Ricky Forbes – Storm Chasing & Netflix’s “Tornado Hunters”
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Most people spend their lives running from storms. Ricky Forbes runs straight into them—and he's been doing it for over a decade. Having documented more than 500 tornadoes from the heart of some of the planet's most violent weather systems, the Saskatchewan-born storm chaser has built a career doing what most would consider reckless. Yet there's nothing reckless about it. For Forbes, storm chasing is a pursuit of authenticity, a quest to witness nature at its most raw and unfiltered. It's also landed him on Netflix's *Tornado Hunters*, where millions now follow him into the tempests.
When we spoke with Forbes on a Friday evening, fresh snow blanketing his Canadian home, he came across as grounded and thoughtful—not the adrenaline junkie you might expect. He's someone who's chosen a life of extremes not to prove something, but to live fully and document the planet's most compelling natural phenomena. It's a philosophy that feels increasingly rare in our sanitized, risk-averse culture.
We have temperatures of minus 40 Celsius and below for the whole month if not longer, and life carries on as normal—otherwise we'd be shut down for four or five months.
— Ricky Forbes
Forbes grew up in small prairie towns across Saskatchewan, the kind of places where a population of a thousand felt substantial. His province sits at the northern edge of Tornado Alley, that notorious corridor stretching from Texas up through the American heartland and into Canada, sweeping across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. While his region experiences five to ten tornadoes annually—nothing compared to the volatile south—it's enough to create a landscape shaped by severe weather. Yet Forbes didn't stumble into storm chasing because he grew up surrounded by tornadoes. His origin story is more nuanced than that, rooted in something deeper than geography.
What strikes you talking with Forbes is his matter-of-fact approach to extreme conditions. He describes minus-40-degree Celsius winters and multi-foot snowfalls with the casual tone of someone discussing a light drizzle. In Saskatchewan, he explains, life doesn't pause for weather. Schools don't close, roads don't shut down, and people simply adapt. "Our world can't shut down otherwise we'd be shut down for four or five months," he says, drawing a contrast to places like England where a couple of millimetres of snow can paralyze entire regions. There's a philosophy embedded in that pragmatism—a refusal to let conditions dictate your life, but rather to work with them, understand them, and ultimately, chase them.
It's the Flatlands, the Prairies—when it takes more than 15 minutes to get from one side of the city to the other, you're like why is this taking so long.
— Ricky Forbes
What makes Forbes compelling isn't just his technical expertise or his Netflix profile. It's his clarity about what drives him. He describes his pursuits—from documenting the wildest storms to spending time with loved ones at home—as "all in the quest of a life well lived." There's a spiritual quality to that statement, a recognition that chasing storms isn't about ego or daredeviltry. It's about bearing witness, about creating records of natural phenomena that most of us will never experience firsthand. In an age of manufactured content and artificial adventure, Forbes represents something genuine: a person pursuing a singular passion with discipline and respect for what he's encountering.
His work on *Tornado Hunters* has introduced his craft to a global audience, but the podcast conversation reveals something the screen can't quite capture—the thoughtfulness of someone who's spent eleven years in one of the most dangerous professions imaginable. He's survived being caught inside the world's largest tornado. He's seen things that challenge how we understand weather, physics, and human resilience. Yet he speaks about it all with an almost understated humility.
For those drawn to stories about people living authentically, pursuing mastery, and refusing to be confined by conventional boundaries, Ricky Forbes offers something worth your attention. The full conversation spans far more than we can capture here, diving deeper into what drives a man to willingly place himself in nature's most violent moments. Whether you're fascinated by extreme weather, interested in the psychology of risk-takers, or simply appreciate people committed fully to their craft, this episode deserves your time. Forbes embodies a particular kind of courage—not the flashy kind, but the quieter, more durable kind born from genuine curiosity and respect for forces far larger than ourselves.
when you [Music] [Applause] L crash and [Music] bur Hearts get broke TBL turn you lose your love this is the rugged Revival podcast and we are back again for another episode on a Friday night uh we've decided to switch things up ever so slightly and today we've got legendary and professional stormchaser Ricky Forbes with us uh Ricky is originally from Saskatchewan uh Canada uh he's not only an expert stormchaser but also a TV personality having appeared on the Netflix series Tornado Hunters uh he's a keynote speaker brand ambassador and awesome content creator uh being a huge weather geek and obviously a fan of Ricky's work I I could not wait to have him on a show today um as I said we we we kind of mixing up slightly we tend to have country music artists on the show uh and some of them play a song or two at the end but with Ricky not being from the music scene uh he's agreed to uh sing some karaoke at the end is that good for you mate yeah yeah if you guys uh like Shia Twain uh I can do that for you no we will I won't do that to you but how how are you doing anyway how's your week been so far yeah it's really good uh I still live in Saskatchewan Canada so that's where I am right now and and uh we got about a foot of snow this week and uh yes it's been a lot of fun here at home and uh yeah it's good man awesome it's funny so you got about a foot of snow we had probably like two millimeters of snow in England over the last couple of days and everything seems to shut down everyone is panicking I I was supposed to take my Lads to to their soccer practice tonight and uh that was called off so I I don't know how you guys would cope uh if if it was like that where we are here it's um you kind of just get on with when the weather's bad in Canada don't you yeah yeah like where I live uh like in the middle of Canada for about a month a year typically it's in February where we have temperatures of minus 400 Celsius and below for the whole month if not longer and so and there'll be times where we'll have like two three feet of snow uh not necessarily on the roadways like pushed to the side but sometimes it does snow like that so um it happens all time time and our world can't shut down otherwise we' be shut down for four or five months so uh it doesn't matter how cold it gets it doesn't matter how much snow there is life carries on as normal and the kids still go to school unlike here there no getting out of it that's that's great no it's um so what what was it like growing up in in saskat am I pronouncing that correctly before I carry on is is that the right way of saying it yeah yeah impressively you're doing really well most people can't do it and actually this that's the province the city I'm from is H called sasat tun what's a mouthful I'm from I'm from saskat tun saskat okay awesome so what was it like growing up there have you always been there have you have you moved around at all uh yeah so I grew up here and I went to University here and I did have moving away but growing up here uh you know it's the Flatlands it's the Prairies here and um yeah so it's big agriculture uh lots of mining lots of oil and gas where I'm from and yeah so we just we grew and I grew up in small towns like towns of like a thousand people or less um you know even like our The Province I live in in total we have just over a million people my city and we call this a big city here it's funny talking to you about it but my city has 300,000 people like um when it takes more than 15 minutes to get from one side of the city to the other you're like why is this taking so long uh so it's a little bit different here um but yeah it's uh but I love it Canada's a really cool country really beautiful country and uh I moved away for a little bit into the Rockies of Canada um I love the snow Sports also another beautiful place but um yeah like I love many parts of the world but I do love Canada it's on my bucket list Ricky absolutely to come over and just experience something different and um I I was doing a bit of research on Saskatchewan and understand it's an area where extreme weather like you mentioned the snow but you know with