PUEBLO, Colo. – In 1994, Andy Watson – PBR’s longtime photographer and the lens behind Bull Stock Media – got his PRCA card to be a photographer at rodeos.
He showed up in Red Lodge, Montana, to work his first PRCA rodeo, and was joined on the dirt at that event by an up-and-coming rodeo entertainer also working his first PRCA rodeo – Flint Rasmussen.
“We both started our pro rodeo career at the same event of the same year,” Watson said. “So it’s kind of funny – we did that, and then we both worked our very first PBR World Finals together in ’97.
“I remember watching him thinking, ‘Wow, he’s way different than all these other rodeo clowns around.’ He just had a different take on the way he performed his job.”
Thirty years later, Rasmussen is approaching his retirement following the PBR World Finals on May 12-21 in Fort Worth, Texas. The two men are a little grayer than they once were, but now on their side are decades of memories and friendship.
“I remember starting out with him when I started shooting PBRs – Flint and Justin Hawks, one of the bullfighters, and I would travel together to the events,” Watson said. “And we would drive. We drove to Portland and these other events. But that was always fun, when me and Justin would go and meet up with Flint and drive. It was a fun time because we were all taking off in our careers and spending time together, talking about it and excited about it. Lots of time sitting around rodeos, he had his trailer and I had my fifth-wheel trailer, and we’d sit out there, have a beer after a show. Those are the fun times.”
The idea of having the same coworker for thirty years is almost incomprehensible for most of us. But for Watson and Rasmussen, it allowed them to build up a friendship that Watson says is now effortless.
“Can’t stand the guy,” Watson joked, laughing. “I think it’s a friendship you kind of take for granted. We don’t call each other all the time. We don’t hang out all the time. But we’re always there. If Flint comes over to Bozeman and visits his girls or something, or he’s going to fly out, he comes and stays at the house, and we sit around and drink wine at night and tell old stories and just talk about stuff. It’s a friendship you don’t have to work for to be a friend, you know?”
Both call Montana home, meaning they were always in each other’s orbit when they were first starting out. It also meant that it was a no-brainer for Watson to ask Rasmussen to work his yearly summer Touring Pro Division event in Big Sky.
(The two will work one final Unleash The Beast event together in Montana this weekend at the PBR Wrangler Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, in Billings. Action begins Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET on RidePass on Pluto TV.)
“In the beginning, when we thought about doing this, there was never a question in my mind that it was Flint that I wanted to work this event, work all of my events,” Watson said. “Knowing his work ethic, knowing he’s going to work as hard as I’m going to work to make the event successful, that’s huge as a producer, to know that somebody has your back as much as he will.”
Watson has admittedly put Rasmussen through some crazy things in Big Sky and is grateful that Rasmussen trusts him and his wife, Jacey, not to make him look terrible.
On one memorable occasion, the Watsons had Rasmussen enter the arena on a camel named Butters.
“I called him and said, ‘Hey, we might have this deal with a camel. Would you mind coming in on a camel?’ ‘Yeah, fine, sure. That’s fine,’” Watson recalls. “And then he forgot about it, and then we’re sitting there at the production meeting and the camel trailer comes in with the camel, and we’re like, ‘Oh, the camel’s here.’ And he looks at me and goes, ‘What?! I’m not getting on a camel. I have allergies. I’m not getting on a camel.’”
Watson persuaded him to meet Butters, whose handler, to Rasmussen’s dismay, told them that camels are hypoallergenic.
“He’s out of excuses, so he jumped in there, and he met Butters, and Butters was super sweet,” Watson said. “And next thing you know, he was entering the arena on a camel, and it was hilarious. It was awesome.
“He’s worked nearly all of them that I’ve ever put on, and he’s a huge, huge part of it. We are going to miss him dearly, just like everybody will.”
When Watson was first starting to photograph rodeos, he didn’t know much about the sport or the production element, but he knew immediately that Rasmussen was different and really, really good. Now, with Rasmussen’s retirement from the dirt less than a month away, Watson – like the rest of us – isn’t sure what the PBR is going to look like without him.
“I don’t know, I might have to retire too because I’ll miss him,” Watson said with a laugh. “There’s other good guys out there, but there’s nobody that does it like Flint. There will be nobody that will fully, truly replace Flint. There’ll be guys that do a good job and get the job done, and hopefully, there’s somebody out there that’s going to step up and make it their own. But I don’t even know how many times I’ve seen Flint perform – tons and tons, a thousand plus. And I still, every time, every day, when he does something, when he says something, I listen to him and watch and wonder what he’s going to say. And I will totally miss that.”
Photos courtesy of Bull Stock Media