Episode 10: "Sheepdog" Kevin Hull

Kevin Hull stops by the Rad Movie Podcast to talk BMX nostalgia, the lasting legacy of Rad, and why the film still inspires riders and fans nearly 40 years later. From old school BMX culture to the excitement building around the 40th anniversary, this episode is pure Rad energy for longtime fans and new riders alike.

If you want to help support the show, please like, subscribe and share it with friends who are Rad fans, and consider helping me out at https://buymeacoffee.com/tonywv .

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So I went down to the factory and and Rich Long called me into the office and asked if I wanted to do this movie. And uh of course I'm gonna say yes, you know, I had no idea you know really what the deal was, and so I flew home for a week, flew back to back to the factory, and then me and Martin drove the GT Van and trailer up from Orange County up to uh to Calgary to have it.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Man, that that's a bit of a drive.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

That was a track.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Welcome to the Rad Movie Podcast. I'm your host, Tony Donaldson, and a super fan of the movie, probably like you. In this podcast, I will be interviewing the cast of the film, some of the writers, and some notable fans. You can watch this podcast as a video podcast on YouTube, or listen to it anywhere you listen to podcasts. Please consider liking and subscribing and share this with your rad fan friends. Hey, fellow rad fans. Welcome back to the uh it's a milestone, actually, today. It's the tenth episode of the podcast. Most podcasts do not make it this far. So thank you for sticking with me for this. Um I have a a really good guest today. Uh it is none other than the sheepdog himself, uh Kevin Hall. He uh he he goes into how he got started, what got him into BMX, how he got the nickname Sheepdog, who gave it to him, uh, and his experience on the movie Rat. It's uh it's a it's a fun little conversation. Um I think you're gonna like it, and uh so without any more fanfare, let's talk this sucker.

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Hey Kevin, how are you? I'm doing good.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

How are you doing, Tony? Good, man. Good. Where are you these days? I am up in Olympia, Washington now. Okay. Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Wow, that's great. Yeah. Very good. Um, are you uh well let's let's go all the way back, way before Rad. How did you get started in BMX?

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Uh growing up in South Austin, uh back in Texas, just riding around the streets with my friends and stuff. Uh friend of mine that lived down the end of the block was racing at the time. So kind of went with him a couple times and then just started uh that's that's how it started. That was back in fall of seventy-eight.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Wow, so since the seventies.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah. Right on how old were you then? Twelve. I was twelve when I first started racing. Alright, alright. Yep. So Yeah, that's how I got started.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

So well, and you did pretty darn well, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah, yeah, I think I did okay over the years.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

So I mean it's it's pretty rare to make it to the pro ranks.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, yeah, definitely. So, you know, just uh a lot of riding, a lot of you know it was it was fun, you know. Started with the trails and ended up racing, and then you know, got to travel a lot and you know, got to turn pro after a while and all that. So yeah, sponsored by GT. Yeah, that was a big thing for me. Um locally I was sponsored by a a small bike shop-ish uh team, um, Texas BMX Accessories. We they were backed by GT, you know, so I kind of went through the ranks of a support rider on the team, then a cofactory GT rider, and then basically at the end of eighty three is when Chanity, Nelson Chanity turned pro for night eighty four, and they were looking for an amateur to fill those fill that class for eighty-four going forward. And so I did good at the grands that year and went out to LA in December of of eighty three, also after the grands to the world championships, and then then we went to the factory and met up with Rich and Gary and they picked me up. Kind of kind of a dream, you know. Yeah, no kidding.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

So yeah. To go from just a you know, small town racer to well, not small town, because Austin's not small, but uh but you know, go from a a small time racer, I should say, to, you know, working your way up to to arguably one of the best teams that ever existed.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Right, right. Yeah, that was I didn't I'd never imag imagined it. I just I was just racing, you know, doing my thing and and just kind of you know, it just kinda all worked out, you know, which was great, and and then you know, being on GT for four years was just a dream and you know, traveling and and racing and yeah, it was it was awesome.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

I mean I mean, you know, and part of your legacies, you're in the Texas BMX Hall of Fame.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Yeah, yeah. When they started that, um yeah, I got in on the first first go-around. Uh you know, even though I kind of more was more popular or whatever you want to call it in the eighties, but I I did start in the seventies and stuff, so yeah. Um I get back there every so I I think I've been to th that one and two others uh inductions. You know, I'd like to get to all of them, but just can't go every year. So you know, it's kind of one of those things. But yeah. Yeah, that was an honor, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

So then how did you get involved? How did were you approached? Did you approach the people that were producing rad? Like how did that work?