with' kind of stuff like tornadoes as well and I'm sure I because I'm always watching these tornado videos on YouTube and what not and uh I'm sure Saskatoon has come up quite a few time with some you know enormous kind of Storms and is that kind of how you got into it with with that kind of environment that you were growing up in no no um that is a great question a common question I get um because we sason where I live we're at the northern tip of Tornado Alley uh like it runs all the way through Central the United States so it starts off in Texas at the bottom of the United States all the way up into uh Canada so hitting some provinces it's called Alberta saskat Manitoba here so I'm at the very Northern tip and we do get tornadoes around here we'll get a few uh you know about five or 10 a year and uh like last year for example last year the biggest tornado to happen uh in North America happened about four four hours away from my doorstep here in Canada and it was it was just over 600 meters wide and it was uh it was about 8,000 feet tall a really really massive giant so we do get them once in a while and we get we get incredible storms and so I grew up seeing these storms um but that's not what got me into it I've always I've always loved it um but what got me into it was you know having a conversation much like this one day with somebody and we're talking about different adventures and then somebody uh I was 25 years old and some the guy I was talking to he's like uh he's like well if you like doing that he's like you should try storm chasing I was like what are you what are you talking about he's like tornadoes and I was like I've seen the movie twist I was like people don't do that I don't know why I just thought like I just thought it was impossible it's like it's like telling me that you hunt aliens for a living uh or like not sorry not hunt but like go searching for aliens for just it doesn't seem real and uh yeah so sorry this is getting long-winded but I I wasn't into it as a child it was something that got introduced to me uh as IIM and Adam no no it's never longwinded it's always interesting to know kind of how people got into to what doing and this is extremely unique you know in terms of an occupation to get into was that a a conversation over a beer or two in a bar was it just a a friend at the time that you were speaking to yeah no it was a conversation uh at a bar it was a friend of a friend and I've always been into Adventures um uh I the adrenaline Adventures so skydiving dirt biking things like that and uh yes that's what was happening is I was talking about a recent Venture I was on and that's when the guy's like wow he's trying one up me and he did he's like if you like that he's like you got to try storm chasing and he was a stormchaser and so this is back in 2012 and I was like like in 2012 uh like social media is huge now but like Instagram didn't exist in 2012 or or it had just started and like Facebook still wasn't that big so like you weren't seeing this stuff wasn't at your fingertips quite like it is now and so uh yeah I had no idea uh that people storm chased and he showed me a video on his phone it was a grainy video because it's an old it like iPhone phone one or something and uh yeah mean he showed me a tornado video and he was beside it and I was like holy [ __ ] I need to do this and uh yeah it was it was winter time and I convinced him uh to take me out for a week and so uh it was April uh of 2012 that we went down storm chasing uh so we went down to the heart of Tornado Alley like Oklahoma Kansas Nebraska and um yes we're down there for a week and the whole week goes by and we don't see anything and that's that happens storm chasing and you you don't see that too much in my social media I'm not going to tell you how much storm chasing sucks it is it can be it can be really tough like no matter how good of a forecaster you are sto you can miss storms BS we're there for a week six days go by we don't see anything I'm like this uh this sucks uh and same the last day comes up I'll never forget s the last day and uh we were storm chasing that afternoon but we had to head home that evening we drive all the way home uh throughout the night and uh I was like this is too bad uh like if I don't catch anything there's a good chance I'm not coming back and uh yeah sure enough that day uh a bunch of storms popped off and uh for that trip I was driving because I I didn't know to forecast I wasn't very good at the camera at the time so they put me in the driver's seat and I'll never forget that we're going through this a massive wall of hail so it's just a white blanket in front of you and this golf ball siiz hail and it comes down it's hammering the truck and when you get lots of them the truck starts to weigh down and bounce a little bit and it's getting like you're swerving and uh the like windshield starting to crack a little bit so my nerves and adrenaline are already going then as the like the veil starts to part like as the hail curtains start to open we get on the other side and I can see this massive uh massive massive tornado like I can see a right side and a left side to this big spinning object that looks like a massive Dr bit just going into the ground and I could see it digging into this field and uh it was over a mile wide uh like I found out later was an ef4 tornadoes on a scale of zero to five and so it's an ef4 so this is a massive massive tornado and uh yeah so This Tornado it went on for just over three and a half hours which is unheard of like most tornadoes like go after or 10 to 20 minutes typically um so this goes on for over three and a half hours and for the majority of it we got to drive right beside it uh it's just the way the road networks worked out because usually the tornado goes one way the roads go the other and you got to it's kind of tough to keep up with it but this like we were able to parallel nearly the whole time like there was one point where it felt like we were 200 feet away from it just driving beside this massive tornado I was it was like tearing up forest and everything beside us and uh yeah it was I was terrified that's for certain I was like uh and but it was it was all these different feelings all at once it was terrifying but it was it had like this powerful like Majestic Beauty to it um it had this like a this feeling of as if you are seeing like an alien from outer space she like holy smokes like they are real like I actually sorry usually what I say is it feels like you know as a little kid you look under the bed because there might be a boogeyman it's like you look under the bed and you're like holy smokes this is real and um yeah it's it's absolutely terrifying tornadoes terrified me then they still terrify me now uh but I think that's part of the that's part of the PLL for for me is um getting to be there and witness uh like this giant coming to life like you feel so small beside it and it's just incredible that you get to sit there and uh watch it and be a part of it that's amazing I don't think you know in UK and places all that we can kind of comprehend the kind of sheer magnitude of something that you know like I said if we have an inch of snow you know the whole country shuts down and I I just cannot imagine something of that scale you know being you know where we are and and just just seeing it in allwe you know it would just be incredible I've always wanted to go storm chasing and you know you mentioned kind of [ __ ] your parents slightly and being really nervous I I think I'd be exactly the same you know I you watch the the the kind of hail storms come down and you know the size of golf balls are even bigger it's um it's crazy that I mean that must be a huge risk in itself you know it's battering the van what I mean what happens when people get call in it surely how many cars or or trunks have your total just from that that sort of damage yeah that's that's a really good question uh we do come across huge hail golf ball baseball size hail in fact quick side note the largest hail stone to ever fall in the world uh it got oneup last year in Argentina and it was over 13 in wide and Stone yeah um sorry back on track uh yeah when we're storm chasing um we uh so we're four trucks in now it's been 12 years and we've gone through four trucks and so the first one didn't have any protection on it uh but the next three including the one I have now is fully wrapped in uh bed box liner it's called Linx um it's what you it's what you put in the back of a truck pickup it's like black gritty stuff that helps to protect you from scraping the paint we have that wrapped all the way around the truck and extra thick so that if the tornado throws any debris at us like steel or wood and that hits us or if we're getting hit with like we can get hit with really big hail and it doesn't leave a mark um now our