FORT WORTH, Texas – Flint Rasmussen says he can boil his career down to one song lyric.

From Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi – a staple at PBR shows – “I’ve seen a million faces and rocked them all.”

It’s hard to argue with that. Rasmussen worked his first PBR World Finals in 1997 and has served as the PBR’s exclusive entertainer since 2006, entertaining thousands of fans each weekend and witnessing all the PBR’s biggest moments from the best seat in the house.

Rasmussen will rock the crowds for one last time at the PBR World Finals from May 12-21 in Fort Worth, Texas, before hanging up his cleats for good later this summer. Round 1 from Fort Worth airs live at 8:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network.

RELATED: PBR official entertainer Flint Rasmussen to leave the dirt at end of 2023 Unleash The Beast season, joining PBR’s television broadcast

At Rasmussen’s first World Finals, Michael Gaffney was crowned the World Champion. Nowadays, Gaffney is the head coach of the PBR Team Series’ Austin Gamblers. There’s no outrunning Father Time, and Rasmussen feels it’s time to, like Gaffney, start his next chapter.

While it was hard to retire, Rasmussen says there were two parts to his choice: physical and mental.

Physically, things are just getting a little more painful.

“I’m 55 years old and still making that first big step up onto that fence,” he said. “I still do it, but it’s a little slower all the time. It’s what we do when we get older. I’m not able to do what I used to do, and I swore I would never be the guy that people went, ‘Ugh, I sure wish he’d go.’

“And I know there’s probably people that are saying that anyway,” he added with a laugh. “But I do not completely want to change the style that I’ve done this job just to keep doing it. That’s not being true to myself. I swore I would never do that.”

Emotionally, Rasmussen says he doesn’t have the same drive as he did when he was younger.

“When you go out in front of 12,000 people, and they’re expecting the top show that we guarantee, mentally, you’ve got to be completely in it, like you’re getting ready for a football game and ready to compete, and I just can’t do that anymore,” he said. “I’ve caught myself not having the desire to go out in the arena. As fun as it looks, and it is fun once we’re out there, but the drive, the motivation – I am tired. A big-picture tired. I start looking at other people hitting their marks more than myself, and it’s time to move on to something else.”

RELATED: Photographer Andy Watson reflects on 30 years of friendship with Flint Rasmussen

Most fans of this generation don’t know the PBR without Flint Rasmussen. He’s been an integral part of each and every show, with very few exceptions. As much value as he’s provided to the fans, the job has made just as much of an impact on Rasmussen himself.

“I was a great rodeo clown, I feel, but I think this took me in a different direction,” Rasmussen said. “I’ve changed. I adapted. This was my kind of show – music, lights, TV. That was everything I wanted when I was in high school. So this was my kind of show, and the great thing about this and being in the PBR is it isn’t like being a rodeo clown, where you come to a rodeo and fit in where you can. I’m ingrained in production. I’m a part of the production. I have a little bit of say in the production. So it has made me grow and made my mind work in different ways.

“And what an opportunity. I’m the kid that grew up in a town of 1700 people. Man, I’ve eaten a lot of New York City pizza, and been in LA, where Kobe Bryant played, and cities all over the country. I would’ve never had that opportunity, ever. And I didn’t just get to go – I got paid to go. You can’t beat that! So I think this job, PBR, made me rise to a different level of thinking, creativity, energy, all of it.”

Throughout the years, Rasmussen has maintained that his job is what he does, not who he is. But it’s been a heck of a lot of years, and he admits that his job is pretty much who he is.

“It is my job, but we’ve got to look out for each other because we’ll do this 20 weeks in a row without a weekend off,” he said. “So yes, we have families, but I also have a family here. It’s the guys that you’re in the airport with. I’ve been through a lot through this career. I’ve tried to remain funny through a heart attack, a divorce, and it was exhausting. But I knew when I got here that the guys that I worked with were right here with me. So I have brothers and a sister, but man, I have brothers out here, too. I sometimes thought I was closer with Shorty Gorham and Frank Newsom and Joe Baumgartner and Brandon Bates and Matt West and Clint Adkin and Richard Jones than my real brothers. There were days that they probably knew more about me and what I was going through. So it’s my job, but it’s way more than a job. I hope they know that. I hope those guys know that.”

RELATED: Announcer Matt West on Flint Rasmussen: ‘He’s the best ever’

Since announcing his retirement, Rasmussen says a weight has been lifted from his shoulders, though he worries that, in a few years, he’ll think he could still be out there.

“And my knees will yell at me and say, ‘No, you can’t,’” he joked.

Rasmussen looks forward to showcasing his more cerebral side in his next roles both in front of and behind the camera, including PBR Team Series coverage on CBS Television Network, CBS Sports Network, and Pluto TV later this year. He wants to remain an influence in the Western sports world.

But nothing will ever quite give him the same rush as putting on the face paint and entertaining the best fans in sports.

“All of us in the entertainment business have that hole right here that the joy and laughter from crowds fills up,” Rasmussen said. “I’ll miss that feedback every day of my life.”

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media