Steve Sharp has been outside for as long as he can remember. He shares his passion for outdoors, being a great leader, and knowing when to ask for help with us on this episode of Conversations with Big Rich. Be sure to listen on your favorite podcast app.
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4:40 – If I missed the bus, I got to walk the 3 ½ miles to school
8:25 – just like Mayberry RFD
15:36 – how come you always need tires?
24:41 – I need a job, I’ll work for half the going rate for 30 days
31:04 – everyone that I can genuinely call a friend, I met four-wheeling
40:14 – it’s a blessing that I get to do what I’m passionate about
55:47 – kind of set the Bronco world upside down
1:02:29 – two things are as hard on the caregiver as the patient – cancer and mental illness, if there’s something going on – seek help
1:08:46 – the sport is great, but it always comes back to the people
We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.
TRANSCRIPT
[00:01:45.690] – Big Rich Klein
Today on today’s episode of Conversations with Big Rich, we have Steve Sharp. Steve has been around the rock crawling scene pretty much, well, for quite a long time. We’ll get into all that time wise and stuff. He hails out of the Tulsa, Oklahoma area along with some of the others that I have interviewed. So it’s been kind of a Midwest thing. But we will talk to Steve about all of his endeavors and how he got to where he is in life. Steve, thank you for coming on board and spending some time with us and talking about your history and all the things that you have done around the four wheel drive industry.
[00:02:27.070] – Steve Sharp
Well, thank you, Big. It’s a privilege for me to be here to have this conversation with you today. Really been looking forward to it since we just discussed it a few weeks ago, I feel like it’s a big privilege to be here, so thank you.
[00:02:41.790] – Big Rich Klein
Yeah, no worries. So let’s jump right into it. And where were you born and raised?
[00:02:48.610] – Steve Sharp
I was born in Portland, Oregon.
[00:02:50.990] – Big Rich Klein
Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:02:52.420] – Steve Sharp
Yeah. And grew up in Vernon. For those of you who may not know where that is, it’s between Portland and Astoria.
[00:03:01.840] – Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:03:02.780] – Steve Sharp
In the mountains there on the Coast Range. We lived at the end of the road, and I spent as much time as I could out in the woods on foot, exploring around.
[00:03:15.530]
Right.
[00:03:16.370] – Steve Sharp
Our property backed up to forest land, and I knew all that well enough that when I was eight or nine years old, I had guys coming to me going, hey, where’s the deer? I’m not just because I was always out there. I don’t know. I feel fortunate to have that. Not sure how forgiving everybody would be if they asked your mom where you were and her answer was out in the woods somewhere back before dark.
[00:03:49.370] – Big Rich Klein
I think a lot of us that are over 45, even over 40, grew up in a time where that was okay. I mean, my son is 38 and when he was growing up it was go out and have fun, just be home before dark.
[00:04:08.930] – Steve Sharp
Exactly.
[00:04:10.850] – Big Rich Klein
And I think that’s good for kids.
[00:04:12.610] – Steve Sharp
Though, too, because it makes you independent and it makes you a problem solver. And it makes you learn how to figure out where you’re at and how to get where you need to go.
[00:04:23.100] – Big Rich Klein
Correct. So then growing up in that, that’s pretty rural area, the town is not very big.
[00:04:29.570] – Steve Sharp
It is not very big. At the time, I want to say the town itself was less than 3000 people.
[00:04:38.280] – Big Rich Klein
Okay.
[00:04:40.850] – Steve Sharp
If I missed the bus, I got to walk the three and a half miles to school. But there was a railroad track that was abandoned. All the tracks were removed. So I didn’t have to walk on the road. We could just walk down the tracks all the way to school. Didn’t have to do that too many times because I always got in trouble when it happened.
[00:05:01.250] – Big Rich Klein
Because you’d be late for school?
[00:05:03.130] – Steve Sharp
Because I’d be late for school. Up here. My parents were missionaries. They did church starts in rural Oregon and Northwest. So I had a lot of opportunities and maybe even some freedom that maybe others didn’t have. Cause I knew that not only did I have to make an example that I had to keep up the example that my dad was trying to share and trying to set and the precedent that was going on with some of that. So it made for an interesting childhood growing up. READ MORE
