For Ezekiel "Blue" Mitchell, rodeo isn't just a job: It's a way of life. One of the bull-riding stars of Prime Video's new docu-series The Ride, Mitchell seems bound and determined to make both a place for himself in the sport and a mark on society at large — whether that's through his social media posts, his brand sponsorships or even being a reality TV star.
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One of the valued members of Professional Bull Riders' Austin Gamblers, Mitchell is part of a small but mighty group of African American rodeo stars past and present. Wide Open Country talked to Mitchell about why he joined The Ride, what he wants viewers to take from the show, and why bull riding is Brazil's version of the NBA.
Wide Open Country: How were you approached for The Ride, and what made you want to sign on?
Ezekiel Mitchell: I really don't remember how I was approached for the show. They just kind of asked me if I'd do it, and I didn't initially really say yes. But they were there and they were gonna be filming, so I thought, "Well, I might as well be a part of it."
It does seem from how they talk about you on the show that you recognize the value of social media or of branding yourself better, maybe, than some other riders.
Yeah, I have a great support system, [my agent] Max Maxwell being one of them. He told me very early on, "You realize you can make just as much money or more money outside of the arena as you can in there?" At first, I brushed it off, because I just want to be a cowboy. But I guess I'm kind of charismatic and everything else, so it was really easy to roll into whenever I started doing stuff like that.
I really do have a great appreciation for being able to be my own person and tell my own story, and having access to the ways that I want to do it. I'm all about trying to make sure that I can push future generations of people — not only young people or young African American people, but people in general — to try to be the best they can be. I want people to say, "If he can do it, I can do it," whether they're talking about rodeo or any other part of life. I'd like people to be enamored by my story and want to do better for themselves.
Prime Video
Tell me about filming. How did you make sure that it didn't become a distraction from what you're really trying to do, which is become a rodeo champion?
For me, it was pretty simple. I know my goals, and I know my path, no matter if someone is following me around with a camera or not.
I mean, there's always a camera on me at the highest level of bull riding. It's televised for the world to see. So there's nothing really different about having extra added cameras around. The only difference is just making sure they understand the sport and are willing to give me my space when I need it.
Whenever you hear about some kid wanting to get into the NBA, there's always some crazy stat about how only 1 in every 500,000 aspiring kids makes it into the league, or something like that. Do you know of anything like that for bull riding?
Honestly, I don't know the stats at all, but I will give you this: When I was in my early years of trying to figure rodeo out, we had a youth association. There was a guy who ran it, and he sat us down on a bench to get ready to go practice and just have a day clinic. He was like, "One in three of y'all will make it as bull riders. I don't care how good all y'all think y'all are, or how good you think you will be. One in three of y'all are going to actually have the opportunity to go professional with this and actually be able to make it a livelihood."
Now, there weren't that many of us there, and there are quite a few of us from that group that went pretty far in the sport, but I'm the only one that went as far as I went — well, as far as I've gone so far. There were probably 20 of us kids that day, and I'm the only one that made it. So I'll go ahead and say that it's 1 in 100, in my opinion, because there's so many kids that will have the talent that will get down the road and the ability to do what it takes to be on my level. There's not a lot of kids out there that are going to have the heart that it takes to continue in pursuit through all this. It is a hard, hard, hard, hard sport. It is physically demanding, emotionally demanding, mentally demanding ... all of the above. It is the hardest — and at times the easiest — sport that I have ever competed in.
Easiest how?
Because when everything is going right and you're in the mental zone and everything's clicking, it is the easiest thing in the world. I always say it's like a dance. We're dancing, and nobody's stepping on anybody's toes. You know exactly the next move that person is going to do. We're just complementing each other at that point. That's when it's easiest.
When it's hard is pretty much every other time. Sometimes, it feels like you're driving a car with square wheels. So it is definitely the coolest sport I've ever been a part of, because I can say that it can be as easy as waking up in the morning and stepping out of bed, or it can be as hard as anything you've ever been through.
The Ride follows the first year of PBR's teams league. Tell me what you like about the teams and what has been hard to get used to.
I don't think there was that much that was hard for me to get used to.
We had a draft just like the NFL has a draft. I didn't get drafted initially, but I was contacted by a lot of teams as soon as the draft was over. I said that whatever team I decide to go to, I was going to give everything to that team that I possibly could to make everybody regret their decision not to draft me in the first place.
But the Austin Gamblers took a chance on me, and they took a chance on putting me in the lineup early on. Even though I wasn't drafted, they chose me over drafted players, so I was like, "Man, I'm just going to try to be the best I can be for this team," and that's why it was so simple and so easy.
At the end of the day, even though we're in a team format, the job is still the same: We're riding bulls. That's the only way that you can win individually, and so one way we can win as a team is by riding our bulls. A lot of people try to overcomplicate what it is, but it's still about bull riding, I think. That's all I have to do as my job in order to help my team.
Prime Video
Speaking of the Gamblers, how are you all prepping for the new season? I imagine you're always sort of prepping because the sport's never really "off," but tell me what the Gamblers are up to as a group.
We're actually heading collectively as a group to Brazil here in about a week. We recently picked up a new assistant coach for the Austin Gamblers, and he is Adriano Moraes, the three-time world champion and one of the best to ever do it. He still lives in Brazil, so we're going to go down there.
Have you ever been to Brazil?
No.
That's kind of surprising, considering how many bull riders seem to be from South America.
Oh, yeah. A lot of people think that bull riding is just an American sport. Most of the fans, when they get into it, pretty quickly realize how many Brazilian people we have in the sport, but they don't always realize the depth of it and what it means in other places. To everybody's knowledge as of right now, America came up with the concept of bull riding; but when Brazil adopted bull riding into their culture, they did it bigger and better than we ever thought about, to be honest.
As of right now, soccer is the main sport there. but bull riding falls pretty close behind. So you know how we think about our NFL and the NBA? In Brazil, that's soccer and bull riding.
The main goal for them is to come over here and be successful.
The show is available in 240 countries and territories. What is appealing about that for you? And what do you want people all over the world to learn about bull riding or about you?
What I want people to learn is that it's real life. Like, at the end of the day, we live just like everybody else. We put our pants on one leg at a time, like everybody else. But we happen to just have one of the most dangerous jobs or professions in the world.
It is insane what all these guys have gone through — like, I know a lot of the other guys on the show and their backstories. But this show does a great job of going in depth and showing you in a very short amount of time who a person is and where they came from. I just want the world to watch it and take everything in. Don't watch it with a grain of salt. Just enjoy the show.
READ MORE: Exclusive: Producer Eric Detwiler on How 'The Ride' Aims to Answer the Big 'Why' of Bull Riding
