November 18, 2021 • 34 mins
This week the guys sit down with AMA, Supercross and Off Road champ Ricky Johnson. Take a look back at the legends career.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Skinny with Riego and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. Hi. I'm Ricky Johnson and this is
the Skinny from the fat Heads I Wear Studios in Speedway, Indiana.
This is the Skinny brought to you by Toyota, Rhino Classified,
General Tire and Dream Giveaway. This segment of the Skinny
(00:24):
is brought to you by Toyota. I'm excited about today's
We have a friend of mine that will be on
here who's been a friend for some fifteen years, Michael
Young sitting here alongside. I've only been your friend for
a couple of weeks. That's well, and that's a good point.
So I'm not referring to you anyway, shape or form.
I'm not even sure we are friends. Not yet getting there.
(00:45):
We're working on We're working on the relationship. Young sitting alongside.
Great to have him back with me, of course. And
our guest is a couple of thousand miles away out
in California, Southern California. I'd like to welcome uh, the
original bad boy to the show. His name is Ricky Johnson,
affectionately known as r J. Ricky. Great to have you on,
(01:07):
my friend, and we were in the boot together for
many many years. I've watched your race for many many years.
Of course, Hall of Fame we're here as well, and
uh seven seven Supercross Motocross championships and the nation wins.
I mean, it just goes on and on and on.
We could talk about the accolades of your career forever
for sure, and uh and we'll certainly touch on some
(01:28):
of that stuff. But great for you to find the
time and join us here on the show man, Thank you. No, No,
I'm I'm blessed and honored to be on the skinny.
You know. I went back and did some homework and
looking all the legends that you guys have, and it's
pretty cool that you're scraping down towards the bottom of
the barrels. Get some of us were running low man,
kind of retiring love across guys racing desert, doing this,
(01:50):
doing that. But no, in all serious, No, I'm I'm
blessed to be here and honored. Um. I love what
you guys are doing, and I love the the way
the way it's coming out, the way the guys are talking.
You know, it's obviously great when you can have guys
like Tony Stewart and uh and the list goes on
and on and on between F one form, uh, IndyCar
guys and NASCAR guys and stuff. So thank you for
(02:11):
having me up. Yeah, man, our pleasure for sure talk
to me about Ricky Johnson and what what's going on
Ricky Johnson's world. I saw you a little bit earlier
to the year. I hadn't seen you for a long time,
and then we were in Nashville together in Stadium super Trucks,
which it was great to see you and stuff your
wife once again. And uh, I know one thing is
for sure, though there's never any grass growing under your feet.
(02:33):
You're constantly busy, always developing something and working on something.
And I believe the latest announcement I saw was You're
gonna be back in a desert truck. Yeah, I'll, I'll
getting ready to head down. I'm racing for Gusts and
Tavoville Dosla. Uh. They they've recently purchased a new Mason
all will drive thousand horsepower normally aspirated. It's it's the
truck of trucks. Um Bryson Menzies Racing one, uh Andy McMillan,
(02:55):
the McMillan family, Luke and Dan Um, Jesse Jones, all
the all the top guys have them. And so when
Gus got that, and he originally signed me up as
a legend. Uh, there's a fifty plus class for trophy
trucks and they call that trophy trucks Legends, which Rob
mccacre makes. The joke is that if he only knew
that he had to turn fifty to become a legend,
(03:16):
he wouldn't have worked so hard. But anyhow, so this
year they have one truck and the three of us
are contesting the ball one thousand. Um we read seventh
the first time in a while. Uh, feel good. I'm
still not quite there yet. When I saw you in Nashville,
bolsters from uh brought me down and um we had
(03:38):
an instant on a track. Um that was after that
your son just completely destroyed and took me out. Um,
just kidding, Kenny. Um, just so let you guys know
you're you're sitting next to one of the most angry
mini big father there is, because I text him saying jokingly,
your son took me out yesterday. What the f goes? WHOA?
(04:01):
And then so he comes at me full bore. But
you know, we joke about that. Your son Robert Um
gotta say, man, what a stud in racer that he has,
you know, and he's made his own path if you're
working at Bonderant, working at thermal racing cars and stuff,
and and he crushed everybody that day. Um, we joked
about it. I started the spin, he finished it. I
(04:23):
would have done the same thing. I probably hit hit
me harder. But anyhow So, racing trucks, still doing teaching military,
still training people um on motorcycles with adventure bikes and
dual sport, and then also still training quite a few
of the trophy truck racers because there's a lot of
little secrets that people don't know, and and there's a
lot of things that people are doing in the truck
that they don't even know that they do. So I've
(04:45):
kind of gone through and picked out what I like
from the different stuff, whether we call renaisettor Kyle La Duke,
Bryce Menzies, Um, Scott Taylor, with the list goes on
and on to to try to be a better driver,
to better coach. I held up here for a second
because I didn't I want to let Michael jump in
if he if he wanted to, I want to touch
on that because Ricky, I mean, of all my years
(05:08):
of broadcasting and watching racing and and probably the most
intently and short course off road, Ricky is one of
the smoothest drivers I've ever witnessed. I said that about
Maddie Bravin the other day, and I truly believe that
about that young talented kid. But but the first one,
or or one of the first drivers that I've saw
where I could actually visually see a difference between him
(05:30):
and everybody else was Ricky and so smooth that almost
all the time it seems as always going slow, like
he's seen, it seems like you're going slower than everybody else,
but there's never a wasted move, and you constantly pick
your way to the front. And I'll follow that up
by saying, he's also one of the most brilliant coaches,
(05:50):
one of the most brilliant teachers. Has the patients to
work with young talented drivers and uh and has a
very unique way of bring his talents forward and explaining
how to go about using them. So I think you
are truly in a lane of your own. And I mean, listen, man,
we're friends for fifteen years, and we love to bust
each other's ball. So you know, I went and blow
(06:12):
the smoke if I didn't think it was true. But um,
I absolutely believe you're You're in a lane of your
own when it comes to your unique ability to not
only be smooth and go fast, but then to put
it into words and help other people behind you that
are coming up through the rings. Well, thanks man, because
really there's you can only be the alpha male in
(06:33):
racing for so long. I'm still I still feel like
I'm in decent shape for fifty seven years old. I'm
not falling out of the seat. I got a I
got a pretty good regiment to where I'm in great
truck driving shape. I'm in terrible motocross racing shape just
because my body doesn't work that way anymore. Um, But
what I truly enjoy is taking somebody and helping them
(06:54):
be better. So my my my thought is I'm not
better than you, but it doesn't matter what of what
you are. I feel that I can make you a
better driver, whether it be are you getting enough rest
during a week? Are you training the right way? Are
you doing big long cardio sessions when you should be
doing intervals whatever whatever it might be. Because I've tried everything.
I've tried everything from fasting too ful meat diets to
(07:17):
cycling mega miles to jiu jitsu to UH breath coaches
and all kinds of stuff. So if I can take
one or two things from each thing and then deliver
that to the next guy, um, then I truly enjoy it.
Because teaching is not for everybody. Teaching is very frustrating
because immediately respect of the race and they want to
(07:38):
come out with their ego, and then when they want
to I'm better than you, Well you are faster than me,
but you might be a little more consistent or whatever
it might be. So my my lane, as you said
right now, is not to say I'm better than you,
but I want to make you better. Ricky Kenneth said,
You've basically done it all. But going from a rider
on two wheels to a driver to try position, was
(08:00):
it as difficult as you potentially anticipated it to be.