windshield and our Windows those do go and they do go often like a few times a year we have to replace those and it is terrifying um but other people though like when we're storm chasing and we'll see cars after the storm uh many many times a year I'll see cars parked work on the side of the highway and they're just all the windows are gone and because they're not stormchasers like people who just got into a bad situation and they are dented right up like it looks like the car got driven over by a monster truck it's it's wild what that hail can do that's incredible I mean is is the current vehicle you're going around is that Brutus that I I see on your your website the the big orange kind of famous truck that I saw on the ne Netflix series as well that's right yeah that's an awesome truck that I think that's the Envy of every every guy wants a pickup truck Brutus if you if you're not familiar with that check it out it's awesome um it's not quite in my price bracket or I don't think I could drive it on UK roads but uh I would absolutely love to have something like that yeah I mean I I originally got into this sort of thing you know when I was 9 10 years old when the original twister movie came out and like you say it was just like an alien thing I'd never heard or seen anything like that before I just I was just kind of overwhelmed by it and I thought this this is incredible and then more back then like you said we didn't have YouTube Facebook social media really cuz I'm an old bugger now I'm I'm 40 soon so uh you know we didn't grow up with with kind of those those things so we didn't get to see it um but then growing up and and having the social media L come out you start to see uh videos from like the likes of Reed Timmer and and other kind of early um kind of social media guys come out to to do document this and it's uh it's really incredible and with the the footage being as good as it is now you know it's just incredible isn't it yeah yeah it's uh it's come so far uh to the point that get the footage is getting so good that um it's becoming difficult with AI actually because AI is becoming so good that I'll get called out on my videos and I'll never post anything AI because if I ever were to do that and I I don't actually even know how to properly do that but if I ever did that then you would forever question me and all trust is gone and so I'll never do that but I get questioned all the time where people people say that and then other people will think that they like oh this is AI for sure because like we do have shots that look unreal but we've put in the time like every year I'm on the road for anywhere from between five to six months uh storm chasing every day looking for those moments and uh and that's how we get that footage um yes yes it is wild how far that camera technology has come um what used to be a $10,000 camera it now costs 500 bucks and and it flies kind of thing like it's it's wild what technology has done absolutely so what does a typical day look like for you Ricky I can imagine you're on the road for a long period of time like you say you know we we all see your videos and it's obviously cut down to kind of show the exciting parts and but like you said there going to be long hours or you know days where perhaps there's not a lot going on you kind of just trying to get into the right place presumably and lots of overnight stays to to kind of get to where where you need to be so what what would you say is a typical day or typical week when you are storm chasing yeah like a typical week if we're having storms every day or every other day which is uh like um like May is the highest uh the most concentrated point of the season so like May is high time and so if you were to join us for a week in May uh we're gonna be chasing every day that's for sure not every day we'll produce a tornado but every day we'll have a storms so we might have uh we might have tornadoes we might have really cool lightning storms we might get some uh really cool Cloud structures would then that's kind of hard to describe like if you have a look on my social media or anywhere online if you look up like motherships or things like that you're going to see these amazing storm structures where like the clouds are spinning and they're like glowing the blacks and the blues and the greens so uh those kind of storms that will will seek out they're all they're all related but it's just storms will produce different effects depending on what happen happens um as they're growing so every day we're storm chasing uh but a typical day is that um if we get to sleep in a hotel uh odds are will'll be up about 6:00 7 am. and we'll uh we'll meet outside grab a coffee and um we're and first we have to get we have to unplug all of our cameras because all our cameras come inside uh one so they don't get stolen and two so they can charge up and so we get that all back into the truck we get everything hooked up we're ready for the day everything's put away and back in its place um lots of times and what I mean by that is lots of times we're running three four guys in our truck and so if we have four guys in the truck and we're on the road for say a month on this uh on this run here that we all have our camera gear we all have our computers we all have clothing and so for four people to have that all in a truck it all has to be in the exact right spot um so we have very specific uh storage like solutions that we utilize because we can't have any in the truck when we're storm chasing because if it's uh if it turns to chaos and if it's chaos outside it's chaos inside then we're not not not GNA get the job done and uh and also we need to have everything in the right spot in the back because lots of times when you need that camera cable or if you need to change your shirt because you just got Mel over you whatever it is and it's pouring rain outside you need to know exactly where it is and where you're grabbing it you're not like digging through stuff and so first thing we do every morning it takes like a half an hour an hour is that we're repacking the we repack we repack repack and uh then we hit the road and uh well typically every day we'll have about anywhere from 3 to five hour drive to get in a position uh all storms hap most storms pardon me most storms happen in the afternoon some will happen in the morning the storms were after happen in the afternoon and they typically fire up about 2: to 4m in the time zone that we're in and uh so we'll drive uh anywhere from 3 to 5 hours in the morning we'll get into uh location we try to Center ourselves where we think the storms will be happening and then we start watching as the storms start popping up we Al like we'll look first on where uh the skies percolating you know we'll start to see some clouds bubbling up and then uh then we'll start to see storms blowing up and then we have to make a decision and it's a lot like surfing if uh if you ever watch if you ever surf or watch a surfing movie uh you know people wait they'll wait in the water and they a wave will come and they they have to make a choice are you going to take that wave or you going to wait for the next wave that's exactly and and either way there's a consequence to that decision because if you take that well then you're giving up the other one and that's the same thing with storms is that we have to make a decision like okay the way this grew the ingredients right now the timing the heating like we we we essentially it's like a math equation we're taking this all in consideration and using our intuition is this the storm or should we wait for the next one because uh wherever one storm can form another one can form and that usually does happen and so you got to make that decision and uh yeah so if we do decide to go we'll take off and we'll get up underneath it and then at that point uh we get into uh into game mode and so uh the driver is focused on driving and so keeping us safe um we have somebody forecasting and we have another person uh reading the maps and that's a constantly evolving thing and we all will pitch in and give our input uh but somebody has to be looking out the storm radar where's the storm where's the storm coming from where is it going is it growing is it it decreasing should we leave it should we go to the other one is there a hail how big is that hail and then the person uh and how can we Dodge that and move around and get into position and then the person in the back will be reading the maps and letting us know be like okay uh if we keep going straight we have left option that will take us for so many miles and so every time we pass a road we recalculate our next Road option that's just something we have to constantly be doing uh because it's such an important uh ingredient to storm chasing uh then most people don't get to see that but yes so this this constant chatter