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- [00:01]
Steve Austin
A Mochi moment from Sadie, who writes, I'm not crying, you're crying. This is what I said during my first appointment with my physician at Mochi because I didn't have to convince him I needed a GLP one. He understood and I felt supported, not judged.
- [00:16]
Brandon Vincent
I came for the weight loss and.
- [00:18]
Steve Austin
Stayed for the empathy. Thanks, Sadie. I'm Mayra Ameth, founder of Mochi Health. To find your mochi moment, visit joinmochi.com.
- [00:27]
Brandon Vincent
Sadie is a Mochi member, compensated for her story.
- [00:30]
Steve Austin
Not great with finances.
- [00:31]
Brandon Vincent
That's okay.
- [00:32]
Steve Austin
Experian is your big financial friend. Explore credit card offers, some labeled no.
- [00:35]
Brandon Vincent
Ding decline, which means if you're not.
- [00:37]
Steve Austin
Approved, they won't hurt your credit scores. See experian.com for details. Applying for no Ding decline cards won't hurt your credit scores if you aren't initially approved. 2025 Experian Experian Podcast One presents the.
- [00:48]
Brandon Vincent
Steve Austin Show Classics.
- [00:50]
Steve Austin
I got monster truck driver extraordinaire Brandon Vincent sitting shotgun with me. He's a driver of one of Gravedigger monster trucks. We're out here in Palm Desert, California for the annual or biannual Kawasaki dealers convention. They just introduced the Kawasaki Terex KRX1000. It was absolutely awesome. And I came out here to check the vehicle out because I'm a brand ambassador for Kawasaki Motorsports and I see this big ass monster truck over there and I'm like, man, what are they doing with that monster truck? I had it all wrapped up and everything. And so seeing the driver when I introduced myself to him, hell, Brandon, we sitting here in the damn Yukon in a parking lot. I have podcasted from many damn places from my camper and all kinds of different things. We've been driving around here about 15 minutes, trying to find a place with a little bit of silence, a little bit of sound control. So I'm sure you probably rolled your eyes a few times, but you got some stories to tell. Just because of all the shenanigans, we can't get away from the noise.
- [01:53]
Brandon Vincent
That's it, man. I'm gonna have a couple stories to tell about being on this podcast here, man. Just trying to find a place to park, be quiet. And I don't think anybody's gonna believe me.
- [02:04]
Steve Austin
Nobody believes this podcast anyway. Hey, man, I go way back with monster trucks and when I saw that thing out in the parking lot, I said, man, I gotta go talk to this guy, find out what the motor is and all the suspension. Way back in the day, you know, in about 9899 when I had a neck injury. Got my neck fused up C3 and 4. So I shelf. So what I was doing, I was. Because I was sidelined. I'd make the rounds down there in South Texas. Monster truck stuff is real big down in South Texas, over in East Texas. And I'd go and I'd drive the truck. Not competitively like you do, but I just kind of make an appearance and I'd sign autographs and stuff like that. But I've always had a love for everything. It's four wheel drive with a big ass motor, lots of horsepower, stuff like that. So anyway, we had the Austin316 truck.
- [02:52]
Brandon Vincent
Yep, I remember.
- [02:53]
Steve Austin
And way back. And do you remember the episode when I crushed the rocks? Lincoln Continental?
- [02:58]
Brandon Vincent
I remember it. I was a kid then. But I've always been a fan of you. I've always watched wrestling and I grew up watching that. I grew up watching you. And I remember watching that episode on tv and I thought that was pretty cool how we met out here in the desert. I had this monster truck out here for Kawasaki on display and then, you know, they said you were going to be here. So it's, it's been pretty surreal, man. It's been pretty cool. And I can say that, I don't know, it's just, it's. It's awesome.
- [03:26]
Steve Austin
And I'm not, I'm not as big a jerk as people make me out to be. Put me over here a little bit, bro. I'm kidding. Hey, but so anyway, let's go back to that night because they showed up and Calvin Carrington was original owner of that truck. And you know, a few years down the road he would end up being killed at a monster truck event in a freak accident. Super nice guy. So anyway, we drive, we get that pickup truck and. And you know, I'm learning how to drive this thing on the spot. And we're on live tv, brother.
- [03:53]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [03:53]
Steve Austin
And so all of a sudden, you know, because you drive one back in, they're a little bit cavemanish. They don't handle like they do today. And this thing was between 15 and 1800 horsepower. And they say, hey man, you're gonna crush the rocks car on TV tonight. All right, who's gonna show me how to drive this thing? So anyway, we crushed that damn car. And a lot of people think, you know, and the show I just did, straight up Steve Austin in a tank. We crushed some cars that were just salvage cars.
- [04:23]
Brandon Vincent
Okay.
- [04:23]
Steve Austin
This was a brand new Lincoln Continental off the showroom floor. That's how much Vince was committed to this thing.
- [04:30]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [04:30]
Steve Austin
And so I crushed it. Totally.
- [04:32]
Brandon Vincent
It looked brand new.
- [04:34]
Steve Austin
It was. And that was a total shoot. So when you was watching way back in the day and you're. As a kid that likes wrestling, did you ever think, hey, that's what I want to do, Turn into a monster truck driver?
- [04:44]
Brandon Vincent
No. Back then, you, you know, you can always dream, but that, that wasn't one of my dreams. You know, at that early in age, I was. I was wanting to be a wrestler. I was watching it. I was doing that stuff. So, you know, we had a trampoline growing up as kids, and I would wrestle every day. It didn't matter what it was. We had the little wrestling buddies. We would just have a ball doing that. So, you know, 20 years later, here I am doing the monster truck thing and watching you do that on. On TV with the monster trucks and that stuff, it's. It's crazy to think like this brought us. Brought us out here together to do this. It's been something that I'll never forget.
- [05:24]
Steve Austin
Hey, I want to ask you about how you got into. Okay, so. So what were your aspirations? You said you might have wanted to be a wrestler, but that, that's. That's a long shot, just like mine was. I ended up making it. Hell, being a monster truck driver is a long shot, and you weren't thinking about being that. So what were you thinking about doing with your life?
- [05:41]
Brandon Vincent
So I had a background of doing heavy equipment. Like I run excavators. I do bulldozers. I still do it to this day. That's a passion of mine to do that. When I'm not on the road doing stuff, I help a buddy of mine out. And I was just before I flew in here, the day before, I was clearing an acre land and spreading sand out. They're getting ready to put some houses in the ground. So that's what I was doing before I came out here. So that's a passion of mine. I still love to do that, man.
- [06:04]
Steve Austin
It's fun working on equipment like that. And yeah, we used to do a lot of shredding and stuff like that. And I use a little bit of bucket work. I used to drive a forklift for a living before I got to business, pro wrestling. So I never got a chance to operate a lot of stuff that you did. But, man, a lot of that stuff, especially if you're looking to, you know, maintain or grade something, looking at it, you know, just looking at something, looking at drain or looking at what's level and what ain't. Yeah, you got a pretty good eye for that.
- [06:28]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, you got to be. You know, you got to have an eye for it. Nowadays, they got GPS and all this stuff, but if you're a real operator, you can put it on grade, you know, to a point. You know, you can rough it in and make it look pretty good by eye. So I've always had a little knack for that. And that goes hand in hand with the monster. With the monster truck, too. It's almost the same thing. You know, you're doing four things at one time. You're pulling joysticks, we're turning the steering wheel, hitting rear steer, gas, and brake. And it's just something that I've always had the niche for. You know, it comes natural to me with excavating and with the monster. With the Monster Jams, you know, when.
- [07:04]
Steve Austin
A lot of people, when they think of monster truck, they immediately think of Bigfoot or they immediately think of Grave Digger. Those are two institutions. And so now I think you and I were talking yesterday, I believe the Grave Digger franchise, I guess, is what you'd call it, don't you? Aren't you guys running, like, 54 trucks worldwide?
- [07:21]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, worldwide, 54 trucks. The Feld family owns these trucks, and, you know, it's called Monster Jam. So it's grown so much, and we actually run seven gravedigger trucks at one time on tour. We'll go on tour from January to May, and there's seven tours every weekend going on. So there'll be. There'll be a Grave Digger truck at every show, headlining. You know, it's just grown so much. We're going overseas. They were just in Australia this weekend, getting ready to go to Japan, Saudi Arabia.
