Evel Knievel inspired millions of us with his courage and perseverance. We're building a museum so you can relive those memories and be reinvigorated with that spirit of bravery. My name is Evel Knievel. I'm a professional daredevil. Along the way, we meet people involved in the life, the times, and the legacy of the King of Daredevils. Here with their stories is your host, Joe Friday. Hey again, happy to see you We are joined today by Lathan McKay and John Bagley, both of whom have been on an excellent adventures around the world. And, especially wanted to talk to both of them about the Snake River Canyon. First, I'd like to thank our previous guest, Krysten Knievel and Kelly Knievel and Greg Duray, who hid away the Knievel bike that cleared the Caesars Palace fountains for, more than a decade, So we got to unveil that last time. If you missed it, it, go ahead and look that one up. up. up Check it out. Meantime, enjoy our conversation today with Lathan McKay and John Bagley. Lathan, Snake River Canyon. Was it everything you wanted it to be? Yeah, it was extra special for me because 95 percent of it actually went smoothly. And with events like that, there's usually things that trip you up, but I mean, everybody was happy. It was like, most events have a lot of hiccups in there. I didn't see too many. Did you, John? Except for a couple water bottles thrown. Yeah yeah, well, first and foremost, thank you very much for having me on the show. Great to be here. And, yeah, as Lathan was saying, we weren't sure what to expect when we got there because it was, a fight actually for the last year since I've been in touch with Lathan and acquiring the vehicles and doing this build up to the return to the canyon. And so it was a lot of goofy things, you know, permits and insurances. Everything you think was going to happen, pretty much, like Lathan said, it went very smoothly. I mean, there was maybe one or two instances where, you know, things happened or somebody's trying to get up on the mound when you're filming or something like that, but it went really well. I mean, I couldn't have asked for a better weekend , even the day when we ran the podcast up there. It was very hot the first day. The second day, somehow, whether Evel blessed us from down below, up above, or wherever you want to say it, but he gave us a breeze, so we didn't totally die out there, so it was alright. So, it was a great weekend. John Yeah, got to really, really thank Wendy and Eloise from Parks and Recreation. I've worked with them before. They gave us the keys to the mound and just had our back. Thanks very much to the city of Twin Falls. Yes, thank you very much for that, that whole industry and for the mound, great people. Out of wendy's words, we try to keep the looky loos as limited as possible. Yeah, yes. But you can't help it, the curiosity is there when you see a SkyCycle on top of a giant three story mound. yeah, I like the comments that everybody didn't know if it was the real one or that, you know, I'm sure there's been a lot of stuff over the years and lasted two years, but when people are saying, they told me and Lathan that, I live right down the road and we saw this pulling in and we heard the rumor and, you know, we invited everybody to come and take a look. It was really moving, you know, growing up with this and actually living this moment now. What was the alternative? Was there some sort of charge to look at this? No. Not at all. I mean, we tried to keep it private for shooting purposes, production purposes on the mound, but they blocked off and locked the driving entrance, but the new trail that's behind the mound on the canyon rim is, can't really shut that down. And so there's a few people that seeped in yeah, Latha just kind of walked away, and I got some pretty good bulldogs on my team in there. Well, they take after me. I'm usually the most gentle giant, they always say. Until somebody gets me mad and I might throw a water bottle or something, you know, or five of them if they're in my way. but we were really happy to, after we were done filming, to let people go up and experience and take a couple pictures by the rocket. And so it was really great, you know, something that I would have loved on my end, if I would have been a fan watching it, to seem to get my chance there. It was great to give back to the community and the fan followers. The whole premise of bringing the skyCycle up there was a dream I've had for a long time, and we thanks to his crew, we did a practice run the day before, with a winch, and I was just like, Okay, the winch has big yellow strip of, you know, big tow line. It's very ugly, aesthetically for camera purposes, so we changed it around to where it was located there, then we did the procession with the family, and it was perfect. So I'm really pleased with, the outcome of that, too. Got our shots, the test. Yeah, we got some shots and yeah, I'm so happy that we did the day before trial run or, a pre production, because it was, ran into a lot of things we didn't know and of course, the pre production day was way hotter than the actual film day. So that worked out really well. Yeah. and the winch went about half a mile an hour. on a good hour. Yeah. And the second day we just pushed that sucker up to the top and it worked out good. so we started a year ago? the other If we really down to it, it was about two years ago and we had a good friend of ours, Thomas Estrada, was working with the Knievels, doing some artwork, and Thomas is a famous cartoonist, and we've known him for a while, great guy. And it ran across our table that we were talking about doing a documentary, on basically, talking Evel. What we wanted to do, and talk to Kelly about it, and the family, and as it went through, going back and forth with contracts in a couple of years and going through what