Quotes from Ryan Bingham

No matter what I'm writing, I almost always start with the music. Definitely, the melody seems to set the tone for whatever emotions come to follow, and whatever's going to be written down. It always starts with the music, for me.

I'd like to thank my wife, Anna. I love you more than rainbows, baby

My parents were pretty open-minded people, but I think leaving them at a young age really made me grow up fast.

If we were at a bar in a small town and not many people were there, people would bug me to bring in my guitar and play. I was paying my dues, learning how it all worked.

It's never fun to run out of gas while on a road trip, But the adventure of trying to find gas when your in the middle a nowhere usually ends up being a funny story a few years down the line.

I used sit in the back of the truck and make up these songs and play at the tailgates at rodeos.

I'm originally from Hobbs, New Mexico but moved around a lot growing up. My family had a ranch 40 miles from town where they raised cattle and sheep. Shortly after I was born they sold the ranch and my father went to work in the oilfields.

You just can't muscle your way through some things in life. You just have to keep your head on your shoulders and dance with it as you go.

I think it's really important for everybody out there to speak their minds, and not be complicit and let fear back you into this corner where you just let everything go by. It's a responsibility.

I guess I always need some kind of solitude to get to that place where I am open enough and have zero distractions to start on the initial ideas for songs.

Songwriting can get pretty heavy and personal for me and I like being able to explore different emotions that are not necessarily my own.

I enjoy acting because it is very different to songwriting and it allows me to flex a different creative muscle.

I have kind of a short attention span, so if it doesn't come really quick then I set it down, and hopefully come back to it another time.

My uncle rode bulls professionally and he got me into it. I started riding steers when I was about eleven and he started taking me to little jackpots and I really got into it.

Bull riding isn't that much different than the life of a musician. You're trying to ride an uncontrollable force, there are no rules or limits or regulations, and there's a freedom in it that's also a bit terrifying. You can learn a lot about yourself through some of those scarier moments.

I've kind of always had this soft spot in my heart for the homeless community, mainly homeless kids who live on the streets.

When I go onstage and I play or I'm out meeting a lot of people, I've got to get my stuff together. It's not actual stage fright.

For me it's important to keep changing things up and growing and experiencing new things.

I guess learning as musician as well so I am trying to learn and to grow and be inspired by new things. It is always expanding and growing and leaving yourself open to be inspired by new things.

There's nothing cheap about loyalty.

I think to really write songs, you need empathy. You have to put yourself in other people's shoes.