- [07:52]
Steve Austin
It's just way back in the day, they asked me if I wanted to go to Aruba, and they said they're going to ship the trucks over there in Liberty Island. You've probably been. I decided not to go just because it was too far. But, man, those things are worldwide. And with a franchise like Gravedigger, and if they've got all those trucks and running seven simultaneously, it's kind of like back when our business was on fire. We had a A, a B, and a C crew. I mean, we was hitting, you know, bigger towns, medium towns, and smaller towns. With respect to how you guys run, where is headquarters?
- [08:23]
Brandon Vincent
So the headquarters now is in Palmetto, Florida, you know, right outside of Tampa. We also have a shop where I'm based out of. It's in North Carolina. That's like the OG Gravedigger shop. Dennis Anderson, that's his property. We have that Gravedigger shop there. And, you know, he created Gravedigger 38 years ago. It's a legacy. Everybody knows you see that green chassis, you see the paint scheme, and then red headlights come on. Business is about to happen. So that's the only truck in Monster Jam that is still hand painted. It's like over 40 hours of hand paint. It's a 1950 Chevy panel truck. And it's. It's just something that everybody loves. And everybody knows you can just say the name and they know what it's about.
- [09:06]
Steve Austin
Oh, absolutely. Dude. It's just so iconic. Just the look, the feel, the vibe, everything about it kind of reminds me a little bit like of the undertaker in our world that I come from. Pro wrestling. Gravedigger is that, you know, that larger than life. That's just iconic. That captures your attention and your imagination. And always because of the premier driving and probably the money that they have to put into the truck, they've got the wallet to keep coming and up in the ante because, man, trucks have changed a lot from back in the old days when I was driving them and personal appearances to what you guys are driving now. Here's my question for you. Okay. How did you get to be a part of the Gravedigger franchise and then turn into a driver? Because I think you said you started at the bottom and worked your way into a driver spot. Tell me how that work.
- [09:57]
Brandon Vincent
The way I got in was I started off wrenching on the trucks. I was a mechanic. I was a crew chief for Ryan Anderson, which is Dennis's middle son.
- [10:06]
Steve Austin
Okay, well, stop right there. Where. Where'd you get your mechanical background?
- [10:09]
Brandon Vincent
Are you just a natural mechanic, naturally working on stuff? I did like shop in school, in.
- [10:15]
Steve Austin
High school, but I never had ag mechanics. I just didn't gravitate towards. Okay.
- [10:18]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, yeah, I never went to. I never got to go to college. You know, I went to work.
- [10:22]
Steve Austin
No, it was in high school we had ag mechanic. Yeah.
- [10:24]
Brandon Vincent
So, yeah, so I went, you know, so.
- [10:25]
Steve Austin
But you're a natural wrench head.
- [10:26]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, I like. I was wrench on cars, trucks. I got lifted trucks. Now I got old square bodies still. We still play on the beach. I mean, I got a 1990s square body. Right now I'm 40 inch tires on 10 inches of lift. So I ride it all the time. Take my kids to school. They love it.
- [10:41]
Steve Austin
So what's the motor in that truck?
- [10:42]
Brandon Vincent
It's just got a 350 in it, but I got all one ton running gear, 456 Detroit lockers in it, and it's, you know, it makes up for not having a big motor in it, but it's reliable. I can fire it up. I can leave for six months, come home, I think will fire right up and go.
- [10:57]
Steve Austin
So you got to send me a picture of that for the podcast. Okay. So I didn't mean to cut you off. We're back to how you got into the gravedigger stuff.
- [11:03]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. So I was wrenching mechanic. We were on the road four or five months out of the year, Come home for a couple weeks, go right back out. So, you know, the life, it's. It's. It's a grueling process, but when you're young, you know, it's fun. You take it for what it is and get to go travel the world and do that stuff. So I did that for nine years, and I really wanted to drive. I had an opportunity to drive. We used to test in North Carolina, new drivers and do some things there before they moved it to Paxton, Illinois. But they kind of snuck me in without anybody knowing. So that's how I really first got into a seat. They said, all right, we're gonna take a couple crew chiefs. We're gonna let you guys drive. You know, everybody's itching to just see if anybody could do it. You know, the guys were like. Because we were working our fingers to the bone 80, 90 hours a week, and, like, you just start getting over it. So you get a little burst of 1500 horsepower. You know, it brings a whole new light to everything. You're ready to go back to work, you're good, you know, you're ready to go again. So they snuck me in, and then I had Adam Anderson, which I grew up with. We're really good friends. That's Dennis's oldest son. I said, look, man, you come out here. I said, whether I suck or whether I'm good, I said, I just want to hear it from you. You know what I mean? We've been friends a long time. So he's like, cool, help me get in the truck. I strapped in first time he's on radio, and I take off. And then from there, I kind of, like, blew everybody away. I was. They were telling me that I was better than the people that had out there training. So instantly I was like, cool. You know, I didn't. I didn't brag about it or nothing. You know, I was kind of. I Was just kind of trying to take it all in, that I really had, you know, a niche for it and did a good job in front of all my peers. You know, everybody's working there. So that's how I got started in it. And then I pulled teeth, knocked on doors, did everything I could to try to get a test spot and a legitimate one. It just seemed like it wasn't happening. It wasn't happening. I was just kind of getting a little depressed about it, you know, really wanting to do this job, really.
- [13:06]
Steve Austin
But the instant drive was there.
- [13:08]
Brandon Vincent
The itch was there. Like, I had that part of it. They didn't think that I had everything else, because a lot of it, we do 80% PR, 20% driving, so it's all that. So I wasn't really that good on a microphone. I was really. I was good in the truck. So you kind of got to have the best of both worlds. So started working on that, and just every time I'd see somebody ask, hey, let me get a test spot. Let me test. Come on. I can do it. I said, just believe in me. It takes one person to believe in you. And finally it happened four years later. So I've been out on the road now 3. This will be my third season on the road, and I was hungry. I went out. I wanted to prove everybody wrong that doubted me, told me I couldn't do it.
- [13:55]
Steve Austin
Yes, sir.
- [13:58]
Brandon Vincent
And I did. I went out and I won a Series championship last year, Central Championship. I won it by over 100 points. We do a point system on tour. I went to the World Finals, which is our biggest show of the year. We did it in Orlando, Florida, for the first time, and I competed in five out of the seven events there. There was only one other person to do that, and me and Tyler Meninga, we were the two to be able to do that.
- [14:26]
Steve Austin
So, man, you got to pay your dues to come up the ranks and.
- [14:29]
Brandon Vincent
Just spot just to get a spot. And it, like, almost didn't happen for me.
- [14:33]
Steve Austin
So then what happens when you get the spot? How much training is it? I mean, and what are they doing, man? Are you guys just out on a course or out on the property and guys are showing you what's up or how to do this?
- [14:43]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. Have you heard of Tom Mentz? He does maximum instruction. Max D. Yep. Okay. So he runs the test facility. It's called Monster Jam University. They didn't have that back then. It's, you know, something kind of new. Five years maybe. So they bring new drivers in. They Got a stadium course out in the. It's out in the cornfield, like it's in Illinois. And then they got arena track for what we do. So you go out there and you test, you know, you kind of brush up on stuff, but you're not out there. I went out there two times for three days a piece. And then the rest of your, you know, practice stuff, you're doing it live, you're on doing it in the show.
- [15:19]
Steve Austin
That'S on the job.
- [15:20]
Brandon Vincent
Training on the job, training in some of these arenas, which, you know, or when we build a track inside, 85 foot wide.
- [15:27]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [15:28]
Brandon Vincent
So you take a 12,000 pound monster jam truck, 12 foot wide, 66 inch tires. You know, you got to be on your A game or you're going to tear something up. And they have a saying like we're not. We're not allowed to do building dams. You know, that's a no, no for the buildings that we go in.
- [15:42]
Steve Austin
So, man, when I was used to doing some of those things, down in Beaumont, there's a little bitty outdoor stadium. They had rodeos there. And like the arena was so small, you know, bring in a bunch of dirt, you know, the setup. And of course, it wasn't near as elaborate as what you guys have to work with, but I mean, the space was so confined. I mean, you had to be, you know, damn good to an expert just to not hit anything, much less perform. Yes, but are y'.
- [16:07]
Brandon Vincent
All.
