SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Brady Oleson likely would have spent his Friday evening preparing to do bed checks just ahead of curfew at the sober house he has called home for the past eight months in Riverton, Utah.
Instead, the 25-year-old was competing alongside the Top 40 bull riders in the world Friday night at the PBR Wrangler Long Live Cowboys Classic, presented by Bass Pro Shops, just hours after attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with a close friend earlier in the day.
It was the latest step forward for Oleson as he continues to work toward his recovery from an alcohol addiction that nearly ended his life, let alone his bull riding career.
This coming Tuesday will be the 10-month anniversary of when Oleson chose to admit himself into a 60-day alcohol addiction treatment program at The Renaissance Ranch Treatment Center in Logan, Utah.
“I was at the point where I didn’t know if I really wanted to be alive anymore,” Oleson said of his decision to enter a treatment program this past April. “That is just how it was. I struggled with depression, and I still do, and it was just at that point that something needed to be done. I was either going to die or get help. It was circumstances of life. I knew I couldn’t do this anymore.”
Once he finished an inpatient treatment program, Oleson elected to double down on his recovery, registering for the Renaissance Ranch’s outpatient program. Oleson was placed into a sober house with a group of other men working together to improve their mental health while addressing their addiction.
“I still felt pretty crappy after 60 days,” Oleson said of his decision to join the outpatient program. “Emotionally, mentally, physically, I was broken. I knew I just needed more time to heal, and the program I went through, the people cared about me and were helping me.”
In fact, one of Oleson’s friends who he met through Renaissance Ranch surprised him by flying out to Sacramento this weekend to cheer him on inside the Golden 1 Center.
“The people I met through Renaissance Ranch, they saved my life,” Oleson, who was bucked off by Cali’s Dream in 4.15 seconds in Round 1, said. “I know a bunch of guys back home were watching tonight. I didn’t really tell anyone about my bull riding much. I kept it under the rug until recently. It is really cool that I have the support of all those guys. We are all battling and going through the same thing together.”
Oleson says he can think back to his younger days and see signs that he was treating his mental health struggles with alcohol, but things truly began to worsen in the past few years.
The Blackfoot, Idaho, native was on the cusp of becoming a regular on the PBR’s premier series in 2018, but he wound up needing to get surgery on his riding wrist that April. A failed return from that injury resulted in him deciding to get a necessary surgery on his left shoulder five months later.
Six months at home recovering from the shoulder surgery only led to further problems for Oleson, who admits to using the bottle to cope with his disappointment and mask his emotions.
“After the injuries and surgeries, I kind of fell into a dark place and used alcohol frequently,” Oleson admitted. “Financially, things were starting to fall apart, and I had no structure. I sat at home, and I struggled bad. I was always a little bit out of control, especially when it came to alcohol. After I would have my first beer, there was never a stopping point for me. A normal person could have two or three, have a buzz, and say, ‘Okay, I’m good.’ To function, I needed to have alcohol. Then when it was time to get my life back together, I was out of control. It kind of went too far for me to regroup, right?
“A lot of people in my life were fed up with it, and I honestly was too, but I couldn’t stay away from it.”
World No. 4 Stetson Lawrence commended Oleson for deciding to focus on his mental health and address his alcohol addiction. Lawrence addressed his own mental health struggles last season as he dealt with his demons while recovering from a broken neck and reconstructive shoulder surgery that ended his 2021 season.
“I started going to counseling (last year), and I was able to see a lot of dark stuff I didn’t know I was angry about and emotions I didn’t know I had,” Lawrence said. “It was very eye-opening and new. Everyone should do it. Everyone goes through mental problems.
“It is awesome that Brady quit drinking. He noticed it, and he wanted to better himself. I am glad he is on the right track, and that is the foremost goal. And it is awesome he is riding good again and is back on top.”
Oleson thought he could get things somewhat on track in 2019, and he went to a handful of PBR events and some amateur rodeo events.
“I kind of got it back together enough to go the first handful Velocities in 2020, but I couldn’t finish,” Oleson said. “I think I rode every long-round bull and fell off every short-round bull. I tried coming back, and I did okay. COVID then hit, and I got stuck in my ways and started drinking heavy. That was it. I tried to go to a couple events later in the season, but I mentally wasn’t there.”
