebrity party stuff and get-together and gatherings,
01:32but I've never seen anything as crazy as what's coming out of those stories.
01:39So that's going to be entertaining to watch unfold for everyone, because crazy things happen in Hollywood,
01:46and that's why I've not been there.
01:49I'm here, telling you guys stuff. Random stuff, real stuff.
01:55And lots of stuff, and that's what we do, is talk about stuff.
01:58We're going to do that today. We've got a couple of guests lined up here.
02:01We've got the one and only Paige Murray. She's got a children's book coming out.
02:06We're going to talk to her about that a little bit today.
02:09We've got Lee Wells. He's got the documentary coming out, We Are Here,
02:15where they go and kind of, he interviews the folks and kind of covers the Panhandle fires that happened up in the Panhandle.
02:24That burned, man, it burned a lot of acreage out there.
02:28So we're going to show you a trailer for that later on, and then we're going to talk to him about that.
02:33He's got some screenings coming up where you can go watch it.
02:36So we're going to talk about that.
02:38We've got some trailers for you. Everybody likes the trailers.
02:41We've got those. Landman, Yellowstone, how the PBR got started.
02:47We'll probably do that in a minute.
02:49And what else is happening? Prep for winter for your cattle.
02:53Prep for winter for your cattle, but it's still 100 degrees outside. It's October.
02:56So I don't know when winter is going to happen, but I'd like for it to happen pretty soon because it's pretty hot.
03:04For our UK folks that enjoy from the UK, we've got some stories for you.
03:09From there, some of that stuff happening.
03:13Kid Rock and Rodeo, if you want to get in on that, we'll talk about that in a little bit.
03:18History Haunts and Legends coming up.
03:20Your crazy stories that you like so much from your odd news.
03:25And then I've been doing some traveling, a lot of dang traveling.
03:28Last month I got some more traveling coming up.
03:30This month been busy. I've got some of that stuff to talk about.
03:33I didn't have time to throw all the photos out there for you, but I've got a ton of photos from where we've been.
03:39I guess as far as PBR goes, we do have a little bit of history on how the PBR got started.
03:47We'll throw that to you and let you see.
04:09Here marks the birthplace of a young nation's budding cattle industry.
04:19Known then as Hell's Half Acre, later branded Cowtown.
04:26If you were a cowboy, this was your ticket to silver and gold.
04:31Later branded Cowtown.
04:36If you were a cowboy, this was your ticket to silver and gold.
04:40Though the expansion across America's vast plains was on, no matter where the cowboys would wander, Fort Worth would always be their home.
04:51The dawn of a new century brought a grand coliseum to the brick pavement of the yard.
04:57A living embodiment of the cowboy way.
05:00A testament to the rugged, endearing, and sometimes mythical cowboy spirit to be shared with all.
05:09In a time long gone but not forgotten, men would ride in on their horses, lay their wages down to prove who was the best cowboy in town.
05:24The world's first indoor rodeo show had been crowned, and the grand coliseum was the only place it could be found.
05:34Tibbs, Brown, Shoulders, Mayhand, and Frost, just to name a few.
05:42From here, it was only the beginning.
05:46No matter how far they would travel, they always returned to where it started.
05:52Tommy, first of all, who are the professional bull riders? Who are they?
05:55These cowboys, it's a player's union of just bull riders making a living in the most dangerous event on the American sporting scene.
06:02They got a lot of nerve.
06:03If these walls could talk, they'd tell you another story.
06:08In the year of 1993, a new sport was christened.
06:16Men like Sharp, Murray, Marias, Gaffney, Lambert, and Hart, who on that day would lay their money down to prove who was the best from all around.
06:34From that day forward, created on the very same hallowed ground in front of you, would invite a new breed of bold, brave, fearless men who would accept the test.
06:47Shivers, McBride, Marchie, and Mooney.
06:52And only because of here, new legends are being born.
06:58Lemmy, Castle, Davis, and Diaz of today.
07:03So from around the world, Madison Square Garden to Cowboys Stadium, it doesn't matter where it may end, never forget where it began.
07:15Because there is no there without here.
07:19This is not just a coliseum.
07:22It's the grand cathedral of professional bull riding.
07:26It's time to go back to church, America.
07:29Welcome to the PBR.
07:41Where it starts and where it returns as they make their move to Fort Worth, Texas, which is happening, or has happened.
07:49But with PBR, we got somebody that knows a little bit about bull riding, possibly, and also has a pretty extensive resume in the media world, in the TV world, in the question world.
08:03And with that, we've got the one and only Paige Murray with us.
08:07Thank you so much for having me on.
08:10That was so interesting to watch.
08:11I love history.
08:12Yes, yes.
08:14So tell us, you got a children's book coming out that you've wrote that's fixing to be released.
08:18But before we get into that, let's go back a little bit and kind of see where it all come from, where you came from, what your background was like.
08:27Were you a ranch girl?
08:28Were you raised on the ranch?
08:29Did you compete?
08:30How did all that happen?
08:32So I grew up in a small town called Lancaster, South Carolina.
08:36And Ty laughs, my husband Ty, he laughs because in like 1990, the population was 9,500.