- [16:07]
Steve Austin
When Monster Jam is the Mack Daddy. So when you guys are out, is it like big arenas only or are y' all doing anything small?
- [16:17]
Brandon Vincent
We do everything. So the smallest would be like a inside dash or hockey. So it's 85 wide, and then it gets bigger from there. It just depends on the building that you're in. We do 157 arenas. We probably do 20 to 25 stadiums, I think it is. But we do way more arenas than we do the major stadiums. So. And we come back every year. So you got to go in there with the mentality of if you get a good driver inside of a small building, you can put on a show no matter what.
- [16:47]
Steve Austin
Right.
- [16:47]
Brandon Vincent
So that's the thing, that's the key is really knowing how to drive the truck inside the area you're in to put on the show to make the fans come back. That's.
- [16:54]
Steve Austin
Hey, man, you got any trademark things? Because I mean, like I used to follow way back in the day, and now, you know, I'm just, I'm watching, you know, guys are doing what's the backwards. What's that, 360. What would you call it?
- [17:04]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, well, they're doing backflips a lot. The biggest thing going on right now in Monster Jam is a two wheel skill challenge. Yeah, everything on two wheels.
- [17:12]
Steve Austin
Everything. A lot of that stuff on the back, guys just skip down or just hop down or just drive down, whatever it is. And then all of a sudden, they'll get up on the front, too.
- [17:20]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, the front is the big deal now. The front and bicycle in the truck all.
- [17:24]
Steve Austin
Now, did that all come about just because of all the improvements in suspension and stuff like that or just, hey, man. They figured out maybe they were almost going to endo on something, and they ended up riding it out. So say, hey, this could be a thing.
- [17:37]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [17:37]
Steve Austin
How did that evolve?
- [17:38]
Brandon Vincent
They. They started building these tracks. They call them pods. And it's something new that they designed. There's a. There's four hits on each side. Corner hits where you jump in instead of jumping out towards the crowd. And then they had jumps in the middle. So this pod came about maybe, I want to say, five years ago, and they did a show. I want to say it was Cleveland, Ohio. Ryan Anderson, son of a digger, went out, jumped, and pretty much cradled the truck and it popped it up on the nose. Well, he was the first one to do it, but he was also the first one to throw it in reverse and drive it backwards on two wheels. And that became. That move became the moonwalk.
- [18:20]
Steve Austin
Oh.
- [18:20]
Brandon Vincent
So then it blew up, and it was a big deal. So now you got everybody trying it, you know, burning transmissions up left and right as you're shifting. When you're up like that on the nose, you're shifting reverse back to first. And we got two speed power glides. So you're okay skipping right by second in neutral, hitting reverse, dragging it back, hitting first just to keep it balanced on a tranny. It is. Yeah. So if you. If you do it right, you can make it last. It's all about having the finesse to do it. So. But yeah, it is for a lot of people. They'll be up in the RPMs 3, 4000 and shifting, and it just kills them. So.
- [19:03]
Steve Austin
Hey, let me ask you something about like. Like back in the day, man, they'd have the. The cars out there and they'd crush them or they'd jump them, and they use them as everything that they would, but, you know, they'd have that. That straight line competition. But then they. This is back in the day, and I got to get up to Speed. And I got your phone number and I'm coming to see you at Monster Jam when you guys come to Anaheim or wherever it's going to be. Staples, whatever it is. But my question is, they used to then have like a freestyle type thing where it was kind of like, hey, man, you go out there and do your own thing. It's kind of like crowd response. Or like, how do they determine the winner these days?
- [19:39]
Brandon Vincent
Okay.
- [19:39]
Steve Austin
Point system or crowd response? I mean, it's. They do yay, boo. Like we used to in wrestling sometimes.
- [19:44]
Brandon Vincent
Back in the day, it's fan judging now.
- [19:47]
Steve Austin
Right.
- [19:47]
Brandon Vincent
So they.
- [19:48]
Steve Austin
It's all subjective, right?
- [19:50]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. So they got this new system where you actually got a app on your phone when you go in. Yeah, that's a two wheel deal that I did just to show you, you know, back and forth how it goes. So I'm getting ready to. That's. That's a five foot tall and a ramp. That's cut. So I walked it down.
- [20:07]
Steve Austin
Okay. What we're doing, we're watching a video on Brandon's iPhone. He's Brandon Brandon Vincent GD.
- [20:15]
Brandon Vincent
Yes, Brandon Vincent GD.
- [20:17]
Steve Austin
Brandon Vincent GD is his IG account. Instagram. He just put it on two wheels. He's backing it backwards and forwards and dancing that thing. Dude, you talk about balance. That artwork, that is just insane paint job.
- [20:28]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, it's. It's intense.
- [20:30]
Steve Austin
What does that. Just light fiberglass. Because you think it'd be destroyed right now.
- [20:34]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, you'll see. See how it just crumbled right there. So, yeah, it's a fiberglass hood. Fiberglass body. Three people can put it on, take it off. So actually the hood's separate. It's a whole piece. The side, it has two sides and a roof. And we bolt them together and then throw it on. So the cage is matched to the body so it fits tight.
- [20:52]
Steve Austin
Okay. When you guys go into a show and you guys are probably on a semi, 18 wheeler or what?
- [20:56]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, yeah. Triple deck or triple drop. Kentucky trailers.
- [21:00]
Steve Austin
Okay. Now y' all taking one rig or two rigs? I mean, what you got for backup in case something goes wrong? Because, man, as you know, anything can go wrong.
- [21:08]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. So we don't have a backup. This is our backup. That truck is my race truck. I have it all year, all season. And we have a part and a piece for everything in the truck.
- [21:19]
Steve Austin
Now how many guys are running with you? As far as crew, we'll have three.
- [21:22]
Brandon Vincent
Three, Three per trailer. So that's two trucks. We travel two trucks. We'll have a Grave Digger truck and I might be teamed up with a zombie truck or El Toro Loco.
- [21:30]
Steve Austin
So now, are those under the Grave Digger name or is that Monster Jam?
- [21:34]
Brandon Vincent
They're a Monster Jam. They're a failed truck. Yeah, there's quite a few trucks. There's a Megalodon truck. There's a lot of stuff that's being created that failed has put out there. And people love it, the kids love it. And it's just not Gravedigger anymore. You know, it's a lot of trucks. You know, you're coming to see Gravedig, you're coming to see El Toro Loco. Come to see Megalodon Max D. And your zombie truck was a fan chosen truck that they did. And that thing I want to say, there's four drivers now for that.
- [22:06]
Steve Austin
So tell me about, you know, you guys getting along. Like a lot of camaraderie. Obviously when you go out there, it's competition, but you guys are grinding up and down the road all around the world. How you guys coexist. Because most of the guys, like from my business or the one I was in, professional wrestling, you're doing the same thing. It's kind of brotherhood. But, you know, a couple guys are always kind of.
- [22:28]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [22:28]
Steve Austin
You know, out there. But for the most part, we're kind of a circle. Like how you guys work at.
- [22:32]
Brandon Vincent
It's good. Yeah, it's a brotherhood. But you know as well as I do, when you're on the road that long, everybody starts hating each other for a little while. You're right crazy. You don't want to be around nobody. So. But when something happens, say a truck breaks or we go out there, we're racing, that's when it all comes together. That's when everybody works together. Put these trucks together or put on the show. We all know when we're going out there, we're going out there to perform. So drop attitudes. We're going out there to please the crowd. We're gonna do what we gotta do. But it's intense when we're racing for points like that. Like I'm legitimately like, no, you know I'm gonna whip you. You know what I mean?
- [23:06]
Steve Austin
Right.
- [23:07]
Brandon Vincent
You're not winning. And it's legit. Like, we get mad and we fight about it, but at the end of the day, it might take a day or two to calm down.
- [23:14]
Steve Austin
But everybody's good at, hey, what do you feel after a good run? Because like when we come out of ring and we always talk about it all the time, and you get an adrenaline rush. And I can only imagine because I've been in a few monster trucks and being able to just really hit the gas and man, it's just nothing. But, man, I feel. I guess that truck I was driving back in the day was methanol. Alcohol.
- [23:35]
Brandon Vincent
Yep. That's what we're using now.