What was that transition like, and then going from off
roading the stock car racing was was it a gradual transition?
What was the most difficult part for you, the most
difficult part for me? And I think that you can
talk to Juan Montoya or Ricky Carmichael. Ricky Carmichael across
(08:23):
and Juan Montoya came from F one and in any
car and stuff like that. Is that in an NASCAR
in stock car racing, you have to learn the art
of the role, how to flow through, the flow through
and not upset the chassis forward and back and do
all that. Where when you're racing, even though you have
to be smooth, you still when you're road racing, you
(08:43):
have to outbreak the next guy. They say, Lewis Hamilton
is so much better than than a lot of the
other guys because he outbreaks them. Um, when it comes
to motocross, and that's where you do all your passing,
passing coming into the corner and setting him up and
stuff like that. So now go from a thing where
you're pushing your breaking as hard as you can into
the owner to where you have to learn to roll.
And I really didn't learn the role until I was
(09:06):
four years out of NASCAR. If I was going to
train somebody right now like Hailey dgon is doing phenomenal,
I would take her to a track with no guardrails.
They have a couple in Wisconsin because Jimmy Johnson. I
went there and I would take the brakes off her
car and I would make her I would read her
laptimes and have her learn how to roll off the gas,
(09:27):
roll through the corner, and go as fast as she
can momentum style, because that's different than off road and
breaking hard and planting the nose and doing all the
different stuff. So for me, it took a little bit
of time to figure out the boundaries of the car
and where the wheels were compared to motocross bike because
you have a lane this big. But that wasn't the
hard part. It was learning how to be smooth and
(09:51):
roll and not be a hammer. Hang onto those thoughts there,
Ricky Johnson. We're gonna take a quick break here. We'll
be right act with a lot more from the original
bad Boy. This segment of the Skinny is brought to
you by Dream Giveaway. Dream Giveaway has been giving away
(10:11):
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(10:32):
at dream giveaway dot com. Let's get a welcome back
to the skinny Kent Stout, Michael Young and good friend
Ricky Johnson out in California has joined us remotely. And Uh, Ricky,
I said it when we were cutting to break the
last time around the original bad Boy, and you really
were I mean you came up with a logo. There
(10:52):
was a bumper sticker. Uh. That whole thing spawned off.
What did did you make a little bit of money
out of that gig back in the day. No, it
didn't make a sense actually, but Mark and Brian Simon
and Beaver THEA Sakers did. Actually, I didn't come up
with a logo. Um. I met the guys in four
when they had a company called Lifes of Beach and
(11:13):
they were selling shorts out of the back of a
pickup truck. There were three guys from Chicago, Mark and
Brian Simo and beagerasakas Um a K. Jeff Um and
we became friends right off the bat, and then they
moved to California, and so three guys from Chicago started
a surflying company and then they had a motocross guy
as one of their main spokesmen. And they went on
(11:35):
to sell millions and millions of dollars worth a T
shirts and shorts, and then they came up with one
of the artists came up with the bad boy um.
And that was right when I was doing the spiked
hair and the flat tops and stuff like that. So
a lot of people assumed that I was the bad boy.
I wasn't um. I wasn't even the inspiration for it,
but I took the I took the image because not
(11:55):
not like bad, like getting in trouble, going to jail
and robbing people and stuff like that, but bad of
being a tough son of a bitch that's gonna fight
you tooth and nail all the way to the checkered flag.
And that was that was the bad boy image that
I wanted to portray, not not a hoodlum. Now. I
ask you this because I think it took me until
nineteen four, maybe, Ricky, when did you lose the said
(12:20):
mullet and or spiked hair? I kept the mullett four. Yeah,
I actually I actually dropped it. In nineteen I went
to a I went to a straight flat top. No,
no party in the back. Um, because for one I
just got I had so much hair spray and aquanette
superhold the pink stuff to make sure the stuff stayed
(12:43):
up high at the club. And helm I had to
be awesome. The inside of that helmet must have been
smoking cool exactly, a little bit a little bit crusty
in there. So it was it was a thing. It
was more fun. I wanted to go more function than fashion.
So the short haircut worked worked for me. Hey man,
let's um, let's talk about a couple of things here.
(13:03):
Three years old, dad gets you a mini bike, you
kick it off. When you're sixteen years old, you get
your pro license, and four years later you're a two
fifty national champion. You remember those days, remember that transition.
I remember all that. I can remember riding the mini
bike up and down the street. Um, there's my wife
in the background, Steph, Steph, Hey, Steph, good morning. I
(13:27):
love shading her. First thing. When I see her first
second the morning, I know it's been a good day.
It's been a good day. We've been at Denny's late
last night. Um, I remember, I remember when my dad, Um,
my dad got me the mini bike. I remember, even
though I was three years old. There's certain moments that
you know your life is like a picture out picture
book album, and there's certain things that that changed your life.
(13:48):
And I remember sitting on that mini bike. And my
dad wasn't a big we get it for Christmas or
birthdays or whatever. If it if it sparked him, he
did it. So he bought them any bike, brought it home.
Obviously there was some more was with my mom and that,
but started it up and I wrote up and down
the street. Then started racing mini bikes and then it
(14:09):
was then it was our thing. It was every weekend
we would. There was nothing else we did. I didn't
I quit playing baseball. I didn't play football, soccer, any
other school sports. I just would. I would race on
Wednesday night, Saturday and Sunday and so um it was.
It was a full on, full on deal. And I
turned pro when I was thirteen in southern California because
(14:30):
for one UM, I didn't want to do deal with
the mini bike fathers and all the arguing. My dad
got in a couple of fist fights. Um because I'm
recently rough with the kids and and they're they're mad
at me, and then they come at me, and then
my dad takes care of business, and and so I
wanted to just go race. And so a friend of mine,
brock Lover, who got a factory Yama ride, let me
(14:52):
ride as when I was twelve, and I'm like, I
had so much fun, Like can we start doing this?
So within three months I turned pro and then we
couldn't national protey or sixteen, so won the Southern California
championships and then went went on to UH went on
to start chasing down the national championships and was was fortunate.
I was with yamant on nineteen through five, got on Honda.
(15:14):
I won one championship with Yamaha in four. With my
mechanic was Cliff Lett, who was helped me through through
many you know, make the transition to bigger bikes. It did.
In nine six I was at the right team, the
right mechanic, the right bike, the ride, everything, and we
got two championships for a year. So six was Supercross
(15:34):
and two fifty second and the five outdoor UM Motocross,
the nation's Tokyo Supercross Japan Supercross. I mean just had
the most stellar year of my life. And then David
Bailey gets paralyzed at the opening round, not opening round,
but a warm up race in eighty seven and he
was my teammate, which was the smoothest rider, probably the
(15:54):
best rider, one of the best riders of all time,
and he got paralyzed, and so um that year I
lost the Supercross Championships with Jeff Ward and got second,
and then got won the two, the outdoor one, the
Nations again, and so that went on through and then
in nineteen nine I had a big injury and it
all came to a screenching halt, but zero regrets. How
(16:18):
was what was that moment like when five time world
champ Roger Acosta comes over and says, hey man, we'd
like to take you away from Yamaha and put John Honda.
I mean, here you are, you're a kid, and you're
all you already have manufacturers coming at you. Big decisions.
Yeah it was, but so so here's what happened is
Kawasaki had been uh handing me all year long in
(16:41):
and Y'ama made some decisions that I didn't like. I
loved everybody Y'ama. It's like it was like a family.