SPEAKER_01 5:45

No, that was that was so that was in the fall of 85, um, racing again. Uh I had come back to LA, Orange County, whatever, from the NBL Grands, and uh went down, yeah, always hung out at GT and stuff at that time. I hadn't moved out to to LA or Orange or California at that time. So I was still going back and forth to Texas and stuff. Anytime I flew out to LA for a race, I'd stay for a week or so, hang out at GT, you know, make t-shirts, send parts home, this and that. Um so I went down to the factory and and Rich Long called me into the office and asked if I wanted to do this movie. And uh, of course I'm gonna say yes, you know, I had no idea you know really what the deal was. And so I flew home for a week, flew back to back to the factory, and then me and Martin drove the GT Van and trailer up from Orange County up to uh to Calgary to have it.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Man, that that's a bit of a drive.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

That was a trek. So so yeah, and then we were there for about three three weeks. Eddie was already there before us doing kind of the paper out things and and all that early part of the movie, and by the time we got there, it was starting to get into the qualify, you know, they were just about to start the qualifying and the racing and all that stuff. So so yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

That was that was all at Boness Park, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Yes, yeah. Boness Park there in Calgary, and uh yeah, just built just for that and then torn down.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

So such a such a cool thing. I mean, I wish I could have seen it back back then. Um what sort of shenanigans did you and Martin get into on the way up here?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Uh up uh on the way up, nothing, no. I mean really no not if we did, I can't remember it. There's a lot of things I can't remember from way back when are you gonna bleed the fifth? Right. Maybe not too, but I mean hanging out up there during filming, there were times we couldn't film, and you know, we'd just drive around, roam around, uh ride the bikes around the town. There was times it was snowing, you couldn't really do much. Um, but you know, we'd we had fun, you know, um just staying there in the International Hotel and stuff. You know, I've got a couple photo albums of of pictures from then. And there was times I was so bored I was building models in the room.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Your photo albums are legendary. I mean, nobody else has a a a collection of behind-the-scenes photos of that. I mean, I'm sure they had a set stills photographer, but they've never released any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Right. Yeah. You know, I obviously some of the photos I didn't take because I'm in them, so I'm not sure where I got those and whether there were any of the other writers like Martin or Eddie. I I honestly cannot remember. I just knew I had all these pictures, and I think once I got back home, I, you know, bought two photo albums and and uh just put them in it, and you know, I take them to the a lot of the old school show old school shows that I go to and stuff, and you know, I'll bring them down to Dirty Fest uh coming up this summer. And uh yeah, people love looking at it. You know, they're they're cool pictures and stuff and kind of behind the scenes definitely.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

So Yeah, I mean i i there's a lot of people that collect a lot of mem memorabilia from the movie and that kind of thing, but the the photos would be, you know, that that's something very unique that you have.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Yeah, yeah. So I've never I've I've I think I've posted some pictures over the years, but it's been a while, so you know out of the album, but but not a a whole bunch of 'em, so you know. The it's cool. So yeah. Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah. I mean, if anybody's ever doing a book on the movie rad, i it would be good to be in touch with you to uh talk about that sort of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah, that'd be cool. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

So are you coming down for Dirty Fest this year?

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah, yeah. I went last year for the first time. Um kind of you know, had heard about it obviously, and and everything everything. So me and my wife went down last year and then we're going down again, and one of my one of my sons is going down with his wife. Um Very cool. So it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah, it'll be good good fun to run into you.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Right, right, yeah, oh definitely. Yeah, I loved it last year, and it just keeps growing every year.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

So, you know, it it'll be another good weekend. Yeah, I can't I I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Same here. Same here. I usually go with John Carr.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Okay. Yeah. I love John.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yep. Yeah, I I I lose him the second I get there because he's off, you know. Somebody grabs him and exactly.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Always you can't help it, you know. There's so many people that you want to talk to and so many people you miss, you know. So it's just it's just yeah, it's great though. Definitely.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