- [23:37]
Steve Austin
Holy smokes, man. One day I told this story a million times, but after I ran over the Rock's car, I was in that holding area and we would do a commercial break and all the curtains were drawn and I was in there for literally about two minutes. There's a little bitty small room, but just the curtains opened up into the arena. And I drove that truck out to the arena. But during the holding area, dude, those fumes were just coming in the truck. My eyes were watering, I could barely breathe. I was like, man, I can't hang on much longer. Your eyes are killing me, brother.
- [24:05]
Brandon Vincent
It'll make you gag and everything.
- [24:06]
Steve Austin
Finally they gave me the green light and I went out there and, you know, we had a big long red carpet all the way to the ring. And the ring was probably about, you know, 60, 80 yards away. And man, on the way to ring. This is kind of this. We were outlaw back in, brother.
- [24:19]
Brandon Vincent
I remember.
- [24:20]
Steve Austin
Yeah, yeah, dude. Nothing was locked in. Four wheel drive. I mean, and why gas did nothing went, man, and it just yank a carpet on. That camera guy was standing on carpet down. And of course, you know, I just pulled up and now I crushed a bunch of other stuff. But my question to you, after rambling, because it's the BS session and we're having fun, what do you feel when you get through crushing it out there and you have a good run, you pumped? I mean, that takes you a lot of come down. What is it?
- [24:44]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, it's pumping. It's electrifying. When you can take a 12,000 pound monster jam truck and you can hear the fans cheering while you're inside with that motor pumping and going, you know, you did your job. So when you get out, yeah, I'm shaking, pump. And you just. I'll go run in the stands. You know what I mean? I run in the stands, I take pictures of people, I do all that stuff. And yeah, I usually can't go to sleep that night. You know, one, two o' clock in the morning before you really come down off of that, that adrenaline rush. And that's what it is. It's like once you. It's a sickness is what it is. Once you get a taste of it you don't want to let it go. So I haven't driven in a couple months. I've been off so I can watch these videos right now. And I already. I'm ready. I want to get back in the truck right now because you want to go out there and feel that you need that adrenaline rush like your body needs it.
- [25:29]
Steve Austin
But hey, tell me about what you guys are wearing in there because I'm. Is it full leathers? I know you got a helmet on. The ultimate question I want to ask you is with that loud ass engine and you know, just man, y' all run straight headers, right? And there's open exhaust. Okay. Mufflers.
- [25:46]
Brandon Vincent
It's still. So it's still basically like an open header. Just has a magnaflow, makes a little, little muffler. It is a little bit quieter, but yeah, it's.
- [25:54]
Steve Austin
But it's loud as heck is what I'm saying. So in there with all your gear on and you can still hear that crowd.
- [25:59]
Brandon Vincent
You can still hear the crowd. When you do something crazy. If you get a good save in or a good two wheel like that, you can hear them without a doubt. And it's just the whole place will go insane. I think I told the story yesterday that I did the Staples center for the first time last year. First time Monster Jam's been in there. We did five shows and that was probably one of the loudest crowds I have heard ever. You could go out there and it makes you go out there and run hard. Like you pushing it to the limit, you know what I mean? Where you're getting ready to really just mess up and then you get a good save or something in and it's just the whole place, it's like, you know, it's like it's gonna, they're gonna tear it down.
- [26:38]
Steve Austin
Hey, when you go out there and all of a sudden you get the floor to yourself. Okay, let's say where y' all run in la? Staples?
- [26:44]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [26:45]
Steve Austin
Okay.
- [26:45]
Brandon Vincent
Both. We do both.
- [26:46]
Steve Austin
Okay, so you're okay. You're out there in a big ass arena is my point. You go out there. Now, do you have a complete game plan that of hey man, that's what I'm doing. I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm doing do three things over here and I'm gonna do this, the front end thing or is it all just make up on the fly? It almost be like setting up a match and following it or calling it in the ring and changing things up. How do you operate out there. So does the crowd dictate that?
- [27:10]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, the crowd, the crowd doesn't dictate it. When I go out there for my run, like, I'll set up my two wheel skills runs, I'll know what I'm gonna do, what my first hit's gonna be, what my second hit's gonna be. Because you get three hits in two wheel skills. It's a competition. Freestyle, I'll pick the first jump. That's it. Whatever happens after that happens because you never know which way the truck's gonna bounce or land. So you can't, you can't predict where you're going. You can, you can try all you want. As soon as you start trying to tell yourself, alright, I'm hitting this next, this next, you're, you're gonna lose focus, then your run's gonna go to crap.
- [27:44]
Steve Austin
You're listening to another classic episode of.
- [27:47]
Brandon Vincent
The Steve Austin show only on podcast one. Hey, it's Adam Kroll from the Adam Krolla Show.
- [27:53]
Steve Austin
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- [28:00]
Brandon Vincent
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- [28:08]
Steve Austin
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- [28:10]
Brandon Vincent
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Steve Austin
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- [28:28]
Brandon Vincent
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Steve Austin
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- [28:37]
Brandon Vincent
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Steve Austin
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- [28:46]
Brandon Vincent
Bet online. The game starts here.
- [28:54]
Steve Austin
This is the Steve Austin Show. Hey man, take me inside the cabin of the monster truck while you're in there. Okay. We've got the, the roar and horsepower, the thrill, the adrenaline of that engine. You got the crowd noise, you're taking all that in, you have the task at hand, you're focused on, but then all of a sudden, you know, with probably four point harness, all the safety gear you've got on. Y' all wearing a fire suit as well?
- [29:16]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, fire suit, five point harness or seven point, depending on what you like. We have this, you know, you heard a Hans device.
- [29:23]
Steve Austin
Yes.
- [29:23]
Brandon Vincent
So we wear Hans. Yeah.
- [29:25]
Steve Austin
Oh, you have not too restrictive.
- [29:27]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, you can, you don't move. Only thing you can do is move your eyes this way or that way. We run our Hans. Like if you see NASCAR guys run their hans, they run it loose. So you can take their helmet and the Hans will be here and you can go like that with her head. If you do that in our truck, you're not gonna. You're gonna see stars because it slams. Bang. So we run our Hans and helmet tight, so I can barely clip mine on. And then you have no movement at all inside the truck once the belt strapped to it.
- [29:51]
Steve Austin
Dude, that's a challenge in and of itself. First of all, man, I'm. I'm claustrophobic, man. I just did a showdown. I went down and talked to Dale Jr. And I just got inside a NASCAR car and I was in like this. And so if I had a fire retardant suit on and then I had a helmet and a Hans device, homie don't play that. I ain't gonna make it. So what are you thinking? Because you're lassoed in there, if something goes wrong, we'll get to the bumps and bruises in a minute.
- [30:14]
Brandon Vincent
It's okay.
- [30:15]
Steve Austin
Something goes wrong and like Dale Jr. Told me, Fire, fire, fire. Get out. What do you do? You just wait for the guys come in with the fire extinguisher and say, hope everything's cool.
- [30:23]
Brandon Vincent
When you know you're heating up, you're out, your instinct kicks in, adrenaline's kicked in, you're out the truck before you know. Unless you get caught up in there. But there's. We have safety crew and tech guys that usually are. The truck's rolling over, they're out there, they're running to you. But most of the time, if it's on fire or something happens like that, you're out before they're there because, you know, like, you don't.
- [30:42]
Steve Austin
Right.
- [30:42]
Brandon Vincent
You know, transmission, fire, anything like that, it gets really hot really quick, and it happens fast. So. But yeah, I was gonna say when you're in there, cloth, you know, I get claustrophobic too. So the first few times you're in there, it's a scary dark place inside there. Because when you're outside, we're waiting in the tunnel because we do intros from outside and we load in the tunnel so it's dark and you're in there. I'll have my crew chief get in and make sure my stuff's right. Because sometimes you forget you got. I'm upstairs doing push autographs or I'm sorry, post show interviews. We go in the stands and we do an interview every show before we kick off. So. And you know, everything's on time. We're on a two hour show, so you got to run down and then you're getting in, you're strapping in and.
- [31:28]
Steve Austin
It'S all in a hurry, so. So you got. You got a guy that kind of go through like a laundry list or a safety checklist. Hey, you got everything buckled in a system?
- [31:36]
Brandon Vincent
I'll just. No, I just have my crew guys. Hey, jump in here. Make sure my belts are over my hans. Make sure I'm clipped in and make sure there's no loose ends. And then here, we'll get in and check. Make basically making sure that my shoulders, my shoulder harnesses are over my hans. Because if one's off when you're jumping that truck, you'd say it's a left shoulder. The left shoulder's coming out every time.