08:45And now the population is like 9,400.
08:47So the town just doesn't grow.
08:49Every time I go back home, it's the same.
08:51But it's something so special about it.
08:53But in South Carolina, there aren't ranches like there are here out West.
08:58There's so many pine trees.
08:59There's not as much open land.
09:02But my grandmother, she lived on like an old Southern plantation.
09:06And she had a couple hundred acres.
09:07And she had two horses that were her pets.
09:09And the neighbor kept some cows on the property.
09:12He leased that from her.
09:13And that's where I was exposed to horses.
09:15I'd always loved animals.
09:17I wanted to be a veterinarian growing up.
09:19And I fell in love with horses by going to my grandmother's.
09:23Well, my mom and dad couldn't afford to put me in riding lessons, so my grandmother paid for it.
09:27And I just fell in love with riding.
09:29And I started taking like, I guess, hunter-undersaddle, hunter-jumper lessons.
09:35And I just looked forward every weekend when we'd go to the horse shows.
09:38That was so fun for me.
09:40And so that was kind of my experience with horses and wanting to be a veterinarian.
09:47So I decided to go to Clemson University.
09:49And I majored in animal science with a concentration in equine business.
09:54And I just thought I wanted to do something in the horse world.
09:57I wasn't sure what.
09:58If I didn't go to vet school.
10:00And that's where I decided, like, when I got to college, I wanted to be a cowgirl.
10:04You know, instead of riding English.
10:05I really, I've always romanticized the West, the Western way of life and the cowboy culture.
10:10Black Beauty was my favorite book growing up.
10:12I loved the movie The Horse Whisperer and Eight Seconds.
10:15Those were my favorite movies.
10:17So I'd always just dreamed about the West and living on a ranch and all the animals you can have.
10:23And so when I was in college, you know, I was debating going to vet school.
10:28And I graduated magna cum laude, you know, at the top of my class.
10:33And it sounds old fashioned.
10:35But my mom was a stay-at-home mom to three of us girls.
10:39And I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom one day.
10:41And so I was like, I just can't imagine going to vet school for six more years, spending all that money.
10:47And then if I end up getting married and have a family and staying home with my kid.
10:50It's like you spend all that money to go to vet school.
10:53For what?
10:55And so I decided, well, maybe I won't go to vet school.
10:58But I started working as a vet tech part-time just to get those hours of experience that you need to apply for vet school.
11:04In case I, you know, couldn't find another job that I enjoyed or liked.
11:08And so, you know, I started working with NASCAR.
11:12I was hired as Miss Sprint Cup.
11:14I started modeling in college.
11:16And there was a modeling agency in Charlotte, North Carolina.
11:19And then Wrangler was one of their, like, Wrangler was one of the companies that the agency would hire for.
11:28So I started modeling for Wrangler.
11:30And that led to Montana Silversmiths.
11:32And then that led to the job with NASCAR.
11:34I got to travel the country.
11:36And that's where I fell in love with broadcast journalism.
11:39I loved it.
11:40And so I found out about a job opening for Ride TV.
11:44That was a new equine network that, you know, I think it started in maybe 2014.
11:50Because that's when I applied for the job.
11:52And I got it.
11:53So I was like, oh, my gosh, I get to move out to Texas.
11:55I get to move cross-country.
11:56I still live in, like, around the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
12:00And so I moved out to Texas.
12:03Started working as a reporter for Ride TV.
12:06And while I was working for Ride TV, I was out at the NFR two months after I got the job.
12:12And that's where I met my husband, Ty.
12:14He was also out there working at the NFR.
12:16And we've just been inseparable ever since.
12:19And, you know, after I met Ty, then I moved to the ranch.
12:24We got married in 2017.
12:26Had my daughter, our daughter, in 2018.
12:29And I was working as an ERA sports reporter for Fox Sports when the ERA Rodeo Association was going on.
12:37And after I had my daughter, all my passion and energy and time went into being a mom.
12:42And so a couple years ago is when I decided to start writing children's books.
12:48Because I was just immersing myself in children's books every evening reading to her.
12:53And I was like, I want to write about, you know, our ranch animals and all the lessons learned on the ranch.
12:59So that's where this dream kind of started that I didn't even know I had until I became a mom.
13:04And now it's just such a passion of mine.
13:07And when you got to the, when you got to the ranch and not growing up on the actual ranch background,
13:12but getting out there, out there with Ty and to the ranch and being around cattle and being around horses.
13:17And, you know, ranch horses a little different than your, you know, hunter jumper horses.
13:21So it was a little bit different for you, but just kind of, kind of just fell in with it and kind of learned as you go.
13:27Yeah, you know, I think majoring in animal science prepared me a little bit.
13:32Clemson has an awesome program.
13:34And so there were five like concentrations you could be a part of, but you take classes in all those different.
13:40It was the beef cows, dairy cows, swine, equine and poultry.
13:44So I had classes on all those.
13:46And of course, it's still way different when you're actually got your boots on the ground.
13:50But our labs were out at those different farms and facilities.
13:55And so I learned a good bit from that.
13:57But yeah, it was, you know, I had a lot to learn.
