Episode 2 - Built Loud: Michael Ballard Unfiltered

Michael Ballard doesn’t just run Full Throttle Saloon—he built a legend from the ground up. In this episode of Explicitly Speaking with Eva Steele, Eva sits down with the man behind the throttle to get into the real story behind one of the most iconic names in rally culture.

Michael opens up about his upbringing and the path that led him into the industry, sharing the grit, risks, and defining moments that shaped his journey. From humble beginnings to building Full Throttle into a household name, he breaks down what it really took to get there—and what it takes to keep it evolving.

They dive into legacy, the responsibility that comes with creating something bigger than yourself, and how Michael continues to push the Full Throttle experience forward. He also gives insight into what’s next for FTS, including future plans and the ongoing expansion that keeps raising the bar year after year.

This episode is about more than business—it’s about vision, resilience, and building something that lasts. If you’ve ever been part of the Full Throttle experience (or want to be), this is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right, everybody. Welcome to Explicitly Speaking, the podcast here where we cut the shit and get straight to the grit. Today's guest I have is not only the owner of Full Throttle Salute, he has also built an empire around it. Please help me welcome Mr. Michael Ballard. Hello. Hi. There should be a round of applause there.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Yeah. Where's all your audience?

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Don't have an audience.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

I got one.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

I got one. I got one. It's early.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

It's early. People won't get out of bed.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

That is true. That is true. So a lot of us that work here, we know you. Some of the people get to see you on the lives, on Facebook, they get to see a little glimpse of you. But there's a lot of information that people don't get from those things. And I thought it would just be fun for people to kind of get to know you a little bit more. And we're gonna pick your brain and ask you some questions.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

So for those that don't know, you're from Trimble, Tennessee. You got your, you know, lived most of your life down there. Right. How did you end up in the Black Hills?

SPEAKER_00 0:56

So I guess that started when I was about 10 years old, and my parents bought me a little Honda 70. So my mom would tell you that might be one of the worst mistakes she ever made was buying me a motorcycle. So I'd just been into bikes my whole entire life. Since I was a kid, I've been riding bikes. And so it as I grew older and got in more and deeper into motorcycles, got my first Harley when I was young, got into Harleys, and then I was building bikes back in the 90s. And I won Easy Rider Bike Show down in Detroit and over in Columbus, Ohio. I had bikes and featured in the Wind magazine back then, and this is before the throttle ever became a reality. And so I've I've just been in the industry forever. And of course, Sturgis being the best and largest motorcycle rally in the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Just made sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

That's kind of how that was the pathway to get here.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

So what inspired you to want to do create the throttle? And like, like how did this all come about? Like you've been in the motorcycle industry. What made you say, I'm gonna start a biker bar, and this is the vision I have for it?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Well, I I I guess at a young age, I'd always been into to bars and nightclubs, and I used to sneak into our local bar when I was like 12 years old and hang out in the back of it and watch old men beat the shit out of each other, then then they'd go back and sit down table, drink beer together. And so I've been around bars just my entire life, kind of, you know what I mean? So I'd always been intrigued by the from there, the nightclub scene, and as you can imagine, and nightclubs and being young and single, going to nightclubs and hanging out. But I was always intrigued by the business of the nightclubs of having lines out the door and people paying cover charges to come in and partying and having a good time and everybody having fun.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

And it seems like that was kind of an element that Sturgis was missing until the full throttle came along.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Well, I I had this idea for the throttle for a lot of years. Actually, before the throttle ever became a reality, I was already collecting stuff to go into my bar before I ever even knew of where the bar was going to be at. All right. So it's kind of crazy, but I was already buying old signs and collecting things to go in into the into the bar, kind of with what I had in my head.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

You know, when people come in and look around, that's one of the things that they first notice is like all the memorabilia and everything, the old, you know, antique signs and all that stuff around. And that's one of the things that most people comment on when they come into this bar is there's so much to see and so many cool things. And the number one question that I hear is where does he find all of this stuff?

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Yeah, just you know, the the the the way this bar, you know, our our other place burnt down in 2015. The other throttle did. And so when I decided to build back, I knew that I could build the exact same model as that one. I knew wherever beer sign was hanging on the wall, and I could have just duplicated that same place. But some asshole would walk through the door and go, This place ain't as good as the old place. You know what I mean? And just that kind of thing. So so, but I had an there's actually a drill press over here in the corner that can't I had in my shop forever, that I had for a long time. And it's um it was a a guy made a mill machine out of it. He took a Model A transmission, which has first, second, and third and reverse, and he hooked it to this mill machine. And so then you had low, medium, and high for for the for the gear ratio on it and and back the drill out of it. So he kind of made this homemade mill machine, and then I just kind of set straight up into bed one night and I was like, that's it, that machine. And then thinking, I'm gonna dedicate this bar to the men and the women and the equipment that built America. That's what it's about.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Which, if you've been here to this uh new throttle, there is a sign when you come in the door that he has dedicated this bar to the men and the women that have built it, the industrial people, you know, everything, just blue-collar workers, because that's kind of what makes your business so successful is all of those people that come here and help, you know, make everything what it is, and to be able just to have, you know, everything in here was created by one of those people.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

Well, I'm I'm one of them guys. I grew up the same way. I grew up in a in a very just middle class family. My dad owned a ceramic tile company, so I grew up laying tile for a living and in construction all my life and had hot rod cars growing up racing cars and building motorcycles and all that bicycles from when I was real young. I used to take the my parents would buy me a new bicycle and I'd go cut the neck off of it and I'd go do all kinds of crazy things to it. So it was just different than everybody else's. And uh we used to take two bicycles, cut the forks off of them. People out there will know this. Take we'd cut the forks off of them, take a hammer and drive them onto the existing forks and made choppers out of these bikes. But when you'd pop a wheelie, sometimes your front wheel would keep going, and you'd be like, oh sh. So when it comes down, it'd throw you over the Hanobars. And so you said to work the kinks out. But that's that's my that's who our clientele is. That's the guys that are riding, the guys that are riding bikes, they got hot rod cars, they got motorcycles, they got mechanically inclined. Yeah, just yeah. And so the the the equipment is a dedication to the stuff that actually built America, and and you know, it's just just how the theme came about.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yeah, and and we call it Disneyland for adults, basically, yeah, for that love the motorcycle industry. Yeah, because when people walk in here, their jaws just drop. And I know that like you and I have had conversations before that you know, in the early 2000s or late 90s, you went into the OCC chopper uh building and that was Jesse James's, that was West Coast Choppers. Oh West Coast Choppers, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

West Coast Choppers, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

And you were like, Man, I I just can't believe I'm here.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

So I started to throttle, I started to throttle. I'm I came out here in in '99. I sold my other company, I had another company that freed me up to do what I wanted to do. I was in the technology business with cell phones and pagers, and then when I sold that company, it freed me up to do what I wanted to do. So I came out here in in uh May of '99, and I found some property for sale. And then I came back for the rally and I stayed at Glencoe Campground.