- [31:55]
Steve Austin
That ain't good.
- [31:55]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. And it's miserable.
- [31:57]
Steve Austin
Yeah, it's family friendly podcast. There's a lot of other things. It really is. But miserable is the word for the day.
- [32:03]
Brandon Vincent
It is.
- [32:04]
Steve Austin
Hey, when you. When, when. I know suspensions are a lot better, but still, man, like you said, there's 12,000 pounds jumping in the air or sometimes slamming against something. Take me into. We can't really watch a bunch of them on your Instagram account. But. But take me through. Like, what's bad, what's worse, what hurts? I mean, like.
- [32:22]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, okay. Yeah, I know all of them.
- [32:24]
Steve Austin
Okay. I mean, it's like a body slam or I mean, you know, jumping off the top rope and land on your back. A missile drop kick. Nah, that ain't happening. Almost everything you do inside of ring can hurt. But what hurts out there in that monster truck?
- [32:38]
Brandon Vincent
All right. Anytime you cage the truck. So say I. Perfect example. I was in world finals doing this big two wheel deal and I jumped. I was gonna jump from one jump to the next, cradle it and go to two wheels.
- [32:52]
Steve Austin
What do you mean, cradle it?
- [32:53]
Brandon Vincent
So when I say cradle, the monster trucks got a, you know, cradle in it because it's four link.
- [32:57]
Steve Austin
Yep.
- [32:57]
Brandon Vincent
And you just take. And basically are jumping the truck half on the dirt, not and hitting the chassis. It does. It'll roll up and then go up on the nose. I did that. I went too fast. So what it did was it went right to the nose and slammed right on the roof and then went over front flips.
- [33:13]
Steve Austin
Oh.
- [33:14]
Brandon Vincent
And then I know my eyes were crossed for a good five minutes after that. So those. Those hurt anytime you jump. And your front dives in and the back slaps.
- [33:26]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [33:27]
Brandon Vincent
It's like somebody hit you in the back of the head so hard your eyes fell out of your head. So those hurt anytime that you can dive in on a corner, it's not so bad, so. And it doesn't always happen that way, you know, it's abrupt and. Well, the safety gears come so far. Like, I got a custom built butler seat in my truck, you know, side restraints, head restraints, you don't move. You know, it. You got to be tough for sure. You can take it. But some of them, you know, like I said, doing the cage stuff and that, you don't want to do that more than once in a weekend, I can tell you that.
- [34:03]
Steve Austin
Yeah, but, man, what about when it's hotter than blazes out there? I mean, do you all got any kind of ventilation? I know NASCAR guys, when sometimes they run a vent hose out the top, but I would imagine that in a hot way, they do.
- [34:18]
Brandon Vincent
I don't. I just sweat it out, you know, that's an extra thing I got to hook up, which some people do. They still run the fresh air system in their helmet. Some. Some of the guys got cool suits, you know, they got the water running through it. I just.
- [34:32]
Steve Austin
You're old school.
- [34:33]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, just take it. It's. It is what it is.
- [34:35]
Steve Austin
Black trunks, you know, and no knee pads and go out there and give it hell.
- [34:40]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. Sometimes old school's better, man. I'm. I'm kind of like old, you know, I like it that way.
- [34:44]
Steve Austin
Here's a question for you. What is he like? I like how, how free are you to go out there and just do whatever the heck you want? I mean, with, with respect to that truck. Because on the circuit that I was taking part of, and I think this might have been before Monster Jam or Monster Jam may have existed, we just was a smaller league. But when I was in the Austin 316 truck, you know, some of those guys, you know, on a budget, you know, they just couldn't afford to go out there and, you know, tear everything up. Yeah, but it's sometimes, you know, promotion might say, hey, man, here's extra. There's a bonus if you'll cause something to happen. So my question is, how free are you to go out there and just tear? I mean, go hog wild with that equipment?
- [35:28]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, I, I'm. I got a green light to go. Like, I haven't been told too many times the, hey, we're going to need you to back it down or this, that, then that's what separates us from everybody else.
- [35:40]
Steve Austin
Well, I mean, the Grave Digger. Yeah, the Grave Digger is expected to perform well wherever it goes, under any circumstances. It's a standard.
- [35:48]
Brandon Vincent
It is, yeah. People want to See it, people know that's what it's about.
- [35:51]
Steve Austin
Grave Digger always puts it on the line.
- [35:53]
Brandon Vincent
Black and green record machine, that's why we call it. Everybody knows it, you know, and they want to see it. That's how you, that's what it's known for. They know that things are going to get ready to come out here and it's a chance it's going to crash, roll over, go back on its wheels, break something off, catch on fire, it doesn't matter. They want to see it. And you got to be willing to take the chance to go out there and perform. That's what, you know.
- [36:15]
Steve Austin
Some of those ones, when a guy make, that's some of the craziest saves in the world. And you say like parts and everything are falling off, but then the guy just keeps making the run and basically, I mean, it's just shredded. But the guy and the crowd will come up just because he's torn up so much stuff, he's maintained, he just kept going. It's like that's that, that win at all cost attitude, that go for broke part. And you know, they, they've committed. Yeah, that really leaves, leaves an impression on the crowd.
- [36:40]
Brandon Vincent
Yes, it does. And that's when the adrenaline kicks in for the driver. And when that thing, you get a good save like that and it comes back to the wheels, you know that the crowd's pumped. You can hear the crowd and you're in there pumped too. So you're going until they shut you off, you know what I mean? Till the truck won't go no more or they shut you off, it doesn't matter. You're still gonna perform. If the truck's still running, we go. And there's nothing more satisfying than being able to have a run like that. It doesn't come every weekend, you know, if you can get a good run like that and get that crowd response, you know, you've done your job, they're gonna come back, they love it.
- [37:12]
Steve Austin
Hey, you guys are out there and it's only glamorous for you guys. For a very brief moment, y' all are running a two hour show, give or take.
- [37:21]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, it goes over sometimes. Oh, yeah, but two, two hour 15.
- [37:24]
Steve Austin
Yeah, but my, my point is, you've done your interviews, you sign autographs, and all of a sudden that truck comes to life. You perform. That's the glamorous part of it.
- [37:32]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [37:32]
Steve Austin
Now let's get down to the nitty gritty of it because that's the same way with the wrestling business. Everybody Sees you out there and you own TV and that's, that's when you turn into a big star. Yeah, maybe, maybe not. But then there comes life on the road. How is life on the road as a monster truck driver?
- [37:51]
Brandon Vincent
It's so. When I first started, that's all I knew. I didn't care. I would, we'd roll into a hotel, we would do what we do, go out a lot, hang out, you know, we had all the guys there, we all were on the road then. Even the drivers were on the road. You know, it was a big hangout time. It was fun. We were away from home, we were on the road, we were in all these cities, traveling on company dime, going to see all these cool things and it was fun. Four or five years of it, you start slowing down, you know, you're working so much, you're working so hard, you start getting up slower. You know, tired of being on the road, you know, the family, you know, my kids and stuff. Or wondering when you're coming home, but you know, you don't have a choice at that point. That's how I make my money, you know, that's where I make my living. And I got to do it because being at home, trying to find a job at home that's going to pay and you know, take care of your family is a few far in between where I'm at.
- [38:48]
Steve Austin
Man, I tell you what, I always enjoyed life on the road. And speaking for myself, you know, sometimes I ran into the excess or the excessive side of partying and man, those days, they kind of start running into the gray area and then just living in a gray area and the highlight of your day or the highlight of your night and if it's your dog, if your dead dog tired or something's wrong or someone got sick back at the house, hey man, my chance to go in the ring was when the bright spot of my day. Yeah, but man, life on the road and it's like, are you guys, you know, a couple, couple of beers here, some whiskeys there. Life on the road, it's guys, right?
- [39:28]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [39:29]
Steve Austin
With you guys are in our business of wrestling, there was always guys, we call them rivers, practical jokes, you know, trying, trying to create some levity. Does that exist out there with you guys? Because when you get a bunch of like minded people, you know, you guys are all kind of wired the same. Because if you're wired to be in the pro wrestling business or monster truck driver same, you're looking for a little bit of same screw loose. Yeah. So so what do you guys do to rib each other? Because back in the day, I mean like if we were, if we were working at like a high school auditorium, you know the, all the lockers.