14:00I'd never been to a branding.
14:02We did some freeze branding in college, but I'd never been like the traditional branding.
14:07And even like, you know, it's so different riding out on the ranch every day instead of in an arena every day.
14:15Even if you're like barrel racing or hunter jumper stuff.
14:20When you go out on the ranch, it's so different.
14:22You have a lot more emotions you have to deal with within your horse because it's different things they're exposed to every time.
14:28But the biggest thing that Ty's taught me, like I could ride and stay on a horse, but I didn't know really good horsemanship.
14:35I'd never been taught good horsemanship.
14:37And that's such a big passion of Ty's.
14:39And he's really helped me with my horsemanship.
14:42And it's been neat to see because like when I was, so I was given my first horse.
14:47And I tried to barrel race on him when he was like 20 and we weren't successful, but it was so fun.
14:53And then, so I decided in college, I was like, I need a faster horse.
14:56And so, but my family still couldn't afford one.
14:59So I had some tax return money coming back from my model and I'd done.
15:04And I had about $500 and I looked up off the track thoroughbreds for adoption.
15:10They're $500 adoption fee.
15:12So found one, drove to Ohio with a friend, brought the horse home.
15:16He was three.
15:17And I had no idea what I was doing training a horse and he didn't know what he was doing.
15:21And we were never successful, but we entered a few rodeos and it was so fun.
15:25But it, you know, when I was getting ready to graduate, like he started to get where he didn't like me.
15:31Like I couldn't catch him.
15:32And, you know, you just love your horse, but I couldn't catch him and he didn't want to be with me.
15:36And so that was like really my last experience with horses.
15:40Got the job with NASCAR, all these other jobs, traveled the country.
15:43And so I'm so thankful when I met Ty, horses were brought back into my life.
15:48And he's helped me with my relationship with horses to where it got, where it wasn't fun anymore.
15:54You know, in college when your horse doesn't want to be with you.
15:58Yeah.
15:59All right.
16:00So you're doing it now.
16:01You're here in Texas, Utah married.
16:04You've got your daughter Oakley and then the book.
16:07So you read books to her.
16:10You thought, I'm going to write a book.
16:12So what ideas did you have as far, like this book that you wrote here, you know, Rose's Wild Ride.
16:18What was your ideas or what were you wanting to put into the books for the children?
16:24You know, lesson learning or learning about animals.
16:29What was your idea behind it?
16:31Yeah.
16:32So I've always loved to read and I've loved to write.
16:34I just didn't know I wanted to write a children's book.
16:37And yeah, there's the book you showed.
16:38Here it is.
16:39And you put up a real picture of Oakley and Rosie.
16:42But they're kind of the ones who inspired, you know, this first book.
16:45There's a picture of them in the book as well, too.
16:47Let's see if you can see that.
16:49Yeah, that's them.
16:50So the way this started is, one, I think a children's book needs to entertain kids.
16:57And if they get a great lesson out of it, that's like the best.
17:02You know, I'm always looking for a book to read to Oakley that maybe has something to do with experiences she's going through or things she's trying to learn.
17:10But the first thing it needs to do is entertain.
17:13And so all these lessons, all these things were happening on the ranch that are like a big adventure and a lot for a kid.
17:20And I haven't explained them to her.
17:22We were talking about them at night, just different things that happened.
17:25And the lessons on the ranch, you know, hard work, responsibility, integrity, honesty, family.
17:34But then there's other lessons learned, like the circle of life and death, that a lot of kids aren't exposed to the way a ranch kid's exposed to.
17:42And just a bunch of things like the morality of nature and how, you know, sometimes there's no good or bad animals.
17:51They're all just trying to survive.
17:52So there's a lot of things that you have to talk to your kids about.
17:55And so I was like thinking, I would love to write books about lessons on the ranch, adventures and lessons on the ranch.
18:03And the first one I started writing was about Rosie.
18:08So she is our real life Clydesdale.
18:10And Ty wanted to get a Clydesdale, one, because they're known as a gentle giant.
18:15And he wanted a safe horse for me and for Oakley.
18:18I became a little fearful after I became a mom of riding.
18:22And that's something I wasn't used to.
18:23I guess when you're young, you're an eight.
18:24But I guess it's like your biology telling you, you got a little person depending on you.
18:29So you better take care of yourself.
18:32And so he wanted to get this Clydesdale for us.
18:35But Ty also still loves a challenge.
18:37And he wanted to see if he could make like a cow pony from a plow horse.
18:41And so he wanted to see how handy he could make her.
18:45So she had, you know, she came from express ranches in Oklahoma.
18:50They pull wagons and in parades and things like that.
18:55And he put 30 days on her, not consecutively, but spread out over several months, documented it on Facebook.
19:01And people just fell in love with Rosie and her spirit, took her to a branding on her 30th day.
19:06And he'll tell you, she'll never be as handy, you know, as a cowboy would want like their horse to be.
19:12But any job he needs to get done on the ranch, she'll do it for him.
19:16And so I started thinking, wow, you know, I wonder what it would be like to be Rosie to show up on this ranch looking so different than the other horses with their big feathered hooves and her Roman nose.