SPEAKER_03 6:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

And I and I mean and I monitored everything that was going on, and all the there was three pieces of property. I was watching all them properties. But when I came here for the rally, I was blown away because then it was a no-brainer when I seen it. Because what was in my head, I knew, hey, I gotta have, I'm on a place that's gonna hold five to ten thousand people. These these all these bars were downtown, they were real small, and the the rally was booming. And uh so I stayed after rally and bought that property, rented a house downtown, went home boarded my house, moved out here. But but then about 2000, probably like somewhere around 02 or 03, 4, somewhere in that area, Motorcycle Mania came out. Discovery Channel came out with Motorcycle Mania with Jesse James. Well, then I was doing all the Easy Rider circuit shows around the country with Easy Riders then, and I was in Pomona, California at a show. And then uh me and Chicken, my buddy Chicken, I told him, I said, we're we're going to Long Beach. So we jump in a truck, we drive to Long Beach, and I walk into well, and I'm like, I just I still remember the feeling walking into to West Coast Choppers here, it was on TV, and I'm in there. You know what I mean? So, and and I I knew then, I was like, man, I gotta create the same thing. We gotta create the I well, I need my customers to feel the way I felt right then.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

So when I went into that place and how I felt when I was in there the first time, and like it, you know, I wanted my customers when they come in to feel the same exact I finally made it, I'm here, you know.

SPEAKER_03 8:23

Yeah, and just that's the experience.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Yeah, exactly. And so so that was cool. Then I ended up meeting Jesse and uh uh and then he actually ended up setting up at the throttle several years with me over it over here, and you know, when he was doing the circuit and stuff, and so really great guy, and uh and uh he used to set up with us over there. So it's weird how everything comes about in like '96. Like Indian Larry was a very, very famous bike builder, but he's as blue-collar as they come. Never meet a stranger, just humble guy, love that guy to death. I met him in '96 before the throttle ever existed. In Columbus, Ohio. Me and him were set up side by side with our custom bikes. He had a bike to show, and I had a bike to show, and we end up hitting it off and and became friends from there. And then later on, here 2000, I open up the throttle and and then he starts coming and setting up at the bar and hanging out with me at the throttle. And it's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

It's cool because it seems like the circuits that you did and all of the relationships that you built really gave you a lot of the support that you needed in the beginning, yeah. Um of launching the throttle, getting, you know, people like Indian Larry and all of that stuff behind you. And yeah, and there was nothing like what throttle is in the area. There is nothing like what throttle is in the area. In fact, like the whole rest of the country. So it's interesting to me because people can tell, you know, on the lives and all that stuff, that like your brain is just constantly your wheels are turning all the time, and you're always thinking ahead. And what I always tell people because they say, Who comes up with all this? And I said, Michael Ballard does it. And they said, Well, how does he do that? And I'm like, it all literally just comes from his brain. Yeah, I'm like, he'll just think something up and he will he'll explain it to us sometimes, and we're like, What are you talking about? And then I've learned now over the years to just okay, just trust the vision because it's it's going to end up really amazing. And you know, just like some of the things like people saying, Oh, there's no way that those bridges, you know, are gonna happen. There's no, you know, and you've been saying we're gonna get those bridges done one of these years, and this year was the year that you pulled the trigger on it. And that was one of the best additions, I think, to the amphitheater because the view from up there is amazing.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

We're the buzz of town right now, all over, I mean the industry right now with that and uh finally getting ourselves built out to that concert venue was a was a really a big accomplishment for me. And we've been here 10 years and now we got the bridge. I mean, we've had bands and the stage out there all 10 years, but getting the bridges up and completed this year was huge.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

So, what's your vision for the amphitheater like in the next five years? Where do you see it going?

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Well, I see a second level around that level. So I I want to build another set of decks that come down another four foot so that I got a two-story amp, two-story of the decks up above with bars, and uh and then I still got additions. I got, I got, I've already got things, I've I've got this old 50 model camper that I bought that I'm gonna stick up on that deck and make a bar out of, like I had at the old throttle. Remember how I took that one? I took the one, cut the front of it, and built a bar around it. So I got some killer ideas that's got to go up there. There's still a there's still a long way to go. Then Old Town, my next year, my goal is getting this church. I gotta get this church going. I want to get it built.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

People don't realize that um church is a huge part of uh throttle. Like we hold Sunday service right here in the bar on Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Yeah, we had almost 200 people here on Sunday morning.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

That's amazing. I think have you ever thought about live streaming it?

SPEAKER_00 11:46

No, you know what's a great idea. So the the one thing that that Angie started that years ago, even at the other property, we were having church on Sunday mornings, and it's just now it's just evolved, evolved, evolved, and and here we are, and it's like, man, I was blown away. I come in that morning and at and for church, and there was this place was packed in here.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

It was packed.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

And I was like, man, how cool is this? And you know, and so it was it was really great. It was a really great service, and and every year it just seems to get bigger and bigger.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Well, and it's not something that it's like again, like a lot of these bikers, you know, they are the blue collar, they are the faith-driven people, they are, you know, we're all kind of like-minded a lot of times around around this place. And there's no really other uh avenue for them to attend service or at rallies. Yeah. It it seems to be something really great to bring a lot of people together, you know. The fellowship I think is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

And when I walked in here that morning, I was like, I did not expect it to be as happy as it was. So it's so cool from a faith perspective to see that happening and to see it building. And I just think it's just gonna keep it.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

One of the things that too, with the church that we're gonna be building out here is is I'm gonna staff it. So we do we do stuff with hell fighters, they come out and set up, you know. So there's a lot of of Christian or organizations, biker organizations that set up at the rallies and do things, but I'm gonna staff that thing with uh we're gonna have staff in there 24 hours a day. And I've run over the years of being here, I've just run into so many things where people are are needing help. And so we've had domestics on property where a man and his wife got into it and he gets arrested, or he just gets on his bike and leaves her, and she has no friends here, she knows nobody here. She's stuck, she don't know what to do, she's a thousand miles from home. And and and then I've had situations where guys have gotten badly, badly hurt on bikes, and the wife don't know what to do, they don't have a way to go get the motorcycle brought back, they don't know what like they're just there's been so yeah, there's no them people are a thousand miles from home, they don't know anybody. They get up in the black hills, their bike breaks down, they don't know uh what to do, they don't know where bike shops are or nothing. So this church is gonna also be an outreach for help for people that need it, also. So I'm gonna staff at 24 hours a day, and people can come here when they gotta have help with something and anything, yeah, some kind of tragic stuff that happened to them, that happens to them. I mean, there's hundreds of thousands of people here, and they just they you know, sometimes they're just don't happen. I mean, there's guys that come here that are are by themselves and they have nobody, and then they get hurt, and then you know what I mean? So, and they got nobody to help take care of them, yeah. So that's one of the things that too, that that with the church that we're gonna be doing. We're gonna be doing service over there, prayer services, all kinds of stuff that we're gonna do with that. I'm excited about it. And we're gonna do weddings.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Yes, there's a chapel out there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

So we're gonna do we're gonna do weddings with it.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Yeah, it's really cool. Um, I think Jesse and I should have a marry off and see, try to set a record.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

See who who can marry the most amount of couples. Maybe they should offer premarital counseling.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

You better watch out because he'll do them all at one time while he's on stage Thursday, Thursday night of the jackal show. He'll try to marry everybody at once so you can win.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

He's uh he's he his brain does work kind of like that. He's like, Well, we'll work smarter, not harder, yes.