I was there since I was twelve years old, and
I didn't want to leave. But the upper management and
the different stuff, they weren't giving me the equipment that
I needed, and they weren't putting in the work as
hard as as I felt that Broc Lever and myself were.
So I want make a switch. Well in Kawasaki brought
(17:03):
their works bike down. They let me try it. We're
gonna sign do all that different stuff. Ronald Machine has
a situation in Japan. He gets fired from Honda. Ronnie
was two years younger than me, so they went with
the younger writer. And so I was all set to
go signed with Kawasaki. UH. No one knew this except Kawasaki.
Kawasaki manager team UH. Team manager Roy Turner calls me, says,
(17:26):
we signed Ronnie. I said, I already heard because we
lived in the same neighborhood. So everybody knows everything um
down in alcohol in California, and so I was, I go, well,
I guess I'm just gonna sign with Yama. So it's
a Tuesday. I was supposed to go sign with Yamaha
on a Wednesday. Roger d Kostra calls and says, hey,
would you consider riding for us? I said, if I
can try the bike, yes, so he said when I
(17:48):
said tomorrow, So so I called Yamaha said I can't
make it up to sign. I went up tested the
bike and it was it was unbelievable. I didn't get
to raise that workspike that was the super big to
one with the low tank and carbon fiber. It was
just as most unbelievable bike I think ever built. UM.
But it wasn't just the bike that did it. It
(18:09):
was the effort of Dave Arnold, the team manager Roger
de Coster, who was kind of looking over everything UM,
the show of guys, the motor guys, everything. Honda had
the attitude that will give you everything that you need
to win, you just have to go do it. And
so that's what what it did. I signed for a
hundred thousand dollars less, I'll be honest with you, I
signed for a hundred and five thousand dollars, but I
(18:30):
had a huge bonus schedule that UM, if I won
a Supercross or I wanted any championship, it was a
hundred thousand dollar bonus. It was ten thousand dollar per
per race win during you know, during the season, and
then if each championship that I won, they would bump
my salary PIPTI grant for the following year. So me,
being the arrogant puke that I am, I felt, well,
(18:52):
but my salary every year because I'm gonna win every
rate every right. But when basically get guys like Ward
Johnny Mr David Bailey, you don't win every race twenty
one years old making a hundred and twenty five grand
a year back in the mid eight mid to late eighties, Dude,
(19:13):
I mean, how do you keep but how do you
keep things under control? When you're twenty one years old?
You make first of all, you're making these huge decisions
and uh and and clearly made the correct ones. That's outstanding.
But to handle one year old access to a d
grand back in that day, I mean I had to
be like a half a million dollars man. How did
you not just part of yourself to death? It was well,
(19:38):
I was fortunate. So a couple of things sometimes out
of uncomfortable situations become blessings. And when when it's bad,
you know, you don't know it's good, but it is
going to be so. Anyhow, when I first started, my
parents were managing my money and my dad was negotiating
for me. And my dad was a real hard ass,
I mean, just very black and white. And the way
it is that my mom was just this sweet a
(20:00):
woman that grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, that didn't
graduate high school. So she's doing my dad's she's the
bookkeeper from my dad, all the different stuff, and now
all of a sudden she's managing a hundred and some
thousand dollars. This is more money than they've than either
of them have ever seen. Well, it got uncomfortable and
I had to make the break, which is the one
of the I think the hardest, one of the hardest
things I've ever done. Mom and Dad, I don't want
(20:22):
you in my business anymore. Because I would race and
my dad would fill out, you know, my my bonus things,
and if I got second place, I'd call him from
the airport because he didn't have cell phones back then.
He started chewing my ass out. You know how much
money you lost, and you do the Matthew lost this
from Belle, you lost this from Fox, you lost this
from Alpine Star down the list, I'm like, you know what,
(20:43):
I want my parents back. So I made a break
from them, and I was I was. I was blessed
to meet a guy named Dave Stevenson, who was an
accountant for JT Racing, the clothing line at the time,
but he also helped rock and so I didn't think
about money. Money. The money when I negotiate and all
the different stuff was just a number. I didn't attach
myself to, like, oh, I got this money, I'm going
(21:04):
to go buy a car, I'm gonna go by thought
about it. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to do it,
but I would come home give Dave the money. Dave
would give me a certain amount of money to piss
away on records and going to fast food restaurants or
whatever I wanted to do. So I never worried about money.
And the plan when we first started was the whole
goal was to make a million dollars cash put it
(21:27):
into bonds because back then you could get bonds and
they were like five or six years and they were
like thirteen, fourteen, sevent so you're like perfect, I could
just live on the interest and go go my way. Well,
the bond market took a crap um. Everything changed and
the cost of living went through the moon. So I
did good when it came to earning money, but not
(21:48):
to live. That's why I continue to work. Not that
I'm broke, but I enjoy working and I want to
enjoy other things. We're gonna take another quick break here.
We have plenty more to go with Ricky Johnson who
has joined us from southern California. Here on the skinny.
We'll be right back. This segment of the skinny has
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Modified cars, classic cars, race cars, that special big block.
You need the trailer to move your baby around the
country in we got you at Rhino dot Co. Welcome
back to the Skinny. We have Ricky Johnson who has
joined us here today. He's in southern California, so has
joined us remotely. Michael Young sitting alongside. So cool to
(23:20):
have to have one of my really close personal friends
here on the show who has had so much success
and absolutely zero ego. One of the things I love
about him though, because I think this applies actually to
all angles of life, is r J is a guy
that will race you the way you race him. And
I think that applies in life, like you treat people
(23:40):
the way they treat you more times than not. And
and I've always loved it. And you'll hear r J
on here you here. He has a ton of personality,
sounds like the nicest guy in the world. But let
me tell you something, if you decide you want to
try him, he will be the first one to stand
up and smack you right across the face, because when
he gets ready to go, it is time to go.
So consequently, back to what he said a little earlier
(24:01):
in the show, whenever he sent me that text after
him and my son had a tangled at Nashville, I
was like, I literally looked at the phone. I'm like, oh,
I'm about to get in a fight with Ricky Johnson.
This is not gonna go well. But that that was
the beauty of it. You You didn't know if you
were kidding or not. You phrased it perfectly. Oh no,
(24:23):
And I waited. I waited because we didn't talk after
the race, and you know, all the different stuff, and
I'm like, you know what, I think it's time. So
I dropped the bomb on can. I like, what's to
deal with your son taking me out? You know? And
then all of a sudden, like I could almost feel
his blood pressure rise, and then all of a sudden,
he's like, oh, oh really you're gonna go there, blah
blah blah. And I'm like, easy, cool, your boobs off, buddy,
(24:47):
I said, I'm having fun with you. I said I
would have I would have spun me a lot earlier,
for one, and I said in two, I started it,
he just finished it. And honestly, he did it so
smoothly I barely even fel so. He's a very sensitive, gingered,
loving boy. You you raised their kid stoff. But but
on all joking aside. I you know when when we
(25:09):
first started talking about Robert and you were saying, all
he's trying to do this racing and stuff. You know
that my first intention is another dad telling me how
great is his kid is. And but I'm gonna blow
little smoke up yours and Robert's asked. He is unbelievably talented.
I mean because he can drive anything. He's done that.
You know, he's a thermal. He was at Bonderan, He's
(25:30):
done the different stuff. He's he's got great pipes. He's
a good looking kid. He talks well. But man, the
kid is a driver. And that's the thing that impressed
me because he just gets in there smack, not not
smashes his way through. But you have to be a
physical and an sst to get by everybody. There's gonna
be touching. And I was just one of the slower
guys that started the front and as he was going
(25:50):
through um. But once again it was my fault. I
overset the break and got two sideways and he finished.