we want to bring because there's been several documentaries. Lathan, of course, has done his own, a couple of them, and he's still working on some other new ones and there's been so many. So we just wanted to put our spin on it as me, as I was actually born in'74, so, but growing up with Evel and everything's going, you know, riding a dirt bike, putting your cape on, dirt mounds, plywood ramps, all that stuff. Yeah. Everybody wanted to be Evel. Everybody wanted to be the guy, I mean, the godfather. I mean, who wouldn't want to be it as a kid? I mean, I got scars over my body from that. So when a chance came across my table, I did everything in my power to land the deal and get it done and promise to Kelly and everybody what we would do. And of course, there's hiccups, as we all know. Lathan knows there's many hiccups and ups and downs of the road to get there. And I first heard about this and that the vehicles were sitting in another shop in Las Vegas. They just basically told me, they said, Hey, you know, the vehicles are over there. We want to film over in California in Van Nuys. I was just going to pick up the SkyCycle. And then when I went to the shop to see what was there, I saw the Formula One dragster sitting there just in a dusty showroom. And then of course, I guess we call it the jet bike. What is the actual name? What do you call the three wheel bike jet? The jet bike. It's a jet bike. Jet cycle. Either one. Yeah, Yeah, and that was the promo vehicle. The trike. Yeah. So, and that was another one where Evel used in there. So I saw three vehicles, so as soon as I saw them, Kelly's like, Ah, just have a truck pick them up and do whatever. I'm like, I don't think you understand, Kelly. Like, you grew up with this stuff. It was your dad. I'm now actually looking at the stuff. And so I flew out there with one of my assistants, and we actually loaded stuff up and I wanted to make sure that this was under duress care and, make sure it was all right. So I loaded up in a Ryder truck, and I hauled it from Las Vegas to Van Nuys, California, myself and recorded it all. And delivered the rocket, everything out to Van Nuys, and then, I believe it was about a month later, I went and picked up the dragster and everything. Then the ideas start flowing, and you start talking with everybody. Yeah, that dragster is one hell of a of a tow. Yeah. That thing's a monster. Did you restore any of these vehicles? Or were you taking them with the intent to, just display them or take them somewhere else? take them on tour? The tour actually didn't even start at this point yet. This was still, I believe it was in August of last year when we first did our first recording. August or September, I think it was. Well, I met, I met you guys we shot in december. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, December. Okay, so that was, so we had them out there and then the wheels started going and we started getting all the players in place, you know, Lathan was there and, Estrada and all these guys were out there and, so we scheduled it out there and next thing you know, we were just going back and forth about it and Kelly himself was still not sold on bringing it back. I told him, I said, this is what we need to do. We need to put it on tour. I'd like to promote it, go on tour with Autorama, with World of Wheels, go around the country here, through the Autorama circuit and just kind of promote everything we can do and film it, whatever we can do with it. And then it pretty much was sold on that. And there was still not a big definite plan yet, I guess you want to say, to go to the mound. Then the buildup started. The first show we did was Topeka, Kansas in January, I, believe it was. And it was a slow build, but people really started coming out. Once they found out it was going on and they found out where we were going to be at, people just, they came out in droves. How nice. I somehow missed it in Topeka, Kansas It was it was Kansas City. Or Kansas City, City right, yep, I'll correct that. You're right, it was Kansas city, yes. many Yeah, but when I met those guys, and they mentioned, Utah the first time, I was like, that's when we tried to bring the SkyCycle there. But it didn't make sense to do it all at that time. But I told him when I first met him, I said, you have, we have, to take the SkyCycle on top of that mound no matter what. And it happened. And that was the most, I mean, it's in Twin falls. That's the most significant, kind of. piece of history, it's full circle. I don't think I'll ever forget that conversation because it was, we were, we were out there and, we were having, I had one of my directors out there doing some filming and it wasn't going the best, I'll put it that way, because it was one of his first rodeos and I didn't really know what was going on. I was, again, a new owner of the company. I just handed this over, saying, okay, you do this because I'm not a film guy. And it was going through and I saw some, you know, disappointment, I'll put it that way, in some people's faces. I noticed Lathan sitting in a chair, sitting in a chair in a corner. I just, I didn't really get fully introduced to him and I went over and talked to him. We had a conversation that night in the Denny's, the hotel we were at had a Denny's attached to it, pretty cool place. And he was down there having a beer and I sat and talked to him. I said, I'm going to go talk to him and see what he says. We just started talking. He's like, whatever you do, I don't really care about this and this and this, but we have got to get this thing back to the mountain for the 50th. And I shook his hand. I said, whatever I do, I'll promise you I'll have it there. And that's what we did. the rest is history. We've been on the road together. We've been talking nonstop and just promotions or anything else. It's