Joe Rogan Experience #2489 - Ryan Bingham

Joe Rogan and Ryan Bingham have a wide-ranging, story-driven conversation rooted in ranch life, the outdoors, and music. They spend the first half on nature and wildlife: Montana guide school, hunting axis deer in Hawaii, the explosion of feral pigs and mountain lions, controversial wolf and deer reintroduction programs, and the California wildfires that pushed Bingham to leave Topanga for Texas. The back half traces Bingham's improbable life path, from riding steers at age 10 and a gruesome bull-riding injury to learning guitar in Texas bars, writing Crazy Heart's songs, and getting cast on Yellowstone with no acting training. They close on the therapeutic power of songwriting, the country-music resurgence, and advice for young artists to protect their craft and avoid bad contracts.

• Bingham attended a 6-week Montana guide school (Royal Tine Outfitters) and calls it life-changing, nearly never returning to civilization.
  00:05:38
• On a Lanai bow hunt with Cam Hanes, John Dudley, Adam Greentree and Remi Warren everyone got a deer; a later group of 150 hunters landed only one.
  00:33:33
• The Palisades fire was the final straw that made Bingham evacuate his horses and ultimately move back to Texas.
  00:55:17
• Bingham recounts a bull-riding wreck in Weatherford that tore his lip off and knocked out his front teeth, with no health insurance.
  01:40:23
• Taylor Sheridan cast Bingham on Yellowstone with no acting experience, joking 'if you suck, I'll kill you off.'
  01:36:14
• Joe says he phoned Oliver Anthony early on and told him not to sign a $7 million contract: 'you don't need nobody.'
  02:13:54
• Bingham admits he only really learned to play guitar properly via YouTube around 2019, two decades into his career.
  02:10:17

• Fritos make excellent fire kindling because of how much oil they contain; they burn like a candle.
  00:11:53
• Axis deer were gifted to King Kamehameha from India in the 1800s; Lanai now has about 30,000 of them for only 3,000 people.
  00:28:56
• Wild axis deer evolved alongside tigers, which is why they can dodge an arrow within 10 yards of being hit.
  00:34:36
• Wolves make mountain lions kill more deer by surrounding the cat and stealing its kill, forcing it to hunt again.
  00:42:20
• When wildlife officials examine problem mountain lions in California, roughly 50% of their diet is pets.
  00:49:38
• California spent over $110 million on a wildlife bridge over the 101, still unfinished as of early 2026.
  00:48:04
• Bingham's grandfather called refrigeration the most important invention of his lifetime, over the computer or internet.
  01:15:00
• Market hunting nearly wiped out American deer and bison; the Lacey Act of 1900 was the first major federal anti-market-hunting law.
  01:16:32
• Colter Wall recorded 'Kate McCannon' at 21 yet sounds like a 58-year-old lifelong smoker.
  02:06:42
• Bingham's first guitar song was the mariachi tune 'La Malagueña,' taught to him by a man playing dominoes with his dad in Laredo.
  01:29:27