Ryan Bingham

“My parents were severe alcoholics. When I was about 17 years old, I finally left home. It wasn't a choice that I made; it was basically like my parents were gone.”

“I have kind of a short attention span, so if it doesn't come really quick then I set it down, and hopefully come back to it another time.”

“I always packed around this guitar my mother gave me before I left home, I would write songs and play them for my buddies at the rodeos and local bars we would frequent.”

“I think to really write songs, you need empathy. You have to put yourself in other people's shoes.”

“I have always been a fan of music but I didn't really get into playing until I was about seventeen or eighteen years old - I never really thought that I had much musical talent.”

“When I go onstage and I play or I'm out meeting a lot of people, I've got to get my stuff together. It's not actual stage fright.”

“I guess learning as musician as well so I am trying to learn and to grow and be inspired by new things. It is always expanding and growing and leaving yourself open to be inspired by new things.”

“If we were at a bar in a small town and not many people were there, people would bug me to bring in my guitar and play. I was paying my dues, learning how it all worked.”

“When I turned thirteen, I moved up to the junior bull scale. They didn't really classify them by how big they were but how bad they were. The first time I got on one of the big boys I was absolutely terrified but excited at the same time.”

“For a band like me I don't really get crazy exposure with the record so sometimes it does take a while to circulate around and get out to fans.”

“My uncle rode bulls professionally and he got me into it. I started riding steers when I was about eleven and he started taking me to little jackpots and I really got into it.”

“I worked for Mack Altizer, who ran Bad Company Rodeo, in Del Rio. Those guys, even though they were cowboys, were all hippies. We were always the black sheep of the rodeo world. From there I went on to Paris, France, where I worked in this Wild West show.”

“I always try to leave songs open for people to interpret in their own ways.”

“It is a humbling experience when you travel around and you meet people all over the world and I take all that into consideration when I am writing songs at home.”

“The single biggest inspiration I have was Bob Dylan.”

“Songwriting can get pretty heavy and personal for me and I like being able to explore different emotions that are not necessarily my own.”

“I guess I always need some kind of solitude to get to that place where I am open enough and have zero distractions to start on the initial ideas for songs.”

“I've never been able to sit down with a pen and paper and kind of craft out a song, or really force anything out. It always has to come almost subconsciously.”

“My family lived in West Texas. We went to Houston and Laredo, ended up around Fort Worth - really just made the rounds. And I took in all of those different styles of music.”

“I've kind of always had this soft spot in my heart for the homeless community, mainly homeless kids who live on the streets.”