SPEAKER_03 15:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

So you've got two girls, they're growing up quick. A lot of people don't realize um online, they'll say, How's the baby? Yeah, well, she's 11 now. Yeah, she's 11. There's another one.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah, Madison's eight.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

Yeah, Maddie's eight, Emily's 11. Yeah, and um we'll spit fires, they've got big personalities. Yeah, so what has been the coolest part of getting to raise them kind of around this and in this type of industry?

SPEAKER_00 15:36

Well, it's just it's it's just the fact that what what you know what I love about it is how tight knit our industry is. I know that I can go anywhere across this country, I could break down on the side of the road somewhere, I can jump on my Facebook page and say, hey, I'm setting a mile marker 23 on IED and I don't know what to do, and I'll have people come right then and give me help. And I I tell Emily them that I said, you don't realize yeah how big a family you got out there. But you got a giant family out there that's good, that if something happens to you down the road or any, you'll be able to get help from people. They and that's the that's what I love about this industry is they will go out of their. There's not a more charitable organization than people that ride motorcycles in the world. I guarantee you that they raise more money overall as a whole for between toys for tots, cancer runs, suicide survivals. Yep, you know, oh my gosh, there's so much money raised every year from the from this group, and and and it's inspirational to see all of these people that stick together like that. But so that for me, knowing that I got two girls, and some if if if when I'm dead and gone and some asshoe husband beats the shit out of my daughter, he better be careful because a lot of ass whoopings coming. Also, that is not anything that anybody needs to worry about.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

If something tells me with those girls with a big personality, that's not something they're gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Emily, Emily's all over it. She and Maddie's headed that way too. She's eight, so she's still coming up, but Emily's already like they're gonna spill the shit out of those boys. She's she's ready to go right now. So she's happy, she's she's she's all over it. She's so smart, it's unbelievable. And then Angie, this is the first year that Angie couldn't be here because um this year school started August 1st in Tennessee. Yep. So a lot of people are asking, to your point, where's Angie and what's going on with Angie? And and this was the first, this is the first rally I that she's ever missed in her life because she was born and raised in Sturgis. And she's been here, you know, all of these years. And this year with the kids starting back August 1st, she had to go back home with the girls and get them. Same rally into school. Yeah. It just wasn't gonna happen this year. Uh-uh. And so it's uh it's crazy, but it's the first time she's ever missed a rally in her entire life.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

That's gotta feel bad. She's probably almost got the record for how many she's gone to consecutively. Yeah, yeah, that's probably true, actually. You know, so with those kids, like, have they ever been like, Dad, I think you should do this, you know, and they're rattling off ideas or something. I know they're little, but have they ever thrown something out just to like in conversation? And you've been like, that's actually a really good idea.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah, so right now, what I got going with is Emily's starting to work on dad, I'm gonna start designing uh kid clothing line for the throttle.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

All right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

So I'm like, hey, uh, there you go. You know more about your age group than I do, and yeah, and so she's all about gonna design some of that. Of course, she's singing a lot, you know, and stuff. She's always been doing that, so she's got her way going. Maddie, Maddie's a little brainiac, though. She's a lot like Angie in that aspect, and she she reads books constantly. Yep. We go to the bookstore, she's coming out with two or three different books, and by the time you get home, she's already telling you about the story and what's going on. She'll read two chapters in the back of the book for you and get back to the house and start telling you about what's happening in a book, and it's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Like Emily looks more like Angie to me, but she is you, she embodies your entire personality. And then Maddie looks more like you, but it's Angie personality. Yeah. It's like looks and personality are just like.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Yeah, so I'm I'm kind of a tornado, and and Emily's a tornado through the house, and and Angie is completely organized, and Maddie's completely organized. You go in Maddie's room, their dolls are all set and straight and in line and perfect, and you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

And then I'm screaming at Emily, you got to clean your room up. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Well, but it's your office, though. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Yeah, okay, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Probably you guys are definitely doing something right with those girls because they're very polite, they're very outspoken. They also, you know, when somebody comes up and talks to them, they look right at them, they speak very clearly, they're polite.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Yeah, Emily's in present uh present. She's she just moved into the new school, she's in sixth grade, and she's already on the presentation team. So they travel all over the US and go give presentations all the time. So she's she's right in the middle of that now, knee deep in that.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

So that's not surprised me in the least. So with the business aspect, you've you've been in business a really, really long time, but with you know, throttle now. This is the 26th year that you've had to throttle the rally, um, 26th rally, I guess. But um what is the biggest lesson you think you've learned as a business owner?

SPEAKER_00 20:21

I I think the the my my hardest part I have is letting things go after touch everything. That's that's that's that's one of them. And then taking the time to try to listen to people somewhat. Customers, listening to what their ideas are, trying to take all of that in. I try to take everything in what is that I can do better in my company to satisfy my customer base. Here's the thing that is always that's one of the things that's always been to me. People don't think about it. I say it all the time. These people are working their ass off. They're out there working 60 hours a week, busting their knuckles, or working at a desk, and they've got one week a year that they get to take a vacation, and they're coming here to spend it with us. Choosing to, right? That's what they want. They could go anywhere, but they choose to come to Sturgis and spend that one week of the year to relax and have fun and have a good time. So it's our responsibility, me as a business owner, that's in the entertainment business, concert, venue, fans, all kinds, to make sure that when they walk through our front door, they're walking out here with a smile on their face, they've had a great experience. They they they they they you know. I mean, think about it, they're spending their hard-earned money that they saved all year long, and they've taken their one week. They could have gone to the beach, they could have gone to Hawaii, they could have gone to Vegas, they could have done so many different things, and they chose to come. So I've my responsibility is to make sure that they have a good time. So I listen to them. Hey, you you should we we really need this. It'd be nice if we had this or that. You know what I mean? Yeah, so that's the things that I listen to, and then I try to improve. On them if we've already have them or expand on adding them together.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

And it's also an experience I don't know that any other venue provides. Like just like in general across the board. Like if you're looking at everything that we offer, yeah, and everything that you're looking to build and add to, this is like the ultimate bike. Well, I don't know that.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

I just uh to be honest with you, and just to be straight up, I'm I grew up riding bikes since I was a kid. I'm a biker. I'm in that group. There's not a bar downtown that has a motorcycle on the wall. Like there's I got shovel head engines. I mean, I'm a true I'm this is my collection of stuff that I have personally that's out here on the wall. I so I don't, and I don't know if any of them guys even ride down there. You know what I'm saying? So I don't know. I I go into these things and I call themselves a biker bar, and I walk in, there's not a one motorcycle on the wall. There's not anything pertaining to a Harley or or any kind of bike. I I love all kinds of bike. I got Kawasakis, I've got Suzuki's, I own all kinds of motorcycles.