19:27And so that was like the inspiration when I first got this idea for the book.
19:32I thought, hmm, I'm going to, you know, she's born into this.
19:36She's born to be a plow horse, but she don't want to pull a cart or a wagon.
19:39She dreams of being a ranch horse.
19:41And then that just kind of evolved once I got signed.
19:44I got signed with Zonder Kids, a division of HarperCollins, and they said, let's make this a rodeo adventure.
19:50So I was like, all right.
19:51I was like, so a Clydesdale rodeo.
19:54And like, that's not really going to go well.
19:56So how do I make this authentic and still a fun adventure for kids?
20:01Like she's dreaming of being rodeo stars.
20:02Like, what is she going to be good at in rodeo?
20:06And so that's where it was fun to create this story.
20:10You know, they practice and are kind of successful because, you know,
20:14maybe they're in a big field running barrels around hay bales and she can get around them.
20:18But when rodeo time comes, it's a lot different.
20:21And, you know, she's, she doesn't make it as a saddle bronc horse and the tie down rope.
20:26And she's so big and strong.
20:28She stops and the calf lands in Oakley's lap.
20:31Barrel race and she knocks down all the barrels because it's this tiny arena.
20:35And the grouchy old barn cat, he's really our cat thumbs and he is grouchy,
20:40but he always is telling her, you're too big and too slow.
20:43You'll never be a rodeo star.
20:45And so Oakley keeps telling her, well, Rosie, what if you can?
20:50You know, and that came off a real experience on the ranch.
20:53We were down at the round pen.
20:54Oakley was three and a half.
20:55And I said, she wanted to get on Rosie by herself.
20:59She's very independent and strong-willed and fearless.
21:02And she said, I said, do you think you can get on that big horse all by yourself?
21:07And she said, what if I can?
21:08And when I thought about it that night, I was like, what a cool thing.
21:13How many times do us adults forget to say, what if I can?
21:17We're always kind of like, well, what if I fail?
21:19What if I can't do this?
21:20What if I do this wrong?
21:22But she, she didn't, it wasn't even like a question.
21:25It was like, she was just full of curiosity and wonder.
21:27She wasn't full of doubt.
21:29And I was like, that is going to be a big theme in this book.
21:31And so they have to figure out their place in the rodeo.
21:35And when a runaway bull escapes, that's like their opportunity.
21:38She's the only horse big, strong, brave enough to go, you know, rope that bull
21:43and drag him back to his pen and her chance to be a rodeo star.
21:47Yeah.
21:48Yeah.
21:49When I read the book, I read the book today and I was reading that.
21:51And I was like, all right.
21:52So me and, me and Oakley and Rosie, you've got something in common
21:55because I work a lot of amateur rodeos, dragging bulls.
21:58I was like, that's where we fit in.
21:59So when I got to that, I was like, okay, so that works.
22:02So she was able.
22:03Yeah.
22:04She wanted to be a rodeo horse.
22:05She wanted to participate in rodeo.
22:06She just had to find her niche in the rodeo.
22:09And there you go.
22:10Dragging bulls.
22:11She had to find like, they had to accept that their differences were also their
22:16strengths and, you know, sometimes you may have to train,
22:19change your path on the way to accomplishing your dream,
22:22but they still accomplished it by like, you know,
22:25just accepting and embracing their natural God-given talents and figure out
22:29their place in rodeo.
22:30And so I thought that was like a special thing for kids because Oakley
22:33sometimes comes home from school and says, oh,
22:36my friend can color better than me.
22:37And I'm like, well, you might be faster than her on the playground.
22:40You know, everybody's good at something.
22:41You figure out what you're good at.
22:43There you go.
22:44I mean, like you say, everybody's different.
22:45Everybody has their own, their own niche.
22:48And you just, you find what, what works for you, what you're good at,
22:51what you can do.
22:52And then you excel in that, in that Avenue.
22:54And I do like that tagline you put there that you have in the book, you know,
22:57what if I can, you know, what if I can, well, what if I can do it?
23:00You gotta, you gotta try it to see if you can do it.
23:03Yeah.
23:04And like, so what if you can't either?
23:07That's where you learn the most too.
23:08But I think just having that positive mindset, if you,
23:11if you never believe that you can and you never start,
23:14you're never going to get anywhere.
23:16You've got it.
23:17You've got to try and you've got to try it.
23:19And a lot of times people don't realize you learn,
23:22you learn a lot more from the failures than you do the successes.
23:26Because if you're successful all the time, you don't,
23:29you don't realize the struggle.
23:31Right.
23:32And then you sometimes don't appreciate it either when you get there,
23:35if you don't know what it feels like to fail in the struggle.
23:37And, um, you know, Ty has always told me,
23:40he thinks a big part of why he was so successful is his mom and dad
23:45instilled a confidence in him. And he said, from when I was little,
23:49they made me believe I was the best at everything. And he, you know,
23:53he'd be out riding a little calf or something and about to get bucked off
23:58before eight seconds, but his mom would count faster.