He finished. But the kid is a driver, He's got
a good places. It's just hope that that it goes
back to a little bit of the eighties mentality where
owners go, that's the driver, that's the guy that I
want raising my car, not who's coming with the most money.
(26:13):
But um, kudos, you raised a great young man. Thanks buddy.
I really appreciate the kind words and I couldn't agree
with you more. I haven't found any of those owners yet,
but we're hoping there's one out there. Hey, I'm gonna
let Michael jump in here with the question. Is just
just a second? I gotta know. I gotta know before
you you get gone, because the text that you sent
to Ken flipped him out. Obviously you got under his
(26:34):
crawl and you're able to do that in your friendship
and all those years Ricky, has Ken ever bought dinner?
I think, well is dinner considered in the morning. We
were still up from the night before, so it was
(27:01):
great stuff. I will tell you when he sent that text,
I did the same thing. We read the text. I
literally looked at him like, oh boy, here we go.
And I show it to Robert and Robert's like, are
you serious? Does he really think I did that? I mean,
so we paused for a while, we talked about it
for a while, and we're like, I don't know, man,
I don't know if he's serious or if he's joking,
because we had literally had a conversation about the incident
(27:24):
before you ever sent the text, and I said, there's
no way Ricky's upset about it. I said, that's exactly
what Ricky would have done had the tables been turned.
I mean, I've watched the guy race for fifteen years, man,
and in short course, you know, so I knew exactly
what he would do. But then when I got that text, man,
it he took it the whole other direction. I'm like,
oh my god, I can't believe it. Man, here we go,
(27:46):
because I know Ricky like he is not backing down this.
This could a lot of potential to get ugly here.
So it was pretty funny. Hey, man, get off of this.
I don't know if you can pick one out, but
if you could pick out a most memorable race, would
it be the win at the Colosseum whenever you crashed,
fell back to near last place, came back, passed Wardy
(28:08):
on the last lap and got to win. Um. That
was good, but it was it was a weird race,
Like I came from the back and it was spectacular
and I passed Warden, pass Guy Cooper right there at
the end. UM. So I'm gonna say that I have
(28:28):
two most memorable moments. UM. The one is winning the
championship and crossing the finish line because I had to
win that race to win it in the last mode
of the year. Won that championship, follow all year for that.
And then the Carl's Bet, even though it wasn't really
spectacular because I had a huge lead and I was
(28:48):
way out in front and stuff like that. But to
be a child and go watch the Europeans and then
vote for Brad Lackey and Mike Bell and and Dannie
Laport and all the different American guys to win, and
then have Marty Moates win but they able to come
back and win that GP basically on my home track,
meant a lot to me. And then in nineteen two,
(29:08):
the first year I was racist stadium trucks. Uh, when
I wanted to call see and passing rod Mill and
in the Toyota was it still put chills down my spine.
But it's there's little bits, you know. I I tell
people that you know you can't. I don't think that
you should define greatness by length or number of winds
(29:30):
or all the different stuff. I think you should look
in your life and go, when did I have that
moment that I knew I was great? And and And
it's not an outward oh I'm great, I'm the best
in the world or anything like that. But when you
do something that's man, it's spot on and kin. You
know this feeling and announcing like when you when they
when they tell you, okay we're going to commercial in
(29:51):
blah blah blah, boom, nail it. You know that you
did your job and you said, no one could have
done that thing, that I just did better than I
it at that moment. So pad I've been forced to
have some of those moments in pro formce Pro two's
um Stadium Trucks, motocross, supercross donations, you know, snow racing
and stuff like that. But I've also had a bunch
(30:12):
of places where I was going, man, what was I
think and that was stupid. So that's that's the beauty
of life. And um, I think everybody needs to find
that champion inside of themselves and go, you know what,
I did this right. Whether you're a cook, whether you're
a coach, whether you're a teacher, whatever you're doing, just
try to be great, Ricky. You know what I think
is neat. And when we were able to see inside
(30:33):
your home and your man cave down there the treasures
that you saved throughout your life. And I'm to the
point in my life where I'm starting to downsize my
memories and my treasures. But on the wall you have
a bunch of helmets hanging. What significance do they hold
in your life? Well, if you look back, you know
on the top is the one that my dad painted,
the one or how can I do it up here?
(30:56):
I can't do it backwards anyway. The top one is
a help that my dad painted. The one below that
on the on the left middle is Dave Thorpe, who
was the six World champ. I gave him such a
hard time because it was such an ugly helmet. I
joking how much money made from for wearing it? He
gave it to me. The one below is from where
I raced with David Bailey UM, and then next to
(31:17):
that I got from one of the guys in in France.
It's an Alain Prost helmet which I'm I hold that
dear near and dear. On the bottom row is also
Josh Brooks, last year's UH British Superbike champion. We became
recent friends UH. In the middle of my eight six
motocross the Nation's helmet, and then the upper right is
my son Jake Johnson when he was the champion, and
(31:40):
Lacrosse his his lacrosse helmet, and then another one is
from from Dodge when they had a celebrity race. I
have one downstairs from Jimmy Johnson, and I got a
couple other memorable things, but one of the ones that
I'm really proud of are the are the flags that
are behind me because those are from some of the
Special Forces guys. They flew him for me when they
(32:00):
were overseas UH, putting their life at stake, and I'm
very proud of that. Myself, Jeff ben Route and my
son Luke Johnson, we trained Special Ops guys. Jeff was
himself a Special Ops guy and that's how I met him.
And uh, the fact that I can take a skill
Luke and I and Jeff. Jeff grew up racing motocross,
(32:20):
won the Baja one thousand and the Iron Man class
after he retired from the military. Um, if we can
take those skills and save a life or help him
catch the bad guy or get away from the bad guy,
then my life, my life has purpose. So cool man, um, hey,
will you join us again on the show. There's so
much more we can talk about. You're you're such a
(32:44):
good descriptive storyteller and and there's so much more that
we I mean, we haven't even scratched the service of
your career. So hopefully you'll find the time to come
back on with us in the future. No, as I said,
I'm on it, and I feel blessed that you guys thought,
I mean to be on your show with the superstar
lineup that you you've had on here and um, as
(33:05):
I said, I'm I'm honored. Absolutely. So it's a definitive yes.
Until you know, Kenn has promised to buy you dinner
if you come to town and actually appear live on
the show. Awesome, and we'll we'll we'll we'll go to
bed earlier than the dinner episode. That will not be hard.
(33:25):
There was only a couple of hours in to day.
You know what, maybe we should get Kelly Stabs and
we'll get the three Stooges back together like the old days,
back at Core. You know, totally giving me. Would love
to have her on. Needless to say, she's become quite
the superstar here as of late. Let's go Brandon. No
(33:49):
better way to end the show than that one right there.
Thanks for watching, ladies and gentlemen, We'll see you next
time with the Skinny. Thanks for being with us here
on the Skinny. This episode has been brought to you
buy Toyota, Rhino Classifies, Dream Giveaway and General tire for
the latest and sunglasses, optical frames, accessories and apparel. Be
(34:09):
sure to check out batheads dot com. That's bath Heads
with a Z. Production facilities provided by Fatheads I Wear Studios.
All rights reserved. The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Skinny with Riego and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. Hi. I'm Ricky Johnson and this is
the Skinny from the fat Heads I Wear Studios in Speedway, Indiana.