It is. It is, it's a good time. I I really like the background you've got set up.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Oh yeah, some I m man cave, some of my rad stuff, and you know photo. Yeah, so was that your is that a cover of you? That's yeah, BMX Action. That's one of my awesome. So I've got a couple on this other wall and and stuff, so yeah. That was uh God, I forget what year that was. That that was down at Balboa um down at Balboa with uh Mil Wee and uh Chris Moeller, and we were doing some street riding, jumping off the curbs and stuff, and that was a color or a black and white photo that they colored for BMX. Wow, who shot it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Was it Spike?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Wendy.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Wendy, all right.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

It's the only time they ever years later I heard that was the only time they ever colored uh a black and white for a photo uh cover shot.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Hmm. Kind of unique. It very much is. I mean, this is b before the age of computers and all that stuff. Um I do remember Spike used to color some of his photos, but he did it with like markers.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

So this is this is probably a little bit more work than that.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Probably. Yeah. So yeah.

unknown 12:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

So who gave you the name Sheepdog? That was from Texas again. Um there was a I've told this story a few times. Um across from the high school I eventually went to was a it was a half convenience store, half arcade. So we hung out there, you know. You know I can imagine. You know, Missile Command and all that stuff, and just you know, you had snacks and there was a a guy there that worked there, big big redneck. Um, we called him Snuffy. Big, big, tall, big tall guy, nice guy. And just one day he just said, You just look like a sheepdog, just because of all the hair I had, you know, just so big and blonde and you know, flowy and whatever. And so yeah, it just kind of stuck and kind of kinda went with it and you know, had it on my you know, leathers and things like that, and and so yeah, you know, still there.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Nice. Yeah. Well, I the the the neighborhood always gives you your your nickname.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Right, right. You can't give yourself one.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

So what was your what was your experience being on the on the movie? Like you're on the set.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

But it was fun.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

I mean it was you know everything was kind of timed out, and you know, when you had to be where and what days and and uh so when we got there the track wasn't finished, the wall w uh the wall, you know, the starting hill was was done. I don't e I don't even know if they'd finished painting it yet. I think they were still working on it, and uh so we all looked at it, and I know I looked at it like, oh my god, that's just huge and and steep. And um and a couple of my shots in the in the uh my photo album are from the side of the ramp, you know, the starting hill. And it's you know, it's like I heard 74 degrees, and you know, there's somebody standing right next to it too, so you get a anyways, it was you know that was the last as with all movies, they're never in in any sort of order for the Hell Track Race was the start. Because it took us a while Right. It took us a while to to figure out how to go down it and uh was was the main thing. You know, nobody That's what I've heard. And I think Beatle is accredited with uh going down first and you kinda you eventually Yeah, you eventually had to carve in. You you didn't want to go straight in and over, you know, and things like that. Miranda even at one point took a uh a tire we had, you know, just from laying around down along the track and stuff. And he figured if it rolled and stuck all the way down the hill, then we were good, but it it caught air and about halfway down it hit. And so yeah, yeah, so you kind of really just want didn't want to go straight. So, anyways, you carved down after after you went down once or a couple times, then it was like, okay, well now we got it. So but uh yeah, so we we started filming in the first turn and then worked our way around, you know, reset up the camera the second turn and coming around and under the bridge and through the ant hills where I crash and you know that's it.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

So when you're when you're filming it progressive like that, you have to film it probably three or four times to show laps. So I mean if you really and I'm sure a lot of people have noticed, you if you really watch the movie either the Helltrack race itself or and the the qualifying, they're never I mean it it would it would be a monstrous task to keep track of all of that to have continuity from all the shots. So but you know, it's it's a movie, so you're not yeah, hopefully paying attention to that.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Oh god.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

No, no, but you know, I'm sure there's a lot of guys that have watched it enough times that can pick out a lot of stuff, and and there's there's things that I forgot that we did during the filming of it, and Eddie uh had told me about this years ago that we had switched number plates at one point while we were filming, and I didn't remember that. So there are a couple shots that I that I have his number plate, he has mine.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

And then it's there's there's something for the eagle-eyed fans to to watch out for uh the next time you watch. See if you can notice the difference between the two. Is that in the qualifying race? Right. Yeah. Yeah, that makes that makes a lot of sense. That's kind of funny. Yeah, that's more in the qualifying rounds. I keep wanting to get uh Scott Clark on here because in the qualifying rounds, yeah, every shot he has his his JT mouth guard hanging down. Every shot. It's never snapped. And I haven't paid enough attention during the race to see if he actually snapped it for that.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Oh, he does.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Really? So I want to I that's something I want to ask him about. Funny. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

