etnies

- April 2006 -

Brian Deegan, where are you originally from?
I’m from Belleview, Nebraska.

How old are you now?
30

What age were you when you first started riding?
I was eight years old.

Did you start riding for fun or start racing right away, or borrow a kids bike and dug it and begged you dad to get you one how did it all unfold?
My buddies had dirt bikes, my neighbors. I was just so pumped on watching them ride and I was really into it. So, I talked my dad into getting me a bike. And then a guy moved in next door that raced and he took me to the races and I just realized that's what I had to do.

So, around eight years old was when you realized that was what you wanted to do?
It was around 10 when I eventually got to the races.

How did your amateur career unfold? What were the big highlights?
Yeah, amateur career right when I turned 11 I got a deal with Team Green Kawasaki to race the amateur ranks. I was the central region champ for years. Then I went out to try and Nationals and ended up winning some Amateur Nationls.

What Nationals did they have back then?
Ponca City, Loretta Lynn's, Lake Whitney I won them all, except I never did win at Loretta Lynn's, I got second a bunch of times. I was always kind of over-shadowed by guys like Ezra Lusk and Jeff Dement and a couple other good guys.

So, basically that was up until you turned pro?
Yeah, I raced amateur up until 92 and then I turned pro.

How old were you at that point?
I think I was 19 when I turned pro.

What was the first team you rode for when you turned pro?
The first team I rode for was I would say it was Chaparral, Team Chaparral.

How did that first year go for you?
95 was my privateer year. I raced for Team Green amateur and pro for a couple years. Then my first year full time pro was 1995, and I was full privateer. Got my bikes from a shop, from Princeton Honda. I did good enough and was top 10 at the Nationals and I got a deal from Chaparral in 96 and that's when Larry Brooks was the team manager. The deal was kind of weird, kind of lame because I had to sign a contract that said I couldn't have any kind of body piercing, colored hair, tattoos all this shit, it was pretty stupid.

So is that when you started feeling like you didn't want to be a part of that corporate bullshit?
Yeah, that's when I realized that it wasn't really what I wanted to be. I wanted to ride a dirt bike, and had fun racing, but politics was bullshit.

How long did you race pro?
I raced until 1999, and then in 99 I ended up breaking my arm in a Supercross and just quit and dedicated full time to Freestyle.

What made you want to get completely into Freestyle?
What made me want to go into Freestyle was that I was dabbling in it since the beginning, then once I started getting paid by sponsors to do Freestyle, that was when I really realized that I didn't want to race anymore I wanted to just ride Freestyle. It was a lot more fun and everyone would just party and go ride Freestyle. That's all you had to do, and youd get paid to do it. So that was good.

You weren't really on a schedule, didn't have to be at a race, didn't have to practice all the time, or not as much.
There was no rules. It was such a new sport that you could kind of create your own image and your own rules. I actually think etnies was my first sponsor, first outside sponsor for Freestyle. Actually, you sponsored me for racing before.

Yeah, we sponsored you back in 98 when you rode for MotoXXX.
I think you were my first paying sponsor, though. The first sponsor that really ever paid me for Freestyle.

How was the pay back then? As far as the amount of money and the amount of sponsors that were paying was probably not that large.
No, 99 there was only a few sponsors that actually were smart enough to get involved and the highest paychecks were probably $500 bucks, $1000 bucks a month.

Have you ever had to work a normal job to support what you decided to do?
Yes. I had a job when I was in high school helping as pretty much a custodian, cleaning offices to make money so I could race.

Not after that? So that was pretty much your only job?
That was it. Then I got a credit card and pretty much charged everything on it and just figured one day I'd be a famous star in Freestyle [laughs].

So, then where did it go from there? What were some of the first contests that you remember being put together for Freestyle and how did all that stuff turn out?
The first jump show ever was put on by me and the buddies from the Metal Mulisha back in 97 when Micky Dymond helped build the course. That was in Winchester, CA. We did a jump show with a bunch of death metal bands and that kind of set the stage. The first contests were by Four Leaf Entertainment and that was in 98 in Vegas, and that was the first one and I think I got fourth there. Then Four Leaf did a series in 99, or I actually think the series was in 98 and the in 99 everybody else jumped on the bandwagon.

When was your first X Games or Gravity Games that you went to?
First X Games was in 99 and they had Freestyle and that was it.

When did you get your first medal?
First medal was the first X Games. I got a bronze medal. [Travis] Pastrana won and I think [Mike] Cinqmars got second.

You also got a Gravity games medal in 99?
99 Gravity Games was almost just as big as X Games at the time. I ended up going there and I think I got a silver medal.