been really great. It's been life changing. Being a fan since I've been a kid, the last year of my life with getting these rockets and getting the vehicles and the people I've met, has been life changing. It's great. It puts a whole Yeah, I mean, it has been interesting for me to watch this because I did the same thing 10 years ago. But I was by myself with much much more items. And it was, it's a real struggle and you don't make a lot of money and it's just, but you got, You guys got a crash course in that school this last year, even with three items, you've got a crew of people. Everybody needs to have some dinner and somewhere to lay their head at night. you know? So It is a passion project first and foremost, To have the willpower to pull the trigger on something like that. But you guys did a great job. don't ever, want to do it again. And hats off to my amazing crew. You know, everybody that was part of it. One of my greatest team leaders he ran the merch show. He did everything and the kid was great. He did everything throughout the year and, the drive, you're driving trucks and trailers across the country and setting them up and getting shows set up on Wednesdays and working the weekend and tearing down on a Sunday and hitting the road and get all the way back to Wisconsin on the next show, you're driving 14 hours through the night. Still trying to have a family. You have got to get back to your family at some point. What's the worst part? Ah, boy. Boy, there's so many of them. Yeah. Yes. man. you guys I just was I was having flashbacks watching you guys unload and load. And I was like, I'll just, I mean, I helped as much as I could, but it is so much work People don't realize how much work it is, but I would have to say, I mean, hemorrhaging money for me was the biggest pitfall, but I was getting the word out and I will go over to you with that. that Yeah. And it was exactly just what he said, the money expenses, which we knew we kind of had to set aside to build a brand and what we're going to do and rebirth the name in 2024. It's the new audience, the younger kids that were coming out. So I think the struggles that would be there when you weren't setting up or the buildings weren't open and guys drove through the night or couldn't get into their hotels and guys are getting crabby or, you know, a truck breaks down, just any of that stuff. The exhaustion was really bad because there's some days where we didn't sleep for 24 to 36 hours. I would go out there and I'd be doing a podcast the next morning and everybody's like, oh man, you look like crap on TV, or on your podcast. I'm like, really? And I'm like, you move these vehicles around, you do whatever and see what you look like. But then the big payoff comes when I literally like the Friday mornings or the Saturday afternoon, I mean, even Saturday afternoons, it didn't really matter, but Friday mornings and throughout the World of Wheels, they had a thing where they give back to the kids, the high schools. And they would come in for the Friday morning before the show opened up at three o'clock. They would let all the high schoolers come in and a couple of them brought tears to my eyes because they said their dad couldn't be there or whatever. And I had a couple of high school kids come out, you know, 15, 16 year old guys, and they just came over. He said, do you have the StuntCycle, because we of course brought the toys that were for sale. Last you? A kid came in and he wanted to get a SkyCycle, and I told him about it. He was just, the story he gave me was so moving that his dad said he grew up with his stuff in the seventies and couldn't, he had it, but it was sold in a divorce. And just the whole story. And his kids said he was working on a farm. I mean, these are farm kids, you know, cowboy boots. They were dirty from feeding the horse night and day. And he said, man, I only got so much. I said, I don't want nothing for it. I don't want nothing for it. I said, take one for you and your dad. And, he was, it was great. Just the stories like that. Or the war heroes that, I believe it was, and correct me if I'm wrong on this Lathan, but I think 1975 is when the Formula One dragster came out. They premiered it at Kings Island, Ohio. At least that's what's on the internet, what I found. And we had a guy Yeah, That was kind of the premiere of it, for sure, Kings Island. We had on the vehicles "Do not touch," you know, because we didn't know how to take everybody. We didn't know if it was going to be chaos or not. So we didn't put any ropes around it. I thought it was much more appealing, and one on one, if you just let people come up and see the vehicle and maybe touch a tire or touch a rocket, you know what I mean? because it's only been seen in glass cases. So that really was moving to a lot of people. But I think one of the biggest ones is, it was a guy in a wheelchair, and he just said that, he wanted to know if he could touch the dragster, and I said, "Well sure, why not?" He went over there and after watching him for about ten minutes from my merch show, the guy had his hand on it. He had his head down for a while. This one might get me choked up a little bit, but I said,"Can I ask what's going on?" So he said he seen it in '75 when it was premiered at Kings Island. He said he and his brother were there. They came back from a tour. They were military guys. And he said that was when his brother was on leave. He said after he left there at Kings Island, he said that was the last time he saw his brother alive. Yeah, that's the same thing when I did those 10, 12 displays and exhibits. There's always at least two or three people with a great, amazing story like that. It's incredible, and then the connectivity that Evel Knievel has, the thread and the thread of connecting people and their passions and their childhood and