This is the Skinny brought to you by Toyota, Rhino Classified,
General Tire and Dream Giveaway. This segment of the Skinny
(00:24):
is brought to you by Toyota. I'm excited about today's
We have a friend of mine that will be on
here who's been a friend for some fifteen years, Michael
Young sitting here alongside. I've only been your friend for
a couple of weeks. That's well, and that's a good point.
So I'm not referring to you anyway, shape or form.
I'm not even sure we are friends. Not yet getting there.
(00:45):
We're working on We're working on the relationship. Young sitting alongside.
Great to have him back with me, of course. And
our guest is a couple of thousand miles away out
in California, Southern California. I'd like to welcome uh, the
original bad boy to the show. His name is Ricky Johnson,
affectionately known as r J. Ricky. Great to have you on,
(01:07):
my friend, and we were in the boot together for
many many years. I've watched your race for many many years.
Of course, Hall of Fame we're here as well, and
uh seven seven Supercross Motocross championships and the nation wins.
I mean, it just goes on and on and on.
We could talk about the accolades of your career forever
for sure, and uh and we'll certainly touch on some
(01:28):
of that stuff. But great for you to find the
time and join us here on the show man, Thank you. No, No,
I'm I'm blessed and honored to be on the skinny.
You know. I went back and did some homework and
looking all the legends that you guys have, and it's
pretty cool that you're scraping down towards the bottom of
the barrels. Get some of us were running low man,
kind of retiring love across guys racing desert, doing this,
(01:50):
doing that. But no, in all serious, No, I'm I'm
blessed to be here and honored. Um. I love what
you guys are doing, and I love the the way
the way it's coming out, the way the guys are talking.
You know, it's obviously great when you can have guys
like Tony Stewart and uh and the list goes on
and on and on between F one form, uh, IndyCar
guys and NASCAR guys and stuff. So thank you for
(02:11):
having me up. Yeah, man, our pleasure for sure talk
to me about Ricky Johnson and what what's going on
Ricky Johnson's world. I saw you a little bit earlier
to the year. I hadn't seen you for a long time,
and then we were in Nashville together in Stadium super Trucks,
which it was great to see you and stuff your
wife once again. And uh, I know one thing is
for sure, though there's never any grass growing under your feet.
(02:33):
You're constantly busy, always developing something and working on something.
And I believe the latest announcement I saw was You're
gonna be back in a desert truck. Yeah, I'll, I'll
getting ready to head down. I'm racing for Gusts and
Tavoville Dosla. Uh. They they've recently purchased a new Mason
all will drive thousand horsepower normally aspirated. It's it's the
truck of trucks. Um Bryson Menzies Racing one, uh Andy McMillan,
(02:55):
the McMillan family, Luke and Dan Um, Jesse Jones, all
the all the top guys have them. And so when
Gus got that, and he originally signed me up as
a legend. Uh, there's a fifty plus class for trophy
trucks and they call that trophy trucks Legends, which Rob
mccacre makes. The joke is that if he only knew
that he had to turn fifty to become a legend,
(03:16):
he wouldn't have worked so hard. But anyhow, so this
year they have one truck and the three of us
are contesting the ball one thousand. Um we read seventh
the first time in a while. Uh, feel good. I'm
still not quite there yet. When I saw you in Nashville,
bolsters from uh brought me down and um we had
(03:38):
an instant on a track. Um that was after that
your son just completely destroyed and took me out. Um,
just kidding, Kenny. Um, just so let you guys know
you're you're sitting next to one of the most angry
mini big father there is, because I text him saying jokingly,
your son took me out yesterday. What the f goes? WHOA?
(04:01):
And then so he comes at me full bore. But
you know, we joke about that. Your son Robert Um
gotta say, man, what a stud in racer that he has,
you know, and he's made his own path if you're
working at Bonderant, working at thermal racing cars and stuff,
and and he crushed everybody that day. Um, we joked
about it. I started the spin, he finished it. I
(04:23):
would have done the same thing. I probably hit hit
me harder. But anyhow So, racing trucks, still doing teaching military,
still training people um on motorcycles with adventure bikes and
dual sport, and then also still training quite a few
of the trophy truck racers because there's a lot of
little secrets that people don't know, and and there's a
lot of things that people are doing in the truck
that they don't even know that they do. So I've
(04:45):
kind of gone through and picked out what I like
from the different stuff, whether we call renaisettor Kyle La Duke,
Bryce Menzies, Um, Scott Taylor, with the list goes on
and on to to try to be a better driver,
to better coach. I held up here for a second
because I didn't I want to let Michael jump in
if he if he wanted to, I want to touch
on that because Ricky, I mean, of all my years
(05:08):
of broadcasting and watching racing and and probably the most
intently and short course off road, Ricky is one of
the smoothest drivers I've ever witnessed. I said that about
Maddie Bravin the other day, and I truly believe that
about that young talented kid. But but the first one,
or or one of the first drivers that I've saw
where I could actually visually see a difference between him
(05:30):
and everybody else was Ricky and so smooth that almost
all the time it seems as always going slow, like
he's seen, it seems like you're going slower than everybody else,
but there's never a wasted move, and you constantly pick
your way to the front. And I'll follow that up
by saying, he's also one of the most brilliant coaches,
(05:50):
one of the most brilliant teachers. Has the patients to
work with young talented drivers and uh and has a
very unique way of bring his talents forward and explaining
how to go about using them. So I think you
are truly in a lane of your own. And I mean, listen, man,
we're friends for fifteen years, and we love to bust
each other's ball. So you know, I went and blow
(06:12):
the smoke if I didn't think it was true. But um,
I absolutely believe you're You're in a lane of your
own when it comes to your unique ability to not
only be smooth and go fast, but then to put
it into words and help other people behind you that
are coming up through the rings. Well, thanks man, because
really there's you can only be the alpha male in
(06:33):
racing for so long. I'm still I still feel like
I'm in decent shape for fifty seven years old. I'm
not falling out of the seat. I got a I
got a pretty good regiment to where I'm in great
truck driving shape. I'm in terrible motocross racing shape just
because my body doesn't work that way anymore. Um, But
what I truly enjoy is taking somebody and helping them
(06:54):
be better. So my my my thought is I'm not
better than you, but it doesn't matter what of what
you are. I feel that I can make you a
better driver, whether it be are you getting enough rest
during a week? Are you training the right way? Are
you doing big long cardio sessions when you should be
doing intervals whatever whatever it might be. Because I've tried everything.
I've tried everything from fasting too ful meat diets to
(07:17):
cycling mega miles to jiu jitsu to UH breath coaches
and all kinds of stuff. So if I can take
one or two things from each thing and then deliver
that to the next guy, um, then I truly enjoy it.
Because teaching is not for everybody. Teaching is very frustrating
because immediately respect of the race and they want to
(07:38):
come out with their ego, and then when they want
to I'm better than you, Well you are faster than me,
but you might be a little more consistent or whatever
it might be. So my my lane, as you said
right now, is not to say I'm better than you,
but I want to make you better. Ricky Kenneth said,
You've basically done it all. But going from a rider
on two wheels to a driver to try position, was
(08:00):
it as difficult as you potentially anticipated it to be.
What was that transition like, and then going from off
roading the stock car racing was was it a gradual transition?