- [40:00]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [40:00]
Steve Austin
Well, some of those combination locks are open, you know the old spin kind.
- [40:03]
Brandon Vincent
Yes.
- [40:04]
Steve Austin
And so, man, a lot of times guys get those and they'd put them through all of your, your belt loops on your pants. Lock it. So when someone has done that to your pants, you ain't, you know, you're not getting. Unless you cut all those belt loops or someone's got a bolt cutter. Ain't nobody got a boat cut. Or here's another, like I'm wearing jeans right now just to tie one knot in the leg of a jean and you're done. Yo, you, you, you know you ain't going to get that jeans leg open anytime soon. Or you know the old every now and then ig hot in somebody's drawers. That's kind of on getting on the serious side but light hearted stuff. What do you guys do to mess with each other?
- [40:38]
Brandon Vincent
All kinds of stuff. Nobody will, nobody likes to be around me because I'm like the pranker. They know they don't want that guy. They don't want her.
- [40:46]
Steve Austin
Yes.
- [40:46]
Brandon Vincent
They don't want to room with me. They don't want to do nothing. So like all the new kids coming in the business when I was crewing and stuff like that, they're like, hey, look, you watch out for him. You know what I mean? They're already giving them heads up. So they don't even want to talk to me. They don't want to ruin me. And just pulling pranks, you know, little stuff, baby powder here or. Yeah, sometimes.
- [41:05]
Steve Austin
What do I do with the baby powder?
- [41:06]
Brandon Vincent
Put it up. I mean a lot of times. So you could put it in. Say somebody's driving your truck. Got a buddy driving the truck. If you put it up in the head pan between the body and the roof.
- [41:15]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [41:16]
Brandon Vincent
They'll take off or hit the brakes and things and it's just blow a big cloud of baby powder out, you know, it's all kinds of things, man. I. Messing with people's drink, messing with people's food. I mean it gets bad.
- [41:29]
Steve Austin
Hey, boy, I tell you what, those, those are, those are fighting.
- [41:31]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [41:32]
Steve Austin
You're listening to another classic episode of.
- [41:34]
Brandon Vincent
The Steve Austin show, only on podcast one.
- [41:44]
Steve Austin
Hi, everyone, this is Jillian with Court Junkie.
- [41:46]
Brandon Vincent
Court Junkie is a true crime podcast.
- [41:49]
Steve Austin
That covers court cases and criminal trials.
- [41:51]
Brandon Vincent
Using audio clips and interviews with people close to the cases. Court Junkie is available on Apple Podcasts and Podcast1.com.
- [42:13]
Steve Austin
I've seen guys, and here's the way. Guys were so merciless back in the day, man. If someone sends you a drink from across the bar and you didn't see that thing arrive, you know, I won't drink it. Don't touch it. Now, if someone says same thing with a long neck. If they send me a long neck. Now, if the cap is on it and yeah, been popped, I'll drink it. But if it's. If it's an open long neck, yeah, I won't drink it because I don't know what somebody's done.
- [42:38]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. And I've. I've had that happen to me before. Hey, here's this drink. Drink it. Next thing. I don't know what I'm. What, what. What's going on, where I'm at. And, you know, I mean, it's not. That's nothing to play with.
- [42:49]
Steve Austin
No, that's a fighting rib.
- [42:50]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [42:50]
Steve Austin
And that's when, you know, I'm not.
- [42:52]
Brandon Vincent
Staying doing something like that. We're just.
- [42:55]
Steve Austin
We're talking to fun.
- [42:56]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. Salt shaker is the best thing. You be out of the restaurant, take the cap off, and they go to pour it in.
- [43:02]
Steve Austin
Man. I heard the salt shaker routine in a moon about a year and a half ago. I was at one of them chain restaurants, and I reached over and grabbed that salt and someone had just set it up, or maybe the waiter. Someone had filled it up and they didn't put it back on. But whoever it did, they. They really got a good laugh. Yeah, I got a dose of salt. I damn sure didn't need all my food. I'm like, are you kidding me? Hey, man, I, like, put in another order.
- [43:27]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. I was the king of being able to get in any room in the hotel. Like, I could go downstairs and I could talk them into giving me a key to somebody's room. I don't know how they would just.
- [43:38]
Steve Austin
No, but let me ask you a question, because you said you from North Carolina, and you are, and you said at first you kind of didn't have the gift of gabbin. Almost everybody I know from North Carolina is like a natural born storyteller. So maybe he was nervous a little bit, but. But it seems like if you can talk your way in anybody's room and you ain't had no problem talking to me. And we hit it off from day one. We met the other day, but, I mean, it seemed like North Carolina Is full of good BS Ers, as is Texas.
- [44:02]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. For sure. It wasn't that. I could always naturally bullshit and do whatever. You know, when it came down to when they put this microphone in your face and they shove that camera on you, you were like, gotcha. Freeze real quick. You know, you didn't. You're not used to it. You're not used to being on that side of things. I was in the mechanic side of it. I was in the back. I was behind the scenes kind of. And they started doing a little bit more with the crew guys and stuff, putting them on camera because they kind of want, you know, fill in time and some downtime, talk about the trucks as a lot of people are interested in. So I got a little bit there. I just never did a lot of it.
- [44:35]
Steve Austin
Yeah, but to your point, man. Yeah. When you're just coming off being part of the crew, and then all of a sudden now you're the voice of the truck.
- [44:41]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [44:41]
Steve Austin
And someone sticks that microphone in your face is like, man, who am I? Like, what's my Persona?
- [44:45]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [44:46]
Steve Austin
So, like, or to identify with the Grave Digger brand or that particular monster truck or find your voice, and that's what it was.
- [44:53]
Brandon Vincent
Like, I've being a part of the Grave Digger team and doing this, like, I found my calling in what I'm doing so I could talk about everything, about that Grave Digger truck and hype the fan up. I always say, like, I have punchlines that I do all the time that I made up because I wanted to. To be different from everybody else.
- [45:10]
Steve Austin
So I'll catch phrases.
- [45:12]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. Like, I'll. I'm gonna drive this truck in the ground. One foot on the gas, one in the grave. For each and every one of you fans in the stands, we're gonna go out here, we're gonna tear this truck up. And then I always hashtag, can you dig it? Yeah, that was my deal. I made. I made. I make bracelets with my IG name on there. And I put can you dig it on. So I go up in pre show with.
- [45:29]
Steve Austin
With. With. With reference to Grave Digger. Can you dig it? Right.
- [45:33]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. All referenced.
- [45:35]
Steve Austin
Go. Now can you dig that sucker? But you. Can you dig it? Applies to grave digging.
- [45:40]
Brandon Vincent
Like digging.
- [45:41]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [45:41]
Brandon Vincent
You're getting ready to go out there and dig. So dig it. And then it just worked and everybody liked it. So I made. I'd make bracelets. You know, the rubber band bracelets. Put can you dig it on it and then put my IG on and I hand them out to all the fans when we go do pre show.
- [45:55]
Steve Austin
Good idea. You just gave me an idea.
- [45:57]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. And it's cool. You can put your Instagram handle on there, Twitter, whatever, and throw them out because you can get. I think I was getting a thousand of them made for 100 some dollars. I was doing it myself, but just. It helps out.
- [46:09]
Steve Austin
Well, it does. It helps out. It helps you, you know, you bond with the crowd. And anytime you're in show business, you're trying to bond with that crowd. Especially in our business of wrestling, you're trying to make them love you or hate you. Obviously in a monster truck, I mean, you want to be loved. You want people to pay money to come see you.
- [46:25]
Brandon Vincent
Sure, you want to get a little.
- [46:26]
Steve Austin
Bit extra, but it's like forming that bond. So if you can go above and beyond on your own dime just to further your cause, I mean, that's a wise investment. You ain't out there selling them and selling is one thing, but just, hey, man, here's some appreciate. Here's some love.
- [46:39]
Brandon Vincent
Yep. Here you go.
- [46:40]
Steve Austin
Yeah, thanks for watching.
- [46:41]
Brandon Vincent
If you want to follow me, here you go. Here's a bracelet. You guys can wear it. And they love it, man. They. I hand them out almost every weekend.
- [46:48]
Steve Austin
Here's one for you. Switching gears, what's the life expectancy or of a career of a monster truck person, you know, driving? Because, man, you know, back in the day, those guys were getting beat to shreds, especially because they were just. Well, I drove one, man. I had like a four point on.