revisiting that is incredible. And they always have a story. What's the number one story. we always say? We're always like, "I had that toy!" Yeah. The, it's the the numero uno, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, I -- they say the same thing verbatim, like they've got a script."Back when I was a kid, I had that thing, you know," so it's They do a little fishing reel action there. And then you're like, yeah, you did. I know you did because this is genuine. That was another big hit we did too. because Lathan actually, the first couple of shows we did I brought just a pile of toys. I had some, not the premium ones, but just so people could see in a little kind of old school, like, The toy was. so huge that it I think it affected every single person in that age group back in the seventies, you know, it had a lot of impact. How many steps did you have, Mr. Bagley? As far as the stops go, we had about 11 stops going back and forth with a full crew when we first started, like Lathan said we started out with a full crew because I wasn't sure what to expect. Our display was 30 feet deep by 80 feet wide with a podcast trailer. So it was, we had the biggest display. We're the number one display, which I felt honored. And I told this to Lathan also that Kelly didn't understand that at first. When we went into Autorama World of Wheels, this is a show for car builders and custom car builders. So he wanted us to hit motorcycle shows and I said, no, you'd be really surprised. Me as a car builder, racer and everything else that I did over the years, how much impact Evel had on all of us and it was still there. And when we went to shows like Detroit Autorama, and they're just filled, you're talking 200, 000 people. If you looked on the websites, I was blown away that we were the number one feature to be there at all the shows right next to the Batmobile collection, which was amazing also, but they were all there to see Evel. It was great. I mean, they lined up from all over the place. It was amazing to see from the start of it to the end of it. And then when we were promoting every show. How many people said, we're going to see you at the next show. We're going to see you at the next one. And they really started following. It was great. There was some super fans that showed up all the way to the mound and we saw them there and every time they kept buying piles of merch, it was really funny. The turnout was was incredible. It was, it exceeded all of our expectations for sure. especially when we showed up to set up for the ride. ride. It was a sea of of people. It was incredible. How many people do you think total saw in those 11 shows? You said detroit was 200, 000 people? When we did the demographics of the show, Autorama World of Wheels, we always get the demographic of how many people go through and look at the attendance from the years prior. So you've got like Chicago, where they usually get about 150, 000 people go through there. Detroit gets over 200, 000. Milwaukee's 50 or 60. And so you start adding all these cities up. And the bigger ones to go through, and so I'm guessing offhand, probably three quarters of a million people saw this thing in 11 months. So we actually did a bigger tour with it, and as Lathan and I were saying, I actually put on a bigger tour of what Evel did with those vehicles that were only seen once in the seven, eight months that we had them, and he actually got to do with them. So it was great. I mean, the crowds weren't 60, 000 deep like they were when he premiered stuff, but the people were lined up to see everything and they just had to put their hand on it. Like I said, a lot of great stories on the road from people bringing us, of course, their merch and their memories we picked up some original tickets from the jump, from the Canyon Jump. A couple had an original t shirt, some posters. So there was a lot of neat stuff that people had. Uh And then it all culminates in Twin Falls, Idaho. That was quite an event. That was John Bagley and friends and a lot more events than just seeing the artifacts, right? Yeah, Yeah, I mean, I think that it was the super bowl of the stops on their tour. For me, it was at least because the skyCycle's going into the museum permanently with its twin SkyCycle early this next year. So it was a bittersweet moment. For For sure. And it's amazing that everybody showed up and got to see it and experience what it was like on September the 8th, 1974, somewhat. This went a little smoother. I think a lot less beer cans, cans, no fires. All the urinals were left upright. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. Everybody behaved. No national guard, no nothing. Yeah. it was it was pretty great. Are you surprised Twin Falls let this happen again? After what happened last time in 1974? Well, we filmed there, Joe, for your film, my film, our our film, and did very similar things, but we didn't have the SkyCycle that trip, but we treated the place with respect. I think they just knew that out of our last performance there. We were technically supposed to have 45 day approval for the helicopter, but they just said, "Hey, you guys left the place clean you did a really good job. Here's the key." So we're much more behaved than the '74 crowd. Yeah, being polite being respectful as we all know, and I mean, I've treated all my business this way, is you get, it goes a long way. It goes a long way, no matter who's on the phone, whether it's the janitor or the CEO. You get a lot more respect that way You were filming for the movie, is that right? Well, yeah, our movie. And museum content, whatever for everything. Our amazing friend, Corey Haynes, with his 1961 helicopter showed up again and kicked butt and took up as many people as he possibly A couple of them almost wet their pants, but yeah, we got to thank him again, man. I