in the truck about just constantly strategizing rest strategizing rest strategizing and then Meanwhile we're trying to get footage uh video and photo footage because that's how we make an income we get we put that on social media we sell that to the media and we're also reporting on the storm so when that storm really does start to produce something that you can't see on raadar like on radar you could see that a Storm's a storm but you can't tell if there's a tornado on the ground and if we see a tornado on the ground or any remnants of that we're going to be calling it into local authorities the local uh government who cares and letting them know and uh and then we'll chase that and so ideally we we see a tornado and we get to drive beside it eventually hopefully we get to stop we get out and we'll take some footage of that take some footage of us in front of that storm do the different social media clips that we need and uh yeah if you're riding the truck everybody's super excited we're high-fiving we did it mission accomplished and eventually that tornado will dissipate and uh then we'll we'll stop we'll take about half an hour and uh whoever on the team is like selling footage to Media will take care of that other people will start posting on social media getting some quick raw Clips up and uh and then next we go into uh the mode of chasing the storm but now we're looking for like Cloud structure because the tornado's gone now you might you might see some cool formations uh you'll definitely get lightning and uh and so we want to capture that uh because we're there and uh that's part of our process we need that content and so that will take us right up until 10 11 12 pm so like we'll be out there till about midnight and then then what happens at midnight or at the end of that chase is now uh we have to make a decision on where the next storm is if the next storm is in the area that we're in like if tomorrow storms in the area that we're in uh well then it's uh easy peasy we get to book a hotel and near by it's probably about a half an hour away we get in there plug our cameras in dump our cards then we get to go to sleep and we wake up at 7: a.m. and do it all over again H but often what happens and this uh can hurt sometimes is that it's midnight you look at what tomorrow is and the storm is four states away and the only way you're going to make it is if you drive through the night and so then there's no question like we we wait all year for this we're driving through the night it's never uh we're never lazy about it because we don't have that um sorry we that's not an option and so working with a multi- uh person team that we just take turns each person drives for three or four hours and we'll drive through the night for 12 15 hours to get to the storm the next day in the afternoon and we'll chase that storm do it all over again and uh then just rinse and repeat that sounds like a hard job man honestly it's uh yeah it's like a military operation and it probably opens a lot of people's eyes in terms of how much work goes into perhaps just a small piece of footage for you guys and I I did wonder that cuz I thought you know there's always happenings behind the scene and you know when I was looking at your early footage you were you probably sat in the back of the car or you were operating the camera I see you more on on the radar and in the passenger seat these days is that where you feel most comfortable at now yeah um you know I still probably enjoy driving the most um one is just a sense of safety that it's uh up to you and that is when you're driving you always get to be looking outside so I like I do feel the driver gets to enjoy the storm chasing the most because just focus on driving and you also get to focus on the beauty of the storm uh because um I wouldn't do this if I didn't love it like while it does sound like a big work day it never feels like work like I'm never looking at the clock I'm never like this sucks like I can't wait to do it again and um so when uh when you're the driver you get to see the storms and when you're whether you're forecasting or you're reading the math whatever it is um lots of times you have your head down and you're like you're constantly like you spend more time looking down than you do up which uh is unfortunate but just how it is and and then when you do look up oftentimes you're getting you're uh you're grabbing a camera uh to get a photo to get a video and so um yeah you know there's sometimes and I'm sure there's some people listening that can relate like um you might go to your kids's Christmas concert or you might go to an actual uh live music concert and there's just some people that will have their phone up the whole time and they didn't actually enjoy it until they watch it later uh which is unfortunate and that happens storm chising sometimes like um and in fact that's like uh with my wife we keeping uh constant communication when I'm getting into some big storms and um it is risky what we do and so my wife and I stay in touch just in case things go south uh but something she always reminds me of is I'll get so um focused and and so into work mode and um that I just want to I want to get the footage I I want to make sure everything goes perfect that I forget to enjoy it and it'll all be over and I'll be like man like I I can't even actually remember what it looks like I have to look at the footage and uh my wife will text me like during that moment actually because we're live streaming and she could see how I'm act like if I'm like from being too serious and she'll be like uh when you get a chance she like you got to stop and enjoy it she's like you do this because you love it you need to remember that and just take it all in and uh yeah it's something I forget every time but no that's amazing that she's so supportive of what you're do because I can imagine she she could be scared to death with some of the storms that you're chasing and you know like you say it's the driving aspect too because I'm watching a lot of these videos and it's like zero you know visibility you know got stuff being lobbed at you the wind screen and uh I just don't know how you can drive through those conditions it must be you know really difficult but I suppose a lot of them are they rural roads that you're driving down in the middle of nowhere or are they builtup areas um the storms do happen everywhere but the storms that uh we typically go after are in rural areas and so um you're driving lots of like grid gravel roads and uh most time there's nobody else uh out there and that's one of the reason why we have such an obnoxious truck uh is that it has it has big tires like we have 37 inch tires like the tires like come up to my waist and um it's a big diesel truck uh because those moments like those gravel roads will get washed out or sometimes we'll come across and they will be flooded um or we have to hit the ditch and this truck can get us through that and um because if we didn't have that we would have to resort to more highway driving and uh one you have more public out there and two is there's lots of other Chasers uh something you often don't quite see on uh footage um is what we call Chaser convergence uh it's wild like up in Canada it's it's rare for me to see another stormchaser it's usually just me and my friends out there uh but down in the states like especially like in Oklahoma Kansas Nebraska there are times that like on a Saturday where I have seen thousands of cars thousands of stormchasers uh especially when Twisters came out this year uh it was like the week after it was wild it just like um and so now uh in the last few years it's it's not the tornadoes that are are dangerous storm chasing it's the car accidents uh because people are they're doing the job I explained to you about how we have multiple people there are people out there doing this as a one person show and that's dangerous yeah yeah they're looking at their Maps looking at forecasting while they're driving like a little bit too fast and I'm not I'm not poking uh fingers about that like we all drive a little bit too fast sometimes but uh it's that distraction that is really dangerous like somebody some and another sorry the distracted driving but also people being distracted when they're on the road this often happens is that people be storm chasing they'll step out they'll park on the side of the road they step out of their car and they're looking at the sky and in Wonder because it is amazing but they're not thinking about the car that's distracted coming down the highway and though we hear stories like that every year that one distracted stormchaser hit another stormchaser who just wasn't paying attention on the highway and um yeah Sor man again I I go off on the side apologize but yeah no no not not at all it's all interesting stuff Ricky it's um I