- [47:06]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah. You know the deal.
- [47:07]
Steve Austin
And I had a helmet, man. I mean, it was rugged and I wasn't doing nothing. I was just driving the thing.
- [47:11]
Brandon Vincent
I seen your truck, you know, I'm a gearhead at heart. As far as your seat and stuff in there, When I look at it, the 316 truck, you didn't have any head restraints. You didn't have nothing. It was a bare seat.
- [47:22]
Steve Austin
Yep.
- [47:22]
Brandon Vincent
So that takes a lot of toll on you, too. Like, Dennis did it forever.
- [47:26]
Steve Austin
How's he feeling now?
- [47:27]
Brandon Vincent
He just. He keeps rolling every day. You know, you have your days, but at the end of the day, you can't lay up and just get old.
- [47:34]
Steve Austin
Well, how long do you want to do it? Let's list.
- [47:35]
Brandon Vincent
I want to do it as long as I can. As long as they'll let me, the company wise. And as long as I can still get in the truck and go, I want to do it. I know I can at least go 15 years right now. So this would be my third season and I'd be happy with that. I'll be happy with 10.
- [47:50]
Steve Austin
How's the sport growing?
- [47:52]
Brandon Vincent
It's growing every single day. It's something new every day. Monster Jam is on top of the world right now. You it's unbelievable what all is in the works. Just take it for existence. This Kawasaki deal. Yeah, like I heard about this last week.
- [48:06]
Steve Austin
Hey, let's talk about the Kawasaki deal because like right now I'm in Palm Desert, Palm Springs, whatever, and it's every couple years there's a big dealers convention because I'm a brand ambassador. You know, I come down here and I check out all the latest greatest stuff and I represent the side by side division. Well, this year Kawasaki came out with a brand new Side by side. And side by side everybody has been waiting for, if you're a Kawasaki fan, because it's their new high performance side by side model which I have a Kawasaki Terex and forever that was compared with the razr and the X3 and stuff like that. But it didn't really belong there. It was just kind of that middle of the road trail, trail. And I love that thing, but it's bulletproof. But it's not into the high speed stuff. Now Here comes the KRX. It's the Terex KRX 1000. And we got a chance to go out there and drive it. So how'd you get lumped into this?
- [48:58]
Brandon Vincent
I came out, they asked me to come out to set the truck up and do the display deal. And then when I got out here, I was, you know, talking to Glenn and stuff like that and kind of told him what I did and they put me in a side by side with it or with you guys. So I was kind of just luck of the draw really to come out here and be a part of this.
- [49:14]
Steve Austin
Oh man, that's cool. Because man, as I saw you, I said, hey man. Well, they must be kind of like, like experimenting with seeing what the monster truck guys opinion is of this unit. I mean, totally different, you know, genres or things, but nonetheless, four wheel drive, you know, horsepower and adrenaline. Yeah. So how did you, how did you enjoy your experience out here and how did you enjoy the new Terex KRX1000?
- [49:38]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, the experience has been great out here. Not knowing what I was getting into coming out here and then being able to be a part of Monster Jam and do this Kawasaki body on this monster truck and have everybody love it. That's with Kawasaki. Because this is a big deal out here. I mean it is there's people everywhere, corporate people. I mean, I want to say the president was here as well. Yeah, it's been great. It's been cool. And the machine is awesome. Like, I was happy that I got to ride it and I was happy that I got to give some feedback, even though I wasn't really supposed to be out here doing that.
- [50:10]
Steve Austin
No, but it's interesting feedback from a guy like you, because I don't. I mean, like, I'm gonna. I love riding and driving, and I've been doing this for quite some time. And I've been riding four wheelers and side by sides my entire life. I don't speak the language, I don't know the technical lingo. Like when Jeremy McGrath is also ambassador, you know, Supercross greatest of all time, when he gives his feedback, it means something. And to watch those badass videos that they made of those two guys that were. That were the drivers in that video, which is Premiere. I mean, those guys can drive their butts off. So I ain't got no feedback, mister. I don't speak no technical language. But I look, you know, hey, I'll just say this. You was behind me and I was behind the lead dog, Kawasaki. I'll just say I might have veered off course. Yeah.
- [50:55]
Brandon Vincent
And so, yeah, when you went off course, I was, I was the only one that was like, I was legitimately, like, happy. Like, it was cool, you know, I knew, I knew you had. I knew your adrenaline rush. Like, I knew what it was going to do to you. Like, I know the feeling. So I was happy. I was pumped for you.
- [51:11]
Steve Austin
Well, God dang, man. I had my riding partner in there, but, you know, because he was already part of Kawasaki, he wasn't going to drive because most time, you know, everybody, you're riding with a partner and then you'd swap and the other person would drive. Well, I was riding the whole time, so I started getting a little bit full of myself and I was showing off. And so I just, I veered off course just a little bit. Driver error. But I said, hey, man, I've never been accused of not being able to push the envelope, of being dumb.
- [51:37]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, that's a good thing, man, to have that. A lot of people are scared, like, if I'm getting in something like that.
- [51:44]
Steve Austin
We'Re gonna push to the limits.
- [51:45]
Brandon Vincent
That's why we're out there, right? That's why.
- [51:46]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [51:47]
Brandon Vincent
And we did. I had a blast. I stayed in two wheel drive most of the time and we were whipping around and I want to get.
- [51:52]
Steve Austin
I want to get. I got two more truck questions for you. Okay. I want to ask you because I want to talk about my good friend Deborah Michelle deuce. And Michelle Alundra Blaze hall of famer. She's a badass deuce. And so. But let's talk about. I wanted to real quick give me the engine set up horsepower because you said 1500. But what's the motor?
- [52:13]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah, the motors are. It's a Merlin block world heads, it's aluminum pistons, aluminum rods. It's a 540 cubic inch. And it's based off of Chevrolet. Chevrolet. Firing order. 12amp mag MSD mag 870. One little food blower on it. About eight, nine pounds of boost injected. And they rip. Man. They're really reliable. Anytime you can take and run a motor upside down like that and keep going, have 27 to 40 hours on it, have it in the truck for a year. So, you know, the motor guys are doing their job and doing a good job at building them for us.
- [52:51]
Steve Austin
Hey, man, what does a motor like at cost?
- [52:53]
Brandon Vincent
It's a complete brand new one's. $50,000. And 54 trucks. Every truck has a motor. Then every truck has a spare. So that's. That's quite a few dollars. That's just in the motor. You know, just in the power plant. A whole, whole rear end set up is $24,000 just for the front and rear end. You know, that's complete. But everything on them is. It's all heavy duty and big. And it costs money. So you can. You can. You'll be in one for about 250k, man.
- [53:21]
Steve Austin
Oh. I was down in south Texas one time. And I think it was down on the radar. Mcallen somewhere. And I was doing it's going out there. And Calvin was smarting me up on this thing. But he, you know, he just told me to go a certain speed and didn't really smart me up on the shift. And. And. Oh, dude. And this was stupid because I'm a gearhead. Well, at least I like to go fast. I'm not a gearhead because I don't understand the mechanics of the things. Yeah, I can't work on nothing. Anyway, I went out there and from first to second. And then he said, I mean, really kind of just stay out of thirds. I stayed out of third, but I stayed on the throttle. Wham. Threw a rod, blew up the motor. And that was the 316 truck. And they had the rock truck. It was a gold one. Everybody had a lesser powered engine in It. And there was another truck and then. But I had shut. I had broken. Blown up the engine of the truck that everybody came to see. And so I was like, oh my God. You're talking about when I felt bad when I went off the course.
- [54:16]
Brandon Vincent
Sick.
- [54:16]
Steve Austin
When you blow a motor and it ain't your. I mean you work for those people. You'd probably feel bad if you did it too. But when you're just showing up to do an appearance and I blow up a guy's monster truck. Dude, I felt like turd.
- [54:30]
Brandon Vincent
It's. Yeah. So you had to been probably running on the chip. And that's what happens if you leave them in first gear and take off and run them like that.
- [54:36]
Steve Austin
Yep.
- [54:37]
Brandon Vincent
That's. It'll kick a rod right through the open. That's probably what it did. Or kick it through the block.
- [54:40]
Steve Austin
Calvin wasn't happy.