mean, he's just, you know, you try to pay the guy and he's like, nope, I love this. I love you guys. I'm all in. in. He is definitely getting mentioned in all of our socials, our medias and, I mean, on the movies and everything that we do. because it was huge just to be in there and circle the mound and just go around. And then of course, storm the mound or the jump. And it was awesome. It was great. You felt like you were there. What about that wheelie dragster? Does that fire up? Yeah, the dragster still runs and drives. Yes, it still runs and drives. There's some talks in the works right now about doing some other footage or filming with it, and what we're going to do with it during the next couple of months before we take it to the museum and find out what's going to happen there too. What do you think about a total restoration to make it look like it did at King's Island? Nope. I wouldn't. Yeah, we talked about this before. Lathan doesn't want to do it. It's not to me, I just think it looks good the way it is. It's got the original paint. I'm opposed to replacing original paint. Once you start restoring something, you have to finish, you have to do everything basically. But I think the paint job looks cool the way it is. I agree with that, that is one vehicle that is really cool the way it sits because it's got, there's nothing that's fully faded off. It says Evel on every side. It's got the mural on each side of the dragster on the parachute where the back end was with the motorcycle. Largely, it's still there, the message of it in the artwork. It was definitely not like Big Red Parts of Big red, you could barely make out what was there because it had been sanded and abused in Florida for so long by the weather. Yeah. And, this one too, even with the Formula One, I think it's, And Joe, my shop here is that I find and survive original barn find cars here. When we have some of the original painted, patina, I guess they call it, they came up with that years ago. This thing is pretty epic the way it is with the original Anson slots and everything on it. They did some stuff to the motor back in the day. But the chassis was repainted years back. But it's just very cool the way it is. To even hear it so it's pretty neat. So I'd like to relive those moments again, too. Maybe before we get them all in the museum I'd like to see a parade of the vehicles go in or something like that. Something really cool. I'm sure I know Lathan's got something in the back of his mind. I'm sure that we haven't even heard yet. So let's just try and dream it up. Well, it's the big parade on the Vegas Strip. So we get to parade down the Strip? Tell us more! well, it's you wanna open a can of worms, but one of the endings of the film that we've been shooting, which is right now it's called The Evel Way, which hopefully is, what we call it, but we haven't been able to finish the movie because the finale of the film is the opening of the museum in Vegas. But, Big red is going to be shipped out. We're going to shoot all that. It's going to be really cool. But the final scene was basically, what it was in my head. I don't know if it's on everybody's mind, but Big Red leads a, it's the same premise. Big red leads a massive parade. If we can get the permits down the Strip, with you name it behind it. Whatever vehicles, Evel's truck, and then followers, cars, trucks, bikes, whatever you got. Even the AMF big wheel, if you want to ride that thing, you're going to be in the back, probably. But if we can pull that off, and then pull up in front of Caesars palace, park Big Red right in front of the fountains in the front entrance of the place, have the family come out and we all embrace and get back in the truck, we have a ceremony there, then go back to the new museum where everything's going to find its permanent home. What it's more ceremonial, right? It's kind of like what we, did with skyCycle. Yeah. I mean, if we just this would be, massive. And I think this needs to be done. I mean, we just, we pulled it off after 50 years bringing the cycle back and just did that. This has to be done. The vehicles need to be in front of Caesars Palace and before it goes to the final resting home in the museum. I'm right there with you. Whatever you need from me, you know I'll do it with you. Yeah, I think, I think with our team and you know, the people in vegas that we've developed great relationships with, anything's possible. If we can't pull it off, I'd be very surprised. Right. That's what the Evel Knievel way way I agree. What do you have dibs on, Lathan? For what? For the parade? What are you driving? I would like to ride in the truck. The big red truck or yes, Ford truck? Big red truck. Okay. Just like we did when we brought the truck back to Butte. Nobody thought that would happen. We made that happen thanks to everybody in Mack Trucks and 92 other people that restored it. Getting it done a day before we had to take off. But yeah, riding in Big Red in Butte and leading that parade was one of the highlights because it's kind of a payoff for hard work. And I think You know, the dressing room on Big Red? We can fit quite a few people in there. In his thank you letter that he wrote to Mack Truck when they donated or sponsored Evel knievel by giving him the Big Red truck, he said thank you so much for the big red truck. It looks just as nice as the red Maserati, but it holds 10 times the women. Yeah. That's a good quote. I forgot about that He said, compared to any other truck he's ever had, it's like, driving a Cadillac compared a lumber wagon pulled by horses. That's what he said. As long as we're doing this, we're putting our names in the hat. I'll think about it while you tell me, Mr. Bagley, what vehicle you'd like to ride from Caesars palace to the new museum location at 1001 South 1st Street in the Arts