24:01So he thought he made the eight seconds. He's like, you know,
24:04when someone's telling you you're great at something,
24:06then you start saying, Hmm, I am pretty good at this.
24:09And then you eventually you do, but you can become great at it.
24:12So he said that was so big that his parents instilled that confidence in him,
24:15um,
24:16from such a young age that he just always thought he was the great at it.
24:21And he became the great. It worked. It worked out all the way around.
24:26So, but before we get out of here and, uh, and let you get back to it, um,
24:30you got a book tour coming up. You got some book signs coming up.
24:34And if, if anybody's looking,
24:36I know you got one here in Dallas and some other places,
24:39if anybody's looking for your schedule that wants to go to the book signings on
24:44this book tour, where's the best place to send them?
24:48Yeah. So the best place, um,
24:50where I have all this kind of laid out is on my website is bootsandbiscuits.com.
24:55I share recipes ranch life.
24:57And that's where I've got all the information for Rosie's wild ride on there
25:00and just click on Rosie's wild ride.
25:02The menu will drop down and you can see the book tour.
25:04But if you follow me on Instagram, it's Paige D.
25:07Murray or Facebook, it's Paige Murray's boots and biscuits.
25:10I post all these, um, book tours and different, uh,
25:14media I've been a part of and all that, um, as it comes through.
25:18So that's a great place to keep up with me and, um,
25:21find all the information to see the real life animals to follow along with the
25:25book and all that fun stuff here on the ranch might see my funny farm.
25:29Okay. All right, Paige. Well, I'll tell you what,
25:31I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to visit with us and tell us
25:35about the book and let the folks know a little bit about more about you and
25:38about the books and how that works. And, uh, we wish you luck on your,
25:41on your tour.
25:42Thank you so much. I'm excited.
25:44Yeah, I'll be in Dallas at half price books on October 10th.
25:48So that'd be fun. Six o'clock.
25:50All right. Thank you.
25:53Bye.
25:55All right. That right there, Paige Murray book coming out,
25:59Rosie's wild ride, Rosie's wild ride.
26:03Check it out. She was talking about the ride TV.
26:06I think it's first time I met her before she didn't ride TV.
26:08And then I interviewed her and Ty at the ERA,
26:12but then the ERA disappeared and turned into the WCRA. If you don't know,
26:18now, you know, what else we're going to talk about today is, uh,
26:25we are here and we've got a trailer for, we are here and, uh,
26:30we'll check this trailer out.
26:31And then shortly we will probably be visiting with the man himself,
26:34Lee Wells,
26:35who's put this documentary together about the massive panhandle fires that,
26:40uh, recently happened in the Texas panhandle.
26:45This is the heartland of America,
26:49the backbone of the American beef economy.
26:55We're here.
26:58The wildfires were out of control in the Texas panhandle.
27:04Viewers may find these images disturbing.
27:08The wildfires took everything we had.
27:10I see the distraction and the devastation everywhere.
27:14Thousands of livestock had been lost and hundreds of homes and other structures
27:18decimated.
27:21I've never seen a fire like this.
27:23Lots of cattle lost.
27:25All of this place burned.
27:27With well over a million acres turned to ash.
27:30It got so big and the wind got so high that it scattered
27:35everybody out.
27:36The flames were probably 15 feet tall.
27:40Oh my gosh.
27:42Probably the meanest fire I've ever fought.
27:44It looked like somebody throwing big old red balls,
27:47just throwing them out there.
27:49Didn't land out there and light off again.
27:51You fought what you could, where you could,
27:53you could knock it out.
27:55And whenever you're not paying attention,
27:57it circle around behind you and cover you up.
27:59Surrounded by flames.
28:00Authorities tonight saying there are no exits out.
28:04We had no air support.
28:05I don't know where the air support was.
28:10Get out of there.
28:13You were on your own.
28:14This hay hauler said he'd went out north of Canadian to deliver hay
28:19and went to this old man's house and he had 450 mama cows.
28:24And he said, sir, how many bales of hay is it going to take
28:27to get you through?
28:29And he said, son, I don't need any hay.
28:31He said, I've got one cow left.
28:33Can you imagine?
28:37A lot of cattle died in the fire.
28:40It came so hard and so fast.
28:42Most of them weren't able to get away from it.
28:45Most of them died of smoke inhalation.
28:47They'll run and run and run from it until they can't
28:49and they just die of smoke inhalation.
28:51You can follow the fire line and see.
28:54They'll all start giving up at the same time
28:57and they'll just start scattering.
28:59You know, they'll be in a line where they're starting to give up
29:02or they'll get to a corner and it'll all catch them in the corner.
29:06I've never seen so many dead cattle, dead animals.
29:105,000, 10,000, you know, it's really hard to say right now,
29:16but it's going to be pretty dramatic.
29:18A lot of the cattle were already bloated and burnt and dead.
29:22But then I had cattle that didn't have hair,
29:26didn't have the ears, lips, eyelids, all burnt off,
29:31and they were still walking and coming to the feed truck.
29:35And that's the hard part of ranching,
29:38having to get out with your rifle and shoot your own cattle.
29:41I had nightmares for weeks.
29:43I have a really good friend of mine that called me one day
29:45and said, I'm done.