SPEAKER_02 23:07

I mean, what's that one you're doing?

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Thank God for Honda making a Honda 50 and a Honda 70, or I may not even be here today, right? So I'm just saying that I mean most people grew up riding Hondas or Yamaha's or something when they were kids, and that's what transformed them into being in the industry that for the rest of their life.

SPEAKER_02 23:24

Microspike was a Yamaha. So I'm like, yeah, same.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

So so but so I I think for me, it's just uh what I'm kind of lucky that I'm in an industry that I've always loved since I was a kid, and being able to do that. There's so many people that didn't get to do what they wanted to do. Or you know, and I've had times in my career that I was at rock bottom. I remember, I remember taking change in, cashing in so I could go to Sonic to get something to eat at times back that years ago. Even when I owned the throttle, it was that bad. When I first started the throttle, it was blood bass because I was just I was out in the middle of the country, it was a two-lane road, no street lights back then to get out to the throttle. Yeah, I was I was out out of pocket, man. So it was some tough years back then.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Was has there ever been a point in your career as the owner and creator of full throttle where you ever just about threw your hands up and walked away? Was there ever been a point where you thought about just walking away?

SPEAKER_00 24:21

The hardest, probably the fire was the toughest one. Like, because that, you know, I spent I spent 15 years of my career, even though, even though that 15 years, I have to look back because prior to the 15 years, even it took that career to make that career happen. So it's even longer than when I've been in business with the throttle. Right. It it transforms all the way back to my other business because I I worked that business from absolutely nothing selling pagers on job sites to people. So on the construction sites with my dad, I'm making$6 an hour and I'm living in a house trailer and I'm now 19, 20 years old, and I'm selling pagers to people on the job sites, and they're paying me$19.95 a month for the service. So it stretches all the way back to me making that business and then selling that business and dumping all of that into this business.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

So, where did your like business mind and business sense come from? Like, because you just like from a very young age, you just kind of saw a path and you're like, this is what I gotta do, you know, like to build.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

I think it just comes from the then it does the reality of what this world is is about a dollar bill if you want to be successful in financially in a successful financial. I'm not talking about you know, religion with God being successful in that or anything else, but financially having success. And I grew up watching my dad come in the door every day, filthy from head to toe, bent on his knees all day, laying tile, grouting floors, and and and and then I was when I was 10, I was going with him on the weekends and grouting floors, me and my brother and doing tile work, you know. So I knew that even that my dad worked his butt off, he raised three kids, and we had everything you could imagine. We had a swimming pool in our backyard. We didn't worry about you know getting food. There was always food in the refrigerator growing up, but my but my dad just busted his butt. And so I knew that, but I knew I wanted to elevate my life, careers financially to a better place. And so I just I never went to college. I my my dad that they didn't have the money to send me to college when I come out of high school. They they didn't have the funds to do that for me to get there. I wasn't high enough to get scholarships at that time, right? Me either. So so anyway, and that's kind of so from there I just started. Yeah, I just learned how to I I only got where I'm at from beating shit into submission.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

That's it. I just I say that a lot. I and I actually got that phrase from Jesse because that's I heard him say that one time, and it's actually the truth. I mean, you just you turn no's into yeses and you don't give up on what your dream is and what you truly want. And I know that's that's taken with a grain of salt a lot of times, and there's a with you hear people like pop follow your passion, follow your, but you it become people become numb to it because they hear it so much.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

I think that you're either bored with that fire in you or you're not.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

When I was like, when I was like when I was like 13 years old, I'll tell you a quick little story. For some reason, I've always been rebellious to a degree. So when I was like 13 years old, I was working a summer job. My dad was slow on tile work. So I went to work for a swimming pool company, digging pools. And there was the guy, there was like six of us or four, but maybe five of us on that crew. And the guy that ran it was an older man, and he was just being an asshole. He, you know, he just screaming at you all the time. Well, you know what I mean? That type. So we get we got we're going to work one day, and we we're in tremble. We leave, we meet every morning uptown, they eat breakfast, and then we go to work. So we're on our way to work, and he's just mouthing, mouthing and mouthing. I'm in the backseat of this truck, it's a four-door door truck, and I'm sitting by the door, and and he's mouthing at me, rah, and just running his mouth. And uh he said something really smart. We pull up to a four-way stop, I open the door and go out of a truck. And I'm 13. And I walk home and I go in, my dad's in there. It's like a Saturday or something, whatever. My dad's in there. I said, What are you doing here? I thought you were going to work. I said, No, dad, that guy's being an asshole. And I'm 13. And he goes, Well, you got to do what you gotta do, boy. And so that was it. From then on, I just didn't, I knew that he, my dad said, Here's what he said to me. He said, Let me tell you, boy, there's nobody any better than you. That man puts his pants on the same way you did this morning, one leg at a time.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

That's what he told me, and that's the and that's the truth. And so from then on, if I didn't see the vision that if I couldn't connect with people the right way, then I knew that I didn't need to be there. Right. So I figured out where I needed to go so I could connect with people that can I I could connect with.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Well, not a lot of people's brains work the way that yours does too, you know. So and and and that it's you have a much bigger vision and drive, and you can see the bigger picture more than other people, but you also see the small things, like what it means to be kind to the people that work for you or the people that come into, you know, you always stop and have time for everybody that comes through the store. If you're if you're out in the bar and people want to stop and take a picture, like all of those things I think are so important, and it kind of all goes back, you know, to what you said about nobody's better than anybody else. You put your pants on the same way every person that comes through the store or works for you, or all that. And so I think that that's really it's it's rare that you see that in a business owner.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