And also in 99 I think you got the World Freestyle Championship.
Yeah, I won that. I think in 99 I was pretty much on top of the game. I remember me and [Mike] Metzger would always battle back then.

I think that was when [Mike] Metzger was on etnies as well. So, then after that, 2000, the Bluetorch Ride-n-Slide Freestyle Motocross Champion.
Yep. 2000 was a good year. I ended up winning the Bluetorch Ride-n-Slide deal, which was actually a real fun series. Gravity Games, won that. 2000 Summer X I got a bronze in Freestyle and a bronze in Step Up. In 2000 I won Gravity Games Freestyle.

What about 2001?
2001 Winter X I won. And then…that was it, I don't think I won much in 2001.

And 02?
This is all wrong. 2001 Summer X I got a bronze at best trick. 2002 Winter X Games I won. 2002 X Games Best Trick bronze and Step Up bronze. And the 2003 I stuck the first 360 at X Games at the Coliseum and got a bronze in Freestyle. Then did the 360 the next day at Big Air and got the gold. Then went to Winter X and crashed and broke my femur and both wrists in January 2004. 2004 I came back and was nominated for an ESPY award and got voted as one of the top 100 athletes by ESPN, then came back to win Winter X Games a year after breaking my leg in 04.

How do you see the sport continuing to progress? Do you see major big sponsors coming in and paying guys millions of dollars, or what?
Every year more and more money gets brought into the sport. I just see the sport going--I mean obviously you watch the Olympics, and it's boring, and they're stealing all the X Games sports for the Olympics now. So, I just see the sport getting bigger and bigger to where the X Games would become kind of the Olympics of sports, and definitely action sports. I just see tons of money going to come in. In another five, ten years these guys are going to be making millions of dollars.

With MTV, they did the Sports and Music Festival and I don't think they are doing that anymore. I don't know why they stopped doing that, but it just seems like that and a lot of the Freestyle magazines that have come out never really made it. I don't know if it was because the sports wasn't big enough or just the magazines I don't think weren't run properly.
Yeah, I don't know what the deal was why the Sports and Music Festival didn't work. Or maybe it did work and MTV was just over it. I don't know, I think that was kind of before it's time. And the magazine probably just wasn't run by the right people. I mean, I just think that the sport is so new that it's going to just keep building. I don't ever see it getting old or people getting sick of it.

Yeah, especially with the foam pit now.
Yeah, with the foam pits there are so many tricks that still have to be done and that will still keep the sport going.

Do you think it gets boring at all, just because the progression seems to have slowed down a little bit because everyone is trying to do the next really gnarly trick. I mean, there's only one guy we know of who has tried a double backflip and actually pulled it. Chuck did the body varial, but I haven't heard of anyone else trying it. It just seems like everyone might have their one big trick that they might bust out, but some of them just seem so gnarly now that they don't seem like they are going to be in everyone's trick list anytime soon.
Nope. The standard tricks are like the backflip, and I'm surprised that even became a standard trick, but it's really just normal now. 360 is obviously so gnarly that only a few guys have done it and that's the way a lot of the other trick are. I just see that a lot of the big tricks you're only going to see at the X Games once a year which is good. It keeps it exciting.

So what else is going on in your life your personal life?
Personal life, I had a little boy a couple months ago, Hayden, Hayden Brian Deegan, and I have a daughter who is four years old, Hailey Rachel Deegan, and my wife Marissa. We live in corona now. I sold the compound to Nate Adams. I'm building a huge house and jump park on 21 acres that should be done by the end of the year.

What else?
Also, working on a reality show that is supposed to have all my buddies and kind of film us on tour, and having fun, a little of our personal life and it should be the next big show on MTV.

Have you guys shot a pilot for that, or when do you see that coming out?
It will air the beginning of next year if we get the series. We shoot the pilot in April and I think it should be good. I think all the guys on it are entertaining enough and it should mainstream dirt bikes.

You've also been working on a shoe with etnies, correct?
Yeah, I've been trying to get my own signature shoe done. I did the Mulisha shoe and it seemed to do really well, so now I want to do my own shoe...the Deegan shoe. It's pretty cool, all black with camo it should be a good shoe.

Hopefully it will be out before Christmas this year.
Yeah, that's the plan. It better be [laughs].

Alright, any last words?
Last words, words of advise.

words of advice for the young kids out there.
Don't burn bridges.

Don't burn bridges that's very good advice. Don't burn sponsors either.
Don't burn your sponsors, stick with your sponsors.

At least if you're going to leave them, do it honorably.
[laughs] Yeah, don't hide behind your manager.

Don't even get a manager.
Managers are a waste of money [laughs].