29:47I don't want to do it anymore.
29:50But it has to be done.
29:52And so it was the first round of it for my boys
29:56and it didn't take them long to get sick of it.
29:59People here have a lot of grit and a lot of fight in them,
30:03but you can see it in their eyes, behind their smile,
30:07they're tired of looking at it, they're tired of talking about it,
30:11and they're tired of thinking about it.
30:13A lot of the ranchers are getting up there in age.
30:16I'm 93 last December.
30:18At that age, would you start over?
30:20I've never thought about quitting or giving up.
30:25Cows need fed or they need looked after.
30:30I always have a reason to get up the next morning.
30:34I think everybody needs something to get up for the next day.
30:40As of today, all the fires are out, but that means work begins.
30:44It's going to take months to years to get back on our feet.
30:49This was my living, and it's shattered.
30:53These are our friends and neighbors.
30:55If we don't help, who will?
30:57You feel bad for people driving six hours with a load of hay,
31:01you know, because they've got family they need to be with.
31:04That is hard. It's really hard.
31:07I had a guy from Decatur, Texas come in.
31:11He got here around 9.30 that morning, and we unloaded,
31:14and he said, I'll see you this evening.
31:18And I said, you what now?
31:20He said, I'm driving back to Decatur, Texas to get another load,
31:23and I'll be back this evening.
31:25And I thought how amazing somebody would do that.
31:28If we don't, who will?
31:30Because they're not coming for us.
31:32We've got to take care of ourselves.
31:34We've got to take care of ourselves.
31:36When it came to my place, I'd help my neighbors until I had to leave,
31:41and it was me and one guy at my house.
31:44Todd Keith, if it wasn't for him, I'd have lost everything I had.
31:53We've got to stick together.
31:55This is what ranchers do. This is what farmers do.
31:57This is what Texas does.
31:59Neighbors helping neighbors, it's just unbelievable.
32:03That only goes so far when it's gone.
32:06We have to sell everything we have,
32:08and if we don't have cattle out here, we can't feed the world.
32:11This world lives on what we raise.
32:14There is lots of good people out there.
32:16I found that out.
32:18I was really kind of down on humanity.
32:21I thought, you know, this world's going downhill.
32:24But after this, there's more good that came out of this than the bad.
32:32We just can't give in. We can't let up.
32:35I've had losses, but my heart's broke more for my neighbors than it is me.
32:45I think I'm going to need new tires on the truck before I can come back,
32:48but if that's what it takes, that's what it takes.
32:51This fire has been one of the worst things that I've ever experienced in nature.
32:59And the kindness of people is some of the best I've ever seen in human account.
33:07My neighbor came to me and said,
33:10I'm here to help you, and I said, get out of here.
33:13This fire's bad.
33:14He said, I got it, and crawled on in front of my truck,
33:17and he said, you didn't leave me.
33:19I'm not leaving you.
33:21We're here.
33:30So that right there is the trailer for We Are Here.
33:38It's a documentary that Lee Wells has put together.
33:41They're doing some screenings in different locations right now.
33:45Before that, they've got a screening coming up.
33:47I think their next screening, depending on if you're watching live or replay,
33:53Greenville, Texas, they've got a screening coming up for that.
34:05So be sure to check that out.
34:08Look it up at the website there.
34:10We'll talk to him here shortly about that,
34:14and he will tell you where to go to find all the screening locations.
34:22And with that, the Kid Rockin' Rodeo.
34:26Kid Rockin' Rodeo is happening again,
34:30and right now the draft is open.
34:35So if you enter the draft for the Kid Rockin' Rodeo,
34:38if you're ready for the encore, it's happening.
34:41If you think you have what it takes
34:43to compete for one of the biggest rodeo purses in the nation.
34:47Not a purse like you carry to town, like money.
34:50Registration is now open for the 2025 Kid Rockin' Rodeo featuring Kid Rock
34:55and the world's top rodeo athletes.
34:57Year two kicks off the biggest weekend in Western sports
35:00on Friday, May the 16th in Arlington, Texas.
35:05Last year, the groundbreaking inaugural event, Rodeo Reimagined,
35:13took place there in front of 23,000 fans at AT&T Stadium,
35:17which is home of the Dallas Cowboys.
35:21It's coached by legendary rodeo stars and comprised of two athletes
35:25per discipline, which is four in team roping,
35:29six face-off head-to-head in a bracket-style competition to be crowned.
35:33Now, coached by legendary rodeo stars is in quotes.
35:39You had Clint as one of the coaches last year, so that's a different deal.
35:43Using a unique format similar to drag racing,
35:47which that's really changed over the years,
35:50athletes compete at the exact same time in all five events,
35:55adding for a never-been-seen twist.
35:57If you didn't watch this last year, you need to go watch it.
35:59It was pretty entertaining.
36:01Register before November the 8th for your chance to be drafted.
36:06If you want to try to get drafted for that event,
36:11you have from now until November 8th to put your name in the hat
36:15to see if these coaches want to draft you.
36:20That's how that goes.