Well, I think it also goes down to signal to noise concept. I don't know if you know what that is or not, but signal to noise is a is a is a is a real truthful concept in your life. And I sacrificed a lot at a younger age of of not going out and running around with my buddies because I didn't really have the money to go do it, or because I knew I needed to save my money for certain things. But signal to noise is a deal where when you get up in the morning, you're one, you go, you want, you got, you're set on what you need to accomplish today. And and you let the noise go to the side and don't waste your time on that. So, like Steve Jobs was 80-20. Steve Jobs was 80% signal at 20% noise. Today, Elon Musk is almost at zero noise. So his signal is he's focused every day when he gets up to accomplish these things that he has to get done today. And he doesn't let the noise get in the way of it. And I think for me, that's one of the things like everybody was betting against us with these bridges, right? I wasn't gonna let that happen. Three weeks before rally, I told everybody, leave me alone. I can't mess with the business. I don't have, I'm not messing with y'all gonna figure that out. I'm focused right here. So every morning when I got up and I watched the sun come up here two or three different times with some of my guys that I worked them all night long. But I, and then I had 32 carpers working here at one time. Yep. So my that that's the dedication you have to have to be successful, to be honest. You can go, otherwise, you'll float through the day all day long and you are not gonna get anything accomplished. And the sun's gonna come up and the sun's gonna go down. You're gonna find yourself laying in bed thinking about what did I get done today? Yep. Right. And and even if you have a full-time job for somebody else and you're wanting out or you're wanting to do something else, you've got to still spend time after you get off and punch that clock out so many hours a day to focus on what's your dream and what is it you really truly want to do with your life. And and and that's the that's the signal to noise ratio. So for me, I've always been great at that's why when people say, where did that stuff come out of? Because I'm in here sometimes at three in the morning and I'm taking things in. I'm standing in the sidelines during rally watching people, watching the flow, looking at the expressions on their faces when they come through the door. I'm paying attention to every little detail I can pay attention to that has to do with my business.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

And so I think that's the that's uh been a big part of the success of the throttle.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Absolutely. I because it's it's it's the little details and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

It's the signal to noise ratio. You got to push the bullshit to the side and focus on what it is you need to focus on and get done. And every single day you've got to make strides toward that goal.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

But that makes a lot more sense.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Yeah, because what I mean, you're gonna end up at the end of the day you didn't accomplish something tomorrow. So then all of a sudden, look at the whole week. What did I do to better myself this week or my company or my money or my finances or wherever you're struggling in? Yeah, whatever department of your life you're struggling in, whatever that is, what the department is that what did I do this week to help better that? Absolutely, right? And if you're not taking the time and setting this thing here over to the side and paying attention to yourself and paying attention and and what you need to be getting done, yeah, you're not gonna get it done. You can stay on this thing for hours at a time. And you'll lose four or five hours and you're just just you're just you just consumed a bunch of bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Yep. Nothing that's even gonna, nothing's you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

Yeah, everybody's just flipping, flipping, flipping. And it that's one of the most dumbed down tools there is. It could be one of the best tools there are if you use it in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Or, you know, like yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

You know what I mean? You can find the information you need, but you gotta search it and you gotta stay with it.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

The mindless scrolling is what hurts.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

And don't let the other crap pop up, the noise stuff will pop up. Yep, just get rid of it when it pops up. You don't need to dwell in that, dwell on what it is you need to learn.

SPEAKER_02 33:33

Yeah, absolutely. So you got the bridges done, rally. This was you know, one of the bigger rallies we've had in probably 10 years, because the 80th happened, that was COVID year. Um what is it something that like people don't understand or don't realize, like a logistical nightmare that like would keep you up at night? Like just anything, and not even the bridges, just rallies in general, like where you're like, man, we gotta figure this out, or you know, something that people wouldn't think about.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Well, it's it's a lot of times it's the the hard jobs are hard. I have to be with them people a lot to make sure like taking out the garbage. There's a lot of trash comes through this place, right? And it them are hard jobs to get people to do.

SPEAKER_03 34:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 34:15

You know what I mean? To find the people that, and that's a hard, that's probably one of the toughest jobs here is keeping the tables clean, keeping the all the garbage out of here, and get, I mean, there's a lot of uh underbelly stuff with the business that you gotta watch. It really is, you know. But I also surround myself with good people. I try to. Um, I've got people that's been here with me for the last 25 years that I've been in the business that's still here. Yeah, you know, so I try to surround myself with people I can trust that they've got that part of the job, and I don't have to look at it during rally. I help set it all up before rally because every year, so I I've got a notebook and I write notes every day for rally, what needs to change, how to do things different for next year. Because you never stop. If you sit on your ass and you stop improving your business, you're gonna fail eventually. So, for instance, just some life experiences. Growing up when I was a kid in the bars, Budweiser was not even an option. It was Paps Blue Ribbon and Slits and Hams, and it was all of these brands they held held the market, right? So Budweiser tried to enter that market and couldn't enter it. So, what did they do? They started targeting 18-year-old and 21-year-old, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:32

Because they're the up and coming.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

So, over a period of about 15 years, they pushed all of them brands out the side.

SPEAKER_03 35:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

And then bam, there's Budweiser as the number one beer in the world. So that was that, so they sit on their ass and done. Another another concept I'll tell you about that happened was there when I was growing up, there was the uh uh steakhouses out there that was called Bonanza Steakhouses. You had Western Sizzler was a steak. They were the places I remember being a kid, and my dad taking us to Bonanzas of like an hour drive. We'd go to once, once maybe every two months, we would get to go to this steakhouse. Well, they set on their ass and they allowed Longhorn Steakhouse, Logan's Roadhouse, uh, Texas Roadhouse concept come in, but they never changed.

SPEAKER_03 36:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

They left their model the same. They and they had all the best locations you could get.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

It's like they hit a point of success and they just ride it.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

That's it. And then and then eventually they're gonna get shut. And the difference for me is I'm watching and trying to keep up with what's new, what's trendy, what's happening in the world, what's going on, what can we do better for our business. So you you can get lazy, and there's people that come out here and run the rally and they shut down and go home. I'm out here right now, we're we're what, a month after a rally, and I'm still out here building buildings and we're still tweaking things out in our merch building right now. We're doing new stuff in it. So I see things during the rally, and I can't wait to jump on top of them to improve them for the next year. Where everybody else is already closed up, shut down. Oh, we'll be back next year. And then they just open up the same old place.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Yeah, and that's and like I think another reason that like so many people love coming here is they love to see like what's changed from last year.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Yeah, what's new and what's what are we doing? Yeah, where are we going with it? You know what I mean? And and that's that's the that's the part of the growth of the throttle.

SPEAKER_02 37:21

I mean, I think that's just who invested in it, yeah. You know, that that love to see what's going on. Yeah, so if you now throttle is obviously a very big part of your life. It's that you built this is not just a business and a brand, you built an empire with this. It's it's a bar, it's you've got the distilleries, you've got the retail, you've got, you know, the there's so much that goes with it. Now, if you weren't the owner of the full throttle saloon, what what would you what do you think you'd be doing? If there was no full throttle saloon, what would Michael Ballard be doing?