What was the most difficult part for you, the most
difficult part for me? And I think that you can
talk to Juan Montoya or Ricky Carmichael. Ricky Carmichael across
(08:23):
and Juan Montoya came from F one and in any
car and stuff like that. Is that in an NASCAR
in stock car racing, you have to learn the art
of the role, how to flow through, the flow through
and not upset the chassis forward and back and do
all that. Where when you're racing, even though you have
to be smooth, you still when you're road racing, you
(08:43):
have to outbreak the next guy. They say, Lewis Hamilton
is so much better than than a lot of the
other guys because he outbreaks them. Um, when it comes
to motocross, and that's where you do all your passing,
passing coming into the corner and setting him up and
stuff like that. So now go from a thing where
you're pushing your breaking as hard as you can into
the owner to where you have to learn to roll.
And I really didn't learn the role until I was
(09:06):
four years out of NASCAR. If I was going to
train somebody right now like Hailey dgon is doing phenomenal,
I would take her to a track with no guardrails.
They have a couple in Wisconsin because Jimmy Johnson. I
went there and I would take the brakes off her
car and I would make her I would read her
laptimes and have her learn how to roll off the gas,
(09:27):
roll through the corner, and go as fast as she
can momentum style, because that's different than off road and
breaking hard and planting the nose and doing all the
different stuff. So for me, it took a little bit
of time to figure out the boundaries of the car
and where the wheels were compared to motocross bike because
you have a lane this big. But that wasn't the
hard part. It was learning how to be smooth and
(09:51):
roll and not be a hammer. Hang onto those thoughts there,
Ricky Johnson. We're gonna take a quick break here. We'll
be right act with a lot more from the original
bad Boy. This segment of the Skinny is brought to
you by Dream Giveaway. Dream Giveaway has been giving away
(10:11):
high end American muscle cars to raise money for charity
since two thousand seven. Dream Giveaway is known for giving
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so the winners don't have to For twenty five dollars,
you can jump in the game and part of that
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of the coolest cars on the planet. Check it out
(10:32):
at dream giveaway dot com. Let's get a welcome back
to the skinny Kent Stout, Michael Young and good friend
Ricky Johnson out in California has joined us remotely. And Uh, Ricky,
I said it when we were cutting to break the
last time around the original bad Boy, and you really
were I mean you came up with a logo. There
(10:52):
was a bumper sticker. Uh. That whole thing spawned off.
What did did you make a little bit of money
out of that gig back in the day. No, it
didn't make a sense actually, but Mark and Brian Simon
and Beaver THEA Sakers did. Actually, I didn't come up
with a logo. Um. I met the guys in four
when they had a company called Lifes of Beach and
(11:13):
they were selling shorts out of the back of a
pickup truck. There were three guys from Chicago, Mark and
Brian Simo and beagerasakas Um a K. Jeff Um and
we became friends right off the bat, and then they
moved to California, and so three guys from Chicago started
a surflying company and then they had a motocross guy
as one of their main spokesmen. And they went on
(11:35):
to sell millions and millions of dollars worth a T
shirts and shorts, and then they came up with one
of the artists came up with the bad boy um.
And that was right when I was doing the spiked
hair and the flat tops and stuff like that. So
a lot of people assumed that I was the bad boy.
I wasn't um. I wasn't even the inspiration for it,
but I took the I took the image because not
(11:55):
not like bad, like getting in trouble, going to jail
and robbing people and stuff like that, but bad of
being a tough son of a bitch that's gonna fight
you tooth and nail all the way to the checkered flag.
And that was that was the bad boy image that
I wanted to portray, not not a hoodlum. Now. I
ask you this because I think it took me until
nineteen four, maybe, Ricky, when did you lose the said
(12:20):
mullet and or spiked hair? I kept the mullett four. Yeah,
I actually I actually dropped it. In nineteen I went
to a I went to a straight flat top. No,
no party in the back. Um, because for one I
just got I had so much hair spray and aquanette
superhold the pink stuff to make sure the stuff stayed
(12:43):
up high at the club. And helm I had to
be awesome. The inside of that helmet must have been
smoking cool exactly, a little bit a little bit crusty
in there. So it was it was a thing. It
was more fun. I wanted to go more function than fashion.
So the short haircut worked worked for me. Hey man,
let's um, let's talk about a couple of things here.
(13:03):
Three years old, dad gets you a mini bike, you
kick it off. When you're sixteen years old, you get
your pro license, and four years later you're a two
fifty national champion. You remember those days, remember that transition.
I remember all that. I can remember riding the mini
bike up and down the street. Um, there's my wife
in the background, Steph, Steph, Hey, Steph, good morning. I
(13:27):
love shading her. First thing. When I see her first
second the morning, I know it's been a good day.
It's been a good day. We've been at Denny's late
last night. Um, I remember, I remember when my dad, Um,
my dad got me the mini bike. I remember, even
though I was three years old. There's certain moments that
you know your life is like a picture out picture
book album, and there's certain things that that changed your life.
(13:48):
And I remember sitting on that mini bike. And my
dad wasn't a big we get it for Christmas or
birthdays or whatever. If it if it sparked him, he
did it. So he bought them any bike, brought it home.
Obviously there was some more was with my mom and that,
but started it up and I wrote up and down
the street. Then started racing mini bikes and then it
(14:09):
was then it was our thing. It was every weekend
we would. There was nothing else we did. I didn't
I quit playing baseball. I didn't play football, soccer, any
other school sports. I just would. I would race on
Wednesday night, Saturday and Sunday and so um it was.
It was a full on, full on deal. And I
turned pro when I was thirteen in southern California because
(14:30):
for one UM, I didn't want to do deal with
the mini bike fathers and all the arguing. My dad
got in a couple of fist fights. Um because I'm
recently rough with the kids and and they're they're mad
at me, and then they come at me, and then
my dad takes care of business, and and so I
wanted to just go race. And so a friend of mine,
brock Lover, who got a factory Yama ride, let me
(14:52):
ride as when I was twelve, and I'm like, I
had so much fun, Like can we start doing this?
So within three months I turned pro and then we
couldn't national protey or sixteen, so won the Southern California
championships and then went went on to UH went on
to start chasing down the national championships and was was fortunate.
I was with yamant on nineteen through five, got on Honda.
(15:14):
I won one championship with Yamaha in four. With my
mechanic was Cliff Lett, who was helped me through through
many you know, make the transition to bigger bikes. It did.
In nine six I was at the right team, the
right mechanic, the right bike, the ride, everything, and we
got two championships for a year. So six was Supercross
(15:34):
and two fifty second and the five outdoor UM Motocross,
the nation's Tokyo Supercross Japan Supercross. I mean just had
the most stellar year of my life. And then David
Bailey gets paralyzed at the opening round, not opening round,
but a warm up race in eighty seven and he
was my teammate, which was the smoothest rider, probably the
(15:54):
best rider, one of the best riders of all time,
and he got paralyzed, and so um that year I
lost the Supercross Championships with Jeff Ward and got second,
and then got won the two, the outdoor one, the
Nations again, and so that went on through and then
in nineteen nine I had a big injury and it
all came to a screenching halt, but zero regrets. How
(16:18):
was what was that moment like when five time world
champ Roger Acosta comes over and says, hey man, we'd
like to take you away from Yamaha and put John Honda.
I mean, here you are, you're a kid, and you're
all you already have manufacturers coming at you. Big decisions.
Yeah it was, but so so here's what happened is
Kawasaki had been uh handing me all year long in
(16:41):
and Y'ama made some decisions that I didn't like. I
loved everybody Y'ama. It's like it was like a family.