36:24If you want to get your scare on
36:31or learn more about the paranormal, if you're into that,
36:36and you want to learn about paranormal stuff,
36:39you can go to Jefferson, Texas,
36:42and the first weekend or the first Saturday, I believe, of November,
36:47you have the History, Haunts, and Legends.
36:52That is going to take place where they have speakers.
36:56It's like a paranormal, not a paranormal conference,
36:58but kind of like a paranormal deal where they have some special guests
37:01from the paranormal world.
37:07You've got Till Gray, Nikki Fulsome, Kathleen Maka, Greg Lawson,
37:14Jesse Ward, Brian Clune, Susan Hill, Dakota Lawrence,
37:20Dr. Rita Louise.
37:21Wow, the picture they're using here is not recent.
37:24Larry Flaxman, Bradenberry, Clang, Mitch Whittington,
37:30Tanya Womack, Martha Decker.
37:33They have a special guest, Natalie Jones,
37:36which we may be visiting with before this event on the show.
37:42Anyway, it's a pretty neat deal.
37:43You go out there and they talk about paranormal stuff.
37:46You learn about different paranormal activities and things
37:49and how that stuff works.
37:51Then, depending on the ticket that you buy,
37:55you can go out that evening.
37:58There is a few very old historic homes in the neighborhood of Jefferson,
38:03and you will get to go out and spend some time
38:07with some paranormal investigators in those homes.
38:11That right there is a pretty neat opportunity.
38:14If you're into that sort of thing, go check it out.
38:17If you're not into that sort of thing, go check it out anyway
38:20because you just might learn something.
38:23I don't know.
38:24I don't know what's happening over there.
38:26What is happening over there?
38:27I see lots of motion.
38:33Can you hear me?
38:35Okay.
38:36Yeah, okay.
38:39So that works.
38:40All right.
38:41With that, the trailer for the documentary you just seen
38:44is going to be this man here, Mr. Lee Wells.
38:47Are you there with us, Lee?
38:48I am.
38:49I'm here.
38:50There you are.
38:51All right.
38:52So tell us a little bit about this documentary that you're doing,
38:55kind of how it got started, and then kind of where it took off from there.
39:00Absolutely.
39:01Well, March 1st, we were getting the news of all the wildfires,
39:06the crazy destruction,
39:10and we began to channel supplies from northeast Texas out west
39:17and hay and feed and all of that.
39:21And in one of my trips, I grabbed a camera crew,
39:24and we began getting some of this on tape, as it were,
39:28and then sat down with several ranchers and got their story on video.
39:35And they just opened up and began talking,
39:38and I guess from one rancher to another, they felt comfortable,
39:42and we got some pretty amazing footage, great stories.
39:47All right.
39:49And the amount of people outside the panhandle that helped out,
39:55you know, volunteered, donated, was pretty remarkable.
39:58Oh, wow.
40:00I don't know that we'll ever know numbers.
40:02It was just overwhelming.
40:04We were just a small part of all of that that happened,
40:08but happy to be a small part
40:10and happy to get it down as a historical record
40:16and be able to share this story with others that are outside of that area
40:21and then, of course, folks that may not even know that it even happened.
40:26What was the – I think you may have mentioned it in that trailer,
40:30but what was the amount of acreage that burnt?
40:35Well, my number that I'm standing by that I can verify is 1.2 million.
40:42Locals are saying 1.5 million,
40:44but, you know, when you start going on record, you have to be sure.
40:48So that's a lot.
40:50That's just – I think I did the study on that.
40:54I think it's like eight New York cities stacked together side by side
41:00is about what has been destroyed out there.
41:04It's amazing.
41:06It's just amazing.
41:08And then even on that stuff that happened and on the rebuild
41:14that a lot of people don't realize too on that is the getting back to it that,
41:18you know, a lot of folks, they lost their cattle, lost their homes,
41:22but then, you know, you also – nobody really thinks about the fencing,
41:26but you lost all your fencing too.
41:28You know, your wooden posts and all that stuff is all burnt.
41:30So you're pretty much starting over from scratch.
41:33You know, I talked to one guy.
41:36He's a rancher right there in that area, 40 miles of fence just on his place.
41:44I talked to another guy 80 miles of fence, perimeter fence on his place.
41:50It's just mind-blowing the number of miles of fence.
41:55And then their wellheads are burned out, all of their grass, their hay, their barns.
42:01Just depending on how the fire was blowing, how it was fought in the different areas,
42:08they lost various amounts.
42:10But everybody in that area lost all of their grass for the spring
42:15and had to move cattle on to other lease spots
42:19or had to find hay to keep them in a lot or something.
42:24They had to do something because they could not continue the way they were before that fire hit.
42:31How has the rebuild process been going?
42:36You know, I was just out there last week.
42:38We took this film out and showed it across the fire zone, four different theaters.
42:43And so I got to drive all of it just last week.
42:49And, you know, their grass is coming back, of course.
42:53You know, it takes a long time to rebuild that much fence.
42:56But, you know, I did see more cattle on their places.
43:01There were more cattle in the country.
43:03It does look like they are going to make it.
43:07But it looks like they're getting back to normal a little bit at a time.