District? So what are you driving in the parade? Lathan already knows my take on this one. Evel was my favorite toy and I have a racing background, so the Formula One is all mine. The dragster is all mine so nobody gets to touch it. Even though it's one of Lathan's most favorite vehicles, I I don't think you'll have a long line people trying to get in front of you on that. I don't want to get in that death trap! I know you don't. I love that thing. And it's, I think it was great that when I brought it out that everybody's, a lot of people were like, even Kelly said, nobody cares about the dragster. Nobody cares. I said, I do. There's more people like me. Whatever you do, just don't run it into whatever's front of you, because that thing looks a little squirrely to me. In Viva Knievel was that being towed? It's not driven in Viva, no. The only time I've seen it driven was in Edmonton, Alberta. I've got eight millimeter of it on the track there. And King's Island, and I've got the photos of it being made. Those are the only two clips that I can think of. There may be three, where it's actually driven, back in the Seventies. Seventies. 70s. Yeah, I think you're correct on that, because I've dug so much on there and the last time it was actually on the street doing anything, that was 2013, so that was, we're talking 11 years ago now, so we fired it up at the shop here, and it still runs, and everything works on it, but obviously before we did anything like that, it would probably be, I don't know about being driven, but probably maybe behind like the Evel truck. Maybe tow barred and maybe fired up. I don't know about driving all the way down through a parade because it is a big block Chevy with open headers, so I don't know if it would be good for a parade running through there. Maybe we'll see about towing it behind something. You could jump the fountains with it. How about that? Don't, yeah. If you get a sponsor, I'll do it. Yeah. There's a deadly vehicle that Evel knievel owned that I don't think it's done until it kills somebody and that's the XJ 44. It's a jet engine on a jet engine on three wheels that leaks That thing is, That leaks rocket fuel. That thing is quite a frightening frightening device. I think, Lathan, when Truax was out there, he told me that he wants to fly out to my shop here and show, prove to everybody that he can get that bike running again, the jet bike. Yeah, that's the first, he said he can make it run. That's the first, thing he said to me was, is that thing here? And I said, they left it behind because there was no room this time, but room this time, but that'd be interesting though. be interesting though. I'm sure he could get it started. could get it started. that thing needs a little that thing needs a little TLC for sure. I have trouble pushing that thing out of your trailer. trailer. It's an, it's my gosh, it was Just Just the, the forks and the handlebars, you can barely you can barely turn the front wheel. It might be more dangerous than a wheelie car, actually, the dragster. Oh for sure, yeah. But we're in talks already. I want to fly him out to my shop here in Wisconsin and maybe get that thing running. I think Lathan will have a good time with that, seeing if that thing will run and go down the street. So I think it'll be pretty fun. Did you participate in the parade at twin Falls last weekend? Me? Yeah, both. Yeah, I I came up with the idea of, I called up my good friend Bill Rundle. I said, "Get the Ford truck out, the Gladiator." And he's like, "What are we doing now?" I said, "We're going to Snake River in a few months." And he's like, "Okay, I'll get her done." So we drove down there. We were right behind Kelly and Madison and et cetera, et cetera, but come to find out, It was pretty bumpy five hour drive on the way down to Twin Falls. And we had 22 There is a story here. We had 22 year old tires and one of them started to separate. So we spent one of the mornings getting a new set of tires on the truck so we could make it home. Because the guy at the store said, "Your tires are separating. That's not good." Billy's like, "Will we make it back to Butte?" The guy said, "Absolutely not. You will not make it home." So he gave us some promo tires for a little better price, but yeah. We drove five hours from Butte, Montana to Twin Falls on 22 year old tires. That were falling apart with a bike, with a bike in the back of the bed. with Evel's bike in the back. Oh, which bike? Yeah, what bike? Well, my least favorite. probably everybody's least favorite. The California Customs. What do you call that thing? Yeah, California Motorcycle company. It just, They just weren't put together very well, let's say, and they broke down a lot. I rode it once. I rode it one time about 10 years ago and it broke down and I made it about a block. What What did you do at the parade, Mr. Bagley? Hang out, hand out, candy? or did you drive, ride? Well, what happens the day of the parade is we go back to the mound in the morning at 6 a. m. went for a 5 a. m. hike. went, got our trailers, got downtown to Kota Brewing, unloaded all the vehicles and we thought we had plenty of time to unload vehicles, set up the merch trailer, get all the tents set up. That all had to be done Sunday morning with my crew. So they were all there. I knew I was going to run late, so I sent my crew to go film, Kyle Miller's jump that he was going to do, and then they went over to do the parade. What's Kyle Miller's jump? He has a home on the canyon. His private property is right in between the mound and the bridge. He has got, at the base, he's got a little landing spot. He does it all the time. So he was legally allowed to just push the button and jump his motorcycle and then release his bike and then parachute into the canyon. It DAAANNGGGG!!!! a Tom Cruise kind of move. Yeah, Exactly. I