mean you've answered one of my questions in fact because I was really interested to know what it was like out on the roads with like you said with the technology that we have at our disposal now the the movies the the access to YouTube everyone probably thinks they're a stormchaser they've got their phone they've got their car and they just going to go out there so that must be I say incredibly frustrating but incredibly dangerous at times where people just don't know what they're doing they don't have the experience that you know and and causing a backup of traffic at times that you say in more more you know prevalent areas like Oklahoma so um you know that's that's a real interesting Insight um so talk to us about uh tornadoes Hunters because that that's how you came to be on my kind of radar and I I love the series anything like that and it was it was something it was a new you know series for me to watch I binge watched it probably in a in a couple of days on on Netflix at the time you just seem like a really good group of lads you know having a laugh but you know following you your passion and doing what you love and you know how did that series come about so that was um we got approach for that my second year in the storm chasing and uh that was never our goal and so what happened was um since you watched the series the person who got me into storm chasing was Greg and so that's where I met and we had the talk and he convinced me to come out and so uh and in case if you're listening you haven't seen the show Greg Johnson is one of the characters in tornado hun and um yeah so um how 2 H came about is it was 2013 so my second year of storm chasing um we're all doing the same thing we're all working at home and then uh in our spare time we're going storm chasing storm chasing was a hobby at this point and um it was 2013 was May 31st uh it it's a day of a uh the aleno tornado and if you're if you're into storm tasing all you might recognize that aleno Oklahoma it's the uh largest tornado ever happened world's largest tornado it was over 4 kilometers wide over 2.6 miles wide on the ground and um many of us storm chases were there and we were there as well and we got caught on the edge of it and we had footage of being inside this tornado and like things were getting ripped apart hay bals were flying around above us uh there's tractors flying around above us it was just a fluke that we didn't go up um we were just lucky and we were inside for about 40 5 seconds I felt like forever uh but we have footage of that and um so that being the world's largest Tado ever happen uh it made the news all around the world like storm chasing like tornadoes will make the news once in a while but this being the world's largest tornado it made the news around the world and our footage with some of the top footage being shown because we were inside of it and we made it out to tell the story and uh a production company in Toronto Canada a production company in Toronto they saw this and uh two weeks later they reached out and like hey we saw this video we're thinking about making a storm chasing show do you guys want to be in it and we're like yeah 100% yeah and so they're like okay like we we need to start filming in two weeks and it was uh I was supposed to be back at work I was working in the mines here and um yeah I was like I was 25 years old I uh I didn't like I didn't have a mortgage I didn't have a girlfriend I didn't have anything else like 100% I'm doing this and so I immediately called and quit my job and uh yeah we started filming two weeks later and uh it was it was a ton of fun we filmed for two years uh torado hunters and um got some incredible footage and yeah had a lot of fun and it was it was such a neat experience um it was a neat experience getting to be a part of something bigger than yourself and what I mean by that is you know when we're out there capturing footage I take like I might take a video on my cell phone or or on my on my camera and I edit that and it's just me and my crew but getting to work with that like we had a uh work on that show like we had a whole film crew following us and U creating a storyline capturing footage editing that footage and what came out um it was magical it just I'm sure anybody being part of a TV show would say that like it's it's pretty neat what you can do as a big group versus what you can do by yourself is what I'm getting at yeah definitely and uh so that that was Greg John and Chris chitic wasn't it that you were working with on on that show do do you still see those guys at all do you still work with them I don't no no um yeah to tell you the truth just relationships fell apart over the years is that the reason while there was no series two uh no no um the reason was so what I heard uh it was it was never clearly told to any of us um because as far as I understand it was uh one or two things or both is one it was a really expensive show to film uh like most reality shows can be done in three to four weeks or even shorter because you can uh you can stage things like okay whe whatever it is um whether it's gold mining whatever like you can say okay tomorrow we're gonna do this and we're gonna do this from this time to this time um where with storm chasing we had a film we had a we had a film crew for just over two months so we were double the budget a regular reality show and so we had to bring in the ad dollars uh through the commercials to make it worthwhile and I think that's really what it boiled down to um they also said it struggled with ratings a little bit but um I'm not sure about that but I do know the costs um and it was just impossible to avoid that because storm chasing um what and this is an interesting thing with storm chasing whether you're filming a show or not you have to treat every day as if it's the biggest day of your life otherwise you might screw up and because because you have no every day you have no idea if you are about to get the best footage you've ever got you have no idea if you are about to encounter the next world's largest tornado and so when it you need and if if that's gon to happen you need to be uh prepared you need to have your cameras prepared and you need to be filming throughout the whole day because you have to tell that story you have to tell that journey and so filming the show it got really tiring actually like uh for over two months every day we had to like um from the time we got up to the time we went to bed we had to like go through all the Motions of telling the story like okay like today where this could happen and you know nerves are high and uh and the first few times you do that you're like it's it's cool you get to be on camera but like once you've done that like 60 times in a row and like the 10 last times didn't work out like you just keep doing the same thing and then the afternoon if the afternoon doesn't work out well you got to restart uh so so what I'm getting at is we're using the re their resour hes and like everybody's charging full dollar all the film crew and everything and they have to work hard every day but we only produce some of those days and so it's just not a feasible business model in that regard no that's fair enough and I was gutted when there was no series too because I enjoyed the first series so much it's really well produced I encourage anyone who's interested in storm chasing to to to watch it it's funny you know I think it's funny watching you guys go around you have a good laugh and uh you know you get to see a lot of kind of beyond the scenes in terms of what you're up to so that's f fantastic um so you mentioned El Reno I I was watching a lot of YouTube videos again I'm just obsessed with that storm because it it was so unique like you say it was 2.6 miles in arcan of metrics here um it was the fastest recorded wind speed on history I believe Earth history and uh sadly you know I think there was eight people died that day including the twistex team and I think this was the one storm that actually well there were fatalities with storm chases and I think that is this the one saw that that occurred uh so not the only time uh to tell you the truth there's been many other times since then um unfortunately just because there's more and more stormchasers uh and therefore you're gonna have more and more accidents um but it was this the first time like that's how they say that it was the first time that stormchasers had passed away and um and it was also what was important is who it was team twist Stacks like um so Tim samaris and his son Paul samaris and uh their partner car Carl Young they were a crew that was on the original stormchasers that was on Discovery for five years and uh they were some of the most well-respected stormchasers in the industry like Tim samaris was the Wayne Gretzky of the storm chasing world like we all looked up to him