43:12Man, that devastation, you know, and like a lot of those people,
43:15like the ones in the documentaries, those ranchers, that's their sole income.
43:20That's their life.
43:21They live and die by the cow.
43:23And when it's gone, it's, you know, what do I do?
43:27Yes, sir.
43:28There were so many cattle that, you know, like we mentioned in that trailer,
43:34their bags were burned, their udders were burned.
43:37They were having to bottle feed calves by the hundreds.
43:41It was calving season.
43:42I don't know that we'll ever know the full toll because so many of those cows
43:47were about to calve.
43:50And so you can almost start multiplying those numbers by two,
43:54almost because of the number of mama cows that we're talking about.
43:59The number of bulls, of course, are a smaller number.
44:02But the majority of those cattle that were lost were, you know, about to calve.
44:08And so those that did survive,
44:11that didn't have to be put down in the subsequent weeks,
44:14a lot of them would throw their calves and it just, it was just so much loss.
44:19It's hard to total it all up.
44:21And every man there had to figure up his own losses.
44:26But I don't think that we'll ever know the totals.
44:29I just don't know that we'd ever have a way of knowing that.
44:32It's so big.
44:34So with this tour of the documentary,
44:37I know you're coming to pretty soon you'll be in Greenville, Texas.
44:41Yes, sir.
44:42And then you're going on from there.
44:44So what does the tour look like as far as the locations
44:48and the distance that you're traveling?
44:50We're coming down to the end for now.
44:52We started out last month in Pampa.
44:56We gave a first look opportunity to everyone that was involved in it,
45:00had them, their families, about 400 neighbors.
45:05We had about 400 there at that showing.
45:07And then, of course, this last week,
45:09we did four different stops across that area in the Panhandle.
45:14And then we're bringing it back to my area on the 18th of October in
45:19Greenville at the municipal auditorium.
45:22And that's going to be the last time we're going to be able to see this
45:27because it is going into and been submitted to film festivals.
45:32And so the way this process works is I wanted to be a little different.
45:37Most films don't,
45:38they're not seen at all until after the film festival circuit is complete
45:44because those film festivals want fresh, new, never seen films.
45:50And I actually forfeited some of those opportunities.
45:54And we were able,
45:56not even able to go into some of those film festivals because we've shown
46:00this.
46:01But it was very important to me to get to the people and let them see this
46:06while it's relevant right now, not waiting until next year.
46:10And so long story short,
46:13we got one opportunity coming up here in the Greenville area, Dallas,
46:17North Dallas area, drivable from Dallas, of course, to come see it.
46:23And we've got plenty of seats, 1400 seats in that auditorium.
46:26We're bringing in laser projection.
46:28We're bringing in a 24 foot screen out of Dallas.
46:32We're doing it right.
46:33And that's going to be the opportunity for us to see it in this area.
46:38And then it'll go on the shelf and then maybe it'll do some good at some of
46:42the festivals.
46:43We'll just have to wait and see.
46:46Okay. All right, Lee.
46:48Well, man, I appreciate you taking time to visit with us and tell us a little
46:51bit about that so we can show the folks and let them kind of know what's
46:54going on and where they can, they can look it up.
46:57And is there a website that folks want to go check this out?
47:02The best place for them to go look it up?
47:04Yes, sir. Well, thank you for letting me be on here.
47:07I appreciate your platform and I appreciate your listeners from a rancher to
47:13everyone listening.
47:14Thank you for doing what you do and being interested in this.
47:17Our website is we're here.
47:19So W-E-R-E-H-E-R-E doc, D-O-C dot com.
47:25So we're here doc dot com is the website.
47:29And if someone was interested in seeing this on the 18th,
47:32you can buy tickets right there on that website.
47:35There's also other clips, the trailers there.
47:38There's some other footage that's there and reaction videos and just some
47:43information to learn about there on that website.
47:46Okay. All right, Lee, man.
47:48I appreciate it.
47:49And we'll get out to the folks and hopefully a good show in there in
47:52Greenville.
47:53Thank you so much.
47:56All right.
47:57So check that out and look it up.
47:59And with that,
48:01I'm going to leave you with a trailer for Landman that was filmed here.
48:10And in the North Texas area, a lot of it,
48:14some of it a little out West and another Taylor shared in production with
48:19the sling blade himself.
48:21So check it out and see what you think.
48:23And we'll see you next time.
48:45Oil and gas industry makes $3 billion a day in pure profit.
48:52And it's only getting bigger.
48:57But before any of that money is made, you got to secure the land.
49:01Then manage the people.
49:03That's my job.
49:05First part's pretty simple.
49:09It's the second part that can get you killed.
49:12The world has already convinced itself that you are evil and I am evil.
49:40Getting them the one thing they interact with every day.
49:48Getting oil out of the ground's most dangerous job in the world.
49:52We don't do it because we like it.
49:55We do it because we run out of options.
49:58Everybody's whole family works the patch.
50:02Roll the dice one last time.
50:12Steal a beer.
50:13You want something stronger?
50:14I quit drinking.
50:15I'll stick with beer.
50:18Welcome to the oil business.
50:48I'll stick with beer.