Physically, Oleson said he gained 30 pounds from all the drinking he was doing. He also ended up having his driver’s license suspended for a year last year after being pulled over and charged with a DUI.
“I was not capable of riding bulls,” Oleson said. “The crazy thing was I never wanted to drink, right? Once I hit a certain point, I wanted to focus on bull riding and doing well, but I kind of just lost the choice. I know people say you have a choice to drink or not. But it got to a point where I didn’t have that choice. I was getting that alcohol. I would drink before I ate.
“A lot of people told me if I don’t fix my life, that this would never be a part of it again. I saw in my past everything I destroyed and ruined. There was no chance anything came back if I didn’t get sober.”
Oleson, as he also told Northwest Rodeo Media this week, admits that when he walked into the Renaissance Ranch Treatment Center last spring, his bull riding career was the last thing on his mind. The priority was saving his life.
“It was not only about the alcohol,” Oleson said. “There are some underlying emotional stuff and conditions that can cause a guy like me to drink like that. I had to work through some of that emotional stuff because many of us were raised to not talk about feelings, and don’t feel, and if you feel this way, you are wrong, stop it. It was hard to learn what I was feeling and how to work through it.
This past December, the itch to possibly return to the bull riding arena started to return for Oleson, and he decided to enter his first PBR in a year and a half. He hopped in his truck to drive to Klamath Falls, Montana, the day after he graduated (Dec. 30) from his outpatient program to compete at his first event since Aug. 7, 2020.
“It was a good experience, and I didn’t think I was going to ride again,” Oleson said. “I lost the drive, passion and love for it. It was all kind of gone. Eight months sober, and I was all of a sudden thinking I want to maybe do this again.
“I am now almost ten months sober, and when I get back from Sacramento, I will be moving into an apartment with a friend I met through the program.”
Oleson went 0-for-2 in Klamath Falls, and he knew he was rusty, to say the least. He had only been on a handful of bulls in the last year.
What he didn’t expect, though, was to then make his Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour season debut on Jan. 15 with a 3-for-3 victory at the Portland Classic. Oleson did not slow down either, placing second last weekend at the Spokane Classic.
Just like that, Oleson is the No. 2-ranked bull rider on the Velocity Tour and has surged to No. 18 in the world standings.
“I feel more confident, but hell, I don’t know how I will do in the arena,” Oleson said. “I have only been on four or five bulls in the PBR. When I won Portland, that was pretty overwhelming, and they called me and said, you are going to Sacramento. This all just happened so fast. In 2018, it took me working four years to get here.”
The majority of his friends in the locker room had no idea that Oleson had entered rehab.
Oleson’s travel mate in Sacramento, Matt Triplett, had known him for years and only learned about his friend’s decision once Oleson told him in Portland.
“I’ve known Brady for quite some time, and I didn’t know he was struggling that much,” Triplett said. “It is inspiring that he admitted it and saw he had a problem and went to try and fix it. I am proud he went down that road and got out of that hole he was in. You can tell he is ready to change his life for the better. He now wants to come back and ride bulls and take things serious. It is fun rooming with a guy like that. We will keep each other on a straight path and keep pushing each other to go try and win a world title.”
Oleson kept his decision pretty quiet, and at one point, he didn’t talk to anyone outside of his mother, Teresa, who he credits for being his biggest lifesaver through the past few years, for two or three months.
“My mom was the only person I had left,” Oleson said before pausing to compose himself. “I remember being quite upset about it that she still cared about me. I told her, ‘Mom, I will never be able to stop this, so stop caring about me,’ but she wouldn’t give up.”
The 2015 PBR Canada champion says he was one of the youngest residents at his sober house, and he was even elected to serve as the house’s president.
One thing Oleson learned from talking with a lot of the older men he lived with was that so many of them wished they hadn’t waited until later in life to ask for help.
Now Oleson hopes that by sharing his own experience, it may encourage other young men or athletes to reach out for help to turn around their lives if alcohol abuse is something they are struggling to overcome.
“I was a little hesitant at first about opening up because it is a little embarrassing, but it really is not,” Oleson said. “I wish when I was going through it, I knew someone. I didn’t know anyone who was going through it, and I just kind of thought I was a little crazy.
“If someone hears my story, maybe it sends them down a good path. It is something I think that is important for everyone to know is out there.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media