SPEAKER_00 37:52

I don't know what I would do. That's the that's the hardest thing about thinking of, you know, you start thinking of an exit because I'm getting a little bit older and I've had the place for 25 years, and you start thinking about okay, I'm supposed to exit, right? I'm I'm getting or or you know, and I I don't really, I don't know that my I really want my girls to be assuming this place, to be honest with you. I don't know what, but that'll be up to them as they get older, I guess, if I still own it then. But um I don't know what I would be doing, but I'd have to be in the middle of something, you know. But I think that with you know, we have stores in Colorado now. I have I have the distilleries and restaurants, Missouri, and we're we're looking, we've got six six locations total now, and we're looking to do 15 to 20.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

So right now 15 to 20 more in addition to what there is.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

Yeah, so we're wanting to get up to that 15 to 20 more so that we can fran and then and then then maybe franchise the model out. I don't know yet exactly, but um, but or go public or something with it. I don't know what but but our our distilleries and our brand is growing in multiple locations, and um I I'm about to to do a couple other new businesses off the brand, spin-off of the brand. And so I don't know. I'm just gonna grow it until I get tired, but I don't know that when that'll be.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

And I don't I don't see ever getting tired. Yeah, like I just like you'll sometimes you know you'll you'll take a beat, take a day or two, but it's not long. You're not ever down for long, you're right back and and just constantly going. Yeah, so I mean I don't I don't see you ever really slowing down.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Well, I I don't know what I would be doing. And I mean, I love what I'm doing, so it's it's it's hard to leave something that you love that you're doing, and it's and to see that you're making a difference in people's lives too. I mean, honestly, it's kind of crazy to say that that this place makes a different people's lives. But I had a guy grab me the other day, said, Man, you saved my life. I came out here four years ago. I was like suicidal, and I came out with my buddies and we camped out here. We pitched a tent, we had a time of our lives, and I got and and it just transformed me and saved me. It truly that experience that I had here on your property saved my life, you know. And I had people that come here and spread their ashes here. I mean, there's so much things that this place means to people beyond just, you know.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

There's a lot of sentimental ties with people to to this place, and a lot of people man, there's so many people that's gotten married that met here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

That just met their, they met here and then they're married. I had uh people pop up on my Facebook page sometimes and they go, I met I met my wife there 20 years ago. We got two kids, and like a whole family is bared out of it, right? And that happens constantly. That I I you know, that that happens. And so I don't know. I mean, the the places that that kind of stuff and seeing I say this a lot too, where I I see that all so many bars are segregated between ages and generations.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Yeah, this this is a melting pot of all ages.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

Yeah, it's just one big worship machine and everybody's in it. Don't matter what color you are, what age you are, it doesn't make any difference what you are. Don't matter what you're riding motorcycles or not riding a motorcycle, makes no difference. I can come in here and there'll be a guy that's 21 years old, sitting by a guy that's 70, they're drinking a beer together, meeting, and they're talking about motorcycles or riding a next thing you know, they're together riding through the black hills and their butt and their friends and their friends, like lifelong friends. And then they meet here again next year. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 41:14

So it's so cool to that that kind of a lot this year where you know people are like, Well, our friends are coming from here, and you know, we met them at Throttle and just conversations that I had with people because I helped with the cabins a little bit this year, yeah, and just hearing a lot of their stories with dealing with the behind-the-scenes stuff, it was Throttle's very impactful for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

And like you said, they plan their vacations around it, and and it's like a it's a family reunion. Yeah, and and you know, Thursday night with it being jackal night, that's what we always call it. Yeah. Family reunion, right? Yeah, and it's all Yeah, the biker's ball.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

We've been doing that 25 years now with that. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

So, do you are you thinking like because you're never gonna get tired of this, you're gonna keep running it. Do you want throttle to be known as the world's largest biker bar forever, or are you envisioning it evolving into something bigger than what is right here?

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Well, I think this is just the the cornerstone of every all the other tentacles that are flying off of it. So the distilleries and the restaurants are coming off as one thing. This other new concept I'm about to launch is gonna be something totally different than that, and and it's gonna grow, I think, in other cities. Well, this is gonna be my new coffee shop, yes, yeah. So the full throttle coffee shops that we're gonna be putting out and going. And I'd said I'm doing that in partnership with Todd Phillips and and uh and John Foy and David Greenberg. With that art, I've got a good team, I got a good team behind me, and I think we're gonna start these coffee shop concepts across the country, and and I think that's gonna be massive.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

So with the with the concept of like the building that you showed me last year, yeah, that is so cool. So you gotta wait and see this. We're not gonna give away any spoilers. It is going to be amazing. So you're building and building.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

If there ever comes to a point one day where you're well, we I kind of got into that from to be honest, from roasting, we're already roasting our own coffee at the distillery in Tennessee at our main plant. And so I started doing that, and we found the right beans and got the concept down and it's rocking, and we're selling coffee all over the country. I'm even wholeselling to others' coffee shops, and all of that stuff is happening, and and it's just it's blowed up. So that's kind of now what's now it's time for it to take to the next level, which is our own concept of storage.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Because Michael has an espresso bar here, and we've now become spoiled and make coffee every morning while we're here at work. Yeah. But so if you ever get to the point where you're like, okay, I'm ready to just slow down, which again I don't see happening, but and say full throttle, this world's largest biker bug, it's a new owner. What is something that you would tell them to never change about this place?

SPEAKER_00 43:47

The I guess the number one thing to me is I can't I don't really don't like arrogant people like arrogant personalities. You know what I mean? Take the time and meet your customers, take the time with them. Listen to them, pay attention to people. I I've been in, I won't call the names of them, but I've been around people. I, you know, we were on TV for seven years, and and my concept of that might was that I always thought, you know what, if you're gonna, if that's if that's what you're gonna do, if you're gonna put yourself on television, then make yourself accessible to whatever fan base you build from that.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

You're accepting you're accepting a responsibility of putting yourself in that.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

Yeah, you're accepting that job and that that place. Don't be an arrogant ass and not and and and snub your your fan base and your people when you when they want to come up and get a picture with you or shake your hand and get to know you.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

However, if somebody is eating and you're going you're mid-bite, or you're standing at the urinal in the bathroom, not probably the best.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Not the urinals. I've had that happen a couple of times where people come up and I'm taking them piss at the bathrooms, but but that's the but if I'm eating, I don't care. It doesn't matter to me where I'm at. I I just feel like that a lot of times that I I was at the airport and and there was a couple people that was had been on TV and came to the throng, came to Sturge us, and they were in Rapid City, and a guy walked up with a little boy. Maybe the kid was like nine years old or 10. And he, hey, my son loves your show. Could I get a picture with you? And they just didn't even answer the guy. They just turned their head and didn't even acknowledge that he was there. And the guy goes, Come on, son, let's go. And he pulled the kid away. And I'm thinking, what an arrogant ass you are to put yourself on television, act like you're so much better than everybody else, and you're way up here. You know what I mean? And and that you're somebody special and you're somebody better than everybody else. It's just total bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

Maybe it was just as unfortunate as it is, and you know, probably like that little boy's feelings pretty bad, but it's kind of showing him that like this is how you don't want to be. Like, there are gonna be as you should be treated as you're like, even if he would have just said if he didn't want to, you know, just acknowledge and say, you know, I really appreciate you asking, or I think it's dumb that he didn't take the picture, but to just completely ignore and especially when a little kid is involved.