when he came around he got the most respect um like he was uh The Godfather of it and um so it wasn't there was um there's impact in that that it wasn't just uh uh the storm Chas passway but like the the like the allstars and so that's what really hit and um and that yeah that's a large portion why I made the news and it was a really sad day and uh it really yeah it really sucked to lose them yeah absolutely it's it's really sad I mean what what kind of made it so unique because I was watching the footage again earlier today and it was kind of like didn't go in a usual or predicted Direction and it just grew so big so fast that I think it just caught a lot of people off guard um and is that your experience of of the day I mean talk to me about your personal experience of of that particular day yeah so we were just on um the south side of it when it began because it was on the ground for quite a while and but that's where we encountered it and so uh it came down and uh so dropped down as like one cone uh tornado and then another one uh another vortices came out of the sky and gained into that and then grew into a bigger cone tornado in the fields right in front of us and um it was moving fast and it was getting close and we were all in the truck except for Greg Greg was still on the tree line shooting and you could uh they show in the show uh that he was still on the fence line and um it's it's not quite clear in the show but we're all yelling at it that we want to go like uh something doesn't feel right uh this is moving too fast it's coming towards us um typically storms um will move uh either North or east or northeastly fashion and so sometimes they do move South but typically they go that direction so when a when a tornado does hit the ground we'll park essentially what we feel is behind it and uh and hopefully it does follow that direction and then we can uh we can tail right behind it is essentially the safest way to go about it and so we were south of it it looked like it was traveling right for us uh and it did go south a little bit but what really happened is it started to grow so quickly that it felt like it was moving south but it was moving south north west east all at the same time because it was growing so fast um but yeah so anyways um Greg wasn't getting in the truck we're yelling at him Greg finally gets in the truck and uh we're driving away down our exit and we always have an exit in mind and we're D so we're driving South as quickly as possible down this grid Road and uh and I'm driving in this situation and uh we can see this wall of the storm it looks like a big rain wall beside us but that seems really odd uh for where we are there shouldn't be rain for where we are in the storm and uh but it's just one big gray wall beside us and then somebody in the back I think it was chit Chris Chik he yells uh uh that the whole thing is a tornado and I was like no way and I look over and I could see debris like there was trees in it and it was ripping sideways past us down the truck like the the whole thing the whole wall was moving sideways and uh yeah you know like um what went through my head is that it went from uh storm chasing went from being exciting to uh to thinking like this might be it like we might we might die like this thing is about to hit us and we are not getting away fast enough and uh and we were terrified I was terrified and uh because up until this point we had a really good track record like together we caught just under 100 tornadoes we had done it really clean we felt uh the truth is um there's a feeling of invincibility just because we had such good success up until that point and um yeah so this this tornadoes coming up to us and it starts to hit um a couple uh Farms beside us so some barns start getting torn apart some homes start getting torn apart now we know there's nobody in there because we had gotone in uh and made sure that they had the warnings earlier because we were out there for like an hour and a half before that all happened and um we're driving past and uh the roof gets ripped off one house and that goes flying past us and there's like some tin uh getting torn up and that's coming at us and then I start see a tractor like in my peripheral I see a tractor like rolling in the field and I was like smokes like if the winds are that strong our truck is going to get rolled next and uh immediately without looking at the titch and gr granted I wouldn't have changed my mind but immediately I throw us into the ditch and uh so being around storm chasing that we know this that um if you're in a vehicle and you're ever near high winds or tornado if you're up on the highway the winds can get underneath you and either roll you or pick you up all together because the winds will like um can like hit into the ditch and they'll come up and they'll hook right into you and where if you get down to the ditch the winds will actually skirt over top of you and potentially even work in the opposite manner aerodynamically pushing you down and so I immediately put us in the ditch this ditch was not a normal ditch it was a a complete vshape and it was about eight nine feet deep and so when we went in there we kind of ramped into it which I I expect like a soft kind of u- shape right we kind of rammed into it and then just slammed and then we were like it felt like we were like on a water slide almost like we're bobbing back and forth and yeah it really hurt and it really hurt the truck too uh but we had no choice and so we're we're down in this ditch we're getting bounced around and I see hay bells flying around and uh I see farm machinery starting to go up like some implements like one was like a Bor I forget what this other one was um and then so we're going through and at this point um I can hear some windows cracking in the back um our ears have popped and and the and the reason why our ears popped is that the pressure changes inside a tornado uh so it takes because these tornadoes will be uh these tornadoes are in storms called supercells and these supercells are 40 50 70,000 feet tall a plane usually flies around 35 40,000 feet and so uh your ears pop in a plane that pressure is bought brought down to the ground our ears popped and that's when we knew we were inside this tornado and uh so ears are pop things are getting flown around and uh like I'm white knuckling the steering wheel and I was certain at this point um that this was it and I actually started to cry a little bit um that uh I wasn't ever going to get to see my loved ones again my parents um and in my head I was I was just thinking that this wasn't worth it uh like this was wasn't worth dying over and um yeah I was just so sad but I was like I'm uh but in my head I wasn't uh gonna go out not fighting so it's not like I was I so was like it was pedal to the metal I had no idea how fast we're going as fast as that truck would move and uh I was doing everything I could to get us out of there and uh I'm telling you this again like this is 45 seconds or less but it felt like an eternity and uh think I've I've read afterward words that you know when you get that kind of adrenaline pumping into you that it does slow reality down and it can feel like it slows time down so you can react better and and that's really what it felt like it felt like like I would it felt like 10 minutes and um we're going through all this the way it ended is that um as we're going through the ditch I see a piece of farmer shoing way off in the distance but it's up in the air and it's this big long grain farm truck and I can see it slowly rotating and uh I it wasn't the right time to think this but I was like holy smokes like this is like a scene right out of Twister like I've seen this in twister and uh yeah this two this far two D green farm truck was flying through the air and so I thought about the Twister and then I thought about like oh man if that truck is up in the air we're going next and this is gon to be awful and um yeah so that farm truck comes flying through the air it lands right in front of us in the ditch I uh I just reacted and I I grabbed the steering wheel and I ripped us back up onto the road we ramp up onto the road uh I don't know how how high we went probably a foot or two um but definitely hurt when we came down and uh drove like another 100 feet and we were out in the open and the sun was out and we were outside of the tornado the tornado had dodged South a little bit as it grew and then it started to go back uh Northeast and we had driven straight South out of it and yeah we we got out and I was so scared that I just kept driving uh for the next 10 15 minutes and the gu's like Ricky you can stop you can stop and I was like nope like I'm making absolutely sure that we are clear of this storm and uh yeah we finally pulled over and got out and you can look back and see this massive tornado