- [54:42]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [54:42]
Steve Austin
Hey, you know, and here's a very sad and tragic thing. Calvin, those guys and Rev were all real cool to me back in my monster truck days, which is making appearances and then at an event one time. And you know, Calvin was a veteran. He was. He was one OG's.
- [54:57]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [54:57]
Steve Austin
And man, a big wheel, big tire blew off and just lost his life there in the arena. And it was. Or they life flighted him, but it wasn't good. He's no longer with us. And he was such a cool guy to me. So you never know. Man, the dang this things can happen, man, just down there in that arena. I mean it's extremely dangerous. When you get the horsepower, the poundage, the speed, the velocity, the impact, everything goes with it. I mean, dude, even. Even if something come to the drive through the floorboard.
- [55:25]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [55:25]
Steve Austin
For you guys. So anything can happen.
- [55:27]
Brandon Vincent
Yes. What we do now is safety is key for us. Like we don't do anything without being safe. Everything is tethered. The tire is tethered. If it breaks, it doesn't fall off. It stays with the truck. If the drive shaft breaks, it stays with the truck. Sway bars, anything that can fly off is tethered and will not move. We don't want any incidents of anything going in the crowd. And on top of that, like our tech staff, every truck gets safety teched every single time. We run checks for belts, checks for nuts and bolts loose on the truck as well as the crew guys and fire extinguisher systems. And then we have riis inside the truck. So what's that? It's a remote interrupter. And what it does is when we're inside of A building. There might be 10 people with an RI. So I'll run on left. Left channel or a right channel. If anything gets crazy or I knock it, I get knocked out or the throttle hangs, they can cut me off at any time.
- [56:25]
Steve Austin
They basically, they. They kill the truck.
- [56:27]
Brandon Vincent
Yep. The truck's dead.
- [56:28]
Steve Austin
Yep.
- [56:28]
Brandon Vincent
Right there. Wherever they hit a button, it's on. It looks like a handheld walkie talkie. And it's done. And that is like a lifesaver right there. You know, to have that on top of all the other safety things.
- [56:39]
Steve Austin
Well, I didn't know that everything was tethered down because, I mean, you know, back in the day, I mean, you know, even from you high speed, you know, auto racing, that stuff continues to happen. But the monster truck thing, man, like, like you said, I mean, a wheel bouncing and it's happened. It can happen into the crowd. You talk about devastation. £740 coming at you. And that is a pun intended. That's a monster ass tire.
- [57:04]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [57:05]
Steve Austin
So the safety thing is so cool just because, you know, for obvious reasons.
- [57:09]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [57:09]
Steve Austin
Hey, I want to ask you about. About my buddy Deuce.
- [57:14]
Brandon Vincent
Yep.
- [57:15]
Steve Austin
Because, man, she was a professional wrestler, and, man, all the guys respected Deuce because she would. She would lay it down, man. I mean, like, strong style in the ring. I mean, take care of you. But, I mean, Deuce was tough putting it down. She go to Japan. I mean, I mean, Japan is stiff. It's strong style because all the boys, I mean, she could work her ass off, but she was. And she was tough. We considered her one of gas.
- [57:39]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [57:40]
Steve Austin
So high respect. And then all of a sudden, I find out that she's driving monster trucks.
- [57:44]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [57:44]
Steve Austin
And she could drive her ass off.
- [57:45]
Brandon Vincent
The world champion.
- [57:46]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [57:46]
Brandon Vincent
World championship.
- [57:47]
Steve Austin
So, I mean, did you run across Deuce and any of your.
- [57:50]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [57:51]
Steve Austin
Experiences.
- [57:52]
Brandon Vincent
I've raced or. I was in the business. While she was in the bed she was in, you know, before I was. She was already driving, but she was around. So like you said, she's one of the guys. When you go out and, you know, you put a female inside a monster truck, they got to be tough because you. I mean, you have to be tough to get in. So for her to go out there and run with the boys and, you know, hang tough and do her deal, she's out there freestyling, back flipping, just throwing it down, being one of the guys out on the track. And she did a good job of it.
- [58:18]
Steve Austin
Yeah, she's wired, but, you know, it wired like, you know, to do that kind of stuff. And you know, when she came out of business of pro wrestling, you know, she'd been in for quite some time. So your body takes a pound and in that line of work and then you get into another line of work that they, you know, as at first glance you think, well, it's a monster truck. And okay, that's. Well, when you, when you start, like we said, dissecting it and breaking it down and it can beat you. Beat the hell out of you.
- [58:41]
Brandon Vincent
Yeah.
- [58:41]
Steve Austin
So she's a tough ass woman, but universal respect from the monster crowd people, right? Oh, yeah. Universal respect from the monster truck people, right?
- [58:49]
Brandon Vincent
Yep. Much respect to her. You know, she was doing this when, you know, they're running in beard seats and no restraints, no head restraints and stuff like that. So she was doing it right there alongside of Dennis and Tom and everybody, all the old school people. So she's a legend as well, you know what I mean? To be able to go from doing that, being a world champion, beating all the boys and then, you know, coming to where it evolved, started getting better and she was still in the sport. So much respect to her, man. It's awesome that a female came in and I guess I'm male dominated.
- [59:22]
Steve Austin
Yeah.
- [59:23]
Brandon Vincent
A sport probably the same as wrestling at that time and throws it down. So that's cool. So everybody, you have to respect somebody like that, man.
- [59:29]
Steve Austin
Listen, we're going to wrap this podcast up. We're sitting in my Yukon Denali XL. We're in a parking garage. It's 100 degrees outside and we've been. The windows rolled up, the car is not running, we're sweating off. And I'm like, I'm off a heat stroke here. I'm sitting in the pool of water. But before we go, thank you for giving me an hour of your day. I know I'm gonna see you in a couple more days before you leave, but being on a podcast, I've always been such a fan of the monster truck stuff. And now to see, you know, Monster Jam continues to get bigger and better and all the bookings and all the success and for you to be a part of the Gravedigger franchise is truly, obviously for you an honor. And, you know, you're representing. Well, is there anything that you'd like to plug or promote as far as your Instagram or where people can find a Gravedigger or Monster Jam?
- [60:21]
Brandon Vincent
For sure, yeah. You guys want to follow me? Brandon Vinson, driver of Grave Diggers, Brandon Vincent, GD on Instagram. You can follow me on Facebook, but Come out, man. Monster Jam is on top of the world right now. If you guys see Monster Jam shows, go to them. You've never been. You got to go. It's a family show. You'll love it. You'll be, be ecstatic. When you leave there, man, I promise you. You'll have smiles on your face and you'll come back. So check it out. It's cool for everybody that's been, we're coming 2020, we're coming to a city near you. Check us out. It's going to be an unbelievable year. A lot of new stuff coming along and we got a big tour. Mix up a lot of new people on tours. It's going to be. It's going to be epic. So everybody come check it out.
- [61:04]
Steve Austin
And part of the things, it's been a long time since I've been to a supercross or motocross race, but when you leave there, it's like leaving a monster truck event, man. When you get home, that exhaust note is ringing in your ear. So it's a feeling, it's a good feeling that lasts with you in a good way. So I enjoy the adrenaline, the testosterone, everything that goes with the excitement, the skill of the drivers and guys working so hard to put on a really entertaining show. And it's hard to get people, I mean, in anything these days. There's so many different things to do or stream or whatever. You know, going to a live event is the way to see it. So, man, best, best of luck to you. Been following the Gravedigger for a long time. It's been great to meet you here at Kawasaki. Out here driving the KRX 1000 and hell, man, safe travels. When you come back to Anna to la, I told you. You got my phone number.
- [61:51]
Brandon Vincent
Yep.
- [61:52]
Steve Austin
You let me know and I will be there.
- [61:53]
Brandon Vincent
Okay. I appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on your show and it's been a sweat box, but we're having a good time. Thank you for joining us for another classic episode of the Steve Austin Show. Please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and tell your friends.
- [62:07]
Steve Austin
For more Steve Austin show, go to podcast1.com that's podcast o n e.com this September, CBS hits are streaming free on Pluto TV. I'm coming in for this month only. You can watch full seasons of the CBS shows you love, from the courtroom drama of Matt Adlock to the heroics of Fire Country. Go back to where it all began in NCIS origins or watch the hilarious hauntings of ghosts all for free. Full seasons of the CBS shows you love this month only on Pluto TV stream now pay never.