was just thinking the same thing when he did it. it existed before Tom Cruise, obviously, but Pastrana guys have been doing it for years but it was pretty cool. In the meantime, I was setting up vehicles. So many questions that were going on between the tents. I never made it to the parade at all. By the time we opened up our merch trailer, it was so unreal. We opened it up just to kind of get registers going and everything else with it. But I still have my sweats and my shirt on from my morning run and workout or whatever. I was wearing that till probably noon because as soon as the doors opened, The lines were 10 to 15 people deep for four or five hours for merch. It was crazy. We had three people slinging merch and posters and hats in that trailer. And it was crazy. It was a sight to be seen. It really was neat to see. So I was happy being there. And then when the bikes came in, it was unbelievable. To see Lathan and Billy Rundle come down with the Evel bike. I mean the Evel truck and they come down and Robbie Madison, Colby Raha, you know, Kelly Knievel come in with all the Triumph bikes and it was just, it was moving. It was so great to see it all happen right there. I was happy with my role in the parade just watching. process, and Good. How many bikes do you think were in the parade? There was, I would say 500 at least. There was a lot of people. of times. Yeah, there was a lot of people that came in after it left the starting point as well. But it was a sea of people. We set up before we left the hotel. And And we goPro'd, Billy's truck the top with a reverse shot. So we've got a cool. bit of it. It's incredible. Like Lathan said, everything went pretty much 95% trouble free. Even the morning of the parade, Kyle was supposed to jump at 10 a. m. and the parade was supposed to kick off at 11. People were in all the places they were supposed to be. The people saw the jump from Kyle Miller. They went in there, then they immediately went over and saw the bike parade come through town. And then they were just coming in droves downtown to Kota Brewery to see Krysten play. Even all the celebrities showed up, right next to my merch store. That's what I was setting up too, is for all the celebrities to sign all their hero cards and everything. And everybody showed up. The lines were great. There was no arguing. Of course at the end of the day, a lot of people had a little too much fun, a little too much alcohol in 100 degree weather. A little too much sunburns. Yeah. Sunburns sunburns. were, yeah, yeah, sunburns were prominent that weekend. One lady came up to me and said, "Is that, is that rocket here every day?" And I was like, no, this is a time deal, one time situation here."Wow. I really picked a really lucky day to go hiking, didn't I?" I was like, "You sure did." It was a lot of comments on it. It was pretty fun. It sits up there every day and nobody steals it or pushes it off the side into the canyon. the canyon. The Parks and Rec guy was like you're not going to leave that up there tonight, are you? Because it won't be there in the morning. It won't be there in the morning, and I'm like, no, we're not leaving it there. We just tightened up a lot of screws when it came back to Wisconsin over that 24 hour ride, actually 48 hours. So yeah, it's, doing just fine. Yep. Yeah. And they're being very well taken care of. Every show they get wiped on before and after they leave. So they have been treated better now in the last year than they have, I think, in the last fifty. So Mr. Bagley, you can exhale now. Yes. Yes. Where are the vehicles resting now? I've got a couple of shops here in Wisconsin. So the vehicles are now in one of my showrooms, one of my private showrooms where we have some Triumph motorcycles and that right now. So they're there. Still after the year that I've had, it's still great to go through and walk through there once or twice a week, just to still see that they're there. The year went by so fast of doing this. And I remember when time for the first time and touch them and actually sit in the dragster to put on my trailer and steer it. And then, This Every time we did something with these vehicles it brought new meaning to me, because when it got here to Wisconsin, then they were in my own shop, which, you know, this is my livelihood, this is my, you know, me and my father created this. Now that they're here, my dad passed away here, you know, a little over nine years ago. And you just, just to walk around and see a little hometown shop here in Jackson, Wisconsin. You know, I'm just an old school farm boy here. I like hot rods and Harleys and stuff like that. And your cool toys and now to see it fifty years later. And to actually see these vehicles in my shop is just mind blowing. It blows you away. So when I go through, I still go through and, you kind of have talks or you talk to yourself, and you're like, I still can't believe that I'm here and this year even happened. We met some great guys, I mean, I'm just all these guys that Lathan got me in touch with and did podcasts with and they just sat down and talked. They want to talk about Evel. When we went to Detroit we had two or three hundred people there when we did the podcast. We put a speaker out there. So it's actually a live podcast, even though recorded it and fans would come out. The last year has been really, really epic from just celebrities jumping and talking and people you meet. Even after you're done, you're exhausted and you can talk to, like you said, the old war heroes, or the old stunt riders, or people who had Evel's leathers or a helmet at one point in time, or touched up his bike And of course, there's other guys in every town we went to. Every time it was there, I don't think they realized the magnitude of what, Lathan's background and you, Joe, and, of me being, probably one