was way off in the distance and uh it was yeah it was um I I still every time storm Chase uh I'm reminded of that um it's just that that has put a fear into me that I'll never Shake it's like you've experienced Armageddon and you've come out the other side that's that's just mental absolutely mental and yeah it's I mean how long did it take you After experiencing that to to kind of get back on the road were you back storm chasing pretty much immediately after or did you need to take some time out just to kind of bring yourself back together yeah like I uh I went home uh so that's May uh right right in the height of tornado season and uh we're filming too and uh I I told the guys I couldn't do it anymore and so I went home and uh that lasted three weeks um I'm really become really good friends with the producer of that show and we were good friends then and he uh yeah he had come over and he talked to me and we talked about how we could do things differently to mitigate that risk a bit better and and um like practices I still like we we changed our strategy after that and I still like have that new strategy now and um yeah so what I I was certain then though I was gonna quit uh but after having three weeks to to sit on it and chat with the fellas um I went back but we definitely uh we definitely started off timid uh you know like the a few weeks like we we screwed up quite a few times because we were when you're storm chasing there once in a while you got to take a a quick risk to get into a better position what I mean by that is there's a road uh that zigs for 100 feet and it's going to go through a thick part of the storm but then you'll be in a better position and um we always did that before but after getting bitten by the snake we're like no no no we're not taking that risk and then the storm moves on and we lose it and we're like okay well we just it's another day lost and um so yeah we definitely we definitely were timid and that um and that's gone um it was gone about the next year after that but um yeah like I said still uh especially when I get close enough to tornado to hear it uh which is when tornadoes on the ground that's our goal is that you are close enough to hear um that it takes me back to that moment right away like just the I've never been so scared yeah it sound like a freight train you know some people are saying you know when when you're hearing a tornado quite close it just sounds you know incredibly obviously loud but like a freight train is is coming coming through you almost yeah yeah yeah so a tornado uh if a tornado is just in a field on its own it'll sound like U like a jet engine like an airplane jet engine they go um once it starts to hit something whether it's trees or buildings then it starts to sound like a freight train like it takes on a bit more of a base to it if that makes sense uh because now it's a essentially it's a blender of all these Goods like hitting each other up in the air and that's really what you're hitting you're hearing because inside tornado it's not one smooth cycle it's it is a blender it's just it's winds going like even though they are kind of all moving in a circular motion uh there's lots of like um little Eddies and little circles happening within if that makes sense absolutely absolutely and um yeah I think anyone who's interested in this go check out the El Reno videos and particularly Ricky stuff it's just you know it's hard hard to imagine you know what what what you went through um I mean talking of Armageddon and my obsession of just watching these videos I don't know if you've ever seen the the CLM Schultz video um that that's got to be the closest um footage that I've seen posted on online so far I think it was Fairfield um I I I forget the State Illinois maybe um but it's a an older guy he's he's looking out of his window and in the distance you can see this quite big tornado and it's not moving and like I said when it's not moving it tends to be coming straight at you and um I I think with within a minute of watching the video the video is not very long but um it just descended into pure Darkness you can see it come over the house it hit his house it unfortunately killed his wife um but the the footage is is some of the most incredible thing I've ever seen have you seen that Ricky I haven't noticed Glenn Schultz uh CLM c l m Schultz yeah as an s c h u l z I think it's spelled um it's honestly it it's one of it's a short video um but it's absolutely worth watching to see something of that magnitude so close and it it had a tragic ending but wow what what a video that was holy crap you got up now it's mental isn't it that's gnarly yeah like um yeah it's it's wild like tornadoes they um the even when even when there they seem so like in the middle of an open field uh and that's in sory like as we're talking about this sometimes when I talk to people they're like uh they think stormchasers are after filming um a tornado hitting a populated Center and destroying lives that is that so tornadoes do hit populated areas but like um when that happens like our cameras go down and we go into search and rescue Mo we go into help mode we're not out there sensationalize um like we're out there to see tornadoes in the middle of an open field and when you see that it seems beautiful but like when you get that close like that video there when you get that close to a tornado which happened to us a few times it is terrifying like that is um I don't it feels like you're putting your face towards like a sawblade or uh like it just it all destruction is right there and it's so scary like that um that your life uh could be gone at any second yeah it's an Incredible video and I think the guy when they interviewed him after he just froze because he's looking out of his window and he just couldn't take his phone or his ey and probably didn't have time to move anyway regardless so you know it's just something worth checking out anyway let's move on slightly mate and um I was going through your Facebook this week and um I could see with the premiere of of Twisters that came out not too long ago particularly in the UK what was your involvement there did you it was the premier that you attended did you have any involvement in the movie at all no no I wish I really tried uh they had like a they a casting call out they said they were actually looking for real stormchasers with the uh with vehicle storm chasing vehicles and I put in an application um never heard anything from him but uh but we saw them filming Lots like when we were like they were down in Kansas area filming and we quite a few times uh two summers ago we would drive past them while they're filming um but the reason yeah it was a really cool experience so I got to go to the Twisters Premiere in Los Angeles um and like I'm saying this as if it uh as if it's all cool but to me it was like I'm I was a little kid at Christmas like uh never ever did I ever think I was gonna be on a red carpet in La for the movie Twisters uh it was just super super cool and what happened there um was GoPro reached out GoPro uh was a big part of the Twisters movie if you watch it you'll see the rock they have GoPros in the windows there and stuff and so go reached out uh they wanted to bring uh a real stormchaser to the movie and uh yeah so I went there with GoPro and we did the the red carpet thing and got to meet the cast and uh and I'm like I'm also a big uh Cinema buff and so to to be in one of these old theaters and where other other premier's been happening for years and years and to be a part of that and to sit in the old seats and uh like the cast even came up and did like a little C and a before the movie started like it was just such a cool cool experience and I got to bring my wife and I'm that that was that was great because um once in a while I get these opportunities but unfortunately they're like well it's just you there's not room for two and uh so to be able to bring my and then then all I end up doing sorry when that happens all I end up doing is calling my wife after and telling her how it was versus this getting to bring her and experience it with her it just made it so much better and uh yeah it was super super cool man so you go got to earn some brownie points for a good long time with the wife then by taking her yeah that's awesome so from from a storm chaser's perspective and what did you think of the movie did you yeah it's just interesting to know kind of from your your perspective your thoughts on it because it's obviously Hollywood and you know and and you see it firsthand so do do you think it kind of act accurately depicts what actually happens obviously it's it's dramatized and and this and that and the other but uh what are your thoughts anyway yeah like uh um yeah like you said some things were a bit fictionalized but you have to for a movie but actually