SPEAKER_00 46:09

I I just think that if you put yourself in that position to be on TV and try to be famous, therefore take the time of the people that are your fan base. Yeah, otherwise, don't put yourself on television, don't do it. If you don't want to, if you don't want a fan base and build a fan base and have people that's if that's gonna be your career and that's what you're doing, then then you damn sure better take care of your people that like you.

SPEAKER_02 46:30

And they are the reason you have friends you have. Yeah, those are the people that support you.

SPEAKER_00 46:34

Well, they're the reason they got money in their pocket, they're watching their show. Yeah, otherwise the ratings be shit and they'd be kicked off television, they could be pouring concrete somewhere, dumbasses.

SPEAKER_02 46:44

Dumb asses, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 46:45

I'm just saying that it just makes you mad whenever you think about some of the successful people that are out there like that. They treat their customer base like that. Doesn't even I understand being real like the real, real high end, like Michael Jackson could never walk out in public and just get mobbed. Right. Yeah, I'm just saying there's some of that people that are so sought after that they can't do them things. But average people, average people that on television like these guys were just horseshit.

SPEAKER_02 47:15

That is terrible. That's awful. So just a couple real quick questions here before we wrap up, some fun ones here. What is somebody that you have had and booked as an act here that just surprised the hell out of you? Jackal. Good or bad?

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Jackal.

SPEAKER_02 47:28

Really?

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

Well, there's a reason they've been here 25 years. So tell me that story, Robert. What happened?

SPEAKER_00 47:33

So so just it so it was a it was a bizarre incident that happened with that. So the first year opened in 2000, me and Alan Blankenship, he was from Tennessee, he was a concert promoter. So Alan Alan worked for me for years and years and years till he passed away. And Alan, me and him worked together, we done concerts together in Tennessee. He came out renting all the backstage stuff, and he would I would work through him to book our bands. And so we had Pat Travers and Great White at the throttle. The first year we opened, right? So Pat Travers shows up to the venue, it's like for sound check and all that. Got him picked up the airport, taking all the stuff that you do. You know about all that, that's what you do. And so um he says, Hey, Great White's not gonna show up. And and so Alan called, he's telling Alan this stuff. Alan calls me and said, Michael, we got a problem. I said, and Great White was a headliner. And he's and he says, Hey, great white's not gonna show up. Pat just told me that they were that he was get he was at LA and the bass player and drummer got a fist bite in the airport, and they didn't get on the plane. Yeah, and they never got on the plane, they're not coming. So, so so we were stuck, right? Out of the blue. So then out of the blue, Jesse calls Alan. Jesse the Priest. So Alan had booked Jackal and Jesse several times in Tennessee. So Jesse calls calls Alan and says, Hey man, I'm in Sturgis.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

What are the albums?

SPEAKER_00 48:59

And I'm just coming through Sturgis, man. I'm coming through Sturgis, and he was had a solo album, and he he was out doing dates with a solo thing, and he was coming through. He said, I heard you, I called my agent and he told me that you were you were at a venue in Sturgis that had bands. And he said, Yeah, and and you ain't gonna believe this, but Great White's not gonna be here tonight. We got a spot open. Jess, I'm there, I'll be right there. Jesse pulls in, goes up. Jesse headlined that night at the throttle.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

And it was over the top, and it just he just come, as you know, he came out, hit hit that stage boy, and it was on fire, and it was Jake just they just jammed and kicked ass and rocked it out. And that was the first time that I'd met Jesse was that that year.

SPEAKER_02 49:42

And so that was like really good friends over there.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

Yeah, so after that, we we uh we ended up going to bike week to Daytona because he'd been riding his whole life too. Both of us, it's weird, but both of us our lives like the same bike I had, he had as a kid, the same rifle I had growing up, he had. Like, it was unbelievable the characteristics between both of us growing up of how identical our childhoods was and everything. I grew up in construction land tile. He was in he worked at a in a concrete company, yeah. And so it was just so much coincided with that. It was so crazy. But so the one that blowed my mind was was was that one right there.

SPEAKER_02 50:21

That I I've never even heard that story, and I've worked here off and on since 2012. Yeah, and I've never known that story.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

So that's how that's how that's how Jess Jackal ended up at the throttle all of these years from there, was just that. And then he and I later on started doing things together. We started a little beer company, then we got into the liquor. I mean, we've done so much together since then. That's crazy. We we we got so much stuff going on together. He he's part, he does stuff with us with some of the distilleries, and he does stuff. We do things together all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 50:51

Well, he's got the sister property.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

Yeah, me and him are 50-50 and Pappy Hoyle in the campground, and and and and here at the throttle. I mean, he's always been a very, very big supporter of me.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

From day one, from the time we met, he loved the old throttle. He was like, Man, I can't believe this place. And he loved what I was doing over there, and he just got up and it was just weird, but it is it's it was been a lifelong connection, one of my best friends in the world now.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

So that's so cool. I mean, and you guys have built so much together, like the friendship, the businesses.

SPEAKER_00 51:20

Yeah, it's it's just it's I've helped I make his whiskey now in Tennessee at our place. I mean, so many things that we've fine. Yeah, we just help each other every time we, you know, anything that's needed. So that was the band that blow my mind. And then another one that happened to me that was really iconic to me was we had Tanya Tucker at the old throttle one time, right? And and I've only seen this a couple times. She was the first time, but I was kind of over the side watching. We had a packed house. Tanya Tucker walks out on that stage, and there's a certain level of a legend in the music industry that when they come out, you know, hey, that's a dance, a star just walked out onto the stage. When she came out and that that crowd, there was as many cowboy hats in the crowd as it was leather jackets. Yeah, I mean, it was such a mixture of people, and she walked out on that stage, boy, and you knew there was a legend that just came out, and the whole place was that way. The second time that happened was this year when Hank Williams Jr. walked out on that stage. When Hank came out of that back dressing room and come out, went up them steps and walked out on that stage. You knew a legend just walked out and hit that stage. And them are moments that you can't, you that, you know, I've had all kinds of bands in the world. But them two right there are two legends that have walked out on that stage, and you know when they come out, you just had a superstar that just came out.

SPEAKER_02 52:48

I actually got to do Tanya Tupper's hair and makeup when she played in Deadwood.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

Did you? Yeah. Awesome lady. What a incredible. She wrote on our we she wrote on our Papula Charity ride with us that year.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:59

Yeah, it was it was it was awesome. So she she was amazing, and and like I said, there's been a couple of moments that did you ever when you had a star look out into that crowd?