I was there since I was twelve years old, and
I didn't want to leave. But the upper management and
the different stuff, they weren't giving me the equipment that
I needed, and they weren't putting in the work as
hard as as I felt that Broc Lever and myself were.
So I want make a switch. Well in Kawasaki brought
(17:03):
their works bike down. They let me try it. We're
gonna sign do all that different stuff. Ronald Machine has
a situation in Japan. He gets fired from Honda. Ronnie
was two years younger than me, so they went with
the younger writer. And so I was all set to
go signed with Kawasaki. UH. No one knew this except Kawasaki.
Kawasaki manager team UH. Team manager Roy Turner calls me, says,
(17:26):
we signed Ronnie. I said, I already heard because we
lived in the same neighborhood. So everybody knows everything um
down in alcohol in California, and so I was, I go, well,
I guess I'm just gonna sign with Yama. So it's
a Tuesday. I was supposed to go sign with Yamaha
on a Wednesday. Roger d Kostra calls and says, hey,
would you consider riding for us? I said, if I
can try the bike, yes, so he said when I
(17:48):
said tomorrow, So so I called Yamaha said I can't
make it up to sign. I went up tested the
bike and it was it was unbelievable. I didn't get
to raise that workspike that was the super big to
one with the low tank and carbon fiber. It was
just as most unbelievable bike I think ever built. UM.
But it wasn't just the bike that did it. It
(18:09):
was the effort of Dave Arnold, the team manager Roger
de Coster, who was kind of looking over everything UM,
the show of guys, the motor guys, everything. Honda had
the attitude that will give you everything that you need
to win, you just have to go do it. And
so that's what what it did. I signed for a
hundred thousand dollars less, I'll be honest with you, I
signed for a hundred and five thousand dollars, but I
(18:30):
had a huge bonus schedule that UM, if I won
a Supercross or I wanted any championship, it was a
hundred thousand dollar bonus. It was ten thousand dollar per
per race win during you know, during the season, and
then if each championship that I won, they would bump
my salary PIPTI grant for the following year. So me,
being the arrogant puke that I am, I felt, well,
(18:52):
but my salary every year because I'm gonna win every
rate every right. But when basically get guys like Ward
Johnny Mr David Bailey, you don't win every race twenty
one years old making a hundred and twenty five grand
a year back in the mid eight mid to late eighties, Dude,
(19:13):
I mean, how do you keep but how do you
keep things under control? When you're twenty one years old?
You make first of all, you're making these huge decisions
and uh and and clearly made the correct ones. That's outstanding.
But to handle one year old access to a d
grand back in that day, I mean I had to
be like a half a million dollars man. How did
you not just part of yourself to death? It was well,
(19:38):
I was fortunate. So a couple of things sometimes out
of uncomfortable situations become blessings. And when when it's bad,
you know, you don't know it's good, but it is
going to be so. Anyhow, when I first started, my
parents were managing my money and my dad was negotiating
for me. And my dad was a real hard ass,
I mean, just very black and white. And the way
it is that my mom was just this sweet a
(20:00):
woman that grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota, that didn't
graduate high school. So she's doing my dad's she's the
bookkeeper from my dad, all the different stuff, and now
all of a sudden she's managing a hundred and some
thousand dollars. This is more money than they've than either
of them have ever seen. Well, it got uncomfortable and
I had to make the break, which is the one
of the I think the hardest, one of the hardest
things I've ever done. Mom and Dad, I don't want
(20:22):
you in my business anymore. Because I would race and
my dad would fill out, you know, my my bonus things,
and if I got second place, I'd call him from
the airport because he didn't have cell phones back then.
He started chewing my ass out. You know how much
money you lost, and you do the Matthew lost this
from Belle, you lost this from Fox, you lost this
from Alpine Star down the list, I'm like, you know what,
(20:43):
I want my parents back. So I made a break
from them, and I was I was. I was blessed
to meet a guy named Dave Stevenson, who was an
accountant for JT Racing, the clothing line at the time,
but he also helped rock and so I didn't think
about money. Money. The money when I negotiate and all
the different stuff was just a number. I didn't attach
myself to, like, oh, I got this money, I'm going
(21:04):
to go buy a car, I'm gonna go by thought
about it. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to do it,
but I would come home give Dave the money. Dave
would give me a certain amount of money to piss
away on records and going to fast food restaurants or
whatever I wanted to do. So I never worried about money.
And the plan when we first started was the whole
goal was to make a million dollars cash put it
(21:27):
into bonds because back then you could get bonds and
they were like five or six years and they were
like thirteen, fourteen, sevent so you're like perfect, I could
just live on the interest and go go my way. Well,
the bond market took a crap um. Everything changed and
the cost of living went through the moon. So I
did good when it came to earning money, but not
(21:48):
to live. That's why I continue to work. Not that
I'm broke, but I enjoy working and I want to
enjoy other things. We're gonna take another quick break here.
We have plenty more to go with Ricky Johnson who
has joined us from southern California. Here on the skinny.
We'll be right back. This segment of the skinny has
been brought to you by General Tire. It's more than
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General Tire dot com today. This segment of the skinny
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Modified cars, classic cars, race cars, that special big block.
You need the trailer to move your baby around the
country in we got you at Rhino dot Co. Welcome
back to the Skinny. We have Ricky Johnson who has
joined us here today. He's in southern California, so has
joined us remotely. Michael Young sitting alongside. So cool to
(23:20):
have to have one of my really close personal friends
here on the show who has had so much success
and absolutely zero ego. One of the things I love
about him though, because I think this applies actually to
all angles of life, is r J is a guy
that will race you the way you race him. And
I think that applies in life, like you treat people
(23:40):
the way they treat you more times than not. And
and I've always loved it. And you'll hear r J
on here you here. He has a ton of personality,
sounds like the nicest guy in the world. But let
me tell you something, if you decide you want to
try him, he will be the first one to stand
up and smack you right across the face, because when
he gets ready to go, it is time to go.
So consequently, back to what he said a little earlier
(24:01):
in the show, whenever he sent me that text after
him and my son had a tangled at Nashville, I
was like, I literally looked at the phone. I'm like, oh,
I'm about to get in a fight with Ricky Johnson.
This is not gonna go well. But that that was
the beauty of it. You You didn't know if you
were kidding or not. You phrased it perfectly. Oh no,
(24:23):
And I waited. I waited because we didn't talk after
the race, and you know, all the different stuff, and
I'm like, you know what, I think it's time. So
I dropped the bomb on can. I like, what's to
deal with your son taking me out? You know? And
then all of a sudden, like I could almost feel
his blood pressure rise, and then all of a sudden,
he's like, oh, oh really you're gonna go there, blah
blah blah. And I'm like, easy, cool, your boobs off, buddy,
(24:47):
I said, I'm having fun with you. I said I
would have I would have spun me a lot earlier,
for one, and I said in two, I started it,
he just finished it. And honestly, he did it so
smoothly I barely even fel so. He's a very sensitive, gingered,
loving boy. You you raised their kid stoff. But but
on all joking aside. I you know when when we
(25:09):
first started talking about Robert and you were saying, all
he's trying to do this racing and stuff. You know
that my first intention is another dad telling me how
great is his kid is. And but I'm gonna blow
little smoke up yours and Robert's asked. He is unbelievably talented.
I mean because he can drive anything. He's done that.