what I really did appreciate it about is how on point they were storm chasing um I found out afterwards they did consult with uh a few stormchasers and those guys did a great job working with them uh because they use a lot of proper slang and and the thought process and the things that are said inside the vehicle um within storm chasing that that was happening in the movie and it felt really true to the storm chasing world and what was really cool is actually the original twister movie it did it did so well and there was other storm chasing movies then and there have been since then but the original twister movie resonated because it was legit that's what it was like to storm Chase then and that's why people loved it uh there's been many storm chasing movies since like uh shark NATO kidding but like uh like Into the Storm uh or things like that where it's just it's over the top but it's too much and that's not legit but I really feel Twisters is uh is going to be if not already is is the Twisters is a twister of Our Generation if that makes sense because it is legitimate to how storm chasing is now like even things like um there's a part you s you've seen it I I saw it um a few weeks ago but on a on a small Telly in my bedroom so I need to actually spend some proper time on a big screen to kind of take it in cuz I I really loved the first uh movie all those years ago and I just wanted to yeah have have a proper watch so I will be watching it again this weekend yeah yeah it's uh it definitely worth on proper television turning turning the sound up uh yeah anyway yeah sorry I was to say that youve seen there like at one point they're all gathered at the gas station that happens every time we go storm chasing it's either it's usually a gas station or sometimes it's out on a gravel road that um we all kind of make the same forecast and then we end up in the same spot of where we're going to start um yeah and the the tornadoes you see in that movie do happen in real life and in fact the tornadoes that happen in real life actually end up being a lot bigger and a lot scarier um the things where it gets a little uh fiction a little quite a bit fictionalized is um when he's driving his truck uh right he's driving his truck right into a tornado 100% he would be picked up and that would be it um like a truck can't can't withstand that it'd be pretty rare like I know I just told you I just told you a story about how we drove through a tornado we were lucky and we were in a ditch and by him driving into one like that isn't gonna quite GNA work and um but putting down the spikes the drill bits like you know Reed Timmer has a dominator and they're they're driving it into tornadoes and they have spikes and so it was similar but that their tank is built aerodynamically this guy has an old Dodge uh or this guy sorry Glenn Powell has an old Dodge um so the some things is is like well it's not quite how it would work and but like the homage to aleno like aleno gets hit in the movie and um yeah it was just it was really cool uh and there's like homages to like the the original twister um yeah was a lot of tip of the hats wasn't there to to the original and to to certain things that only kind of Geeks like me would probably remember but uh no I I I thought you know from my kind of first glance of they I thought it was pretty good um so I'll do it uh justice and uh have another watch this weekend mate but what what else have you got going on in Ricky what what's kind of going on your world what any exciting projects coming up for you yeah so right now is uh our offseason um and so uh you know like High season for us is like uh six months so it's like March March April May June July August September and uh so then in the fall um I'm at home largely editing content um and getting that footage out putting it out on social media daily um finishing up sponsored contracts most of my income now is based off of sponsor work and so getting those photos and videos out some of it goes to social media some of it they use uh on their websites or email newsletters or things like that um that's part my contract that I get them that footage and uh and then it's getting ready for next year so working with sponsors for contracts getting uh ideas lined up uh right now we're going through actually about to pitch a show a new storm station show for next year and uh so working on that um yeah it feels like uh it feels like I have free time but like uh still putting in like 50 60 hours a week um making uh kind of closing off this season and getting ready for next season and uh yeah doing all that uh actually getting really excited for a big trip that my family is doing here at the end of December into January that we're going to head to Central America I have two kids and my wife and uh we're going to go go down there and do a little backpacking so um working extra hard one to pay for that and two so I can take off three or four weeks uh coming up here awesome I think you'll uh you'll deserve the break and uh some time of the family mate seeing see what you do and what you put up with throughout the year just to bring us some awesome content um look it's been awesome having you on Ricky I've really enjoyed this it's been a great great conversation um where can we find you I know you've got your your YouTube your Facebook your Instagram where's kind of the best place or is it just kind of spread out before you yeah you know I would say I put the most effort into Instagram I want to tell you that I put effort everywhere but uh the the Instagram content is uh I think is where I put most my passion into so yeah if you head to Instagram you look up Ricky Forbes I am on all platforms but you're can to find the best content there and uh yeah that's about it man awesome dude well um you promised us at the beginning of the show that you'll do a karaoke performance I can't remember what you wanted to do you could do some meatloaf Bonnie Tyler what do you want to do mate do you know Shai Twain oh Shai Twain that was it yeah it keeps with a country theme then doesn't it are you a good singer okay okay okay ready Cool all right here we go whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under that's only that's I don't the way you took off your hat just to do that that's uh getting look dude um I've enjoyed having you on thank you so much Ricky and to the grit the grind and the Revival thanks everyone for listening and thanks again to Ricky cheers all
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Spencer Hatcher
Spencer Hatcher - Virginia Bluegrass Country Star | “When She Calls Me Cowboy” | Honky Tonk Hideaway EP | Rugged Revival
Stone Country Records’ Spencer Hatcher is a bluegrass-influenced country artist who was raised on a farm in the heartland of Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. By the age of 11, he was already playing his five-string banjo in his family’s bluegrass band. In 2020, Hatcher formed his own country band, backed by younger brother Connor Hatcher, a bass prodigy and “blood harmony” supporting vocalist. Dubbed the “String King” by his hometown newspaper and quickly developing a reputation across Virginia and neighboring states as an exciting live performer, Hatcher played more than 150 shows a year in both 2023 and 2024, often setting venue attendance records. He has also built a strong online fan base, including more than 900,000 social media followers. Hatcher’s debut EP, Honky Tonk Hideaway—a good-time destination for music fans who prefer their country served stone cold—is available now. The EP features Hatcher’s debut single, “When She Calls Me Cowboy,” which was a Top 10 Most Added Song at U.S. Country Radio (Mediabase) out-of-the-box. Saving Country Music has lauded the young old-fashioned gentleman as “one of the most promising up-and-coming voices in traditional country music.”
Miller Carter
Miller Carter - Travelling Texas Barber | Western Style, Faith & Culture | Rugged Revival
Meet Miller Carter, a barber based in San Angelo, Texas, working both stationary and on the road. He specialises in men’s western and contemporary styles, serving everyone from bands and bikers to hardworking individuals who value authenticity, craftsmanship, and character.Miller believes barbering is more than a service - it's a reflection of integrity. He approaches his work with a commitment to honouring the Lord through the way he lives, works, and treats people, whether that’s behind the chair or in a good pair of boots.In addition to his work as a barber and men’s stylist, Miller is an ambassador for Brasstacks Provisions out of Oklahoma City and Out Yonder, a Dallas-based lifestyle brand that aligns with his values and the culture he represents.He genuinely loves what he does and the people he gets to engage with. Thank you for taking the time to listen in - be sure you check him out!