SPEAKER_02 53:09

Like I stood there just with my mouth open from up on the bridge, just like looking on both sides. Like I have never in my life seen this many people at full throttle slow. Yeah, I know. Never in your wildest dreams envisioned like that this is what this is what's gonna happen, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 53:26

Well, of course, man, that's why I built that place this big. What do you think I'm doing here?

SPEAKER_02 53:33

Okay, fine, fair. But I like I just to actually see it.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

I know, like see it, see it happen and watch it. Yeah, that's right. And you work, work. I I've been out here before at night, like a week before rally. Yeah, it'd be 10 o'clock at night, and there ain't nothing going on. You hear crickets over here, but you're like, man, and you've worked your ass off to get ready, right? Months, and you're like, Well, I sure hope they show up because it's 10 o'clock at night, you hear crickets, and then it's like a light switch kicks on, you know. So it it's uh, but no, it's it's incredible when you have them crowds and you have them people and they're here supporting you, and and having just the time of their lives, and you know, and Hank just slayed it. I don't know what to say.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

I've heard not one, not one negative comment.

SPEAKER_00 54:17

And we've gotten so many emails and messages about Hank the people that were here, and I mean it was just he just slayed it.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

That's that's awesome. So for people that don't get to that don't know you um outside of like Rally Michael, what is a Michael Ballard guilty pleasure?

SPEAKER_00 54:31

Oh my god, buying motorcycles.

SPEAKER_03 54:34

Motorcycles, part of the throttle stuff. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 54:39

Oh, does it? I don't know. I don't know because I still have a whole collection of bikes at my house. It's not even at the throttle.

SPEAKER_03 54:46

No, it's gonna be something like I like Disney.

SPEAKER_01 54:48

I like what Disney?

SPEAKER_02 54:51

Guilty pleasure, like guilty pleasure, yeah. I mean, because well, I mean, and and really it is kind of like everything that you do is kind of wrapped up, you know, in in the brand. So I'll let that one slide.

SPEAKER_00 55:03

I I guess because I'm I'm I because I get to do what I want to do. That's the difference. I think the the the thing is, is that I don't know that I got a guilty pleasure because I'm doing exactly what I want to do. I'm able to go, I'm able to do what I want to do. You know what I mean? I just bought a shovel head engine the other day and I got a guy bringing a flathead motor today that I bought. Like I'm into just I'm into the I'm into the bikes and the motors and uh building bikes and just doing the craziest thing too is that people when you I've had people ask me about all the equipment in here, and I'm like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

And I'm like, if Michael were in here right now, he would tell you where he got every piece of equipment in here, how much it cost him, what year it was made. I'm like, he knows every single little thing. And people are like, how does he know all that? I'm like, good question.

SPEAKER_00 55:49

All right, so you want a guilty pleasure here to us. Okay, and it has to do with the business to a degree, right? But I love going to junkyards and climbing through scrapyards and digging and get, I mean, I go to these big giant scrapyards, and you wouldn't believe the crap that big gears and stuff. I mean, I found most of this stuff at scrap, but I love going through scrapyards and junkyards or uh like there's a big press outside that I went into this building, three-story tall building, and it was a third-generation machine shop. Wow, and and and it would been shut down for years and years and years. An old block building by a railroad track was massive, and uh just going through that thing, and all of that stuff was just left alone. Like that when they closed years ago, left it untouched, it's all just sitting there.

SPEAKER_03 56:39

Oh my god, all the machines.

SPEAKER_00 56:41

It was like walking back in time going through this place, and uh, I mean, it was just insane. And I bought several pieces out of that place from the guy, and they just don't use them anymore. And it's just right, it was it was they they built stuff for World War II out of this plant for the government, and uh, I mean, uh, they would be building bombs in there and stuff, you know, castings for all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 57:02

That is so crazy, and that's actually the only reason the surgeons rally has ever been canceled is because of World War II for gas rapids.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:09

So I'm like, yeah, it's all it's all crazy how it all ties together. So he's an industrial thrifter.

SPEAKER_00 57:14

Yeah, well, junkyard. I like scrap. I'll I'll see stuff in a scrapyard. I'll think, man, if I took that and cut that up and I could do this with it or that with it and make welder that yeah, yeah. I have sculptures out all the sculptures out front, so I'll collect parts for them. If I see something that looks like it could be a gas tank for one of the bikes on a big, big, it could be like a river or a river buoy or something, and whatever. I just find different stuff that I know that'll fit that concept and I get it and haul it up here, and then we build up big giant sculptures outside, and we're working on a Willie G right now. So we got the head done, Willie G Davidson. Oh, we got one going with Willie G, where there's a real famous photo of Willie G downtown Sturgis on a lowrider. So Willie G, so the Harley Davidson Sturgis built in 1980, 81, and 82 was the first belt drive motorcycle, and it was a concept Willie G did. Well, Willie rode that rode that bike to Sturgis, and everybody was seeing the belt drive and man, what is this thing and all of this, right? So on his way home from Sturgis with his buddies, they were riding back to Milwaukee. Well, on their way back home, they uh pulled over to Side Road and and and he sat and made notes on a paper bag. You can go watch this on YouTube. He made all these notes about the bike, and he so and he had such a great experience at Sturgis, he named the bikes Sturgis because he wanted to come up. What kind of what can I name this special motorcycle? And of course, he just left Sturgis and it was Harley Davis and Sturgis. So he made them bikes for three years. That was the first belt drive motorcycle. Now they're all bell drive, everywhere. Yeah. So, you know, he changed the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

Changed the game of the bike. Changed the game, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:47

So, but there's a famous picture of him on that bike, downtown Sturgis, and he's laughing. He's sitting on a bike, and there's guys around him, you know, checking it out. So we we're building that sculpture. We're building that sculpture now.

SPEAKER_02 58:57

So and that's gonna go in the parking lot with the rest of them.

SPEAKER_00 58:59

Yeah, it's going out the parking lot.

SPEAKER_02 59:00

So, how many are you thinking you want to have out there?

SPEAKER_00 59:02

That's endless. I don't know. I got a mile of highway frontage.

SPEAKER_02 59:06

Well, anything 600 acres.

SPEAKER_00 59:08

Yeah, so we got 600 acres to play with now and a mile of highway frontage, so we're just gonna keep keep rocking it.

SPEAKER_02 59:14

That's too funny. Well, thank you so much, Michael, for sitting down with me and talking to uh all the listeners out there with explicitly speaking. We got to pull the curtain back a little bit um on Michael and not just rally Michael. You got to see you know a little bit more of him, get to know him a little bit more. I hope you guys super enjoyed this episode. Make sure and tune in next week. And Michael, thank you again so much.

SPEAKER_01 59:34

Absolutely. Thank you.