You know, he's a thermal. He was at Bonderan, He's
(25:30):
done the different stuff. He's he's got great pipes. He's
a good looking kid. He talks well. But man, the
kid is a driver. And that's the thing that impressed
me because he just gets in there smack, not not
smashes his way through. But you have to be a
physical and an sst to get by everybody. There's gonna
be touching. And I was just one of the slower
guys that started the front and as he was going
(25:50):
through um. But once again it was my fault. I
overset the break and got two sideways and he finished.
He finished. But the kid is a driver, He's got
a good places. It's just hope that that it goes
back to a little bit of the eighties mentality where
owners go, that's the driver, that's the guy that I
want raising my car, not who's coming with the most money.
(26:13):
But um, kudos, you raised a great young man. Thanks buddy.
I really appreciate the kind words and I couldn't agree
with you more. I haven't found any of those owners yet,
but we're hoping there's one out there. Hey, I'm gonna
let Michael jump in here with the question. Is just
just a second? I gotta know. I gotta know before
you you get gone, because the text that you sent
to Ken flipped him out. Obviously you got under his
(26:34):
crawl and you're able to do that in your friendship
and all those years Ricky, has Ken ever bought dinner?
I think, well is dinner considered in the morning. We
were still up from the night before, so it was
(27:01):
great stuff. I will tell you when he sent that text,
I did the same thing. We read the text. I
literally looked at him like, oh boy, here we go.
And I show it to Robert and Robert's like, are
you serious? Does he really think I did that? I mean,
so we paused for a while, we talked about it
for a while, and we're like, I don't know, man,
I don't know if he's serious or if he's joking,
because we had literally had a conversation about the incident
(27:24):
before you ever sent the text, and I said, there's
no way Ricky's upset about it. I said, that's exactly
what Ricky would have done had the tables been turned.
I mean, I've watched the guy race for fifteen years, man,
and in short course, you know, so I knew exactly
what he would do. But then when I got that text, man,
it he took it the whole other direction. I'm like,
oh my god, I can't believe it. Man, here we go,
(27:46):
because I know Ricky like he is not backing down this.
This could a lot of potential to get ugly here.
So it was pretty funny. Hey, man, get off of this.
I don't know if you can pick one out, but
if you could pick out a most memorable race, would
it be the win at the Colosseum whenever you crashed,
fell back to near last place, came back, passed Wardy
(28:08):
on the last lap and got to win. Um. That
was good, but it was it was a weird race,
Like I came from the back and it was spectacular
and I passed Warden, pass Guy Cooper right there at
the end. UM. So I'm gonna say that I have
(28:28):
two most memorable moments. UM. The one is winning the
championship and crossing the finish line because I had to
win that race to win it in the last mode
of the year. Won that championship, follow all year for that.
And then the Carl's Bet, even though it wasn't really
spectacular because I had a huge lead and I was
(28:48):
way out in front and stuff like that. But to
be a child and go watch the Europeans and then
vote for Brad Lackey and Mike Bell and and Dannie
Laport and all the different American guys to win, and
then have Marty Moates win but they able to come
back and win that GP basically on my home track,
meant a lot to me. And then in nineteen two,
(29:08):
the first year I was racist stadium trucks. Uh, when
I wanted to call see and passing rod Mill and
in the Toyota was it still put chills down my spine.
But it's there's little bits, you know. I I tell
people that you know you can't. I don't think that
you should define greatness by length or number of winds
(29:30):
or all the different stuff. I think you should look
in your life and go, when did I have that
moment that I knew I was great? And and And
it's not an outward oh I'm great, I'm the best
in the world or anything like that. But when you
do something that's man, it's spot on and kin. You
know this feeling and announcing like when you when they
when they tell you, okay we're going to commercial in
(29:51):
blah blah blah, boom, nail it. You know that you
did your job and you said, no one could have
done that thing, that I just did better than I
it at that moment. So pad I've been forced to
have some of those moments in pro formce Pro two's
um Stadium Trucks, motocross, supercross donations, you know, snow racing
and stuff like that. But I've also had a bunch
(30:12):
of places where I was going, man, what was I
think and that was stupid. So that's that's the beauty
of life. And um, I think everybody needs to find
that champion inside of themselves and go, you know what,
I did this right. Whether you're a cook, whether you're
a coach, whether you're a teacher, whatever you're doing, just
try to be great, Ricky. You know what I think
is neat. And when we were able to see inside
(30:33):
your home and your man cave down there the treasures
that you saved throughout your life. And I'm to the
point in my life where I'm starting to downsize my
memories and my treasures. But on the wall you have
a bunch of helmets hanging. What significance do they hold
in your life? Well, if you look back, you know
on the top is the one that my dad painted,
the one or how can I do it up here?
(30:56):
I can't do it backwards anyway. The top one is
a help that my dad painted. The one below that
on the on the left middle is Dave Thorpe, who
was the six World champ. I gave him such a
hard time because it was such an ugly helmet. I
joking how much money made from for wearing it? He
gave it to me. The one below is from where
I raced with David Bailey UM, and then next to
(31:17):
that I got from one of the guys in in France.
It's an Alain Prost helmet which I'm I hold that
dear near and dear. On the bottom row is also
Josh Brooks, last year's UH British Superbike champion. We became
recent friends UH. In the middle of my eight six
motocross the Nation's helmet, and then the upper right is
my son Jake Johnson when he was the champion, and
(31:40):
Lacrosse his his lacrosse helmet, and then another one is
from from Dodge when they had a celebrity race. I
have one downstairs from Jimmy Johnson, and I got a
couple other memorable things, but one of the ones that
I'm really proud of are the are the flags that
are behind me because those are from some of the
Special Forces guys. They flew him for me when they
(32:00):
were overseas UH, putting their life at stake, and I'm
very proud of that. Myself, Jeff ben Route and my
son Luke Johnson, we trained Special Ops guys. Jeff was
himself a Special Ops guy and that's how I met him.
And uh, the fact that I can take a skill
Luke and I and Jeff. Jeff grew up racing motocross,
(32:20):
won the Baja one thousand and the Iron Man class
after he retired from the military. Um, if we can
take those skills and save a life or help him
catch the bad guy or get away from the bad guy,
then my life, my life has purpose. So cool man, um, hey,
will you join us again on the show. There's so
much more we can talk about. You're you're such a
(32:44):
good descriptive storyteller and and there's so much more that
we I mean, we haven't even scratched the service of
your career. So hopefully you'll find the time to come
back on with us in the future. No, as I said,
I'm on it, and I feel blessed that you guys thought,
I mean to be on your show with the superstar
lineup that you you've had on here and um, as
(33:05):
I said, I'm I'm honored. Absolutely. So it's a definitive yes.
Until you know, Kenn has promised to buy you dinner
if you come to town and actually appear live on
the show. Awesome, and we'll we'll we'll we'll go to
bed earlier than the dinner episode. That will not be hard.
(33:25):
There was only a couple of hours in to day.
You know what, maybe we should get Kelly Stabs and
we'll get the three Stooges back together like the old days,
back at Core. You know, totally giving me. Would love
to have her on. Needless to say, she's become quite
the superstar here as of late. Let's go Brandon. No
(33:49):
better way to end the show than that one right there.
Thanks for watching, ladies and gentlemen, We'll see you next
time with the Skinny. Thanks for being with us here
on the Skinny. This episode has been brought to you
buy Toyota, Rhino Classifies, Dream Giveaway and General tire for
the latest and sunglasses, optical frames, accessories and apparel. Be
(34:09):
sure to check out batheads dot com. That's bath Heads
with a Z. Production facilities provided by Fatheads I Wear Studios.
All rights reserved. The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
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