That's a good one. I'll have to look at look for it next time. Well, I'm gonna go. Uh there's you know uh Rad 40s um uh Sunday and this coming Sunday and Tuesday uh it's playing. Yeah, so I'll go. We got two theaters locally here. I'll go to one theater on Sunday and another.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah, it's gonna be fun. Um I'm actually going with uh on Sundays. I'm the I'm taking Sam Bernard and we're gonna go out and meet Bill out in Glendale, and then Tuesday we're gonna do the same thing, but Miranda's gonna be there. Okay, okay. So that's gonna be fun. Yep, yep, and unfortunately I'm probably gonna have this uh podcast produced after the fact. So but uh I are you thinking about going to the 40th in Calgary?

SPEAKER_02 19:04

Yeah. Oh totally.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

I I would love to, um, but with with Dirty Fest the month before, and then I think in early July, I've gotta go uh it's probably gonna be early first week or so of July. I've got to go back and get my daughter and bring her back from Michigan, her and her two room. Congratulations out here. Um she went to school there and graduated, and she's a teacher now, so but they she wants to come. So yeah, so I gotta trek 'em uh back here. So I don't know if I'll be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah, see, I I only went to the twenty-fifth uh year in Los Angeles.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

I went to twenty-five, that was a a blast.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Yeah. Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

I went up uh that was a good time, you know. Hell Neaton was still in town and all that.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Right, and what are you doing these days?

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Yeah, so that was cool. You know.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Still working, you know, and uh been there 34 years, uh at the same thing, just uh working on aircraft components and and things like that. And just uh got four four grandkids, you know, three grown kids. So we have the grandkids off and on on the weekends and stuff, and you never know when they're gonna be around. Yeah, it's it's fun to have 'em around. They're fun to fun to have. So I got a little bit of property and I've got the power wheel jeeps and stuff for 'em and yeah. Yeah. So that's about it. Not really riding much anymore. And the tracks aren't open. We lost our indoor track that we had for forty-two years up here, and uh last last March it closed down or at the end of the winter season, and so now it's just summer season. So it's um it's gotta be tough on the the kids that race a lot and go to nationalists from Washington. I don't know what they do. You guys have any pump paved pump tracks out there? 'Cause it rains a lot during the winter. So there are some, yeah, you know, so not near me. Uh I'm not sure even where the closest paved one is. But um, you know, I know a year ago a few guys here locally were trying to get a just a dirt pump track, and that was just too much red tape for the county or for us to deal with them with the county to just for jumps. And there there is one riding area right by my work I used to ride at that's still rideable and stuff, um, but I don't even go there. I haven't been there. I every once in a while stop by during lunch or something and just walk. And uh so it's it's there. So you know, I and I still got my 24 inch, I got my GT and and stuff, and I've got a 20 inch I could build if I wanted one. So uh it's a it's a newer, like the Mach 1. And then I you so yeah, GT sent me a Mach 1 a few years ago, kind of COVID-ish, I guess. And um they even sent me that was my cruiser, and then they sent me the Speed Series 20-inch, and it's been a year since I've been at a 20-inch, and it was just way too twitchy. I I just couldn't handle it. Took it out of the track and rode a few maps, and that was that nope, I couldn't do that anymore. So I'm good on a 24-inch, and uh, you know, and then I've got a I've got a 20 26 inch uh Gary Turner cruiser that Craig makes, uh Craig Turner makes and stuff. And then I've even got some of the Gary Turner 24 inch race frames um that Craig makes. Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Yeah, I mean switch them around. The thing about the looking at the modern BMX bikes 20 inch or otherwise, those seats are so low, and I'm too old for that. Like this just kills my knees.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Yeah. Yep. No, I I I don't get it.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

You know, yeah, I yeah, not me. Yeah, when I when I do go out, I'm you know, I'm kind of the one of the there's there's not many guys out there that have them that yeah, high like we used to do it. There you go. So but whatever's comfortable for whatever's comfortable for me, uh Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Thank you so much for for spending the time with me and uh and doing the interview, and I'll I'll definitely see you at Dirty Fest. Hey, thanks for making it all the way to the end of this episode. Please hit that like and subscribe button and check out our other episodes.