I made a series for ITV, just after I retired from Tests in 2009, called 'Flintoff Versus the World.' The idea was that I would attempt a series of extreme sports - rodeo riding, jumping out of aeroplanes, paragliding, cliff diving. I thought, 'Yeah, it looks fun. It's six weeks having a laugh.'
I think about rodeo every day. I miss it. It's what gave me purpose.
I was street smart, but unfortunately the street was Rodeo Drive.
I couldn't do country, with all due respect to all country music artists. My parents dressed me up with a cowboy hat and we'd go to the rodeo when I was younger and it traumatized me for life.
I can remember sittin' in a cafe when I first started in rodeo, and waitin' until somebody got done so I could finish what they left.
I grew up with the Highwaymen, which was Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson. Mom and Dad rode rodeo, so country music was always in the house and the car. They threw in some Dolly Parton, too.
You know it's important to have a Jeep in Los Angeles. That front wheel drive is crucial when it starts to snow on Rodeo Drive.
I wanted to be like my father, who was a cattle man and a rodeo roper. And that was - he was my hero, and I wanted to be more like him.
I'm one of the more pessimistic cats on the planet. I make Van Gogh look like a rodeo clown.
In my boyhood, cattle-raising ran almost neck and neck with grain-raising. In my secluded little valley in the Suisun Hills, the rodeo was the most exhilarating spectacle in the round year.