of the biggest super fans that are out there too, being able to do this and dedicate a whole year to it. So every time they want to come up and they show you their phone, like,"Hey, do you guys know where this is?" I'm like, "Well..." Lathan's like, "Yeah, we already know that." But you don't want to take their 15 minutes of fame away. So then we let them talk about it. You know, you still let them talk about it. I think that made their day more than anything, really. You know, and a couple guys had some bikes, and somebody brings their, their holy grail toy of the dirt, or the track bike, or the trail bike, and stuff like that. And the guy had a couple brand new toys in the box, and, you know, he really wanted to do it, and he had been saving it forever. And he wanted to know what I thought it was worth. I said, well, this and that. I ended up buying some pieces that I didn't need just to give the people a story, I guess you would, you know what I mean? Just to make their day. And I put it on display because, yeah, because we didn't have a trail bike at one of the, because I wasn't bringing everything in. He's like, you don't have a trail bike here? And I said, no, it's at home. He was really adamant. He did have it. His mom bought it brand new for him in '74 or so. Yeah, I think it was '74. Knievel, I ended up buying it from him I gave him two Evel shirts. He was so happy with that it was unbelievable Oh man, I love that. You are absolutely blessed. And I think you know it. That's so special that you are paying those blessings forward to other people and just making their day. I always say I'm very blessed and very honored to be here in the life that I lead. And I mean, I'm sitting here talking to you guys on a podcast and my office is surrounded by old school toys. You can see it around all around my walls and Lathan knows that I'm a big toy collector and Hot Cars and Hot Rods. Some people never get that opportunity, never get that chance. Like Lathan said, even when we were filming, the people to even see that rocket get on that moun d... There was one guy who drove his bike all the way from Green Bay, Wisconsin, 1700 miles because he was there 50 years ago. And he made the paper, Lathan got the picture, saw the picture of him on his bike. And he drove all the way out there still on his bike by himself and he goes,"Ah, it wasn't that bad in 1700 miles." So he wanted to know about it and he just did the same thing. We told his story. We did an interview with him. It's that's what makes the golden part of it. I mean, I don't even know what to say. It was moving even being on the mound before the rocket even got up there just to be up there. I think that podcast is going to be pretty remarkable because it's just, you can't recreate something like that. It's one and done for that. Where are we going to find that podcast? And when do you think? We are going to be doing some editing because we have some drone shots and some great videos that we splice into it. Even to me watching them on my computer it blows me away. I think maybe it's just seeing the rocket on the mound from all the angles. It's just, we have to put it in the podcast. So I believe they're finishing up doing some filming this week. And so within the next two weeks, we'll definitely have it out. We'll have it out on all our formats, you know, Apple and Spotify and everything. We'll of course share with you and the pages of the museum. We'll make a big presentation with that. You know, another thing, it's been great working with these guys. I went up to Milwaukee we sat down for 10 days. And made something really magical out of almost nothing. I think we'll have a trailer pretty soon after we edit together some of this Snake River stuff, but it's looking pretty remarkable and everybody's doing a really good job and there's a lot of promise to it for all the projects. So don't forget, lots of stuff coming. There's lots of stuff coming. They did a great job too. When they were all together. Get to the museum before November 2nd. Right, Joe? It's funny because it's I say we're moving because we're already established in Kansas and we have a place in las Vegas, but there's so much more to moving than just renting a U-Haul and buying some cardboard boxes. We're doing an overhaul of that building that's amazing. In fact, I'm going to take my camera next week and do a bare bones tour. Hopefully we'll have some footage to show for the people that Watch and if not, they'll be able to listen to what the layout's going to be of the new humongous Mission Linen Building. That's up next. More editing, more shooting. More editing, more shooting. And we've got some great stuff coming out. Thanks both. You're just so great. I'm sorry I missed out on your Snake River experience and I can't wait to live through it vicariously. Up next on the podcast is Danny Koker from Count's Kustoms and then in the future, we've got Branden Powers, who is the founder of Evel Pie. Branden! You subscribe, I'll subscribe, and we'll all be looking forward to your next podcast, John. Stay tuned. You got it guys. We'll keep everybody in touch and stay tuned and we'll get everybody going, and we will let you know where to find it at. Much love. Happy Landings. Thank you very much. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe. It's our mission to preserve and present the legacy of Evel Knievel. So, if you have an idea for an episode or a guest, or have a suggestion to improve our show, just drop us a line at joe at thrill dot show. I just think the Evel Knievel way. We leave you with the encouraging words from the book of Deuteronomy. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. For the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Until next time, happy landings! You like to fly to the seat of your pants? This is where you belong.